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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
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6:45 pm - Whew! And I don't even think I'm properly caught up
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I'm back to "skip 100" on IJ and "skip 120" on LJ, and ... I give up. As it is, I've been seriously skimming, so if I've missed commenting on something important that you posted over the last couple of days, please point me to it.
I'll do a proper catch-up post with picspam later. The nutshell version is that I'm home safe and sound and having survived with minimal drama. So far. There actually may be impending drama, but it's not unexpected and probably long overdue, alas.
current mood:  tired
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| Monday, December 24th, 2007
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4:08 pm - Heading off to the Frozen North
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Apparently MA still has lots of snow, unlike here where it all washed away yesterday, so yay, white Christmas!
I'll be online at least briefly from my sister's tonight/early tomorrow, but after that I'll be incommunicado from my in-laws'. Crossing my fingers for minimal drama, but that might be wishing for the moon.
Be good and have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate it or a great Tuesday if you don't!
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3:16 pm - Gift fic for ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) bluedolfyn: Virgin Night (Vorkosigan-Black Jewels crossover)
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Title: Virgin Night
Fandoms: Vorkosigan Saga/Black Jewels
Pairing/Characters: Ivan/Original Eyrien Female
Rating/Warnings: NC-17, PWP
Disclaimer: here
Word Count: 1698
Summary: Once again, Ivan ends up volunteered for something. Set just after Brothers in Arms and at least 19 years after Queen of the Darkness (ergo OFC is at least 18).
A/N: A looooong overdue gift fic for bluedolfyn, which will also be my adventdrabble for the day despite being way out of drabble range. I hope you like it, Blue. Sorry it took me so long to make it work.
( Virgin Night )
current mood: accomplished
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9:37 am - Can someone explain the sense of this to me?
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So far as I know, the Portus newsletter goes out to people who've already registered. So is that really the best place to advertise that you're offering discounted registrations? The people who've already registered?
I guess they're hoping we'll tell our friends who may not have registered yet. Well, here's the details under the cut. There's free offers going along with registration for the first registrants over the next 12 days.
( Portus Registration Deal )
And now I'd best get some wrapping done. And then finish my ficlet for today. And then pack. Yes, in that order. lol
current mood: busy
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| Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
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11:52 pm - Today's Advent drabble - Not That Old
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10:04 am - For this morning, an Advent drawble: Teddy Imagining Neville
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Please don't die from the shock. I do actually own art supplies. I just rarely use them, and when I do, it tends to be landscapes, still lives, or, if I'm feeling really daring, animals that I draw or paint. People? Er, I need to take a figure drawing class someday. (Yeah, yeah, in all my copious spare time.) Because sometimes the idea of an image just grabs hard and I need to do something with it. I almost attempted fanart for one of my sshg_exchange prompts for that reason, and I may yet, but probably managing to position both Hermione and Severus so that I don't have to draw their faces.
So there's this drabble series by nefernat called Teddy's Gift. I was going to rec it tomorrow, anyway, when she posts the final installment, but I guess I shall do it now, as the context is necessary for my scribble to make any sense at all.
Title: Teddy's Gift
Author: nefernat
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G for the most part, PG in spots
Summary: Teddy Lupin has decided what Uncle Harry would like for Christmas is Uncle Neville. DH-compliant, EWE.
There's a lot of good stuff being written over on adventdrabbles, but I'm particularly fond of this series. It's all from Teddy's POV, and it's done in a way that is cute without being uber-sugary. Nefernat does a great job capturing the way a little kid (not sure his age is specified, but I think he seems about 6-8 in this) would tend to look at things, both what he'd notice and what would sail over his head and how he'd interpret it when that happens. Also, she shows this amazing extended family context in which young Teddy is growing up, something that I believe Harry would make damned sure his godson had. And it's funny and sweet and touching in just the right balance.
So there's this one scene in part 19, in which Teddy realizes he doesn't quite know how to manage treating Uncle Neville as a gift and imagines him under the tree with a big red bow on his head. And that scene just took up residence in my head, insisting that I do something with it. Kind of like elfwreck was talking about yesterday, the way the compulsion to write fic can hit. It'd be nice if this compulsion would stick to forms of expression I actually have some kind of confidence in, but that's never been the case. And so I dug out my pastels, searched futilely for decent drawing paper and then used plain old printer paper, and drawbled. It probably helps to think of this scene being drawn by Teddy, rather than an adult. lol
I debated whether to even show it to nefernat, but I did, and she liked it. (I'd been seriously worried she might actually be insulted.) And so now I inflict it on everybody else. :-D
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| Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
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9:35 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - Christmas Crack(er)
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Title: Christmas Crack(er)
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/Characters: Buffy, Xander
Rating/Warnings: G, slight spoilers for S8 comics
Word Count: 466
Prompt: #22 – Christmas cracker
Summary: Xander tries to get Buffy into the spirit of the season.
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4:04 pm - Fic rec: Rosemary and Blue Heliotrope
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Title: Rosemary and Blue Heliotrope
Pairing: Snape/Tonks
Summary: Snape has a one night stand with Tonks. It lasts more than one night.
Rating: R/explicit sex and some violence
Another that's already been recced all over the place, but damn it really is that good. The snark. The "no, this really isn't anything." And making not only HBP but DH canon fit with only a few tweaks! Seriously, go read. This is another author that I look forward to reading more of after the reveal.
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1:34 pm - Fic rec: Goat Song
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Title: Goat Song
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Aberforth Dumbledore/Severus Snape
Summary: A tragedy in five scenes.
This has already been recced all over the place, but I have to chime in. It's an utterly amazing fic. Not a pairing that would ever have crossed my mind, but the mystery author has made it work and work well. To give you an unspoilery hint of why this is so good, I give you a couple of my favorite lines from it that I think capture the overall tone and feel quite well.
He'd had his share of cast-offs in his life, worn out clothing and broken toys. Albus never was careful with his things. If nothing else, it had made Aberforth a fair hand at mending.
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| Thursday, December 20th, 2007
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11:59 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - Decorating
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Title: Decorating
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/Characters: Dawn, Xander, Anya
Rating/Warnings: G
Disclaimer: here
Prompt: #20 – holly
Word Count: 151
Summary: Arm broken and family turned upside down, Dawn tries to get ready for Christmas in Season 6.
A/N: Thanks to ubiquirk for letting me bounce ideas off her, and for contributing ideas to this, while she was packing!
Am ded. At least this is the last "Thursday after a hell Wednesday" for a few weeks. In fact, tomorrow's my last shift of the year. Yay! *collapses*
current mood: exanimate
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12:00 am - Today's Advent "drabble" - Skellytum
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Title: Skellytum
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Pairing/Characters: Miles/Ekaterin
Rating/Warnings: PG, highlight for warning implied impending character death
Word Count: 226
Prompt: #19 – snowy tree
Summary: A moment in the Barrayaran garden.
Off to collapse now. Barely got this one in under the wire, at least, if one counts "the wire" as midnight EST. But still haven't missed a day yet!
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| Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
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11:23 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - The Stockings Were Set Away from the Fire with Care
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Title: The Stockings Were Set Away from the Fire with Care
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating/Warnings: NC-17 (finally!)
Prompt: #16 – fire, #11 – stocking
Word Count: 648
Summary: Follows Silk Stockings and A Bit of Light Reading, and Playing the Game, Seize the Moment, and No More Interruptions.
Finally! And you'd think I'd actually planned to combine those two prompts or something instead of bumbling blindly through these ficlets hoping to actually find an ending or at least the sex.
In other news, the autonomic nervous system is a pain in my ass. The various traits of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions keep getting scrambled in my head*, and I think I'm resigning myself to nearly-wild guessing on the questions related to the various types of receptors, as they're just refusing to stick. I think I've reached some sort of cap on memorization. The fact that it seems a lot more rote in this unit as opposed to either the bones or the muscles is probably a biggish factor there.
Can it be noon tomorrow already? The sooner this exam is done, the happier I'll be.
*The "fight or flight" versus "rest and relax" part is straightforward enough. It's the bit about whose neurons synapse where and with which neurotransmitter that's killing me for some insane reason. On the plus side, at least I've stopped trying to write "oculomotor" as "occlumotor." I think if we actually had an "occlumotor" nerve, Harry might have had an easier time picking up Occlumency, don't you? *headdesk*
current mood: accomplished
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| Monday, December 17th, 2007
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3:43 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - No More Interruptions
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Title: No More Interruptions
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating/Warnings: PG
Disclaimer: here
Prompt: #16 – fire
Word Count: 371
Summary: Follows Silk Stockings and A Bit of Light Reading, and Playing the Game, and Seize the Moment.
Posting a bit early today as we're heading up to MA in a bit. Patsfan's niece turned 16 yesterday and got screwed out of her birthday party by the weather. It's officially postponed to next Sunday, but we can't make that. (He'd taken this Sunday off. There's no way he'll get the 23rd off too, especially on such short notice.) So we're taking her out to dinner with just us tonight. No idea when we'll get back or how wiped I'll be when we do, hence the earliness. Good thing he's doing the driving so I can study on the nice long trip each way. Ooh, that reminds me. Best make sure I have some sort of light source!
current mood: busy
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| Sunday, December 16th, 2007
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11:06 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - Seize the Moment
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Title: Seize the Moment
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating/Warnings: PG
Word Count: 331
Prompt: #3 – mistletoe
Summary: Follows Silk Stockings and A Bit of Light Reading, and Playing the Game.
Still in PG territory, but at least getting somewhere!
In other news, I've written about 1/3 of our holiday cards and about the same proportion of flash cards I need to prepare for Wednesday's exam. At this point, using the keyboard is therapy for badly cramped fingers!
Most of our snow seems to have washed away, but we'll see how much of it is ice in the morning. In the meantime, my bed is calling me.
current mood: accomplished
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3:59 pm - *kicks computer*
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Well, I'm not sure if it's the computer's fault, Firefox's fault, or the fault of the A.D.A.M. Interactive Physiology software, but I crashed and lost all my open tabs. I hate that, because I often will open a fic in a tab to read later. (This is how I sometimes end up with 50+ tabs open. So to the list of possible faults I should add "I had too many damned tabs open.")
On the one hand, it trims the TBR list to manageable proportions. On the other hand, there's stuff I'd meant to read and now have no idea what it all was. At least with fest fics, there's a chance I'll catch it when the reveal lists go up, so there's that.
In other news, I've managed to finish holiday cards through the D's and the myology tutorial for A & P (once I got everything working again). Too bad I didn't finish the tutorial in time to submit it for credit, but it was just bonus points. The main thing is having done it, because wow does it ever make the physiology of muscle contractions muuuuch clearer.
It's icky out, though it sounds like it's turned to rain. Might end up going up to MA tomorrow to take Patsfan's niece to lunch since her birthday got snowed out today. (Must get flashcards done so I can study while Patsfan drives.) Poor kid always gets shafted, and this one is sweet 16, so kind of a biggie to end up postponed until it'll be overshadowed by Christmas.
/random
current mood:  okay
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| Saturday, December 15th, 2007
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10:50 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - Playing the Game
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7:43 pm - Joss in Boston
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I wish, wish, wish I could have gotten my act together enough to get up to Boston yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until Thursday night, and there wasn't enough time to pull off a shift switch or anything for work, and too much drama of late to feel right about calling out (though I did consider it). But here's part of Joss' speech, which I found via ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/syndicated.gif) whedonesque:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW4y9OOQOVI
Also, a slightly longer video from The Cambridge Chronicle about the WGA strike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlWgealgyH8
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1:48 pm - Lily Evans Potter and Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
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Probably this isn't the world's fairest comparison, and oddly enough, it's a line in a Snupin fic that made me think of it. Because in said fic, Lily says something about "your stupid war." And that made me think about the gargantuan difference between these two fictional mothers whose infant sons were targets in wars. Both essentially said, to paraphrase yet another mother, "Not my child, bitch!" But in very different ways.
( Cut for possibly pointless rambling. )
current mood:  thoughtful
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| Friday, December 14th, 2007
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11:21 am - Calling all Canadians!
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One of my flisters is flying through Toronto on Sunday and trying to find out weather conditions. What I was able to pull up on weather.com was, frankly, pathetic. I've seen The Weather Channel do much more thorough forecasts on Europe!
Is there a Canadian weather website that offers things like forecasts and especially airport-specific forecasts, delay info, etc?
current mood:  hopeful
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| Thursday, December 13th, 2007
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10:18 pm - Today's Advent "drabble" - A Bit of Light Reading
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Title: A Bit of Light Reading
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating/Warnings: G
Word Count: 313
Summary: Doesn’t relate to any of the prompts, but it does pick up after Silk Stockings.
Er, how this ended up with the exact same oddball word count as Silk Stockings, I can't imagine. I couldn't have done it on purpose, that's for sure.
current mood: busy
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