swingandswirl

Yes, Rudyard Kipling was a racist, imperialist fuckwit, but goddamn could the man write poetry.

If is my favourite of his poems, not least because of this gorgeous song version by Joni Mitchell.

Watch on YouTube

Isn't it amazing? I especially love that she made it gender-neutral.

( Full text of the poem )

I also recently rediscovered another poem of Kipling's, which might well be my second favourite poem of his - The Thousandth Man. I'm not sure why the Poetry Foundation doesn't have it, maybe it's not as well known? But regardless, it's absolutely lovely.

( Full text of 'The Thousandth Man' )

Funnily, I've come to appreciate poems a lot more as an adult. It helps, I suppose, that I can pick and choose what to read rather than be subjected to the whims of a school syllabus. Maybe I'll even post some more of my favourites here - would anyone be interested? (Also, rec me your favourite, please, I'm always looking for new shinies.)

OMG YOU GUYS.

Why did no one tell me about the awesomeness that is The Hunger Games before? I AM DISAPPOINT.

I just plowed through the entire series in one setting. It is just that good. Fair warning, it's not all sunshine and roses, but what else do you expect from an apocalyptic story? But oh, we loves it, precious, yes we does. And we really, really wants Katniss/Finnick.

Seriously. y'all. Run don't walk to the nearest bookstore/library/thingummybob. That's how good this series it. /hugs and squeezes and calls it George/

/whines/ It can be 21 March nao plz? I need moar Hunger Games!

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Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: Tonight The Heartache's On Me- Dixie Chicks

Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: Tonight The Heartache's On Me- Dixie Chicks
Crossposts: http://swingandswirl.livejournal.com/176084.html

So my Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week just got a whole lot better.

This morning, my Dad texted to say that he was going to NYC next week, and did I want anything? I said, anything off my wishlist is fine, expecting maybe one or at most two books. I'd cleaned it up last week, so there were six total.

I opened my email client an hour ago to find that, pending availability of shipping to his NYC office, Dad was getting me the WHOLE DAMN LIST and anything else I wanted to add.

*falls over*

Did I mention I love this man? *g*

For those of you who are interested, here's the (expanded) list:

1. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life by Anne Lamont
2. Mouse Or Rat: Translation as Negotiation by Umberto Eco (our usually scatterbrained professor has been raving about this for months. I figure that if it stuck in her head that long, it's gotta be halfway decent at least.)
3. BITCHfest: Ten Years of Literary and Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine
4. The Mismeasure of Women by Carol Tavris
5. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
6. No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
7. One Bullet Away: The Making of A Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick
8. Self-Rescuing Princess t-shirt by ThinkGeek

Any suggestions, y'all? I'm not totally wedded to the Fick or Tavris books and wouldn't mind substituting them. I would just prefer to keep it under 10 because Dad still needs to schlep the things halfway around the world, business class luggage allowance or not.

ETA: Crap, just heard about the blasts in Pune. Me and mine are all right, as are all my Puneite friends' families. Still freaky as hell though, since they and their friends used to hang out often there.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: PDA- Backstreet Boys

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: PDA- Backstreet Boys

Initially, I wasn't going to see ST, at least in the theatre, but then my local multiplex announced a special morning show (and my Mum decided she wanted to see what all the hype was about) so off I went.

My reaction, in a word?

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE *takes deep breath* EEEEEEEEEE! *flails like a mad flaily thing*

( Spoilery semi-coherent review (well, mostly squee) under the cut )

Current Music: Lonely In Space- Tata Young

HOLY SMOKES Y'ALL. GI JOE RISE OF COBRA TRAILER ASDF;FLKJ.

/capslock
/brainfreeze

OK, Tammy, breathe. *takes several big gulps of air*

( Squeeage under the cut for all you spoiler-avoiding types )

Current Mood: EEEEEE!
Current Music: GI Joe cartoon series title track on YouTube

OMG, people! I've been nominated for the Numb3rs Awards! *falls over in disbelief*

I have entries up in three categories- Trust I Seek (best ep-related slash), Balancing The Equation (best slash drabble series) and A Soldier's Christmas (best gen drabble series). *is still in shock* I didn't expect to be nominated, so to have THREE of my fic up for consideration? Wow. *pinches self* Although I will admit, I didn't exactly see those coming as far as noms went. Just goes to show, huh?

Thank you SO MUCH to the wonderful folk who nominated me- you know who you are! *hugs you so tight you squeak*

PS: If you haven't already, head on over to

numb3rs_awards and give your favorite authors (and artists, vidders and comm owners) a shout-out!

Current Mood: zomg yay!
Current Music: Green Day- The Time of Your Life

Proof that the universe hates me: scheduling my group to do a ten-day training session at a local news channel when everyone else has the entire week off. *shakes fist at cosmos*

Saw LoTR: Return of the King yesterday. OMFG. It was just as awesome as I remember it being when I first watched it. Even better, because unlike the theater, I could set the volume level to less than ZOMG NUCLEAR ARMAGGEDON, and unlike theatres in India, the makers of the DVD didn't randomly chop off the last half an hour of the movie so they could squeeze in an extra screening. /rant

I totallly forgot how much I adore both this book and the movie. There's so much depth and passion to it, and all the characters are pitch-perfect and the action is mindblowing, and just, eeee! The only thing I dislike is the whole TWU WUV thing with Aragorn and Arwen, and that's more because I prefer warrior women to ivory tower princesses in the first place. But LOL at the rampant gayness in teh movie, especially Aragorn/Legolas and Frodo/Sam. In fact, I'm half convinced that the only reason that Rose Cotton was even mentioned in that entire sequence on Mt. Doom is so pacify the fanboys, 'cause it is SO a complete gay Hobbit lovefest. Romeo and Juliet had nothing on these guys, y'all.

On that note, can anyone rec me some good Aragorn/Legolas, Aragorn/Faramir or Aragorn/Eowyn? I tried looking in the Pit, but with the amount of Mary-Sues and bad!fic over there, I'm scared to read anything that isn't a trusted rec.

OMG. Numb3rs! Be warned, spoilers for 5.11 Arrow of Time under the cut.

( I LOVE this show! )

Writing... is actually going OK. Got words on the next bit of Picking Up the Pieces- my Megan muse is finally talking to me, plus now I have a clearer picture of where I'm taking that verse. Now if I could only find the time to actually *write* it...

ZOMG, great news from the new administration's weekly Q&A thing- Don't Ask Don't Tell is being scrapped. It's toward the end of the video, about 4:17 Maybe not on day one, but just the fact that they're willing to make a concrete statement like that... *tears up* Now if only the joint chiefs don't fuck it up... *crosses everything that can possibly be crossed*

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Wasted- Carrie Underwood

x-posted to

wish_list

Step One

Make a post (public, friends-locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me.") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD.") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

If you wish for real life things (not stories or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

Surf around your friends list (or friends friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use — or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free — do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf — to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not — it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

My list:

1. Some paid time for my account. Because of circumstances IRL, I won't be able to get a paid account till next Juneish, and I miss the perks of one terribly. *is spoiled* Thanks to the generosity of the awesome [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and another wonderful person who didn't want to make themselves known, I now have MORE than enough paid time to last me until I can get my own. Thank you both so much! *hugs*

2. Fic. Superman/Batman, Charlie/Colby and Don/Colby (or Don/Charlie/Colby) would rock, but what I'm really jonesing for is some good Colby/Megan. Surely I can't be the only one out there that ships them?

3. A Charlie/Colby banner for my Picking Up The Pieces verse. Bonus points if it features the rest of the Numb3rs crew sans Amita.

4. My muses to get their asses in gear again. *bribes them with cookies*

5. Music! I can't recieve CDs owing to the aforementioned RL circumstances, but I'd love a mix or two. Anything but metal and rap is fine- the more diverse, the better. To give you a better idea of my tastes, I love country, pop, soft rock, and old school (Elvis FTW!)

6. An openly gay/bi/trans character on one of my favourite shows. *cough*Numb3rs*cough* Failing that, Amita to GO AWAY.

7. The Backstreet Boys to have a concert somewhere I can actually go see them.

8. A care package to a soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq, or a donation to any cause of your choosing. It doesn't have to be monetary- food, gently used clothing and toys, or your time will all help spread some holiday cheer to people who sorely need it.

9. Peace on Earth and goodwill to all!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Bob That Head- Rascal Flatts

As a general rule, I hate birthdays. This one, however? was AWESOME.

The Brat's (aka my best friend Tanvir) birthday was on the 11th, so I ended up going to dinner at this awesome place called the Accord Metropolitan, where his girlfriend and I had an unholy amount of fun taking the mickey out of him. Oh, and screwdrivers SUCK. Drink recs, anyone? Then on Saturday, my mum, my aunt and I went to this awesome Italian restaurant, and on Sunday my cousin treated la famille to lunch at Vrindavan, this nice South Indian restaurant. Oh, and on Monday I went out for coffee with my other best friend, and tomorrow the Alliance crowd and I are going to lunch.

... why, yes, I had a wonderful week, why do you ask? *g*

And then there were the goodies. *faints*

Fandom:
I have the BEST flist in the world, srsly. *hugs all of you to pieces*

Some wonderful anonymous person sent me two months of paid time! Thank you! *dances*
the ever-awesome jen_in_japan wrote me this gorgeous S/B Kryptonian heat story.
sasha_anu rocks- both in general and at genderbending Bruce.
A few days ago, I begged the flist for David/Charlie/Colby. The wonderful nyctophobia76 answered with this lovely PWP.
svgurl sent me cake! yay! *blows out candle and munches happily*
damo_in_japan made me this adorable doodle.
paranoid_woman sent me wet!Colby, wet!David, and wet!Charlie. *excuses herself to go play with her new ~~boy~~toys*
mia_dcwut_09 sent gave me a virtual card.
ladygray99 sent me birthday wishes, and so did starsandsea ! *glomps them*
merfilly wrote me this gorgeous Kal/Diana fluff drabble.

... did I miss anyone? If I did, I am sorry, and please feel free to whack me over the head with something hard.

RL:

My mom got me a writing pad, a jewelry box, and tickets to see the Dark Knight on Saturday- w00t! I heart my Mommy.

( Clicky to see the pretty! )

My dad *actually* remembered to wish me, and sent me a ginormous check besides. I would have loved to get a DS Lite, but since a) I have NO time and b) my school bans all electronics, the money's going straight into Tammy's Grad School fund.
aspire_amita got me earrings!
I got wishes from practically *all* the interns, and some old school friends I hadn't heard from in years. *feels bad for not remembering their birthdays*
My aunt got me a gift voucher to my favourite store. Pretty stationery, here I come!

All in all, I had an absolutely wonderful birthday. *hugs all of you again*

Current Mood: bouncy

*bounces about* Christmas is finally here at Casa Tam- my aunt came to visit today, and brought me goodies! We only had a couple of hours, so we just went to the local mall and wandered about, chatting. It was fun. *wishes her aunt didn't live on the other side of the planet*

Here's what I got, all nice and listy-like.

Oodles of dark chocolate. From Dove, Hersheys, AND Godiva. OM NOM NOM NOM.
Post-its with funny, wacky things on them, like "I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you." and "Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting!" My personal fave? This quote from Dubya: "I stand by all the misquotations I may or may not have made." ROFLMAO.
Rs. 2500 (about $50) for me to spend in my favourite bookstore. I bought:

Superman: Birthright. I SO wanted Godfall, but no luck, so I bought this instead.
Batman: The Complete History. Couldn't neglect my baby now, could I?
The Creative Calligraphy Sourcebook. *drools at the pretty pictures*

I have about Rs. 600 left, enough for a decent book on feminist theory or some decent calligraphy material. Decisions, decisions! *sighs*

Eh, enough of that. I need to squee about Birthright! Man, if there was ever a book that tore me in two, this was it. I HATE HATE HATE the art. Clark and Lois, especially, make me want to go all stabbity on Yu's ass. *desperately wishes she could commission one of the awesome artists on her flist to redraw the entire book, just so she can actually read the whole thing through without wincing*

But the story! Eee! Mark Waid *gets* Superman, you know? Superpowered alien w00bie and all. (I think he had me at "Please don't let me look ridiculous...") Oh, and proof that "Clark Kent"- at least, the clumsy dork who works at the DP- is NOT the core persona. *dances about* Words cannot express the sheer amount of love I have for this man. Not to mention that ending scene, when Kal gets through to Jor-El and Lara- I had tears in my eyes, and I don't think I've cried over a comic since the Death of Superman.

Oh, and Batman: The Complete History? This thing is like, a geekgasm on wheels. Srsly. There's so much amazing stuff here! The first EVER Batman comic strip, how Batman came into being (he was basically a pastiche of a whole bunch of contemporary heroes), the arrival of Robin, the *gag* Adam West series, B:TAS- it's all here. It was published back in '99, so no Batman Begins goodness (I think my head would explode from the awsome) Seriously, if you ever get the chance, pick it up. There are also Superman and Wonder Woman versions, although I haven't been able to find either yet.

Current Mood: bouncy

samibee is, like, the most amazing person EVAR.

Wanna know why? 'Cause she took this already amazing Lois/Clark image...

and came up with this Bruce/Clark version.

*drools*

Words cannot describe the awesomeness of that piece- just go see! *shoves you all toward the hawtness*

Current Mood: Tammy needs a cold shower now
Current Music: superman- five for fighting

Step One

Make a post (public, friends-locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me.") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD.") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

If you wish for real life things (not stories or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

Surf around your friends list (or friends friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use — or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free — do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf — to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not — it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

( My wishes )

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Auld Lang Syne- Boney M

w00t! I had the most awesome, if rather low-key birthday. The whole thing was spread out over this week (long story) which is why this thank-you post has taken so long.

First off: *hugs everyone who wished her* Thanks, y'all! I'm the luckiest person in the world, to have such awesome people in my life...

On to the goodies:

sasha_anu wrote me this gorgeous girl!Clark story, which I cannot recommend enough. Also, her Bruce is made of win. *grins* It will be well worth the hurt she's threatened to inflict on me to see a continuation of this story... XD
taro_twist drew me this incredible, incredible Bruce/Clark fanart. What are y’all still doing here? Go see! *shoos everyone over to C’s journal* I would give anything to have that as my notebook cover so I could stare at it all day… *glares at stupid Indian conventions*
tmelange sent me cake! *blows out candle and munches happily*

As for RL:

My dad got me a black 80 GB iPod. *grins* I LOVE being Daddy’s little girl… (that said, I have like 70GB of free space on the thing. Recommendations, anyone?)
aspire_amita burned me a CD of my favourite songs, including some old Aqua stuff I didn’t think ANYONE still had. Thanks, Ami!
A gift voucher to one of my favourite stores from my best friend, but even better than that- we finally had a long chat and sorted out some of the shit that's been going on with us. *cheers*
I went out to a bunch of different places with different groups of friends, and each outing rocked!

In short, Tammy is a VERY happy kitten right now.

Current Mood: bouncy

I recently got a new layout, courtesy of

tasha over at

premade_ljs. Do go and check out her work, it's fantastic. And she's got tons of styles, plus a tutorial, so even HTML-n00bs like me have no problems. The one I currently have is

darkwomanlayout.

Also, to everyone who commented recently- thank you guys for all the support- *feels incredibly blessed* I'm doing better, and I hope to be back to normal by the weekend. *hugs and offers cookies*

Current Mood: okay

I am so, so high right now- I went to Landmark a coupla days ago with my aunt, and what did I find? An ENTIRE shelf of DC trades. And not those lousy A5 size reprints, either- gorgeous, full-size, direct-import trade paperbacks. All of JLA v3, quite a few Alex Ross books, dozens of Batclan and Superman TPBs, the Story Arcs that Must Not be Named, and even a rather beat-up looking copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

*dies*

Oh, they were incredibly expensive, of course. *kicks stupid exchange rate* But they were so pretty! And my aunt said I could pick three since she hadn’t gotten me anything for Christmas.

*dies again*

So now I am the proud owner of Batman: Dark Victory, Batman: Haunted Knight (idiots didn’t have The Long Halloween, grrr) and the original World’s Finest miniseries. I *love* the two Bat trades- Sale’s Kal always seems awkward and too big to fit in the panel, somehow, but his Batman- there’s a childlike quality in his art that’s rather appealing. Haven’t got around to reading them yet, but I can’t *wait* to see what Jeph Loeb’s done here. And World’s Finest- d’aww. I remember reading the reprint ages ago, it really is lovely. And rather riddled with slash, XD… not as much as Superman/Batman, but then you can’t beat a series where the pairing’s in the damn *title*…

Don’t get me wrong, I love scans (hell, they’re the main reason I got back into fandom, because getting decent comics is well-nigh impossible here) but there’s a lot to be said for the feel of a new comic in my hands, the sheer tactile experience of turning pages and reading that you really can’t get off a PC screen. That, and they make a far better sight on my bookshelf than my scan- filled CDs do, lol…

Current Mood: high
Current Location: parked in front of the PC
Current Music: one of damo's vids

...but close enough. Also, they have plus sizes! *cheers*

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: here
Current Music: Taking Over Me- Evanescence

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Entries tagged with ooh shiny

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Review: Star Trek (2009) Warning: spoilers and much flailing ahead!

YO JOE!

EEEEEEE!

State of the Tam post, fangirl of the rings edition

Holiday Wishlist!

jawdrop

I has comic books!

OMG OMG SQUEE!

(no subject)

(no subject)

Shoutout!

Talk about a helluva Christmas gift...

Not quite what I look like...