Friday Night Lights

( spoilers )

***

White Collar

This episode was full of "Hey it's that guys!" ( spoilers )

***

pet peeve of the day:

it's spelled PER SE. It means by, in, or of itself : as such : intrinsically. not PER SAY, which is just WRONG. If you don't know how to spell it, DON'T USE IT. Because spell check is not going to pick that one up.

Whew. I feel better now.

***

I barely managed to stay awake on the subway coming home tonight, so I took a long nap, but I am still all sleepy. I am very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/91247.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: tired

octopon - Pirates of DarkWater fandom asylum. Completed!

gotham_gazetteCompleted!</i>

vagrant_story - Vagrant Story fandom asylum. WIP; will be deleted unless more interest is shown.

And,

Please feel free to join commedia; a personal project of mine, aiming to review and analyze comics (and other selected media) that feature DC Comics' The Joker.

It is currently a WIP because I am still going through my 500+ hardcopy!issues collection. I do not download torrents/scans.

I'd like to point out that currently I have two polls up for debate, as can be seen here explaining two routes the asylum's project can take. IE: spoiler free reviews, spoilerific reviews, and whatnot. =) Otherwise, the FAQ and The Rules are already up. The tags/memory post is still a WIP.

I am also open to affiliating with other comic book and/or Batman related asylums, except for RPGs.

Current Mood: full

All my mini_nanowrimo peeps; please note that there's an important announcement on the comm. Anyone who has forgotten to post on a given day so far has a ONE TIME chance to recoup. If you would, spread the word.

Yesterday was a bad day and a bad day for writing. I made my word count, but I've been trying to do double or triple that every day and yesterday I wasn't even close.

On the other hand, the words I wrote were on Appetite, which pleases me. I don't want to let AKB stagnate all month (and there's no worry about that) but Appetite is really my focus. Or I would prefer it was my focus. I've been flitting between three different projects, really.

Started AKB 73 today. Writing for four year olds is HARD, yo.

I'm struggling with Appetite. I'm making new words, I don't hate the words I'm making (for the most part) but at the same time, I feel like I've lost some essential grasp of their characters that I had before and I feel like I lost the window into their world and I'm pressed against the wrong side of the glass, trying to peek through.

I'm doing this thing with my body right now where I feel like I don't know how to fit in it any more. I feel uncomfortable in whatever position I sit in and it's like I don't have any muscle memory for what my body "normally" likes to do, so I'm trying to fake it, but it's not working. It's really messing up my back and my neck and shoulders. And writing Appetite right now is a little like that. I'm HERE and I'm in the body, but I don't remember how it's supposed to move or sit or anything. There's no muscle memory.

...I suspect that made no sense to anyone but me. What can I say? I've had a rough week.

Current Mood: blah

All my mini_nanowrimo peeps; please note that there's an important announcement on the comm. Anyone who has forgotten to post on a given day so far has a ONE TIME chance to recoup. If you would, spread the word.

Yesterday was a bad day and a bad day for writing. I made my word count, but I've been trying to do double or triple that every day and yesterday I wasn't even close.

On the other hand, the words I wrote were on Appetite, which pleases me. I don't want to let AKB stagnate all month (and there's no worry about that) but Appetite is really my focus. Or I would prefer it was my focus. I've been flitting between three different projects, really.

Started AKB 73 today. Writing for four year olds is HARD, yo.

I'm struggling with Appetite. I'm making new words, I don't hate the words I'm making (for the most part) but at the same time, I feel like I've lost some essential grasp of their characters that I had before and I feel like I lost the window into their world and I'm pressed against the wrong side of the glass, trying to peek through.

I'm doing this thing with my body right now where I feel like I don't know how to fit in it any more. I feel uncomfortable in whatever position I sit in and it's like I don't have any muscle memory for what my body "normally" likes to do, so I'm trying to fake it, but it's not working. It's really messing up my back and my neck and shoulders. And writing Appetite right now is a little like that. I'm HERE and I'm in the body, but I don't remember how it's supposed to move or sit or anything. There's no muscle memory.

...I suspect that made no sense to anyone but me. What can I say? I've had a rough week.

Current Mood: blah

It's is a very bad idea to listen to lyrics.

Dear Mary J Blige

What does a man buying a woman material things have to do with her falling in love with him and him treating her like a woman? Since when were love, identity, and sexuality for sale? Since when could they be bought with shoes and a bag?

Also wth is up "Now I only want to do what you tell me to." Like? What the hell? Who owns your sexuality here? Or is this more about a woman's place? Huh?

**feels ridiculous for having the music for going on 2 years now and only just having the lyrics pop out**

Ok. I'm gong to bed. I must have my head screwed on wrong. Cause I'm all "Shake down, I'm robbing you for your love, don't put up a fight." Just keeps making me go WHAT THE BLEEPING F*CK??.

So clearly it is not that the world is filled with messed up messages about human interaction and just that my brain's wired weird and somehow sleep will fix that. Or maybe just closing my eyes and being horizontal.

It's magic.

I was looking for statistics* about same-sex marriage opposition when I ran across this precious article posted back in June. (Warning for extreme sexism and various other acts of privilege.)

The author--Sam Schulman--goes on at length about what he objects to about same sex marriage, and what he thinks marriage really is. Bolded sections are emphasis added.

The relationship between a same-sex couple, though it involves the enviable joy of living forever with one's soulmate, loyalty, fidelity, warmth, a happy home, shopping, and parenting, is not the same as marriage between a man and a woman, though they enjoy exactly the same cozy virtues. These qualities are awfully nice, but they are emphatically not what marriage fosters, and, even when they do exist, are only a small part of why marriage evolved and what it does.

Marriage, whatever its particular manifestation in a particular culture or epoch, is essentially about who may and who may not have sexual access to a woman when she becomes an adult, and is also about how her adulthood--and sexual accessibility--is defined.

This most profound aspect of marriage--protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex--is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage.

Even in modern romantic marriages, a groom becomes the hunting or business partner of his father-in-law and a member of his clubs; a bride becomes an ally of her mother-in-law in controlling her husband. There can, of course, be warm relations between families and their children's same-sex partners, but these come about because of liking, sympathy, and the inherent kindness of many people. A wedding between same-sex lovers does not create the fact (or even the feeling) of kinship between a man and his husband's family; a woman and her wife's kin.

In a world without kinship, women will lose their hard-earned status as sexual beings with personal autonomy and physical security. Children will lose their status as nonsexual beings.

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/280002.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

last two trick or treats are up! YES! Got them all done. They're snippets of some original stuff floating around my hard drive. one is here and the other is here

I'm failing at the whole daily blogging, I realize this. Too many RL distractions and too little sleep, writing is sketchy and too much chaos.

Excitement of the day? A moving blanket that made me go WTF? Boo has a yankees blankie. It was wadded up on the back of the couch and started moving. Yeah major wtf. Took a bit of digging since the cause isn't much bigger than my fist but burrowed in the yankees blankie was the Yankee BabyCatses.

Free for all on questions about fic/characters/writing 'til Monday how's that? (uh yeah, tapped out here on creative w/ writing, so not original or probably not interesting with the attempt to blog for november)

Blanket answer to when something's going to be done....when muses & real life cooperate at the same time.
Blanket answer to will I send you wahtever fic...no.
Blanket answer to when something gets added to the pdfs?...when I get another few ready and have time when my connection and mediafire play nicely.

What's the concentration at the moment? Away With The Boys in the Band, A Little Bit Backwards, Never the Easy Way and the last Try Anything (which is about 1/3 done after being comepletely torn apart twice).

And yup, at best my fanfic is spellchecked/continuity checked rough drafts. relaxation/fun minimal sleep & minimal ability to think in straight line some days. ~shrugs~ so this seems kind of silly to do but...why not? anything want to ask abt character, story whatever. though ~points at blanket answers above~

For those of you confused by the subject line, the Celtic Pagan New
Year, Samhain, just occurred on Oct 31 :-)

I mentioned briefly in another post that the celebrations I attended
were lovely - a good gathering of people to renew our friendships and
enrich our spirits. Friends Misal and the Pyrate wrote a great ritual
for Samhain, with interesting food for thought that I felt was
especially thinky for the writers out there; especially considering
the time of year it is for us. With NaNo and all the variations
inspired by NaNo and with Yuletide and the other holiday fic exchanges
looming, this is in a way, the New Years for fan writers.

The metaphor they used was seed planting:

There were seeds you planted that flourished and produced a good crop
--Was that because you were diligent and found the right seed,
watered, weeded and checked with your local extension service for
advice on pests and diseases? (Or in our terms, researched your source
material, kept up with your word counts, ruthlessly edited and took
the advice of your betas.)

or
--Was it because you picked something easy to grow that would come up
whether you watched it or not? (or in our terms, did you dash off a
flash fic or a PWP that were bound to be crowd pleasers.)

There were seeds that were planed and failed.
--Was it because you chose something challenging and lost interest?
--Was it through no fault of your own and the elements (or real life)
worked against you?

There were seeds that you did not plant at all
--Did you think that there were already too many things to do?

It doesn't matter all what the answers are, because another year has
past and the harvest is in. No way to improve the word counts for this
year. All that's left is to think of what you want the coming year to
be like.

Namaste!
--

1. Computers.  I would like to say tat my Vista computer problems are easing....but that would be a lie. I did have enough crash free time yesterday to balance our checkbooks/bills in Quicken (all 3 months dating back to when my older computer died). This means that - once again - I am not online or reading mail.

2. Healthcare.  One issue that has been overlooked - until recently - in the healthcare debate is how certain federal laws already give health care insurance companies and employers wide discretion to deny health claims with little or no penalties.

Under ERISA (a law created in the 70s to protect pensions and retirement accounts), health care plans funded by employers face no penalties or liability if the employer hired claims administrators falsely deny a health care claim. In fact, if you were to sue you would have to prove that the claims administrator acted arbitrarily and capriciously. In laymen's terms this means you will need to find a memo that says: "I think we should deny this claim because I think the person is really a donkey in disguise and we don't insure donkeys." The memo that says: "We can deny this claim even if we have objective medical evidence to support it because (a) we were able to find one doctor in the world who agrees with us and (b) this is an ERISA claim.  In fact, thank God this is an ERISA claim 'cause if this were any other claim we'd have to pay it.." Well that memo would not help you win your case. And yes there have been those memos.

Currently 170 million Americans get their health care insurance from employers. Many employers over 5000 workers are  "self funded" - that means the employers pay the claims costs and they hire the United Health Cares and the Kaisers and the other insurance companies to administer the claims (for a transaction fee). The claims  administrators use their own insurance claim guidelines and also negotiate fees with the hospitals and doctors on behalf of everyone - both the insurance carriers own clients and the employees covered under the 'employer plan.' But the money to pay for the employee medical bills comes from the employers. Thus, your claim is subject to pension and retirement laws - not bad faith insurance law.

If you buy health care insurance on the open market (or if your employer does), then it falls under insurance state laws. if the insurance company wrongfully denies your health care claim under state insurance law, you can sue and get penalties and recover for the loss of life. Or recover damages to pay for your loved one's ongoing medical care if the person is injured or made more ill because of the claim denial.

Under ERISA all you get is the value of the health care benefits that were denied. If you're dead....well, no need for that health care.

So when you hear pundits talk about doing away with those pesky state laws that make it so hard for health care insurance companies to do business across state lines ..or pundits talking about changing the laws to make certain that *all* employers  won't be required to abide by state health care insurance laws...they're talking about extending ERISA to privately purchased health care plans.

Check out your employer health care plan and remember... your health care is already being rationed and if you have employer funded health care insurance, well you're already living under a different 'standard of care.' ... More here  and here

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

On any asylum, you should always read their info first for rules and any regulations. :)
(Please note that all asylums listed below have been around for a good while; these are not new.)

graphix - A great graphics asylum that offers making and posting of many types of graphics.
NOTE: We currently are in need of active makers, please help!

ijelite - Another great graphics community that offers icons and all sorts of graphics.

christians - A place for Christians and non-Christians alike to discuss the Christian faith, prayer, and problems.
NOTE: Need active members; please join us!

iconism - An icon only asylum.
NOTE: Sister asylum of graphix.

hardball - Want to debate? This is the place to do it. Please read rules before posting/commenting.

addme - A place to find friends to add!

Current Mood: creative

RL has kicked my ass the last couple of days, so I'll try to catch up on some extra recipes this weekend. Here's yet another one I can't eat.

( Chocolate and Vanilla Swirled Cheesepie )

Sesame Street turns 40 today!! WOOHOO!!!

Current Mood: amused

this one is more just fiddling around to get feel of set of characters than anything. but ~shrugs~ here it tis.
( Read more... )

note: outtake/snippet of longer entirely original work in progress floating around here.
( kshai dragon )

Current Mood: determined

I did have things to say about Bones, but I don't remember what most of them were. ( spoilers )

***

Supernatural: Changing Channels

( rambling about the episode, with spoilers )

I will probably have more thoughts tomorrow.

( spoilers for next week's preview )

Oh, also, here is Matt Roush's review of the episode. (Spoiler: he really liked it.)

***

Damn, I totally didn't realize that the parade tomorrow is going to fuck with my commute (or my walk to the office after the subway, anyway). Maybe I will sneak out of work and try to see some of it. I did in 1996, when I worked down on Wall St. (I mean, I literally worked in a building on Wall St., not that I worked in the financial industry at that time.) and it was kind of awesome, even though they are not my team. Hmm...

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/91064.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: amused

there's two of the trick or treats left. I'm hoping to get those done tomorrow. hey only a week late. ~sighs~ writing has not been cooperative this week in the least.

Thinking has not been all that cooperative this week. It's just kinda been one of those weeks.

part 1 & part 2 of Pieces out of place were posted as part of the trick or treats did not want to post that as a WIP but I'm to the point am desperate to finish up the treats. And connection has been made of fail to maybe do a few songs for treat.

fullheader & part 1


( pieces out of place 2 )

I had no intentions of posting this as WIP. But time life and chaos finishing up the trick or treats, here's chapeter one.

title: Pieces Out of Place
author: lisa roquin
rating: 15+
fandom: BtVS/SG1
series/sequel: Patchwork Universe Arc
characters/pairings: implied Xander/Daniel,
disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.
summary: Things went wrong five thousand years ago, very wrong.
warning: AU. Massive AU mangling of SG1 S8 eps Moebius I & II
author's note:
word count:

( pieces out of place 1 )

Current Mood: cynical

I need a distraction to keep myself from going postal. All help is appreciated.

To that end, TWO memes (take your pick):

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

You can find all my fic on my LJ/IJ/DW under the "fanfic" tag, or tag for a specific fandom, OR you can go to my archive page: Love Is Just A Bloodsport OR

Ask me either a broad [writing-related] question (i.e 'who is your cruelest character?', 'what is your most optimistic story?') or a specific question/request ('what world does ___ come from?', 'tell me about ___') and I will answer you. Or you can ask meta- questions like 'what was the inspiration for creating ____?'

Pretty much ask me anything about my fic and I'll ramble at you a bit.

Current Mood: aggravated

• emeraldsword: random fic editing query - What is the etiquette of rewriting/re-editing fic after posting? Is there any? Do you all feel deceived if you go back to an old favourite and find that the author has amended the text since the last time you read? Do you even notice? -
  
  (tags: writing editing archiving etiquette fanfic question)

• accioslash: Thirty Days of Spam...Day 2 - Fic and art clearly aren't treated the same by fandom when it comes to unauthorized re-posting. Seriously, how long do you think I could actually keep up a site with a re-post of a popular fan fic with the notation "I don't know who wrote this, but if it's yours, let me know and I'll credit you." But I see that with art all the time. -
  
  (tags: fanart icons)

• ladydreamer: Easy Out - I've heard producers and writers often talking about how flattering it is that fans can get so angry at them about what they've done on a television show or a movie, and how it's an ultimate compliment in a way, since what they want to do is move the audience, to make them feel intense emotions. Any emotion is good, right? -
  
  (tags: fandom fanfic tptb)

So, internets, if you were sailing from Mumbai to Gdansk what would be your route:
Arabian Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean, English Channel and then what? Do you go left around the big island between Sweden and Denmark or do you go right around the big island through Denmark? For preferences, I'd like the route to be on the Copenhagen side because seeing the little mermaid statue would be most cool and in keeping with the theme of the virtual journey.

The Sixth Small Fandom Fest has opened for prompt submissions.

Why I love Fred Pohl's blog, reason #56.
He starts them like this and it makes me laugh: Quite a few years ago —well, about seventy of them, to be exact —I was the teen-age editor of two professional science-fiction magazines

I'm sure I had more to say but it's all slipped from my mind. I think it was getting twitter spam from @barrettfoa's account while watching NCIS: Los Angeles. Creepy, spam dudes! Very creepy. I might have to stop following celeb tweets again, but I think I'm hooked on @llcoolj's affirmation tweets, oh dear. I think I've worked out why I'm calm and uncreeped by @dhewlett. It's because he's got the geek dad uncool that was so charming about wil wheaton until wheaton started exhibiting as a misogynist arsehole which no amount of winning geek-daddery can spackle over.

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. comments.

Answers to the mini-dvd commentary meme. The offer is still open, if you're interested after this scintillating discussion. *snerk* I had fun, anyway.

( Back from the Great Beyond for little_missmimi )

***

( We Killed Yamamoto for elliemurasaki )

***

Last night, I dreamt that two fangirls had moved into my bedroom in my parents house, while I was trying to live in it, and they were moving my stuff around and taking over my space and I was an unhappy camper, and my parents were like, "but we were just trying to help!"

I don't even know what to do with that. I just know that I woke up disgruntled and er, have remained so. My gruntle has been dissed. Or something.

***

I'm not a Yankees fan, but I thought they were kind of adorable last night. And I really don't like the Phillies, though I think they are a really good team, so I can't be too upset with the outcome.

***

New show tonight! YAY! I am looking forward to this one a lot. Plus, new Bones, too!

Ah, tv, never leave me!

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/90811.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: sleepy

xposted to IJ and LJ

• Wrote 229 words on what I hope will grow up into an SGA story.
  
  
• Claude Lévi-Strauss passed away. Just hearing his name brings back so many memories from college, like sitting in an enormous lecture hall listening to my favorite prof.
  
  
• Does the San Francisco Panorama not look brilliant? Look at that list of contributors -- I can't wait!
  
  
• Here is another blog I really love: High Country New.
  
  
• Sorry to repeat myself, but higher education is my life, and I spend a lot of time worrying about it. The LA Times has an excellent article on the demise of higher education in California. Economists found that for every dollar the state invests in a CSU student, it receives $4.41 in return.
  
  
• Tomorrow night I'll be at my Mother's. I already miss my dear husband and my own comfortable bed.

OMG, Mystery Fangirl is all paid back and I'm so weebly that I just can't deal. Yes, weebly.

So, in thanks for all that you -- and you, and you, and also *you*! -- have done, I'm offering snippets. I'm actually working on four different stories right now and so won't be able to do them immediately, but I promise to try.

Rules: DC or Malazan Book of the Fallen. I might be able to manage a Buffyish thing here or a Marvelish thing there, but odds are waaaaay low on that. You can pick one of my icons, or give me a three- or four-word prompt, or two or three character names, or whatever you'd like. Note: I'm about to add a Roy icon to the mix, so keep that in mind. :D

No, you don't have to have contributed to ask for a snippet, but if you *did* contribute, I really hope you *will* ask, even if it turns out I can't manage it.

*hugs you ALL*

From Mystery Fangirl:

"I only hope that you all feel like incredibly, wonderfully, extraordinarily kind and virtuous people because that's what you are. None of you had a reason to help me but you did. I will always be grateful."

Current Mood: full

But if you think I shouldn't the same rights as a straight person, you're a bigot. Pure and simple.

She said it better.

Last Sunday, telesilla and I went to our favorite "special occasion" restaurant for a belated (because someone might have been at DragonCon) anniversary dinner. It's ironic in the "like people trying to keep you from having your wedding day" sense, because one year ago today, a majority of California voters decided that my marriage shouldn't be valid. This year, it happened in Maine (and you can't exactly blame the black folks for this one).

I've seen a lot of blog comments today about how it's counter-productive to say that people who vote against marriage equality are bigots. And it probably is.

But here’s the thing:

It doesn't matter.

If you vote against marriage equality, then in practical terms, it doesn’t matter to me whether you’re Fred Phelps or whether your best friend/co-worker/son/daughter/second cousin twice removed is gay. I don’t care if you’re a Catholic, Baptist, Mormon, Orthodox Jew, or Muslim. Because from where I sit, the result is the same: you believe that my relationship with the person I’ve been with for five years, the person I moved 3,000 miles to be with, the one who goes out at 3 AM to get ginger ale and crackers for me because I have stomach flu, the one who’s held my hand and been there while I’ve dealt with my mother’s dementia and Parkinson’s disease—you’re telling me that because that person is the same gender as I am, our relationship is less valid and less worthy of respect than that of a man and woman who met in Las Vegas, got drunk and decided to get married in front of an Elvis impersonator.

To me, it's irrelevant whether you did so because you believe that God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman, or because you think the state shouldn't be involved with marriage, or because you're worried about what to tell your children, or because you think two men having sex is icky and gross. What matters to me is that you've taken a conscious, deliberate action to say that I, personally, do not deserve the same shot at being happy with the person I love that any straight person does. Your reasons for choosing to make my life more difficult and more painful are much less important to me than the fact that you've made that choice.

If you're standing on my neck, I'll worry about why you'd do something like that later. My first priority will be getting you to stop standing on my neck.

Current Mood: pissed off

My preview, featuring an excerpt from Make the Devil Feel Surprise is here. *bounces* Just another ten/eleven/twelve days!

I toyed with the idea of putting up the playlist/soundtrack, but in the end, I just didn't have the energy to tidy it up and then upload it somewhere. Hopefully I will by the time Big Bang goes live.

( HERITAGE LAKE LODGE )

I was busy chatting with angelgazing about yuletide, so I maybe wasn't paying as close attention to Criminal Minds as I should have been, but that was okay because ( spoilers )

***

In case you missed it, I have a poll up to gauge interest in a possible Dark Angel end of the year fic exchange. I'd need at least ten people willing to play to run the thing, and right now that does not look like it's happening, but I'll leave the poll open until tomorrow afternoon, so if you are interested in such a thing, you should let me know.

***

Mini-dvd commentary meme seen everywhere:


Pick a paragraph / passage / scene from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection [Note: Please include the title/fandom]. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

Just so you know, the older something is, the less I remember, and I would prefer not to talk about the XMM or SV stuff.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/90454.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: curious

I feel mean, or rather I was feeling mean. When I heard about the newly married couple stranded in Germany because Expedia.com told them they wouldn't need visas for Russia; I couldn't help pondering Americans and international travel and lack of awareness. I just couldn't. I've been traveling since I was a baby and there's a hard edge of privilege there of 'How could you not double check that???!'. It's possibly also blended with "America is Not Rome!" and also "Are you a Commonwealth citizen? No. Is Russia a Commonwealth nation? No. Then WTF?"

But I felt much less mean when I heard that once the whole hullabaloo fermented, Expedia compounded matters by not switching their tickets over to any other destination, refusing them emergency visa assistance that was within their power to do and only paying a third of their overnight hotel stay while things were sorted out.

So many thoughts in my head, chief of which is 'always get a name'. It can be difficult to remember, I know, because for many things it won't much matter. But someone stating in an authoritative manner their expertise on a subject where you know nothing - demands writing down a name and the time and date of the call.

The other thought in my head the more I thought about things? Expedia's greed. Booking a flight to a country that requires a visa, without knowing whether or not the customers have the visa and then making that booking nonrefundable? That's not customer service. That's a con game.

Somehow or the other business practices have forgotten the concept of the repeat loyal customer and just go for "fleece 'em while they're standing still" as if the customer base is so huge, the market so big, that it doesn't matter how many people they piss off and cheat, there are more newbies waiting in the wings. This business practice seems even more irrational to me in this age of iPhone, Twitter, Facebook & Blogs. A company's name can get out there, and gain a disreputable notoriety in a matter of hours, given the right organized base. Who is actually big enough to withstand that? I mean if even Amazon went "Oh crap, we just shot ourselves in the foot with a lavender gun"; Can Expedia really afford to have twenty-somethings associating them with horrible trips, international abandonment & strandedness and mean officials who make brides cry?

Really?

That's their marketing plan?

ETA: My mother just mentioned how in countries outside of the US, one can't even get a ticket bought (to the US) without proof of a US Visa.

Still didn't make 500, but closer today than yesterday, so I feel good about that. I'm glad I decided not to try to make myself stick to one fic, because I've started working on a More Than One Answer futurefic focusing on Joe and Dylan and Christina's daughter. I swear, every time I try to get away from the Keptverse and write something a little more cheerful, I get another bunny.

I had another Keptverse dream last night that was more weird than anything else, in that "WTF subconcious?" way. The only part I remember were that like so many of my nightmares, my old high school was featured prominently, and that there was a real problem developing with excessive inbreeding among the slaveowning classes of the Empire. I suspect that last bit is poisontaster's fault.

Current Mood: not too bad

From the business section of the Guardian this week: Google seeks to turn a profit from YouTube copyright clashes. The article's subtitle gives you the gist: "Group is working to persuade music and video companies to cash in rather than clamp down when their content is uploaded." In short, Google wants to use their content fingerprinting system to report uses--even transformed uses--to copyright holders and then to offer them the chance to put ads on user-generated content. There's lots wrong with that, but perhaps the wrongest is the idea that the companies have the right to take things down because "because the use does not fit the original's values." C'mon, Google! Don't be evil!

In brighter news, UK Will Urge EC To Legalise Mashups, Format-Shifting, Content Sharing. This "could include legalising more outright copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends."

Relatedly, folks seem to be figuring out that the DVR isn't actually the death of commercial television and that so-called "music pirates" actually buy more music. While we've heard this song before, optimistically copyright holders will eventually figure out that they shouldn't be afraid of new technologies.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog.

1. first, more computer and browser instability = makes me cranky and less online/reading checking email.

2. but second: zine o' the day: "The Centaur Tales is an AU Houston Knights series in which, according to the art, the heroes are centaurs. The second volume is a Sentinel crossover. "

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

I updated my flickr page with more SL pics! yeah!!

if you want to see them click here.

I made pot roast last night. I'm picking at the carcass today. You know you have made some damn fine beef if it tastes just as good COLD the next day. NOM NOM NOM.

Well, I did it. I signed up for yuletide. And though I was tempted to sign up for more fandoms and more characters (and there was some last minute switching around), I stuck to my plan. So that happened.

I had another woeful moment today when I saw an advert for a holiday exchange ficathon for a fandom that I'm tangentially interested in and realized that my pairing of choice is so wacky that it seems unfair to ask anyone to write it and, simultaenously, I have nearly zero interest in writing the preferred pairing(s) in the fandom. This pairing rare-pairs crap is hard, yo! Most of the time I don't care so much because I'm writing whatever makes me happy and so it doesn't matter what anyone else ships, but when I want to be all join-y and stuff, it's vexing. My heyoka nature in a nutshell. But, one less ficathon to tear my hair out about, right?

Tangential to THAT, I feel like there's enough interest that I'm going to go ahead with the JDM ficathon. I don't have any more details than "Yeah, let's do that!" but I figure I have all of December, at least, to figure that out. So...more news when I have it!

As you can see, I finished the AKB chapter. Wrote 1400+ words on that, once I hit my groove, which was kind of awesome. The problem with writing in existing files is that I never have any good grasp of how much I've written until I finish and do the math.

Didn't work on anything else, for obvious reasons. And I have yet to do any writing today, which is making me feel like the biggest slacker in the world. I'll have to rectify that posthaste.

Current Mood: busy

I made pot roast last night. I'm picking at the carcass today. You know you have made some damn fine beef if it tastes just as good COLD the next day. NOM NOM NOM.

Well, I did it. I signed up for yuletide. And though I was tempted to sign up for more fandoms and more characters (and there was some last minute switching around), I stuck to my plan. So that happened.

I had another woeful moment today when I saw an advert for a holiday exchange ficathon for a fandom that I'm tangentially interested in and realized that my pairing of choice is so wacky that it seems unfair to ask anyone to write it and, simultaenously, I have nearly zero interest in writing the preferred pairing(s) in the fandom. This pairing rare-pairs crap is hard, yo! Most of the time I don't care so much because I'm writing whatever makes me happy and so it doesn't matter what anyone else ships, but when I want to be all join-y and stuff, it's vexing. My heyoka nature in a nutshell. But, one less ficathon to tear my hair out about, right?

Tangential to THAT, I feel like there's enough interest that I'm going to go ahead with the JDM ficathon. I don't have any more details than "Yeah, let's do that!" but I figure I have all of December, at least, to figure that out. So...more news when I have it!

As you can see, I finished the AKB chapter. Wrote 1400+ words on that, once I hit my groove, which was kind of awesome. The problem with writing in existing files is that I never have any good grasp of how much I've written until I finish and do the math.

Didn't work on anything else, for obvious reasons. And I have yet to do any writing today, which is making me feel like the biggest slacker in the world. I'll have to rectify that posthaste.

Current Mood: busy

filling out my yuletide signup is HARD!

I thought I had it all figured out, and while two of my requests are rock solid GIMME GIMME (Middleman! The Queen's Thief!), I am kind of like, I could ask for this, but I also want that, and what about this and oh, I forgot about that! So I have just spent all this time filling it out and now I am like, is that really what I want to request? I mean, Big Bang Theory! Warlock! but also, Flora Segunda! Smekday! Lucifer! The Sound and the Fury! L'Engleverse! White Collar! Ten Inch Hero! Omg, Up! I could ask for Carl/Ellie! Sports Night is eligible! I could ask for a Dan/Jeremy/Natalie threesome or a Dan/Dana/Natalie threesome that otherwise no one would ever write!

And even with the caveat that I am only going to offer to write things I would be excited about writing, the list is... long. Longer than planned.

Maybe I will do what I did last year - submit, mull, and then resubmit closer to the deadline. Even though it takes forever to sign up.

My life, so hard!

*goes back to filling out the form*

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/90272.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: distressed

well what do you know. made two days, that's it for blogging every day. ~laughs~ and it was mostly just pointings at that.

Stupid pet rambling today for something to post. Hopefully fic this evening. Sleep has been in 2 hour naps and writing time has been spent trying to inhale coffee and think in a straight line while there was quiet more than writing.

The Invaders have all been named.
King Louie/Louie--the little cream & orange tabby tom kitten
Dot--little black & white female wiht a black dot on her white chin.
Dora--as in Dora the explorer, she's the one in everything most often, the little tortie/black calico.

The other two little tom kittens were named by Boo, round about. He got asked about kitten names, started reciting baseball teams. Since he's obsessed with all New York teams, regardless of sport,

Mets--little black and white tom kitten
Yankee--little black/charcoal tomkitten (mostly looks black, but if he's in sunlight you can see a bit of tabby marking in him)

The Invaders have conquered CookieCat. She herds them and fusses at them more than mama TinyCat. That and Cookie's a typical kid. The night she decided to go down and plunk in the kittens box in the laundry room, I tried to take her out of it how many times. She of course went directly back to it like the brat she is. ~rolls eyes~ way to train a cat? tell it no. it will ensure the cat does what it's told not to every time. And you probably won't break the cat of the habit like you will a two year old human, until two year old hits about 13-15.

At the moment there is a pile of fur next to my desk, mostly dark with some cream/orange & white speckles and spots (Tiny & Cookie are both tortie/mostly black calico) and one little ball of orange sprawled ontop of the longest fur in the pile (Cookie being the long-haired one)

Brandy however is traumatized. Yes. 35 lbs of Beagle, supposedly a hunting/tracking breed, utterly and completely terrified of not even a combined 2lbs worth of itty bitty kittens.

Dora, whose head--the *top* of her head is equal with the ankle of my daughter's tennis shoe (just a plain old running shoe, decent sole on it but not hightop or particularly notably thick sole, size five womens tennis shoe)--Little Bitty Dora was *chasing* Brandy. Brandy ran yelping for the Girl's bed. (Invader's haven't mastered climbing up on the bed yet. Next weeks going to be very traumatic for Brandy because they should have the climbing *up* business down by then. They're just about mastering climbing down from bed or couch or chair they've been put on without going thunk-land-on-nose)

Brandy needs to go out, she either has to be picked up and carried around the kittens or the kittens picked up and moved out of the way, and then Brandy will *RUN* past where the kittens are, to the point of skidding out on wood or lineoleum into oh, walls, the stove, the fridge...

The sooner the Invaders find homes the better. Ugh. You'd think the worry would be the dog going chomp on the kittens? No. It's the kittens giving the dog a heart attack.

Seriously, as sweet (and honestly *quiet* for a Beagle) Brandy is? Never ever ever ever have a purebred animal again. She's allergic to everything. Neurotic to the point you just have to stare at the dog and shake your head (and she's been that way since the day we got her, when she was..2? Only reason we have a purebred or actually a house dog at all was a can't take with move.. Cookie likes laying on couch, she's been dragging Invaders up there with her. Tiny's a convert to the couch as well as long as kids aren't home.)

Brandy is also sulking big time. Cookie's her buddy. Cookie is hanging with Tiny & Invaders. Kids are all gaga over Invaders. ~pets the poor Brandy~

( SPOILERS! Don't click if you don't wanna know! )

Has anyone read "A Year Like None Other" by Aspeninthesunlight, yet?

OMG! First, this is a genfic, not a slash, at all, but OMG! SO SO SO good!

It takes off from the end of Order of the Phoenix (I believe) and is about a letter from home that changes not only Harry's life, but everyone else's as well. And, I cannot say this ENOUGH it is FABULOUS! Great characterization, the plot is unbelieveable, and it swept me up and kept me reading it for days and days! It's very long, btw, like over 700,000 words, I believe. But don't let that throw you off at all!

If you're looking for a great story to read (really great!) then I highly recommend this fic to read.

Current Mood: impressed

Do. Not. Read. Boy's Love Fandom Thoughts On Rape In BL & Yaoi.

Just don't.

*shudders*

It's like a convention of Polanski fans.

( Memorable WTF Statements )

Who am I and what have I done with Ruth? I've cooked two nights in a row, which is kind of unusual, but even more unusual is that each of those nights have featured new recipes.

Tonight it was Spanako-Quesadillas (Spinach Pie Quesadillas). Now I love me some spanakopita, but when it comes to phyllo dough (even the pre-made kind) I kind of throw up my hands because it's too fussy and fiddly. So as soon as I saw this recipe, I wanted to make it.

It's really really good. I made it with larger totillas than she suggested and ended up with three quesadillas, one of which was a tad over stuffed. For some reason, she doesn't actually tell you what to do with the spinach so I chopped it up into fairly big pieces.

I kind of wanted to see if they reheated or were good at room temp, but Nancy had a hungry so that'll have to wait for another time.

xposted to IJ and LJ

Today I wrote:

210 words of what I hope will be a short Daniel Jackson story.

558 words of the story I've been working on, the one I've been dreaming of for months.

Currently, my favorite blog is The Iceland Weather Report.

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: 3,125
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: accomplished

1. Kidney stone situation all better now. Let's see, started getting symptoms on Sunday, had the percocet level pain on Wednesday when we found out that it had made it to my bladder. Friday I passed the stone and collected it. It's on it's way to a lab for analysis. Depending on the type of stone, I may get some dietary advice to avoid them in the future. The Doc did say it was a large stone and was impressed that I passed it so easily. Frankly, so was I. Thanks again for all the support and well wishes.

2. All my Samhain celebrations were lovely. There was a lot of reconnecting with familiar faces and snuggles from the friends that are the closest.

3. I don't know if I'm annoyed or not about the Republican becoming my new governor. It's not like any of us were happy with Corzine. Hell, I almost voted for the independent this morning, but caved to the Dems because the election was too closet. It is tradition to vote the opposite party into the governor's office. But the last time we did, it was a moderate Republican and she became a Bush appointee after we elected her. Ah well, it's not like any governor in NJ can stand up to the corruption of the NJ Legislature.

It'll be more interesting to see if a write-in candidate makes it onto my town council again this year.

4. Writing! I've been making my 10 minutes minimum and worked on the fic I was supposed to 2 out of 3 times so far. Added 1000 words to the next chapter. What I'm hoping to do is set aside a couple of hours on the weekend and bang it out.

5. I'll need to catch up on NCIS over the weekend to -- I mean, I watched them, but the commenting on.

V

I have very fond memories of the original mininseries(es?) and the series that resulted from them, but I wasn't particularly excited about this remake, even with Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk in it. I enjoyed it, but it didn't set me on fire. As giandujakiss said, ( spoilers )

***

I'm watching The Good Wife, but man, it is a snoozer of a show. I like Alicia and Kalinda and Will, but it never really engages me. Sigh.

***

This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/89645.html. people have commented there.

Current Mood: full

( Here's my comments on the show. )

To sum it up, the Ryan guy is the only one I really liked and that's because he's hot. He might be an asshole for all I know about him. Other than that, blah.

In other fandoms ... did anyone watch CSI Miami last night? How hot was Jesse with handcuffs on the back of his belt? And him bending over? YUM. Seriously, I need Jesse icons.

Current Mood: blah

I'm already behind, but I'm not sweating it too much. I'm thinking of coming up with a loose schedule for writing, recording, and gaming. I'd planned to record last night, until I realized that I probably shouldn't be using my theater voice at 10:30 on a weeknight.

I did want to clarify something: the issues I had after the warnings debate are mostly my issues. No one said, "You shouldn't be writing this." I'm the one asking myself what it means that I like to write about power disparities and consent and pain and pushing limits. And I'm the one who needs to stop overthinking it and work on telling the stories I have to tell.

Current Mood: okay

( spoilers )

Welcome to our weekly update from the chair of ADT. All the news that's fit to print about the progress of the Archive of Our Own is below the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own, which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. Comments are disabled elsewhere as we're noticing people ask similar questions and would like everyone to be able to share the discussion.

( Read more )