The Blog

 Eep, I'm so slack...

So, how about yuletide, eh? I think I wrote here that I was feeling way too swamped with finishing the PhD to sign up this time around, and it's still true that the thought of committing to something else with deadlines gives me more stress than the thought of submitting another job application (I'm working on another due on Friday, but I'm not that stressed, honest).

But that's not the point. The point is that I did end up writing a Monkey Island stocking stuffer for someone called Nic, entitled "The Elaine Song". It's very silly, but I'm told it made several people laugh, which is really all I ever wanted out of it. Poor old Guybrush, he's so silly.

That's not even the point. The real point is that I did participate in a satellite exchange, where the good people of yuletide sent each other boxes or packets of candy. I may not be able to commit to writing, but shopping for chocolate is one thing I can always find time for. And as for receiving chocolate....... YUM! Made my Christmas, it did.

So, here is a big thank you to bluebrocade, who sent me a lovely package of chocolate from Chocolate Heaven in San Francisco and a little hot chocolate mug as well. So delicious, and cute too!

Labels: apologies, christmas, dairy farmers, death by chocolate, it's about singing and dancing and making people happy, monkey island, writing, yuletide

 Merry-Go-Round...

This story needs to be read by everyone who loved both Wall-E and Battlestar Galactica (the new one).

Don't ask about the thesis. Maybe next week.

Labels: fandom, fanfiction, linking all over the place, yuletide

Loose Postings...

Some miscellaneous bits and bobs that were cut from the previous blog entry:

WHY MUST THIS MAN BE SO AWESOME (and creepy)?! I wish to live in his library (note: it's the downstairs one), or just apprentice myself to him and be his slave for the next thirty years. I don't really care which. (Actually, the first two paragraphs of this blog post also makes me happy, because it reminds me of me. And of my mum, who shares a birthday (but for a year) with his Neilship.)

Two Applegeeks comics that make me smile.

Some amazing Powerpuff Girls cosplay, which makes me jealous. I wish I had the time and money to cosplay properly (oh, and that I wasn't too old for it).

One fanfiction review, because it couldn't be resisted, from Discworld: The Uninvited Guest by akamarykate - Granny Weatherwax goes to Susan's christening in place of her grandfather. It's lovely and perfect.

No, wait, one more, because this post has taken an extra day to write, from BSG(2003): This Is the Role of Angels Who Have Begun to Defy God by Nicole Anell - a nicely introspective Caprica Six piece. She's my second-favourite Six, I must admit (Head!Six being number one, naturally), and this is just great. It's about as dark as the show itself.

And one more again, because it's a week later and I still suck. Harry Potter: PUSH - a conservative evangelical Christian goes to Hogwarts. Set post-series, very friendly and gentle, with original characters who will break your heart.

Fight Club: I am Jack's Christmas Tree by J Crew Guy - So much love for this story. It's perfectly in tone and character and it's a Christmas story set in the middle of Fight Club! Yes, please!

Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles: A Jack Knifed Juggernaut (I am born again) by AreNotValid - Cameron, on being a terminator, and why she doesn't want to be a cylon. No really, it's awesome: "Terminators are not capable of believing that they are human. They are not capable of being sleeper agents. They are not like cylons."

Labels: comics, fanfiction, I am a fanfic whore, linking all over the place, Neil is our god, yuletide

A Short Note About Booking Accommodation...

If you reply to my enquiry with:

Dear Catherine,
Thanks for the email.
We do have an Ensuite Cabin with air-con available for the Sat & Sunday nights for a total tariff of $230 for 2 persons.
If you require any further information or wish to made a reservation, please call our helpful reception staff during office hours on our free call number.
Kind regards,
Loneen

Easts Beach Holiday Park Kiama
"Where great memories are a holiday away”

I should not have to reply with:

Dear Loneen,
I was sorry to hear from the helpful reception staff that it's not available after all, as you apparently don't make Sat/Sun night bookings, preferring instead to keep them free for Fri/Sat nights.
Thank you for your time,
Catherine

Honestly, Easts Beach? That's just cruel, and what the hell? You don't want my business? Even though the cabin is available and empty? On the off-chance that someone else might want it on both Friday and Saturday night?

Fine.

There are plenty of other places around there that actually want my money. I'll stay at one of them, I'm sure the customer service will be better.

To prove that there's more to life than complaining, have a couple more fics to read:

• His Dark Materials: The Teethmarks of Time by Thevina - Will's life after the adventures of the books. Poignant, it made me cry.
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Like Love in the Movies by Jan - "In which Kyon's life becomes an indie movie. Sort of." Love it. Kyon's voice is just perfect, I love the way he shrugs off all the weirdness around him.
• Titanic: The Last Dance by shewhoguards - The band played on.

Labels: easts beach holiday park, haruhi suzumiya, holiday, kiama, long live the revolution, my pagerank is higher than yours and I'm not afraid to use it, review, urge to kill rising, yuletide

An oft-delayed blog...

So I'm still a little sick, but the antibiotics are kicking in and all of a sudden I'm very sleepy. Fortunately on Wednesday I worked a full work day and thus was not on the train that derailed. I did get to see the train as my late-running train made it's slow way past, but I didn't have my camera out because I thought it would have been cleared up by then. Two carriages were off the tracks, as far as I could tell, and I can only imagine it was rather scary. I don't know how it could have happened, given that the train would have just stopped (or been about to stop) at the station and no one goes fast through there. I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was foul play.

Another link: On the whole 11th doctor casting news fiasco

And one more, from my new favourite blog, Fuck You, Penguin: A snake and a hamster that are friends.

This is what I'd want for my birthday, if my birthday were in March and not January: The greatest Doctor Who toys ever. (If anyone is after ideas, Kinokuniya has the first Gunnerkrigg Court book in stock. Also Absolute Sandman volumes 3 and 4, but they're out of most people's price range.)

More yuletide stories!

• Addams Family: Because We're Addamses by calliopes_pen - a story told from Wednesday's point of view, more or less set around the Movie. Deliciously in character.
• Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Dream by bookesque - a reworking of Sleeping Beauty, told from the point of view of both the prince and the princess, in which both are aware of their places in the story, and both don't necessarily want any part of it. Lovely.
• Merlin: Know Thine Enemy by Isabeau - Mordred's story, so sad and poignant and tragic. I love him here, and the way she's written this.
• Nethack: Another Sad Death Written In The Book Of Tyr by kastaka - Reads like a really fun session of the game.
• Tokyo Babylon: Memory -- A Save Tokyo City Story by Psyienna - This is Tokyo as I remember it, and the characters as I wish I had been able to write them. Beautiful.

Labels: fairy tales, nethack, public transport, sickly-Cat, Tokyo Babylon, toys, trains, yuletide

More linkies...

I swear to God that the next time my father tells me one more time that working a 60 hour week isn't a real job because I don't earn a real salary I will slit my fucking wrists. Nothing is worth this shit.

In more positive news, I'm up to 'J' in my quest to get scores on every song in DDR 8th Mix with only a few skipped, in Light mode. I'm hoping I'll get a few more of them before bed tonight. ETA: 'K', with only two skipped and eight scored 'C' or lower to improve upon.

Since I finally made it through the rest of the draft posts waiting for me in blogger, have the last of the great stack of things I needed to blog about:

• The Hyped Panic Over 'War of the Worlds' - This is somewhat disappointing, but also fascinating. In short form: the panic we were all told about was faked up by the media.
• Dispatches from Planet Zog - A discussion on aliens in New Who and why RTD sucks as a writer.
• Why We Deserve Better Villains — And How To Get Them - All the flaws of modern villain writing, and how to make them bad guys again. Every writer needs to read this, or something like it (I don't even like io9, but occasionally something good is linked to me).
• ALW's pick for playing Phantom II. Actually, while I'm linking to Cleo, everyone should read the The Phantom of the Fiction Workshop, which makes me laugh out loud each time I read it.
• Pink go-go boots and matching rocket-launcher - I can't even remember the first time I read this, but it's been in my to-post list forever. I love everything2.
• Kermit Bale - A rather large collection of images of Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog, showing just how much they have in common
• Yet another story about John Titor - I always wanted to spend more time reading up on this plucky time traveller. One of these days I will.
• Fragmentary Knowledge - A fascinating article about the Antikythera Mechanism.
• 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do - yet another TED talk, but a short one by Gever Tulley, and I agree with most everything in it. Note the parental supervision part.
• This Johnny Wander comic makes me happy. I can relate.
• Park Hall Poesy - the story of a hand truck, lost in an English department, told through poetry.

Further Yuletide recommendations:

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Possession by Person - Zimmy is crazy for Gamma. But we love her anyway.
• M*A*S*H: Dear Trapper by Rinkle - both funny and poignant and horrible. I love this story.
• Wall.E: All There Is And More by silksieve - After the movie, the robots build a new life on earth.
• William Gibson - Neuromancer: Mercury Scatters by Northland - a lovely short piece about Molly.
• Winnie the Pooh / Discworld: In Which Worlds Collide and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime by torch - A crossover of awesome. With footnotes. *swoons*

One last thing before I leave you, just because I love you.

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Not my idea or coding, sadly. And I know marquees are evil, but that's not the point.

Labels: dangerous things, DDR, doctor who, family, muppets, science fiction, the Phantom of the Opera, time and space, writing, yuletide

Owning Up...

So, I'm at home today, enjoying my last real day off uni and wondering where the hell everyone else has gone to. I'm still sickly, but am working on it by spending all day in my pyjamas and otherwise lazing around. I suppose I ought to update everyone at this point by linking to all the fanfiction I've written in the last month, just in case you want to keep up with that:

• Yuletide: Spilling Milk and Falling Stars (Tokyo Babylon) - written for Kenshinzen's request for a Supernatural crossover. I haven't seen more than a few episodes of SPN, so I couldn't write that as the primary story as requested, but I did my best at sneaking the boys into the background of the story for them. No word back from Kenshinzen, but I'm sure they'll eventually tell me they loved the gift I worked for so many days on. Anyway, this is a fairly basic Tokyo Babylon fic about Subaru, Hokuto and Seishirou as a family, going for lunch and fortune-telling.
• Yuletide treat: Roly-Poly Boxbot (Gunnerkrigg Court) - written for Iseult Variante's throwaway line about a Boxbot story in her request. It's terrible, but then so's Boxbot. I wrote this one while Tony was napping before James' mum's Christmas party, but it was just too much fun.
• PHYS2512: Suddenly Silenced (Star Wars) - written for Sarah, who didn't have particulars in her requests. I'm not sure why, out of a list of many fandoms and with all the freedom in the world, all I could finish was Alderaan blows up fanfic, but that's how it works sometimes. I really love this story, it's probably the best-written story I've done this month, and I wrote it all in longhand before typing it up.
• PHYS2512: The Early Flamingo Catches The—What Do Flamingoes Eat Anyway? (The West Wing) - CJ's morning routine, written for Kat. I couldn't quite decide on a particular period of the show to write in, other than pre-series 6, and my American politics is sketchy at the best of times, but I love CJ, and something about this voice appealed to me. I'm surprised at how well it all came together.
• PHYS2512 bonus: Hermione's Revolution (Harry Potter) - written for Sarah, since no one deserves nothing but a depressing story for Christmas, and I'd started this one first. For some reason I had trouble finding the rest of this story, basically everything after she gets into Dumbledore's office, but with a little bit of help from Rinkle I got it done only a little bit late. :)

Phew, that's a surprising number of words, all of them for fandoms I haven't really written before (I know I've done SW, but never the OT for some reason. I tend to write in the Old Republic, for better or worse). Now all I have to do is get myself back to writing in the past tense.

I found this snippet of what I had called Tachikoma Diaries when I was deleting the old draft blog posts. I ought to write more of this, as it's cute and I want a pet tachikoma. I think it was a vague idea for last year's yuletide fic.

"Monday: v. v. unhappy. Batou gave natural oil to noisiest of Tachikoma thinking it was me again. I know our memories are synchronised every night but how he can believe that thing when it says its his favourite is beyond me. Lonely and miserable and wishing noisiest of Tachikoma be blown up in next action."

I think I need to read Bridget Jones before going on with that though. *grins*

Labels: 1000 words, damn you CLAMP, fanfiction, Gunnerkrigg Court, Harry Potter, I am a fanfic whore, I don't want to live on the moon, star wars, tachikoma, the west wing, Tokyo Babylon, writing, yuletide

Post-Christmas Roundup of things that are nifty...

I'm back at home now, no more house-sitting. But I've sadly caught a cold somehow and feel like death warmed up.

I think I'm in love with the "proofreader" function in Pages. Calling me on using the word "Headmaster" because it's gender-specific? Rock on, proofreader, rock on!

Going through the yuletide archive and picking out my favourites for future reference. I love all of these, and if you know the fandom you probably will enjoy them too.

• xkcd: The Amazing Adventures of Hat Guy and the Girl Who Stole His Hat
  OMG VELOCIRAPTORS!
• Portal: Pre-test Diagnostic Log #045216/F/4
• Pern: The Free of Pern

In other stuff I've found around the internet, we've apparently discovered that people who skip breakfast are likely to have sex at an earlier age than those who don't. I skip breakfast all the time, but I guess I'm doing it wrong or something.

Labels: cake, fanfiction, I am a fanfic whore, iCatherine, yuletide

 Yay!...

All the stories for the mini fanfiction exchange I was running with the kids at uni are now online! It only took all day, oops. But still, fun stories, go read! There's something for everyone, provided you like the West Wing or fandoms that start with "S"... We're going to announce the writers on New Year's Day, or you can guess in the comments if you feel you know my style well enough to guess which I'm responsible for.

In other news, Merry Christmas! Hope you're all having a wonderful time, filled with nice people and wonderful gifts, and religion if that's your thing too!

ETA: Yuletide's up!!!!! I got a Battle Royale fic!!! It's called Plenty of Paper and anyone who has seen the movie or read the book should read it because it's awesome and sad and the characters are so real it hurts and I'm crying.

Labels: battle royale, christmas, fanfiction, hoofball, physics, writing, yuletide

Safari on Windows is Not Crap...

Made it! With 15 hours to go.

And today's random classic links:

• Man's £5 debt repaid 39 years on - This is why I have the "nice people are nice" tag. What a nice story. *grins*
• Flying Penguins! - Okay, I seem to be having a touchy feely day today, but really, a plane full of penguins!
• The Cepheid Galactic Internet - Variable stars as a way of communicating between solar systems. Very cool stuff (hardish science).
• Don't Call Me Dude - a fun thrash song from the very early 90s.

Labels: music, nice people are nice, science, science fiction, writing, yuletide

 Trying to Post Regularly...

I had a train of thought, but then I lost it...

I ordered the final set of the CLAMP in 3-D land toys this morning. They might arrive before Christmas if I'm lucky: one more present to open. :) I might even catch up on photographing them then.

I've got a draft of my yuletide fic, but I really dislike it and will be either scrapping it or doing a full rewrite tonight. I've only got three days to go, eep!

I've also realised I have entirely too many "draft" posts in blogger, usually consisting of a link that I intend but never manage to post at a later moment. So I'm going through the vault to see what can be rescued and posted over the next couple of days.

• "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek" - a terrible song by The Go Go's, who apparently never grasped the finer points of grammar. One wonders if that was any influence on their "success". (Also, it means I get to use my 'daleks' tag again. I don't even remember why I have that.)
• DDR: The Musical - I love the idea of this so very much, even if the reviews say it's crap and the pictures are pretty WTF, because shitty Japanese techno makes me happy.
  (Curiously, the thought of an actual revolution through dance brings back bad memories from reading "The Worst Band in the in Universe"--GBase, I love everything you do, but that book was lame.)
• Bee Gees keep you Stayin' Alive - Heh, it turns out the song is just right for CPR, and you're more likely to save someone if you sing along in your head.

Labels: christmas, daleks, damn you CLAMP, DDR, Graeme Base, long live the revolution, miscellany, music, random, yuletide

Dear Santa...

Hey non-fandom peeps, skip this post, as it will just confuzzle you. This means you, mum.

So, my dear yuletide writer, you've been allocated me as your recipient. I'm so sorry. I know my choices of fandom are esoteric, and that you've likely just matched one of my fandoms. But you can rest assured that I will love whatever you write. Thank you for writing for me.

Actually, I'm kinda lazy, so I will simply point you to SophiaP's yuletide letter, since I agree with everything she says. I mean it, you know, I'm a fanfic whore and I don't care if you ignore the specifics of my requests (actually, I tried not to be too specific because I was terrified of getting a request I couldn't manage to write and I didn't want to inflict that on anyone else).

I really just want to see fic for these fandoms.

So, just quickly going over the fandoms again (new details in italics):

Stephen R Donaldson - Mordant's Need (Any)

This is probably my favourite pair of books. I love the characters, I love the world, I love the journey. I believe that Geraden and Terisa are made for each other, but I'm open to all pairings. And the more I think about this, the more any pairing sounds like it would be fun to explore (Terisa / Lebbick could be angsty fun). Or one could write a gen story. I'd particularly love to know more about what happened when Havelock infiltrated Vagel's coven all those years ago, or how the happily ever after worked out for all the characters. Do more women become Imagers now that the crusty old men realise that girls can be powerful too? Suffice to say I'm a fanfic whore and will love whatever you write. :)

One of the things I noticed while writing the requests is that I would love to see any of these ideas explored. Why isn't there a fandom for these books? Especially with all the potential pairings (Elega/Terisa, anyone?)

I read a rant a few days ago about the sexism in the books and how it makes them hard to read for the rantee, but I can't quite see it myself. Yes, Terisa starts out a passive character, and the Princesses don't truly participate until the second book (preferring to sit around and complain about being women in a world of men), but by the end of the story they're all strong characters who have taken control of their own destinies and while each of them has been paired off with a man (save Torrent), that feels more a gesture towards the "happily ever after means marriage" fairytale trope than any particular act of "keeping the womenfolk down". And I do believe that in general Mordant has become a better place to be a girl by the end of the books.

Isobelle Carmody - The Legendsong (Any)

I think I would like best a story with Ember meeting the Unykorn, drawing out the parallels with Shenavyre. But I'm very happy to receive any story, from something slashy with the Myrmidons/Soulweavers to a segue back on earth. Glynn and Chaos would go well together, or maybe something much more original talking about the visionweavers and whether their weavings have the ability to manipulate fate.

This was an unfilled request from last year, the only one I really wanted to keep. The few times I have ventured into the lands of Carmody-fanfiction I've been disappointed, and I'm not sure why. I suspect it may just be that she attracts many younger fans, but I love her more adult series, and hope some day that the fanfiction will be equal to the original.

Mina de Malfois (Any)

Mina! Arc! Joshen! Xena! Fandom! Hmm. that's not exactly a request, is it? I would love a story from the point of view of one of the other characters, about fandom drama, and Mina and how she gets out of a scrape. As slashy or not as you like it.

Suffice to say that I've read everything in the fandom, and want to see something new. If you've said you're going to write Mina you probably love all the same things about it as I do, because you're a fan, and you see aspects of yourself in all the characters... Now that I think about it, I'm surprised there isn't more self-insert Minafic. I suppose it would be sacrilegious.

Battle Royale (Any)

How the program changes us all into monsters. Hints of bittersweet longing for the past and friendships lost. Would slightly prefer something about one of the more minor characters than the leads, but am happy with whatever. Based on the book preferred, though the movie was a good adaption. I've only read volume one of the translated manga and hated the reality tv setting.

Oh my did I hate the reality tv setting. I seem to recall too that they had to do some rather horrible rewriting in the later volumes because whoever it was that had that bright idea had never even read the ending. So let's just agree that the manga should be avoided.

This one's my token movie request, because I wanted to be sure that there was something for you to fall back on if you were a book requestee and needed an emergency change of fandoms. And there's so much room for writing any genre of fanfic here. Violent deathfic, hatesex, quiet sadness before the dawn, sweet romance in the face of adversity, pretty much everything is up for grabs. And I will read it all.

I guess that's it (and it ended up much more longwinded than I was expecting (which I should have expected after last year's letter)). I just want to say "thank you" again for using some of your precious spare time to write for me. I'm looking forward to reading it. *grins*

Labels: fanfiction, I am a fanfic whore, writing, yuletide

Yuletide, woo!...

What does it say about me that the fandoms I requested were Mordant's Need (Stephen Donaldson), the Legendsong (Isobelle Carmody), Mina de Malfois and Battle Royale? Worse, that Princess Tutu was only cut at the last minute because I realised that it was overrepresented in the requests and that I could probably find the fiction I wanted elsewhere on the internet?

Clearly I'm a crazy fantasy fan who is into meta and also loves laughing at fandom. When I'm not trying to kill everyone.

Anyway, anyone reading this who is a fan of something but believes that no one else on the internet is into it should totally go to the Yuletide site and sign up for the fiction exchange. It's great fun and you meet all sorts of interesting peoples. And get fanfiction out of it.

Labels: books, childrens literature, yuletide

Labels: fanfiction, magic, yuletide

• Meeting James' Aunt Fiona, who I've heard so much about and reminds me of my Aunty Cathy.
• The York Minster, a giant cathedral made of awesome that was somewhat confused as to whether it was a medieval catholic church, a modern church of england church or a war memorial. Loved every second.
• Ice skating in York outside the castle. Magic.
• The Roman bath house at the end of James' street. Oldest building I've ever explored the foundations of.
• The walls of York, which interestingly enough keep the inner city a few degrees warmer than the outer (this may be psychological, and the difference between -1 and +1 C is not that noticeable at the best of time).
• The house in Ribchester - except when it's frozen because the boiler went into an alarm mode while we were away and it was bloody freezing when we got back. Jackets inside is not fun.
• My Fourth Doctor Scarf. I would have died without this.
• Marks and Spencer's. I don't know why, but I love it. At least the food hall anyway.
• Actually, all English supermarkets. They're great (and well heated so they're a good place to hide for a few minutes when you can't feel your toes *grins*). Oh, and they sell grog right there in the last aisle.
• The fact that in lots of places the frost doesn't melt until 3-4pm (after the sun has gone down).
• The fact that the sun goes down at 3-4pm.
• The Cold War bunker. Words cannot convey how awesome that place was. So creepy and yet fascinating. Drew would have really dug it.
• Stumbling across perfect gifts for my peoples in random little stores.

Labels: england, holiday, what toes, winter wonderland, yuletide

Labels: astronomy, losing sleep, yuletide

Labels: 1000 words, deadlines hurt my brain, writing, yuletide