Aug. 30th, 2011

elaby: (Madoka - Kyoko prayer)
Number 1: I think it's safe to say, finally - as my official start date was yesterday - that I've been made full time at the job where I've been a "temporary" employee for over four years. Adequate pay! Benefits! Sick days! AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING. \o/ For the past four years, there's been a constant weight on my shoulders. Will they ever make me full time? Will I ever make the money I deserve, and have benefits, and not have to struggle to pay bills every time I'm sick or take a vacation day? Should I try to find a new job that will support me better, even though I'm content enough in this one? Now I no longer have to worry about that, and it's such a relief.

Number 2, and more important: Two of the most beautiful, creative, inspiring, all-around incredible women I know are getting legally married in September. Sarah, the author I recommended in a post a while back, and Jenn had their first wedding just a few weeks before [livejournal.com profile] caitirin and I did, and now their home state, New York, has legalized same-sex marriage and they're having their legal wedding. Their wedding budget is small in the scheme of things, but they support themselves with one income and their writing and Etsy shops. Please visit Operation Sparkle Wedding to see how you can help them reach their goal and make their dream real, even if it's just by spreading the word. <3
elaby: (LotR - Gandalf smoky)
As of this year, I've been a Lord of the Rings fan for 20 years. I don't know exactly when [livejournal.com profile] coastal_spirit read the trilogy to me, but I know I was in third grade, which would have been in 1991. She probably read The Hobbit to me sometime before that. It's hard for me to fathom the idea of having done anything for 20 years (except maybe go to school) let alone be consistently interested in something. If I had to pick, I would say that LotR is my most lasting fandom. I've had others more intense - Sherlock Holmes, I'm looking at you - but even Holmes and Utena haven't had the kind of staying power LotR has. For some reason, I always come back to it, and my love and squee doesn't seem ever to falter or wane like it does for other fandoms.

I'm not sure why this is. I've honestly read books that are better written (although I think that's true of everything; there's always something better in some aspects). I have this undying love for the characters in spite of their sometimes minimal development, and the plotline is certainly epic, but I can't say it would hold my interest in any other context. Nostalgia is certainly a factor. I remember clearly how devastated I was when Gandalf died: my mother read it to me one morning when I got into bed with her after my dad got up, and afterward in the bath (I was still little enough that I didn't take showers yet) I remember just staring at the back of the tub in shock, numb. When we used to go to our camp up in Maine, I would play in the woods and pretend I was a descendant of Arwen and Aragorn. I wonder now if I would find the scary parts of the trilogy - the Barrow-downs, the Ringwraiths, Shelob - nearly as frightening if they hadn't been the very foundation my childhood fears were built on. I'll never know; all I know is that they do still scare me, but now it's a delicious sort of fright.

I think, just as much as the characters and the nostalgia, it's the world that keeps bringing me back. I've never read a fantasy realm so perfectly realized, with such vivid geography and this rich, all-pervasive history. I've been reading The Silmarillion again (my second attempt - I didn't get far the first time) and it's written in such a different tone; it's absolutely a mythology and not a close-up story. There's just so much background that shapes the world and lives of the characters in the trilogy, background that most of them don't even know about but which still effects them, and it's amazing how much you can see of it once you know what to look for.

I wanted to draw a scene, a tiny snippet of graphic novel, to commemorate my 20 years loving these books. I've got three-ish panels drawn, but my creative mojo has fled and I'm not sure where it's gone. I'm also curiously unperturbed by this, which is unusual. Hopefully I can finish it before the end of the year XD

Last night I cleaned the living room and watched/listened to the cast commentary of The Return of the King (the commentaries are great for having on while you're doing chores). To save your f'lists any more stretching I've put my observations under a cut, but they're probably more amusing than the above ^^;;

ExpandRight. I fed the cat... Doris is looking after the budgie... Bugger, I left the gas on. )

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