Just watched "Once More With Feeling" with ironchefjoe, who has way too many years of doing theater tech for musicals not to appreciate all the tropes. :P Now we're watching an amnesia ep of TNG, which is pretty funny considering that "Tabula Rasa" is next up. (Randy! Joan!)

OMWF actually made me tear up (what with Giles' "Wish I could stay", Tara's "Under Your Spell" reprise, "Walk Through the Fire", and pretty much every moment Buffy and Spike spent together). So much love.

I cannot wait for the Buffy musical singalong at CONvergence this year. (They're doing it again, I hope!!! Now that I am retired from concom and party-running, it's one of my favorite things. That, and slinging toast.)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

147 days.
That's the thing about magic. There's always consequences.
Every night I save you.

I should probably stop watching at "Tabula Rasa", shouldn't I?

this post at dreamwidth has comments

We just watched "The Body". Anya's speech gets me every time. *sniffles*

And I was already wiping away tears from finishing Blackout, the final book in Mira Grant's (aka seanan_mcguire's) Newsflesh trilogy. If you think zombies & bloggers plus snarky dialogue & chosen family sounds like a good read, the first book is called Feed and is most excellent. I don't want to link you to anything about the third book, of course, as it would be super-spoilery.

Other than that, I have not much to report fannish-wise. Life-wise, I'm lifting weights 3x a week using the JEFIT app as a personal trainer, bicycling between 5 and 15 miles a day, and trying to keep the weeds in our community garden plot under control. I signed up for Not Prime Time and haven't written a word yet. Oh! And I'm using a brand-new powder-form corticosteroid allergy spray called Qnasl, which is making a huge difference to my quality of life (in that, I don't have any allergic reaction to my cats anymore, for the first time ever).

Oh, and Star Trek: TNG has started appealing to me when the eps are focused on Geordi, Worf, or Data. Picard, Dr. Crusher, Troi, and Riker make me eyeroll. (At least we're safely in season 5 away from Wesley.)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Took him long enough. But hey, I wasn't expecting it until after the election, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Here's hoping that this gets people excited about him. Yes, he's not perfect. But he's 800 bajillion times better than Mitt Romney. Gobama!

(Meanwhile, I'm getting nervous about MN's ballot question this November. Can we as a state reject the notion of voting discrimination into our constitution? I hope so!)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

So, there's about 30min left if you want to sign up for Not Prime Time, a new challenge that's like Yuletide, but for medium-sized fandoms. Eligible fandoms include Angel, VM, SCC, Firefly, Hunger Games, and Avengers 2012, among others. :)

I just signed up. I figure with a late-June deadline, I can pull something off. I hope. (I considered just trying for a pinch hit, but I really love fic exchanges. It's a sickness, I know...)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

So, I quit watching SPN a while ago (finally got fed up). The last one I watched was the one which wanted to be Fringe's "Brown Betty" but wasn't (and I missed at least one before that... I only watched that one because of Krycek). I'm happy for those of you still enjoying... but for me, the thrill has been gone for way too long. And today, on IRC... :)

ironchefjoe heh, SPN got an 8th season
soundingsea ugh, why?
ironchefjoe kripke is hiding the show's bones
ironchefjoe so they can't be salted & burnt
soundingsea haha

Anyhow! We've been alternating TNG and BtVS over dinner/before bed. We just watched the TNG ep where Mayor Wilkins (with MacGyver hair!) was an empath, and then "Doomed". I forgot how hilarious Spike/Xander is in Season 4. The Hawaiian shirt! *dies*

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Also on the Remix topic, as I ran out of time when heading out for the day's activities...

My remixer was aadler, whose Mortal Coil (the Second Time Around Remix) features a most excellent Wesley and one of my favorite tropes (of a person displaced in time). Check it out!

I recognized the deft hand of musesfool in Nothing But the Rain (The Quit Your Grinning and Drop Your Linen Overdub) and was pretty sure monanotlisa wrote the wonderful Astrid in Heartlines (the Meet Me in the Middle Remix), but I didn't guess that cindergal wrote No Way Home (The Home Is Where The Heart Is Remix) and I somehow completely missed spiralleds's One Who Lights the Darkness (The Bedtime Story Remix) on my haphazard first trip through the archive. Now I'll have to go check out everything else I haven't read by people I know. :)

Meanwhile, just got back from Last Day at Lambeau, the new documentary about The Great Betrayal of The Favre, which takes a look at the fan reaction to all the drama. (And if you're in Madison, you can see it for free tomorrow night.) Between that and the draft, I'm ready for football to start. DEEE! FENCE!

Currently, Games of Thrones. Oh, Brienne.

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Remix authors have been revealed! I went back to my roots and remixed Buffyverse fic:

tales of brave ulysses (one for sorrow remix) (1335 words) by soundingsea
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jenny Calendar/Rupert Giles, Rupert Giles/Ethan Rayne, Rupert Giles/Olivia, Rupert Giles/Joyce Summers
Characters: Rupert Giles
Summary:

Giles loves and loses and loves again.

It's a remix of One For Sorrow by D. M. Evans, a prolific writer who gave me many choices. Since ironchefjoe and I are doing a Buffy rewatch, I was feeling the Giles. (A Wesley icon will have to suffice, as I don't seem to have a Giles one...)

As usual, spiralleds's mad beta skillz made it end up much better than it started. And hey, maybe this time I'll get around to reposting here... which come to think of it, I never got around to doing for my Yuletide fic. Ergh. Free time and I are not really on speaking terms.

Okay, as soon as the bread comes out of the oven we're off to the gym to lift weights and then to the garden. It will be about 14miles by bicycle on a day in the 50s - should be lovely.

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Tags: remix

I read some fic; stop and marvel! ( 8 recs in 7 fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain America, Fringe, Historical RPF, A Song of Ice and Fire, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The West Wing. )

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Tags: recs

Remix/Redux 10: X Marks the Spot is open! There are 217 stories in 126 fandoms.

The remix written of my fic is excellent!

Mortal Coil (the Second Time Around Remix) (8298 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Buffy Summers, Rupert Giles, Faith Lehane, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Summary:

Together again, for the first time.

It's a remix of Take Two with some elements from What Is And What Should Never Be. The remixer went in somewhat of a different direction and envisioned a much more interesting set of possibilities than I ever did.

Meanwhile, I think it's ridiculously obvious what I wrote. I'll write a drabble for anyone who guesses correctly in the week they're anonymous. :)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

1. I have joined the OTW. I was skeptical when they first began, but they've proven themselves to me with their work on AO3; I find the Archive of Our Own indispensable at this juncture.

2. We went to see Cabin in the Woods last night. I'm not a fan of horror, but I tend to like stuff Joss does, so I figured I'd clutch ironchefjoe's hand and close my eyes if I had to. Well, I didn't really have to, and while I think seeing it as unspoiled as possible is best, I'll say this: even if you don't like horror, if you like Joss you might like this. It's reminiscent of most things he's done to date. *waves to revolutionaryjo, who was at my theater!*

3. I haven't edited my Remix at all since I turned it in last week, which is rare for me. Work has taken up all my spare time and then some, including my 'writing' time on Saturday mornings (when I sometimes meet a friend at a coffeeshop). I could be editing it right now, but instead I'm baking bread and beta-reading for pukajen. And the timer just went off, so it's time for shaping the loaves and the second rise!

4. The polls numbers in the Car Ownership Debate seem to indicate that we should wait until winter to see how we feel. I think that will work fine except for the part where our auto insurance carrier sent us the 'we're dropping you in July' nastygram... I'm a tad concerned about losing all our accident-free, long-term-customer discounts if we ever need car insurance again. Anyone have any experience with that?

5. The further behind I get in reading DW/LJ, the harder it is to catch up. At this point I'm just going to comment on tabs I have open and then declare myself caught up. Maybe then I'll feel less shy about dropping out of the wide-open sky to comment when I've been quiet for too long?

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Angel: "You and me, Faith, we're a lot alike."
ironchefjoe: "We both had sex with Buffy."

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Poll #1832857 the car question
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

soundingsea and ironchefjoe should...

1. In the Buffy/Trek faceoff, ironchefjoe and I are up to "Bad Girls" (oh, Faith) and the dreadful TNG season 2 finale (which is like "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" but done as a clip show about a smirking jerkface named Riker. Worst. Season. Finale. Ever?)

2. I liked the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games, but I liked this story better when it was called Series 7: the Contenders.

3. Despite work eating all my free time (hey, I can work while we watch TV at night), I've actually written a couple of drafts of my Remix. It still sucks. I have the weekend to try to improve it. What would I do without spiralleds?

4. Apparently we won't be having a frothy mix of fear and hate as the Republican candidate this fall. Likely we'll get Mitt, to nobody's surprise. (The election came up at ESL on Monday, and one young woman from Mexico opined, "Romney doesn't like Latinos". I said, "Well, to be fair, he doesn't like anyone who's not a rich white male." "Yeah," she insisted, "but he really doesn't like Latinos. *beat* Do you like him? Or Obama?" Me: "Hah. Um, I'll be voting for Obama. Obviously." *laughter all around* I try to avoid injecting politics into the classroom, but these adult ESL learners have plenty of opinions, and while most of them may not be able to vote in the US yet, they're keenly interested.)

5. ironchefjoe and I are asking everyone we know what we should do about our current lack of car. My position is that bikes+HourCar+rentals are fine and his is that we should buy a car. He thinks we should ask Judge John Hodgman, but I think we can get binding arbitration from the Internets.



Link to LiveJournal version of the poll (which now works - thought I could be tricky by making a private post with a poll in it, but apparently that makes the poll private too)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

So, I'm not posting (nor at all caught up on reading) because my life has looked like this for months:

Wake up, sometimes eat something, bus, work early, work, meeting, work, work through lunch, work, work late, bus, gym, walk home, finally eat something substantial, work during alternating episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Buffy season 2. Try to sleep. Sometimes fail and work some more. Repeat.

Observations: I forgot how fun Angelus/Spike/Dru are! They almost make up for how preachy Picard is. Also, the Scoobies are so young. And Giles isn't old at ALL. Damn.

I do get a break on weekends. This past one, we gave the loaner minivan back; now we really, truly don't have a car. HourCar seems to be working okay for now, and we biked to the gym tonight (after I worked late enough that I was too hungry to go lift weights right after work).

Oh, and on lifting: we've been using the JEFIT app for about a month now. It's pretty much the same as when I had a personal trainer, except free. It's a nice way to track sets and reps and keep to a weights routine, and I'm grateful that ironchefjoe is willing to be my workout buddy.

After all, if I want to look like Dejah Thoris (and yes, if you're wondering, you should really go see John Carter because the princess of Mars kicks major ass), I'm going to need to work on it.

Oh, and we seem to spend half the time at the gym arguing about whether or not to buy a car. I really don't think we need one!

this post at dreamwidth has comments

It's Super Tuesday, and I'm not talking about politics. seanan_mcguire's Discount Armageddon came out today, which means that after the gym I took the #5 bus to Uncle Hugo's, my local independent sci-fi bookstore, and I plonked down some cash for the adventures of Verity Price. (I haven't weaned myself from the convenience of a check card, but I'm trying to use cash at small local places where the merchant fees cut into their livelihood.)

Now to see if I can resist reading this most excellent-looking book until our upcoming weekend in the land of beer, cheese, and phone-only Internet. Ugh, tabbed browsing so un-possible on phone!)

(Okay, a couple political asides: the wretched GOP turnout has me cautiously optimistic thus far. And it's pretty darn funny reading Andrew Tannenbaum deconstruct the whole circus with his keen wit.)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Happy hallmark holiday! I actually forgot about it until heading for the gym[0] and texting with ironchefjoe about dinner. Then Minnesota Public Radio tried to equate romantic love with their pledge drive, and I realized that eating out in a restaurant tonight would be a mistake. So instead we got takeout from our favorite local Nepali/Tibetan/Indian joint and now we're settled down in front of the Star Trek: the Next Generation pilot.

See, I strong-armed ironchefjoe into watching "Welcome to the Hellmouth"/"The Harvest"[1] with me Sunday night by saying that I'd trade episodes of Buffy for episodes of boring, preachy TNG.[2] So now I am suffering through the best CG of the 1980s (I can see the pixels) and cringing when Picard pontificates about how advanced humanity has become. I miss Kirk.

[0] Trying out the JEFIT app for tracking weightlifting. Verdict: much less hassle than carrying around paper. Also, cheaper than paying a personal trainer. Have also recommitted to using Lose It!, but this tracks the one area Lose It! doesn't really handle in detail.

[1] He blames Joss Whedon for the destruction of the Aliens franchise. Le sigh.

[2] Yes, we finished TOS. No, I haven't had time to reformat/clarify my notes on them. Work is being work.

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Apparently Minnesotan Republicans would like a frothy mix of hate and fear for president. I'd like to contribute to Santorum's google problem, so here's a link. :)

I didn't see the "It's Halftime in America" ad live, since I was finishing up some Seville orange marmalade while ironchefjoe and pukajen watched the Superbowl commercials. And when I finally saw it last night, at first I didn't think it was all that political. I mean sure, it's a comeback story, but... This Daily Kos article, though, elaborates on why the right wing is freaking out. (And meanwhile, I'm craving fic about this commercial...)

Combine an action hero living legend, the most depressed big city in America, and a bailed out car company, then drape it in a message of hope and glory and a call to those who are willing to fight hard and win.

“Yeah, it’s halftime in America, and our 2nd half’s about to begin.”

And finally, hooray for California! Here's hoping the Prop 8 appeals go all the way to the Supremes and we get another Loving v Virginia. (Justice Kennedy, I'm looking at you.)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Tags: politics

ironchefjoe got me the best birthday present ever: one of the new shares of Packers stock. I feel like I've been awarded honorary Wisconsin citizenship. (Can I vote to recall Scott Walker now?)

While the Pack wasn't playing tonight (though at least the NFC team won - we rooted for the Giants over Tom Brady and his stupid arm), pukajen, ironchefjoe, and I won second place in pub trivia with the team name Substantiated Canadian Girlfriend.

Finally, Lum won the Superbowl, because Madonna decided to cover her Vogue vid at the halftime show. Sweet!

pukajen has to leave tomorrow and I have to go back to real life. But we'll always have Paris Minneapolis. ;)

this post at dreamwidth has comments

Hello, internets! I have missed you! Life has been busy; mostly work, but also I was the kitchen help at two large Sea-family-hosted baby showers the last two consecutive weekends. And the kitchen is where I'm glad to be, since ergh, baby showers. At least now that I have attained the age of 36 (as of today!), people no longer ask when I will be producing young. Two of my sisters appear to have that particular familial role well in hand, fortunately.

This has been a most excellent birthday thus far. pukajen flew in last night, and after a yummy visit to Al's Breakfast we took a long walk along the Mississippi. Now I'm chilling with her and ironchefjoe before heading to Fasika for dinner. pukajen will be here until Monday, and I don't have to go back to work until Monday at noon. *happy sigh*

Congrats to the state of Washington on their victory for equal rights!:) Here's hoping Minnesota can reject the stupid heteronormative constitutional amendment on our ballot this fall, and then follow Washington's example.

And happy Imbolc; may your days become brighter. :)

this post at dreamwidth has comments