Hiya everyone. I've been scarce around these parts lately because of the busy, busy, busy. Also have been trying to get a little more sleep--thought I might improve my brain function.

magnetic_pole wrote me an absolutely lovely ficlet. It is Remus and Sirius for the prompt, "friendship." It is subtle and sweet and gentle and totally captures the dynamic of them communicating perfectly with each other through basically just knowing and caring about each other so well. Go and read it and leave her a comment. It is called Do You Remember Alan Mackenzie

I am slowly, very slowly, reading the bigbangblackout stories. There are so many wonderful ones there. Don't forget to go and check out the archive. There is such a variety and people worked so very hard. I have had a sum total of about an hour to read over the last week, so have failed at making much headway through the list!


Oooh, did I mention that I was invited to join Daily Deviant? How cool (and sort of terrifying) is that?? That means I have added two to the fic deadlines about which I am currently fretting. It also means that it has become a good thing that two of my upcoming assignments will not be porn. I'll need to save up.

And finally, elizassecret:
"

Procrastinating post helps me procrastinate:

1) I have totally failed at wishing people Happy Birthday lately.
So to: woldy, torino1_154, mysid, thescarletwoman, werewolf_lib, ani_bester, ligia_sis, I wish you a most happy belated birthday. And upcoming, la_onza and loony4lupin.

2) I have totally failed at getting my bigbangblackout fic where I wanted it to be by now. Grrrr. I am stuck (as we speak) on the final scene. The climax, the pinnacle, what it's all been about, and so far, it is not. Also they are refusing to have hot sex. They keep eating dinner. I am so disgusted with them that I even checked my work email as a way to procrastinate (and then did this post. :-/)

3) I have totally failed at keeping up with dogdaysofsummer in any way. I really did want to. I joined fandom just after the monthly r/s comms sort of faded and much of what I read then to convince me to start writing was on those comms.

4) Early, EARLY Monday morning, I am going away on an 8 day trip—six of which will be camping—and I have totally failed to be ready to the extent I would like by this evening (note the potential week without internet or an electrical outlet. I am not complaining about camping, but, you know, see #2).

Some things which have not been made of fail:

1) I had a hundred dollar gift from Mum and about an hour without the kid to buy sneakers, some clothes for the camping trip, and something for work, and I succeeded. The sneakers have purple trim and there may be sparkles involved. And yes, I am too old for that.

2) I have managed to repost all but one of my floating-about fest fics and made some progress on updating the masterlist.

3) I finished and posted my first Harry/Draco fic. It had been plaguing me because I knew it had problems, but not how to fix it. red_squared very kindly told me, this here sort of sucks, and here is why. Only she said it really nicely and helped me to rework both the feeling of parts of it and characterizations. And then duck_or_rabbit gave that version a look see for any other problems. This all makes it sound like a more lofty process than the PWP that it really is, but I suppose what I am saying is that I love it when a beta will do that. I have been so lucky with betas and ♥ all of you who have been willing to teach me.

4) Tomorrow is my birthday and my lovely elizassecret is going to make me a cake.

5) OMG, midnitemaraud_r just sent me some virtual handcuffs for inspiration! Right, so these might help. Back to banging Sirius. :D Thank you, sweetie!! ♥

So, I am now mindabbles on dreamwidth. Thanks to the fabulous red_squared for the invite. I am adding people as I see them there. I plan to post everything here and at LJ and there if I can figure it all out.

The second milestone claim at bigbangblackout has closed! Lots of people made it and remeciel did a gorgeous banner for the authors who did. YAY!

My kid went to sleep at ten to seven tonight. Paranoid mama is paranoid--do you think he has swine flu? Tell me he just hasn't had enough sleep lately (he hasn't) and hasn't been feeling well because of having bad allergies (he has). Right? Right. His birthday is tomorrow, it would really suck if he came down with swine flu on his birthday.

In about seven hours, I have to yank the kid out of bed and get to the airport. The good news is that he is terribly cute when he is all sleepy and excited about a trip. We are going to be spending until next Friday with my mum and step dad on the east coast. Brrr. Thank goodness I still have a wool coat and it still fits me. The kid has never seen snow falling, so I am hoping for that.

I, as usual, am setting unacheivable goals for this trip. It is a vacation in that I will not be working. However, I will likely not have any time for myself or take part in any activities not geared toward spoiling the kid. See, much like daily life except for the work part and even less time for myself after the kid goes to bed.

Despite all that, I hope to: 1) get springsmut mostly written; 2) read the novel that I will post the discussion for at om nom nom books; 3) finish the last chapter of Of Silver Light and Shadows -- anyone remember that series I am doing? Well the last chapter has been beta'd once and I am going to make some changes and have it finished in the next week-ish. Now that I think of it, if I think it needs another look, is there anyone who was reading it and still remembers it who would be willing to review the last chapter?

I have no idea if I will have internet access more than once or twice, so cheers until next week!

I'm safely at work having voted and am unable to concentrate on work at all. It all went smoothly. The line was long, but that is not a big deal.

There were "No on Prop 8" people 100 feet from the polling place in every direction. No one else was out. We were already in line more than 100 feet from the door. So the guy approached us and very quietly said, "I'd like to urge you to vote no on Prop 8." The kid said, at the top of his voice, "8? That's the one that says boys can't marry boys and girls can't marry girls right?" I say, "That's right." Kid shouts, "They think my friend's parents aren't really married! That is wrong! That is NOT FAIR." Can you arrest a seven-year old for electioneering near the polling place?

I was given a banner in hp_wankfest. Who would have thought? How nice are they? Mods choice for best use of prompt. It was Spello-tape and I did have to think about it quite a bit, usually while traveling for work. I wonder if some folks on planes thought I had taken valium to ease the nerves. No, it was just Charlie and Spello-tape. I'll post it here soon, but for now ( here's my banner )

*

The other prizes are second place in a two-team competition, rs_games. Was it not lovely of the mods to make medals for everyone? And Team MWPP only did trail by a teeny-tiny margin, no matter what gryffindorj might tell you. I wrote two fics for the fest. I will post them soon. Also, look out for round two, coming soon.

( So, here's my medals: )

*

Finally, guess who is a new mod of stagnight? That's right, I am going to stretch my LJ/IJ-ing skills to the breaking point and hopefully have some fun. I am going to try and get the comm going over here as well. So, if you are interested, if you know anyone who writes or draws great James-centered gen or slash, let me know. Look out for super fabulous fests and challenges in the future as well.

*

Okay, so one more thing. Just now my kid cried for twenty minutes because I told him we could not start on a third chapter of The Magician's Nephew. I mean screamed and wished me dead and all manner of things. I think he might be getting sick, but doesn't he know I could have used that time to write this very useful post? Or repost the four fics from fests that I still haven't posted here? Or update my terribly behind masterlist? Or finish editing the next chapter of 'Of Silver Light and Shadows?' Or try and think of a fourth idea that will come to nothing for femgenficathon?

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS THE RIGHT TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE!!!! 

Gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California, the state Supreme Court said today in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.

In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when it takes effect in 30 days.


I am going to choose to ignore the rest of the article (by the CA Commission on the Status of Women), that talks about how it will come up against the idiot vote in November, well, because I want to.