There are a billion things I mean to compile into a few entries at some point, but for now, a few brief links:

Submissions are open for the fourth edition of the Asian Women Blog Carnival. Link also includes the feeds on DW, LJ, and Wordpress.

Jon Rogers on the topic of fan fiction. <3 Jon Rogers.

via The Angry Black Woman: Recipe for Famine, seven links on famine.

cimorene has a delicious Tatu picspam.

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The disadvantage to writing sixty, seventy pages of part of a story (plus other bits and pieces on the backs of table mats, napkins, and other assortments) is that you have to type it up. It's when I hit this realization that regret comes out to play for my notebook writing sprees.

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It's been a while since I last did a meme, and I've seen one floating around for a while that's caught my eye for fannish top fives. So if there's anything you want to ask, this is the time!

This entry was originally posted at http://everysecondtuesday.dreamwidth.org/12093.html. If you'd prefer, please comment there with OpenID. (DW comment count: )

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.

thelittlebang and boxofmagic are still having sign-ups through the 28th. You know you want to write 15k of femslash or 15-35k of Merlin fic. Or maybe both! I can give you my messenger names and we can quietly freak out to one another about how we are in over our heads, then encourage each other that no, no, we're totally fine and will make it.

ciderpress is running the first Asian Women Blog Carnival for those interested!

I failed utterly at doing more than svmadelyn's Valentine's Game and two people for my anonymous love letters (not so awesome on my part), but here is the tiny compilation of love letters, because I realize I'm not going to manage any more this year:

everysecondtues
everysecondtues
Marvin Gaye
omnipresentdmat
omnipresentdmat
sirdrakesheir

Next year, I am going to write up letters for everyone ahead of time.

third_monday has done reveals!

Awesome fic I received:
-Movies with Maddow by writer_atdusk
(Gen: Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann being BFF!)

Lovely fic I betaed:
-Valet by nenya_kanadka
(Nancy/Rahm: Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel taking back Congress.)
-Suicide Birds and Other Delicacies by sciophobik/vvvaudevillain
(Jon/Stephen/Rahm/Barack: College AU)
-Foreign Bodies by bessemerprocess
(Jon/Rachel: Being broken together. I especially want to point out this one, because I usually don't read any het with Rachel, but this is broken and lovely and definitely worth it.)

Fic I wrote (anything not unlocked should be soon, or you can always join the comm):
-An Explanation, of Sorts, and a Warning (and a Trail to Start Down for Unexpected Happiness)
or, The Dangers of Grad Students, Loving Many People, and Being Unfortunate Enough to Be Born One Stephen Colbert, Sufferer of Curses Such As Seen Rarely Outside Fairy Tales or Other Dark Stories
(A Northwestern AU and almost every variation of Rahm/Anderson/Stephen/Jon: If hearts could think and Stephen's heart were anything approaching even baseline intelligence, this would be a love story about Anderson Cooper; but hearts can't think, or if they can, Stephen's is a crazy madman with all the intelligence of a baby carrot, so instead this is less a love story and should instead serve more as a warning—about love, about grad students, and about being unfortunate to be born one Stephen Colbert, utterly doomed moron.)
-Potential: Victory is on the Airways, in the Air—Passing through Every Smiling, Open Mouth
(Jon/Stephen: Election night.)
-Stephen is Like a Jet Fighter Eagle: Defying Gravity in the Name of Hopes, Dreams, and the Best Sorts of Freedom
(Character-Stephen is on a mission. A mission of love.)
-Not Exactly Like Grade School
(Jon/Stephen: Date night, and why they shouldn't be allowed to play with clay.)

Overall, I think third_monday went really well. I'm sure you can see, though, it managed to eat the weekend before it went live. I mean, obviously "An Explanation, of Sorts, and a Warning" I got in before the deadline Friday (thanks to some awesome last-minute betaing skills by sirdrakesheir). I'm not the sort of person who can write a 10k fic in the course of a weekend. But two of the betas and three of the fic (two pinch hits, one nothing official, but just a small thank you to bessemerprocess for all her hard work with running the exchange) were all accomplished in one very busy, very fun weekend.

Last awesome thing before I shower and head to lizfu's: Emilie Autumn's music is amazing.

There were enough questions that I'm going to do this in sections. This is part one (the first five questions)! The original Ask Me Anything question submission post is still open for those interested, and will be until I run out of them or I get bored with it, whichever happens first.

( What are your thoughts on yaoi? )
( Who tops, Kanye or Stephen? And what kinds of crazy shenanigans do they get up to in the bedroom? )
( Casablanca. Great movie, or greatest movie? More specifically, why is it that old Hollywood characters, dialogue and exploration of complex motivations are so much more progressive and intelligent than nearly all modern films? Or am I just watching the wrong films? )
( A list of characters you love for all the wrong reasons, and just why these particular characters are so fascinating, how they are constructed to draw you in despite yourself. )
( Ridiculous/Random things that make you irrationally happy when they appear in a fic. )

Hahaha.

Oh, not-smart things. Among which is taking cough syrup when you are easily affected when you think you are going to be driving anywhere.

A note: You aren't. Or at least not for long if you are stupid enough to get in the car, which I wasn't, because whoo, dizziness is not something I want to be feeling while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

On the plus side!

I totally petted my hedonistic needy cat for a long time today, as he darted into the bathroom to demand that I pet him while he ate, then darted out when I left to jump up on the couch and make *_________* eyes at me to pet him some more, then crossed to the table to continue his "ALL PETTINS ALL THE TIME" campaign when I tried to leave again. Oh, cat.

Also, I finished (finally, finally, finally) the third_monday fic and sent it to beta. \o/ I am torn between excitement and worry. I think it's definitely better, though, than my original idea. With any luck, the recipient will think so, too.

Completely unrelated to third_monday (oh my God, I know I'm not done, but I am so, so close. I know I said this before, but that was before I slept for like twenty hours because of this cold one day and like sixteen the day before--there's a reason I didn't post yesterday. I'm traveling today, but I should be done tonight, especially considering I'll be writing throughout the day as a means of restoring my mental health):

Anyone want to beta an 18,800 word TDS/TCR fic that's Jon/Stephen and Jon/Tracey?

sirdrakesheir, I added the denouement! Though I am also prepared to be told it's not enough. But, uh, just because I'm addressing you and you already did a general plot beta with me, don't feel you are obligated to do any more.

More than just the typical line beta, I also want for overall story flow and whether I need to add more scenes anywhere, as well as anything potentially problematic. I think I'm done with adding or expanding scenes (except maybe with the denouement, which might need tweaking), but I want to be absolutely sure. I may need a couple rounds of taking your feedback, applying it, and sending pieces back to you. Preference to people in/familiar with the fandom.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to take this on. ♥

eta: Got one! Thanks ♥

Vid of the day!

Waiting on the World to Change: Another TDS/TCR vid, but this one full cast! Okay, not quite, but there are a lot of correspondents in it, which fills me with so much glee I don't mind the tiny handful of slightly awkward cuts. It's the cast of The Daily Show, waiting on the world to change. (TDS/TCR gen)

I hate colds. sword_etc, I'm still not done with the fic yet. I was going to stay up and finish it, but I'm so exhausted, I don't think that's going to work.

Vid of the day!

What We Had: This is definitely in my top ten Doctor Who vids. One thing that comes up in Doctor Who again and again is that you love people and you leave them behind--not just the Doctor, but everyone. Gorgeous, well-cut, and just--go watch it. (Doctor Who, various)

p.s. Kisses & Cuddles Battle now open for writing! Prompts include BSG, Chuck, Devil Wears Prada, Doctor Who, Merlin, NCIS, Psych, SGA, RPF, and much, much more!

Before I go to bed!

I forgot to mention, but svmadelyn is doing her Valentine's Game again this year. It is less a game and more where you choose up to 14 people in fandom you want to say something nice about, and she compiles what you send her and posts them all on Valentine's Day. She doesn't post who said what, so it's less about a popularity contest and more about brightening up the day of a good friend, or someone in fandom you've always admired, or someone you think could use it lately, or so forth.

I already sent a few (and I love you all, but I mostly chose at random) and I'm sure many other people will be participating, so be sure to check it out on the fourteenth!

You have until February 12th at noon CST if you want to send your own.

Tomorrow I'm going to Indy, then maybe elsewhere from there, depending on how early I get a start. With any luck, it will be earlier than the past couple of days, in which my body has been trying to fight off an encroaching cold and deciding that all non-essential processing power should be devoted to battle. Pretty much any time I'm sick, I'm out of it and extra tired, so at least my inability to think clearly or communicate effectively a couple days ago can now be explained with more than "I guess I probably should have had caffeine."

Today has seen sporadic coughing, but I think my immune system is winning for once, because I really do feel better, slightly stuffy feeling in my head aside.

In addition to the gen battle (still collecting prompts) and the kisses and cuddles battle (finished collecting prompts, which are currently being compiled and will be posted tomorrow), there's the The Because We're Awesome Drabble-a-thon, a comment-fic challenge focusing on writing women, including gen, het, and femslash, which is now open for writing.

There's also a Pundits/Politics/Comedian Femmeslash drabble-a-thon, which is run more along the lines of a kink meme or RBR comment-fic post in that you post what you want and answer what you will.

Speaking of kink memes, The Pundits Kink Meme is going really well. My prompt is probably is incredibly obvious.

Fandom obviously is having a busy couple weeks. \o/ Personally, I'm going to try writing at least one thing for each (though . . . I may end up posting a prompt and responding to my own for the femslash, because I don't really know many people in news other than Rachel Maddow; and the kink meme will probably get more than one thing from me).

Speaking of being busy and fic, I can't remember who offered to beta for me for third_monday, and it's possible things have changed, because I think at least one person was signed up for it and might be panicking over their own right now. So if you're interested, please e-mail me at everysecondtuesday (at) yahoo.com and put something like "beta" or "third-monday" in the subject line? edit: Have one, thank you! ♥

I'm also still working on fic for everyone who made me icons, but it may take me a little while and probably won't be in order. On the plus side, every time I worry about stress, I realize there's a lot of fic I can take that stress and throw it at. I ♥ writing.

Vid of the day!

Right Round: A day in the life of Chuck Bartowski (in 3-D). You don't need 3-D glasses to enjoy this, but it and the episode it takes clips from are yet more reasons why I need to hunt some out. (Chuck)

In this post, I ask for them.

On someone else's behalf, Enkelien has a really long Dresden Files fic in progress that's Dresden/Marcone, and she needs someone to look it over. I'm . . . supposed to be looking at it as well, but I'm so busy that I haven't even had time to look at it. So, uh, Enkelien, I'm going to work on it! I just may be even slower than I already told you I would be. Anyone interested, I'll put the two of you in contact.

More selfishly, on my own behalf I'm asking if anyone knows where there are any excellent Kanye West icons or Stephen/Kanye icons. For those of you who can make icons, I'm going to post a number of awesome pictures behind a cut, and I'll totally write you flash fic (with the usual restrictions) if you can find the time to make me one (or, uh, more, but I figure I'm already being greedy enough for the one).

( Kanye and Kanye-and-Stephen pictures below )


And while I'm shamelessly asking for icons, the same deal holds true for these two Bryce photos (the second of which is spoilery depending on how much you've seen of Chuck, and both of which probably aren't high quality enough to work very well D:):

( Bryce )

And I'm finally feeling well enough that I'm going to put on socks and grab my stuff to go see Liz. \o/

Oh! And the usual flash-fic restrictions, for those wondering: I don't generally write incest or teacher-student pairings, it needs to be in a fandom I write, and if I can't write what you want, I'll come back and ask you for another suggestion.

Also, Sam, these icon requests mean nothing about that thing I Am Not Writing. Nothing! I don't care what you say about denial.

eta: So I had Car Adventures and am not visiting Liz after all today and was a little sad about that, but I found one place that was hiring (the first gas station at which I was having my adventures) and you are all amazing and some of you have made me amazing things and some of you are in the process of making me amazing things, so . . . there is no way that I can be anything less than really, really happy. Now, I'm going to try to catch up on comments.

Okay, so I came back from dinner (rather, coffee) tonight fairly depressed about a number of things, but this evening Chuck is on again, and I've just read a few articles for the thing I'm not writing, and how can I be all that sad when I am kind of falling a little in love with Kanye West? Seriously, he has some of the best articles and interviews.

"It was a strike against me that I didn't wear baggy jeans and jerseys and that I never hustled, never sold drugs," says West, 28, who grew up in suburban Chicago and often dresses as if he's anticipating an acceptance letter from Exeter. "But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can't tell you how frustrating it was that they didn't get that. No joke--I'd leave meetings crying all the time."

No joke--I'd leave meetings crying all the time.

My heart, you guys. MY HEART.

Also, still working on my third_monday. I am so slow at this, but continue to be very much excited over it.

Even if I'm frustrated by any number of things, I need to keep in my mind all of the awesome things going on. And if it's kind of weird that most of them revolve around fandom and writing, well--I never purported to be totally normal.

eta: In honor of Chuck tonight (okay, it's a coincidence, but let's pretend), have a fic!

Four People Chuck Kind of Maybe Sort of Slept With, Five Times He Regretted It, And Once He Accepted His Free-Fall

There's this entry that I keep editing and re-editing, but I've realized that most of it has been said over and over again by people much more articulate than I am. So what I'm going to do is just leave some links and a small explanation here, because it turns out that not everyone is aware of the current Cultural Appropriation Debate of '09 (lizfu, this is what I was trying to tell you about this weekend).

It started with a post by E. Bear, but it has quickly spread all over the internet to encompass a much larger discussion about much more than Bear's original post. Avalons' Willow has an excellent overview here.

rydra_wong has also been doing an amazingly comprehensive link collection available here.

Some particular posts of note:

-101 Primer
-Some beginning reading on race and racism
-An open letter to white people in SFF fandom
-The privilege of speaking openly
-How to use white privilege to make racism disappear.
-A Conversation I WANT to have.
-ven ve voke up, ve had zese wodies.
- I Didn’t Dream of Dragons
-Reappropriating my man

There are a hundred more posts of interest and posts that include primer links and higher level discourse, but I'm going to direct you back to rydra_wong and also metafandom, and if those are a little overwhelming, zvi_likes_tv has a collection of annotated links, though it's from over a week ago.

Meanwhile, I'm still behind on everything and have only managed to read my flist in a very haphazard the past week or so, so if I'm missing something vital for this topic, let me know (and if it's on something completely off-topic, e-mail me or let me know in another post).

Anyone have the time to do an immediate quick beta of a 1k Jon/Stephen story for the PB?

The submission time is 4 EST, I believe, so this is really one of those "get back to me within the next couple of hours" deal. I know it's short notice (extremely short notice). That would be why the not-yet-complete Devil Wears Prada femslash will probably be posted without one at all if I even manage to finish it on time.

eta: Actually, never mind. I'm just going to post it, because I don't want to mess around with something else while I'm trying to quickly finish the DWP (which, uh, is looking more and more like it will be shelved to be posted on its own much later).

Forgetting to take my allergy medicine for three days was epically stupid. Don't even ask how many tissues I've gone through today. I'd be tempted to take Benadryl again, but I don't want to lose the rest of the day.

Stolen from all over the place:

Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you something about the story that didn't make it onto the page.

Most of my work is either here at my fic journal or tagged here and posted on rahmbamarama.

. . .

Looking back at the second thing I'm trying for third-monday (which is faster and easier going, surprisingly, even if I'm running into a few minor difficulties), I can't tell if I like it or if the characterization doesn't work. How are all the rest of you who are participating doing?

Things learned or awesome about today/in general:

-Allowing myself to show my neuroses is helpful to my overall mental health, because I feel a lot calmer and less panicked and neurotic this evening.
-GNC Multivitamin: Ultra Mega Dietary Supplement: Vegetarian multivitamin and mineral formula is still made of win, even if it ( cut for tmi )
-President Obama is still president! \o/ (Sorry, uh, this just hit me again on the way in the door tonight, and I smiled so very, very hard.)
-The Slumdog Millionaire/TDS/TCR/Chuck/Psych driving mix I created because I didn't feel like settling on any one fandom or thing to think about during the trip over is actually all sorts of win.
-I took care of the bank thing, though I left some money in the checking and filled out the change of address. And okay, so I have to wait thirty days to get a new card, but still. I have a fair amount of money which is going to go in a local bank tomorrow.
-I'm not going to say I'm over my writing crisis (and seriously, you guys are allowed to laugh at me, because I know that I've written quite a bit by my personal standards over the past couple of days), but in the very least, I did manage to finally fix the beginning and write out the three additional parts necessary for the anon chat fic (which has a tentative title finally!), as well as identified another place I can expand or insert another scene. This is kind of huge for me being able to move forward with TDS/TCR fic and feel like I can try something a little more ambitious again. Which is really, really good, because I have a week until I wanted to be absolutely finished with my third-monday.
-The Blue Bottle continues to be just plain awesome-cakes in general. They had delicious vegetarian soup and much less delicious vegetable sandwiches (next time, I will try mine without hummus), plus coffee that was omnomnom. The employees were totally awesome dorks and turned up the music and started dancing around to a song that was basically about how awesome the singer was when it was just me, them, and someone who was nursing her coffee and studying, and the guy later admitted to us his shameful (to him) love of Justin Timberlake, then later spilled his life story to studying-girl.
-The gloves that thehoyden gave me continue to be pretty much the most useful winter gift ever, even if she hadn't so much originally planned on gifting gloves to me as went D: and gave me a set of of her spares when I failed at winter and forgot mine when I visited her. Seriously, they are the only matched pair I can find and they made pumping fuel on the way back a lot easier.
-My cat is the cutest cat ever, even when his reaction to me returning is "Feed meeeeeeeee, feed meeeeeeeeeee--okay, I know I have food in the bowl, but pet meeeeeeee, pet me while I eeeeeeeaaaaaaat, I demand this of you." How can one be unhappy when there is a cat letting you know that you have a purpose in life and that purpose is shower him with food and affection?

Anyway, there are still a billion posts I keep meaning to make, some half-written up. Maybe I will get to one of these later. Or maybe not. Either way, I'm just really thankful to feel a lot better, even if my circumstances haven't changed drastically in the hours since my last post.

Oh! But one thing that has changed! Liz, I know when my brother's thing is (Saturday) and I have a question for you. Poke me if/when you get online?

Also happy-making: All the Chuck icons I found and plan to make as much use of as possible. Can someone remind me I'm not supposed to be be getting into this fandom?

For some reason when I woke up I thought it was dawn. I discovered when I turned on my computer and was subsequently blinded that this was because my eyes had so well adjusted to the darkness of my room that the very distant streetlamps seemed like the sun rising, rather than just the effect of having practically no iris in comparison to my dilated pupils.

An advantage to waking at four-something in the morning is that once my eyes adjusted, I was able to check my mail and see that one of the two Chuck fic was back from beta. \o/

Specifically, the one for the current round of the Porn Battle. It was too long to post the full thing (or even much of it) in the comments, so I'm just going to link it on my fic journal:

Less Chuck Bartowski vs. Kidnapping, More Bryce Larkin vs. Shared Histories and Government Promises: In which Chuck is kidnapped, rescued, and kidnapped again.

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Vid of the day (Doctor Who double feature)!

Handlebars: "I'm the Doctor. Look me up." (Ten edition)

OMG!: The Companions (and Torchwood). I love the song choice, and not just the song, but the edition of the song used, as it relates to the vid and clip choices. This and the above make it into my top ten favorite Doctor Who vids.

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And there is more that I want to link to and talk about, but it's serious enough that I don't want it mixed in among the fluffy, sparkly fandom things, so expect another post in a while.

Anyone available to beta a 2k Chuck fic for me for the PB?

Agh, how has my writing crisis expanded to porn? This part is supposed to be easy. D:

To take my mind off it, taken from all over my flist (and too fun to pass up):

Pick up to 15 OTPs (OT3s, or preferred pairings).
Describe them in less than 15 words.
Have your flist guess the OTP.

Chosen mostly at random:
1. Eternal rivals: the crazy, but competent mix. (Guy/Kakashi, guessed by bobrhyn)
2. He ruined his life twice, but made it so much more interesting. (Bryce/Chuck, guessed by lizfu)
3. She brought her flowers. (Gwen/Morgana, guessed by lizfu, bobrhyn)
4. They make each other laugh and argue about melons. (Jon/Stephen, guessed by warriorpoet)
5. They argue about science, but respect each other (even if he won't admit it). (Radek/Rodney, guessed by entwashian)
6. Once, they held him, grateful he was alive.
7. He gave up London for him. (Nicholas Angel/Danny Butterman, guessed by bobrhyn) (Bonus points to entwashian, because after I wrote this, I thought "hey, that could count for the Marquis de Carabas/Richard Mayhew, too! But no one would guess that obscure pairing, so I'll leave it." Apparently I was wrong. Thank you, awesome brain twin.)
8. Eternal rivals: the always chasing mix. (Akira/Hikaru, guessed by bobrhyn)
9. He didn't really humble him, but he likes to pretend.
10. He claims him on his taxes. (Gus/Shawn, guessed by kitten_of_rain)
11. They were young, ambitious geeks in love before they were famous old men. (Albus/Gellert, guessed by lizfu, bobrhyn)
12. He shot someone for him and he gave up his life to go on the run. (. . . I edited this one down too far and somehow took out one of the people, but I'm going to give this one to polaris_starz and anais_rhyz for Louis/Rick/Ilsa/Victor)
13. It's not his approval he craves, but his attention. (Doctor/Master, guessed by altogetherisi)
14. She was her best and worst boss ever. (Andy/Miranda, guessed by tl__dr)
15. He wants to want to hate him. He just wants him. (Dresden/Marcone, guessed by bessemerprocess)

eta: Fandoms left (in alphabetic order): Bones, Casablanca, Doctor Who, RPF.

oxoniensis's Porn Battle VII (The Seven Deadly Sins) is open!

This is great timing for me, because I'm having a minor writing crisis. This is a good way to combat that and to distract me from my third-monday so I don't decide to delete it and start over from scratch. I may still do so, but best to wait a while and not make any hasty decisions.

There are a lot of awesome fandoms I want to write in for this round, too. We'll see how it goes.

Ever forgotten to hit send on a finished e-mail before going to bed? Yeah. *facepalm* This afternoon I woke my computer from its slumber and saw that I hadn't sent the beta I'd done yet.

It's weird that I've fallen into the habit of watching TV now. Psych, obviously, for the second half of the third season. So far I'm enjoying it.

( Cut for spoilers for the past three episodes )

All in all, I am still enjoying the new season.

Continuing on the topic of new things in my TV shows, ( so far I like how the Daily Show and Colbert Report are handling us having a new president )

In other things, my organization in my delicious is still shot, but I'm finally able to delete a lot of stuff I had in there for RBR now that I've gotten it all over to the RBR delicious. I'm probably going to concentrate on Merlin vids the next few days, because at least I know I haven't recommended most of them (or, uh, given much feedback; it's something I'm working on).

Vid of the day!

If I Were Your Girl: Yes, Merlin really is that gay. No, really. Most of this isn't so much tricks of editing to make you think he's looking at Arthur like that so much as he really, really is looking at Arthur like that. Not to say that it's not good editing, because it is, as are the clip choices. Overall, it's a fun vid. I just would like to be clear that the only way in which this vid is misleading is that the lyrics indicate Merlin isn't Arthur's girl, but if you watch the show, you can tell just how much Arthur wants him to be.