manifesta

I swear that post on the portrayal of women's strength and sexuality in paranormal romance and modern urban fantasy is forthcoming. I even have a decent chunk of it written. Unfortunately I have an exam and two papers due next week, and we're finalizing the script for the main experiment I'm working on. It's a design I've in been helping build from the ground up, so I'm super excited to see it go live by the end of March.

Salsa performance group also started last month. My partner and I have dreamed up some amazing moves for part of the choreography. This also means I hurt on a regular basis.

Black Widow's Walk is moving along. I adore the book but loathe writing middles. I'm pushing it forward out of sheer stubborness right now. I just finished a scene where some of the Spinners are busking on the street (stringed instruments + rain = bad) and in the next scene I return to the High Court, where one villian manipulates another villian. There will be deception involved, and someone is going to get Spun into oblivion.

This weekend I intend on studying, writing BWW, writing papers, studying, eating chocolate, seeing Valentine's Day, studying, making brownies, and celebrating a friend's birthday. Hopefully my next weekend will be more restful.

I recently reread Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith and Exiles: The Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn. I haven't reread Exiles in some years, so until recently I'd forgotten how utterly amazing it is. It's a complex, heartbreaking political fantasy that plays with gender roles. As always, I love love love Rawn's heroes and heroines.

Next quarter I'm going to host a giveaway contest for a book or two that I've read or reread recently that feature strong heroines. Why? Because I wish there were more books like Exiles and Skin Game and The Raven Prince, and I think the only way to change people's standards of what isn't acceptable characterization of women is to provide examples of what is.

Stay tuned.

My salsa friends and I made our monthly pilgrimmage down to Seattle last night to go salsa dancing. Sometime around 1AM on Capitol Hill while walking back to the cars, I spotted a pair of steampunks. One of them had a clock tattooed to the top of his hand with some kind of design trailing upward and under his sleeve. He wore a pair of small, black goggles on his forehead. She had larger, clear goggles, and her boots featured some kind of intricate lacing involving metal clips. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, and so I didn't get to see the rest of their outfits. I haven't been jumping on the bandwagon with steampunk fic because... well... I don't like bandwagons. But the steampunk culture and lifestyle seems to have been gaining popularity around here, and I have to admit, I do love most of the clothes.



As someone who appreciates taking a more masculine style (the 'punk' in this example) with feminine elements, I adore the woman's outfit (see above picture). I have this thing for wearing really frilly or flowy dresses/skirts and combining them with badass boots. Had I known this back in high school, instead of those strappy sandal-heels, I would've worn leather boots with my floor-length gown to prom.

Also: THANK YOU Dreamwidth for upping the number of free-account avatars from 6 to 15! A few big reasons I decided to convert from LJ to DW is because of the diversity statement, the site's lack of ads, and the designers' committment to user-focused progress. Not to mention the detailed weekly updates.

I realize that my being on DW may make it more difficult for my LJ readers, but I do appreciate you taking the extra time and effort to read and comment! I loved LJ for a looong time, but it's been going downhill for quite a while, and I'm excited to see how DW will expand once it comes off beta. Thus, if anyone wants a DW invite code (even if it's just to create an account to cross-post from LJ to), I've got some.

EDIT: You totally don't have to be a regular commentor to ask for a code, either. Just leave your email in the comments!

So. Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson. I wanted to love it, I really did. Unfortunately, it took maybe three pages, tops, before I whipped out my moleskine and started jotting down notes on things that seemed--to my psych major brain--straight up whack.

1. Freud is not the figurehead for psychology. The two are not nearly as mutually exclusive as people seem to think they are, and I'm tired of the cliches. I realize Freud's easy prey, but c'mon. 

2. An intro psych class is not going to give its students free association tests. On the off chance that they do, they will not, under any circumstance, actually take that shit seriously.

3. The vast majority of individuals in intro psych casses will not go on to become psych majors. Further, no one, and I mean no one, as an undeclared freshman, will know what field of research they want to go into. NO ONE. They won't even be THINKING about it. Especially since most psych majors (y'know, the people who are actually declared) don't ever go into research, if they strive for a career in psychology at all.

4. Intro psych students do not conduct meta-analyses. Really. I promise. They just don't. Why? Because they don't freaking know how.

5. You do not even start to think about your senior thesis as a freshman. Truly. I'm not kidding here. I realize that the college is supposed to be a really prestigious school, but I'm still not buying it.

My biggest peeve with the book is that someone who hasn't finished a single course of psychology simply doesn't know enough to be making these kinds of decisions, and I find it ridiculous that she's expected to. As someone drowning in research and experimental design this quarter (I'm running my first round of labs this Friday! Woo!), I simply wasn't impressed. If the character was older, and had taken a couple of stats/research design classes (not a single general AP Stats course in high school) and several psych courses, I think the book would have been a lot stronger and believable.

That said, her boyfriend is abusive. I'm not sure if the author intended for him to be, but he most definitely was. What carried the book was my love of Nathan, who isn't abusive, and who also happens to be chill, calm, and insightful. If I wasn't a psych major, I'm sure I'd be more charmed with the book, if only because of him.


On another note, I won a contest on Jacqueline Carey's facebook last week. Today I checked my mailbox and lo! I found a German edition of Kushiel's Dart, gorgeous, thick, and signed by Carey herself. It's huge--over 900 pages. I think the American version is only around 600. 

Last week was also my university's annual club fair, and I was out and dancing for Ritmo Latino, our salsa club. Several people came and took pictures of us. One guy was even kind enough to hand me a CD filled with professional-quality photos.

After a variety of hold-ups, BWW is moving again. YAYAYAYAY. I've been feeling rather weary, so I've been trying to listen to my playlist for BWW more often, just to jazz myself up. I usually only listen to it (and always with earphones in for the illusion of surround sound) when writing Deahnna's scenes, which admittedly are probably a third to half of the novel. Most of it's neo-classical violin music (Vanessa Mae and Bond in particular), and many times what I'm listening to will impact what Deahnna's playing or someone's feeling at that given time. Today involved Bond's song Duel and an impromptu pizzicato (plucking of the strings with the fingers) bridge that morphed into a lullaby-waltz.

Also: I wanted to mention that I'm very, very saddened by the passing of Patrick Swayze. Coincidentally, not long before I found out about his death yesterday, someone asked me what my favorite movie was. I grew up watching the movie Dirty Dancing and it's a HUGE part of the reason I love dancing as much as I do. Yesterday I watched it again and rewound to each of the dance clips. I realize that Michael Jackson represented childhood for a lot of people, but Patrick Swayze represented mine. 

Still reading Palimpsest. I haven't had much time to myself that hasn't been dedicated to writing or sleeping since training began, but hopefully I'll finish it this weekend.

Black Widow's Walk   16, 054 / 90,000