a conspiracy of cartographers

It occurs to me that I may be terrible at New Year's resolutions in part because my brain thinks of years as having September-August cycles (ie the way a school year/summer break is scheduled) rather than January-December ones. Leaves beginning to turn color? Time to figure out what habits and schedules to change in order to optimize the year! I think this means I should take advantage of my brain's comfort with fall as a time of change in order to make some nicer habits!

Obviously one of these is posting to DW more often. I have stopped worrying and learned to love twitter, but it has no archival-diary function, which is my favorite thing about journaling sites. Also, wow, being able to condense my thoughts is a nice skill, but at this point I feel like I need to relearn how to uncondense them. And so: an uncondensed list of things I would like to do!

1. Get back on tumblr tbh. I need to just pare it down to people whose posts I consistently like, and then give myself a half-hour time limit per day and make myself stop after that before I can go into a weird guilt spiral about never catching up. It's okay, self. Tumblr is infinite.

2. Stretch in the evenings?? The apartment of Gondor often mainlines shows in the evenings (the past few months it's been Warehouse 13); this is the ideal time to roll out a mat and unwind a bit. I have a job that has a lot of heavy lifting! My back has been REAL MAD lately! I should be kind to my body, it's the only one I get unless awesome cyborg enhancements are coming to the general public sooner than I anticipate.

3. Enjoy some new media! I ... have peaced out of Doctor Who so hard :( Instead I am watching Outlander, lololol; I definitely want to give Farscape a go, since it's all on Netflix. (I am told that the viewing order is in some way fucked?? Any pointers from people who know Farscape would be much appreciated.) I have also fallen back into the habit of reading actual books; just finished Jemisin's Dreamblood duology, and Leckie's Ancillary Justice is next on the list. EXCITED.

4. Write ... some books ...? I mean, I have a post-Thor 2 plotty political fic to write with filiabelialis, and unrelated shorter Loki/Amora and apparently Sif/Lorelei fics, and probably some Gamora/Nebula if I can bring myself to care about the GotG part of the MCU enough; but then I also have some original projects to finish! And to start! And to middle! I think the takeaway here is that, just as I need to block out a half hour per day for tumblr and then call quits, I need to block out probably an hour per day for writing (and then NOT call quits if the writing is actually working). When my days were more structured I got lots more writing done per month, so now that I have a job with weird hours I need to do my own structuring.

5. Gonna learn to vid! This has been a backburner resolution for a while, but verity has offered to actually teach me, so hell yes I'm doing that. (She's also offered to teach me how to break an egg one-handed, as per Thor's skill at that in her fic halfway between the gutter and the stars -- GO READ IT it features the very best Thor -- but presumably learning how to break eggs will take less time than learning how to vid.)

I think all this is doable! It'll be nice to settle in and work on getting comfortable inside my life; A and I just redecorated the apartment, so physically it's lovely to be in; I've had lots of summer adventures and am happy to lay low for a bit. Such good summer adventures, though: some New York friends came up to Boston and took me to a One Direction concert with them, which was pretty great; the following week filiabelialis and I went down to NYC to visit (mostly different) friends. And I think I want to get back into the habit of having a narrative for adventures, either the gallivanting ones or the at-home ones. I like the way it makes them feel more permanent.

The problem with going out and getting things done is that I now have a backlog of things I want to talk about! Anyway, the best thing I have discovered recently: Six Things from History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly. Dazzlingly glittering pyramids! Technicolor Parthenon! Sneaky historical clothing! It makes me want to write all the fic warms my geeky heart.

My currently-open wikipedia tabs are pretty great. What do the deluge myth, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the University of Paris have in common? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. I am now tempted to click the 'random article' link and then make myself write Methos fic about it, actually. Trying it, the first article that comes up is on Beryl Davis. I have never heard of Beryl Davis before, but apparently she was a singer during WWII and knew both Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra. The fic writes itself. I could do this for hours.

More importantly, though, because I have talked through my shame for loving Highlander (no more shame! yay id show! \o/) I think it is high time that I recced some fic. Alphabetically and with enthusiasm:

Adam and Joe by genteelrebel, Methos/Joe & Duncan/Methos. I don't actually know where to begin talking about this one, because it is kind of amazing in its scope: it's a recounting of Methos' life from 1986 to 1998. In certain ways, this fic is downright evil. It blends canon so seamlessly, turns it into such a coherent emotional arc, and explains Methos so damn well, that it is threatening to rewrite all the personal canon in my head. It has a pretty unique and fairly creepy (but awesome, so awesome, and about as kinky as I have never known I always wanted) take of Methos and Duncan's relationship, complete with a really different interpretation of the Double Quickening than is the norm. It also has an OC I am quite a bit in love with, and an actually happy ending for Cassandra. And Joe is the best Joe ever; I want to take him home and keep him. Caveats for this being one of those deliciously long fics (we're talking in excess of sixty chapters here) that are probably best savored over the space of a week or so.

Brothers and Other Strangers by Valentin, Duncan/Methos. After Bordeaux, Methos takes avoidance to really impressive new levels. (On reflection, Methos-with-amnesia is a weirdly more common fandom trope than one might expect.) I love this one because I love stories about Adam Pierson the defense mechanism. Caveats for the usual frustrating treatment of Cassandra and a, ah, early-2000s website background. Can't do much about the former, but setting a blank page style should fix the latter.

The Fourth Son by Lanna Michaels. This is everything I have ever wanted in a fic about Methos and Kronos, and it's just them talking for a few pages. I spent most of it clawing at my face with joy anyway. But then, I can be a bit strange about Methos and Kronos. (Didn't I say? Id show. Also, pairing type. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.)

Sacred Trust by Lanning, Duncan/Methos. All my favourite fics are necessarily ones that I think understand Methos, but this one really gets it; there's such a depth and intricacy to the bits of Methos' past we do see that I've been many things suddenly starts to make sense as a concept. This is another one of those fics that I find difficult to separate from canon; of course this is the true story of Darius' Light Quickening, and of course the Watchers are terrified of this particular Immortal, and &c. Caveats for length, a narrative that is quite angry with Duncan, actually, and for the general unpleasantness of Methos' past.

And lastly, a vid: Commercial for Levi by Gianduja Kiss, wherein she was actually awesome enough to put my Theory of Methos' Boyfriends into vid form. (By which I mean that it feels like she reached straight into my head, not that she actually knows me from, heh, Adam, and did it with any particular intent.) Actually, hell, this is a blanket rec, just watch everything this woman has ever vidded. It's all fabulous.

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.

Incredibly strange discovery du jour: my aunt, who I have not seen for a few years, looks really scarily like Stella Kowalski. Same haircut, same coloring, same lines around the mouth. I am slightly freaked out by this, but in the best possible way (& she is my favourite aunt, so I may accidentally like Stella better because of it).

Never mind that; before I dive into a round of belated Christmas and New Year's celebrations with the extended family, I am taking the time to post my Yuletide recs! I have probably passed over many undiscovered gems, but this is my list of favourites from the main archive.

( 34 recs: Anthropomorfic, Black Books, Calvin & Hobbes, Chuck, Dalemark Quartet, Discworld, Eastwick, Eddie Izzard, Enchanted, Graveyard Book, Hazards of Love, His Dark Materials, Hot Fuzz, Hunger Games, King of Shadows, Lilo & Stitch, Life on Mars, Love Actually, Pigeon Series, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Slings & Arrows, White Collar, Whip It, & Young Wizards. )

Next: look through the separate Yuletide Madness page! I was unsure at first, but I think I love the AO3's organization of the archive this year.

Flash Forward finally did something to merit an actual reaction with words from me! ( Cut because it is spoilery and capslocky, not for length. )

Okay, I feel better now.

In other better news, polybigbang has already done awesome things like produced the Slings & Arrows fic I never knew I desperately needed. It is, mm, canon-adjacent rather than really canon-compatable, but my god, I don't even care, it is fabulous. Trespass sweetly urged, Oliver/Geoffrey/Ellen, be still my heart.

Some fairly random miscellany to dump. In no particular order:

i. In the spirit of procrastination, I'm rewatching a Best Of Flashpoint. To my vague surprise I actively ship Ed/Greg this time, and my crush on Jules may be bigger than my crush on Ed. Possibly this calls for one of those "fictional women I have crushes on" posts; I am not doing one right this second only because I don't have crushes on any of the women in due South exceptmaybevictoria and Fraser in a dress does not actually fix this terrible problem.

ii. A fic rec: Three of Cups, which is a Harry/Dumbledore fic but please, please don't let that stop you. I went in to beta it expecting to put on crackfic goggles to spare myself the pain, and instead between beta corrections found myself typing things to the tune of, "Why didn't JKR follow through on these themes?? My god this is AMAZING," so yes. It comes really, really recommended.

iii. I didn't hear about it until today, but it's sure as hell worth mentioning: there's this neuroscience survey about fandom going around. It wants to examine the innate biological differences between male and female brains; it's condescendingly fascinated by fandom phenomenons like Kink Bingo; it's written by people who are outside the fandom and obviously don't know how to even begin dealing with fandom discourse. DON'T TAKE IT. Here is an in-depth explanation; here are some helpful links to discussion. I wanted to see what the actual survey questions are (at the moment; they keep changing, which should let the methodology speak for itself) and it's possible to go through the survey without answering any of the questions, but I did this in the knowledge that they do have my IP address logged now.

I think there were actual Emma-Watson-circa-GoF eyebrow gymnastics going on while I was reading through the survey. There were the out of left field questions; there were your usual "We assume you must read slash for a particular set of reasons, listed below, and we want you to chose from them without additional input space" questions; there were the "obviously all slash has a dom and a sub character; it's time for a heterosexual assumptions party!" questions; there was fabulous question 5, What is your relationship status? for which the only responses were married, single, in a committed long-term relationship, and other, which kind of boggles me because even Cosmo and, um, possibly Facebook, know better than that.

I am really particularly fond of question 20, though. It wants to know if you can remember a number of seemingly arbitrary things, the last of which is the first time you felt guilty about a sexual feeling, and this kind of sums up the whole problem for me, that assumption. Most, if not all, of the other things listed there are apparently normal things that one might have memories of, although I can't say what my favourite TV show in sixth grade was because we didn't have TV, and it's entirely possible that someone taking the survey won't yet have a first kiss to remember, and &c. Am I supposed to have felt guilty about a sexual feeling? I'm sure it's all tied up (argh unintentional pun forgive me) with Kink Bingo and with enjoying slash and all those other funny fandom practices! There must be some guilt in there somewhere. And you know what? No. Fuck that noise.

In the main when people outside of fandom try to talk about fandom -- the perennial and recurring "wow, slash! what a strange little subculture! how those heterosexual white women in their thirties like to spend their free time, golly!" article blurbs, the recent School Library Journal article that appears to believe that fanfic is the province of Harry Potter and Twilight, and that if you tell your middle schooler to simply google 'fan fiction' you might have even the slimmest chance of not turning up some porn on the first page -- I find it ... I don't know what word I'm looking for. I hear the tone of condescension and rather than getting my hackles raised I mostly just feel condescension in return. In this particular case, though, I want to firmly escort the survey-makers the hell off my lawn, or whatever the appropriate metaphor is; I think I'm finally tired of being qualified and explained away by people who have no idea what the fuck they're talking about.

Big Bang that is the F/K/V s2 AU: 6740 words long, most of one episode remixed, maybe one third of part one (of six) completed. Times listened to Hard Core Logo soundtrack on loop: I have lost count. New Canadian Actor Bingo square filled: Bucky Haight as an unexpected tattoo artist in The Promise; I'm pretty sure I've finally stopped laughing. Maybe. At least he did not actually give Fraser a tattoo of a Candian flag with an oak leaf in the middle.

I had a horrible pounding headache earlier, probably because I was busy writing until my eyes crossed and forgot that I sometimes need to do things like eat; I have had toast and apple juice (little kid comfort food is TOTALLY VALID) and the room has decided to stop spinning. I am pretty sure the axiom about laughter being the best cure is still true, though, because I am feeling decidedly better now that I have come across Canada Does Hogwarts. It's basically one big inside joke, and possibly a little to my horror it succinctly explains my love for the C6D fandom -- I say to my horror because I now think that Callum Rennie earnestly explaining that really you are playing Quidditch against yourself is the height of humour. It also seems that I have seen exactly enough C6D stuff to get every single one of the jokes, about which I am irrationally pleased. And the room is still stable, but I am pondering the wisdom of going to bed early (rather than trying to write more, wtf self) and I cannot actually think of a graceful way to end this entry. Read the fic! It is extremely short and quite funny! Good night.

Kicking off the blog's inaugural fandom post with wingfic is kind of weird (particularly because except in special cases I don't really get the intrinsic appeal), but what the hell: I think it is very important that I rec Lift, because in my determined read-through of the entirety of ds_flashfiction's archive, I've hit the Reality vs Whimsy DS Match and am very much in love. Lift is about Ray Kowalski waking up with wings, except in this one they're there instead of his actual arms and are actually a horrible impediment; it's also a Ray/Ray fic that turns into a Fraser/Ray/Ray one partway through, which is how I am discovering I really like my OT3.

Tangentially, I am in the midst of a DILEMMA. It is not a very terrible dilemma, because it is about ... how I will waste my time watching tv ... but it goes: I had this wonderful plan wherein I would get out of school and promptly spend my first week or so of relative freedom mainlining a rewatch of due South. I want to do this [a] because I love dS but I suspect I do not give Vecchio enough of that love, and also there is something horribly wrong with a world in which I can quote all of Mountie on the Bounty but none of Call of the Wild, and [b] because then I can take Really Epic Notes (probably to be inflicted shared here) and consequently finish any of the roughly ten due South WIPs I have lying around. On the other hand, the stupid Star Trek film has filled me with Star Trek love, and I have seen about a total of zero Star Trek ever -- so I am equally tempted to go track down all of TOS on YouTube. Me & silly sci-fi are good buddies, and possibly I am not a very good geek if I only know the vaguest things about Star Trek. Also, wintercreek was kind of evil and linked me to a site which includes historical notes with some of the oldest known slash; it should be unsurprising that this phrase turns my knees weak with joy.

So what is better, Epic Due South Rewatching or Epic Star Trek First Watching?? IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION.