(no subject)

Things I did this weekend!

- Started a new crochet project. It is a camisole, which makes it only the second actual garment I have made and the first whether the fact that it fits actually matters. (The other garment is a huge baggy house sweater.) It is a lovely pistachio green, with lacy bits. I am very much enjoying it, though I think I have bought too much yarn.

- My mom and I decided that, as summer entertainment, we would try to watch all of Star Trek: TNG. So we got the first disc from Netflix on Friday and watched it this weekend. Now, on one hand, I am terribly excited because all my TNG watching was pre-fandom, so I've never seen it in order and I've missed huge chunks of it. It'll be great to see the whole thing. But on the other hand...ye gods and little fishes, the first several episodes are awful. Dad has been watching with us out of a desire to spend time together and I keep feeling as though I ought to apologize or something. (Though I will admit to finding it hilarious every time someone mentions the Ferengi and implies that they're badass and scary. Because, umm, no.)

- On the other hand, I have also started watching Twin Peaks which is amazing. I am in the first flushes of fannish love over here. To the point where I kind of already want to buy dvds - I've been watching it on cbs.com and it's fabulous that they have it up so I can watch it for free and all but I think I need the ability to rewind and rewatch scenes over and over. And also subtitles. I've been trying to remember the last thing I got this fannish about this fast and I think it was old school Doctor Who. ::glances at large stack of Doctor Who dvds and novels:: So that should probably indicate something and I should probably apologize in advance to anyone who gets in the way of the babblestream.

- Continuing in that vein, I put the audiobook of Black House on my mp3 player yesterday to crochet to because hey, audiobook I have that I haven't listened to in a long time. And y'know that thing where when you've just gotten into a new fandom everything reminds you of it and you start writing ridiculous mental crossovers? Yeah. No, but seriously, Twin Peaks and The Talisman/Black House happen in the same universe. You know that this is true. Agent Cooper and Jack Sawyer would make an awesome if incredibly surreal crime-fighting team and I want to know what Cooper's twinner is like. So someone should write that.


And that has been my weekend.

(no subject)

I am now going to tell you about one of my more ridiculous pet peeves.

It is encapsulated in this book - A Field Guide to Monsters by Johan Olander. I have nothing against the premise, though it's not really my thing. There's nothing wrong with silly made-up monsters and kids like that sort of thing.

My pet peeve comes into play because, in the library, that book is filed in 398.2, which is the Fairy Tales and Folklore section. This is not a fairy tale and it is definitely not folkloric. I mean, make up your own monsters, knock yourself out - but don't put them in the folklore section if they're not actually folklore.

I would have been so pissed if I'd found this book as a kid. I loved folkloric catalogs of monsters and fairies and hidden folk - they gave my world greater texture. I felt like I was learning secrets, important things. That's one of the reasons I read fairy tales too. But this - I would have felt cheated, like I was being condescended to. They're monsters, sure, but they're not real. Every time I see the damned book, that's what I think - how can you give kids a book about monsters that aren't real?

I am wholly aware that this reaction is ridiculous. It's much like my reaction to all the books about fairies in the folklore section that are all pink and sparkly. I feel we do our children a disservice by not teaching them about monsters and fairies as they really are.

And that is my ridiculous pet peeve.