Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

( The point where medicine intersects with the Singularity )

( Things on fire )

Festivids!
Aaah, so many good vids.

Our House (Rated General) by cosmic_llin
Fandom: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Song: Our House by Madness
For a show I haven't watched but I sure am going to check out, which seems to be about a team of ghosts working cooperatively to oust new homeowners who want to turn the house into a hotel. Very funny, very snappy, lots of fun.

what's to come (Rated Teen, Jesus Christ/Judas Iscariot) by ryfkah
Fandom: Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)
Song: Superstar, by Tegan and Sara
(More bts commentary over here at skygiant's dreamwidth)
Is it weird that often the perfect song is just something really unexpected? I wouldn't have picked this one in a million years and it is so good. So bitter and obsessed and inevitable. I've watched it a lot.

Apple Blossom (Rated General, Henry "Indiana" Jones/Marion Ravenwood) by lily_the_kid
Fandom: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Song: Apple Blossom by The White Stripes
An excellent, punchy Marion vid, with great comedic timing.

Let Me Go (Rated General) by kaydeefalls
Fandom: Moana
Song: Copenhagen by Vienna Teng
This gave me goosebumps - such a good song, such a good interpretation of Moana's journey.

Chldren's Work (Rated Teen, Michael Burnham and Spock) by such_heights
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Song: Children's Work by Dessa
I cannot think of a better song to show their relationship than this one, and it's done so well.

Be Brave (Rated Teen, Amanda Grayson/Sarek, Michael Burnham & Spock) by pixie
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Song: Meet Me on the Battlefield
This mixes canon from TOS, TNG, the third movie, and the reboot movie to give an amazing picture of this family unit. Wow.

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Rated Teen, Michael Burnham & Mirror Philippa Georgiou) by starlady
Fandom: Star Trek: Discover
Song: Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish
Ngggghh ahahah. So funny, so hot, and so clever with the little asides in the song. Mirror Philippa is a damn treasure, and this vid knows it.

Grounds for Divorce (Rated General) by purplefringe
Fandom: Hamlet (2009)
Song: Grounds For Divorce by Elbow
This is for the David Tennant version, and it's so good. So sharp and stuttery. Ooof. I watched this one over and over. If you see one vid from the exchange, make it this one.


Past Imperfect, Future Unknown
I got two amazing gifts for this fest!

second turning, (Captive Prince, Rated Teen, Damen/Laurent)
Damen travels back in time to before when he and Laurent meet in the books, he knows what's to come, and he's trying to head it off. It is fascinating to read a Damen who loves Laurent, and a Laurent who would happily murder Damen. I love it - it's complicated and it's got all the feels, and it's beautifully written. Short, punch and full of feels. It's so good.

Broken Clock (Imperial Radch, Rated , Sphene/Captain Minask, Sphene and Queter)
A wonderful, world-buildy example of "Character Invents Time Travel to Save Loved One". Such a good Sphene voice, such an excellent dynamic with its new captain of sorts, Queter. This is very timey-wimey and clever with the twists and turns of a time-travel plot. And it gushes loyalty kink. I loved it.

One rec that wasn't a gift for me (but it was, in a way, because I loved the crap out of it):
Will the cycle be unbroken (BSG 2003, Rated G, Hera Agathon)
Adult Hera wakes up on a Cylon ship, before the Twelve Colonies are attacked. The fic has hints of Hera's life on New Earth, what it was like growing up in a culture of subsistence farmers made up of humans and Cylons. It builds on Cylon society. It's timey-wimey as fuck, and it's clever about the reasons for the Cylon attack in the first place. It's 14k of excellent story telling from a tough but relatively normal character. I really enjoyed it.

Chocolate Box opens soon, yay!! There's so many Person of Interest fics! I'm proud of my fandom.


I've not been around much, and I've been skipping my weekly posts at podcastjoy for which I'm sorry - medical stuff is exhausting. I always forget how exhausting. Today wasn't even that bad, but we're both just flaked out on the sofa, exhausted. Hopefully we get a diagnosis soon and lilacsigil can start feeling better.

I had my little sister to stay for a couple of days over New Year, and it was lovely. She is so nice and easy-going and happy, and sometimes I wonder how she came from my family but I don't care because she's awesome. I love her so much. But now she is gone, and all that remains are some haunted cats, a unicorn doona cover, and 'dogs bum looks like jesus' in my google search box. Such good times!



Yuletide reveals! This is me:
Four Times Rolan Spoke For Valdemar, and Once He was Speechless For Himself (1884 words) by st_aurafina
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Talia (Valdemar), Rolan (Valdemar), Talamir (Valdemar), Dirk (Valdemar)
Additional Tags: Soul Bond
Summary:

Rolan is not like other Companions. He Chooses again.

Sparkly pony Christmas! I couldn't say anything in the lead-up to Yuletide, but I had the best time reviewing canon! I read Arrows, Winds, Storms, Vanyel, and then went and read some of the anthologies, and Alberich's books. I hadn't read Alberich's story, and there was a lot in there I needed to know about Talamir and Rolan and Monarch's Own business. And then, because I was on a roll, I re-read the Diana Tregarde novels, which aren't holding up as well in the fail:nostalgia ratio as Valdemar is. I remember loving them so much when I was younger. *sigh*



I'm still on prednisolone for the asthma flare-up I'm in the middle of, and it's such a monster drug. I'm all hyped up and twitchy, and HUNGRY, and my calves are spasming and crampy, and I want to jump down every tourist's throat. (Actually that last one probably doesn't have much to do with the prednisolone. Tourists, man. I hate'em. BE FUCKING POLITE ON YOUR HOLIDAYS, YOU RUDE FUCKING FUCKS. YOU'RE FUCKING GUESTS IN MY FUCKING TOWN OMFG.) The prednisolone has also drastically cleared up my sinuses, to the point where I am rediscovering just how bad we all smell. Ugh. Everyone has this cloud of smell around them, even me, and it's like my personal space has been reduced exponentially. We smell! All of us! It's weird and I don't usually have to spend energy processing that information. Ugh.



In conclusion, we have caterpillars in our tomatoes. This is not a metaphor. They are cabbage loopers and tonight we go at them with chemical weapons, aka detergent.

Everything was fine with lilacsigil's scan: more details here, but basically it seems that it was nothing to be worried about. Just incredibly weird. I take that back, it's not weird. There's a good explanation: it's possible related to the radioactive iodine, which can possible trigger this kind of reaction, but we're still waiting for the specialist to get back to us on that one.

I am flat-out exhausted, to the point where I can't actually speak words coherently. (And spelling is rapidly falling under the bus.) But lilacsigil is okay. Thanks to everyone for the back-up.

And dear zopyrus who wrote my rarewomen fic, I'm sorry, I'm a really slow reader when I'm tired! So far, I am adoring what you've written! And when I can hold my eyes open for a bit longer, I will be looking forward to finishing it.

(The fic is The Sapphire of Rassilon, and so far, it is an awesome Doctor Who/opera romp and I am enjoying it mightily.)

My personal trainer noticed I walk on the sides of my feet, so she spoke to my physio, and my physio looked at my ankles and sent me to a podiatrist, and the podiatrist said "!"

I am so pronated, man. In bare feet, my ankle bones nearly touch the ground when I walk. I have been fitted for orthotics - fun with water activated chemical socks! - which will hopefully roll my feet back and give me some arch support. And from there, hopefully, there will be less hip and back pain when I walk, I will be more comfortable walking, and my knees will be a little bit healthier. Every little bit counts.

[redacted: big whiny paragraph on how this should have been detected when I was a tiny kid who walked like a duck]

Finished the Hunger Games trilogy! It was so good! And yeah, I see how the third book was problematic, but maybe some of that was offset by inhaling all three books in a week, because I am so in love with this world. This was some good world building, and some seriously smart plotting. I'm not going to be able to see the movie while it's in cinemas - I've heard it's very hand-held, and that's no good for lilacsigil, even if I could convince her to go to see something dystopian. But I really want to see it! I heard that Cinna is awesome - he was pretty damn awesome in the books.

And I've jumped from there to the Montmaray books. You know that feeling when you click with the voice of a book within a few pages? I have totally got that going on now. Sophie is lovely so far.

Hey, I might do a meme. What meme should I do? The mini fanmix one where you give me a character and I give you some songs? The timestamp one where you pick one of my fics and give me a time and I tell you what happened after or before or whatever? Another one I can't think of right now?

I can't believe my family had a discussion over the dinner table about the pronunciation of 'meme' on Easter Sunday. I very much felt as though the streams were crossing. I blame Facebook. (My little sister says "meh-meh"!)

I went for a big check-up while I was on holidays, and had some blood tests. All the important stuff, like fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, TSH and so on? All fine. My vitamin D levels, however, are in the toilet. I have no vitamin D. Soon I will be walking with bow-legs and chewing on the plaster like a Dickensian orphan. I have to take a massive once-weekly dose of cholecalciferol, with a tablespoon of peanut butter to help with absorption.

I live in Australia, and I'm vitamin D deficient. Please explain that to me. Maybe I'm a vampire? *examines skin for signs of scintillation*

We're watching the women's Paralympic basketball; it's amazingly fast. The chairs have a small wheel at the back, and the women just lean back and pivot like, *wracks brain for pivoting things*, like gimbles. The collisions are epic, but it's awesome to watch both teams helping each other back upright again. That's why I love the Paralympics - there's such a feeling of goodwill about it. Goodwill, and ferocious collisions.

( Spoilers for this week's Bones )