burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

I finally read Dracula, followed by the 1994 sequel Mina (written by a woman, Marie Kiraly).

In Bram Stoker’s novel, Mina is so smart but also so pious. [And pieces of the story, especially the end, were so “A Hole in the World” (Angel 5.16). /Whedon!geek] And Dracula is not nearly the attractive romantic antihero he becomes in later incarnations. (He’s mostly really creepy and off-putting.) So i was puzzled as to how Ms. Kiraly was going to believably pull off a novel with jacket copy that implied she was still haunted by the dark passions of Dracula love or whatever.

As it turned out, she does a wonderful job of retelling the ending of Dracula as Mina understood the events and then telling what happened after Stoker’s novel ended, still primarily from Mina’s point of view. And she says lots of interesting things about freedom and blood and life and faith.

Instead of moving on to the original Phantom of the Opera novel, i started on the rest of TNG S7, starting with “Gambit” (which is as far as i got tonight, since sleep is good and all).

The first 20 minutes or so felt so surreal, like i was watching the characters acting a play. But then, oh the hottness. It’s bad that i totally read the show as if my non-canon pairing is real, always in the background informing the actions of the two characters involved (and of course i mental adding in sex between scenes as i watch). I was asquee more for that than for the actual plot. I actually really enjoyed the plot because i couldn’t call all the plot points, because there were wheels within wheels and everyone (audience included) only knew pieces but not in that way that makes me wanna smack people for behaving in ways that seem so stupid if only they knew the whole story... but i kept feeling like i’d seen pieces of it before on TNG, so the squee was primarily for the dynamic between those two characters. [Though by the end of the second part i realized that i had in fact seen the episode before, which made me feel rather silly about not being able to call all the plot points. Oh, but the deja vu feelings were from other episodes, not from my previous viewing of this one.]

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Spring Break Escalante trip sign-up

The athletic department's Outdoor Adventure program announces a spring break getaway (March 12-20) to Escalante and Bryce Canyons, Utah, including backpacking through the beautiful desert southwest with natural arches and some other amazing scenery. Thee program can supply gear. Cost: $433 (due soon to pay for airfare) and another $200 (for food, lodging and van) due in February. Sign up now or come to an info meeting on Wednesday, January 5, at 4:30 p.m. in the new Ainsworth Lounge balcony.

I do not need to sign up for this, i do not need to sign up for this. I have already been, and backpacking is not my style. *is dead from the beauty of Bryce* subliminal message to all Smithies: Go! Bryce is the most beautiful thing in the American Southwest.


Also: rhipowered has created a multifandom Women's College Fic Challenge.

So yeah, i LJ knowing that feasibly anyone could find what i've written. I don't go out of my way to share it with, say, my grandparents, but i own what i post. I hardly go out of my way to hide my "real life" identity, and this journal and my fic journal link back to each other. However, this creeps me out. Theoretically being pseudo-stalked is kinda flattering, but this is just fucking weird.