xans

I got a comment on a fic published on Ao3 in 2013 that I originally wrote and posted on lj and cross-posted to ff.net back in 2007. Someone not only remembered reading my fic years ago, they were delighted to find it again.

That has made my day and is reminder to me that I should try to comment on fics when I read them. I've been hit or miss about that. Probably a weird brain thing, but I often find the less comments and kudos a fic has, the more inclined I am to give it some love. Same with older fics.

Anyway, I've not written anything in years, but it pleases me that something I wrote entertains people still.

In light of the tumblr fuckery, I may look at making my personal posts over here again as well. I'm not planning to leave there until their lights are out, but without a pillowfort or discord account, I'm looking at Twitter, ao3, and possibly even dreamwidth to keep my fandom stuff active.

So anyway, hi if you found me from posting my info on tumblr or the fandom spreadsheet.

So, I finally got around to setting up an account on AO3. Several reasons for doing this, including cross-posting fanfic that had originally been posted on lj or my ff.net account (hey, once upon a time ff.net was the best multi-fandom archive available). Another reason is that I'm sort of hoping that having an account will inspire me to actually get back into writing fanfic. I never really wrote long pieces or anything, but I've lost track of a lot of the fandom circles... I'm not on tumblr and lj is becoming a dried out husk, and although I have a dreamwidth, it seems, idk, like I have an audience of none. So, if I want people to actually read my stuff, I need to step out of my little shadowed corner.

Anyway.

The idea is to get back into writing instead of just living in my head and daydreaming the hell out of things. Not a NY resolution by any means, just, something I'd like to do.

Okay, okay, RL post...

Got a temporary job doing stocktake at Alan's store. It's only for a month (two weeks already gone) but hey, it's a bit of extra dosh and quite handy for shelling out on necessities like firewood, and not so necessary, like Amanda Palmer's kickstarter project because it is so utterly cool and exciting how fast she raised money. And she's funny and I love following both her and Neil Gaiman on twitter because they are an adorable couple.

Also on twitter, amusing to follow Zachary Quinto & Simon Pegg and see them getting up to shenanigans in Hooters with Cumberbatch (I don't even watch the new Sherlock)... weirdest thing is reading Leonard Nimoy's posts with his voice in my head.

Anyway, back to the job thing... it means getting up at 5 a.m. two mornings in a row, which is a bitch but survivable. Although, fuck this cold. I know it's heading into winter but fuck the cold. Winter also means July also means my birthday means holy shit I'm almost twenty-fucking-SEVEN ayfkm surely I only turned 17 last year. My brother is going to be 30, which is supposed to be grown-up, right? Except it's impossible to imagine my brother being grown-up. And me being grown-up. I will never give up my legos.

I still need to organise my wedding holy hell I am terrible at this.

Summing up my thoughts in both this post and the comments: How the fuckity fuck can people not realise how awesome Natasha/Black Widow is? IF YOU DISAGREE, WE HAVE VERY DIFFERENT MEMORIES OF BUDAPEST, OKAY? Also, see title of post. I can has icons?

A couple fic recs:
By Arwen Lune -- Rock Happy A Generation Kill/SGA fusion, or; Brad Colbert in Atlantis. "You know what's really weird about the whole thing?" Brad finally said. Nate raised en eyebrow. "Apart from the whole highly classified, inter-branch, civilian and international, can't-tell-you-what-our-program-is-called-without-non-disclosure-paperwork, independent-thinker selecting, amiable Air Force and Corps officer cooperation thing?" Also, Brad Colbert mentioned in Rock Happy that he found a Shit My CO Says list on the Atlantis wiki. Rock Happy is still a WIP but what I've gathered from the notes she is close to wrapping it up, and then intends to write shorter fics featuring the Generation Kill boys in Atlantis. Normally I steer clear of WIPs because I hate the long waits, but she's been fairly regular.

By auburn -- Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves John Sheppard/Rodney McKay Summary: Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis. This is a long read with plenty of action and suspense, that parallels many canon events but also takes some new twists, and also explores some things the show never touched on, like just WHY everyone manages to mostly understand each other, except some languages and the written word. For the most part, I enjoyed it immensely, although I don't know if it's personal preference/head canon, I just felt Carter got a bit of a raw deal, but then the author's main focus was on Vala, Jehan, and Meredith as the core cast of this tale. There's a couple shorter pieces set in the same 'verse that I haven't read yet.

By copperbadge/sam_storyteller -- Avengers: A Partial Dictionary Of The 21st Century Steve/Tony but really a gorgeous exploration of the 21st Century by Steve, with some interesting extrapolations about the other Avengers... It's amazing what you can keep in the refrigerator. By the time the team is living in Stark Mansion, the big industrial fridge in the kitchen is packed. Bruce and Natasha tried to institute the "everyone gets a shelf" rule, but Tony just eats whatever's there and Thor doesn't really understand the concept of personal property very well and Clint positively delights in eating other peoples' food, because he says it tastes better if it's stolen. And, and, there's just this reference to Xavier/Magneto that tugged my heartstrings...

By dduane -- "Mycroft's Delight" okay, it's supposed to be BBC Sherlock but I haven't seen that, so I was picturing Stephen Fry's Mycoft from the movie, bust still. Part of me just loves the fact a published author doesn't hesitate to write fanfic (esp. after that ONTD post about author's opinions on fanfic--mainly, the authors they chose to quote mostly were quite dickish about it), and the story itself is delightful to sink into, and, bonus, she included a recipe at the end.

That's all for now...

Which is hilarious when you consider I don't watch the show and don't participate in that fandom except in the most peripheral sense. I suppose I sort of picked up some things via osmosis, from knowing people who are fans, and from having seen, ohh, three episodes and snippets of a couple others. But it's even more random in that I have not even been thinking about the show at all, so why did I go and dream about it?

The dream was still kind of cool, although a bit all over the place. We were being chased by some agent types, and I wanted to go with the Doctor, which he was heavily implying that if I did, I would never come home again because I would die. I think dream me had a very boring life and no loving fiancee, because I didn't really see a problem with that fate. There would be adventures. And there was a robot that was kind of like a Dalek in appearance but not in genocidal tendencies, that we consulted rather like an oracle and it gave me some various flavoured love-heart shaped vitamins with all my nutritional needs. Because starving to death sucks.

...and I woke up just as he was taking me into the TARDIS.

Amusing anyway.

Um, I don't know if I want to put up a tree this year. Alan and I have no plans to have family over or anything, so why do it? But it's Christmas and we have a black tree and stuff. Well I can figure it out soon enough I guess.

And then, diea made an fb status update about eggnog. Well, of course she did. Christmas is coming and all that. But it, of course, reminded me of a quote, "Eggnog, then. Noggy eggs. Eggs that are somewhat nogged." -Sirius Black, shoebox_project Aaaaaand I thought, my god, I haven't checked Shoebox in years... how is my beloved unfinished fanfic, one of the very first pieces I ever read? How is it doing these days?

Well, OMG! Some ruddy bastard hacked it and deleted the whole damn thing! A very important lesson to us all to be very careful about what email addresses we have linked to our accounts and to make sure to keep those email address valid, or get rid of them entirely. But still, all is not lost. Shoebox is preserved in .pdf format and I found the links and all that, but I also wandered over to cult_sbp (where we can talk about how Shoebox has affected our lives, and affects it still) and I discovered some lovely person was putting together an .epub and .mobi format for those of us with e-readers. How awesome is that? So awesome.

So at Thanksgiving my mum had my step-dad over... I know they're not married anymore but that's the easiest way to describe my relationship to him. He's still my step-dad even if not legally so. Anyway, he's incredibly anti-technology, so he and I haven't kept very close contact since I moved back to New Zealand. But mum had the wonderful idea to get him to sit down and talk with me on Skype at Thanksgiving, so I could ask him myself if he would come to my wedding. It took him a few minutes but he really warmed up to being able to have a face-to-face conversation over the computer. Apparently the request is in that mum show him how to set it up on his computer now lmao.

Also have come up with colours for wedding, would like royal blue, light blue and silver. Along with the medieval/fantasy theme. Rudimentary guest list, now I just need to figure out a venue and also look at possible group rates for accommodation (as big as our house is, we can't house everyone). Also figured instead of a traditional tier cake to go for a flat one with fancy artwork on the icing. There were jokes about using my king and queen lego figurines as the bride and groom to pay homage to my lego obsession...

Alan and I finally got to try out our newly revamped cinemas the other night, to see Immortals 3D. First time I've gone to a 3D movie. Apart from omg the price, altogether was rather cool. We were also going to have dinner at the Wendy's that has just opened up. I don't really remember the menu that well from my time living in the States but another fast food chain for variety, we had hoped to check it out. Of course, everyone else had the same idea and it was crowded and so we got dinner elsewhere and we shall try it out sometime when the novelty has worn off a bit maybe.

Also, our strawberry plants are doing very well with many berries ripening as I type... in fact I had best go water them before I forget.

Fin.

There's an American flag hanging in our living room window now. USA takes on Aussie on Friday, I think... and given the shock win Ireland had on them I have a bad feeling USA is going to suffer at the hands of the Wallabies. But still... Go USA! lol (And, as always, go All Blacks!)

There are some black bananas in the fruit bowl I really need to turn into banana cake. Mmm, cake. :D

A friend posted this on facebook earlier today (and I, ever the sheep, have posted it too): The hobbit you just called fat? He’s skipping 2nd breakfast. The dwarf woman you called ugly? She spends hours braiding her beard so you can differentiate her from a dwarf man. The Uruk-Hai you just killed? He’s been abused by Saruman. See that Gollum creature with the gangly limbs & large eyes? For 500 years the Ring poisoned his mind. That Elf you just made fun of for crying? She just lost her wizard friend to a Balrog. Put this as your status if you’re against bullying in Middle-Earth.

Between that and the picture of the four hobbits doing an Abbey Road routine it brought back so much nostalgia, of how much of a fangûl I was about all things LoTR a decade ago. And also the friends I used to have on Council of Elrond that I made friends with on lj, and all that... I looked up my Council of Elrond profile a few months ago but sadly I cannot remember my password and the email address I had connected to that account no longer exists either.

Fin.

Re-watching Stargate Atlantis from the beginning, had forgotten just how much of a smirky smirker John Sheppard is. Also paying attention to the minor characters more because I've read so much fanfic and want to compare better.

Weather is cooling down, and daylight savings just ended here. Forgot about it and ended up getting up an hour early. Oh well.

Fin.

Confession... I have not watched the HP movies past Goblet of Fire. I also have not read Deathly Hallows.

Why? Tbh, I think I Od'd on HP fic. I got so caught up in fanon and the "better" ideas out there that I lost hold with canon. Also I really hated how whiny Harry got.

So, what am I doing? I'm taking a huge break from HP. Once all the movies are out, I will probably acquire the books (I only have 1, 2, and 4 I think) and reread each one, one after the other. At the end of each, watch the movie. In that way, immerse myself in HP again, and try and enjoy it without my preconceptions and ideas of how it "ought" to be.

Maybe then I can fall in love with it again.

Fin.

Chatting on MSN to my 11/12 year old step-niece, and feeling slightly guilty that my current display picture is this icon... and also cringing at every spelling mistake she makes (macking for making, ake for ache, that sort of thing) even as I'm able to understand what she 'ment' to say.

I love receiving compliments for my cooking. Particularly when it's something I've not tried before, or that secretly I think isn't as good as I'd hoped. I try not to say when I'm not best pleased with my cooking, kind of the same as when I write fic, so that, y'know, no one feels the need to compliment me so I'll feel better about myself. Hide my insecurities and then it's even more surprising and gratifying to get told I've done well. :)

Speaking of fic, sophie_448 came up with a new word to describe the reaction a fic can give: *squibble* which is, essentially, squee+wibble. I like it.

Greg Sanders: You know, I kind of feel bad for these girls.
Hodges: Don't feel too bad. They have health benefits, good pay. The women get regular check-ups. The industry is well-regulated. As opposed to picking a hooker up off the street. Does she have a disease? Multiple diseases? Is she crazy? Is she gonna roll you? Where do you go? Do you do it in your car, behind a building, down a dark alley? So you drive around, scared out of your mind, finally get the nerve up, pick one you like, call her over, she gets in. Next thing you know, you're down on the pavement, cuffed, because she's an undercover cop, but luckily you were three months shy of your eighteenth birthday so when you call your mom to come get you, it doesn't go on my permanent record.
Greg: [momentarily speechless] ... Okay.

CSI, "Ending Happy" --Perhaps one of the best cases I've ever seen on the show. Just all sorts of crazy. And funny. Guy was hit over the head, shot through the neck by a crossbow, having an allergic reaction to shellfish, and poisoned by snake venom. Some people really wanted Happy dead, poor man.

Fin.