springwoof

auburnnothenna @ 10:21pm: Holiday Happiness to All
And I do mean all, I know Christmas isn't everyone's holiday, it's hardly my holiday since I self-identify as an atheist, but there can't be any harm to wishing good things and happiness to everyone, right?

Birthday happiness to my bestest wifey, eretria, too, since I may not get back online until after her natal day.

My AO3 dashboard says I have a Mystery Story/Gift for Yuletide! Yays! To my dearest writer, I will do my best to read it the day after Christmas. It will be extra special on Boxing Day.

Now, normally, this sort of sappiness gags me, but just for once.

Joy to the World.

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/232821.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

xtricks @ 7:01pm: I have an account at AO3, and have for some time. I also have (possibly temporary) access to my website so I'm slowly uploading everything from that website to AO3 - which means my X-men and due South fiction, mostly.

Here's my AO3 account, I'm xtricks there, as you might expect: http://archiveofourown.org/users/xtricks

Re-editing and uploading my old, old fic (some of it over 10 years old) really illustrates my changing style and ability. The work is isn't ... bad, but it's got the occasional badfic issues (a bit weepy, here and there, and my size queen tendencies are more evident).

It also reminded me of how fond I am of images of traditional masculinity: the biker dude, the rich businessman, the soldier, the cop (Mountie) and so on. These are the characters that draw me in.

So, a record of a fanfic author over time, in one handy stop.

mirabile_dictu @ 6:37pm: Happy Solstice!
xposted to IJ and LJ

According to the Weather Underground, here where I live we had 9 hours and 29 minutes of sunlight today. Tomorrow we'll have just two seconds more. There's a slim crescent moon and after a rainy day the sky is clearing and the stars are coming out.

I've been taking a little break from fandom and the journals, spending my time writing my never-ending Teyla story (almost 35,000 words at the moment, with more to tell; my god, I love Teyla and I have so much to say about her!) and running all kinds of errands that have unexpectedly cropped up. However, darling Tex is holding her Casa McShep festival till January 1, 2010, so I did post a little story over there, The White Island.

Other than that, I plan to remain away for a bit longer. I feel I just got too caught up in some stuff and that's unlike me. At least, I think it's unlike me, but who the hell knows. I do know that I'm missing wonderful stuff, but I'll catch up eventually. Thank god for the SGA Newsletter.

So. Six years ago, the final chapter of The Lord of the Rings movie, The Return of the King, was released. Eight years ago, the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released. And ten years ago, principal photography had begun.

I note these dates because six years, the very night The Return of the King came out, my husband was hospitalized and I was crazy with fear. He had a long, hard recovery; in some ways he will never recover. I joke that I've had three husbands: before, during, and after the experience -- and fortunately, I like the "after" version of him quite a lot.

But this time of year remains difficult for us. Even though good things have happened since (we found him better doctors, I got a much better job, we moved to a beautiful place), during this dark time of the year I get afraid. I cry more easily and more often, and everything feels tender, almost sore. I'm always so glad when the holidays are over and the new year has begun; I feel more hopeful for the future then.

I also mention those dates because The Lord of the Rings is inextricably bound up in my memories of the bad days. I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but the Lord of the Rings books, movies, and fandom saved me. All you Lotrips folks kept me going. Writers and artists and readers, people I met in RL and those I didn't: I am so grateful to you. Thank you for helping me through those dark and sad days.

Here's a song I think is fitting: Hope for the Hopeless, by The Frenzy (at Sendspace).

ratcreature @ 3:09pm: happy solstice!
I'm so glad that the days will now be getting longer again (in this hemisphere at least). Seven and a half hours of paltry, weak sunlight at best (usually much less with it being overcast) is just not enough.

auburnnothenna @ 11:48pm: randomly twitching
Holidays are engineered to make me feel inadequate, angry, and anxious. It's an awful sort of amorphous anxiety that you can't do anything about, because it's not based on anything real. I do not like this one bit.

Oh, yes, and I don't want to go to dinner at my stepsister's on Christmas Eve. I really, really, really do not want to. She's a lovely person and her husband can actually out-do me on the silence front, I like her kids, I have no problem with dogs and cats, and I just don't want to goooooooooooo. I want someone to pay me to be a hermit.

Plus, sleep would be nice. Really nice. Then my brain would work again and I would, say, remember that the car won't shift out of park without my foot on the brake. Ten minutes I spent thinking the tranny had quit out of the blue.

Good notes in an otherwise crummy week: I got a nice story for SGA Santa and got mine turned in before deadline and I uploaded my Yuletide effort (after fighting with AO3's interface). So I'm caught up except for the Apocabigbang fic I haven't even outlined. Which may be the first thing I ever default on; I don't know. I've got enough GT&T written to post if I can scrounge a beta up. I'll do that after Christmas. It's not really as much as I'd meant to finish for this part, but it's a decent spot to break it and I want to get something up before the end of the year.

God, I really want this stupid holiday to be over this year.

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/232599.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

xtricks @ 12:38pm: critique: Leverage and Hustle
Hustle is the English version of Leverage - or, most likely, Leverage is an American reinterpretation of Hustle.

Very similar in initial concept, very different in feel. For one, the first character we're introduced to and is evidently the leader, is a black man. A black man leading a team of white people would be extremely rare in US TV/Film and, in such a case, race would be 'an issue'. And, Robert Vaughn is one of the actors in this show! I wonder of there's an AU out there where Napoleon left/retired from UNCLE under some cloud and ended up being a conman. Where is Illya, I wonder, and what is the relationship between Stroller (Vaughn's character) and Stone?
( What I think )

I'd recommend Hustle, in particular, for people trying to learn how to plot complicated, deception rife stories. But I can recommend both of the shows as lots of fun and without much in the way (so far) of ugly media messages.

ratcreature @ 6:07pm: random poll
As another decade ends (I can't believe it's going to be 2010 in just a few days. yikes!) you see all the usual retrospectives etc.; also I've been editing fanlore (and you should too, the wiki needs more people /end shameless plug). This led me to wonder: if you've been in fandom a long(-ish) time, do you ever feel nostalgia for fandom how it used to be? ("Fandom" in this case intentionally vague as I just mean whatever form of fandom you were involved in the era you are nostalgic for.) And if so, for which time period? So I thought I'd do a poll.

The first is a question of whether you feel nostalgia, and in the second you can check tickyboxes to indicate for which time period you are feeling nostalgia. That I have split into two options for each period for an indication whether you actually were in fandom in that time period and feel nostalgia due to firsthand experience, or feel nostaligia because you have read or heard about that time and wish you had been in fandom then, because it just sounds more awesome to you than fandom now. I did give up to the early 2000s as options to feel nostalgia for, though I am a bit dubious whether you can call it "nostalgia" proper if it's less than ten years ago.
( fandom nostalgia poll, cut to spare your f-list )

ratcreature @ 11:21am: random rat post
Why is it that rats themselves can smell so awesome, when their pee smells just like smelly pee? Seriously, rats themselves smell very nice: If you bury your nose in their fur it is a pleasant smell, much better than most other animals I've smelled up close (admittedly mostly cats and dogs so the comparison sample is small). And yet -- they pee in their sleeping spaces where they then lie down, and they pee on each other anyway, but while I smell like gross rat pee when they inevitably mark me or my clothes, they come out smelling like roses. Well not roses, but a nice non-pee smell. I just don't get it.

ratcreature @ 8:13am: it would probably be intrusive...
...but sometimes I think it would be cool if journalling sites had a function to "suggest me a new journal to read" not a random one, but a suggestion based on your current subscriptions, interests, maybe on some kind of other fuzzy, internal data-mining (the aforementioned "intrusive" part). I'm not sure how these things work, but like what Amazon does when it suggests books to you (sometimes they even suggest me interesting things, though that one is hit and miss, even though I actually tried to refine it manually) or that online music thing, Pandora?, that tries to guess what your tastes music are (that wasn't bad, though I couldn't use it for long, because eventually these location blocks happened). Anyway, something more advanced than the "popular among your friends" feature that LJ offered (offers? I can never really find that on the site anymore), and you could refine its suggestions.

auburnnothenna @ 3:25pm: Mystery Christmas present or Letter bomb?
All right, who sent me something priority mail from Galaxy Media in, um, Georgia? It feels about the right size and weight to be a hardcover book.

Whatever it is, curiosity is killing me, but in a good way, so many thanks!

Oh, yes, murron, I got your gorgeous postcard. So pretty. I've stuck it up over the desk. Blessed be.

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/232385.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

auburnnothenna @ 6:19pm: Yip yip yippee! with added rec
sga_santa is posting!

::stares::

There's a 33,000 word McKay/Keller story.

::whimpers::

Even though I know it will make me unhappy, you know I'm going to read it.

ETA: I did read it and liked it. There's nice science fiction/horror movie premise, enough plot and action to satisfy me, and very well-done treatment of Rodney and Jennifer's canon relationship, Rodney's canon friendship with John, and the consequences of how the team changed over five years. This is probably the first Jennifer Keller with Rodney McKay that I've liked. Can't put my finger on how she's different than other versions, except that -- okay, this Jennifer isn't trying the manage and reshape Rodney. Maybe that isn't so canon-like -- it's better. As for John, well, you're left feeling rather as I imagine Teyla often does: torn between cuddling him and giving him a good thwap to the back of the head. Then going and finding whoever screwed him up so wonderfully and beating them with sticks for a while.

I recommend this fic to anyone, even McKay/Sheppard 'shippers, who doesn't have an automatic allergic reaction to the het pairing. I think gen readers would enjoy it as well. Rated for sex, it would be completely PG.

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Also, this: Wordtwist is really, really bad for productivity. And very frustrating because it accepts the weirdest non-words ever and then won't recognize blivet!

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/232055.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

xtricks @ 1:50pm: When good things go bad
Oh, god. The Save Ianto peeps came out with a 400 page report. In itself not at all bad - in fact, I'm very much for the 'consumers' of entertainment media having more say in work that is supposed to be for them and for being vocal when treated badly. I fully support the charity campaigns and donated to the Lluest Pony myself. However, the terrible statistical train wreck, the misogyny regarding Gwen, and the generally poor scholarship makes me cringe so hard that I can't read the report.

Which might be a problem since they evidently quote quite a few LJ people without much in the way of permission or credit. Since I wrote a teal deer or two about it, it's entirely possible it's in there. Also, something I don't mind - LJ is a public forum, not a private diary. I just ... would prefer that my name not get mixed up in something so poorly done.

Time to break out the vodka and a few fail!bingo cards!

Or write porn ... hmm.

mirabile_dictu @ 6:39pm: Seriously self-indulgent post about bread
xposted to IJ and LJ

I love bread. I have always loved bread. Bread for breakfast, for dinner, for dessert, any and all kinds of bread. For several years, we went without because Webster had been diagnosed as having celiac's disease. Celiac's is "a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms" (from here).

It was a pain, especially living here in the Wine Country where our artisan breads are known and loved. Within three miles of where I live is a world-renown bakery, and fewer than thirty miles away are a number of others equally well known. For my birthday, we go to a restaurant in San Francisco with its own bakery that puts the most delicious bread imaginable on the table, with fresh local olive oil.

We had to give all that up for years. I know that others suffer much more, and that we are lucky. And we were luckier than we knew because eventually Webster got a new gastroenterologist who ran the tests and discovered that, whatever is wrong with him, celiac's isn't it. We could eat bread again.

Almost at the same time, I discovered the New York Times's recipe for no-knead bread. When I was a kid I'd made bread a lot; I loved the kneading, and watching the dough rise, and oh, the flavor. But when I grew up I somehow lost the knack. The bread wouldn't rise. The crust was too hard. The bread lacked flavor. I decided that the yeast no longer loved me, and gave it up.

But now, armed with the NYT recipe and medical permission to eat gluten again, I tried my hand. We loved the results. Unlike me, Webster hadn't grown up in a house with fresh bread, so this was new to him. At first, he would eat about half a loaf at one sitting! Oops. Not good for his tummy, even if he could eat gluten. But it was soooo good.

Not long ago, I started hearing about another no-knead recipe, Artisan Bread, one that lets you make one big batch of dough and then bake whenever you want (recipe here). I think MRKinch mentioned it? Whoever did, I bless her. Now we have fresh bread literally every day, and if Webster wants something dessert-ish and quick, I turn some of the dough into little cinnamon buns or plain rolls that he slathers in strawberry jam.

I'm so enthusiastic about my breadmaking that I've documented it! So if you dare, here is ME making BREAD!

( Seriously, links to BIG pictures of me making bread )

auburnnothenna @ 5:31pm: The calendar says
Blessings and happiness to all who are celebrating Hanukkah!

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/231460.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

ratcreature @ 8:57pm: I got my Yuletart gift!
The yuletart gift for me was just posted, and it is a very cute Spock/Uhura piece with a tribble. So check it out.

auburnnothenna @ 3:04pm: Oooooh Shiny
Judas Doesn't Answer won a McShe p award for Dark fic. Which it is. I always think that story suffers from many people not liking that John is ambiguous in it. Maybe he's really a bad guy, maybe he's the guy we think we know with a few more secrets, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I wanted readers to be free to make up their own minds, but most of them took the end message to mean the former. I still love it though, for the whiptails and finding a reason for War and Peace.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who read and voted for it. I'm a happy writer right now, with my sga santa story completed and submitted, my Yuletide off to a beta reader (that I've never worked with before!) after dossier said it was okay.  The plot, that is.

I'm trying to find the entry into the next scene on Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. I know what the scene has to have, but I've run into a problem: Jehan and Vala are far to paranoid not to be expecting an attack, and too good to be overpowered, so how the hell does Kel take over the bridge? Arggh.  Also wondering if atmosphere will vent from a hull breach while the ship is hyperspace. The ship must be in some kind of field that allows it to exist in four dimensions while travelling through the higher ones, so maybe that would also hold in atmosphere? Would atmosphere be drawn out into hyperspace the way it is into vacuum anyway?

Not getting more than an hour's unbroken sleep in the last two days is making me cranky and slow-minded. My inner snark monster is rattling the bars of its cage.


I got the the PO, though! Packages are off, freaking customs labels and all. Am now broke for Christmas.


This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/231359.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

ratcreature @ 8:49pm: two more drawbles
I didn't manage these two last night, so they got them today.

( An octopus flying a helicopter for Odditycollector )
( Matt Murdock--as Matt or Daredevil--stopping at Starbucks (or other coffee place) for a break during Christmas shopping. for Tartanshell )

ratcreature @ 4:35pm: a brief rant
( Sort of a minor Criminal Minds spoiler, but not really about the plot )

mirabile_dictu @ 7:18pm: A bad decade
xposted to IJ and LJ

Why am I not getting my IJ and LJ notices? Do both services have it out for me? Dang. Still not going to DW, though. There has to be a third way.

Casa McShep is open! Yay!

( Some big photos back here )

ratcreature @ 3:19am: more finished drawbles
These are the last for tonight, the rest I will have to wait until tomorrow.

( A giraffe in a Star Trek sciences uniform for Reginagiraffe )
( rats dancing / performing in old Hollywood musical style a la Fred Astaire for Siljamus )
( A superhero pajama party for Marinarusalka )
( Spider-Man carrying Captain America's schoolbooks for Caia )

ratcreature @ 12:18am: finished drawbles so far
( Aeryn Sun and Ellen Harvelle, being awesome for Cofax )
( John and Ronon surfing, or just hanging around on the beach for Telesilla )
( TOS!Trek characters making friends with a tentacle monster for Shadowvalkyrie )
( Woolsey with some animal. Some alien little creature. His new pet. for Astridv )
( Lorne debating paperwork vs painting...with John looking hopeful for the former. for Seikaitsukimizu )
( a rattie party, with hats and balloons for Droolfangrrl )

ratcreature @ 7:30pm: drawble offer
I'm in the mood to doodle and haven't offered drawbles in some time, so prompt me in a comment?

As usual, I'll do my best for any fandom I'm familiar with, or random stuff (monsters, steampunk machines, animals...) or I can just pick prompts from your interests. I don't draw porn though, and I'm not good at portrait likeness. Also keep in mind that these are quick doodles, so for a prompt that is a description of some epic scene you've always wanted to see realized in fanart the results aren't going to very satisfying for you (or much fun for me).

If you want to see the quality (or lack thereof) you can expect, look at the drawble tag. I don't make any promises for results or a timely delivery, but the past I've usually managed to draw something for everyone who prompted me for these non-demanding, open drawble offers. So this isn't limited to something like "the first X comments get a drawble" or anything like that, which is impractical with the crossposting in three places anyway. (However considering the broken state of the LJ comment notification right now, I'm more likely to notice your prompt quickly if you comment on DW or IJ. ETA: Except that IJ seems to be down completely just now. *argh*)