The last bastion of sanity

temaris @ 2014-12-27T01:28:00

2014-12-27T01:32:00Z

Still here, which is nice :)

Starting to miss posting long form somewhere, I don't quite know how long that'll last though...

Real reason to post though, is that I'm hosting a slashbash on 3 January, 2pm till whenever you flee the premises, or the last train.

Let me know if you're coming. My plans at the moment involve christmas cake and sausage rolls and Guardians of the Galaxy. Suggestions for other stuff accepted :)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Day 4: Be careful what you wish for...

2014-01-31T14:22:01Z

The4ts requested: name something you have purchased / acquired but wish you had never, ever set eyes on (and why) and one thing you secretly covet.

1.) Name something you purchased/acquired but wish you'd never ever set your eyes on (and why)

Hmm. See, thing one, is a little tricky as the person in question may yet be lurking reading. Still, we can't live our lives without a little risk :)

Which sort of cuts to the heart of the story, but I digress.

So. I was at a convention, probably a Trek con, though it might have been a Buffy or Highlander con. It was definitely after the start of Angel: the series, for reasons that will become apparent.

I was wandering around the dealers' room with a friend, let's call her Caspian, and I spotted something on a table. It was a wooden box with a pyrographic angel drawn on the front in the style of the Angel business cards, and inside was a black goblet, a black rose, a small vial of 'holy water' and a wooden stake, all neatly organised on dark purple fabric. It immediately struck me as the perfect birthday present for Caspian, who was into Angel like nothing else at that time. I glanced around: Caspian and her boyfriend had wandered away down the aisle of dealers, so I had a moment to get a quick look inside, yes, definitely good, I glanced up again to see if I could buy it discreetly, but Caspian was coming back so I hastily made as though I was looking at something else.

She spotted the box, and commented on how awesome it was, and I agreed is a kind of 'yeah, it's okay, I guess' kind of way, and proposed going to find books.

Nobody is ever surprised when I disappear in search of books, which is tremendously useful sometimes.

Anyway, later that day I went back to the dealer's table to get the Angel box for Caspian's birthday, only to discover that it was gone! It was one of a kind, and I would have to think of something else. Ho hum. I thought of something else, and gave it to Caspian when the time came, and thought no more of it.

Until it got to my birthday.

Which is when Caspian presents me with a large wrapped parcel, and I start tearing it open, and I have this moment of 'oh shit, no!' as I put together the size and shape and the emerging wooden exterior before laughing and saying, 'oh wow, you got me the *Angel box* from the con! That's amazing! They had it and when I went back it had gone!'

'Yes,' she says, grinning happily at my confounded surprise, "I bought it because I saw you looking at it at the dealer's table, you looked like you really wanted it, but wouldn't."

And I laughed, and agreed, if perhaps not for the reasons she thought, and let it go.

I still have my Angel Box; I love it not because I like the box, which isn't really my taste, but because Caspian thought I loved it and got it for me when I wouldn't get it for myself.

Nonetheless, I still sort of wish I'd been caught staring thoughtfully at something else :g:

2.) Something I secretly covet

This is surprisingly tricky. I mean, I'm pretty up front with most of the things I want, and some of the things I secretly covet aren't really for sale, if you know what I mean :g: (though you know, put RDJ on a block and I will liquidate every asset I own). (also: not exactly a secret :g:)

There's things I ought to buy (like a new fridge freezer), and things I'd like to have (a wingback chair, a state of the art htpc) which I don't covet, precisely, so much as am waiting for exactly the right spec to come along, at which time I'll just buy them. I've put a fair amount of effort into not buying things that I'm not going to use, and the more so as time has passed and the space available in my flat has decreased (mmm, boooooks).

The only thing I seriously covet, I think, are some of Alyse's shoes. For those who don't know, she has the most amazing collection of absolutely gorgeous high heeled shoes, including a Marvel comics pair which she lent me once for a Connotations Mostly Tidy Dinner. I have no need or use for them, nowhere I would wear them, but they are beautiful, and I *want*.

(Ask me a question... Dreamwidth | LJ)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Day 3: Fuck me, we did it.

2014-01-24T00:13:00Z

Rhade-rad asked: How about giving your perspective on Connotations? How did you get involved in creating/running the con and what did you learn/gain from the experience?

Oh boy.

We never really meant to do a con. In fact, I think the biggest single thing to understand about Connotations is we were as surprised as anyone that a/ we were doing it, and b/ it actually happened.

I'd taken to cons in a big way once I started going to them in 1996, and between 1997 and 2002 clocked up probably 20 to 30 of the things. I met a hell of a lot of fannish people, both online and off, and we couldn't get enough. In 1999 I went to the last ever Red Rose con -- a slash con run by Lexin and friends, I'd also been to Friscon in the US, and Claire & Seph had been to Connexions. Outside of cons and mailing lists there were slashbashes and houseparties, restaurant clearing outings and other fannish activities.

Claire and I started talking about fannish things, in person, on irc by phone. We collaborated on fic, stayed up till all hours talking, and the two of us had been joking for a long time that we should just organise a con for ourselves. When Red Rose shut its doors we started talking about it a lot more.

We roughed out a lot at one fannish gathering, unpicked the problems and then there was a phone call where we basically said to each other: we're really going to do this, aren't we?

We used a little hotel that Tash and Al had used before for a New Pros con, in Nottingham. The room would take no more than 30 people (we squashed 32 in there in the end :g:), one end of which was occupied largely by a pool table. We weren't allowed to use the pool table.

We posted it on LJ: I made a website, very basic and set up the bank account; Claire dealt with the hotel (It's about engagement with multimedia entertainment, in particular focusing on aspects such as male-male interrelationships, writing and --basically it's gay porn, okay? Okay.). We capped members at 30 people, and then 2 more begged to come along and we figured, ok, fine.

It was awesome. I knew all but about five of the people who came, the ones I didn't quickly became friends too, and we just had the best time. There was serious discussion and ridiculous, the five second rule on chairs (chairs were at a premium :g:), Pirates of the Carribean, and Ms Manna explaining that N*Sync fic was needed in order to make them cooler than they actually were (the video of them dancing in white sparkly jumpsuits was very cinvincing evidence that they were not in fact at all cool).

Claire and Seph and I made it through and at the end, at 2 in the morning, after one final session assigning BSOs to 'woobie' or 'bobblehead' (I remember arguing Jim Ellison could be classified as both), Claire and I kind of sat there and stared at each other. Will Scarlett may have been invoked.

We subsidised the event, we did pretty much everything ourselves, and of course it showed, it was the most Blue Peter of events and we were all in it together, and honestly, I couldn't have been happier.

Deciding to do another one was a no-brainer although finding a new hotel was such a sod that it was only when we literally could not bear the Park any more that we started looking for somewhere new -- though I still treasure the memory of that last weekend at the Park Hotel, just flat lying to everyone's faces for the entire weekend about not having any plans to switch hotels and then announcing the new hotel (Durham Marriott, so much better!!!) at the end of the con.

What did I learn or gain from the experience? In purely technical terms, skills in dealing with hotels, with finances, building and maintaining web domains, communication skills - trial and error isn't a great way to learn by you never ever forget.

Lots of very steep learning curves around serving buffets to large numbers of people :g: (separate out the vegetarian stuff and let the vegetarians through first, so the rest of the buggers don't eat it all before they can). Managing conversations, keeping panels on track, making sure everyone gets to speak, not just the brave but the person who almost puts her hand up and ducks down again, who you're probably going to have to catch the eye of and smile at before she'll say anything.

Best panel redirect ever was Grac's 'Meanwhile, back at the topic', and I've used a variation on that at work :G:

We made it happen. For ten years, between the three of us, assisted by friends and strangers, we made something happen. That was the goal, the aim, the purpose, and we promised ourselves we'd get to ten and see. And we got to ten, and saw, and it was good, but dear god, we'd lived some things during those years. I'd mostly stopped going to cons other than our own.

I met a ton of people with very different life experiences to my own. Made a lot of friends :) Cons are a fabulous experience for meeting and getting to know people, rather than the casual, somewhat disjointed communication that online tends to be.

It made me understand really clearly some of my personal boundaries and the difference between that and YKINMYATOK. The longer it ran, the more I understood about how unrepresentative of fandom we were, but that that was okay too: everyone gets to celebrate their experience in their own ways.

I did wonder over the years whether one day in person meets would fade away, in favour of friend groups and online gatherings, and that may still happen, but there's still room for cons, I think. I hope that the next torchbearer has as much fun as we did.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Day 2: The Lurkers Support me in Email

2014-01-23T22:03:30Z

From the4ts: How did you find fandom (or how did it find you)?

I've been fannish since before I remember: my mother complained that her ante natal classes clashed with Star Trek. We collected the novelisations by James Blish, and then the novels as they were published. My first fanfic was Day of the Triffids, based mostly on the little bits I'd heard from the stairs while my parents were watching it on tv and consequently (lacking LJ or tumblr) containing the very worst symptoms of 'I didn't ever see the show but'-itis.

At high school, around 13 or so, some of us started playing AD&D. About the same time I started babysitting, and regular money in my pocket meant my world expanded very fast. Suddenly, I could buy my own books and magazines and multi-sided dice :)

So I had White Dwarf and Dreamwatch, and later, SFX and Cult TV-- so I guess you might say I found fandom somewhere in there: I read about cons, but never considered going; read but never wrote in. And I didn't get internet until 1994ish, when the second thing I ever looked up was Usenet, and alt.fan.pratchett.

Frankly, it wasn't a great start: I lurked a lot, and watched other people participate. I read everything on the Gossamer archive ... but didn't write. I found slash. Got a job. (Wrote a dissertation on fanfic and copyright :g:) Moved into a flatshare with cable tv -- and Voyager and Highlander. Discovered ASCEM, BLTS and the PKSP; alt.tv.highlander and HighLa-L and Richie-L.

Bought a pc.

Got an AOL account and a pseudonym.

Hello fandom :)

(I still have lots of days free to talk...)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Day 1: Count your blessings

2014-01-18T23:44:03Z

Stageira: What is your happiest memory of fandom?

There are a lot of happy memories. A *lot*. I really don't know if I can rank them. I mean, I could rank some of the worst, but that's not really super on point. Some are things which make me feel warm and fuzzy to look back on, and some which were just awesome at the time, but maybe don't linger.

The thing about fandom... is almost all my friends now are fannish in some way. There are very few who aren't. So when I talk about fandom it's a lot of things, but mostly it's the people who I've become friends with, who I see at parties and slashbashes and online and at cons and events and when they come to London or when I travel abroad.

I'm gonna go with some highlights that make me smile yet. I could go on forever, but I'll try not to :)

Dalek ring toss. Joe Flanigan accidentally peering down Claire's shirt. Michael Rosenbaum protesting 'I'm not short!' after taking his picture with the tallest woman I know, in response to Claire trying to comfort him by saying everyone looks short next to Misha.

Pimping Claire into Teen Wolf by pinpointing her weak spots and presenting her with catnip :) Chris Argent and Peter Hale will never be the same again, and I think that's a good thing :)

Claire and I reciting the whole of Queen's Flash, as a conversation. Katemonkey reciting Common People in the style of William Shatner. Claire performing SGA through the medium of interpretive dance -- and Tiki laughing so hard she can't actually breath, while msmanna beats her head gently on the table,

The moment when Claire walked out of the bathroom at the Norbreck and the shower cut out, and for a split second believed me when I said that it had a motion sensor and was a water saving technology (no, really, the Norbreck's showers were just that shitty).

Telling Joss Whedon that if he wanted a particular song played, Marwen would put it on, he just had to ask. And then watching him light up like a kid and bop around to Abba's Dancing Queen on the most crowded dancefloor I have ever seen.

Sitting with Claire in the queue for Alexis Denisof at 5 in the morning, with the bemused/amused waiters bringing us cups of tea.

Misha & Kay telling me to stay calm, stay calm as the auction crept higher and higher and I was still bidding. And winning it! I bought the single most expensive thing I had ever purchased: a sword autographed by the four horsemen of the apocalypse and Stan Kirsch.

Dressing up and taking over the dance floor at Chron 98. Winning the fricking masquerade at Homeland in 99 and rocking the entire room DESPITE what we were singing :g: -- all down to Tash and Sophie's powers of persuasion, and of course, the glories of Who Do You think You Are (Some Kind of Highlander?)

Getting gift fics that made me smile so much.

The kind of group hug dance thing that accompanied Who Wants to Live Forever. Con dances. Mocking up our own country style dance to Cotton Eye Joe with Seph and nearly killing the dance floor. Doing Prince Charming with the whole gang and completely clearing the dancefloor. Doing the cancan :g:

Oh, oh, doing the Macarena to EVERYTHING. The two favourites: firestarter, and best of all, In the Navy, where we started out on the beat and it was too slow, and I yelled double time! and we DID it, it was way too fast, but we laughed like drains.

Writing the Good Guys/Bad Guys conventions stories, and slow mo-ing Tragedy so Lillith could animate stickfigure gifs for it :)

Running Connotations for ten years. There's a lot of good things there. Too many to enumerate. Slash pictionary. Tash saying 'twincest isn't icky!' and Soph edging away from her. Waves and WAVES of pleasure :g: Gay prawns yay!

Writing and seeing other people enjoying what I wrote :) There's nothing quite like that :)

Going to see plays and films, concerts and gigs; buying McDonalds for Four Star Mary, running the disco at Page's Bar once a month for about five months; visiting people (the immigration guy at LAX who asked me if I was sure it was a good idea to visit people I'd met online; the housemates who nervously told me they'd stay downstairs in case Mandragora turned out to be an axe murderer); learn, educate, make terrible puns and write overwrought poetry and purple prose. Watchinb terrible tv (Dante's Cove!).

Making friends who I could lean on in good times and bad. Al and Claire just turning up driving 600 miles to basically hug me and feed me. Seph & M letting me crash at their place when being alone seemed too awful to contemplate. Mandragora dragging me out to see Mamma Mia, just to make me smile.

I can't give you single happiest memory, because in their own way there are a million happiest memories. And they keep on coming :)

That's probably why I'm still here :)

Still lots of days left to leave me a question...
Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

30 days of rambling

2014-01-15T17:25:57Z

Late, because I have dithered gently about this, and I don't know that I'm going to make it, but I'm really enjoying reading other people's posts, and you know what I think I'd like to try :) But it's already halfway through January, so let's not be silly, it's going to be 30 days of rambling, rather than a calendar month, and may god have mercy on our souls :)

So, if you would like to suggest something for me to talk about on DWth/LJ, on a day between let's say, 17 Jan and 17 Feb, drop me a comment :)

Now with added time line :)

Day:

1: stageira: What is your happiest memory of fandom? LJ | Dreamwidth

2: the4ts: How did you find fandom (or how did it find you)? LJ | Dreamwidth

3: Rhade_rad: How about giving your perspective on Connotations? How did you get involved in creating/running the con and what did you learn/gain from the experience? LJ | Dreamwidth

4: the4ts: name something you have purchased / acquired but wish you had never, ever set eyes on (and why) and one thing you secretly covet.

5: Mandragora: Fandom that means the most to you. And why.

6: Kaynyne: If you could turn one fandom character into a real person to fit in to your life, who would it be and why?

7: Stageira: Apart from the essentials (food, water, oxygen etc) what are the top five things you just can't live without and why?

8: Mandragora: Favourite flamewar (oh go on, you know you want to).

9: Torch: talk about JD :)

10: Graculus: Tell me about a fandom you always thought should be huge and isn't, as well as one that stymies you with how popular it is.

11: Mandragora: Wraithbait editorial tales. Or, oh the pain, the pain...

12: Graculus: Fannish anonymity, yay or nay? Is the pseud a thing of the past or will there always be folks who need plausible deniability?

13: Mandragora: Fandom's given you a lot, I know (me, too!). But do you perceive any downsides in being fannish?

14: Moonlettuce: Comics. It feels like I've been into comics my entire life (okay, so I pretty much have), so I want to ask how it feels coming into a fandom that so diverse and huge and spread over six bazillion universes. Terrifying, daunting and just awesome?

15:

16:...

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

temaris @ 2013-12-11T13:28:00

2013-12-11T13:31:19Z

I appear to have lost my addressbook, and since I forgot to take cards to the twins' do, I am having a bit of a card writing frenzy. Leave me your address and I'll send you one too :)

If you are one of the usual suspects other than Claire, Seph, the twins and Mandragora, please assume I do not have your address and would like it. Because apparently, I don't :( (and I definitely do)

Comments are screened :)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

temaris @ 2013-09-04T09:18:00

2013-09-04T08:19:01Z

I have been reminded by my calendar that I proposed a slashbash on 7 Sep -- short notice now, I know, but shall I go ahead or reschedule?

Edited to say that it will be going ahead, from 2pm, my place, Sept 7. Please bring things to drink and nibbley or desserty stuff -- I will provide some sort of low carbish buffet deal :)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Slashbash

2013-03-28T11:43:00Z

The bash of slashiness (and other fannish behaviours) will commence from 2pm on March 30th at my place.

If you wish to bring stuff, I'm advising savouries or drinks -- I'm going to have three kinds of cake and biscuits and crudities and dips and crisps and pizza and the damn Indian party pack that's been at the bottom of the freezer since I forgot to break it out for the last slashbash. But yes.

Or chocolate. Chocolate is always acceptable.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

There will be cake.

2013-02-22T11:43:27Z

So, Slashbash, March sometime? I've left out Mother's day, because just, no.

You don't have to bring anything except yourself, and there will be ridic amounts of food, especially the weekend of 23/4 March because I'm making my lodger a rainbow cake for her birthday a couple of days before and dear god, that's a lot of cake.

I can put a few people up overnight on cushions and sofas and such, and for that matter there's a Premiere Inn 2 minutes up the road if that's all too much :g:

Slashbash: it has been pointed out to me that 1 April is Easter Monday, and might be an option -- let me know in comments if that is of interest!

View Poll: Slashbash

Fic and a recipe

2013-01-02T23:58:25Z

I don't quite know why I'm having a Ronseal moment, but yes. A post that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Two stories this year, one for Yuletide, and one for SGA_Santa.

Fated, or, Two Weddings and a Housewarming, was my Yuletide story, which was basically me writing in the bits Georgette Heyer left out of Friday's Child, where Gil and Ferdy have an ongoing relationship as well as Gil fixing Sherry and Hero's marriage, and getting Wrotham and Isabella in the same place at the right time for him to propose and her to finally accept.

Noise/Signal was my SGA_Santa fic, In which John and Rodney are generously given the gift of glittery telepathy. I'm sorry LJ, I'm providing a primary link to AO3, because Livejournal have apparently completely blocked my home ISP and I really can't be arsed doing all this on my phone. (Secondary link to LJ)

And lastly, through watching the entire box of Grantham Gingers that I took to a New Year's party get nommed ruthlessly, I have decided that the Grantham Ginger recipe needs to be shared. I packaged them up as Christmas presents as well, and they seem to have gone over okay :)

Grantham Gingers
12 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
1 egg
9oz self raising flour
3 teaspoons ginger (or to taste)

Heat oven to 130C (fan ovens) or 150C (non-fan), and line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment/greaseproof paper. Really. You will regret not doing it later when you are chiselling them off the baking sheet.

Beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Mix in egg.
Add ginger, mix in.
Add flour, mix in, until it makes a somewhat crumbly dough.
Divide into walnut sized pieces, and place about 4 or 5 cm apart on the lined baking sheet (they spread.). The easiest way I've found is to roll some of the dough into a sausage about an inch or so thick and chop off generous one inch chunks, and flatten them slightly. The flattening isn't necessary, it just makes me feel better.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until pale gold. Be gentle removing them from the oven, they can and will collapse at this stage if poked. Leave to cool and harden on the trays for 10 minutes and then put on a rack to cool the rest of the way. Try not to eat all of them. Twist them slightly to get them off the parchment. Because you listened to me about using baking parchment, right. Right? Oh dear.

Recipe makes about er, 50. Or so. :D Fewer if you make them bigger, but there is a size at which they collapse in on themselves, and also, they are incredibly sweet, and the slightly more than a cubic inch chunks work out to a 2 to 3 inch biscuit of gorgeous gingery crunchiness.

The recipe also works with lemon or cinnamon, but traditionally they are ginger. The clue is in the name.

The hollow middle is a design feature. If there is no hollow middle you forgot the self raising bit of the self raising flour.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Connotations

2012-09-26T15:14:13Z

Hi all,

We've always said that the original plan, made back in the hazy days when Temaris and Claire were but whippersnappers, was that we were going to do ten Connotations and talk about it.

Well, we're here, at number ten, and we have talked.

This year's Connotations will be the last one.

We have had a fantastic time, and we couldn't have done it without everyone -- it's been a lot of fun, and we are going to miss doing these, but it is time.

So, if you want to have one last Connotations this is your chance. We are dropping registration back down to £50, so come along, and join the party. We'd like to make this the best one yet. (We will refund those who paid after August 1st when the reg increased)

Temaris, Claire and Seph

Dr. Who

2012-09-01T20:01:36Z

off the top of my head,

Five ways to get Oswin back:

1. She didn't die.
Fork 1: transports to dalek ship & reverses, finds or is found by Doctor
Fork 2: transports to dalek ship & becomes an androidlek, finds or is found by Doctor

2. She has or acquires a clone. Cloneworld. The Doctor clones her. The Daleks clone her, someone just randomly sends in the clones

3. time travel! (note: this doesn't end well)

4. Twins!

5. Reverse timelines (nb, see 3. Re Bad Ending)

6. Something I haven't thought of that has Moffat sniggering in his evil armchair of evil.

Personally I like 1.2.

Also: I liked the ep :)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Hotel Booking now open!

2012-05-27T19:54:24Z

You can book online on our dedicated Marriot webpage or by phone. To book online please make sure you use the page from this link, as it will embed the necessary code for your rate.

If you are staying Friday night you will need to book the Dinner, Bed and Breakfast rate of £110.00 single occupancy, £149.00 double occupancy, these can be booked by selecting the DBB Single Double choice. If you require a triple occupancy room at £230.00 DBB you will need to select DBB Triple.

For the Saturday and Sunday Evenings, you will need to book the 24 Hour Rate of £145.00 single occupancy and £215.00 double occupancy, again by selecting 24hr Single Double Occupancy again on the left hand side of this page. If you require a triple occupancy room on the evenings of Saturday and Sunday you will need to ring the hotel directly on 0191 375 3606.

To make your reservations for the DBB rate and the 24hr rate, you will need to make 2 separate reservations, these will be linked directly by the hotel to ensure that you remain in the same bedroom for the full weekend.

We look forward to welcoming you to the hotel in October.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Marvellous

2012-05-27T17:46:55Z

If you read my Twitter account at all, you'll know I fell into Marvel fandom right after Connotations after literally *years* of resisting Claire's blandishments about X-Men.

Yes, go on, Clara, laugh it out. You'll get yours.

it started with Steve/Tony (aka cap/Iron Man, and frankly you could do a lot worse than go Iheck out the Cap_ironman comm, and its amazing post of 101 Cap/Tony moments. Then it became Iron Man. Being the kind of obsessive completist that I am, I got Iron Man. ALL the Iron Man. And all the Avengers. And then it kind of spiralled out of control, and hey, who hasn't woken up dazed, confused, and with a semi-catalogued mountain of genre fiction surrounding them, right?

Claire's still got more comics than me.

Probably.

Right.

How to read comics

1/ Mug Claire or other comic collector of your choice.

2/ Get a subscription with marvel.com (how fast can you read? A month's unlimited sub is about $10- and you can read whatever you want that they've uploaded. which isn't everything, but is a LOT. I have an annual sub and it has come through for me time after time :)

3/ Collect comics.

How to collect comics.

There are three easy ways to collect comics.

1/ Spend a LOT of money. You may think this is the last option, but trust me, sooner or later, you're going to go there. Or maybe that's just me.

2/ Mug Claire or other comic collector of your choice.

3/ Spend a LOT of time on the internet

Of the three, I'm pretty sure not the only one sidling up and saying 'tell me more' about option three, and that's good, because you're in the right place.

Okay, so my journey went something like: ALL THE TONY.

So that was:

Tales of Suspense 39-99
Iron Man Volume 1 1-332 +Annuals
Iron Man Volume 2 1-12 (Onslaught*/Heroes Reborn)
Iron Man Volume 3 1-89 + Annuals
Iron Man Volume 4 1-35 +Annual
Invincible Iron Man Volume 5 1-50, 500- ongoing

That's the main continuity. What you may see refered to as 616 for reasons that I wrote out and then deleted because TRUST ME.

Iron Man, well, you know the origin story, first time out it was Korea, then Vietnam, Afghanistan, and doubtless it will be reinvented again with another war. Rhodey is the Marine pilot who finds him -- Tony tells him to come ask for a job if he ever wants out of the Air force. He has trouble with his heart getting a cutting edge transplant in the 60s, he keeps re-inventing his armor. Pepper is his secretary, Happy his chauffeur who for a long time is the only one in on the secret.

Tony has a surprising amount of enemies as Stark, and the bodyguard story works surprisingly well except when it doesn't. Everyone else only finds out his identity about 300 issues in, which makes some of the conversations between Stark and Cap very very heart-twisty. (We always valued you for your *money*, says Steve, the day he rides off to find himself. Mostly of course, he finds Nazis, and eventually the Falcon, because that's what Cap *does*, but this is Tony's series). This makes for awesome identityporn.

I like the Tales of Suspense stories. but I lost my way a bit with the Volume 1 stuff, the 1970s seminal stories -- Armor Wars, Demon in a Bottle are good but depressing. Then Stark goes mad, courtesy of Kang the Conqueror, the Avengers bring in a teenage Stark from a parallel dimension. The teenage Stark dies his hair blond to distinguish him from the original. It is very confusing. The original Stark dies saving everyone (in Cap's arms, no less) from Kang, and then Onslaught and everyone dies.

Iron Man Volume 2 is annoying as fuck for various reasons, and I will explain about Onslaught/Heroes Reborn at the end, for reasons which are reasony.* Suffice it to say: not dead after all! Surprise!

Volume 3 puts Stark at square one -- he's regained his personal fortune but doesn't try to get back Stark Industries, sold to Fujikawa in his absence. He starts up Stark Solutions, people try to kill him a lot, he buys Stark Tower, his armor gains sentience and first tries to kill him then saves him, he dates Rumiko Fujikawa until she dies at the hands of a fake Iron Man... And then Wanda loses her mind and takes Tony (and the Avengers generally) down with her. It ends with Avengers Disassembled.

Vol 4 is the deconstruction of the world of heroes: you might as well call Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Siege the 'Quis Custodiet Custodes' of Marvel. Or 'How to be fucking stupid'. Once would have MORE than sufficed. But no, we got to do the whole thing repeatedly, only, fun fact for the Tony fan, the final two thirds of Volume 4 could *equally* be entitled: It's all Tony's Fault, or, That Time Steve And Tony Broke The World During Their Divorce Proceedings.

There's also World War Hulk in which Tony fires Hulk into space because 'safer' and Hulk comes back and ISN'T AMUSED. A LOT. SMASH. Which: understandable, but kinda boring.

It comforts me to know that purportedly, Nick Fury was originally supposed to be in Tony's role in Civil War, which explains the whole left field arrival of Tony as a law-abiding fascist, but doesn't really help. Anyway. Civil War, read The Confession if you read nothing else, because, damn, Tony gives some high octane emo-porn.

Volume 5 and Matt Fraction's idea of putting Stark through a CRUCIBLE OF PAIN. I quote. Tony rebuilds la la la, nice and quick, because he has to have something to lose. And successively loses the few things he had left. They're well done, but I ...am not an enthusiast. So you know. Bizarrely, Tony has nothing but catastrophe in his own series but is doing quite well in the main Avengers continuity. Which is confusing.

Quite quickly as you read you realise that Marvel do these things called crossover events. So then I needed ~~some of~~ ALL THE AVENGERS.

This is a lot of Avengers. I'm going to start with the original flavour, and slowly work outwards.

Avengers

The Avengers Volume 1 1-402
The Avengers Volume 2 1-13 (Onslaught*/Heroes Reborn)
The Avengers Volume 3 1-84
The Avengers Volume 4 1- ongoing

The first thing to understand is NONE OF THE VOLUMES LINE UP WITH OTHER SERIES. Except vol. 2.

Volume 1:
Avengers are Avengery. They have more team changes than a team with a lot of team changes.

Loki tries to set his brother on the Hulk, but as well as Thor, Iron Man, Wasp, Ant Man show up. They are named Avengers by Janet van Dyne, the Wasp. They acquire a capsicle and defrost him in issue 4, but the team don't stay together long, quickly acquiring Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye. Stuff happens, and eventually practically everyone with any kind of power, and a few without, are now Avengers. Scarlet Witch marries Vision, an android; Tony has terrible luck with girls, gets a heart transplant & crawls into a bottle; Steve has terrible luck with women and Nazis and continues to be judgey mcjudgerson. Hawkeye wants to be Cap. Ant Man, aka Hank Pym completely fails to address his mental health issues starting with a full blown psychotic break and identity crisis in #13-17. Eventually he hits Janet. No one ever lets him forget it, least of all himself.

Scarlet Witch, or Wanda Maximoff, tops them all by creating twin children from lost souls stolen from Hell (because that's what people with reality altering powers do when they're married to an android); having the souls taken back by Pandemonium/Mephisto and losing her mind & fucking over absolutely everything.

(Later, she turns the whole world into a mutant wish fulfillment world, with America ruled by the House of M.

And when the few who can remember what the old reality was like manage to get to her, she returns it all to normal, with one small exception: 'No more mutants', she says. Is it genocide when they aren't dead? The Decimation reduces the number of mutants from millions to hundreds.)

The Avengers are disassembled. Right up until someone decides to break everyone out of the Raft, a supervillain prison (that's not quite accurate, but you know, spoilers :g:) By an amazing coincidence, a handful of heroes are visiting the Raft. More are able to get there. Cap, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Matt Murdock, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman. This begins Volume 3. Volume 3 is quite a lot of fun until it isn't: Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege.

Volume 4 starts again after the events of Civil War, Siege and Dark Reign. It dives straight into Fear Itself.

West Coast Avengers overlaps with Avengers Vol 1.
Hawkeye gets his own team, Tony crawls back out of a bottle then loses his shit epicly when the designs for his armor are stolen.

New Avengers is what happens when Luke Cage gets to lead his own team of Avengers. Sort of. When you read it you'll understand why that is completely accurate and yet a TOTAL LIE. Civil War is also um, quite important. As are other things to do with Captain America and reasons. Also Doctor Strange becomes an Avenger in about NA 54 which is so cool I nearly tore something wriggling with glee.

Mighty Avengers is the Civil War Avengers squad under the official command of Ms Marvel, and the continual backseat driving of Tony Stark, Director of Shield.

Then there are the Young Avengers who are ADORABLE and not actually all that young. Especial love for Hulkling and Wiccan and Kate aka Hawkeye. Also, just when you thought you didn't have to read them, Children's Crusade happens and you kind of do because otherwise you don't find out what happens to Wanda -- and what happened with house of M.

There are also the Dark Avengers, but really, Dark Reign, let's just draw a line and move on.

Sigh. Okay, so, back to Iron Man, and there's this moment in Civil War when you realise that you're going to have to read Spider-Man, at least, just the relevant issues.

Spider-Man has a lot of issues. There's a fuckton of comics too. (sorry :G:).

The Avengersy ones are principally The Amazing Spider-Man 501-536 (when Civil War). Then he joins the New Avengers, or the rebel Avengers or whatever the hell they call themselves during Dark Reign. Then he joins the Fantastic Four only they're renamed the Future Foundation AND he's still on the Avengers, because hey, who needs sleep, right?

I solidly, no word of a lie, adore the Amazing Spider-Man issues 500 through 530 (and Peter Parker Spider-Man and Marvel Knights Spider-Man which are contemporaneous and sometimes crossed over with this period of joy and happiness in Stark Tower**). I stop before Mr Parker goes to Washington, manfully read the rest, loved American Son, actually enjoyed One Moment in Time, and really, about 547 onwards (i.e. after Civil War & Secret Invasion but before Dark Reign and Siege) love Spider-Man. He has multiple series which frequently crossover. So I have all the Spider-Man.

A list of some of All the Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 1-449, 500-ongoing (latest 685)
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 1-50
Peter Parker Spider-Man (also known as Spider-Man)
Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man
Spectacular Spider-Man
Web of Spider-Man
Sensational Spider-Man
Marvel Knights Spider-Man
Avenging Spider-Man

Those are just the 616 major series. There is more. SKIP THE CLONES.

So, anyway. I still haven't got to Cap! I mean, I read a little Captain America in Tales of Suspense because he and Tony had half a comic each, but there is genuinely a limit to how many evil Nazis of evil I can watch Cap mostly defeat only allow to get away in extended flashbacks.

Then I heard about Winter Soldier, and inhaled the whole of Cap Vol 4 in a weekend. I like Bucky, I like Sam, I'm not sure about Sharon, but that's okay, she's not sure about the rest of us.

And because this is about my journey, I was still readng Spider-Man at this point and it crossed with Daredevil, so there was a small detour into Daredevil and ShadowLand and then ALL THE DAREDEVIL happened. Which gets us to about three weeks ago.

Tales of Suspense 59-99
Captain America Volume 1 100-454
Captain America Volume 2 1-13
Captain America Volume 3 1-50
captain america Volume 4

Volume 5 of Cap. Which becomes Cap & Bucky. And most recently, Cap and Hawkeye.

Start at the beginning, then skip to Vol 3 or four. Read from about 1995 forwards.

If you really want Steve/Tony you can't do better than to check out the Cap_ironman comm, and its amazing post of 101 Cap/Tony moments.

*Onslaught. :sigh:. This is a big crossover event that ends up with Magneto and Xavier merged into this god-like being who destroys everything and everyone, including all the Avengers. They are then reborn into a shiny new world in Volume 2 of Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four. To take a step back, this is when Marvel outsourced writing these four comics. It didn't last long, 12 or 13 issues before they took the control back, and quickly retconned the comics back into mainstream continuity by first jumping the shark big time, then explaining that it's all the fault of a small boy with god-like reality-altering powers who created a pocket universe where none of the heroes he loved were dead. The Celestials are godlike beings who are pleasantly surprised to see someone has reached their level of evolution, but intend junking the alt universe that the kid creates. The kid's Celestial mentor/judge takes on the job of dreaming of that reality so it continues. In the meantime the reborn heroes are re-created in 616 courtesy of the kid, who puts them back the way he remembers them, hence resetting for instance, Stark from being a blond teenager or dead.

**Stark Tower, or Avengers Tower, where everyone lives, except when it's destroyed, except when continuity schmontinuity. Also they all lived in the Avengers Mansion until it was destroyed, and then it got rebuilt, and sold to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones for a dollar (that Danny Rand had to lend them) and then destroyed. Basically, I have no idea why Stark isn't using Reed Richard's self-rebuilding building design.

***Please note, round numbers are very important to Marvel. Which is why they periodically revert to the original renumbering as each comic hit 500. Also to make sure you were paying attention. There are concordances online, and if you are really trying to get your head around a particular run, go find the geekiest page for that character.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Avengers!

2012-05-01T20:28:47Z

I have to admit to being actively offended by the film being called Avengers Assemble in the UK. It's the Avengers, dammit. Fiennes can go get over himself.

Anyway. I have to do this somewhere, and my medium of choice, Twitter, is really not the place to squee about a much anticipated film that's out in Europe a week before North America. Well, not without upsetting a number of already fairly irritated friends :g:

So, that was seriously awesome. Loki's whole schtick was a little confusing, although he has a documented habit of choosing the wrong thing instead of the right thing that he kind of wants to do and his brother is offering on a platter. He was clearly wanting to be captured, so why they weren't a little more cautious about putting him in the Helicarrier I do not know. I really really wanted him to be playing a double game, but he wasn't, which was said. The Chitauri *were*, I think, which is pretty cool :)

Hmm. Lots of good stuff in the opening, I really didn't see the whole Hawkeye plays on Loki's team this time out thing coming, and it was a very neat way around having to (re)introduce Hydra or AIM or Ten Rings or some other outfit :g:

I think Mjolnir hitting the shield was probably the moment I knew I could stop worrying and just enjoy the ride. (Was that Roger Lloyd Pack? I don't think it was, but I did have a faint twitch towards yelling Trigger, is that you?)

Steve was a sanctimonious dick; Tony was a snotty genius (and played very, very bi, I mean the whole chat with Loki was hilarious and bizarrely sexually charged, and very oddly placed, given they were mid-war, effectively at that point. Although it did give him the opportunity to assemble the armour midair with the Mark 7. Hence my next point:) and a total BAMF. Thor and the Hulk were awesome, though I think the Hulk just pipped it at Grand Central Station :g: And of course, there was the whole rag doll incident with Loki which was just shockingly funny, in every sense. Kind of ashamed of laughing, but hey, he's a Frost Giant, and practically indestructible :)

BTW, JARVIS started saying something Tony didn't want to hear? Or didn't want someone else to hear? He just says 'Mute'. I may have grinned to think of all the precious precious fanon crumbling to the ground :) (Dear Fandom who aren't reading the comics: JARVIS is named for Edwin Jarvis, the butler at the Avengers mansion in New York. Which, BTW, FYI is not a MANSE, which is a priest's home.)

Nick Fury was a manipulative jerk, and brilliant. Coulson clearly isn't dead, because duh, and also, he pretty much told Fury what to use his 'death' for, and we never got a touching little reunion at his grave, which seals it for me. not that a grave would have convinced me either.

I really really hope they bring Falcon into Cap2, and do Winter Soldier. That would be beyond awesome. The whole Steve with PTSD was very well done -- not too much, but right there. The moment when he's all 'I got that reference' made me smile, but was really bittersweet.

That bit at the end with the nuke and the flying and the falling? I literally sat there going 'I know they're filming iron man 3, you bastard, do not do this!'. This was right after going 'jesus god Tony, what the fuck do you think you're doing? A nuke!' But it all worked out pretty well for everyone but the Chitauri, so that's okay. Still. Jenny Agutter tried to nuke Manhattan. Man, the girl from the Railway Children grew up *mean*.

Loved Tony's 'Clench up, Legolas' to Clint as he hoisted him to a rooftop. I also loved most of the trailer clips either weren't at all what anyone was thinking, or were reshot entirely. Katemonkey said it, and she's dead right. Joss Whedon is a troll. Epic trolling.

Tasha was amazing. I really really want there to be Black Widow film. Maybe Widow and Hawkeye. That would be glorious beyond the imagining. I just hope WB don't steal Whedon back for Wonder Woman now he's proved he can direct a hit. Also: they better be making Winter Soldier. Soon. I know I said this already, but seriously. Winter Soldier. Stat.

The snark & banter levels were nicely judged I think. And Joss has really nailed the scale problem, keeping ramping it up then slackening off, so's not to leave himself nowhere to go.

RDJ must have spent a hell of a lot of time speaking lines straight into a camera in a darkened room for all the helmet shots.

And lastly: Did I see that right? That was a Skrull? Not Red Skull, a red Skrull? Right? ETA: Cat says Thanos. Now must read up on Thanos :)

(either way)

:runs in very small, very excited circles:

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Happy fictide!

2012-01-08T19:21:20Z

Rather bewilderingly, there was ficcage last year -- and already 2 more in this year, but all in the last twenty or so days. I have no idea what happened to the fannish writing, I've been noodling at some original stuff, but not very whole-heartedly (though that may step up if I don't get my contract renewed, but that's another ball of yarn altogether.) but the fannish writing got the go-by.

This may not last :)

SGA for mdime02:
Omphalos (Originally on LJ)
15 (violence)
Gen. 8728 words.
Teamfic. McKay heads for the hills, while Teyla, John and Ronon negotiate the delicate art of hostage taking.

Dresden Files, for moonlettuce
Winter Wonderland
Harry/Thomas Raith
18. 1224 words.
Cliche!fic! Thomas steals alllll the blankets. Harry is cold. Cliches ensue! Also sex :)

Alice (Syfy 2009), for alyse (which I keep wanting write as Füaut;r Elise, which is Quite Different Entirely).
In Wonderland
Alice/Hatter
Gen. 1464 words.
Joy happens when you least expect it, sneaking in the corners and charming you without knowing. Alice and Hatter find a happily ever after.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Alyse made me do it!

2011-12-17T17:56:19Z

She twisted my arm, and now I have a fannish stocking, over at fandom_stocking :)

Temaris' Stocking

It's a hard life :) *bookmarks all the stockings*

PS: If you aren't Alyse, Claire, Beren, Thwax, Leyenn, and have a stocking you think I should know about (or notice a stocking you think I should know about) drop me a comment :)

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Connotations!

2011-10-06T08:29:44Z

So, I'd update on Livejournal, only LJ appears to be deded.

If you need to get hold of myself or Claire (moonlettuce), drop a comment here, or email me at temaris at gmail, we don't have the connotations emails set up.

Seph & I are in Newcastle, I've made a quick run this morning for petrol and benadryl (cats!omg), we have cake, candy, ginger beer, and more candy :) Next we repack the car, and head to Durham.

*peers out window* and we have achieved a window cleaner. Apparently. That could make getting to the car interesting for a bit.

In other news I have the new Georgette Heyer (by Jennifer Kloester) biography and am trying to ration reading it :) I am trying not to have high expectations to aviod disappointment.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Pinboard

2011-09-30T22:22:39Z

Fandom seems to have decided that it's more than a one night stand. The owner is actively working on bundles, hierarchical tags and a ton of other things that can be found in the Google spec doc that he suggested but thought would end up as some vast sprawling 300 way LJ discussion :g:

It does cost money. There are discussions in the spec doc about donation accounts, have a looksee. It's not all singing all dancing, and Delicious are getting functionality up again pretty fast. On the other hand Pinboard haven't screwed anyone over, aren't pretending we don't exist, and the developer/owner is working with us.

Even if you don't want Pinboard, I'd say the owner's a keeper :g:

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Not delicious at all.

2011-09-27T11:20:37Z

So Delicious are relaunching with a site that looks a lot prettier, but minus a bunch of the functionality. No more tag bundles. No more ability to view 50 or 100 links at a time, now it's just save, search, stack.

The stacks presumably are the replacement for tag bundles - but they've not migrated those bundles (I had a *lot*), and they've just dumped all that categorising and organising without a word. Pairing tags -- run as CharA/CharB -- no longer function as active links. That's just killed the utility of all my pairings links right there.

If you were subscribed to tags through rss? that's broken too. If you were using delicious glue or similar to populate pages for recs etc I'd go check whether that's still working, because it seems unlikely.

I'm glad I exported all my links to Diigo. I guess I'll be using that in the future.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

temaris @ 2011-09-18T21:27:00

2011-09-18T20:43:14Z

So, where are we?

Connotations is coming up fast -- done the zine, sorting the prizes and raffle, we're getting there :)

There's going to be a bookmooch - bring your unwanted books, pick up books you want.

Work's been crazy, and I've just acquired a lodger -- we'll see how that goes.

Still working on the family history The naval gazing is the actual orders of my, er 5th? grandfather (g-g-g-g-g grandfather) where he is ordered to proceed from HMS Defence to Acting Warrant Officer Carpenter on HMS Cerberus in dry dock at Sheerness, and later, the repatriation orders cut by the commodore of the St Helena Squadron.

Then there's discovering my g grandfather (on my Dad's side) died of 'A fracture of the rib phthusis' which means he had TB, and died of complications of a broken rib caused by the same. He was 38 and a boilermaker for the railway. I'm waiting for the death cert of his baby daughter who died the same year (1902), mostly so I can see if she died of TB too or just one fo the many childhood ailments that we now innoculate against. There was also a smallpox outbreak around that time.

And then there's the great-great uncle who appears to have married his own niece.

Family history, eh?

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Signal boost

2011-07-13T22:41:23Z

If you have ever managed to locate a download of something you wanted via Google or wherever, and shared it, publicly, with your friends (because you were so excited, it was sooo greattt you'd found it right, and it's on the net, right, and that means it's like without consequences for you, right? Wrong.) this is for you:

Don't share other people's download links in public.

It's stupid, it will end badly, and most likely you will poison the well for yourself and others.

Just don't.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

Just les mots

2011-07-07T21:18:41Z

Consider, my friends, the humble brief. I'm thinking of the kind that goes into briefcases and briefing sessions, but as you please, it works for knickers too. In fact, with knickers, it's easier to spot where it all goes wrong.

When one has information to share, let us call it a mission report, or a crime report, or indeed, a brief, one briefs other people. You, the person briefing others, are debriefed in the process. You no longer have your briefs. Pause on that for a moment and allow it to illustrate your endeavours in future.

Thus: John briefs Elizabeth on the ongoing alien cantaloupe situation. Elizabeth debriefs John (gaining his knowledge and information and his brief) on the ongoing cantaloupe sitch... that was an unexpected foray into het, but you take my point. Or possibly John takes Elizabeth's.

The structure is as though one has a physical brief to hand over. I brief you, I have passed on my brief, I am debriefed, I am brief-free. You debrief me, you are briefed, you are indeed wearing the pants.

...

While I have your attention can I point out adverse and averse? Just a thought. One is for weather and roads, the other is for not liking something or being reluctant to doing or participating in something.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.

FYI: SEO blogger buys up LOTR, Twilight fanfic archives...

2011-07-03T20:48:05Z

This has spread like wildfire, but just in case, there's more info at Elestial's LJ in this linked post; OTW have also blogged about it.

Key quote from Keith Manders, the SEO blogger who's bought both:

Déjà vu? LOTRFanFiction.com is a fan fiction archive, just like TwilightArchives.com (another site I snapped up a couple of months ago).

The thinking is that I can leverage the technology behind the Twilight site’s redesign to quickly rejuvenate the LOTR site. Plus, plenty of opportunities for cross promotion and integration (SSO, for example). The longer term thought is that with the combined user base, I’ll be able to quickly enter and dominate new fandoms, hopefully creating some returns.

Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with comments.