A Mighty Fine Life

Lily reallly wants to check out the mysterious hole in the kitchen. Luckily, she's easily distracted by snuggles.




Yuck, I need to shower.

#1: Six months ago, when tweendom_anon ran its second round, I left a prompt. No one filled it, so I forgot about it, until surprise! I'd tracked the thread and someone replied to it over the weekend. Sadly, it's not finished yet, but it's pretty awesome regardless. So please enjoy Swing It!, in which Chad finds Ryan's porn stash. :D

#2: Meme! From second_batgirl: Ask me one as many fandom-related questions as you want in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general. Favorite character, favorite moment, unpopular opinion, something about a fic of mine... whatever. Wackiness encouraged.

[addendum -- defining fandom broadly as reading/writing/watching/listening, canon or fic, anything on those lines you want to ask me about!]

#3: I am thinking about starting a community for people to post/link to lengthy fics written in smallish fandoms. ( Some seriously TL;DR thoughts; I am up for suggestions. )

Okay. So those are the long, rambling thoughts. In short, what I'm considering is creating a comm, which will be for:
1) Fics longer than 25,000 words (no WIPs), in
2) fandoms with little presence on LJ (including fandoms that have little presence anywhere at all)

Of course, this assumes I'm motivated enough to do it. IDK, I'm pretty lazy. But would something like that appeal to people, do you think?



In absolutely un-related, non-fannish news, this is the current situation in my apartment. Rachel, Lily, and I are extremely displeased.

First, read this.

This led to discussion of lists couples make together, of who makes an acceptable third. Leading to this, yelled across my living room by me and Jess:

Ryan: Zeke.
Chad: *laughing* Yeah, okay, sure. You just call him and ask.
Ryan: Awesome. *grabs phone* Hey, Zeke? Chad and I were just...
Chad: *stares in horror, steals phone and stomps on it*
Ryan: Jeeze, what?
Chad: DUDE, that is is my BRO. It would be like asking your SISTER.
Ryan: *considers* Well, okay, if you're in the middle.
Chad: EW. Wait. Hot twins. Wait. EW. Wait. OKAY, IF I'M IN THE MIDDLE.

Last night was New Years, which meant, of course, kareoke. It was five hours of fantastic singing goodness, followed by collapsing in exhaustion. Margot is off with Jess at the moment and Jen is chilling on the couch with me, and in a few hours we will all be together to watch Newsies. As we do. :D :D :D :D :D

SPEAKING OF (of course): Secret slash is up! Enjoy!

Margot is visiting! Someday I will make a more detailed post about her visit and the holidays and such (okay, probably I won't because I never do, but I theoretically could). Today we went to see Sherlock Holmes. Again.

Two-word review:

"Mmm.... suspenders."

I think that's all I've got at the moment.

Rachel already mentioned this a few days ago; apologies to people for whom it is repetitive. But she picked up a Wii fit a few days ago. We've both been using it daily since.

I admit: I was pretty skeptical of actually getting a workout or doing yoga and such on it, but it certainly feels like getting a workout. I've rediscovered the muscles in my abs, for example. Because ow. Some of it's actually pretty difficult, because I am a brittle, brittle human: I can barely do any of the yoga poses or strength routines that put weight on my wrists, because even months out of physical therapy, my wrists hurt like crazy when I do that. I've also had foot problems since high school, which are not terrible but do require me to wear orthodics. (My arches are way too high, and without the orthodics, my weight gets distributed to the wrong points of my feet and it hurts like crazy.) The problem is that you're supposed to use the Wii balance board in bare feet; bare feet = no orthodics = ow. (For things like jogging where I'm not actually on the board, I put my shoes on, but almost everything else is on the board. So by the time I finish 45 minutes, foot pain is actually the biggest problem.)

Incidentally, the Wii fit makes fun of me. It has a major focus on balance and posture, which actually makes a lot of sense, I think. And while I have great posture (courtesy of PT for all those months), my balance. Um. Well.

Look, when I was four, I took ballet lessons. After the first round of lessons, I was disinvited to come back. Because I fell down too much, even for a toddler. Balance has never been my strong point. So the Wii likes to make a frowny face at me and disapprovingly ask, "Do you fall down a lot?"

Which, okay, fine, MAYBE I DO. Shut up, Wii, no one asked you.

But it's actually pretty awesomely fun, and even things like jogging are not terrible. This is mostly because it grabs random Miis from your system, and I made, um, the entire cast of High School Musical. (Rachel made Panic! at the Disco Miis, so I don't feel weird about this.) But it's kind of delightful to do step aerobics with Ryan Evans. (Also Brendon Urie. Those two are always at step aerobics, go figure.) Where Sharpay really enjoys rhythm kung fun, and Troy is always, always out for a healthy jog.

(When you jog, you follow the Mii in front of you. The first time I did this, the Mii was Chad. I may have yelled, "God damn it, unfair! He is a track star!" and grumbled, as you do. When you're crazy. Which I am.)

But overall, it's enjoyable, and as silly as it is, I've exercised more in the past week than in the month before that, so at least it's good and getting me off the couch.

Unlike basically everyone else I know, I do, in fact have work today; I think I will be the only one who shows up. I don't generally try and type anything coherent pre-coffee, but for some reason I was thinking of this as I fell asleep, so...

HSM characters. Siblings. Birth order. Hm. (Okay, fine, I was thinking about it because it comes up in the fic I'm writing; sue me.)

Presumably, Troy and Gabriella are only children, because we'd probably have seen other Bolton or Montez kids running around at some point in the movies. Similarly, it seems safe to say that Sharpay and Ryan are the only Evans kids. (I've never given a lot of thought to which one was born first, though. Hm.)

Quick thoughts on others:

- Taylor mentions having a sister, in a way that makes it sound (to me, at least) like her sister is older. That always surprises me a bit; Taylor reads very much as an oldest child to me, what with her very obvious drive and focus, and how often she takes on leadership roles. Possibly, then, her sister is much older; like, 10-15 years? At that point, typical older/younger traits might be less pronounced; and she could have younger siblings, as well.

- Chad? We do see at least one scene of his family in the third movie, when they're at dinner with Troy's family; it's just him, his dad, and (I'll go out on a limb and assume) his mom. Personality-wise, he reads as a youngest child to me (outgoing, very loud and attention-seeking), but most often (though not exclusively) in fandom, he's written as an oldest child. (And I absolutely adore fics where he's taking care of younger sibs, so this is neither complaint nor criticism! I'm really curious about why people write him the way they do, though.) (Also, if his siblings are older, they could be in college/out of the house, which would explain why we don't see them in that scene.)

- Kelsi. Middle child. She absolutely screams it to me.

Other thoughts?

I hope you didn't think I forgot! After a super chill day at work (just me and WorkBFF, grooving to my iPod all day), I dragged my lazy tuchas out to Brooklyn for latkes with poisonivory and company. Lovely (and delicious) times.

As I said a few days ago, grey t-shirt Corbin is my favorite. But since I can't go out on that, have this:



To borrow a phrase from my Trek fandom friends, look at that GQ motherfucker.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. :)

ETA: Can't believe I forgot to mention! Margot got me the first volume of Flight 29 Down. Apparently it cost $3. That sounds about right.

Nothing notable happened today, except that, for various complicated reasons (read: no one stopped me) everyone in my office watched "Bet On It" and "I Don't Dance." WorkBFF loved them (not a shock! she watched HSM3 of her own accord a few months ago and found it charming, and she's seen bits of the first movie, too); Resident Hipster was unimpressed; my good boss was entertained but baffled. (He acknowledged Bet On It was hilarious, and that the dancing of I Don't Dance was both well choreographed and well executed.) My boss did not believe me about the shirt switch. WorkBFF did. Heh.

So.



( Oh, Corbin, you fabulous diva. )

My keyworks for this icon have always been "being cool on a boat" but I don't use it that often. I just changed them to "never thought I'd be on a boat" and suspect I will use it more often now.

Anyhoo.

This morning was career day! This required me to get up an hour and a half early. And then talk to many many teenagers. I had a whole speech, which I did not think would fill my allotted time, but the kids asked pretty good questions so it all worked out. They were actually quote well behaved and darling; that was especially nice because my job is not that interesting. Also fun, every time I stepped into a hall there were a ripple of shrieks and people yelling "She looks JUST LIKE MS. A!!!!" I do not know why that required shrieking, but it seemed to make them happy.

I also stayed and watched Rachel's ninth grade class, since I've never actually seen her teach. It was actually super fun. Her kids are adorable.

The down side to all of this is that, having gotten up early today, not having slept all week for unrelated reasons, and getting home today at 7 being the earliest of all week, I'm so tired I'm a little dizzy. I'm staying up until either Fresh Direct gets here or Rachel gets home, and then I shall pass out. Hooray for passing out.

I am so tired that I need TWO darling boys I love tonight.



Mmm, you know what, my favorite Corbin picture ever this week is from that same red carpet; I was going to save it for night 8, but what the heck. It's a holiday. Have another pretty pretty picture.



( 'Nother from that night. LIPS. )

Someday I will tell the story of how I am the most socially awkward person in the entire world. Right now I can't type it without being mortifyingly embarrassed. Other than that, though, tabling for work at the LGBT center went well.




Mmmmm, YES.

Tomorrow is career day. Because yes. A career. I have one of those. Um, crap.

...Have Corbin's hands always been that large? (This is not a complaint, mind you, merely a question.)

It is going to be a hectic week; tomorrow is an evening work thing and then more Erin time (yay!); Wednesday I'm speaking at Rachel's school's career day (um, because I have a Serious Career, right, today we spent half an hour trying to think of puns about farts, no lie); Friday is dinner with a friend who's moving out of the city; Sunday is the family Chanukah party out in Connecticut. I know many people would not consider that a whole lot, but I am loathe to leave my apartment in general, and triply so when it gets dark by 3 PM.

I hate how short days are during the winter.

I love this TBL still, even though the show was wretchedly bad.



harriet_vane did indeed get me slippers for Chanukah, as I requested! They are extremely soft (fuzzy inside, cotton (?) batting, knitted outside), with treads on the bottoms so they are not slippery, and they are warmer than any winter boots I've ever worn. Rachel wins at Chanukah!

( ETA: Slipper picture! )

I just signed up to do a month of Newsies recs on crack_van.

Yay 2 AM decisions?

Unrelatedly, I downloaded Chrome (browser, not OS, obvs) today and have been trying it out. I think I'll stick with it. I'm not in love, but it's pretty freaking fast.

You celebrate Chanukah your way, I'll celebrate mine. Night two!



(Speaking of HSM, which is at least a very short mental leap away, I wrote fic. It's more about the superheroes. Except they don't really do anything heroic.)

Meme, because that's just what I'm doing now, I guess. (No more offering to write ficlets until I've finished the ones I owe.) From ladililn, This is that meme where you yell ICONS! at me and I choose six of your icons for you to ramble about in complete and utter love. You all know the one.

ICONS for ME! ( Read more... )

Have something nice to look at.




:D

I've been told I'm not the easiest person to shop for. That isn't an enormous shock to me; there are fairly few physical-type things that I really want (and I try to keep the amount of stuff I own down, because I'm an enormous packrat and a very messy person, so it just ends up everywhere and then broken anyway). On top of that, asking for things makes me actually, physically uncomfortable. Which is why I never do the holiday wish list meme. (Also why I never reply to people's Christmas card posts. IDEK, my neuroses, let me show you them.)

When my sister asked me what I wanted earlier this week, the only thing I could think of off the top of my head was slippers. Racking my brains since then, here's what I've come up with:

* Season 2 of the Sarah Connor Chronicles;
* Either the Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter print from here.

But! And I feel much better about this! If there is one thing I love, absolutely love, it's art made by my friends. Through most of high school and all of college, I had pictures my friends drew hanging up in my room (both fanart and not, and back in my old bedroom much of it was drawn directly on the walls); even now, I've got a cute sketch Jess drew hanging up over my desk at work, and for ages my computer desktop was a gorgeous picture by Noelle. I absolutely love drawings and doodles and art of any sort, up to and including stick figures

Other news: Rachel and I made delicious sugar cookies a couple of days ago. The perfect recipe, it turns out, really IS a little bit of sugar + a little bit of butter. And by little, I mean a lot.

A meme, stole from lynstraine, to celebrate fantastic things like Erin Day and Corbin On Broadway. Though probably I won't answer tonight, as I am probably about to go to bed.

Pick a song - any song. Look it up on youtube/media outlet of choice and link it to me; lyrics are also handy. Choose a pairing, and I will write you a ficlet based off said song.

Not that I don't still owe at least one person a ficlet. *cough* You all know my fandoms, y/y?

ETA: So I just watched the Road to El Dorado, you know, as I do. Quick thoughts:

1) CGI animation was still pretty awkwardly shoehorned in in 2000, huh?

2) Tulio is an animated hotass (see icon, also, no duh);

3) Between the bit at the beginning where Tulio stops a volcano with his brain and the bit at the end where Miguel flies, I want fic where it turns out, they don't know it, but they are secretly gods (or demigods, or somesuch), and the next set of adventures they have involves coming into their divinity. (I'm thinking gods of earth and air, maybe? Of course, Chel needs to be deified too, because all members of the threesome should be on even footing, but she doesn't strike me as fire or water. Thoughts?)

4) I always think this movie can't possibly be as gay as I remember it, but NO REALLY IT IS;

5) Still kinda stuck on #2. I'd hit that.

MY INTEREST IN SEEING "IN THE HEIGHTS" HAS JUST GROWN ENORMOUSLY, LET ME TELL YOU WHAT.

WHO IS GOING TO SEE THIS WITH ME???? A MILLION BILLION TIMES????

( OMFGYAY!!!!! )

Did you know I didn't have a tag just for Corbin? SEEMS UNLIKELY, I KNOW.

(h/t gruyere ♥)

Sometimes it freaks me out how long I've had this journal. (Since the week I graduated from high school.) Particularly because I almost never use it to catalog actual events from my life. Possibly this is because I don't really have a life. Whatevs.

Speaking of such: this week I did two whole things that involved leaving my apartment and interacting with other humans!

Monday, a bunch of my coworkers went out out to see a hockey game. I'd agreed to go ages ago, since it seemed like a fun idea, even though I've never actually watched hockey. (Let's put it like this: everything I know about hockey, I learned from the Mighty Ducks. Since at no point did anyone do a pirouette to distract the other team, I was a little lost.) The Rangers played the Penguins and lost; no one seemed terribly surprised by that. Luckily, I was sitting next to our HR director, who is super nice, and also loves hockey, so she explained things to me. Things I learned!

-- Icing is a verb, not just a delicious cake topping;
-- Wayne Gretzky sitting in the audience looking embarrassed that the camera is on him gets more applause than everything during the rest of the game put together;
-- There is a dude named Crosby who apparently everyone in MSG boos (also booed: people in Crosby jerseys)
-- Apparently, when the Rangers score, everyone sings! I was not expecting that! It was actually hilarious to see the fans singing and my coworkers staring at each other, blinking in surprise. (Plus side: the lyrics are not complicated. We picked it up by the second goal.)

Then the work week was... well, super duper busy. World AIDS Day was Tuesday, and that was ALSO the day the new DHHS HIV treatment guidelines came out, and so that's what my whole week was about. (Kaletra: demoted. Isentress: first line! Jury still out on when to start meds in otherwise-healthy people. YOU CARE. Or not. Use condoms, kids.)

And then last night was Sloan. :D :D :D :D The thing is, they've been my favorite band for ten years now (yeah, I did the math, holy crap), so I don't feel the same sort of squee I did in eleventh grade when I listened to Between the Bridges EVERY NIGHT because I was sixteen and NO ONE UNDERSTOOD ME BUT SLOAN, OKAY, BECAUSE THEY WERE DEEP, AND I FELT A LOT OF WAYS ABOUT THINGS. But there's never been a point when I haven't had at least three of their albums on my iPod (or in heavy rotation in my discman, in those dark pre-iPod days, zomg how did I survive?). And despite not having gotten their last album or EP yet, I dragged poisonivory and danacias to see them with me. (And by "dragged" I mean "invited.")

Oh man. It is such a switch to see a concert where the audience is NOT primarily 15 years old. There was very little shoving or inappropriate shrieking or skin tight pants! (I mean, it was Brooklyn; there were some skin tight pants, but whatchagonnado?) Kind of refreshing. I mean, there were still annoying college kids (who then smoked up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AUDIENCE, WTH), and... wow, I'm old. Heh. And there was one dude who decided in the middle of the last song that a) he was going to be at the stage, and b) he was going to mosh (to Sloan, really?), and the ENTIRE AUDIENCE HATED HIM. DK convinced him to knock it off, because she is awesome. (People thanked her after, for serious.)

Of course the concert itself was great. (I have never seen a bad Sloan show. I've never even heard of a bad Sloan show.) As with every time I've seen them, i didn't know any of the new stuff, but I enjoyed it all regardless! They did a lot of older stuff as well. I don't remember everything, glancing at iTunes for a reminder (thus nothing having to do with the order in the show), ( we definitely got: )

By the way (sad sigh) Patrick? No longer the hot one. Not even a fedora helped. He has a ponytail. And serial killer facial hair. SADNESS. (On the other hand, Andrew? A++, would not kick out of bed. Jay still looks like a Dickensian waif, and Chris still does high kicks, so some things never change, I guess.)

Basically: ME = HAPPY FANGIRL.