My burning desire to avoid studying, let me show you it.

[ase]

1.) The big blogosphere news of the last 48 hours is Cooks Source editor's plagiarism and rudeness when asked to acknowledge her unethical action. Unfortunately for Ms. Griggs, the original poster has a social media connection, and basically her bad behavior brought the internet dogpile on her.

A frequent source of protracted energetic online discussion seems to be that both sides bring at least one valid point to the discussion. In this case, the original poster acted reasonably and Cooks Source absolutely in the wrong; after months and years of fighting about perception, prejudice, and sometimes language, what a relief to have a cut-and-dried case of being wrong on the internet!

2.) A thought experiment: Herald Talia = Honor Harrington, y/n? A short list of similarities:

Empathic bond to intelligent animal-shaped life companion
Thinks she's not attractive (author disagrees)
Epic self-esteem issues
Adored by cast of hundreds or thousands
First Hot Date = Herald Kris = Paul Tankersley
Life Partner = Alexander Hamish = Dirk
BFF with dynastic ruler(s)
(Winton genetic modification: like Companions in a way)
Karsite priestess: like a steadholder, with fewer bodyguards
...and there's that personal involvement in the peace process with a hereditary enemy (Haven, HH12; Karse, short stories someone else coughnorabombaycough will have to look up) so everyone can join forces against...
Mornelithe Falconsbane, aka Leonard Detweiler

One of these is a YA fantasy series, the other is mil SF. I parse them in the same language of character agency, emotion-driven storytelling, and antagonists as limited-dimension evil, which may be compressing two characters who may be fundamentally different into a bad character-mold. Yet I am suddenly tempted to give Edward Saganami a really emo Herald-Mage backstory.

3.) There is nothing wrong with songs with less than 110 beats per minute, but I'm more likely to enjoy the song if it's at least 110 BPM. For me, slow songs can't be carried by bombast and audio pyrotechnics.

Comments

[sraun]

Oh, what an interesting comparison! I love the thought of Edward Saganami as a Herald-Mage (who has to have died gloriously defending some innocents, of course).

Which brings something to mind - we know practically nothing about Edward. Is there anything more than what we're told in Chapter One of Shadow of Saganami? I recall bits and pieces prior to that, but they were sub-sets of what we find out in Chapter One.

[ase]

I think there's an embryonic essay about how a particular generation of Americans related to women hiding somewhere in that Talia = Honor thought, but I'd need to bat it around to nail the thesis.

AFAIK we don't have a lot of information about Saganami or Ellen D'Orville, the other occasionally-namechecked Naval historical figure. The Honorverse wiki entry is pretty spare, so I took the "valiant death in battle, empty crypt" thing and ran with it.

[sraun]

I just checked that wiki entry - yeah, all the information came from the aforementioned chapter one.

I'd be interested to read the essay - can you think of any other examples? Would Moreta of Pern qualify?

[naroom]

I'm more likely to enjoy the song if it's at least 110 BPM
I'm pretty easily fooled when it comes to guessing song speed, unless the song is really simple. I wonder if you are too?

So! I challenge you. I'll give you three songs, you give me your best guess on the BPMs. I'll mix it up a little and make it tricky :D

SONG ONE: Big Gigantic - Sky High
SONT TWO: The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie Boogie Song
SONG THREE: The Red Elvises - Boogie On The Beach

Good luck!

[ase]

The 110 BPM is not a necessary nor sufficient condition: it's a useful guideline. For example, Jesus Walks is only about 87 BPM (sayeth the DJ websites), but Kanye West's incredible ego is founded on undeniable talent.

[ase]

It's been long enough that I don't remember the details (if I made it that far in the series). Did Moreta have an unpleasant experience with a (probably older) man that was a barrier to future romantic relationships? Was she a central figure in a series of novels?

[naroom]

Ahh, makes more sense. I got interested in BPM a couple years back when I realized I loved a bunch of songs that were all around 120 BPM.
Then I made a big list of my favorite songs, ran a BPM analyzer on it, and was surprised to find that there was a completely random distribution; I like everything from 80 (ambient and slower pop songs) to 200ish (Dragonforce). The only time where BPM seems to matter is in exercise music - if I'm going to run to it, then 140 to 180 is just right.

Kanye's style has gotten increasingly mashup-y, with layered vocals aplenty. I definitely approve.