( 76 stories in 43 different fandoms. )

Better late than never, right?

10 Doctor Who Series 1 icons HERE @ tubrute

I don't post here much, since almost all my pics of the boys come from here anyway. But I'm hugely as infatuated with Maureen Starkey as I am Ringo - and we are coming up on - actually by the time I finish this it will likely be the 30th in the states. 15 years since she died.  The wives don't get enough love. Especially Maureen. I talk to more people that don't even know Ringo had a wife before Barbara Bach

So, I decided a little Mo/Ringo but mostly just Mo spam is in order. 

RIP Maureen- Always came way too soon.



( Nothin's gonna shake your love... )

Where a shorttime distraction turned into a memorable exercise, I nearly died of the flu and nothing could bring me down
In retrospective, this year has been so busy I'm amazed I managed to fit it all within the year. I can definitely say that, though this will not my favourite year, it will be one of the most memorable. Like the one year I spent in Halifax that I might spend the rest of my life referencing thanks to it's difference and influence, this year was a busy time of learning my place and growing up.
Being out of contract once was strangely freeing. Being out of contract the second time was a little more worrisome, but I was determined to not let it get to me. So I'd applied for a job while I was expecting to be out of animation work - just something to keep me busy and keep money in my pocket so I didn't have to dip into the EI just yet. I managed to grab a job at Beavertails.
Beavertails was a fun gig. I was one of the few hirees who was over 18, and so I made quick friends with the older managers, some of who were actually younger than me. Closest pals would've been the couple Agatha and Greg - Greg being the actual owner/manager of the shack and Agatha being the girl I worked most days/nights with. Unlike my downtime in Hali, I managed to spend most of my days conversing with people, laughing and yelling and drinking too much coffee, while walking on the beautiful bike path by the canal to and fro.
I got to work on my French, and garner big tips out of it. I got to converse with tourists, especially Australians, about my inability to skate despite my history of it and being Canadian. I got to talk with one of my day shifters about travelling and the world, another girl who lived near me about books and tv, I made some dumb jokes with those who I had to stay far too late with.
I mean, it wasn't all roses, the shack did get UNHOLY busy, the worst being when it's just me and Agatha and there's a school of rude yelling kids outside, and then we run out of change because everyone's paying with twenties. I got in trouble at one point because we had NO money left but still had to keep going because the line was 50 deep, and I kept yelling out and telling each kid that ordered that we had nothing left and I was going to have to give them what I had, and apparently it confused some kids who thought I ripped them off when usually I was giving them money at a loss to us. And even after a few of those rushes, we never seemed to have enough change in the shack. And there would be nights when I would be dead tired but still had the 30min walk home ahead of me, and it was in a snowstorm. I would bundle myself up best I could, secure my headphones, and trudge along through the wind and snow trying to stay wrapped up in my own little world.

Winter was also a lot of slipups - I had what's now been the longest relationship of mine in the last... three, maybe four years now, and that lasted a mere month. The work I did plan for was pulled up from under my feet. I started, and failed to continue, an awful lot of projects.
And Feb of '09 was when I had the worst illness in my memory. Floored me completely, took away my voice, and left me with just enough strength to trudge to the Shoppers every day for medicine and lie around on the couch feeling sorry for myself. I'm pretty sure is was Bacon Lung, but whatever it was I survived it and thank god. All I really remember is dumping ever vegetable I had on hand into a pot full of lentils, and then eating the resulting mess while watching Bolt. And then the next morning I was fresh as a daisy.

But all in all, winter of '09 was a good time for me. A good prelude to summer.
SUMMER
DUN DUN DUUUNNN

I understand the desire to want your fic to be well advertised and thus read (and reviewed), author, I really do. But when you're crossposting to every single community in existence that's possibly relevant to any part of your work, big or small, it stops being good advertising and starts being incredibly frustrating, in my opinion. Any possible interest I may have had in reading your fic begins to wane by about the fourth time it springs up on my flist in a short space of time.

Especially since your fic actually features the most prominent pairing in this fandom, and would easily reach your entire prospective audience just via a posting to their pairing community, and perhaps the more general fic/slash community for balance.

It's good to use your noggin when advertising for maximum exposure with minimum spammage to attract potential readers. It's similar to TV advertising, if you want to put it that way. Let's say a subway ad comes on around dinnertime and you think 'yeah, I could go for a footlong'. The second time it comes up, you're reminded that you're peckish, and you're more motivated to go and get yourself a sub down at the nearest shop - they look pretty yummy, after all. But by about the tenth time the ad comes on in an hour and a half (and sometimes twice in a row), you swear you're off meatballs for life and you just want to get back to watching Stepford Wives before you put your remote through the screen in frustration.

I'm sure your fic is rather good, and it may cater to my tastes/interests, but the amount of times it's come up has turned me right off of it.

eta: accidentally ate my final sentence while posting, I gave it back now.

First of many yuletide recs! In fairly random order. I mostly post quotes instead of commentary, because I have SO MANY RECS that if I did full commentary for each, I would never finish this ever.

Also these rec quotes contain no italics or special formatting even if the original quotes did, because I'm pulling them off my delicious account.

SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (all for meeee!)
Haunting Things (Real and Fake)
(If you have seen Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, you will immediately understand how amazing it is when I say that this fic is based on it. And if you haven't, it doesn't matter; you don't have to have seen it! All you need to know is that Zombie Island showed that the gang had gone their separate ways, tired of unmasking fake monsters, and that Daphne goes on to have a talk show while Velma owns a mystery bookstore. It's poignant and sweet and sad, primarily following Velma through her unrequited love for Daphne.)

“I’m sorry,” she says and sits down on the end of Velma’s sleeping bag. “I know you’re sad.”

“Why?” Velma asks. She wishes she had the words for what she’s feeling. Why are you leaving me? isn’t quite right, nor is Why don’t you love me? but both are as true as they are incorrect for what she wants to say.

The Mystery of Life
(How the gang is getting along post-series; absolutely fabulous and lit up my Christmas morning. The revelation that Shaggy is a stoner is one of the most apt things EVER and delights me to no freaking end.)

"You found our yearbook! Oh wow." Daphne took the book from Fred and started flipping through the pages. "Look at my signature to you! 'Dear Freddie, as long as the ocean waves... stay groovy! Hugs and Kisses'... how many x's and o's did I possibly need? 'Daffy.' Daffy!" She hooted. "Let's see what you put, Shag."

Unrequited
(This was a Yuletide treat for me, totally unexpected, and it is fabulous! The summary sets it up perfectly: Fred loves Velma, Velma loves Daphne, Daphne loves Shaggy, and Shaggy loves visiting all-you-can-eat buffets with his friend Scooby. It's a series of vignettes following relationships between the gang, and the insights that we gain are fabulous. Velma is awesome at Jeopardy and sudoku, and is totally kinky! Daphne realizes that she's known as the dumb pretty one and hates it!)

He used to sneak up behind her and pinch her waist and she'd give a little startled jump and let out a high pitched "Jinkies!" He'd give her a moment to compose herself and push her glasses back up her nose because they'd slipped, and then he'd throw both his arms around her. He could never guess what she was gonna be enthusiastic about ahead of time, but there was always something, like the time she came home, cheeks flushed, and said: "Hey, you know what? We've never tried tying each other up! Get some rope, let's go, let's go!"

( Recs for: Hot Fuzz, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency [books & TV], Anastasia, Band of Brothers, Black Books, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Cable & Deadpool, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, District 9, Glee, The Hardy Boys [books], Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Hellboy/BPRD [comics], Kristin Cashore's Graceling, How I Met Your Mother, Amelie, I Am Maru, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Lackadaisy, Archie comics, Alias [comic], Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald, Burn Notice, Hercules )

MORE RECS LATER

Title: Hard Sell, Chapter 15
Author: Zelda Ophelia (zeldaophelia)
Fandom/Character: CSI:NY;  girl!Flack (Dawn Flack), Stella, Mac
General info: Genderbender; Not mine; T

Notes: A huge thank you to eternal_sadist, significantowl, avidbeader, and the wonderful ladies at postonthursday who helped make this fic happen.
Summary: Pre-series. Dawn Flack (not a junior, though everyone wants to add that on) is finally getting her first solo case, without her training partner to tag along. But when one death becomes three with little evidence, she's needs all the help Mac and Stella can give her to find this guy.

( Hard Sell, Chapter 15 )

Ok, so I got this done a little over a month ago...but wound up getting crazy busy with the job I had...so now I'm posting this,

( Who the Billy Shears are you? images of tattoo and some legality as well! )

CHALLENGE 15 YEAR-END LISTS
Thanks for Being Awesome, 2009!
Spoilers for V, Glee, The Office, Castle, Chuck, Lost, Supernatural.


Click the Image for my 2009 in Books, Music, People, and Television
Picspam at oneforyes

Let's see...

Prior to December, I had written four stories in 2009, totaling just shy of 9000 words, not counting the Crossover o' Doom. Said crossover was just over 41,000 words, but at least 25,000 of them were written in 2008 and therefore don't count. So let's say that I wrote 25,000 words between January and November.

Now, in the past two weeks, I've written seven stories. Two for yuletide, two for 3_ships, one for cap_ironman, one for ricstar, and one for Neopets that's going to be posted in the Neopian Times sometime in the near(ish) future. Those stories end up totaling just shy of 15,000 words. In two weeks. While working insane hours. And planning an 800 mile move.

So, basically, I'm completely insane.

52 Adam Lambert icons

20 w/Brad Bell
8 w/Katy Perry
5 w/Kris Allen
14 w/Tommy Ratliff
1 w/Cassidy Haley
4 w/other AI8 contestants

textless are not bases

<

here @ _wc2k_icons

May started with a rather loud bang multifacetedly. The second was the riot, with it's hundreds of riot police, at the Pink Parade, and third was my birthday the following day. I remember my birthday. I remember preparing for the utter nothingness it would be here in comparison to what I usually did. I thought far too much on the dinner, acrobatics show, and dessert I'd organized the year before this one, trying not to wallow. And then I was blown away when everyone I knew crawled out of the internet to give me well wishes.

There were cards and e-mails and skype calls, virtual gifts and reminds and messages on everywhere internet interface I was/am apart of. And, never forgotten, there was the writing group that en mass grouped online at a time wholly inconvenient to America to watch a movie with me. I remember being so aware it nearly moved me to tears for a whole day of just how many people were out there, beyond the black of my separation by parallels, watching and cheering me on.

It was the first time I was down to the bones of my soul aware that maybe I was on my own but I was definitely not alone.

It wasn't a stress free month by any means though bearing on where the last left me with work. This was the month when Holly, the dog we'd gotten when I was twelve, died and I was informed only after she'd both fallen sick and been put down. And it was the month that would see me catching wind of the truly terrifying number that my loans wanted me to pay a month pre-consolidation. I was when Amy and Daniel, from two of my classes, would see their father have an anyerism and pass away.

It was also when North Korea started acting up, causing their largest earthquake in a decade with nuclear testing. And when the Swing Flu (H1N1) would see all of the foreign teachers quarantined to my part of the city for weeks, under the threat of instant firing if we were found in any foreigner heavy areas in Seoul during it. Which was, of course, only stipulated of the Foreign Teachers, too. Because my work has some kinks all through out it's professionalism. But at worst it made me very restless and annoyed because I'd planned for festivals & trips and wasn't allowed to go them

Physically I was in a hard place, too. I'd picked up a scale and realized I'd gained weight, and my body was all off its normal rhythms still.



I remember having to learn how to deal more and more with adoration and veneration from my children's parents. Korea has very little it esteems more than Doctors and Teachers.

I was still getting myself into the ability to grasp the fact they kept giving us little gifts when one of the parents suddenly dropped musical tickets on me with nothing more than a random Wednesday note of thanks for teaching her son. Even though the tickets were for me, and my Korean partner teacher had only been afforded movie tickets, I took her with me to it since she did the same work as me. It was a nice bonding experience (and I think it was fair and right still).

This happened and then shortly before my next visitors arrived, Teacher's Day happened. In which I was piled high, in two huge shopping bags, with gifts from their parents of truly huge sums and endless cards from my children. It was awkward and strange, given that it isn't like this for teachers back home, but it was a whirl wind of new experience all at once.

Then my parents came to visit. I remember vacillatingly between how well that wouldn't go, based on my early company, and being in awe of the fact my parents were actually leaving their country for the first time I could remember in my life. I went better than I could have ever dreamed. They'd planned out their trip, so they went on dozens of tours they'd prebooked during the days when I worked and then we had dinner and took in shows in the evening at Korea House and Nanta.



Over the weekend my parents took Alice and I with them on the USO DMZ trip across the DMZ, JSA and Panmunjom which was awesome -- both in the sense of being great and in the sense of the words true definition. I felt very aware of the scars of my new land that day, the dedication and hurt and ever lasting hope and love for family and friends and peace of its people. (It also kept going in, when Alice and I would late see the Korean War Memorial)

It was -- you know it's hard not to look back on this whole trip of theirs and smile. They had prepared for everything. They'd planned to take care of themselves, and both to enjoy Korea for itself and to share with me the joy of traveling together (which was their birthday gift to me while they were there). I kept expecting to have odd moments with Gordon, my step father, and I really didn't. Strange to think somewhere around graduating, living with them a month and leaving to live in another country I finally became something other than what I'd been to him for the previous decade.

A decade that was horrendous to remember as it is relieving to more onward from.

At the end of the month, I booked my ticket to Australia to see trelali and weaverandom. I really love music, and have all my life. It speaks to me and about me frequently. So it was amusing to see I wrote a post, claiming Metamorphosis by Hillary Duff felt like my song for the time, with the main lyrics of



So much of all of that month felt rushed and stalled, then back and forth, and then alone yet not ever really alone, but like April, when I read over what I've written up, the world was showering me with love during this month. With letting me know I wasn't alone, letting me see I was appreciated, and that people could make gold out of my situation. That I was loved in so many varied and different ways. From my friends at my birthday to the parents and kids at Teacher Day to my Parents and Alice. Love as motivation and transformation, overcoming my distance and melting boundaries built by earlier months.

CHALLENGE 15 YEAR-END LISTS
Music in 2009



Annie, Bat For Lashes... Um. Let's just skip right to Frankmusik...

Dear Author,

While I was originally gratified to note that you have a beta and assigned a certain amount of praise to her work and effort on your work, I was soon disabused of that idea. While bad enough that your story rapidly devolves into some of the most overused and abused cliches of lezfic out there (eg TruLuv4Ever(tm), badly written AmazingSex(c) "now with mind-blowing, simultaneous, virginal orgasms!", and (my personal favorite (/sarcasm)) the degeneration of the characters into 5 year olds after falling for TruLuv4Ever(tm)) and has a character that is such a truly horrid stereotype of a flamboyant gay man that he is actually offensive, that's not the worst of it.

First, you do not have an even semi-decent grasp of grammar, spelling or even paragraph and/or scene breaks. Punctuation is randomly dropped or included, sometimes causing truly bizarre situations. Spelling is whimsical, but in a bad way. And if the paragraph breaks were included in an at least semi-logical fashion, I may have actually made more sense out of what you were writing. Still not the worst.

Second, your descriptions were so bizarre that I have to assume you have no idea what you're actually writing about. Someone has fenced their multiple acres of land with a six-foot tall wall/stack of chopped wood and it's magically not rotted through? And no one talks to the weirdo who does this because she has a pit bull and pit bulls are really scary. But I really loved the logic of someone making their bedroom in the loft of a rotting, decayed, hulk of a former house. Because a few sacks full of cleaning stuff from Walmart and Dollar General can TOTALLY make a structure sound again, they're just THAT GOOD! But we're still not at the worst.

Third, at least 10% (and I'm probably being generous putting the number that low) of your sentences don't make any sense! I mean I seriously have no idea what you are trying to say! And I'm not talking about the odd sentence structure that can sometimes be used by ESL writers because their first language uses different basic structures than English. I tried figuring it out with all the languages I had an even passing familiarity to the grammatical structures of and I still have no freaking idea what you were trying to get across. THAT was probably the worst.

I get that there's a good chance you're ESL. In fact, I hope so, because I really like to think a native speaker wouldn't churn out something that messed up. I get that you're really proud of your work. HOWEVER, you've claimed you had a beta and within the first page there's at least 20 obvious errors. So one of two things must be true. Either A) you didn't bother to listen to your beta and correct the errors she pointed out, or B) you REALLY need a new beta. If you did listen and correct errors and it was previously even worse, you may want to consider working on your writing skills more before continuing posting. Either way, it might not be best to praise your beta so at the top of your fic.

All in all, I'm deeply saddened by how "highly recommended" your fic was when there were just so very, very many errors. Besides, the quality of the story itself, ignoring the grammar and spelling and bizarrity errors? Just was not good. The only reason I read it through was that I was stuck at work and so extremely bored.

Your Unfortunate Reader,
CyberNinjaSio.