don't look so shocked, don't judge so harsh. you don't know you are only spying.

[two_grey_rooms]

someday in the not-too-distant future i will make some sort of substantive contribution to this hurr livejournal. today is not that day. in the meantime, you can:

Comment on this entry, and:

❶ I'll respond by asking you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
❷ Update your journal with the answers to your questions.
❸ Include this explanation and offer to ask other people questions.

cascades, who is an utter nutball, gave me these questions:

1. REMEMBER BLUE-SKIDOO FROM BLUE'S CLUES? when blue could transport into pictures and books? well, if you could blue-skidoo into any book, which would you choose?
NO, ACTUALLY, I DON'T, BUT I'LL FORGIVE YOU YOUR TRESPASSES AND ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION. and it's a very good question at that, i have to say. lovely variation on the usual "with which character would you most like to chill?" deal. aaaand my aaaanswer iiis...tales from outer suburbia, by shaun tan. yes, it is a picture book; it's essentially magical realism for kids. and shit-wow, i wish that description could do it justice. magical realism restores a sense of wonder, so i feel odd applying it to a children's book, because when you're a kid, magic is commonplace anyway. archy_the_roach introduced me to this book a couple of months ago, well past my childhood, and still it moved me on a very visceral level; it curled its way deep underneath my skin, successfully hijacking the place i reserve for favorite songs and uncomfortably revealing dreams.

the following tangent doesn't answer this question, but as this is my livejournal, i shall abuse my memes however i see fit. the book that most successfully translated the world i inhabit into a tangible place is palimpsest, by catherynne m. valente. it feels like my own headspace reflected back to me, in all its ugliness and desperation and incandescence. palimpsest is a part of me, located somewhere just beyond tales from outer suburbia, somewhere within my ribcage, possibly.

i also really pathetically wish i could beam myself into shoebox_project, although that's not a book at all. it feels like home to me, in only the way your very favorite stories do. yes, i know it is a fucking fan fiction, and i lose all lit cred for admitting this. i am okay with that!

2. if you could choose to live in a different century, would you? or would you rather stay in the 21st?
fuck, no. i'm not big on romanticizing the past. humans do a pretty good job of fucking up the planet, but i remain (perhaps stupidly) a firm believer in progress. i want to continue to live just where i am and do whatever i can to bring the world a little closer to the place i believe it can be. we owe the past a lot: everything we have now, in fact. it'd be an insult to want to shave off a few decades. reminds me of holden caulfield on his merry-go-round, caught in a loop and still looking perpetually backwards. to that image, i say: no, thank you. i want to go forward. because do you know what we have now? MOTHERFUCKING JETPACKS. suck on that.

3. have you ever wanted to have any kind of exotic pet? (i always wanted a wolf when i was little.)
i want a tarantula! no, seriously. i do believe that counts as exotic. and i'll be boring and confess that when i was little, i totally wanted a dragon. still do, because i am the muggle incarnation of hagrid. although the former desire is a bit likelier to be fulfilled than the latter.

4. when you retire as an old wrinkly lady, what do you want to do with your free time?
accumulate wrinkles. play bingo; use the panoply of medications i'll undoubtedly be on as markers. laugh at my hideously disfigured tattoos. have many spiders as pets. run amok. naked, preferably. be the nut in the neighborhood all the little kids are terrified of.

5. do you have any sort of ~security blanket~ that you keep around from when you were little? mine is a stuffed animal, a goat named djali. FROM THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, REMEMBER? esmeralda's pet goat. he has an earring! he's pretty bamf.
ONCE AGAIN, NO I DO NOT REMEMBER, BUT THANKS FOR TRYING. security blanket? you mean like a straitjacket? some of my friends would argue that i need one of those these days. i, um. don't have an actual remnant from childhood on hand? because i have no soul. well, okay, i did have this purple stuffed dog (creatively named "peace") that i used as a sort of talisman. i've yet to hand her over to the EVILS OF SUNNYSIDE throw or give her away, so that may say something about the state of my immortal soul (mostly that it's comprised of 100% pure unadulterated LAZINESS).

speaking of the sorry state of my soul, the latest regina spektor song manages to make me weep every. damn. time. and i've listened to it like twenty times at this point. it's slowly becoming tiresome. you should download it and join me in my blubbering! (and i do recognize the irony in my inadvertently prefacing this paean to childhood with an anti-holden caulfield rant. do i have my holden moments? yup. do i want to be holden caulfield? hell, no, bitches.)

the piano is not firewood yet
they try to remember, but still
they forget that the heart
beats in threes, just like a waltz
and nothing can stop you from dancing

rise from your cold hospital bed
you're not dying
everyone knows that you're going to live
so you might as well start trying

the piano is not firewood yet
but the cold does get cold
so it soon might be that
i'll take it apart, call up
my friends, and we'll warm up
our hands by the fire

don't look so shocked
don't judge so harsh
you don't know you are
only spying
everyone knows
it's going to hurt, but at least
you'll get hurt trying

the piano is not firewood yet
but a heart can't be helped
and it gathers regret
someday you'll wake up and feel
a great pain, and you'll miss
every toy you ever owned

you'll want to go back
you'll wish you were small
nothing could solve the crying
you'll take the clock off
of your wall, and you'll wish
that it was lying

love what you have
and you'll have more love
you're not dying
everyone knows
you're going to love
but there's still no cure
for crying

Comments

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

COMMENT!! :D

And, uh.....you have tattoos?

BTW, that Regina Spektor song is amazing. I did tell you I saw her in concert once, right?

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

hah, sorry to disillusion you, but i have no tattoos (YET). i am certain i will eventually be covered in ink, so you can expect many ebullient updates on the matter in future.

REGINA <3. i'm not sure if you did, but my memory likes to torture me with its chronic unreliability, so it's possible i forgot? when did you see her? if you caught the far tour, i may have to slap you out of jealousy. although i did catch the tail end of her begin to hope tour about two years ago, and she was AMAZING.

PREGUNTAS:

1. do you have a favorite poet? who are they, do you remember the first poem you read by them, what is your favorite poem, etc. basically i'm commanding you to ramble ad nauseam about poetry. I LIKE POETRY. if this question is Irrelevant To Your Interests, what's your favorite youtube video? :D?

2. if you had the national held captive in your basement for a day, what would you do with them?

3. what would you do to best prepare yourself for a zombie apocalypse? "cower in mortal fear" is not an option, i said PREPARE, dammit.

4. *shamelessly steals the premise of cascades's question* if you could live inside a web comic of your choice, which would you choose?

5. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON YAOI what is the internet's most annoying meme?

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS WOT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS MEME: have you read white like me and/or oryx and crake yet?

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK then! Personally, I don't like tattoos at all -- I find them ugly, I'll never get them myself, and I don't understand the big fuss surrounding them. Besides, what if many years down the road you don't like having them on you anymore? WHAT NOW BEETCH? XD j/k, I'm not all that judgmental when it comes to that sort of thing, but I see enough tattoos on my uncle to know it's not for me, sorry. :/

I saw Regina in September 2007 -- obviously not her Far tour, but pretty damn close. And yeah, she was awesome. <3

I just finished reading White Like Me, AND IT WAS ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY AMAZING AND MIND-BLOWING AND EVERYTHING. Trust me, your fears and apprehensions regarding it are completely untrue, and I think you'll like it very, very much. I haven't started Oryx and Crake yet, but it's close to the top of my to-read list -- right now I'm working on Lies My Teacher Told Me, so having some fiction in there won't hurt too much. ^_^;

I'll make sure to do this meme sometime later tonight, so be on the lookout! ;-)

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

...UGLY? tattoos...are...ugly? you, sir, clearly have not born witness to any decent work.

exhibit A
exhibit B
exhibit C (bonus: read the story behind this one to dispel the Tattoos Are Stupid, Thoughtless, And Meaningless myth)
exhibit D
exhibit E
exhibit F
exhibit G
exhibit H
exhibit I (possibly my favorite)

NEED I GO ON? >:)

i saw regina a year after you! we probably caught similar set lists. *sigh* she's so absurdly fucking lovely.

IN THIS CASE, I AM VERY PLEASED TO BE ENTIRELY WRONG! i should pick it up sometime, methinks. also, i saw that video of tim wise you posted to eska_rina's journal awhile back, and i gotta say, he seems pretty fly. and how is lies my teacher told me? it looks awesome.

IT IT'S TOMORROW AFTERNOON, YET I SEE NO MEME! you slacker you.

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

OK, my verdicts:

A: Ugly
B: Ugly
C: Not bad, and I totally sympathize with her reason for doing it, but still rather unremarkable
D: Now that's pretty interesting
E: Impressive!
F: Locked
G: Ugly
H: Locked
I: Also pretty impressive (and that guy totally looks like me, except for the eyes, holy crap D:)

No, you don't need to go on -- you're not going to convince me at this rate. /throws down gauntlet XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

I've really been enjoying Lies My Teacher Told Me thus far -- a bit awkward at times, and I mean, it's not like most of what he says should come as a huge surprise (though maybe it will, you never know!). I'll have to wait until I finish it before I can recommend it, and if so, to what degree.

Hey, I've worked all day today, and I got home a little while ago, and I am mad tired, so it'll have to wait until later tonight. And yes, I am a slacker -- deal with it. *sunglasses* :D

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

...ugly? you, sir, have no SOUL.

and lol oops sorry about the locked entries. i is obtuse :O. and your purported resemblance to exhibit I is rather creepy. i think you should get matching tats.

in what ways do you find it awkward? and yeah, do let me know what your verdict is when you're done. same goes for oryx and crake, although apparently we have some pretty incompatible tastes, so who knows, maybe you'll wind up incinerating oryx before you finish it.

FINE, SLACKER. i wasn't even on the internuts this morning; i totally wouldn't've noticed if you had posted them xD.

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

I can't quite explain why I find it so awkward -- I think it's because it's trying to do two things at once: talk about why high school history textbooks suck, and introduce alternatives to what's presented in them. Which are completely related and you really can't talk about one without the other, but the author seems to treat them as separate, and then tries to much them together in a way that just doesn't feel 100% right. Maybe more like 95%, but....we'll see. ^_^;

although apparently we have some pretty incompatible tastes

How so? Other than the tattoos, I mean. XD

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

hum. that sounds...odd? treating two inextricably intertwined subjects like disparate matters really sounds like the pinnacle of awkwardturtle. now you've made me really fucking curious.

haha, i really was only referencing our conflict of opinion re: tattoos xD. I'M SORRY, OKAY, TATTOOS ARE FUCKING IMPORTANT TO ME. although goodreads says we have, like, everything in common! except for watchmen and a separate peace. which i am not okay with, btw. how do you dislike watchmen??

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

It's a really fascinating read otherwise, but yeah, that's the impression I've gotten after reading the first 90 pages or so. ^_^;

This is why I don't like Watchmen. As for A Separate Peace, I couldn't really tell you why I didn't like it -- I guess I just found it utterly boring, and didn't find the characters sympathetic at all.

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

maybe it'll improve? although something tells me if someone's writing style sucked for the first 90 pages and visibly improved in the same fucking book, that would still be awkward as hell, haha. poor chap.

whoa. major props for that review. that was more thorough than some critical articles i've worked with in school. (not surprising! before AP, high-school english is bullshit. which i'm sure you know.) i do understand why you didn't like it, but...augh, fuck, it's been too long since i've read it to make a solid counterargument >.>. the heavy-handed symbols worked for me, in a kitschy comic-book sort of way. i don't think it was The Greatest Piece of Fiction Evar Written, but i remember loving it. i can't say anything much more intelligent on the matter, but this is totally making me want to re-read it now so i can. harumph.

aw. i read a separate peace in ninth grade, and it was kind of my Intro to Symbolism 101, so it has a special place in my heart. although i could understand why anyone who is not a ninth grader would find it boring xD.

re: the question meme: have some patience, yeesh! i'm about to check my flist.

[quadruplify.livejournal.com]

So I finally answered your questions -- when are you going to reply back?