jadesfire

To say I'm tired right now does not even begin to cover the feeling of having done a day's work, gone out, come back, made 3 batches of cupcakes, made dinner, done washing, made jewellery and then having 3 hours sleep. Then coming to work, doing a full day, icing cupcakes and dealing with dim people. And annoying printers.

*rereads*

I have no idea if that sentence is grammatical or not, but frankly, I'm too tired to even care. Y'all know what I mean. Right?

HOWEVER. There is one Very Important Thing I must do before I doze off at the enquiry desk (I already fell asleep on my can of diet coke over lunch and got the impression of the rim all down my nose. It's not a good look.)

Er. Hang on. Oh yes. Point.

The point is that I have been Podficced! It is very, very exciting, especially since the reading really, really matches the sound of the story in my head. I love podfic and consumed hours and hours of it last year, then I ran out of Gen, or fandom, or something, and I haven't listened to any for ages. So hearing these was a real joy, especially since reena_jenkins has absolutely caught the tone. It's always a bit nerve-wracking, giving blanket permission for your stories to be played with, since a)You risk NO ONE looking at them at all, which is sad and b)Oh gosh, what if they don't sound right.

Luckily Port Call has really long author's notes, and although we have different accents, it was like listening to the voice in my head read them aloud, so I knew it was going to be okay. Also, for me, there's something *right* about SGA stories being read in an American accent, which is why I never wanted

So having rambled at you in a sort of sleepily excited kind of way, I shall let you go and shower praise on her for doing an awesome job :)

Both are over at amplificathon

Port Call and Pilferage, Pirates, and Plotting (2 stories, 1 entry)

Five mission reports Sheppard's team turned in (and one they didn't)

PLEASE if you listen, go tell Reena how awesome she is. Writers are usually the ones who get the love in these arrangements, but a good reader absolutely makes or breaks a story, and Reena is an awesome reader.

Who knows. I may even be inspired to write more.

Once I've had some sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*snore*

Work is like a madhouse on speed right now, so instead, this post is brought to you by slight embarrassment.

I flaked out of Remix this year due to brain-fail, but luckily for me, my Remix partner didn't. And when I say lucky, I mean lucky. At the reveal, I honestly and truly refreshed the screen 4 times, because I couldn't quite believe I'd been matched with topaz_eyes. You have to understand that there's no way ON EARTH I would have posted any fanfic anywhere if it hadn't been for Topaz, who held my hand in the very beginning and has been a friend ever since. Seeing her name come up the top of my Remix was a real 'woah' moment.

Anyhoo, before I embarrass her any further, she remixed my Doctor Who story The Man in the Mirror, giving Martha more than just a voice in the story. She talks more about it in her journal, so I'll let her explain, but it's a seriously awesome Remix. Martha has always felt to me like the character the writers forgot, and yet she has so much potential. Topaz really, really, really brings that out here.

You Can Run But You Can't Hide (Your Reflections Only Follow Remix) [LJ-link. It's also on AO3]
Rating: PG
Summary: They'd both been out of sorts since 1913.

Go read it and tell her how awesome it is. I'm toying with the idea of writing a commentary on the original if anyone wants it, or if I find the time. It was one of my 'must write' stories, where I watch something and just have to respond. I'm intrigued to revisit it with some more thought now.

Relevant to your interests:

There are plenty of poetry lovers on my flist, so this one's for you: Know Your Words. I can't speak for the other writers in the collection, but Del posts poetry on her journal, and even I know it's good. Er. That's more of a ringing endorsement than it sounds - I know almost nothing about poetry, and rarely get through whole poems without wandering off in the middle, but Del writes the kind of thing that grabs you and won't let go. Highly recommended.

Relevant to my interests:

Er. We're ringing a mortgage company in the morning, then we're ringing the estate agent to put an offer in on a flat.

If anyone has a paper bag handy, I might need one to breathe into...

After a week, this cold finally seems to be actually getting better, instead of pretending to get better, then knocking me over when I try to do anything. Which is good, because I've got lots to do today before I go on holiday \o/ I can't wait!

The last few days have been wonderfully uneventful, what with pretty much going home and going straight to bed, so all I've really had on my mind has been what I'm packing for Menorca. The physical stuff is easy, but trying to choose fic to take is much harder. I'm definitely putting in the tardis_bigbang complete PDF, and most of the stuff from my "fic-unread" tags at Delicious. But as for anything else? Looks like I'll be paying a visit to the crack_van

But it also got me thinking, what would be my 'Desert Island Fics"? Eight fics and one podfic (the programme does 8 music + 1 book, so that seems fair) that I would take to my desert island.

Man, that's a hard one. ( Right, let's see... )

What about you guys? What fics would you take to a Desert Island? What fics and podfic should I take to Menorca? I seem to have missed so much lately!

Since this has just hit the top of my flist, allow me to link you to this post about the LJ staff cuts. It really sucks for people who've been made redundant, but I'm refusing to panic just yet. Still, I'm going to track the Dreamwidth project with something approaching interest over the next few months and look seriously into my own website. I must have about 350,000 words of fic around here that I don't want to lose!

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I've accumulated the things on this post through the day, so here's some happier stuff:

The Long Way Home is a great SGA comic by astridv and rheanna27. Teaminess, adventure and a lovely ending. Gen, set in S5.

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sheafrotherdon posted at the weekend about a 2009 challenge. Nope, not fic nor fandom-related, but us-related. About not talking down what we achieve, not deflecting compliments and telling that little voice of criticism inside our heads exactly where it can go. My actual motto for 2009 is Weebles wobble but they don't fall down (what? it's my motto, I can have what I like :P) but I'm taking up Cate's challenge and also adopting the adjective 'resilient' for the year.

Anyone else care to play?

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Not unrelatedly, doing the fanficcers love meme has made me realise how little I read nowadays. There's not much I can do to fix that right now, but it's going on my agenda for when we get back from Morocco, and I'm going to try to use my delicious account to track things properly. Time for a comment-splurge, I feel.

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The Ninja Librarian. Oh yes.
(er...contains strong language and mild violence. not often you have to warn for a video about librarians...)

If you've got some time, I also recommend this as an example of how to make a user's guide to the library video. Fun music, animation and Doctor Who. I think that covers everything.

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MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!!! Look what donutsweeper made me!!!!



I'm beaming like a total loon here :D Art is always awesome and this has me almost falling off my chair with bouncing.

Seriously. If you write. If you like maths. If you knit.

Marcus du Sautoy and Mark Haddon discuss writing, music, maths, science, literature, death and knitting. This is currently a link to the events page. Scroll down for the audio/webcast.

apiphile. Seriously. I think they got together just for you.

If you've never heard of either of them, Marcus du Sautoy is an Oxford maths professor with an extraordinary ability to make complicated science understandable. Mark Haddon is best known for writing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. They are both knowledgeable, entertaining, and wonderful communicators. If you don't get the maths, listen to a brilliant author talking about his writing. If you don't write, listen to a brilliant scientist explaining how he does what he does. And if you knit, make sure you listen to the questions at the end...

I can't remember the last time I just sat and *listened* to something - normally I'm doing other things at the same time. But this is worth the hour. Just...click the link, okay?

ceitie has written me a great Teyla-fic fic for sgahcchallenges. I love her Teyla in this, and she hit all my buttons, just right. There isn't enough well-written Teyla-fic in SGA, and it's so cool to have the list added to. I honestly don't know what I was expecting when I made my request, but now I'm pretty sure that this was what I wanted.

Go! Read! Fly, my pretties! Leave lovely comments!

Back to Business as Usual
Summary: And now she appeared to be in a hole.

Unbirthday fic! by travels_in_time.

I could get used to this 'birthday until the end of September' thing. She's taken the A Few Quiet Drinks ficverse and done wonderful, wonderful things with it, as well as having as good a Nac Mac Feegle voice as Pratchett himself. Seriously, it's perfect.

I could also get used to this 'friends are psychic and know when you need these things' thing. This couldn't come at a better time for me, and I love it and her to bits *squishes them*

Go! Read! Tell her how wonderful it is!

I'm spamming you guys something rotten this week, sorry, but. But.

I've just sobbed my way through a programme about Jerry Springer. Who would have thought?

Who Do You Think You Are? is always a really intriguing programme, taking people back through the family history that they never knew.

Jerry Springer's family escaped to England at the outbreak of WWII. His grandmothers were both imprisoned and died in the Holocaust. I've watched a few of the series now, and this programme is definitely the most moving, watching him come face to face with everything that his grandmothers and his parents went through. And if you can get hold of it, make sure you watch to the very end. It's worth getting hold of, and worth the watch, although I had to turn it off halfway through the first time, and pick it up again today.

*falls over* I have had it with this week. Enough is enough. I want the weekend and I want it now! I also want to listen to this programme on Radio 4 - the other half heard it and said it was brilliant. Computer hacking for a living? Legally? Cool. That may cheer up an otherwise gloomy day.

Having said that, I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of love sent my way by the Love Meme. I just...thank you. It's the kind of thing you don't realise you need until you've got it. Go get yourselves signed up so I can return the favour! *shoos you* In this state of mind it was possibly unwise to go looking for fic, but let's be honest here, I'm not that bright...

The Other Side of Grace [SGA; PG-13; Gen] by sardonicsmiley is a kidfic with a twist, and manages to give John incredible depth of emotion without turning him into a whining mess. It's heartfelt and not everyone's cup of tea, probably, but I loved it.

On the slightly more feel-good side is Friendship [Torchwood; PG-13; Gen] by fajrdrako, which is a between-the-seasons fic with a warm tone and a great ending that made me giggle every time (yes I beta~d, I'm biased, so sue me, it's good!)

Today's XKCD. Oh. So true.

And speaking of which, our broadband is working! With wireless! Seriously, I can't recommend O2 highly enough - everything was incredibly easy and just worked. After the nightmare that was TalkTalk, it's been almost scarily easy. But that means I WILL be connected next week while I'm off work, and therefore around to pester you even more than usual :D Incidentally, if anyone has free time and wants to come see me, I'm always up for giving sight-seeing tours. It'll cut into my rigorous schedule of sleeping, watching DVDs, sleeping, cooking, sleeping and writing, but I can make the time.

Anyone who doesn't read Neil Gaiman's blog, a)why not? and b)go check out the posts for the last couple of days. He's in China at the moment, so his two daughters were allowed at the blog. *covers face with hands* So. Much. Trouble. Also, there was a mention of Good Omens Slash in a post, which elicited questions, which got them the answer:

".....slash fiction is basically erotic fan fiction, normally TV series based, pairing off two (er or more I suppose) members of the same sex who don't normally couple for the cameras. From the "/" mark in the middle of "Kirk/Spock" or "K/S" fiction, which is where it all started. ("But Spock," said Kirk, huskily, realising, finally, irrevocably, what his true self had been trying to tell him ever since the beginning of season one, "it's so huge. And it's green." "And it would be logical for you to... touch it, Captain," said Spock. And so on. It's normally written by extremely nice ladies. I have several very sane, respected, and respectable friends who write slash fiction, and do not try to make me read it.)"

I don't think there's anything to add to that really.

Ooh, except that I picked up the "Work in Progress" meme from dune_drd and for the first time in ages, I actually have them! Yay! Okay, there are only three, but that's more than enough for me, who usually likes to dash things out as quickly as possible. There's also an epic Housefic lurking at the back of my harddrive that I do intend to dig out and polish, as well as a project that Chrys, Z and I said we'd take on. In the meantime:

( This way for sneak previews - 1 Torchwood, 2 SGA )