Up To No Good

I filled out my Yuletide form, and when I saw that I'd messed up on one I'd volunteered to write--picked Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs instead of Watership Down--I thought, fudge, if I get stuck with that one, I should just suck it up, go read the book and write the damn thing. S.O.'s been telling me for years I should read it.

For exchange fests like these I get more excited thinking about what I'd like to write. What I request is a bit bewildered-feeling, half-hearted. Is that what everyone feels? When I click with a fandom, I usually think about the story that comes to me, which means it's a story I want to write, not a story I want someone else to write.

What I want from other authors are the stories I can't think of.

It's not so easy to make a post when you haven't posted in a while because suddenly there's all those things you've wanted to talk about, all those posts you never made because you were lazy/busy/sick/whatever, the ones you typed only "telepathically" (like, you know, the "telepathic" comments I suppose we all tend to make to other people's posts without actually making them, so people never know we did read their posts and had something to say. Erm. It's not only me who does that, is it?)

Anyway, no point talking at once about all the things I wanted to post about in the last ten days or most likely couple of months, it would just make for tl;dr. So I'll just stick to something I've been thinking about today, prompted by something accioslash said about her OTPs in her post here: "With an OTP I go in convinced of the rightness of the pairing and fully expect to love the fic." The post is actually about reccing but I was thinking about that particular statement and how for me it's usually the opposite. Although... it depends.

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Anyway. This was just my thoughts in a jumble. So I'm not sure if there was somewhere I was getting at with all this. But anything anyone might have to say about your reading habits regarding your favourite pairings/OTPs - like, if you're a more or a less picky reader when it comes to pairings you like or anything else you want to say - I'd love to hear it. This subject would probably make for an interesting poll if only I had an idea what kind of options to include. ;)

If there is anyone out there not up to their necks writing and beta reading, countesszero has posted asking for a beta for her harry_holidays fic. Here's her post.

In Flanders Field
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


We Are The Dead.

Something kind of hit me today
I looked at you and wondered if you saw things my way
People will hold us to blame
It hit me today, it hit me today

We're taking it hard all the time
Why don't we pass it by?
Just reply, you've changed your mind
We're fighting with the eyes of the blind
Taking it hard, taking it hard.

• Ok, who else blubbered their way through Dirty Dancing this afternoon? #dirtydancing #patrickswayze

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

Saturday is a TV wasteland. It's pathetic, how the networks have basically abandoned the night to reruns of stuff we watched during the week. Luckily, there's still off-network syndication and the TiVO....

Legend of Seeker
Remember Xena and Hercules? Well, this show is from the same team, only it's 9 years later, they have more money and they're taking the story-telling much more seriously (probably because Terry Goodkind is still alive to kick their asses if they mess up his Sword of Truth book series too much). Oh, don't get me wrong, there's still a layer of fine fromage over the proceedings, but the show is definitely more exciting and dangerous than its roots. The SO and I love it, and we try to get it on Saturday (syndication means we can get it Sat. or Sun.) because the day is so empty.

Saturday Night Live
I've been watching since I was a kid. Why stop now?

Dollhouse
Usually, we watch this on Saturday. It's a Joss Whedon show, which means, 1. It won't be on much longer and 2. It's smart and slick and above the average TV viewer's head. I won't even ask you to watch it, even though it rocks, because you'd just be letting yourself in for heartbreak. But if you have a huge jones to watch a show where people's memories are stored away in order to allow new memories to be reprogrammed into them over and over again, allowing them to be anyone or have any skill, then go ahead, tune in. I dare you. ~_^

Dr Who
New special next week! Maybe it's sad, but I could never get into the series until they updated it. I guess I can only stand modern cheesy production values.

Being Human
A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost rent an apartment together...and what follows for all of 6 episodes is much more than the punchline to a joke. There's a second season we're looking forward to from the BBC, and SciFi is going to do an American version next year. We'll see how that goes when the time comes....

Merlin
Yes, we watch it. It's fun. But I have a heck of a time making myself watch it. We tend to go in spurts. It's probably because it's damn hard watching Anthony Stewart Head play a character that's anti-magic. ~_^

True Blood
...cannot get back on the air fast enough. The show is silly, illogical and even stupid at times, but the SO and I can't get enough of muttering "Sookie" at it.

How I Met Your Mother
This is another show I didn't get into until after the first season, but that should tell you how charming and engaging all the characters are, that I picked it up in later seasons.

House/Lie to Me
or, Shows With Fascinating Leading Men. I picked up House in season 4. Huge Laurie, once he caught my eye, was mesmerizing. Plus, I think I'm the only person alive that likes 13. Lie to me is MUCH better this season than last. The show is about Tim Roth's character, and that's where it should stay focused.

Chuck/Lost
COME BACK, SHOWS, COME BACK! I don't disagree that maybe network television would benefit from BBC-like shorter seasons and constantly new material, but it still sucks having to wait almost a year to see shows I adore again.

Ok, anything I'm forgetting, I'll pick up tomorrow.

People were married today and we got to watch live, via satellite on the internet. There were a lot of tears, so if you experienced any network outages today, it's probably because a few key wires were rusted in the process. ~_^ Anyway, it was sweet and a little disturbing (did those people in the back row wander in??), but overall, an interesting experience. Good luck to the shappy couple!

love, lore

So one of the things I was always disappointed with in Deathly Hallows is that there was never a big confrontation scene between Harry and Severus.  After their dual in the end of Half-Blood Prince, I expected a rematch where Harry would have a chance to redeem himself.  Sadly, that did not happen.

However, now there is this story entry over on Live Journal in the HP-Darkfest comm, and although it's not a dual-rematch, it certainly hits my kink buttons.

Just mind any warnings, and even though it doesn't say, there is some really squicky het in there too...and that says something about the darkness of this great story to be able to cause my stomach to churn!

Beyond Measure

*smacks head*

Good news: Starfighter has been updated!

Bad news: I FORGOT ABOUT IT WHEN YULETIDE NOMS CAME AROUND. And it didn't make the list from anyone else either. Arrrgh.

It's like...if you stay home on a Friday night, you must have eclectic tastes. Right? It's certainly not Loser TV for Losers, nooooo. ~_^

(I am kidding, really!)

Ghost Whisperer
I didn't watch the early seasons of this show, trying to tell myself I wasn't interested, but I have a hard time resisting supernatural anything. I mean, I watched Charmed for a few seasons, for gawd's sake! Plus, I have to admit, Jennifer Love-Hewitt is awfully...Lush. It's actually not a bad little show. Usually, the ghost is put to rest at the end of the episode, and any mytharc the series flirts with fits into the regular episode. Ok, the husband's not bad either.

Ugly Betty
Bright, colourful, wacky, fun! I'm a little sad that more people don't watch Ugly Betty. I love the entire cast; I can't think of one character I don't adore. *clings to it*

Medium
This show is smart, the family and characters are real, and NBC is staffed by fools. The End.

Monk
The first half of this last season, the show was cruising hard. The cases were almost nonexistent, and the "bits" were tired. But now that we're into the second half, it's like a light went on and the people involved realised that they only have a few episodes left to say goodbye to one of TV's most original characters. If you watch The Mentalist or Numbers, you have Mr. Monk to thank.

Psych
Oh. How. I. Love. This. Show. Shawn and Gus are a great team, and I love the premise, of a man so observant that people wouldn't listen to him until he began doing his psychic schtick. It's funny, it's fun, it's smart. I actually like Corbin Bersen for once. If you have no idea what Psych is about, then ask me more, because this is a show you should be watching.

White Collar
Jury's still out on this one. The SO likes it, but I have a hard time cheering for criminals.

Sanctuary & Stargate BSGUniverse
Um, we have bazillion episodes sitting on the TiVO. Does not bode well. The first episode of Stargate Universe was a huge downer, and people keep telling us it finds sub-levels from there.

So, who's home with me? ^_^

love, lore

So, I put up my first post to daily_deviant. For something I wrote quickly (having been obsessed with A Confusion of Will and Desire for the last two months), I'm pretty happy with it, except for the title, which is lame.

Title: Lost and Held
Characters: Sirius, Peter
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Castration, sex, cross-dressing, manipulation
Themes/kinks chosen: Eunuchs/Castrati, Costumes
Word Count: ~5,300
Summary: An accident gives Sirius and Peter a shared secret
Author's notes: November prompts included the theme "eunuchs/castrati". It's listed in the tags as "castration", which would have been a rather different story. I have been as accurate as possible with the theme, but do not guarantee all details are correct. ;-) Thanks to Clauclauclaudia for very short-notice beta work.

Link to post

This one was odd to work on. The themes for November were clamps, costumes, eunuchs/castrati, and symphorophilia (arousal by watching or causing destruction and/or death). "Costumes" didn't really seem like enough to me, and I hate clamps so much that it's hard for me to write about them. Symphorophilia would be easy ... but I wasn't in the mood for something that dark. So I wrote castration because I didn't want to write darkfic. Um....

Researching physiological details was truly weird. I found support services for castrated men, historical notes on castrati, and quite a lot about self-castration, either for practical reasons or as a one-use-only fetish. o_0

Writing Sirius/Peter was also weird. I'm generally a Sirius/Remus person.

This is going to be another one of those fics no one reads, isn't it?

Thanks to the most diligent alicit, we all now have a Harvest sprite on our scroll! *smishes her* Please turn the eggs and pet the dragons if you wish. Mind the teeth.

Little Halo's scroll and hatchling:

Little Secret's scroll and hatchling:

My scroll and eggs: ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Dear whoever-is-up-there,

I thought you had gotten the memo. Seems not. So, here I am to say NO MORE MAKING ME FALL FOR STRAIGHT GUYS!

Thank you very much.

Very annoyed,
ShaMak

No writing on the horizon for today or tomorrow I don't think. May try to write a rough of my Kinky Xmas on Sunday though.

Meme seen on persevero's LJ.

( Patriotism Meme )

I'm terrible about posting here, but I'm trying to get better.

I have a techie question though about Insane Journal.

On LiveJournal, I can click a setting to view other journals in my layout.

Does anyone know how I can do that here on InsaneJournal?  I'm having trouble reading a comm journal because of the colors.

Thursday Night is over-packed night. Between rushing home and the two TiVO tuners, I almost get to watch everything that interests me tonight. But I'm only going to talk about a few shows....

Bones
I really need a Bones icon! There was some criticism of the show last year. But this year has been consistently strong in terms of characterization and acting. I think the only character who occasionally suffers is Bones herself, and that's because it's hard to keep a character "obnoxiously innocent", which is how Bones started out, and how, some writers still try to write her. But that hardly matters when the other characters are so alive, fun, effervescent and cool-in-a-smart-way. And David Boreanaz has only become better and better in his role and FBI Agent Seeley Booth, who has become so much more than a wise-cracking tough guy in Boreanaz's hands. One TV commentator says almost every week that Bones is the most unappreciated show on television. Don't let Bones get by you.

Flash Forward
This show is intense, and it has a mystery that threatens to be somewhat solved by the end of the season (gasp!). It feels like Lost without all the baggage of 5 seasons. So why not check it out and get in on the ground floor of a fascinating show that promises an actual payoff come May?

Fringe
I'm one of dozens of people that I've read saying, "I watch Fringe, but Anna Torv bugs the hell out of me". Anna looks too much like Cate Blanchett on first glance, so I always end up doing double-takes. But...Joshua Jackson and John Noble...now those are two men I could watch read the phone book, so why not suffer the Blanch-ette to get a weekly double-dose of adorable men? One online friend calls it "The Walter Bishop Show", which is a moniker I could get behind. Oh, yeah, and there's a plot...just think X-Files with more dopplegangers and you'll be able to jump right in.

Project Runway/Models of the Runway
Again, this is a show that could be on anytime...and on any channel! This has not been a great season of PR, but it was still good enough to be considered must-see TV, compared to a raft of other reality shows. Lifetime added a half-hour show after PR, Models of the Runway, which is about the model competition that's also always been involved with the show. Honestly, though, I don't think we need it. The models weren't as empty as you might think models are, but I don't watch PR for the model-bonding and cattiness, I watch it for the designer-bonding and cattiness. ~_^

And now I need to go make a Bones icon so I can replace the icon on this post with it later! I've been meaning to make one for ages, but I keep putting it off. Well, no more!

love, lore

Once again, thanks to the most wonderful alicit we've got one more Harvest hatchie on our family scrolls. Pet the dragons and turn the eggs carefully! Thanks!

Little Halo's scroll and hatchling:

My scroll and eggs: ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Pimping for HP Kinkfest. Look under the cut for a very pretty picture. (And many more sexy banners at the comm itself.)

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⇒ Dropped the grammar course, so no group presentation for me. Yay! On the minus side, have to do the course next year. Next year shouldn't be so busy, though, so it's okay.

⇒ So apparently, in addition to relaxing by writing, I relax by doing, wait for it, OTW translations! Yes, lian, I'm finally translating Vidding History. I just need to edit it and run it by paceus and it'll be ready. It's weird that during the summer, when I had lots of time, I could get nothing done, but now that I'm insanely busy, I can find time to do my volunteer work for OTW.

⇒ Speaking of OTW, lian is recruiting people for a new OTW committee, International Outreach. If you're interested in reaching out to non-US, non-English speaking audiences, contact her. I would volunteer for the committee if it weren't for the fact that I have never been in the Finnish-speaking fandom and know nothing about it.

This entry is also posted at http://helkamaria.dreamwidth.org/64273.html. There are comments there.

Title: Send a Message
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG
snarry100 Challenge 187: Methods of Communication
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: *waves*

( Send a Message )

Oh, a very good day indeed!

I emailed in my mini_fest fic finally (I've had it done for at least a week).

I proof-read gryffindorj's hp_yule_balls draft and she's looking at my snarry_holidays for me.

I deleted over 300 words from my severusbigbang fic but added at least that much again.

And gryffindorj and I are working on a collab for severusbigbang and it's really taken off! (Thanks to her mostly.)

Actual word count for me so far today is near 600 words but it feels like more. :D

I might have had a bit too much caffeine as well.

Oh, and Minxie? Halloween candy is the work of the devil. Pat Robertson was right. ;)