Mischievous Muse

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Location: Austin, TX, United States

Scholar, Writer, Mother, Dreamer. Editor of Luminarium, an online library for English Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Quiz: What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Here's another silly quiz, since Mophia specifically requested one :D


Your Birthdate: August 18



You are a cohesive force - able to bring many people together for a common cause.

You tend to excel in work situations, but you also facilitate a lot of social gatherings too.

Beyond being a good leader, you are good at inspiring others.

You also keep your powerful emotions in check - you know when to emote and when to repress.

Your strength: Emotional maturity beyond your years

Your weakness: Wearing yourself down with too many responsibilities

Your power color: Crimson red

Your power symbol: Snowflake

Your power month: September


 

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sonnetsday

Here is one I've posted before, but a good poem deserves several reads :)


XCI.

OME glory in their birth, some in their skill,
  Some in their wealth, some in their bodies' force,
  Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill,
  Some in their hawks and hounds,
                                        some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:
But these particulars are not my measure;
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,
Of more delight than hawks or horses be;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast:
      Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
      All this away and me most wretched make.

W.S.


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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Rock & Roll, Here I Come!


So, I got my hair cut and colored today. Even though some 3+ inches were taken off, it's still to the middle of my back, and it's really cool. I took this 20 mins ago in the backyard, but the sun was so bright I couldn't help but scrunch. Love being a red head again!

 

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A Book Meme


... lovingly nicked from Bart's Daze of Our Lives.



1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?
The only time I prefer paperbacks is when I'm travelling. Every other time, hardcovers win. The feel of the pages, the crisp spines, the dust jacket that you guard from harm as jealously as a mother would a newborn babe, the scent of ink and paper, the heft of the tome in your hands as your curl up to read... Hardcover.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…

Words Worth Eating. And it would have a small cafe, naturally, with big arm chairs where people could just plop down and stay. I'd love for it to look just like Wordsworth's house:



3. My favorite quote from a book is…
Okay, I protest — this is like asking one to choose a favorite child. But the first quote I ever copied from a book was when I was 12:

"I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
— Emily Brontë, The Wuthering Heights

That quote still informs my life.


4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be …

My boy Bill of course! D'uh! I'd probably feel like a right dolt, but it would be an opportunity not to be passed up.



5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except the SAS survival guide, it would be…

My Riverside Shakespeare. Everything one could wish for in entertainment can be gleaned from the pages of that book. And I don't think I could survive without it.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…

dusted the books without damaging them. A little robot vacuum that was lighter than air that would just "zwoompf" the dust off throughout the bookcase.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…

afternoons spent with my dad in antiquarian bookstores, rummaging through shelves and boxes for books he was collecting, the sunlight shining through dingy windows, the dust motes floating lazily in the air.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book, it would be…

Frodo in The Lord of the Rings.



9. The most overestimated book of all time is…

James Joyce's Ulysses. Funny, I didn't have to think about this answer for even a second. Brand me a heathen, but I think that book is unintelligible drivel, pseudo-genius stroking, afforded far too much adulation by the Pretenderati.

10. I hate it when a book…

ENDS. After a good book ends, I go through a mourning period, grieving the fact that the book is over. And though I know I can always read it again, I'm grieving that I can never read it again,
for the first time.


If anyone would like to do the meme, please do so! I love little better than finding out what others love about books.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Calvin, Susie, and Hobbes' Definition of Love

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Bluebirds of Happiness



The birds are singing loudly in my garden,
Vying for territory and nesting space,
Each outsinging and outshoving the other.
I know this is so, though I can barely hear them
For the bluebirds that sing in my heart.

(AJ, 28 March 2008)
 

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

A Sudden Light



I want to paint your name on the winds,
Sing your words to the stars.
The moon rises slowly and
Somehow, suddenly,
Very far is very close.

(AJ 3-27-08)
 

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A Thought on Friendship

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The Prodigal Daughter Returns to Her Blog

Darlings,

I do hope you'll accept my abject apology for writing so little in the past few months. I was very touched that you all still bothered to check this page on the off-chance there might be a post. I thought surely by now you would have chucked my blog off your bookmarks as another defunct enterprise.

Mophia was somewhat correct in his surmise that my hesitancy to blog was related to "The Troll Incident of 2007." I do admit that almost in one fell swoop, much of the delight I had taken in baring my soul to the wide world was robbed from me, despite my determination not to let it do that. I felt I had exposed my soft underbelly and then someone came in with a machete and went to work. And even though one should "not let the bastards grind you down", I lost the joy for a long while.



Furthermore, the beginning of this year has been filled with a plethora of work. I've been very fortunate to have countless translating gigs and other job opportunities which have left me little time for private pursuits, including blogging. What little extra time I have had has been spent on Facebook, keeping in touch with old friends and new. And all of it has come at the expense of my readers here. I apologize. You will see more of me in the future — silly quizzes, jokes, poems, and my musings on the world included.

Thanks for checking up on me guys. You've really made me feel special.

♥, Anniina
 

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Just passing through