the night has a thousand saxaphones

First, predictable insta-rec: Bohemian Rhapsody, by cesperanza, in which Sherlock takes a case for Lady GaGa DaDa.

Second, the following are the two best images on the entire internet of the past week: Number One and Number Two.

I'm not sure what that combination says about me.

Third, still unemployed and psychologically fucked up about it. Send job offers best wishes, please?

* I am online again, more or less, due to the amazing kindness of strangers. Seriously, I am all over lawrence520 and his incredible loaner laptop and willingness to give it to a total stranger, and hilarytamar, who seems to have embarked on a single-handed, oddly determined quest to keep me sane in my time of hardship. Seriously, I have no idea how to pay forward this level of awesome.

* I have gotten so spoiled with phone contact! All I have to say is "I'm computerless and lonely!" and all these people become willing to talk to me on the phone, often at ridiculous length. I don't know how I'll give it up. I am so warm and fuzzy you have no idea. Seriously, I feel like one of those sloppy drunks: "I love you all!" Especially you, bdblack and miriad and hilarytamar.

* Was that Tricia Helfer on Chuck? I adore her so much! If someone had told me that the underwear model in That Dress was going to be my favorite New Actor crush out of BSG, instead of Katee Sackhoff, I wouldn't have believed it, but I am so glad she's made good and is popping up everywhere. That said, I am getting really sick of Ellie being kept out of the loop. The show is just getting meaner and meaner to her, and it's starting to get me down.

* RE: SPN. Entertainment Weekly says "The new brother is a Wincest fan's dream come true!" *boggles* Look, I know fandom became rather blase about incest about two years ago, but in Entertainment Weekly? Bwuh?

It's not like SPN has been My Show since "In the Beginning," and I haven't even watched it since the one with the fallen angel. This is because I was breaking up with it before it could hurt me, because, as bdblack can confirm, I really am the guy in all my relationships. I still may catch up to it over hiatus, but adding a third brother? This show is on seriously thin ice with me.

* And since the computer died I have been reading a book a day. No, really. A little less than five days, five books.

( Reading Roundup )

1. My favorite reviewer, Abigail Nussbaum, does a (as always) brilliant and articulate post-mortem of the utter train wreck that was Battlestar Galactica (Wait. How unpopular is this fannish opinion? Am I going to be shunned now?)

2. This is a really beautiful specimen of humanity. (Also, my love of black and white pictures of beautiful people seems to be getting worse, not better.)

3. I am not even sure if I really consider myself a member of SPN fandom anymore, but the con reports coming out of LA make me ridiculously happy. It's not even that our boys are so doing it, it's how much they absolutely love feeding the fangirls. "Jared and I had our own wrap party last night... That's why I'm having a hard time moving around this morning." *dies* They are so good to us!

4. I had a horrible allergic reaction to something today. The skin of my face is completely covered in hives. I'm all bright red and blotchy and bubbly and scaly. The skin on my eyelids has the same texture as a particularly unpleasant lizard. I'm bumpy and peely and itchy from my hairline to my jaw. I have no idea what triggered it or what to do, so I am mostly sitting around slathering my face with plain, unscented Cetaphil and trying (failing) not to pick at it. I am, as you can imagine, extraordinarily attractive.

( The Time Traveler's Wife: The rare usage of the bad book review icon! )

The thing about SF fandom, sometimes, is that the porn is hilarious. And I don't mean this in a bad way at all- not even a teeny-tiny bit. It's great.

I am speaking, you see, of john_farr, the multiple-AU built around that time John Sheppard went into Ponn Farr (subtitle: because mating cycles are hot!). Or at least, it starts that way (you should start here, which is short and sexy), and then balloons out into no less than four interconnected AUs where, due to Goauld manipulation, human physiology is very different. As an open 'verse the writing is inconsistent, of course- but might I recommend the sequel Skin Hunger, the John backstory Battlefield, and the Uni!John and Virgin!John AU branches?

And the thing about this is that I honestly have no idea if I have to hit my bunk or if I am just going to sit here giggling wildly. Because seriously: shit like this only happens in SF fanfic. Aliens make them do it! Ancient tech gives them telepathy/tentacles/an insatiable sex drive/whatever! Sex pollen! Elaborately constructed plotty setups that boil down to, "due to the applied phlebotinum, you must have sex or die. Get to it." And, seriously, it's ridiculous but it really hits the Id vortex buttons, doesn't it?

And just then I saw that paian posted fic, which always sends me into raptures of joy- but it turns out to be a double whammy. A sex pollen (in her warning, she says: aliens-gave-them-an-excuse-to-do-it. Truth in warnings! ♥) but also an alien-tech SF plot device that is on the face of it sort of ridiculous (in the best possible way) and yet allows for this intense, desperate, bizarre and disorienting non-con voyeurism thing that is hot as fuck and Jesus, I will be in my bunk.

Oh, science fiction. *rueful headshake* Ever since the original Star Trek writers came up with Ponn Farr, the descendants of which are God's gift to porn, I tell you. My love knows no bounds.

(And yes, I've been reading this stuff for a LONG TIME. I have no idea why the ridiculousness of it all hit me so hard just now)

( Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? )

( The Watchmen )

Life exploded. Had cockroach problem, had to bug-bomb the place (the one downside of this living arrangement. It is the LEAST bug-resistant living place I have EVER seen. I might get fewer bugs if I lived in a tent. Gah) Have INSANE WORK to do before the 31st, going crazy. Keep setting meetings with people, often waking up insanely early and driving long distances to see them, only to be stood up, because people are flakes and they SUCK. Grrr.

( Merchant of Venice )

( The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century )

Side note: I used to prefer male SF writers by a vastly disproportionate margin, and now that tendency is completely reversed. I have been known to joke that I used to be a fanboy (Start Trek nitpikcing! Gaming and hard SF and boy-style geekery!), then I found fanfic and gradually became a fangirl. I say it as a joke- but it's really true. The preponderance of male names in this anthology bothered me, whereas I would never have noticed it in 2001, and now the slightly different social and emotional concerns of the three female authors in here really resonated. They wouldn't have, before fanfic. My balance of friendships has shifted pretty dramatically, too.

I just saw Wall-E and I am all a-squee. As a sweet anthropomorphic little love story of surpassing cuteness, it rules. As SF, of course, it sucks big donkey balls, but that's not what we came for, no? I understand everybody being pissed about the fat-people mockery. Except that was actually a ham-handed attempt to shortcut the entire process of creating a dystopia... which is okay, because well-done SF dystopia isn't what we came for (and if it was, oh boy are you in trouble), but it sure would have been good if they could have pushed their shorthand more towards "children" and less towards "fat slobs," because "children" was more the real part. But the anthropomorphizing! The facial expressions and body language of all the little robots! The little cleaning bot is my favorite sidekick of all time now. And the sound editing, all the incredibly expressive beeps and clicks...

The Pixar people are just brilliant.

( The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell )

I just spent four straight hours flirting with the handyman putting up the ceiling fans. Seriously. 34 years old, 6 foot, slim and muscled, Texas accent and Texas charm, perfect tan- the whole nine yards. I swear to god, he was trying to kill me. By the time he was done, I had told him that those jeans made his ass look great (they did) and that he had fantastic hands (he DID. REALLY).

*facepalm* Think I need a cold shower.


( Stargate watching log )


I signed up to rec Chronicles of Narnia for crack_van. I am so insanely nervous about this. I pulled up every Narnia fic I've EVER READ in tabs (about 45), eliminated all the ones that sucked (down to 30), then eliminated all the ones already reccd on crack_van (down to 20, losing many of my very favorites). Now I'm rereading them all and sorting them by category and writing notes and EEK I want to do a good job of this cause crack_van is like, a fannish institution, yk? SO NERVOUS!

First rec here


( Stuff about vids and the best community on the whole of lj )

( And if you like Donnie Darko, you'll spit coffee all over your keyboard at this: )

I have already laughed more at the time of this writing (10:00 am) than I have in possibly the last three months put together. What would I do without fandom?

I seem to have lost my attention span for novels. I haven't been able to keep my mind on anything longer than a novella in a month. I really hope this is temporary.

( Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2006 ) ( Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges )

Only 13 more days till I go home for Christmas!

Successful days of writing: 12

I am DONE with my Christmas shopping!  *Victory dance*

I am missing home more than I thought I was. I just voluntarily downloaded the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas album. God, this is definitive proof that I miss my daddy.

If I reach for the Gladys Knight, please shoot me?

For somebody who is such an atheist, I sure do get weird about Christmas.  The entire year revolves around it, for me, and I start listening to religious music basically 24/7, which is... weird.  But I crave it, every year.  Every year I end up cursing the fact that secular music tends to be either incredibly trite or sappily over-sentimental.  Only religious music is really moving in the way I crave.  I just... feel odd, singing hymns.  I love Christmas, and I don't want to be any other way about it, but still. 

My knee nearly popped out again this morning, which means I need to start working out again NOW, OR ELSE because when my ligaments get weak enough that the knee starts popping out, I am in serious pain for a significant amount of time. Curses. I don't WANNA work out!

Singularity Sky, Charles Stross

 

The writing here is thoroughly mediocre.  The premise is perfectly good SF.  A technological singularity, when humankind simply cannot assimilate the rate of change in their culture (especially when brought on my nano-technology style stuff) is a perfectly respectable premise.  The slightly surreal, dadaish feel of the later chapters is a bit of a high.  Mostly I just adore his juxtaposition of Leninist revolutionaries, trying to bring about a change that is absolutely small beans, really, and completely unable to wrap their heads around the thing that they are part of now.  Cute little book.