L.J. Writes

Watching Star Trek, I used to think Jem Hadar and Klingons being these fierce warrior races was something of an Informed Trait when they kept losing in face-to-face fights with mild-mannered Starfleet officers. It was only later that it struck me, Starfleet officers are just that tough.

Just how motivated and ambitious do you have to be, as someone coming from a post-scarcity society, to sign up for such arduous training and potential danger? I have to wonder what kind of people decide to go through years of rigorous education, constant work and travel, and the possibility of a nasty death when they are guaranteed lives without fear or want right on their home planets.

Could it be that Starfleet is, in fact, a place for malcontents? Not the kind of small-time malcontent that turns to destruction and exploitation, but the kind of malcontent that is stifled on some level by the cushy existence of their home planet (even while being willing to die to protect it) and wants something more. Something out there and anywhere but here.

( What do you do with world-shakers in paradise? )

(This meta was originally posted to Tumblr and is reposted after light editing)

I've been writing code to auto-post my local files DW, and while I've been adding stuff and debugging it's running more or less reliably these days. If all goes well this post should come from a queue, too. You may have noticed that my posts have increased in frequency, and that's due largely to having an actual draft folder and queue. Being able to work on some posts little by little while others go out to queue just suits my workflow a lot better when it comes to blogging, and it's a big plus to be able to work locally with posts on apps of my choosing and to have local copies on hand.

( SW EPIX trailer discussion, fan discourse, academia )

Sorry about the blank posts I've been making, I guess I know now what my queue script does when the folder is empty XD I'll write in some error handling for that so it doesn't happen again. N00b problems and all.

Now listening to: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, the third book in her The Queen's Thief series. Eugenides is dealing with being the king of a court that hates him and the threat of the Mede Empire hangs in the background, while the royal guard Costas is swept into the middle of it all. So far I don't find this book as suspenseful as the previous ones and the pacing is somewhat lagging. Costas seems way more of a bystander than a protagonist thus far, diminishing my interest in him, though I do enjoy the look into the rigors of guard life and the complexities of court life. It's still an OK listen to cook or commute to.

Now reading: The King of the Light in the East as a Work of Epic Poetry by Hwang Sun-gu. (Kings are a theme of this week I guess?) I'm not much for literary studies unless you count fandom meta, but The King of the Light in the East is crucial research for my WIP in depicting the life of my heroine's second husband Jumong and the rise of his son (her stepson) Yuri. This poem also goes into more detail than any other source about the rivalry and eventual war between Jumong and Song-yang, a local lord that Jumong would eventually prevail over and make his vassal. In my story Song-yang is both my heroine's and Jumong's ex-boyfriend, so he's a pivotal figure in many ways. The poet, Lee Gyubo, also happens to be an ancestor and it feels sometimes like I'm just taking up a family obsession.

The volume by Hwang Sun-gu presents Lee Gyubo's text in the original Hanja (Chinese characters) and the Korean translation, together with a lot of background analysis. In fact, I'm a little past half done and the excerpts have only just started. The background analysis was... mildly helpful? A lot of it consists of frothy praise about how Lee Gyubo's poem is a literary and historical achievement. Which is correct, as far as it goes, but I like less the whiff of empire-worship from the discussions of how Goguryeoh (modern day North Korea + parts of Northeast China) had a vast continental territory etc. etc. It wasn't like super-heavy analysis or anything and I skimmed through a lot of it. Maybe the textual analysis will be more helpful, and if not it'll be a chance to re-read the text of the poem in more depth.

( Rape discussion and super creepy description, why are you talking about frogs that way D: )

In line with my continuing quest to count failure and rejection as success, here are some new rejections and possible rejections to report:

I got turned down for a corporate counsel position! I didn't expect to get it, and in fact would have been somewhat alarmed if I had received an offer, but it still counts.

I also sent a publication proposal for a tabletop roleplaying game I really like. Now this one would actually hurt if I were turned down, but asking gives me a way better chance than if I had never asked, right? That's the point of this exercise, to keep putting myself out there and asking and trying until something sticks.

Now with one rejection finalized and another possibly on the way, it's time to think about what other applications and submissions I can send out to rake up more rejections. There's an academic position a friend linked me to that I should try for, probably an easy rejection other than the fact that I have to get letters of recommendation--and I hate asking favors. I should send out some academic papers for submission, too. Oh, and I got a short story idea from the research I was doing for my WIP, I should write that up and send it somewhere.