They did the jobs they didn't have to do.  In Keel's case, for Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and an Egg*. In memory of the Republic of Treacle Mine Road, which on one long night was the center of order, calm, and incoming food in Anhk-Morpork.

*Probably hard-boiled, and I'll just hand it off to whoever'd like it. Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read comments on DW
Given the new LJ 'design' decisions, please comment on DW if you can.

 ...and yeah, we're all happy and relieved here too.

The con opened at around noon yesterday, so there were some panels scheduled. But really, it was all about the dealer’s room and catching up with friends.

The room housing the dealers in this new hotel is about one third the size of the old hotel’s ballroom. I can’t really tell if there are less dealers who have tables but I can say that there is a lot less room in the aisles between the tables. This makes it more difficult to maneuver around, particularly for the folks on scooters.

Nevertheless, I plunged in as early as possible because that’s when the best items are available. I bought a Joker print from Mike and a painting of the POTC monkey for my son. Also bought three t-shirts, a little dragon statue, two pins and a copy of the new KFile for myself. Sadly, I missed out on the bottleg complete season of Adderly which now is only available on order. There was also a copy of the Return movie autographed by Sloan that I picked up for Jon Burlingame at his request.


Here are the Guardians 0f the Orphan Zine Table where you can buy used zines:

Another tradition of MWC is door decorating. Here are two that really impressed me. One is for 'fandom scouts' with a slash featuring appropriate badges. The second celebrates detectives.

I did attend one panel yesterday on old television shows and where to find them. The discussion ranged through genres to the changing expectations of audiences over the years.

I had dinner with  amedia at which we talked shop: ie: academia and motherhood. Also saw Carol and Paula and Suzi and bought a box of delicious chocolate Tim
Tam cookies from Carolyn G that came all the way from Tanzania.

This morning I ate breakfast at Denny's with mamacat1715. Sadly, she must leave today to get home in time to preach services at her church on Sunday.

The weather has moderated to sunny and pleasant but I hear at home, my own family is now experiencing the chilly rainy weather that has moved from the Midwest to the east coast. It will delay the installation of our air conditioning system until Tuesday.

Today, I’m conducting my annual “How to Write a Better Story” workshop. This will be about the 23^rd year, so we’ll see how attendance goes. Afterward, I am sitting on a panel discussing research.

Maybe I’ll hit the hot tub tonight. My back is killing me.

PS: If LJ is down tomorrow I'll post over on my DW journal under st_crispins.

Round 38 of merlin20in20 has commenced its voting. There have been some truly outstanding submissions this month, so please take a few minutes to stop by and peruse and vote for your favorites!

Theme Voting
Category Voting
Artist's Choice Voting

Also, sign-ups for Round 39 have begun. Come join in on the fun!

Round 39 Sign-Ups

It is Saturday, and I was supposed to meet with someone super early this morning, but I blew them off and told them I couldn't make it, because this is the last Saturday for a very long time where I get to sleep in. This time next week, the contractor will arrive with his guys, probably at like, 7 or 7:30 am or something obscene. And then every day thereafter except for Sundays for weeks and weeks and weeks.

So this whole "renovate the kitchen because it's unusable and the wooden counter tops are actually rotting" thing seemed like a great idea back in January. Right now, faced with the prospect of losing access to half the downstairs for a minimum of 6 weeks, and strange men arriving so early every day that I will probably have to forgo early morning showers for evening showers and my hair will turn into a rats nest, as it always does when I shower in the evening, and no downstairs sink, and no oven, and therefore no kettle for tea, and the cats being locked up and distressed, and having to pack everything up this week and find somewhere to store it, and possibly a period of time when we will have to go downstairs to the basement to use the bathroom because of plumbing work, and also the possibility that every choice I made about cabinets, counters, fixtures and tile WAS THE WRONG CHOICE, and all of this during what is known in these parts as 'vidding deadline season,' and it is possible I have some feelings of trepidation.

Also the new doors and windows are not arriving on time, which we can deal with, unless they continue to push the date back. Then I will flip out.

But at any rate, today we will empty stuff out of the dining room (a.k.a. mollyamory's office) and the kitchen, and stuff it into nooks and crannies. We are planning to move the fridge and the microwave into the living room. It will be crowded. An afternoon trip to Costco is planned so we can buy all the paper plates and utensils in the world. We have a nice grill, but that part is dependent on the weather cooperating. I intend to raid Trader Joe's microwave meal section with impartiality ASAP.

At some point soon, I will take "Before" pics. I already have the "Way Before" pics that I took when I was looking at this house during inspection. Things have already changed a lot since then! For the better, mostly. Be prepared for future picspam, as things progress!

Ain't no badfic like old-school Sentinel badfic. Thank God for the long weekend!

All the little angels rise up, rise up
All the little angels rise up high!
How do they rise up, rise up, rise up
How do they rise up, rise up high?

This entry was originally posted at http://ladyvyola.dreamwidth.org/164298.html.

Life got in the way of my recent fanart plans, but yesterday I finally managed to draw something again. Loosely inspired by ratcreature's prompt: They could be breaking into a stylish supervillain lair, its flavor depending on what you like to draw, e.g. could be Bond-style or Gothic or futuristic...

I sort of went for the minimalist approach.

( large pic hereCollapse )
Preview:


Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comments:

So. I'm kind of in need of some extra funds and thus, I am going to sell some of my DVDs. They are all Australian Region coded but can be played with VLC Media Player or Multi-Region DVD player. They are all in excellent condition (I will provide photos but can provide pictures of the individual discs if needed (or any more details you'd like).

( DVDs Available/PricingCollapse )

( Pictures of DVDsCollapse )

Feel free to spread this around - I will ship anywhere. Comments are screened or you can PM and we can work out details. First come first to get, basically.

This entry was originally posted at http://lilalanor.dreamwidth.org/700610.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

Please note that while we try to note spoilers in meta posts where possible, and we try to make sure links for new material like the movies are categorised separately and clearly labelled, we can't guarantee that posts are spoiler-free. Follow all links at your own risks.

( SG-1 Debrief - Stargate SG-1 Newsletter - Issue 249 - 25/5/2013 Collapse )

Disclaimer: If we have missed including your story/post/icons/vids/etc., be assured that it was not intentional. Our aim is to represent SG-1 fandom on Livejournal as completely as possible, so please feel free to send us an email or respond to the comments of the current issue with anything we missed and it will be included in the next issue.

If you want to submit a link, or want to opt out of being linked, please see the instructions on the community info page.

1. I got Monday off! Monday is Memorial Day, which is one of the federal holidays my work considers paid holidays for full-time employees. We don't get overtime if we work on a holiday, but if we work that day we can get another day off with pay, or if we don't work that day, we will still get paid for it. Because it's a Monday, I figured I wouldn't be able to get it off, since that's usually order day and I have to be there to print POs. But it looks like all the companies we order from are off, so ordering will be moved to Tuesday and I can have Monday off. I already have Sunday off, but I'm going out with Alexander that day, so this will be nice to have a day off after that to be able to just completely rest without going anywhere or seeing anyone.

2. I wasn't thrilled about working tonight on my day off, but I got to take home a ton of free meat, so that was a nice bonus. (I posted a picture on Twitter of my haul.)

Crossposted from http://torachan.dreamwidth.org/1686523.html. There are currently comments. You can comment there anonymously (please sign a name) or using OpenID if you don't have a DW account.

I have been doing lots of sensible things and need to do something fun. So! What would you like me to draw?

Original or something fannish for a canon I'm familiar with (or something simple and you give me image references). Try and avoid the typical squicks/triggers (though if you're not sure feel free to ask), also zombies.

I drew something for quadrantfest and now I have to wait a WHOLE WEEK to post it. A week!!

This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/498977.html. There are comments.

We had a fun day today--headed into Seattle to visit the EMP and meet up with a couple OTW staffers who live in the area (and who I will not name for anonymity reasons) and we had fun. We explored the museum, got a bite in the Pop bar/cafe in the museum, wandered around Seattle Center, went back to the Pop to sit and talk for hours, and eventually left around quarter to seven. sanders and I came home, relaxed for a bit, then hit Olive Garden (there's one in Lynnwood, about ten minutes from here) and then went to my old pharmacy for a prescription I hadn't known I was getting (more on that in a bit). All in all a good day although I could have done without the weird sugar crash/shaky/nauseated/ravenous thing I got after we wandered Seattle Center--either I had one weird sugar crash, and I say weird because I'd had plenty of protein and complex carbs for lunch, or the doxycycline made me reeeeeally sun sensitive and I got some kind of sun sickness (I thought it just made you more sensitive to getting sunburned but I could be wrong). Either way, after a Snickers and two LARABARs and some time just sitting with my eyes closed I was back to normal.

Re the prescription: I called both my neurologist and my PCP today and left messages with them--with the neuro I just asked if he wanted to see me because this headache thing isn't really getting better, or if he wanted to prescribe something I could take until it breaks or TO break it. However, I forgot to call until about a little before 4pm, so odds on him getting back to me before Tuesday are pretty much nil, given that I haven't gotten a call back yet. I also left a message with my PCP saying that one medication he gave me was discontinued and the other (keterolac, maybe?) just wasn't working at all, so what should I do. I did not get a call back from the doctor's office. I did, however, get an email notification from Walgreens letting me know I had a prescription ready for Fioricet. I've taken that before; it works pretty well, so I have that and hopefully it'll get me through until hopefully the doxycyline kills the sphenoid sinus infection I have going, if I even still have it; I can't tell anymore, all I know is that my head still hurts. If I have to see my doctor again I'm going to ask for a CT scan or MRI to show if I still have sphenoid sinusitis or not. That way at least I know what I have to deal with.

sigh. But I bought a really pretty colorful elephant mobile today at Folklife so that was something. And my dad was able to get me a free ticket to go home in July so yay on that.

This entry was originally posted at http://blueraccoon.dreamwidth.org/1162887.html. Please comment there. | comments

I've been offhandedly watching Revolution and every time Mark Pellegrino appears, I automatically assume he's someone's hallucination of Lucifer.

It's making this show both rather confusing and more interesting than it really is.

Crossposted at Dreamwidth here, with comments.

I have bored brain and want desperately to write something but my brain is fried from work and nonsense. My brain is so fried that even Zombie Cat isn't trying to eat my brains. Also, I think I need a bunch of Chris-centered prompts so I can remind myself of how to write him. I should probably watch some eps (oh, the torture) but the brain is too tired to even watch that.

Oh work. Why must you suck so much?

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth where there are comments

My mother-in-law has probably at this point completed knitting her second hat/booties/sweater combo for the squiddle. And much as I may use this to tease my mother about falling behind in the grandmother race, I actually don't mean it. My mother knits very specific items - baby clothes aren't really among them.

Over the last couple of days, however, my perspective has shifted a bit to realize that I'm the one falling behind in the making things race. I've only made one thing for the squiddle, and it's a wall decoration! (This realization is partially due to perusing some of my magazine back issues for things I could crochet.) So part of me thought that I should pull out the box that has my accumulated kiddie sewing patterns.

This instinct led to me realizing that I first needed to clean off my sewing table if I actually wanted to, y'know, sew anything. Which I have done. And, rather than start a new project outright, I've made a bargain with myself that I need to finish two UFOs before I sew anything for the squiddle or for my expanding waistline. UFO one, mending a washing bag, is done. UFO two, the 1925 zig-zag dress is being worked on ATM. Whee, 1/8" piping!

This show really is the tragic love story of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter. Like, that just is the story they're telling. I am so glad was Bryan Fuller wasn't even kidding a little bit about that.

Will and Hannibal may be my favorite fucked up relationship on TV, and that's saying something.

( spoilers!Collapse )

Crossposted at Dreamwidth here, with comments.

So, I got out of work early & said fuck that shit, I'm seeing Fast 6 before I get spoiled for anything & I'm doing it before the gym. And, wow. Just... Mind fucking BLOWN. Holy shit, guys, this movie. This franchise. I can't even with the awesome right now.

( Spoilers liek woah, as we said back in the day, and a fuckton of flailingCollapse )

I arrived yesterday in Lansing, Michigan for the annual fannish party that is MediaWest. I've been coming to the con since 1994, with only two missed years, once when Ros was a baby, and once last year due to our Disney family vacation.

This year the con has moved hotels, so it's disorienting not to be in a place where I knew the building and surrounding area so well. And so many people who were mainstays for so many years no longer come. (Ex-roomies jawanderer and nsandik, you are missed!) But it's still wonderful seeing the people who do still come, and having the opportunity to talk fanfic and slash with people who completely understand your obsessions.

So far, I have:

Picked up st_crispins at the Detroit airport Thursday, and had dinner with her and roomie m. butterfly

Gone to see Iron Man 3 with m. butterfly

Modded a Pros panel, Cowley: Mentor or Menace, that brought out lots of interesting discussion

Attended a panel on how Bodie & Doyle got together

Bought a lovely small drawing of Ned Stark from Game of Thrones in the art show, by the always fab Kate Nurenburg

Checked out the art show

Had dinner with both m. butterfly and FJBryan at our favourite Mexican restaurant, followed by viewing number two of Star Trek Into Darkness (Enjoyed STID much more the second time, since I'd hashed out my issues with it with m. butterfly and st_crispins and managed to mostly just sit back and enjoy it this time)

Talked with many fannish friends

Tomorrow there are more panels, and the Pros party, which FJBryan and I are hosting.

In Kindle Worlds flourish hits every point where Amazon's new effort is different from Fanlib.

Except one.

Amazon agrees to compensate fanfic writers. Not Fanlib's vague "hey, we're connected to publishing companies that might, somehow, benefit you as a writer. We think. Use your imagination how!"

With Kindle Worlds there's actual cash money going to the fic writers.

Problems with it? Oh, heck yeah, I'm sure. I haven't researched it much yet (read: at all). But I'm willing to bet plenty of broke fic writers will be sniffing around this offer.

I'm tempted. Four years of working part time with no benefits? A temple where we're going to be doing practice outside with the cicadas? Yeah. Cautious. But interested. And I don't even write those fandoms.

I never expected anything like this, not in my wildest "the truth is we're out here" posts.

Personally, I credit The Organization of Transformative Works for the fast and recent shift in attitudes about fan writers, treating us as writers, wow.

Remember, it was only 2003 when Raincoast Books sent Cease & Desist orders to The Restricted Section for its NC-17 Harry Potter fic. In 2004, Yahoo Groups TOS'd one fanfic Yahoo Group after another, driving fans to Livejournal. In 2007 came Fanlib, which hoped to profit (from ads? it was never clear how) and exploit fanfic writers but viewed them as teenyboppers complete with their "Hey, Kids!" Disney layout. OTW got off the ground almost immediately afterward, and the archive went into beta testing in 2008.

By 2011, 50 Shades Of Gray was able to openly acknowledge its fanfic roots. That's a big change, very, very quickly. It's not all OTW. We have the aca-fen and new generation that's grown up on the internet coming of age. But I believe that the newly positive attitudes toward fanfic have a lot to do with the OTW.

I need to renew my membership.


ETA: Scalzi weighs in on the downsides for writers. His perspective is not the fanwriters, but the lowering of standards for prowriters. Right off the bat (I may change my mind), it seems to me that the prowriters need to stop sneering at the fanfic writers and include them in their union (how? I don't know how...) or risk watering down the protections that writers get in general. I'm pro-union and these are hard-won protections. We need to not have a lower class of writer called "fanfic writer" ripe for exploitation.

Here the work-for-hire authors who were contracted to participate ahead of the release weigh in. They consider it standard ghost writing and are pretty positive about their experience.

I know a few of you are reading my Hobbit WIP... I find myself in need of a beta for about 5000 words (piece of a chapter) that is currently a mess. It's pretty context-dependent, so I need someone who's read at least the first book (The Secret).

I need help teasing out the essential bits to put in the rewrite, and how to make it more like a nice haircut and less like a tangle of hair clogging up the drain.

Clearly it is too late at night for metaphors.

Read this entry on Dreamwidth || comments

I have feelings about Nashville, and I feel compelled to share them with the internets. I thought I might love this show, and then it started and I was very lukewarm, powered only by Tami Taylor residuals, but I have to tell you, it slowly grew under my skin until I couldn't let it go, and then they produced a season final deserving of the name.

( Spoilers for Nashville Season 1Collapse )

Anyone around and willing to have bits of story bounced off them? I'm up to 5500 words on the personal assistant fic, and may need assistance translating my headcanon and meta into actual story. I'm on gchat as hollimichele.

This entry was originally posted at http://holli.dreamwidth.org/360122.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are comments.

I wonder if Em remembered my furlough day? She hadn't referenced it at all yesterday, and she didn't react when I said "see you Tuesday" as she walked out the door, so I'm not positive she heard me. When the opener left she was surprised when I mentioned I wouldn't be in today, as Em hadn't arranged for her to work longer at the front desk. No one called me this morning, so I guess they sorted things out, and as I turned in the furlough schedule almost 2 months ago with absolutely no "that's not convenient" reaction to any of the dates, and as keeping track of things like days off is part of a supervisor's job, I figure it's not really my problem.

and what I did on my day off is go see Furious 6 - in my brain it's long been Fast 6, but I guess that's just too close to Fast 5. I met thessaliad for a morning showing, and wow. IT'S AMAZING - so much (almost *too* much) going on all over the damn place! and while some of it required serious suspension of belief, it's a nonstop thrill. Don't think it'll ever be my fave in the franchise, but it's definitely a great way to spend a couple hours (and as always, I caught myself just gazing at the acres of pretty onscreen - yeah, I'm shallow).

Stanley Cup Beard Watch: The Ginger Beard Edition by Chuck and Pants from What's Up, Ya Sieve?

I'm a big fan of the awesome original story, Captive Prince - and was pleased to see the author posting this big news yesterday:
"I have some amazing news, and I'm so excited to share it with you all!

Captive Prince has been acquired . . . by Penguin. No, really. Penguin just bought Captive Prince. They're going to be releasing the entire trilogy and selling it in bookshops and everything."

Penguin will reissue Books 1 & 2, and publishing Book 3. However, the free, online versions of 1 & 2 will remain up for another month or so, so folks can grab copies if they haven't already.

I decided to go ahead with a grocery delivery - B's gift was "found" money, so my wallet no worse off, and this way I'll have plenty of goodies to make meals at home more palatable, which will save me cash down the road. I opted for a long delivery window (it's cheaper) and I'm now hanging about with the Pens game on, hoping they show soonish, rather than make me wait several more hours.

I cannot believe this perfect camouflage!


( and suddenly Buddy had a shot on goalCollapse )

Okay, this is because a.) exhaustion and b.) lack of sleep, so paranoia is probably rampant at the moment.

Amazon Worlds, earlier post about it here.

Again, my defense is paranoia:

I figured out what was bothering me as a writer about this.

Okay, assuming this takes off and paid fanfiction is a thing; would that be grounds to start C&Ding free fanfiction on the net? The thing is, right now, the original media is not in competition with free fanfic, and they also aren't losing money because there is no paid equivalent. However, with the advent of paid fanfiction--that they get money from as well--free fanfiction would be considered competition.

Anyone legal or economic or philosophically inclined have any kind of odds on it becoming worth the effort to C&D free fanfiction since it would actually be direction competition and because money theoretically is being lost for every fic that is downloaded for free from AO3?

The thing is, while the original media doesn't make money off this, neither do fanfic writers. Now they have a way to make money off fanfic, will AO3 be the textual equivalent of Pirate's Bay in the future?

Yes, paranoia. It's been a hell of a week.

Posted at Dreamwidth: http://seperis.dreamwidth.org/974824.html. | You can reply here or there. | comments

Huh.

I've been so busy lately, never home, that I didn't realize till now that I live with a baby.

I mean, technically I knew it.

But now that I'm actually here, I now know that:

1) Said baby shrieks. Frequently.

2) That my apartment is directly below the baby bouncer, and

C) Said baby bouncer sounds rather like a three-legged Pogo-stick

L) Directly overhead.

Sigh. Remember how happy I was that I never had kids?

Multiply that by ten.

Oh, now with the fussing and crying. And intermittent bouncing.

Make that twenty.

Amazon ventures into fanfic. But can it make money?
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/amazon-ventures-fanfic-can-it-make-money-6C10052546
The ecommerce giant has announced the launch of Kindle Worlds, a fan fiction publishing platform that will give super-fans of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars a place to let their imaginations run wild — and legally make money writing about characters somebody else dreamed up.

Amazon said Kindle Worlds will open for business in June, and that it plans to add more franchises. The original owners of the material will have some say over what they deem appropriate use, and Amazon has some rules of its own, like prohibiting pornography.

Lots more in the article, but wow, never thought I'd see the day this would happen.

Please link me to any and all Rhodey and Pepper and Tony fic, in any and all combinations from gen to any rating whatsoever, Iron Man 3 or earlier. Pleeease? :DDD

Random pointless post of nails:

I call this design “The Mosaic of Too Much Time on My Hands.”

Hello, guys!

I'm looking for this story, I don't remember much about it, just that for some reason Rodney was interviewing atlantis personnel to ask if they wanted to stay and continue being part of the expedition. He was grumbling about how unnecessary it was since he knew his people and that they wanted to stay or something.

Not sure if he was only interviewing scientists or if marines were included. Sorry for the vague ask, I just don't remember much.

Any help will be great. Thanks guys!

--Also, sorry for my awful english.

Title: Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
Pairing: Steven Stamkos/Michael Del Zotto, implied Steven Stamkos/Steve Downie
Summary: Steven knew he was complicating things by sleeping with Michael, but he didn't know it could possibly cost him so much.
Author's Notes: Found at entry.

On LJ
On AO3

A team of international experts has drawn up the Soil Atlas of Africa – the first such book mapping this key natural resource – to help farmers, land managers and policymakers understand the diversity and importance of soil, and the need to manage it through sustainable use.

They say that despite soil's importance, most people in Africa lack knowledge about it, partly because information tends to be confined to academic publications read only by scientists.

"There was an existing database on soil that had not been updated by soil science experts from Africa, so we asked them to provide us with new information, which we translated into a form understandable to key stakeholders," said Arwyn Jones, a member of the soil team at the land resource management unit of the European commission's joint research centre, which produced the atlas.

The project began four years ago, and involved experts from the European commission, the African Union (AU) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The atlas was released at the meeting of the AU and EU commissions in Addis Ababa last month.

Robert Zougmoré, regional programme manager for west Africa at the Cgiar research programme on climate change, agriculture and food security, says the atlas displays the diversity of African soil for both agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.

"We documented all the different types of soils and mapped them so that our decision-makers at national and regional levels can use the maps to decide where to invest in terms of food production and urbanisation," he says. "Using the atlas, we can identify regions such as central Africa, some parts of west Africa, and southern Africa where a type of fertile soil called vertisol – which maximises crop yields – can be found in greater quantities."

Zougmoré tells SciDev.Net that most African countries have national soil bureaus that are inadequately resourced, making it difficult to generate new soil information. He is now calling for more support from African governments.

Peter Okoth, a Nairobi-based natural resources consultant, says: "Regional users [of the atlas] have the opportunity to know about trends, problem hotspots and patterns of soil distribution". But he cautions that unless users are properly trained, they may find using the atlas challenging.

Pedro Sanchez, project director of the Africa Soil Information Service (Afsis), and a soil expert at the US-based Earth Institute at Columbia University, welcomes the atlas as an "important tool". But he points out that because the atlas is not interactive, users may find it difficult to determine relationships between soil properties and their impacts.

"We are also working on another interactive, web-accessible digital soil map that covers all the non-desert areas of Sub-Saharan Africa," says Sanchez, adding that Afsis hopes to complete this project by the end of the year.

Source: The Guardian has links to download a full copy of the soil atlas

Right, so, today's been a pretty good day for one in which I spent 4 hours and $700 getting my car serviced. Still, though, thanks to the wonders if the Internet and Apple via my iPad, I didn't even get that bored in the waiting room. And I got out in time to see the earliest showing of Fast & Furious 6 at my favorite theater.

Outside the cut, I will say this: everything that you enjoyed about the previous movies you will enjoy in this one. A lot. And there's a scene not after the credits, but right after it looks like the credits are starting? So if it looks like the credits are starting, give it another minute or two for a lead in to Fast & Furious 7 (which, yes, is already scheduled to release July 2014) and for an unexpected cameo.

Now for spoilers: ( Read more...Collapse )

( Adding extra spoiler space for the scene in the credits and for the next movieCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://beck-liz.dreamwidth.org/1010856.html. You may comment there using OpenID, or you may comment here. have commented there.

I've taken time off to write fic. I find that Jim and Kirk will not get down to business. No, no, they want to talk about Vulcan, and the Vulcan perspective on humans:


"Checkmate," Spock said, placing his final piece.

"How is that Vulcans play a human game?" Jim asked.

"There are those on Vulcan who feel the existence and popularity of chess on Earth demonstrates that there's hope," Spock explained.

"Hope for?—ahh," understanding dawned on the captain's face before he even finished the question.

"Yes. Hope that, one day, humans may embrace pure logic."


Of course, Jim can't resist prodding at that, does Spock think it likely?--and really, guys, there's a plot that's supposed to happen. I realize it's not much of one, but interesting as you are, you're interrupting.

I'm a window washer outside your fandom.

( Why I haven't been writing.Collapse )

( Well, I've written these. But let me tell you why they don't count.Collapse )

Other than Dragonlord, my fics have been "surface stories."

There are stories that you pull out of your gut, that are saying something even if you're not sure what, and then there are stories where you're just diddling on the surface. Moving the furniture around.

( If that were okay with me, that would be one thing.Collapse )

So I'm the window washer outside your fandoms, looking in, while I'm working, working, working.

( Part of it is the company I keep. And the fact that the sky is falling.Collapse )

I find that without writing and creative work ... I starve. I left this temple, which I always loved, fifteen years ago because I starved here.

So I took today off. Cancelled chauffeuring Ani Samla. Rescheduled practice to Saturday night. And I'm taking time to write.


* i.e. became a closed canon.

So after I made the dough on Tuesday night, on Wednesday evening I made brown butter salted chocolate chip cookies (pic - man am I a terrible photographer or what? I mean, that's taken with my phone under the very unfortunate lighting in my kitchen, but still. I suppose considering I have no space to set up, I shouldn't worry about how awful my pictures are, but sometimes I'm reminded and this is one of them.).

They are really tasty, though I don't think the salt really added much, so I didn't add it to half of them, but I don't think anyone noticed or cared (I brought the majority of the cookies - I got about fifty out of this recipe, because I only made them about half as big as the recipe instructed - to work yesterday and they were a big hit; I kept about ten for myself, which I ate last night for dessert and then this morning for breakfast).

Yesterday wasn't a bad day, per se, just a really frigging busy one at work, in a way where I was being interrupted by the next new URGENT thing every three minutes, which made it hard to concentrate on any of them, but everything got done, even if I had to stay until nearly 7 to finish it all, because today was a furlough day. There'd be some talk of me talking some other day as a furlough day, but both my bosses were like, "No, have the four day weekend! It's the lone silver lining of this situation."

Speaking of the furlough, I got my first paycheck since it started and it's almost exactly $100 less than usual, so it's not as bad as it could be, but it's still bad, if you consider that I'm down $200 a month now for the next five months just as my rent jumped $250 (and will likely jump another $200 come October 1, if I don't move). I mean, I can manage? But only by paying only the minimum on my credit cards and cutting back (even more) in other ways etc. No more mindless consumerism when it comes to books or cooking implements. (I gazed covetously at grill pans and crepe pans this morning on Amazon. Sigh. Not that I would use either of those much at home, but I still want them.)

Speaking of rent, I got the return receipt yesterday from when I mailed the lump sum payment to the landlord AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T CASHED THE CHECK. THEY ARE MAKING ME CRAZY. CASH THE FUCKING CHECK PLEASE SO IT CAN ALL BE OFFICIALLY OVER. UGH.

So anyway, I didn't get home last night until about 8 so I missed all of the first period, which I'm glad of, because it sounds like it was terrible, and I have to say, when the Bruins went up 2-0, I was like, wow this is going to end and the Rangers aren't even trying. But then they got that fluky first goal and things turned around for them, at least a little. I mean, I don't believe they can win four straight from the Bruins, especially not with two of those games in Boston, but at least they showed some kind of spark and didn't just let Boston have their way completely. *hands*

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/570904.html. people have commented there.

Since our whale watch was canceled, Geoff and I spent the afternoon just wandering around Gloucester, admiring the buildings and looking out to sea. ( Wanna hear about it?Collapse )

Now we're home and up to our eyebrows in work again. Except that I slept until almost eleven on our first morning home (with chemical aid; I can't sleep that well on my own, dammit, which is why I occasionally need to take some Benadryl and crash for ten or eleven hours!). Now I'm trying to work on four rites of passage simultaneously without getting them confused, and also figure out what I'm going to do for dinner tonight; we have Geoff's son here and probably also his mom as well. (Geoff's mom, not Geoff's son's mom.) Given how little I'm in the mood to cook at the moment, I may end up making my famous phone call to the Chinese place ("Xander, does your family even own a stove?").

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It's been forever since I've updated my recs site...

Okay, so here are 8 new Avengers fic recs (mostly Clint/Phil), with many, many more to follow in the coming week.

This entry was originally posted at http://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/671788.html. (Read comments at Dreamwidth) If you'd like to comment on Dreamwidth, but don't have an account, you can use OpenID (How to use OpenID), or if you'd like a Dreamwidth invite, just ask!

( In angry news:Collapse )

In other news:

- Still rewatching Psych, and cannot get over how in love with Gus Shawn is. I'm about halfway through Season 3, and my mountain of evidence is getting higher by the episode. He looooves him, but he doesn't think he's good enough for Burton Guster, and he's completely unable to handle genuine emotion, and it's just sad. And I think what the show's been doing wrong recently is forgetting how completely central Shawn and Gus are to each other. And Gus' face is flawless in every possible way, oh my God.

Also posted on Dreamwidth at http://surexit.dreamwidth.org/83917.html with comments. Comment wherever you like.

Re-blogging from 1066andallthat for my own reference - fantastic talk by Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb on the way in which the people of the past thought differently to us.

Fanfic

Metal and Words, 9/16 by aletheiafelinea - PotC, PG-13, Jack Sparrow, OCs.

Of historical interest

marine_lapwing: Midshipman and book publishers.
joyful_molly: Extraordinary 18th Century Sewing Box. Sew Cute!
josieb1: 'Hearts of Oak and Souls of Fire: Warfare in the Age of Sail 1755-1815' at Amazon for Kindle.
josieb1: Edward Pellew biography at Amazon for Kindle only £1.79.

Miscellany and meta

veronica_rich: Discussion: pay for fanfic?
aletheiafelinea: PotC Recs Weekly #53.
anteros_lmc: Hey Horatio Hornblower.

Communities and challenges

following_sea: Episode discussion: The Duchess and The Devil.
blackpearlsails: this week's drabble invitation: History.
perfect_duet: josbanks: Blast from the past : Quizilla: Which Aubrey-Maturin bookverse Character Are You?

Got a link for the next issue?

Please comment and let us know.

I am so tired that I actually forgot to wash in the shower this morning. Like, I washed my hair, and I stood under the spray! I just forgot the part with the squooshy thing and the shower gel. Mmph.

Decisions have been made about my future. Big ones, even. And have survived rigorous devil's-advocating by my mother.

's 'citin'.