Ad Baculum

Thanks so much to whoever nominated my yuletide fic for the horrible_awards! It's totally unexpected (not the least of which because I didn't realize there was enough Dr. Horrible fan fic to even have awards), but I'm really chuffed. I've been nominated for Best General Fic and Best Future Fic. Yay! \o/ There are a ton of other categories for fic, art, and vids, and if you're interested in nominating a Dr. Horrible work, I believe nominations are going on for a while longer.

I went to Lush yesterday and purchased many smelly things. I intended to buy henna dye for my sad, graying hair, but I walked out with several other blocks of stuff.

Have any of you used their henna dye before? This will be my first time doing it and I was wondering if there were any bits of advice I should know. I bought the Caca Marron Also, is there any reason I wouldn't want to get a colorist's applicator bottle and use that to apply it? I always hear people talking about the mess of trying to glop it on your hair and it seems like the applicator bottle would make it a lot easier.

I tried a few other things as well...

Herbalism Cleanser. Ironically, given that it is specifically for oily skin, it feels a bit waxy when I wash it off. But anything that cleans and lets me apply moisturizer after without causing my skin to break out is good in my book.

Seanik Shampoo. I was dubious of shampoos that appear in bar form, but this thing is really really awesome. Great smell, lathers nicely, hair is not the least bit greasy. And if it lasts as long as they claim it does (months, I'm told), it's a great bargain at $10 a bar.

Jungle Conditioner. I'm reserving judgment on this one. It felt very odd to try and slide it down my hair this morning. I thought it wasn't conditioning at all, but later when I was combing my hair out it was really easy to comb though, so I don't know. My ends are as bad as always, but I am 6 months overdue for a haircut. :\

I meant to pick up some of their deodorant, which I am insanely curious about. But forgot under the onslaught of too many colors/smells/people at the store. Ah well. I will be back for more groovy shampoo bars eventually.

You know who wins at Yuletide this year? Me!!! \o/ Because I got the awesome gift of Alienist slash. It's Laszlo/Marcus first time, and it is sweet and hot and so pitch perfect with the canon that you must go read it! This fandom was why I joined Yuletide, srsly. I wanted Kreizler slash and was aghast that there was not a fandom busily finding hundreds of ways for Kreizler to get it on. But mystery author has come through and given me the perfect gift. If you're familiar with the canon, go read! *shoos*

The Night In Dublin
Summary: Laszlo Kreizler and Marcus Isaacson grow closer.
Rating: NC-17


In other news...

*pokes at the BBC* I want new Who... *pokes some more*


When did fandom become the best part about Christmas?

I got so very close to asking for Walrus/Bukkit for Yuletide, but ended up not for a variety of reasons. swtalmnd, however, has taken pity on me was inspired and came up with the BEST DRABBLE EVER.

The origins of the Walrus/Bukkit love story

READ. LOVE. LOL.

Yuletide sign ups close in a little under 4 hours! I finally put in my requests late last night after nearly a week of deliberation, which is sad considering that 3 of my 4 requests are nearly identical to what they were last year. :\ Here's hoping the actual writing goes a lot smoother than the sign up process. I finally decided on Caleb Carr's The Alienist Series, Laura Antoniou's Marketplace Series, and Mina de Malfois (*points to icon*). \o/ I did not end up making a LOLcat request despite desperately wanting Walrus/Bukkit. I knew that if I requested it I would definitely get it, and I wanted to give my Little Fandoms That Could an equal shot of getting fic. I feel a bit like I'm playing Yuletide roulette and trying to beat the house edge.

My foray into the painful process known as wrisomifu is going less than happily. Ten minutes a day is hard, man. Fortunately, I have fellow MiFus to commiserate with.

Plus, I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance: Canada (punctuation added because apparently they can't be bothered), which is possibly the world's biggest time suck. Weekends have been lost to its insanity and it isn't even slashy.

Speaking of a lack of slashy goodness, I'm avoiding House at the moment. I fear the last ep for its Huddy teaser promos (*shudders*) and want to wait until Tuesday's follow up so I can watch the train wreck all at once. Needless to say, Doris Egan did not write these episodes.

After dithering for several days, I finally picked out my nominated fandoms for Yuletide:

Caleb Carr's The Alienist series
Laura Antoniou's The Marketplace series
LOLcats
Mina de Malfois
Muppets
RPF - Fry and Laurie

I'm pretty pleased, but I reserve the obsessive/compulsive right to change them often between now and the end of the month. I feel like there's a fandom I'm missing but will really really want come Nov 2nd. You think it's too early to start workinig on my requests?

I also signed up for muskratjamboree this morning, but still haven't received word about getting in. :\ They didn't get 140 people in the first minute, right? Right?

I'm allowed to be a little squeeful that Stephen Fry is following me on Twitter, even though he follows everyone on Twitter who is following him, right? Right? *looks shifty*

Anyway...

( OMG, MAH BOYS! (Spoilers for House 5.4) )

Because in these tough economic times I find it important to conserve any and all actual content.

Gakked from klynie1: If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now,(even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - but it has to be fake.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your LJ and see what your friends come up with. Or don't, you know I'm not picky.

( Snagged from joanwilder )

The Association is not responsible for plugging your holes throughout your
unit. Therefore, if you have any holes in your bathroom, kitchen or bedroom
areas - please contact XX of X's Painting so that you can make
arrangements to have your holes plugged. If you are interested in having
your holes plugged in other areas of your unit - please contact XXX at the following telephone number:

*sporfle*
*is 12*

I am thrilled it is Friday. I have a nice weekend ahead of me, a lack of books clogging up my den floor (whoo hoo! public library donation programs and freecycle!), and sparkly water sitting at my side. Unfortunately, I have an ice pack sitting at my side as well. I was walking home from work this afternoon when my flip flops slipped and I turned on my left ankle. Now, I turn my ankles pretty badly about once a month. It hurts and I have to take a couple of hard breaths and walk it off. But usually it feels better after about 1/2 hour or so. Not today. I still can't put all my weight on my foot and it has swollen angrily. I suspect it's telling me that I've walked in one bad shoe too many. Anyway, I have an icepack and my foot is laying on the table next to my computer as I typ. Bah. I will have to console myself with wine, sparkly water, pizza rolls, and Project Runway.

How has you're week been?

It was a wonderful weekend spent mostly flittering around the con and Chicago. I didn't get a registration, so all my Terminus participation came in the form of informal meet-ups and random spurts of bumping into people. Given how disinterested I've been in HP these days, the no reg thing was perfect for me. I did sort of think it all went on for one day too many. I have a limited cache of socialness (what? so totally a word. shut up.), and that cache mostly ran out by Sunday.

( Con notes, in the order in which I think of them )
In conclusion, Chicago is pretty and yay con!

So cute!

Just when I thought my love for you could not grow any more...Can I be as hot as you are when I'm 62?

Have I really not updated since con.txt? Dear. Well, I'm still lurking around. My fannish enthusiasm has been lacking lately. I have been busy with a couple things lately though.

• Who! I started at the beginning of the new series about a week and a half ago and have watched S1-3 as well as Torchwood S1. I like Doctor Who a lot but Torchwood is not really worth watching just for the boykissing. And daleks are possibly the funniest nemeses ever. I am smitten with them. I don't think this will ever be my fandom, but it is a fun show to watch.
  
  And now that I've said that I want to ask, does anyone have any links to good meta about gender politics in Doctor Who? I'm curious.
  
  
• Can we consider mina_de_malfois to be its own fandom? It's got an archive and fan fic, which is more than I can say for some fandoms. Well, if so, I'm adding it to my fandom roster and demanding people write more Arc/Xena/Mina. Or Arc/Mina. Or Arc/Xena. Or any sequel to this little bit of authorial fanon.
  
  
• I continue to poke at wyomingnot's Sweet Charity fic. No life signs as of yet.

I've been sort of blegh about RL lately as well, now that I think of it. Hopefully things will turn around by the time I go to Terminus. Anyway, time to go home. See you all in another 3 weeks.

First. Tuesdays that feel like Mondays FTW! One less day I have until the next weekend.

Second. Except for the occasional Yay-I'm-Home-The-Con-Was-Awesome post, typically con reports don't happen for me. But I always want to post con reports. So I will try.

I didn't go to con.txt '06 despite being in slash fandom at the time, local, and aware of the con. At that point I hadn't really interacted with many fen and I didn't know anyone who was going. Plus, I didn't have a car and Silver Spring seemed really far away. All of which convinced me to stay home even though there was a slash con going on in my own city. This fear of distance and not knowing folks didn't last long since I took off for Las Vegas a month and a half later to attend Lumos. What? It totally made sense in my head at the time. So I can't really make comparisons to con.txt '06 vs. con.txt '08 because I wasn't there in 2006. What I do know is that 2008 was pretty awesome.

( The highlights, which are apparently complete sentence optional and in absolutely no particular order. )

And that is all. \o/ I would love if con.txt went every year instead of bi-yearly, but I think the con com would die. Alas. Well, I can look forward to 2010.

Ok, have to dash off to work, but I wanted to point people to my snarry_games fic, which was posted over the weekend while I was lazing about convalescing. It's a comedy (though my genre was romance) and is almost entirely warning free! Anyway, go have a look, and vote/comment/etc. if you're so inclined.


Title: Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs: A Comedy
Author: Ad Baculum
Team: Phoenix
Genre(s): Romance
Prompt(s): Tip Jar, Comedy of Errors
Rating/Warnings/Kinks: NC-17, *prostitution themes abound*
Word Count: ~8300
Summary: When his lover gets himself into a bad situation, Harry comes to the rescue. Whether the stubborn git likes it or not, damn it.

Go read on InsaneJournal!

If we start our week-counting on Sundays (which I do), the week began on a high note: I finally finished and turned in my Snarry Games fic. It's not particularly long, but it is my longest story yet. It is also the first time I tried to write a plotty story from Harry's POV. And I'll just say right now that I'm never doing that again. The boy and I do not speak the same language and he is a bitch to write. Snape is OMGsomuch easier.

Monday (my favorite workday) also went pretty well. I got a new computer at work.

Tuesday...I never quite made it to work. Ok, so my town used to be a town of streetcars. We didn't have quite as famous a system as say, SF, but it was nothing to sniff at. Then, in the 50s, cars became popular, we sold our streetcars to a few needy eastern European nations, and all the tracks were paved over with asphalt. Only, they weren't entirely paved over. Many tracks are still there, lurking just above the asphalt. I had a run in with one of them on Tuesday morning, and I think it's safe to say the streetcar tracks won.

My front bicycle tire got caught in the old track as I was I going down a hill, and it caused me to crash and flip off my bike. It wasn't pretty (speed, I think, is what made this whole incident go from being an annoying crash to an actual medical emergency), but I had a couple of good things going for me: 1) I was riding during an ebb in traffic so there were no cars behind me to run me over, and 2) bicycle helmets actually work so didn't lose consciousness at any point.

Anyway, I was helped out of the street and an ambulance/fire truck was called. (The answer to the question, 'How many firemen does it take to wrap an arm and put it into a sling?' is about eight, btw.) I waited in the ER for about 3 hours before I was seen. I have very little shame in admitting I wanted to cry by hour three. I was in A LOT of pain. Finally I was seen and promptly admitted (and by promptly I mean the decision to do so was quick; actual admitting wasn't for another 4 hours).

On Wednesday I had surgery on my left arm. I broke both my radius and ulna and the orthopaedic surgeon thought metal plates would help me mend the best. I learned that morphine sucks, I have trouble coming out of anesthesia, and I probably have exercised induced asthma. I also learned that I am, perhaps, unnaturally attached to my phone, and that Highlander fic is not my thing (sorry, Tree).

I got to go home on Thursday where I became absurdly grateful that I broke my non-dominant hand. Trying to put my hair up or put on a bra is hard enough; I can't imagine doing it with an uncoordinated hand.

Today I'm mostly lolling around, napping when I don't feel well, reading when I do. I also injured my front teeth and lip, and am looking forward to getting my teeth looked at next week.

So...yes, an eventful week indeed. How have you all been?

Hope everyone has the chance to go frolic around the May Pole today. I'm actively avoiding my Snarry Games fic at the moment. It is sitting right in front of me and I have to keep averting my eyes as it glares accusingly. Instead I give you a few links:

**Personal feelings about Orson Scott Card aside, this post about JKR's entitlement issues and the RDR lawsuit is awesome.

**I've finally found the best geography game ever. I knew it was out there, but until now haven't been able to locate it. These dudes appear to have a lot of different games oriented to kids, but their geography section is awesome. For each region you can take quizzes on capitals, countries, or landscapes. And then there are at least 5-6 different ways to fill in the information about the region, each with an increasing level of difficulty. (Some getting as hard as to require you to drag, rotate, and resize the country before putting it on the map. Score!)

**I love Somee e-cards.

**Etsy in general is a gold mine of tentacles. If you put "squid" into the search box, you get 40 pages of tentacled arts and crafts. I approve, obviously. My favorite thing at the moment though is this tentacle plant. I'm seriously considering buying it and placing it among my other plants.

I get to see Eddie Izzard tonight. I know I should be excited (I have never seen him live) but at this point it feels a bit like a chore. The April chaos is dragging a bit into May, I think.

Dear Group Project Partner,

Can you at least pretend like you want to get a good grade in this course and do a little work on our project? I know you're stressed and have other things to think about. Guess what? I do too! In fact, I'm fairly sure that right now I could win a game of My Life's Busier Than Yours, what with all of moving, full time job, and overdue Snarry story that Doesn't Fucking Have An Ending OMG. *kof* I don't particularly care if your Spanish skills are crap. We're doing an oral presentation. No mastery of the language is required beyond pronunciation and an ability to memorize 2 pages of dialogue! This is not rocket science--hell, this isn't even intro to chemistry--so be the good little full-time student I know you are, and work on the damn presentation.

Just enough love to get us a pass,

Your Spanish partner


---

Dear Insane Coworker,

Um. I think you've been making six figures for far too long. Just because someone lists their annual income at $10,000/year, does not automatically make them an idiot or a liar. No really. You might not be able to imagine how it works (and the answer there is often not well and not happily), but people can and do live on that amount of money.

Seriously?

Your baffled coworker

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In other news, hi! Bye! *waves and goes off to write/work/pack/worry about school/worry about getting old/collapse from stress*

My final shameless pimp for charity! If you're interested in purchasing my fannish wares, I'm up for sale at Sweet Charity. Bids close at 11:59pm GMT today (the 28th). For those following in the US, that's 7:59pm EDT and 4:59pm PDT. I'm offering one fic of at least 1000 words in either HP, House, or Fry/Laurie fandoms. No restrictions on anything except Malfoys.






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