Things Done Today

[brigdh]

1. The midterm I "failed"? Got an 89.5% on.

2. Got into the writing class.

3. Discovered that an Indian restaurant opened a block from my dorm. People! You do not understand my joy. An Indian restaurant! Less than a block away! Mmmmmmmmyay.

4. Went to a used book store; bought four books: E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, Mian Mian's Candy (not that I buy books solely because they remind me of Clubsoka or anything), T. E. Lawrence's Revolt in the Desert, and Night & Horses & the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature.

I'm thinking people need to recommend me Arabic/Persian/desert princes books- preferably fiction, but anything you know is welcomed. Because I need to read these things, and I'm having no luck finding them on my own.

5. Didn't get waved at by the guy who drives the bus. I feel all betrayed. He always waves at me! And then tells me to have a nice night. But today, no wave, no well-wishes. Maybe he was having a bad day.

6. Accidentally wore my massively coffee-stained hoodie out and about today, not realizing until I'd already left the house and it was too cold to not wear it.

7. Voted, after nearly forgetting that it was today.

8. Had green tea bubble tea. I think that alone made my day.

Comments

[goddessgrrrrl.livejournal.com]

OMG I SO love your icon!!!

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

The bestest pseudo-desert prince story I ever read was The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. And it's actually more Indian than Arabic. Melanie Rawn's books have some elements of that Arabic romance fantasy, but I can't say I really recommend them. Ru Emerson does better with her Night-threads books, plus she incorporates some Native American and pirating elements (the pirating comes in later books).

*ponders*

Oh! Patricia McKillip's The Cygnet and the Firebird, which is a sequel to The Sorceress and the Cygnet, has some lovely mythic desert things going on. I highly recommend both books. You might also like Judith Tarr's Alamut and The Dagger and the Cross, AUs featuring Elves involved in the Third Crusade. And you've read Dune, yes?

That's all I can think of right offhand.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yay on everything but 5 and 6. Alas, I know no desert princes books.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on 1 and 2! Not that either one exactly surprises me.

It's been forever since I read Lawrence; you're making me want to dig out my copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom to find out what it's like to read him as an adult. I don't know what else is out there in the way of desert prince books, but it occurs to me that you might want to look over everything written by Richard Burton to see whether there's anything relevant in the list of titles. It's his adventures in Africa that get the attention (as well as his translation of the Arabian Nights), but if I'm remembering correctly he went everywhere and did everything; he was an extraordinary linguist; and it wouldn't surprise me if he'd been interested enough in Arabian cultures to have spent some time there and had something to say about it afterward. And if he did, whatever it is will be a pleasure to read.

[kohakutenshi.livejournal.com]

Yay good test scores! XD

But what is bubble tea? O.o

[weirdquark]

We wouldn't be doing research for gratuitous AUs, would we? Because I sure don't need to go to the library to pick up some 30s detective stories, no indeed.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. Thank you! It's by catie_chu, and the lyric's from a Franz Ferdinand song.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you! That's more than enough; I was starting to think nothing like this existed.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

But *gasp*! You've never had bubble tea? It is the most wonderful thing ever. Some mainstream coffee shops are starting to carry it- Java Master in my city has it- but the best way to get it is either specialized tea stores or asian resturants. We have a place on campus called Pochi that sells only bubble tea, but that's probably pretty rare, unless you happen to live somewhere with a high Asian population.

Anyway, bubble tea is tea with bubbles in it, to put it simply. The bubbles are tapioca pearls; they're chewy brown balls a little bigger than a peanut, and they taste like unflavored gummy bears. The tea can be actual green or black tea, but usually it's more like juice, and comes in all sorts of flavors- lots of fruits, red bean, mung bean, yogurt, chrysanthemum, etc. The fruit flavors tend to come with chunks of the fruit in it, too. You can also get smoothie versions, in which the liquid part is very thick and icy. Usually it's drunk cold, but it comes in hot versions too.

It is great.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Possibly...

Though it's more like doing research to amuse myself rather than expecting to actually use it for fic. 30s detective stories, though? Now that sounds interesting. I think you need to tell me more. ;)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And oh, that's a great idea! I had tried looking up anthropological texts on the topic, but it turned up surprisingly few from my university's library- at least, few that weren't written in Arabic.

[weirdquark]

Right. So remember your depression era circus AU?

It reminded me that when I was in high school I once (or twice) started writing stories/plays where my friends were cast in a 30s detective flick.

Oddly enough, I think I blame that Mathnet episode. And MGM musicals.

I was a lounge singer in a club, another friend played the piano, one was the bartender, one was the detective, one was the maiden in distress, one owned the club... and we were all bound together in some complicated plot I never worked out that gave us all motives to be doing something sketchy.

When you mentioned your 30s YnM fic my brain said that Watari needed to be the lounge singer and Tatsumi should man the bar. I would have been content to leave it like that, but I started talking to people and the rest of the YnM characters have been cast and it's acquiring a plot and we're going to try to write it. Partly because it will be fun and partly because the casting works scarily well.

But I need to read detective stories first so I can get the feel of the style in my head.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

It's a trope for which I have a deep and abiding fondness, myself, so I keep a watch out for stories which feature it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I can't wait to see it. I have such love for AUs, that one's a really great idea. I've always been fond of detective stories and film noire and such.