Dira Sudis

I have been reading a lot of really awesome fic lately, to the detriment of my focus on Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, which is also awesome but involves a lot of people dying but, thus far, no one having scorchingly hot sex on-page. (I'll let you know if that changes.)

Anyway, here, share my screwed up circadian rhythm! Read these things!

( Generation Kill, Nate/Brad genderswap )

( The Hobbit, Thorin/Bilbo soulmates )

( Skyfall, Bond/Q action-adventure angst romp )

( The Eagle, Marcus/Esca Esca-in-the-Roman-Army AU )

1) I have not only lured kass into reading and watching Generation Kill, now she's written fic! Check out her awesome Nate/Brad combat jack porn: Fantasy.


2)

Oh yeah, that's the 750words.com Nano badge and it is MINE. I wrote 50,000 words in 27 days, writing at least 750 words every single day. \o/


...I am still not even close to being done with ANYTHING. /o\

I have been reading things!

Two of them I read on my phone before getting out of bed this morning, because I like to start my day off right:

Lullaby (1186 words) by Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ludmilla "Drou" Droushnakovi, Kareen Vorbarra, Gregor Vorbarra, Steggie the stegosaurus, Serg Vorbarra
Summary:

Steggie is having trouble sleeping.

This is my brand new instant head-canon for Drou, and a painfully gorgeous look at her and Gregor and Kareen in the last days of Serg's presence in their lives. And I got about halfway through it before I was thinking, "Awww, I want to write Vorkosigans."


A New Dance (859 words) by Philomytha
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aral Vorkosigan/Alys Vorpatril
Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril
Summary:

The first time Aral and Alys kiss. A Reconstruction 'verse fic.

This one will not make sense if you haven't read Reconstruction first and, note pairing, it's a 'verse where Cordelia died in the rescue mission to get Miles during the Pretendership. It left me thinking "Aww, I want to write Vorksoigans in hideously dire circumstances." But that is probably a rabbit hole I should not venture down, with the wolves breathing down my neck.

---

Today I also finished reading a book to fulfill my self-assigned quota of Books That Are Not SF or Fantasy and Are Popular Among My Library's Readers And/Or Books Clubs at My Local Bookstore, which I more pithily describe as "Oughta" books in my booklist. (Previous books read for this category include Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Room, all of which I have quite liked.)

This past week I read Paula MacLain's The Paris Wife, which I found fascinating but don't quite know how to talk about, which is a peril of reading and being fascinated by books about how the other half lives.

The book is about Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, and as the title suggests it follows the arc of their marriage, much of which was spent in Paris. But what it's really about is a non-writer in love with a writer, following him into a circle of friends who are all writers or artists or critics or otherwise creative people (and ultimately losing him to one of them). It's a beautiful book, and it's impossible not to feel for Hadley, but I kept having this disconnect whenever I tried to put myself in her shoes as she felt increasingly isolated and marginalized--because in the same circumstances I know I would have my own work to turn to. It's a weird kind of, idk, certainty privilege, and I don't know that I've ever read anything else that pointed it up so sharply.

On a much shallower note, more or less my entire knowledge of the creative expat scene in Paris in the Twenties comes from watching Midnight in Paris, so I spent this whole book picturing Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein and Tom Hiddleston as Scott Fitzgerald and Corey Stoll as Hemingway, which did not at all detract from my enjoyment. *g*

So I have two tiny nieces and one somewhat less tiny nephew, and because I am doing my part to bring them up right, they LOVE VIDS. Specifically they really, really love Charmax's Mr. Blue Sky WALL-E vid and gwyn_r's Hold on Tight Rataouille vid and kuwdora's Love Letter Lilo & Stitch vid.

And those are all AWESOME, FANTASTIC VIDS that I and the other adults in their lives have now seen WAY TOO MANY TIMES. So now we need help, internets. Please, please rec more vids for the six-and-under set.

They get pretty bored by anything that doesn't come from a source they're familiar with, or doesn't at least look like a source they're familiar with--they were reasonably receptive to watching YouTube clips of Fantasia the last time I got tired of replaying the same few vids over and over. (Sadly they were not so into the awesome Gene Kelly vid, although I think I could have Stockholmed them into it if the family reunion had lasted another day or two.)

OTOH, they are young enough that the scary parts of Fantasia are too scary for them, so, for instance, the recent very cool vid by ... somebody ... to Tragic Kingdom, with all the scary/depressing parts of Disney Movies, would not help. They were somewhat upset even by the alligators being sinister in the direction of the hippos.

Please? Internets? Save my brother's sanity and give him some new vids for the next generation of fans to watch? :D

Yesterday I drove down to iulia's and we wound up watching three movies together.

First we went out with her husband to see Cowboys and Aliens, which I adored, for lo, my needs are simple: Daniel Craig wore chaps and had a blaster gun and was a morally ambiguous badass woobie. The dog didn't die. SOLD.

The hilarious part of going to see Cowboys and Aliens was this: I have a full-body startle reflex that kicks in when I'm watching movies. I think it mostly only happens in the theater, where I get sufficiently immersed in what I'm watching. When there is OMG UNEXPECTED ALIEN, I jump in my seat and throw both arms up to face-height. The hilarious part is this: I also had that exact same physical reaction during the previews, when there was OMG UNEXPECTED ALEXANDER SKARSGARD in the trailer for Battleship.

(Nice, lovely, Navy guy OMG YAY unexpected Alexander Skarsgard, just so we're clear. But I had exactly the same startle reaction anyway.)

(Also amusing, I think there were True Blood fans sitting a little way behind us, because toward the end of the trailer I heard "It looks like him. But isn't he Swedish?")



Secondly we went back to Iulia's and watched a DVD I had checked out of the library and must remember to return tomorrow: I Love You Phillip Morris.

a) This is a scrweball comedy (based on true events) about the epic gay love of Jim Carrey's character for Ewan McGregor's character. THEY FALL IN LOVE WHEN THEY MEET IN PRISON. THEY WRITE EACH OTHER LETTERS. THERE IS RUNNING ALONG A FENCE YELLING AT THE PRISON BUS. THERE ARE LOVELY GUYS DOING STUPID, STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE. EWAN MCGREGOR DOES AN ADORABLE SOUTHERN ACCENT. THERE IS SOMETHING SORT OF FASCINATING GOING ON WITH THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EX-WIFE, I MIGHT EVENTUALLY HAVE THINKY THOUGHTS WHEN I STOP CAPSLOCKING.

b) WHY IS THERE NO FIC FOR THIS MOVIE ON THE AO3 YET. WHYYYYYYYYY.

c) Due to a certain affinity of tone, Iulia and I have already plotted out a crossover with The Big Lebowski.



Thirdly we watched X-Men: First Class in an unspecified but totally not illegal way.

ERIK LEHNSHERR ILU. WHAT WAS I JUST SAYING ABOUT MANPAIN AND HOT HOT COMPETENCE.

Then this morning I read my first piece of XMFC fic, What Not to Expect When You're Not Expecting and now I fear I have been ruined for all other fic, in this fandom or possibly all fandoms ever. <3________<3

But, you know. Feel free to rec me things that will prove me wrong.

I am supposed to be writing something other than this post right now, so here! Have a post.

Save the princess, save the world. Or, well, play more video games to save the world. A TED Talk by Jane McGonigal, who is totally not just trying to secure her job by getting us all to septuple our playing of online games. (Although I think you could argue that fandom serves the same functions for many of us, actually. Hmm.)



Unrelatedly: remember how one time I was all excited because I had had the idea of a Stargate SG-1/I Spy fusion where the CIA sent covert agents through the gate to other worlds to quietly and deniably foment rebellions against the Go'auld and get in adventures and stuff?

So today I started reading a book all about how in 1963 the United States opened the first "Turing gate" to an alternate reality, and immediately started sending CIA operatives through to alternate Americas to quietly and deniably foment rebellions in universes where the communists or fascists or etc. had taken over. <3_____<3

(A Turing gate is totally not a Stargate because when it activates there is a red mirror instead of a blue wormhole! And also it has a different name. That is how you can tell.)

It is Paul McAuley's Cowboy Angels (you can read the first three chapters online at that link) and while I'm only about 30-some pages in I am REALLY EXCITED. And so far I think the hero is a little more Jack O'Neill than Kelly Robinson, but I am actually pretty okay with that.

From my unsystematic ramblings through the archive so far, courtesy of the handy-dandy Share button:

( Mythbusters RPF (gen!), Hockey RPF (also gen!), Live Free or Die Hard, The Charioteer - Mary Renault, The Alexander Trilogy - Mary Renault, Pride & Prejudice/Temeraire )

This is my first full week at the permanent location of my new job (...did I mention the new job? surely I mentioned the new job) and I have to work Saturday, which means I have tomorrow off. So... sort of the weekend, sort of still the work-week. I get to sleep in tomorrow, is the main thing.

With numbers, so I don't have to think of transitions:

1. I get to sleep in tomorrow and then go (indoor) climbing, which I have been too exhausted or otherwise discombobulated to do any earlier in the week. I went for the first time on Saturday (hooray local Groupon!) and promptly came home and joined disobey_gravity, because that is what a fangirl does when she finds something awesome. She joins the relevant comm. ♥

(It was exhausting and daunting and I fell a lot, but that is what the harness and rope and padded floor are for! And, you know--climbing on things! My inner bookcase-scaling toddler cannot get over being actively encouraged to climb on things.)

2. I shall not mention when, exactly, I have been having periods of time on my hands with access to the internet but not the freedom to visit overtly fannish sites, but the point is: I have been reading Arthur Conan Doyle courtesy of Project Gutenberg. ( No spoilers, just rambling. )

3. Speaking of writing/head-exploding, I have just made what I think is the fourth start on the Aral/Jole story. Writing is hard, dog bites man, etc.

(Seriously though--I am trying to write Aral Vorkosigan coming to terms, emotionally, with honest polyamory. I BET DRINKING WOULD HELP.)

3a. ( I tell myself the worst bedtime stories. )

4. So it turns out I'm pretty much making a living wage now. Recent Amazon purchases include: Private Investigator Varg Veum: The Complete First Series (Uhh... sure. Call it whatever you want, it's the first six Varg Veum movies in shiny Region 1 DVD!), I Spy Season 1 (I am officically un-adopting Bill Cosby as my TV Dad. He is too mind-bendingly hot as Scotty. I cannot cope. By which I mean, I LOVE THEM.), and, uh...

( One other thing which I feel kind of sheepish about buying. )

5. Awesome, amazing trailer for Stargate SG-1: The Movie. I really need to go rewatch all ten seasons right now.

6. That reminds me, kuwdora has made a wonderful Castle vid! Suddenly I See is three solid minutes of all the parts of Castle I generally want to draw big sparkly hearts around. (And, yes, it is even safe for my brother to watch.) Highly recommended for being full of awesomeness.

Or, if you are at work, maybe wait until you have a little time, because this is a STUNNING piece of fic from philomytha, about the day during Duv Galeni's senior year at the Imperial Academy when Lord Vorkosigan came to talk to the class.

Vorkosigan's Day

GO. READ.


(This is, incidentally, fic arising from the current ficathon at bujold_fic - today's stories are all about Aral and/or Cordelia!)