Fic for the Naughty and the Nice

( spoiler cut )

We're watching my sister's dogs while the lucky biatch is in Italy.

They're Schnauzers, but one is 14 and on her last legs. She takes a ton of medicine, is all skin and bones, has to be walked on peril of accidents in the house and coughs like an old man. But she's kind of the family dog, because she started with my sister and father, then was just with my father, then went to my mother after he died, and is now back with my sister because she was too much for mom.

It's a little heartbreaking, and a lot smelly. ^_^ But it's nice to have this time with her before she goes.

*****
I meant to write about something else, but I ran out of time. *laugh*

love, lore

• Holy crap, these dogs are gassing me out! Air freshener, stat!

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter any damn time it pleases. *scowl*

As I ended yesterday, I was preparing for my Epic Campaign to encourage more Snape/Lupin.

By Epic Campaign, I really mean that I decided to comment on every Snape/Lupin I came across, and that anytime I saw anyone offering drabbles or art, I would ask for Snape/Lupin. Now, you have to understand, the RPG was my first attempt at interacting with fandom. I don't think I had even commented on many journals then. So, when I say I started commenting and asking for drabbles/art, this was a big deal for me.

I made myself one ground rule: Don't say anything to anyone that I wouldn't want to hear myself as a creator. That meant not asking when the next chapter of a Work in Progress might be out or asking for a sequel, or commenting to someone else without actually commenting on the fic or art itself. Two years of lurking will at least teach you what not to do. There were times when I worried that some regular Snape/Lupin writers (*cough* McKay, Arion *cough*), were going to think I was a stalker, but I toughed it out in the name of more Snape/Lupin. ^_^

I'd like to think that my enthusiastic squee and encouragement helped inspire more Snape/Lupin in some small way, but I suspect Arion and McKay's April Showers challenge had more to do with it. Actually, what happened during that same month is that I had been thinking of asking to help out at lupin_snape for quite a while, too shy and under-confident to act. But the renewed interest in the community and the mods' busy real lives made several other Snape/Lupin fans muse "aloud" in their journals about asking to mod at the community.

And yes, my ego has come far enough along now to admit that I thought I was the best person for the job at the time and that I'd better get on the stick before the others went from musing to asking. I was wrapping up the RPG, and I'd gained some experience managing a group of people with varying desires and needs from the game. I'd made plenty of mistakes, which helped to an extent, although I feel I've made plenty of mistakes at lupin_snape, too. I guess I learned that I could make mistakes and only hold on to them quietly, rather than actively beating myself up over them. ~_^

But I had ideas, too, and, again, those two years of lurking showed me which communities thrived and which died out after the initial excitement waned. For just about 5 years, the ship has been running strong, mainly because there are mods obviously on-duty there. People want to know that other people are paying attention. What kind of a "community" runs steadily without a sense of togetherness?

My modding philosophy has been simple: It's Our community, not my community. A community is nothing without its members, and I've tried to run lupin_snape as openly and all-inclusive as possible while maintaining that final "say" only because sometimes someone has to make the decision. I can't think of any time I've actually put my foot down, other than to protect the community from spammers, and to this day, I've never banned anyone except known "problem" accounts from back in the Russian Invasion LJ days. Anyone who tells you that they're not welcome at lupin_snape is imposing her/his own exile.

I remember one of the people who wanted to mod (long gone from fandom now), talking about how she wanted to take over and then she could demand Marauders-era fic because that was her favourite era, which scared me to the bone. Snarry, even back then, had more than one "basic" community, and I knew the Snape/Lupin ship wasn't big enough to survive with a lot of splinter communities, which is what would have happened if LS (Lupin_Snape from now on) had become Marauders-focused. Eventually, someone unhappy with that focus would have gone and started Snape_Lupin_Adults or something, and the fans would have been scattered. The ship might have never grown.

Hum. I've meandered away from the question. It's because I love LS and its members so very much; I could go on about it all day. So, after being frightened into action, I consulted with a few friends for some final hand-holding and wrote the mods, offering to be the active mod. I was completely surprised when both women responded within the week with easy Yes'es, and my account was given mod status. Surprised, only because I thought it would be harder to convince anyone to take me on. ~_^

My first month was kind of rocky because I'd barely introduced myself when there was a major death in the family. But you know, in case anyone has the wrong impression, the original LS mod, makishef, has always been interested in the community and pairing, she just didn't have time to maintain a hands-on approach to the community. That month, she stepped right up and made sure the monthly challenge was issued and on-track while I was away. The other mod that was on board when I came on has since moved on, but she was always friendly and supportive as well. They're great gals, and I hope no one thinks anything but the best of them. We wouldn't have LS without them.

I was back by June with a new monthly challenge and there's been something new every month or two since then. I think people cross-posting their challenge-inspired works to their journals and other communities helped let people know that LS was an active, interesting place to be, as well as a treasure-trove of great Snape/Lupin content if they were interested in finding more. I think we hit 750 members by the end of the year and 1000 members a little over a year after the April Showers challenge. Somewhere along the line, "Snupin" became the preferred moniker for the pairing, and I stopped trying not to use it about a year after that. ~_^ I still use Snape/Lupin, though, when I go outside the community, if only because now that fandom is waning, new people coming in don't always get the squished nickname phenomenon.

So, that's it. That's how I came to be mod at LS. And while I answered why I shipped Snape and Lupin together before, in my normal fandoming I always point people here when they ask me why I ship Snupin. It's short and to the point, and I couldn't have said it better myself.

love, lore

geri_chan asked how I got into Snupin and ended up as a mod for lupin_snape.

I think I've sort of told this story in bits and pieces in different places over the years, but to have it all in one place....

Once upon a time, I was a fandom lurker. I'd drifted into HP from XF and after a couple years of lurking, some LJ friends were pimping a new RPG on their journals...over and over again. I started to wonder if I shouldn't give an RPG a try. I wanted to write again and I'd been reading an RPG avidly, so why not try it myself? From my reading experience at my fave RPG and checking out a few others, I was sure putting in an application so late in the casting period would net me a super-minor, low-maintenance character like Hannah Abbott or Stephen Cornfoot (remember him?); a student character not close to the main action. I said I'd take anyone. I received back: Snape.

Severus Snape? Are you kidding me? I don't care about the adult characters?! Arrgh!

But I said I'd take anyone, so I went on a research bender for Severus Snape. O....k. You know, when you bother to look beyond the surface, there's something up with Snape. He's not just the year-long red-herring; he's Albus' right-hand, he's powerful, he sees through Harry and when Voldemort comes back, Albus sent him off to re-join the Death Eaters (this RPG started in the weeks before OotP was released). I came to respect Severus Snape while looking at the facts. I fell in love with him when I started reading the fan fic.

RPGs are all about the shipping, did you know that? (*snicker*) I started to wonder with whom I could possibly ship Snape (even in a longing, unrequited way in the RPG). I ruled out the kids right away (I didn't even know what "cross-gen" was back then, but I don't like unequal relationships), and I realised there were no developed women in HP that were Severus' age either. I'd just had the slash light turned on by Aragorn/Boromir -- surely I could slash Snape! There were at least a few candidates around his age. With those limitations in mind, I hit the Snape FQF archive.

I read several pairings for Snape, but the character that I kept going back to was Remus. I read some great stories in many pairings, don't get me wrong. But much of the Sirius fic was hatesex or I didn't recognize Snape or Sirius in them, and Harry fics bothered me as much as I thought they would. Albus usually involved power games, the Weasleys weren't really in play back then, Kingsley wasn't on the horizon, James was dead, Lucius was a married bad guy and I wanted my Snape to secretly be good, etc.

Severus had real history with Remus. They were the same age, had held the same job, had gone to school together, had darkness tinging their souls. Snape had followed Remus' gang around school, Remus had almost killed him and Snape still made him Wolfsbane. Severus and Harry have history, but it's convoluted and uneven at best. Same with Albus. And Sirius, not so much. In fact, I've always found it hard to believe that Snape/Lupin wasn't a popular ship right off the bat. Maybe it seemed too easy to some people, I don't know.

ANYWAY, the more I explored Snape/Lupin, the more in love with the idea I fell, until Snape/Lupin was all I wanted to read. The problem I had was that there wasn't a whole lot of Snupin out there. After I went through the FQF, I found lupin_snape, which, at the time, did not have much activity, and I scoured the journals and archives from there. Once I'd exhausted all the resources I could think of, I knew there was only one thing to do:

Go on an Epic Campaign to encourage more Snape/Lupin.

To Be Continued in the next post. I started this late for a reason....

love, lore

osmalic asked how I celebrate Halloween.

As a kid, I generally looked forward to trick-or-treating. I did that through age 14, and then I was officially too old for it. If only I'd have known then that most people ignore the age limit!

As an adult, I've tended to hold my own birthday/Halloween party. This is the first year we've had to cancel because of illness. Sometimes, when my birthday falls in the middle of the week, a party isn't as feasible. If the weather is good, we like to set up the candy in the front yard and make the kids walk through the leaves we refuse to rake. On occasion, we've also blared scary music.

I'm not really a great decorator or costumer. I kind of enjoy clever, low-labor costumes, but I had so many "that's lame" reactions that I stopped even doing those. In my house, it's pretty much Halloween year-round in terms of decoration, and my aunt always gives me something neat that's Halloween-themed, so while I have a huge pile of Halloween stuff in basement, I hardly ever get it all out. But I could deck this place out like the Adams Family mansion if I wanted to. *grin*

I love haunted houses, although I don't get out to them every year, but they're always on my mind each year. And I celebrate Friday the 13ths as kind of adjunct holidays to Halloween. When I'm particularly vexed, I take a hex for myself on Halloween.

Probably my best birthday was last year, turning over a decade and having all my friends and family around. It was a nice night and most of my friends got good and silly in front of a fire, which was different for us, but verrrrry entertaining. Worst that I care to document was definitely this year. ~_^

love, lore

Here are a few thoughts about Project Runway tonight:

Whoever made up Heidi in that pink must be shot. Also, she looked like she had eye work done. But I hope not.

The wrong person won.

There was a costume-heavy line. Rosy was right when she said in chat that the hats made the models look like penises.

Tim Gunn spazzing out was adorable.

I wasn't so pissed off that I won't tune in come January, but it's a close thing.

*****
Good friend had a birthday today. We managed a small gift and short visit, and I'm glad because this friend isn't celebrated enough.

That's all I have for now. Maybe I better keep this up in December, just to get to all the topics I'm not hitting on yet.

love, lore

P.S. See the Bones icon? It needs help, but I'm not sure what....

... or so the song goes. Actually, the difficulty is that life careens on no matter whether I'm paying attention or not, which means I'm nowhere near unpacked, I'll be sightsinging 11 pieces at tonight's rehearsal (and learning one by ear; the remaining two I've sung before), and I'm daunted at the necessity of getting my house company-ready by Monday.

Also, I ache all over, and I'm not sure if it's residual jetlag, residual-falling-off-a-horse-in-Jordan (I did get back on, go me), climate shock (I wore a bikini top in Tel Aviv last Saturday; today, I'm swaddled in my fleece robe and flannel nightgown, and I'm still cold), resuming my acquaintance with Tennessee Valley allergens, or if I'm succumbing to one of the many colds lurking around me (the BYM has been complaining of a scratchy throat). I better not be - I have high notes to hit! - but I've had to defer catching up with people, just in case, and that's a bummer.

Mopiness and munched-up-by-obligations-ness aside, HI! (For those of you just tuning in, I was in Israel for a month - primarily to attend a friend's wedding in Tel Aviv, but also to indulge my wanderlust while I have the legs and flextime to give it rein. There are more details and photos at my general journal.) I couldn't help but think of y'all while I was over there - there was a sushi restaurant in Jerusalem with a manga-styled girl in its ads; cartoon crustaceans on subway walls; shiny, shiny beach structures and a gorgeous library at the Israel Supreme Court, both of which made me miss marginaliana like you wouldn't believe (and so did seeing the Sesame Street stream of Google-logos (November 4-10) every time I hopped onto google.co.il to figure out buses, trains, and other logistics); and a Woodpigeon cover of "Lay All Your Love Down on Me" that had me remembering geoviki's lists.

(I have been unnaturally obsessed with that song for the past nine days - the Information Society version happened to be playing while I was at the Japonika in Haifa, and somehow rooted itself into my system before I was done with my coffee, and the plane home had the ABBA original in its database, so I ended up playing it over and over from Turkey to Quebec in tandem with dance mixes of "All Out of Love" and "Don't Leave Me This Way." It was weirdly soothing to doze to, although the teenage girl in the seat next to me probably thinks I'm a sad, sad freak. I'll just have to riff on it for My Poem Rocks or some other venue - something in my psyche wants its turn on the dancefloor...)

Um, so, yeah, lots going on, and lots more to say, but I've definitely exceeded my babble quota for the day. Plus, lunch to make and cards to send and files to edit and submissions to assemble. Speaking of the last, there are now poems scheduled to appear at Strange Horizons and Dead Mule in the near-ish future, and just a couple hours, qarrtsiluni went live with both the text and audio versions of I am waiting for the right instant to say your name. (For what it's worth, I feel this is my best reading to date of anything I've written, so I'm extra-pleased about that.)

*hugs you all, bounds off to terrorize the mailman* *eg*

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love a good, long fanfic (with lots of smex, but that's another post...). The holiday exchange season is creeping up on us, as it is the time of year when people start to evaluate their lives and think that it would be a good idea to pull all their fanfic off the internet (it's not!!).

If you are like me, and you want ALL the fan fic, saving stories off the internet to your hard drive is essential to your sanity.

I ran into a poster on LJ who didn't realise that if you save simple text files of journal and some web pages, you will get a text format that includes characters to show italics and bold (usually slashes: /italicized or bold text here/), essentially giving you the story in a format that can be easily transferred to most reading devices without losing the author's intended passages of emphasis. If you didn't know you could do this either, read on!

lore's nerdy file-saving tips
In your web browser, make the following choices:

File > Save Page As > Save As File Type

Choose .txt and then give the file a name. Hit Save.

If the person has NOT used Smart Quotes, you should get a story in all its texty glory, slashes for italics and all. Most saved journal pages are messy, with lots of gunk at the top and bottom in code, including comments. I used to clean up the files as I saved, and I recently stopped doing that. When I open the file again for reading, I'll clean it up then. Also, if I'm looking for sequels or more from the writer, there's plenty of hidden clues in the gunk at the top or bottom if I need it.

When I put a file on my Sony reader, I clean up the gunk. The lines break unevenly toward the end of paragraphs on the reader screen, but I don't find that the quirk makes the file unreadable. Also, I've never fiddled with a text file to try and fix that problem because it doesn't bother me, but you might be able to fix it. Maybe saving the text file with line wrap off? I'll have to try that sometime.

On Efiction web archives, you know there's a little printer icon at the top of the Table of Contents (also on the first chapter), and if you click it in the TOC, you get the entire story on one page, which you can then save as a text file. Again, no smart quotes means you'll get the /--/ for italics. Efiction is a VERY kind way to archive because people can choose to read by chapter or as a big chunk, and saving a multi-chaptered fic is one click of the printer icon (hint to those thinking of putting up their archive of their work!).

I'm sure other archive programs have functions like this, but not most of the online self-archives like FFN, Skyehawk, etc. Maddening. I've been known to scour the net for an hour hoping to find a fic in one file somewhere, rather than go through the hassle of putting together a 30-chapter, multi-part epic. On the wise advice of a friend, I've recently just started saving the chapters individually into a folder, but when you get past 10 chapters in a fic, even saving by chapter gets tedious.

I'm a fan of looooong fics, so I've obsessed about this quite a bit. And I like saving things off to my hard drive when I think the fic is special, because we never know when something or someone is going to up and disappear from the internet. Lately, I've been saving almost defensively, as the HP fandom winds down and drifts away. Archives and saving fics in a readable format are more important to me than ever.

Finally, there are some ways to possibly get around smartquotes, but I've only ever done it through experimentation, with no real consistency. You know you have a file with smartquotes, btw, when the quote marks and apostrophes all turn into question marks. Bleh!

love, lore

I fail to understand why Star Trek is not in this house yet. Mrrrrrr.

Bad news x 1.5 tonight. Will there be 1.5 more, or did the .5 mess the 3 Superstition up?

I have botched painting my nails so badly tonight that I fear going to bed for the smudging. The darn nail lengthener better work!! I tried using glitter this time to hide the flaws the lengthener creates (lotsa bubbles) and omggggg. Glitter splosion. And who wants glitter all over the covers and sheets? *stays up*

Holes are annoying.

Still feeling kinda gloaty about the Colts over the Patriots. Muah!

Need to look up the lyrics to Meet Me on the Equinox, evaluate for Snupin potential.

Watched Dr Who. Love the actress who played the captain; her face flashed right out of Mansfield Park at me. Good episode. Running is always goofy fun on Who. Ending a downer (in my opinion only), as usual. Expecting worst in December, that way, if I like it a little, bonus! Tennant cuuuuute. Is he growing more hair?

DeviantArt is insane if it thinks I am paying $15 on sale for cards from them. Also, just once, I wish an artist would make Scorpio pretty.

I made and even uploaded Bones icons, but I'm not quite pleased with them yet. Must fiddle some more.

Ironically, most days, I have even better random thoughts, but of course today I'm all blank. Need to answer comments. I've also stashed a few long comments from replies at other journals...might write them up. Questions have not been forgotten, but omg, I need to start earlier in the day.

Huh, that was a bit complain-y. I better lighten up! *smushes flist*

love, lore

A while back, Deb Aoki at About.com asked her Twitter friends what their must-read BL mangas were. She compiled their suggestions into a list. I didn't agree with many of the choices, so I replied with my own list, which I'm reproducing here as a rec list.

( BL recs )

I only suggested books that are in print, or recently were, or are easily obtainable used through Amazon or Ebay. I also noticed that I tended to favour adults over school aged boys, and that almost all of the books would be considered to have men who act like men (as opposed to the many BL books out there where one of the pair is feminized). After I post, I might go back and put in Amazon links.

It's not a comprehensive list of my faves by any means, as some of my must-reads were already listed, and I focused on series or books with one plot (as opposed to anthology books). But, if you have an interest in BL and were wondering where to start, my recs are solid reads that should be easy to find.

love, lore

I pretty much spent all day getting the second volume of the Snupin zine, Chocolate & Asphodel out.

( Some personal thoughts on it: )

love, lore

Have spent the day cleaning and working on fandom activities. Poor lupin_snape, it's going to be spammed in the wee hours, when no one reads. Booo!

WENT OUT on Friday the 13th, huzzah! Ate fancy meal with SO and went to see Pirate Radio. As usual, it was nice to see an adult indie film after a summer of WHAM!POW!. It was funny and interesting in an alternately loud and quiet way. Go see!

SO gave me the new Tori and Sting holiday CDs. YAY PRESENTS (and the SO seeing my blatant demanding post before he left work)!

Am in chat this evening with the lovely people of Snupin. They are dolls (both Ken and Barbie) and I am going back to them now!

*HUGS ALL*

love, lore

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! I like to treat F13s as adjunct holidays to my birthday. I want a present, I want to go out, I want to do or try something new. Illness completely torpedoed my birthday this year, so I'm hoping the SO is prepared for one hyper, grabby, gabby lore tonight!

Actually, the SO better start by feeding me, because I skipped lunch. Bleh.

I love this icon, btw. Why is it that your bestest icons, the one you made or found that's so nifty and perfect, that's the one you only get to use three times a year? Booo!

*****

Holiday card season is on us. I have been such UTTER failcakes at it that I'm thinking of doing something online, rather than trying to get something in the mail to everyone. But I love mail myself so much and I know other people do, too. Still, I was thinking of doing an icon offer in return for signing up for cards from people. It's been a long time since I've seen people offering icons in memes and stuff. Would you be interested in receiving an icon of your basic choosing from me (image or idea of image and words)? OOH, I wonder if polls will cross-post! Let's find out!



*****
A student survey about forgiveness was sent around this week, and while I took it, I still don't have a clear position on forgiveness. In some respects, I can be very forgiving, in that if something happens that I can understand, I can forgive it even if you feel bad or guilty about it. I suppose that's the easy part.

But I also know I can hold a grudge when something is done that I can't understand or is blatantly a wrong. I know that once trust is broken with me, my relationship with that person is never quite the same anymore, even if that feeling is only on my end. My father has been gone for 4 years now, and while some of the intensity has died down, I still have memories that hurt and anger me. I think I would like to let those feelings go, but actually not feeling them is not that easy.

I wish there was a guide to forgiveness. Real steps that you could take to let something go so that it would truly be gone. And I know there's probably books and a couple psychologists out there that have "10 Easy Steps to Forgiveness", but I don't believe in that sort of thing. How can following steps make memories go away? I have whole days where I don't think about my father at all, but the moment I'm reminded of him, the emotions still come back. It seems to me that the only way to forgive is to forget, and who can truly wipe out a memory of betrayal? You can pretend it didn't happen, try not to think about it, distract yourself, but the second something triggers the memory, well, there it is, unforgiven all over again until you can shove it down once more.

Maybe forgiveness is really the act of suffering in silence. I've often read that when something is forgiven, it will never be brought up between those people again. So, I guess people decide to forgive, and then never talk about it again and the forgiven person will not have to endure going over the incident(s) over and over again. But I'm thinking that the forgiver will endure the memory. And maybe time will let the forgiver truly forget the wrong. Maybe time is the only way to honestly forgive.

love, lore

Anyone interested in recieving a holiday card from me?
Just let me know if you want Gen, Slash, Femme-slash or Non fandom card.

Comments are screened and point me to your holdiay card thing, if you are doing one.

Mom called. We discussed the Thanksgiving menu and realised there's not as much taste overlap as we thought. Cranberries, blech!!

Anyone know how to make a good oyster stuffing?

love, lore

shadowycat, to whom I owe feedback, bad lore, asked: What makes you laugh?

You know, it's strange. I can't think of many sure-fire things that make me laugh, but I know I laugh quite a bit. I think I have levels of laughter. There's amused smiles, tittering, silent laughter, mild laughter, and GUT BOMB CAN'T STOP CAN'T BREATHE LAUGHTER.

Mainly, what makes me laugh out-loud are my friends. They're witty, sarcastic, dry, insightful and sometimes eeeevil in the Makes You Smile way. I know I suffer juvenile humour and most slapstick, although occasionally, some physical comedy can strike me in just the right way and I'll be on the floor. I love deadpan, smart, witty, dry humour, which is why I would adore a show like "Better Off Ted", which is about as dry, deadpan and sarcastic as it gets.

I can also hang with humour based in the utterly ridiculous or absurd, unless it gets unfair or sensible or something. This is where my Python love resides.

I've also been known to change my mind about whether something makes me laugh or not. When I first saw Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, all I could see were two women playing terminally stupid. It wasn't until I'd sat through it a few times on cable that the absurdity, parody, and dryness came through to me. This is hard to admit, too, because I railed against that movie hard. But I'm glad I eventually saw past my gender politics to get at the truly hilarious film underneath. And yes, the "Time After Time" interpretive dance is totally what converted me.

My moods are mercurial and so are the things that can make me laugh; anything at any time is probably the most honest answer to Shadowy's question. Smiling, I do a lot, but true laughter comes much less frequently.

*****
I probably have enough questions to get me through the month, but just in case, let me point you toward my prompt posts:

NaBloPoMo means I'll be posting every day in the month of November. If you'd liked to help inspire me (and boy, do I need help!), I'm taking any and all questions or small, non-fandom challenges and top 5s or top 10s on IJ, DW or LJ.

love, lore

Another quickie as the day was long and the night way too short! Courtesy of McKay and in honor of day 10:

Top 10 shows I loved as a kid

1. Sesame Street!

2. The Electric Company - Oh, how I lived for the Spiderman appearances

3. The Bionic Woman - I wanted to be her. Back when I didn't think seriously about it, I though I would name my kid Jamie.

4. Battlestar Galactica - Oh man, the 70s long hair and sparkling eyes. And the Triad outfits made of bands and a scrap of cloth!

5. Battle of the Planets - I was an Otaku before I knew what one was!

6. Dungeons and Dragons cartoon show - And a nerd....

7. Wonder Woman - FEMALE ACTION HERO. Yes, I was a little feminist, even at 8.

8. Moonlighting - Brilliantly funny and fun until real life encroached on the storylines.

9. Remington Steele - Pierce Brosnan. And Stephanie Zimbalist. Together.

10. WKRP in Cincinnati/Night Court - TIE of the excellent, witty, hilarious sitcoms! They make them like this so rarely anymore - with heart.


And now I'll take your other Top 10 suggestions for future BloMoPosts, if you have any suggestions.

love, lore