lunabee34

1. Emma's great-aunt sent her this amazing poster of kickass women in pop culture. I want one for my office now.

2. Josh got me a fancy teakettle because he loves me. Also my other one was crap.

3. zulu suggested that I take pictures of my fountain pen writing with different inks, and I tried, but my phone camera is not good enough (the disaffected teen who sold it to me helpfully informed me that this is really a phone for a child and wouldn't I like to spend $900 on a phone rather than the $300 for the child's phone which I already think is way too expensive for a phone for any demographic) and neither is the lighting. I will have to experiment further.

4. Watch this vid:

Shut Up and Dance with Me by lilly_the_kid
Golden Girls
Oh, my heart. They dance with each other a surprising number of times in this series. :)

5. I am bored. And kind of depressed, I think. And tired. And unmotivated. Now that I am done with the talking meme questions, I need something else to lift me from these doldrums. So, time for a shitpollst. What should I shitpollst about, my friends?

Josh, Emma, and I got to hang out with crazydiamondsue, her husband, and their son last night on their way back to OK from Disney World. I love Sue to death, and it was great to see her and her family again. :)

I got a card from talitha78 today. <3

Here are the wonderful stories I was given for Christmas this year:

Seven and a Half Cents by executrix
Firefly
Inara/OFC, Simon/Jayne
Exec is aces at writing a true caper fic. She always comes up with fun and interesting jobs for the crew, and this fic is no exception to the rule. The voices ring so true in this story, making it a pleasure to read from beginning to end. An Exec story is always a wonderful mix of humor and cutting commentary with shrewd character observations. What makes this so special to me is that she wrote the story for me when she realized I'd gone out on the Yuletide pinch hit list. *sniffle* Seriously awesome friendage going on there.

Something Thicker than Water by hwc
Harry Potter
Dudley/OFC
Dudley contacts Harry after years of silence, and with some trepidation, Harry decides to meet with Dudley at his home. I love that this story focuses on the ways that the Dursley's mistreatment of Harry shaped both Harry and Dudley. I love that Dudley is redeemed in a believable way that bodes well for a future relationship between him and Harry. I especially love that HWC wrote such a nuanced and complex story for me on such short notice. <3

For Yuletide, I received Feminine Bravery .
Golden Girls
Blanche/Rose
I am so impressed with this story, especially since it was written on such short notice as a pinch hit. I can tell the author really spent some time thinking about what I like in a fic. It's canon compliant, slotting neatly into the space after an episode. It showcases the fearlessness that the women of the show so routinely displayed, and is a wonderful demonstration of how vital and interesting wonderful life can be after 60. Excellent gift and one more jewel in the embarrassment of riches I received this year.

Untitled Blanche/Dean vignette by minim_calibre; SPN/Golden Girls XOVER
This, my friends? This is what I like about Delicious. It finds me Dean Winchester/Blanche Devereaux ficlets. RIP, Rue. Wherever you are, I hope you're eating 'em alive like you are in this short.

Damned Demented Demons by hells_half_acre; Harry Potter/Supernatural XOVER; Gen
This story is massive (103,000 words) and it's awesome. The basic premise is that Dementors are on the loose in North America and Harry's been sent to deal with the problem; he runs into the Winchesters along the way. I really, really like the way the author meshes the worlds of HP and SPN together. I love the parallels drawn between the sets of characters (Bobby and Hermione are totally research BFFs, for instance), and I love watching each world come to terms with what it learns about the other. Harry's portrayal is extremely well done, as are the connections between what happened to him as a child and what happened to Sam. Malfoy doesn't appear for very long, but every second he's on the page is completely golden. The tension between him and the wizarding world and the very fraught and tenuous mutual respect between him and Harry makes for excellent reading.

Common Knowledge by elucreh; Jared/Jensen; SPN Adult; Medium length
I already alluded to this fic in my recent post on RPF, but it deserves a rec proper. This is such a meta-tastic, fourth wall breaky fic of the highest caliber. In it, Jared discovers fanfic, actually becomes a serious reader of fanfic, and becomes true friends with some fangirls. What makes this fic so meta-wonderful is that fandom is the catalyst for change. Rather than fandom accurately interpreting the "clues" that J2 give about their relationship, J2 is intercepting the fannish signal and allowing that to inform their behavior. And so, when the fic comes full circle, the fangirls have had J2 pegged all along. It's really masterfully done. I also love that this fic is so full of real actual fans--the songs they've written, etc. It's a nice little love letter to the SPN fandom.

She walks like she's on a mission; by latentfunction; SPN Big Bang; Jo/Pamela; Adult; 38,000 words
This fic is set immediately after Pam loses her eyesight and follows canon from that point on. Jo's been sent by her mom to check on Pam and she ends up staying; that's the plotline boiled down to a sentence, but so much more is going on than that. Jo feels so real to me in this fic--she's the mixture of young and immature and unsure of herself and not nearly so hardened as she'd like to be we see on the show coupled with a toughness and a bravery and a strong beauty that show gave us all too little of. I don't know about you, but I coulda stood to see more of Jo sitting in a circle of salt and getting the drop on a decades dead serial killer or dragging's Dean's ass out of the water before he bled out. Pam here is wonderfully characterized too, bold and sassy and amazing and despite the loss of her sight, the one in the relationship that really sees most accurately. Wait until you get to the last lines--they'll stick in your head and in your heart and they'll hurt, but you'll like it. When I left feedback, this fic had like no comments. Go run change that, y'all. Femslash in this fandom between characters who are actually presented as female on the show is all too rare not to be loved on when we get it.


Dreams by newkidfan; SGA; McShep; vid
This is such an interesting vid and a novel watch for me. It's the first vid I've seen in which the narrative is not imposed by the music. Even in instrumental vids that I've seen, there's a melodic narrative to the music that propels the images of the vid. And while this is beautiful music, don't get me wrong, the narrative is propelled entirely visually--through images interspliced with text. It truly invokes the dreamstate it's intended to capture. (As an aside, what happened to Imeem? I know for awhile there, vidders were putting everything up on that site, but now, it seems every fan vid I had recced hosted there is just gone. Did they do a massive TOS or something? I reckon that'll teach me to link to the vid itself rather than the lj post announcing it. *sigh* Sometimes I just wanna rock out to astolat's "Bohemian Like You.")