elanya

I just wanted to quickly write this down before I go to bed, because I had a really nice day, all in all.

Nary and co. were here overnight, and it is always nice to have some time with her and her family. We had a mix of Chinese leftovers and McDonalds foods for lunch, then just hug around talking until it was time for them to go.

After they left, I went and played with my nephews downstairs - they'd both gotten a wooden shield and sword for Christmas, so I brought out my practice sword (from Hollow Earth Swordworks, though I got mine at the Texas Renaissance Fair several years ago now), and we did some sparring games. Then we had a chat about how playing with swords could be dangerous even if you are trying really really hard to be safe careful (and they were so good about light hits! But not always as good about always knowing where their blade is. Spatial awareness is an ongoing battle; there is a reasons the swords are downstairs or outside toys!). Then we transitioned into story time! In which all three of us took turns telling stories, mostly about pirates. I told a few true pirate stories, then Bubby insisted they had to be pretend stories. So I told one about Captain Garrett and the Magic Treasure. After which he told one about Captain Garackle who stole the magic treasure from Captain Garrett. After which I told one about Garrett's crew saving their skeleton friend and swearing revenge. It was a nice little story building exercise, anyway! Nugsy was less confident in his stories, but he did tell a few, including one about a fighter who was friends with a Creeper, and a Creeper family, and some other ones. And then he made me read him one of their pirate books instead.

Anyway, it was really nice! I hope they had as nice a time as I did, but they certainly seemed to.

Joke's on you, anonymous person who asked me (days late, at that) about my potential pirate perving! I can't jet LJ to let me unscreen the comment to reply!

But really if I could go back in time and safely, consensually bone any pirate - Howell Davis, or maybe Ann Bonny. I feel like she'd probably be up for it.

Time to make tea and work on cover letters and snack on this bag of snickerdoodles I found hiding on the counter...

sorceror knows my weakness and asked about pirates! I thought I would have time to write a longer entry today, but work was kind of annoying, and then when I did have a bit of time, I used it to work on an overly ambitious Yuletide treat. Whoops!

So, I will give you the five coolest things about pirates.... ( But not in as much detail as I had hoped. )

Arrrr mateys!

For this dreary Talk Like a Pirate Day, I'll be passin' on this fine raunchy bit o prose I penned some years ago.

Must have Been the Rum (1810 words) by Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Nautical RPF, 18th & 19th Century CE RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Anne Bonny/Mary Read
Characters: Anne Bonny, Mary Read
Additional Tags: Bondage, Drunk Sex, Pirates, Historical
Summary:

Anne is sick of men, and is looking for a connection only another woman can give her.

I hope that'll be puttin' some wind in your sails!

I remember to bring my nice scissors to work to cut twill tape to sew labels into object cases. I did not remember to bring needles.

Bring needles to work tomorrow!

I did remember to bring my copy of Emilie and the Sky World though, and to bring my eldersign pattern so I can finish that washcloth for my facebook 'make stuff for people' meme, so that's good.

I did not send my RSVP for my friends' wedding reception yet, though I did draw a Pusheen on the back of it. I also did not send my book review contract yet, though I did sign it. I managed to misplace the envelope that came with it, d'oh! I am going to email the review editor *right now* and ask where I should send it (done!). I also opened a file for said book review, and put in all the header information. So that's waiting for me tonight, I suppose!

In hunting around for the review editor's address, I got an update on the pirate book I submitted an article for (based on my Sheffield research, actually, heh). It is out to reviewers now, and hopefully can move along nicely from there. :D

Now if I would only hear back from Shroud >.> I could poke them maybe? Last I heard they were hoping to have news for me in 'a week or so', but that was back in May >.>

In other writing news, the All-Female Author Mythos book that I backed on IndieGoGo has announced its open submission period will be from November-December. They limit is 4000 words. I *really* *really* wanted to send them Cursed Wreck, but it is just over 7000 in its current form. I need to cut it down if I want to do that, but I'm not sure I have the perspective to do so. I'll try looking at it again, but I might need to see if I can find someone else to help me with serious edits. Or I could write something entirely new, I suppose... I'll think about that. But damnit I want to sell Cursed Wreck ;_; It's a good story at heart. Possibly needs some chopping anyway :p

I wandered away from where I started in this post, but that's okay, because I was clever and thought to call upstairs to my old boss/the collections manager for the other gallery and *she* has needles, so I should be set :D

so, it does seem like all I talk about lately is TV. Well, don't worry, I'm all caught up on all my shows now (well, save Black Sails, I suppose, where there is one episode I haven't seen). And I have Things to Say. A few things, anyway. I'm gonna start with Black Sails, and I'll get back to True Detective later. I have more Things to Say about Rust.

( Black Sails )

I woke up early with all these *plans* and then I sat down at the computer and now it is going on three hours later. Bah!

I had some ideas for pirate-meta that I want to write up. In addition to talking about Black Sails, I may be going to do some conversational narration stuff for an Assassins Creed IV Let's Play with my bro-in-law. I have some things I'd like to talk about for the show though specifically - anyone have any preferences as to whether I talk first about Ships, or Wrecking?

I also had some ideas for what to do with my dissertation, article wise, which is that i want to write something that is looking more just at "here is what i can tell you about Harbour Island from the archaeology I did" and leave the big question theory for something else. I did some outlining while it was still in my brain, but it is hard for me not to hop into the theory >.>

I also had an anxiety dream last night that I was totally unprepared to run the LARP I want to do for Webercon. I don't think that it was really *about* the larp, per sey, though I do need to start working on it more seriously, but more about how I am a social fraud, and of course my RL friends mostly only tolerate me, some of them actively dislike me, etc. although the people who didn't like me in the dream were not relatable to actual real people, though there were actual real people that I know appearing in the dream, so that's something :p Either I don't know who doesn't really like me or they don't exist, I'm not sure. Even in the dream I was more concerned about the people I did know being disappointed, I think? Anyway, I am really a fairly confident person, but I'm also terrible at socializing with people. I don't participate in conversations the same way, or something? I don't know. I played pool with some t=friends on Thursday and despite it being people I know I was mostly quiet while other folks were chatty, and it left me feeling a little marginal and I think this has affected my subconscious. Which I almost wrote as 'self conscious'. Oh, brain, you ain't subtle :p I do think that I am *differently* socially awkward than most of my friends, and that does make it hard for us to connect sometimes.

Anyway, I *should* start working on something. I have other things I'd like to do today, or at least this weekend, as well, like laundry, baking, maybe even *shock* tidying my room.... I can find the floor, sure, but everything else is covered in things (mostly clothes and paper) that need to be put away :p

Oh and in other fun news, we definitely have a pipe issue of some kind in the bathtub. we thought it was water getting on the floor (for a variable configuration of 'we'), but it happened (or, at least, I noticed) again today and that was definitely not the case. I emailed lukoni but I'm really not sure what the best solution is going to be :/ No showers, anyway, I suspect, until we have a better idea what's going on. Yay?

In other mild annoyances, I ordered yarn for my sweater the other day, but the company emailed to let me know that they didn't have enough skeins in the same dyelot (I had asked for them all to be the same). They were really super nice about it and offered to backorder, but that was going to take eight weeks+! (Not their fault, that's just malabrigo for you >.>). I cancelled the yarn, but am still getting needles from them, and am now yarnhunting elsewhere. Even though they didn't have what I wanted I was really pleased with their customer service and will definitely be looking at getting other things through them again.

To end on a high note, though, I did at least get my prompts all finished for the Invisible Ficathon, and I am very happy with all of them! Now I just need to finalize my offers... Aftwer I go out and get some kitty litter!

So, what I actually managed yesterday was to Buy All the Things, including a proof copy of my dis in colour, paying for my storage unit, and buying yarn to knit a sweater as a knit-along with longpig. I also bought needles to knit said sweater with (I have 6s in the set I got for Christmas :)

And then I watched Black Sails with earis. This was episode two. The show continues to be a confusing mix of good and terrible historical details. There was a lot of Drama this episode, including surrounding one of the more compelling original characters, a mixed-race whore named Max.

...I'm not going to give spoilers about the show here (but I make no promises about the comments). But I am not going to spoiler censor for actual history, because this shit happened 300 years ago, and also who knows how things will unfold on the show. I kind of want to write something more explicitly meta about this, but I'm not sure if anyone would care? I could write about the setting, things they get right, things that are wrong, snippets about what is know about various historical figures and how they are being portrayed in the show, etc. Anyone anyone?

How about this - I'll start with a list of characters who are very based on historical people, of characters who are taken from other media, and of characters whose existence has some basis in historical fact:

Real Peeps:
Charles Vane - And yes, he was a bit of a violent psycho. Don't know if he looked as good in leather pants with his hair half pulled back...
"Calico" Jack Rackham. Who really did serve under Vane. Spoiler alert: Johnny Depp's character is probably named after him. You know - Captain Jack >.>
Anne Bonny - Although technically she doesn't come onto the scene for another few years. She starts on Rackham's crew, as I recall.

Fictional Peeps (we're all at least passingly familiar with Treasure Island, right?):
Captain Flint - Treasure Island
John Silver - Treasure Island
Billy Bones - Treasure Island

Historical Basis:
Richard Guthrie. This is the most surprising, I'm sure. There *was* a merchant, Richard Thompson) who lived at Harbour Island who was rumoured to be colluding with the local pirates (especially those operating out of HI rather than Nassau proper. His house would not have been anything like the one shown on the show. HI was even more of a backwater than Nassau, though it did have close ties with the Carolinas. That and the mention of him successfully bribing the Lords Proprietors were some of the biggest "lol-no" moments of the show for me. Also the sugar planter from the Carolinas....

Thompson was very locally prominent, and served as a Deputy Governor under Woodes Rogers. His daughter (name unknown) also ( married a pirate: )

I managed to get done all the things I needed to do yesterday except putting away all my laundry. I did get it mostly folded though, and I got the futon cover back on the futon which was the most annoying part.

In terms of the stuff I should get done, I got done the most urgent part of the training for TW staff stuff and looked through a bunch more of the material. And I got some knitting done during game.

The time I might have spend on writing was instead devoted to watching the first episode of Black Sails with . Oh man - I'm sure I'll have Things to Say, but I don't really have the time atm to go into detail. I *will* say that I am excited and amused because it is set in a time and place that I am *extremely* familiar with, though of course it is a hilarious mix of fact and fiction. They seem to have a good feel for the flavour, if not the details. I laughed out loud at the scene on Harbour Island. That is where I did my dissertation research, and I can promise you there were no houses anywhere near that fancy on the island in that period. Many lols, much wow. So wrong. That said, there *is8 evidence suggesting that one of the local HI merchants was colluding with local pirates, and his daughter even married one of them. So that's worth keeping an eye on ;) I am amused at the timing of this show with the newest Assassin's Creed game, about which I also have Opinions ;)

Anyway. I also still considering my noms for the Invisible Fictathon - you can see what has been approved for nomination so far over at the tag set. A lot of my work has been done for me :V Still need to get Ghost Soup in there, of course. And possibly some of the derivative Venture Brothers stuff. And then naryrising reminded me about Fox Force Five from Pulp Fiction. Hello femmslashy superspies! So still lots to think about there :D

I finally handed in my prospectus today!

And then I have been sitting around doing nothing on the internet all afternoon. Better get at that data entry...

How are all of you? :D

Have some soothing pirate tunes while you think about your answers.

<3!