This journal is [mostly] friends-only.

All personal/RL posts are locked. Memes, some fannish stuff, and things like my "books read this year" posts are public. If you're here for the fic, all my fic will be posted publicly at our_fic. There will still be no public fic posts in this journal.

I'm sorry, but I don't friend back automatically, and I'm fairly cautious about my friends list. If I know you from around LJ, please leave a comment (they're screened) so I know you've friended me!

8. The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, Alexander McCall Smith, 2.5/5.
9. The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer, 3/5.
10.Daddy Long-Legs, Jean Webster, 3.5/5.
11.Dear Enemy, Jean Webster, 3/5.

[Note: The Webster books are sort of rated on the average: If I look at how much I like the characters and am interested in what happens to them, and enjoy the writing style, they'd be rated quite highly (4.5 for each); but when I think about the ("acceptable" by the standards of the early 1900s, when they were written, but often disturbing now; their only saving grace is that there is obviously not an ounce of intended malice in them, and that it's obvious that for her time, Webster was fairly forward-thinking, and some of the squickiest stuff was considered at the forefront of science) sociological aspects of the books, Daddy Long-Legs would get a 2/5 and Dear Enemy a 1.5/5. So I averaged.]

Rereads, as many as I can recall, because I'm starting to feel like I'm reading all the time and not finishing many books at all, and I realized that it's because I'm not listing half my books:

• The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer
  
• Cousin Kate, Georgette Heyer
  
• Sylvester, Georgette Heyer
  
• Arabella, Georgette Heyer
  

Is the soft drink Mountain Dew sold there? (I'm beta-reading and wanted to fact-check, and Wikipedia and the official site are not helping me.)

ETA: I have an answer good enough for the purposes of the fic I'm beta-reading. Thanks!

So, as I see from my flist (specifically from calapine, but there are others), the DVD commentary meme is going around again. :) I like this meme.

So. For any fic of mine that you request, I will provide commentary, like a DVD extra.

Notes:

1. If I've already done commentary on a story, then I'm not likely to do it again. (If I did commentary for particular chapters, any other chapters are still fair game.)
2. I'm already doing commentary for "The Full Xander Harris Experience" and "Holidays on the Hellmouth."
3. I will get to these. It may take a short time, but I will get to them. :)
4. If it's co-written fic, I'll have to ask permission first.

Find my fic here, here, here, here, and here. (Sorry about that, but my fic site is down....)

5. Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer, 4/5
6. Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Alexander McCall Smith, 2.5/5
7. The Order of the Stick: On the Origin of PCs, Rich Burlew, 3/5

Signups are open for the second annual Giles/Xander Octoberfest.

Hope to see a lot of you there!

I have been watching a lot of First Doctor lately, and am pleasantly surprised. Most of my knowledge of that era has always been (a) An Unearthly Child (the one First Doctor I had on VHS) and (b) Target Novelizations, many of which just aren't very good. (They do, at least, give you a general sense of what happened.) I'd seen a few others here and there once things started to come out on DVD, but I hadn't made any effort to track down the ones that were not.

Except now I am. (I am still not tracking down the ones with episodes reconstructed. I have limited patience with those, and I think it will go better if, when I watch them, it is because no other Old Skool Who exists that I have not seen. This is sad, as it means I will be able to zip through the Second Doctor era in about a week, but I will survive.)

ANYWAY. I am very, very fond of the First Doctor, and the very first Team TARDIS. And I am reminded every single time I watch The Aztecs that the Asexualists really have never had a leg to stand on, have they? While the Doctor was very surprised to be engaged to Cameca, he didn't seem to object, either, and he was very sweet with her, and seemed genuinely sad that he had to leave her behind. I do lament the fact that in three of the four series of New Who, the Doctor/companion relationship was All About Shipping (and while the Doctor's relationship with Donna wasn't, the end of the series did, in fact, remind us of shippiness yet again), but one certainly can't say the Doctor *never* seemed to have any romantic interest in anyone. (I will look forward to seeing "Kinda" again for the first time in many years, because I used to be convinced the Doctor and Dr. Scott (that was her name, right?) were interested in one another, and that the Doctor's "paradise is a little too green for me, as well" comment was about not being able to stay with her (or indeed anyone). We'll see if I still think that.

In a non-fannish note, my plans for today got scrapped when my alarm failed to go off. Luckily, they were not time-sensitive plans. I will try to salvage some of this week's to-do list and go out for the haircut tomorrow.

So, I've read about ten books that never made it to this list because I didn't want to write a paragraph about them. Clearly, something needs to change. :)

I think that unless there's something I'm dying to say, I'm not going to write anything about the books, or hunt up an Amazon link. (If you're curious about something, do ask me.) Just title, author, 5-star rating (which is mostly for my own benefit). And I'm probably not going to list re-reads, because my reading goal is now to read things I *haven't* read twenty times before. And I'll try to make this a weekly post, rather than every few days when I read something.

Also... my numbering is about to restart, because I met my 50-book goal and I want to try to do something a little different. I'll still tag with "2008:books," but I'm starting over with #1, and I won't restart my numbering in 2009, just change tags.


1. First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde. 4.5/5
2. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett. 4/5
3. Hasty Death, Marion Chesney. 3/5
4. Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer. 4/5

I have reached a sad stage in my life, where there is a small and dwindling number of Georgette Heyer Regencies (and/or Georgian romances) left for me to read. Ten, to be exact. (Well, eleven, but Regency Buck is on the table next to me.) Two of them are currently out of print; they are my next two purchases, because I want to snap them up while they're easily available. The others are here, for you to make suggestions to me! They're not cheap, so I can't buy them all at once. :)

If it's any help to you, my five favorite Heyer romances (of the 23 I've read) are, in no particular order: Venetia, Frederica, The Grand Sophy, The Corinthian, and The Nonesuch; the only one I have read and not liked is Powder and Patch. (I also have read and not much enjoyed Beauvallet, though it's not a Regency.)

Poll #1243180
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which Heyer book(s) should I get first? (3 or fewer, please!)

Feel free to explain in comments!

afternoonsandcoffeespoons.org got hacked today, and was shut down by my host.

Until they reinstate my account, obviously, I have no fic site, no headers for my journal, no mood theme, nothing.

I *should* be able to reinstate most things (maybe not my mood theme, I'll have to check) once I get access to my site again, but ARGH ARGH ARGH.

lostgirlslair, do you still happen to have the graphic for the Friends Only banner you made me? I think it was lost in a hard drive crash, and I'd like to be able to re-upload it.... ETA: Found it! I must have remembered to download it back to my HD.

I've signed up as an author at the 2008 DVD Commentary Challenge. Anything I've written (except The One With the Evil Puppies, which I am frantically hoping to finish soon) is fair game--co-written stuff is out as my co-writers haven't signed on. :D (And because everything I have co-written with anyone who isn't Sofy has been hopefully BURIED SOMEWHERE. *g*)

So if you want to do commentary on anything I've written, head over to dvd_commentary. :)

I am hoping to participate as a commentator, also, but I need to get some other things done first. :)

( 54. Sprig Muslin, Georgette Heyer (reread) )

Overall rating: 4.5/5.

( 55. Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer )

Overall rating: 4/5.

( 56. Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer )

Overall rating: 4.5/5.

( 57. False Colours, Georgette Heyer )

Overall rating: 4/5.

No links today, as Amazon isn't loading for me.

I've recently introduced my girl to the joys of Heyer, and so I'm having fun rereading some myself...

( 52. Frederica, Georgette Heyer (reread) )

Overall rating: 5/5.

( 53. A Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer (reread) )

Overall rating: 5/5.

It's my summer_of_giles day on Saturday, and that means I have to write something today or tomorrow (because Saturday I don't plan to be around much).

I had it all worked out (the rest of "The One With the Evil Puppies") and yet I do not have a computer with Word on it yet (other than this one, which EATS FILES--I will definitely be using GoogleDocs), and so it is very hard to access what I'd written of that (also, is on computer that is still currently made of fail, and I don't want to work from the backup as that's lacking several thousand words.). (Yes, I fail. Or rather, my computer fails.) And I don't have time now anyway. ARGH. Stupid broken computer.

And so right this second... I have nothing

Anyone want to throw Giles-based prompts at me? I'm not promising to write all of them, but maybe one or two will spark something in my brain....

From ionlylurkhere: This is IMDb’s top 25 all-time box office hits. Bold the ones you saw in the cinema, italicize the ones you saw some other way instead, and leave the unseen ones alone.

( list under cut )

Lots of recs over at our_recs today:

The weekly mini-recs post, featuring 29 stories (again) in Buffyverse (mostly Giles/Xander, but also Spike/Xander and Wes/Angel); Doctor Who and spinoffs (gen and various pairings, both old and new series); Harry Potter; Heroes; Remington Steele (Steele/Murphy slash!); SGA (gen and McShep); and X-Files (mostly Mulder/Krycek, but also Mulder/Scully).

Then, in more detailed recs, there's
+my absolute favorites from the gilesxander ficathon;
+"X-Files Stories You Have Probably Already Read, But I'm Reccing Them Anyway" (aka, a love letter to the XF fic of torch and Jane Mortimer);
+ and a detailed rec of "Sew It Up, But You Still See the Tear" by thedeadparrot.

It's not that I stopped reading in mid-May, honestly! It's just that I stopped writing it up. And that I've read a lot of fic. And cookbooks. And Sims 2 guidebooks. None of which counts here.

( 48. I Heard That Song Before, Mary Higgins Clark )

Overall rating: 3/5.

( 49. Small Favor, Jim Butcher )

Overall rating: 4.5/5.

( 50. Magic Burns, Ilona Andrews )

Overall rating: 2.5/5.

And that takes me to my goal for the year!

( 51. Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady; Bronwyn Scott )

Overall rating: 2/5.

I've posted this week's mini-recs (my favorites from this week's fic reading). 29 fics recced (out of 80+ I read this week), in many, many fandoms, including Buffyverse (nearly all Giles fic, but one Spike/Xander), Doctor Who (mostly old school), HP (varied), and SGA (all McShep)--those are just the big fandoms, though; there are several others.

I've also decided that instead of just saying, "You should read THIS fic if you read no others," to do that for every fandom there (seriously, they are all worth reading, that's why I recced them, but still, I tried to pick one that made me go especially flaily), and to do a detailed rec for one story a week.

This week's detailed rec is for Greenwich Village (June 28, 1969) by biichan, which is Doctor Who, Second Doctor/Jamie, rated PG, and highly recommended.

Mini-recs based on this week's reading up at our_recs. Fandoms include: Buffyverse (Spike/Xander and Giles/Xander), Firefly (Simon/River), HP (multiple pairings including at least one Weasley), P.G. Wodehouse, Discworld, and Doctor Who (new series).

...why it was a good idea, in my brain, to decide that I was going to finish this mammoth WIP for Sunday. Seriously. Given how little fic I've been able to produce lately? WHY?

*pokes my brain and goes back to writing*

medie is hosting a pep talk meme, and I plan to spend part of the afternoon leaving encouragement in other people's threads. But I really need it right now, myself, and my thread is here.

Been a while, hasn't it? :)

"You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to." --Roger Miller

Gleee!
1. I have a wonderful, loving, understanding girlfriend.
2. I tagged fic today! And writing was not painful!
3. I had cherries for lunch today. A great big bowl of them. And that is all.
4. I am doing gleee! for the first time since what, early May?
5. I am being at least slightly productive!

Three things I did well today:
1. I paid my car insurance bill.
2. I requested a new insurance card.
3. I tagged co-written fic.

Two things I look forward to doing (better) tomorrow:
1. Paying for my new car tabs.
2. Working on horrifically overdue ficathon fic.

To whoever sent me the lovely purple rhino V-gift. :D It is awesome. :D

( 45. Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, Ann Herendeen )

Overall rating: 3/5.

( 46. Loves Music, Loves to Dance, Mary Higgins Clark )

Overall rating: 3/5.

( 47. A Nameless Witch, A. Lee Martinez )

Overall rating: 3.5/5.

( 40. Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light, Tanya Huff )

Overall rating: 3.5/5.

( 41. The Fire's Stone, Tanya Huff )

Overall rating: 4.5/5.

( 42. Candide, Voltaire  )

Overall rating: 5/5 for historical/cultural/philosophical merit; 0/5 when viewed as a book to read.

( 43. The Vig, John Lescroart )

Overall rating: 1/5.

( 44. A Clear Case of Murder, Warwick Downing )

Overall rating: 1/5.

Books read so far: 44/50, or 88%.
Days into 2008: 126/366, or 34.4%.

But happy birthday, researchgrrrl! May this year be much, much, much better than the last.

Honestly? I need an icon that reflects the fact that apparently, I am OMGOLD. I just don't know what to put on one, and I do not have mad icon skillz anyway. :D

You know, I remember back when I was 18 and half my fannish friends were 40... I miss those days. :)

Mostly for me, but I'm not locking this, so... I don't know. Feel free to mock my overcommittedness as you wish. :)

But I'm starting to lose track, so I need one of these posts for my own brain. (I should update the ficathon/fic progress posts I have, but anyway.)

( The state of the ficathon, late April 2008 )

"You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to." --Roger Miller

Gleee!
1. This. Although describing Kerr Avon as "charming" (even with "cynical-but-" before it) is a bit, er, odd, in my opinion. The potential for wank is also pretty outstanding. [ETA: My actual position: It will probably suck. I can ignore its existence, especially as it'll probably never air over here, and the wank will be outstanding. Nobody wanks like B7 fans. In the event that it is actually good, well, good show + wank that will STILL be outstanding.]
2. This decision. It's hard to explain how and why I was making myself unhappy, but I think it's resolved.
3. New SPN tonight!
4. She has been wonderful today and supported me through my angst. And also my rage.
5. My kittens are being sufficiently cute that I am able to overlook the fact that they got a pillar candle (that's in a glass holder) *out of the closed bookshelves* and are currently sleeping with it. Mostly.

Three things I did well today:
1. FINISHED MY PROJECT OMG. (For some value of finished. I have to print it and bind it and stuff. But it's all *created*.)
2. Showered. At 4 PM, because I wasn't getting up until I finished my project. But I finally did. :D
3. At least *thought* about the fic I was supposed to write today (but did not because of all the work I was doing).

Two things I look forward to doing (better) tomorrow:
1. Going to school.
2. Genuinely being done with the written part of this project.
3. NOT fucking up and posting this to the wrong place.

I was not at all planning to watch this series, but then it was made clear to me that it's going to be watched in my living room on Sci-Fi, and I'd prefer to see the uncut versions first.

So. During my short study breaks, I worked through the episodes so far. Keep in mind I watched these in 10-minute bursts...

( 4x01 - Partners in Crime )

( 4x02 - The Fires of Pompeii )

( 4x03 - Planet of the Ood )

( Trailer for 4x04 )

Here's the thing.

When I was a young'un, I was allowed to wander around local SF conventions without supervision (by young'un, I mean "a teenager," not a wee little child. And Wee!Mir was taught how to act in public). This was not because cons were utopian paradises, but because my parents knew enough people there that they knew that I was unlikely to be in a room where there was not at least one trusted adult present. (And there were rules about where I could go, and how often I should check in, and so forth.)

Depending on what I dressed like, I passed for any age from about eleven to about twenty, back when I was fifteen. And many of my friends were college-aged or older, at least the friends I saw at cons. So if I was walking down the hall with a group of friends, at this con, it's very possible that some guy my dad's age would have assumed I was a young adult and asked if he could touch my breasts.

And I was fifteen, and I had already been sexually assaulted on an *ongoing* basis at school my ninth-grade year (it stopped, but it took a long time before I was brave enough to tell people at my school that it was going on so they could *make* it stop), and I would have been petrified.

I don't give a flying fuck what these assholes thought they were doing.

But if I ever see them doing it, if they ever ask me, if I ever see them ask some girl who gets the same frozen expression I know I would have gotten, twenty years ago--

This is fair warning that I'm punching them in the nuts.

( 39. The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith )

Overall rating: 5/5.

cya_ficathon still needs a few more signups for the round to work! It's generally a great ficathon, especially because the requests you get are tailored toward what you say you're interested in writing. (No, "Wait, what am I writing?" moment!)

Also, summer_of_giles is now open for signups! Yay!

+Mir ranting about people saying "that's what romance novels are like" when they clearly haven't read a romance published in the past twenty years;
+Mir snickering about reading "fanfic:you're doing it wrong" rants from people she considers badfic writers
+Mir ranting about the warning debate (Despite my numerous personal triggers, I am anti-warning, though I do give half-hearted warnings if my fic demands it, because I play nicely).
+Mir wailing that she really really wants to write the fic that is due tomorrow, and is vastly excited about it, only words aren't coming
+Mir panicking about the end of the semester
+Mir flailing about a blizzard
+Mir being schmoopy about Sofy

But I wasn't, and so you didn't.

I suspect I'll be disappearing again soon.

( 36. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, L. Frank Baum )

Overall rating: 2/5.

( 37. Nets, Puzzles, and Postmen: An Exploration of Mathematical Connections, Peter M. Higgins )

Overall rating: 3/5

( 38. Checkmate, Doranna Durgin )

Overall rating: 0/5

ETA: Someone came in after telling me she couldn't think of anything. ;)

So, for soft_princess, SGA and ST:TOS.
( my opinions are never popular )

cordelianne wanted my unpopular opinions about either Giles/Xander or Heroes:

( both, sort of--spoilers for all of Heroes so far )

gileswench wanted Old School Who:

( you get many! )

callmesandy asked for Buffy & Angel (the shows, not the characters)
( so we could be here a while )

And finally, penknife wanted Harry Potter.
( not many, I suspect )

Yes, I owe Five Things answers since a small eternity ago. But hey! I've never done this meme!

Ask me my unpopular fannish opinion! Fandoms I am in or have been in include: Doctor Who (old), Blakes 7, Due South, X-Files, BtVS/Angel, Sports Night, New Who/Torchwood/SJA, Smallville, Harry Potter, Heroes, SG-1 (but I've only seen through S9), SGA, Star Trek:TOS, and uh, some others I know I'm forgetting. Also you can ask me about fandom in general. :)

This, I can probably do quickly. *g*

( 34. In the Company of Ogres, A. Lee Martinez )

Overall rating: 3/5.

( 35. Nightlife, by Rob Thurman )

Overall rating: 4.5/5

Books read so far: 35/50 = 70%
Year so far: 91/366 = 24.9%

I think I'm well on track. :)

There's a sixth round going on at cya_ficathon, the ficathon where you sign up with what you're interested in writing, and participants tailor requests to *you*. :D This is one of my favorite ficathons ever, and so I hope to see a lot of people signing up! :)

soft_princess and gilesxander are hosting a Giles/Xander ficathon. (Wheee!)

( 33. The Patchwork Girl of Oz, L. Frank Baum )

Overall rating: 2.5/5.

( 32. Sabriel, Garth Nix )

Overall rating: 4/5.

If you're planning to sign up for lgbtfest, please do it today! After today, you'll still be able to claim a prompt if there are open posting dates, but we won't be adding any new dates (and there are only a few slots left now); once those are filled, no one will be able to sign up. If you sign up today, we guarantee that you'll get a posting date!

( 30 and 31. The Grey King and Silver on the Tree, Susan Cooper )

Overall rating: 4/5.

lgbtfest is open for prompt claiming! We have over 900 prompts with over 200 fandoms represented! *boggles* (Fandoms ranging from HP to "stuff I have never ever heard of even in passing," and lots of the prompts make me think, "I love fandom a lot.")

Claiming is open through March 15. Posting dates are from April 10 to May 10.

The prompts lists are here: 'Any fandom' and fandoms 0-D, fandoms E-P, fandoms Q-Z + crossovers.

The calendar of posting dates is here.

The FAQ and claims post is here.

And thanks to penknife for writing the FAQ and making all those posts so early on a Saturday morning.

from gileswench.

I know I owe meme responses, but those are fic-ish and my fic-writing brain seems to be having problems. (They're still in my inbox and I still plan to do them.)


1. Comment with any subject that you would like me to rant on, with possible probable swearing involved. Any subject - I don't even have to agree with it.

2. Watch my journal for your rant. (Unless I just can't muster up a rant for your subject -- if you suggest "Rant about how the Beatles suck," I just won't do it because, well, you're WRONG.)

3. Post this in your own journal, so that you may rant for others. The end.

( 29. Iron Kissed, Patricia Briggs )

Overall rating: 0.5/5.

( 27. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin A. Abbott )

Overall rating: 3/5.

( 28. The Scarecrow of Oz, L. Frank Baum )

Overall rating: 2/5.

Books read so far this year: 28/50 = 56%.
March 2 = day 62/366 = 17%.

1) I've been watching Torchwood since S1. Not commenting much this season, although I'm enjoying it, because I feel very out of step with the flist (and even the girlfriend) about it, but:

( spoilers through 2x08 )

2) lgbtfest still has another week of prompt submissions. I've only sorted out (or sent to penknife to be sorted out) through about 9AM (CST) yesterday, so far (though that's onto page 4 of the comments, and last I checked, we weren't on page 5, so prompts have slowed down). At that time, we had 48 fandoms that had at least 2 prompts, plus the "any fandom" prompts, plus about 3 full pages (in Word) of prompts in the "misc" file--fandoms with only one prompt so far. (And that counts "RPS" as one fandom, though within that list, it's sorted.)

I am simultaneously thrilled and mildly terrified by the enthusiasm with which this has been greeted. :)