books, politics, fandom, chatter!

1. So, we had an election! Another one, I mean. Unfortunately the dude I didn't want to get elected got elected, instead of the awesome progressive dude (yeah, they're all dudes) who said stuff about how he supported equal rights for LGBT people, women and racial minorities and also spoke out against the Internal Security Act. Well I guess that's... life? I stayed up till 1.30 AM or something RIDICULOUS last night, but they were recounting the votes (it was a really thin margin) and the result only came out at 3.

I mean, given that Singapore runs on the British parliamentary system electing a President is basically sort of like electing a figurehead monarch, but still. I would enjoy a figurehead monarch who says stuff about how he would have "no discrimination". >:(

2. I watched the new Doctor Who! ( and basically mostly didn't like it. )

3. I realise this will not be a super big deal to those of you who churn out 100,000 word epics on a regular basis, but the Oxford AU is currently at 27,000 words and thus not just one of the longest things I've ever written, but the longest thing, period. It's been... interesting. Admittedly a lot of that story is "banter and they do some stuff, idk, and are really busy and also I try to fit in lots of random people including Matt Smith and Karen Gillan" which results in me not really being able to control the timeline as much as I'd like, but! oddishly has been a BRILLIANT cheerleader and a brilliant beta and lets me email her with stuff like, "tense changes augh" and "yay 23,000 words!!!" She is PRETTY GREAT, if you didn't know.

4. Other fannish shenanigans I've been getting up to lately: notficced about a Jesse/Andrew/Emma threesome. Sadly, I'm probably not going to be able to write it out to my satisfaction, but like I said here, I kind of really enjoy thinking about the private-public intersection of a poly relationship, especially given that they're all famous. How would you even present or hide that from the world? etc.

5. Also, I just bookmarked this interview of Emma Stone, which is really interesting and also essential, I find, in the sense that when you enter a given fandom it's always really hard to find a stock narrative for female characters, especially in RPF. I mean, Jesse Eisenberg is obviously "neurotic cat lady trapped in a Hollywood actor's body", A. Garfield (much love to him) is, "manic dude who is socially capable yet somehow in love with Jesse", and Emma is... "bright and chirpy and also hilarious". ??? I don't know. Anyway:

“Do you know Jesse Eisenberg and I both had our first panic attack at 8?” she says. “We found that out on ‘Zombieland’ and bonded immediately. But yeah, I had separation anxiety, I worried my house was going to burn down, I was wringing my hands all the time, and so my parents took me to a therapist. And so I was figuring things out and something happened where I just thought, okay, all right, I want to act.”

6. I also just got an iPhone! I kind of need ideas for what kinds of Apps I should have - my mother wants me to get Viber, and I have a vague inkling that Whatsapp is The thing to have, but beyond that I have absolutely no idea. Does anyone feel like sharing?

7. I have not been reading, or reviewing, books to any degree of consistency lately. Have a couple of rushed reviews:

Weetzie Bat,
Witch Baby,
Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys,
Missing Angel Juan, &
Baby Be-Bop, by Francesca Lia Block.

( mostly positive! )

Bloomability, by Sharon Creech | Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall In Love, by Maryrose Wood | High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby | Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang | The Boy Next Door, by Irene Sabatini | Singapore Shifting Boundaries: Social Change in the 21st Century, edited by William S.W. Lim, Sharon Siddique, & Tan Dan Feng | The Frenzy, by Francesca Lia Block | Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian | The Spirit Catches You And Then You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman | Saraswati Park, by Anjali Joseph | Eston, by Stella Kon | Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates | Rice Bowl, by Suchen Christine Lim | The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell | Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics, edited by Kenneth Paul Tan | Miss Seetoh in the World, by Catherine Lim | Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee | Jointly & Severably, by Eleanor Wong | Wills & Secession, by Eleanor Wong | Mergers & Accusations, by Eleanor Wong | GASPP: A Gay Anthology of Singaporean Poetry & Prose, edited by Ng Yi-Sheng | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier | Gone Case, by Dave Chua | Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell | The Waters & the Wild, by Francesca Lia Block | Growing Up: Getting Along in the Sixties, by Tisa Ng | Oreo, by Fran Ross | Caucasia, by Danzy Senna | Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class, by Owen Jones | Racism: A Very Short Introduction | Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, by Rana Mitter | Feminism: A Very Short Introduction, by Margaret Waters | A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin | Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean | Sons of the Yellow Emperor, by Lynn Pan | Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People, by Katharine Quarmby | Tipping The Velvet, by Sarah Waters | Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro | The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff | The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli | Brick Lane, by Monica Ali | The Savage Detectives, by Robert Bolano | Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell | Cat On A Hot-Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams | Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, by Joshua Zeitz | Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson | The Moon By Night, by Madeleine L'Engle | To Live, by Yu Hua | Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer | The Next Competitor, by K.P. Kincaid | Raffles Place Ragtime, by Phillip Jeyaretnam | Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy, by Frances Mayes | Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin | Marie, Dancing, by Carolyn Meyer | Man Walks Into A Room, by Nicole Krauss | How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby