Moonie

First off, I need more Harry Potter icons, some more Severus, Harry and can't forget Draco. Two Rons and one Snape are just not enough.

Back at the end of August someone on my flist recommened Snape & Son by Josan. Ever since I have been eating up all HP stories. And unlike other fandoms, this one I am much less with the whole OTP. Not to say I don't have one, but I'm definitely much more flexible with them. Severus with Harry or Sirius, Lupin, Draco. Harry with Severus, Ron, Draco... you get where I'm going with this, right? :) With some Ron and Hermione, or Hermione and Pansy in the background, it's all good.

Which brings me back to wanting more icons. yes. And stories. God. Long glorius stories. One of the good things in coming into a fandom late is that there is already so much written. Course, there's already much taken off the net too. Such a shame.

And I have one more week of my 5 week vacation, where I got absolutely nothing done, except read, read and read. I am going to miss this. And what am I doing right now? Wasting time writing here, must get back to the fic. weeee.

Ahahaha. I so do not need a new fandom right now, but I've been seeing rumblings on my flists for months, including this post on dragojustine's LJ that sums up the series:

In short, Merlin is the gay lovechild of Smallville and Torchwood, christened and glitter-sprinkled by Xena.

Uh-huh, I thought. Riiiiiight. Can't be for real.

So today I finally caved because I'm sick and feeling crummy, and I'm wishing for summer sunshine and Renfaire food and sparkly pretty boys in costume, and I've always loved Merlin ever since I read the Mary Stewart books and the Mists of Avalon when I was wee, so this morning by way of a rec from frogspace here I read this fic, because I don't mind being spoiled for this show and the description included the hotbutton genre 'bodyswap'...

Woke Up New By Zee
Summary: Merlin and Arthur switch bodies; complications ensue. Merlin/Arthur, NC-17. 22,083 words.
Notes: Spoilery for the series in general.

*glee*

Ahahaha ahahaha ahahaha... OK, now I'm utterly hooked on the fandom, even though I've already read that although the show is sparkly and slashy and very, very pretty, the show isn't particularly good (that doesn't bother me about Smallville) and also has bad gender and race issues (which will likely bother me but I have faith that fandom will fix everything in fic), aaaaaaand I haven't even figured out how to watch the actual show yet (pish, details).

Hit me with more fannish links, people. :-D

I've already found the FanLore page at http://fanlore.org/wiki/Merlin_(BBC) which is chock full of useful links, and I've found the crack_van overview here and all of the crack_van recs here although I haven't read them yet. I've also found frogspace's recslist here and I am sooo happy to have studied enough German to understand that page. :-) Is there a fic comm here on IJ for this fandom yet?

Whee! New fandom!

(In other news, my dark green dragon Thunbergia Sedge has matured into a healthy male adult, and I have snitched a new egg, dusted in sparkly snow: )

ETA: I've seen the first ep now, and I'm enjoying the show. And as far as the Issues go, I'm not the person you want to be reading about that stuff. I'm really, really not thinky right now (Am I usually thinky about this stuff, relative to the rest of Fandom At Large? I have no idea). But today I am sick and medicated and in my admittedly only-slightly-informed-from-skimming-flists-while-travelling-and-rather-groggy-today opinion, the gender and race Issues in Supernatural and/or Atlantis are likely as significant or more so than whatever Issues exist in this enjoyable romp.

ETA some more: And yes, it is rather much the gay lovechild of Smallville and Torchwood, christened by Xena. I haven't seen any actual glitter yet, though. *pouts* I would dearly love to see the Merlin characters at their version of QaF's Babylon, though. And now I can't get the image of the Hercules eps with the Widow Twanky out of my head. What the hell is in this cough syrup??

All I Wanted Was a White Knight (I Got a Prince Instead) von cf33 (Merlin/Arthur, ~6000 words). Es ist tiefster Winter in Camelot, bitterkalt und es kommt wie es kommen muss: Arthur asks Merlin to warm his bed!!! \o/ Darauf habe ich gewartet und das Fandom erfüllt wieder einmal meine heimlichen Wünsche. :D
Merlin had not thought that it could get much colder, but during the night, the temperature had crashed another five degrees into the minuses and hadn't gone up again.

No Ordinary Servant von sarcasticbabble (Merlin/Arthur, ~4000 words). Arthur gives Merlin a handjob in the bathtub. Das ist alles, was man über diese First-Time-Story wissen muss. *guh*
But this ... with this Merlin felt the need to protest. He couldn't raise his hands any higher than his shoulders from exhaustion - surely that meant something?

The One Where Arthur Despoils Merlin in a Cave von ifyouweremine (Merlin/Arthur, 1891 words). Parodie. Ich habe Tränen gelacht.
This story officially starts a few pages back with Mysterious Happenings That Arthur Has To Look Into followed shortly by Merlin Being Deeply Concerned And Following His Prince Into Danger, but that bit’s boring and I won’t waste either of our times on it, so let’s just start with Arthur and his knights and Merlin trapped in The Virgin Cave.

Woke Up New von ficbyzee (Merlin/Arthur,~ 22,100 words). Bodyswap, Arthur erfährt nicht nur von Merlins Magie sondern muss auch damit umgehen lernen. Subtiles Powerplay, Plot und nach der Rückverwandlung wird die Story sogar erstaunlich explizit. *hust*
Merlin and Arthur switch bodies; complications ensue.

ETA: Mehr Merlin Recs.

In addition to the two fannish friends I mentioned in this post who are selling off their belongings to try to pay bills and rent (and who find it comforting during what is obviously a difficult time to sell their fannish items to fellow fans who are friends of friends and such), I've just discovered another fannish friend in need, and she linked to still another situation...

Again, if your finances are stable such that you can be in shopping mode, please check these out.

Cloudwatcher on LJ fell in December, and thanks to this sucky economy, needs serious help with her medical bills since her job benefits vanished. She's selling some musical instruments on eBay, and looking for job leads. Info is in her LJ:
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/260067.html (plea for help of any kind)
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/260119.html (list of instruments)

Also, Cloudwatcher has linked to http://community.livejournal.com/saveours00j/ which is a community of the friends of LJ user s00j, who are trying to raise money to help pay for incredibly daunting medical bills... I don't know s00j myself, but I'm passing along what information I have:

"SJ Tucker, s00j, a touring musician with no health insurance, recently ended up in the hospital for nearly a week, and was released on Christmas Eve to await test results and more tests."

"We've established this community because many of [info]s00j's friends can't afford to donate a lot of money, but can make things, or write things, or build things, and very much want to help. This part is very much a work in progress - as we sort out whether we're posting auctions or raffles or printing chapbooks or juggling geese, we'll update here."

Please check out the community for updates. Thank you.

If you know of other fannish friends in need, please link 'em here.

The Long Way Home ist fertig! SGA-Comic in 9 Teilen, gezeichnet von astridv und geschrieben von rheanna27. Die perfekte Kombination und ein super Ergebnis!!! Die Story ist ein Offworld-Team-Abenteuer mit slashigen Untertönen und die ganze Umsetzung ist wirklich gut und einfach toll anzuschauen. Es gibt auch ein script and behind-the-scenes musings zum Entstehungsprozess.
Summary: Lost in a nightmare world, can the Team find their way home?

Und noch eine kurze Fanart-Rec direkt hinterher: Blink, Blink (SGA, Team) hat mich zum Lachen gebracht und anschließend habe ich noch gekichert. *g*

Dank sga_art_santa habe ich jetzt auch zum ersten Mal das Manip-Äquivalent zu der Vidding-Situation gesehen, wenn jemand einen Song für ein Pairing benutzt, den schon jemand anderes genau für das gleiche Pairing geviddet hat. ^^° Zum Vergleich: Stately (2009) und Rodney and John as Henry VIII and Charles Brandon from the Tudors (2007).

This is a test of ijournal to insanejournal, this is only a test. .....

Now to take a shower, have a coffee, and start working on my project. :)

Since I don't post much here, I used my LJ as reference to answer some of these.

MAH ICONS.

default	oldest	newest
saddest	happiest	angriest
cutest	sexiest	funniest
fave ship	fave fandom	fave animated
best quote	best textless	best stolen idea
use the most	favorite

HOW MANY ICONS DO YOU HAVE: 58
OUT OF HOW MANY AVAILABLE ICONS SPACES: 100
IF YOU COULD BUY SPACE FOR MORE, WOULD YOU: No.
DO YOUR ICONS MAKE A STATEMENT: Yes.
WHAT FANDOM DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Supernatural
AND THE SECOND MOST: Stargate Atlantis
WHAT SHIP DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Sam and Dean, I think.
ARE YOUR ICONS MADE MOSTLY BY OTHER PEOPLE: No, I try to make them.
DO YOU MAKE ICONS: Yes, but only for myself.
ARE THEY ANY GOOD: Of course.
ANIMATED ICONS ARE: Cool. Unless there are too many of them on the screen at once.

DO THE MEME.
Coding can be found here

( Icon Meme!! )

I have friends who are into TPM, TPM and more TPM. Qui/Obi is their One True Pairing and they will be writing and reading Qui/Obi until the heat death of every star system in every fictional and nonfictional universe, you know? :-)

Every now and then, some of them dabble into other fandoms or other pairings, but they think of themselves as TPM fans in their heart of hearts.

Some fandoms tend to have a really high proportion of fans for whom it is an OTF. It's their comfort food, their splurge, their indulgence, their haven, their playground, their garden, their home turf, their creative center. TPM is the one that first comes to mind, but Highlander and Mag7 are not far behind.

And it's not just that they have an OTP... TPM Qui/Obi OTPers may very well read Obi/Ani or Qui/Xan or Obi/Xan if it crosses their path... but... just as importantly as their relationship of choice being so close to their heart, it's that the fandom itself is their One True Fandom.

I'm far too much of an omnivore to ever think that I'll ever be able to say that about myself. But ever so rarely, I think I've found an echo of that sort of OTP or OTF feeling, and I hear the resonant thrum of it enough in my bones to know some measure of what the OTPers and the OTFers experience.

And tonight, I want to thank paian for reminding me what it feels like, because the following appeared, as if by magic, on my flist, and it encompasses and encapsulates so much of why I tumbled so hard for slash fandom, and why I tumbled so hard for SG1, and why I will always, always, always have a special place in my heart for Daniel and Jack, and for the kinky aliens who make them do it... and for every author who so skillfully offers their fresh, new take on every fabulous, familiar plot. I lack the words to convey how much I adore fandom right now.

Stargate SG1 fic by Paian: follow through (daniel/jack, ADULT)
Daniel/Jack, S5-ish, adult/explicit, ~6880 words
Aliens make them do it

*glee*

Just, *utter glee*.

When did "The History Channel" become "The End of the World Channel" 24/7? I mean, I'm glad they're moving away from being "The All Hitler All The Time Channel", but now it's like everyone who works at the network has a stocked bunker in Montana and they've decreed that it's their programming duty to tell the viewing public we're all fucked and all going to die imminently. And yet, I find myself sucked in at times to the point where I'm walking around with a knot in my stomach all the time. I need to put a block on that channel. It's seriously causing me undue stress.

( We're too young for this kind of thing happening around us. )

I guess all this gloom and doom has put the little LJ restructuring news into perspective. I mean, what, you didn't think they'd get hit by the economic crash and burn like absolutely everyone and everything else? Okay, over the next few days or week I'll get TSU to help me back up my entire LJ - though I do mirror my content now under the same handle at insanejournal and journalfen. Yet, that's only been going on since summer 2007. Doesn't account for everything. But to be honest, if I had to start over, it wouldn't be much of a loss really. It's not like I've been posting fiction or anything like that all this time. Just my inane ramblings, and who really needs those saved forever and a day? Not me, and if I don't, I suspect neither do any of you. ;) But I'll give the back-up thing a whirl anyway.

If the time ever comes that we all really do have to leave LJ, which I personally don't suspect will happen soon (if at all), then just tell me what's the one primary place you all are going to, and that's where I'll go as well. I'm easy. ;)

I've changed the layout here, another the fulcrum creation. I like it. My only problem with it is that I don't have a paid account so I can't change the position of the mood theme to the bottom. But otherwise it's awesome.

Der Film, den ich vor ein paar Tagen erwähnt habe (aka the "Sci-Fi Viking Epic)? Gerade im Outlander Weblog gelesen:

As you probably know, the release date for Outlander is January 23rd. So, despite reports that we were going straight to DVD, that is not the case

Further, I have the cities, straight from TWC, where it will open first. ( They are as follows: )

Finally, after too many years to count, the movie will be out there. So do what you can, oh ye faithful - email your buds in those cities, make some noise. If we do well, we might even get the recalcitrant folks at TWC to roll it out further.

And one last thing: go see it yourself and have a good time. I hope you enjoy it.

Endlich! \o/

It's fun to watch the different entries on a backup journal like this, cause I can see each time that I've been worried about LJ shutting down somehow. Once/twice every year seems to be the trend, and it's staying strong :)

Well, see you in 2010!

/red

Onfindan von astolat (Merlin/Arthur, 16,219 words). Zum sofortigen Lesen dringend empfohlen! Beginnt mit einer heimlichen Monsterjagd und führt über Sex, Magie und Politik bis aufs Schlachtfeld, wo die eigentliche Legende beginnt. Einfach wunderbar und stellenweise atemberaubend!
Arthur didn't speak to him for a week after he found out.

It's not that I think LJ is going to fail immediately, but I do think this sums up my thoughts pretty well. And I can't help but remember Greatest Journal, who's biggest failing was on the technical end.

Get your kink on! SPN anonymous porn kink meme: blindfold_spn. Go leave prompts, go write comment fic.

Work is so slow right now, it's almost scary. Plus with the schedule change-- my shoulders are up around my ears with tension.

dragyn, ILU. I got the present. (And the card is ADORABLE!) Thank you!

It's getting to be time to rearrange my icons again.

Livejournal reduziert die Mitarbeiter, Fandom zuckt mit den Schultern. Bestes Zitat: ( Slashing Bears )

Nach dem Zulauf, den das Merlin-Fandom in den letzten Wochen erfahren hat, war es nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis jemand mit ausreichendem rhetorischen Geschick Furcht vor fannischer Migration in irgendeine moralische Verpflichtung ummünzen würde, die mit Fabeln von bitterem Unkraut bevorzugte Autoren davon überzeugen soll, doch bitte nicht auf eine andere Weide zu wechseln. Nachdem es jetzt so weit ist (Link zum Gegenargument), kann ich mich endlich wieder in Ruhe dem grünen Gras widmen. *g*

The Story of Mr. Emrys: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Goncourt (2/5?) von fromward (Merlin/Arthur, AU, Preslash, this part: 8112 words; all parts so far: ~14,300 words). Boarding School AU, [Part 1]. Die Welt ist interessant und schillernd ausgearbeitet, das Äquivalent zu Merlins Magie in der Serie erfrischend ungewöhnlich, die Charaktere gut getroffen und die Beziehungsdynamik bewegt sich an der Stelle zwischen der ersten und zweiten Episode, wo Merlin und Arthur sich eigentlich noch spinnefeind sind, aber schon eindeutig mehr in der Luft liegt. Mir hat der erste Teil bereits so gut gefallen, dass ich ihn empfohlen habe, obwohl die Geschichte noch ein WIP ist, und nach diesem zweiten Teil steht die Story nun an erster Stelle meiner Merlin-AU-Favoriten. :)
Merlin remembered why he still felt like clocking Pendragon on a daily basis. ‘Every new boy has to swim, you know, and the less he participates at Goncourt, the more he’ll sink,’ the irritating, know-it-all git said. ‘He’s already halfway down to the bottom.’
‘When I asked about him, Arthur,’ she smiled slyly, ‘I meant, I thought you hated him.’

Step by Step von yavannauk (Merlin/Arthur, 991 words). Kurz, taugt aber trotzdem als kleine Nascherei für zwischendurch.
The first time that Arthur lay with Merlin it was out of necessity rather than for any other reason.

Injukyoshi von astolat (Merlin/Arthur, 1694 words). Die zweite Tentakel-Story, die ich in diesem Fandom in den letzten zwei Wochen gelesen habe. Humorvoll und absolut in character. Besonders Arthur. Bwaha! (Bevor sich jemand davon abschrecken lässt, das ist eigentlich eine Post-Tentakel-Story. Mit anderen Worten, das Tentakeling passierte vorher. *kicher*)
Fine, so maybe it hadn't been the best idea to attack the giant tentacle monster.

Conversation by the Fireplace von givemethebook (Gen, ~1400 words). Die Story wirft einen Punkt bezüglich Merlins Herkunft auf, auf den ich bisher noch gar nicht gekommen bin. Der eigentliche H/C-Aspekt ist der emotionale Beistand, den Arthur Merlin leistet.
Summary: Merlin keeps Arthur company, while the prince recovers from a bad cold. Talking ensues...

PS: Mehr Merlin Recs.

If you get emails out of the blue from me regarding ancient obligations and gifties, it's because I'm making a serious effort to get caught up. This week, that'll include treewishes (email sent), wyomingnot (comment sent and answered), dragovianknight (I will email tonight), and vimeslady (who I've had trouble getting in touch with multiple times, but I will be trying again to email tonight).

If I have some obligation to you, and I have not emailed you by this coming weekend to make good, please email me and remind me of whatever it is that I've forgotten or that my old email crashes and/or overzealous spam filters ate.

And I will also be finally finishing backing up and transitioning content from my LJ this month.

It's feeling more urgent now that there are rumblings that the owners of LJ just laid off much of their LJ-related staff (possibly without severance). Some details about that are here:
http://twistedchick.insanejournal.com/79159.html?style=mine
ETA: http://twistedchick.insanejournal.com/1683461.html?style=mine

How to back up your journal:
http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/284083.html (for Windows)
http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/413098.html (yes, right now LJBook is completely overloaded because many many people on LJ are panicked and trying to use it all at once, but there are other options... and no, LJ will not be vanishing overnight)
http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/238132.html (for Mac)
http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html (for Mac)
http://zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com/480601.html?style=mine
and my posts at http://elke-tanzer.insanejournal.com/tag/lj+transition
ETA: and http://morgandawn.insanejournal.com/221445.html?style=mine and http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/tag/ljtools
ETA: also http://karma-apple.insanejournal.com/8073.html

A note from synecdochic about the progress on Dreamwidth (for journaling):
http://synecdochic.livejournal.com/302379.html

Pages from the Organization for Transformative Works about the Archive Of Our Own project (for archiving fanfiction):
http://transformativeworks.org/node/96
http://transformativeworks.org/projects

ETA: Also a note from the OTW about Fanlore, a great place to put your contact information so that people can find you if your LJ or IJ or JF or whatever goes away unexpectedly: http://transformativeworks.org/news/our-friends-lj

And a note from squeaky about the stability of IJ right now:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/announcements/61339.html

Additional perspective:
http://zarq.livejournal.com/846503.html?style=mine

And now I am headed to work, where I have similar organizey catchy-uppitty things to do, but for workstuff I am more like a month behind, rather than like... a year behind or more, which is the status of my fannish, extended-family and extended-RL-social obligations.

Over January and February, I'm also hoping to finish the work I began two years ago on my fannish and RL websites, as well. Being halfway between things feels rather like being uncomfortably splinched.

I will be traveling to my parents in Indiana again in February. March will be professional development class and PMI's PMP certification exam (my class will be in Los Angeles in March rather than San Jose in January because of my employer's travel expenses freeze) and a fannish weekend at the beach (yay Escapade!). If I haven't started going on Sierra Club dayhikes, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or some other local Burbank community cause, and/or signed up for eHarmony by the end of February, I will be doing so in April.

Re: my interconnectedness with people: 2009 Will Be Better, Dammit.

In other news: I adore my wee baby dragons! :-D I am brainstorming names for these three:

My Mom likes the little tiny dragons that don't grow very big even when they're mature, so I'm coming up with names with meaning for her that I'll use any time I am able to name one of that breed.

And I have named this one Thunbergia Sedge, after a flowering vine that is a favorite of my father's garden and a family of plants that look vaguely grasslike which Dad likes to photograph in prairie and marshland preserves. I wonder if when it begins to grow its wings, I will be able to tell if it's male or female, or if I will have to wait until it's fully matured... Either way, this is the first egg I stole, and my first dragon to hatch, and I... I guess I'm just infatuated with the wee little virtual dragons. :-)

A fellow fan is having trouble making her rent this month, and may be kicked out of her home. She is selling a number of books, CDs (including lots of Celtic stuff!), DVDs and tarot decks etc from her personal collection, and she also makes beautiful jewelry and altar dolls. If your finances are stable enough for you to be in shopping mode right now, please check out her posts of items she is selling, and browse her Etsy and Artfire storefronts.

Info is here: http://sixtail.livejournal.com/929401.html?style=mine and here: http://lori.insanejournal.com/3059.html?style=mine updated info is here: http://sixtail.livejournal.com/931535.html?style=mine


I know that there are at least another couple fans in similar situations, but I can't seem to find the links right at the moment... if you know of others, please feel free to link to their sale posts or storefronts in the comments here.

ETA: Cloudwatcher on LJ fell in December, and thanks to this sucky economy, needs serious help with her medical bills since her job benefits vanished. She's selling some musical instruments on eBay, and looking for job leads. Info is in her LJ:
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/260067.html (plea for help of any kind)
http://cloudwatcher.livejournal.com/260119.html (list of instruments)

Also, Cloudwatcher has linked to http://community.livejournal.com/saveours00j/ which is a community of the friends of LJ user s00j, who are trying to raise money to help pay for incredibly daunting medical bills....

"SJ Tucker, s00j, a touring musician with no health insurance, recently ended up in the hospital for nearly a week, and was released on Christmas Eve to await test results and more tests."

"We've established this community because many of [info]s00j's friends can't afford to donate a lot of money, but can make things, or write things, or build things, and very much want to help. This part is very much a work in progress - as we sort out whether we're posting auctions or raffles or printing chapbooks or juggling geese, we'll update here."

Please check out the community for updates.


Which reminds me... I can't remember if I linked to this one before the holidays or not; it's another fellow fan having financial strain and selling items to pay the bills. Again, if your finances allow you to be in shopping mode right now, please check out her posts: http://digitalwave.livejournal.com/tag/sales+stuff

And now I am going to have sushi for dinner, and then crawl into my very own bed so I can hibernate for a little while.

Yay for being back in SoCal! :-D

Okay, so working at Netflix, I'm a part-timer. Used to be full-time, chose to go part-time, yadda. So I'm used to 3-6 hour day.

Today was a THIRTEEN HOUR day.

*whimper*

and lol, this icon is indeed Zac Efron from High School Musical 2. LOL.