teh sims, teh book

[lobelia321]

So it took me about three months to figure out that you can make the Sims gay. Duh!! In fact, I got the idea from my sons -- how perverse is that? Apparently, they've been making the Sims boys snog for weeks. So two nights ago, after t'eldest f'ing deleted all of my saved games ($£@!^*^), I created a whole new all-male, all-camp household of luvvin', snoggin' and backrubbin' guys. This made me feel strangely strange. I called them semi-transparent names, such as 'Dragon', 'Bic', 'Hurricane' and 'Roddy'. (*snort* -- well, we all know who these are... Bic may be least known to you, but he is Big D, of course). Unfortunately, the stupid game won't let me put them into bed together: is there a cheat code for this? I had to create four separate bed and space them out throughout the house, taking a wall down in the process. Very dumb.

I am also writing my book! And I am so happy about it right now! I wrote 3,800 words yesterday, and more today, and I am having fantastic ideas about my stuff. I am finding it exciting re-reading my text! This after three plus years of writers' block horror. And next semester I am on my sabbatical! I won't make the mistake again of telling myself that I have to spend all day writing, though; that is a recipe for depression. I will spend until 12 or 12.30 and then that's it for the day. The afternoon will be for socialising / writing fic / reading / going to t'reference library / going to coffee shops / shopping / decluttering and flybusting / going to London / making teh Sims boys snog.

Today I finished reading Ursula Le Guin's story 'Paradises Lost'. I wept for the last five pages. I have been on a Le Guin binge, re-reading all the books I know and wolfing down all the ones I don't.

Now I shall go and prepare spaghetti carbonara. Thursday is our spag carb day. Monday is pancake day. I love this organisation! And then we are socialising for Christmas virtually every night until New Year's Day!!

Comments

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I have never played the Sims. I suspect it's one of those terrible time-sucking things that I shouldn't go near with a barge-pole, isn't it? Like the Internet.

Oh, and Le Guin! I only discovered her last year, believe it or not (I think last year... maybe this year. I lose track of what year things happened in). But I have only read Earthsea, which I LOVED so much! I can't believe I've never read it before, in fact I actually though I had. But I hadn't. Anyway, is there any particular book of hers you'd recommend that I read next?

Oh, oh, and we're meant to be meeting up, aren't we? You suggested January, which I'd love to do if poss, but January does seem to be distressingly full of birthdays (including mine, ha). I will investigate.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

From January onwards I'm not teaching any longer so time is more flexible, and from February onwards I am on sabbatical so time is even more flexible! That's why I said January.

Earthsea!!! *adores* I re-read them every few years and each time I have a new favourite. I think I love Tombs of Atuan best, though, because it is about a girl and it is slashy (yes! the Eaten One looking down on a dying Sparrowhawk is slashy! yes! hurt/comfort/angst!). Anyway, Le Guin is so slashy, she has slash in her genes, even if she doesn't know it. In the 60s it was sort of repressed but in the recent books it's all out there in the open. But the repressed stories have a certain beauty about them.

What to recommend next? I absolutely loved and adored and nearly died reading 'Left Hand of Darkness'. It's her most famous one, I think, and I re-read it recently, and it still takes my breath away. So I recommend that. And then I recommend 'The Dispossessed'. And after that, ask me again for the recent ones where she develops the universes invented in those two books and takes them further. It's like fanfic! You invent an AU and six years later you're still tinkering with it.

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

My partner always says Tombs of Atuan is slashy, but I didn't quite get why he thought so, but if the High Priestess of Slash (who has an actual in-the-bag sabbatical starting in about ten minutes) agrees... It is my favourite of the Earthsea novels, because Arha is so icy and lonely and haughty, although The Farthest Shore is far more obviously slashy, what with young whatsisname's Huge Crush on Ged.

I haven't read Tehanu, or, for that matter, The Dispossessed, but must. Left Hand of Darkness is wonderful.

[yellow-oranges.livejournal.com]

If you remember my SIMS pages, all that was done via free codes I downloaded from the internet to my computer. If I recall you aren't playing the game on a pc? Maybe you could google codes + sims + your platform.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

X-box is my platform. It's a bloody pain, is what it is, but it does mean I can slump on a sofa and not have to sit at my desk. What I need is a portable laptop, that's what.

[msilverstar]

Lovely lovely news on Sims and book and Le Guin! And why won't my family eat spagetti carbonara????

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Families' eating habits are unpredictable!! But they can be trained, I have discovered. I had a star system. Each night I wrote down what we were having and the children were allowed to give it a star. 10 out of 10 for fantastic (pancakes got this one) and 1 out of 10 for vomitsome awful. But they had to eat at least 3 mouthfuls, otherwise they couldn't qualify as judges and weren't allowed to rate the meal with a star. If they hated it, they could put one measly star and then have a sandwich. This list was actually useful because I finally remembered what they hated! Also, they started feeling sorry for me and giving 3 stars or 5 for meals that were'okay', and now they eat nearly everything!!! They can change!!!! *boggles*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also then I instituted that they could have a meal they loved 2 x a week. Hence pancakes every Monday and spag carb every Thursday. *g*

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

my little cheeks flush with joy at your excitement at writing. good grief, woman, that's a hell of a breakthrough. so glad you're in love with your text again.

and oh yes, le guin. shame on me for not having read all her works. her muscularity and style stop my breathing, her characters make me fall in love, her imagination bedazzles me.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's been a very long and very hard struggle. Not sure if you remember me from way back but I slumped into depression and writer's block almost as soon as I slumped into LJ. But now: no! Sadly, the writer's flow has not extended to ficwriting, but I'm thinking 'not YET, not YET'. *g*

Le Guin! I have rediscovered my fannishness for her. I read a short story two days ago called 'Paradises Lost' which made me weep for the final five pages. The weeping may also have been caused by ovulation but still.

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

i do remember your writing block and i'm delighted you've got your jazz back. jazz it lady!

and le guin, i've only read earthsea (and how lovely was it, when i re-read the trilogy now i'm an adult, to find that in the meantime she'd gone back and written the fourth?), the left hand of darkness, and that strange one about alternate universe travels. and a bit of her criticism on fantasy. but i plan one day to get a mildly debilitating temporary painless illness, and read everything of hers, she's so inspiring.