Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk?

So, Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates and Happy Holidays to everyone else who celebrates something different.

Yuletide happened, and I managed to finish my story on time, phew! But THEN, I was innocently checking my own story, and GUESS WHAT. I GOT TWO. Yes, that's right, TWO lovely people wrote me stories, and one of them wasn't even signed up for Yuletide this year they just wanted to make sure I had an awesome time. HOW CRAZY IS THAT. They clearly deserve the Person of the Year Award because I have had an AMAZING first time with Yuletide and I think it's safe to say I will be doing it again.

So, to both my authors, if you happen to see this: I owe you. Big time. You guys are seriously the best. THANK YOU AGAIN.

And for everyone else, here are linksies to my stories! I apologize for that horrendous rhyme and the gratuitous use of capslock for this entire entry.

Cold Making Warmth
Steve settles upon the few things he knows for sure: that the days are short, and it's cold, and he doesn't mind looking dumb for making the effort. So screw the protocol, whether it exists or not – he's giving gifts.

Late Delivery
When Tony was little, he once wrote a letter to Santa begging for the one thing he wanted most in the world. What Tony didn't know is that Santa always delivers... eventually.

So I just read Siriaeve's new story, These Three Things Remain and one line from it in particular really struck me. Steve is talking about hoping that Peggy will still be alive in 2011, and he says: she'd be in her nineties now.

All of a sudden it clicked in my head that my own grandparents are that age. My grandfather is 92 and my grandmother is 89. They are both American but were stationed in London during World War Two. This isn't hugely unusual for people in this fandom, I don't think, and yet I don't know if I've come across anyone else feeling this personal connection before. I think part of the reason I find this so important is because while Steve wakes up seventy years later to find everything changed, my grandparents lived through it.

A lot of stories about Steve spend time on the differences between the present and life during World War Two and yet it still amazes me the level of change that has happened in seventy years. Siriaeve's story in particular did an incredible job of highlighting the strange things and sense of displacement Steve discovers upon waking up without making it hokey.

I don't mean just that Steve and my grandparents fought in World War Two, I mean more how the rate of change is increasing all the time. When my grandfather was born his own father was the only medical personnel present, and he was just a farmer in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota. And the fact that my grandfather was ten years younger than all of his siblings can't even be thought about.

There's an old family photo from my other side of the family that shows everyone gathered around their first car (a Model T, of course). And now everyone in my family has their own car. I'm not trying to say that now our society is super wasteful or anything (although it is, but that's a whole other kettle of fish) but just the fact that once a car was a huge deal and now it's... not.

I got to spend several days this summer with my grandparents (due to distance, this was the first time I'd seen them in over a year) and I really, really wanted to talk to them about their experiences in the war. But that's not really something you can just dive right into, you know?

With my grandma it is slightly easier, since bless her heart she's never been that serious. There's a family legend that she once lost an entire ship full of tanks (?? yeah, I don't know either). She told me about how coming from America she was able to bring several pairs of silk stockings that all the British girls were jealous of. When my grandfather would walk home at night after their dates he would swing his belt around his head so that no pickpocketers could sneak up on him in the dark (there was no light allowed at night during this time, to protect London from the German bombers).

Ha, I guess I sort of lost the plot with this rambling post, but what I meant to say was that some of us are lucky to have our own Steve Rogers' wandering around in our lives and I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate them. I guess you could call this a belated Veteran's Day Post.

Uh, so I just signd up for Yuletide? (?????!!!) I have never done this before, but I've been having such a slump in my writing lately that I wanted to change things up. I've always loved writing from prompts and assignments so hopefully this will work.

( IF, on the other hand, you are here because you (poor unfortunate soul) have received my requests, I am here to give you a little help through some extra suggestions, divided by fandom I requested. )

ETA: Um, I feel like I should apologize for the wank that happened in the comments. It's not really a big deal, but I just want to assure people that this is not the way things are usually done around here. All the same, I won't stand to be pushed around.

In case anyone were interested in my personal life (haha, I know, I know), but seriously just in case, I have started a tumblr? It was initially just because I needed some way to keep track of all the fannish and RL tumblrs that I enjoyed but quickly became something else. This has been something that was percolating in my mind for a while and it seems that more and more tumblr is the right place to show it to the world.

What I am interested in doing is being able to record bits and pieces of my daily life now that I am graduated and off doing exciting-ish things on my own while also being a place I can put some original writing that will never get finished. So that's what you can expect at Just Another Bildungsroman

So I am trying to get back into Lj-ing, and part of my instructions for myself is to do this meme:

Comment with "Come at me, bro"
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

zarathuse gave me these questions to answer:

( Read more... )

In other news, I have been writing again! This is most excellent since I'd been having a terrible case of writer's block all spring. I haven't been concentrating on any one project, but I have started something X-Men related... Hopefully that will be up here soon!

So, who's seen The Baker/Assassin in Love?

I just watched it thanks to a wonderful Netflix recommendation, and it was amazing. I was laughing out loud and completely enraptured for the entire duration. For those not in the know, it's about a professional hitman named Milo, whose boss is Dumbledore, who messes up a job when a rival, Bjorn (who is in love with Milo), catches him giving an out to the dude he's supposed to kill (hittee?). Anyway, Dumbledore offers him the use of his place in the country where is he goes without realizing he's missed this crucial bit of info: the place in the country is in fact a bakery! But of course the rival finds this information and starts tracking him down. But of course Milo is really getting into the life of a baker and falling in love with a local woman while the majority of the townsfolk have figured out he's a hitman and are trying to get him to kill each other. Like I said: brilliant.

Annnd, of course my mind went instantly to Arthur and Eames... *refuses to be embarrassed by obsession*

( Cut for spoilers )

That will probably never get written, sadly. I just don't have the attention span or the ability at the moment. I'm desperately trying to write something else, and I think it might make it past the first few pages, because I do have it still stuck in my head, but the sad truth of the matter is that I haven't been able to write for months now. I think last semester really burnt me out.

So, wow, 2010 happened. I wasn't going to post any reflections on my year until I stopped and realized how truly monumental it had been. I sort of feel so separate from the things that occurred at the beginning of the year that I forgot that they were in 2010 as well. I don't really know how I feel about the year as a whole, yet. It was really different for me, and I think it's showing me a little bit of what my future will be like. That's both good and bad, really.

To recap, here are some things what I did:

*lived in England for nearly six months
-->had an internship with a professional theatre
*traveled in France by myself
*got a car of my own
*lived with avalonauggie and featherfish in our Artist's Colony for the summer
*started my senior year of university, which was ridiculously draining both intellectually and emotionally
*was destitute from the end of spring through the present
*wrote 99 pages of an original story that I think could be my first novel
*fell in love with Inception and the entire fandom (ilu guys so much, you've no idea!)

I'm so proud of everything that I've accomplished, but I don't feel it. I don't know how else to say that. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this upcoming year I have to do everything again without the safety net of being a student: I have to get a job or internship or some sort of placement and probably new living arrangements, I have to start paying my own bills (with what money?!). I just don't have the energy right now, except figuring out my future really isn't something I can exactly put off until I feel like it.

But I don't want to put it off. I am so worried that if I am complacent about my options I will become full of sloth and never accomplish anything that I have been dreaming about for nearly my entire life. I want to move to a city where I can work with a theatre in some capacity and eventually move back to England. I want to increase my artist output and get published. My goal for this upcoming year is to get over my inertia and get off my ass and be the person I've always dreamt about being:

The one with the tattoo on her back, the one who's lost that bit of weight, the one with red hair who always smells like intriguing incense, who is intelligent and informed but chill and nice, who has strong relationships and who always, always, chooses to have an adventure over being incurious and afraid.

I have to be that full version of me now or else I'll never be her.

Here are two short fics I wrote in the past couple of months, collected here for posterity:

As Husband and Husband We Go, written for foxxcub's Kissing Meme. Arthur and Eames must pretend to be married in order to pull off a job in the Bahamas.

Needs Must, written for airgiodslv's BAMF Meme. Eames takes care of business when a job goes south and both Arthur and Cobb are injured.

On a related note, I had a ridiculous dream last night. It was New Year's, and I guess I was at school, but of course it didn't look anything like. I think this might have been the end of a longer dream, but the first part wasn't really related to this bit. So, it was New Year's Eve and I was outside on this cobbled road. There was a lot of snow and old stone buildings. Then the rest of the students on my department came outside and found me and they brought Tom Hardy with them pretty much just to introduce me to him. He was visiting the department, I guess? Anyway, we wound up having an impromptu dance party in front of this building in a square. I ballroom danced with Tom Hardy. It was great. He was all stubbly and dashing, except he had also gotten a bit chub chub? I remember noticing this, but thinking it didn't make him any less attractive. And then it was midnight and THARD and I sat on the ground (it wasn't cold) and he had two little bottles of champagne but only one was open so I stole a drink of his. I was just lamenting how I didn't have a New Year's kiss when they announced midnight and he leaned over and kissed me on the mouth.

And then I woke up, very pleased. Now the only challenge is to make my real New Year's live up to this. Somehow I don't think it can.

I just had to read and listen to Kiss Me Kate for the first time since I was wee. And then I was disturbed that I was ever exposed to it as a child. But I just have to know: am I not giving the show enough credit for being subversive or is it really that offensive? Now, it was largely written by a woman based off of a real-life theatre couple who did in fact shout abuse at each other. But does that make the really strange on-stage spanking moment okay? Or the fact that the closing number is "Why Are Women So Simple," all about how women ought to submit to men?

Maybe I'm just on high alert after reading a New York Magazine article about a conservative female religious speaker, who advocates women submitting to their husbands as the ultimate arbiter of everything ever. It's just that I feel like I'm having trouble getting a good perspective. I don't think I should have to just laugh off my intense disgust upon reading just because some productions have been given a more feminist reading, or that a feminist reading is even possible(?). And yet at the same time I don't want to be Miss Femmenazi, not getting the joke.

What say you?

It has been too long since I last posted, my friends. Too long. This is why I should be independently wealthy: so that I don't have to bother with this whole higher education nonsense and can sit around all day writing and squeeing over lovely, lovely boys. But such is life.

Actually I have been writing, which is the really sad part. I just can't seem to finish anything. Plus I get distracted by reading all the wonderful things everyone else is posting and then I realize I'm late for class/rehearsal/meals/etc. But there is something I would like to share with you all. It's a WIP, not something I'd normally post, but I am starting to think I'll never ever finish it and what I have I am intrigued by, if not exactly proud of.


I Get No Kick From Champagne

( Eames is lounging on a dilapidated couch in his overpriced hotel suite in Vegas when he gets the call from Yusuf. )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR THAAAAAARD
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU

In order to best celebrate this momentous occasion, I suggest everyone wing their way over here: http://fuckyeahtomhardy.tumblr.com/

Er, I don't really anticipate this being a problem, but, just to be on the safe side, please respect my privacy and don't cross-post or whatever the hell the kids these days are calling it any of my content to Facebook or Twitter or anything like that. It's not that I'm not flattered by the (possible) attention, it's just that I would like to maintain a separation between the fannish and RL places I occupy. Thanks.

Title: Good Artists Steal
Summary: the year following Under The Table And Dreaming wherein Arthur realizes he has been in a relationship this entire time
Rating: PG-13

( Eames and Arthur spend the whole month learning to live with each other )

Title: Under The Table And Dreaming
Pairing: bitch, please
Rating: R
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: not mine, etc.
Word Count: ~10000
Summary: set post-movie, Arthur can no longer dream on his own, and Eames is determined not to let him become a hermit
Notes: Thanks to all the Pornoteers, but especially featherfish for the wonderful beta

( What does it meeeaaann? )

Two items of business:

Item the first: I have been watching a lot of World Cup matches, and I have developed a problem. I grew up on soccer, as we so foolishly term it in the US, and I love the game and all that it entails. Only recently, all that it entails has grown to include watching sweaty, affectionate Adonises exchange hugs and jersies. Sometimes they even wear their friends' jersies, which, may I remind you, are full of sweaty man-scent. For some reason, the combination of athletic manliness with tenderness always does me in. Por ejemplo, I also completely melt into a puddle of estrogen at the sight of men caring for small children. But that is besides the point.

The point is: I want fic of this! Seriously. So if anyone could point me towards anything written about footballers being cute together, I would be forever grateful. Babies are a bonus. And the thing is I'm sure it exists out there, somewhere, but luckily my RPS-squick won't be alerted because while I love soccer and I've been watching a lot of it, I don't actually know many of the players as individuals. Which is exactly the problem I have with tennis RPS, although if anyone knows of a friendship-based fic for Nadal and Federer, that would be so so great as well.

Item the Second: I went to see The Last Airbender, and I can't say I was disappointed because my expectations were never that high. We'll get to the race issue in a bit, but for now, the other problems: the dialogue was awful. I mean, seriously. They didn't have conversations so much as a series of non sequitors designed to move along the plot and provide backstory, with any gaps plastered over by stilted voice over. It was very cringe-worthy. And then there was the plot itself, which tried too hard to be an exact replica of the entire Book One of the original series instead of deciding on a more succinct, easier to understand story-line. This meant that each scene jumped unexpectedly to the next with no pleasing lead-up to the climax. I was actually surprised by the climax because the whole movie I'd been waiting for the rising action to lead me to this one moment, and then what the movie was calling its climax passed and I was like, wait, what just happened?

Now, the acting, which will serve as a nice segue to the race issue. The three main actors, Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone were horrible. Like honestly cringe-worthy. As my brother pointed out, Nicola graced us with the same vacantly concerned expression for the entire film. Noah Ringer was just very wooden in his delivery of lines and incapable of portraying convincing grief or anger. Jackson actually had his moments, although unfortunately right at one of his most empathetic moments all of a sudden I was reminded of how much he resembles Harpo in Twilight and I was lost.

The funny thing is that I thought the three of them actually did look like their cartoon counterparts, even though they were clearly white. But that is pretty much immaterial as all the minor characters were played to race, and they were most definitely not convincing as Asian people. And I just think that's so dumb. What was the point of hiring them if they couldn't act and weren't even Asian? Like, I could much more easily understand hiring an Asian actor who was terrible but at least they would be Asian. It just seems dumb to me, because if the movie did get one thing right, it was the atmosphere and the background, against which our intrepid heroes stuck out like sore thumbs.

Now, the Fire Nation, on the other hand, I thought were the best. Of course, I've always loved Prince Zuko, so Dev Patel can angst around all day in my opinion. And his uncle, played by Shaun Toub, was excellent as well, so I really don't think we should be afraid of hiring non-white actors for leading roles anymore. Come on. It's the Century of the Fruitbat.

Conclusion: I am so excited to start watching the original series again.

I have just finished watching the movie for a fourth time, and the third consecutive time. I honestly don't know what I'll be doing with myself tomorrow when I'm no longer watching it every day. And this time, I became sure of something I'd noticed around round two: why does Blackwood have Watson's cane at the end? Emily and I suspect a missing scene, and I am dying to see it.

Also, amusing anecdote time: after round three, my mom turns to me and goes, don't you have a poster of Jude Law on your door? (This would be one from SkyCaptain and the World of Tomorrow that my cousin gave me after I dragged her to see it with me—why yes, I have loved Jude Law for a long, long time). Well, I said, no, I don't think so, I think I would remember that... But, when I looked earlier today, yes, that poster was still there. I am actually pleased by this.

Anyway, what you've all been waiting for: fic! So, this is crack. My only excuse is that I have just never experienced such an intense desire for a man with a mustache before! So I felt the need to explore it. I hope you enjoy.

ETA: I went back through and caught some spelling errors, since this is largely un-betaed, unless you count Emily reading it and going, you made kind of an important mistake... So, if anyone sees any more, please let me know!

( Please bear in mind that only after writing this did I begin to read any canon! )



Torchwood Second Person Vignette:

( Also, because I found this in my files, and I liked it, have this )

Here is my dream: for someone (because I don't have the requisite skills) to make a vid about Hamlet's indecision over whether or not to kill Claudius when he's praying set to I Can't Decide by The Scissor Sisters. It would be so epic, and a lot of the lyrics are oddly appropriate, like, "You'll probably go to Heaven." So excellent. So long as the version used was NOT the Incestuous!Mel Gibson one. That would just add to Freud's crazed shenanigans.

Also, if I were ever to write an mpreg story, the title of it would have to be "In the Man Behold the Child." Since I am extremely unlikely to ever write mpreg, anyone can take that title. Also, cookies to anyone who can guess where the title comes from.

Title: When I See You Trip the Light Fantastic
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Summary: In which all the magic is good, and Arthur tries not to think about it, among other things.


( Arthur stared at the girl, more than a little helplessly )

Title: We Know All About Mice and Men and Their Plans
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Summary: Things were getting stagnant in Camelot. The plot was not progressing, and Merlin was bored.
A/N: A few lines shamelessly stolen from The Princess Bride, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which ones. Just a little fluff for all of us on this fine day. Happy Inauguration Day, everyone!

( Merlin had a plan. )