not too short for a stormtrooper

Someone wonderful is writing a yuletide pinch hit for me; like Fahye, I am going to link to my stocking stuffer in case anyone on my flist feels inspired in the next twenty four hours.

I just uploaded a pinch hit that I wrote for someone, not five minutes ago. Reacquainting myself with the text was really a whole lot of fun, and writing the fic was really difficult for the sole reason that I had so much to say, and not a lot of time. In the end I forcibly removed about five hundred words in order to end it, because to keep those words there would have required me to write a thousand more. Perhaps one day I'll remix my own fic. I will talk more on this next week, after the author reveal.

Additionally, I am genuinely curious as to why my original author dropped out. Author, if you happen to wander by, please do let me know. Was it time constraints? A sudden, unexpected event? Did you receive my requests and feel overwhelmed? I panicked, myself, when I received my assignment last month, and I'm so relieved it's over and done.


Things I am loving:

• This old yet awesome Chris and Mariska photoshoot.
  
• Transformers movie trailer. Absolutely terrible, and yet I cannot wait.
  
• This Eva Green photoshoot. She can be so lovely sometimes. You have to join to comm to see the pictures, but they're pretty awesome and it's a cool comm, so no worries.

Yesterday, Fahye posted three things making her happy, and asked people to do the same in the comments. So I did, only I have found that since I did that, I have been unable to close the tab, because those three things make me so happy that I keep rereading them! So I am going to post them here.

Three things making me happy at the moment:

1) Archery. I've been shooting poorly for the last six weeks, and I've had a bit of a shoulder problem, but just the last week my scores and my endurance levels have been back on the upswing, and I'm shooting better now than I ever have before, and oh, how I love my sport.

2) Preparing fruit and vegetables. All these lovely fruits are coming back into season, watermelon and strawberries and mango, and after I cut them up I like to look at them, all bright colours grouped together. Yesterday I was late home so I cooked a stirfry, and the strips of red capsicum next to the strips of carrot next to the bits of Chinese cabbage looked so bright and cheerful that it seemed almost a shame to throw them into the wok, but even when I did they were still bright and beautiful.

3) The Pretender. I've never loved a show so hard, or for so long*, as I have this one, and I wish there were more people who could enjoy it with me.


And please, tell me three things that are making you happy right now, flist!


* Aside from the Muppets, of course

In this post, I am going to meme. I know, horror shock etc.

The heavily pregnant sangga wants me to give details of five guilty pleasures. I am doing this meme even though I am hardly guilty about anything, so these are less my guilty pleasures, and more just pleasures, although they would totally be guilty if I had a different sort of mind set. I'm totally humouring the pregnant lady.

1. Curry. Primarily the act of preparing and cooking thick, paste-y curries that take two hours of bubbling away on the stove to be edible, but also other sorts of curries, like a rendang with roti, or a quick (relatively quick) green curry filled with bamboo shoots and bok choi. I make all my curries from scratch - my own powder from scratch and everything, and I love that. It is an excellent way to spend an afternoon.

2. Children of Dune. As you all know, I can watch Children of Dune constantly. I finished watching it last night, and went to bed, and as I'm on the late shift today I have two options: one, I can go training, and two, I can watch Children of Dune again. It is just such a visually stunning series, all the golds and browns. I just wish they'd kept the deep purples for costuming of the Dune miniseries.

3. Stuff for archery. I don't mean the equipment, here, although fletching new arrows or installing new bits of equipment onto my bow gives me a little buzz. What I mean is all the training I do to improve my archery. There is the actual archery practice itself, but I also go to the gym once a week, swim twice a week, and go to pilates once a week, as well as do SBT with a theroband every morning. Doing things that make me exhausted at the end in different ways makes me ridiculously happy.

4. Writing. I shouldn't do it. I have so many other things to do, because there is always something that I need to do, but when I finish writing something, when I've tweaked it and tweaked it until I love it so much I want to cuddle it, then I feel so ridiculously pleased with myself. Which is why it sucks, all the things I write but never post because they are in fandoms so small they count as a fandom of one. Because I will never be appreciated for my genius. *weeps*

5. Spending a lot of money. Yeah, totally. I love shopping, hokay? Hokay. Yesterday I bought a red couch, and it is AWESOME.

SPECIAL NOTE NUMBER 6. Meals with friends. Going to peoples' houses for dinner, inviting people around, going out to breakfast or dinner or having a picnic on the foreshore. I don't care if I'm preparing the food or not, but I love eating with friends.

Okay, I tag plastics, unless they've already done, plus Kathe, who's totally still not around.

And other people can feel free to ask me my top fives, though I won't get around to them until Sunday.

thank you for your interest in the poll in the previous entry. i actually came home, made some notes about the vid, rewatched the good bits of final cut (ie, the bits with pilots), and then watched rome.

*

speaking of rome, i've just watched the first episode. it was interesting.

show of hands who liked it, please? i can't decide. which is unusual, as usually i'm either yes! or no! about it, not this wishy-washy indecisiveness.

*

there's this vid floating around, and it uses a song called 'consider this.' can someone upload it (the song) for me? please?

*

i'm tired and feeling blah and actually feeling pretty emo too, so before i attempt to be creative, i'm going to list some things that make me happy, because there's some sort of meme going around.

things that make me happy (in no particular order), by pen, aged twenty three and a little bit

1. good vids to songs i like and in fandoms i like
2. fic
3. plush penguins
4. the muppet movie
5. cooking
6. archery (when it's not raining)
7. pride and prejudice
8. children of sloane HAHA i mean children of dune. what a typo
9. real person fic about james and jessica from the children of dune mini series (omg you should totally try it some time)
10. breakfast on sunday mornings with my friends
11. trashy magazines.
12. tim tams
13. lying on the beach, reading (please remember to wear a hat and sunscreen)
14. post cards
15. batman

okay, i'm done, but if you'd like to leave a comment that says anything at all, that would be nice. you can ask for fic, if you'd like. or whatever takes your fancy.

Because I feel like it:

1. These are my ten favourite shows. Some of them are OFF THE AIR, alas.
2. Guess my favourite character/pairing.
3. Or, if you really want to, guess the character I loathed.
4. Then I'm going to rant about them.

Shows I love like woah (in no particular order):
1. The Pretender
2. (the new) Battlestar Galactica
3. Law and Order: SVU
4. La Femme Nikita
5. Roswell
6. CSI: Las Vegas
7. The West Wing
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Wildside
10. Firefly
11. (shut up, I needed to add this one) Space: Above and Beyond

ETA some rants:

1. The Pretender - Miss Parker (as guessed by trajictale). How could I not love Miss Parker? Her mother murdered, her father not her father, psychopath for a brother, lover murdered by her step-mother, and her TRUE AND UNDYING YET TWISTED LOVE FOR JAROD. But she was still a really tough, gun-toting, ass-kicking, stilleto-wearing bitch. And I want to be her. I have lots of fic recs (if you're interested) about Miss Parker here.

2. Battlestar Galactica - Kara/Lee (as guessed by myalchod). How did this one take so long to guess? Also, I'm not going to rant about Kara/Lee here, because I've done it many times before. Constantly, in fact. here, for example.

3. Law and Order: SVU - Benson/Stabler (as guessed by misbegotten). They are angstcakes. Well, less so now, when Kathy left him, but season one hello tension! first episode, Elliot at a Parent-Teacher conference, and Olivia calls him and he scolds her like an errant lover. No, really. Watch it. Read what sloanesomething has. And then come see me.

6. CSI: Las Vegas - Greg/Nick (as guessed by misbegotten), and how did she guess it? I've not squeed about the Greg/Nick love once in this journal, but what you all need to first see is this: George Eads, aka the gay you can see from space. Did you know he used to live with Eric Syzmanda? Anyway, in this one episode, Nick tries to do the 'devil' finger symbol, but does the Amlan 'I love you' to Greg instead. And there is lots of touching. And geekwriter143 writes the best Greg/Nick in the whole world, followed in a close second by carolinecrane.

7. The West Wing - CJ/Toby (as guessed by misbegotten). I love their old-school friendship, and maybe they were never romantically involved, but they've had this long, complicated friendship for ever, since way-back college, and they've had their bumps and bruises, and for years they didn't speak to one another but now they're in this place where they can deal. And I love those friendships that might be relationships or might be past-relationships, or whatever, that are casual and easy and not so fraught. My very favourite CJ/Toby story is My Back Pages by Delightfully Eccentric, and a close second is Athaneum by krazykitkat, and if you're looking for more read everything at Oddsmakers.

10. Firefly - Kaylee (as guessed by trajictale). She's cute, and not a kick-ass take no prisoners woman, but she is self-sufficient and funny. And likes strawberries. What more could you ask for in a woman? (Aside from leather)

11. Space: Above and Beyond - Shane Vansen (as guessed by zeplum). Hello Shane Vansen. I'm sorry, another hard-arsed woman whose parents were killed early in her life? I'd say I'm sensing a pattern, but so far this is a pattern of two. Shane Vansen kicked arse, the end. Also, if she would only have LIVED, holy fuck I hate whichever channel it was on. In my unholy rage I cannot recall. I remember it was produced by the guys who did Independence Day, though.