Wake the Sun

Deliberately Dating

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 03:53:53 GMT

I was talking at nepenthe about a fic idea I'm poking at - where two guys who're into dudes but haven't actually been in a relationship with one take a (awkward) stab at dating - and realized I was having trouble coming up with precedent. There's plenty of fake dating fic and accidentally/don't know they're dating fic, but not much 'these people are into each other/have been set up by friends/or okcupid and want to see where it goes' fic. Maybe it lacks intensity?

Anyway, I can think of a couple Night Vale fics, and the first couple parts of At Least There's the Football. There are some others, I think in Avengers fandom? where they manage one date before falling into bed/feeeeelings, but that's all I've got.

Am I missing any? Does anyone have dating fic recs (specifically m/m or f/f or threesomes I guess)? Does anyone else suddenly/desperately want these, or am I the only one?

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Dear Yuletide Author! (2013)

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 04:37:18 GMT

Firstly - Hi! Hello! I'm really excited about Yuletide and finally getting to write this letter, thank you so much for participating! And for writing me a story!

Secondly - Feel free to ignore the following. I'll be happiest with a story you were happy to write, please go wherever inspiration takes you.

That said, here are some things I like: adventure, happy endings, explosions, romance, crossovers, mad science, banter, friendships, mountains, oceans, queer gen, well characterized characters (heh), animals, shenanigans, magic, families, libraries, food, swearing, first times, sex that *don't* involve penetration, laughing during sex, superpowers, spaceships, explorations of sexuality and gender and race and culture and politics and privilege, plots that make me think, or cry, or laugh, or (best of all) all three.

I prefer stories that don't have: sad/dark/angsty/unresolved endings, mpreg, soul-bonds/destined lovers, character bashing, consent issues, slavery, sex without preparation/protection, 'perfect' sex, or kinks involving excretion.

I'm very much a slash fan but I've chosen fandoms where gen would also make me happy so, please, have at. I'm comfortable with any level of sexual explicitness and most kinks.

( Hayate x Blade )

( The Yogscast )

( Blue Beetle )

( Runaways )

And that's it! Thank you again - I hope your Yuletide is absolutely fantastic :D :D :D

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Important Questions

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 03:37:40 GMT

Wait, no one nominated Attack the Block for Yuletide? How did that happen? Why the hell did I use up a nom on Copper when I could have nommed AtB?

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I need a food icon

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 03:14:47 GMT

Lunches this week are... well, they're not a dismal failure, but I certainly made several miscalculations. I wanted to keep it simple, so I planned:

* Chicken, tomato, and cheddar sandwiches
* Baby carrots
* Pasta with a little olive oil and italian seasoning
* Rice crispy treats

Only the bread got soggy super quick and there isn't enough chicken, I never actually made the pasta (been subbing with Kashi's wonderful hummus chips, but those just ran out) and I. ate most of the rice crispy treats. There's only one square left.

I can save it, I think, with more chips, some cookies or something, and pretzel rolls, but the original plan is shot :( you win some, you lose some.

On the upside, tonight's 'what have I got in the pantry' dinner turned out super well - pasta, peas, ranch beans (with a little added brown sugar), and meatballs piled together in a bowl is much better than I was expecting.

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Lunch and a movie

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 03:16:57 GMT

This week's lunches are going to be:

* Mac and cheese (Annie's aged cheddar, with peas in)
* Baked chicken strips
* Roasted broccoli
* A rice crispy treat

I don't have to do much other than stick the chicken and broccoli in the oven, mix the mac and cheese in the pot, and put together the rice crispies (which I finally have marshmallows for), which is good, because I spent most of the weekend feeling like shit.

Also working my way through Orange is the New Black, which is not shit. And finding things like this on tumblr, which is Bad Ass.

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Sun, 22 Sep 2013 03:42:31 GMT

Tried going to work yesterday and today, got sent home both time because sick. Go home, Effex. Nobody likes a martyr, Effex. You're contaminating the merchandise, Effex.

Bah. Guess I'm spending my weekend being just sick enough to be cranky and uncomfortable. I'll make a trip to the store tomorrow, then it's juice and snacks and tv and bed for me. Which... sounds pretty good, actually. Aside from the ick.

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In which I really deserve this delicious boba tea

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 04:01:38 GMT

Chicago just had a huge ass thunder storm roll through, which did fun things like flood intersections and fuck with the power on the El lines. I live roughly 3 miles from work and my trip home involved a bus ride (stalled due to flooding), a brisk walk in the dark, and a train ride (stalled due to I don't even know, something about the switches needing to be manually changed?). It took more than an hour longer than it usually does.

Listening to other people in my car (Pink Line, woo), I was lucky to get on the train at all - something had fucked with the outbound tracks and they'd been stuck circling the loop for half an hour. I caught the first one to make it out.

Fortunately it was mostly done raining by time I got off work. Being soaking wet would have crossed the line from frustrating adventure to FUCK NO WHY.

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Yuletide Nominations

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 03:02:45 GMT

Just submitted my Yuletide noms, all of which I'm pretty sure meet the qualifications. They are:

* Hayate x Blade (of course)
* Blue Beetle (of course)
* The Yogscast (...the heart wants what it wants, okay)
* Motorcity (..................yeah)

I always have the lingering feeling that my nominations/requests aren't really obscure enough but fuck it, Hayate x Blade only has 5 Ao3 fics (and Blue Beetle only has 51, what). I'm good.

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Lunches for the week

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 03:28:30 GMT

Aw yeah, it's Monday again! And Fall! I fucking love Fall, you guys, I am so ready for this.

I'm doing the same breakfast as last week, minus the apricots and plus a banana.

For lunches:

* Cashew ginger carrot soup (Pacific Food's soup + bisque, 'cause the box of soup alone wasn't enough for five servings).
* Roasted potatoes, carrots, kielbasa, and spinach again
* Roasted asparagus
* Two chocolate covered caramels

I'm doing a test run of the roasted stuff for dinner, plus a can of hard cider. NOM NOM NOM NOM.

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WIP addendum

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 04:12:07 GMT

There's one more Losers fic in my writing file, but it's a couple pages long and possibly salvageable, so I'm gonna give that a shot.

Cougar held his pocket knife steady as he roughed out a man’s face on a small wooden disk, trying to ignore the crinkling noise behind him. He managed not to look up at the window, their small hotel room reflected back in increasing detail as dusk fell, but couldn’t help tracking the sounds. A soft rustle as something landed in the trashcan, followed by a faint ‘mmm’ and the clicking of a keyboard.

It was Jensen’s fourth sucker in an hour and Cougar wanted to...well.

The working title is 'Suckers and Saints', which is possibly too cool for the short pwp this is supposed to be.

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WIPs

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 01:03:49 GMT

I was digging though my Yuletide tag and came across these Inception drabbles (from 2011), which I do not remember writing and never archived anywhere useful. And then brownbetty posted about ferel WIPs and I thought, well. I don't have anything else to post tonight, let's go digging in the writing folder.

( Sad, abandoned snippits under the cut. )

I also have pages and pages of notes on a Hikaru no Go/Inception crossover, with comments by a mysterious second party. bookshop? zanzando?

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Voltz Episode 12 - The Bomb

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 04:49:27 GMT

I don't have a lot of time to play video games these days, but apparently I have time to watch other people playing video games (I can watch them on the bus!). My favorite group of people to watch is the Yogscast and, god. 8 months ago (holy shit, it's been 8 months) all I knew about the Yogscast was some of my favorite webcomics artists liked to draw them. And now I've watched... a lot. A lot of hours.

If you like Minecraft (modded Minecraft in this case), or banter, or hilarity, or listening to grown men giggling constantly, or have 35 minutes to kill, you should check this out. It's a good episode. Please note! Some people (ie my dad) have a hard time watching these - headaches, nausea, etc. If you've got trouble with rapid movements and jittery cameras, you might want to skip this.

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Important food update

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 02:51:55 GMT

Next time I'm going to double the amount of kielbasa/potatoes/carrots/spinach I make, so it stretches the week better (I can always freeze the leftovers). I'm also going to roast the kielbasa, potatoes, and carrots together and sauté the spinach separately so it doesn't wilt as much.

On the whole, though, I'm happy with it - it heats up fine in the microwave and tastes good, which is all you can really ask.

The pumpkin spice cake turned out amazing, although it's more of a bread than a cake. A moist, dense, spicy bread-cake. I think one of the Allrecipe commenters said it improves after resting overnight, which is 100% true. NOM.

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Stupid Technology

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 03:50:32 GMT

Fuck, what was I going to post for today? Uh, I had therapy today, that went pretty well. Chicago is finally cooling the fuck off, GIVE ME ALL THE AUTUMN. I.... Oh!

The thing about iPads and MacBook Airs are that they are light and very convenient for watching Hulu/Netflix in bed. Too convenient. I've been watching old episodes of The Voice, because the singing is pretty and the braining requirement is 0, and 'one more episode/I'll just finish this battle' turns into 11pm, 12am, 1am.

So I'm instituting a 'No TV On The Bed On A Work Night' rule. It may need to expand to 'No TV On The Bed At All' or 'No Interneting On The Bed On A Work Night', because my self control is shot after 10pm.

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Let me rec you a thing

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 05:35:41 GMT

I said I got to spin vintage film scores in my last post but, technically, Songza spun them for me.

I don't listen to the radio-radio, so other than at work (which specializes in a few specific genres), music discovery is rough for me. I tried Pandora, Last FM, whatever the others are, and they felt more like an echo chamber - nothing new, just more of what I plugged in.

Songza's different - the playlists are put together by people, not computer generated, and they have everything. Want to listen to vintage film scores? Tropicalia? Dubstep? Motown? 80s Punk Rock? Alt Country? K-pop? Want something to fit your mood (angsty, sexy, meditative, happy, bored) or activity (being creative, cleaning, going out, staying in, backyard campfire)?

I've loved everything I've heard so far, there's always something new to listen to, and if you're looking for great internet radio you can't do better.

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I guess we're posting about food

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 20:31:06 GMT

I just finished planning my menu for the week!

For breakfasts:

* A hardboiled egg
* A banana nut bread bar*
* Fruit, whatever looks good (maybe apricots again?)

For lunches:

* Garlic roasted potatoes and carrots
* Skillet cooked kielbasa and spinach (like this, minus the potato. I want to do them separately)
* Apple slices
* Pumpkin spice cake (this one, with canned pumpkin instead of apple)

Dinner's a fend for myself type deal. Usually cereal or pasta.

Now I just gotta get to the store, make everything, and bag it up.

* Normally I make bran muffins, but I don't want to bake more than one thing tonight.

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The Electric Lady

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 04:29:02 GMT

Speaking of music, did you know you Janelle Monáe's new album is advance-streaming here? It is! The album itself drops on Tuesday, I'm still trying to decide if I want to preorder and get the limited edition 7 inch or if I just want to wait for the full album on vinyl. In addition to the CD. This is my life now.

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Drifting: Newt and Hermann

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:07:50 GMT

In which I watch 15 seconds of a shitty Pacific Rim cam, on repeat, in slow-mo, for ~~fandom~~ science.

Newt and Hermann are first up, Raleigh and Mako should follow later this week.

( ...Or I'm dead. In which case, ha, I also win. Sort of. )

( We do this... together. I'll go with you. )

Side notes x2: every time I watch this (which has been a lot) I can't help thinking god, I hope they went straight to medical after the movie ended. They're both had seizures (multiple for Newt), plus their blood pressure's elevated so high they've ruptured shit in their eyes and noses. That is bad.

Side note x3: Shitty cam is really shitty, guys. If you want to see the movie (and have access to it in theaters), go see it in theaters. I promise it's worth it.

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Fannish Things

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 20:35:47 GMT

I have seen Pacific Rim, which has all the giant robot vs giant monster action you could possibly want. Plus Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Mana Ashida (who plays a young Mako Mori and is absolutely amazing), and Burn Gorman (I regret his casting in a movie already too full of white dudes, but I did love him. ... I was going to add 'viva la Torchwood!', but the irony burned too much.)

Also saw White House Down (I was in the movie theater for a while) which was wonderful action schlock and Despicable Me 2, which, well. Had some entertaining bits, but mostly I resented the overwhelming, unnecessary heteronormativity, ugh. And! ( Spoiler! ) At least some of the minions got to be vaguely queer.

I've also, like most of Tumblr, been sucked into Welcome to Night Vale. I'm all caught up except for today's episode ("First Date", ahhhhhh, I am excited) and thoroughly enjoying its adorable, terrifying weirdness.

( Fic recs under the cut! )

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An excellent reaction

Wed, 29 May 2013 15:26:21 GMT

I said back in December that the Robot/Shadow stuff in Gunnerkrigg Court was "obviously setting ... up to parallel Kat's gay freakout". I didn't realize (I should have) that the fans ("fans"?) reaction was going to parallel as well.

Youtube user mikahmomo has a response. (uh, spoilers if you're not up on the last couple of pages.)

ETA: I found the video via The Young Doyley, who writes a comic called Knights Errant that you should read.

Also, the more butthurt comments I read the funnier/more frustrating they get. Gunnerkrigg already has two canonically queer couples, I want to yell. How quickly you forget your angst over Zimmy and Gamma! And Robot and Shadow!

And, okay. Gunnerkrigg does not spell shit out. There are dozens of story threads, many of which develop quietly in the background of other story threads. This can be frustrating in the webcomic format. It's easy to forget details. But even with that, Kat's magical journey of self discovery has been really obvious. What is this 'out of nowhere' bullshit, where is your reading comprehension.

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Webcomic rec: Vattu

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:39:45 GMT

I said, way back in 2010, that Rice Boy was a beautiful comic but bad about female characters ('it's also needlessly, obviously lacking in women (and the, like, two that are there are stereotypes)'). I've been rereading the Overside stuff* because it's kind of a Big Deal in webcomics and I, dunno, felt like I should? Because I love webcomics and want to talk about them.

Anyway, my opinions on Rice Boy and Order of Tales (which I hadn't read before) haven't changed much - they're lovely and strange and... pointed, I guess? With strong central themes. And not great about women. Order of Tales' main (almost only) female character is a walking plot device - there's lip service about her not wanting to be taken any where, about wanting her own path, but in the end... I was ready to be really pissed about it. Or at least wearily disappointed.

ButI Instead! I moved on to Vattu (the story currently running) and holy shit, someone must have talked to the author, and/or he did some learning, because there are women flipping everywhere. The protagonist, the titular character, is a girl! There are women who are fighters, priestesses, princesses, chemists, toymakers, members of a secret society, who are well rounded, distinct, with full character arcs... ugh.

Vattu is an excellent comic in other ways as well - it's about empires and expansionism and colonialism, about questioning authority and tradition, and, mmm finding and keeping ahold of yourself, maybe? Anyway. You don't need to read the other Overside stories to read Vattu and, while it's on-going, there are 422 pages to read before you're caught up. You should read it!

* Overside is a world - a storytelling device, really - created by Evan Dahm. A bunch of stories, including Rice Boy, The Order of Tales, and Vattu are set there. It's published as a webcomic.

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have not seen any actual peach trees

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:31:36 GMT

I'm spending a couple of days in Atlanta (well, Roswell, which is just to the north) visiting my dad and it is ridiculously, stupidly pretty out here. Trees! Trees everywhere! There are a ton of people living out here and you can't see them because 1: hills and 2: TREES. Plus flowers and vine things and tiny winding roads and perfect weather (after it stopped raining). It's exactly the mini-vacation I wanted.

I've also been working on transferring my webcomic feeds from Reader to Netvibes - it's only been 24 hours, but it seems to be doing the job so far. Although it doesn't seem to have picked up today's Nimona update yet...

I'm following 26 webcomics. There are another 14 in my 'check out/catch up on sometime soon' file. Webcomics are some of my very favorite things and there are so many! I should get working on an updated cool comics on the internet post.

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Movie night has more murders than expected

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:25:59 GMT

About half way through Heathers. This is not what I was expecting at all.

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Reading Discworld

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:31:11 GMT

I haven't been reading many book-books lately, mostly endless amounts of fanfiction. And then, two weeks ago, I decided I was going to read all of copperbadge's Stealing Harry (there's an ePub and everything!). It was apparently a run up to something since, in the last 7 days, I've read 6 books. Discworld books! I'm working on the Watch books - currently through to The Fifth Elephant - with a detour into the more general Ankh-Morpork stuff. Moving Pictures (just finished), The Truth (up next), etc.

I flipping love Discworld, you guys. And I never really made it past the late 1990's, chronologically-wise (aside from the YA books + Monstrous Regiment), so there're 8+ books I've never read before. It's like Christmas.

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Wedding and gender stuff

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 04:41:13 GMT

My sister is getting married in October! She's been with the guy forever and they've already bought a house together so functionally nothing will change, but it's still very exciting. She wants me to be her Maid of Honor, which is also very exciting!

She also wants me to wear a dress, which is... less so.

The thing is, I haven't worn a dress since senior prom, circa 2003. I've gradually faded 'femme' out of my wardrobe - I wear jeans and button downs and polo shirts, dress shirts/vests/slacks if I'm going out and want to impress. I don't call myself butch - I still do makeup and nail polish and limited jewelry - but I'm definitly not femme. I'm also, finally, the most comfortable I've ever been in my body.

My parents get this, a little (although I'm pretty sure they think it's a sexuality thing, not gender expression), and are backing my 'No Dresses' stance. We're working on some sort of tunic + pants compromise, which'll be a pain to put together in my size + her wedding colors but still better than anything from David's Bridal.

This is the first time anything like this has come up with my family, so I'm still sorting though my comfort zone vs my sister's feelings vs general familial harmony. It's tricky. Hopefully I'll do okay (and find a fucking tunic that works).

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