Today I'm finally remembering to finish and post an introduction post. Most important thing first:

I am constantly reminded of how far I have yet to come as an ally and as a person, but I just want to put this out there: If ever I do or say anything that makes you feel hurt, unwelcome, or uncomfortable, I promise that I will do my best to listen as calmly and patiently as possible, and if necessary will remove myself from the keyboard for time to calm down so my response will not be reactive or defensive. For any times that I have said anything that has hurt you in the past, I apologize. I'm always trying to do better, and I know that sometimes that's not enough.

--

( Ten things you might want to know about me )

If ever you have any questions or comments, consider this a free post to nudge me.

This is sort of the "fandom works in progress" post I keep meaning to make and sort of a post trying to figure out what priorities I should have for the fic I'm currently writing and sort of a post trying to talk myself into signing up for both thelittlebang and the Merlin Big Bang (and also a floating reminder post). (As in, this is mostly for my benefit.)

(Written while the repair people are replacing the boiler. \o/ Warm showers shall soon be once more available to me! \o/)

Not-quite-complete list of what is either in my wip folders/on my agenda to add to them:

( Chuck )
( Dresden Files )
( Hikaru no Go )
( Harry Potter )
( Merlin )
( Psych )
( RPF (Kanye, Politics, News, The Daily Show, & The Colbert Report) )
( The Devil Wears Prada )


Uh, and wow. I didn't realize quite how many stories I want to tell (this . . . isn't even including the five major original projects and assorted minor ones) until I wrote all of those out. (And this also doesn't include any of the ones put in the "probably abandoned" folder. D:) But this way I can now keep track of them all!

Also, I think I will sign up for thelittlebang and the Merlin Big Bang. I think my top priorities for fic are going to be: the DWP fic for thelittlebang, the Gwen/Morgana fic for MBB, the Kanye/Stephen music-verse fic (even the thought of putting it anywhere near the back-burner fills me with horror), the Psych femslash birthday exchange fic, and Tides, plus any flash fic I owe people/will owe from the guessing game.

This entry will be edited over time to reflect new fic added to my wip folders and the fic that claw their way out of the wip folders and into my fic journal.

My desktop, though found, is still not all hooked up, but--

The computer people did lie to me again, this time being a good lie. Four days ago, they said my regular laptop would be done in ten days. For keeping the exploding rage behind my left eye and not hurling it at the poor tech guy on the phone still waiting for the parts to arrive from the company, the universe rewarded me with him calling again yesterday to say it was finally fixed.

Of course, on the way to pick it up, I discovered the wheel bearing has some Issues since the pothole waiting as a trap of malicious intent on the way back from Chicago. Yay for having a computer, because I won't be going anywhere until my car is returned. Fortunately, I know better than to send it to the place that kept it for two months. This time, it is going to the local, non-dealership guy who managed to fix the last problem and return it in a couple days. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the same can happen again.

Other than all of that, I have been very uninteresting while forcibly away from the internet. I've been writing, went to Taste of Chicago with good friends, and dealing with allergy concerns. More about Taste of Chicago (and some very tasty restaurants) to follow.

What have the rest of you been up to?

If you need me for the next few days and I don't manage to find the tower to the retired desktop of early college at my father's house, rest assured I'm probably okay, albeit cursing both my deathly touch toward technology and Frye's inability to return said technology fixed within anything approaching a reasonable time frame. Over a month, not so reasonable. Continued hopes that the next three days really mean the next three days are waning, and that's just for the first computer. I'm not so sure I even want to hand over the second.

At this moment, I'm borrowing someone else's so I could quickly e-mail someone and I saw a few messages had accrued. So: no worries. Anyone who needs me for anything immediate or desperate probably already has my cell phone number. If not, mail my gmail and there is a strong chance I will be briefly borrowing this computer again to check it later. With anything near grace, this won't be a concern because I'll have found my desktop.

Knowing my luck, the desktop, too, will be broken.

Last night, I slept safe in my bed without fear of my government.

The same cannot be said of all the Iranian people.

While I'm sure most people on my flist have seen that article, I'm going to repost this part:


WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?


1. The most obvious thing to do is stay informed. Keep an eye on reliable sources on Twitter, refresh blogs and news sites that are covering the stories.

2. If you are on twitter, retweet information from reliable twitters, but REMOVE THE USERNAME if they are in Iran. People have died because of the lack of responsibility by fellow tweeters and the media in this front. They can be tracked down by the government of Iran.

3. Spread the information elsewhere. Repost this article or write your own on Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, or anywhere else you can think of. If you write your own, make sure you are concise and accurate. Link to your sources for people to learn more.

4. Change your location on Twitter to Tehran or Iran, and your time zone to GMT +3:30.

5. DO NOT auto-refresh and take down websites, even if you are asked. It slows down the internet for the rest of the people in Iran.

6. If you make a proxy DO NOT post it publically, otherwise it is useless. Send it in a direct message to a trusted source.

7. DO NOT spam the hash tag #IranElection with useless things to "confuse the government". This does not help at all.


Also, found via my list, Iran Election Fraud: 5 Reasons to Doubt the Results has links for more information in the sidebar, too.

I'm sure plenty of you have already heard that minotaurs has passed away. I first saw it mentioned on the con.txt mailing list, but I've seen it confirmed elsewhere, too.

He had a hand in or was the sole creator of so many important slash projects of my fannish youth, several of which stuck in my mind such that I knew exactly who he was when he turned up in the comments of one of my fic entries a little while back. Everyone remember the Slash Page Database Project? I remember at the time my utter delight that he was still around and that I now had a new means of keeping track of him.

Apparently he didn't have a fanlore page before today, but several people are working on that and maybe on some sort of page of recollections about him.

He was definitely a fandom wonder, and even among those of us who did not have the honor of knowing him except in passing, except through his fannish works, he will be sorely missed. For those of you who are his friends and family, I'm truly sorry for your loss.

I am in Dallas! In about half an hour, my two hour flight home will be boarding. \o/

Oh, oh, and lizfu! I have a story beginning what I want to show you completely unrelated to all the other stories I am working on. It is young adult, I think, and sort of a ghost story and fairy tale, and lots of fun so far as far as writing goes.

Once I actually arrive home, I am going straight to bed so I can wake up early and head off to Chicago on Saturday. norabombay, call me Saturday morning when you wake up? I am not sure how early I will arrive at the lit fest, but I should at least be partway to Chicago by that point.

I am very tired, but soon I will be home. Just a few more hours.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I am dreading the flight home. The one thought sustaining me is that my cat is waiting for me, impatient for my return and still suspicious of the people housing him. My fear of flying is next to nothing compared to his distrust, paranoia, and feelings of stark terror toward strangers (read: anyone he has not known for years and through some complicated alchemy of emotion claimed as his own).

Also, I am beginning to suspect Japan is not super great for my health.

( Cut for a rather pathetic catalogue of my injuries )

A much better list is one that includes things I have managed to do on vacation. I suspect it will have to wait until I am home, though much of it has been included in previous updates. I could also try to post a list of my faults and triumphs as a consumer whore while in Japan, but that would spoil any surprises for souvenirs, and I need no reminders of my shame and joy.

Now, I am going to eye Porn Battle VIII for a bit with a gleeful air and contemplate whether to leave prompts while I can. Likely, there will also be a bit of staring woefully at Remix Redux because my qualifying fandom isn't there anymore, and I don't have a proper round-up of all the HP fic, and I think it will be closed by the time I am actually back home. Then again, we aren't leaving for another forty minutes, so--hm. There may be frantic last minute applying on my part. I mean, it is my favorite exchange/challenge ever, yes, including Yuletide. Or maybe just volunteering to be a pinch hitter. Or, well, dithering until my time runs out. That also works! . . .

Last day in Kyoto and second to last full day in Japan. I injured my hand, so this and any responses to anyone will have to be brief (or, in the case of responses, wait until I'm home and the hand has healed a little). Kyoto is gorgeous as always, and the hotel I booked us because it had nonsmoking rooms and was on sale is especially gorgeous and comfortable. I want to take half the furniture home with me. It also has two gardens and a huge birdwatching trail with a few more gardens and an observation area at the top of the mountain.

By now I've taken over 1200 photographs, so once we're home and have the connector for the digital camera, I'll start posting some of my favorites.

Everything has been wonderful, except my tendency to be prone to injuries while traveling. On the plus side, moving my hand is not as bad this morning, and if I don't touch the side I struck it or move the phalanges associated with my pinky finger too much, it seems fine, if a little ugly in its own bruised and bumpy way. The swelling has also gone down in the past two days. \o/

I had french toast for breakfast this morning and the little inari sushi that remained from yesterday as dessert, which was the best of all meals. Last night, we stopped at a Starbucks on the river and sat on the porch facing over it. Two young men were sitting under the bridge with guitars and a harmonica, singing and strumming. For a few minutes, they played a little of "Tears in Heaven" and sang it in Japanese. A darling, awesome woman in a shop gave my mother and I a sakura phone strap of our choosing each as a gift after I complimented pretty much everything in her shop as being awesome and adorably cute. Mostly, our trip has been filled with such moments of unexpected joy or simple happiness.

Again, Mom is in the shower, so I'm going to write up a quick entry. We'd originally planned for an early start for Higashikurume, but we didn't return until long past eleven, and so weren't ready for bed until a little after twelve.

Yesterday we ran late for practically everything and I proved that while I'm fine with Tokyo's train system, once you take me off it and outside areas I know, I get horribly lost until I have time to reorient myself. Rushing is not conducive to that.

At Shimokitazawa, I scheduled a hair appointment at my old place and found out my old stylist no longer worked there. I still trust the hair stylists there more than any I've had in Indiana, though, so I'm excited for Friday and a somewhat decent haircut. *g* I also showed my mom a quick tour of the neighborhood of boutiques and bought a souvenir for my dad. Two down! . . . A bunch to go.

Then we went to Tokyo Disney. I navigated everything up to Maihama fine, but when it came to the park, we were a bit lost, and februaryfour will probably tell you that I am lying through my teeth when I only say "a bit." She and koramay received several calls from me saying "We're here!" followed by several more calls saying "Oh, wait, I lied." We also managed to walk back to the previous monorail station because I hadn't been looking in the right direction for the park entrance, and my mother assumed I knew something she didn't, rather than the reverse. We realized something was wrong when we reached what I initially thought might be a park sign, and it said "Bon Voyage!"

Once we were actually at the park (and finally stopped at Star Tours so februaryfour and koramay could find us, it was good times for all. We all split up and reunited at various times, but this is a rough list of what my mom and I saw: Star Tours, Stitch's Tiki Show, the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight, Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse, the Electric Lights Parade, the fireworks show, Pirates of the Caribbean (updated to include scenes from the movie and use Johnny Depp's voice), and Monsters Inc. Monsters Inc was the last, because lines were such that we decided to wait the hour (that turned out to be only forty-five minutes). The last ten minutes of the park's opening, we looked around the gift shops in the World Bazaar area, and I picked up some stationary and postcards.

Then I limped home.

Oh, uh, and I managed to strain (but not sprain! It's not that bad) both ankles and my knee. I was in a hurry to follow februaryfour and koramay to Peter Pan's flight after the parade. My entire left leg was asleep, but I was mostly fine, up until I tried to dodge another woman in a hurry and made the mistake of putting my weight down on it. Ass over teakettle about covers it. Let me tell you, I have some epic bruises. It was also entirely worth it.

So yes, for many of the above reasons, we're taking it easier today. It will still be great times. Also, I still have a little saag paneer left for breakfast!

We're in Tokyo! It's awesome! Yesterday morning we went to Ueno Park and its zoo so I could show my mom all my favorite exhibits, because she is a great lover of zoos. It was perfect, because it was feeding time. Ling Ling (the giant panda) had sadly passed away since I'd last visited while I was studying in Tokyo, but there were even more red pandas, and the polar bears were doing tricks for treats and waving their huge scary paws like puppies begging for scraps. It was good times.

Then I met up with februaryfour for tea, sushi, doujin, and a brief arcade trip in the afternoon. The tea place had an event day! Neither of us knew much about Hetalia, but I was informed when I called the person dressed up as America "America-san" that America's name is Alfred. I think we all only wish we could be as cool as Batman's butler.

While februaryfour fed cienna's cat, I saw a really cool flower contest with my mom in Ikebukuro and looked at souvenirs for my dad. Then all three of us went to the Raj Mahal for Indian food and then karaoked our hearts out at Big Echo for half an hour.

Today is Tokyo Disney. We're kind of running behind, so we will be meeting people there. While we planned out our day, I had some of my leftovers for breakfast and sadly spilled my peach and honey juice all over the floor and table. On the upside, saag paneer is amazing even cold, and I can always buy more of the juice later. I'm drying out right now from my shower and checking train times for everything, and Mom is finishing up her shower. Soon we will leave. \o/

I have to tell you, today is going to be pretty damn awesome.

Chicago people:

Anyone want to join me and norabombay on June 6th (yes, the day after I get back) for trying to see Neil Gaiman at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest? Tickets (which are free) will be available at the library an hour before the event, so I was planning on hanging out about an hour and a half before they start distributing them. The event's at twelve, which would put me there at 9:30 a.m. If we can't get tickets, I am sure we can figure something else out.

--

Has anyone ever used vet-prescribed anti-anxiety medicine on their pets? How well has it worked? We'll be applying ours to kitty once we're back (because it's a long-term thing that will need to be applied every day). He will likely need it even more then. He'll be returning from the boarding place, chock-full of being over-socialized with strangers and under-socialized with people who love him, plus the usual abandonment issues whenever we leave for more than a day.

I'm supposed to have dinner with my dad tonight, I still need to call lizfu, and I am kind of feeling run down. I just want to curl up with my kitty forever. On the plus side, I leave for the airport in roughly thirty-six hours.

--

A couple nifty links blatantly stolen from my lists:
Down for everyone or just me? Answering a question I often wonder.

Decoding the Subtext "Decoding the Subtext is a series of essays which exam each of the Sherlock Holmes stories for homoerotic subtext." Eventually, I am going to curl up with all my Sherlock Holmes and make my way through this.

--

Two vid recs for my enduring love of Toshiko:
Steady As She Goes
Torchwood, Tosh/Everyone.

Wild Hope
Tosh ;______; (Spoilers through the S2 finale of Torchwood and also the S5 finale of Doctor Who)

--

Two Star Trek fic recs:
Earth Kids Are Assholes
Summary: Spock and Kirk make friends while bleeding. So exactly what happened, except they're in grade school. AU. Gen.
I think in addition to my love of Kirk/Spock/Uhura, Spock/Uhura, and any sort of Sulu fic, I am developing a minor gleeful obsession with Kirk & Spock gen friendship fic.

Oh Two Hundred
Excerpt: "I'm working on it," she said, already thinking of how to explain transporter technology to someone who might not know what it was in a language she had thought dead not two hours ago.
I want to draw hearts around Uhura's face forever.

( So )

--

Have some Star Trek recs:

Four People James T. Kirk Never Told (and one three he did)
Warnings: Oblique references to underaged non-consensual sex. Also reference to consensual sex between two minors. Nothing explicit here.
Summary: Why did Jim drive his step dad's car off a cliff?

How to Avoid Kicking Puppies and Other Valuable Lessons in Leadership
Summary: Kirk doesn't want to kick the puppy.

How to Win Friends and Influence Vulcans
Summary: Having a best friend who didn't know he was your best friend was frustrating. That did not, however, deter Kirk.

A Formal Dance in the Bowling Alley
Summary: Here are some things that James Tiberius Kirk, Captain, does not understand about the Enterprise and her crew.

--

Also, not so secret message to lizfu! My car needed its brakes replaced (good of them to have gone out in a way that meant I couldn't drive the car, rather than them not working once I was already driving), but is now revived and alive again if you want to catch dinner after work on Thursday or possibly Saturday before I am gone.

For the 'Take A Sad Song and Make It Better' Fest:

The Hands that Catch You
Fandom/Pairings:Chuck, Bryce/Sarah, a little bit Bryce/Chuck and Chuck/Sarah (and in Bryce's perfect world, Chuck/Bryce/Sarah).
Spoilers: Through the season two finale.
Summary: Chuck's and Sarah's hands are the ones that Bryce wants to catch him when he falls.

Something meta to maybe keep in mind while reading, ( cut for s2 finale spoilers )

Linkspam!

Things I'm sure most of you have seen already:

On deadbrowalking: wild unicorn herd check in. From the entry: "Let's make it really clear, people. If you identify as a POC/nonwhite person and you read or watch scifi or fantasy, give yourself a name check in this thread. I am particularly wanting shoutouts from people who do not live in the US and who have still managed to read genre fiction./I'm tired of people trying to render us invisible unless they have been given a memo about our existences." As others have said, fellow white people, this post isn't for us.

Blog Against Disabilism Day This is a link to a round up from two weeks ago, because I somehow completely missed this.

50books_poc is doing a recs round-up in response to the discussion about Thirteenth Child.

--

Star Trek:

( Cut for any movie spoilers )

Anyone else want to trade recs? Especially Kirk/Spock/Uhura or Spock/Uhura?

Oh! And also, Circus is an awesome complement to the Spock vid I linked earlier. butterfly describes it as "Kirk's a 'put on a show' kind of girl (oh, you know he is)." This is oh so very true.

Now my hope is that someone will make an Uhura vid as awesome and there will be a triumvirate of new-Trek vids that make me happy. (Actually, my hope is that people will make Kirk/Spock/Uhura vids, too, and just vids about how fantastic Uhura is in general.)

Three instant recs:
Staking out my Stamping Ground deepad on race, racism, groups/audiences, and the intricacies and power levels navigated when giving and receiving gifts.

Poker Face Star Trek: Reboot, Kirk/Spock. Deliciously fitting and all kinds of epic. Hear that delighted shrieking? That would be me. SPOCK. *waves hands*

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For, Well, You Know The Rest Burn Notice/Chuck, Bryce Larkin/Michael Weston. This was written for me! Obviously, I need to have insomnia and bad days more often. (Or, well, not, but still.) This definitely made me smile like you wouldn't believe. Michael is very much himself, and Bryce is still a very young spy.

(I know that the last two don't really fit in tone with the first, but these are three things I didn't want lost in the linkspam post I've been slowly collating.)

In the past forty minutes or so, while staring at all the other stuff I should be working on and angsting over the fact that I've written only a couple hundred words of the original fic that I'm hoping will eventually turn itself into the semi-epic story I know it could be, I somehow . . . wrote 1200 words of Chuck fic for 'Take A Sad Song and Make It Better' Fest.

It's Bryce/Sarah and a bit Bryce/Chuck and a bit Chuck/Sarah (and a teensy bit Bryce/Chuck/Sarah). Anyone interested in looking it over briefly and making sure it actually makes sense?

All comments set to Dreamwidth for convenience. eta: Never mind, I can never decide. *changes*

(Real post to come sometime later.)

I'm still way behind on answering comments on my previous post, there are at least a few things I want to add to it, and I haven't checked my flist or read list past a few entries, yet--all of which I will (I hope) get to sometime late tonight or on Monday.

In RL things, my usual computer is still deader than dead, and I am still having issues getting Japanese input. At this point, I am going to investigate the library's computers. Today is Mother's Day, and my mother is a Trekkie, so we're going to see Star Trek.

Have some links, some of which I just found, many of which I've been collecting a while, at least two of which I'm hoping Madelyn will look at it (like, say, past the very important first link, the prompts on the second link *not at all subtle*):

-THIS by us, and if you only click one link, I hope you choose this one. It's not going to make you smile like many of the rest of the links, but hey, those are always there for later, while this is for something going on right now that really needs our support. THIS is a work of protest at the Minnesota School of Dance in response to racist attitudes and an unsafe environment for engaging with the department's issues. (If I don't sound coherent enough, there's a better explanation here.) There's a petition here, and I would really recommend you check out the whole blog and work.
-'Take A Sad Song and Make It Better' Fest (One of the most recent things on my read list! I can only hope the later posts are all as awesome)
-bakeitup is having a brownies recipe contest. If nothing else, whee, brownies recipes.
-oxoniensis's breathing by numbers (Chuck, Bryce/Chuck, a 5k coda to the season 2 finale that is made of joy and rainbows.)
-Mount Athos Treasures On View To Women After 1,000 Years (How cool is that? If only I were closer to France.)
-I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this, but this is a really awesome, easy explanation of OpenIDs.
-Avatar/Viacom/Zazzle update on the Racebending products that were removed and are now restored.
-Lovelace– The Origin (I think I saw this through brownbetty a few days ago? It is an origin comic for Ada Lovelace as a super hero!)
-Tweenbots!

( To end the entry, on the theme of Star Trek, a couple of Kirk/Spock vids from the original series )

Open letter time!

Before I post this, a couple quick notes. First, I haven't looked very hard at any of the politifandom comms in the past two days, so the information that this letter was based on may have changed a little in the meanwhile. But the impetus for writing this letter holds true. Second, I truly believe that several people whose words are linked to are well-meaning, but that doesn't change that this conversation needs to take place. Third, someone else (whom I may or may not link later, depending on if she decides where/how she wants me to) really does deserve the credit for me writing this and for noticing things and for looking this over in an incomplete form. And thanks, mona, for looking this over in its finished format and being sure I'm at least semi-coherent.

eta: bookshop pointed out that I might want to frame this more, so let me specify that I am talking specifically about a 1920s and 30s AU currently emerging in politifandom in rahmbamarama, a locked comm. This post was written after this Brian Williams photo was posted with others, which led to a discussion about the niftiness of a 1920s and 30s AU, with fanworks following. During the course of this discussion, the focus seemed to be more on the shiny parts of the 1920s and 30s, without addressing the more problematic parts of such an AU. This AU was referred to as "noir-verse" (though lizfu can tell you that it isn't exactly necessarily Noir, but that's a discussion separate from what I'm going for). Thus this letter.

All that said:

( An Open Letter to Politifandom )

I'm keeping all comments at Dreamwidth, because this is the sort of conversation that doesn't deserve to be fragmented. If you don't have a Dreamwidth account but do have a Livejournal account, you automatically have an openID account, and Dreamwidth allows you to confirm your e-mail address with openID so you can receive replies if you'd like.

eta: It was also pointed out to me that we can't forget the miscegenation laws and how they would have had a huge impact on Barack Obama.

eta2: Upon further reflection, I am removing the links to RBR (which I linked for context and to highlight part of what I found highly problematic). Because RBR is locked, I did not want to directly quote them and also knew that the chances of trolls ending up over there were unlikely.

I am removing the links because some of the commenters linked mind their words being discussed. (I am leaving the mafia-AU link, but if anyone wants me to take it down, please let me know.) I don't mean to offend anyone, but this highly defensive reaction proves to me that having this discussion in the entries on RBR discussing it is NOT going to be a place I would feel safe doing so.

eta3: Last intended edit. It's totally encouraged to talk more broadly about AUs and genres and consequences in writing choices thereof. Two really important current conversations ongoing about that (mentioned in comments) include the Thirteenth Child and the discussion about steampunk (and steampunk as possible Victorian apologia). I'm not sure where a good collective link for the latter is (and will edit one in here if I can't find it), but metafandom has many good links about it.

OMG, back. It is five in the morning. deepad, I will e-mail you much later today. I'll also catch up on comments, reading, and such later and see if the Japanese input has properly installed this time, plus a million and one other things.

Before I sleep, for the DW meet-up, in clockwise order, starting with me: everysecondtuesday, bkwyrm, norabombay, and xnera.