Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

Things are a bit garbage at the moment: there are triggery upcoming medical things, and my anxiety is off the rails as we wait for appointments and further investigations. I'm trying to find myself a sympathetic LGBTQI-aware GP (I know, right? My own unicorn hunt) and I think I've found a possibility but my appointment isn't for a couple of weeks. I really need to be back on meds, but I want a better option than seeing the doctors I work with. (They're perfectly cromulent doctors, though clueless on the queer front, plus it's hard to discuss stuff like self-harm with someone you work with.)

Have a meme, via mergatrude:
Do you live your life with too many tabs open? All this stuff you want to read, all this stuff at your fingertips, all the heartbreak when your browser crashes. List your open tabs, or a handful of them, just to share, or to motivate you.

In my tabs on my work laptop:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox
https://st-aurafina.dreamwidth.org/read
https://www.dreamwidth.org/entry/new
https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/379344.html
https://ask.metafilter.com/324977/Please-rec-me-your-fabulous-fanfiction
https://play2048.co/
https://www.facebook.com/
https://tagcrowd.com/
https://archiveofourown.org/collections/multifandomdrabble2019_2/tags/Dracula%20-%20Bram%20Stoker/works
https://campnanowrimo.org/cabins/current
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=crochet&weight=bulky&availability=free&pc=cowl&sort=projects&view=captioned_thumbs&page=2
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/coraline-in-morocco-cowl
https://simplycollectiblecrochet.com/2014/11/coraline-morocco-one-skein-cowl-crochet-pattern/

I got the metafilter link from mergatrude's meme post, though I've had it open before. It's a good collection of recs.

2048 is my writing game. It's perfect for writing - not too diverting. It lets me zone out enough that my plot brain can spin a few wheels and churn out some ideas but then I get frustrated/bored quickly enough that I'm back to writing again in no time.

I'm still reading through multifandom drabble - there are so many good things there!!

And crochet. It helps keep me sane. I've just finished the cowl that's in my tabs - it needs blocking, but it came out nice! Very stretchy and light, but will protect my neck from dread breezes.
( Cowl under here )

Meanwhile, I'm concentrating on keeping up with Camp NaNo and my weekly podcastjoy post. And not chickening out on posting chapters of my very long fic.

The secret wedding I'm not supposed to know about is this weekend. From a vast distance (the wedding is in Sydney) I can feel my family unit quivering with anticip-ation. My Canadian aunt has been quietly smuggled into the country. What will happen next? How will my mother find a balance between keeping the wedding a secret from her two prodigal daughters and yet maintain bragging rights on Facebook? Stay tuned and I will tell all, except I won't because it's all a secret because that's COMPLETELY FUCKING NORMAL OKAY?

My dad is obviously also in a confused state because he's randomly dropping into places where the secret cadre of relatives aren't, and reorganising things. ( text screencaps of confusion under here )

I just don't understand.

Books!

( Master and Commander, Altered Carbon, Blue Remembered Earth, A Rare Book of Cunning Device, Les Liaisons Dangereuses )

Yay books!!

Linkspams

Exchanges/Challenges
There's a lot of these right now, yay.
- Write Every Day is at auroracloud's place for the first half of the month

- wipbigbang has sign-ups open for artists and authors: 2018 Sign-ups
This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them! All fandoms welcome!

- There's going to be a Person of Interest exchange!!
poi_fanworks

- turingfest, an exchange for robotic characters
("Robotic" characters, for the purposes of this exchange, are characters in the realm of AIs, robots, androids, mecha, machines, cyborgs, and any other technology-focused characters.)

Ben Daniels round-up
Because he has amazing hair and a flippy coat from Jesus Christ Superstar. And because we are rewatching S2 of the Exorcist at the moment.
From his instagram:
bendanielsss: Somehow my Pilate coat flip didn’t make the live tv cut. Here it is in all its flicky plum leather glory
bendanielsss: It’s a Pilate/Caiaphas/Faceoff/Hairoff
bendanielsss: Because I’m pretty sure I’ll never get to rock one again here’s my mohawk for posterity before it’s all gone sour.

Producer Sean Crouch's mohawk fanfic on twitter: INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT. A Mowhawked Marcus performs an exorcism.
More JCSS costume porn: the purple leather bulge
This splendid scene from S1 ep1 of the Exorcist: It's just Marcus in a chair looking sassy
This video from 2013 when Ben was playing a character on The Paradise, mostly because he looks so dapper and prim with his cravat: Ben Daniels introduces the alpha male Tom Weston - The Paradise - Series 2 - BBC One

Rando sh*t
- Neural network-named tomatoes you won’t find at the farmer’s market
Any of these imaginary tomatoes has to be better than the Aunt Ruby's Green I have fostered love upon since LAST FUCKING AUGUST and yet has produced not a single fruit. Aunt Ruby is the second worst aunt. (Flo is, of course, forever the worst aunt.)
- Once again, on the internet we are all xkcd: xkcd 1976: Friendly Questions
- via miss_s_b, this lovely analogy for finally getting an ASD diagnosis: Candidly Autistic: Sparrows and Penguins
- This excellent Very Hungry Caterpillar rendered in crochet. You push the foods into its mouth! Very Hungry Caterpillar


In other news, I am doing Camp Nano, and since this post rounds out at 2100 words, I am going to count it.

I've answered all my comments and I've read my flist and I've done some housework and cooking, so I'm feeling a bit more grounded than I have recently. So now I feel okay to make a post.

Real Life Things
( This got long: sunburn, beautician, eye exam, sick cat but he gets better, cooking )

Fannish Things

For Yuletide, I wrote Murderbot Diaries, for muccamukk, which was enormous fun both because Mucca is great, and because Murderbot is awesome. (If you haven't read it, but you like stories about cranky AI-types, I highly recommend it: The Murderbot Diaries)
I'll post the fic here soonish but this is it:
Handshake Protocol (8651 words) by st_aurafina
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams, The Middleman (TV), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ida (The Middleman), Marvin (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Data (Star Trek), Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq
Additional Tags: Crossover, Travel, Time Travel, 5 Things, Grumpy AIs, Elevator Music, This is not a hero's journey okay
Summary:

Murderbot doesn't want to be a hero or take part in someone's incredible journey. Why does it keep bumping into people who think it will?

- sholio is running a Dark Matter exchange, while the love is still strong after cancellation. There's a comm, we_are_the_raza, and a planning post, here. This isn't a fandom of mine, but sholio's exchanges are good (ssrconfidential, for Agent Carter, was heaps of fun) so I'm signal boosting for any Dark Matter fans on my flist. (And I really need to watch this; I've seen the first few eps, but it kind of fell off my radar.)

- lilacsigil watched her first episode of Brooklyn 99 today! She has chronic vertigo, and the single camera style of the show is impossible for her to watch. She bravely told me to watch and enjoy it without her. ("Go on without me!" she said. "I'll only hold you back!") I desperately wanted her to know the wonder that is Captain Raymond Holt, so today we tried watching it on the small screen of my tablet, and she managed it relatively easily. This bodes well for the first season of the Exorcist, which is wobbly but not quite as bad as Brooklyn 99. The second season is a little steadier, so far (we're at 2.03 now) but I don't trust it not to get wobbly as soon as Tomas and Marcus get to the place where this season's case will be. (Their scenes are definitely the wobbliest.)

- Speaking of vertigo, I have been playing Slime Rancher, and whooah, I can't handle first person shooter-style gaming. I have to play it in ten minute bursts or I get travel sick. And it's killing me, because the game is so cute! The slimes are ridiculous! Ugh, brains and perception. So messed up.


Linkspams
Media
Is Wendy From 'Mindhunter' A Real Person? Criminal Profiling Isn't Just For Men
This is an older link, and I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it's really interesting.

History
21-Year Old WWII Soldier’s Sketchbooks Reveal a Visual Diary of His Experiences
Just really beautiful and sparse, and sad. (CN: there's a sketch of a dead body in here, with some blood. It's not realistic, but it is intense, or I found it so.)

Health:
Black Triangle Scheme
Apparently these black triangles are going to be showing up on Australian medications, as part of a scheme to increase recording of adverse reactions. It's a bit ominous, though, right? I mean, that's going to increase anxiety straight up.

Updating medicine ingredient names - list of affected ingredients
Also from the TGA, and annoying as all hell, we're going to be standardising medication names to US terminology. Which is all fine and intuitive if we're talking about frusemide becoming furosemide or cyclosporin to ciclosporin, but amethocaine to tetracaine? That's going to be confusing. And bee venom to honey bee venom is just wrong. We don't call them honey bees over here. People are going to get wires crossed. At least adrenaline is staying, and (presumably) paracetamol.

Craft (Okay, it's mostly crochet)
Crochet Microwave Finger Gloves
lilacsigil, looking over my shoulder: Is that a kink thing?
Me: I'm... not sure.

Avocado collar
This is a paid crochet pattern, but it's AMAZING.

Fibre Burn Chart
For all my pyromaniac friends, not just lilacsigil: it helps you identify an unknown fibre by setting it on fire and observing its behaviour. Odour of celery? Nylon. Open lace-like ash? Weighted silk. (The author of the chart says I keep one in the sewing room and one in my purse with collapsable scissors and a lighter in an old candy tin -- portable burn test kit!)

nb: A portable burn test kit does not make a for good legal defense.

And hello to new people from the Post-Reveals Yuletide Friending Meme!

Would there be anyone willing to do an Ameripick on 5K of Warehouse 13 fic? It's femslash, Helena/Myka, I'll probably rate it PG, but there's not much more than hand holding and kissing in it. (Also some slightly depressing thoughts about the Boer War, hence the PG.)


Remember 30_kisses? Now there's 15kisses and its sister comm, 15kinks. I took a kisses table for Root/Shaw. Eeee, maybe I can even get something written for it. *crosses fingers*
ETA: Also 15woes for all your angsty fic needs, and whole_new_world for AU claims. (Via chronikle)

Also ssrconfidential (Agent Carter ficathon comm) is having a bit of a prompts fest: Plot bunny hutch (aka prompt sharing station!). Go, get your Peggy shoes on and kick some butt!

I am so sorry I didn't have a chance to post while the AHCA was being voted on - but I was collecting light and joyous linkspam to buoy my flist up - I'll post it now. Because we're all going to need buoying, pretty much until this time has passed.

The word buoy has ceased to have any meaning, also.

Begin Linkspam!
- Feel better about the nightmare world for 30 seconds with this tiny kid doing the haka. A most ferocious haka!

- Melissa McCarthy As Sean Spicer Performs "I Feel Pretty" In An SNL Teaser
The video won't play for me (in Australia) but the gifs are amazing. (Also, how omg pretty is Melissa McCarthy? She's gorgeous.)

- Kickstarter for a Frida Kahlo action figure

- My new favourite word cloud generator: Tagcrowd (Since Wordle has ceased to function and I am too scared to force Java to work so it does.) Just in case anyone else uses them for editing, like I do. (Helps me get rid of lazy words. Like/look/something/such/seem/almost. And so on.)

- Everyone and their dog has linked this, but please enjoy Tom Holland's lipsync battle. He kicks ass dressed as Rihanna and dancing his backside off. I feel quite different about Spider-Man now.
( You can stand under his umbrella-ella-ella )

Whale, they’ve arrived. Whale watching season has arrived here. There are whales less than half an hour away from where I am right now - this delights me every year.

- Nicole Kidman and Gwendoline Christie Join Elisabeth Moss for “Top of the Lake: China Girl”. Top of the Lake's first season was incredibly wracking. S2 is probably going to be the same, but I'm going to watch it, because Gwendoline Christie. She looks so incredibly bogan and adorable in her copper's uniform! And omg, Nicole Kidman's hair and her freckles! I am totally here for all the wrong reasons, I know. Just call me Miss-The-Point-Dan.
( Trailer under the cut! )

- How to Read a Yarn Label. Things I ought to do before I start the project, but somehow never do.

- The Difference in Bernat Pop! Yarn Cakes, Caron Cakes, Mandala and Sweet Rolls. Yarn cakes are all the rage right now. I've only used the Premier Sweet Roll and honestly, the colour change is so abrupt that I might as well have just used regular yarn and had the colour changes where I wanted.

- Useless but adorable kitchen gadget, anyone? ( It makes radishes into 1-Up mushrooms )

- Free crochet pattern: Confetti Scarf. This is super cute, and I think I want to make one. I have some grey yarn and lots of coloured scraps. (I've been rolling my scraps into tiny balls and keeping them in a mason jar, it makes me feel very Insta.)

- Pink Moon Milk {a dreamy sleep tonic}. Because I'm a sucker for a hipster recipe with almond milk. Though I do not have any ashwagandha powder, and have no idea where I would find some. It just looks so pretty!

End linkspam!

I keep meaning to do a round-up of media consumed lately, but I keep getting involved in these linkspams. I do have thoughts that are not shallow and centred around craft and pink milk! Also, I need to do the music meme, but the next topic is "A song that reminds you of someone you'd rather forget about." And presumably I have forgotten all the people I need to forget, because I can't think of anyone. Um.

I'm not doing very well. The prednisolone did not go down quietly, I had rebound inflammation and I've been back on pred once already for a massive skin flare up (let me tell you about the 1 in 10,000 chance of getting photosensitivity while taking frusemide.) The cellulitis came back and I had another round of antibiotics (let me tell you about the rare side-effect where you can taste clindamycin IN YOUR SALIVA.) I've had lots of meds changes. I feel wrung out and tired all the freaking time. I am pretty down about this. I want to feel well, and not like my skin is crawling off my body. It's busy at work, too, and that is more exhausting than it ought to be.

I've signed up for wipbigbang and Camp NaNo, so hopefully I can get some fic posted. I wasn't game to sign up for an actual exchange, so I sadly had to miss out on ssrconfidential. I'm starting to be more chatty on Dreamwidth, which is nice, and I did manage to do a big push on answering AO3 comments, which feels like an achievement. My only other achievement was to crochet a sock monkey hat with a big red pompom. I'm quite pleased with it, even if my sister says the button eyes are demonic. That's part of the charm, I think.

( Button eyes will eat your soul, my sister says )


I've been hoarding linkspam, too, which I shall try to group in themes:

The Expanse
- From Indiewire, The Expanse: How The Syfy Series Found the Unfindable Actress (Which Means Other Shows Can, Too)
About casting a S2 character, who is apparently female, Polynesian and tall/muscular. This is what made me want to start watching The Expanse, and I'm so glad I did. (I've just finished S1, so no spoilers, please. Apart from what's in this article, I guess.)

Podcasts (mostly The Strange Case of Starship Iris)
- From buzzfeed, 27 Podcasts You Should Listen To In 2017
Which reminds me, I've been listening to The Strange Case of Starship Iris and it's really lots of fun. The first episode drags a bit, but once there's more than a cast of two (from episode two), the dialogue bounces along, and the world building opens up. The story is building f/f UST between Violet and Arkady, it has a trans character and a gender fluid character, and I really like the crew of the Rumor. Would recommend.

You can listen here: The Strange Case of Starship Iris

For non-listeners, there's a transcript of Episode One, which isn't the best episode but it sets up the dynamic between the two characters well:
The Strange Case of the Starship Iris, Episode One: Violet Liu, written by Jessica Best

There's an official tumblr, where (I presume) the author discusses world building, nuances of the alien language, and other cool stuff: iriscasefiles


Iron Fist
- via netgirl_y2k, who also has an excellent post about Iron Fist, Here's The Important Stuff That Happens In Iron Fist So You Don't Have To Watch It
There were so many weird things about Iron Fist, (apart from the obvious weird thing of why they cast Finn Jones as Danny.)

( brief spoilers )


Dance-themed links
- From Pointe Magazine, #TBT: Watch Baryshnikov Do 11 Pirouettes in White Nights
Because Mikhail Baryshnikov is so pretty.

And through that video, I found a slo-mo analysis of the move, which was really interesting. It's mind blowing to count those turns in slow motion.
( embedded under the cut )

Speaking of ballet, the Dance Academy movie comes out next week!
( Trailer under the cut! )

More Dance Academy links:
- I wish I’d grown up with ‘Dance Academy’, ABC’s beloved teen drama

- The career of Joanna Werner, and how Dance Academy remains en pointe


Other random links
- From HuffPo, Dolphins Might Be Chewing On Blowfish To Get High
Dolphins are bastards and kind of sketch.

- From Buzzfeed, 23 Accidental Google Image Searches That’ll Make You Pee A Little
Very silly. Somehow very satisfying.

- via Nalini Singh's facebook, The Moistest Chocolate Mug Cake
The word moist has ceased to have any meaning that is not disgusting, but I do like a mug cake.

- via the medical tag on Ravelry, Dressed for Success
Crocheted stethoscope sweater. CN: anthropomophising of a stethoscope. Also not addressed is how this could contribute to spreading infection? IDK. The idea is cute though.

- via dine, Artist Paints Realistically Detailed Animals on Smooth Stones
So beautiful!

- From The Age, Police hunt for unicorn after attempted servo smash and grab
CN: armed robbery, only extra.

12 Yarn Ball Types and How to Knit with Them
Hankenstein. Heh.


I still need to post fic here that I've had up at AO3. And get planning on what I'm going to write for Camp NaNo which inexplicably starts tomorrow omg. Tomorrow is April Fools, too. *reminds self to watch out* I always fall for stupid shit, me.

State of the notes left on my bench at work
( No spiders were harmed in the making of this lj-cut )


State of the Dwircle
Hello people from the friending meme! Hello people not from the friending meme! HELLO EVERYONE.

I have an intro post about me and where I live: right here.

I realised my sticky post doesn't have a lot of personal information, so I updated it with this:
Things to know about me: I'm queer, I'm fat and body-positive, I'm Australian, I'm left-leaning in a big way. I was born in 1971 so I'm basically old as balls. I'm cis-female, white, the daughter of an Italian immigrant.Fannishly, I'm multifannish, I multiship. I love gen, slash, femslash and het. You can track my preferences through my Dear Author tag, here.

So. That was a thing I needed to do, and now it's done.

ETA: I meant to also say that though I pretty much give access to everyone, it's done with no expectation of reciprocity.


State of the garden
Lots of spinach, which is great, because I crave that mineral. I think it's low-key bolting? But I keep chopping bits off and eating it voraciously, so it's working out. Some of the pea vines died, but we're still getting plenty of snow peas. lilacsigil cut the coriander back murderously hard, but it's springing back fast.

Tomatoes are running so, so late; we've only just got flowers in the last week. The button squash are titchy but flowering, and we've got baby zucchini that's looking promising. It was a really cool run up through November, and things are sloooow. But I fed everything again yesterday, and we've got hot days coming so I'm hopeful. The basil is doing great! And we put in a tarragon plant, because there was a space on the fenceline and tarragon will be handy. None of the capsicum seedlings made it, so that's a thing we can put where the celery was. And soon we'll have a space when the beets are finished, because I don't think we'll replant them - I did it originally for the greens, so we'd have a pick-and-eat green between autumn's bok choy and summer's lettuce, but they got tough fast. Though, apparently you can steam/saute the leaves? That would possibly be nice and tasty, but now I have spinach and spinach is the superior green for me. (I've had so many weird cravings since I was sick in November - spinach and salmon and squid, oh my. Alliterative cravings, that's me.)

I wish we were warm enough for a curry tree. No, actually, I will forgo curry leaves for cooler weather.


State of Writing
- fandom_stocking got extended, yay! I think the Christmas weekend really messed up people's schedules because I wasn't the only gobsmacked by the date creeping up on me. We've got till the eleventh, now, apparently. This is good, because I am disorganised but I want to stuff stockings.

Next up for me is going to be editing and posting some of the NaNo fics I wrote. (And wtf-ing at them, too, because I was writing with a fever and I know it's going to be weird in there.)


State of the Big Scary World
For the new people, since the US election, I try to pass on various activism links, even though I'm not from the US because I feel like that's a positive thing I can do. A lot of them come from thisfinecrew, which is an excellent resource, if you haven't heard of it.

- From thisfinecrew: Action and community Challenge: Call your reps about the ACA, which is encouraging and has a step by step action plan. I can't call, but I can appreciate an excellent action plan and share it around.
- from snickfic who said "Re:act is a weekly email newsletter full of info and suggestions for actions to take in response:" re:act.


State of yarning
While I have prednisolone-brain, I'm crocheting and crocheting and crocheting. It's very soothing. I have gathered up a collection of cozy murder TV on Netflix, and I put on a show and I crochet into the night.

My cozy murder schedule:
Shetland (aka Scottish murder) (Actually, this is my favourite of the cozy murder TV lineup and I've started being sparing with it because there's not much of it. Yet.)
Hinterland (aka Welsh murder)
Granchester (aka English country garden murder)
The Tunnel (aka on the dotted line French/English murder) (Clémence Poésy is in it playing a delightfully prickly, possibly non-neurotypical French detective and I love her.)

I've tried and not clicked with:
River (aka I see dead people murder, nothing wrong with that, but it didn't work for me)
Wallander (aka you're too smart to be this stupid about your diabetes murder)
Marcella (aka can we stop mental illness as a plot device ffs murder)
Paranoia (aka I wish I would watch a female detective in her late thirties do her job and not be all about her biological clock murder) (I'm particularly mad about this one because Indira Varma, omg, she's so beautiful, I want to watch her solve crimes.)

I do most of my yarn networking on FB (and ravelry: dansnark), and the current fad is these hats with a hole at the top for your hair - messy bun hats or pony tail hats. Hat aren't my usual thing to make - I make blankets and stuff for peoples' babies - but I tried one, and they're a really fun, short project. So I've made a bunch in the last week. It's hilarious to me because (a) it's summer here, and (b) I have close cropped hair anyway so they're useless to me. I'm showing them to people here, though, and they seem to think they're a good idea. Maybe I'll set a trend? Anyway, here are some good patterns that worked for me:

- Mango Tree Crafts messy bun hat - top down, worked around an hair-elastic. It's a yarn-eater, but it works up fast.
- Simplicity Bun Hat - top down. It doesn't work around a hair elastic, but you could easily do that - I think they work better with that stretch, honestly. The ribbing on the brim looks really good, especially if you're working in one colour.
- Bonfire Babe messy bun hat - this one works from the brim up, and either my foundation HDC is too wonky or they work very loose, because it came out huuuuuuge. So I frogged it, but I'm going to try it again with a smaller hook because it's super pretty.

And I think that's about it for me. *waves hello again to all the new folks*

Today I very much feel like the world is a terrible place, and people are always going to be hurting other people, and I just want to lie down on the grass and pretend to be a tree.

But it's raining.

(lilacsigil: Trees don't lie on the grass.
Me: Dead trees do.)


Cheerful things:

1. GREAT BRITISH BAKE-OFF IS BACK

[Mary Berry's elation at the mention of gin.]

My life is made whole again. And wow, 9 million viewers for the first episode, yay.

2. Captain America NaNo rewrite is in the middle of a Howard POV bit, a WWII flashback. I really like this fic. I like writing it, and I like editing it, and I need to hurry up so I can get to my favourite bits. And I need to get it posted before it gets jossed by a third MCU movie. (This fic has JARVIS in it, and old Agents of SHIELD before shit went down, and apparently there's a scene with 80's Peggy Carter in Ant Man and she doesn't have the steel bob I imagined her with in this fic so i probably need to check this out.)

3. weelittlestitches put out an X-Files pattern.

[Mulder and Scully, cross-stitched figures. Text says 'The truth is out there']

4. Whale season! At our local beach, we've had Southern Right whales, porpoises, dolphins, and seals. And a pod of orca - I didn't know we even had orca down here. There's seals lazing outside the surf lifesaving club right now.

Further afield, back in July there was a Migaloo sighting: Rare white humpback whale spotted in Cook Strait

5. ( Spoilers for Agent Carter )

6. Hats for dogs! Hats with ear holes for dogs! By jessie-plaskett.

[The noble Golden Retriever, in a pink and white striped beannie with plaited ties.]

7. This terri-bad movie is finally coming out:

It was shot in Warrnambool, and it mostly seems to be fart jokes and it looks so amazingly cliched and bad. But Warrnambool is all WE'RE IN A MOVIE COME TOURISTS COME LEAVE YOUR LOVELY TOURIST DOLLARS HERE! I don't know. There are Maremma dogs guarding the penguins, that's true. I'm just all cringe-amazed by the trailer. It's so Strayan. Onya, mate.

I am working an extra day this week and I am sooky about it. But I get to order my lunch today instead of bringing it, which is a nice bribe. I had an amazing burger, so amazing and full of wonders. Like, bacon.

( I'd link to my instagram but that's in my meatsack name and only half of you know that /is good at secret identities like Daredevil )


Tentative yay: I started writing again. It's mostly due to the neighbour dude, who is a great neighbour except for those random days when he gets out the chainsaw. (Not in a massacre-y way, just in a endless drone-y way.) So I put on my headphones and opened a file and wrote, and somehow chainsaw neighbour dude helped me over that initial hump of fear. But not in a massacre-y way. I finished the rewrite on Chapter One of the Winter Soldier NaNo project, yay. Thanks, chainsaw neighbour dude.

A question: Where does Sam live? Are there any clues in the movie? Pic to illustrate, if that is helpful.

( Someone's knocking at the window )



The crochet world lost an artist this week.
( CN: mental illness, suicide )


Here, look at Nomi and Amanita. From Sense8. Precious babies. I love them so much.

[Tall blonde woman holding hands with a black woman who has brightly coloured braids in her hair, standing against a wall of graffiti.]

I just watched Ep 4. (The one with the Four Non-Blondes bit, for people who have already finished watching.) Ugh, I never knew how much I wanted an 8-way mindmeld. At the same time, eight characters is a lot to work with. (This is me thinking ahead to when I will inevitably want to write a Sense8 AU with another fandom. Eight characters? Wow. But so interesting.) I need to know more.


I was listening to Kate Bush's 'Cloudbusting' the other day, and realised that I've been listening to this song for nearly thirty years and never actually looked up what the heck it was about. (It's a good forward-moving song, so I put it on a lot of my writing playlists. And also my housework playlist.) Turns out it's about a lot of stuff. A LOT OF STUFF. Like, wow. Mad science and oppressive governments and orgasmic (I think?) energy and actual cloud seeding.

The video was directed by Terry Gilliam and it stars Donald Sutherland standing on a hill, and Kate Bush standing well below him in a pixie wig. I should google more lyrics from the eighties.

( I put the video here behind the cut: )


Things I have found on etsy:

( Come window shop with me! )

Ugh, I could shop forever, and my house would be full of tiny useless but pretty stuff. So much better to share here.

Remainder of linkspams:
- Mini fox terrier proves 'working dog' status to council officers
Ahaha, don't fuck with working dogs. And working dog people. I'm just saying. Unless you want to be given the eye and moved into a pen.


- 8 Grand Yet Forgotten Profane Expressions
For maximum Middleman effect, say these out loud, and add "Dubby!" at the end.


- A Glimpse of What Magazines Like Time, Forbes, GQ & More Would Say About Marvel’s New Black Panther
Ugh, can't we have this movie before Ant Man? Seriously.


OMG, it's nearly home time, again! You know, if I got my act together and posted more than twice a month, these things would be a little less epic.

Still haven't moved. Send help and reinforcements. The real estate agent has a tenant lined up for our old place; she keeps knocking on the door to ask when we'll be vacating so we can lease the house. IDEK. At least it won't be sitting empty. At least it's rentable without major renovations (and at least this tenant is willing to move in while the not so major renovations are done.)


I survived my major dental appointment by having a panic attack on the Sunday beforehand that was so intense and so horrifying that two hours of crown work was nothing to fear in comparison. The panic attack wasn't even to do with the the dental appointment - it was my mother's birthday on Sunday, and when I went to text her, I had to scroll and scroll to find our last communication, which was in January - hence panic attack and waves of self-loathing that far outweighed my fear of dentistry. I do not recommend this as a method of dealing with dental phobia. I feel like a piece of fruit leather at the bottom of a schoolbag. But the temporary crown is in and the next appointment is not so arduous. OR SO THEY TELL ME. /dire looks


Tinee media review:

- Doctor Who: tentatively enjoying it on the proviso that I read no negative reviews and allow myself to soak in a syrupy non-critical solution of self-care while watching it. A new Doctor is always a treat, in that assorted chocolates way. I don't really know what Twelve is like yet, but I'm pretty sure he's not a soft-centre. (OMG where is this analogy going? I release my grip on sanity! Let it go!)

- Reign: Watched the first two episodes and really, really enjoyed them. It's like, history on crack with fancy dresses and ooooh, boys, and lots of girls hugging.


Tinee linkspam:

- Seriously adorable crochet pattern: Crochet a baby Groot (warning for animated gif)

- Somewhat underbaked science that nonetheless rang true for me and my many hearing problems: Middle ear may hold answers for autism treatment (Warning for discussion of familial abuse)

- H/T to cofax7 for this one: The Most Amazing Lie in History (I feel like I want some kind of Peggy Carter encounter with this guy. Maybe Judy Dench's M can be in it, too. She must have been pretty deadly in WWII.

- Misty Copeland will be performing Swan Lake in Australia - this photo from her instagram is just beautiful. I love the strength and compassion on her face - I usually find Odette a bit mimsy, but this is amazing. (Eeeeeh, using facebook to embed from Instagram to my journal - this is a little too close to crossing the streams, if you ask me.)

( Instagram clearly too evil - am hotlinking like a crime lord )

- I wish this scene had been in the Winter Soldier: This Is What Hawkeye Was Going To Do In Captain America: The Winter Soldier

- Speaking of Winter Soldier, famira has made a trillion textless icons from the movie: all under their Captain America tag. Go snaffle them up!


Since my last post, I've mostly been reading comics: re-reading Captain America's Winter Soldier arc, also Young Avengers (omg Miss America! Amerikate foreva!), Ms Marvel (omg the latest team-up killed me with the adorability).


( Also made a bunch of icons suddenly and out of the blue: some Doctor Who, some Young Avengers which are, admittedly, 90% America Chavez )

And that's all there is. There isn't any more.

Ack, life is oddly frantic!

- Planted our tomato seeds today, along with some Lebanese cucumbers and some coriander. I planted another thyme plant out in the back garden, where most of our herbs seem to be accumulating. And lilacsigil bought a bay tree, which she transplanted into a pot to sit down with the veggie beds. Peas and lettuces are growing!

- Finished my baby afghan. I still need to wash it and reblock it, but it's done, and I really like the way the trim came out. I had a lot of yarn left over, so I made a little pixie bonnet, and I've started a pair of booties:

( Booty and bonnet sounds surprisingly rude, actually. )