write like you need it to survive

So in the last 36 hours, I:

1) Finally got told my car was totaled, two weeks after the accident, started making tentative plans to buy a new car, etc.

2) Interviewed for a promotion (basically more money to do the same job). It went well, I think? I came out of it only mildly sweat-soaked. Fingers crossed.

3) Got told my car is not totaled after all and instead will be in the shop until January 9. IN MICHIGAN. WHICH IS NOT THE STATE WHERE I LIVE.

4) Wrote less than 400 words, all not-very-interesting middle bits of my Yuletide story, which still has yet to cross the 1000 word threshold.

5) Forgot to bring pajama pants for my overnight stay at iulia's (less aggravating than forgetting my hairbrush, but still not ideal).

I AM SO FUCKING DONE WITH THIS WEEK.

But tomorrow I get to watch The Nutcracker and then Spy Game with suitably appreciative audiences for each, so things are looking up, right? And I don't have to buy a car! And I still have... a whole week to write that Yuletide story. And maybe also that treat that I spent the whole drive to iulia's happily contemplating when not trying to remember if I had packed my pajamas pants.

And iulia is terrible at surprises and waiting and so gave me my Christmas present Winter Soldier hoodie immediately. So no matter how bad things get at least now I have a zip-up mask to hide behind when they do.

So I'm changing jobs (getting transferred to a much bigger library within my library system) a week from Monday. I don't really know which department I'm going to or exactly what I'll be doing or what my work schedule will be. And because the universe is full of wacky random convergences, on the same day I found out about the job transfer, I also found an apartment I wanted to move to in a very different neighborhood from where I presently live. So three weeks after I change jobs I'll be moving. Happily the new place will be exceedingly convenient for the new job! And, uh, at least I'm not changing states and time zones like I did the last time I got a new place and new job all at once. Also, hiring movers.

Anyway. There has not been a lot of writing getting done in these parts. I am developing an intense relationship--like unto a couple in a movie who meet on an ordinary day and then sixteen huge explosions later are in love for the rest of their lives--with Unfuck Your Habitat, so lots of things are getting thrown away, donated, and tidied up, which is very satisfying and sort of reassuring in the way that covering one's windows with plywood and laying in many gallons of water is reassuring.

Plus, today on UFYH I saw this gif:



And, realizing the double-Scottish adorability bound to result from Karen Gillan being interviewed by Craig Ferguson, I went and looked for the clip. I wound up watching this one, instead:



...From which I conclude that Karen Gillan, when not being Amy Pond, has not quite got the hang of a) staying upright or b) being interviewed. Which is sort of adorable in its own way, but not entirely what I expected.


Unrelated to any of the above, after eight episodes of watching them be bestest partners (well, okay, like, six episodes of bestest partners and an episode and a half of MISERY), this week toward the end of Southland I was suddenly beset by the desire for Sammy/Ben. It seemed almost plausible during one three-second pause in a conversation, and then it went away.

I just thought you should know.

So, hey, Southland! It's kind of a novel experience watching this show one episode at a time with weekly intervals (I got hooked on it after S1 ended). So, here, a little post-ep fic. With thanks to iulia for keeping an eye on my tenses and general encouragement. :)


Sherman and Cooper, gen. 1,166 words.
post-"Unknown Trouble." Ben realizes something.


( In an Instant )


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/543761.html.

1) I am going to see two concerts with iulia in the next two weeks: The Mountain Goats, and Greg Laswell. (He turned out to be touring in places other than Michigan after all! Like, Chicago! On a Thursday night! Caffeine is my friend! \o/) Why yes, I get all my new music from my flist and vids.

Madisonians: anybody else going to see the Mountain Goats on November 6? Anyone else interested in going to see the Moutain Goats?

2) Seriously, Torchwood calendar? An entire month of Jack and Gray? Seriously?

3) So I am kind of eh in retrospect about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and I stopped halfway through Yiddish Policeman's Union and remorselessly returned it to the library, but for whatever reason I bought Gentlemen of the Road at some point and on Friday (after finishing Libyrinth <3 <3 <3) I picked it up and then polished it off in 48 hours. So I guess third time's the charm for me and Michael Chabon novels.

It maybe didn't hurt that I mentally cast Zelikman as Paul Bettany on about page five. And that it totally surpassed all the vague expectations of slashiness I had attached to it. Also, I see it's nominated for Yuletide! *beams hopefully at Yuletiders*

4) Do you remember when I was summarizing bandom stories I am never going to write, and posting the summaries? Yeah, I'm still doing that, but it turns out I'm distractible and bad at summarizing. Which are two things that I'm sure no one knew about me up until now!

5) Writing the Southland telepathy story has gotten to the level of derangement where I have added "If You Could Read My Mind" to my regular playlist. Shut up, it's actually sort of appropriate. In a way.

(I am not sure what my excuse is for "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy" except that the files are like right next to each other, and it's November, and shut up, Gordon Lightfoot is awesome.)


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/530920.html.

Last night I was fretting a little about whether I would have my Southland fic ready to post before S2 starts (at which point, given the slightest provocation, I expect to become an ardent John/Cesar shipper).

Tonight, googling to figure out what @Cudlitz was talking about, I discovered that Southland's S2 premiere has suddenly been pushed back by four weeks, to Oct. 23.

I don't know whether to be bummed or worried for my show or terrified of my own powers.

In any case, that gives everybody who might want to catch the first season before jumping into the second an extra four weeks to check it out! It's a mere seven episodes, and four of them are on Hulu!


PS Do you think there's some way I can leverage this to make the next Vorkosigan book come out sooner?


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/523638.html.

a) I finally have a Star Trek icon! It is kind of epic! And is emblematic of my total failure to appreciate Spock properly! Sorry about that, iulia! His paramount importance is implicit in the unified direction of every gaze!

b) I might love @Cudlitz even more than @MishaCollins. His camwhoring is a lot more straightforward. Plus Bonus Ben! Southland style! (NB: I choose to find Mr. Cudlitz's decision to take up ten percent of any given tweet with extraneous punctuation charming. Your mileage may vary. BUT COME ON JUST LOOK AT HIM.) (This represents less than forty-eight hours of tweeting. I didn't even include the ones from stunt school in Canada.)

c) kalichan made a Doctor Who vid to "This Year" by the Mountain Goats! Go! Now! Watch it twice!

Adorable Det. Sammy from Southland is Colby's wicked ex-boyfriend Dwayne from Numb3rs!

So I was vaguely determined--having seen half the pilot when it actually aired--that if I was going to get into Southland I was going to do it in a linear fashion, which is something of a novelty for me. Show first, then fic! Crazy!

So for some reason last night I decided, around midnight (having already taken today off to have a post-weekend-vacation decompression day), that this was the night I was going to start watching. And then I didn't stop until I'd seen the first five episodes and it was 4:30 in the morning.

Um. So that may have been a bad idea, but otoh, you guys, I think someone looked into my brain and then created John Cooper just for me. ♥♥♥

Now off to watch the last two. And maybe that little bit from ep five in the tattoo parlor over again. And again. And maybe one more time.