Hippoi Athanatoi

Oh dear. Looks like I’ve got a job.

About two weeks ago, I was contacted by a company that does subtitling. They had found my profile in one of the translator databases I’ve registered with, and were asking if I was interested in working for them. I was, so they sent me a proficiency test that I needed to complete within a week. Scary, and pretty tough. Still, I managed to do what I felt was a satisfactory job, and sent it back to them last Thursday. I was then informed I could expect a response in about three weeks, so I prepared myself for some weeks of nervous waiting.

But, lo and behold, today I received a response. I passed! I am now terribly excited and more than a little nervous. And I am sure the latter will only get worse until I’ve managed to complete a few assignments without screwing up. ;)

Yesterday’s lesson was, as can be deduced from the fact that I didn’t make this post last evening, quite a tiring exercise. The decision had been made a few months ago to put two of our jumping classes in a row, allowing us to ride 1.5 hour instead of 45 minutes, and this had been scheduled to the last lesson for the semester. Yesterday, that is. What we hadn’t counted on was the heatwave that struck a few days ago, and even though we started riding at 19.30 in the evening it was still warm enough to make both riders and horses a bit uncomfortable. Some, more than others.

I hadn’t expected to get Murphy (but of course I was thrilled to be assigned to him again), since I thought our instructor might put the girl who hadn’t jumped for several years on him again (she got Fleur instead, and did very well on her too), but unfortunately I think Murphy would have been much happier to have been left in the stables. His mood was actually quite relaxed and pleasant, but the heat had also made him quite subdued. Add to that a rider who was feeling much the same from the heat, and you have a recipe for a pretty lazy ride.

After two years of waiting for word on his next novel, there’s now a deluge of information from Kay’s official site, Bright Weavings. All the details about the new book, from its title, a brief synopsis of the premise, and the entirety of the prologue can be found here.

Since someone thought it would be a good idea to make June 6th, aka the ‘Day of the Swedish Flag’ or the ‘Swedish National Day’, into a holiday starting this year and since said date falls on a Tuesday this year, there’s no regular riding lesson on the schedule this week. So, what’s an addict like me supposed to do? Why, book another private lesson, of course. And that’s just what I did, for 14.00 today. As I am writing this, I am still feeling mildly euphoric in the way I only do after a really good riding lesson. Sorry, Elio. ;)

The weather these last days has been changeable, to say the least, with sunshine and showers alternating with alarming frequency. Today, it felt like we’d get thunder at any moment, though it never showed up. What did show up, however, was quite a headache that kept me from doing much of anything at all until it was time to head off to the riding. As usual, I was feeling pretty okay once we got to the stables, and the last of my headache cleared up when I got Murphy once again. There’s no way I’ll ever tire of riding him, though I suppose he might get tired of me. Hopefully not any time soon, though, as I also signed up for another private lesson on Murphy for next Monday (since Tuesday is a holiday and thus our regular lesson is cancelled) plus I’m signed up for him for the three-day jumping course in a couple of weeks.

Tacking him up went quite well today, except for when I had just picked one of his hoofs and put it down, following which he suddenly moved backwards sharply, as far as his halter would allow him. I think he was a bit sleepy, and got surprised by something, but it was pretty strange behaviour even so. He also seemed to move just a little stiffly when I led him down to the arena, so naturally I got nervous that he had hurt himself somehow. However, it seems to have been some stiffness from standing around for a while, because I couldn’t feel anything odd when I got on him and started walking him, and my instructor couldn’t see anything wrong either.

A whole heap of pictures from the last lesson can now be found in the photo gallery. I don’t think I am quite masochistic enough to post the video that Elio filmed of the dressage test itself, so these photos from the warm-up will have to be enough. For now, anyway.

This week the time had come for our group to ride through the dressage program our instructor had put together for us. The weather, alas, wasn’t on our side. It has rained a lot the last few days, and it kept on raining for most of today (well, yesterday, seeing as it is just past midnight now). It did clear up in the evening, but the wind remained behind and got a lot stronger. Lovely conditions for warming up in the paddock. ;P

Fortunately, the horses had already had some lessons today, so Murphy was pretty much clean and shiny when I got to the stables. I had entertained some notions about braiding his mane, but given that they recently pulled it, it was much too short and thin to do anything with. He’s got a thick tail (sadly its a rather odd blend of colours, though) and thick fetlocks, but a fairly sparse mane. I did make sure to brush him thoroughly, though given the conditions of the paddock that was pretty much a waste of time, and his mood was quite good today as well.

Last summer, I took three private lessons. It managed to rain each time. Today, I had a private lesson again, and sure enough, we got rain for the first time in a good while.  Not a major problem, as such, since the plan was to be indoors either way, but when I got to the stables I got a small shock. I passed by the pony stalls, and saw a grey pony I didn’t recognize. Oh, a new pony, I thought. Then I looked again. No, not a new pony, just a Ricki. However, he was so covered in mud that he appeared grey instead of black and white. How he managed to get so spectacularly dirty I’ll never understand.

Murphy, fortunately, wasn’t quite so badly off, though his white patches weren’t really that colour any longer. He was also soaking wet across the back, and had some dried mud in awkward places, like over much of his head. Fun, fun, fun, I thought, especially considering his usual opinion on people spending a lot of time in his stall to pretty him up. But I was in for a big surprise. Not only did he not glare at me with his ears pinned back as soon as I got into his stall, but he actually appeared to enjoy being brushed, standing there quite relaxed and half asleep. Even his right shoulder, normally a forbidden zone, posed no problem at all. He was a totally different horse from what he’s usually like in the evening, and he clearly prefers it when the stable is nice and calm, without too many people moving around.

A short essay by Carey has been posted to her new publisher’s site. It is titled "On becoming Imriel", and in it she discusses how she ended up writing more Kushiel books after the conclusion of the previous story, and what was difficult about changing to a new first-person point of view while still writing within the same setting and about many of the same characters. We also get some tiny spoilerish tidbits about Kushiel’s Scion.

Today, alas, was just a theory lesson, which we spent discussing the little dressage program that we’ll be riding next Tuesday.That should merit a much longer report, to make up for the rather brief one this week. Hopefully, I’ll be on Murphy, though admittedly he’s far from ideal for this kind of thing. In theory, it is an easy enough program, but I will really have to work hard during the warm-up to get him forward, attentive and happy enough to keep him going once we get inside. The canter passages will be especially tough.

Of course, I’ve got one small advantage: I am having a private lesson on Thursday, which should be on Murphy as well as long as nothing unforeseen happens. That, too, will merit a more thorough report.

A quite interesting interview with Jacqueline Carey can be found over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. She answers questions about her writing, for example why she started writing fantasy, and also gives some little tidbits of information about Kushiel’s Scion, which will be released on June 12th.

Since we’ve all of a sudden been overwhelmed by summer temperatures in early May (not precisely normal for around here), I was figuring the risk of us riding out was pretty big today. Now, I know I get Murphy for these little outings, so I don’t really need to worry (I am a total chicken riding outdoors, and big horses are a total no-no then), but for my single riding lesson per week I much prefer to do some serious work. Especially since we have very little in the way of riding paths around the riding school since a bunch of new houses were built. Given this, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that a) I’d be riding Murphy again and b) we’d be doing dressage.

For the last ... oh, hour or two, I’ve had 12 short clips from the upcoming Pet Shop Boys CD, Fundamental, on repeat. Yup, I’m addicted. Of course, that’s not news, I’ve been a fan since Please, but every new CD release gives it an extra boost. And after hearing these clips, my anticipation just got upped to a frustrating level. Some of the new songs are darn good.

Via SF Signal, we came across these hilarious commercials from G4 television promoting their airing of Star Trek (the original series). “Spock’s Crib” (and the director’s cut version) are particularly funny—hip-hop Spock is a riot.

Via Sci-Fi Wire, it’s been announced that Dark Horse Comics has acquired the rights to Fritz Leiber’s stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (collected in a number of volumes, such as The First Book of Lankhmar and The Second Book of Lankhmar). Dark Horse plans to republish the stories, as well as reprinting a comic adaption by Mike Mignola and Howard Chaykin.

Most exciting of all, Dark Horse will launch a new original series, which will adapt stories into comic form as well as produce original comic stories (much like Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord have done, to popular and critical success, with Conan). Hopefully the team on the original comic series will be as high-caliber as Busiek-Nord and Mignola-Chaykin.