Closet Cooking is one of my favorite cooking blogs. He excels in taking a single ingredient and then finding ways to combine it into different meals over the week.

Butternut squash is coming into season. Here are a few suggestions.

For simpler recipes with less ingredients, I still rely on Rachael Ray with a bit of tweaking (adding one or two more veggies to all of pastas and soups). Like this amazingly sinful, yet simple Chocolate Pots De Creme.

[A Dreamwidth post with comments | Post a Dreamwidth comment| How to use OpenID]

I did hear back from the mods, which I didn't expect. Basically, the problem was my tone. Oh, and the mod who actually suspended me and deleted my posts didn't read far enough back--or ahead--to notice that the thread had been and continued to be way off-topic.

I honestly didn't realize that TWoP had a long history of being faily. It's a shame, because I really liked the SGU snark, as well as the recaps of Flash Forward. Oh, well.

Googlewave just slipped me a bunch of invites. Comment with email if you want to come play so I can send you the invite. I think it will be fab for collaboration.

All comments screened. Comments open on all journals. I'll update when they're gone.

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. comments.

(Star Wars fandom, don't ever say I don't give you pressies.)

On the AO3, there now exist fandom titles for:

Star Wars (Comics)

Star Wars (Video Games)

For all of the book series' various eras, using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books as a reference:
- Star Wars: Sith Era - Various
- Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - Various
- Star Wars: Rebellion Era - Various
- Star Wars: New Republic Era - Various
- Star Wars: New Jedi Order Era - Various
- Star Wars: Legacy Era - Various

For the films:

The synonym fandom titles for Star Wars Original Trilogy are currently:
# Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
# Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
# Star Wars: A New Hope
# SW:ANH
# ANH
# Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
# Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
# A New Hope
# The Empire Strikes Back
# Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
# Return of the Jedi
# SW:RotJ
# RotJ
# SW:ESB
# SW:TESB
# ESB

I am currently looking at the 84 works that had been tagged by their authors into the Star Wars fandom to figure out if we can make Star Wars a synonym for Star Wars Original Trilogy temporarily, because currently there is only one work in any of the synonyms of Star Wars Original Trilogy, because that work was tagged into the Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi fandom initially by its author (full disclosure: that was me). All of the existing characters and pairings tags have now been untangled, and the fandom tag Star Wars is now a temporary synonym for Star Wars Original Trilogy.

As soon as we get metatagging capability, Star Wars will be a separate tag which encompasses all of the component Star Wars fandoms under its umbrella, so to speak... all of the movies and expanded universe tie-ins and books and videogames and tv shows and whateverthehellelse... and we'll all be able to breathe a little easier.

The synonym fandom titles for Star Wars Prequel Trilogy are currently:
# The Phantom Menace
# Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
# Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
# Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
# Star Wars (TPM)
# Star Wars Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith
# Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
# Revenge of the Sith
# Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
# Attack of the Clones
# SW:AotC
# AotC
# SW:RotS
# RotS
# SW:TPM - Fandom (this is a slight glitch that we'll have to deal with tomorrow related to when the rake process rakes; there is also currently a freeform tag TPM which should ultimately possibly be a fandom tag synonym instead, but I'm not sure, since it's being used as a timeframe-type freeform, like pre-ANH or pre-TPM)
# Phantom Menace

I'm still wrangling character and pairing names, but I think we've got the fandom titles sorted out, and we're working on the character and pairing names for the movies which had already been uploaded into the AO3 are now wrangled. The Expanded Universe character and pairing details will come later. Thank you for your patience as the wranglers wrangulate.

Additional references:
http://www.imdb.com/find?q=star+wars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_Universe_%28Star_Wars%29
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page


(Also, should anyone feel the need (I will not be held responsible for what may result):
Star Wars Holiday Special (TV))

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016724.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: busy

xposted to IJ and LJ

• Word count: 1,332.
  
  
• Interesting article: Clay Shirky's essay A Speculative Post on the Idea of Algorithmic Authority. Authority thus performs a dual function; looking to authorities is a way of increasing the likelihood of being right, and of reducing the penalty for being wrong. This is, oddly, something I think about a fair bit -- probably because the university I used to work at is run by scoundrels and liars. Over and over again the president (or more often his horrible "spokeswoman") would say things that I absolutely knew weren't true. Even writing about it, years later, when I no longer work there, makes my heart race. Of course, living through the George W. Bush years was pretty much the same thing: liars, liars, liars. So what makes an authority the authority when you know that what they say isn't accurate? Looking to authorities might increase the likelihood of being right when the value of "right" has nothing to do with verifiable facts.
  
  
• Guilt still plagues me: Almost two years ago, I signed up for a story exchange and flaked out. I was having troubling writing anyway, and the prompts I received didn't spark anything. I felt horrible dropping out -- and have sworn off exchanges FOREVER as a result -- but I'm still glad I signed up because the person who got my prompts not only didn't flake out, she wrote a wonderful, wonderful story that I re-read again today: Salutation to the Dawn, a deeply romantic Ronon/Radek story with terrific world-building. Thank you, Pierson! I still love your story so much.

For those of you who write, you know that point in a story where you just want to scream at it: "Why won't you just do what I tell you??"

Yeah.

There were going to be 75 chapters. Yeah, not so much.

Getting rid of Mary-Louise, finding out about Bodhi, Jensen's mom…I was totes going to be able to cover those in a single chapter each. Ha. Yeah, not so much.

I can't even begin to dissect how many scenes there are that I thought were going to go one way and, somewhere in transition, took a left at Albuquerque when they should've taken a right.

Don't get me wrong. To date, La Muse hasn't led me wrong in these unexpected detours. I think the stories that have resulted have always ended up being stronger and better than my original conceptions. As well, it's a pretty common writerly phenomenon.

That just doesn't make it any less annoying when it happens. And it doesn't make me feel any less like a maidservant trying to get her mistress into a dress that's entirely too small for her, fingers wrapped in the laces, foot planted firmly in her back and heaving for all I'm worth.

I know where I want to go. I know that. But the scenarios that have evolved have done so in a way that makes it impossible to resolve them as quickly as I first thought I'd be able to. Which means I then end up adding things, trying to course correct and bring them back around to where I think they should be (which doesn't always work) and that means I generally hit up at a point where the two ends don't meet and I'm at a loss how to bring them back together.

I just wrote myself off a cliff. I'm at a loss how to bring the ends back together.

And I'll figure it out. I always do. The boys at the brain farm are always working. But having built up so much momentum in the last couple scenes, it does feel a bit like slamming face-first into a screen door and falling on my ass (I speak from sad, pathetic experience, here). And there's always that initial panicky reaction of, Oh crap. Where do I go from here?

Me and the boys on the farm have some musing to do.

Current Mood: amused

I had to start again, because the stand mike wasn't working. It'd be fine if I had a desk, but with it on my lap in the back bedroom, I get echoes, and it picks up the ambient noise every time I shift position.

So I started...and realized quickly that the mike that connects to the jack on my laptop apparently picks up the broadcasts from the Catholic radio station whose tower is about a block away. While there's a certain irony in having the Catholic station ruining my attempt to record the NC-17 slash, I'm getting down to the wire here, and this is not helping.

Fortunately, I don't pick the station up after sundown, which still gives me a fair chunk of recording time. I've also ordered a USB headset mike that should get here on Wednesday. I kind of wish there were an adapter so I could use the jack mike at work, because my headset is crap.

Fandom: CWRPS
Pairing: Jeff/Jensen, Jared/Jensen
Rating: Adult
Warnings: Slavefic AU. Sexual, mental and physical abuse of adults and minors. Dark themes, adult concepts and language.
Disclaimer: This is in no way a true story.
Word Count: 2,900
AN: Master list of previous chapters found here. Cast of characters can be found here. Banner by the lovely and generous bloodquartz. Podfic version read by the amazing superstitiousme (found here, courtesy of the very kind general_jinjur). And don't forget the other really awesome stories to be found at whatwekeep.

Current Mood: calm

The music awards:

Shakira has women ninjas!

http://twitter.com/otw_news
http://twitter.com/AO3_Status/

http://transformativeworks.org/

And really, the current temporary AO3 glitch is not related to the Star Wars Holiday Special, I swear.

(Don't ask. Tag wrangler humor.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016499.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: calm

Good news on the work front: My tutoring job is going to give me 16 hours a week as of Dec. 1, which is great. It's an improvement.

The pay rate is good, and it gives me the required experience I need for teaching. (90 hours is the magic number. I'll have it by the end of December. Then I need a year of school for the teaching certificate.)

Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to live off of.

I don't have a car in car-dependent Maryland, so I'm having to ask "mommy" for rides to work, to interviews. I have all the time in the world to write -- yet can't find the space because I have to write around other people's schedules.

It's been four months and I'm getting the feeling she's burned out. As am I.

I want my life back.



Quantifying a life.

( When I drove across country to Seattle in 1996, I had a car. )

Aside from the degrees, how did I end up with less than when I started?

I don't rec fics all that often, but this one's different.

This story will leave you begging for brain bleach and reaching for something to poke out your eyes. I've already inflicted this on suki_blue and eyezrthewindows, and decided to share the pain with as many people as I can. After all, misery loves company.

I'll try to post some yummy dessert recipes here in a bit to make up for this torture.

Now that you've been warned that you may NEVER be the same if you click on this link, I give you... The Corellian, The Wookie and the 51st Century Man. With special guest appearances by Methos and Amanda, for reasons I don't really want to know about.

Go on. I double dog dare you.

Current Mood: nauseated

Mousie report.

Some of you may recall this post wherein a family of mouse babies took up residence in one of my fleece jackets (in a box that happens to be outdoors). I discovered this when I pulled my jacket out of the box, scattering mouse infants everywhere. I removed my other jackets, packed the box with newspaper, and used newsprint to scoop the littles back in the box.

A week later I discovered I'd missed four mouse babies, who'd fallen into a box I took inside. Noooo....

Then the temperature dropped and I thought the outdoor mousies were history.

Three weeks later ...

I'm happy to report that the mouse babies survived, and have moved on. But the nest is clearly there, and there are no apparent corpses.

Proof of life: the fleece jacket was not so lucky, sacrificed to the cause. The Mousies chewed a few holes.

Unless Rainy Pass can fix it.

Help & writing resources

In an untitled post, bridgetmkennit explains the tags system and the four different types of warnings at the Archive Of Our Own, and how to use them.

lore: BloMo18: Tis the season of saving stories....: tips on saving fanfic stories "in a format that can be easily transferred to most reading devices without losing the author's intended passages of emphasis".

There have been a few posts on BDSM, community rules and terminology, intended as resources for writers and to clear up some common misunderstandings. In Hi! My name is Minxie…, the_minx_17 talks about general rules and some stereotypes. irana wrote On BDSM, Part I to explain the abbreviations SCC and RACK, and to talk about consent. On BDSM, Part II covers negotiation (both Scene and Relationship negotiation).

InsaneJournal

An InsaneJournal Holiday Sale just started. Self-Committed (i.e. paid) accounts and Extra Userpics will be available at reduced prices until November 27th. Friday the 27th will also have a short sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

das_dingsi: Updating habits: "The interesting part is how it made me view the update page more closely than usual and I consciously noticed all the things I don't use [on InsaneJournal]."

Other

bitterfig: where do they make subtext?: "I always wonder where stuff like (i.e. homoerotic and/or incestuous subtext) this comes from, is it intentional or just a quirk of chemistry?"

lilithilien: Why do we do it?, a short commentary on an AfterElton.com article titled "Why are Women Interested in Gay Men? It's Not Because They Want to Sleep With Them!", with discussion in comments.

novembermond: has a question about friending meme[s]: "[W]hat are the dos and don'ts ... ?"

[Supernatural] ep. 5x10 meta-ish reaction posts - SPOILERS galore!
the_shoshanna: Supernatural 5.10, "Abandon All Hope...": "Thanks SO MUCH for making women just the underbrush to be cleared away before the real stuff happens."
musesfool: lacrimae volvuntur inanes: "I would like to be able to talk about the episode on its own merits, because I thought it was a fantastic episode emotionally and a great way to go into hiatus, but I am SO FUCKING SICK of the way this show treats female characters."
yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): SPN 5.10 - A sign of hope: "There's nothing there right now for an audience to cling to, any more than a clear plot direction for Sam and Dean."

People always ask me about Buddhism ... and I'm caught flat-footed. You should ask a good Buddhist!

Well we're in luck. And online, too.

Tulku Orgyen has offered to help anyone with any questions about Buddhism: http://twitter.com/TulkuOgyen

Retweet, tweeters.

And thank you, Tulku Orgyen, for letting me pass the buck.

Current Mood: amused

The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!

If you're like me (in years past) you probably tune in to these winter sports, oh, once every four years. You get a general sense of who the favorites are from the announcers and interviews, roll your eyes at the inspirational life story clips, and root for the home team.

Now you don't have to be in the dark. You can be knowledgeable long before the Olympics hit.

At least about figure skating. (Everyone, feel free to correct me. I'm not an expert, I've just been following skating to the best of my ability for a couple years.)

Right now the horse race is on. It's the Grand Prix. As we speak, world class skaters are competing in a series of competitions Russia, France, Canada, the U.S., Japan, and er, I think elsewhere. Right now they're trying to earn points to get to the Grand Prix final -- and prove themselves worthy of the Olympic teams.

You see, last March at the World Championships each country won the number of slots they'd have at the Olympics based on how their skaters did. (The max is three.) China was very disappointed to not win any for men's figure skating. In a real shocker, the U.S. women's figure skating only scored two slots as our current National champ fell apart.

But our men are doing fab. Evan Lysacek won the gold at Worlds and we have a "deep field," namely, many guys running neck and neck for the same titles.

Let's have a look at our boys.

The Americans.


The ever-hot gentleman, Evan Lysacek. (The belt buckle is Batman, with cable and bat-grappling hook.)

( Evan has the quad. He has the fire. He's a skater who starts pouring it out in the last 30 seconds of his performance.... )

Finally, there's Mabanoozerabadahblbrghf. Graceful, fluid, fun to watch. I don't know if he'll keep moving up, he's still inconsistent. But he has a musical sense that makes him figure skating eye candy.



Only three will make it to the Olympics.

Which three? We'll know at Nationals in Spokane, January 2010.


Tomorrow: those other guys, yeah, them foreigners.

Current Mood: bleary

your ears tuned to the roar
Supernatural; Jo, Ellen; pg; spoilers through 5.10; 1,510 words
In which Jo grows up.

Thanks to angelgazing for handholding and title-wrangling.

( your ears tuned to the roar )

~*~

Feedback is adored.

~*~

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/98389.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: hungry

( Classic Chocolate Cream Pie )

xposted to IJ and LJ

Word count: 137.

My hip has hurt for three days straight, and it's kind of getting to me. It's not a biting, omg need to vomit pain. But it feels wrong and makes me worry and overthink.

Also I miss DW. Yes I'm still commenting, but I miss the people that drop in to say *hugs*. I'm very much aware that it's a 'deal' to come to iJay and people tend to do so and catch up on a bunch of posts at once. The major thing is, however, the very reason I'm not over there (inability to save comments) makes missing it useless. Because I'd be there and anxious about not being able to save it, or just be xposting there with comments on here.

But it rankles a lot that some problem with my imported lj comments apparently isn't duplicable. It's the thing that originally made me go - hey this could get me just about 98% or more LJ free and pay attention to dw in the first place. And then it irks that you can't show comments but have comments closed. And it irks that you can't have comments open on individual posts if the comment default for the journal itself is 'comments disabled'. I mean Blogger has that. Since when has Blogger been on the cutting edge of the industry. They only figured out how to do easy jump cuts THIS YEAR. And it doesn't even work for everyone.

Meanwhile I've discovered/confirmed/reconfirmed my romance hot button trope.

But it doesn't feel very important at all given the hip pain. Seriously hip pain sucks. A lot. With rocks. Slimey rocks.

Also? Dragonage: Origins will never* drop to a price I consider reasonable given its skeezy race and trans issues *mental tantrum with fist stomping*

*[Note the dramatic emphasis]

Of all of the things I never, ever, ever expected to say in this lifetime...

Because general_jinjur is amazing, and the OTW is amazing, and the AO3 is amazing, and the Wrangulator is amazing, and because everyone who is uploading stories and tagging them is amazing...

Go read:

forma by general_jinjur. It's Tag Wuzzle Wrangler RPF.

I will apparently be cosplaying myself next Escapade, y'all.

(If there is a fanartist in range of my voice who can draw in the style of Nausicaa Valley of the Wind and is willing to do a commission, please let me know.)

(Heck, if any fanartist wants to do something related to this, let general_jinjur know... she says the Wrangulatorverse is open to sharing according to the open-transform statement on her profile, but I'm sure she'd love to hear if you make any derivative work from it!)

And yes, the tag wrangling team is still looking for more volunteers.

*holds out hand*

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016266.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: enthralled

Sigh. My cake didn't rise, and worse, it tastes like failure.

*crosses that recipe off the list*

On the upside, there was reviewing of yuletide source. Now I just have to figure out what I'm writing.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/98189.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: quixotic

100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do; Parts 1 & 2

I read it all the way through and suddenly realized why as a child eating out in America confused me so much (because things were so different) and why I get so easily irked when I go out to eat now.

Here I was attributing it to me being anti-social.

'Are you still working on that?' - *grits teeth* Why are you calling the meal or the experience of eating it WORK?

And the constant hovering and pouring water that some people think is good service but which just makes my stomach tense up and cramp because there's no moment to relax without someone in your face all the time. I find nothing wrong with going out and treating myself to dinner, PLEASE PLEASE do not think, dear servers, that I need company and you're doing me a favour stopping by every five to seven minutes. I'm either reading, or enjoying the view and meal.

What's most revealing to me is the comments. People insisting they can never eat or work in a restaurant owned by the person who compiled the list because there are too many rules. People insisting that someone who has all their rules must be underpaying their staff, or that they're expecting a lot of work and formality out of minimum wage staff. As if how much you get paid to do a thing, dictates whether or not you do it well and properly.

Then there's the people who're all 'You'll go out of business if you give away recipes'

And the people who think the rules are obnoxious.

And the person who called it 'early 20th Century British servant manners' - as an INSULT.

And the people who can't tell the difference between telling a customer about dishes without stating which dishes are their favourite. I mean I only give a damn about the waiter's favourite dish if I'm trying to decide something and they say 'I'm a total chocoholic and I really like x'. In which cause I immediately know it's likely to be too rich for my tastebuds.

I finally found a comment that cements to me the general consensus of the 'WTF comments'

101. A Waiter will never, by word or sign, indicate that he or she believes he is a human being of equal worth as the patrons of the restaurant. When the Waiter accepts a check signed by the restaurant owner/manager, that proves he or she is inferior.


102. A Waiter will never, when off duty, off the restaurant premises, or anywhere else, act in a manner unbecoming to the restaurant. The Waiter is an ambassador for the restaurant and is at all time responsible to the restaurant for his or her behavior. The Waiter is permanently the property of the restaurant.

Okay, this is the plan for hiatus:

1. yuletide
2. Broken Toys
3. the 5.10 story I'm working on right now (I keep having to stop because it's making me cry! That never happens to me when I write!)
4. The Dean-Michael dream story
5. Drought Conditions (casefile)
6. Nothing but Winter in my Cup (casefile)
7. the Dean/Sam/Pam story

That's quite a lot, considering November and December are usually the time of my fannish malaise.

This song is not helping with the crying, iTunes!

Now, though, I think I am going to bake a cake.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/98022.html. people have commented there.

In today's "Activism: Ur Doin It Wrong" department, we have accusations that slurs against pagan rituals are racist. Set aside, for the moment, that said slurs don't actually exist. That... give some insight into the mind of the commenter, but isn't, in fact, relevant.

What's relevant is that she thinks Wicca's being insulted, and she's "calling" the supposed insulter on her "racism." (In a community about public transportation. So, um, more than rather severely off-topic all around.)

I don't have an icon that's halfway between "facepalm" and "headdesk." (And I don't want one; that would mean I expect to find *more* stuff like this to post about. Which I'd really rather not.)

Oh, and the comment threads hit Godwin's law, ablism, classism and childfreekiness. And NEVAR AGAIN TEH BURNING TIEMS! A glory of fucktupitude all around.

(I got this from dot_pagan_snark, and it's been on stupid_free, so apologies to people who already know about it. Sharin' the pain, folks; sharin' the pain.)

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/283818.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

I was putting together what new material I have for Appetite and I was really pretty shocked at how little it comes out to be, when assembled. Part of the reason for this is that there are two scenes that I've spent a lot of words on, but it was all writing and rewriting them, trying to find the "right" take for them. So there's verbiage, but most of it is garbage. Or…if not garbage, than discards and it's a real struggle for me to be Zen about this and say that it will come when it comes and accept that with equanimity. There are some stories I can bull my way through. I used to be better at bulling my way through a stubborn story. But now it's a talent that seems to have deserted me and, as usual, I'm not sure how to recover it.

On the other hand, I feel like AKB is going like gangbusters. Which is awesome and I am thankful for that, but, at the same time, it's hard not to feel like my success with AKB and that all my excitement and creativity going toward it is detracting from my other goals. And while a part of me doesn't want it to end, the glimmering of the end on the horizon is also a relief. Of course, it also brings up a certain morbid curiosity about what, exactly, will take its place as the object of my obsession. And, of course, the fear that nothing will.

In my current spate of 'trashy' reading, I'm reading LKH's Skin Trade and I realized a big part of the many, many things that bother me about the Anita Blake books (and their [de]evolution over time) is the distinct lack of femaleness.

( A little more about that. Not specifically spoilery. )

Another thing that I really want to write about, but haven't quite figured out how to talk about it without potentially offending people, is mini_nanowrimo. On the one hand, I understand that it, like anything writing related, is a tool and what people get out of it and how they use it and what it means to them is entirely individual. I can't dispute that. I can't argue with that.

But, at the same time, I confess to a certain (un-modly, personal) frustration when people either miss a day of writing or miss a day of posting and decide to pack it up and give up on the challenge entirely. I mean…I get the disappointment of not meeting the goals that you've set for yourself. Boy howdy, do I get that! And I do understand the impulse that, if you cannot be perfect, you'd rather be nothing at all.

But I also feel like it's a childish impulse, in its way. The older I get (and the theoretically wiser) the more I think less and care less about perfection and care and think more about perseverance.

The way we do one thing is the way we do everything. In this life, we make mistakes, we fail. We fail in so many ways. Some failure is inevitable. And, generally speaking, we don't have the option of packing it in, taking our ball and going home. Generally, we have to stick it out, strap it on and clean up our messes. And I find a certain grace in that. Much more grace, in some ways, than the people who do manage some level of perfection, because it takes guts to faceplant and then get up again and move on. I feel like we spend so much time trying to self-talk ourselves and everyone else into not making any mistakes, to being perfect and we spend none of that time teaching ourselves or each other how to recover from those inevitable failures. Or that a failure doesn't need to be the end of everything. And that a failure in one part doesn't equal complete catastrophe.

( Some more thoughts on the matter. (The opinions within are those of poisontaster, and do not represent the comm as a whole or in part.) )

Current Mood: busy

I was putting together what new material I have for Appetite and I was really pretty shocked at how little it comes out to be, when assembled. Part of the reason for this is that there are two scenes that I've spent a lot of words on, but it was all writing and rewriting them, trying to find the "right" take for them. So there's verbiage, but most of it is garbage. Or…if not garbage, than discards and it's a real struggle for me to be Zen about this and say that it will come when it comes and accept that with equanimity. There are some stories I can bull my way through. I used to be better at bulling my way through a stubborn story. But now it's a talent that seems to have deserted me and, as usual, I'm not sure how to recover it.

On the other hand, I feel like AKB is going like gangbusters. Which is awesome and I am thankful for that, but, at the same time, it's hard not to feel like my success with AKB and that all my excitement and creativity going toward it is detracting from my other goals. And while a part of me doesn't want it to end, the glimmering of the end on the horizon is also a relief. Of course, it also brings up a certain morbid curiosity about what, exactly, will take its place as the object of my obsession. And, of course, the fear that nothing will.

In my current spate of 'trashy' reading, I'm reading LKH's Skin Trade and I realized a big part of the many, many things that bother me about the Anita Blake books (and their [de]evolution over time) is the distinct lack of femaleness.

( A little more about that. Not specifically spoilery. )

Another thing that I really want to write about, but haven't quite figured out how to talk about it without potentially offending people, is mini_nanowrimo. On the one hand, I understand that it, like anything writing related, is a tool and what people get out of it and how they use it and what it means to them is entirely individual. I can't dispute that. I can't argue with that.

But, at the same time, I confess to a certain (un-modly, personal) frustration when people either miss a day of writing or miss a day of posting and decide to pack it up and give up on the challenge entirely. I mean…I get the disappointment of not meeting the goals that you've set for yourself. Boy howdy, do I get that! And I do understand the impulse that, if you cannot be perfect, you'd rather be nothing at all.

But I also feel like it's a childish impulse, in its way. The older I get (and the theoretically wiser) the more I think less and care less about perfection and care and think more about perseverance.

The way we do one thing is the way we do everything. In this life, we make mistakes, we fail. We fail in so many ways. Some failure is inevitable. And, generally speaking, we don't have the option of packing it in, taking our ball and going home. Generally, we have to stick it out, strap it on and clean up our messes. And I find a certain grace in that. Much more grace, in some ways, than the people who do manage some level of perfection, because it takes guts to faceplant and then get up again and move on. I feel like we spend so much time trying to self-talk ourselves and everyone else into not making any mistakes, to being perfect and we spend none of that time teaching ourselves or each other how to recover from those inevitable failures. Or that a failure doesn't need to be the end of everything. And that a failure in one part doesn't equal complete catastrophe.

( Some more thoughts on the matter. (The opinions within are those of poisontaster, and do not represent the comm as a whole or in part.) )

Current Mood: busy

Hi, my name's elf, and I have a reading problem.

When most people say "reading problem," they mean "the letters look blurry to me" or "I've been assigned more pages than human eyeballs can absorb this weekend" or "ack, my comprehension of Russian is too low for me to get the right concepts out of this physics paper." It almost never means "I think I've been neglecting other parts of my life for reading."

Because reading isn't considered a dangerous addiction. It has no physical side-effects. It doesn't make the mind slow or incompetent. At no point, in the throes of reading, is one incapable of driving or performing surgery, should one's skills go in those directions. (Well, save for the "must put book down" part. However, after that immediate shift in awareness, one's reflexes and attention are both available to whatever tasks might be at hand.)

And it's not expensive. Nobody sells off his car and formal clothes to get books. Nobody hocks her wedding jewelry. Books--really good books--are available everywhere at prices ranging from "cheap" to "free." And the internet hasn't made that any less true. Entertaining content, informative & educational content, useful, delightful, important content, is free by the terabyte.

And oooh, I want to read it ALL.

( I read a lot. I could read a lot more. )

We are starting this years InsaneJournal holiday sale. From now until the end of the day Friday, November 27 we are going to be holding a sale on Self-Committed[paid] accounts and Extra Userpics.

The prices are be as follows

Self-Committed[paid]
1 Month -> $5
6 Month -> $15 $10
12 Month -> $25 $18

Extra Userpicx
6 Month -> $10 $5
12 Month -> $20 $15

Then on Friday November 27th from 8am until 4pm (Eastern US time) we will be running a very special sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

That's right kids! This week's issue of The Skinny Newsletter is out! If you're looking for original m/m or original f/f fiction this newsletter's for you!

Speaking just as myself, and not in my role as volunteer tag wuzzle wrangler...

my first fanfic
my first explicit fanfic
embarrassing old fic

you don't have to know the canon

one of my best
if you only read one work by me

I think it would be so nifty to be able to see what others choose of their fics for those tags!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016047.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: curious

The Sims 3: World Adventure ROCKS SO FREAKING HARD!!!!

Current Mood: enthralled

My very favorite episode of West Wing is on Monday morning. The Midterms. With one of the best rants of all time.

Of course I have a standing appointment to go grocery shopping that day. And it's not like I can call and cancel just to watch five minutes of TV. ~headdesk~ So I'm gonna miss it. ~pouts~ So, here's a crab puff recipe. Because Sam stealing that bitch's crap puff off her plate is just such a nice finish to the rant.



( Crab Puffs )

xposted to IJ and LJ

Word count: 1,024. Yay! No end in sight, though.

Oy, this day. Or, well, yesterday, at this point. The less said, the better. And did I mention I got my period this morning? oy.

I left work late - I think I was the only person left in the office - and all I wanted was to come home and watch this week's Friday Night Lights. But the file I dl'd wouldn't play on WMP or QT or even VLC. I updated DivX and it wouldn't play on that either. So I deleted it, rebooted, and redownloaded, and it worked.

I thought I might actually get through the episode without crying. I don't know why I thought that. I don't think it's ever happened, and it certainly did not happen tonight.

Friday Night Lights: A Sort of Homecoming

( spoilers )

***

Okay, I just asked this in meret's comments, but ( spoilers for SPN s5 that's aired so far )

***

*yawn*

Man, I totally need to sleep.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/97606.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: sleepy

• albumsontheside: I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me. - what makes certain fics popular? - why are some fics so unbelievably popular in certain fandoms, and why do the fans often react so personally to any criticism levied against said fics? -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom criticism)


• thefrogg: Muses and Fic Nicknames - Am I the only writer who happens to actually...give a personality/name/body/whatever to their muse? -
  
  (tags: writing)

Okay, I should have known better. But I was enjoying the SGU thread on TWoP, with all of the lovely snark. And I appreciated the fact that most of the posters seemed to get why having sex in someone else's body was skeevy, and why it's problematic that the black guy in SGU is yet another Angry Black Man.

( Seriously--I should have known better. )

Current Mood: irritated

Anyone on my list ever wear a motorcycle helmet? What does it sound like? I mean, I imagine that it would sound kinda funny if it's an old one that has a visor covering the face but no communications equipment. Is there an echo?

Sorry to bug y'all for this but I'm needing it for a story that may not see the light of day for ages.

( SPN: About last night.... (of course there're spoilers) )

The real "oh no"? SPN's not coming back until the end of January?

Oh no!

Wait, wait. Don't panic. There's still Merlin.

Current Mood: entertained

Saw this last night on Paula Deen and had to share! It's just so fun to say. Turducken. Turducken, turducken, turducken.



( Turducken )

Hair is on its way to being its proper color again. Just have to sleep on it and rinse it out in the morning. (Brr. We often don't have hot water in the morning; our unit shares a hot water heater with two others.)

Windows Vista apparently doesn't come with an unzip program. I can't unlock ZIP or RAR files. (Somewhere in my portable apps collection is a nice unlock-anything program; I've forgotten the name of it and can't be arsed to figure it out right now, since I can unzip the comics tomorrow.)

We got Dish network. 250 channels, although I gather that some of those might be music channels, and too many of them are sports. Still, lots more than we've had. I watch DishEarth a lot, which is a satellite feed of the earth, with classical music. I like it, but I miss the snow channel.

It's been cold enough recently that both Rob & I wake up with our shoulders tense and knotted in pain. It doesn't go away. I'm taking drugs for pain (erm, Advil; I'm a drug wimp) and it bothers me--I hate taking drugs to alleviate symptoms instead of doing something about the base cause.

Phoenix's school counselors suggest we should get her some philosophy to read. (Her reading skills are off the charts, which I find entirely unsurprising. Also, she's prone to getting randomly existential at her teachers, which disconcerts them.) Any suggestions on good philosophy texts for a 14-year-old who loves Pokemon fanfic and the Poltergeist movies?

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/283213.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

The glory as I dreamed [Reference]
by Te
November 12, 2009

Disclaimers: No one and nothing here is mine.

Spoilers/Timeline: No real spoilers, takes place when Bruce is eighteen.

Summary: In which the two most obsessive people in the universe do what they do best.

Ratings Note/Warnings: Sexual content.

Author's Note: An AU 'missing scene' for ending *2* of A way so familiar. Will not make any sense without the other.

Acknowledgments: To Jack, Pixie, and Mildred for audiencing, encouragement, and putting up with me when the story veered sideways.

Story!

Current Mood: enthralled

xposted to IJ and LJ

• Word count: 673!
  
  
• I just finished reading My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme, and I loved it. Who doesn't love Julia? I grew up watching her on PBS, and to this day my mother does a terrific imitation of her dropping the turkey, picking it up, and continuing to cook it. She was a fascinating woman and oh my, what a life she led.
  
  I also fell in love with her husband, Paul -- he reminded me a lot of my husband Webster, though Paul was in better health. The book is full of pictures that Paul took, and a few of them both; here is my favorite:
  
  

I said goodbye to the house in which I grew up and was abused by my father, walked around, went to my favorite place to hide and play, remembered the good stuff. May this make my life easier, yes, please, yes, PLEASE.

Then I bought a Cookie Monster stuffed toy to sleep with. So OK, NOT doing that well after all, but that's how it goes, right? Yeah, that's how it goes.

Current Mood: scared

If you are a women over 40, please get annual mammograms and do monthly breast self-exams. Go in for an annual pap smear.

If you're a parent of a child, please talk to your doctor about getting your pre-teen vaccinated against HPV - a virus that infects 70% of adult Americans and can cause up to 6 forms of cancer including vaginal and anal cancer.

My cousin's wife is in a medically induced coma due to metastasized vaginal cancer and her family is struggling whether to wake her up and let her suffer a few more days so she and her two children can say goodbye to one another. She is 45.

[A Dreamwidth post with comments | Post a Dreamwidth comment| How to use OpenID]

Supernatural: Abandon All Hope

Okay, so I tried to do a rant section and a non-rant section of this post, but the ranty stuff kept intruding. So while I really liked many aspects of this episode, the rage kept intruding. Just so you know.

( spoilers )

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/97045.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: distressed

I just renamed the files on teland because a rather gratitude-inducing individual informed me that -- somehow -- it got indexed on google, which... no.

WORLD OF NO.

I -- look. It could be as simple as the fact that I've been using my gmail to point people to the story, but I would like to ask -- *beg* -- that those of you who have read the thing *not link it anywhere*. At all. Yes, that includes del.icio.us, nalasalad2. And maybe don't write out the links in your google apps?

Christ.

I'm going to put in that thingy to block robots just as soon as I can make my brain work enough to do that. In the meantime...

Hell. Just take the 'me' out of the file name. Save it onto your hard drives if you want it, because I'm *thisfuckingclose* to yoinking it.

Current Mood: gaaaaaaaaaaah

Dragging this SGA Santa story out of me, one sentence at a time.

I whimper at every NaNo post I stumble across. I stalled out early. Too much going on in RL, from temple, to work, to the job search, to WG not sending me my things, to the difficulty in finding time to write, to being several months out of the writing vein from having my life turned completely turned upside down.

This doesn't stop me from hoping that I can write something on this story once I get my mental pen to work.

Working tonight (yay!). I've also received my first paycheck.

Current Mood: frustrated

Fandom: CWRPS
Pairing: Jeff/Jensen, Jared/Jensen
Rating: Adult
Warnings: Slavefic AU. Sexual, mental and physical abuse of adults and minors. Dark themes, adult concepts and language.
Disclaimer: This is in no way a true story.
Word Count: 2,234
AN: Master list of previous chapters found here. Cast of characters can be found here. Banner by the lovely and generous bloodquartz. Podfic version read by the amazing superstitiousme (found here, courtesy of the very kind general_jinjur). And don't forget the other really awesome stories to be found at whatwekeep.

Current Mood: pleased

For the lovely rowaine. There's more recipes on the site I found this one on and they look GOOD! Eggnog made with honey, and biscotti and soup and yams and yum! Here's the link to the holiday ones.



( Pumpkin Pie made with Honey )