Poem for Thursday

Spellbound
By Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

--------

Being stuck at home, I wrote drabbles, "Purge" for the challenge wherein Snape blows up a cauldron at and "Totality" for the 1970s challenge at . I also wrote an incredibly dorky not-quite-drabble for 's "1001 Places Remus and Sirius Defiled Hogwarts in Many Interesting and Complicated Ways" challenge.

Wednesday did not go as planned because by the time my younger son was at school, it was snowing. I called and reluctantly told her that I thought I should postpone my pimping into Highlander fandom in case our county closed schools early; it did not, but our neighborhood was not plowed until after 4 p.m. so driving was a nightmare, and after watching cars skid in front of my house, I spent the entire day close to home with no Methos or Duncan to console me. The domestic excitement included walking in the snow to retrieve kids, getting hit by snowballs from said kids, howling and telling the kids to go sledding before it got dark because school would be predictably delayed the next day despite midterms this week (and it shall, in the morning).

Figuring I am on a roll with trying new things such as Veronica Mars, I watched Lost. I was not bored. I mean, it's hard to be bored while watching a BIG WHITE POLAR BEAR on a tropical island, but it's also hard not to giggle. I like the little boy, I like his father, I rolled my eyes like crazy when what should have been a lasting conflict about loyalty and identity was wrapped up in a few seconds of a boy screaming "DAD!" and two guys bonding over saving him. I wasn't repelled by Dominic Monaghan and his moping over Claire's diary, though I wasn't impressed either, but he looked far more attractive to me than usual and I can easily explain why: it's because I think Ian Somerhalder is one of the least attractive men I have ever seen in or out of show business, and he makes every other man within ten miles look good.

I have no opinion on any of the women because none of them were onscreen for more than ten seconds at a time. My husband and I had an easier time predicting this plot than we did with The Incredibles even though we've never watched the show before, right down to him yelling "IT'S CLAIRE!" right before she walked out of the bushes at the end. I feel like I have not missed much and am now going back to my Lost-free existence quite comfortably. Afterwards we watched The West Wing, not one of its better episodes, but still light years ahead of most of what's on television for both entertainment value and inspiring me to think. Even without getting to see my newfound Josh/Santos love, which along with Donna was missing for the entire episode, it left me feeling happy and energized and pissed as hell at the things not being done in the real world, but more on that later.

People in England who are fans of Star Trek and/or Dawson's Creek (I know you are reading this, you can't hide): Popbitch has cheap (£12.50) tickets to the new David Mamet play, A Life in The Theatre, starring Patrick Stewart and Joshua Jackson at Apollo Theatre; call 0870 890 1101 and say "Popbitch offer." Someone needs to go see this and report back to me, please.

And speaking of things fannish, David Yates...I know nothing about him. Recent interviews sound promising: he seems to be enthusiastic about Harry Potter, at least. But I read something terrifying in someone's journal, confirmed in an interview here, that David Thewlis had said he had a huge project in the works and might not be in the film of OOTP. Is this even POSSIBLE? Don't tell me they didn't make him sign an extension clause! If they make an OOTP with anyone else as Remus, my wrath will know no bounds. There shall be Cruciatus curses leveled at Warner Bros. and Imperius used on David himself. And I shall hiss at all the "Oh, but Jude Law/Ewan McGregor/Orlando Bloom should have played Lupin" fans forever.

A couple of personality quizzes, one Harry Potter-based with results that made me squee and squeak in the first two lines, and one that seems quite accurate...

You scored as Sirius Black. Your Alter Ego is Sirius Black. You are gifted wizard and loyal to your allegiance. However you can be a little arrogant and reckless at times.

Sirius Black 75% Draco Malfoy 75% Hermione Granger 70% Severus Snape 65% Harry Potter 65% Ron Weasley 60% Remus Lupin 55% Albus Dumbledore 50% Peter Pettigrew 30% Lord Voldemort 20% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Verbal/Linguistic. You have highly developed auditory skills, enjoy reading and writing and telling stories, and are good at getting your point across. You learn best by saying and hearing words. People like you include poets, authors, speakers, attorneys, politicians, lecturers and teachers.

Verbal/Linguistic 100% Musical/Rhythmic 96% Intrapersonal 93% Interpersonal 79% Logical/Mathematical 39% Visual/Spatial 29% Bodily/Kinesthetic 14% The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences created with QuizFarm.com

I do not want to think about the Bad Thing happening in my city tomorrow. If there were less snow and the kids had a full day of school, I would be thinking about going to the protest. Some unknown liberal group (I belong to several -- could have been Kerry campaign, ACLU, Billionaires for Bush, PFAW) -- left the greatest sales message ever on my answering machine: a fake recording of Bush thanking his fellow Americans and Jesus for giving him the divine right to do what he wishes and warning us not even to think about joining those anti-God activists who want to destroy America by insisting that we actually count the votes in Ohio, Nevada, Florida, etc. McPherson Square is sounding pretty good right now.


Snowy neighborhood scene at twilight today.