(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Every week these days I head to my old stomping grounds on the 19th floor to sort through the mail my replacement doesn't know yet what to do with and say hello to Coworker Crush.

She's actually been absent quite a bit while I've been there, but I don't want you all thinking I'm neglecting her. Today she caught up with me as I was leaving to get a soda from the cafeteria downstairs, so we had a nice talk on the elevator down, mostly about books. She's reading Iain Banks right now, and I am about to start on the many and varied PDFs I'm supposed to be reading, but at the moment on the train am buried in a translation from the French of The Memoirs of Hadrian. ("Wait -- " "Yeah, the one with the wall.")

One of my fellow admins asked me today if my boyfriend works in the city, so apparently my love life is even more exciting than I thought. There followed a brief, tactful conversation about my sexual orientation, which may have been what he was angling for to start with.

It's a Tuesday, but it feels oddly like a Monday...

Comments

[glorafin.livejournal.com]

One wonders if Yourcenar's novel is more easily readable in English than in French..... I started reading it twice (in French) and gave up each time after a few pages. Although it probably says more about my reading habit than about the book itself. :/

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, I went in knowing it was going to be a bit short on action. I'm enjoying it so far -- was it the content or the prose that turned you off? I know French grammar can be exacting.

[brightly-woven.livejournal.com]

You didn't tell him about R? Awww... Poor R, your friend WITHOUT benefits.

:)

[sunlitshadow.livejournal.com]

I need a like button here, both for your comment, and your awesomesauce Zoe icon. :)

[mythologian.livejournal.com]

rofl, R gets benefits! they're just the edible kind, not the sexual ^_~

If it weren't for Sam, I think R would still consider grapenuts with a random condiment a viable meal option.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Poor edible benefits, so staggeringly underrated.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

translation from the French of The Memoirs of Hadrian. ("Wait -- " "Yeah, the one with the wall.")

I gotta say, that one caught my attention...Hadrian's memoires, in French. And I say that as someone who majored in French. I just don't think of French and Hadrian together. I wonder, did he haul his elephants over the French Alps?

Cheers for the exciting love life - isn't it nice that you have one? LOL

[calamitysandra.livejournal.com]

The guy with the elephants was Hannibal, a military commander from Carthage living from 247BC to 182 BC. At the start of the Second Punic War, he marched his troops, including elephants, over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy, attacking allies of Rome.

Hadrian (really: Publius Aelius Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus) was a Roman Emperor, born 76 died 138. He built the so called Hadrian's Wall, marking the northern limit of the Roman empire in Britain.

/history geek

[etharei.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the info! I couldn't quite remember what Hadrian's Wall was for. Also, is this the same Emperor who limited Roman expansion in general?

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the correction! I knew Hadrian's Wall, because I lived in Scotland as a child, but didn't know/remember Hadrian was an emperor.

Re the elephants, well, Hadrian and Hannibal both start with an H. Do I get points for that? LOL

::sends love to history geeks::

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a novel about Hadrian, not actually his personal memoirs or anything :D

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

("Wait -- " "Yeah, the one with the wall.")

Heh, quite.

Also, the one with the hot young BFF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinous).

Out of interest, is Coworker Crush reading Iain Banks the secular novelist or Iain M. Banks the skiffy-writer?

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

you do know that it's the same person, right? the "m" is just there to throw people off.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say, what are the odds of two writers named Iain Banks...

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I do! Just wondering if Coworker Crush is more the quirky lit type or the sci-fi type.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh, she's quirky lit all the way. I didn't even know he wrote scifi.

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

i recommend picking up the player of games or consider phlebas. they're set in his utopian science fiction setting called the culture.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm not a gigantic fan of his work. I read one of his books, and it was enjoyable enough, but it didn't really make me want to find anything else he'd written.

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

which book? some of them are better than others.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I don't recall the title; it was the one with the radio DJ who's dating the girlfriend of a mobster.

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

dead air. that's nowhere near one of his best books. the wasp factory, the crow road or complicity are all much, much better.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

... This fascinates me, as I was introduced to him as "a sci-fi writer." I only just learned he wrote other stuff!

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

i wasn't sure - it's a question on the faq.

and i agree that it's a great question to ask. it shows some knowledge of the author AND gets a sense for where her literary sensibilities lie.

[codfisch.livejournal.com]

LOVE Hadrian. I have the Memoirs as well and haven't managed to really get into them, so I'll be looking forward to your book review/opinion if you write one for that. I just wrote an essay on him last week actually, sadly I couldn't find any plausible way to bring up Antinous OR Yourcenar's book.

Your admin has a crush on you, perhaps?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure how much bearing the book has on any study of the real life Hadrian, but it's decent reading. :D

I think admin didn't so much have a crush as a vague interest in seeing if I was likewise inclined...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Coworker Gotacrush?

[firynze.livejournal.com]

So wait, have you acquired a boyfriend without knowing it, or does your coworker just know R? ;-)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Apparently he thought I was dating some random dude, IDEK :D Or it was a gambit to see if I was single/interested.

[geognome4.livejournal.com]

OK, awkward question here: how does one tactfully have the I Am Not What You Think I Am Talk, especially the glbt version? I've only ever managed to stare at them like a deer in the headlights, trying to think of a nice way to say things. If I'm lucky they realize and we both stammer apologies at one another.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I've handled it badly in the past, not in terms of "ick ew no!" but more in terms of, not being as polite about the misconception as I could. In this case I just said, "Oh -- I don't have a boyfriend, I'm straight." I mean, just being plain and calm about it usually lets the other person know they haven't made a huge gaffe or anything.

[geognome4.livejournal.com]

Calm correction. Got it, thanks! ^_^

[mysid.livejournal.com]

There followed a brief, tactful conversation about my sexual orientation, which may have been what he was angling for to start with.

Aww, further proof that you are Ian Butler, and Ian Butler is you.

And are you sure he was just angling for "Are you gay?" and not "Are you gay, and are you available to go out with me?"

ETA: See, this is why I should read all the comments before posting mine, as you already answered this.