About the titles on my LJ...

[fajrdrako]

From xinef and kikibug13:

1. My username is _____ because ____.
2. My journal is titled ____ because ____.
3. My subtitle is ____ because ____.
4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.
5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.

**please commandeer for use in your own journal, and let me know if you do so**


1. My username is fajrdrako. It means "fire dragon" in Esperanto - pronounced "fire dracko". I chose it because I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and I like dragons, and I like the image of a fire dragon - colourful and active - and I love Esperanto; it's one of my favourite languages.

2. My journal is titled "World enough and time". Because I like the quote. Because it's meant to imply that there are no conceptual limits. Because it's meant to be a thematic link to my web page 'World of Wonders', which is somewhat defunct now - why keep up a personal website when you have a perfectly functioning LJ?

3. My subtitle is 'exquisite infinity ' because I wanted to imply that my interests and scope were unlimited, and positive - again, trying to encapsulate that "World of Wonders" concept but maybe, this time, not limiting it to a world.

I also think of the text on my banner as something of a subtitle: "You've gotta be ready". This is of course a quote from Torchwood, but I like its Girl Guide implication of "be prepared" and it's serendipitous implication of "anything might happen".

4. My friends page is called 'the force of uncountable thought', based on the notion that my friends and acquaintances here are likely to be a diverse and eclectic bunch. Again, that infinity notion - with a touch of chaos and open-endedness.

5. My default userpic is a picture of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood, chosen purely for its aesthetic value and fannishness. If you need to wonder more than that, it's clear you haven't been reading my LJ over the past year, with its happily shameless Captain Jack obsession.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

1. Silverwhistle - because of Pattie Ferguson's light infantry whistle, and a 17-18C Gaelic song.

2. The Council of Consummate Iniquity - what the author of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi called Conrad's little gang: his in-laws Balian of Ibelin and Dowager Queen Maria, Reynaud Grenier of Sidon, Payen of Haifa and (posthumously) Raymond III of Tripoli. To me, it is a badge of honour.

3. Incendiary Pages from a Petroleuse - I was accused of being "incendiary" and "inflammatory" when I was banned from the king_baldwin group for taking a stand for history and against gratuitously sick sexploitation-fic abusing real historical characters. (Even the dreaded Mr Shelby would have been hard-pressed to rival the young lady responsible: she had poor old Guy raping his leprosy-stricken brother-in-law!) Well, I thought, another badge of honour. And in Paris Commune terms, maybe this makes me a "petroleuse"!

4. The Usual Suspects - Casablanca, of course, and the nickname of my gang in the pub in St As.

5. Rosa Luxemburg. I played her in a balloon-debate at school, and love her dearly. And I love this picture of her smiling!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love it that you have such good historical rationale for your names and titles!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I'm just an old history geek! ("Past my prime", according to the patronising little madam who banned me, after I pointed out that I had been studying the crusades since before she was born! ;-D)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee - she does sound like a total bitch! But then - I wouldn't expect much better of anyone who makes a rapist of one of my Lusignans. (Yuck!)

Anyway, I'm an even older history geek than you are - !

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Hee - she does sound like a total bitch! But then - I wouldn't expect much better of anyone who makes a rapist of one of my Lusignans. (Yuck!)

Different girl. It was the List-Manager who did the banning; she defended the author on the grounds that "abusive relationships happen, and you can't blind yourself to the darker side of human nature". I pointed that that was not what I was doing: what was wrong in this instance was that it was a complete impossibility, given the characters in question, and suggested to me an absence of conscience in the writer if she couldn't see that using real people in this way was wrong. What disturbed me was that that group seemed to be in the hands of young girls who were more into Manga (especially Yaoi) than the Crusades, and were drastically reshaping the characters (even in the distorted versions from Kingdom of Heaven) to fit modern pop-culture models completely alien to 12C Franks. They berated myself and syntinen_laulu for discussing things like the characters' genealogies, dynastic politics, & c. They just wanted to (their word) "perve" over them.

Anyway, I'm an even older history geek than you are - !

It's good to have role-models to look up to! Especially with cheeping companions!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, if they just wanted to perve over fictional characters, they picked the wrong set of Crusaders - you're well rid of them.

As for being a role-model: the little feathered guys are proud and chirpy. I think their morning song today translates as "Deus lo vult!" in full harmony.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, if they just wanted to perve over fictional characters, they picked the wrong set of Crusaders - you're well rid of them.

As I've said before, it takes a lot to make me feel protective of Guy, of all people, but KoH and these so-called 'fangirls' managed it, by doing to him what usually gets done to my boy.
(And I'm still not sure how people who call themselves 'fans' can get a kick out of torturing characters they purport to love!)

As for being a role-model: the little feathered guys are proud and chirpy. I think their morning song today translates as "Deus lo vult!" in full harmony.

I heard a chaffinch on the roof earlier. Small feathered folk are simply magnificent!
Mind, as to the big ones - I've posted a link to my LJ which is a bit scary. Fossil evidence for the existence of Big Bird from Sesame Street?! Or possibly (as it has a parrot-type beak) an 8-metre/26-foot, flesh-eating budgerigar with claws on its wings…!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it takes a lot to make me feel protective of Guy, of all people

Hey! He's a Lusignan! that makes it easy for me to feel protective of him. He's my guy's little brother. Mind you, he was pretty horrible in the movie - no sympathies for movie-Guy, but I didn't believe in movie-Guy anyway.

I told Logan, Peter and Jubilee about the fossilized monster-bird you found and they said, "Oh, yeah, he's our cousin. Don't mess wit' us!" and then asked for more millet.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Mind you, he was pretty horrible in the movie - no sympathies for movie-Guy, but I didn't believe in movie-Guy anyway.

Exactly. Neither did I. It made me feel sorry for Guy, for the same reason DeMille's Conrad upsets me: they're movie-caricatures that bear no resemblance to their real originals, and go out of their way to slander the characters' reputations. What's especially bad is that in the Director's Cut commentary, Ridley Scott claims this is what he was like - even though the scriptwriter elsewhere says he wasn't entirely happy with the changes made to vilify the character for the film.

I told Logan, Peter and Jubilee about the fossilized monster-bird you found and they said, "Oh, yeah, he's our cousin. Don't mess wit' us!" and then asked for more millet.

Yes: it's Budgie Kong…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Movie Guy was just a stupid character, period. As was Reynald. I hate it when they make interesting historical figures into cardboard heroes and villains - it's doing a disservice to both. I don't mind melodrama, but there's a world of difference between the well-written and the abysmal. But we've dissected/eviscerated that movie before, no need to chew on it again...

But yes, by fantasizing Guy's villainy they ironically made me all the more sympathetic to (and defensive of!) the original Guy.

Cute budgie moment this morning as I was putting seed into their dishes before going to work: Peter was so busy eating he didn't want to stop for me to refill his dish. I had to (so to speak) wrestle it away from him. I can do that, I'm bigger than he is. He looked happy to get the full dish of fresh seed back, though.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

But yes, by fantasizing Guy's villainy they ironically made me all the more sympathetic to (and defensive of!) the original Guy.

Ditto. And you must know that's painful for a long-term Conrad-groupie to admit!

Cute budgie moment this morning as I was putting seed into their dishes before going to work: Peter was so busy eating he didn't want to stop for me to refill his dish. I had to (so to speak) wrestle it away from him. I can do that, I'm bigger than he is. He looked happy to get the full dish of fresh seed back, though.

Aw! Yes! As we agreed the other day, the only time budgies are silent is when they are beak-down in seed, or curled up in a fluff-ball, sleeping!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you must know that's painful for a long-term Conrad-groupie to admit!


Yes. But I think we both realize that doing honour and justice to one's enemies is part of seeing the truth as much as any other matter of judgement. It doesn't do justice to Conrad to malign his enemies any more than it does to malign his friends.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I don't like to see even them being given the treatment he has had.

[lacesforalady.livejournal.com]

1. My username is lacesforalady because it matches "letters for a spy", which is an apt name for my super!seekrit!fic journal.
2. My journal is titled letters for a spy because it's secret.ish.
3. My subtitle is ...um, do I have one? because ____.
4. My friends page is called friends because I am lazy.
5. My default userpic is a Lymond quote because I write in multiple fandoms, and it's not fandom-specific (except for the obvious). Also it draws the Lymond fans out of hiding. :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"letters for a spy"

Oh, very cool name!

I couldn't remember whether I had a subtitle at first. I checked, saw that I did, and thought, "I don't remember thinking that up. That's so clever of me." Must have done it in my sleep.

No one needs any reason to have a Lymond quote as an icon because Lymond references are the best of the best and suitable for all circumstances.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Kipling, Smuggler's Song.