As part of my plan to revive this journal from the dead, here are some art icons/bases I created a while back. The icons are all from the works of Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Alphonse Mucha and Vincent Van Gogh. Here's a preview:

This is a scale of the 'otherness' of fantasy settings ranging from 0 -7 that I came up with some time ago . As with any attempt to classify something so diverse and amorphous, it is not perfect, and there may well be some fantasy books that don't fit on the scale at all; however, I still find it is very useful.

0 - realistic fiction, stories that take place in what I term the 'consensus reality'.

1 - our world, with limited magical elements - i.e., no hidden magical societies. Half Magic by Edward Eager is an example.

2 - our world on the surface, but with hidden magic and magical societies - Harry Potter, most urban fantasy. Also, alternate worlds without other speculative elements.

3 - alternate worlds or alternate world systems with open magic - His Dark Materials series, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.

4 - an 'other' world, but one that has clear analogues to ours - the Discworld series.

5 - other world that is not directly related to ours, but still quite influenced by our cultures, past and present - most traditional 'pseudo-medieval' fantasy

6 -  may have: uniquely created human cultures,  non-human species that are fairly important,   humanoid species that are as or more important than humans. In addition to the presence of magic the world may differ in more physical aspects. Steven Brust's Dragaeran novels are an example.

7 - non-human species and cultures more prominent that human ones, the mechanics of the created universe differ significantly from the mechanics of ours.

If a story involves travel between worlds that rate differently on the setting scale, take the average rating, using a rating of 1 for our world - even if there's nothing magical about our world in the story per se, the ability to go from our world to another is. Thus, The Chronicles of Narnia are 3 on the setting scale. Also, a rating may be fractional - I think of Magic or Not?, which has deliberately ambiguous events that may or may not be magic, as a 1/2 on my scale.

Questions? Comments?

Subjects include: · Discworld(7) · Young Wizards(6) · Chrestomanci(4) · Tamora  Pierce · Tam Lin(3) · the Abhorsen Trilogy · the Lymond Chronicles · His Dark Materials(2) · Crown Duel(1) · Credit and comment, but most of all, enjoy!

 

...That is, Friday the 13th.   It was appropriate, therefore, that today I had two chemistry tests, one regular one one and a quiz for lab. None of my classes have true midterms, but this week still felt like a testing week, since on Monday I had a test for math and on Wednesday a exam for my Ancient and Medieval Cultures class. This means I can really enjoy this weekend, however, since I don't have much to study for.

No post yet, though I'm planning one, but for now here are some astronomy icons I've been collecting for a while. The pictures are from the Hubble telescope gallery and apod.

I've been fooling with the layout - I finally have a white-on-black layout like I wanted, but I reminded myself that it's more important to have good posts than a good layout. Therefore, I am posting. My library is having growing pains - the bedroom bookshelves where I keep my favorite novels has been overflowing for quite some time, but has gotten much worse since the holidays. I got The Art of Discworld for my birthday, and with the $40 in B&N gift cards I bought Mort and Soul Music by Terry Pratchett, Deep Secret and The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones, The Kin by Peter Dickinson, Fall of a Kingdom by Hilari Bell, and Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin. Though I'm happy to add to my collection, I now have enough books to fill two extra bookshelves!

Double the number of icons! Either the people at LiveJournal knew it was my birthday and gave me more icons as a present, or this was a plain old coincidence, but either way I'm happy. Of course, choosing six icons is little easier than choosing three, but it's still nice.

On the eve of my final, what better thing to do than to post bases? ; ) Preview:



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These were finished a while ago, but I just got around to uploading them. Usual rules apply. Preview:



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This is the time when sequels arrive, and for once I do not have to search for enjoyable books. Last night I finished Wizards at War, eighth book in the Young Wizards series. I need to get a copy of The Will of the Emperess, which I confess I had completely forgot about. And Terry Pratchett's new book comes out in a few days!

I haven't posted about my classes yet (they started four weeks ago). So far it's been fun - not so much the classes themselves, but the other people in the program. The commute is a drag, but still well worth the effort. Reminder to me: get working! I'm good at studying for things like quizzes and tests, but I often procrastinate on projects.

We have a new member of the family. Her name is Snow White, and she's very playful and sweet. Snow White is tiny - I've seen many kittens bigger than her, and she's nearly full grown. Her legs, nose, and belly are white, and she's black every else. She loves to chase things, including my hair, shoelaces, and even mom's reading glasses!



Does anyone know how a cat can do a back-flip in midair, while changing directions? She does this when I play with her.

Most of the books I’ve read recently are nonfiction, which is quite a change. This first happened because I couldn’t find any new fiction books that appealed to me, (apart from classics, which get honorary nonfiction status in my mind), but now I enjoy nonfiction books for their own sake. The cultures of past times and places are often as strange as any you’d find in a fantasy novel – they certainly give me ideas for my own stories.

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon was very interesting. Despite the fact that Sei Shonagon lived in Japan during the 11th century, the way her diary was written seemed very similar to a blog. There are lists of “Hateful Things”, “Awkward things”, “Adorable Things”, and so on, mixed with entries about interesting events in her life. A couple quotes I liked:

"Later I described to people how beautiful it was. What most impressed me was that they were not at all impressed."

"When I make myself imagine what it is like to be one of those women who live at home, faithfully serving their husbands - women who have had not a singe exciting prospect in life yet belive they are perfectly happy - I am filled with scorn. Often they are of quite good birth, yet have had no opportunity to find out what the world is like. I wish they could live for a while in our society, even if it should mean taking service as Attendants, so that they might come to know the delights it has to offer."

Apologies to my nonexistent readers for taking so long to update. I've had a Gmail account for several months now, and they're really cool. 1000 MB of space - much better than Yahoo or MSN. Yesterday I noticed I have 50 Gmail invites, so I'm happy to give them away to amyone who asks.

I'm sick of looking at a blank screen, so I might as well post something. I've never been able to keep a conventional diary - I got bored, or I decided it looked too messy and ripped out all the pages I'd written in, or the book got lost or something. I still have a lot of blank journals, though - I collect them because they look nice. I think this format should work better - besides, it's nice to have my own web page.