Somewhere East of Life

Got three hours of sleep last night before I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. That lasted about 3 or 4 hours before I crashed again. Woke up really groggy. You know, the kind where you walk into walls and it takes you three tries to make coffee because you keep missing steps?

HP FanFic Rec
I've been reading the cutest story. It's slash with a Harry Potter/Voldemort pairing. Not my usual cup of tea, but the author of this one was absolutely brilliant in the touch of humorous schmangst that's spread throughout the entire story. It's not currently finished, but it's regularly updated.

Title: The Black Bunny
Author: Windseeker2305
Summary: Harry's had it with his destined role after the Order does something he can't forgive. Now he's done with both sides of the war and wants to be left alone. But since when have his wishes ever counted for anything?
Pairings: Harry/Voldemort, Draco/Weasley Twins
Warnings: Slash, Mpreg,
Spoilers:

A Night Out
My mom and I were invited to the symphony. I love music like that! Mom and quickly realized though that we're very short on clothes to wear to such an event and we're going out shopping tomorrow. Hopefully I can find something cute! I'm thinking of getting a maxi skirt and blouse. Simple and easy. Not entirely sure though.

All Gaga'd Out
Lady Gaga is freakin' everywhere for her new album. All over my Facebook games I see little tidbits for Gagaville and it's driving me nuts. She's quickly reaching saturation critical mass with me.

Now I say this knowing full well that if Tokio Hotel pulled the same stunt I'd be all over it and squee'ing like the fangirl I am.

While we're on the subject of musicians...
I actually watched a music video that wasn't Tokio Hotel. I know, weird but true. I'm in love with the latest single from Beyonce. It's got a sweet retro beat to it that just makes me smile. Just caught the video today it it brought tears of righteous joy to my eyes. Women kick ass, don't we?

I'm such a wuss when it comes to new fandoms. My first instinct is to look for a crossover with my current fandom of choice.

That's exactly how I found this one. It's a little awkard at times, but I adore their Sherlock. Socially stunted, blunt, and yet still loveable.

Harry Potter of Baker Street by Dayja

Summary: Sherlock Holmes discovers family he never knew he had, and John Watson finds a child living in the cupboard. Crossover between BBC Sherlock and Harry Potter.

Excerpt from Chapter 8: (Sherlock's brother has attempted to introduce Harry to appropriate wizarding families)

"Well," she finished with after all that, "I can see you are Lily's nephew, same eyes, though you didn't get her red hair…well, but here I go on and on, and I'm sure the children are bored to tears. Why don't we let them get to know each other and we can…"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sherlock interrupted, "While social interaction is important for childhood development, forcing Sherrinford to interact with…"

"What Sherlock means," John interrupted quickly, "Is that perhaps six children at once is a bit much for Harry at the moment."

"We'll keep the petrified one and the mute one. Please remove the older screechy ones." And Sherlock smiled politely, while the other adults stared at him.

A group dedicated to Twincest for the Kaulitz twins of Tokio Hotel (TWCKaulitz.com), all spanish speaking of course (thank you Google translators!), has released an English translation of one of their works.

It's presented as if you're reading Bill's diary from his time on the recent Humanoid City tour. Brilliant work, though it was a bit hard for me to understand in spanish (as some things don't translate right). As it is, it's very cool to finally see it properly in English (though I admit it's got a few grammar mistakes... I'll be working with them in the future on some of their English translations to correct things like that).

The first entry was posted today, and you can find it here.

If you're at all curious, and can read spanish without problems, you can find the original version here

It seems today is EXCLAMATION POINT DAY!!! LOL, sorry.

shiny_glor_chan did a neat meme where she writes a lil' fic based on whatever icon you respond with. I chose this one... *points*.

She says he looks sick, and came up with this.

It's Season 6 Angel (which I haven't read, but now I'm curious) and does Connor and Spike in the scene together.

*claps* Go! Read!

!!!!!

Who the hell asked for snow?!
We're getting snowed in over here. It's a bit late in the season for it, but I won't complain if there's school closures involved. Numfar, do the dance of Snow Day!!! Luckily the SaiMom and I had our bad weather early warning system kick in (migraines from hell) and thought to get all our shopping done before it hit.

On a side note for this, I'm amusing myself with watching the Weather Channel. There's this news guy reporting on the blizzard in North Dakota. He's out there in 10 below (F) weather saying such things as, "It's so cold here my eyes keep freezing shut!" They keep zooming in on his eyelashes waiting for them to stick.

Yes, weather people are nerds too. Apparently...

We has presents!!!
Yes folks, you heard right: I went Christmas shopping. Well, okay, food shopping too. But the Christmas shopping is done. The cards are filled out and ready to be mailed even. The presents, while not wrapped, are still all ready to go. Why yes, I am proud of myself. Why do you ask?

Behold, she writes!
In fandom news, I am writing a holiday story. You can thank lazuli_kat. It's for her annual Spander Christmas thingy, aptly titled Spander Illuminations. My day is on the 22nd (I think...). I'll post more as the day approaches.

This year's story for me involves actual research. So far the muses are working well with me. It'll be an interesting one. It's an idea I've been working on for ages. Should be interesting. There also might be graphic to go with it. We shall see.

Slashy Rec: Stargate Atlantis
Ah, and while I'm at it, I've got some interesting story recs for you. It's for the Stargate Atlantis fandom. I've been interested in the odd camaraderie between Todd the Wraith and Sheppard. As it turns out, there's some kink for it. Got a short list for you. Feel free to add to it:

• "Dancing With the Devil" by kiku65
• "Simple Truths I" and "Simple Truths II" by sylvanwitch

Music
Pull up a browser and take yourself over here. If the link doesn't work, then go to Yahoo! Search (because they pull up video and music links with the search) and look up "Amon Amarth".

I must have watched these guys for endless minutes, watching their heads going around, and around, and around. The spinning heads, and the twirling hair...

It's truly mesmerizing. Also kinda makes me dizzy watching it.

On a side note, their song "Thousand Years of Oppression" almost has a tune to the lead vocals.

Happy
Top five things that made me smile today:

1. Children's laughter
2. The sound of going under a bridge with the windows rolled down
3. Chocolate Zingers
4. It's my Friday! No work for me tomorrow.
5. Most excellent traffic conditions for me wherever I went today.

Book Rec
Finished a new book from the library. Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It was an interesting mix of fantasy and science fiction. There were metal dragons that were fueled by magic. Also? There was slash. It was a rather awkward start, but it smoothed out about a quarter of the way in. The only thing that totally sucked about it is that they made me wait until the last few pages to get my happy ending. Damn those girls!

Summary from Publishers Weekly:

"Jones and Bennett vividly convey the testosterone-saturated world of fantasy fighter pilots in this fast-paced debut. When the stereotypically Asian Ke-Han threaten the Volstov empire, graduate student Thom is sent to rehabilitate the Dragon Corps, an ersatz air force of rebellious, violent young men who fly enormous metal dragons animated by magic. As Thom struggles with his task, challenged most by the brutish ace Rook, the Margrave Royston, banished for an illicit homosexual affair, befriends Hal, an innocent but brilliant tutor who eventually becomes Royston's lover. These four join minds and skills to solve the mystery of a devastating plague and defend Volstov from the foreign army. The insular corps culture of combative homoeroticism and masculine archetypes dominates the book, as female characters fade far into the background. Despite few surprises or original flourishes, Jones and Bennett credibly bring the decadent empire and its inhabitants to life."

I made it to about 12:30pm yesterday before I crashed, without having made pancakes or cleaned the kitchen with an old toothbrush.

I only took a nap for about an hour though.

When I got up I did half a sink of dishes before getting bored.

I then proceeded to reorganize my computer. Found a nifty site that turns graphics into ico files, along with several collections of system icons. I'm now the proud owner user of a snazzed up computer. (from stuff all found here)

I'm sure my mother will be thrilled when she sees the Dracula icon (pic) I replaced our C drive standard icon with. She should be thankful I didn't use the mummy one (pic). Or the werewolf (pic). (from the Haunted Hard Drives collection)

I went to bed about midnight and didn't wake up again until 10:30am. My cat tried to wake me up for food about 8, quite cutely I might add, to no avail.

Note to self: Your body doesn't run well on 5 hours of sleep when you get up at 3am.

P.S. Apparently the forgetting to eat (I ate a little) caught up with me and I also lost 2 and a half pounds from yesterday.

I've been looking for this one for ages. I remember starting it, but for whatever reason either didn't finish or didn't bookmark it to keep up. I'm recc'ing this one for two reasons: 1) I love the story, 2) I'm bound and determined to have made note of it in several locations so I don't lose it again.

Status: WIP
Title: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Author: Ten Toes
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3615871/1/Two_Sides_of_the_Same_Coin
Summary: AU. Petunia & Harry become a team, and Harry finds the wizarding world much earlier than anyone suspects. He hides his Slytherin self under the guise of a naive Gryffindor. He also hides the wizard friendships he made years before Hogwarts.

Notes: The smallest changes in Harry's life make huge impacts on the rest of his life. What if his Aunt and him ended up working together to keep Vernon and Dudley happy? How much different would his life turn out if by that teamwork, Harry is given the opportunity to learn about his parents and his true self as a Wizard at a much earlier age. How would that change things?

It's not my usual cup of tea, honestly. For one, there's no slash. Not one hint of kink in site. But I absolutely LOVE "what-if" stories. It really is a good read. Harry might be a bit off in this one, but it seems more because you see more of how his mind worked at that age. It's fascinating to see these changes in his life as they occur, then to see how it affects the rest of his life. Alas, it's not finished, but for me at least it's worth it to keep an eye on the story.

I know I've been promising a list of story recs for forever now. I've finally compiled one, though admittedly it was in an effort to bring a friend of mine to the dark side as it were. She's come to like the stories involving Severus and Harry, and this list was an effort to expand her horizons a bit.

She will only read completed stories, so this list is only those stories that are complete. The list is sorted by site.

( HPFandom.net )

( FanFiction.net )

( ForeverFandom.net )

( TheSilverSnitch.net )

   


Mobile Slash Center
There's a new toy out called the Amazon Kindle.  Dood.  I so want one.  Just think of all fics you could load on this thing!



They say that you can put 200 books or whatever on it.  You can also email word documents and photo files to it.  *smiles an evil grin and rubs hands in glee*

Nano: Imminent Failure
In other news, I'm not going to meet my goal for the Nano.  On the bright side, I've got a decent story fleshed out.  I'll be continuing on with it after November.

Turkey Day Food Adventures
Thanksgiving with my Mom was a quiet affair.  It was just the two of us.  We had all the fixings, just in smaller amounts.  We made Turkey/Chicken Gumbo Yaya (turkey broth with chicken bits so we could save the turkey for sandwiches) and plenty of sandwiches.  Speaking of which, I had my first hot turkey sandwich ever (open faced sandwich, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy).

I made the Brandy Pecan Pie again.  It's become a favorite.  Last year when I made it there was too much booze in it.  I didn't cut down on the Brandy, but I did use half the amount of Bourbon Vanilla in it.  Probably could have done without using the Bourbon Vanilla all together, but it's all I had.  I'll have to post a recipe for it soon.  It was really good, and super easy to make.  Came out nice and chewy rather than the hard and crispy versions I'm used to having.

Wheeeeee!
I need to catch up with everyone here.  Have been AWOL for a month or so.  I've got a ton of recipes and fic recs to share.  Hopefully I can get those up in the next week or so. 

Hope everyone had good holidays.  *hugs all around*