Gypsy Poetry

Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

This just plain scares me. I do not want any corporation or service provider deciding what I can and can’t access on the internet, the same as I wouldn’t want any company telling me which books I can and can’t read. It’s creepy, and it’s ripe for abuse. What if some provider gets it in their head that people shouldn’t look at porn? And then takes it further and blocks out every mention of sexual organs, naughty words, etc?

And here’s something I just don’t get. From the article:
Critics of the amendment said it would bring in unnecessary government regulation.

HOW?! How does the government passing legislation that would guarantee neutrality on the net equal regulation? IMO, they’re doing worse by letting companies decide what people can view.

So, if you’re a US citizen, please call your senators and ask them to support net neutrality. You can also visit http://www.savetheinternet.com to find more ways to help.

So, for the past three weeks, I’ve been doing jack-all. And it’s been killing me. I love relaxing and doing my own thing, but MAN, I can only take it for so long before I start to go batshit insane.

But it’s June 5th, which means I’m working again. Thank god for work study jobs over the summer semesters, because there’s absolutely nothing else in this crappy little town. Unless you count fast food, and that’s one thing I refuse to do. I worked in a deli/snack bar for a few months, and I will never work near a deep fryer again. UGH.

However, my work computer does not have Firefox, and I am forced to use Internet Explorer. The WordPress write post page doesn’t like IE very much, I think, because I have no keyboard shortcuts, and the text looks goofy when I type it. Alas! My kingdom for Firefox!

Sooo… random pop culture stuff. I re-read Neil Gaiman’s Stardust last night (curse you, insomnia!), and it’s battling to be my favorite Gaiman book again.

It’s a fairy tale, but it’s not the cutesy kind of fairy tale you get in Disney movies. The story follows the adventures of young Tristran Thorn, a young man from the unassuming English village of Wall who goes through the wall and enters Faerie in search of a fallen star for his true love. It’s beautifully written, as is everything by Gaiman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and it artfully adapts old nursery rhymes, wives’ tales, and folklore into a wonderfully original story.

The book also carries a touch of Gaiman’s signature dark whimsy, which blends beautifully into the format of a fairy tale. I love reading the older versions of fairy tales: the unsanitized Grimm, stories told by adults to adults, the ones that were around before parents began telling them at their children’s bedside. Stardust reminds me of those old stories.

It has everything from romance to adventure, sorcery, sailing, and shapeshifting. The story is engrossing, twisting and turning enough so that it surprises you but doesn’t leave you scratching your head and wondering where the hell that came from.

So, if you’ve been wanting to get into Gaiman’s novels, but didn’t know where to start, I’d suggest going with Stardust. It was my first, and it’s a wonderful way to be introduced to his work.

And for something completely different, does anyone want to see pics of my Sims? I’m like a grandmother with a photo album with these guys, I swear. And… they’re X-Men Sims. [blush]

A review. Beware the spoilers, my friends, and also beware the fangeekery.

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CulturePulp 52: X-Facts!

Everything you need to know about the X-Men when you go see X-Men: The Last Stand.  And the art’s great.

I’ll post a review of X3 in the next couple of days.  At the moment, I’m trying to write fanfic and get my Wolverine and Jean Grey Sims to get married. [cough]

Snitched from Estella’s Revenge.

Reading memories:

20 Years Ago: (age 6) I’d already been reading for about two years at this point. I was reading stuff off of signs and billboards when I was three or four, so by the time I hit kindergarten, I picked up reading really quickly. I remember really digging Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle when I was little.

10 Years Ago: (age 16) Fantasy. I read high fantasy novels all the time when I was a teenager. Hell, I read all the time period when I was a teenager. I think this was right around the time I got into the X-Files, too, so I started reading fanfiction.

5 Years Ago: (age 21) Reading was my escape at this point. I was unhappily married, and I read to get away from it. I was still stuck on fantasy novels, particularly Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, but I was also into fanfic big-time. I had recently shifted from Star Wars fanfic into the wonderful world of X-Men, thanks to the first movie. I had also recently started reading X-Men comic books, so I was pretty engrossed in writing Logan/Jean fanfic and reading as much as I could. I also discovered Harry Potter couple of years before this, so I was marathon-reading the novels that were out while at work. Ahh, escapism.
3 Years ago: (age 23) Still into X-Men fanfic, though not as much as before. I think at this point I had gotten into Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic a bit. Still reading Harry Potter. Reading a lot of non-fiction, too, along with The Lord of the Rings and its fanfic. I was also introduced to Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series by my aunt, and I read them voraciously until Obsidian Butterfly came out and the series jumped the shark. I got into LKH’s Merry Gentry series, too, which I’m still ashamedly hanging onto. I love the sidhe men, especially Doyle. Mmm. Darkness.

Last Year: (age 25) I hardly read at all last year, which makes me very sad. School was eating up most of my time, and I hardly had time to read for pleasure. By this point, though, I had discovered Neil Gaiman and read his stuff voraciously. I also spent seven straight hours reading the new Harry Potter book on its release day. :D

This Month: (age 26) I’ve been catching up on my lost reading time. I’ve read some smut, a couple of science non-fiction books, most of Salman Rushdie’s East, West, my own old fanfic (hehe), and I’m working on a book on queer theory and film for my honors thesis.
And another:
3 Favorite Reading Locations: in my bed snuggled up with my body pillow, on my couch with the blinds open, on the balcony of the apartment I lived in in Germany (unfortunately can’t read there anymore, dammit)
3 Reading habits: tea + book = happy Gypsy, my books have to be in alphabetical order on my shelves, I buy books compulsively
3 Things that distract me: people talking to me, music from other apartments, random noises outside
3 Characters I’d love to be: Jean Grey from the X-Men comics (hey, comics are too books), Lady Door from Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Tonks from the Harry Potter books
3 Three Characters I despise: Scott Summers from X-Men, Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, Mr. Collins in Pride & Prejudice
3 Favorite Book Beverages: Earl Grey tea, Tazo or Stash chai, Columbian coffee with lots of half-and-half
3 Favorite bookmarks: I usually use receipts and toilet paper
3 Dead Writers I’d love to meet: Jane Austen (though I’d be afraid she would just use me as snarky character fodder), E.M. Forster, J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Alive Writers I’d love to meet: Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie, J.K. Rowling

And in non-book related news, X-Men: The Last Stand opens on Friday. I’m trying so hard to not be excited about it. The movie version of Goblet of Fire broke my heart, and I’ve learned to not expect much from sequels so that if they’re good, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. But I can’t help but get all giddy about X3. Even if the rest of it blows syphilitic goats, I’ll be happy with the Logan/Jean love.