Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!

Rise of Skywalker in unposted tweets

2019-12-22T04:58:16Z

Yes, I return to Dreamwidth once again to post things I cannot ethically tweet.

I can't be fucked to formulate an opinion about this movie - I enjoyed it, more or less - so instead here are tweets that I absolutely would have made were I watching this three months from now in my living room.

* Love Kylo Ren's DIY Metal and Epoxy Resin Helmet youtube video; liked and subscribed
* is that... dominic monaghan
* I think that JJ Abrams muttered "no homo" three times in front of a mirror and a vision of Poe flirting with a girl in a catsuit and yesterday's eyeliner came to him that night
* The best part of the movie was when the dream of Kylo/Hux shippers unceremoniously died with Hux
* that is absolutely Dominic Monaghan and frankly I would have considered it a coup for queer representation had the split-second gay kiss been him kissing Billy Boyd.
* never had my heart sunk so deeply nor been uplifted so fast as when Reylo shippers cried out in joy and were suddenly silenced

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Two vids and a tutorial

2019-09-05T17:36:07Z

I made two vids this summer; here they are:

I made this one for FanworksCon in four days, which I am probably not going to ever attempt again. Don't make vids in four days, it's terrible.

This one I made for fleurdeliser and also to exorcise my MDZS feelings (that didn't work).

I haven't posted anything about The Untamed/MDZS here and this is not the post explaining what it is - although I am very happy to talk about it in the comments! - but I did want to write up a quick tutorial on options to deal with the hard-coded subtitles that are ubiquitous in Chinese media. Idk where we host images these days tbh, so I posted the tutorial on Tumblr. You can find it here.

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Fall Equinox 2019: Dear Vidder

2019-07-28T20:29:13Z

Dear Vidder,

Thank you so much for making me a vid! I hope you find something in here that sparks an idea! Here are the fandoms I requested, why I like them, and prompts in case you need some inspiration - although if you've got another idea, please don't feel bound by my suggestions!

I don't have any video or audio triggers, so go wild if you so choose.

Thank you!

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (TV Russia)

I really love these movies because of the fantastic way the actors embody their roles (they're my favorite Holmes and Watson after Elementary) and play off each other, and the gentle humor present throughout the movies, so anything that brings out these elements is going to be a hit with me. I think it would also be cool to focus on the darker elements of the movies, really focusing on the mysteries and the victims.

The Favourite

Like everyone else, my life changed when I saw Rachel Weisz in her shooting outfit. I also was a huge fan of Olivia Colman from Broadchurch, and loved her in this role as well. And of course Emma Stone switching from ingenue to scheming social climber was 100% excellent. I would love a vid that looks at these intense, complicated women in all their glory, or perhaps really focuses on the sets and the costumes, or maybe all the funny and weird stuff that goes on in the background.

Stranger Things

What I really love about this show is that it's genuinely creepy and pretty serious, but it's the kind of horror that I can watch because it's ultimately about kids and nothing too awful will happen. I would love a really creepy vid, or a vid all about the girls on the show, or maybe one entirely devoid of monsters and just focused on Eleven learning how to be a kid. Or a Steve Harrington vid about him being a mom! Anything really. This show has so much in it to explore.

The Untamed

This show is my latest obsession. From the actors' faces to the angst to its extravagant fabrics budget, I love everything about it. I'd love a vid about any character or relationship, really, since there's so much to focus on!

I started listing my favorite characters here but the list got hilariously long so instead I'll list character dynamics - Wei Wuxian and kids, Nie Huaisang's development, Lan Wangji's implacable faithfulness, Wen Ning's crush on Wei Wuxian, the Yunmeng siblings, Mianmian's strength of character, and the fabrics. (THE FABRICS!!!!). But everyone is so interesting and has their own thing going on. I assume that if you're even contemplating vidding this massive show, you've already seen it and have your own favorite aspects, so honestly if you already have a vid in mind, just make it and I will be stoked to watch it.

One thing I will add: I'm also a big fan of the book it's based on and the show is only halfway aired as of when I'm writing this post, so if something happens in August that is really contrary to the spirit of the book, I'd prefer the vid not focus on that.

That's about it! Thank you and I'm excited to see what you make!

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Twitter is down.

2019-07-11T19:41:11Z

Hello, life without twitter is EMPTY. o___o

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Guardian: a primer

2019-06-04T00:36:55Z

(Yeah, I know I abandoned DW in January mid-meme. Sorry.)

If you're on Twitter at all, you've probably heard about Guardian, a Chinese TV show about superpowered alien hijinks and two incredibly beautiful men who work together to protect the world and are in love. One of them has an oral fixation. The other wears ~~short skirts~~ incredibly nice suits and pined for the oral fixation one for ten thousand years. That's basically all you need to know.

So what is Guardian anyway?

Guardian the TV show is based on an m/m paranormal romance webnovel by the same name (Chinese name: Zhenhun) by Priest. I can find no better way of describing the novel itself than this tweet:

peelesscucumber: "chinese ghostbusters there's literally no better way to describe it. modern setting. anyway imagine pining for a guy for 10,000 years only to find out he's a hoe."

The TV show gets rid of the paranormal elements and replaces them with aliens (this is a Chinese censorship issue), tones down the gay to the level of plausible deniability as far as censors are concerned, and casts a couple of really incredibly gorgeous people in the lead roles:

OK but how gay is it really?

This is by far the most F of AQs. It's... really gay. They don't kiss. They don't declare their romantic love for each other. But those are the only missing pieces. It's not like a "slashy" show like SGA or Sherlock or Supernatural where the showrunners are careful to stay on the no homo side of the line. Instead, it's more like the last two seasons of due South, where the primacy of the two leads' relationship is consistently reinforced. The line these showrunners tread is what's the most gay it can be and still be allowed to air on Chinese television, not the no homo plausible deniability line we're used to. There's so much touching, so much teasing, so much sacrifice for the sake of the other

The book the show is based on is an explicit romance.

Where do I find it?

You can find the ongoing English translation of the book on Wattpad here: Guardian by Priest. Keep in mind that the translation is not complete and it is unclear when it will be finished.

You can find the show (with English subtitles) in this Youtube playlist: Guardian It consists of forty 50-minute episodes.

If you watch the first few episodes and find yourself hooked, I recommend using software to download the episodes from Youtube to your hard drive and downloading subtitle files from this DW post. [UPDATE: this post now links to a folder where you can download the episodes instead of ripping them from youtube.] The official subs are inconsistent in quality and I find they get remarkably worse around episode 9, so I found it worthwhile to use solo's much better ones.

Where is the fandom?

The fandom is all over the place! Tumblr and twitter, of course, are full of Guardian fans. There are lots of vids on the AO3 and youtube. But most importantly, you should check out sid_guardian, a very busy community with tons of resources, including many super helpful and educational posts about China.

Is there fic?

There's SO MUCH FIC. Of course you can go to the AO3 and browse the tag, but to get started, I recommend Isweedan's Non-Comprehensive Guardian Reclist, which is organized according to which arc the fic is set in. If you don't want to be spoiled, I highly suggest you wait until you finish the show to read the last part of the slides or to go off on your own to the AO3.

There was also a recent fic exchange with a lot of wonderful fic posted: 520 Guardian Exchange

Guardian fandom tag on the AO3

Are there any content warnings?

There is some violence. In episode 1 there is a(n unsuccessful) suicide attempt. In episode 3, there is an offscreen rape and the episode deals with someone taking revenge for it.

Are there any important spoilers?

Highlight to read:

Unfortunately I do have to report that the show does not have an unambiguous happy ending. The characters sort of die, but their souls remain alive and they reaffirm their made-for-each-otherness. Overall, the ending is very hopeful.

OK Masha, this was a really long post, but I'm still not convinced

Fine:

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a subject line that sparks joy

2019-01-11T02:51:11Z

I am very late with my next posting meme question! This is not a post about it. The next one is about my bulletproof buttons for fictional pairings and I cannot simply shoot off a post about this important subject, it is much too important. I've been vidding - Festivids is due on Sunday and I am done except for one clip that I like and my beta doesn't. I just need a little brain space to think about it, but this week has been really busy at work so I haven't really spent a lot of time at home.

Work right now is pretty interesting, in that I am involved in a lot of different things, which is exactly the way I like it, but it also means putting in extra hours and juggling many more projects than I used to have to do. At some point I should really write up a post about what I'm up to at work, because things have changed a lot since I was last on DW.

Other things I've been doing:
* playing Stardew Valley on Switch
* reading some Harry/Draco fic and Buzzfeed RPF
* watching youtube let's plays
* clearing out junk from some drawers and closets in my house
* being obsessed with The Favourite

What are you all up to?

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Posting meme - January 3

2019-01-04T02:00:18Z

All posting topics here! Suggest more questions in the comments here or on that entry.

likeadeuce asked, "What are your top comfort reads/rereads? (books, genres, fandoms, whatever)." You would THINK that this is a totally innocuous question, but I suffer from an extreme case of staircase wit about it and there's a 100% chance that once I post my answer I'll remember like twenty other books that are way more important. So, this isn't a Definitive Guide to Masha's Rereading tendencies but a partial answer.

In general, I'm not a huge rereader of books and generally all of these rereads happen maybe once every few years. There are some books that have been in my rereading rotation for a really long time. These are Agatha Christie novels, the City Watch thread of the Discworld series, Lord of the Rings, and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, plus a few select books from my childhood - Moomins, The Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren, a couple of Jules Verne novels. I also have a few that entered the rereading rotation fairly recently - the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie being a notable one. I've read it three times, I think.

I tend to reread fic a lot more but the more time has passed since I was in a fandom, the less frequently the urge strikes me. So, like, I'll do a big reread of due South or SGA fic every five-ish years, but MCU, Hannibal, and Witcher fic still gets reread every few months. And I don't really reread Harry Potter fic because 15+ years later there's still new fic every time the urge to read some strikes me.

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Meme

2019-01-03T21:22:38Z

Stolen from likeadeuce. Give me posting topics (questions, lists, goals, etc)!

January 3: What are your top comfort reads/rereads? (books, genres, fandoms, whatever) - likeadeuce
January 4: What's a place you'd definitely like to visit in the next couple of years? - yunitsa
January 5: What are your bulletproof buttons for fictional pairings? - yunitsa
January 6: How did Bazik and Maxy come into your life? And how soft are their bellies? - la_dissonance
January 7: Vidding, in general - tattered_errata
January 8: How'd you get into fandom? What fandoms have you been in? - seascribe
January 9: Top 5 favorite sets of bros! - sansets
January 10: What is the craziest/most daring thing you've ever done? And what would be the next you'd want to do? - romantical
January 11:
January 12:
January 13:
January 14:
January 15:
January 16:
January 17:
January 18:
January 19:
January 20:
January 21:
January 22:
January 23:
January 24:
January 25:
January 26:
January 27:
January 28:
January 29:
January 30:
January 31:

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Dear Festividder 2018

2018-10-22T14:01:40Z

Dear Festividder (and anyone else who might be browsing this letter for ideas) -

Thank you so much for making me a vid. This is my first time participating in Festivids and I am really excited. I hope you find something in here that sparks an idea! Here are the fandoms I requested, why I like them, and prompts in case you need some inspiration - although if you've got another idea, please don't feel bound by my suggestions!

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Sales pitch: Gorgeous 1920s costumes and interior design, sharp cheekbones, a woman who does what she wants, a woman who's inspired by that, men who support these women, a lady doctor in waistcoats, and murder.

Caveats: None that I can think of. There's murder?

Vid ideas:

- Phryne and Jack's amazing flirting and clothes
- Anything Dot-related, like her friendship with Phryne or her unfolding emotional journey
- Women Phryne has helped, or people she has gathered around herself
- Doctor Mac being awesome and well-dressed

Things I am less into: a tight focus on Hugh and/or Jack - although Phryne through Jack's eyes or Dot through Hugh's would be great!

Killing Eve (TV 2018)

Sales pitch: First and foremost, Sandra Oh! Secondly, this show is commonly pitched in fandom as "Hannibal but female," and there's a lot of truth to that: it's about an obsessive game of cat and mouse between an assassin who likes nice clothes and an MI5 officer. There are also nice clothes and it's suprisingly funny in really unexpected places.

Caveats: It's pretty violent and there's a bit of "bury your gays" with a background character.

Vid ideas:

- Something really focused on how amazing Sandra Oh's face is and how much Villanelle wants to bone her
- Villanelle being gleefully psychopathic and wearing nice clothes
- The relationship between Eve and her husband
- If you want to really lean into the Hannibal-ness of the show and come up with a way to really bring the similarities out through editing (maybe even incorporating clips from Hannibal??? just a thought), I think that could be really awesome (but super ambitious)

Things I am less into: I can't really think of any! I really love this show and I think exploring any of its aspects would make for a great vid.

How to Steal a Million (1966)

Sales pitch: This is an undeservedly obscure heist movie about art forgeries featuring Audrey Hepburn in spectacular mod outfits and Peter O'Toole's blue, blue eyes. The twist? Audrey Hepburn has to steal a statue from a museum to save her father from being exposed as a forger.

Caveats: None, it's amazing.

Vid ideas:

- Audrey Hepburn being incredibly stylish (you may have noticed a theme here)
- Her adorable relationship with her dad
- Her relationship with Peter O'Toole's character

Things I am less into: None, anything would be great!

Ocean's 8 (2018)

Sales pitch: An excellent heist, great clothes, and a lot of actresses having an amazing time.

Caveats: None

Vid ideas:

- A shippy Debbie/Lou vid
- A vid about how hot Lou is
- A vid focusing on one or more of the characters who aren't Lou and Debbie and really exploring them could be fun!
- A really vicious and funny tale of Debbie's revenge on Claude
- James Corden's character's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Things I am less into: I'm not super familiar with Ocean's 11-13, so a vid that heavily draws on stuff from those movies is probably going to go over my head.

Property Brothers RPF

Sales pitch: Okay, so there's Jonathan, who knows how to build houses, and there's Drew, who knows how to sell houses (my friends and I refer to him as the useless one). They are identical twins. They also have an older brother, JD, who looks exactly like Adam Lambert and used to be an Adam Lambert impersonator, because why wouldn't you, if you looked exactly like Adam Lambert. Drew and Jonathan have a show called The Property Brothers, where Drew would sell people a fixer-upper, and Jonathan would shamelessly flirt with the clients while fixing the fixer-upper up. They also did a show together where they renovated their family home and did a lot of absurd things to it like putting in a water slide and forgetting to get a permit for it, while JD sort of stood off to the side and shook his head. They have a bunch of other shows too, but these are the highlights.

Caveats: They are honestly ridiculous.

Vid ideas:
- Jonathan flirts his way through the show
- Their goofy faces
- They are brothers and that's fantastic
- Just generally anything that demonstrates how weird they are

Things I am less into: nothing, it's all good.

Broadchurch

Sales pitch: This is a serious but extremely addictive show about police detectives Olivia Colman (Ellie) and David Tennant (Alec) investigating the death of a child in a gorgeous, tiny English town, as is proper. Their partnership is my favorite thing about this show - it's a great dynamic and a very slow development of their friendship. The secondary characters are very interesting as well - in particular, Jodie Whittaker (aka the new Doctor) is really captivating as the mother who is trying to cope with her grief. There are lots of interesting side plots as well. The first season is definitely watchable as a stand-alone, season 2 picks up where season 1 left off, and season 3 is an entirely different plot, although the characters still deal with the ramifications of the murder.

Caveats: Child death and implied child sexual abuse in seasons 1-2. Season 3 is entirely focused on investigating a serial rapist, with all that entails. Parents coming to terms with their child's death in all three seasons.

Vid ideas:

- Anything about Ellie and Alec's friendship
- Scenery porn
- That extremely short side plot with the lesbians, although they have very little time on screen together so that may not be possible
- Something about the effect of Danny's death on various people in Broadchurch
- The various kinds of child-parent relationships in the show

Things I am less into: I would prefer you avoid focusing very narrowly on the rape plot from Season 3 - although I really don't mind it if you use it to complement some other story.

Other general preferences:

I don't have any physical triggers, so feel free to cut as quickly as you like! I like a vid that moves quickly. I also don't mind whichever way you might choose to handle the more violent of my requested sources - feel free to ignore the violent parts or use them in your vid! I also really like comedy, so if you like a good visual joke too, please don't hold yourself back on my account! I'm a little wary of dialogue-heavy vids, but willing to be convinced! As far as music goes, I am really flexible and open to different genres and nontraditional types of audio.

That's about it! Thank you very much in advance - I'm really looking forward to seeing whatever you make!

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days, days

2014-01-07T15:43:55Z

Finished painting my living room this weekend, thus completing my first home improvement project. \o/ I got a lot of paint over the trim, which is kind of unfortunate, even though I honestly don't notice it. IDK, maybe I'll repaint the trim at some point? IDK.

The walls have been blue for so long that I don't remember the living room being any other way. I really like it. I think it needs a light-colored couch and some bright yellow armchairs, maybe. I will ponder this.

I got some new bedding for my giant bed. I remember railing against decorative pillows on beds last month, but it turns out that when you have a giant king bed, there's enough room for both you and a cat and all the pillows. I pushed the bed into a corner of the room and arranged the pillows in the corner, and sleeping now is really, really cozy. The next step is going to be painting the bedroom, and then I think I need more furniture for it, because the room is big and looks kind of bare even with the giant bed.

The disc drive of my PS3 has stopped reading discs; after watching a bunch of videos on youtube and taking the PS3 apart twice (feeling v. proud of myself), I ordered a replacement lens. Maybe I will have a working disc drive by the weekend. :O

BAZIK has a cold. He's sneezing all the time and I feel bad for him, but he also seems to be improving. I'm supposed to take him in for dental work and a heart evaluation, but I have already spent so much money at the vet in the last month that I really don't want to. Ugh.

I bought a really pretty bottle of bubble bath on Thursday night and have taken a couple of baths since then. Maxy likes to sit on the edge of the bathtub and look at me while I do this. Perv.

So overall it was a good weekend, aside from a couple of unfortunate things. I also almost finished Book Three of LotR and watched Fellowship of the Ring, so obviously I have about a million feelings about Middle-Earth right now and not much room for anything else. It's like it's 2004 all over again.

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hello hello

2014-01-02T15:41:18Z

Hi . :) I hope you all had a good end of the old year/start of the new year. I had a relaxing time at my parents', played lots of video games, didn't do much else. I also missed a lot of what happened online. There are so many memes going around that my head is spinning. :O

2013 was a hard year for me in a lot of ways, but my goals for it were in some sense accomplished, so I can't complain too much. Still, I hope 2014 is better.

This morning I dropped my grandfather off at the airport and then went to work; it's pretty quiet here this morning and hopefully I'll get things done.

And now, to pick up the December meme where I left off: "something people don't seem to get about you" for bironic

That's a hard one. I think that's part of why I stalled out on the meme. I think maybe how insecure I am? I need gestures of affection and being thought of. It's kind of annoying and I don't like it about myself.

I will try to do some work now, I suppose!

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three-day catch-up!

2013-12-09T20:16:47Z

December 7 - squirrels!

Oh god. So there's this gif of Gerard Way hopping onstage and it reminded me of the common_squirrel twitter account, and an in-joke was born. Gerard Way is a squirrel, hopping and hoarding nuts. I don't know. It amuses me greatly.

Aside from that, I also just like squirrels. There's this Ukrainian series of kids' books I really liked as a kid. It's about a girl named Katrusya - she turns five at the start of the first book and grows up throughout the series, and in one of them she finds a baby squirrel on the ground and nurses it back to health. Eventually she releases it and it comes back at first and then goes away for good. Man, those books were awesome.

December 8 - Kitchen Nightmares and Futurama!

Technically the request was for EITHER KM or Futurama, but I am going to talk about both because I love both.

So Futurama and I have been friends ever since it started airing in Russia in 2001; at first it was kind of an unpleasant surprise to be all primed for The Simpsons, which had aired in the same timeslot on that channel before, and get something else, but by the end of the episode I was hooked.

I think what really makes the show work is that it's funny and interesting based on the strength of the writing and characterization, but you can also enjoy the sci fi and political references. So my relationship with the show changed over the last decade as I learned more about American 20th century history and pop culture and got more into science fiction and general fannishness. I really think it's the perfect little show. I haven't seen all of the new episodes, but seasons 1 through 4 are genius, and I genuinely think that The Luck of the Fryrish and Jurassic Bark are two of the best things ever written for TV ever. So much crying.

Also, recently I rewatched an episode where Lucy Liu's personality is loaded onto a fembot and Fry dates it, while Lucy Liu herself (well, Lucy Liu's head) is very displeased with this development and dates Bender instead. I would love an episode of Futurama that references Elementary.

Kitchen Nightmares was a thing I was only recently sold on when it was described to me as a whole lot of swearing with the healing powers of Oprah. And oh my god, is that ever true. I think Gordon Ramsay is fascinating and I love how incredibly respectful and nurturing he is towards talented young female chefs. Also I really like the unbleeped swearing and dirty jokes in the original, British show.

I also really like his face. He has that Harrison Ford vibe going on, idk. And he takes off his shirt in every episode and he is very manly. Irresistable.

December 9 - my new place.

hm. well, I really like it. It's a condo, but it's two stories, has a private entrance and a balcony and it feels really private and like a home. I'd been wanting a sense of permanence for a while - it really hasn't been a thing in my life since I was eight or nine - so it was good to make that happen.

I don't really know HOW to own a place, so I am taking it slow and thinking everything over - I still haven't picked a color for my bedroom, after three swatches - but I have ideas and am excited to work on projects and stuff and hosting parties and growing plants. Especially growing plants - I want to really explore container gardening next spring/summer and try my hand at roses again (I used to have miniature windowsill roses when I was in high school and I miss them) - and also have fun with my cats.

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December 6 - weather

2013-12-07T00:19:13Z

annemari asked me to ramble about the weather. Hm. Well, today is rained all day and I didn't have to go to work, which is a weather-circumstances combination that I love. Even though I ended up leaving the house three times. :D

I like lots of kinds of weather, really, but my favorites are the ones I grew up with - mild, nonhumid sunny summer days, cool overcast sweater weather in October, snow that falls very quietly around the clock... also spring days when the snow melts and there's gross black dirt along the sides of the roads. I basically don't like it when it's humid and also when it's cold and there's no snow, which I guess means that a lot of the US isn't great for me, weather-wise.

My favorite is probably the quietly falling snow. That's only happened a couple of times in the seven years that I've lived in Maryland and I really miss it.

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December 5 - Lymond

2013-12-05T15:19:45Z

The Lymond Chronicles! I don't even remember why, but around August 2010 I asked siegeofangels for book recs, and she said, here, there are these books about a dashing Scotsman outlaw who has manpain, and there went my next three months.

I actually blogged my reading experience of them; first I called those entries LOLmond as a shorthand, but the books rapidly descended into being really fucking unfunny and TRAGIC - SO MUCH PAINNNNNNN - and when I finished reading them, I accidentally bandom because I needed to read fic that didn't give me any feelings. *hollow laughter*

One of my favorite things about these books is that I needed a good 70 pages to get into the swing of the language. I always enjoy literature like that, stuff that's challenging, that you have to work for. There's so much left unsaid and implied in them, so much poetry and obscure references that I felt pleased with myself for DAYS when I understood a reference to a particular French poem. IDK, they just make you want to learn.

They're not perfect, obviously - ultimately they're about manpain and a fairly common character archetype, and there's a lot of fridging and questionable race issues, but there's also humor and cleverness and awesome female characters, and it's just a really good gripping story and everyone should read it, the end.

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December 4 - bros

2013-12-04T20:31:43Z

Today's topic of discussion is bros, courtesy of inlovewithnight.

What can I say? I love bros. To me they represent a relationship that's absolutely unshakeable and solid, like, a fusion between BFFdom and the idealized sibling relationship, the star to every wandering bark, that sort of thing.

I have probably always liked bros, but the Petrellis kind of started this whole thing, because they were both really attractive and clingy. That's a lethal combination. Too bad Heroes only had one season. >__>

The Waybros just... changed my life a lot. I got one of my best friendships through them and explored writing through them, and just had some valuable life experience/personal growth I wouldn't have got otherwise.

The Property Bros are also bros I enjoy. Have you ever seen that show? The Property Brothers are Drew the realtor and Jonathan the contractor, and they help people buy houses and renovate them and flirt with them and each other. Mostly Jonathan does the flirting - we (our Friday night TV group) really enjoy the way he angles for threesomes ALL THE TIME. On one episode there was this one girl who was actually for real blatantly hitting on Jonathan, which made him blush and Drew sulk. It was grand.

They also had a show called Brother vs. Brother, where each of them put together a scrappy team of fails who attempted to renovate houses on a super-short timeline and were scored on how much they increased the house value. As a concept, it really needed some/a lot of work. And honestly it was kind of excruciatingly boring. But the bros themselves were pretty delightful in it. ENDLESS TEASING. It was good times.

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December 2 and 3 - chocolate and tea

2013-12-03T16:57:46Z

there are still open days at the meme!

Chocolate and tea works out pretty well as a daily double! I love chocolate. When I was a teenager and also when I was in college, I was a chocolate snob and ate exclusively dark chocolate, the more bitter the better, although eventually I was forced to admit that 80% cocoa is too dark for me and leveled off at 75%. Now I'm more into milk chocolate, unless it's chocolate cake or chocolate cupcakes or chocolate frosting, all of which are already sweet and need the super exteme dark chocolate to taste like chocolate.

The only chocolate thing I used to dislike was chocolate ice cream, but now I like that too. I think I didn't like it as a kid because my dad would always get Rocky Road (it's his favorite), and it was actually Rocky Road I hated, not chocolate ice cream itself.

As for tea, or hot leaf juice, as I reflexively call it now, my preferences there have kind of shifted over the years as well. When I was little, my sister and I both drank it with sugar and diluted with cold water (we called it CPW, for Cold Plain Water, and it was kind of a valuable commodity because obviously it had to be boiled and cooled first - no one would let us drink Moscow water straight out of the tap, obvs). When I got a little older, I stopped asking for cold water to be added because when we were over at someone else's house, they usually didn't have any, so I decided I needed to get used to drinking hot tea.

Eventually I stopped putting in sugar too and made it very strong. These days I still don't like sugar in it (unless I'm sick, in which case it needs sugar because otherwise it makes my throat hurt) but I don't make it as strong, and I like a bit of milk in it.

The most famous Russian tea is Ceylon tea with an elephant on the box, which was first imported into the USSR sometime in the 70s. I'm old enough to still remember it. Eventually it disappeared, I think, but then in the late 90s someone decided that it was time to cash in on people's just burgeoning nostalgia and started selling tea that they literally called "Tea with the Elephant." Picture lots of commercials of ladies of all ages drinking tea, blissfully smiling and sighing, "that very tea!" This led to a joke: "That very tea! That very box that fell behind the sideboard in '88!"

/thoughts. uh.

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alpheratz @ 2013-12-02T10:58:00

2013-12-02T16:16:41Z

Hopefully stuff will start settling down soon. I've been super busy the last while, but here are things I have accomplished:

helped S with a move
attended hangs on occasion of fleurdeliser's visit
went to the dentist two more times
closed on my house
packed
had Thanksgiving with friends who stayed in town too
moved into my new place
set up internet
painted the living room
various errands
visited cats at various shelters multiple times
made crappy birthday cake
spent a crapload of money
mainlined various Kitchen Nightmares and rewatched Futurama
turned 29

This is why I haven't been around much. /o/ Also less twitter/DW seems to translate into less anxiety for me, but only up to the point where I start being anxious about NOT being on these platforms, so I'm still trying to find the right line.

Note how writing my bandom_hols fic and Yuletide is NOT on this list. This is going to change tomorrow, though, because my commute is now about 15 minutes longer than before = good chunk of time to write, and WRITE I WILL.

IDK. Things. Let's do the talk about stuff meme! Pick a day and give me a prompt to talk about.

December 2 - chocolate for likeadeuce
December 3 - tea for pennyplainknits
December 4 - bros for inlovewithnight
December 5 - Lymond for yunitsa
December 6 - weather for annemari
December 7 - squirrels for cinco
December 8 - kitchen nightmares/futurama for sohotrightnow
December 9 - my new place for gorgeousnerd
December 10 - something people don't seem to get about me for bironic
December 11 - bb me and D for siegeofangels
December 12 - incest for octette
December 13 - Bazillions' origin story for akamine_chan
December 14 - favorite tropes for lucifuge5
December 15 - tumblrs I need to start for cinco
December 16 - music for coyotegestalt
December 17 - what I love about RPF for sansets
December 18 - what I would say to Gerard Way for romantical
December 19 -
December 20 -
December 21 -
December 22 - AU Masha for monkey_pie
December 23 -
December 24 -
December 25 -
December 26 -
December 27 -
December 28 -
December 29 -
December 30 -
December 31 -

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alpheratz @ 2013-11-12T15:27:00

2013-11-12T20:33:32Z

Man, it's been a while. I did stuff! With friends! Yesterday I didn't go to work because of a cold, and it was also the first time ever when I got over a cold in a single day. Probably sleeping for hours and hours helped.

I'm feeling way more calm about the many things happening this month, which is great. I'm more than ready for them to happen already. Just, come on, come on, time. *bounces* I just feel better, in every way.

I also saw Thor 2. Annnnnd I will be seeing it again, because it was awesome.

So okay, when Loki ~dies, he says he didn't do it for Odin. We're supposed to interpret this, at that moment, that he did it for Thor (feelings). BUT, does Loki know he's not really going to die and is he actually saying, given the ending, that he did it for himself? I DON'T EVEN CARE, even, I just want the next movie where Thor stares at him with betrayed puppy eyes as he realizes Loki had his own goals in mind even then. SO GREAT.

brb as I consume Thor/Loki fic by the bushel.

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alpheratz @ 2013-10-24T13:34:00

2013-10-24T17:41:48Z

Eek, I fail at commenting or replying to comments. Sorryyyyy.

I'm like staring at my November calendar and freaking out a little, because unless I take a few days off before Thanksgiving off, moving is going to be a nightmare. And if I take that time off, then I need to figure out what to do over my Christmas vacation. It's difficult, do not like.

This weekend I'll pick up some paint chips, though, and it'll be nice. Also look at kitties at the shelter.

You guys should follow stuckinabucket on tumblr - they write awesome, hilarious posts about insects and other animals. I learn things I probably don't need to know all the time. It's cool.

Also right now I'm reading a fic that consists of about 95% of getting trashed and picking up chicks and wondering why I'm not just closing out of it.

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alpheratz @ 2013-10-19T21:06:00

2013-10-20T01:09:02Z

Today was long. But I hung out with my sister and with friends, and that was good.

Also I wrote my Yuletide letter. Check it out here if you're interested. This year I have an accidental theme of "slash pairings I love, old and new." Very very pleased with all of them.

Thank you for your nice comments on my house post. <333

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alpheratz @ 2013-10-16T12:14:00

2013-10-16T16:21:59Z

I bought a house. Well, a townhouse-type condo. Every time I mention this fact I have to fight the urge to apologize. /o\

I didn't expect this to happen to fast as I've only been looking for a month, but now it looks like I'm moving Thanksgiving week if everything goes smoothly and nothing happens, so, you know, jazzhands.

This is what the house looks like. The top two floors are mine and the entrance is on the second floor on the left.

This is the hallway.

And this is the kitchen. It's not very big but it's nice.

Dining/living room. Those French doors lead to the balcony. It's really nice.

About two thirds of the balcony. It's very private. There will be a grill here, baby.

Bedroom.

Another bedroom.

There is also a third bedroom, with two windows and lots of light, and two and a half baths, but those rooms look boring right now.

In mental health news, I had a couple of bad days, mostly due to my routine being upset, but overall the current cocktail I'm on seems to be working pretty well, so I'm going to stay on it for another month and see it everything continues to go well. So that's exciting. I am trying not to feel dumb for not trying going on the pill earlier.

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Dear Yule Goat:

2013-10-14T15:48:53Z

Thank you very much for writing me a story! If you already have an idea for a story, please disregard my optional details and go for it. I will be so happy to read something you're excited to write. That said, if you would like some prompts or inspiration, here are some ideas, as well as my general likes and dislikes.

All my requests this year are Two Dudes fandoms, and I ship all of these pairings, but please don't feel like you have to write m/m. While I love m/m and would be super happy to read it for any of my requests, I'd also be thrilled with gen friendship fic. If you want to genderswap a character, that's great too.

Likes – caring relationships between characters, distrust becoming trust, humor, a strong sense of place, be it realistic or fantastical, people communicating with each other, companionship and support, plot, happy endings, first times, sex, comfort preceded by hurt, closeness bleeding into codependence, love expressed in unusual ways, feelings, pining

Dislikes - child and animal harm; plotlines about addiction or prostitution; cheating; romantic relationships with a big power imbalance unless the characters are aware of and are working towards eliminating it

Squicks – I have an embarrassment squick. Characters being humiliated is not my bag. Also, please do not include any dub-con, rape, or character death.

On to my requests!

Property Brothers RPF: This show is like crack, so comedy would be great here. Jonathan and Drew's teasing relationship is hilarious and adorable, so anything that includes that would be awesome. Incest fic is A-OK - I have the opposite of an incest squick - but if you want to write gen that is awesome too. Maybe a story about things going wrong behind the scenes? Or glimpses of their wacky life through the eyes of their brother JD? Or maybe the Property Bros in their preteen entrepreneur years! Or, idk, trying to renovate a house in Ancient Greece.

Dual Survival RPF: Maybe something about Cody and Dave trying to survive in a real life situation? Maybe Christmas shopping at the mall! Or huddling for warmth (maybe leading to sexytimes) - this show is made for that!

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: I requested Ros & Guil here. I have so many feelings about this play and the movie. I would love something maybe about Ros&Guil waking up like they do at the beginning of the story, but this time events go in a different direction?

Nero Wolfe: I requested Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, and Saul Panzer, and I'd love a fic that includes any two of these characters, or all three. I ship Nero/Archie and Archie/Saul very much, so if your heart leads you in that direction, by all means follow it. Also awesome is casefic, them being friends, Nero grudgingly showing his respect and love for Archie or Saul, or maybe something about Archie and Saul bonding or introducing Nero Wolfe to some new food?

Aubrey-Maturin books: I requested Stephen and Jack. Anything here would be amazing, as long as they love each other and make it apparent. Set it on land or at sea, either is wonderful, or go AU and transport them into space or present day. If you feel up to it, something that explores their falling out in Post Captain and shows them reconciling (and loving each other).

Jurassic Park: I requested Alan and Billy, my favorite professor/grad student team ever. Things I am into: Billy's hero worship or romantic crush on Alan, Billy's gorgeous gorgeous eyelashes, them adjusting to life after the park, Billy and Alan reconciling, Billy finishing his Ph.D? I am super into Alan/Billy first times, but if you want to keep their relationship strictly teacher-student, that is totally fine too. (And just in case - please don't include any human-on-dinosaur sexing.)

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what could possibly go wrong

2013-10-10T14:08:47Z

I've been facepalming over Gerard's brilliant idea to write an album about dead children for the last week, and I just can't. I just. I'm picturing all of them sitting traumatized in the bunker unable to comprehend why they're sad, and then I crol and crol and crol.

IT EXPLAINS SO MUCH. Like at this point my entire reaction to this whole thing is helpless laughter because really there was no other way for MCR to go out. Best dumbasses.

My parents are in town through Sunday. We're gonna see Gravity in 3D and it will be awesome.

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EVERYBODY PAY ATTENTION TO ME

2013-10-03T15:21:26Z

I started lightboxing this weekend. It has a thingy on it that says to discontinue use if you find yourself being more irritable than usual, and I think I might be? I feel like I need to run around the block because I'm so physically twitchy. I'm sitting at my desk and occasionally flailing from extra energy. And feeling like I want something to HAPPEN.

This morning I lightboxed for like 40 minutes because the episode of Criminal Minds I started watching to pass the time was too interesting to stop in the middle. It's the one where a guy on a train has a psychotic break and Spencer goes in to talk him down. I really love Spencer. He has a face.

Also last weekend I went to see some townhouses with a real estate agent and I found one I really liked, but unfortunately it's really overpriced and the owners won't come down to a reasonable market value so I probably won't be able to resell it without losing money. Stuff in my price range that I like doesn't come along too often, because I don't want to live an hour and a half away from work and I don't want to live in a condo, so it's a waiting game at this point. It would be nice if something happened on that front because I really want to NEST and also to get a second cat. One that will cuddle. And I want outdoor space so I can read a damn book in the sunshine and also have a grill.

ALSO, as long as I'm recapping my wishlist here, I really want a piano; I really do think that if I had one at home I would practice it regularly and maybe finally get somewhere. Not taking lessons consistently in my childhood is one of my big regrets in life. By the time I actually had the opportunity to do that, I got super busy with high school and had to quit after a year. I could probably catch up to my old third-year level within a few months and then maybe possibly actually make some progress. Learn Beethoven's Marmotte in its entirety finally after twenty years.

I just, I feel like for the last seven years I've been waiting for my life to get to a point where it's Time to do things, where it's reasonable and I'm an adult and, idk, I think I realized that it can be any time. It can be now. It doesn't matter that I don't know what will happen next year or in five years. So what if my life changes. I'll deal with it then.

But the real estate thing, that seems important right now.

*dangles feet* engage the energy

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love won't stop this bomb

2013-09-24T01:40:19Z

A list of some great things:

1. Green peppers. I ate one today and it was an explosion of amazing in my mouth.
2. Telling my boss that I absolutely do not have time to do something. That feels amazing.
3. Having fun with a short little story I'm writing and also writing a snippet of something else just to get the words down because they appeared in my head.
4. The town where I live. IDK I just really like it.
5. Cats. Seriously, cats are great.

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