Some of my entries are friends-locked. All of my fan fiction is unlocked. Feel free to poke around.

If you would like to get fic updates, feel free to add me. You don't have to ask permission. You may friend and defriend this journal as you like. Just know that some of my non-fic posts are not friends-locked, so they might pop up on your flist.

If you'd like me to friend you back then just let me know by commenting here. This journal is part fic, part fandom squee, part real life whinging, and part utter nonsense. If this sounds good to you, then welcome!

Okay, so I've been rewatching the first few episodes of the Prince of Tennis anime this week, and it's funny how weirdly out of character everyone is at the beginning. Like, Kaidoh always walks hunched over and hisses all the time and is just completely terrifying, and Eiji is strangely bland and...buff? He acts a lot like Fuji at the beginning, I think, maybe because he always seems to be standing next to him for some reason. I think this happens in a lot of TV series, where it just takes a while for the creators to figure out exactly who the characters are and get the details right, or where the creators are giving the audience a very very basic idea of the character to build upon in future episodes. But it's weird to see it here. I think I chalk it up to seeing them through Ryoma's eyes, because at first he sees the regulars as one homogenous group of older tennis players, and it's only later that he gets to know them and becomes a part of the group. And I guess we're supposed to see the regulars as formidable opponents who are all nine feet taller than Ryoma instead of taking for granted that Ryoma could beat the crap out of almost any of them.

( PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE )

I don't know why all of those pictures were necessary but once I started capping I couldn't stop, as per usual.

Small friends cut of people I rarely/never talk to. PM me if you think I cut you by accident, because I might have done.

This episode was totally fun to cap, probably because it was about 10 times easier to make fun of.

( Episode 55: Hyotei Presses Near )

Episode 54 picspam is here.

Download all screencaps here.

I want to picspam the entire Hyotei/Seigaku story arc, so I'll probably be posting those in the next couple of weeks.

I've been rewatching the first Seigaku/Hyotei story arc and decided to do a picspam/recap. I was just going to start with 55, but somehow "a few" screencaps from episode 54 became a picspam of its own, so here it is. I divided the episodes up because, well, there are a lot of pictures and I didn't want anyone's computer to explode.

( Episode 54: Kaoru's Special Training )

Episode 55 picspam here.

And if you want these screencaps, plus a couple of extras, for icons then I've uploaded them here.

I'm not really sure why, but I'm watching the Golden Globe red carpet pre-show. Can I just take this moment to express my all-consuming love for Dustin Hoffman? Not only is he a wonderful actor, but he's also just so damn likeable. I really want to see his new movie Last Chance Harvey with Emma Thompson.

Oh, Kate and Leo! I admit that I've shipped them ever since Titanic. Not in real life or anything, but...okay, maybe a little bit. ♥ I can't wait to see Revolutionary Road. I had free passes to go see it last week but passed up the chance. Has anyone ever read the book? I've got this thing about reading the book before I see a movie, but I don't always follow though. I've got copies of Revolutionary Road and Benjamin Button but I've been reading other stuff lately - actual books, shock, gasp! - so I guess I'm wondering if either of those two are worth it or if I should just give in and see the films. Oh, and The Reader! Has anyone read that one?

And speaking of books, I just read a great one - Eon: Dragoneye Reborn. It was a fantastic grown-up fantasy. I read the last 400 pages in one sitting, and I was completely absorbed. It had some interesting things to say about gender, which was a bit unexpected in a fantasy novel aimed at teenagers. If anyone reads it let me know! I'm dying to discuss it with someone. I gave it to my mom and she's reading it right now. She never reads fantasy, but she said, "Well, you were right about Harry Potter, so I guess I have to."

Aw, Kate Winslet just won for The Reader. I just adore her. If I started working towards it now, could I someday become as gorgeous and talented as she is?

ETA: WHY IS JAKE GYLLENHAAL SO GORGEOUS.

Title: In Search of the Lesser Crested Flame Beetle
Pairing: Harry/Luna
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: PWP, slight risk of getting caught.
Word count: ~800
Summary: Luna needs Harry's help finding the Lesser Crested Flame Beetle.
Author's Note: For tjwritter, who gave me the prompt of Harry/Luna and looking for something in a cave. I was supposed to finish this by midnight, but it was also supposed to be a drabble so I suppose nothing went the way it was supposed to. Thanks to shes_gone for the quick beta, although I did make lots of changes after her initial read-through, so any mistakes are mine.

( In Search of the Lesser Crested Flame Beetle )

I just realized that I completely forgot to link to my gift fic for bestmates_xmas! It's called Revenge is a Dish Best Serbed Hot, and it's really hot and filthy and just perfect for me. Rated NC-17 for sex, obviously not safe for work.

Also, look at this gorgeous piece of Harry/Sirius art. It's not rated, but I'd say it's PG. There's just hand holding, and nothing explicit or overt, although the background is a little creepy. But it's beautiful, go look!

Had a really late lunch with my friend M today. She and I love watching gay-themed films and she reads most of my slashy fic, like my Andy/Brian and Harry/Ron stuff. But she is not "in" fandom and therefore doesn't understand how some things work, you know? So I was telling her about my new obsession, Prince of Tennis, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: You need to watch this show with me.
Her: I don't get it. What is it about?
Me: It's about this team of tennis players and they're trying to make it to the Japanese Nationals tennis tournament. But they've also got these amazing relationships and everyone is gay and they all love each other a lot.
Her: Wait, what, they're all gay?
Me: Yes.
Her: So, it's a gay tennis team?
Me: Yes. Well, no, not exactly.
Her: I don't get it.
Me: They are gay, but not on the show, really. They don't say it, but you just know. We know in our hearts.
Her: ...
Me: You would understand this better if you were in fandom.

And even though only like 4 people on my flist will care - a Prince of Tennis picspam.

( Why I love Prince of Tennis and so should you, aka Why Prince of Tennis is the gayest, crackiest, most wonderful show ever )

ETA: If I have successfully tempted you to join the dark side, you can find info about downloading PoT episodes in this post. I have the first few episodes uploaded, but my bandwidth expired, so it might not let you. However, I mention a community where you can join and download everything, so go do that! :)

So I've been thinking lately about fandom and how it develops and the effects of new people becoming part of fandoms and the evolution of fic. I've been the wide-eyed new person in a fandom, and I've been the old timer yelling for those damn kids to get off the lawn, so I've seen it a bit from both sides and I find it all very interesting. I have a few thoughts/questions, for those in the mood to humor me.

So when you first discover a new fandom and start thinking about the first fic you're going to write, what kind of fic is it? My experience is ALWAYS THE SAME. I start imagining this epic angsty getting-together fic for whichever pairing I have deemed my OTP, start planning it in my head, then start reading pre-existing fics and realize that I've pretty much hit every cliche right on the head. :| And realize that my plotline is the most common and overused plotline in the fandom. :| And that I always ship the obvious pairings. :| I am so uncreative. But I am running into this problem as a PoT newbie, when my "OMG I HAVE TO WRITE EPIC TEZUKA/RYOMA FIC RIGHT NOW" plot bunny cowered in the corner after I read some of the pairing classics.

But all of this got me thinking, because I've been on the other side of the fence where I'm thinking, "OMFG, if I see one more Monday fic I'm going to rip my hair out. Why do all new people have to write the same damn story? Can't they see that it's already been written a thousand times?!" But of course that was the first thing I wrote when I entered the TBC fandom, so basically I am a hypocrite. :p

Anyway, my larger point/question: I think when you first enter a fandom as a writer/reader, you have to start at the beginning. Reading established!pairing fics right off the bat is probably not the best way to be introduced to a non-canon pairing, because we need to see and understand how the characters got together before we can move on to Harry and Ron being all domesticky and snuggling in bed on a Sunday afternoon. I think we also have to start with "obvious" plotlines - get used to them, answer all of those "OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT" questions for ourselves until we are satisfied - before we can move on and explore the rest.

So, when you first enter a new fandom, what is your writing/reading pattern? Do you feel the same way, or have you experienced it differently? Also, do you think new people should read some of the fandom classics before they start writing, or is the catharsis just as important?

Something else I've been thinking about, whilst snooping about for Prince of Tennis recs and spying on some discussions, is how much the quality and scope of fic evolves over time. When fandoms are young and naive, I think everybody is exploring the canon together and building off of one another's ideas. As the fandom as a whole matures, I think the fics do too. I think a lot of fics are written as reactions to what's already been done, when someone thinks, "Oh, that's interesting, but maybe if I flipped it around...or took it a step further and did this..."

Thinking about all this has made me understand why influxes of new people into a fandom can lead to wank and people splitting into factions. New people feel like they aren't being taken seriously because they "don't understand" and older people feeling frustrated that their groundwork is being overlooked and that new people feel like they have to reinvent the wheel every time. I empathize with both sides and I think it's kind of an unavoidable situation, unfortunately.

There was more that I was thinking about, but now I've forgotten it. But I think the the basic point is that if you want to write me a fic where Harry and Ron get drunk and have sex for the first time and then wake up and worry that the other person doesn't feel the same way and then make Hermione push them back together because she knows everything, THEN DO IT. There is no such thing as too much boysex.

ETA: I am done editing this post now, sorry. :| Why do I always think of more stuff to say the second I hit "post"?

I'm not ashamed to admit that I totally enjoyed my tall house blend today.

ETA: Damn, I wish I didn't have to work so late or I could have posted this one.

Small friends cut of people I never talk to and/or abandoned journals. If I made a mistake, you can PM me.

Gah, I have been without internet for two whole days! At 3AM two nights ago, the internet randomly stopped working and we finally got the tech support people on the phone long enough to arrange to have someone sent out to fix it tomorrow. I'm actually not going quite that crazy yet, although give me a few more days and I might start losing it. Right now I'm using the free wifi at the gelatto place down the street (no hot gelatto boys, sorry trubbleclef).

Anyway, today at work one of the reps from a game company we buy from came to our store for a visit. He was very cute and very French - has only been in the country for 7 months and has a beautiful accent - and he sat around and drank wine with us (he smirked when we told him we had Cabernet Sauvignon from California) and showed us all of the new games. So I got paid to drink wine and play children's games with a gorgeous French man for over an hour, which is exactly how it should be every day. He's in town for the whole weekend, so I told him that he should come visit us again tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

Also, today at work a little girl asked me if I was an author. Heh. I was sitting at a table in the middle of the store, checking in boxes, and apparently she thought I was there for a signing. I had to tell her, miserably, that I was just a lowly employee and was nothing special, which she found very amusing. BUT SOMEDAY I WILL BE PUBLISHED. Oh yes I will.

I'm reading Battle Royale and it is freaky as hell - like Lord of the Flies on crack, with machine guns. I'm probably going to start having nightmares soon, since I am a complete wimp.

I was building up a linkspam, but now I've lost it, blah.

Oh, and tonight my cat Sebastian figured out how to open the door to the liquor cabinet. He's kind of dumb, so I was very impressed. I guess he's lived with me long enough to have his priorities in order.

Okay, this joint closes in less than an hour, so I guess I should go do real stuff before I get kicked out. *big sloppy kisses to everyone*

I realized about two hours ago that I have a Criminology test tomorrow at 10AM, so now I am franticly going over the study guide. I just ran across the terms malum in se and malum prohibitum, and now I keep hearing Reese Witherspoon in my head saying, "I'd rather have a client who's innocent!"

And now I'm staring at my notes thinking, "What, like it's hard?"

Aaaaand now I'm watching the movie. Crap.

I'm not supposed to be posting right now because I'm supposed to be studying, but I'm still flailing over last night's Criminal Minds and I just stumbled across these (made by vanishingwater):


Oh, Reid.


Aw. I miss season one. Except for Elle, who can suck it.

I'm watching entirely too much TV this season. My DVR can tape two programs at once, and I'm still running into conflicts almost every night...and not all of my shows have started yet. Also - I'm totally into the new Knight Rider? How the fuck did that happen?

Hi tailoredshirt's flist,this is shes_gone. I'm hijacking Kendall's LJ temporarily to let you all know that I talked to her this morning, and she and her mom are fine. They don't have power or water, or any idea when they'll have either again, but they're OK. Their house is mostly fine, and they're keeping themselves entertained Little House on the Prairie style.

♥

Hopefully Houston will be back online soon...

So everyone knows that the best way to get someone to do something is to tell them they can't, or that they'll get in trouble if they do, or that it's morally reprehensible and it will make them a Bad Person. Which is why I never understood banning books, especially the sexy ones.

Banned Books Week is Sept. 26 through Oct. 3. I was thinking it'd be a nice excuse to read some books I'd always meant to read but haven't. Today I was glancing through a copy of Obscene in the Extreme, which is about the banning of Grapes of Wrath, which I started in high school and never quite finished. It made me want to try again. So I think I'm going to set some reading goals for myself this month, starting with that one. I feel like I haven't read any actual books, like with pages and covers and stuff, in forever (too much fan fic!). This way I can do some actual reading and feel all smugly intellectual and self satisfied for rebelling against the system, or something.

ETA: OMG, who wants to read Maurice with me?! We could do an LJ book club!

Today was a busy day at work and now I'm wiped out. I am currently sitting on my bed trying to decide if I want to write an essay for my criminology class or watch the first disc of Gossip Girl, which came in the mail today. Or maybe I will just go to bed early tonight...I have to get up at 7AM to take my cat to the vet. :/ Yes, sleep sounds lovely...

Has anyone read anything by Lynne Truss? She's most famous for Eats Shoots and Leaves, but she's written loads of books about grammar and correct use of punctuation. Some of her books are written for children and illustrate how one misplaced punctuation mark can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Yesterday I took a look at her newest book, Twenty-odd Ducks, and I remember now why I dislike her so much. With every book of hers I read, there are always one or two things that have me making the WTF face.

The two examples that I can remember from my reading:

"The ancient history teacher went to Egypt to study the pyramids." vs. "The ancient-history teacher went to Egypt to study the pyramids."

Truss says that without the hyphen, ancient could be modifying teacher instead of history...but who has ever heard of using a hyphen in a case like this? Seriously, I'd like to know. When has a university ever labeled a class "American-history" or "Postmodern-philosophy" or "Greek-literature" or anything like that?

Second example: "What are you doing with that shoe?" (question) vs. "What are you doing with that shoe!" (exclamation)

This is just stupid, because she is correcting something that is not a mistake to begin with. In both cases, the speaker is asking a question. The fact that one is rhetorical is beside the point. Tone of voice can be expressed in the exposition (she exclaimed, she asked, etc.). Using an exclamation mark is valid, but it's informal and not standard.

Also, Truss's solution to the problem of dangling modifiers is apparently to just tack on parentheses around the entire prepositional phrase, which is...lazy and not correct. Parentheses are for conversational asides and information not necessary to the sentence. They are not for separating pieces of the sentence that are getting in the way!

My boss pointed out that Lynne Truss is British, so that had me wondering whether I was just being dense and not knowing the differences between standard British English and standard American English. Do any Brits know the answer to this?

I don't know why I'm ranting about this (or why it irritates me so much in the first place), and I'm pretty sure half of you think I'm insane now. So if you got this far and without skipping to the next entry on your flist, then leave me a picture of something adorable in the comments, okay? Or, you know, respond to the grammar stuff. Whichever.

Also, it is 5AM. Why am I sitting here typing up a grammar rant at 5AM? *facepalm*

I am supposed to be at work right now, but unfortunately the street in front of my house flooded out this morning and my car is sitting in a couple feet of water right now, so I have to wait until some of it drains away so that I can leave. At least I know the car will be fine. A couple of years ago I drove it through water so deep it was sending waves onto the hood (our area floods a lot) and it made it out okay. There's a reason I call it the Yacht!

Last night I went to bed at 9:00 and then woke up at 4AM and could not go back to sleep. Apparently my brain thought that I was taking a nap, probably because I've been going to bed at about 5AM lately. Anyway, I laid in bed until about 7:30 and then got up and went to Starbucks and read the paper like an elderly person. I've been looking at the ads because I'd really like to get a cheap but functional laptop. A friend of mine recently bought a new laptop for about $450, and I'd love to find something that cheap. I figure I can always buy extra memory or a high capacity flash drive to make up for anything it doesn't have.

Anyway, for those keeping up with my personal life, I guess things are going all right. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic than I was in my last post, and I'm not dreading school quite as much as I was before. It helps that I just got a nice-sized scholarship check in the mail. It's enough that I can pay off my credit card debt, buy my cheap laptop, and possibly go to NYC to see Equus in January! :D Now I just need to come up with a good cover story that does not involve Daniel Radcliffe's naked body, and I'm good to go.

I'm up to the end of season 3 of House. I think I get the last disc in the mail this afternoon. I cannot express how much I love this show. Also, I totally ship Chase/Cameron. I do not know what is wrong with me. It's canon (!), het (!!), and very fangirly in nature. But it's okay, I ship House/Wilson too! That makes up for something, doesn't it?

( More thoughts on House through most of season 3 )

Okay, the street is almost deflooded (but bah, why did I have to park where it's deepest?) so I'm going. I hope everyone's doing well, and I'll try to be better about commenting. I've been kind of busy and distracted this week, but hopefully once school starts up and I get into a better rhythm with my schedule, I'll be able to focus a bit better.