Here Comes the Sun

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (9/9)

2013-02-08T03:40:22Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 9/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: 66,236. Complete.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Nine. Sooner or later, the sun always rises.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

slow dancing in a burning room: status update

2013-02-02T17:06:51Z

Hello hello! For everyone who's wondering why the last chapter of Slow Dancing is taking so damn long (compared to how quickly previous updates came), just a quick note: I got influenza this week and it totally kicked my ass. So I'm putting finishing up the chapter aside while I catch up on school-work (I have 2 separate exams next week), and additionally, an old friend of mine is in town this weekend that I haven't seen since I moved away from California, so she also takes precedence.

I am anticipating having the fic done & posted by hopefully Wednesday at the very very latest and sooner if at all possible. There will also be a master-post put up at that time, with some art and a playlist. Thanks for reading & being patient, and sorry to leave you holding! ♥

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (8/9)

2013-01-27T20:32:37Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 8/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~60,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Eight. The only way out is through.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (7/9)

2013-01-23T18:54:43Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 7/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~60,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Seven. The thing to remember is that it can always, always get worse.

Additional notes: This chapter & the one that follows it are the reasons that this fic has the "Canon-Typical Violence" tag. There are several visceral moments within, so proceed with some caution. My beta & I judged that there was nothing worse than what you saw in "Skyfall" and nothing as bad as "Casino Royale," however. Thanks again for reading.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (6/9)

2013-01-19T20:36:32Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 6/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Six. They say it gets worse before it gets better; what "they" didn't mention is how bad "worse" can be.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (5/9)

2013-01-16T05:57:11Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 5/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Five. Q doesn't sleep much; first the reasons are good, and then they are decidedly not.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (4/9)

2013-01-12T21:14:11Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 4/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Four. Sometimes the only thing left to do was give up. Especially when it wasn't a fight he really wanted to win. (Or: suit porn, art porn, apartment porn, and actual porn.)

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (3/9)

2013-01-10T05:25:12Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 3/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Three. Unfortunately, the real world marches on.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (2/9)

2013-01-07T05:18:32Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 2/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Chapter Two. Exploring the inherent pleasures of a well-made puzzle.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

Fic: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room (1/9)

2013-01-05T20:35:47Z

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, 1/9
Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Characters: James Bond/Q, Eve Moneypenny, Gareth Mallory, Bill Tanner, OCs
Rating: Mature. Explicit in sections; depictions of canon-typical violence.
Word-Count: ~56,000. Complete, but chapters will be posted as they are returned from beta and undergo final edits.
Notes: This fic was Brit-picked by the lovely and patient starsandgraces, who isn't even in this fandom but still put up with my badgering. I was encouraged by multiple enablers, including jou and flatbear, but all credit and gratitude goes to my beta circ_bamboo, who held my hand, cheered me on, read over every inch of this fic, plotted endlessly with me, and is hands-down the best writing partner in crime a fangirl could ask for. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BABY, ALL THE SCONES ARE FOR YOU. ♥

Summary: Q has a past, a cat, and a dangerous new boyfriend. Two of these things keep him up nights, the other pees in a box. Espionage, plot with porn, decoy flats, suit porn, scones for the Queen, invention porn, secret identities, snark, canon-typical violence, dysfuctional flirting by dysfunctional people, Eve Moneypenny is HBIC.

Read HERE at my fic journal or HERE at the AO3.

NOT DEAD just covered in snow

2012-12-24T17:43:52Z

HELLO HELLO oh god I don't even know how many people will see this, but just in case---HELLO, NOT DEAD.

I friended a great many beautiful people in a friending meme and then fucking disappeared, and for that I apologize; I had two huge finals and then was promptly annihilated by a snowstorm. (This is an accurate summary of what it was like.) We lost power, had to be rescued by maypirate's parents in their 4WD, etc. and once things had normalized somewhat it's been a blur of working and Christmas shopping.

ANYWAY. I am writing! I am nearly completion on ye olde Big Bang-sized fics (the Bond/Q is at 34k words and the Loki/Bruce one is at 24k, because I can't do anything by halves). I'm going to be at my dad's House On the Mountain for the next 3.5 days, but he has internet and I will have ample opportunity to post and write while there.

I hope everyone is having a safe and lovely holiday! MWUAH!!!! ♥

this has post has been brought to you by my fancy fucking nails

2012-12-10T19:08:27Z

I'd like to take a moment to make a post appreciating all the things I do now as a grown-ass single woman approaching 30.

Pay $25 dollars to get a bitchin' no-crack shellac manicure done so I can have pink sparkly nails for 2+ weeks that won't chip even when I'm busting my ass bartending
Prance around in pink glittery eyeshadow and eyeliner that would make a drag queen proud
Put up comic and fandom prints all over my apartment (helloooo Wonder Woman, Death, Star Trek, and Captain America, how YOU doin')
Not shave for 4+ weeks straight because it's winter and fuck you
Shamelessly mock the guy who dumped me for another girl after we slept together when he comes crawling into my bar to ask for a second chance
Write porn for all my best girlfriends for Christmas when I "should" be doing something "useful" with my time
Watch "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" with jou and latenightarting for the sole purpose of ogling Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara while spiking my tea with liquour

In short, fuck yeah being an adult, and to hell with your ideas of what adults do and don't do.

THIS POST WAS FOR YOU, and_ed. BECAUSE I'M TRYING TO POST MORE OFTEN.

in which there is fic, and a brief update

2012-12-04T21:04:42Z

A wild update appears! What ho!

Well, I'm not dead. (What the fuck happened to your posting page, LJ?) I'm finishing up my first semester back at school with an A in both Zoology & General Chemistry, so go me. 2 weeks left and I'm done for winter break. HOORAY. Not too much to say, really, but there are a few items of note.

+ Training for a marathon with my dad! We plan to run the Madison Marathon next November, and the half-marathon in this coming May. Nothing says motivation like having a parent who will be 62 at the time of your marathon. I cannot face the idea of my dad being ready for it when I am not.

+ Sitting here in Starbucks writing a list of places my favorite barista should go when she visits San Francisco. SOB SOB SOB SOB, I miss you so much, San Francisco.

+ Fallen face-first into a new fandom; I am now active in 3 different fandoms (wtf): Avengers, White Collar, & Skyfall. The new Bond film, you guys, OH MY GOD MY PANTIES, SO MANY FEELINGS, I CAN'T WITH THIS, I HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO CAN etc etc etc. But on that note, I posted fic for Skyfall (for the first time in a year and a half!). I'm 20k into an Avengers fic and 18k into a (separate) Skyfall fic, so hopefully both of those will be forthcoming soon. I'm actually writing, at speed, for the first time in almost 2 years. It feels really good.

Gloria In Excelsis
Fandom: James Bond, post-Skyfall (Daniel Craig films)
Pairing: Bond/Q
Rating: NC-~~18000~~17
Word-count: 3907
Warnings: Explicit sex in an unsavory location. Bond is a shady fuck ~~sometimes~~. Q has a dirty secret; Bond has an attraction and now he's got the excuse to act on it. Glory hole(s).
Notes. Apologies for a) the awful title (I couldn't resist) and b) the mangled Latin. Dear Latin professor, I done you wrong.

Love and kisses go to make_a_move for the Britpicks, and to circ_bamboo for the beta. All remaining mistakes or stupidness are entirely mine.

Read HERE at my fic journal, or HERE at the AO3.

And with that, I need to go study for one of my finals. ♥

Down on the corner, out in the street

2012-05-23T20:34:48Z

Wah hoo, I'm making a post that isn't an obnoxious RL update. Fandom funtimes go!

I am weak as a kitten as I write this. Due to a number of RL events, I have finally ponied up and started going to the gym I joined way back in December. Further, I purchased a few personal trainer sessions in order to get educated on how Real Adults exercise (that is, not flailing uselessly at the machines and inadvertently pulling a muscle--as you do), and the very first one was today. I have literally never done so many push-ups in my entire life combined. It's kind of cool, and yet I can't help but wonder how sore I'm going to be tomorrow.

Speaking of flailing, that feels like what I have been doing with fic lately. Like what feels like everyone else on the planet, I saw Avengers and have Many Feels about it, but in general: I fucking loved it and want to have its many babies. THIS MOVIE, I LIKE IT! ANOTHER! Buuuuut I have started no less than 3 pieces of fanfic, all of which I have yet to finish, one of which is going to be completely different from how it started out. But there are bits and pieces of them I like a lot, even though I don't know how much of it is going to make it into the finished versions, so.... guess what, have some fic-bits. It's all Avengers stuff and none of it is explicit.

Born on the Fourth of July: Happy Birthday, Mr. Rogers Steve/Tony. I just want to write something sweet and fluffy, no lie.

The thing Steve can't understand is how everyone figured out it was his birthday.

It was in his file, of course. But he'd expected--okay, hoped --that everyone would take one look at Captain America being born on the 4th of July and laugh it off as some kind of wise-guy putting notes in his file after his presumed death. He'd applied to the army enough times with enough fake information that it was no surprise some errors had made it into the final copy.

His teammates asked him about it, of course. And he'd scoffed when they'd asked him if the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan was really born on the fourth of July, and then quickly changed the subject to something more pertinent, like why 11-year-olds kept walking by singing Come here rude boy can you get it up, come here rude boy is you big enough and no one but Steve was upset about it.

* * * * *

"So," Tony said conversationally. Steve glanced up from the newspaper he was reading. "Since today is a special day, I thought we should make some special observations for it."

"Beyond going out to dinner and then to see the fireworks?" Steve sat back, letting the newspaper fold against the table, his attention effectively diverted. "How much is even open today? It's a national holiday, isn't it?"

Tony waved his hand, an airy, dismissive gesture like swatting a fly. "No, no, no. I meant, for your birthday, Steven."

Steve took this moment to choke gracelessly on his coffee. "It's not--"

"No arguing! I've already taken care of all the planning." Tony glanced at his watch, seemingly oblivious to Steve's sputtering protests. "And everyone will be here in just a few minutes, so I better proceed with the first part of your birthday present." Without further ado, Tony came around the breakfast bar to stand in front of where Steve sat at the kitchen table, dropped to his knees, and opened Steve's pants.

* * *

The Turing Test (What Would Tony Do) Also known as the Jarvis Gets Himself A Body fic. Gen, because really I just want the Avengers Brovenging around and also I have sensitive robot trope feels.

Steve heard Tony's raised voice floating to his ears from down the hall. "Get in here, Steve!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming..." Steve hurried down the hall, torn between irritation and apprehension. He walked into the lab, glancing over the usual explosion of tools and parts and half-finished machinery, frowning as he looked around for Tony. "Tony? Where are you--"

"Right here, Steve." Tony stood up, no longer obscured by the shell of the Mark 6 Iron Man armor he'd been crouching behind, and that was when Steve noticed the other person in the room. Tony had been crouched in front of a tall, straw-blond man, toned and naked from the waist up, and in fact had his hands on the stranger's stomach. Steve's gut dropped; what the hell had he just walked in on?

"Good afternoon, Captain Rogers," said the stranger in a voice that was perfectly familiar. Steve froze. His eyes flicked to Tony's face, taking in the way Tony's eyebrows were drawn up towards his hairline, noted how pale Tony was under his tan.

Steve's throat worked for a few moments before he could force the word out. "Jarvis?"

"Correct," said the stranger, in Jarvis's smooth English accent.

"Uh," said Steve.

Tony laughed, a short, bright sound, and put his hands on his hips. "Another fine moment from our resident Capsicle," he said. "Would that we were all so succinct."

"Captain Rogers' reaction is perfectly understandable," said the stranger---Jarvis, Steve correctly himself mentally, wondering distractedly why it was so strange to see a face to go with the voice now, when it had always been so odd to hear a voice but see no face. Steve found himself staring at the distinctly human form in front of him, at the sweatpants Jarvis was wearing that were obviously Tony's, judging from the way they didn't quite reach Jarvis's ankles. He wasn't wearing any shoes, and his face was as smooth and calm as his voice, his eyes a bright, intelligent blue. And he looked perfectly human. There was no trace of machinery about him at all. "He is unaccustomed to associating my voice with a physical form. As are you, Mr. Stark."

"Well strictly speaking that isn't your body, that's just the LMD that I was closest to finishing--"

"LMD?" Steve interrupted. "Hello? An explanation would be great, Tony. Or Jarvis. If either of you would be so kind."

"Indeed," said Jarvis, and Steve watched in astonishment as Jarvis's mouth quirked at the corners in an unmistakable smirk.

"I am in so much trouble," Tony muttered, smacking Jarvis lightly in the shoulder. "Okay, the short version: LMD stands for Life Model Decoy. Machines that walk and talk and look and act like humans, basically. I've been working on creating one for awhile now, and creating human look-alikes isn't actually the hard part, as you can see."

"Oh of course not," said Steve. "Why would I ever think it might be difficult to create a robot capable of perfectly mimicking a living, breathing human."

* * *

Chasing the Dragon Loki/Bruce Banner AUish, sort of a pre-movie AU. This is the one that I have totally thrown out with the bathwater and intend to re-do with a different approach, but I liked what I wrote of it a lot, so here it is.

To be fair to Bruce, the first time he met Loki, he had no idea who he was--or that Loki was even a he.

One moment he was standing on the porch of his one-room house on the edge of town, listening to the nightly sounds of darkness and enjoying the reprieve from the heat of the day, and the next a woman stood at the edge of the light cast out by Bruce's front door, watching him. She was tall, dark hair tumbling over pale shoulders, her eyes green and strangely luminous in the darkness. A trick of the light made it seem as though tall, arching horns rose gracefully from her forehead.

Bruce stared. Frowned, blinked and rubbed at his eyes, looked again. The horns were gone, but the woman was still there, and now she was smiling.

"Hi there," Bruce said. His voice seemed flat, muted in the humid air around them, as though a bubble had fallen on the edges of the clearing, cutting him off from the outside world. "Are you sick? I usually see patients at the clinic but if you're really ill, I can see what I can do right now."

The woman crossed her arms, but gave no other sign of recognition. Bruce sighed; it was strange for a foreigner to be in this part of India and not speak English, but not unheard of. "[Do you understand me?]" he asked, switching to Hindi and hoping not to inadvertently offend.

The woman smirked. "The locals speak of a monster in the jungle outside of town, an asura," she said, her English perfect, only the faintest trace of an accent that Bruce could not quite place. "Green and huge, unstoppable, like a dragon in its fierceness. I came to see the monster with my own eyes."

Bruce's skin prickled, his blood going cold despite the heat of the Indian summer evening. "There's no monsters here," he said carefully. "Just me." Bruce smiled, putting his hands in his pockets, but mentally he was already running through his various escape routes. He'd deliberately picked a village to work in on the edge of deep jungle, for this exact reason.

"Indeed," said the woman, stepping forward into the circle of light, moving towards Bruce with an air of je ne sais quoi, so supremely confident. Bruce's mouth went dry, and he took a few steps back, watching her approach. "There's only you. Just the dragon."

Bruce's back hit the wooden wall of his house, and he stopped, still watching the approach of the stranger. "Don't," he said. It came out urgent, almost pleading.

He was so tired of running.

The woman reached the bottom step, her movements slow, unhurried. "Fear me not," she said, and this close Bruce could see her eyes were blazing, like twin emeralds in a porcelain face. "I come only to see if the stories are true. I have a fondness for monsters, you see."

"No, you don't understand," Bruce said, and he went sideways, or started to, but the woman seemed to flicker, skipping the rest of the steps and appearing in front of Bruce, her hands on either side of Bruce's shoulders, her face just inches from his. Bruce froze, eyes wide, his heart thundering in his chest.

"Oh, but I do," the woman said, and pressed her mouth to his.

* * *

Welp, that's probably enough fic-bits. I have another fic sort of pre-writing stage with thorne_scratch, that's kinda... San Francisco Giants/Supernatural crossover by way of a lot of weed smoked plus a trip to Mexico. Don't judge me. You don't know my life.

I have pictures to post too, and other bits and bobs, but this entry is long enough and I need to get home and clean my apartment for an impending Thai food/Blackula/Birthday extravaganza. I'm off! Like a dirty shirt. Peace out, LJ.

Kat's Adventures in Dating: Jackasses 2, Electric Boogaloo

2012-01-22T21:52:56Z

Well, now that I am all settled in to Madison and am over my hump year of "being completely insane," I am once again in the dating pool and consequently have a few... stories to tell. I've never exactly been one to suffer fools lightly, as it were, but funnily enough, after running away to San Francisco, stalking rock stars, haring off to New Zealand and Australia, and engaging in a number of activities like flinging myself out of an airplane door and falling screaming 3 miles to Earth, I find it much easier to ignore people being idiots. And when I say "people" in this instance, I specifically mean "men." And because I am blessed enough to know lots of people to encourage me to stand up for myself, and have the resources to educate myself about privilege and sexism, etc., I'm getting better at calling people out on their crap rather than standing by and politely smiling and taking it.

I will put a disclaimer right here that to read a post like this makes it sound like I march around with a spear and shield, shrieking at anyone that I perceive as putting a toe out of line, but I'm not here to post about all the people who are quietly polite & respectful; I will simply state that they ARE there. And also, obviously women are not exempt from acting like buttheads; this post simply happens to be about the dating fail I have recently experienced. And finally, because I work in the service industry, I think that I get exposed to a lot more fuckery than the average lady, simply by virtue of having to smile and be inviting and friendly even to people I would like to fuck right off.

A helpful picture to set the mood.

Right. To the juicy parts.

Dear Gentlemen,

Come closer. No, really. It has recently come to my attention that many of you, even (or perhaps particularly) those of you who seem to know a thing or two about feminism & respecting women, still have lots of things you seem to fail to grasp. So, in pursuit of illuminating the situation, allow me to examine a few rules, now illustrated with recent examples from my personal life.

Thou shalt not attempt to steamroll my experiences and opinions with your personal interpretation of the world.

Dear sir: I had such high hopes for you. You were sitting quietly at my bar and not obnoxiously hitting on me when we first started talking; you did your Ph.D in Seattle, in music no less, and you seemed intelligent, thoughtful, well-read and well-traveled, and in general like someone I'd like to get to know better. It took two months to actually manage to get a drink with you, and to this day I still don't know exactly what happened. Maybe I misjudged you badly during our initial interaction; maybe you had a crazy case of nerves and temporarily turned into your Hulkish alter-ego, Douchebag McJerksalot, but either way, boy, what a disaster that was. I sat in ever-increasing astonishment and irritation as you set about utterly destroying the not-inconsiderable goodwill I had saved up for you.

You showed a blatant disregard for my thoughts and feelings (including, but not limited to: repeatedly asking questions and then interrupting me when I attempted to answer them; making jokes about getting drunk and driving or getting drunk and making out; making disparaging comments about 90% of the country and the people who live within it, including places I have lived and/or filled with people I know and love) and followed it up with professing surprise when I didn't pretend to find you totally hilarious and charming. You told me that I'm tough, and asked why I thought I needed to be so tough all the time (and I admit to finding it funny when I responded with "Why shouldn't I be tough?" and you couldn't think of a damn thing to say), and then repeatedly asserted that I needed to "loosen up" and that "we should be having fun!"

At one point, when I told you (again) that your uninvited jokes and comments about my sex life were unwelcome and unfunny, you declared me a prude. Let me just sit here for a moment and laugh my fucking ass off at that idea, because I haven't quite gotten over it yet. You could not have been further from the mark if you'd fired that shot off from Mars and aimed for Jupiter, but now you'll never know anything about all the erotica I write & read, or all the sex toys I own, or all the ways in which I very much love sex, with and without a partner, because you proved quickly beyond a shadow of a doubt that you don't deserve to know any of those things.

Then---oh, and I enjoyed this part too, at least retroactively---you made the mistake of asking me why I seemed so unhappy. At which point I informed you that your attempts to tell me who I am, how I should feel, and how I should be acting were obnoxious and tiresome. I gave in to your repeated insistence from the beginning of the night to pay for the bill, and left you to two nearly-full beers, because I couldn't be bothered to spend another five minutes of my life in your presence. And while I felt kind of terrible about it at the time, because I had wanted to have a nice night of conversation instead of having to shut down a toxic interaction and you were clearly upset, it's not my fucking fault you were acting like such a troll.

All of this was particularly precious because of the fact that you had insisted at the very beginning of the night that you respect women and treat them the way they should be treated. How kind of you to demonstrate to me what you actually meant by that statement.

In conclusion, you are a mansplaining, condescending douchebag and it's no wonder you're alone. Thank you for demonstrating for all of us how not to treat a woman, or any other living, breathing human being, for that matter.

Thou art not entitled to the positive response you want from me, no matter how badly you desire it.

Dear gentlemen: When I avoid eye contact with you and answer in short, unresponsive monosyllables in response to pointedly invasive questions, it does not mean, "Please follow me out to my car to ask if you can get to know me better." It means, "Leave me the fuck alone, I'm not interested. " If I WAS interested, believe me, you'd have known. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but putting physical distance between myself and you is actually NOT a coy plea for attention. So forgive me if my sympathy for your butthurt is lacking, somehow.

Furthermore, if you've messaged me on a dating website and I never responded, it may SEEM like a completely brilliant idea to message me again "just in case" I missed your message the first time, but! Sad to say, it's actually going to accomplish exactly the opposite of what you desire. Particularly when you use such inspired lines as "I still can't believe you didn't reply before" or "Aww, no friendly response? Even if dating is off the table, I'd still love to be friends." Guess what, genius; if I was interested in you, or you'd come across as anything other than a douchebag in your first message, I would have messaged you back, and messaging me again to try to change my mind is just going to piss me off, because it's telling me you don't respect my right to decide for myself if I want to talk to you. (I will note in particular that the dude in example number two that I just quoted was using such priceless lines as telling me I have killer hips and that he thought our sexual preferences would line up nicely. This, from a man I've never met before in my life. Yes, sir, please continue to volunteer me for a conversation about my sex life against my will. I just love having my privacy disregarded! It so completes my day!)

This is only one-upped by the men who message me back to ARGUE WITH ME when I attempt to respond nicely to semi-polite messages with a "thank you but I'm not interested." "But we have tons in common!" Really. Okay, I'm convinced. Quick, put a ring on it and knock me up, you've made me see the light. This may come as a dreadful surprise, but I am not, in fact, a magic 8-ball that you can shake over and over until you get the answer you desire. Continuing to harass me will either make me ignore you completely, or turn into She-Hulk and rip you to bits. Possibly both.

Both of these can be neatly summed under the maxim of "Respect others," but clearly "respect" is a tricky concept for some people to grasp.

Further reading on this and related subjects.

+ The Complete Guide to Not Giving A Fuck. Not specifically feminist, but useful and fun nonetheless.
+ I'm Mad At You Because You're An Idiot, Not Because I'm A Woman. Via Jezebel. What it says on the tin.
+ Thirteen-year-old badass on slut-shaming and why it's wrong Video and transcript of video at the link, for those of you who can't or don't like watching videos.

Today's post has been brought to you by the sparkly blue nail polish jou painted my nails with Thursday night. I hope everyone's weekend has been fruitful. I leave you with this.

Fffffffuck.

2011-09-12T20:34:26Z

Here it is, the sudden and unlooked-for return of my restless wind.

Two weeks to the day after moving to my new home in Madison, sitting in a cafe trying and failing to concentrate on my statistics homework, I find myself staring at photographs of far-away places on Tumblr and trying to find words for the abrupt, unreachable itch located somewhere in the high-windowed house of my brain.

It's the same itch that caused my grandmother to leave house and home, all her family and friends, and set to sea in a 24-foot sailboat alone, and spend more than 15 years away from the country of her birth, seeing the world. It's the same itch that dragged me from my 10 years in Ohio and found me in San Francisco, and then took me out my front door to wind up in New Zealand and Australia for 4 months, a length of time that felt both endless and not nearly long enough. And it's the same itch that makes me write stories about people who find themselves in strange, unknowable places, so perhaps it's not entirely unfortunate that it has come back. I am firm in the belief that people who are 100% comfortable with their lives have no stories to tell and no itches to scratch, and I never want to feel "done" or like I have nothing left to say.

Still, it's goddamn obnoxious when I'm sitting here trying to concentrate on absolute deviations and data analysis, only to be struck with the sudden and near-irresistable urge to either get in the car and drive, or find an unfamiliar part of town or countryside to walk until I exhaust myself. I think tomorrow I'll get up early and drive out to the arboretum or the botanical gardens, or find some nearby park that I can stomp around in for a few hours and think. Maybe that will help kick-start all the ideas that have been brewing in my head for what feels like months now, while I sit here and can't for the life of me find a single word to put to the page.

And there, kids, is also the first piece of writing in 4 months that I was able to open up the word doc and just barf onto the page, without having it feel like I'm pulling out my own teeth.

No. YOU move.

2011-09-08T02:56:27Z

Wow, look at me, rollin' in after just a few days with yet another LJ post! Aren't I magical? Maybe I can keep up with this "internet" thing after all. ...Nah, probably not, I'm just unemployed at the moment.

Actually, that is only a half-truth; at this exact moment I am not working, BUT I did find a job yesterday! I am going to be bartending and serving at a very nice Italian restaurant downtown, and they're going to train me from A to Z. I go in tomorrow to do my paperwork and shall start training some time in the middle of next week. So that's very, very exciting.

Been a busy couple of days. Aside from the whole "getting a job" thing, there has also been much socializing and dealing with the business of moving in. It's BULLET POINT TIME.

++ On Sunday, I went to a local delicious restaurant called The Great Dane with jou, latenightarting, and sail_aweigh, whom I met for the first time that night! Dinner was DELICIOUS and then we gained the victory over a giant delicious brownie sundae. We celebrated our triumph over food by going to see the remake of "Fright Night," which was SUPER fun and very enjoyable---appropriately scary but also funny and well-written, to the point where I wanted to see it again as soon as the credits finished rolling. It had Anton Yelchin, David Tennant, and Colin Farrell, all of whom were absolutely great.

++ I have been having quality time with roomieface maypirate, watching loads of X-files and eating all the foods. She was a total boss today and helped me put together my new desk (and by "helped me" I mean "she did 75% of the work while I put the pieces together wrong," but who's counting), as well as helping me assemble the new bedframe. Then I played furniture jenga for awhile, rearranging the room, and the ultimate result is much closer to something resembling an appealing bedroom and less like a jumble of stuff in a room. There's still plenty to do, BUT GUYS, GUYS, ALL MY CLOTHES ARE PUT AWAY IN A CLOSET LIKE A REAL ADULT AGAIN, IT'S AMAZING. I'm not living out of a damn suitcase anymore!!

++ I have been ALL UP fandom's butt, particularly Avenger's fandom. It's bad, you guys. I haven't had it this bad for a fandom in awhile, not since I first got into Trek or Green Day. In fact, I'm getting ready to offer fic to the person who can help me re-do my layout to be more fandomy. After I make this post I have to go run off and watch more of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and troll the internet for Avengers icons, particularly of Steve Rogers. I'm making him a playlist, you guys. IT'S BAD.

++ Your daily video spam: Chris Hemsworth doing salsa dancing on Dancing With the Stars. My favorite comment is "GOD OF THUNDEROUS HIPS." INDEED.

Well, I feel like I had more to say but it got burned out of my brain by the sudden arrival of Thor booty-dancing to "Senora," what can I say. OH YES. I will write fic for the person who will help me re-do my LJ layout. Right now I've got Star Trek, Avengers, and prrrrobably X-Men: First Class and BBC Sherlock I could do. Alternately I will make you a fantastic mix with a theme of your choice (for example if you wanted me to fanmix a story for you, or based around a particular theme for you, I could totally do that). Any takers? ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME. Also, if anyone has recommendations for Marvel communities or icon communities (I really want some Fright Night icons, rawr), that would be greatly appreciated as well.

Right, I'm off to go fart around Tumblr some more. Hope everyone's hump day has been a good one! ♥

Help, I'm alive.

2011-09-03T02:52:57Z

Okay, so let's try this again. Screw you, LJ, I'm typing this up in a wordpad doc first.

As I type this, I'm sitting in a Starbucks with jou and the lovely maypirate as we all sit and respectively ~~fart around on tumblr~~ work on things. I'm not going to attempt to completely re-create my post from yesterday, because: obnoxious, but we'll at least attempt to cover some of the same ground. But know what's awesome? Being able to use the restroom in a Starbucks without having to get the passcode for the lock from the baristas, because if there's no passcodes then all the homeless bums would go in the bathroom, puke everywhere, and then wash themselves with wet rags and leave a huge mess. Not that that happened in San Francisco a lot or anything.

First things first. Time for an episode of Short Attention Span Theatre. Let's recap the past few weeks.

Since returning from Ohio, it's mostly been a non-stop mess of working and packing to try to prepare for this epic move. I had my going-away party two Mondays ago, which consisted of two parts; the first was dinner at a delicious tapas restaurant, with revid, leighrowena, _somniac_, indie_wonka, and ribby and her spouse the Fuzzband. Following that, most of us shuffled off down Haight Street to throw back drinks at a bar, where a large number of my coworkers joined us. A fun time was had by all; a hangover was had by quite a few. My coworkers, exemplifying everything about my relationship with them, gave me a going-away present of Absolut Vodka, San Francisco limited edition. That pretty much says it all. ("When you miss San Francisco, drink this and think of the fog!" ♥)

jou arrived the day after my going-away party, trooper that she is, to come help me back up my life and drive it all cross-country to Madison. We had a going-away dinner at ribby's house that was ridiculously delicious, and then the next day consisted of packing, Goodwill-ing, or throwing out All the Things, and once we'd either boxed everything up or mailed it at Fedex, we toddled off downtown to catch "Captain America" again. I shrieked loud enough for 4 people and we had a jolly good time.

And then, the road trip. 2,100 miles, 4 consecutive days of 12 hours in the car at a time. We survived it with love, music, and lots of NPR podcasts of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and "This American Life." I think we are going to need some visual aides here.

Meet Darcy! Darcy as in the god-tasing minor character in "Thor," yes, that Darcy. Darcy is a sweet girl and has been the perfect little car so far.

We were able to fit a surprising amount of junk in her trunk. Baby got back, is what I'm saying.

jou, having no fucks left to give for the number of miles we had yet to drive when I took this picture. You can see allllll the crap in the back of Darcy, too.

And then: we drove!

Aaaand drove...

Whilst in Nevada we found a Starbucks inside a casino inside a gas station. ...No really. It was more common than you'd think. As rainjewel commented, if you had to live way out in the desert, all you'd wanna do is drink and gamble, too.

We encountered some ~luxury accomodations...

And contemplated sending up smoke signals for help while crossing the giant salt flats in the western end of Utah, coz they went on for friggin' ever.

Here I am rocking the "dirty hippie" look, complete with dirty bandana and map across my lap to reflect the heat of the ~~Vulcan~~ sun, because it was literally 101 degrees outside that day.

We encountered some crazy weather in Wyoming...

Which then turned red in the sunset. What.

O yeah. Midwestern thunderstorms, come to me.

We finally made it to the continental divide on the third day. It wasn't yet one million degrees, but I was pretty f*ing sick of being in the car at this point.

Finally! A dating service that caters to people like me! I can see the ad now: "Single white woman ISO like-minded Trekkie nerd. Must love comics, roadkill, terrible hipster music, tacos."

Finally, we arrived at my dad's house in La Crosse, in time for his 60th birthday. Being the geniuses that we are, we totally decorated his birthday cake for him.

My dad, being a troll since 1951. He loved it, of course.

Also, y'all, if anyone was looking for Banner, he's apparently in Madison. Chillin' next to the Starbucks drive-through, right behind the auto repair center. Maybe Hulk just wanted a latte.

WHEW, THAT WAS A LOT OF PICTURES. But now I am safely in Madison! I have moved all of my crapola into my new apartment, where the wonderful maypirate is my roommate, and lots of fun has been had thus far with her and jou and latenightarting. (That is, if you can call "applying for jobs all over the damn place" and "repeated trips to the DMV to get my driver's license and registration" fun. I dunno, your mileage may vary.) I still have lots of unpacking and work to do, but I'm hugely enjoying getting to roll around town having what amounts to a constant fangirl party. I quite like Madison so far.

Things on my radar in the near future: more job interviews, farmer's markets, getting back on the "writing" bandwagon after what I realized is like a 9-month dry spell due to Ye Olde Big Trip and then my cross-country move, yoga, bicycling everywhere, re-doing my LJ layout and probably 50% of my icons, putting up all my posters, eating all the bagels from the nearby shop "BAGELS FOREVER" (bagels where have you been all my life), and consuming massive amounts of fannish media. Particularly enjoying shoving myself face-first into Marvel fandom. COME THE FUCK ON, AVENGERS. I'M SO READY FOR YOU.

TL; DR version of this post:

I'M FINALLY IN MADISON! IT TOOK FOR FREAKIN' EVER BUT NOW I'M HEEERE!

Go suck a fuck.

2011-09-02T02:26:26Z

Wow, so I spent AN HOUR AND A HALF typing most of an update, only to have Google Chrome abruptly close and eat the update, and mysteriously LJ didn't save it. SO I JUST LOST EVERYTHING.

Ugh, I'll try to type it again tomorrow but I just can't be arsed tonight. The short version: I'm in Madison, I'm enjoying the shit out of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and LJ and Chrome can both suck my dick. PEACE OUT.

Shitty pet owner smash

2011-06-23T21:14:48Z

Here's your daily animal-related sniffle story, complete with happy ending (hat-tip to rainjewel for the link):

Nice Moon Boots, Bro: First dog fitted with prosthetic boots on all four feet. The accompanying video of the dog galumphing around on his new paws is adorable and sweet.

That being said, WHO THE FUCK ABANDONS THEIR DOG TO A NEBRASKA WINTER?

Reasons That Are Not Sufficient For Abandoning Your Pet

Allergies (my mom's cat allergies were so bad she was coughing up blood a week after we adopted the kitten, and she still refused to re-home the animal until my grandmother agreed to adopt her). Get some Zyrtec and kleenex and suck it up; you should've investigated before you brought the animal home.

Cost. Owning animals can be expensive; _somniac_ is skipping baseball games, bar trips, and food more expensive than pasta and sauce for the time being in order to pay for her cat's 1400 dollar dental vet bill. If you aren't prepared for the responsibility that goes with the joy of pet-owning, don't adopt.

Inconvenience. Yes, it's obnoxious when your puppy or kitten sheds all over everything, eats your shoes, messes on the carpet, and chews up expensive leather items to the tune of $5000, not that my family has personal experience or anything. Get the dog trained, put your clothes in the closet & shut the door, and re-consider adopting that adorable fuzzy dog if your home is carpeted in expensive white shag.

The joy of owning an animal that loves you and accepts you without reservation or judgment goes hand-in-hand with the fact that pets are a responsibility. Your apartment is small and doesn't have a yard for your puppy to run around in? Make time to talk the animal for walks. Your cats take great delight in anger-peeing outside the box whenever your boyfriend comes over? Invest in cleaning supplies or spend the night at his place. If you aren't sure if you should get a pet, spend time with a friend who has one and ask them about the ups and downs, and do your damn research before you adopt. As far as I'm concerned, if you aren't prepared to deal with all the possible fall-out of bringing home a living, breathing animal, you don't deserve the pleasure of owning one.

Getting off my soapbox now to go back to my stats homework...

eta Both lintsay and innerchorus pointed out that, yes, sometimes pet owners face the shitty choice of having a roof over your head or keeping your animals, when you can't find work or you have unexpectedly high, awful bills. In those cases, responsibly re-homing your pets can sometimes be the only option, and my heart goes out to anyone forced to give up a beloved member of their family because they have literally no other choice. I had hoped it was obvious that this post was not directed at people finding themselves in such a scenario, and I'm sorry if it seemed otherwise; my ire is primarily directed at people whose response at the first bit of trouble or cost is to dump the pet back at a shelter, or worse, simply abandon them somewhere. My bottom line is that pets are a responsibility, and that whatever the situation, you should treat them as such.

Take me to my city by the Bay.

2011-06-14T23:27:16Z

[eight reasons I'm glad to be back in san francisco]

Being asked in earnestness by the people behind the counter at my coffee shop what I've been up to lately, and upon hearing that I'm attempting to find a yoga studio that fits me best, being given a free pass for a week's worth of yoga classes at the barista's studio.

Soy lattes with brown sugar.

Drinking the comics kool-aid with flatbear and isilrandir. I've seen Thor twice and X-Men First Class now. I have so much catching up to do.

All the drag queens and gay men at work demanding stories about my adventures in New Zealand and being re-adopted as one of the resident fag hags.

Being shown the BBC Sherlock miniseries by ribby and being able to turn around and shriek at revid, jou, and latenightarting about it until they consent to re-watching with me.

Going on dates with tiny tattooed tight-jeans guyliner-wearing dirty punk boys who surf and quote Milton, and getting drunk with them in crappy bars on Haight Street.

The San Francisco Giants. Particularly this beautiful thing, even if he is in a bit of a pitching slump right now.

Being able to shriek with rainjewel about everything from baseball to feminism to Assassin's Creed to Green Day to Alkaline Trio and also, butts.

bonus: This gorgeous acoustic cover of This Could Be Love from the upcoming Alkaline Trio album "Damnesia." Fuck, but I am excited to see them next month. (lol, the show they are headlining thursday night is sold out so I will drown my sorrows in wine and Sherlock BBC with jou and latenightarting and revid.)

ETA: putting on leupagus's Social Justice Tights here for a second and linking her most righteous and excellently-worded post, "To Anyone Annoyed By A Woman."

You know when it isn't earned? When you declare "Oh, God, she's so annoying!" when you watch a woman get interviewed for a dance competition, or you watch her on a reality show, or you watch her character on a TV show for five minutes. When the crime she commits is existing in a larger sphere than her own personal life. When the "annoying" part of her is that she talks too much when she's stressed, or she's sleeping with the main character or a hot actor, or when she's wearing a sexy outfit, or when she's earnestly clueless about anything from foreign policy to who was in The Who. When the performer/actress/reality star/singer/politician makes it clear that she wants attention, that she wants your attention, as if that's some kind of character defect. When she tells reporters that she's fucked five hundred guys, and she's proud of it; when she shows off her kids to national television, and she's proud of them; when she's better or worse or different than people expected her to be, and she's not ashamed in the slightest.

Go. Now. Read it. You won't regret it. ♥

Writer's Block: Going boldly

2011-05-30T19:14:10Z

Jesus, how'd I almost miss this? Hahahaha. Um, to NO ONE'S SURPRISE, if I could be any Star Trek character, I'd be Jim Kirk. Have crazy adventures at the head of a kick-ass crew, boldly going where no woman has gone before with a crew of all my besties? Yes please. To say nothing of having my ~~one true love~~ best friend and companion be Spock of Vulcan, and my favorite gruff country doctor at my side.

Life continues apace. I'm heading back to school in fall (whoo community college!); I'm working again, and finally making money; I'm working on my writing again.... life is good. Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to report! HOWEVER, one of the things I'm working on in my writing is typing up trip-adventure-posts, and I hope to be able to share those soon. (Basically I ran through all my Flickr bandwidth in one go and I'd like to be able to show y'all my pictures when I post. So when I get the money to upgrade my account, I'll start posting. Meanwhile, I write. ♥)

IN OTHER NEWS, if you got a random spam mail from an old Hotmail account of mine, I am so very sorry. It appears my old email got hacked; I'm going to change the password once I'm on a safe connection again, sigh (I'm at a cafe).

Now to try to get a little work done before I go to work tonight. Hopefully I won't be as wiped out as I was yesterday. @_@

No One's Gonna Love You (More Than I Do) - Cee Lo Green

2011-05-24T20:05:21Z

This song breaks me. I love it. Originally by Band of Horses.

PSA: MAC USERS READ THIS.

2011-05-19T18:59:24Z

Guess what, Apple users, we've just crossed the 10% market share threshold and hackers are now targeting Mac products! Whoo!

There is a malware virus that downloads itself to Apple computers in an attempt to get you to enter your credit card information. It's largely harmless (aside from the thievery attempt) as it doesn't attempt to hurt your Mac, but please click on and read the link to educate yourself further so you can avoid it.

Thus is the power of having a computer programmer for an older brother. Thanks man.

who needs subjects, let's revolt

2011-05-15T09:39:00Z

Got back to San Francisco at 10 am yesterday morning. Realized I had no phone with which to call revid and resorted to that charming relic of a bygone era, something called a pay phone.. It was magical.

Came home, ate greasy chinese food with revid, then showered & succumbed to the call of Apple and went to get myself a new iPhone. (...I don't think I ever mentioned it, but my old one was stolen while I was in New Zealand. NOT ON, NZ.) So now I am in possession of Artoo the White. (Both as a reference to his shiny purty color, and to the fact that he pulled a Gandalf and came back to me WHITER AND SHINIER THAN EVER.)

Stayed up till 1 am (36 straight hours since leaving Sydney, what the sweet hell) then slept till 1 pm. (Yeah, shut up. You would've too. Don't be a hater.)

Realized for what felt like the billionth time that despite all the planning & scheming I did to run off on Ye Olde Big Trip, I had given next to no thought to what the hell I'd do upon my return. So to all of you asking "WHAT NOW?" the answer is "HELL IF I KNOW." It probably involves some form of completely over-the-top writing, though. ~~I am already thinking about a longer trip a year and a half to two years from now maybe this time I can make it somewhere where nobody speaks English but meeee~~

Went and saw "Thor" (again) with some random dude from OK Cupid, had a generally very satisfying time. THOR SMASH! CHRIS HEMSWORTH HOT! Now I have to go watch all the other Marvel-universe movies again. Life: so hard. Totally had to shut down some random drunk guy on the bus, too. This actually happened: "So, like, you should come to this ...cocktail-tasting party tomorrow---" "Please stop touching me." "I'm not touching you!" "Well, not now. Because I asked you to stop." "...Oh, yeah, okay." REAL CONVERSATION.

Discovered that it's Star Trek Big Bang sign-up time again. WHAT THE HELL? WHERE DID THE WHOLE YEAR GO? Oh, yeah: writing previous Big Bang/working like a madwoman/saving up for a crazy trip/3.5 MONTHS OUT OF THE COUNTRY. Nevermind. Still, it's definitely a "where the hell did this ENTIRE YEAR go?" kind of moment.

Made an LJ post at 2:30 in the morning when I got home from the movie and wasn't tired. SIGH.

More intelligent post with Thoughts and Feelings (and hopefully pictures) to come tomorrow or the next day. Coz, GUESS WHAT, I AM CURRENTLY UNEMPLOYED AND CAN DO WHAT I WAAAAAANT! WHOOOOO!!! ....Ahem.