A Journal

lori_leaf — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 02:54:21 GMT

I suck so much. I haven't updated in ages and people have commented on fic like MONTHS ago and I never responded. Sorry gang. I'm still alive and still poking around the internet. Just not as much on LJ anymore, although I still love LJ. I'll never get rid of this journal, but I keep getting distracted with other shiny things. If you commented on a fic like SEVEN MONTHS AGO. Thank you. I really appreciate the comment. Sorry I fail at responding.

lori_leaf — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:13:41 GMT

I'm still alive. :)

lori_leaf — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:08:46 GMT

Someday I'll have something more exciting to write than the "I'm still alive" posts every few months, but for the moment... um, I'm still alive.

lori_leaf — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:23:44 GMT

Still alive!

Despite my best efforts, I've gotten utterly hooked on White Collar. All I need is another fandom, but it's so addicting!

Sadly Supernatural has been really disappointing me this season. I'm still in it for the long haul, but I no longer race to my tv to watch it live. Now it sits on my DVR until I get around to watching it.

I'm hopelessly behind on my flist so forgive me if you posted something amazing and I didn't comment on it. I've been living an internet-lite kinda life and when I finally got on LJ I couldn't hit "back 20" enough times to catch up.

lori_leaf — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 12:26:18 GMT

I keep getting Russian spam botted. Such fun!

Life continues to be insanely busy which is why I'm so quiet. I used to be able to at least lurk, but now even that has become a luxery I can't afford. The good news is being busy is GREAT. Because I freelance, any time I can work steadily is awesome. Other months will be super slow and I'll be living off of what I make now.

Aparently Supernatural is coming back next week. Is it weird that I'm not that excited? I heard it was coming back and my first reaction was "so soon?" But I think that's because I was sucked into summer programming (White Collar, I blame you.) and I was looking forward to a couple of weeks with no new tv so I could go through my backlogged dvr and catch up.

Hopefully the new season will be awesome even without Kripke. You can do it Supernatural! Be awesome!

How have you guys been?

lori_leaf — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:44:07 GMT

Dear World,

Who turned the heat on? Now I know that I spent all winter bitching and moaning and saying how I miss the sun but I changed my mind, it's too hot to function.

I take cold showers. COLD SHOWERS. Seriously, that's how hot it is.

How's the world treating you?

Criminal Minds

lori_leaf — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:07:29 GMT

I'm starting to see why there's so much porn written for Criminal Minds. I was watching an episode today where the bad guy orders Reid to sit on the ground and he IMMEDIATELY kneels with absolutely no hesitation. Then Rossi (I think it's Rossi anyway. There's a couple characters that disappeared over various seasons and were replaced by clones and I can't tell who is who.) is told to sit in a chair and he confidently sits there with Reid kneeling at his feet CRYING. I mean it read like an over-zealous bdsm fic! Rossi even played the part of the casually cruel lover (okay technically "boss") to befriend the villain. There was all sorts of crying and kicking and eventual shooting of bad guys. Then later appologies about hurting Reid and Reid insisting that it's nothing, he's used to it. (Granted he's used to it because he got the crap beaten out of him as a child progedy in a public high school but STILL!)

Then another episode has hot-ass Morgan threatening to spank Garcia and Reid insisting he's all talk, so Morgan smacks the back of his head to indicate he is indeed NOT all talk.

*flail!*

Seriously people, I understand the porn now!

Don't worry I still mostly enjoy my porn in the Dark Angel or Supernatural varieties, but I'm starting to branch out into White Collar and Criminal Minds. New shiny fandoms! I'm not abandoning Supernatural, but I am making new friends as it's on hiatus.

White Collar is back on air July 13th! Check it out!

If I was a dwarf right now, my name would be Sneezy

lori_leaf — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:23:59 GMT

I have a cold. It's not a BAD cold... just an annoying cold. I'm that person who sneezes loudly on the subway as everyone looks on in horror. Don't worry though, I sneeze violently into my elbow instead of SOME people who like to spray the whole subway with their sicky germs. I'm also fun and mucussy. Who doesn't love a girl who has stock in kleenox? I'm so sexy right now. And my throat is just sore enough to be irritating. It doesn't HURT and it doesn't give me a sexy diva voice... it's just enough of a scratch so I NOTICE it.

All in all, it could be a lot worse. I'm sick enough to be mildly irritated, but not sick enough to take any time off.

In other news, my apartment is currently an honorary hotel. In the past month there have been exactly ten days when someone has NOT been sleeping in our living room. My little introverted self is ready to burst. I need living room back! I need to be able to wake up in the morning and not tip-toe around sleeping people! I need to be able to go to sleep at night and not have to remind guests and roommates that I have to be up at 4am, so quiet is appreciated.

Sorry I've been silent on the flist front. I have been reading! It's just been quick reading before crashing into bed. I still love you all. I'm just loving you all quietly.

And thus concludes my monthly "I'm not dead yet" post. Yay!

lori_leaf — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:50:42 GMT

Dear hormones, shut up. These irrational feelings are simply due to a hormonal uprising and I'm logically aware of that, but I do not like it! Commercials shouldn't make me cry and I shouldn't get unproportionally irritated when people get too full of themselves on the internet. It's the internet. Of COURSE there are gonna be stupid people.

In other news, I'm still alive. Yay!

In other, OTHER news, SciFi is currently having a marathon of "The Sentinel." People, this was my first slashy fandom. Before "The Sentinel" I had a love of "Les Miserables" (more novel than musical, but I was a fan of both) and I knew I loved how the students were all like "brothers" and how Grantaire really admired Enjolras but it didn't click that "hey, gay sex would totally be appropriate here!"

So far I've rewatched part of one episode and I'm apalled by the badness. Surely it wasn't all that bad? I have fond memories of this show. ...or maybe I'm just thinking of the fanfic.

Anyone else re-discover an early fandom only to find that the show is BAAAAAD? I can't be the only one!

lori_leaf — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:41:53 GMT

Valentines Day. I'm not usually Mopey McMoperson and it's not like I sat around the house all day going "poor single me." Today was a lame day for me though. I feel this huge urge to clean my apartment ala Mommy Dearest. I'm talking about hands and knees, scrubbing out the tub and informing my roommates that I'm not angry at THEM, I'm angry at all the dirty dishes they leave in the sink and the fact that the living room smells gross because one roommate is like Linus with her comforter that doesn't have a duvet cover and she never washes it and it's GROSS AND SMELLY and why god, why is it in the living room?!

Ah hem.

But instead I'm hiding in my room trying to avoid the stinkiness that's waffing under my door and trying to block out the sounds of the romantic comedy they're watching all so I can go to bed early.

I hope you all had a lovely day. I enjoyed the opportunity to catch up on my flist even if it was because I was hiding from the smelliness of the rest of the apartment.

Leverage 2.13

lori_leaf — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:22:52 GMT

We only get fifteen episodes this season? That seems short. It probably feels short because we had a hiatus.

I'm sort of sad that this is the episode my roommate decided to watch for the first time. I kept trying to explain that this is usually my Fun Train show. I don't really like it when the show gets too serious. This show is my escape from my week. I WANT it to be silly. The fake psychic was unexpectedly upsetting. I REALLY hate people taking advantage of mourning people and it made my skin crawl to watch OUR guys do it, even though it was for an overall con. It made me not like anyone too much and I usually LOVE our guys. I basically just couldn't enjoy the episode because I hate watching people in emotional pain and the whole episode was about exploiting people's emotional pain. Usually we get a clip of a victim in the beginning and then the rest of the ep is fun stuff where we get revenge. The ending really wasn't satisfying because all of those people were still in pain and now they're in pain AND they feel like idiots... broke idiots. This just wasn't a fun ep for me.

lori_leaf — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:00:09 GMT

It's now time for my obliquatory "I'm alive!" post.

The new year is... well not so fabulous at the moment. I'm working my ass off to pay bills and I got ripped off awhile ago and I'm still paying for THAT, so basically this is my monthly post to go "hi! I love you guys! I'm alive! I'm still not writing." Sorry.

I am pleased that I have a dvr at the moment though and there are lots of awesome tv shows on. I'm watching Castle, White Collar, Leverage, Supernatural, Fringe, and Bones. I've never watched this much tv at once. It's only because of dvrs and hulu that I can actually watch all this. I don't know if I'll be able to continue to watch them all as things get busier. But I do love my shows. :)

lori_leaf — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:22:42 GMT

I got snowflake cookies! Thank you anonomous and deadbeat_nymph! I never get LJ gifts so it was a great surprise today. I've seen a lot of flisters with these cookies too. What provoked the outpouring of cookie love? I adore it!

We had our first snow yesterday! Techncially it was snow and rain all at the same time, but it was my first snowfall in a place that I now live. I've visited places that snow before, but never lived there.

Life continues to be crazy but good. It's still a lot of chaos. I'm sort of missing having a routine. Sorry I've been so quiet lately. I'll try to update more frequently!

lori_leaf — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:26:12 GMT

Anyone ever get the impulse to randomly break out into dance on the subway? Every once in awhile while I have my ipod in and everyone is so obviously bored I want to jump up and recreate a Gap commercial. In my head this is awesome. In actuality it would proably get me arrested.

In other news it's 11:30pm and I'm WIDE AWAKE! I don't even know! I woke up at 6am to do a catering gig and I've been running around all day and then I came home, ate dinner, watched So You Think You Can Dance and now I'm AWAKE. It's like someone slipped me a coffee or something.

It's sort of hard to fall into a sleeping schedule at the moment since I have no stability. I've been able to find some work but it's always last minute type stuff where I never know if I'm gonna get called in at 2pm or if I have to wake up at 4:30am to get somewhere by 6am. Weirdness.

Someone also recorded a podcast of atimi's Hell's Antiques Are NOT Sex Toys. I've never listened to a podcast before. I don't really like books-on-tape because I so clearly hear the characters voices in my head. This podcasting thing is apparently very popular though! I can see why! It'd be very convienant on the subway to fill the time. It is sort of surreal though since I'm an actor and I'm used to saying other people's words so it's startling to hear someone else reading MY words. It's wacky! Anyway if you'd like to download the podcast and give her lots of awesome feedback, it can be found here.

lori_leaf — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:38:25 GMT

Guess who has a fun new virus on their desktop? It's me! It's me!

Yep. I got infected by a trojan. I blame FF.net. I was happily googling h/c fic on delicious which was sending me to FF.net and then DEATH happened and now my poor computer needs comfort. *pets* Luckily I have a really cheap, tiny net book so I'm not utterly cut off from the net, just MOSTLY cut off from the net.

In other news, the job I applied for didn't work out. I said "I have no experience waitressing," I worked a shift for no pay, and then she was SURPRISED I had no experience waitressing and decided she wanted people with more experience. Um. I told you that when you interviewed me. You're not allowed to be surprised later. You should be impressed that I handled a very intense shift (even by her standards) and ONLY screwed up a few times. Oh well.

I do have some other possible work things lined up. Worst case senario I'll do a temp agency. I just really don't want to get stuck doing office work. I've done office work. It's a little soul sucking.

And that's my life for the past few months. Lots of craziness, work-finding, computer breaking, and fun moving... again. Oh stability, how I miss you.

lori_leaf — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:39:59 GMT

*facepalm* My British friends, people from Texas absolutely, positively do not call their mother's "mum." They call their mom's "mom, momma, mama" or "ma." Never, ever "mum." I started reading an absolutely FABULOUS story the other day that was just wonderful... except Jensen kept saying "mum" and it drives me crazy. It takes me out of the story and I have to turn on my inner American spell-checker and I start reading things to myself with weird emphasises as I mentally fix things. "Jensen called his MOM before bed." "His MOM wore a pink dress." "Jensen missed his MOM." Blah.

I actually stopped reading a fic with a great summary because the second sentence was already full of "mums" and I just couldn't do it.

It's such a tiny thing! One little letter! Please, please, fix that. I bet you'd be irritated if Harry Potter missed his MOM. It's just jarring...

And that concludes my utterly random judgemental post of the day.

lori_leaf — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:22:00 GMT

Apple cider is DELICIOUS. Especially when you have one of those trendy freezable cups that makes the alcohol extra cold. I had two tonight. I'm delightfully toasty. I wish I had discovered apple cider earlier. I think my European drinking experiance would have been a lot more enjoyable if I asked for more cider and less yucky beer.

SPN 5.02 has allowed me to forgive Supernatural for 5.01. I wasn't a fan of 5.01, but 5.02 was great.

M&Ms are also great. I thought you should know.

And despite rumours to the contrary, I still exist. Real life just continues to be busy. I promise, I will write again someday... just not today. Today was for drinking and ignoring work that needs to get done before tomorrow.

lori_leaf — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:19:13 GMT

Maybe I'm just tired or something because I was seriously underwhelmed by both the Leverage season finale and the Supernatural season premiere. I WANT to be squeeing with everyone else but instead I'm just sort of disappointed. Where's my fun train? I want to get on!

ETA: There are spoilers for the Leverage finale and Supernatural premiere in the comments.

Leverage 2.07

lori_leaf — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:24:29 GMT

Hi Fun Train! Whoo whoo! What a fun episode! I love all the team bickering and match ups. It's sort of like Spy vs. Spy. I was originally irritated as hell that the fighter chick's shirt got ripped off and she got all wet. I yelled at the scream "okay if you're going to be cheesy like that, ELIOT needs to be wet and shirtless!" And then he sort of was... so all is forgiven.

I'm waiting for the internet to explode with kinky hitter fic between Eliot and the woman... who's name I never caught. What was her name?

The dialogue at the end was cheese-tastic as usual. I really don't love the cheesy cheesy endings. But whatever, they've got to have a button somehow.

My only huge complaint is they buried CATHERINE and then the gravestone says SOPHIE! Um, didn't we make a big deal out of Eliot NOT calling her Sophie at the funeral? Isn't it a big deal that CATHERINE died? The gravestone put a slight halt to my fun train experience, but whatever... I got wet Eliot so the show is forgiven.

lori_leaf — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:48:57 GMT

I really wish authors would ask around before writing a detailed story about a specialized skill. Nothing is more painful then reading about something you're trained in... wrong. If an author is going to talk about the groups of muscles used in a certain physical activity, just ask someone who DOES that activity what muscles it uses. If you've decided to write about a deaf character, please for the love of god either don't meticulously describe the signing, or do some research! Deaf people don't sign in exact English so if you're describing a deaf character using the sign "is", that tells me that you've found a sign language dictionary online but you haven't done any research beyond that. ASL has a completely different set of grammar rules than English. And if you're going to write a story about aspiring actors getting formal training in acting (and I'm not talking about high school drama, I'm talking about college level training and above) then do some research. Acting is a whole heck of a lot more than memorizing lines.

Oh and Americans don't call their mother's "mum."

Why yes, I AM catching up on some Big Bangs. Most of them I adore and some of them I have to stop reading because the story is great but the details are all wrong and the author has decided to describe things in detail that they did no research on. *facepalm*

Oh and there's a deaf Big Bang fic and that's not the one I'm refering to. That author actually did a good job with the language. I've just read so MANY bad ASL fics... I just can't resist a mute Dean. It's a cliche I'm hooked on. I'll also read de-aged Dean in a heartbeat. Oh cliches, why do I love you so?

On a different note, I'm only working full-time now guys! After months of working 13 or 14 hour days, I'm only working 8 hour days. It's not quite enough of a break to inspire writing but it is enough of a break that I'm reading fic again and feeling much better. *g* I also have weekends again! YAY!

lori_leaf — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:03:52 GMT

I feel like a little engine chug, chug, chugging along. Someday I'll get an actual break. I've discovered the only way to consistantly work fourteen hour days is to simply take one task at a time and not worry about anything else. Just break down enormous obstacles into small little tasks. I appologize to the flist for not reading/commenting on fic lately and basically being awol. I'm also sorry for not writing anything original in the past few months. Unfortunately when working so many hours, it's impossible for me to sum up the energy to think of plots let alone WRITE anything.

The good news is that things are winding down a little and maybe in a month or so I'll have a two week break... maybe. That'd be awesome if I can pull it off. *g* I just wanted to let you guys know I still exist! I haven't fallen off the face of the planet or anything. *g*

lori_leaf — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:13:10 GMT

So am I the only one on the planet who watched the last two episodes and thought "obviously Eliot was an abused child and the writers are laying it on a little thick"? Really? I thought I'd come online and the internet would be bursting wtih commentary about Eliot's tragic childhood but I haven't seen anything! Is my subtext button broken? Because that last little forlorn look Eliot gave the kid screamed of "why didn't anyone save MEEEEEE?!"

Anyway, apparently I'm the only one on the planet who thinks Eliot's daddy beat him and made him a sad little baby-criminal.

lori_leaf — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:13:38 GMT

Original characters occationally make me sad. Anytime I read a synopsis for a story and it features "Alec and his girlfriend Kelsey (an OC)" or "in this story Sam and Dean have a little sister named Emily! (Original character)" it makes me REALLY not want to read the story. I've definitely seen stories that look like they'd be right up my alley too... except for that darn original character. Sometimes I'll read the story just in case the original character ISN'T a Mary Sue... and then they ARE a Mary Sue, every freakin' time. They also tend to feature as heavily as the canon characters. *facepalm*

Of course sometimes there are FANTASTIC original characters. I can't find a link to some examples off the top of my head because I forget the titles and the authors. There was a great story with Dean and a girl named Lou who was textured and interesting and flawed and the story was still all about Dean. Another great story is a wip (I think) and it's Dean injured and Sam finding a connection with the nurse who is also flawed and interesting. I think rogue_clasique has a fic in her Drive 'verse with Dean and a hippy that was also great. Unfortunately for every amazing OC out there, there are fifteen billion Mary Sues and it makes me so afraid to read anything with the dreaded word "OC" in it. At least "OC" in the context of "Dean's little sister!" or "Dean's new girlfriend!"

In other news, I'm still alive. Just very, very busy.

lori_leaf — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:45:10 GMT

Okay so I WAS working 13 hour days but now I wake up at 7:30. I'm at my first job by 9am. I work there til 6 when I immediately run to the theatre and begin pre-rehearsal rehearsals (basically all the "oh crap that sucked. Can we run that again before rehearsal tomorrow?" stuff). I get home at 11pm. I'm in bed, hopefully by midnight but it's more like 12:30 or 1am. Yeah... that's a 14 hour work day with hardly any breaks... um, apparently that extra hour makes all the difference in the world because I was feeling tired but okay and now I'm just freakin' tired. I need a day off! My next day off is Aug 22nd. AUGUST TWENTY SECOND. *le sigh* Okay fine. I can tighten boot straps til then.

Um, fic... I don't have time to READ fic right now, so I appologize in advance. The earliest you'll get any fic from me is August 22nd. And I'm sorry if you're posted something. I'm saving all the links to read at a later date. With this schedule I'm lucky if I can read one short thing a night so I'm sorry my flisters. I'm excited about all the fic you've posted. I'll read it in two months.

lori_leaf — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:13:58 GMT

You know what's currently confusing me? The phrase "non-AU RPS." Um, it's real person slash... it is, by nature, alternate universe. Unless you are Jared or Jensen and you're writing your autobiography of your crazy love affair with your co-star... this is AU.

I also continue to amaze myself with how stupid I am over positions. I just don't like reading bottom!Sam or bottom!Jared. I keep seeing these epic stories with senarios I'd LOVE except that the positions are "wrong." (Yes they're not really wrong, they're just not what I prefer.) I find I can't enjoy those stories because my brain gets caught up in the tiniest stupidiest detail over who bottoms. WTF brain? The logic of my brain is Jared tops Jensen, Jeff tops everyone, Jensen might occationally switch, but he prefers bottoming... not because he's secretly a big girl but because he LIKES IT dammit. When the characters don't fit into those parameters I start to enjoy the story less... even if it's an awesome story. I don't get it.

In other news life continues to be insanely busy and I'm tired (and possibly cranky), so there won't be any new Fox 'verse for awhile. There just aren't enough hours in the day that aren't filled up by sleep or work. Sorry!