Or dearest to me, at any rate. First of all, take a deep breath, I'm easy, I promise. (Just ask anyone I know!) And, since we obviously have awesome things in common, I already like you! I'm predisposed to thinking whatever you do is awesome!

As a general note: I like slash, I like het, I like gen, I like angst, I like fluff, I like action. For the most part, as long as the story is interesting and shows some of the characters' internal workings, then it'll be amazing.

Being Human: I'd really like this story to revolve around the central characters, but I threw Gilbert in there because he was such a boon to Annie, and he's my favorite. You don't have to use him if it's going to give you a headache, though.

Kings: I am so, so very sad that this show was canceled that any kind of continuation you want to do will be appreciated. What I would really love to see is how David, Michelle and Jack are coping, but if you want to use any of the other characters, that would be lovely.

True Blood: I just love Godric and Eric, so uh, have a field day? I haven't read any of the books, so you don't need to work that in, but if you do have that knowledge and you'd like to, feel free.

If you have any questions I'm sure the mods will be more than glad to help you contact me. Or if you like, you can leave an anonymous comment here. So long as that's kosher with the rules and all. Or, you know, I won't tell. :p

Good luck, and I can't wait to see what you do!

I don't even know why it won't just move the files into a folder so I can just link to the folder, but there you go. Some time ago I told nunshavingfun that I'd try to get her the UK Audio version of Good Omens, read by Stephen Briggs. My only issue with that was that the audio book contains a lot of files, and the individual cds are more than 100mb each, so I didn't know how to upload them. Finally someone told me to just use HJSplit and I took them up on it. What that means, is that if you dl these files, you'll need to dl HJSplit to put them back together. After that what you'll have is a zipped folder of the audio book of Good Omens. It's incredibly easy and fast to use HJSplit, in case I just scared anyone off. I mean, I figured it out.

I'm posting this here because I told OTHER people I'd let them have the files too, if I got them upped, but I don't remember who you are. So take them if you want them. Have a field day guys, but drop a note and let me know if you take them, yeah?

Good Omens.zip.001
Good Omens.zip.002
Good Omens.zip.003
Good Omens.zip.004
Good Omens.zip.005
Good Omens.zip.006
Good Omens.zip.007
Good Omens.zip.008
Good Omens.zip.009
Good Omens.zip.010
Good Omens.zip.011

In other news, I didn't get 3000 words written last night for Nano, but I did get 2525 written. Not sharing any snippets, because it was largely drivel-y dialogue that I'm going to change, because it's too obvious. But at least I'm being accountable. Somewhat.

It's so funny to be going to Nano meetings. The MLs for my city are people who are in my writing group, so I know them pretty well. I haven't been to writing group in a while though, and apparently we've gotten some newbies since then, because a woman I'd never met before asked me last night if I was just there for Nano or if I was interested in being part of the group. I was just like, 'um, I've been a part of this group for years. I'm a founding member of this group. So...yes?' But life has a way of moving on without you. I really should start going to writing group meetings again. They make me happy. Those people make me happy. I had stopped for a while before Boy moved, because I felt guilty not spending as much time with him as possible. I don't need to worry about that anymore.

AND TONIGHT I'M GOING TO SEE SAY ANYTHING AT THE SOCIAL AND I'M FUCKING STOKED ABOUT IT. I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO CONTAIN MYSELF. *vibrates*

So, I have this friend, bewize. Last year she introduced me to a competition called therealljidol, and I was glad that she did. I enjoyed reading her posts each week and watching her take their prompts and make them her own. I thought about doing it this year, but it's just getting started up right now and I have an apartment to finish unpacking and Nano to prep for and vlogs to make and all sorts of excuses to not really put myself out there and be judged. But still, I like it. So she's convinced me (to convince myself really) to play along at home. I won't be judged, but I'll sometimes grab the prompts and run with them. I hope you think what comes out is interesting, or silly, or insightful.

And well, if you don't, that's okay too. It'll probably be a lot like what you already think of this journal.

* * *

Recycling Plastics

I've recently moved, and as much as I love unpacking, I've been dragging my feet. This move signifies something, even if I'm not quite sure what yet. Unpacking just makes that thing permanent, and I don't know how that makes me feel. But, since I'm not going to be the only person in this apartment I thought it only fair that I get all of my shit out of the middle of the living room floor. That's the reason I was sitting on the floor for two hours last night organizing my CDs and DVDs.

( You know how when you haven't opened a box in a while you start to wonder why you have it in the first place? )

Thank you for humouring me there. I think I might enjoy doing these things. It's a different tack to the way I usually blog. And apropos of absolutely nothing, I watched the first episode of Generation Kill tonight, and secondstar will be happy to know that I enjoyed it immensely. I kind of can't wait to watch the rest. And read the books. God. More books. *looks around at all the other things I haven't read*

So, this past Friday something AWESOME happened. And by awesome I mean ecstatically awesome. Like, I even told Justin that they were awesome, and that is awkward but it HAD TO HAPPEN, OKAY? OKAY. AWESOME. This past Friday my dear theemdash hosted a wizard rock show IN HER HOUSE. I'll just let the awesomeness of that statement sink in.

( Good? Good! On to the pics and vid! )

The day after the wrock show we still had scifigirl on loan so we decided to kidnap her and take her to EPCOT for the Food and Wine fest. Hilarity ensued. scifigirl, barbed_whispers, and I were douchebags, Em was old, Jess was in search of cheese goods. ( I did not get pictures of any of the cheese goods, sadly. )

And that's how I spent my Columbus Day Weekend, by KL, age 27. How are you guys? Do anything exciting this past weekend? Even get the day off? I spent most of my day off unpacking the kitchen. For someone who actually enjoys unpacking, I'm being a massive fail face about it this time. I don't even know.

Boy: it really is amazing how different of a world it is here than in Orlando
Boy: I've yet to run into non english speaking folks here, but the number of jacked up pick ups is a lot higher
Boy: also, no christians singing, but there are crickets
KL: I think it's just that in 'Dina, the Christians have the decency to sing only on their day of the week.

On the one hand, I don't like being reminded about how differently he's living than me right now. On the other, I really wish the Holy Land Experience would catch fire. (Yeah, I live across from that monstrosity that pretends to be a church. I'm actually very curious about it, but I refuse to give them money because they're run by one of those fringe Christian Zionist groups that wants to turn Jews into Christians. Just let people be, irgh.)

AND SPEAKING OF CHRISTIANS. This afternoon I went and hung out with theemdash and scifigirl and we watched a movie called Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. It was just as amazing as it sounds, and Sara spent much of it going 'WAIT, WHAT?' Basically, the vampires have been stealing lesbians (because no one will miss them due to their deviant behavior) and using them in skin graft operations to make it possible for the vampires to walk about in the sun. Jesus must stop them, aided by Mary Magnum and the Mexican wrestler The Saint.



so, that movie won an honorable mention at a film festival and I am never going to make fun of Jensen or Jared for lacking the acting skills EVER AGAIN.

Go back to day three!

Sunday started late, much later than I was intending to start it, anyway. I had good intentions of getting up at 7:30 and being in line for the Gareth David-Lloyd panel, and I did get up! But by the time I had done my hair and taken all the pics from the night before off my camera, I was falling asleep sitting up. So instead of going to the panel I went back to bed until ten. Though, because of that I went down to the Abney Park booth to buy a CD about 10:15, which was just the right time, because I got to meet Nathan and have a lovely conversation with him. He's very welcoming and friendly. Have I mentioned how I love that band?

( Pictures and video of the Hellblinki Sextet and random con goings on. )

After that my remaining time was mostly spent sleeping and packing and dealer rooming and driving the six and a half hours or so home. None of that is exciting. But thank you guys for rolling around in this joy with me. Only 359 or so days until I get to go back. Can it be next September now?

Back to day 2!

Saturday didn't start as early as Friday, but it was still about 7:30 when I dragged myself out of bed. The first half of the day was kind of a blur. barbed_whispers and I sat in on the Weird West panel (which you can read a little more about here), and then theemdash and I showed up to the DarkHorse presents panel early and busted in on some sort of Joss Whedon acting game. I'm telling you, this whole busting in on panels we know nothing about strategy really worked out in our favor for the most part. The DarkHorse presents panel featured both Scott Allie and Georges Jeanty and was entertaining and informative, so I can't slight them for anything. I do wish it had been a little more about DarkHorse titles that aren't tied to some sort of Whedonverse, though. *cough*UA*cough* I realize it was a part of the Whedonverse track, but it was the only DarkHorse panel that I could find this year.

( Pics and video of costumes, Abney Park, Voltaire, and Hellblinki Sextet. )

And that brings Saturday to an end. I stumbled up to my room much like I had the night before. Head over to my last post, which includes more Abney Park and Hellblinki Sextet, and a whole lot of ridiculous. ♥

It really wouldn't be a KL Dragon*Con recap without the steampunk, would it? This year I went to quite a few steampunk panels, to varying rates of success. I have two panels that I wanted to touch on more in depth for those of you who might be interested.

1.) I enjoyed the Weird West panel, because that's not a section of steampunk I usually dabble in, so it's good to get recs and see where people are going with that. I really, really disagreed with one of the panelists, though. Her basic point was this: If you're at the beginning of any given technological advancement, then everything that you create with your new found tech feels like magic. Anything is possible. Because of this, it's okay to hand wave the science in your story, because it's the story that's most important.

Now, I agree with the feeling of magic and wonder and endlessness that new tech can bring to a society. I think it's wonderful, and I love it when a steampunk (or any other scifi) author tries to capture that feeling. What I don't agree with is the idea that it's okay to hand wave the tech aspects of your story. If your story can survive without the tech aspects, why is it steampunk to begin with? If your story is independent of the feeling of wonder and possibility, of the creativity of doing something we in the present do every day in a new way, then why not just set it in already realized history?

Though, I think part of my negative gut reaction to this idea is that I worry that when we get this whole ball rolling on the novel, we'll be seen as outsiders. On the other hand, we work really hard on, and pester mckays_lab to help us in, making sure that the science is possible. Theoretically anyway. I'm not about to inject cobalt into my arm to find out. There's bleeding for your art, and then there's bleeding for your art. I like all my blood on the inside, thanks.

2.) The Rule, Victoria panel was the best one I sat in on all weekend. The panel included two professors (who said that they were Victorianists by trade, which I didn't know you could be, now I'm all second thinking not getting that Lit degree) and two authors currently working on steampunk projects. ( Now, it would take forever for me to rehash all that they said, but I'm going to leave my notes here by panelist... )

Back to day one!

WHY IS HE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN!? Man. Friday started very early. Not as early as I was anticipating it starting, since scifigirl decided that she didn't want to get up at 4:30 to be in the Shatner/Nimoy line at 5am, but early enough after very little sleep. As an added plus, though, I got to talk to unexpected!hermione_like for a short while as we were both waiting for our groups.

( Click on the cut to hear about Shatner and Nimoy, GDL and Marsters, Tom Felton, Abney Park, and more... )


From here, head on to day three, which is a day heavy in steampunk and rocking out to awesome, awesome music, including more Voltaire and Abney Park, with a little bit of the Hellblinki Sextet sprinkled on the side!

I've decided to do these in a weekend review type of way, so I'm going to be breaking them up into bite size chunks. The first day was relatively uneventful. After what I think is an ungodly early start (I got up 6, was at barbed_whispers place by 6:45) we got to honkie_mcgee's, got some breakfast, and got on the road. I pretty much sucked it up at the game of Cows! for the entire trip up. Ah well.

( Click for continued rambling and pictures and video including Voltaire )


And that's it for day one. It felt long by the time I dropped into bed, but the weekend was just getting started. I think that evening I got about thirty minutes of sleep collectively. It's always good to start a trip in a deficit, yes? More exciting.

And now on to day two! Including the likes of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Gareth David-Lloyd, James Marsters, Tom Felton, and Abney Park.

Hi, for those of you who don't know me, my name is KL and I'm going to be taking the reins on dinner for our first night at Dragon*Con. myras_girls was kind enough to do some snooping around, and I can happily say that we're going to be eating at Max Lager's Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery at 7:30 on Thursday evening. The grill is located at 320 Peachtree St., one block North of the Hyatt at Peachtree & West Peachtree. If you would like, you can visit their website here.

Now, we're trying to make this as easy as possible on everyone, so I need a little bit of information from you. Em would like to emphasize that we would like to keep this as close to our immediate parties and their roommates/drivers as possible. It would be impossible to wrangle restaurant space for 40 people.

Poll #1451808 Max Lager's
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

I will be attending dinner Thursday night with KL and Em's group

I will be accompanied by these people: (please leave lj names if you can, so we can double check to make sure someone doesn't get counted twice)

We're all going to be incredibly busy, and I know that once people get to Atlanta things sometimes get scattered, so it is your responsibility to let us know if your plans change. It's one thing to ask for a table for 20 people and only have 15 show up, it's another if the problem is the other way around. (On the flip side, it's my responsibility to let you all know if something changes on this end. Man.) The restaurant does seem to have an online reservation service which I'd like to utilize if possible, so poke your friends if you know they're part of our group and get them to answer ASAP. I'll put in the reservation Thursday morning before I leave for Atlanta if at all possible.

If you'd like my phone number so you can let me know if things change or if you get lost or something, please leave a comment asking for it and I'll leave it for you in a screened reply. :)

ETA- I have reserved space for twenty people! If all of the maybes show up we'll just beg to pull up chairs. Aaaaaand...I'm spent!

My alarm didn't go off this morning. I'm late for work! But I have to share this, because quite a few of you helped last time and some wanted to know what else you could do after waywardradish called a halt to those e-mails. It's time. Because of the aforementioned lateness I'm going to copy her post:

I need your help.

WordPress Dude has crossed the line from prototypical corporate self-interest (and therefore disinterested even in matters of institutionalized child abuse and molestation) to being outright spiteful, condescending and deceitful.

I'll post the entirety of this dude's unbelievable correspondence once I end up finishing this new site--dgljalkjfdlkaj there are not enough hours in the day and it's not yet midnight and I'm already exhausted. I have to concentrate on getting as much done as possible in the very small window of time that WordPress Dude allows me access to my blog (he keeps demanding I change posts on my blog and then immediately freezing it so I can't so much as edit posts, much less make new ones).

This guy is driving me crazy and half-starved with this trick of his, and he knows it.

Please e-mail tosreports@wordpress.com with a short, concise protest against WordPress censoring survivors of child abuse at the behest of the very people responsible for our abuse.

You don't have to put anything specific in the subject line this time.

Also, just because this dude is acting a certain way doesn't mean we have to--as always, please observe the height of courtesy.

Please--your e-mails were the only thing that managed to get the blog back online and enable me to access the content I need to export. I just need this small window, then I can rest...

And here, copperbadge has once again kindly provided a template:

I strongly protest the suspension of the Wordpress journal childtorture.wordpress.com. It is a vital and invaluable resource for holding therapy survivors, and has assisted individuals like myself in becoming educated about this practice. Holding therapy is abusive and lethal and aimed at children, who have no voice. The documentation it presents includes firsthand experiences, eyewitness accounts, and news, medical, and legal documents available to the public.

In suspending this journal you are doing both the community and your own public image a severe disservice.

Please remove the suspension on this journal and give abuse survivors back their voice.

If you have any questions about this cause, you can read up on it at the now-suspended, not yet invisible site here.

Thank you very much for your continued help in this matter. I know it means a lot to her. (I'm leaving the post open this time. Feel free to share this and any links I've left.)

And now, I'm off like the white rabbit!

ETA- WordPress has decided to shut down A Search for Survivors entirely. This decision saddens me, but waywardradish made a post thanking everyone for their support. It's unlikely that new e-mails sent in to the WordPress TOS department will be paid any attention. She has set up a mirror site here: http://attachmentquackery.wordpress.com/.

I follow the lj and blog of waywardradish, who is doing an irreplaceable and much needed service in the name of holding therapy survivors, of which there seem to be very few when compared to the amount of holding therapy victims. Right now she needs our help. I'm going to steal from copperbadge's post.

As many (I hope) of you know, one of my friends, waywardradish, runs a support blog for survivors of "holding therapy", a dangerous, abusive, and sometimes lethal practice performed exclusively on children. Predominantly aimed at adopted and foster children, who often have no strong advocate and like all children have little physical defence, this abuse can involve wrapping them in blankets until they vomit, holding them down until they lose consciousness (or die), and forcing them into humiliating and terrifying situations over which they have no control.

Her main site, A Search For Survivors, has been suspended by wordpress because she has become visible and is being targeted by practitioners of holding therapy, who are threatened by her voice and (one hopes) losing money because of the truth she's telling.

A mirror of her likely last post on wordpress is here, and links to a survivor's account:

"The therapist diagnosed me with ODD and RAD and my sister with RAD, she showed my mom how to do 'holding therapy.' She ignored the fact that our adopted father had physically and sexually abused me and that restraining me sent me into panic attacks...Everyone in the room was helping to hurt me, and like a rapist, they told me when I just stopped fighting and took it like a good girl, everything would be okay."

I strongly urge you if you have a spare moment to send a letter of protest regarding the suspension of this journal to WordPress at tosreports@wordpress.com and to pass this message along.

Put this in the subject line: [WordPress #352210]: 493@childtorture.wordpress.com

She asks that you phrase any protests, inquiries and arguments with the utmost courtesy. This is the letter I have sent, which you are welcome to use:

I strongly protest the suspension of the Wordpress journal childtorture.wordpress.com. It is a vital and invaluable resource for holding therapy survivors, and has assisted individuals like myself in becoming educated about this practice. Holding therapy is abusive and lethal and aimed at children, who have no voice. The documentation it presents includes firsthand experiences, eyewitness accounts, and news, medical, and legal documents available to the public.

In suspending this journal you are doing both the community and your own public image a severe disservice.

Please remove the suspension on this journal and give abuse survivors back their voice.

Email Copypasta takes a minute and a half, but it means a lot to Radish and to abuse survivors to know that they're not alone. Please lend a hand. Thanks, guys.

Please, please, please help if you have the minute and a half it takes to copy and paste copperbadge's message. I copied and added a few words of my own and now it's been sent off into the ether to do its magic, but these can't work if there are only a few. What waywardradish does is beautiful, and it needs to be done. Her detractors have shut down everyone else and now they're trying to shut her down too. We can't let this happen. If we have the luxury of being thankful that this didn't happen to us, then we can also do what we can to help.

Thank you very much for reading this.

I'm going to leave this post unlocked. I know, that's how excited I am. A couple of months ago, I spent the early morning hours of a school night flailing in comments with delustre over this stupid idea I had. I've since flailed at other people, and none of them did the responsible thing and told me not to do it. Therefore, I bring you the Scattering Stars project:



The video explains it pretty succinctly. If you'd like to read more about the project, you can check the website here.

I ask that you please pass this on. Share the link to this post, the blogspot, or the video, but I want to cast as large a net as possible. Let's get out there and decrease world suck!

Okay, so Panic is breaking up. I know some of you are amused. Some of you are distraught. A lot of you have no idea what I'm on about, but really, is this a new problem? Anyway, barbed_whispers started a trend on twitter earlier that I think we can all get behind. THIS BAND NEEDS TWO NEW MEMBERS, AND YOU GET TO DECIDE WHO THEY ARE. No really. Who do you want to replace Ryan and Jon? Or for that matter, who do you want to replace Brendon and Spencer? The sky's the limit, as is evidenced by theemdash's suggestion of Anakin Skywalker.

So let's add some levity to this downer, kids. I, personally, would like it like this:


Manips all by barbed_whispers, who is my the current leading choice for bassist.

Legs Jonas and Hair Cullen would make excellent additions to the Hips Smith/Ass Urie combo. ♥ ( BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! )

I'm gonna leave this post unlocked. Pimp it if you feel someone needs to giggle.

Amazon Rank * Amazon Rank * Amazon Rank

Leaving this post open and searchable. Amazon is taking part in some seriously questionable business practices by taking the sales rankings away from not only erotica novels of all flavors, but also books with LGBT themes that are not offensive. We're talking YA novels, bigraphies, and non-fiction works. You can find info on the google bomb here at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. There is a post which has an ongoing list of things that have lost their rankings here, and more information here.

Ugh. You guys. theemdash is trying to use up all my creativity before I turn 30. She may have talked me into doing a web comic of some sort. (And by talked me into I mean I made up a character and she went 'I think we should...' You all know I'm easy.) So yes. Our characters are the awesomest characters. They also have the daffishest hats.

THURSDAY! VLOG DAY. In which I do a dance, eat diabetes, and talk about guilty pleasures. What are your guilty pleasures flist? And if you don't have any, why or why not?



Comment, subscribe, boom de yada.

So apparently I left something out of the last post that theemdash wanted to be sure that I touched on, and that is ownership of invention. A large part of the draw of steampunk is that it allows people the opportunity to manipulate what they've dreamed up. A hundred people could think up the Warp Drive, but how many people have one? Or would know what to do with it if they did? Steampunk is, in some ways more accessible, because the parts involved are available to most people. You can convert your car to run on steam. You can rig your house for telegraph. You can build a giant spider that runs on clockwork to frighten your neighbors! Though, I wouldn't advise doing the last one. It's hands on, and creativity seems to flourish in the steampunk environment. It's just like when you were in grade school and they told you that if you could think it you could do it. Except we're not trying to instill you with a false sense of importance! :p

A few other notes from the second steampunk panel include:

* Certainty. In the novel we're working on, and in many novels from the time period, steampunk or otherwise, we're dealing with a fading aristocracy. There is a rising upper middle class bourgeois who have a feeling of certainty in the coming future. The technological advancements of the period, coupled with the feeling of dynasty and empire largely built by the aristocracy the society is beginning to outgrow, made people feel omnipotent about the wonders of the future. Steampunk tries to recreate that and create other things with it. Also noted, geniuses create their own social norms.

* Glass blowers, which we just didn't want to forget about as craftsman. ;) (My grandfather used to blow glass, actually. Note to self, ask mom about that.)


Anyway. ( ON TO THE RECS! )


Whew. And that concludes massive amounts of links which are massive. That should definitely keep myself and many of you busy for some time. If you have anything else which you think has been omitted, please share it in the comments!



Boy and I just had a whole conversation about the Vampire Death Squid from Outer Space and whether it's ocean cousins are the products of evolution or were put there to populate a colony of the master Vampire Death Squid race and the ocean was the most friendly earth environment for it. I uh, I might love boy. A lot.

I debated whether I should just post this to the steampunk filter or not, but decided against it. Technically, it's a Dragon*Con panel write up, which means it's probably of interest to quite a few of you for various reasons. More than me waxing obnoxious about the novel project of epicness anyway. (Though, there will still be flailing. Sorry.) So without further ado, write up numero uno!

( Steampunk is brilliant because it's like DDR. )


Also, I know a fair few people have joined the insanity since my last post and poll. I'm currently writing a collaborative, original fiction, steampunk novel with theemdash and I do from time to time wax on about it or post bits of character studies or um, porn. >.> If you'd like to be put on that filter, please let me know!