a conspiracy of cartographers

Mm. I have a lot of Stuff rattling around in my brain, re: the future and how the late-spring roller-coaster feeling is creeping upon me, but I don't know if any of it has coalesced enough for articulation yet. Instead I am taking the evening off, to do things like watch The Three Doctors and do that icon meme that's been going around.

( I answer these icons in batches of threes. They just look so pleasant and symmetrical this way. )

I am writing this entry on the other side of a concert and everyone else's reaction posts, so these are not really pure or coherent thoughts, but nevertheless, I saw The Eleventh Hour! ( Fnargx01: pretty excellent, really. )

I finished A Wizard of Mars! I think I absolutely loved it; but then, at least half the time when I read a new Young Wizards book it is instantly my favourite for a while. (Deep in my soul, A Wizard Alone is still probably my favourite, even though Wizards at War is the perfect storm of everything-I-love-except-lots-of-Tom-and-Carl.) This one is way up there, though.

( The rest of this reaction post is made of spoilers! It's also a bit long, kind of introspective, & has a Doctor Who crossover suggestion because that's how I roll. )

I want to write so much fic now! I want to write shippy fic, and crossover fic, and just roll around in this universe some more. Of course this urge comes in the middle of essay season, and I also have other fic projects that need to take precedence, and Doctor Who is back this weekend, ahhhh; but hopefully I will get to it eventually.

In the meantime, a Spirit-eye-view panoramic shot inside Gusav crater. Gorgeous.

Hah, wow. I haven't been online at all in days; nor have I done any homework in days. This is because I've been far too busy going to every possible panel at my college's sci-fi/fantasy/&c con, and going to a cabaret show and its afterparty and being mildly amazed that I actually got out of bed this morning, and generally having an excellent time! So if world-shaking things have happened on the internets, I am blissfully unaware.

My college's con is a lot more book fandom than my own experience at WisCon was last year; a lot of that probably has to do with the guests. I don't think all three of them have been in a panel at the same time, but in the last few days I've seen a lot of Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen, so I posit that the guest list has something to do with the tone. I do not mind at all, because, oh my god, my inner ten-year-old is hanging out with Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen!! It is just a bit weird to be harkening back to the time when my fannish experience was less media-based.

That said, I had a couple of friends dress up as Ten and Simm!Master (and when I saw them in costume together unexpectedly for the first time, I may have COLLAPSED WITH JOY); we collectively ran into a Fourth Doctor from a neighboring college; she was awesome and invited us to her con, luring us there with the promise of Doctor Who panels. There are probably pictures, but songofsongs has all of them.

I think the real point of this post, though, is a Doctor Who-related question that was brought up at one of the panels, namely, if the Doctor spontaneously turned up and asked you to drop everything and go away with him, would you? The majority of the room did raise their hand, and to my mild alarm I was among them, but I really am curious now. It would be the worst awesomest idea ever, but I would still do it! And I want to know who else would. I am a bit brokenhearted, because it just occurred to me that I currenly have no poll-posting cabilities, so I cannot actually poll you guys about this, but: talk to me! Would you go with the Doctor? Why? Why not? If so which one(s)? (Mine are probably Two, Three, Five, and Ten, not that this would save me. I would not go with Six or Eight, oh my god.)

Ahhh, I need to run to another Tamora Pierce panel. :D

Two unrelated happy things:

i. OH MY GOD WHAT, THESE PHOTOS!! I cannot believe I have somehow missed seeing this before! It's a bunch of pictures of Stephen Colbert at the winter Olympics; he rides a moose! he waves a Canadian flag! he hangs out with Johnny Weir! he wears a Mountie uniform! HE WEARS A MOUNTIE UNIFORM WHILE RIDING A MOOSE. I think important parts of my brain just broke from the awesome.

ii. Three years ago, I started watching Babylon 5, really loved it, got through the first three seasons, and then stopped because the semester had ended and I no longer had access to my friend's DVDs. We started rewatching them together at the beginning of this semester; I've now borrowed her complete season three and, because my week is scheduled in a kind of wacky and awesome way, I'm ... pretty much mainlining the entire season tonight. I'm sure I'll sleep eventually?

( Cut for ... vague spoilers, possibly? Mostly it got long. )

I am not actually ready to have real discussions about this show yet! But apparently I needed to get my joy out there. Also I am curious if anyone knows what I'm going on about or if I'm talking excitedly into a void. (If I am talking into a void? I don't know if the show jumps space sharks at some point, and the alien prosthetics are occasionally hilarious, and the special effects are low-budget early-90s, but WATCH THIS SHOW, IT IS GREAT.)

I have finally, with a little over two weeks left before next season airs, finished my End of Time fic! It exists in the main due to coaxing and sometimes threatening from filia_belialis, and was made much more presentable by the betaing of feverbeats. In the process I rediscovered my love of writing insanely at four in the morning, and also my love of John Simm's amazingly expressive face.

It is kind of a sequel to the naming of things, but only if you want it to be.

after me comes the flood, Doctor/Master, now with six billion fewer Masters and more mindsex! I still kill Ten, though. :D

i. I believe that in order to be properly fannish about due South, on this day the eleventh of March we're supposed to post Sgt. Frobisher's butchering of the St. Crispin's Day speech. But I don't like butchering Shakespeare even in the name of comedy, so: happy Fraser & Kowalski sledding into the sunset day!

ii. Spring break has officially started for me! I'm not hopping a plane until Saturday, though, so I fully intend to spend my next day or so of freedom writing (finishing??) my End of Time fic. And then I can spend spring break making sure I do not have to default on my due South big bang! in between making life plans. YAY.

iii. Assuming I get everything else done in a timely manner, I am strongly considering writing White Collar fic during the bleak gap before second season. In the spirit of this, a question, namely: what do you think are the classics (as in, "Kate always did love the classics"), ie those secret messages/heist strategies/&c that are fun and trope-y? So far my list is write secret messages using lemon juice and no one's dead until you've found the body, but that is a set of bullet points, not a list. Ideas?

(If you answer this question by linking to TV Tropes, I will sic the Cthulhu in my icon at you. I'm so serious.)

There's my show! :DDD

( White Collar 1x13: made of awesome again. This post actually got quite long. )

I really love the notion of the Fandom Appreciation Challenge, not least because I have not spent enough time appreciating fandom lately and having a structured forum in which to do so sounds great.

Day 1 is reccing three challenge stories or fanworks. Here is a mix of current tabs:

1. By Way of Explanation by ncc_gqmf is possibly my favourite Slings & Arrows story ever, and made me love Ellen more than I thought possible.
2. Return: 2009 CE by opalmatrix is a Good Omens story in which Aziraphale and Crowley check up on Adam, and I may be massively in love with Pepper.
3. The Right Mistakes by tibbystardust is a due South story about Ray Kowalski, on the quest, learning that he's not a screw-up.

Now I am off to write more of my End of Time fic! I am actually writing it properly now. Possibly because filia_belialis will kill me in my sleep if I don't.

Question time!

I have been, very slowly, writing my show premise for the create-your-own-TV-show meme that's been going around. It is very fun! I feel extremely self-indulgent! And I have hit a sudden casting roadblock. In my vague desperation, I've been wandering around and grabbing my friends at random, demanding, "So I've got a Callum Keith Rennie character who's sort of a combination of Duck and Uncle Johnny! He needs a male love interest! WHO THE HELL DO I CAST?"

Now I'm grabbing the internet and asking this question! (By the way, the answer is not Paul Gross. Because he's the third season villain. *cough*) Two of the more emphatic answers I've received so far have been Hugh Dillon and Joe Flanigan, but those both seem really, really self-indulgent, so I don't know. Throw random actors at me! Be self-indulgent yourself! There has to be someone out there who is right for this.