trinityofone

I am currently writing the world's worst essay on James Joyce's Dubliners (except for any essay ever written by my 12th grade English teacher, who claimed that the creepy old dude in "An Encounter" wasn't whacking off, when clearly...he's whacking off*), but an important question has arisen that must be answered:

[Poll #700967]

ETA: Dude, why're y'all voting for The Puddlejumpers for Shortest Band in the World? I'm sure Shep appreciates the publicity, but don't you think they're disqualified on the strength of Ronon alone?

Also, in other random Irish literature news, suitemate Jean just told me that John McGahern just died. That is so weird: I just finished reading his Amongst Women, and we're discussing it in class on Monday (with hot Scottish tutor Peter Mackay, no less!). All this, I know, has absolutely zero cosmic significance, but...I still feel it as odd, as quite sad.

*She also claimed that the line in "The Convergence of the Twain" about "that august event" referred to the month, "because the Titanic sank in August." When I pointed out that no, the Titanic sank in April, she got really huffy and was weird with me for the rest of the year.

So I was innocently scrolling through my friends list when my eyes slid past this post on u2 about U2 shows in Phoenix and Atlanta. Only--and I'm sure you can all see what's coming--I kinda misread the second part. "Wow!" I thought, "U2 is doing a show in Atlantis!"

Then I thought: "Now there's a crossover I secretly kind of want to really must never write."

And then I thought: "Actually, this may have already occurred ( because... [pic spoiler for 'Coup d'État'] )

I amuse and frighten myself.

Speaking of U2 and me being frightening, yesterday wychwood asked for my Top Five U2 Songs as part of the Top Five Meme (for the record: "Lemon," "Out of Control," "One," "Until the End of the World," and "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" or "Drowning Man," depending on my mood), then reciprocated with her own. I immediately turned into a freak of nature: "But those are so conventional!" (Like "One" isn't?) "You need to hear more exotic U2, STAT!" When I resumed semi-normal breathing patterns, I offered to send her some stuff. Unfortunately, most of my U2 .mp3s are protected (yes, I know you can get around that, but it is a pain in the ass and I am lazy) so what follows is mostly whatever fell into the center of a Venn Diagram crossing "Stuff that wychwood doesn't already have" and "Stuff of trinityofone's that's unlocked." Of course, it also falls into a third category: "Stuff that is really, really awesome."

( 26 random U2 songs, including a lot of live tracks, some rarities, some remixes, and oddly, something from October )

ETA: And a .zip file of all of them, if you are so inclined.
ETA2: Fresh .zip file, 'cause the other one all ran out and stuff.

Enjoy! Please tell me if the links run out, and if you want to share your random thoughts about any of these songs or about U2 or music in general, I would looooooove that. Oh, and nenar and caseymae: I know I still owe you mixes. I am working on them. Hopefully some of this can help tide you over...

So I obviously smoked some serious crack before going to bed last night, because my dreams were a multifandom extravaganza.

( BtVS, HP, QaF, and SGA wackiness )

Yesterday, I finally got fed up with Trinity's intensely irritating library and went to see if I could find a good used bookstore. For a city that trades so much on its literary reputation, used bookstores are not thick on the ground here in Dublin. Everyone talks about Books Upstairs, which is right across the street from campus, but I've been in there twice and--how can I put this delicately?--it sucks. It has, like, four books in it, and three of them are by Dan Brown. (The fourth is some pretentious piece of literary theory--gag me.)

Anyway, I had heard that Abbey Street had a couple of decent places, so I took the long way 'round, mostly to avoid crossing the River Liffey at O'Connell Street--it's always horribly congested. I ended up in Temple Bar completely by accident, and, I think, stumbled across U2's recording studio there. I think. I didn't look too closely. *is resolutely Not A Stalker*

I started out with a list of ten books, and on Abbey Street I was able to find three of them. Two were at Chapters, which has a decent, if horribly organzied, used section. (What is with bookstores that insist on dividing fiction into "Literature" and "Fiction" sections? It's not only pretentious, it's stupid--you end up with the same book shelved in multiple places, and nobody can find anything. Chapters was even worse--I stumbled across The Great Gatsby in "Literature," "Fiction," and "Classics.") The third was at a bargain store that basically looked like a room where somebody had emptied a carton of books out onto the floor--and not in a good way. Then today I managed to pick up two more at Hodges Figgis, which almost wins Favorite Bookstore on name alone--it sounds like it should be located in Diagon Alley. ;-)

In case anybody's curious, these are the books I was looking for:

( My Reading List )

Seven are for class, three are potential pleasure reading. Anyone who can guess which three (or which one of the others I've actually read previously) will impress me deeply, and probably knows me better than I know myself. ;-)

(Oh, and in case anyone is in terrible suspense: I found the Haggard, the Hogg, the More, the Stoker, and the Wolfe. You can rest easy now. *g*)

ANYWAY...none of this was actually the highpoint of the day. That was my discovery of what I think must be the only Mexican restaurant in Dublin. It's called Taco Taco, it's in a food court off Abbey Street, and it's really not that good. But MY GOD--I ate a quesadilla yesterday, and it was the best thing I had ever tasted. I think I must've been experiencing salsa withdrawal. Bless you, Taco Taco. Bless you.

I have the day off from work, so I slept 'til eleven, didn't change out of my pajamas, and am sitting around drinking tea and doing memes. I bet you wish you were me.

These are pretty entertaining, though.

From girl_clone, the iTunes Eight-Ball meme: Put your iTunes on random, then ask it each question before going to the next song.

( My iTunes has some serious issues )

From about a zillion people, the Icon Paring Generator meme: about which all I have to say is, curiosity may not have killed the cat, but you can bet it seriously disturbed it. I started doing this meme just to see what I got, and the results were, unsurprisingly, terrifying. ( But the truly shocking bit was that I immediately started thinking of ways I could make these cracked-out combinations work. )

Now if only I could think of some way to do Rodney/the huge lemon from my “She wore lemon” icon. Before, that icon was supposed to represent the intangibility of desire (and other equally deep things); now it’s just kinda funny. Poor Rodney.

Speaking of which...I now have multiple ideas for completely cracked-out SGA fic. At least one involves aphrodisiac dog slobber. I need help.

...for those who were wondering about this, I finished my novel! (Requisite "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!") I spent all of yesterday afternoon printing it out (seriously! It took five hours! I hate our crappy printer!) and last night and this morning re-reading it for the first time. And I'm pleased to report: I don't hate it! Hurrah!

I'm going to show it to my mom once I've fixed the most glaring typos, and then I think I'll feel okay letting other people read it. But until then:

Things I learned whilst re-reading that publishing sensation-to-be, The Chambers of the Sea

-If you use the phrase "with an expression of intent concentration on her face" three times within 100 pages, people will notice.

-Girls in fake beards are hot. My current reading of War and Peace confirms this. I wrote my "girls in fake beards" scene long before I read his, but I'm glad Tolstoy and I are in agreement on this point.

-Extended jokes in Dutch are funny. Even if you don't speak Dutch.

-Sure, footnoted e-mails sound fun in concept, but have you tried formatting them lately?

-I write lyrics that would shame David Brent.

-All my characters sound kinda like me. Which means they all sound kinda like characters on Buffy.

-Voyeurism! Yay!

-If you put down the last page of your novel and think, with an impossibly wide grin on your face, "This ending is gonna make people cry!", you might want to look into revising your moral code.

And for those of you who like stats (IOW, me):

Total number of words: 118,454
Total number of pages (my computer): 443
Total number of pages (brother's computer): 424
Date started: December ? (7th, maybe?)
Date completed: June 22

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed in seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

A man dreams of leaving
But he always stays behind
U2, "Lemon"

My U2 concert review is up at the Daily Cal website. Read it! Bask in the love/extreme fangirl geekery.

My new goal as a writer* is to write a book someone in the band really likes so that I get invited backstage at one of their concerts and they're like, "Yo, I like your book," and I can be like, "Yo, I love your music." And then they'll offer to play "All I Want Is You" at my wedding. Well, maybe not that last part.

Also, foresthouse is evil. In a fun sort of way.

*Old goal: write something that people write fanfic about.

Just got a phone call from taosterman. Then I got an e-mail. And they were the best. e-mail/phone calls. EVER!!!!!

---------------------------- Original Message
----------------------------
Subject: U2 Tickets and Photos for Saturday
From: "Siuda, Aaron"
Date: Thu, April 7, 2005 5:38 pm
To: "Rich"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Rich (I feel like Willy Wonka with the Golden
Tickets)...........Please read all of this.

REVIEWER INSTRUCTIONS:

You are officially approved for 2 tickets to the U2 concert at HP
Pavilion on Saturday, April 9th.
Tickets will be left under [trinityofone].

**When reviewing the show, PLEASE make note that tickets are still
available for both Oakland performances in November (11/8 and 11/9).
Tickets for the Oakland shows can be purchased online at Tickets.com
(you
CANNOT buy tickets at Ticketmaster for those shows).

Tell her to have a great time at the show. Cell once again is
[phone number] if there are any problems.

We can't accomodate a photographer on this, but have fun with the
music!

Cheers

Aaron Siuda
Director of Promotions and Publicity
Bill Graham Presents

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm get to see U2! I get to see U2! YAAAAAAAAAAAY! I am so happy!

Now...who wants to come with me?