bironic

Sometimes I wonder why I read the Globe's weather column when it is half dedicated to gardening and contains so many grammatical and typographical errors, like yesterday's "we are defiantly in an active wintry pattern" and "Some of you live in areas you can do burns this time of year, tomorrow would be a great day to set some of the brush ablaze" -- especially since on occasion the lack of a proofreader has made forecast statements confusing.

Then he says stuff like this, and I am reminded:

"Highs will reach 45-50F and it will feel very spring-like. Whatever Punxsutawney Phil says tomorrow, remember he's a rodent. While I might not always be correct, I tend to do better on forecasting the weather, although he can dig better holes."

Happy SuperGroundhogBowl Day. Have a video clip of my favorite scene from the movie.

That thing where you don't post for a while and then you don't post because it's like a logjam? That is happening.

Re: the meme going around where friends request topics and you write about it on a given day in December: Let's try that! I can't commit to a post a day before winter break, but maybe three times a week? Will we even get that many requests?

ETA: Requested topics so far:

- fanvid recs! hmmm maybe some fun dancey vids?
- What's your favorite vid you've ever made, and why?
- Reminisce about your first fandom: what did you love about it?
- What got you into fandom? Does the same thing spark your passion now, or is it something(s) else that keep you inspired?
- Favorite actor and why you love them
- Favorite comic (you can interpret that as comic strip, web comic, or comedian)
- Science topics you would love to be asked to write about
- What combination of things would make for the Best TV Show Ever?
- Which female character would you most like to be? Which male character would you most like to be?
- What combination of things would make for the best fanfic ever?
- Anatomy!
- Your favorite holiday destination that you've already visited, and your favorite of the places you've not yet been to. (Intergalactic traval will not be allowed for the purpose of this question!)
- What do you use for media when starting a vid? Do you rip DVDs, convert .avi files or what? What editing software do you use and why? What is the next thing you want to learn/try in writing or vidding?
- 1-3 non-kink/sexual themes that are significant to you in media and why

.

Thanksgivukkah happened. Loved hanging out with my sister, as always; joined her and her friends for the first time on Leftover Thanksgiving Friday for their traditional playing of Cards Against Humanity; got a ride back yesterday from her and her current touring musician. Got to know dad's fiancee's extended family a little more. Wore a silly turkey hat. Ate a lot. Read a book (How We Die by Sherwin Nuland). Only had to go to the supermarket twice. Watched more TV than is advisable (er... Star Trek III, Star Trek IV, TNG, South Park, Moominland cartoons, some Peanuts movie that took place in the French countryside, Top Gear, What Maisie Knew [again], That Guy Who Was In That Thing, TOS "Amok Time," probably other stuff I'm forgetting. Ah, right, Independence Day, and an episode of a travel show, in which Joel McHale went to Northern Ireland and had style). Avoided manual labor and basement clean-up except for helping move an armchair and a bookcase and the contents of the bookcase up a flight of stairs. Avoided heavy conversations until the last morning. Exchanged gifts. Did not make a turkey menorah, alas.

Now back to the land of functional computers. Even though Hanukkah is half over, 'tis the season of consumerism/sales and parties and lights against the early nightfall, and coming up soon for the first time in years, the aforementioned winter break. Happy December.

Happy Halloween! In case you missed them last week, I made two vids appropriate for the occasion:

Death and the Maiden (Death Takes a Holiday, Meet Joe Black, The Green Table ballet)
I Hear the Bells (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

And here are Halloween-themed vids from past years:

Drink Me (True Blood, The Queen of the Damned)
Long Night’s Journey Into Day (28 Days Later)
Every Day Is Halloween in the Pegasus Galaxy (SGA)

In no particular order, recent-ish things not by me that feel suited to viewing on this holiday:

Keep the Streets Empty for Me by chaila (Twilight)
Under Pressure by meddow (Shaun of the Dead)
Possession by thirdblindmouse (Nosferatu)

...Surely there are enjoyable Halloween and/or Day of the Dead fics out there. Yes? AO3 says there are 1,400+ to sort through. Only I can’t remember any except for one Inception bit of fluff involving babysitting and trick-or-treating... I think. Wasn’t there a good one in the golden days of Harry Potter fandom about the night James and Lily died? (Although that’s probably like asking, Wasn’t there a good one about the Marauders?) From my own stuff I can only offer something like No Pain (House) because I never did finish the actual for-Halloween one that was gonna have the boggart (House, Harry Potter).

What are your favorite Halloweeny fanworks?

ETA: More reasons to like this apartment: Trick-or-treaters are happening! So far toddler Batman and the pre-teen girl hot dog are winning the contest for adorablest costume.

I never wished you a happy Hanukkah. Happy belated Hanukkah! Mine was laid-back and enjoyable; potato pancakes and a Skype call with my dad & his part of the family on the first night, the giving of gelt and portable holiday-scented hand sanitizers to my coworkers.

And now, happy post-solstice, post-Christmas and post-most other December holidays as well. I spent a few relaxing days at

synn's place with her and her visiting mom and her two cats that prevented the putting-out of gifts under the tree until the last minute due to their propensity for eating all the ribbons but who were forgiven on account of being fluffy. Games (including Star Trek Catan from my mom), TV (Psych, Firefly, X-Files, Storage Wars, a whacked-out movie version of the Nutcracker Ballet), food, crafts, conversation; who could ask for anything more? A joyous Christmas morning gift exchange followed by a Skype call with my mom & her part of the family.

Many excellent things were given and received. You all need to see these in particular, courtesy of

synn:

( Star Trek watercolor portraits and three other nifty things! )

Drove back safely through sleet and snow yesterday, which turned into rain early enough that I made it over to

deelaundry's after work for further celebrations. Among other things, she gave me a camel-colored cloche hat that matches my winter coat and looks super cute with the graduated bob I've had for a few months. I will have to be careful lest people mistake me for someone fashionable. :)

I did not send as many holiday cards as usual to fan friends, and some of them are likely to be late; I'm sorry. Thank you to those of you who sent cards—nightdog, rubynye, anyone else (roga ♥) whose cards might be winging their way to the mailbox.

Happy post-Thanksgiving/post-weekend. Long time no entry. (Again.) I spent a week or two finishing an extracurricular job and generally being too busy, and then one week in New York visiting family and remembering how to slow down.

The Thanksgiving trip turned out to be really nice. It provided an opportunity to reconnect with my mom, dad and sister as well as a chance to get to know better the people who are basically stepfamily now: dad's fiancée and her extended family, mom's boyfriend's son who is living at home for a while. Sometimes it involved troubling late-night conversations—more common as I grow up—but for the most part things were lovely. There was a day trip on a boat, some shopping, bonding time in the kitchen, ceiling painting, box packing and old stuff chucking, some couch lounging...

I also got to show my friends A. and Mr. A. around Long Island for a day, attended my other friend A.'s baby shower and spent a long afternoon at the company that used to employ me/destroy my will to live. You may recall stories if you read this LJ up until 2008. I hadn't been back since I quit to go to grad school five years ago. The visit was actually great. About a dozen people I'd worked with were still there, somehow, and there may be contract work in my future. The worst (aside from the fact that the office relocated from 25 miles/60 minutes away from my old house to less than three miles) was that one of my favorite former coworkers, who'd also left and for whom I'd done some freelance jobs, died of a freak intestinal issue over the summer. He was only 28 and had a brand-new daughter.

After driving back to D.C. with Pop Culture Happy Hour podcasts for company, I unpacked a bunch of boxes of books and CDs and assorted other things I'd never moved down here. The Vampire Chronicles! Sandman graphic novels! Poetry! School yearbooks! Old writing now on a Flash drive! Seder plate! Wine glasses! &c. &c. It's nice to have the books in particular. *hugs them* Three and a half years later, my little studio apartment starts to look well-furnished.

.

What else. I told you about the Dracula ballet.

synn and I went to the annual Crafty Bastards fair a few weeks ago and played Hipster Meme Bingo with the merchandise, keeping an eye out for moustaches, zombies, bacon, robots, T-rexes, tentacles, owls/cute baby animals, cupcakes and narwhals and stuff, with bonus points for combinations of the above (t-shirt with UFOs abducting dinosaurs! prints of UFOs abducting penguins! tote bag with Obama punching out a zombie!). So that was amusing. Not that I am immune to all of those tropes. No cephalopods this time, but I did get a greeting card with a tiny penguin.

'Tis the season for gift shopping/making/giving. And Festividding. (Half a draft done.) And snow. And sweaters and blankets. And maybe finally acquiring a TV stand that will hold my hundred-pound CRT as well as a shelf of DVDs. Dear vendors: giving load capabilities in flatscreen inches is not universally helpful.

Halloween wasn't going to be a big deal this year, and lately it has felt like I mostly sit around doing or stressing over not doing this freelance assignment, so it's a pleasant surprise to find that actually I have been part of a sort of extended Halloween celebration.

1.
Last Friday,

ellen_fremedon,

cincodemaygirl and

alpheratz accepted my invitation to Oyamel, this excellent Mexican tapas place that had a two-week special menu for the Day of the Dead. ( Amazing food and drinks. )

2.
Normal weekend with a few highlights like putting together a bookcase with a coworker and keeping horror movie marathons on TV all day in the background (Stephen King, Hammer, Tim Burton, Twilight, etc.). Then we had this, you know, tropical storm/nor'easter, and the office closed for a couple of days but I didn't lose power or Internet, so even with responsibly setting aside a day for the above-mentioned assignment, I had time to fill my last Kink Bingo square, which was going to be a Vampire Diaries story but ended up being that Halloween-appropriate True Blood/The Queen of the Damned vid about hypnotizing/seducing fellow vampires into drinking your queenly blood. Hurrah.

3.
Speaking of vampire vids: Have you seen

thirdblindmouse's new vid, Possession? She set Nosferatu to Sarah McLachlan. It is a thing of beauty and hilarity.

4.
My coworkers managed to pull off a potluck/costume party the day we returned to the office, which meant I got to wear a Star Trek dress and black boots in the style of Uhura, only with more modesty. Thank you, thinkgeek.com. Also I made these deviled eggs with orange-colored yolks and spiders made of olives on top, from something I saw on Pinterest.

5.
And today my friend A. and Mr. A. and I went to see a ballet version of Dracula, which... well, the (pre-recorded) music was entirely forgettable, the choreography 75% forgettable, the pacing poor, and the ending sudden and different from the book, but (1) the choreography for Dracula and his various pas de deux was spectacular, as was the man dancing him—bringing his elbows up behind him and his head forward like a bat, switching abruptly from slow and slinking to snake-strike quick when he decided it was time to attack his victims, making these elaborate creepy hand movements while pouring wine or taking someone's hand or touching someone's face or bowing in false obsequiousness, half-crawling and once howling like a wolf, lowering himself from a second-story railing head-first and extending his arms like a bat again, having partners begin mirroring his movements to indicate hypnotism—all very much in line with the book and early film depictions, and deserving of the standing ovation he got at the end, even if it might have been partly because he was the only one who got to do any decent dancing—and (2) they went full-throttle for the dubiously consensual homoerotics of Dracula seducing Harker after banishing the three brides. \o/ ( Dracula's hands were all over Harker's body... )

Vampires: still straddling the line between horror and desire.

Man, I would love to see David Hallberg play this Dracula. It would be worth sitting through the listless beginning and the endless tea party again. (After what felt like half an hour, the party at least was made interesting when everything went blue and slow motion as Dracula appeared on a balcony and entranced a spotlighted, normally moving Lucy.) One other saving grace was an ensemble danse macabre in a crypt or mausoleum or graveyard or something, the corps [sic, ha] done up like Helena Bonham Carter in a Tim Burton movie, only bloodier. There was a folk dance as well that had potential, but the dancers were out of sync and didn't seem to be doing as much as they were capable of. They did have a nice, gory wolf carcass. The scene where Mina was forced to drink from Dracula's breast worked well, although the audience tittered again when he ripped his shirt open, and the makeup people didn't powder his torso (or behind his ears, grr) to match the white of his face. Anyway, also impressive: The guy doing Renfield somehow danced an entire scene in a straightjacket.

In general, it was fascinating to observe the ways in which the novel could be transformed into dance, movements as clever metaphors. They stayed pretty faithful to the original plot and characters.

catilinarian, I think you would have loved it too.

6.
That was going to be the end of it, but hey, does going to see a filmed performance of the Globe Theatre's production of Doctor Faustus count next week? Arthur Darvill (Rory from Doctor Who) plays Mephistopheles. Should be quite enjoyable if I stay on top of my assignment in the meantime and don't freak out about leisure activities. November is going to be nuts.

...

Thinking of all of you in New York and environs who are still struggling with power outages, lack of heat, gas shortages, etc. Though my mom & co. lost a tree and my dad's household is without power and is expected to remain so for up to two weeks, my family made it through okay.

1.

Last post about movies for a while, I promise. I just wanted to put in a quick plug for When Do We Eat? (2005), a dysfunctional family Passover Seder comedy that I watched last night after my little seder-for-one and a phone call to my mom still left me feeling a lack of satisfying connection to the holiday.

First: A Passover movie exists! Second: It was not terrible! I mean, all the characters were stock/caricatures, but somehow they nonetheless came across as people. And it was funny, even more so if you've sat through your share of sulky Four Questions recitations, rushed/monotonous/sarcastic Haggadah readings, stupid family fights, interruptions that extend an already endless pre-dinner ceremony, tales of afikomen adventures from years past, etc. Also, I confess I teared up when the grandfather talked about the family he'd lost in the war.

Plot: druggie son in an extended stepfamily slips his overbearing father some E in his antacid at the start of the family's first Seder in three years for a little revenge and in the hope of some excitement. Drama, spiritual connection, hijinks and the beginnings of reconciliation ensue. There are rabbi jokes and incest jokes and a random Israeli hunk with an eye patch. There is the world's oddest plot with an autistic sibling. There's a borderline offensive moment when the black lesbian not-quite-sister-in-law turns a Haggadah reading into gospel, saved by the fact that she means it, that the grandfather connects to it, and that it highlights some parallels between Christian and Jewish joy (as it illustrates one of the brother's [and also Eddie Izzard's] point that religious readings in America generally could use some joy). Some moments fall flat, and the ending is a bit packaged/sentimental, but a coda confirms that there will be backsliding before the family achieves true improvement. It's a typical quirky family-holiday comedy, except there aren't many about Passover, and that made it great (for me).

Happy Passover, my Passover-celebrating friends. Happy Easter. Happy weekend. Happiness to you in general.

2.

Here, here is a non-movie thing. There was a meme going around recently where you post seven lines from the seventh page of your most recent work in progress? I skipped it because my WsIP aren't that long, ha. But then I worked on one last weekend and lo, it now has seven pages. So:

"Bashir!"

On the table, Karin looked like she was spacing out. A blessing, perhaps.

"Five seconds before I turn this on again," Rothka warned.

"Enough," said Kovan. "This has to stop."

Bashir at least had the decency to have broken out in a sweat and look half as anguished as Kovan felt. "We can't."

*suspense*

3.

Also! While watching this week's Community, I was trying to figure out what the format reminded me of (beyond PBS history documentaries, that is), and somewhere around the texts between Annie and Jeff it hit me: Written by the Victors! Multiple accounts of events from scholars/participants with their own biased perspectives. Ha.

Relatedly: Did you know today is/was International Pillow Fight Day? I wonder if the air date was a coincidence. Possible post-hiatus decision, that is.

Happy Tuesday/Valentine's Day, friends! I hope there is something sweet today for each of you.

And thank you to

cincodemaygirl, Dee and a lovely anonymous person for the hearts. Here is another: ♥

I celebrated by donating blood. Giving from the heart, yes? This time I stayed properly hydrated and didn't get light-headed, and afterwards there was string cheese, so all in all that was a win.

.

Things I have posted of late, in case you missed them and would be interested:

SGA not-so-flashfic, Songs they have sung for a thousand years – the one where John and Ronon dance and Teyla sings (team, gen)

Two House works-no-longer-in-progress: vampire sequel and MRI would-have-been-kink (House/Wilson)

My two Festivids: 28 Days Later (Cillian Murphy, zombies, Coldplay) and Independence Day (Aimee Mann)

Next up: clearing out two three-year-old vids and a year-and-a-half-old SGA kink meme fill.

Catch-up time! With a few pictures.

( Home Decorating for the Holidays – First trip to synn's new place )

( TV & Movies – Red Cliff, Sherlock TV show, Tron: Legacy, Stargate (1994), Thoughtcrimes rewatch, Brimstone ep rewatch, Vampire Diaries. With bonus link to an article about invented languages for fictional cultures. )

( Cooking – Mm, holiday food. )

( Hanukkah – Gifts, given and received, and a little help from technology. )

Should say something about fic now that I've got a bit of time to read some again. But I am not a big fan of Yuletide—I'm up to the "T" fandoms that I know and so far I've only got Texts from Cephalopods to recommend, along with about 10,000 other people, based on a possibly bogus YouTube video we watched when we saw the name of the "fandom"—and a couple of enjoyable Inception stories of late, Late Night Phone Call by

sparkledark and The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret by

eleveninches. Need to check out

sga_santa and see if there's anything good over there. It's nice that the rare pairings (by which we mean everything that isn't McKay/Sheppard and Rodney/Jennifer, and maybe Sheppard/Weir and Sheppard/Teyla) are growing ever more numerous as the years pass since the show ended.

…Whoops, my friend just called to remind me that she and her husband and their puppy are coming over tomorrow evening for dinner. Guess I'd better figure out what they'll be fed.

18 Oreo turkeys: made!

( larger behind the cut )

My friend A. came over to help put them together. They will be transported to work tomorrow—somehow—to feed the colleagues.

Also tomorrow: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, with Gary Oldman and the director doing Q&A after. <3

Happy almost-Passover! And happy almost-almost-Easter, and happy spring break to those of you on U.S. academic calendars. To the rest I wish a happy Monday, if that is possible.

I am celebrating by writing self-indulgent porn at 10 a.m. There is a chicken for roasting later, matzo balls in a jar ready to be be-souped, gefilte fish longing to be laid out on lettuce, a sweet potato aching for baking. Okay, that rhyme was terrible. I'm sorry, National Poetry Month.

/weird

Okay, no, not /weird. You know what is weird? How a holiday that is in part about how the fleeing slaves had no time for their bread to rise has become an occasion to spend hours and hours preparing food that we can eat so long as it doesn't have yeast or flour in it.

In which we switch topics to fandom

You know what some people would find weird but I thought was pretty great? This SGA kink meme fill of a bestiality prompt, which is about how Sheppard bonds with a sentient creature when they're both captive in a prison cell, and which is less bestiality in the classical sense (copulation with an animal) than it is about connecting with an intelligent beast-looking creature with a different language and behavior. Sort of like Chewbacca? Not to say that it isn't dirty-wrong-hot too, complete with drugs and dubcon and multiple orgasms and non-beast noncon. Looks like the author created an LJ just to post it; I wonder if it's a known author in fandom who was conflicted about being associated with it. But seriously, thumbs up.

In which we pause to consider the juxtaposition of the above segments

...

In which we accept the odd contradictions that comprise my life and continue on as usual

I'd also like to rec an Inception fill that once again features underage!Arthur and 20-something!Eames, but I think I will save it for a short while in the hope that my Kink Bingo card has an ageplay square on it so I can compile these AU recs along with a handful of SGA stories that take the trope to really interesting places.

Movies I have seen lately that are good but may not get the write-ups they deserve so I may as well just list them:

Okay, going away now before something even stranger comes out of my keyboard.

Holy hell, when I look back at November it's no wonder I only posted twice.

Went to a conference for work
Went to another conference and saw a couple of my grad profs and many alumni
Managed to grab brunch with no_detective and pun on the way back
Did two freelance projects, including writing a 45-page website
Used the proceeds of said projects to buy a new vidding computer on Monday (!), plus Adobe Production Suite CS5 (!!)
Went to NY for Thanksgiving break
Co-organized and went to a bridal shower, and went to a baby shower
Got new glasses (it's been 5 years)
Finished season one of The Vampire Diaries
Saw Harry Potter with fellow fanpeople
Finished a draft of my festivids vid

You know, and worked full-time and went to dance class every week.

Tonight is my first really free night since October, and it is going to be glorious. Latkes and candlelighting-by-phone and a Netflix movie. This weekend there will be a first trip to National Harbor and a friend's birthday dinner. I can catch up on House. I may even be able to do some (*shudder*) holiday shopping.

Fannish goals for this month:

Finish the 'aliens made them dance' story (Jan. 2008) for Flashfic Amnesty

One goal is achievable, right?

Plus getting the new computer and software up and running -- it's due to arrive mid-month -- so I can finish off some vids-in-progress. I am really excited about this computer. I customized it to have processing power out the wazoo, storage space I can't imagine filling, and memory that would make my current computer weep. Most of all, it won't crash every six months because it can't handle file conversion. Um, I hope.

...

Happy, happy Hanukkah to any of you who are celebrating tonight.

1. Last call for Chanukah cards, if I don't have you already.

2. I had the sweetest little dream last night about snuggling up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt while watching Inception at the movies, and he was cold so I had an arm around his shoulders and draped an extra blanket over his lap. After a discussion about Arthur/Saito, he slid his hand up to my neck and leaned in and said, "I'm trying to decide whether to kiss you and whether you'd let me," to which I said, "I'd let you, but you can keep thinking it over if you want to," and then he kissed me and it was just very sweet. Kissing is always sweeter in dreams than it is in life. Um, or maybe it's just how long it's been.

3. Ha, baby Kal Penn is in "Beer Bad"! With long flippy hair.

3a. I watched a few eps of season 4 (BtVS) last night while attempting turkey digestion. It was really comforting to see all these characters I loved again -- Giles grumpy in the morning with his t-shirt and tattoo, Willow arguing for culturally sensitive slayage, Tara when she was new, Anya still learning human etiquette, Xander and his new syphilis. Adam, with enough face to be handsome. Riley, who, like House's Stacy, transmuted from annoying to vaguely interesting the second time around. Remembering all the lines I'd once known by heart. "Suffused with joy and comfort" is the phrase I'm looking for.

4. Thanksgiving. I'm home in New York, inasmuch as my dad's house is home these days. We, my sister and I, had a Thanksgiving here yesterday with her friends and one at my mom's on Thursday. It's been a good holiday, if a tenuous one because of some family health issues. Regardless, I wanted to come by and tell you all that despite how infrequently I've been posting lately, and even though we are not all sharing love for the same fandoms these days, I am really thankful to have you as flisters. Just: ♥

Hanukkah starts December 1 this year. Which means... it is time to ask who wants a holiday card!

If you have never given me your address before, or if you have moved since last season, and if you would like a nondenominational holiday card, please fill out the poll below or email me. Poll responses can only be seen by me.

[Poll #1642743]

Oh, and comments are screened in case you'd rather leave info there.

A happy, healthy, sweet and successful new year to all of you who are celebrating -- and all who aren't, anyway.

Turns out it was a good idea to clean everything, because the next day I received sudden and happy news that

roga would be visiting for the holiday. We ended up going to Rosh Hashanah eve and morning services together at a temple neither of us had visited before, which were very pretty as high holiday services tend to be. It was nice to have a companion, not to mention a companion whose simple presence served as a constant reminder that when we recite these prayers, it's not just memorized sounds the way they taught it to us in Hebrew school, it's a living language. The rabbi totally glomped on to her after services, too. I guess it was a novelty to have a direct import from Israel.

As opposed to previous years, this time when I checked, two of my favorite prayers/songs were on YouTube: the sweet, haunting version of a prayer called R'tzei that's done on the high holidays -- oh, those last few piano chords; and Sim Shalom, sung by a full youth choir and two soloists, one of whom I like very much and who appears to be the lovechild of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Blair Sandburg. Here's a segment of Sim Shalom again, this time with an adult choir, because I think it's really cool that Jewish music can be done by choirs. I hope you'll give them a listen. I think they're beautiful, and in the youth choir one, you can see how thrilled the conductor is with the performance when he finishes them up.

Anyway.

roga and I lazed around a bit, met up with

deelaundry, hosted

alpheratz for an evening, visited

marag (note to self: find and read her Wolverine baby-sitting story), took a quick tour of my workplace, ate at a tasty kosher-style deli, and trekked over to the zoo, where highlights included a komodo dragon, comb jellyfish, baby gorilla, elephant shrews, scarlet ibises, and goats on a playground. Seemingly half the animals there were napping or absent, and the zoo was big and hilly and not ideally laid out, but it was nonetheless quite fun to play games like "Track down the panda/lemurs/otters/elephant" and "Figure out why the antelopes are in the paddock next to the cheetahs'" and to marvel at the Jurassic Park-like fences around the larger animal enclosures.

roga will surely post a few ~~hundred~~ of the excellent photos she took. She also spent a day wandering around the Mall while I was at work.

This visit, two or three people asked if we were sisters. That never fails to please me.

Last night we made it across the city to Union Station by car almost without error -- curse you, Columbus Circle! -- but minutes too late for the desired train; so we ventured over to near the Capitol Building, where (September 11?) fireworks were happening over a hill, and then I deserted her and her camera in favor of driving home to lie very still in bed with a headache and fall asleep to Psych.

And now here I am on a rainy morning, sans houseguest* but plus good memories and a few story ideas.

*Er, until this evening, when the originally planned non-fannish one arrives for a night.

I love browsing for holiday cards. In addition to hitting up the regular stationery shops and bookstores, I'm going through etsy right now, and ohmygoodness, there are some cute choices. For instance, here are the ones Katie Brown sends. And who doesn't want an aardvark in a stack? It's fun to imagine who might send these and why. Also: this.

On a totally unrelated note (unless we'd like to draw a connection by saying it was like an early holiday present custom-made for me), the hottest fic I've read in a while appeared this morning: Boundaries by

esteefee (Sheppard/McKay; so, so adult-rated). It's intense sex intersecting with my own kinks, but it's also the fact that it doesn't stop at a simple PWP -- it considers the repercussions of an "aliens made them do it" encounter and examines John's complicated attitude toward his own desires. Rodney makes some missteps of his own as they try to figure things out, and I'm not sure I like that John is the one giving in while Rodney hardly makes concessions, but that's perhaps less a critique of the story than of their relationship. Go; read; sizzle.

Thanksgiving and day-after-Thanksgiving went as well as could be expected with ten guests Thursday (as opposed to our usual zero) and six Friday. Also considering that Thursday's guests were strangers to me and six of them were aged 13 and under. Somehow, though, we still have five or ten pounds of turkey left.

Friday afternoon was, and later today will be, my own social time. Yesterday for lack of anything better to do I rooted around the shelves for some poetry books to take back to DC with me. I ended up sitting right there in a poorly insulated corner of the room reading The Bell Jar straight through. Then it was 4 p.m. It's been too long since I did something like that.

How bad is it that I'm seriously contemplating watching a movie airing tonight called A Dog Named Christmas because Bruce Greenwood is in it? It'll probably only remind me that half my crush on him is from fanfic and not what he actually looked like in Reboot.

I'm not usually one to go all out and celebrate Independence Day. As a kid we would barbecue and then set off some crackers and sparklers in the back yard, the end. Lately it's just been lackluster viewing of the Boston, New York and/or D.C. fireworks on TV. A few years ago a friend and I did go down to the Esplanade to see the Boston Pops concert. Well, to hear the concert over speakers, we were so far away from the Hatch Shell where the performance took place, but we were sitting right by the river for the fireworks afterwards.

But this year, I figured that since I'm in the nation's capital, I should do some capital-y celebration-type things. And I ended up having a perfect Fourth of July.

( Details and pictures – historical reenactment, parade and awesome fireworks. )

Today I'm taking a break and staying in. Have Remix to beat into submission and a chicken to roast, and one of the worst sunburns of my life on my knees to slather in aloe. What're you all up to?

Relaxing: I'm remembering how to do it. I'm even reading a book.

When I got home on Thursday, I ran a bunch of errands and then we went to see a Ryan Star show nearby at my sister's bidding. It was a good one; louder than it needed to be, typical for this venue, but I was prepared with foam earplugs, and he played my two favorite songs of his: Brand New Day, which he tends to open with, and which got popped up for the Lie to Me opening credits, and The One You Know, which I've only heard him do once, out of tune.

Friday I played on the computer all afternoon, learning how to vid. I've now got a machine that can handle video capture and editing—as opposed to this laptop, which can't even take a still shot from streaming video—and I'm working on a simple vid to start, House-Wilson friendship, House POV, happy fluffy joy. I hope it will be ready in a week or so.

For the first time in a while, I had a Memorial Day weekend that felt like a Memorial Day weekend. ( beach, BBQ, fishing and LJ friends. )

.

My updates lately have been sparse and sometimes locked. Here's where I'm at and where I think I'm going for the next few months.

- Classes ended a week and a half ago. I'm now done with the coursework towards my graduate degree. All that's left is completing an internship. Mine starts Monday (maybe; long story), so I'll be in the D.C. area through August. I'm waiting for my apartment key to come in the mail and then I'm driving down. Hopefully tomorrow.

- At my internship, there will be no daytime access to email or LJ. It's not even a matter of willpower this time; it's all government-firewalled. My supervisor-to-be has to go home to work on developing the department's Facebook page. So I won't see anyone's posts or get messages between maybe 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., unless I skip out on lunch break to a public computer. Although I suppose it's possible nobody here will notice a difference in my participation.

- Accordingly, if I want to work on fic, I'll have to bring a notebook, because I also can't email that stuff to myself to or from my work account, and I can't hook up any flash drives to the network. I want to bring the notebook, though, because there will be

kink_bingo, another Porn Battle, and Remix starting up in the next month or so.

Did I forget anything? I think that's it.

Season's greetings from someecards (with a slight modification):

(if that's crashing anyone's f-list, let me know and I'll stick it behind a cut.)

I've had a nice weekend home, overall, even though things mostly did not go as planned. Despite missing the two appointments on Friday and having no car in a place where you really want to have a car, thanks to my mom and very generous sister's chauffeuring efforts, I got to see my friend J. and

moonlash_cc yesterday and today, respectively, and along with them, the pilot of True Blood, scenes from The L Word, an episode of Leverage, and highlights from the series finale of Boston Legal, which I hadn't watched in a couple of years. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF BOSTON LEGAL.

Friday night my mom and her bf picked me up and we went to see my sister's musician's show nearby. It was short, but he played some of my favorite songs of his. Also, afterwards, I heard a song called "Full Moon" by The Black Ghosts, which I've been listening to on repeat ever since. I'm ashamed to say it's from the Twilight soundtrack.

( Details about that night, and the bf's family emergency. )

Still, it was nice being at her place all day Saturday, cooking and catching up and opening a stack of unexpected presents when my sister joined us. It's been a long time since Chanukah included a stack of presents; lately when I've had something to ask for it's been biggish, like a winter coat or help on airfare. What fun -- there were Poe and Bronte compendia and a hedgehog veggie brush and chocolate and polka dot socks and a pair of gray waffle-fabric pajama pants and the adorablest wall decorations in addition to the only thing I'd asked for, a hand-held immersion blender purée thing for soups. I'm in the midst of figuring out how to get it all back up to Boston when I only brought a backpack. (Gosh, my problems are so significant.)

Heading back tomorrow and will get to see my college friend R. who's in town from across the pond before

synn gets in on Wednesday for a glorious whole week together.

Profile

bironic

AO3 profile

Style Credit

Style: Simplicity for Compartmentalize by timeasmymeasure

Entries tagged with holidays

Put your little hand in mine

Posting meme

Shameless self-promotion

Home from the holidays

Home for the holiday

Things wot I did for Halloween; or, Dracula ballet unexpectedly slashy

Passover and a movie; WIP snip; Community connections

A Day of Hearts

ps thanx for all the prawns

A little Sunday silliness

Vacation daaaaaay

December 1: A fresh start.

Mildly maudlin Thanksgiving thoughts

Holiday cards 2010

Shana Tova, with guest

(no subject)

This is what I've come to.

A Capital Fourth at the Capitol Fourth

State of the bironic

And a happy solstice too.

Profile

Tags

Style Credit

Syndicate