Last night when I got home, my internet and cable were out again. TWC said it was an outage in the area. So I started a Middleman rewatch, which is enjoyable, and eventually the TV came back, so I watched the Mets win, but the internet was mostly out until about half an hour ago. I was able to download a beta email, so hopefully I will have fic to post tomorrow, as long as the internet cooperates.

In other news, as I said on tumblr yesterday, I'm reading Kate Elliott's Court of Fives and I'm enjoying it so far, but it is kind of a faux-Roman YA dystopia on first glance, which for some reason makes me want the Iliad redone as a YA dystopia featuring Patroclus being sent to the frontlines at Troy because of killing a man over a dice game, Achilles refusing to participate because Agamemnon promised him spoils and glory and then broke faith with him, Hector stepping in to protect his dumbass little brother, Paris, who thinks he's in love with Helen, who's betrothed to the older Menelaus, who gets his brother involved when Helen runs away, Helen being either everywhere or nowhere depending on who you ask (and possibly more than one girl posing as her so she can appear in so many different places), Odysseus the wily veteran who's been to war before and survived, and Diomedes as the only one who gets to go home happy at the end. Briseis starts out as Achilles' captive but ends up his spy in Agamemnon's camp. Also, no love triangle, just a three-way V-shaped relationship where Achilles is with both Patroclus and Briseis, and they become allies who don't sleep together. And of course, Patroclus eventually pretends to be Achilles and dies tragically, after which Achilles gets his rage on.

I haven't figured out yet what happens with Cassandra or Iphigenia, or if the gods are real/participate.

(Then there's the spinoff set X years later featuring Aeneas.)

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So I was dismissed from jury duty yesterday afternoon and I'm done for 6 years (NYS) or 4 years (Federal)! I got a lot of reading done!

What I've just finished
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, which I liked but didn't love. I didn't find it as gripping as I'd hoped. Otoh, possibly that's because I've now done some 101-level reading on WWI and therefore was already familiar with some of the stuff? Everything about Woodrow Wilson's courtship of his second wife was new to me, but not particularly enthralling.

Otoh, I definitely need to get a book about Room 40, since it comes up a lot in both WWI and WWII stuff (some veterans of Room 40 were part of the British counterintelligence/codebreaking/espionage group in WWII). Anyone got any recommendations?

What I'm reading now
The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Studs Terkel, which is basically exactly what it says on the tin. It might get interrupted, though - see below.

What I'm reading next
Uprooted by Naomi Novik just came from the library, so I might put the Terkel down and read this, since it has to go back to the library.

I also think I might need to add With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge (& Paul Fussell (Contributor)) to my reading list. I haven't read anything specifically about the Pacific theater, mostly to spare my own tender sensibilities (and I haven't watched The Pacific, for mostly the same reasons, plus my aversion to Jon Seda), but maybe it's time I did.

I also seem to be reading more exceptionally lengthy fic in not-my-active-fandoms, but I still have not found the Star Wars AU of my heart (or one of them, anyway), where Vader and Palpatine are so focused on Luke that they totally ignore Leia (so far, not so AU), and she totally wrecks them Jedi-stylez (ah, there's the AU part).

Also, the canon-divergence AU where Vader recognizes her, either on the Death Star or at Bespin, and he's like, "wait, TWO kids? PADME TOLD ME THAT EXTRA HEARTBEAT WAS JUST AN ECHO" and then he's like, "you could rule by my side!" and she's like, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" Because let's face it, Leia's totally got his temper, but she's also got a strong enough will to not be taken over by the dark side. I dunno, I think Vader would secretly be delighted that Leia is his daughter even when she's sticking a lightsaber through his chest. (Also, he would be so proud to learn that she'd strangled Jabba with the chains he'd used to bind her - give me the missing scene in RotJ where he finds that shit out. Skywalkers fighting slavery forever!)

Listen, Vader's (Anakin's) sins are many and unforgivable, but I would desperately love to see him interact on a more knowledgeable basis with his kids, but especially Leia, since that never happens in canon.

I think I had more to say but work keeps interrupting. Ugh. I was out of the office for two days! And voicemail and email clearly said I wouldn't be here! But did that stop people from repeatedly emailing me about time sensitive things? Of course not. So now I don't know the status of anything, because nobody is answering my questions about whether anything actually happened while I wasn't here to do it! Ugh.

On the plus side, we're closing early tomorrow for the holiday and have Friday off. Maybe I will get something finished in time for Steve's birthday!

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I've seen some really lovely Raven Cycle photosets on tumblr that racebend Ronan, but has anyone actually written a story like that? Because wow, that is a whole extra set of baggage for that kid to haul around.

( mainly spoilers for Ronan's storylineCollapse )

Someone with a better grasp of the subtleties should write that.

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So the Rangers won game 7 in overtime and now it's on to the Eastern Conference Finals, and holy crap, I love my team even when I'm screaming at them for being dumbasses who can't clear their own zone. Lundqvist saved them again, and I just want the team to be worthy of him! But I thought they played really well for large parts of this game, and deserved to win.

I felt bad for Ovechkin and Holtby - if they had won, I honestly would have rooted for the Caps going forward (and not just because zambonirider would have made me) - but I'm so so glad the Rangers pulled it out. Now to do it again, hopefully by scoring more goals and spending less time having to come from behind. Six games, guys. I'd like a Rangers win in six games. *meep*

What a game, though. I'm so glad I'd scheduled today off as soon as they won game 6, because I knew either way I'd need it (and also because ugh, I have not been having a good week) and I stayed up to watch ridiculous post-game 'analysis' and got to sleep in this morning.

I dreamt that I was at an event with my boss and the place was swarming with wasps, and even in the dream, I was like, "Good thing Gansey's not here." And then CEvans showed up dressed like an exterminator. *hands* My brain is a weird place.

When I got up, I made a Starbucks run and then settled in to watch the season finale of Arrow. ( spoilers' name is Oliver QueenCollapse )

And I really liked the first look at Supergirl. That is what a Superfam show should look like! None of this dour Man of Steel bullshit. (Ugh, two hours of my life I will be regretting on my death bed for sure.) NGL, I teared up a little when she ripped open her shirt to show the S-shield. Plus Jimmy James Olsen is a cutie. Please don't suck! *crosses fingers and toes* (And then I want the crossover with the Legends of Tomorrow show, where she looks at Brandon Routh and does a little doubletake and he's like, "Yeah, I get that a lot.")

Now if only Titans happens and doesn't suck. I don't even need Dick, really, if they gave me Donna, Kory, and Raven. Though let's be real, I will never say no to Dick. So to speak.

(Right now, my dream superhero tv shows* are as follows:

1. a Greatest American Hero style Spider-Man show, where an adult, married Peter Parker is a high school biology teacher who fights crime by night. Kind of like Daredevil but with less brutal violence and more hilarity.

2. a rom-com starring Kon-El and Tim Drake as odd couple superheroes who are quietly pining for each other. Maybe with some identity porn for the first half of the first season, where they don't know the other one is also the superhero they team up with occasionally? And Steph and Cass could show up as crimefighting girlfriends?

3. Young Avengers. My personal favorite lineup would feature Kate, Eli, Tommy, Billy, Teddy, Cassie and America. Rikki, Anya, Kamala, and Miles could be the next group up.

4. RUNAWAYS.

*Excluding things that are already in progress/actually supposed to happen.)

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