To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

Yuletide!

2015-12-26T01:34:19Z

I got two fics for Yuletide this year, and they're both great!

Some Things Never Change (2019 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Northern Exposure
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joel Fleischman/Maggie O'Connell, Joel Fleischman & Maggie O'Connell
Characters: Maggie O'Connell, Joel Fleischman
Additional Tags: Future Fic
Summary:
Maggie was just seeking some closure on the eve of her 50th birthday. She certainly hadn't expected *this*.

that's how the light gets in (1547 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cupid (TV 1998)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Claire Allen/Trevor Hale
Characters: Claire Allen, Trevor Hale
Summary:
You would think, sneers a voice in that back of his head that sounds suspiciously like Claire’s, that a self-proclaimed lord of love should have seen that one coming.

You would think right.

This year I wrote two fics in the main collection. Both are in the TV show category. One of them will, I suspect, be very obvious, but the other may be a little harder to guess. Maybe not.

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Various and sundry

2015-10-25T23:02:48Z

Good skating weekend. I finally, with P's assistance, got my camel to feel like a real spin yesterday. It's hard to explain, but before, the entrance was really jerky and unstable, and now it's strong and sure. Not coincidentally, I get 3-4 revolutions in it now. My leg isn't quite at hip-height, but it keeps inching upward.

Of course, I took BF's adult freestyle class today and he taught a completely different and weird entrance and now I'm all confused again. Sigh. I get what he's going for, it's just odd. What I don't get is this insistence on starting a spin with both arms stretched out. All of my momentum comes from holding my left arm across my body and flinging it out! Bah. Even P, who is actually his student right now, was like, wait, what? How does that even work? I feel validated.

I'm not sure I'll take the class every week, if only because 3.5 hours of practice to 30 minutes of lesson per week has been a really good ratio for me for the last several months (and there's no way to squeeze another hour in since they cut the Friday evening freestyle at my main rink), but I can certainly see doing it every other week or so. He had some good jump technique corrections for me, and the power stroking exercises at the beginning were interesting (and thigh-burny). He also actually got us all to do baby layback spins! They're called attitude spins.

When working on jumps, he has everyone get into them using various patterns of crossovers and other speedy things, which was horrifying because waltz jump is the only one I'd ever done not from basically a standstill. (Not counting the three turn into a toe loop, etc.) So I got thrown into the deep end of the pool there, but managed it without landing on anything but my feet, so that's good.

This rink is doing a holiday show with BF as the director. I hear he already has the music and choreography done (unlike the last two years, where our choreographer was still cutting the music halfway through rehearsals and changing the choreography the morning of the show), but it really does take up all your weekends until Christmas, so I think I'm going to pass. At least unless there's something else really enticing about it.

*

Excited about Yuletide! Depending on which characters were requested by one person in one of the fandoms I offered (post your letterrrrr), I could be matched to one of two people in one of two fandoms. One's a stronger possibility, given the usual pattern of requests for the one I'm waiting on a letter for. Either one would make me happy to write for.

*

My back still hurts in exactly the same spots and ways it did before the cortisone shot, but now also hurts in new spots and ways thanks to the shot. (It's like I have a bruise above both injection sites, especially the left one, so it doesn't hurt much regularly but smarts like hell if I put pressure on it, which is basically every time I sit down.) So that was a bust, though granted I already knew it probably would be. If I still have the extra pain in a week the pain clinic who did these is getting an irate call.

On the upside, either learning to consciously relax my pelvic muscles paid dividends or this episodic bladder thing was reaching the end of its episode, because that is much better. The pelvic pain has gotten worse (toilet paper = razor blades), and I am hoping that someone, somewhere, will deign to give me a freaking painkiller that works, but am not holding my breath. Kidney doctor's getting a call tomorrow since the office ignored my message last week. Perhaps there's a way to get everyone in all my different clinics on a conference call.

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Blast from the past

2015-08-30T23:29:55Z

The loop jump video I linked to yesterday turned out to be useful for more than just illustrative purposes. I tried using a hockey line the way the guy in the video does, and I actually held the edge almost long enough to make it work! Still no rotation, but it's coming into sight.

*

Every time I read things from the Lois & Clark fic archive, I feel like I've entered a time warp. Even the fics from this year read like fic circa 1996. It's like all the new stylistic trends and narrative devices and increased irony and self-awareness of the past twenty years has completely passed this fandom by. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just a very weird thing. I guess it could be due to the canon, which is a.) very 90s, and b.) very much and exceptionally non-ironic, and indeed frequently crosses the line into mushy.

I happened to find out yesterday that Superman: The Animated Series stars Tim Daly as Clark and Dana Delany as Lois, and wow, I cannot imagine more perfect casting on anything. The guy who played moral, upright, sweet, slightly OCD Joe Hackett as Clark/Superman and the woman who played sassy, courageous, practical, sensitive Colleen McMurphy as Lois? These actors were born for these roles! For casting that perfect, I'd actually watch the show in its entirety if it were on Netflix or otherwise rentable, but I'm not quite interested enough to pay iTunes's asking price.

Although...I see it's available for free on Amazon Prime. This might be the thing that tips me over into getting Prime for a year.

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New Adventures of Peter + Wendy

2015-08-16T06:04:36Z

I still don't really grok webseries--it's kind of like, just when something gets interesting, they cut off and there's a new episode and I'm thrown out of the story--but I ran across The New Adventures of Peter + Wendy this evening and wound up watching the entire first season. It's kind of like if Pushing Daisies-era Bryan Fuller had somehow gotten ahold of Spaced. And put in a lot of annoying talking-to-the-camera parts, but it seems that this is standard in webseries. The actress who plays Wendy is very good (she reminds me of Olive/Kristin Chenoweth but with more straight man qualities), as is the guy who plays John, and Peter and Wendy are undeniably adorable.

(I have to admit that it irks me somewhat how there are three women on the show--if you count Tinkerbelle--all of whom are in love with a guy who, frankly, doesn't that many great qualities, and are all vaguely jealous of each other because of it.)

It does take a while to get used to, though. I spent the first five episodes doing a lot of, "Wait, what? Why is Peter Pan a slacker and Wendy a journalist and Michael a pothead and why do they all live in modern-day Ohio and hang on, fairies still exist here?"

*

Via wintercreek, the Ultimate Trope Showdown. ( My results are unsurprising in the extreme. )

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Fandom Stocking

2014-12-08T01:12:38Z

Fandom stockings have been hung. This year I'm shooting for at least three fills, rather than the one I ended up writing last year.

Should you feel the desire to visit, mine is here. :)

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Three things

2014-10-12T17:02:18Z

Sleep! Sleep is so wonderful! I've been doing it all weekend. Blessings upon him or her who invented inhalers, for they are miraculous objects.

I am now thoroughly confused about when and where to post a link to my Yuletide letter. It sounds like it might be best to wait. Probably this is a good thing, because I'm not actually done with my letter yet. I'm debating whether to add a fifth request or not.

The angst!fic has broken 20,000 words, because of course it has. I'm still hoping to finish it by the time Yuletide assignments go out, because I want to not be distracted, but that hope gets dimmer by the day. It does at least feel about two-thirds done. I can write 10,000 words in 2-3 weeks, right?

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Fandom stocking

2013-12-06T02:40:17Z

My fandom stocking has been hung! Please feel free to hop on over and see if any of my prompts, pairings, or fandoms inspire you. :)

You can still get one of your own through the 18th (and if you do, post a link so I can leave you stuff!).

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Summer to winter

2013-10-27T01:11:42Z

Apparently we aren't getting a fall this year. The first frost of the year was yesterday--and it reminded me how much I hate scraping it off my car--and today I finally had to admit summer is over and switch out my winter and summer clothes. My weight has stayed about the same since, like, April or something, but I still discovered that more than half my winter clothes are too big, so at least my shape is still changing. Skating must be transmuting my fat into muscle.

Speaking of skating, we started another session today, and now I'm in a class with three little girls. Alas. We're all at about the same level, so it's fine, but I have to admit I really liked having the last class all to myself. Nevertheless, I did make more progress on my inside three turns. I technically managed to do some the first time I learned them a couple of weeks ago, but they were never clean or stable and I could never actually repeat them after that class. Now they're...well, not stellar, but a bit more credible than they were. I'm still having trouble eking out any ground at all on the back outside edge after the turn, but at least I'm turning without putting my other foot down, usually.

Last week, I learned how to do the forward inside and outside edges exercise that comes up in ISI Delta and USFS Pre-Preliminary Moves in the Field. It is a lot damn harder than it looks, let me tell you. I wondered why they waited until Delta to introduce it, and NOW I KNOW. It took me all week to figure out how to coordinate my arm and free leg positions, and even now that I mostly have them, it's hard not to fall to the side on those curves.

On the other hand, after practicing those all week, now I can draw a nice ever-decreasing spiral on the ice. It's the little things that amuse me. (Sadly, I don't think that's on any of the figures tests you can take. It should be.)

Another exciting thing that happened today was meeting castalianspring for lunch! Wooooo, a fannish friend where I live, yay! :D

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Odds and ends

2013-01-06T20:44:59Z

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come."

I donated to the National Wildlife Federation last year, and in return they sent me a 16-month calendar I keep in my cube at work. It has a nature-related quote for each month, and that was the one for December. They attribute it as "an old Chinese proverb." Whatever it is, I like it. Reminds me of Millay's Sonnet XLIII, which is never a bad thing.

*

I'm attempting to leaven my low carb diet of vegetables, meat, and beans with new and interesting complex carbs,* so today I made buckweat groats, aka kasha, and added butter, salt, and garlic. It's very good! Reminiscent of quinoa, but with even more character.

* The pun is entirely intentional

*

I think it's time to admit I have failed utterly on fandom_stocking this year. I only wrote one thing, and I don't think I'll be able to pull off anything else. :( I wish there were a way to see a list of who wants things like music or poetry recs, so I could at least fill some stockings with that.

On the other hand, this weekend I made about 500 words of progress on a Northern Exposure fic I've been working on...well, really for about a decade, if you count all the failed variations I've started over the years or the little fragments I've played over and over in my mind's eye, but the current version has a file-created date of August 2011, so. At this rate, I might finish it by 2030!

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Yuletide Treasure

2012-12-26T00:01:47Z

For Yuletide, I received a gorgeous, sweet, and really just lovely Northern Exposure(!!!) future fic. It even has its own soundtrack, which as far as I'm concerned goes above and beyond. Yuletide writer, you are a STAR. If you're reading this, thank you again!

New York Is a State of Mind, but Cicely Is a Way of Life (6005 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Northern Exposure
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joel Fleischman/Maggie O'Connell
Characters: Joel Fleischman, Maggie O'Connell, Ruth-Anne Miller, Ed Chigliak, Chris Stevens, Marilyn Whirlwind
Summary:

In which Joel and and various Cicelians meet in a dream, a moose gives advice, Maggie's in denial, Ed visits the Big Apple with a purpose, and Joel makes his long-awaited return to the great state of Alaska.

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Christmas Eve

2012-12-24T18:55:55Z

I'm somewhat at loose ends today, mostly because I'm busy anticipating Yuletide. Why did none of you tell me the worst part wasn't writing to a prompt or a deadline, but the waiting once all was said and done?

I suppose I'll open up the field for guessing games. I wrote four fics across three fandoms. They are all over 1,000 words. All the fandoms are TV or movie canons.

Fic 1 is so patently, obviously mine that I'm almost tempted to just say, "Yeah, that's me."

Fic 2 has style and content that point to me, but then again, the canon sort of calls for it, so maybe not.

Fic 3 has an allusion that's a dead giveaway.

Fic 4 is probably the least guessable of them all, but it's not unprecedented by what I've written before.

If you guess any of them, I'll either write you a ficlet or do...something else nifty for you. My betas are of course welcome to just leave a prompt here.

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Status update

2012-12-21T21:08:53Z

Yuletide status:

Main fill, Treat 1, and Treat 2: Finished and posted!

Treat 3: BEARS. Can you use the ursine terminology with treats? I don't know, I'm new to this whole endeavor. But I have the whoooooooooooole weekend to write, so I think I can complete it by the time the archive opens for business. I saw this request when all the prompts were thrown open for treating, and it is, for various reasons, a request I reeeeally want to write for, so I will make this work!

But first, I must clean the bathroom. Alas.

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Goodies of all kinds

2012-12-06T03:45:16Z

One of the unexpected benefits of working in a department with a lot of people who've immigrated from other countries is that holiday potluck lunches can get very exotic. We had one today, and in addition to the usual staples like deviled eggs, green bean casserole, turkey, and chocolate chip cookies, there were delicious homemade chicken dumplings, some kind of fried noodle dish, a Chinese beef dish I didn't catch the name of, and tasty little sesame seed pastry balls that are apparently called jin deui.

I almost didn't bother going to this, having had thoroughly meh experiences at work potlucks in the past, but I'm glad I went.

*

Finally got around to watching this week's Castle, which was one of the glurgiest things I've ever seen. And I'm a fan of 1930s and 40s movie musicals, so it's not like I haven't seen a lot of glurge! Ooof.

*

Got an idea and some words written on a Yuletide treat! Have much more research to do for it, though. Yikes. Also have ideas for Fandom Stocking goodies, yay. Just need to, you know, write the things.

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Fandom stocking

2012-12-05T03:24:44Z

Fandom stockings are up! Mine is here. This is where you get one. If you have one, post about it or tell me where it is so that I can leave you presents!

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Weekend update: Yuletide, writing, silly dance shows, cute food

2012-11-25T19:25:00Z

Yuletide update: I finished my assignment and a treat! This is awesome! I had a plan for another treat, but it went down in flames. On the other hand, this morning I woke up with an idea for yet another treat, which should be fun. And I may yet find another way to write for the fandom of the Doomed Treat.

In the meantime, in space pilots news, I've plotted out all the new stuff I want to happen to them on their journey, which is still going to make a very short novel, but nevertheless, the pacing should work better once I write all of this and insert it. To get myself back in the mood, I'm reading Atlantic Fever, which is mostly about the publicity surrounding Lindbergh and his competitors as they prepared and made attempts to cross from New York to Paris. Highly relevant to my interests!

*

I finished all ten episodes of Bunheads last week. It definitely has flaws--you rest the entire emotional payoff of your midseason finale on a reference to someone else's movie, really?--but I've somehow fallen in love with all the characters, annoying as they can be in their own ways. This show got me to care--nay, to angst--about a teenage romance! (It was Boo and Carl, like that's any surprise when they were basically playing out an iteration of every Astaire/Rogers movie ever made while also doing ballroom dance--although I question whether anyone behind the scenes actually watched the movies, if their "Fred and Ginger Dance" is a waltz. Everyone knows their stuff was mostly foxtrot-based! Um, for subsets of "everyone" that exclude "people who are not dance geeks.")

Anyway, cuteness! I look forward to its return in January, especially since Fringe will be ending around the same time.

*

Since I haven't taken/posted many pictures lately, have one of my cute food:

( Teeny tiny turkey sandwiches )

Also have a photo I'm calling "Post-Apocalyptic Patio with Scarf."

( Here. )

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Begging is in the spirit of the season, right?

2012-09-27T22:39:47Z

*cough*

Okay, checking at the unofficial spreadsheet, I see that none of the four fandoms I want to nominate for Yuletide have been added. Anyone got a spare slot?

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Beta wanted, among other things

2012-09-08T01:00:55Z

I'm thiiiiiis close to finishing my Fringe vid (gen, everybody, wackiness). However, it has some issues. (Like, "Hahaha, what the hell is supposed to be happening during the bridge?") Beta, anyone? Pretty please? *doe eyes*

*

I'm really thinking about doing Yuletide this year. Mostly because I am desperate for any Northern Exposure fic (that I haven't written), Shall We Dance fic (ditto), Corner Gas (yep) and/or Robson Arms fic (at all!). Anyone have an idea what the timeline might be this year? And does the horsetrading about nominations happen in the recent brainstorming post, or is there another post specifically for that?

*

Google's doodle today is hilarious and way interactive. Poor li'l redshirt e. ;)

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Fringe S1 rewatch thoughts

2012-01-03T01:03:52Z

Happy new year! Wow, 2012. I feel so futuristic.

*

So, I just rewatched all of Fringe S1 in roughly a week. I kept coming up against episodes and five minutes into them going, "Oh, it's this one" (where "this one" means "brain liquifaction via computer virus" or something similarly disgusting), but I'm hunting clips for four different potential vids, so I had to watch them all. Plus there was sometimes a little nugget that relates to the mytharc. ( Spoiler ) But it all starts to come together in the latter half of the season, particularly with "Ability" and then "Bad Dreams" through the finale, and especially with the benefit of hindsight, you can see how everything is tying in to the larger plot and how the characters are putting the pieces together, and it's like those wonderful moments in music when a bunch of dissonant lines resolve into a chord.

Coupla specific thoughts:

( Spoilers through S4 )

*

In other news, lately I have found myself reeeeeally craving fic for old movies, to the point where I'm contemplating setting up a promptfest or perhaps even an exchange. Exchanges seem to actually produce fic, but promptfests are much less pressure, and I am all about my fannish life being as low-pressure as possible. Perhaps it could be something like, "Submit 3 prompts, then write one before you're allowed to submit 3 more," along with some very generous and relaxed deadlines for people who want them? I dunno. Thoughts, anyone?

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Remixing

2011-04-03T18:37:57Z

Because I like no-pressure, no-commitment challenges, I signed up at remix_goes_wild. I'm offering anything and everything I've ever written for remixing, and will hopefully write something too! You know, once I clear my current fic queue out a bit. It's getting kinda full. (At last count, I have eight fics I actually think I can finish this year, and nine more it is my pipe dream to finish this year.)

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Stockings and poetry

2010-12-02T04:45:17Z

Stockings are going up at fandom_stocking! You can still sign up here. You know you want to...

(Mine, if you are so inclined, is here.)

*

Made a Wiki Walk over to incandescens's journal today, and found that she posts marvelous poetry by many different people all the time. I really like quirky, but not to the point where it stops making sense, and it's like incandescens can read my mind. I've been backreading like crazy.

My favorite so far is this one:

( Winter Solstice, Camelot Station )

I also really like this one, for entirely different reasons:

( People )

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Ice dance. And sparklies.

2010-12-01T05:03:56Z

I loathe loathe loathe ONTD-type communities (sparkle!text and huge uncut images make me want to punch things), but I just discovered that there is one for figure skating, and I had to check it out. I quickly couldn't take it anymore, but I did find it hilarious and oh-so-apt that they had tags for things like "illusion mesh fabric" and "oh plushy" (how many times did I say that myself?), not to mention "plushenkohnotheydidn't," as well as "your russian overlords," which, well, yes. Although apparently China is moving on up lately. And the US and Canada somehow started being amazing at ice dance, which I'm still kind of ???? over.

Anyway, I don't think I can bring myself to go back there again (my eyes, my EYES), but before I closed the window for good I did find a great collection of pictures of Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, the Marina and Gwendal clones I'd hoped would be successful way back in 2004 or whatever. (Look. Clones! Less so now that Fabian has done something different with his hair this season, admittedly, although Nathalie dyed her hair darker, so it's kind of a wash.) Apparently they are successful now! Yay!

BTW, their free dance for this year is based on City Lights, which I guess explains the costumes. I'm not sure what explains the last picture in the collection above, but I can't decide whether to go "awwww!" or laugh. It's cute, whatever it is.

In other news, where half my flist seems to have finished the word-orgy of NaNo this week, I appear to be starting one of my own. Not a NaNo-type project, but between my fake TV show and a stocking stuffer I've started for fandom_stocking,* I've written 2,000+ words in the past couple of days. Pretty shocking for me, I have to say.

* Hahaha, oh, man. I am having such fun with this. I've gone through the lists left at the sign up post and made my own list of requests I could possibly fill. I have, like, thirty written down. I doubt I'll do more than five or ten, but that's okay! I love this buffet-style request-filling. Especially when so many people are requesting small fandoms that I know.

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Fannish glee!

2010-11-29T05:34:42Z

I have not done fandom_stocking before, but it looks absolutely lovely, so I'm signing up this year! Basically you comment with your wishlist of stuff, the mods make a post with your wishlist in it, and anyone, even if they haven't signed up themselves, can comment with fic, vids, art, or whatever you've requested, as well as messages to you. It looks extremely low-pressure, and I think I might be in love.

The sign-up post is here. Sign up so I can leave you stuff! :D

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Small Fandom and RarePair Self-Promotion Meme!

2010-10-16T15:02:01Z

As promised yesterday, here it is! Go forth and promote your fics/vids/art for rare pairings/characters and small fandoms! (Or request that people tell you where such things are to be found!)

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A notion.

2010-10-15T17:54:48Z

Seeing the squee on my flist about Yuletide nominations opening up gave me an idea. What do y'all think of a meme where people can promote their fic/vids/art/etc. in small fandoms and/or rare pairs/rare characters from bigger fandoms? So readers(/watchers/etc.) could get the glow of, "I never knew I needed fic for that, but now I do and there it is and this is awesome!" that comes from Yuletide, or the sweet, sweet triumph of finally finding something for that insanely rare pairing on page fifty-four of the Google results, but a couple months early. Creators could have some place to post that fic for some obscure fandom that doesn't have a community or an archive, so it languished on their own journals, unread by potential fans.

Would this be something others are interested in, or would I just be having a party by myself?

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Bits and pieces

2010-10-14T00:56:36Z

Things I Do Not Understand:

1. Why I suddenly find myself in possession of a Sheridan/"Sleeping in Light"-centric Sheridan/Delenn vid. And why it is the quickest vid I have ever made. Okay, yeah, the song is only about two and a half minutes, but I seriously started this thing THIRTY MINUTES AGO and I have footage on every bit of the timeline. I need to futz with about fifteen seconds' worth, and it'll be done. I could conceivably finish this the same day I started it. And I don't even like the POV character or the pairing!

2. Why, of the four fics I'm currently splitting my writing time between, THREE of them involve children. Dear Brain: Did you forget I hate kids? What gives? (Although writing the hoary old "OTP babysits and things get very weird" cliche does amuse me. Susan has currently gotten the bright idea that if she makes the kid retrieve all the paper airplanes they're throwing in the park, she can burn off some of said kid's energy, much as one does with a dog when playing fetch. She is also optimistically trying to explain Bernoulli's Principle when the kid asks why the paper airplanes fly but he can't.)

3. Why I can't seem to write any verse at all today. Grrr.

4. That "Stereotypical Female Characters" chart going around. If you haven't run into it yet, be thankful; it is heinous.

Therefore, another Wall Of Awesome Female Characters, inspired by settiai. Since fully two-thirds of my icons feature a female character from somewhere (and I'm not even including the quotations from female characters), this got quite large:

( Pictures! )

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