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Wow. When I decided to treat the public part of my journal as just a fic-and-occasional-essay/meta repository, I didn't imagine that there might be a time I simply won't have the chance to get any of that written for extended periods. But now seems to be such a time, and my last public post was in January (and a signal boost, at that - I hadn't written it myself). I know why I adopted the policy of "post only what's super representative in the public entries" when I did, but at the same time I don't want my LJ to go totally silent just because it may be a while before I can get any fandom writing done again.
So, I think I'll be posting a "random" thing without the friendslock every now and then. Why not. Better than sitting around posting nothing as LJ's traffic keeps dwindling.
Today's post isn't going all that random, anyway. I wanted to pay respects to the fact that it's been 100 years since the birth of Alan Turing. I've celebrated by googling him - I think he'd approve - and came up with some surprisingly okay articles published in assorted places today, so I'll share some of the links. (Did you have a go at the brilliant little Google "minigame" commemorating the anniversary? I did and even solved it twice, no doubt just out of my sheer admiration for the man.)
Eat some apples today - I've had two - and be glad if they're healthy and not laced with bigot venom.
Speaking of anniversaries and fiercitude, today really must be a day with high concentrations of badass in the air, as it's also the 478th birthday of Oda Nobunaga. While he's not an entirely unobjectionable figure, what with the whole Demon King thing and all, I've been moderately obsessed with the Sengoku era and Samurai Warriors lately and have a soft spot for the big baddie. HOW MEDDLESOME.
...and apparently Alfred Kinsey was born on June 23, too. You know, the one who trolled cultural memes about ~compulsory~ heterosexuality by presenting figures of how same-gender sexy encounters were a lot more common than previously thought. And brought at least the concept of a scale for human sexuality instead of some mandatory binary opposition into the public mind.
Well, well. If this isn't a fabulous day, actually.
Right, now I want to watch it all!
Aug. 1st, 2011 09:48 pmI've been scanning Youtube for more Three Kingdoms-related stuff recently, and have stumbled upon bits of an adaptation that seems to be a TV series (Google tells me from 1994). You know how I went on and on about finally meeting Zhuge Liang in the book and said that it wouldn't do the whole thing justice if I recounted it? Well, this scene follows the book version very closely. (Amusingly enough, it highlights the part where Liu Bei is like "DON'T WAKE HIM I'LL JUST STAND HERE WATCHING HIM SLEEP THROUGH THIS TOTALLY PRIVATE SEE-THROUGH BARRIER DON'T YOU WORRY". Also his awestruck face when Zhuge Liang does come out of the cottage is priceless.) But mostly, Zhuge Liang is so dope and I can't deal with his quiet badassery (a good sort of "can't deal"). He should get his very own "extreme advertising" poster. Yeah, that'd be an honour all right. XD
That's the first part, but the whole thing is glorious and you should watch the rest. And so dramatic, but I think that suits it. The latter segments even have a song. As a sidenote, I think they're quoting directly from the novel when there are suddenly both Chinese and English subtitles, though of course I can't really tell whether it's verbatim if I don't speak the language (and the English translation is a little rough, though easy to follow and fairly close to what I remember was in the translated chapter). Anyway, here are the links to Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 to complete the ensemble.
PS: They mention the note to Zhuge Liang but don't quote from it, so let me just say I love its very conclusion: "This is written to tell you that, after purification of mind with fasting; and of body with fragrant baths, Liu Bei will come again to prostrate himself in your honored presence and receive enlightenment." HOW MUCH MORE ADMIRING CAN YOU GET.
