Zeborah

I've been whimsically noodling at this on and off for a couple of years now as a mnemonic (derailed by successfully memorising it long before I could quite get it all to scan) but a recent/ongoing Situation at work has provided incentive for me to perfect(**) it as an emotional regulation aid. Because it's super emo! but also super chipper! All exclamation marks are intentional!

O! Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me!
Deus, neque in ira tua corripias me!
Miserere mei quoniam infirmus sum valde!
Quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea sana me!

(Um diddly iddly iddly um diddly ay! bis!)

Et anima mea turbata est valde! Et tu,
Domine, usquequo? Et tu, Domine, usquequo?
Convertere et eripe animam meam!
Salvum me fac propter misericordiam tuam!
O! Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui!
In inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi!
Laboravi in gemitu! Per noctes lavabo
lectum meum! Stratum meum lacrimis rigabo!

(Um diddly iddly iddly um diddly ay! bis!)
<modulation>
(Um diddly iddly iddly um diddly ay! bis!)

Turbatus est a furore oculus meus!
Inveteravi iam inter inimicos meos!
Discedite a me omnes qui... operamini iniquitatem!(*)
Quoniam exaudivit Deus vocem fletus mei!
O! Dominus exaudivit orationem meam!
Dominus suscepit deprecationem meam!
Erubescant inimici mei vehementer!
Conturbentur, convertantur valde velociter!!!

(*) Cantandum valde velociter

(**) While googling to double-check my spelling for this post I discovered Gabrieli also created an arrangement for Psalm 6 and, having listened to it on YouTube, I'm sorry Gabrieli your polyphonic harmony is very pretty and clever but I think you'd agree my version is infinitely superior.

(because cats have four feet. You see. Ahem.)

A Battle of Legendary Grease

I have fried bacon and the beast has awoken.
One narrow gold eye has slitted open
At the scent of fried bacon wafting through the air.
Steam curls in tendrils from my three rashers of bacon,
Drawing the beast, nose twitching, from her chair,
To pad, all a-saunter, back stretching on her way
To survey my plate and the bacon thereon.
I slice into strips my plateful of bacon,
And the beast lifts one gentle, tentative paw:
One gesture describing her nonchalant interest
In one of those strips of bacon for herself.
I spear that strip, and eat, and it is good.
And in that moment the beast turns upon me
Her wide, hurt eyes, and gestures once more.
My fork returns to the bacon, and folds it,
Pink meat and golden fat in glistening stripes.
The beast reaches for it; is evaded; and sits
In grim contemplation of this untoward state.
Observing the bacon twice more travel past her,
And smelling its savoury, illicit lure,
The beast hunches lower, ears back-folded.
Her tail swings quietly side-to-side, as her eyes
Follow the fork. Four metal claws
Deftly rake the bacon up to my mouth,
And four beastly claws dart beneath them.
Faster than lightning the beast lashes out,
Dashing a strip from platter to floor.
My precious grease splattering on the floor!
My fork clatters. The beast jumps down.
Nimbly she lands outside my grasp.
In her jaw she seizes the bacon,
Tastes the salt, the oil, seared flesh —
Yet, in her rapture, still the beast sees
My second grab for her, and fiercely defends
Her prize of dust-encrusted bacon.
She will have her strip of bacon!
Battle is joined hand to claw.
Unholy yowls rend the night.
The beast too voices her displeasure
As I rip the bacon from her slathering maw,
Battered and torn. The meat looks no better.
I throw it out. The beast licks her paw.
Turning her back, she stares at the wall
While I — I finish my cold bacon in cold silence.
There are, as they say, no winners in war.

I posted the last part of this tonight; the full story is now at Archive of our Own.

A friend and I were discussing things a week ago and this concept popped into my head of a time capsule website, where you could read something written by someone a {time period} ago and write something of your own for a stranger a {time period} in the future.

I like this idea, and I could make the technical side of this idea happen; what I'm wondering is whether enough other people like this idea that it'd be worth me spending the time on it. So this post is that question.

How it'd work
For the first year after launch, it'd be seeded with diary material that's in the public domain, because otherwise it'd be boring. So you'd arrive on this page and it'd say "100 years ago today, someone wrote: {random diary entry}".

Then below this would be a box asking you to write about something that you think will be forgotten in a year's time. (Or some other prompt, or a choice of prompts.)

You'd type stuff in the box.

There would be metadata, with explanations why each is necessary. Definitely:

• a timestamp, autogenerated. (Needed so it can be retrieved at the appropriate point in the future.)
• language, to allow for multilingual capability

and I think demographic metadata (for purposes of "Am I getting sufficiently diverse submissions or do I need to reach out to other audiences?" and potentially for research/historical value, see below on human ethics discussion):

• a city- or country-level location, guesstimated by computer but correctable. (Plus because it might be cool to give future-people the entry closest to their location.)
• gender? age? ethnicity? sexuality? religion? I don't know, what would be useful/appropriate/intrusive? Anyway they'd all default to unspecified, and have a dropdown menu with options including a "write-in" option that'd pop up a box (whose contents would be added to the drop-down menu for future visitors)

And then before you hit the 'submit' button there'd be a permissions section (here's my attempt at being a good human ethicist), telling people that:

• linky link to privacy policy, which will be:
  • I'll keep their submission as private as I can but NSA and warrants exist
  • the text only (no demographic metadata) will be displayed to someone in one year's time and potentially at other intervals thereafter (eg ten years, a hundred years (I can dream big))
  • I may publish aggregated demographic data but it won't link in any way to the entries
• in the event that I can no longer maintain the website they can choose whether I will:
  • delete all their data
  • include their entry, but not the demographic metadata, in a bundle licensed CC-Zero and posted to figshare for the benefit of researchers and other interested parties
  • include their entry *with* the demographic metadata in said bundle

In a year's time, visitors would start seeing these user-submitted entries.

Important enhancement: email list/RSS feed/twitter that sends out a random entry each day and prompts people to make a submission.

[If the poll below doesn't work for you, try the PollDaddy version.]

Title: Lemmings in Love
Vidder: Zeborah
Fandom: Criminal Minds (seasons 1-5)
Music: Lemmings in Love by pornophonique (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)
Licensed: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Summary: Haley and Aaron Hotchner walk side by side. Even when they don't.

Trigger warnings: Lots of quick cutting. Some violence and blood.

Download link at my fanvid master post; YouTube embed follows (captions available)



( Lyrics )

( Notes )

Title: Straight to Hell
Vidder: Zeborah
Video source: White Collar (fair use for purposes of commentary, etc)
Spoilers: All of seasons 1-3
Music source: Straight to Hell by Lorenzo's Music, licensed Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike; therefore
Fanvid license: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
Summary: Peter's road is paved with good intentions.

Download link at my fanvid master post; YouTube embed follows (includes captions):



( Lyrics )

( Notes )

First off, if you haven't seen the literal video version of Total Eclipse of the Heart, you need to do that, it's probably the classic of the genre. Here, let me make it easy:


(In case you wondered, Sony don't understand the concept of "parody" so got the original taken down; the reframing with the cat means it's not automatically discovered so has been able to stay up longer in most countries.)

Now my fanvid:
Literal Eclipse of the Heart
Lead Vocals: PersephoneMaewyn
Lyrics / Vocals / Editing: dascottjr
Music: Jim Steinman
Video: from Doctor Who (New Who) seasons 1-6
Vidder: Zeborah
Summary: A literal fanvid of the literal video version of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. My meta, let me show you it.

Download: Download link at my fanvid master post; YouTube embed follows (captions available)



( Notes )

Title: Living Doll
Fandom: Doctor Who - spoilers for most of season 6
Music: "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard

Download link at my fanvid master post; YouTube embed follows:



( Notes )