ad astra

Yuletide letter 2015

kitrinlu — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 06:15:45 GMT

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so much for writing for me! It's been a while since I've done Yuletide, but I loved doing it, and I'm excited to be back.

I've tried to give you some prompts and things I like about the characters/canon, but if none of this inspires you, feel free to write anything you like - you might have way better ideas than I do, and if so, I'd rather read them! :) Also, I'm requesting my absolute favourite characters to make matching easier, but I love lots of the other characters too, so feel free to include them if you'd like to.

[As an aside, some of these prompts also featured in my previous Yuletide letter (see here if you're interested - LJ link because there's bonus question-answering in the comments). I've loved the previous fics I've been given; the prompts are the same because I love seeing different people's takes on things. Even if every YT participant wrote a fic based on my prompts, I'd still want more (and also be so thrilled I might spontaneously combust).]

If you'd like even more of an idea about the sort of plots/characters I like, there's a post here. I've also signed up for Crueltide if you're into the darker side of things. And again, thank you for writing for me. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

General stuff
Stuff I'd like
Genfic (you don't have to break up canon relationships or anything, but I generally prefer fics where romance/shipping is kept to a minimum); hurt/comfort; action-adventure; whump; iron/stoic woobies; angst; happy endings; missing scenes; casefic. My favourite thing is all the terrible things happening to my faves, but they're still awesome, and it all turns out alright in the end :)

Stuff I'm not so keen on (and/or stuff I'd rather not have for Yuletide)
Shipfic (where the focus of the fic is all about romantic relationships); 1st- or 2nd-person POV; crossovers; major character death; unhappy endings; crackfic; non-canon ships; AUs where the characters are in a different world/setting.

Squicks
Incest; mutilation; body horror; infidelity; humiliation/embarrassment.

Triggers
None.

Stuff I'm okay with, in case you were wondering
Violence; torture (as long as it doesn't get into mutilation/body horror); what if/canon AUs; noncon.

Requests
Pushing Daisies - Ned
Ned is one of my favourite characters ever - he's just so awkward and adorkable. I love pretty much all of the other characters too, so feel free to throw them in there. I'd love to see a fic where Ned's childhood nightmare comes true - someone finds out about what he can do. Is it a shady branch of the government, bad guys, creepy scientists? Do they want to experiment on him, or use his powers for their own gain? (Preferably with bonus rescue by any or all of Emerson, Chuck and Olive.) Or a fic where Ned finally sees his father again - how do they both deal with that, and does his dad have any excuse for what he did? Or something that could come from a typical episode - a mystery, waking and baking, pie-related shenanigans. Ooh, or a missing scene(s) from canon. Basically, PD ended way too soon, and I want more of it in any form I can get.

Relevant quote from Ned: "Ever since I was a kid, I'd have this dream where somebody would find out what I could do. It starts off with lots of ice cream and balloons and ends in a small white room where little bits are cut out of me until there's nothing left to cut."

Pushing Daisies is such a great show, and it finished way too soon. I love the mixture of saccharine fluff and creepy weirdness, and the odd characters and plots. I'm cool with a fic that falls anywhere on the fluffy-dark spectrum. If you want to try to emulate the style of PD (the narrator, the quirkiness, etc), go for it, but don't feel like you have to - and I couldn't, so I wouldn't blame you! I'd prefer that there not be any relationship drama between Ned and Chuck, or any drama with the Ned/Chuck/Olive triangle. (Obviously you don't have to include Olive and/or Chuck at all if you don't want to, though, since I didn't request them, but if you want to include either of them or Emerson, I'm all for it.) And if you want to pretend that the end of the last episode never happened, I'm totally okay with that - things got a bit rushed and weird there.

Mission Genesis - Reb
Reb is my favourite character, so anything that contains him is cool with me. I'd love a fic that could be a canon episode - the crew explore a planet, something threatens the ship, they meet up with more refugees from Earth, something like that. Feel free to steal and adapt a plot from your favourite scifi show :D Or a fic about how things were after the first woke up, how they adjusted to life on board ship, worked out their routines, how they got to know each other, things like that. I love all of the other characters as well, so feel free to include any or all of them.

If you haven't seen Mission Genesis, or you want a refresher, you can watch all the episodes here. This is a show (and book series, actually) from my childhood, so there's lots of happy nostalgia here. I love the trope of a disparate group of characters having to work together, and figure out how to get along and get things done even if they don't all like each other all the time. If you want to write the canon ships (Yuna/Reb and/or Bren/Gret) as being together that's cool; if you want to stick with gen or UST, that's cool too. I particularly like Reb and Bren's antagonistic relationship, and Reb and Yuna's more subtle competitiveness, and Lise is my second favourite character because she's freaking awesome. I really like all of the characters, though, and I'd love to see any of them that you like included. And really, there are about a dozen fics for this fandom total, so I'd be ridiculously excited with absolutely anything you want to write.

The Goblin Emperor - Csevet Aisava
Csevet is the best. I love his hyper-competence, and his loyalty, and how much he obviously cares about Maia as a person as well as an emperor. I'd love to see something based around the loyalty between him and Maia - someone trying to get Csevet to betray Maia and he won't do it, or someone accusing Csevet of something and Maia won't believe them. Or else someone trying to use Csevet's influence over Maia for their own gain - kidnapping Csevet, or hurting him in some way to get to Maia. Something h/c-ish or whumpy or angsty would be great. Or something about Csevet's past, before he met Maia - his childhood/family, or other incidents during his courier days. Or an AU where Tethimar doesn't make his assassination attempt, but he sure does remember who gave him that scar... If none of these prompts grab you, absolutely anything else involving Csevet would be great. I love pretty much all of the other characters, too, especially Maia, Csethiro, Beshelar, Cala... just everyone, basically.

I love this book so much - I'd happily read an entire series of books that covered all the years of Maia's reign in the same amount of detail as this one, plus another series all about the minor characters, and... basically, there could never be enough TGE in the world for me to be entirely satisfied. I have so many questions about Csevet. Why did Chavar send him to work for Maia? Is he as self-confident as he generally seems to be? What was it like to go from poor to courier to emperor's secretary, and how do the other members of the court feel about this? Do people assume he's using his ~wanton courier's wiles~ to influence Maia? And really, does he ever sleep? Anything you want to write is cool - h/c, slice-of-life, angst, drama, whatever. I don't ship any of the characters, but I do love their relationships with each other, and the constant balance between formality and caring that goes on. (And I would definitely not object to the breakdown of said formality in a moment of extreme emotion.) There's about a million prompts here already, so the only other thing I'll say is that I really love the whole ear-related body language thing, so feel free to throw that in there somewhere.

kitrinlu — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:56:17 GMT

Welp, that was a lengthy and entirely unintentional hiatus. Oops!

A combination of doing more stuff IRL and trying out different meds meant that I spent big chunks of last year in a sort of weird exhaustion coma, so most of my online life just fell by the wayside. This is likely to continue to be a problem, tbh, but I miss my life here, so I'm going to try to be more active again, even if it's just a little bit.

IRL I've been doing workshops on ways to manage anxiety and how to not be a complete failure at life, and trying to get fitter and find meds that work so that maybe one day I can actually do something useful. I've watched a few new shows - Hannibal, Sleepy Hollow and Supernatural are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Next up: clones, and people who are really bad at being criminals (aka Orphan Black and Breaking Bad).

I spent Christmas up north at Mum's place. My sister passed her nursing course and has just started her new job. And, uhhh, that's about it, I think. Wish I had something more interesting to tell you, but this is about as thrilling as my life gets atm :P

So how are you guys doing?

I'm aliiiiiiive!

kitrinlu — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:56:15 GMT

So despite my almost complete absence from LJ for the past couple of months, I'm still here. My laptop was playing up while I was up north for Christmas, so I took it into the shop when I got back to get them to have a look at it. And now, 6+ weeks later, I've finally gotten it back. (And they couldn't find anything wrong with it, so idek.)

So yeah, I'm back. Hope everything's been okay with you guys while I've been away. I'll try to make a proper update sometime this week, and get back into commenting and generally being a functional member of online society again. (I did keep up with sorting at westerosorting, because I maybe have a bit of an obsession, but that was pretty much it.)

I've missed you guys. And the rest of the internet, but you guys most of all ♥

Holiday wishes

kitrinlu — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 03:55:48 GMT

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! Happy holidays to you all - I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.

Remember if you want a virtual holiday gift, please leave a comment here: LJ | DW

Holiday gifts

kitrinlu — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 01:23:15 GMT

I'd love to be able to send proper holiday cards to you guys, but sadly, postage is prohibitively expensive. One day when I have a job, I definitely intend to, and in the meantime if anyone wants to move to NZ...

Since I seem to have failed spectacularly to post my trick or treats in October, I'm stealing the idea I had for them and using it now. They probably won't be delivered until early January, once I get back home and have time to sort them out, but I want to give you guys something, because you're all amazing people and friends.

If anyone would like a virtual holiday gift, just leave a comment below :)

kitrinlu — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 05:47:45 GMT

Hi flist! Long time, no post. I meant to post something ages ago, but I got caught up in being tired and busy and getting ready to go home for the holidays.

I'm currently staying at Mum's place, until just before New Year's. It's great to get to spend some time with her, and my sister's getting some time off over Christmas for the first time in years, so we'll be able to hang out for a few days - yay! It's ridiculously hot and humid up here though (probably not compared to the summers some of you have, but I'm used to the cold).

I've just had my annual try at making pavlova. Mum and my sister have very specific specifications for the perfect pav (crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle), and I've never yet managed to get it quite right. Tomorrow I'll find out if this is the year...

I've also managed to finish my Yuletide fic, which is a huge relief. It's a genre that was well out of my comfort zone, and I'm still not sure I managed to pull it off. Otoh, I had some really helpful betas, so it might not be so bad. As long as my recipient likes it, I'll be thrilled. And there are currently two gifts waiting for me - can't wait til the archive goes live!

Hope you're all having lovely holidays, or whatever it is that you're up to atm <3

Trick or treat!

kitrinlu — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:57:17 GMT

Stolen from sephystabbity and reynardine and hamsterwoman:

Comment "trick-or-treat" to this post and you shall be rewarded :) Treats can be anything I choose to bestow upon thee, oh merry trick-or-treater (little drawings, graphics, gifs, maybe tiny fics, or little writeups about you, and so on.) The more "houses" to visit the merrier, so go ahead and open up your journal as well, if you please :)

kitrinlu — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:07:26 GMT

Oops, fell off the face of the earth for a while there. I've been having a busy/stressful few weeks.

My flatmate's moving out at the end of the year, so I've been looking for someone to replace her. In the end I managed to find someone who seems nice, or at least seems like she's probably not a serial killer or something. She's Chinese, and doing a PhD at the university here. Hopefully things will all work out, because I have to say, social anxiety does not improve the flatmate-hunting process.

Also, I've been getting my CV/resume together, in preparation for hopefully taking up some sort of volunteering position. Which, considering that I basically haven't worked since early 2009 (yay, chronic fatigue syndrome :P), is a combination of exciting and terrifying. Still, things seem to have improved for me health-wise over the last year or so, at least enough to start looking at rehabilitation rather than just surviving. Not sure if I'll be able to handle it or not, but I guess we'll find out. *crosses fingers*

*

In internet-land, the westerosorting character meme has come to an end. I was voted for Ros (that was a fun campaign) and Septa Mordane (continuing my theme of identifying with characters who take care of Starklings). I didn't get Wylla Manderly, my other campaign, or Lyanna Stark (lol, again). Maybe next time...

Awesome banner by moryssa:

I'm also thinking about doing Yuletide this year. Good idea or not? I have no clue :P

*

And a few links of interest:

via reynardine: contribute to my Johari window, or get your own

WTF NASA: things that NASA have done to make our lives more awesome

Fandom tea blends

kitrinlu — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:46:06 GMT

Been really tired this week, and consequently doing nothing particularly interesting. And I totally failed to nominate anyone for the westerosorting Character Meme - sorry about that everyone :(

I did manage to get some nominations, though, and more than I deserve since I didn't do anything in return...

Tommen Baratheon
Beric Dondarrion
Wylla Manderly
Wynafryd Manderly
Trystane Martell
Septon Meribald
Septa Mordane
Arya Stark - for sticking them with the pointy end and only pretending to be no one
Brienne of Tarth - for tireless participation in ToH
Ros - because she won the quotes one, and thus is the polar opposite of Ros stealing time away from actually having book matter in the series?

And finally, five (!) nominations for Lyanna Stark O_O

I have no idea who to campaign for. I tried for Lyanna last time and didn't get her, so maybe I should keep trying until I win? And that's a lot of nominations...

I kind of adore Wylla Manderly, so I'm tempted to go for her, but I'm not sure I'm much like her. Although I do have pink hair...

But then Septa Mordane is basically awesome, especially in the show, and I'm almost tempted to do a cracky one for Ros...

Lol, I have no idea what I'm doing. I shall have to ponder. But it's awesome to have so many options! westerosorting = ♥

Stuff happens

kitrinlu — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:31:20 GMT

First off, welcome to new friends from westerosorting! I should really write an intro post one of these days...

*

Had a great Tourney of the Hand in the end. I won the limerick competition, and somehow took out several of the puzzles - staying up til midnight waiting for the rest of the puzzles to be released paid off!

And those of us who ~~are obsessed~~ participated in every tourney got banners, courtesy of the amazing sephystabbity:

*

I've also (incredibly impulsively) opened a sigtag shop at hogwartsishome. I'm really excited about it, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it and not get too overwhelmed. Finding images and making tags has been heaps of fun so far.

*

Asdfghjkl new Ace Attorney game! And Nick is the main character again!

And it's on the 3DS :(

Oh well, I'll hopefully get to play it one day. I guess I should probably try to get hold of AA4 at some point. And finish playing through AA3...

*

And finally, I dreamed about the zombie apocalypse the other night. Things got weird pretty quickly, and I ended up locked in a hotel bathroom with zombies clawing at the door.

The really strange thing was, though, that when it began I was in America (not the strange part!), and for some reason I knew (maybe I'd read it on the internet?) that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, the best place to go in North America would be Newfoundland. Things that I know about Newfoundland: a) it exists, b) it's in Canada, I think. Wtf, subconscious, where did that come from?!

But in the event that it turns out to be a prophetic dream or something, head for Newfoundland, everyone!

kitrinlu — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:29:23 GMT

Sometimes, when I'm really tired, I dream about being too tired to do things. It's very meta.

*

My trip to Christchurch was great (thanks, everyone who wished me well for the trip). It was so good to see my mentor-person again. He's somewhat technophobic and I'm somewhat telephone-phobic, so it can be really difficult to keep in touch. We spent about five hours catching up, and it was really good just to talk over with him some of the stuff I've been doing and thinking about and so on. He's one of the wisest people I know, and getting his perspective on things was really helpful. I may actually be on the right track atm.

Otoh, it also really made me miss home, the town of my birth, and how things were before they suddenly... weren't. I guess a part of me will always wish to go back in time...

*

Christchurch itself was pretty different in some ways. The CBD is cordoned off, with police checkpoints at the entrance points. (There are bus tours through the red zone, which seems a bit ghoulish.) From beyond the cordons, you can see a forest of cranes as they work to clear the debris and rebuild. There are groups of rebuilders throughout the city - you come across people in yellow vests and hardhats every once in a while. There are buildings blocked off and shored up, with broken windows and fallen masonry. There are empty sections and parking lots, where you suddenly notice the footprint of foundations and realise there was once a building there.

Otoh, the city is running. Lots of things, including the office at the bus stop where I left from, are being run from temporary buildings or even shipping containers. There's an entire mall built out of shipping containers just outside the CBD, all tiny shops in bright colours. There are signs everywhere telling the world that businesses are still open or have re-opened, giving new locations of places that have had to move. More than anything else, it's reassuring; despite everything that's happened, you can tell that things will be okay.

kitrinlu — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 06:22:07 GMT

Look, I'm posting twice in one week! XD

Mostly because I actually have things to talk about; I'm going to Christchurch tomorrow. I'm staying overnight, and then the following day I'm meeting up with my mother's former partner, who was a mentor to me in my teenage years. It's been two and a half years since I've seen him, so I'm pretty excited. He was a huge influence in my life, and I've missed him since they split up.

And also anxious, because one thing about spending 4+ years as a virtual hermit is that apparently it tends to result in severe social and general anxiety. Fun times! Still, if I can manage the interacting with strangers, not getting lost, and making non-awkward conversation with someone I haven't seen for ages, I'll probably survive.

It's a 5 hour bus trip, so at least I'll have lots of time to panic and/or sleep :P

Also, it'll be interesting to see what Christchurch is like now. I haven't been further than the airport since before the earthquake (which was 18 months ago now). I know a big chunk of the inner city is still cordoned off, but I'm really not sure what to expect. I loved Christchurch - I wouldn't have minded living there one day - so I'm don't know what it will be like to see it as it is now. Hopefully there won't be any major aftershocks while I'm there...

Gotta go pack now, because there's no way I can be trusted to do it at 7am tomorrow - I'll have enough to do just to get myself ready and not miss the bus. Can't wait!

Mid-year resolutions

kitrinlu — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:12:19 GMT

1) Post more
2) Comment more
3) Participate in communities more

What I've been doing for the last three months...

1) Bought a new laptop after my old one died. *cries*

2) Spent a few weeks up north staying with Mum. My sister was also there for about a week, and it was great to see both of them. Also nice to have heating and food made by someone who can actually cook :P

3) Got married. Lol, well, sort of. fallingtowers and I were matched up by the westerosorting matchmaking game. She proposed and I accepted, creating a union between the houses of Tully and Stark. Hopefully we'll be as awesome as Ned and Cat.

4) Made a start on achieving resolution #3 this weekend at the westerosorting Tourney of the Hand. (I love Tourney of the Hand more than is probably healthy!)

So yeah, it's been a while, but I'm definitely keen to get back into the whole LJing thing. It's always good to have goals, right?

kitrinlu — Tue, 29 May 2012 06:53:00 GMT

Oh my gosh, you guys, it's been weeks since I did anything useful on LJ. Like, weeks and weeks :(

I'm not really going to go into it, because it's mostly just more of the usual - I haven't been well, or when I have been well I've been struggling to find a balance between Doing All The Things and crashing and burning. Also, my sister came to visit, which was absolutely awesome, but left me with a cold I still haven't managed to shake off two weeks later. So yeah, boring.

Lol, I feel like 90% of my entries these days are 'I haven't been posting/commenting for a while, but I'm going to do better', but yeah, I'm back. Going to maybe try to post a bit more often, and definitely going to get back into commenting and participating more. I've missed you guys <3

kitrinlu — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:34:54 GMT

Dear credit card scammers,

Please consider doing your scamming during normal business hours. Dealing with the bank at 3am is not my idea of a good night.

No love whatsoever,
Kit

*

So yeah, I got a text from my bank at 2.40am, telling me to call them urgently. At first I was like, nothing on earth could be urgent enough to get me out of bed at 3am, but then it turned out that I was so busy fretting about what was going on that I couldn't get back to sleep anyway.

So I got up and googled the phone numbers they sent me to see if I was being scammed. Unfortunately, everything looked legit, so I called them. After half a million security questions (and let me tell you, those things are hard at 3am), they eventually confirmed that someone had put a $600+ charge on my card at 2.30am this morning. Obviously not me, since I was in bed at the time.

They cancelled the card, and the fraud team is looking into it to decide if they'll reverse the charges (which I'm assuming that they will, although it's not like I have much experience with credit card fraud).

It's a bit weird, like I feel a bit creeped out by the whole thing, but I feel like I should maybe be more upset about it. Mostly I'm just grumpy about being woken up at 3am, and annoyed because I knew my card number off by heart and now I'm getting a new one. And I'm strangely pissy because when I told Mum about it, she had no faith in my ability to deal with potential scammers at 3am and made me call the bank again to make sure everything was okay. Priorities, I haz them :P

kitrinlu — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:33:19 GMT

Ugh, cannot seem to feel well recently. I keep having headaches, or feeling dizzy or nauseous, or shaky and tired. Things seemed to be improving a bit over the last year or so in terms of my health, but now I'm not so sure. I just have to keep hoping for the best, I guess.

I didn't manage to enter any of the westerosorting tourneys in February, which more than doubled the number of tourneys I've missed in my time there (art tourneys don't count, though - there have to be some standards!). Sorry, Martells, I'm a bad foster; I'll try to do better in March. The game will be ending soon, which will see me heading back to the Starks. I seriously considered offering to mod for the next game, but I think my health is still too unreliable. I'd definitely like to do it one day, though; I love it there, and I'd like to be able to give something back.

As for other stuff I've been doing, there's been nothing particularly exciting. Terra Nova was fun enough that I'm still watching, and I'm kind of addicted to Once Upon a Time. It's strange, I can't decide if I love it or if I'm just desperate to find out what happens. I've also abandoned all the other series I was in the middle of watching (and still not started on A:tLA, although thanks to hamsterwoman and minviendha it's definitely next on the list), and started watching Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It's so strange to watch, because I've seen the original anime, and there are things that are the same and things that are really different. And some plotlines change from one to the other partway through, so I never know if a character is going to be evil/killed/alive/whatever. Lots of fun, but highly confusing!

I'm also flailing around trying to decide if I should enter Remix Redux. Because panfandom stuff is scary. And what if I can't come up with any ideas? Or I get an author who writes nothing but NC17 tentacle porn? Or I get an author who's really talented, and I'm, y'know, not? Or my remixer hates all of my stories? I'll sign up, though, once I stop flailing and work out which fandoms I want to offer to write for. (Should I branch out and offer for something I've never written before, or should I stick with what I know? You get the idea...) Hopefully it'll be fun, and it'll definitely be a good writing exercise. It's also gotten me to finally get around to creating a fic journal, ad_astra_fic, which is still fairly disorganised, but at least I have somewhere on LJ to post fic where it won't annoy people :)

kitrinlu — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:08:44 GMT

Grumpy today. And possibly pre-menstrual. There may be a slight correlation between the two XP

This is also not helped by the fact that uni started back this week, so there are students everywhere. There should be some sort of mandatory workshop for students, to help them understand that no, just because you're having fun in the middle of the night, doesn't mean that everyone else wants to hear you. Even if you're drunk. Especially if you're drunk.

This also means that my flatmate's back, which I would be much more sanguine about if she would clear up her stuff from the living areas. I'm uncoordinated enough already that I don't need any more obstacles when trying to get around the house. Although it looks like she moved a box today, so I guess we're making progress :P

Normally I'm a bit calmer about this sort of thing, but right now I'm about to start planning where to hide the bodies. May need to start self-medicating with chocolate XD

Terra Nova starts here tonight, so I'm going to check it out. I have the vague recollection of hearing that it's not that great, but a) my standards are pretty low, and b) dinosaurs. Can't go far wrong with dinosaurs.

Where did the time go?

kitrinlu — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:05:26 GMT

Somehow it's been nearly a month since I updated. Ok, I actually know where the time went: I spend the first couple of weeks struggling with a low-grade fever-y thing that never really developed into anything, but just wouldn't go away. Then I had friends come to visit for a few days, which involved several days of frantically trying to make my house look clean and tidy and generally like a functional adult lives there, then the actual visit, then several more days of sitting around staring into space and being totally exhausted.

I am now, however, vaguely functional (just in time for All The Hogsmeade Weekends, as it turns out). And the exhaustion was totally worth it - I had a great time with my friends, and we managed to do a lot of fun stuff, even with having to take my health/energy levels etc into account. I'm sad that I've been failing at LJ, though; I'm sorry, you're all awesome, and I'll start being better about commenting again. *hugs for everyone*

Oh yeah, and Tourney of the Hand went well. It was heaps of fun, as always, although I was starting to get sick towards the end and was struggling a bit. But now I know that I have excellent paper plate mask making skillz. And a picture that I actually drew not only got votes (which is all I could ever hope for, and super-exciting), but placed third. Actually third. Granted, there were only five entries, and two of them were pretty MS paint-y, but given my complete lack of art skills, that's still strangely thrilling to me.

In other exciting news, I am totally leading my parents to the dark side, and it's awesome! Game of Thrones has finally been on pay tv here, and I managed to convince Mum to record it and to watch at least one episode. She was pretty reluctant, but after my oldest stepsister said that she'd enjoyed the show, Mum agreed to watch it. Once. Her reaction? It was good, and she's going to watch some more :)

And I was blithering on to Dad about how I was going to make him watch the show sometime, and out of the blue, he was like, I should probably read the books first then. And I was like, O_O. But I leant him the first book and he thought it was good, and he wants to know what happens next :)

I'll make geeks of them yet! XD

kitrinlu — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:14:37 GMT

Spent a good part of today having panic attacks because there were people outside doing some sort of work (apparently involving a jackhammer and a lot of swearing). No idea why, just the thought that they might knock on the door or something. Stupid anxiety issues >:(

Tourney of the Hand starts over at westerosorting pretty soon - in less than an hour, assuming I've got my time zone conversions right. Can't wait! Tourneys are, for some reason, something that I participate in religiously, to the point that I feel guilty when I don't, and ToH channels all of that into a single weekend of DO ALL THE THINGS. It's like a perfect storm of awesome.

I've also been trying out some perfume samples that I bought on the internet, and today I thought it would be appropriate to wear Dragon's Blood. I'm still not entirely sure what I think about it - it's nice, but not amazing - but the name alone is making me feel totally badass and ASOIAF-y XD

kitrinlu — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:48:58 GMT

(Highlight to read)
In support of the movement against PIPA and SOPA, I will be going on strike on for 12 hours (8am EST to 8pm EST) tomorrow and abstain from all activity involving the internet.

For more information on SOPA, PIPA, and which companies are blacking out, go here and here.

Obviously this doesn't directly affect NZ, but it will almost certainly have indirect effects, especially since our government isn't shy about trying to block internet access, or about asking 'how high?' when the US says 'jump!'.

And it does have a potentially huge effect on people in the US (i.e. most of you guys), and therefore on people and friendships that I greatly value. I don't know what effect, if any, protesting like this might have, but I'm not prepared to just stand idly by.

Join me.

Veeka//quiescent is keeping a list of participants here, so go sign up!

kitrinlu — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:59:40 GMT

Whoops, lost track of things a bit there. Sorry everyone!

I'm back at home, and currently procrastinating at everything. People have been making comments recently about how I seem to be improving health-wise, and maybe this year I can really start making progress in getting on with my life. So of course, my natural reaction to that is to totally freak out and spend all my time doing nothing and avoiding everyone. Maybe this year will be the year that I get my act together, but it's too scary right now, so I'll just ~~procrastinate~~ take things slowly a bit longer.

2011 was definitely the best year I've had health-wise since I got sick, though, so that's encouraging. Also an awesome year because of you guys: you're all amazing, and I'm so privileged to have you as my friends. And I came home to find holiday cards from both deeplyunhip and c_hrista, which was so exciting - thank you so much!

So yeah, I'm off to read my flist, so at least I'm not a totally hopeless LJ friend. I'd like to try to post more frequently this year, but we'll see how that goes. Hope this year is an amazing one for all of you ♥

kitrinlu — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:20:40 GMT

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it. Hope you all, Christmas-celebrating or not, have a wonderful day.

kitrinlu — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:00:24 GMT

I am now officially Away For The Holidays. I'll be checking on things every day or so, but I definitely won't be around as much as I usually am. So, uh, no one on the internet is allowed to do anything interesting until January, okay? XD

Because it's nice to be loved :)

kitrinlu — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:37:12 GMT

My thread on the Holiday Love Meme.

P.S. You should all make your own threads so that I can say nice things to you :)

kitrinlu — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:54:01 GMT

Thank you so much to everyone who said comforting things in the last few days ♥

We now return you to our irregularly scheduled frivolity.

For the next few days, at least, then I'm heading up north for Christmas. It's pretty early to be leaving, but I'll be back at the beginning of January, which will hopefully be before it gets too much hotter. I'd be keener about going if I didn't have to pack and get organised, but I guess that would have to happen sooner or later anyway. I'm just really tired and kind of numb atm, but at least having deadlines means I have to get things done, or else face two weeks up north without a change of clothes :P

So, meme time. I was tagged by both hamsterwoman and deeplyunhip.

The rules:
1. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
2. You have to choose 11 people to tag.
3. No tag backs.

Tagging (only if you want to, of course, and feel free to answer ever if I haven't tagged you): angerfish, c_hrista, firebluespinel, gogoratchet, haremstress, lily_fayline, minviendha, misstopia, nobodymove, pinkpolarity, reynardine, truebornstark.

Questions from hamsterwoman:

1) What is your favorite gemstone to wear and/or in general? (Precious or semiprecious, it's all good!)
Blue topaz. It's pretty, not ridiculously expensive, and looks lovely with silver-coloured metals.

2) An uber-versatile genie offers to prepare you a meal of your choice. What do you ask for?
Lol, I'm probably overwhelmed by the choices and can't decide, and eventually the genie gets sick of waiting and vanishes. Definitely some kind of amazing chocolatey dessert, and probably something involving seafood for the main. Or some kind of magical genie degustation menu, so I can have a little bit of lots of things?

3) You also get to ask for an endless, always readily available supply of... something. What do you ask for?
Money seems like such a boring answer, but man would it make my life easier. If not that, maybe an endless supply of yarn and other crafting supplies. Ooh, yes! *covets*

4) You're endowing a museum and get to be as eclectic/eccentric or as mainstream as you want about what to display there. What are you going to exhibit?
Pre-shuttle spaceflight stuff, especially the Apollo missions. It's something that absolutely fascinates me, that with 60s levels of technology we managed to send people to the moon. Growing up in my generation, walking on the moon was just a thing that we could do, and it's difficult to imagine what it was like when we didn't even know if it was possible and we just decided to do it. And all the different stuff people had to think of when designing the ships and the missions, and the guys who went even though they didn't know if they'd survive or not, and... yeah, I'd make that exhibit and then go there every week :)

5) What is your favorite item of clothing, past or present? (Favoriteness can be determined by comfort, sentimental value, etc.)
I don't have a specific favourite item of clothing, but in general I like jeans and t-shirts. Comfort > style, unless my family is around to tell me off for looking scruffy XD

6) You get to travel for (up to) a year, all expenses paid, with your choice of companions or alone. How do you spend this time?
London, with random trips around Britain and Europe every so often. I spent a week in London a few years ago, and it was nowhere near long enough. Plus, I don't really enjoy the 'travelling' part of travelling, so staying in one place that already has pretty much everything I could possibly want would be a great plan.

7) Who is your favorite dragon from literature, movies, mythology, etc.?
I still love the dragons from Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. I think it's something to do with a combination of being ~chosen and ~special, and having someone who loves you no matter what (and also can fly and breathe fire). Also, they were some of the first dragons I encountered in grown up books, so there'll always be a soft spot in my heart for them. I was never quite sure which colour dragon you were supposed to get if you weren't interested in sex at all, but I like to think things would have worked out somehow.

8) What was the most useful and/or the most useless class you took in school?
I loved school! I don't know if any of my classes were very useful though... Japanese, I guess, since I lived in Japan for a while later on, and even my limited recollections of the language were pretty helpful. French would be useful if I ever went to France. The science/maths side of things was what I ended up doing, so those classes probably gave me a good grounding in how to be sciencey. English was pretty useless, though - I wanted to study grammar and creative writing, and we spent all our time analysing literature. Or occasionally, "literature". I gave up English as soon as I could.

9) Do you have a favorite mug or cup? If so, describe it.
No, but now I kinda feel like I should! In general, I like mugs with thick, solid handles, so I can hold them without feeling like they're going to break. Oh, and quite thick mugs, so the contents don't burn my hands. Apart from that, I'm not too picky.

10) What has been your best customer service experience of the last month? (Or the worst, if that's more fun to talk about.)
Lol, probably the woman I talked to when my internet stopped working, as it does every once in a while. We spent literally an entire afternoon trying to fix it. By the end of it, she kept saying things like, "It's okay to be grumpy if you want to. I don't mind if you yell at me.", and I was all, "No, no, it's not your fault, I know you're trying your best." She was lovely, and she fixed it in the end, so she's basically completely awesome :)

11) What is your favorite type of soda, or, if you don't drink soda, your favorite type of juice?
I'll drink anything that's carbonated! My favourite flavours are apple (there are a couple of companies here that make it and it's yum!) and melon (oh Japan, how I miss you!).

Questions from deeplyunhip:

1. What's your blood type? If you know it, do you think you fit your supposed blood type personality?
Pretty sure it's O+. It's definitely O, which doesn't fit at all with the blood type personality I'm supposed to have. I'm not particularly sociable, definitely not optimistic (unless someone else needs cheering up, in which case I optimism all over the place), and I like to think I'm not overly vain or careless. I'm much more of a Type A or Type AB, or maybe a mixture of both.

2. What's your favorite fairy tale?
I love fairy tales! I think my favourite is Cinderella, because she makes the best of a terrible situation and gets recognised and rewarded for it. It's basically how I think the world should work :)

3. Based on Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, which type of intelligence do you consider to be your strongest? Your weakest?
Stuff I'm good at: Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, Linguistic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence. Stuff I'm terrible at: Interpersonal Intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence. I think the three I'm good at are related: music is a combination of language and maths, and languages tend to have logical rules, at least some of the time. I fail at things involving other people and/or bodily coordination.

4. Who is your most bizarre or unexpected celebrity "crush"?
I don't really have crushes much, although I'm capable of appreciating when people are attractive-looking. The idea of actually meeting celebrities tends to freak me out, and I don't fantasise about people or anything, so I'm not really sure what a crush is apart from that, tbh. In terms of 'celebrities I'd watch in absolutely anything ever', Tim Gunn and Chi McBride are two of my major ones atm.

5. What's your opinion on your first name? (You can share your opinion on it without revealing it if you're one of the paranoid folk. ;)
Lol, I've been pondering this a lot recently, actually. My online name is based on my RL name, but they're not the same (not because I care if you guys know my RL name, but because I feel like I can be more myself if people I know IRL can't find me). I like my RL name alright, but I'm actually starting to think of myself as Kit instead. Like, I go to write my name down for something, and I'm like, 'oh wait, Kit's not my actual name'. Kit is a diminutive of the long form of my RL name, so I may eventually end up using it everywhere; it's really starting to feel more like 'me'. If that even makes sense...

6. What is your favorite song from a musical?
Just one?? *flails* Memory from Cats has always been one of my favourite songs. Although there are so many others that I like... Tbh, I'd struggle to even pick a favourite musical, let alone a favourite song.

7. Do you like driving?
No. I'm capable of driving, more or less, but I've never had much access to a car, so I've never really had any practice. I'm a nervous driver, and not a particularly good one, so I prefer to leave it to someone who knows what they're doing.

8. What's the single best thing you'd read or seen this year thus far (books, movies, or TV)?
I have to say Game of Thrones and A Dance with Dragons, just because there was so much excitement and anticipation around them. And they were both really enjoyable in their own way, and there was also all the discussion and community stuff, new memes, new theories... It's like a multimedia Song of Ice and Fire experience XD

9. What's the kindest or most thoughtful thing you've done for a friend, significant other, or a family member recently?
Helped my sister study for her bio exam. And said nice things to people on the holiday love meme :)

10. What's your favorite way to treat yourself?
Expensive chocolates and a newly-released book I've been waiting for ages to read.

11. What is your favorite game (or favorite few games)? Interpret the word "game" how you will!
I love board games and computer games, and pretty much fail at sports-type games, so... Settlers of Catan was the first really complex board game I ever played, so it will always have a special place in my heart. As for computer games, I kind of love most of them, but maybe the Phoenix Wright games or Knights of the Old Republic. Although I've never played KotOR all the way through as a Dark Sider, because I feel too guilty about being mean to people XD

Lol, looking back over my answers, I totally fail at picking favourites...

Questions for you guys:

1. If you could choose one ability to be naturally gifted at, what would it be?

2. Which do you prefer, scifi or fantasy?

3. What is your earliest childhood memory?

4. Would you want to be one of the first to colonise and explore another planet, even if it meant that you could never return to Earth?

5. What is your favourite flavour of pie?

6. Who is one of your greatest heroes and why?

7. Assuming you could only be one, would you rather be rich or famous?

8. If you could choose to have been born in any decade ever, would you choose to change, and if so, to when?

9. Which one supernatural phenomenon or creature do you wish was real?

10. What's a fictional trope/plotline/character type that is guaranteed to capture your interest?

11. If you lived in a world requiring some sort of fighting prowess, assuming any level of technology that you want, what would be your weapon of choice?

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