Great Big Sea

Ordinary Day, en français!

Last night on the way home from work, thanks to current medical developments, I turned like I always do in such times to my comfort music. And if you’ve hung around me for more than five minutes, you know exactly what that is: Great Big Sea. And in particular, “Ordinary Day”.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this song is pretty much the anthem of my life. And this past week in particular, I’ve been feeling the second verse real strongly, since I keep feeling like my system REALLY wants to push me around in a medical sense. I’ll take the liberty of hoping that trying to maintain a positive outlook has helped me make it not get away with that shit; certainly there’s a strong case to be made for that being an excellent coping technique with stress. (I’m serious on that! Dara pointed me at this TED talk over here on that very topic!)

And it’s certainly helped that my belovedest of B’ys have been here through the last 13 years to give me such musical comfort as they do. Especially when they’re the ones who made me pick up a guitar and learn how to play it in the first place.

Now though I’ve got mes gars du Québec, who are pretty much doing the same thing, only this time with a whole extra bonus language to stuff into my head.

Y’all know where this is going, right? Yep. I just translated “Ordinary Day” into French.

Which has apparently been done before, according to my Facebook and Twitter friend (not to mention fellow raving Great Big Sea fangirl) Krista, who gave me a scan of a GBS newsletter from way back in October of 1997, three years before I discovered the band. Krista showed me that after I posted my take on the first verse and chorus last night, and I was rather pleased to discover that a) I could understand just about everything that translation was saying, and b) I still stood by the translation choices I made in my own attempt.

I’ve finished that attempt up as of this post. Those of you who have any French at all will probably figure out fast that this is not an exact translation of Alan’s lyrics. I did direct translations when I could, but when I had to choose between “exact translation” and “close approximation that actually scanned better to the melody”, I went with the latter option. Particularly in the third verse, where I ran into trouble with the concepts of “double-edged knife” and “your ship will come in”–in those cases in particular, I jumped over to concepts that more or less got the same idea across but which let me use simpler phrasing that’d scan better to the melody.

‘Cause, of course, the overall point here is that I eventually want to be able to sing this. 😉

Anyway, here it is, my take on “Ordinary Day” in French!

J’ai un sourire sur ma face, et quatre murs autour de moi
J’ai le soleil dans le ciel, toute l’eau m’entoure, oh oh oh
Ouias, je gagne, et parfois je perds
J’ai été battue, mais jamais meurtri
Ça va pas si mal

Refrain:
Et je dit, yé hé hé, c’est juste un jour ordinaire, et c’est tout ton état d’esprit
À la fin de la journée, tu dois juste à dire, ça va bien!

Janie chante sur le coin, qu’est-ce qui l’empêche de mourir?
Laisse-les dire ce qu’ils veulent, elle va essayer encore, oh oh oh
Elle pourrait trébucher s’ils la pousser
Elle pourrait tomber mais jamais céder
Ça va pas si mal

Dans cette belle vie, il y a des douleurs
C’est un couteau dans le cœur, mais il y a demain toujours, oh oh oh
C’est ton choix si tu passe ou casse
Fais confiance le matin va venir
Ça va pas si mal

October 12, 2013 by
Television

No. NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. NBC, put down the keyboard and back away NOW.

I just saw on tumblr this disturbing bit of reboot news: NBC is apparently planning a half-hour, comedy “sequel” to one of my all-time favorite shows, Remington Steele, according to this.

To which I must respond with an unequivocal NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONO. Also, NO. With this helpful visual aid!

Because I mean seriously. #1, the lack of any female names associated with this project raises red flags with me. The entire point of the original show was gender issues, i.e., Laura trying to thrive in a traditionally male job. And given that the issues in question haven’t improved much in media in the intervening decades, let’s just say my faith in a show team WITHOUT A WOMAN ON IT tackling a storyline about that character’s daughter is not very high.

#2, the original show worked beautifully as an hour-long comedy/drama. It was often very funny, yes, but also often very serious. If you’re going to do a show about the daughter of those two characters trying to follow in her parents’ footsteps, why are you going to fuck it up by turning it into a straight-out comedy? In half an hour, no less? She’s going to be a private detective, right? So are you going to cram much simpler mysteries to solve into 30 minutes? UGH.

#3, the entire NOTION of the show being based on Laura and Steele’s daughter makes me facepalm. Cliche much? So you guys are pretty much stealing a play from Fanfic 101 here?

Okay sure, a serious attempt at a Steele followup would have the considerable problem of trying to compete with its own descendants, the most shining current example of which is of course Castle. I adore the hell out of Castle in no small part because Steele has more than once been cited as its spiritual ancestor, with the whole will-they-won’t-they romantic couple solving crimes dynamic. But that’s the thing–we’ve got Castle now already rather filling this niche. So you’d have to raise the bar.

I think it could be done. Like I said above, it ain’t like gender politics have particularly improved in media representation since then. Look at the whole recurring sexism in SF/F issues we’ve had the last couple of years, the whole “fake geek girl” bullshitfest, and such. Look at the rape threats women get online. Look at the particularly toxic shit women in gaming go through. Gender politics are still here and you could still totally do a current-day adaptation of Steele that would have that same core concept: i.e., Laura Holt needing to prove herself every bit as competent as a man in a traditionally masculine job. Because, yeah, apparently, this message still needs to be heard.

But I’m definitely not seeing that a 30-minute “ha ha wouldn’t it be funny if Laura and Steele’s daughter reopened her parents’ agency and had wackyfun laughytimes?” is the way to do it.

And even aside from that, it’s just not something I want to see. I’d much rather watch Castle. Or hell, the original Remington Steele. That show was pretty awesome.

ETA: And oh yes, for the record? Remington Steele? Direct ancestor of my character Richard/Julian on AetherMUSH, who was in turn the original template for Julian in Valor of the Healer and the forthcoming Vengeance of the Hunter. Pierce Brosnan is also directly responsible for my ongoing affection for J.D. Robb novels (mmmmmm Roarke mmmmmmm) and by extension, black-haired, blue-eyed Irishmen with criminal pasts.

SO I MAY BE A TAD BIASED HERE.

October 10, 2013 by
Comics

For the first time in YEARS: New Elfquest!

Elfquest Special: The Final Quest

Elfquest Special: The Final Quest

Wow, it feels pretty damned awesome to be able to use the words “new Elfquest” again for the first time in years.

Fellow Elfquest fans, if you haven’t grabbed the new release, you should do so pronto. It’s not just the bit of prologue that the Pinis ran via Boing Boing a while back; it’s the whole version of that story, including the part that ran on Boing Boing but also proceeding past that as well to give us the full prologue for the story to come.

We see quite the span of time covered as well. A newer character born not terribly long ago (in terms of the last few bits of stories released) grows up and earns her tribe name. A brand new character is born and we see her grow up a bit too. We get followup with a LOT of characters, elfin AND human. And some Shit Goes Down that ends things on a truly poignant note, and there are some lovely and tragic panels in particular towards the end of the story. And we see one of the most stalwart and unchanging couples in Cutter’s tribe get shaken up, in an unexpected and real interesting way.

I also note one particular REAL interesting development that, now that this has been established as canon, would have made roleplay on Two Moons a LOT more amusing. It absolutely reminds me of a thing that userinfostickmaker did with a character of his, way back in the day even before I started MUSHing and was running an EQ game in Kentucky. Rod, if you’re reading this, you may well remember the thing I mean; just recall the fate of Ash. 😀

The new release is available digitally from Dark Horse, and I scarfed it right off their web site here. The print copy may be already available in comic stores near you, but you can also order it here.

Read the story yet, tribesmates? Talk to me in the comments! (If you HAVEN’T read it yet, beware the spoilers!)

October 10, 2013 by
About Me

The game plan

I’ve just come back from the consultation with my gynecologist, and we’ve got a game plan now for my next medical adventure, joy oh glee.

Here’s what we know now. I had a fibroid in my uterus, described by the doctor as about the size of his thumb, and specifically “precancerous”. Which puts it into a category comparable with the other tumors and things my body’s generated, in my thyroid and in my breast. Additionally, once I explained my history to the doctor, he told Dara and me that the thyroid, uterus, ovaries, breasts, and colon are a known, common cluster of problems.

So yeah. Thyroid, been there done that had it out. Breasts, yep. And while my ovaries haven’t demonstrated a problem YET, they are at risk given that I’ve already had a breast incident. Now I have a uterine incident too. Which leaves the colon, which, moving forward, we’ll be keeping an early eye on just to be on top of it in case THAT part of me decides to join in on these shenanigans.

I told him that the main thing troubling me was that I now have a clear and demonstrated tendency for these precancerous tumors*, which led into the discussion of the aforementioned common clustering of problems. This, taken together with my mother’s history of cancer (as previously described), how I’ve got at least one known cousin with a thyroid issue, and another known cousin fighting stage 4 bone cancer, pretty much equals ‘yes, the uterus has to come out’. (ETA: And yes, the ovaries and my tubes are coming out, too. Since the doctor said that some ovarian cancers are actually cancers of the Fallopian tubes, and again, since my ovaries are at higher risk given my prior history.)

My primary care doc is backing up the surgeon, so yeah, we’re going to do this.

We now have the procedure targeted for November 11th, just after OryCon, since if I have to deal with this, I want to get it done and dealt with and not have to worry about it. We’ll be doing a procedure that’ll allow for fastest possible recovery time–I should have probably about a week of downtime, and after that, by the week of the 18th, I should hopefully be coherent (and bored!) enough that I can get on the VPN to get back to work. By the week of the 25th, if I’m physically up for it, I should be able to resume going back into the office. (We’ll have to see if I can do my usual bus + walking 4 miles a day commute; I suspect that at least for a few weeks, I’ll be doing the two-bus version of my commute. Let’s not even discuss driving. Bleh.)

So. Plan’s in place. We’re going to do this thing. More bulletins as events warrant.

* Here to tell ya, folks, “generating precancerous tumors” rather sucks as a superpower. I DEMAND A REFUND. Or at least if I have to keep this as a disadvantage on my character sheet, I want compensatory extra dice on my “Learn All The Tunes by Ear” and “Learn All the French” skills.

(Though more seriously, Dara and I have started wondering WTF is up with my system. Clearly I have a bug in my genetic code somewhere.)

October 10, 2013 by
Books

Post-VCON and post-deadline-crunch ebook roundup post

Bought from B&N:

  • The Reluctant Amazon, by Sandy James. This is book one of an urban fantasy series by a fellow Carina author, and I’d been meaning to get it for some time. Normally I’d have grabbed this right off the Carina site, but it was FREE last week by way of celebrating Sandy’s latest release in the series. I like free! So I scarfed it. (Also note: she is up to book four in the series, so DO go check her out. The latest one is up on Carina’s site right over here. Note the PoC heroine!)
  • How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea, by Mira Grant. A novella set in the Newsflesh universe, which I’d ALSO been meaning to grab for some time!
  • A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware. Historical fiction, probably romance, but that’s a little fuzzy in the description. I saw this in a roundup on the Bitchery about books on sale, and thought it sounded interesting, and I think we’ve established by now that “sounds interesting” equals “SOLD” when it comes to me and buying books. The Goodreads page for the book is here. (Be warned: the book is no longer on sale and the ebook price is steep, so if you find that this one sounds interesting, you might want to go the library route or wait until the ebook price comes down.)

Bought from Kobo:

  • What Happens in Scotland and Summer is For Lovers, by Jennifer McQuiston. Historical romances. Got both of these because the latter was well-reviewed on the Bitchery over here. And since What Happens in Scotland was available for only .99 (still is, as of this writing), I thought I’d give ’em a go.

Bought from Smashwords, basically because I saw both of these in the dealers’ room at VCON and thought they sounded interesting–but because my shelves are overflowing right now with physical books I opted to get the ebooks instead (and also woo! Supporting Canadian SF/F!):

  • Tranquility’s Blaze, by Krista D. Ball. Fantasy. Goodreads page for it here.
  • Blightcross, by C.A. Lang. Fantasy/steampunk/dieselpunk. Goodreads page here.

163 for the year. And this count will be going up again REAL SOON as Cherie Priest is about to drop another one and this is HIGHLY RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

Also, srs bznz Pro Tip: if you’re interested in romance AT ALL, and you’re not already, go read Smart Bitches. Hell, if you’re as ravenous an ebook devourer as me, the “Books on Sale” posts SB Sarah does alone are a valuable public service to the community of readers! 😉

October 8, 2013 by
Bone Walker, Vengeance of the Hunter

Status update from VCON

Well, I think this is a new first for me: I’ve just spent practically all of VCON holed up making a mad dash through the rest of developmental edits for Draft #2 of Vengeance of the Hunter. I swear to gods, people, my editor? She’s made of solid gold awesomeness, and I’ll go on record here and now as saying that Draft #2 has improved considerably because of her. It’s still the shortest book I’ve ever written, but at 84K, it’s still a credible length for a novel.

(I did at least get to see a couple of things at VCON, though. I made a sweep through the dealers’ room and spotted a couple of books I liked the look of, one of which I’ve already bought in ebook form, the other of which I’m going to track down if I can. I would have gotten the paperbacks, except that my shelves are already pretty damn full, the lament of book geeks everywhere. And oh yes, I bought a new Doctor Who t-shirt, one which has all of the first 11 Doctors on it. And it’s weird to type that, rather than ‘all of the Doctors’, now that I know there’s a new guy on the way.

And I did go to the Turkey Readings today, which were awesome and full of win and LOL. Also, I did get to say hi to GoH Mur Lafferty, whose name I know from her work on the podcast Leviathan Chronicles.)

But anyway. Vengeance is in, though my brain is goo. The Editor of Awesomeness will be commencing her next round of edits on it ASAP and I expect to be on tap to charge through those as soon as she throws them back to me.

Those of you who are patiently awaiting updates on Bone Walker, I swear to god I haven’t forgotten you. Vengeance however has eaten my brain. So has the Not-So-Happyfun Medical News I got earlier this week, and the other reason I’ve more or less spent the entire convention hunched over my computer is that I’ve not been in much of a mood to make social noises at a hotel full of strangers.

Y’all will be getting an update on Bone Walker as soon as I can get my brain back. The next thing that’s likely to happen there is that I’m going to get the long overdue posters and postcards made, so stand by for an update on that by the end of this week, mmkay?

Now I think I need to sleep for a week.

October 7, 2013 by
About Me

This just in: well, my week’s been ruined now

God fucking dammit.

Some of you may be aware, Internets, that I had to have a medical thing done last week. The short not-TMI version of this was that I had a hysteroscopy due to weirdness in my menstrual cycles. I had previously been wondering whether this was due to my going perimenopausal due to being in my mid-40’s, but given my previous history with my thyroidectomy and my stage 0 breast cancer, I had it strongly recommended to me that we should have my uterus checked out just to be sure.

I just got called with the pathology results from the sample they took out. The phrase “pre-cancerous change” was used in the conversation I had with the doctor.

And he recommended we have my uterus out. And my ovaries and tubes as well.

I am to come in on the 10th for a followup appointment to discuss these results and what my options are moving forward.

I wanted to be done with having to have parts of my body cut out due to threatening to turn into cancer.

But apparently I’m not.

God fucking dammit.

ETA: To everybody who’s been expressing their support to me on the various sites I’ve posted this news to, thank you.

At this point I’m mostly just tired and numb. I can’t even manage to muster any real rage for this–because as I told the doctor when he called me with the news, part of me was half-expecting something like this as worst case scenario just because I have been down this road before. I do have a history of portions of my body up and deciding to pull shit like this.

I can deal with it, I know I can at this point just because I have before, and I’m at least grateful that this time around I had a couple of years’ breathing room to get my strength back.

Right now though all I can think of is Tommy in O Brother Where Art Thou?, when Delmer boggles at him about trading his immortal soul to the Devil in exchange for being taught how to play the guitar. Tommy’s answer was a laconic “well, I wasn’t usin’ it!”

I would just like to now protest that losing my uterus WILL NOT IN FACT IMPROVE MY GUITAR PLAYING. Something seems medically awry here. I feel like I should be getting some kind of musical superpower out of this deal.

October 2, 2013 by