OMG you guys, OMG.

So I've spent much of the day trying to think of just what to write about the anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, as the Titanic has kind of been a big part of my life.  There are dozens of things I do every day that have even the tiniest reminders, like my email address, knitwit1912.

It's been a few years since I really looked at a lot of Titanic stuff, though, and so a few days ago I went and did something I haven't done in a while: started searching to see what I could find about the person I'm most interested in the disaster: Thomas Andrews, Managing Director of Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders, and chief designer of the Titanic.

And this time I found stuff I've wanted to see for ages, most particularly, photos and family photos in particular.  Especially photos from his wedding to Helen Reilly Barbour, and more pictures of his daughter, Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews.  There's a huge collection of them here.

And then tonight, omg, y'all.

One thing I have always, always wanted to know is what Helen Andrews was like and the story of her and Thomas' relationship.  I wanted to know more about her and tonight I found an interview and an article with one of her children from her second marriage.

OMG, guys.  She has a letter from Thomas to Helen after he proposed to her.  She has her mother's engagement ring.  Needless to say, I was in tears watching it.

I think what I was looking for the last few days wasn't just updated information, it was that sense of the real people behind the photos and the story that had kind of faded after not being as involved for a while. It's the reminder that these were real people who were going about their daily lives and then the unthinkable just happened.  Helen Andrews was asleep in Belfast at the same moment her husband was realizing that his ship was going to sink and at least half the passengers would die.  That idea--of how things can be totally normal one minute and changed forever the next--has fascinated me for years.  And then, of course, 9/11 happened, and that idea became a reality and a harsh one for a lot of people.

I think in a few minutes, when it's 100 years to the minute of the sinking, it's the sense of the real people behind the tragedy that I'll be trying to hold on to.  Even in the last hundred years, there are people who went down with the ship that we don't really know much about, that have just been lost to history and that are now just a name on a passenger or crew list.  It happens to almost everyone, eventually, it's by no means uncommon.  But it's still kind of sad, and especially tonight, those 1500 people who died--and their families and the 700 who survived who were forever changed by the event--deserve to be remembered.

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 OMFG YOU GUYS.  I JUST SAW SHERLOCK S2E3 "THE REICHENBACH FALL" AND I CAN'T EVEN, YOU GUYS, I CAN'T EVEN.  I AM STILL SHAKING FROM THE TENSION.

I'm trying to come up with words and I have all these thoughts just zinging around my head like moths in a porch light and I can't even catch them.

( SPOILERS, DUH. )

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Sooooo...I thought I might need something to mop up my tears when I finally get to see s2e3 of BBC's Sherlock, "The Reichenbach Fall". And I had this hankie lying around that I got as a freebie from Dharma Trading...

( So I got out my embroidery supplies... )


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 Just a note for the millimuns, Jack is already over at DW as trigger_man , and of course people can always friend my RL journal over there at withherhands .

Former 24-muns, there's some discussion of having a bar-wide plot that in effect opens up the bar to new universes, and therefore opening up retired characters to be played again.  Any that you guys had that you want to keep as perma-retired?  I can't think of anyone where a new version turning up would be a big problem for Jack.

And with that discussion, there's a character or two that I'm kiiinda tempted to app after everything shakes out, though I'd want to ask members of those fandoms re: possible complications.

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 I need to do an update post but right now I'm mostly stymied by two things.  One, for the last few days, I've been getting lightheaded/dizzy in the late afternoons into the evening.  Today was better than yesterday, which was better than Friday (when I also ended up running a fever of about 101F late that evening), but still feeling kind of wobbly at the moment.

Two, programs keep crashing on my computer.  I thought it was just Chrome, but no, it's Firefox and iTunes too--and iTunes keeps giving me messages that the iTunes Library files haven't loaded properly and a couple other things.  My computer is almost 6 years old so I'm wondering if it's my laptop itself being a pain, but I was hoping to make it to April before I actually had to replace it. It's been getting slower and more cranky in the last few months, but I was hoping it'd still work.  As it is, I find it hard to do a lot of things the last few days, as sometimes Chrome will crash as much as every 5 minutes.

Anyone able to help on that second count?

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Peanut would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas...



...just as soon as she's finished her nap.

With LJ's newest level of WTF, I thought I'd let people know that I'm withherhands over on Dreamwidth, and this week they're having open sign-ups!  No invite code needed!

OMG TRAILER FOR THE HOBBIT.



SO MANY GOOSEBUMPS.

Man, I haven't done an update in aaaages.  Suffice to say, Mom's home, she had a great time, and we've been bustling through Christmas preparations.  I might do an update from work tomorrow with more detailed stuff.

Oh, and GIVE ME PROMPTS FOR THIS MEME!  Really, it's three sentences, so I should actually do all of them this time. :D