I started and finished a very rough first draft for my yuletide story last night.

\o/

I sort of had to do it last night as I doubt I'll be able to write anything for the next week. (And, er, I've got to finalize my muncle Down the Chimney fic by Saturday.) My mom's here! She arrived way earlier today than I expected! This entire weekend has not gone the way I planned! I should have expected that! Etc. etc. etc.

I saw a limo driving into a Taco John's yesterday. How local/regional is Taco John's? It's like a knock-off Taco Bell. (Okay, it might be better than Taco Bell for all I know; it's still cheap fast food.) At least the limo wasn't driving into a Taco Tico, which...the less said about those, the better. I wonder if the limo was going to try going through the drive-thru? I really, really hope not.

I made pumpkin streudel today. It is delicious. (I had to taste-test it before serving it to other people, you understand, having never made the recipe before.) Still have not made a casserole. That shall have to wait till after my mom's gone, I think, alas.

The Christmas movies I like to watch: Love Actually, White Christmas, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Oh yeah.

( when my fandoms go mainstream and end up on NCIS... )

I was listening to the '60s XM radio station driving home from work, and this song started, and it was classic 1960s with all the strings and a little bit of the woodwinds and then the singer starts singing about cake. In the rain. And how it made him very sad. And the song went on like this for, like, ten minutes. It was quite possibly the most unintentionally hilarious song I've heard in a good long while. It was in fact Richard Harris singing MacArthur Park. Go, listen, enjoy.

So I managed to drop a box on my chest today. Which isn't nearly as cool-sounding as that time a couple years ago I stabbed myself with a sword, but the box actually hurt a lot more and gave me a bruise. And it all just goes to show this is not a profession for klutzes. Or short people.

For the record, I wish we got days off in the middle of the week more often. I got a ton done yesterday, and I got to sit out on my patio, reading Sandman comics in the sun. That was the most relaxing half-hour I've had in a long, long time.

( SPN--'Changing Channels' )

In other news, there is no other news. Oh. Except that the Governor of Massachusetts is apparently thinking about shutting down the State Library, which is kinda not cool. I mean, you don't just toss out almost 200 years worth of something, just like that. (Though I'd like to see some other verification of this; the news I was seeing on Google all seemed to be about statewide budget cuts to library funding and nothing specific to the State Library.) I'm not even going to talk about my own state where that certain sneaking deathly fear has once again blown in amongst my colleagues due to all the revenue shortfall and expected budget cuts.

You know what? I'm sick of the shitty economy. I'm sick of blaming everything on the shitty economy. I'm especially sick of people using the shitty economy to cut cultural institutions. I'm sick of this being the norm, and I want some damned better resolutions. Now if only I could think of them.

Also, ABC has apparently pulled their online Eastwick episodes, which is just doubly shitty since that's the way I've been watching the show. Wah. Woe me. I need to get my priorities back in order. I also want to burn something in effigy. Hmph.

I'm sick! Just in time to go out of town this weekend for Homecoming! On a road trip in a car with three friends!

I'd better feel better by tomorrow. OR ELSE. (It's just a cold. Not swine flu. I checked the symptoms on the state health department's website. After I went to work, of course, because I'm just that thoughtful.)

So instead of going to choir tonight and singing my heart out, my plans are a) take bath, b) curl up on couch, and c) watch old Buffy episodes. And Eastwick since, hey, I'll be home tonight. I should probably also work on my DW femmeslash ficathon fic, but that shall probably depend entirely on my ability to concentrate and not hold a tissue for more than two minutes at a time. And also actually coming up with a scenario to write. Oh yeah, that.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

Driving home from my aunt's house, I decided: fuck this shit, let's have some fun.

So, have Well, Did you Evah? from High Society, as sung by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

And you might as well have Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, from Spamalot, too.

And here, possibly the most random picspam ever in the history of random picspams:

( right here under this cut )

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this meme.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

Youtube, you say? Oh, Youtube. You terrible thing.

Dave Allen Dalek sketch

Because Dave Allen and a Dalek NEVER GETS OLD. (This should be the Dalek meme for me, shouldn't it? I just love them cropping up unexpectedly and/or in unexpected ways.)

That said, I'm on a DW kick, so have Harry Sullivan and the Doctor skipping rope:

Right here

Because you know what? THAT NEVER GETS OLD EITHER.

(Be grateful, I could have given you "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas with a Dalek" instead.)

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

Since I missed yesterday, I shall CHEAT and do both days three and four in this post. (It doesn't count when it's honest cheating. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Any fic I could rec? Has probably already been recced by the fandom in question to death, since I usually come by fic via other people these days, rather than seeking it out myself. (Apparently, in college? I had a lot more time to goof off online seeking fic. Which astonishes me since I remember never having any time when I was in college.) So, a book that I like to mention every once in a while: The Shoemaker and the Tea Party by Alfred Young. I do not actually own a copy of this book, and that should probably be rectified, which is why I have just added it to my Amazon wishlist. A treatise on memory, memorialization (that is too a word), who makes history, and how we write about it. Oh, and a bit on the American Revolution too.

Other history books I'd recommend: The Refinement of America by Richard Bushman, looking at material culture and how during the colonial period Americans acquired more beautiful things and why they did it, and Gay New York by George Chauncey, which would probably be incredibly helpful if somebody wanted to, I dunno, write about Jack Harkness in New York City in the first half of the twentieth century. Just a thought. Ho-hum. I would whistle innocently here, if I could whistle.

Now, for a site recommendation, and this is probably also a CHEAT since it could possibly go with the book/fic/ebook recommendations instead: Girl Genius comics. Agatha rocks like a rocking Mad Scientist, and I kinda love it when Gil is a complete dorkface. They've been working on this comic for I dunno how many years now, so there's a lot of canon to work through, but I've honestly forgotten probably most of what happened in the early stuff and am still enjoying the hell out of the storyline currently going on.

Okay, an "actual" site I'd like to share is IDEA, which gives you sample dialects from around the world of individuals speaking English. Very cool, and very useful particularly for VA and writery things (or, okay, that's what I think of when I think to use it). Also, I just today noticed it was housed and operated by the University of Kansas, which is probably cooler than it should be.

Title: Choose Your Own Theft
Author: aces
Fandom, characters: Leverage and...a bunch of other fandoms. Ahem.
Rating, warnings: All ages; not really spoilery for anything
Word count: approx. 2500 words
Summary: A study in the power of objects. No, really.
A/N: This all started with a comment I made in lyssie’s LJ a while back. I’d say it was all her fault, but I was the one who made the comment, so.

( Read more... )

Okay, so I didn't really notice anybody saying anything last week when Larry Gelbart died. But today, the Shoebox blog informs me that both Mary Travers (from Peter, Paul, & Mary) and Henry Gibson also have died. And that? That is so not cool. Bang goes entire portions of my pre-teen and teenage years. And later. I wrote a paper on Laugh-In when I was in college. Fuck.

I liked what shoebox did in honor of Henry, though:

Today’s News in Rhyme:

My time was up,
But don’t feel gloomy.
The man upstairs
Just socked it to me.

Bugger.

I talked to four people on the phone today. No, wait, five. I never talk to that many people on the phone. Granted, they were all friends & family, but I actually called three of them, of my own volition, and that almost never happens. Of course, the last conversation lasted exactly one minute and thirteen seconds and the majority of it consisted of

Me: *picking up phone* Yeeees?
J: Playtpuses!
Me: Playtpi?
J: Think of something else!
Me: Uh...
J: Platypee?
Me: Mooshee mooshee?

I have no idea what I'm going to do at work tomorrow. NONE. I have a single task that will probably last me at most ten minutes. Perhaps I shall wander outside and pick the wild flowers. Speaking of wild flowers

( Read more... )

Leverage, "The Three Days of the Hunter Job":
( Read more... )

I finally, FINALLY finished the last season of Slings & Arrows tonight, troyswann. I am ashamed how long it took me to do so. I rewatched the first episodes and then watched the ones I hadn't yet, all in the past, four nights. I wept uncontrollably during most of the finale. This seems appropriate. OTOH, it might have been sleep dep. This also seems appropriate.

I am not in Austin this week for the Society of American Archivists' meeting. I am not in Chicago this week for Vividcon. Instead today I:

* Got up before 5:30 in order to take a 100-question multiple choice exam in order to become a certified archivist
* Bought a DVD/VHS combo recorder so I can maybe finally transfer some stuff from tapes to DVDs (I'm looking at you, Homefront, oh god the quality's going to be total crap if this even works)
* Bought a stand thingy to put in my kitchen so that I can maybe finally have more COUNTER SPACE because I have not yet met a kitchen in an apartment or townhome that had enough counter space
* Went to the library and dropped off the interlibrary loan books on archives (and I am not reading another book on archives for a long, long, looooong time)
* Wandered around the gardens associated with a local house museum, and drove around some of the prettier and more historic neighborhoods in town, just because I could and rarely do
* Have remained awake all day, while probably everyone else who was up before 5:30 to take that exam with me went home to bed
* Went to Panera just so I could get an iced chai latte. I was hot by that point after all my wanderings and retail therapy.

I haven't had to take a multiple-choice test since the GRE. However, I am reasonably certain I passed. I probably shouldn't say things like that, since it will no doubt jinx me.

So! I pondered, and now I have answers concerning top 5 fannish things.

From kindkit: ( Top 5 Fitz/Eight moments in the EDAs )

From brewsternorth: ( Top 5 Eight moments from the audios )

From pontisbright: ( Top 5 detectives )

From pontisbright (yay, again!): ( Top 5 Team!TARDISes )

This was fun. I'll gladly do more.

Shoebox blog: a bad way to waste even more time at work.

Also, I haven't seen anybody mention this about David Tennant, PBS, and Hamlet. Yay for next year?

I have reached the point at work where I am threatening to put a box on my head. An acidic one, naturally, as we have to save the acid-free ones for the records. Also, my cubicle, once pristine, now looks as if a state agency crawled in and died there. A small state agency, but one nonetheless, with really crappy acidic boxes. That I have so far refrained from putting on my head. (But it's been close.)

And finally, the meme du jour of the moment because I am BORED and avoiding doing other things: my fannish top 5 whatevers. Give me some to ponder. I shall gladly ponder.

I'm a total sucker for fic-related memes. That one about the first sentence of your past 20 fics:

( Read more... )

Speaking of Fitz, I've listened to the first two parts of "Company of Friends," with Benny and FIIIIIITZ. They were both magnificent and awesome and pretty much exactly what I would have hoped for, so I look forward to listening to the Izzy & Mary stories, since, er, I've never even thought much about them as companions.

Wait, what? They're putting out some director's cut version of "Children of the Gods"? WTF? I just saw a commercial for it while watching Eureka.

*

I have not seen nearly as many reaction posts to the Leverage season opener as I expected. Of course, I also haven't written a reaction. Mostly my reaction consists of YAY, TEAM. There was apparently a plot, but I didn't pay much attention to that. And YAY, PARKER AND HARDISON. Aaaand I'm going back and watching first season eps instantly on Netflix. I don't think I'd noticed how early on Hardison was crushing on Parker. It's kinda adorable. Huh.

*

The weather forgot it's summer here. Shhhh, don't remind it; I want to enjoy this weekend. (I walked most of the trails at lunch. And I was just outside chasing after lightning bugs. Who could ask for anything more?)

"T," I said to my co-worker today as we were passing each other, "I have a confession to make. I think I might have killed Scully."

"I did find her lying down, stunned," T replied. "Somebody had put her up on top of E.T.'s head a while back. I left her where she is, for now; you know how it is with head injuries."

"Make sure her neck is stable," I agreed.

"I knew it must have been you," she added, "I saw you walking over there."

"And I had to tell you before you came up to me and demanded to know why I'd done it," I told her sadly. "I had to be the better woman. I'll make sure not to close the drawer so hard next time."

"I'm going to find them all lying on the ground dead one day, and I'll know it was you," she said.

"It's an earthquake zone!" I told her.

We were talking about the toys she has sitting on top of a filing cabinet I have to get into with some regularity. Also? I work in an office peopled by geeks. Okay, not surprising when they're all librarians & archivists, but the sci-fi geekiness comes out in really surprising ways. Like when one of the reference desk people was an Andorian for Halloween last year, or when the former admin assistant had the TARDIS as her screensaver. Or, y'know, E.T. is dangling Mulder upside down on top of a filing cabinet.

So, appropriately, I leave you on this note.

Poll #1421681 inquiring minds
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

Do you like cheese?

So. Those nuclear wessels.

What are *your* plans for world domination? (It's good to compare notes.)

Pie or death?

Sunday afternoons.

Oh gods, it's true, it's all true, you can't change your patterns. I went to a thing after work that the division director was holding at her house, a TGIF little get-together for staff, and I know for a fact I was the youngest person there because the third project archivist on our grant didn't show. So I sat down in one of the dining room chairs with my Fat Tire beer, and then I noticed that some of my co-workers were sitting down on the carpet, including a couple very definitely at least twenty years older than me, and I felt horrifically guilty. So then when one of my co-workers was saying she needed more crackers to go with her leftover cheese, and another one asked for more chips to go with her salsa, I sprang up to fetch it for them. Because that's what I *always* do at family get-togethers because I'm always Young Legs (as my dear Aunt June used to call me).

Actually, the thing I finally realized a couple weeks ago when I held the Family Extravaganza, and maybe it's something I would not have been old enough to realize or appreciate any earlier than now--I come from a family of know-it-alls. This explains a lot. Including why I feel like I'll never catch up.

***

I don't remember Hyvee being a particularly high-end or classy grocery store, but the one here in town--well, I think this one's run and staffed by pod people. Seriously, they're all constantly bright and cheery and enthusiastically helpful. I was wandering past the deli looking for veggie dip when I heard the man behind the counter pontificating, "If you're looking for something low in salt, than you should try this." I was in the health food section picking up veggie burgers when I found somebody restocking and talking to another customer. "We just ran a promotional thing to find out what people really wanted, so we'll be making some changes here shortly." It was unnatural. And yet, I can't stop going, it's all so shiny.

***

Pushing Daisies is over. :( I finally got around to watching the last episode last night, not really having had time before now. It was such an awesome, awesome show. I want my characters back.