goseaward

today in things I wouldn't have predicted

Sat, 19 May 2012 04:21:50 GMT

I just got the OCRs of Miss Saigon and Cats, years after I listened to them regularly. (My parents had both on cassette and they weren't one of the priorities for replacement on CD, and of course I haven't lived with my parents in a long time.)

And, apparently, I have a strong preference for...Cats? Couldn't tell you why, just...I'm enjoying listening to it much more.

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Fic post: R&R, Avengers

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:39:12 GMT

Title: R&R
Rating: Teen
Fandom: Avengers
Word count: 3.5k
Summary: Bruce plans to spend his vacation at Stark Tower quietly, finishing up some projects he hasn't had time to work on in years. And maybe blowing up some things with lasers.
A/N: With thanks to the lovely bethbethbeth for the beta job. Any remaining errors are my own. Also available on AO3 here.

( R&R )

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Giant Sherlock Recs Post

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:25:33 GMT

So, this will eventually be the Giant Sherlock Recs Post o' Doom. I'm starting with a few stories but I'll be updating over the coming weeks. I'll post new updates to my journal but I'll also edit this post as I go.

( notes on the list & my tastes )

( straight to the recs )

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Sun, 06 May 2012 12:36:09 GMT

Hmm...

PBS does otherwise cool nonjudgmental documentary on fanart, interviews only white men (most of them young).

In other news, spent 7 hours in the emergency room last night. Totally fine now, but I did make the discovery that I don't get any of the fun side effects of morphine (I just fall asleep).

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avengers

Sat, 05 May 2012 22:49:08 GMT

Woke up this morning at 7 a.m. for no apparent reason (went to bed around 2:30). Obviously that meant I had to go see a morning showing of the Avengers.

( spoilers )

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Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:07:30 GMT

Yes, yes, I know we're all saying Neil Gaiman is one of us, but can we stop for a moment to note that Diane Duane is literally one of us?

That would be the Mycroft/cake fic with hints of pre-Mycroft/Lestrade and Sherlock/John, with a mention at the end of a detail from greywash's the sensation of falling as you just hit sleep (a truly spectacular fanwork, by the way, if you have not yet read it). And then a cake recipe I will absolutely try as soon as my thesis is done.

(Oh yes, thesis. So...today my adviser was like, when did you say your thesis had to be in? And I said, end of July to graduate summer quarter. Him: So, July 26, is that too late for your defense? Me: Yes. Him: Because I'm going to be gone for five weeks in June and July... SO LONG STORY SHORT, I thought I had until ~July 1 to have a draft of the thesis done to circulate to my committee, and in fact I only have until ~June 1. May is going to be fun, you guys! Ugh. Luckily my plan was to be done by June 1, which I thought gave me plenty of cushion--so I can probably do it, I just don't have that cushion now.)

(Also, I'm assuming given the readership of my LJ/DW that all of you have read something by Diane Duane, but if you have not you should go out and acquire the Young Wizards series posthaste. The second one is on my list for my 100 Stories thing.)

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sherlock shots

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:30:29 GMT

So, I put together this spreadsheet of all the shots in the six aired Sherlock episodes for vidding purposes. It was a fuckload of work, frankly, so I thought I'd let some other people get use out of it if they like. Consequently, here's a copy on MediaFire (around 910 kb, OpenDocument spreadsheet format--should be readable by all your usual spreadsheet apps). Spoilers, obviously!

Randomly, I'll note that the approximate shot count for the six episodes are: 1.01 1600, 1.02 1400, 1.03 1500, 2.01 1800, 2.02 2000 (sonofabitch), 1.03 1500.

( Notes/usage things )

Enjoy!

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Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:31:58 GMT

oh my god

i just realized the first slash i ever experienced

was an audio file of kirk & spock (and maybe also mccoy? there were zipper sounds, that i remember) that made the rounds when i was in junior high

and MY PARENTS SHOWED IT TO ME. *facepalm*

ETA: ahahahahah yes (it was scotty, not mccoy)

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Cabin in the Woods

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:01:47 GMT

I saw Cabin in the Woods tonight with some friends.

( Here's some content info [minorly spoilery, I guess, but not for anything plot-related] for people like me who aren't horror fans, but are interested in the movie and want to know if they can handle it, plus spoiler space before the next thing. And, you know, probably trigger warnings on this. )

( and here are nonspoilery reactions )

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100 Things: Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 06:26:03 GMT

So I thought I'd do the 100 Things Blogging Challenge. Basically: pick a topic, blog about 100 things that fit in that topic. I'm going to blog about stories that were/are important to me in some way--whether that's because I just think they're good, because they changed the way I thought about things, the way I wrote about things, whatever. And stories means I can do books, short stories, movies, TV, fic--see how that works out? :D

First up: Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen. This was one of my favorite books as a kid, so beloved I can still quote phrases from it. The book takes place on a planet called Austar IV, an inhospitable world originally used as a penal colony and now mostly a gambling planet--the main economic driver is the dragon fighting pits (the native dragons having been bred up, but not really tamed, by the human settlers). The plot follows Jakkin, a teenage worker on a dragon farm, as he independently raises a dragon from hatchling to her first fight.

I really loved this when I was younger because, one, interesting worldbuilding, and two, DRAGONS! Awesome dragons! (And some philosophical things later on in the books.) However, there are some weirdnesses about the book that I notice now. ( Read more... )

It's a short book--I think it took me about 3 hours to reread it recently--and the other books in the series are good as well. I don't love this the way I did when I was, like, ten, especially the rather abrupt ending, but it's still a fun little read.

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that ao3 meme

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:04:25 GMT

Ao3 hit count meme!

( blah blah numbers blah )

( thoughts/reflections )

...also omg I just saw the news about the new users stats pages WANT RIGHT NOW OMG I MIGHT BE A NUMBERS GEEK BUT I WILL USE MY POWERS FOR GOOD. *GRABBYHANDS*

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Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:15:12 GMT

Q. Hey Goosey, how windy was it this weekend?

A. Well, I left two windows open in my apartment Sunday night, one at each end of the apartment. This is usually enough for a nice cross-breeze. Here's what I found when I woke up Monday morning:

- Two of four potted plants from the windowsill on the floor. All four were in 6" pots; the two in plastic pots were blown over.

- The two remaining plants, both spider plants in ceramic pots, had ALL OF THEIR LEAVES POINTING AWAY FROM THE WINDOW. These were plants that used to lean so heavily towards the window I had to pull half the leaves away whenever I wanted to close it.

- Dirt from the plants had been blown across my dining room (about 11' or 12' long) and several feet into the hallway, with a horizontal spread just before the doorway of at least 10'.

- Dirt picked up from the plants on the windowsill had been blown onto the dining room table, three feet away and a foot higher than the windowsill. And I mean lots of dirt.

- More dirt was blown onto the plates IN MY SIDEBOARD, three feet above the windowsill and ten feet away.

That's some fucking impressive wind, yo.

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Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:21:30 GMT

( spoilers for tonight's Smash )

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GoT

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:26:15 GMT

( spoilers for tonight's game of thrones )

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Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:29:48 GMT

One of my friends is moving in with a Dr. Watson. He told me this by saying, "Next year I will be living at 221B Baker Street." (He had no idea that I've been REALLY OBSESSED WITH SHERLOCK FOR LIKE TWO MONTHS NOW.)

For those who've seen both the end of s2 of Sherlock and the end of s6 of Doctor Who, here's the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre:

( video )

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Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:03:49 GMT

( tonight's american idol results )

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Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:56:47 GMT

Thought I'd link to an interesting essay by an English teacher who used Twilight fanfic as a unit in a (college) class, and why she did that, and why she found fanfic so interesting. (The whole blog is material derived from or inspired by that unit--I've found some of it interesting and some of it not, but it's still in my RSS reader, for what it's worth.)

Quote:

There are a staggering number and range of stories--just shy of 200,000 on fanfiction.net today. Reading all these different Edwards and Bellas in their different lives and traumas, in some ways distinctly characterized but identical in appearance, mannerisms, certain traits and relationship dynamics--and exhausting sex lives--all referring back to a single original source: it's a very different reading experience from any I'd had before. And since most of my life is spent reading or thinking or writing about reading, a new experience is a little extraordinary.

I still have not read Twilight, or any Twilight-associated fanfic, but I'm fascinated by the way it's leaking into the mainstream the way HP used to. Or maybe more than that. (Also I might have gone on a rant on tumblr about profiting from fanfic. Apparently this is my Year To Be Cranky About All Things, not just grad school. Definitely have the Cranky Elder-Statesman Grad Student thing down.)

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Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:46:37 GMT

Hey! I've had an LJ for nine years! *throws confetti!*

I've been using this icon for virtually all of that time. And this journal title. (Even though the journal title is soon to need updating--ahoy, population growth.)

( a summary of my anniversary posts, year by year )

...as you can see I don't really make a habit of anniversary posts. (The things that change when you actually use a planner!)

Random other milestones: my first post about Harry Potter was April 12, 2003 (quoting a friend re: the CoS movie, then posting a snippet of a 20k+ fic that I abandoned for being shit); my first Idol post was this one on January 24, 2009 and it still cracks me up. Those are the two fandoms I've written most for/been most involved in.

Weird to think about: I started this journal as a freshman in college.

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Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:44:42 GMT

Thing wot I have learned: writing long fics in Write or Die gets you a first draft quickly, and then a bear of an editing job. *sigh*

In unrelated news: I remember really liking smooshnames in HP, because "sn-" is such a great prefix. Now I can't stand them. I want to start calling Sherlock/John Shn, because of the letter overlap, just to be perverse.

(Remember the Snoopy-style drawings of the various Snape pairings? Heh.)

And I just realized that I'm now older than my hp_dungeons characters were when we started playing. I can remember trying to make them, well, a little bit more mature than me anyway (the twins are businesspeople, if entirely bonkers businesspeople) not realizing that at 27 I'd be sitting sideways in an armchair, eating cheesy popcorn out of a giant bag while I post to LJ and avoid schoolwork...pretty much exactly as I was doing at 18...

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Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:10:10 GMT

I wonder how many people still have "freedom of speech" as their only LJ interest?

I wonder if there's a way to count that without manually checking every person who has that interest? (Hint hint, this means I want to know and don't feel like doing it. Any takers?)

I wonder how many people on my flist don't know why one would have "freedom of speech" as one's only LJ interest? :D

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Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:49:02 GMT

So, trigger warning for violence, but here's a video not to be missed about the use of nonlethal force (such as pepper spray and tasers) by police and military forces.

***

( more writing process nattering )

***

Also, you know how many people tend to mimic body language of the people they're talking to, especially if they like the other person? I've just realized that I push my glasses up my nose when characters I like on TV do the same. *facepalm*

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Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:01:22 GMT

Okay, so I got a tumblr--anyone have one they want me to follow? :D

(Mine is the usual obvious: http://goseaward.tumblr.com ; nobody ever uses this name but me, thank goodness.)

eta: I also have one I hardly update at http://awesomebisexualshit.tumblr.com ; I was following a couple of fandom folks there but I've unfollowed you and followed you over at the new one instead, hope nobody minds.

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ah, fandom

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:51:58 GMT

I'm writing about:

a tall, dark, skinny, strangely attractive man
- who is, in some ways, too intelligent for his own good
- with seriously low usage of interpersonal skills
- disliked by allies and enemies alike (and indeed many of his allies believe he is in fact an enemy)
- who made some poor choices in his youth
- which even his allies tend to use against him
and the love of his life
- who has all the interpersonal skills tall&dark lacks
- and a strict moral code
- despite evidence of a troubled relationship with his family and little familial support
- who is very experienced with battle
- and who seems, despite the mistreatment he suffers at the hands of tall&dark, to be quite fond of him
in a setting which requires me to write in a different spelling system and to learn more than I ever really needed to know about the differences between the UK and US

No wonder Sherlock feels so homey!

(This entire post may be summarized as: I have a type, fictionally speaking.)

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Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:53:34 GMT

Ta-Nehisi Coates makes an interesting point:

It's pretty much the same with comic books, D&D and computer gaming. People mock what they don't understand. What's interesting is we're now getting to this point where those elements are taking over the world. Part of that is seeing people like Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart take Star Trek, X-Men and Lord of the Rings seriously. They aren't simply bringing gravitas to the source material, they are reflecting the seriousness that those of us who enjoyed the material always felt.

(eta: the original title of this post was from another post I discarded! Nothing to do with this.)

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Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:07:59 GMT

Okay, how much do I love Smash?

( spoilers for tonight's ep )

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