At First Light

marshtide

Which I've been sitting on for ages as it's the name that hosts what tiny scraps of original fic I manage to post on LJ (nothing for ages so if you don't watch you're not missing out) and I rather like it; it feels a bit more Me than most names I've used.

(By the way, have I mentioned how bloody weird it is to me that the Baltic doesn't have tides? I grew up on the coast of the North Sea, and my brain thinks there should be a good metre and a half swing back and forth at the very, very least.)

Not that I know what I'll do with it yet. Definite lack of content going on right now.

But it's there!

(Added by default those of you who don't post on LJ. Anyone else is welcome to wander over as well, even though I don't know what I'll be doing there.)

Liz says:
I feel like if I had today free I would probably go spend it outside and writing. something like that. actually I'd probably waste it procrastinating but that's how I SHOULD spend it.
Val says:
that does sound lovely
[...]
Liz says:
"This is one of the most singular experiences, waking on what feels like a good day, preparing to work but not yet actually embarked. At this moment there are infinite possibilities, whole hours ahead."
Val says:
oh. what is that?
Liz says:
from The Hours
Val says:
*___*
Liz says:
but not for me today. I'm already mentally stacking up all the other things I need to do before work. sad.
Val says:
mm
Val says:
and then maybe tomorrow gets to be that day
Liz says:
I don't know. even on the ones when I really feel it work shows up too quickly. I mean, there are more of those days now, but I can't make use of them. *laughs* catch 22.
Val says:
yeah, I know. I feel like that now and then. but not very often.
Val says:
have to wake up even earlier than usual
Val says:
and not be too tired
Val says:
tricky
Liz says:
yeah
Liz says:
that's kind of the problem with the creative stuff. it needs a lot of time and space. even if you're only doing about half an hour or an hour's worth of writing it takes up more of a day than that
Val says:
mmhm.
Val says:
that's what A Room Of Ones Own is about, you know
Val says:
well. sort of.
Liz says:
oh?
Val says:
yes. well.
Val says:
it's about women writers and how women have never had their own space. this makes it more difficult to develop artistic gifts.
Val says:
and then she talks about a bunch of female writers and their careers and there is a section about Shakespeare's sister. it's very good.
Liz says:
I will get it out from the library. I think I need it.
Val says:
yes, required reading

So A Room Of One's Own is sitting in my bag now, along with The Hours and Orlando. Today hasn't been a creative day because, as alluded to above, creativity is often something I have to catch just right, with a good start, preferably early in the morning with the prospect of a decent day ahead. There are all sorts of problems with this and I think I've chewed most of them over in my mind pretty often by now. In the end I'm a writer - by which I mean someone who feels uneasy when not writing more than someone notably talented at writing - who all too often needs a little more stability or a little more than she has to function as such. Balancing stability and time is going to be the eternal battle, I suppose.

All the same, that little frustration aside (I could have written... what? no idea now), today has been a Good Day.

We've just had our first hot day of the year** which means I'm going through ritual seasonal irritation with my hair. Can I just hack my hair off to half an inch long or something? Can I? Okay, so it would look entirely ridiculous, but it wouldn't get in the way! Anyway, I really do need a haircut, my hair is down well past the base of my neck now. I need at least three inches hacked off, probably more. Now there's just that little question of affording it. I think I'm going to stalk the hairdressers in town tomorrow and see which ones do cheap cuts from apprentice hairdressers etc.

Of course if I hadn't randomly bought a waistcoat today this would be marginally less of an issue (although only marginally, since the waistcoat was very very cheap & haircuts are pretty expensive). I regret nothing, really, though. It's a neat but basic piece of clothing and I'm going to replace the buttons on it to make it more interesting - metal buttons maybe if I can find some I like, or anything else that catches my eye. I find myself wanting a shirt that buttons right up, as opposed to all the open-necked women's ones, and a tie or perhaps a cravat, and a pocket-watch. Have I mentioned that I'm feeling overtly eccentric again lately? It's been a couple of years and the direction has changed a bit (though really, I still love corsets as well, but you try improvising those kinds of outfits on minimal resources) but hey, I guess it doesn't go away. Being a little mad in the harmless sort of way makes me feel a bit more like myself, anyway. *wry* (Actually, I have quite a list of very very specific items of clothing I want right now. I know precisely what I'm looking for; it's just a question of finding it within budget. I'll be scavenging around for a few months, on and off, whenever I can spare a bit of money. And then it'll be too hot out to wear any of it. *laughs* Good grief, don't even get me started on how I feel about summer clothing.)

This entry sponsored by light evenings, light mornings, and temperatures over 20 degrees C. (I love one of these things. The other two are more dubious.)

** i.e. the same temperature as a pretty cool day in crystal's part of the world.

I saw these and thought of solaas. (Or should that be aquamane?)





The pictures are bad because I was taking them covertly in a shop. I am sorry.

Today: Carnaby street - closed vintage clothes shops (conspiracy?), no decent converse, many amazing toys. Moomins, toast, the black knight, "what the hell is that?!" "I have no idea!". Camden - getting lost in music shops, cool jackets, I Have No Memory Of This Place, Banksy prints ("I am your father"), gay gum, "let's run away before it takes any more of our money". Wagamama. Syl. Picadilly - the Royal Academy of Arts. Kuniyoshi. Briefly pretending to be intellectuals (or not). Strongwoman O-Kane strikes again! Tentacles also. All kinds of pretty. That Awesome Japanese Sweet Shop.

Home.

I tried to import my icons from LJ to DW, but it didn't work -- just imported the keywords for my default icon over there (not even the icon itself) and then claimed it had succeeded and stopped. Oops! Ah, well, beta. *g* (I'm still just sort of poking around the site and playing with things a bit to see what they do.)

This is Liz, Giving Ground, Virtual Light, Orphean. I have a complete inability to pick an identity and run with it, so you'll have to keep scratching your heads over who I am in any given place, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure what to do with DreamWidth but I suppose I was curious as to how the whole thing would hang together, so here I am. Curiosity, meet the cat; you'll get on brilliantly.

Val posted this yesterday so some of you will have already seen it, but for those of you who don't have the good fortune to be on her friendslist I must re-share. It is important that as many people as possible see this.

The Oddest Book Titles

Application of High Tech Squids?

Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual?

Versailles: The View From Sweden?*

Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality?

Explosive Spiders and How to Make Them?

...Penetrating Wagner's Ring????

I DON'T KNOW. YOU TELL ME.

* This does remind me of a moment at Arlanda Airport which Val may recall... "Somehow I always thought it would be bigger."

The book of the moment is The Book Thief (Markus Zusak). Every time I pick it up I find it really interesting, but it's a lot harder to get through than any other book I've read lately. I find myself stopping a lot more, putting it aside to do other things. I'm enjoying it but in a different sort of way, I suppose. Perhaps it lacks a little of the pull of some others I've read recently, or perhaps tiredness is getting the better of me. Sometimes it's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure it's a good book but I'm not tearing through it. (I'm still only about 180 pages in.)

Tonight I'm going to do some gaming for the first time in a couple of years. Has it really been that long? I guess so. Anyway, we'll see how it goes; I'm feeling a lot more capable of socialising now than last time I was invited, at any rate!

I just have to say that I really love waking up to find bizarre emails about, for example, what homosexuals did for entertainment in Victorian England in my inbox. It always makes my morning a little brighter. (This is a thinly-veiled declaration of love for firescribble. Again.)

ETA: My current writing project is the Agatha Pitt Mystery [friendslocked], as Unni has dubbed it. It's all terribly mysterious. No-one is entirely sure what the crime was, or even if one took place. It is also currently not making any sense, but I suppose that's what heavy revision at a later date is for.

ETA2: I've recently located some archaeologists, and I've been trying to sort out some tail-ends from an old project as well, so I've been thinking more about that topic lately. This reminded me of one of the Stories. Since a lot of you weren't around when my adventures with the London Wall and the Corporation of London took place, I thought I'd dust the tale off and dig out some old posts! Oh, nostalgia.

1. The Corporation of London vs. Tourism and Cultural Heritage, "We here in London like to keep our cultural heritage locked up in case it gets out and attacks someone."

2. Hairdressing and Ancient Monuments. No, really.

(And one day I'll have to tell you about the Phenomenology... it's activated.)

The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennett) is an absolutely lovely little book. It made me smile a lot. (It also reminded me of the existence of the book Howard's End by EM Forster and that particular passage about Beethoven's Fifth, which I remember being very fond of but which I haven't read since, oh, my early teens. Hmm.)

Broken Angels (Richard Morgan) contains considerably more archaeology than I was somehow expecting! Onward. :)

(This is me actually keeping a record of what I'm reading.)