top 5 lists! (part 1)
Aug. 14th, 2010 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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x_dark_siren_x
Top 5 female characters to write, fannish
1. Veronica Mars
2. Z Berg
3. Laena Monroe
4. Lyn-Z Ballato
5. Barbara Gordon
The runners-up are so so many, I cannot even.
Top 5 female characters to write, original
1. Girls who are absolutely pants at realizing they're actually really good at this one thing they do.
2. Girls who have magic.
3. Girls who are very very smart and sharp but bad at people.
4. Girls who are uncomfortable with gender norms/buck them somehow.
5. Girls in charge.
Another incomplete list:
Top Five Feminists
1. Virginia Woolf, because she's funny and intellectual and still goddamn relevant
2. Evelyn Fox Keller, brilliant feminist science historian
3. Anne Carson, poet and translator
4. Jane Austen
5. Mary Woolstonecraft
Top 5 poems
OH GOD.
1. This is--this is why I write. Not because I read it once and decided to write, but because I read it and it feels like that, the writing thing. PRETENTIOUS FUCK THAT I AM.
Fully Empowered
I write in the clear sun, in the teeming street,
at full sea-tide, in a place where I can sing;
only the wayward night inhibits me,
but, interrupted by it, I recover space,
I gather shadows to last a long time.
The black crop of the night is growing
while my eyes in the meantime measure the plain.
So, from sun to sun, I forge the keys.
In the half light I look for locks
and keep on opening broken doors to the sea,
until I fill the cupboards up with foam.
And I do not weary of going and returning.
Death in its stone aspect does not stop me.
I am weary neither of being nor of non-being.
Sometimes I wonder where –-
was it from my father, my mother, or the mountains --
I inherited all my mineral obligations,
the threads spreading from a sea on fire ;
and I know I go on and on because I go on,
and I sing because I sing and because I sing.
There is no way of explaining what does happen
when I close my eyes and waver
as between two underwater channels.
One lifts me in its branches toward dying,
and the other sings in order that I may sing.
And so I am formed out of non-being,
and as the sea goes battering at a reef
in wave on wave of salty white-tops
and drags back stones in its ebb,
so what there is of death surrounding me
opens in me a window out to living,
and, in the spasm of being, I am asleep.
In the full light of day, I walk in the shade.
--Pablo Neruda
2.
Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook.
Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication.
Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the livingroom couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don't bother remembering
any of it. Let's stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.
[Dorianne Laux]
3.
Daphne
And if I was changed, what was the difference?
And if I was strung – myself and not myself,
a double thing, there was a consequence.
When I was a girl, I was a girl.
And now I’m a tree, I’m a tree.
Seasons don’t arrive. There’s just a shifting.
We move. I see it now. The staid worlds move,
and the sun is no dragged lamp. The gods die,
or never lived. They crawl home, damp and slow,
to the subtle, shallow sea that made them.
I’m not that happy. It’s not important.
And I’m not sad. It’s good to be a girl,
and a tree, with the wind in it. It’s good
to move in the wind, and to move the wind.
My leaves all move. They sing, and make the world.
--Emma Jones
4.
The Invention of Everything Else - Samantha Hunt
When I was eight years old, I thought, "I am certain I can conquer my state of not being able to fly." I felt flight in my bones. I felt my bones becoming hollow and marrowless, becoming readied for the great blue beyond, and so I climbed to the top of our barn. The wind was mild. I made my way over to the edge of the barn's peaked roof. I looked. It was a long way down. I opened an umbrella, not that I needed to. It was simply an insurance policy.
Edging the heel of one boot off the roof, I filled my lungs. I stepped the other foot forward into the nothingness of air, following the route of the birds.
The results were not as I had expected.
My stomach, in a trancelike, gravity-free state, did fly. It soared. Though, sadly, the rest of my body obeyed physical laws.
I woke a little later on the ground, a bit broken, a goat nibbling on my hair, my umbrella inverted at every spine. I didn't call out or complain, "Aye! My aching bones," or, "What a mess I've made of a perfectly good, barely used body," but rather, staring up at the sky, I thought, "With a bit more practice I'm certain I can get it right."
5.
Her Kind
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.
~Anne Sexton
Also, last time I answered this question? All the answers were different.
Fortorakowalski
Top Five Shakespeare Plays
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Romeo and Juliet (for the language more than the love story)
4. As You Like It
5. Henry IV Part 1
Top 5 things I did in London
1. Bloomsbury bookstores with YOU (no, seriously, that was a great day)
2. Ice cream and then sushi with [info]kickingrad and my friend M
3. Henry IV Part 1 and 2, god (also Margaret, the awesome British lady)
4. Getting introduced to Ben's Cookies/jamjar's tea
5. Hyde Park with my friend Michael--trees and spirited conversation
Secret number 6: David Mitchell's tantrums. 7: the Doctor Who finale.
Forbunnymcfoo
Top Five Places For a Moment To Think
1. The cliffs out here (the cottage)
2. The woods near my grandmother's summer house
3. This cafe in Phoenix, AZ (and don't I wish it was closer)
4. My own bed *grins*
5. Next to the water (the sea) where it comes into the park near where my parents live
Fornokomis305
In no particular order and not an absolute list, just a mix of formative and catharthic.
Top 5 albums
1. Regina Spektor's Far
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
4. Aretha Sings the Blues
5. Goodbye Blues
Forsansets
Top 5 favorite baking recipes
1. The following Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookie Recipe
1 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 natural peanut butter
1/2 c. butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
chocolate chips, eyeball it to your liking
1. in a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
2. in a large bowl, combine sugar, peanut butter, butter, milk, and vanilla until well-blended.
3. add flour and chocolate chips to wet mixture, stir until just combined.
4. form into balls on cookie sheet, flatten somewhat.
bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes or until just set and beginning to brown. remove from oven and let cool on the sheet for 3-5 minutes before removing to let cool on a wire rack.
recipe claims it makes 24 cookies; i make 1/4 recipe at a time and get 8 per batch, so that would be 24 huge cookies or 32 more reasonably-sized ones. 10 minutes in the oven is perfect for my 1/4 batch of 8.
2. This recipe for soft oatmeal cookies
3. These Chocolate Cookies
4. This cake, except I make the filling using instant coffee stirred into a paste with about three drops of water or so instead of vanilla sugar
5. Vanilla Roasted Pears--MY GOD.
She also asked me for
This turned out to be complicated. Basically most of the one-bowl/pot/pan dishes I make are a variation on the following (and the rest are lentil soups):
Ingredients:
Leftover grains/something else (e.g. quinoa, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.
Protein source (tuna, beans, tuna and beans, lentils (sometimes I cook lentils and quinoa together), actual meat, fried tofu (needs marinating before frying))
Avocado
Steamed/pan-fried asparagus/carrots/parsnip
Greens (arugula and/or spinach, mostly)
Possibly pan-fried mushrooms (often with thyme, salt, and white pepper)
A little bit of red onions, finely chopped and either pan-fried or quickly marinated in vinegar and water (pour off the water before using them in your recipe)
Dressing/marinade (depending on if this is a cold or warm dish): olive oil, vinegar, pressed garlic, seed mustard (the kind that is sweet and strong), fresh herbs if you have/like (but they're not necessary), pepper, salt
If this is a warm dish, marinate your mushrooms and your asparagus/carrot/parsnip in the marinade, then stir-fry them (if you're using actual meat or tofu, marinate that separately and fry it first), then mix in the leftover grains and keep stirring until things are heated, then mix in the avocado and the greens.
If this is a cold dish, just, uh, mix it together with the dressing. :D
Formahoni
Top 5 favorite articles of clothing
1. My green flowery dress that is my mom's old stage costume
2. My stripey purple Gap cotton underwear
3. My black arm warmers
4. My stripey grey/silver high top Converse
5. My new plaid button-down that has ruffles ♥
Top Five Comfort Foods/Drinks
1. Dad's lasagna
2. The cup of tea [info]jamjar made me in the morning in London
3. Cinnamon rolls
4. Mom's hazelnut chocolate cookies
5. Hot chocolate
That's all for now! I have some more to post (and one more to answer, which is why the rest aren't going up now), and if anyone have more to ask, they can, you know, ask them. ♥
I'll be out for most of the weekend, until tomorrow afternoon or so--at a pretty ridiculous birthday party in another city. It seems to be the week for those, but more on that later. Love! Take care of yourselves! I remain behind and will probably be behind until the 25th--it's a deadline sort of time, lovelies, and you know what that does. Wish me luck and stuff.
x_dark_siren_x Top 5 female characters to write, fannish
1. Veronica Mars
2. Z Berg
3. Laena Monroe
4. Lyn-Z Ballato
5. Barbara Gordon
The runners-up are so so many, I cannot even.
Top 5 female characters to write, original
1. Girls who are absolutely pants at realizing they're actually really good at this one thing they do.
2. Girls who have magic.
3. Girls who are very very smart and sharp but bad at people.
4. Girls who are uncomfortable with gender norms/buck them somehow.
5. Girls in charge.
Another incomplete list:
Top Five Feminists
1. Virginia Woolf, because she's funny and intellectual and still goddamn relevant
2. Evelyn Fox Keller, brilliant feminist science historian
3. Anne Carson, poet and translator
4. Jane Austen
5. Mary Woolstonecraft
Top 5 poems
OH GOD.
1. This is--this is why I write. Not because I read it once and decided to write, but because I read it and it feels like that, the writing thing. PRETENTIOUS FUCK THAT I AM.
Fully Empowered
I write in the clear sun, in the teeming street,
at full sea-tide, in a place where I can sing;
only the wayward night inhibits me,
but, interrupted by it, I recover space,
I gather shadows to last a long time.
The black crop of the night is growing
while my eyes in the meantime measure the plain.
So, from sun to sun, I forge the keys.
In the half light I look for locks
and keep on opening broken doors to the sea,
until I fill the cupboards up with foam.
And I do not weary of going and returning.
Death in its stone aspect does not stop me.
I am weary neither of being nor of non-being.
Sometimes I wonder where –-
was it from my father, my mother, or the mountains --
I inherited all my mineral obligations,
the threads spreading from a sea on fire ;
and I know I go on and on because I go on,
and I sing because I sing and because I sing.
There is no way of explaining what does happen
when I close my eyes and waver
as between two underwater channels.
One lifts me in its branches toward dying,
and the other sings in order that I may sing.
And so I am formed out of non-being,
and as the sea goes battering at a reef
in wave on wave of salty white-tops
and drags back stones in its ebb,
so what there is of death surrounding me
opens in me a window out to living,
and, in the spasm of being, I am asleep.
In the full light of day, I walk in the shade.
--Pablo Neruda
2.
Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook.
Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication.
Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the livingroom couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don't bother remembering
any of it. Let's stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.
[Dorianne Laux]
3.
Daphne
And if I was changed, what was the difference?
And if I was strung – myself and not myself,
a double thing, there was a consequence.
When I was a girl, I was a girl.
And now I’m a tree, I’m a tree.
Seasons don’t arrive. There’s just a shifting.
We move. I see it now. The staid worlds move,
and the sun is no dragged lamp. The gods die,
or never lived. They crawl home, damp and slow,
to the subtle, shallow sea that made them.
I’m not that happy. It’s not important.
And I’m not sad. It’s good to be a girl,
and a tree, with the wind in it. It’s good
to move in the wind, and to move the wind.
My leaves all move. They sing, and make the world.
--Emma Jones
4.
The Invention of Everything Else - Samantha Hunt
When I was eight years old, I thought, "I am certain I can conquer my state of not being able to fly." I felt flight in my bones. I felt my bones becoming hollow and marrowless, becoming readied for the great blue beyond, and so I climbed to the top of our barn. The wind was mild. I made my way over to the edge of the barn's peaked roof. I looked. It was a long way down. I opened an umbrella, not that I needed to. It was simply an insurance policy.
Edging the heel of one boot off the roof, I filled my lungs. I stepped the other foot forward into the nothingness of air, following the route of the birds.
The results were not as I had expected.
My stomach, in a trancelike, gravity-free state, did fly. It soared. Though, sadly, the rest of my body obeyed physical laws.
I woke a little later on the ground, a bit broken, a goat nibbling on my hair, my umbrella inverted at every spine. I didn't call out or complain, "Aye! My aching bones," or, "What a mess I've made of a perfectly good, barely used body," but rather, staring up at the sky, I thought, "With a bit more practice I'm certain I can get it right."
5.
Her Kind
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.
~Anne Sexton
Also, last time I answered this question? All the answers were different.
For
torakowalskiTop Five Shakespeare Plays
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Romeo and Juliet (for the language more than the love story)
4. As You Like It
5. Henry IV Part 1
Top 5 things I did in London
1. Bloomsbury bookstores with YOU (no, seriously, that was a great day)
2. Ice cream and then sushi with [info]kickingrad and my friend M
3. Henry IV Part 1 and 2, god (also Margaret, the awesome British lady)
4. Getting introduced to Ben's Cookies/
jamjar's tea5. Hyde Park with my friend Michael--trees and spirited conversation
Secret number 6: David Mitchell's tantrums. 7: the Doctor Who finale.
For
bunnymcfooTop Five Places For a Moment To Think
1. The cliffs out here (the cottage)
2. The woods near my grandmother's summer house
3. This cafe in Phoenix, AZ (and don't I wish it was closer)
4. My own bed *grins*
5. Next to the water (the sea) where it comes into the park near where my parents live
For
nokomis305In no particular order and not an absolute list, just a mix of formative and catharthic.
Top 5 albums
1. Regina Spektor's Far
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
4. Aretha Sings the Blues
5. Goodbye Blues
For
sansetsTop 5 favorite baking recipes
1. The following Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookie Recipe
1 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 natural peanut butter
1/2 c. butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
chocolate chips, eyeball it to your liking
1. in a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
2. in a large bowl, combine sugar, peanut butter, butter, milk, and vanilla until well-blended.
3. add flour and chocolate chips to wet mixture, stir until just combined.
4. form into balls on cookie sheet, flatten somewhat.
bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes or until just set and beginning to brown. remove from oven and let cool on the sheet for 3-5 minutes before removing to let cool on a wire rack.
recipe claims it makes 24 cookies; i make 1/4 recipe at a time and get 8 per batch, so that would be 24 huge cookies or 32 more reasonably-sized ones. 10 minutes in the oven is perfect for my 1/4 batch of 8.
2. This recipe for soft oatmeal cookies
3. These Chocolate Cookies
4. This cake, except I make the filling using instant coffee stirred into a paste with about three drops of water or so instead of vanilla sugar
5. Vanilla Roasted Pears--MY GOD.
She also asked me for
This turned out to be complicated. Basically most of the one-bowl/pot/pan dishes I make are a variation on the following (and the rest are lentil soups):
Ingredients:
Leftover grains/something else (e.g. quinoa, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.
Protein source (tuna, beans, tuna and beans, lentils (sometimes I cook lentils and quinoa together), actual meat, fried tofu (needs marinating before frying))
Avocado
Steamed/pan-fried asparagus/carrots/parsnip
Greens (arugula and/or spinach, mostly)
Possibly pan-fried mushrooms (often with thyme, salt, and white pepper)
A little bit of red onions, finely chopped and either pan-fried or quickly marinated in vinegar and water (pour off the water before using them in your recipe)
Dressing/marinade (depending on if this is a cold or warm dish): olive oil, vinegar, pressed garlic, seed mustard (the kind that is sweet and strong), fresh herbs if you have/like (but they're not necessary), pepper, salt
If this is a warm dish, marinate your mushrooms and your asparagus/carrot/parsnip in the marinade, then stir-fry them (if you're using actual meat or tofu, marinate that separately and fry it first), then mix in the leftover grains and keep stirring until things are heated, then mix in the avocado and the greens.
If this is a cold dish, just, uh, mix it together with the dressing. :D
For
mahoniTop 5 favorite articles of clothing
1. My green flowery dress that is my mom's old stage costume
2. My stripey purple Gap cotton underwear
3. My black arm warmers
4. My stripey grey/silver high top Converse
5. My new plaid button-down that has ruffles ♥
Top Five Comfort Foods/Drinks
1. Dad's lasagna
2. The cup of tea [info]jamjar made me in the morning in London
3. Cinnamon rolls
4. Mom's hazelnut chocolate cookies
5. Hot chocolate
That's all for now! I have some more to post (and one more to answer, which is why the rest aren't going up now), and if anyone have more to ask, they can, you know, ask them. ♥
I'll be out for most of the weekend, until tomorrow afternoon or so--at a pretty ridiculous birthday party in another city. It seems to be the week for those, but more on that later. Love! Take care of yourselves! I remain behind and will probably be behind until the 25th--it's a deadline sort of time, lovelies, and you know what that does. Wish me luck and stuff.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-14 03:54 pm (UTC)Tea and hot chocolate would be on my list too. Hazelnut chocolate cookies sound divine. And I'm curious about your dad's lasagna! What makes it so tasty?
Speaking of food, I am totally bookmarking your recipes. Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies homg. Must make those first.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-15 10:02 pm (UTC)*bites lip* I don't know, actually, but it's Carbonara sauce in it instead of sausage, that's important.
They are SO GOOD. MAGIC. Also the pears. The pears are the kind of good that feels like you're at the best restaurant ever, except they're so easy to make it's shameless.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-15 10:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-14 09:57 pm (UTC)Oh, and: luck, lots of luck, even though you are amazing and don't need it!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-15 10:05 pm (UTC)It IS, trust me. It was perfected over long months of not being able to eat much.
<333333333333
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-15 12:44 am (UTC)But no lie, I've been waiting for the poetry one, and oh, it was as amazing as I expected. *___* You, madam, have inmeasureable taste. ♥
Enjoy your weekend, my dear. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-15 10:06 pm (UTC)Hee, thank you! I do love those poems, I love them ridiculously.
I DID. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-16 05:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-16 10:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-16 09:43 pm (UTC)I really fucking love Her Kind, I'd never read it before, but it majorly resonated with me.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-17 07:33 am (UTC)Oh, I'm so glad I got to introduce you to it then! It's seriously amazing, I found it in someone's journal once and went "...!!!!!!"