Rules and Guidelines:

I watch 100 movies or more in 2009.

I keep track of how many I watch in this post.

I only record first-time movies.

I leave the entry public. If you want to recommend any movies to me, go for it.

( Films seen thus far ): 63

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First and foremost, thank you for volunteering to write for me! I'm so excited at the prospect of seeing new fic in any of these fandoms. In my requests, I tried to offer suggestions for possible directions you could take a story in case you draw a blank, but if you already have an idea you want to write, go for it! Suggestions are just suggestions. I know people talk a big game of liking anything -- really!, but the thing is: I will be absolutely chuffed that someone else (a) likes this fandom and (b) wrote fic for me. Any details beyond that are just gravy. I'd rather you have fun and wrote a story you liked writing than trying to bend over backwards to tailor to my specifics.

My giant request paragraphs were all rambling and long-winded, and maybe they already kicked you into information-overload, but just in case you're one of those people who wants to know all the grit and gristle, these are some general things I like in fic.


Things In General That Float My Boat: Slash. Banter. Awkwardness. Poetic metaphors. Sci fi plot cliches (time-travel, AUs, age regression, doppelgangers, etc.) When characters are cold or sick or tired or otherwise not at their best. Canon compliance. Pop culture references (particularly historical pop culture). Crack fic sold seriously. Unreliable narrators. Lazy Sunday afternoons in bed (or whatever an equivalent would be.) Characters going on holiday/vacations/someplace new and bonding during travel. Snow and winter weather (not that the story needs to be set specifically on the holidays). Kissing. Flirting. Wooing. Semi-colons. The em dash. All ratings. Ambiguous endings (in terms of, like, neither happy nor sad but a mixture of both, or Endings That Aren't Really Endings But Actually Beginnings).

Things In General That Act Like the Iceberg to My Titanic: Character death (exception made for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead). Non-con or rape. Graphic descriptions of child abuse. Omniscient narrators. Multipile POVs. Improper punctuation and misspelt words should go without saying.

( Further specifics on each fandom )

In conclusion, thank you so much for makin' me a pressie; I cannot wait to read it. Now I bid you a deep breath, good luck, and may the yuletide panic not grip you too hard!

love, etc.,
earlwyn

I return! I took a small hiatus in October but now I am back. I can't believe it's November already. The Christmas season starts for me in three days. Time flies.

Every autumn I have a fit of nostalgia to revisit the fandoms I ignore during the rest of the year, and so, continuing on with tradition, during October I re-immersed myself in Holmes. The canon, the Granada series, and, of course, the fic (oh, yuletide requests, here I come).

It always takes me by surprise to remember how much I love those characters. It really shouldn't. I'm not subtle about it. Not since I set foot in the Holmes museum last January and had an attack of full-bodied paroxysms in fannish glee at the sight of the seventeen steps. I mean, I own a Baker Street street sign. What's more, I carried a Baker Street street sign back from London through three airports and two planes and customs even though it is a heavy piece of inflexible metal. And wore a bowler while doing it, no less. (That might have been the only reason I wasn't stopped from bringing "potential weaponry" aboard an aircraft. Visible recognition to airport security as Dedicated Fan.) So I admit it now: I am a Holmes maniac. It should be widely acknowledged and accepted henceforth.

As such, I've spent the last month geeking out over Holmes, and Watson, and Holmes and Watson, and putting together my awesome, awesome Halloween costume. Where, shock and awe! I was Watson!



Conversation with my mum after I had first assembled the costume and put it on for preview:

ME: Man. I am, like, the gayest Watson ever. [cocks hip in mirror] Yep.
MY MUM: [absently, from the kitchen, with no thought for what she's saying] No; doesn't Jude Law play him in the upcoming movie?
ME: *quietly beams with pride*

My mum is kind of awesome.

I hope your Halloween was a good one, guys!

This is a happy thing to wake up to in the morning. I hope it will give him more clout, if nothing else, and a quicker end to the war. Though I am totally ashamed to admit that after I heard the announcement I had to check for what precisely Obama got the Nobel, considering that it wasn't economics.

yuletide looks to be starting up soon. Brainstorming has already started, and nominations open next week. I need to start thinking up fandoms I would want to write in. Maybe this year I can finally do something in Wodehouse?

So unlike me to post twice in one day, but I'm making up for the future months when I will be too tired from working to remember to hit post on the entries I write.

1. So I sort of accidentally watched House tonight? Really, my mum had it on when I got home, even though I have explained to her that We Do Not Watch That Show For Political Reasons. Except tonight, there was ( spoilers )

2. I also sort of accidentally watched Lie to Me following House (though less accidentally than House), and consequently spent the last hour fluttering, "Oh, Tim Roth, Tim Roth. ♥" And then being very surprised when Spike showed up with an American accent. They need to start labelling shows American or British. At this rate, with all the crossover, I'm just going to get confused what I'm watching and then wonder where my last 15 minutes of episode went when they get eaten up by American commercials.

3. During my interview this evening, many intriguing stories from my time with Santa were told. Like, when asked about taking initiative, I mentioned the time when one of the set trees fell on our customers, complete with the cry of, "Timber!" and harmonious gasps of shock, and then how the security guys and I had to examine the laws of physics to discover a way a 25 foot birch tree could fit through a set of winding, seven foot tall hallways. There's also the whole drama of the Santa's Association of America, or as I like to call it, the S-double-A. They gather in tropical resorts in the summers, and from the stories I've heard, there is some reckoning to be had then. You do not want to mess with the SAA, man. They're kind of like the mob. But with bushier beards. Either way, I think the world deserves more stories like these laid down in one place. Obviously there's hilarity and heart-warming (and possibly severed reindeer heads) to be had there.

So: somehow I have gone from being sick and sniffly in the States with no demands on my time to now taking two classes -- one of which is titled Effective Supervision, and at which I spend most of the time pondering what Rodney McKay's managerial style would be (Authorative Pacesetter seems to be the conclusion, for the curious) -- and a job interview later today. My regular job (Santa photos! yay!) starts again in a few weeks.

It seems that I... kind of have a life? Or a terrifying lack of one, given how much time I'll either be working or in class.

The job I'm interviewing for today does transfers to London. It's part of Operation Get Back to England. Wish me luck! I do fairly well in interviews, as the one thing I'm stellar at is talking about how awesome I am, but good thoughts never hurt.

I signed up for sga_santa and encourage all of you to do the same. I'm still debating whether or not I should sign up for Yuletide this year, as well, or not. Seasonal fic exchanges always make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Or that might be the Christmas music I pulled out to get myself in the mood. CHRISTMAS, YOU GUYS, I LOVE IT. I want it to snow soon.

A compiled list, for your viewing pleasure:

1. mcshep_match posted its masterlist yesterday, and I suppose I ought to 'fess up which fic was mine:
   
   Zugzwang
   30,000 words
   John/Rodney
   NC-17
   Here at the comm, and now also here on my journal.
   
   So, what now? Should I cross-post it to a comm? I am uninitiated to these things.
   
   I mean, clearly, I went insane. I'd dearly love to do a commentary of the process I went through writing that baby—because holy word count, Batman!—and flail a little bit about how it ate my life for three months (and possibly the lives of the poor people on my buddylist at whom I shouted, "DEAR GOD, WHY WON'T IT END?" every evening), but the last thing I want to do right now is spend more words on that project. Suffice it to say, baby's first SGA fic, guys. Cue the aww'ing and polite applause.



2. Big Bang was also due yesterday, but I didn't hand it in. I'm a little disappointed that it didn't get completed on time, but now I can give it the time that its due and not skim anything in the need to rush and it will be even better. Oh yes. (Also, this way I get to prolong my excuse for listening to the Awesome 80s soundtrack I made for writing. The world can never have too much Duran Duran! Or Blondie!)



3. This past week has been kind of insane. It seems that I didn't just bring back a fresh case of the crazies from the UK, oh no. I also brought back swine flu ( and a litany of other complaints ).



4. The first big freeze came last night, followed by the first morning of, "Oh, hey! I can see my breath outside! Oh, wait, I can't feel my fingers anymore..." [Which is brilliant, let me tell you, standing outside in freezing temperatures when you have upper-resperatory distress.] But it was exciting! Snow! (Soon, hopefully, that is.) Autumn clothes! More scarves! It's my favourite season for a reason.