hypothetically speaking

most excellent news for mac vidders!

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:06:54 GMT

friends! did you know that the newest version of MPEG Streamclip for Mac now has .mkv support? MKV SUPPORT! YOU CAN OPEN AND WORK WITH MKVs! This is extremely exciting. I have right here a giant, 2GB .mkv file, I opened it in MPEG Streamclip, and then I was able to easily export a .dv clip from it for vidding purposes, and it took seconds rather than the HOURS it takes via Quicktime. Also if I wanted to I could export to .mov or .avi or whatever.

It's not practical for converting whole mkv files to avi (unless you've only got one or two of them to convert and have lots of patience) but it's IDEAL for vidding. Oh MPEG Streamclip! You and I are bffs more than ever.

(This version of MPEG Streamclip, 1.9.3b2, was released last August and can be downloaded here.)

\o/

this is me watching supernatural

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:25:32 GMT

I've been watching Supernatural in order to vid it in this multivid I'm making. I've watched many many episodes now, or large parts of them at least.

( cut for disconnected rambling about SPN, SGA, misogyny, racism, and my own freakout )

possibly my new favourite youtube video

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:07:42 GMT

this is a youtube video of a three year old crying over Justin Bieber. It is so brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTCm8tdHkfI

Kid's Mom: "We don't have to cry because we love Justin Bieber."
Kid: "Yeah we do, sometimes."

THAT IS LIKE ETERNAL UNIVERSAL TRUTH RIGHT THERE. This kid knows where it's at. God, she's just so smart. Give her twenty years, she'll be writing the most heartwrenching Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek XIX fic you've ever read.

"Scatplay," I said, and then regretted it.

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:27:33 GMT

I accidentally said the word "scatplay" in conversation with one of my committee members today. Whoops. I also said "lesbian D/s power dynamics," just like that, dee-ess, which I'm not sure if that even makes sense to people who don't talk like that all the time. To be fair, I was talking about Gertrude Stein! And the scatplay and D/s were ttly topics of discussion in the book I was telling him about. But, um. Most people don't just blurt out the word scatplay suddenly without provocation in academic meetings. Note to self: don't do kink_bingo prep before going into a meeting.

Another item in my defense is that he brought up the idea that Holmes and Watson are gay for each other early in the conversation, and from then on I was off my guard. I had to do that "EMERGENCY SEPARATION SEQUENCE!" thing you do when you try to filter information in your brain so that what comes out of your mouth is academic and not fannish (and the two are kind of the same for me, so that's hard!). It's sort of like I was the Starship Enterprise in "Encounter at Farpoint," and I'd split myself in two, and I had to make sure that my answers came only from the saucer section and not the stardrive section. My success at doing so was moderate.

-

Other news: today is my vid-iversary! Two years ago today, I put up on the internet my very first vid, which was that one about how we like to look at John Sheppard on his knees. Since then, I have learned some things about vidding! I hope. For contrast, here's my most recent vid. Man, I wish I could make a billion vids all the time. Vidding is so great. I should really just get a job as a nightshift mechanic at a milk-bottling factory so that I can devote all my time to vidding. And fic.

-

Other other news: I'm probably going to be a bit in and out over the next month or two, as I have Big Scary School Stuff coming up. I'm super stressed about it and basically it's eating up my LIFE. I feel bad that I still haven't finished any of the stories I promised for help_haiti, but I can't see myself finding the time and stress-free mental space to do so in the next little while. So, I'm sorry! Also I'm sorry if I'm boring for a bit. I have to devote my energies to thinking about Gertrude Stein. And scatplay.

oh my goodness, show. seriously.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:37:50 GMT

I srsly can't believe that that White Collar season finale even happened. Like, did I DREAM THAT? Am I MAKING IT UP? Oh show! You make my heart go thump. Please always be this delightful and unselfconscious and sweet and queer. When is it going to be time for season two when? I love it too much for it to go away so soon!

Also, not for nothin, but I counted five (or six, depending) recurring female characters in that episode, several of whom were women of colour. Rock on. Here's hoping they all get a little more to do next season!

Other news from today: I cut my hair! Which I mean literally - I personally took scissors to my own head this morning. Those who've met me know that I've had long hair for a while now, down past my shoulders; now it's up about my ears. I missed you, short hair! I missed you, curls! There's really nothing like cutting your own hair in a sudden and severe manner. I am now READY FOR SUMMER BRING IT ON SUNSHINE.

(PS, on the to crosspost/not to crosspost question . . . I'm not there yet, as I would have to do complicated journal migration things first. So, no worries just now. More news as it occurs.)

eta: 'ware spoilers for the White Collar season finale in the comments.

I have THREE THINGS to say

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:39:09 GMT

ONE! Oh god LJ, seriously? It kind of amazes me how poorly they're handling their business. Like, they have this fanbase of clientele who are relatively settled in and don't want to move and have to be actively pissed off on a constant basis before they will move, and what do they do? Provide fodder for the pissing-off on a constant basis. Jeez louise. All they have to do is not suck, and they can't manage that! Well folks, Dreamwidth just gave me ten more invite codes (smart timing on their part) and I'll give them to anyone who asks. Sigh, also I have to seriously think about getting rid of my LJ altogether. Like, maybe keep the posts that had fic, but delete the fic content and link back to the DW posts (so that links don't get broken)? And delete everything else. And stop cross-posting.

I am considering stopping the crossposting. What do you guys think? Would it cramp anyone's life to have to follow me on DW? Speak now if it would. I . . . might do it anyway, but. There are like five LJ people who I love so much and don't want to lose touch with, but. But.

TWO! My computer was broken for a WHOLE DAY. Turns out it was the power cord, which is *whew* - I was worried it might be the port the power cord goes in, which would've been a lot harder to fix. But then I got a new power cord at the Apple Store (though I had to drive to Syracuse today to get it, since I wanted it NOW NOW NOW) and now all is well again. But, what I mean is, it stopped charging completely two days ago, and my battery is old and has no powers, and so I had to like read a book all night instead of being on the internet, or watching tv on my laptop, or doing kink bingo prep on my laptop, or writing fic on my laptop . . . I would be useless in the apocalypse. I can't function without this machine. *cuddles machine*

THREE! eruthros and I went to the very-far-away Win Li Oriental Market yesterday while we had our rental car (for the aforementioned driving to Syracuse) and it was GREAT! We bought many things (omg Maesri brand curry paste! We fouuuuund you!), but most importantly, guys, I found a package of pineapple cookies that look exactly like the pineapple-almond cookies from Twitch City that always looked so delicious and that I wanted to try. They are indeed delicious. Case closed. I may go get more.

FOUR! - I - okay, I have FOUR THINGS to say! The fourth thing is, today and tomorrow are the last days to leave prompts over at tentacle_fest! It's a fest of tentacles, folks, how can you resist? And it's freeee to leave prompts, so you can leave some even if you don't think you'll be able to write stories. I personally rather adore tentacle stories, so I do hope this catches on!

(can I say, too, how glad I am to see that no one so far is leaving anonymous prompts? I mean, I get why anonymity can be a powerful/useful thing in kink memes, but it also always makes me feel a little sad. So this is nice!)

THIS POST WILL IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:12:25 GMT

. . . because, okay, the subject of this post has definitely improved MY life. I am completely overwhelmed with joy and with awwwwwwwwww. You see, chagrined sent me a present. Zie told me that I was going to receive a present sometime soon, and I was all, WHAT COULD IT BE? ANTICIPATION. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would be something so cute, so awesome, so lolstastic as this.

Can you guess what my present was? No? What if I told you it was MYTHBUSTERS-RELATED? Still no? Well, then you should ( look under the cut! (photos, safe for work) )

. . . siiiiigh, I am so happy. THANK YOU FOR MY PRESENT, chagrined!!! And thank you to the person who actually made these little guys, as well - I don't know your DW/LJ name, but I love you an awful lot for making these, srsly. You are AMAZING.

JOY

Happy Happy Birthday Toft!

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:19:48 GMT

Today is the day of the anniversary of the birth of my most favourite toft! I am very glad to celebrate her existence in the world. So, since it's what she wanted for her birthday, I made her this:

New Podfic: Normal Working Relationship (Mythbusters, Jamie/Adam)
written by toft, read by me, cover art by eruthros
text of story, with warnings and header info

download m4b || download mp3

[~20mb, 44m31s]

Dearest toft, I hope this podfic brings you as much joy as your story brought me in the first place; it is but a token of my vast affection. You mean the world to me, and I love you to an almost ridiculous degree, and I want you to have nothing but the best. Here's hoping that the year to come will be full of delights and wonders and contentment for you, as well as, incidentally, more Mythbusters kinkfic.

*confetti*

I call this meeting to order

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:19:21 GMT

First, old business! Let me say THANK YOU to all who voted in my Extremely Important Poll the other day. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see that the balance of people believe John Sheppard to be worse at dirty talk than an ANDROID or AN ANGEL WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND PLANET EARTH. oh lolz.

And now on to new business! In my capacity as kink_bingo mod, I am asking for your help. Please please please go over here and tell eruthros about your fandom and its kinks. We're looking for examples of kinky fandom moments for the kink wiki, and you - yes, you! random fan on the street! - can ttly be of great help to us. If you have ever, like, seen tv or read a comic book or anything, you qualify for this task.

Other new business: wow, there are many many many new people around here since last week! Welcome, new people. I automatically grant access to anyone who subscribes, in order to give you access to this set of posts. If you're a new person, you don't have to be shy about commenting or anything - just feel free to drop in and comment any old time. If you subscribed for the fat acceptance activism, well . . . I hope you also like fandom! I talk about fannish stuff a lot.

I require you to take this extremely serious poll about dirty talk!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:53:56 GMT

View Poll: Dirty Talk: break it down for me.

. . . and, you know, feel free to agitate for your favourites in the comments! Feel free to demonstrate, if you like, what different characters' dirty talk would sound like. I for one am dying to hear Gus's attempt.

but, seriously: THIS GUY?

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:27:25 GMT

hahahahaha, okay, I am laughing uncontrollably and just have to share with all of you. As you may know, eruthros and I are making little Kink Bingo-related videos, and she just passed me a memory stick with three of them - one for costumes, one for foot fetish, and one for obedience. And the obedience one was this SGA scene:

. . . and I burst out laughing, as I said, uncontrollably. CAN YOU GUYS EVEN BELIEVE THAT JOHN SHEPPARD SOUNDS LIKE THAT? He is so nasal and hilarious and chews up every single phoneme until it becomes an S! Oh god, I had to watch the bits where he says "the weapons systems were damaged" and "I do say so, and right now I'm saying knock it off" like, over and over, and just could not stop the laughs from coming. AS IF I watched FIVE SEASONS of a show where THAT GUY was the lead! Holy crap. Amazing. This is the great thing about SGA - if you spend enough time reading the fic and not watching the show, you'll eventually forget that the fic is in fact 300% less ridiculous than the show, and thus every time you come back to the actual episodes it's delightfully shocking.

Also, it's gorgeous that Ronon enjoys the chain of command so much, but I hope to god that he found someone better at giving orders than Sheppard, after this episode. Teyla? Rodney? Elizabeth? Zelenka? The idea of John ordering people around in bed is endearing, but I can't really see it, um, ever working.

this is so much bullshit, I cannot even tell you how much bullshit it is

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:21:44 GMT

Those of you who follow kateharding.net or shakesville or other feminist/fat acceptance websites - or who follow Kevin Smith's twitter - will have heard about Smith getting kicked off a Southwest flight for being fat. This has started up again discussion of Whether It's Too Gross To Even Deal With If I Have To Sit Next to a Fucking Fatty on an Airplane, and so Kate Harding, my hero, wrote an excellent article on flying while fat for Salon.com.

Now, I did one of those things that you should never ever do: if reading about women's rights, fat acceptance, any kind of politics, racial discrimination, prejudice or privilege of pretty much any kind, do not read the comments. Just don't do it! I know this rule, and yet I break it all the time, out of some sort of horrible self-destructive desire. ANYWAY, in this case, I broke that rule, and read like five pages of comments at that Salon.com article before I had to stop.

( this is pretty much going to devolve into angry rant territory )

a meme!

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:19:56 GMT

such_heights is doing this meme, and I don't know, I guess I felt like doing a meme! So here it is. The deal is: comment and I'll give you three of your fandoms, then copy and paste the questions onto your journal and fill it out. I commented at such_heights' place, and she gave me Mythbusters, Farscape, and White Collar. Aw, she knows what I like. Though - actually, hm. Those fandoms are kind of hard to do with these questions! Ah well, I will try.

( I answer questions about Mythbusters, Farscape, and White Collar )

Okay, that's plenty of time wasted this morning! I should go do something productive now.

just for funsies!

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:37:53 GMT

so, I made this little compilation video for the kink bingo wiki (coming May 2010!), but then it was so adorable that eruthros insisted that I share it with you guys now - she said, and I agree, that this kind of thing is too awesome to just put on the KB wiki and nowhere else.

toft, I hope this video doesn't make you feel too conflicted.

THE MYTHBUSTERS DEMONSTRATE THE "WET AND MESSY" KINK:

. . . the things I do for kink bingo, man. anyway, there's a little wiki preview for you! we are having an awful lot of fun with it right now.

PS I love Mythbusters!

fic-wrangling and vid-wrangling and other random chatter

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:38:11 GMT

siiiigh, I am so not on schedule with my help_haiti fics, which are supposed to be done by the 14th, I think. But! I did write 2000 words today, which is more words than 0 words (the wordcount for the last several days). So perhaps I am getting over this round of writer's blaaaah. I'm writing three fics for my three bidders, in three different fandoms (well, one's a crossover, but three fandoms altogether) and for some reason decided to write the SGA one first - I guess because I thought it'd be harder? I don't know. Anyway, so, I've now got about 4000 words of this SGA story, and it's just getting wackier by the second, and also longer, in that kind of out of control way that fic (and especially SGA fic) sometimes does. Ah well. I don't know what my point is, except, I guess I wrote something today? And maybe: I hope I'm able to finish these stories soon! I don't want to leave my generous buyers hanging.

Another thing of note for me today is that I am REALLY REALLY EXCITED about VividCon all of a sudden, probably because I am now planning this Epic Fannish Roadtrip to get there. It's at the point now where I'm like, okay, I think I need a bigger car! It's gonna be me and eruthros and livrelibre, I think, plus possibly isagel and toft, and then I thought, hmmm, if driving from here to Chicago, ought we not to stop and pick up chagrined on our way? (not that I've actually asked chagrined about this, but it does make sense). Which makes six people, which is too many for my usual type of car rental (pretty little Priuses) unless we put toft in the hatchspace or something.

Hatchspace is also the title of my most recent screenplay, coming to you soon as a SyFy Original Feature Film. Starring David Hewlett.

ANYWAY, very excited about VVC, and hoping to gosh that I can get some actual vids made for it! I have a lot of great vids that I want to make right now, but I think I've figured out which two I'm going to actually do for VVC. Weirdly, the other night I was listening to my "Vid Songs" playlist that I keep in itunes - you know the one, the place you keep all those songs where you're like "this is the Scully vid I am going to make someday," and "this song is so obviously about Gus and Shawn but it's not really very viddable!" and anyway, I was listening to that playlist and I was near-overcome with the urge to make these two related Doctor Who vids that I have had in my brain for ages now. They would be such great vids. You would probably cry. But I do not have the wherewithal right now to go through all of Old Who to make these vids, so your tear ducts are for the moment spared.

ANOTHER THING I AM POSTING ABOUT SINCE I'M HERE: Farscape. Oh man. eruthros and I are doing a huge Farscape rewatch, since I bought the dvds when they were on sale in December. I haven't seen it in aaaaages! I forgot how much I love this show.

I actually am beginning to really believe that Farscape is the best scifi series ever produced, y/n? It's just so . . . there's so much putting of things into John's body, seriously every episode for the first seven episodes there is something significant and alien being put in John's body in order to make him less human in some way, and lo it is awesome. Also there's lots of sweating and vomiting and crying and just . . . bodies! Farscape is a scifi show that has bodies in it, and even cooler, that has different kinds of bodies in it, and explores the ways in which alien bodies might be, like, alien. That is my favourite thing about it. Plus the writing is so good that I become deeply emotionally involved with muppet characters. And the ladies kick ass in a variety of ways. And Ben Browder is superhot in Peacekeeper drag. Also when he cries. And Claudia Black manages to be absolutely SMOKING hot when she's, like, sweaty and ponytailed and wearing full shapeless body-armour. It's funny, isn't it, how she's hotter on Farscape than on SG-1, even though on SG-1 she was constantly wearing a leather bustier. Oh my god AERYN. I would marry her if she didn't scare me a little too much.

END OF RAMBLE.

those however many little words

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:08:20 GMT

Today, to make you smile, I present: emotionally bizarre people say "I love you." I've been in a lot of fandoms, and in most of those fandoms there was an OTP who had their own idiosyncratic little way of expressing their affectionate feelings - in X-Files, it was "I trust you;" in due South, it was always some version of "Partners?" "Partners." And in SGA, it was usually, "wanna get something to eat?" (least romantic show ever).

But how does a Mythbuster say I love you? Like this, my friends. From the second Alaska special:

Awwwwwwwww.

And while I'm at it, here's another little video that makes me happy! It's Granada-series Holmes, doing that wonderful canon line that they also used in the recent film, the "grand gift of silence" line. Which sort of implies that Holmes says I love you by being a complete asshole, and Watson says it by not killing him. But I don't know, this clip fills me with joy all the time. The theme is basically, "Holmes is a sensitive/sensual genius and Watson is really grumpy," so I mean it's great. From "The Man With the Twisted Lip":

Those are two things that I hope will make you happy if you are not already feeling happy today.

it's like Slash Classic!

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:42:58 GMT

Oh White Collar. Your slash is so old-school loving and innocent and undefensive! It's like watching The Sentinel, or Starsky and Hutch, except without the women being dead all the time. And I love how your plots make NO SENSE, but your D/s dynamic always hangs together perfectly. Never change. ( other things about white collar that should never change - spoilers for 1x10 )

Other news: sigh, right now I have writer's blaaaah. It's like writer's block, but not so energetic. With writer's block there's this sense of a solid object barring your way forward, something to fight against, it's all very manly and noble and possibly sweaty. But with writer's blaaaah it's like, I don't WANNA write, writing is HARD, I'm TIRED, who even knows what scene goes here anyway. I hate having writer's blaaaah, as it is currently making the fics on my fic roster (three help_haiti fics and four prompt-fics) harder to finish. blaaaah.

I need some old-school vidder-fu!

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:46:34 GMT

Can anyone give me a rundown on how to transfer something from VHS to a digital file (or a dvd)? I have:

-a VCR
-a MacBook Pro
-S video cables (but I think the DV port on my computer that goes into my S video cable is out-only)
-probably other cables as well

I could probably get access to a camcorder or a PC, if such things were needed. But the process must be easier than that. The internet won't give me a straight answer on this, and so I come to you, the internet, for your advice.

FESTIVIIIIIIIIDS!

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:32:32 GMT

So, because it won't turn up on anyone's flist or rlist due to being dated out of order, here is a link to my festivids vid post! The vid I made is called "Here it Goes Back Again," and it's a Back to the Future vid, made with care for valika56.

(nixwilliams, you are probably not too surprised given our recent conversations!)

fan_eunice did guess in chat that this was my vid, but I provided rather copious clues first. :) I think I was pretty incognito on this one!

I had a ton of fun making it, even if it was a struggle at points, and definitely want to participate again next year if I can. I would love for festivids to be a little further from Yuletide, in whichever direction, just because having those two deadlines on top of one another was pretty exhausting, but overall yay! I can't DEAL with how many great vids this challenge produced.

Also, check it out, it turns out that rhoboat made my wonderful gift-vid, Every Star You Chase, for Red Dwarf. Aw! Gift exchanges are amazing, you guys - cool people make you cool things! *dances*

seriously, though

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:04:45 GMT

does anyone want Dreamwidth invite codes? I have a bunch here going spare. comment to this post or email me and I'll give you one. some advantages to Dreamwidth over LJ:

-DW doesn't have ads
-DW doesn't have ads that infect your computer with malware
-DW isn't an asshole towards genderqueer/transgender people
-DW isn't an asshole towards any user who offers a critique or asks a question
-DW in my experience has unscheduled downtime less frequently than LJ, even though it's newer and smaller and has fewer people working there
-DW has yet to be caught lying to their users
-DW doesn't have ads that infect your computer with malware
-DW isn't an asshole towards genderqueer/transgender people
-DW has many pretty features and fancy gadgets and doohickeys - the ones I like best are "posts can be like five times as long" and "comments can be like five times as long" and "you can have separate subscribe/access lists" and "I have so many icon slots I don't even know what to do with them," but there are many more.

And, more importantly, there's community over here now. I know some people were reluctant to move last year because their peeps were sticking to LJ, and that's understandable, but hey - many cool and familiar peeps are on DW now! Very few people are sticking to LJ exclusively these days, and heck, you can always keep up with them via crossposting and OpenID, even if they aren't ever going to move. We have done the work of building the roads and the post office and the town hall and look - there's room for you here. There's community for you here.

If you already crosspost, why not consider having your comments at DW-only? Having the discussion in one place has many advantages, DW allows comments to be much much longer (yay for commentfic! yay for kinkmemes and pornbattles!), and that way, nobody will be exposed to malware while checking in on a discussion in your comments.

If you are the mod of a community, why not consider moving that community full-time to DW? That's what eruthros and I did with kink_bingo (a DW-only community), and even with the move our membership went up by over 150% from year one to year two. It's an active, thriving, and more importantly growing community over here, and a wonderful place to grow your community, too. We're really thrilled with the community management features here - like hierarchical tags (oh, hierarchical tags!), more tags for your dollar (up to 2000 on DW, vs LJ's max of 1200), and auto-mod-email (basically, as a mod I can check a box to get notifications anytime anyone in the comm comments on any post). They're working on other cool community management tools, too - like, for example, having different "levels" of comm admins (so you can designate helpers for low-level comm management, like tagging or approving posts, without giving them full modly powers). Plus, as someone who mods a community that enthusiastically allows underage fic/art, I feel much much safer here on DW. Overall, as a mod and as an individual user, I like DW because it's still growing - on LJ, it seems, even when features aren't actively being destroyed, there are no new features coming down the pipe. On DW, they're constantly working to offer us more, more, more, more for the price of less, and that's exciting and invigorating.

If you have a large community whose needs aren't currently being met by LJ, why not talk to denise directly about moving, and whether moving your community would be to your advantage? My understanding is that DW is willing to give moving communities bunches of invite codes, help with the moving process, help with layouts, whatever you need, so it needn't be a daunting process. And while you're considering that, consider what it's like to live at a journaling site where you can contact the head cheese directly, and she (she!) will listen to you.

Just in case you're wondering what you're missing, or whether the things you love can be found at DW as well, some other wonderful dreamwidth comms include:

scans_daily
vidding
veni_vidi_vids
myth_confirmed
holmes_watson
vulcanreforged
queerlygen
transfic
white_collar
podficmeta
you_know_thats_right
access_fandom
vorkosigan
girlgay
smallfandomfics
amplificathon

. . . and many more! Those are just, like, some comms I like. There is an incomplete list of DW comms up at this page, or you can see what comms people are promoting over at dw_community_promo, or you can just search the site (because, wow, DW's site-searching features actually work).

eta: ooooh, I didn't know about this, but apparently Dreamwidth received DMCA takedown notices back in December, targeted at scans_daily, and was awesome about it. Oh I have stars in my eyes!

wheeee kink bingo!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:22:18 GMT

don't let the subject line alarm you - it is still January, kink bingo isn't until June, you didn't lose time and wake up six months later I promise you. But eruthros and I are the ~~obsessive, control freak~~ responsible, hard-working sort of mods, and we are starting our planning early. Last year we did a bunch of ancillary posts to fanfare the opening of the challenge (icons, music, kink wiki, etc) and this year we are striving to outdo ourselves. :) So it is a lot of fun!

Of course the first step in kink bingo planning is always working out what this year's list of kinks will be - as always, we delete some, we merge some, we split some up, we add new ones, it's a whole process. I'm so excited about some of this year's kinks! I'm not going to spoil you (lol) for the full list, but I am quite tickled by the categories into which we've grouped this year's kinks, namely:

roleplay - states of mind - body alteration - unhuman - situational - positions - D/s dynamics - humiliation - body part fetishes - bondage - edgeplay - sensation play - auditory - impact play/painplay - clothing - performance - toys

Just the categories themselves make me so excited for this year's round!

(speaking of the kinks list, okay, coughcough, we currently have one free spot in the kink roster, and are considering several candidates for the position. If there's something we haven't covered before that you'd like us to cover, drawing it to my attention here is one way to perhaps get it on the list. Assuming you didn't already mention it over at the kink bingo kink discussion post, that is.)

ANYWAY, this post is partially to share my excitement, and partially to mention that eruthros and I do sometimes record our conversations so that we can later remember the things we said, and sometimes I wonder whether you, the interet, would be interested in being privy to such conversations. Would you? Is it just massive ego on my part to think it's interesting to anyone but us to listen in on how we make and discuss the kinks list? Well, if you're interested in hearing such a thing, feel free to speak up. If not, we'll say no more about it. :)

In conclusion: wheeeee kink bingo! Kink bingo planning is almost my favourite part of the whole thing, in a weird way. It's like when you clean your house top to bottom and bake a cake and make a wonderful dinner for your friends, and then you sit and wait for them to arrive and admire the cleanliness and smell the food smells and get ready to welcome them in. It's that kind of pleasure - the anticipatory joy of making space for people you love.

argh too many links! long post is long!

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:48:22 GMT

I have too too many recs and links to give you guys! I think I'll fall back on that old friend . . . THE NUMBERED LIST.

1) Apologies to those who requested drabbles who haven't received them yet - I promise I am working on them! I hope to get a few more done tonight. But I have written a bunch of them that folks might be interested in, so here are some links to the "drabbles" I've finished. Yes, one of them is 2000 words and none of them is less than 900, what of that? I am constitutionally incapable of brevity. As this post shall illustrate.

Roped In, Sherlock Holmes, Holmes/Watson, breathplay, pre-movie, for kanata
Grounded, ST:AOS, Uhura + pals, gen, for such_heights
Operation Quiet Panther, SGA, OT4, for blushingflower
how to feel better, Mythbusters/The Sentinel fusion, Jamie is a sentinel, for toft
Circuit, Sherlock Holmes, Holmes/Watson, electricity, post-movie, for damned_colonial
The Pie Job, Leverage, OT3, for fish_echo

2) And speaking of the drabble meme! It has produced many fics that have poked me delightfully in the heart. Just a couple of those include John Henry split this heart split this full moon heart, a Mythbusters Adam/Jamie post-apocalyptic story by gloss, which I love SO MUCH I cannot even tell you, and Stargaze, by toft, a Psych Gus/Shawn story that is so full of cuteness and adorable detective boyfriend-ness that I actually tried to hug my computer screen when I read it.

3) Sherlock Holmes fandom! Sherlock Holmes fandom is blossoming delightfully, I must say. Some vids I have thoroughly enjoyed in this fandom include giandujakiss's most excellent untitled Holmes vid thing and settiai's lovely Watson/Holmes/Irene vid, The Boxer. For those who like a little more of the old-fashioned Holmes, I must recommend dkwilliams's fabulous Holmes/Watson vid Your Mistake, which is a vid to the Granada series and absolutely fills me with awwwww. It's also a great showcase of how fun and physical the Granada series is. So, that's vids; some STORIES I have thoroughly enjoyed in this fandom include Change of Plans, by blue_soaring, which is fantastically hot Holmes/Watson, really well characterized, and Infinite Variations Upon a Single Moment, by lisztful, which has (re)awakened in me the desire for Holmes/Watson transfic, yay!

4) Speaking of that Watson/Holmes/Irene vid up there, have you guys noticed how many fabulous OT3 vids there have been lately? OT3 vidding is developing into its own bigass genre all of a sudden! Here are the OT3 vids of my heart: Apple Candy (Spock/Uhura/Kirk) and Imma Be (Parker/Hardison/Eliot), both by talitha78; and, from the festivids collection, Let's Misbehave (Elizabeth/Peter/Neal) and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (Oliver/Geoffrey/Ellen). OH TEE THREEEEES! I love them so. All of those vids are so amazing, too, you'll love them I promise. The White Collar one is so great, I cannot wait to find out who made it.

5) Speaking of festivids, I haven't done festivids recs at ALL yet, have I? Okay, well, here you go. Some wonderful as-yet-unknown person made me a sweet and hilarious Red Dwarf vid called Every Star You Chase, which is just as silly and cracked-out and lil-bit-heartbreaking as the show itself; it was a fabulous gift to receive, and made me oh so happy! Other people also received cool gifts, many many cool gifts, but I will give you a little list of my very top favourites. Really there's something for everyone at festivids, and I recommend that you just cruise through the masterlist and watch everything you can, because seriously there is a lot of quality. Okay. But, if you can't watch them all, in addition to the aforementioned White Collar and Slings and Arrows vids, you should be sure not to miss:

Past In Present (Chak De! India) - omg LADIES SPORTS FILM VID! I have not yet watched this without involuntarily exclaiming "awwww!" at the end of it, srsly.
Never Be (Criminal Minds) - brilliantly edited, difficult to watch, and full of hard triumph. Amazing work.
Radar (Die Hard) - It's just like watching the Die Hard movies, but compressed into this tiny space so that it's CONCENTRATED AWESOME.
Facts of Life (Facts of Life) - it is FACTS OF LIFE FEMSLASH YOU GUYS. What else do you need to know?
No Fate (Flashforward) - I haven't kept up with this series, but holy SHIT this vid makes me reconsider that decision. OH JOHN CHO!
Cemeteries of London (Forever Knight) - I didn't know you could still make a non-ironic Forever Knight vid and make it interesting and compelling! But friends you CAN, and this is it.
Enchantment (Kamikaze Girls) - oh god, so sweet and soft and cracked out and violent and AWESOME. ttly hot vid.
One (Magnum PI) - again, who knew this could be nonironic and still compelling? This vid made me feel emotionally invested in TOM SELLECK's PTSD, yall.
Le Disko (Neverending Story) - again with the amazing crack!
The Transported Man (The Prestige) - god, I wish the FILM gave me the kind of shivers that this vid gives me. Gorgeous, gorgeous editing, amazing clip choice, omg.
Feel It (SYTYCD) - wheeeeeeeeee!
Lullabye for a Stormy Night (The Sound of Music) - oh my goodness, MARIA! and LIESL! I ship them secretly, but really this vid is about their friendship and strength, and the strength that Maria brings to everyone around her awwww.
Passenger Fever (Twin Peaks) - chilling and disconcerting and beautiful.
Mr Blue Sky (Wall-E) - really wonderfully edited vid about ROBOTS IN LOVE! I adored the vid, but oh god, the fatphobia of the source still puts me off so much that I almost can't deal. But it is a beautiful vid.

6) WHEW THIS WAS A LONG POST. Next time I will not let things build up so, I promise.

two hours to go at help_haiti!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:01:34 GMT

There are only two hours left until bidding closes at help_haiti! If you're one of those people who waits for an ebay auction to get down to the last ten seconds and then swoops in, now is your moment.

My thread is here.

prompt-fic meme!

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:57:54 GMT

I've been thinking I should get back into doing prompt-fic again (remember when I used to do it all the time? I miss those days) and this meme seems like a good way to go about it. So, voila:

Meme: The first ten people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble (loose definition of term) for any pairing/OT3/OT4/character of their choosing. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level. Some other equivalent gift, like icons or mini-fanmixes or quickie meta, would make sense for people who don't (want to) write fic themselves. [You don't have to, really, I'm not going to check. But feel free to say that I made you do it, if that's what you're into.]

So prompt me in: Sherlock Holmes, Mythbusters, Leverage, Hustle, White Collar, ST:AOS, Psych, or SGA. Yall know which characters and pairings and moresomes I like, right? If anyone would prefer meta to fic, I can prolly do that too, just give me a topic or an episode to talk about or what have you.

1. kanata (Sherlock Holmes, H/W, perhaps a bit of breathplay) - done! Roped In
2. such_heights (ST:AOS, Uhura, away mission) - done! Grounded
3. blushingflower (SGA, OT4, cuddling and perhaps kinky sex) - done! Operation Quiet Panther
4. toft (Mythbusters, Jamie is a Sentinel) - done! how to feel better
5. chagrined (Mythbusters, Adam/Jamie something something)
6. damned_colonial (Sherlock Holmes, H/W, electric fork experiments) - done! Circuit
7. fish_echo (Leverage, OT3, pie and/or unicorns) - done! The Pie Job
8. anoel (something about The West Wing probably)
9. rheanna (Sherlock Holmes, Watson Holmes and Adler, bondage)
10. feanna (ST: AOS, some combination of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and/or McCoy)

ALSO, REMINDER: even though I'm sorta giving it away for free here, I want to remind everyone that I'm still up for sale over at help_haiti; and over there, instead of drabbles, you get stories of at least 1000 words (and let's face it they're likely to be longer), with probably some thought put into them! There are only 25 hours left to go in bidding, as it closes at noon EST January 20th, and all three fics that I'm offering are still relatively reasonably priced. My thread is here. It's obviously a really important cause, so if fic by me doesn't do it for you, maybe go skim the community threads for someone more to your taste, see if you can find yourself an excuse to give money. They now have posts up indexing offers by fandom, so you can just go, "hmmm, who's offered Merlin fic?" and find yourself someone you like who'll write you Merlin fic, or whatever. There are some seriously tiny fandoms on offer, too. Also there are offers for vids, art, manips, podfic, icons, food, crafts, care packages, postcards, you name it.

a couple of links for you

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:45:07 GMT

1) This post by bookshop is . . . it pretty much says everything I've been feeling over the last few years, captures exactly the feelings I have about fic and slash - I really could not have put it better myself. I emphatically agree with every last single damn word of that post. I had this dream a couple years ago, in which John and Rodney kissed - standard fan fantasy dream, right? Except, no, because the really important thing about the dream was that I was sitting on the couch with my SGA-watching buddy and we were watching the tv show Stargate Atlantis on which John and Rodney were kissing, suddenly, as a regular part of the show. That was the fantasy: not the kiss, but the screen on which that kiss could take place. Not the idea of the kiss itself, but the idea of being a queer woman who could sit on her couch and see that kiss on any old tv show. Sometimes I want that so badly it hurts.

. . .

yeah.

2) on a COMPLETELY different topic - or, whatever, as symptom of the same yearning - yesterday I read katieforsythe's new Holmes/Watson story, Softly and Suddenly, and dudes it made me cry. It was incredibly painful to read, and while I wouldn't necessarily say it had a sad ending - there's a lot that's positive in the ending - it is also not something I would ever categorize as ending happily. The pain the characters are in was so realistic, so believable that I almost couldn't stand to read it at certain points. God, her Sherlock Holmes fic is so amazing.

3) I've also been reading some other good fic in the last few days - I don't know, I go on these ups and downs where I'm either reading nothing for weeks or reading everything I can find. Anyway, the stuff I've liked, I've tagged as always at my delicious - some Holmes, some White Collar, a lil Holmes09 RPS, a lil SGA. Tentacles. OT3s. My usual fare. If you're bored or looking for recs, well, there you go.

4) Okay, this isn't a link so much as a request for links. I badly need some Holmes09, White Collar, and Being Human icons. Anyone able to hook me up with a source for any of those?