News mooched from cognenthoughts - if you're friends with Nicole, please check out her latest update if you would like a little more detail on why. Sounds like those that run Live Journal might be loosing their ability to maintain it in the near future, so if you would still like to be able to access your old entries, I definitely recommend backing up your LJ to a supporting website. Here's how. If that post doesn't show up by the time you read this, you can try asking the All Knowing Google.

I will be trying to backup my journal entries on Dreamwidth since apparently I already have an account there as of 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!

Anyway. I'll take "Silly childhood antics that still haunt you 30+ years later for 300, Alex"

Sleeping Beauty was my favorite fairy tale as a kid. So JUST IN CASE, I started wearing strawberry lip gloss to bed around age 7? lest my prince show up and kiss me awake.

38 years old now. Zero desire to deal with Princes (or Princesses). Still put on strawberry chapstick before bed because now my lips get cranky and dry without it. Though i also have some herby stuff too to switch it up a bit.

You know those nights when you are trying to sleep but your brain keeps jumping from topic to topic like a box full of crickets? No? Just me? Ok then.

Anyway, last night, my cricket-esq daisy chain went something like:

Smutty story I read before bed (because I may be old and disinclined to real life smut, but I am not dead) -> horrifying smut story I accidentally ran across when I was a teenager in my first foray into adult fan fiction (and no, I am not telling you which fandom. Remembering it existed at one time was traumatic enough) -> desperate attempt to get my brain off the subject of smut -> books! Books are a good non-smut subject -> what about my books? I have lot...hmmm... Mercy Thompson, good series. One of my favs, reread it tons. I should catch up, I'm a few books behind -> Hey! You should make a Favorite Re-reads challenge on FB! Like you did for your fav movies you watch over and over, but for books! -> *contemplates what ten books she would choose* -> *contemplates who she would tag in aformentioned challenge* -> Oh yeah! I was gonna borrow that audiobook from Overdrive! *goes to put book on hold* -> OK SHUT UP BRAIN OR WE WON'T GET ANY SLEEP TONIGHT -> *gets the song Teyla sings (Beyond the Night) in that one episode of Stargate Atlantis stuck in her head* -> "Tayla finds Twitter uncouth and annoying"-> Hey, remember that SGA Twitter fan fiction you wrote after contemplating if wireless signals could be received through the Stargate!? -> Twittercaked! It was so pointless but still fun, we should totally reread it -> OH YEAH, AND REMEMBER HOW YOU WROTE THAT LOVE CONNECTION EUREKA/IRON MAN STORY WHERE JARVIS AND SARAH WERE DATING ONLINE!

I can't remember where the chain went from there, and somewhere around 12:30 I finally fell asleep. Totally had a super fun dream after, but I also cannot remember what it was about, only that I woke up thinking "heh. That was a fun dream."

Only Trekkies will really appreciate (and possibly understand, as there is lots of floppy Trek logic) the Star Trek dream I had last night.

( Click for ramble and minor ST Voyager and ST:4 spoilersCollapse )

Also, I think my subconscious may be trying to tell me something. To the Netflix!

In unrelated news, -waves- Hello my dears. Still alive and hope you all are as well. :)

Happy Holidays 2018!

Also, yes, I am indeed still alive for anyone wondering. Mostly on FB these days, but even on there I'm significantly less active than I used to be. Apparently I just fail at social media.

Anyway, here's the bare basic recap of the last... err... Three years apparently.

Status - alive and kicking! But usually only when the other person deserves a good kick

Employed - Yup! About to celebrate my 5 year anniversary at current place of employment. And by 'celebrate', I mean they gave me a shiny new clock and five additional days of PTO. Win win

Involved - kinda sorta. It's not complicated, but it is in the relationship version of Limbo since I still hate dating and am not particularly inclined to change my ways. But who knows what the future will bring.

Day to day work and play - non-work hours are generally spent reading all the things (my Goodreads Goal for this year was 100 books... Currently the count is somewhere around 120... >.>)
Weekends are pretty equally divided between hermiting or hanging with friends/family and procrastinating on doing the laundry.

2018 has been - a bit rough and stressful actually, but I keep on keeping on with my same cheerful out look on life. Definitely hoping 2019 can offer me a bit of a breather, though. ;)


And that pretty much covers the basics! Happy Holidays, everyone! And all the best for 2019!

So, here i am, in bed and afraid to go back to sleep. Why, you ask?

Because subconsciousnesses are dicks.

(Please excuse typos, I did just have a rather rude awakening)

Dream goes from being somewhere and hearing about "Lake Johnson" - wherever that is, but Dream Me recognized it - flooding via some news report, to me supposedly going to board a plane at some air port small enough that you walk out onto the tarmac and climb up those metal stairs and thinking after going around two stairwell landings that "this must me a freaking huge plane" to finally getting to the top and having it turn out to be a waterslide (at which point I realized it was a dream and a freaking weird one at that, but yay waterslide!), not a plane after all, to me going down the waterslide only for it to morph into a churning, frothing lake/sea about midway down of the kind that capsizes boats in a heartbeat to me trying to swim free and clear through the churning waves to freaking APACHE HELICOPTERS flying right over the bloody top of my head and SHOOTING AT ME!!!! to me ducking under the water to escape and having a mass bullets zing by my head while under there and Dream Me just KNOWING I would need air soon and they would just be right there to shoot off my head as soon as I surfaced, so I gave in and just sunk to the bottom to the graveley lake bed and just lay there waiting for whatever only to find myself at "home" (which was not a home i recognized, but which, again, Dream Me did) laying in my bed while Mom and Dad listened to the news too loud downstairs and overhearing a report on weird going ons at Lake Johnson and how the lake mysteriously drained/disappeared and Mom yelling up the stairs "Maren, did you hear? Lake Johnson is gone" to me still in bed and hearing something SCRATCHING ON THE WOODEN DOOR/WALL BEHIND MY HEAD!!! At first it wasn't so bad, Dream Me just assumed it was the dog scratching on the door to be let in, only it was BEHIND MY HEAD! Which is a wall, not a door, WITH NOTHING BEHIND IT EXCEPT ATTIC! And it was getting LOUDER!

At which point, Dream Me and Real Life Me were all "Fuck this shit!" and started the awkward terrified try-and-jerk-my-body-awake-plus-mental-screaming methodology that seems to be the only means to wake myself from a bad dream (and which doesn't always work, unfortunately)

This time it worked, so yay, but now I don't really want to to back to sleep because there was SCRATCHING! Coming from the wall BEHIND MY HEAD!

Or so it seemed in the dream. In real life, if the sound wasn't totally imagined, it was more likely one or the other of the cats being jerks and scratching/rattling at my door.Not a common habit for either at night, but not unheard of either.

So my plans tonight consisted of "take out Chinese and either Willy Wonka or Young Frankenstein," to quote a text I sent a friend earlier.

Got my Chinese and found Iron Man 3 on TV cause it was on and easier than figuring out the proper remote and input hook up of the DVD player in the living room that I've never used, at least for chow time. And because Effort. Particularly Effort on Friday night after work at the beginning of a long weekend.

Thus entertained, I had my dinner and a movie. Ate my fortune cookie when Mandarin was waxing philosophical about fortune cookies being fake and empty. As one does.

Fortune? 'The plans you made will be successful'.

And after Iron Man, I am now on to Willy Wonka.

PSYCHIC FORTUNE COOKIE!


Also, HIIIIIIYE LIVE JOURNAL! Lovely to see you again, I know it's been awhile. Hopefully all is well in Virtualand.

Hi friends. Been awhile. Also, sorry, but this is definitely not a cheerful happy post.

Why? Because Shit just got Real, and I was not entirely prepared for it. :(



Ok. So. I haven't been following US politics a whole heck of a lot these last few months/years, much less European politics, but I got curious with all the Britexit stuff popping up all over the place and decided to look into it a bit

I found this article from the NewYorkTimes that seems to describe things pretty well in terms a poli-sci ignorant brain such as my own can understand
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/world/europe/brexit-britain-eu-explained.html?_r=0 - Brexit, Explained: 7 Questions About What It Means and Why It Matters

And as I'm reading it, I start to consider the real, true, terrifying possibility that Trump will end up in office, and then we'd have TWO very powerful countries spewing anti-immigration and raciest poison

And I suddenly flash back to my high school and college history classes when we were taught how World War I and II weren't just about one thing or another but a domino effect of many, many things

And then my brain flashed forward 20/50/100 years to how some day - unless the world implodes or gets hit by an asteroid or some such and there IS no 20/50/100 years into the future - and some kid in some classroom reading about how World War III started...

And it was now. Right now. This year, 2016. In those history books, NOW was the turning point when everything began. The first domino, tipping slowly forward.

And it freaked me the hell out.


When I told my friend Emma this sudden, terrifying revelation, she agreed, and came back with what another friend of hers had posted on Facebook:

"I feel like we are living in a very tense and uncertain chapter of my future grand child's AP History book."

Yes. That. Exactly. /o\


I may be physically shaking a bit now, that slight tremor I get in my chest when I face off with someone and/or get stuck in the middle of a vicious verbal fight between friends or family.

Or when I wake up from a nightmare, fighting to keep my eyes open because I'm afraid to go back to sleep.


ETA an half-hour later
Also courtesy of Emma - ( Freakily fitting lyrics from a song we hadn't even heard of until twenty minutes agoCollapse )

Right... So I found this in my LJ/Semagic drafts with a "last edited date" of April 2015. So. You know. Only a year or so delayed. Oops? Anyway, you all may see something you like at any rate. Enjoy.

(ps - this totally counts as an "I'm alive!" post, right? So proof of life AND fic recs... Two for the price of one!)



Awhile back, I mentioned how I had been sifting though my AO3 History. These are the result of my history-digging. Turns out the reason I didn't link them is simply because, though they are fun and I've enjoyed them, they don't make me go "OMG, AWESOME, MUST HAVE MORE!" - which is usually the main deciding factor when it comes to stories that get in to my sacred fic recs folder.

However, they are fun and a good way to pass a little time, so I figure why not share a few while I have 'em open.


Avengers

First of all, the whole REASON I went into my AO3 History in the first place was because I wanted to find this series: JARVIS by icarus_chained.
Because I adore JARVIS and his interactions with Tony and the rest of the Avengers. The series is a phenomenal look at JARVIS and what makes him who he is, what Tony taught him, and exactly how much Tony means to him as a creator and a teacher and a friend. Basically, if you love JARVIS, I recommend any of the Iron Man and Avenger stories by icarus_chained, because they are done very, very well. It was merely a difference in writing tastes that kept the stories from ever making it into my fic recs folder. Amazing as they are in these stories, both Tony and JARVIS are written as just a bit darker than I prefer. Also, though they hide it well beneath the dark, I Can Kill You With My Brain, I Just Choose Not To, badassery superiority complex (though can it really be considered a 'complex' if it is also pretty much 100% true?) and total devotion to one another, Tony and JARVIS are, quite frankly, SO VERY MUSHY with each other. Seriously, there is sentimentality and there is SENTIMENTALITY, to the tune of "I would die for you" and "Not if I died for you first, baby." While reading, I alternated between wanting to hug them like the emotionally abused children they were, or tell them "Oh my god, you two, get a room!"


http://archiveofourown.org/works/340910 - Field Medicine by kellifer_fic

http://archiveofourown.org/works/429016 - He Ain't Heavy (He's Our Villain) by goodboots.
I can't actively see this kind of Ever After for Loki - maybe immediately after Thor, but it gets a little more wishy washy after Avengers, and downright AU-ish territory after the latest Thor film (though considering it was written just a few months after Avengers, I suppose it's technically AU anyway, but details). However, despite the wishy-washyness, I kinda wish that this was closer to how they handled Loki. The poor kid spent thousands of years pretty much being told flat-out that he would always be second best, and his tendency to use his brain instead of any sort of brawn was just Not How They Did Things in Asgard. And, after a few thousand years of developing one of the biggest inferiority complexes *ever*, he also finds out his parents have been lying to him all this time and that he is, for all intents and purposes, literally a monster. Face it, the he had a pretty rotten childhood - and after all that, it's actually pretty amazing that he held it together as long as he *did*... before, you know, he snapped under 1000 years of repressed anger and emotion and ended up trying to take over the world.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/463857 - Brave Face by Hakaisha. This is actually a pretty amazing Steve and Tony insight piece, but man, reading it actually kind of hurts simply because of all the abuse poor Steve (and to a lesser but still waaaay, way too much degree, the rest of the Avengers) goes through in just a few thousand words.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/383361 - Rainy Thursday Morning by soroexitium. Teamy family fluffiness! Though it's a little mushy, too, which is probably why I never linked it before, but perfect for some warm fuzzies.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/381279 - Truths, Lies, and the Tipping Point by blackeyedgirl. Another one that I probably passed up because I couldn't really see it happening realistically. But there is Fox news hacking and a team that will ALWAYS have your back, and I am down with that.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/363578 - Got to Do What You Love by blackeyedgirl.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/492587/chapters/860851 - this bullet lodged in my chest, covered with your name by Cinaed. *Amazingly* well done Natasha/Bucky backstory, but holy cow, angst, and the ending. Hopeful ending, granted, but even that kinda hurts.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/777548 - Internal Displacement by victoria_p (musesfool). Steve and Bucky, before, during, and after the war. Bucky is a bit mopey for my tastes (though, hey, considering the subject I imagine they'll be covering in Captain America: Winter Solider, I suppose he's allowed to feel a bit sorry for himself), but still a pretty good character voice.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/314102/chapters/503103 - Semaphore by Devil Doll. This story is actually rather fantastic character-wise, and Miriam is awesome and I want one. That being said, this story never made it into my Fic Recs folder because one of my biggest irritants in the Avengers fandom is how often Pepper is dumped on when the author wants to get her out of the way to make room for "Tony/Someone Else" (usually Steve) - and in doing so, they *always* seem to forget that Pepper stayed by Tony Stark, Billionaire Asshole's side FOR MORE THAN TEN YEARS when he was the worlds biggest jerk, drinking himself to death and sleeping with anything with a pulse and causing new scandal on an almost weekly basis. To paraphrase one of my fellow Pepper Doesn't Get Enough Respect fans - alcohol poisoning and STDs aren't any *less* deadly than bullet holes, they're just more embarrassing ways to almost die - so you damned well better believe that Smart, Brilliant, I Never Took This Shit From Tony Fucking Stark, What Makes You Think You're Any Different? Pepper Potts would CONTINUE to stand by Tony Stark, Avenger - in fact, I may even go so far as to say that she is MORE LIKELY to stick by him as an Avenger, bullet-holes be damned, because at least he is almost dying for something he believes in. If you want them broken up, fine - I can totally accept how two such huge personalities (both made of Awesomeness as far as I am concerned) may not make for the best couple, and I like my Tony/Steven just as much as the next fangirl. But if Pepper leaves because she "can't handle" Tony as an Avenger, then I call bull shit.
Also, unrelated to Pepper, Steve is kind of a jerk about the baseball thing, but I'm okay with it because it led us Miriam, and have I mentioned that I want one?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/425702 - All My Heroes by Hakaisha. This is actually some pretty great Steve and Tony voices, but it's just a smidge to angsty for my usual tastes. Lots of bonding between Tony and Steve, with Bruce and Steve bonding in the sequel.

It Will Probably Accelerate by northatlantic. One that kind of irk me in places, but which I still over-all enjoy. Also, bonus - when there is sex, it is hot. (Note: I saved this story in a LJ draft back in April 2013. I have no recollection of what happens in it, nor do I know who is making with the hot sex, but well, it was in my drafts folder titled "Avengers fic recs (second degree)", so this seems like as good a place to put it as any.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/531466/chapters/942682 - I Climbed The Tree To See The World by sarcastic_fina. This one didn't make the cut because, while Darcy is still awesome, her confidence in herself is lacking like woah, and my patience for people who are always dissing on and having trouble believing in themselves is pretty short. Jane and Peter are awesome, though, and Darcy and Coulson being BFF is kind of great. And even if her confidence is just not what I've come to expect in the character, Darcy is still at one with the snark and kind of kicks butt, so it evens out a little through the course of the story.
(Also, FYI, very few of the Avengers show up in this story aside from Steve, and when they do, it is just in passing, so as far as I am concerned, another reason it was banished to the "Okay fic recs" post is because of the sad lack of Tony being mouthy and blowing stuff up, Black Widow being a bad ass, Bruce being all genius and rumpled and bro-ing it up with Tony, and Clint being snarky AND a bad ass. I missed my teamy goodness, yo)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/446536?view_full_work=true - Babysitters Club by shooting stetsons. This is a crossover between the BBC Sherlock and the Avengers movie. I rather like the idea, but it just seemed a bit forced and far fetched, and the characterization was off just enough for everyone that it threw me a bit. Not a lot, and definitely within reason based on the films themselves, but just not quite enough to mesh up with the Avengers (and John) that I've built up in my head based on the hundreds of Avengers stories (and maybe a dozen or so Sherlock stories) I've read over the years.

Facebook Messenger convo with Emma

Maren
My brothers and I weren't allowed in each other's room, but that didn't stop us from trying to be obnoxiously 'I'm not in your room! I'm in the doorway! Tee hee!' as possible

Or failing that, throwing stuff in each other's room

I remember vividly when Ben was being particularly obnoxious and keep throwing his big Nerf darts into my bedroom. After telling him to stop twice and yelling it at him a third, I decided to tear his Nerf darts up and return them in pieces. He was not happy about that. It was great

Emma
Lol, I would have held them hostage

Maren
He would have (and did) find other stuff to throw through my door. The Nerf was probably not intended to be his final missile, but he reconsidered after I destroyed it.

Well. Not technically. He was so mad about the Nerf arrow that he went stomping around looking for a toy of mine he could destroy in revenge. Took him awhile, but he eventually ripped off the head of a little stuffed bunny of mine and launched that into my bedroom instead.

It was still all win for me, because even had the bunny been dear to me (which it was not; I kept all my fav toys in my room - where he was not allowed), but it was fixable with a little sewing AND he was the one who got in trouble, both for the Nerf dart and the bunny

He tried to tell on me with the dart, but Dad told him he was the one who threw it in my bedroom to begin with and what was Ben expecting to happen, especially after irritating me so long and not stopping when I first asked

It was beautiful.


Ahhh. Such fond memories... :D

All the new fics I've read and liked enough to save this past year-and-a-halfish but which never got posted. Because lazy. So lazy I can't even remember what most of them are about, but eh, odds are they're still pretty darn great.

So, in no particular order:

Avengers
It's All Smooth Sailing From Here - by Kansas42
The Avengers Movie Night is all Bruce's fault. Tony wants to be absolutely clear on that.

"Earth's Mightiest Heroes" .... (Oh Boy...) - by Lsusanna

The Avengers are not badass. They are dorks. Here is the proof.

The PR department tries, it really does. Coulson is not amused, he never is. Clint’s puppy eyes don’t (always) cut it. Fury thinks the team is a bad influence on his agents, he is very disappointed in them.

or

A sometimes-genderbent series of short, fluffy, stand-alone ficlets featuring our favorite Super Secret Boy Band and Co.

It Was Probably The Pudding by Serendipity_Cometh

Given that over the course of the past eleven months Peter Parker hasn't contracted so much as a head-cold, the teenager thought it safe to assume that the whole 'irradiated spider bite' gig had equipped him with an immune system of steel that rivalled Captain America's.

So when he wakes up one night in the midst of the worst asthma attack he's suffered in almost eight years, neither he nor the rest of the team can think of a logical explanation.
And everything sort of goes downhill from there.

(Set in an Alternative Universe where Peter moved into the Avengers’ Tower following the events of The Amazing Spider-Man.)

It's Just Another Day - by Wordwitch

When things began hitting the fan in DC, and Steve and Natasha had to get help from a retired vet, what was Tony Stark doing? In fact, what were all of the rest of the Avengers doing?

Or, They ain't just a buncha musclebound meatheads, you know?

Takes place during and after the events of Captain America: The Winter Solider.


Star Trek Reboot

Inevitability - by galaxysoup
A little bit of Bones and Spock Prime after the events of the first movie


Stargate Atlantis/SG1

Retrograde by LtLJ
The Atlantis expedition has been lost for three years. SG-1 goes to find them, and arrives just a little too late. And by too late (if I am recalling correctly), author does not mean dead, just incredibly distrustful - and for very good reason.


The Mummy
Lady of The Two Lands - Niki - The Mummy Series
She is a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a lover; a scholar, a librarian, a spy, a princess, and a queen.


Sleepy Hollow
Five Times North Star Assistance Helped The English Guy - Fyre - Sleepy Hollow (TV) by Fyre
Title pretty much says it all. And while I recall a few writerly irritants in the story, I also recall spending 10 minutes searching variations of "sleepy hollow + fic + Northstar" in Google in an attempt to find the story again a few months after I initally read it.

I have been hanging on to this link for years in the blind hope that maybe someday the story will be finished. But it has been more than two years since the last update, so I do believe it may be time to let it go... Or at least post it to my fic recs to be revisited at some future date. Hope springs eternal and all that. :) No cliff hanger ending, either, so at least there's that.

Not Just Your Average Lab Assistant by r2d2grrl. There is Teamy Goodness and Snark and SCIENCE! and lots of Darcy being awesome. And tazing Johnny Storm. Yeah, alright, I should've just led with that. ;)

Freezer Burn by Domenika Marzione (domarzione).
The adventures of Steve Rogers, defrosted soldier, who is missing time but not really all that lost. He's got a surprisingly broad knowledge of lettuces, a working grasp of modern technology, and may or may not be using both to mess with his teammates and save the world.

I know I've read this one a few times before, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to have made it into any of my fic recs.

Eta7/9/15 - Ah, now I recall why it probably never made it to my fic recs before. Initially, I think it may have been unfinished. Now that it is finished, it's mostly just long and kind of tedious. Still a good story, mind, just a little denser than I usually go for and it misses out on a lot of the Teamy Goodness that I prefer. The story itself is 28 chapters and close to 200k long, but even though I've been working my way through it for a few weeks now, I've still only managed to make it to chapter 22 and I'm quite tempted to just skip to the last chapter and see what happens before moving on to a new story or book.

This, You Protect by owlet. The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect. Bucky (Winter Solider)/Steve friendship; no pairing as of the moment unless Barnes/coffee counts.
This one is not actually from my "to read" folder, so bit of a set back in my "READ ALL THE THINGS!" quest to clear it out. However, I am linking it before I even finish the story because it is Just That Awesome. At first I was skeptical - Winter Solider/The Asset has had his mind fucked with too many times for me to believe he would still retain much Snarkiness without a serious mental break down and epic catastrophic brainwashing failure, but I got over it pretty quick because BUCKY! It is also incredibly refreshing to read a Winter Solider-centric story that isn't All Angst, All The Time. I love the guy, but man... Heart breaker (and not in a good way) and five paces, yo.

One more (almost) down! Woop, progress!

there's trees in the desert since you moved out by irnan. aka Team America's Excellent Adventure: wherein Natasha Romanov kicks off a road trip and talks about her feelings, Steve Rogers moves back to Brooklyn and learns to kiss (and talks about his feelings), Sam Wilson takes a sabbatical and racks up a simply astronomical cell phone bill (and talks about his feelings), and Bucky Barnes blows people up off-screen and (in a shocking twist) talks about his feelings.
Not quite the Steve and Natasha I'm used to, but not exactly out of character either and I kind of like these versions of themselves. And Bucky, when he shows up, is awesome. And Sam is pretty great, too. And almost the whole thing is a road trip. Hard to go wrong with Road Trip Fic.

Still slowly working my way through the stories in my "To Read" folder. The latest read - The Right Way To Fall by Taste_is_Sweet, first in the Dread and Darling Boys series. Amazing Sam introspection showing exactly how awesome he is as he tries to put the scattered pieces of Winter Soldier back together into Bucky Barns after Hydra and everyone else spent 70 years tearing him down. Eerily realistic take on how a human - even one juiced up on bootleg Super Solider serum - could possibly suffer through all that and still manage to survive. The story itself is sometimes cold and often downright brutal, it's sequels even more so (there is angst and then there is Angst. This fits the latter like woah. Squared) But it is also beautifully written and utterly heart breaking at the same time and totally worth all it in the end.

My only complaint is that JARVIS is a little more bumbling than I'm used to, but weirdly enough that just makes him seem a little more human. He's not entirely sure WTF is going on, either{and considering what IS going on, it is extremely easy to sympathize}, and he wasn't programed for this shit.

There is also very very vaguely related not-really-a-companion-piece-but-takes-space-in-the-same-universe Stargate Atlantis story -  Scruffy AI by the same author. Both are totally and completely separate stories - Scruffy AI takes place entirely in a very VERY AU Stargate Atlantis universe with no cameos from Avengers (unlike the last story in the Dread and Darling Boys series, where both Lorn and Beckett do both make very brief appearances) in which both Sheppard and Cam are secretly Artificial Intelligences pretty much raised as brothers, their true origins known only to a very select few in the SGC. Not exactly a prequel, but does explain some of the more confusing bits that crop up toward the end of Crash Down (Break this Heart of Mine) (the sixth in the Dread and Darling Boys series). Also a very awesome series but, again, extremely heavy on the angst.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - EXACTLY what I expected. It was Awesome, but it still kind of broke my fangirl heart.

( SpoilersCollapse )

All that being said, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the film itself. Don't get me wrong, it was still awesome and I'm not sure I could ask for a better way to... well. End an Era, I guess.

I think I just answered my own non-question... Age of Ultron was exactly that... The end of an era. There will be more movies and there are many, many more an era to explore/continue to explore. But true to the comics that fueled the Marvel Movie fire - Things, they are a Changin'.


ETA ten minutes later - OMG, I JUST HAD A FANGIRL EPIPHANY!

( SpeculationCollapse )

Me thinks the running theme for phase three? Change. Lots and lots of change.

I dig change. Bring it!

Pretty sure it's been over a year since my last fic binge. I still read old favorites and the occasional new ones, but I think I can admit the obsession has lessoned rather significantly. That being said, I am currently between book series, and I got it into my head that it might also be time to tackle the "to read" folder in my bookmarks as they have also all been there for over a year (and in several cases, probably two or three years).

Which brings us to Just Another Guy With A Bow by myrmidryad. Awesome fantastic Clint back story from when he joined the circus as a kid right up through the first Avengers movie, with some additional missions with the team after as well. It was written in 2012, so it does technically go AU after the first film, but that matters about as much as a gnat fart in a hurricane because it was still awesome enough that I'm Scrapbooking it.


Also, huh. Apparently my metaphors get a bit crude and nonsensical when I'm about five minutes or less from Sandman Zone. Good to know.

Because I have spammed FB enough aready today.

(upon finding Star Trek: Into Darkness one one of the movie channels we get for being new to Dish)
I have nothing against the new Star Trek films. In fact, I even rather enjoy them in a purely sci fi/action movie aspect. I do rather wish the hadn't made amazing, strong female bad asses such as language expert comm genius LT. Uhura and super techie weapons engineer DR. Carol Marcus into the emo love interest and the girl who looks good in her underwear, though

Had busy night last night.

First I went on a rampage as the Hulk (or possibly a Ford Pinto; there was definitely wall-smashing and reckless driving through slushy unplowed streets going on), and then in my post-SMASH exhaustion, I went and met up with the rest of the Avengers where they were hanging out in my high school's gym. Steve gave me a hug (it was an awesome hug, too) and braided my hair while I talked Bio Fuel with my dad.

Definitely not a bad way to ring in the New Year.

I have been quite bad about keeping up with LJ the last month or two... my bad. And while I assume all of you, my dear Live Journal Friends, did not simply pop into existence on October 25 of this year, my LJ friends page is trying to convince me otherwise as it is refusing to show me any posts before that date. So pretty much if anything exciting happened in October, feel free to link me or draw my attention to it some how.

Anyway, for those who are interested, a brief update of my own for the last few weeks:

Not So New Anymore Job is going okay as far as I am aware. Lots of typing and my carpal tunnel has come back with vengeance in BOTH wrist (yay... not), but it does pass the time and pay the bills.

Oct 17
Dustin hosted a bonfire. JB burned his old polo shirts from his former job at MC Sports in celebration of not having to work at MC Sports anymore (he got a different job elsewhere). The booze was free flowing and there was lots of overindulgence. I did not overindulge - in fact, after a sip or two of Dustin's apple pie, I pled headache (see below - failed wisdom tooth extraction) and was in bed by 11ish. I was one of the few to survive the night with their dignity in tact, from what I understand.

Oct 18
My friend JB's annual Epic Movie Marathon was neither epic nor an actual movie marathon this year. Firefly was the drug of choice, which is always going to be awesome and Epic in its own way, but he made the mistake of rescheduling it to a week later semi-last minute. The end result was that there were only actually 6 of us who showed up, and I only managed to stay for about half the marathon since I was still suffering the effects of an unsuccessful wisdom teeth extraction from a few weeks earlier. It was still fun, though, and I am never opposed to a plan to marathon Firefly all day.

Oct 26
Went home to visit the fam for the day. Bro and sis in law were also there to hang out for a bit and show us ultrasounds - there will be a new edition to the family come March, so it was good to see them and catch up. We shared a super tasty meal with the parents and took Gramma for a walk in the field to check out the sorghum (probably spelled horribly wrong; it's a kind of grain) and all of us took turns snuggling the cutest of tiniest kittens from amongst the strays that decided to take up residence in my parents garage/barn foundation/grainary over the years. The weather was lovely, too, so I spent a few hours raking up leaves and helping Mom and Dad clean up the yard a bit, too.

Oct 31
Halloween was tons of fun. A few of my friends and I went to one of the less crazy bars in the middle of town to avoid the EXTRA CRAZY dose of craziness that would be the downtown on FRIDAY, October 31st only about a half a mile or so from campus. The was live music and catching up with friends I hadn't seen for awhile and it was just the perfect level of activity - not super crazy, but not dead either. Worked out right nice if you ask me. I went as Carmen Sandiego, roommate went as 50 Shades of Gray (he wore a cardboard sash of gray-toned paint chips. Thats it. And yet more people guessed his costume than guessed my own, alas) and much fun was had by all.

In Which the Avengers Take Exception to the Army Meddling in Their Affairs by megster. The first chapter title, Four Times the Avengers Thwart the Army (and One Time They Don't), actually sums up the story quite nicely. Ross wants Bruce. The Avengers have Bruce and really, really, REALLY don't want to give him up. Ross ignores their combine threat and kidnaps Bruce anyway.

Ross really isn't that bright.

I've actually read this story several times, but it never made it to my recs list because while this story is complete, the other stories in the series aren't completed yet and I was hoping to link the whole thing. But it's been more than two years without any updates, so I figure I'll just post the complete one if nothing else. The third part of the series, In Which the Council Makes a Truly Stupid Ass Decision, is also awesome and totally worth a read even if it is unfinished. It doesn't even end on a huge on a cliffhanger, so bonus.

Because I legit just spent ten minutes typing variations of "harry potter + supernatural + buffy + dean/hermione + ginny + faith + new york" into google in hopes of rediscovering this particular story. None the less, it is quite possibly the shortest time it has ever taken me to find a Fic Lost To Time And Faulty Memory. Archive Of Our Own rocks, yo.

Cracked Stars Shining by abi z (azephirin). It has, quite possibly, been almost a decade or more since I first discovered this story. It may say 2009 on the publish date, but I'm pretty sure I first discovered it when Live Journal was in it's hey day back in the mid 2000s, but it never made it into my fic recs because the story was never completed. It still appears to be incomplete, but if I am recalling correctly, it also doesn't end in a particularly cliff-hangery ending, which is always a plus. I also don't remember much else that happens in the story, really, beyond some Dean and Hermione making a surprisingly awesome couple, Faith being mildly obsessed with ICanHasCheezeburger, Hermione chopping off all her hair, and some PSTD/sexual assault type things for Ginny (so TRIGGER WARNING; they are only mentioned in passing, but still... not fun) that Sam slowly but surely helps her work through in the background. Still, though, it stuck with me all these years and it will definitely be getting a reread in the not so distant future.

Woops. So I may have forgotten to update my book list for the last three months.

Book lists:
( JanuaryCollapse )

( FebruaryCollapse )

( MarchCollapse )

( AprilCollapse )

( MayCollapse )


( JuneCollapse )

( JulyCollapse )

( AugustCollapse )

Update that actually updates about stuff! And I'm going to cheat a bit and use Facebook statuses where I can. Because lazy.

June 30-July 3 - First day of work at the new office. Boss and coworkers seem to be pretty cool, the job itself is kid of dull - lots and lots of data entry and organizing pdfs. It is a job, though, with the bonus of actual benefits and paid time off - I'll take it.

July 4th - BBQ and Dustin's awesome ribs at his friend Mark's place. There was lots of food, a hot tub, and a redneck pool (their name, not mine - 50ish? gallon little inflatable kiddy pool).

July 19-20 - came home for the weekend to visit the family. My muffler finally gave up the ghost on the drive home, so it was a noisy trip. On the bright side, I had been planning to take it in to get it fixed literally the following Monday or Tuesday, whenever they could fit me in, so at least I had planned for the expense. However, mechanical fail, new job anxiety, ongoing worry about Gramma, and some disquiet on the sig front all were the PERFECT recipe to bring on the Annual Emotional Breakdown. Rough weekend, man, but at least I should be in the clear for another year or so. By Monday I was pretty much back to normal and by Tuesday I had a car that didn't require ear plugs to drive around, so hurrah for that!

July 25 - Roommate hosted a Wine and Cheese Night! The cheese was delicious, the homemade cheese cake was even better. Some of the wine was pretty good, some of it kind of meh. Still haven't found a type I really like, but the Riesling wasn't too bad.

August 1-3 - Annual camping trip with Lissy! This year it was my turn to pick, so we set up shop at Copper Falls State Park in northern Wisconsin. Much fun was had and lots of hiking was done. Also, we discovered how disconcerting it is when there are no night animal/insect sounds what so ever, especially the first night when there were a bunch of sirens off not so far in the distance. I had visions of some huge catastrophic flood or natural disaster creeping ever closer with none of us campers the wiser. Seriously, NOTHING WAS CHIRRUPING. In a heavily wooded area in the middle of the Wisconsin Northwoods. Creepy, man. The second night it was less disconcerting because even if there were no night noises beyond those made by the other campers, there was still evidence of night life. Some random wild creature - I'm thinking raccoon - dragged the garbage bag we left out several meters into the woods (luckily it wasn't that full) and I, personally, ended up showering with at least three teeny tiny (and adorable. One of them crawled up on my foot while I was changing) tree frogs before turning in for the night.

Aug 16 - Headed to Marshfield for a day trip to get my Thrift Store fix, where I found an awesome red full length trench coat and five new shirts for less than $30 total. After hitting pay dirt at Saint Vinnies, it was brats and burgers at the parents (where my pickle was super happy to get eaten by me! No, really) before heading back to Point.

Aug 22-23 (right now!) - Today is the parent's 39th wedding anniversary and I actually managed to get yesterday (Friday, 8-22) off, so I was able to come home and take over with Gramma for the weekend while Mom and Dad took an overnight trip down to the Onalaska/La Cross area where they both went to college. In between getting Gramma freshened up and fed, it's been a rather quiet - albeit rather hot and muggy - weekend so far, which I will happily take. It's always nice to come home again. :) Mom and Dad are on their way back home now, but I might stick around the rest of the weekend as well. There is definitely a nap in my future either way, though.