it was just a matter of time, really

i don't know how, but i seem to have buggered the ankle i sprained last fall. i've felt it a little out of whack once or twice when standing up from my desk or getting out of bed, and had to sort of wiggle my foot to get things back where they belong; then this afternoon when i was leaving class, it hurt like hell for some unknown reason, but i walked it off and things seemed to be all right; and now it is generally achy, on the back and on the right, exactly the bit that i actually injured. (socks off: and possibly a bit swollen, too, but it's hard to tell, so if so, not much.)

brace on it tomorrow, i think.

today's required reading

So the Christian center looks to the Left and looks to the Right, and the Right looks better. The Right at least looks familiar, a landscape it can understand. The Left not only is out of touch with the center, it disrespects the things the center believes. (I have never encountered as much arrogance from Christians as I have from, say, environmentalists. I believe in their cause, but the holier-than-thou attitude has Christians beat all to shit.) The center doesn't necessarily like the Right, but it likes the Left less.

Democrats have a choice. We can wrap our outrage around ourselves and continue to lose, or we can stop being so certain that we have all the answers and everyone else is a dumbass and start listening. And learning. And reaching out. We've been saying, "My way or the highway." And America's response is, "Highway's all yours." Politics is about consensus, and coalition building. We need to learn that again.

-- zoethe, here

from mirabellawotr and musesfool

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favourite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else. This is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

i was surprised to discover that i actually have seven works in progress. they are, of course, in various stages of likelihood ever to be finished.

i'm not good with titles. i am therefore terrible with working titles.

no title (HP): The war was over, but the scrolls of the dead and missing ran to the tens of meters; some of them had left children; those children had to be taught; and they were the only ones left to do it.

no title (HP): He could have levitated her with a simple spell; but even if he'd supported her head, to prevent its hanging back grotesquely, her robes would have fallen away from her legs all the way up to the belt above her waist, which would never do.

no title other than "part eleven" (TPM): "They're dying before we can even get them diagnosed."

thief of hearts? heart of thieves? mrshamill, did we even have a title for this thing? (TPM): "That girl wouldn't recognize a rake in a garden shed."

no title (dS): It took Welsh maybe six minutes to lay out the whole story, the skeleton of which Ray knew from the case file; by the time he was done, Ray had a whole grocery list of ways this could turn out to suck.

no title (TS): "Or is it acceptable to you that I told you the truth - that you looked the way you were meant to look, and there was nothing in any way wrong with that, and anyone who said there was had been misled by the conformist drones?"

no title (HP): There are two ways Bill answers questions about the secret he cannot tell.