Vicissitude and Season

Back in the early oughts when I was writing Time for Tea, I had a blog for my betas where I could post links to research stuff and notes about chapters I posted for review, before I switched over to a Yahoo group entirely. It still exists, though its structure got kind of broken as Google grabbed it for me and forced it into Blogger, and I've been browsing it, mostly to come up with stuff that I might post on the current blog. As you might expect, most of the links are 404 Not Found now, though a few still work at promoting nostalgia.

Anyway, I did find a bit of an essay there, that apparently stemmed from a no-longer-extant LJ discussion about gender-neutral characters, and posted it with a little additional commentary here: http://ericahsmith.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/characters-gender-balance-gender-neutrality-and-history/.

I may also post, with revision, some of the Myers-Briggs personality tests I took for various characters, which I amused penwiper26 with the other day. It's interesting where getting to know your characters better through writing them can actually change those sorts of results, and where it doesn't.

Waiting for The Last Snow Of The Season Dammit It Better Be to start later today. Should do more outdoor stuff in the meanwhile.

Things That Are Surprisingly Like Barrayaran Political Strategy: vegetable garden planning. I am seriously thinking of investing in some colored plastic flimsies to represent crop rotation, succession planting, etc. (This is for the large demo garden I help run, not my own small collection of raised beds, though I could stand some planning there too.)

Things You Wish Reporters Would Ask: I was listening to NPR last evening and there was a story about Burmese pythons in Florida, how they got loose and are wreaking havoc among the local wildlife, 99% reduction in raccoon populations, 85% or something in deer, and they went on with a good discussion about possible other factors like habitat and water loss and so forth, and meanwhile I am sitting there saying THEY EAT DEER? I'm assuming these are the same whitetails we have in excess around here (SEND THE PYTHONS) rather than some exotic Florida form of mousedeer or dik-dik. (My neighbors just got back from a trip to Kenya. Great photos. Dik-dik aw.) Seems... a large initial bite. *has The Little Prince pictures in head* Not to joke, this is a real problem, but I suspect it won't be solved unless the pythons start eating cats and Chihuahuas in large quantities.

Things, Um, About TV: For whatever reason I am still intermittently catching up on "Once Upon a Time" which continues amusingly overacted and hovering on the edge of interesting plotting but not falling over. The most recent episode featured Richard Schiff being obviously bored as King Leopold (Apparently Snow White's Father), his one moment of animation occurring ironically as he was being bitten to death by vicious snakes (not Burmese pythons). And speaking of actors turning up in unexpected places, Hilarie Burton was on "Castle" last week, very not-Sara as a Kim Kardashian clone (with a dog the right size for a python snack), excellent work. And I hear Shirley Maclaine is going to play Lady Grantham's mother on season 3 of "Downton Abbey." Myself, I am not yet finished season 1, in which I am enjoying Penelope Wilton not being the Prime Minister, and Sam Tyler's mother as the head housemaid.