KJ

Final Fantasy Kiss Battle returns!!!

2021-02-04T07:36:04Z

seventhe and lassarina have brought back one of my favorite fandom events ever, the Final Fantasy Kiss Battle!

This is a prompting game where all the prompts include kissing, whether romantic, platonic, familial, or otherwise. All Final Fantasy canons, broadly defined, are welcome. Fic, art, and all media types are welcome.

I definitely know what I'm doing this weekend...

So exciting!! Thank you, Sev and Rina! I want to kiss YOU.

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Dragon Age Codex Meme

2020-11-03T00:51:00Z

I wanted to give this a little more visibility than where it's currently hiding in my November writing goals post: two lists of prompts for codex entries about Dragon Age OCs. One; Two. The first is more generic; the second includes DA:I specific content.

This strikes me as something fun and light to work on this month. I probably won't post them all individually, but here's the first:

( A description of your OC from someone who hates them )

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A Music Meme

2020-09-14T23:15:38Z

Ganked from wordweaverlynn, and about the right level of brainpower for me right now. Name one song for each category; try not to use the Internet to look anything up (I did confirm a couple of artist names).

Something To Wear: These Boots Are Made for Walking (Nancy Sinatra)
Something To Drink: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (George Thorogood)
A Place: Graceland (Paul Simon)
A Food: I Want Candy (Bow Wow Wow)
An Animal: Cat's in the Cradle (Harry Chapin)
A Color: Orange Crush (R.E.M.)
A Girl’s Name: Come On Eileen (Dexy's Midnight Runners)
A Boy’s Name: Jeremy (Pearl Jam)
Profession: The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
Day of the Week: Blue Monday (New Order)
A Vehicle: Little Red Corvette (Prince)

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Meme?

2020-02-13T16:33:00Z

Hey, remember when we used to post long lists of questions and answers on LJ? I miss those days. I saw this one on Facebook and thought it might transplant nicely here.

40 odd things about me (I might say idiosyncratic rather than odd, I feel like most of these are fairly usual?):

1. Do you put ketchup on a hot dog? Yep.
2. Choice of soda? Coke (made with sugar), San Pellegrino sodas, fancy low-sugar (NOT artificial sweetener) soda. But mostly I drink plain sparkling water. If an "ordinary" soda is my only option, then ordinary Coke or root beer.
3. Do you own a gun? No
4. Can you swim? Close enough.
5. Hot dogs or cheeseburger? Cheeseburger. But I do enjoy a good hot dog.
( Cutting the rest because it's pretty long )

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Meme!

2019-10-25T23:40:08Z

I miss memes. And given how many folks are relatively new around here, this seems like a good time for one. Ganked from oracne.

( Behind the cut for your convenience )

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AO3 Stats Meme

2019-07-21T05:04:21Z

Ganked from alias_sqbr. "List your top fanfic on AO3 for every year, sorted by kudos." Skipping 2019 because I've posted so little this year so far.

( Read more... )

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One more three things

2019-06-28T23:02:12Z

This is the last one in my queue, but I'd be happy to do more if anyone has any!

From umadoshi: ( Citrus, Umbrellas, Masks )

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More three things meme

2019-06-28T01:50:14Z

I have fled a busy work week and now find myself at a cafe near where I'm meeting friends for dinner in about an hour. Coffee: good, pastries: good, not being at work: gooooooood. I'm so glad I don't have to go in tomorrow.

Anyway, so this seems like a good time to work on my three things requests. Here we go!

From heavenscalyx: ( Pegasus, Unicorn tapestries, Ravens )

From chase_acow: ( Tribe, Button, Lavender )

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This post brought to you by the letter B

2019-06-26T06:10:56Z

This is for the three random topics meme. More details (such as they are) here. Want to leave me some words? Want me to give you some words? Hit me up here or there!

These words are from brightandravenous.

Birds: I don't know a whole lot about birds, although when I was a kid growing up in Iowa, my mom would maintain a birdfeeder through the winter, and we got a Peterson's Guide to Birds so that we could identify the birds that were visiting. From that, I did maintain some bird knowledge, like finches have chunky square beaks for breaking open seeds, and sparrows have longer skinnier beaks, and all the red cardinals are male. Often now when I'm out and about, I'll see a bird and be able to make some guesses as to what it is, but I miss the Peterson. I know there are various apps, but it's not quite the same as paging through the book with all it's pretty pictures.

Bats: I know even less about bats. The most up-close and personal I've ever gotten with a bat was in the Oakland Zoo, where they have a bat house. Mostly they hang around and eat fruit. They're pretty cute. The zookeepers also hang stuffed animals from the ceiling. I used to know why, but I no longer remember.

Brightness: Summer has always been my favorite season -- I would much rather be too warm than too cold -- but I can't be in the sun too long because I burn super easily. Sunscreen helps but has never been a perfect solution. So I have to spend more time hiding in the shade than I would ideally like. I have embraced hats in recent years, which also helps quite a bit.

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Three things meme

2019-06-25T16:00:28Z

Have I really not posted anything in my own space for two weeks? Sounds like it's time for a meme.

Name three words/brief topics that I may or may not know anything about, and I'll talk about them.

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Tech history meme

2018-03-22T02:01:11Z

(Remember when we used to do these kinds of memes all the time? I miss them.)

1. Did you have a cell and/or mobile phone prior to your thirties? Did they exist?
I got my first cell when I was about 30 I think. They existed prior to that -- I was one of the last in my circle to get one -- but they were just starting to become ubiquitous.

2. Did you have cable when you were a little kid? When did you first get cable?
Not until we moved to California. The towns where we lived in Iowa were too small for cable, although one was talking about getting it around the time we left in 1985. Over-the-air TV reception is quite terrible in the Bay Area because of all the hills, so we got super-basic cable, but it only covered broadcast channels. I didn't have full-featured cable until after I graduated from college.

3. Do you know what 8-track tapes are and did you ever own an 8-track tape player?
I'm familiar with the technology but I never owned one.

4. Did you own cassette tapes and walkman or tape player in high school and college university?
Yep. I grew up with cassettes in the house and I had an old-school cassette recorder that I used to make mix tapes off the radio. I got my first Walkman in high school, and I used it to listen to tapes while on the long bus ride to school. It stayed with me through college -- I got my first CD player my junior year, which was the first year I had my own form room and couldn't mooch off someone else's equipment, but I didn't upgrade to a portable CD player until after I graduated, and it was many years later before I had a car stereo that could play CDs.

5. When did you get your first DVD player?
My housemate E had a DVD player (and a laserdisc!), and we started living together in late 1995. First DVD player of my own was probably not until I bought my first computer with one, but I can't remember exactly when that was.

6. Did you learn how to type on a typewriter? Did you own a typewriter growing up?
My dad had a typewriter for his work, and I took two semesters of typing in high school (one in summer school before freshman year, one as a fill-out-the-schedule elective in my junior year) on typewriters, but we got our first computer when I was in junior high, and that's really where I learned to type.

7. What was the first computer you owned?
My family's first computer was a PC Jr that my aunt (who worked for IBM) gifted to us. The first computer I owned myself was a Mac Centra, which I bought from my then-boyfriend when I needed one for grad school.

8. When did you first get email?
In college, when we were all assigned a school email address. I think this was a common experience in the early '90s.

9. When did you first encounter the internet?
My aunt bought us a subscription to Prodigy when she got us the computer, which was probably in 1987 or '88. We mostly used it to stay in touch with her; I didn't really get into using the Internet for my personal communications until college, when it became my primary way of chatting with friends back home, mostly via email and the Unix Talk app.

10. When did you start using Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth, and Livejournal?
Facebook: I think I signed up in 2008, but I didn't get into using it regularly until 2010, right after my 15-year college reunion, when it became clear that it was the best way to stay in touch with Bryn Mawr people. In theory, I maintain a wall between Facebook and my fannish internet presence, but I've become much less strict about it since Lady Business won the Hugo and I decided I wanted to let people over there know. I still don't provide a strong connection, though.
Twitter: I joined in early 2009. I was off and on the first few years, mostly because I had trouble finding an app I really liked. I got more active in 2015 or so.
Dreamwidth: I got myself an account fairly early on, but I didn't start crossposting until sometime in 2010. However, I imported all my LJ posts into DW at some point, so this DW is a complete archive of my journal posting.
Livejournal: I signed up for LJ in 2004, when I was laid off from my dotcom job, with the idea that I would keep an unemployment journal. But within a year I discovered fandom and changed my life forever. For several months I kept up a fanfiction journal that was separate from this one (kjswritinglog), but I quickly learned that the separation was unsustainable, and I abandoned the idea. I stopped crossposting in April 2017, and although I didn't delete (I loathe the idea of contributing to linkrot), I haven't really been back there since.

11. What was your first cell mobile phone? Have you ever owned a smartphone?
A Samsung flip phone. I still miss having a flip phone for calls. I got my first iPhone in 2009 and quickly became addicted to it.

12. What was the first printer and the paper that you used when you got your very first computer? Could your first printer print photos?
The printer that my aunt got us with the PC Jr was a thermal printer, that printed everything on a single roll of paper. So you had to cut them into regular-size pages with scissors and flatten them between heavy books before you could turn any papers in. It did not print photos.

13. When you were in college/university, freshman and sophomore years, did you type on a computer or type-writer?
I had a really crappy cheapo electric dot-matrix typewriter that I used the first half of my frosh year. Then I discovered the joys of the computer center and never looked back.

14. When did you start using streaming?
I've used Pandora off and on for awhile, can't remember exactly when it started. I still prefer to own my own music, so I've never signed up for a paid service like Spotify. We signed up for Netflix streaming sometime in the late 2000s, after a few years of being on DVD-only plans.

15. When did you get your first MP3 Player? Do you even own one?
I got an iPod in the early 2000s I think, not first generation but pretty early on, and kept using them even after I got a smartphone, because I could upload my entire music collection.

16. Did you own a record player, cassette player, CD player or MP3 player as a kid or teen?
My parents had a turntable for my entire childhood, but I never had one of my own. See above for the other answers. (Of the above, only MP3 players didn't exist in my teen years).

17. When did you start blogging on the internet?
With my LJ, in 2004.

18. E-book reader -- when did you get one?
I don't own a dedicated e-book reader, but I got an iPad Mini in 2014, and I chose that form factor largely because I thought it would make an ideal e-reader in terms of size, shape, and weight. I have a Mini 4 now, and although I use it for many many things other than books, it's still my only e-reader (although I still read more in print than digital).

19. How do you listen to music? On what devices?
Most of the time on my phone, but I also use my laptop (which is how I'm listening right now).

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Playlist meme

2017-11-29T02:28:56Z

I came across this via alias_sqbr.

Rules: we’re snooping upon your playlist. Set your entire playlist on shuffle and report the first 10 tracks that pop up and then ~~choose 10 some friends~~ whoever feels like it can play. alias_sqbr tagged anyone who happened to be listening to music while listening, a nice idea; I qualified by that metric and also because I can never resist this meme.

1. As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins - Dead Can Dance
2. Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
3. Bring it Round - Boiled in Lead
4. The Temple Player - FFX Soundtrack
5. Deal with the Dark Lord - The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack
6. Running out of Ink - Stephen Page (live version, Winnipeg Fold Festival, 7-12-09)
7. You Will Be Waiting - Barenaked Ladies
8. One in a Million - Pet Shop Boys
9. Broken Arrows - Jose Gonzalez
10. Hydra - Captain America: The Winter Soldier Soundtrack

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2016 Year In Review

2016-12-18T08:56:16Z

Take the first line of the first post from each month, and that's your year in review.

Skipping monthly writing goals posts.

January: By canon, then order of publication. [fic master list for 2015]

February: That feeling when the research paper you're reading has the exact info you need in the appendix, and the appendix isn't included in the online version?

March: I posted a mini-rant on this subject to Twitter last month, but apparently I decided that wasn't sufficient.

April: Written for the 2016 Wintersend Exchange (a lady-centric fanwork exchange for Dragon Age).

May: Today, it was announced that ladybusiness is up for a 2016 Hugo Award in the Best Fanzine category.

June: Over a week without posting, oops.

July: Thanks to everyone for your kind words and condolences on the loss of Lexi.

August: Thanks to the recommendations and enthusiasms of MANY PEOPLE (you know who you are), I took the plunge and started watching Critical Role, a Twitch show in which a group of American voice actors play an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

September: For our special celebration of Kate Elliott and her books, I wrote a review of her most recent, Poisoned Blade.

October: I rarely write my take on scenes that are probably going to happen soon in canon, but this bunny wouldn't leave me alone.

November: To think that I lived to see the Chicago Cubs -- perennial underdogs to the point that sci-fi authors often use their losing ways as a punchline or a sign that you're in an alternate universe -- win a World Series.

December: For the first time in 13 years. [In reference to my new glasses.]

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Meme: 11 questions

2016-11-17T23:45:21Z

I was tagged on Tumblr by heavenscalyx for the 11 questions meme. I've done this a number of times, but never on DW -- it seems to mostly be a Tumblr meme. But since I prefer to home longer posts on DW, I'm transporting it here, and maybe it'll catch on. :)

Rules: 1. Always repost the rules  2. Answer the 11 random questions posted for you  3. Create 11 new ones and tag 11 people  4. Let the person who tagged you know that you answered

Tagging lassarina, umadoshi, alias_sqbr, sathari, spindizzy, forestofglory and brennacedria -- optional as always, and if anyone else wants to answer, feel free!

My answers:

1. Do you have a ghost story that happened to you or one of your family? Sadly not, nothing like this in my personal history or family lore.

( The rest behind the cut )

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Writing meme

2016-04-25T17:51:01Z

From alias_sqbr.

( Questions, answers, and a snippet from Wardens of Ivalice behind the cut. )

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2015: Year in Review

2015-12-24T19:20:53Z

Take the first line of the first post from each month, and that's your year in review.

I haven't seen anyone else do this yet, but I've done it for so many years now I can't imagine skipping it. Maybe I'll set the trend this time. ;) Skipping monthly writing goals posts and similar.

January: yohjideranged asked me about the character types I like to write.

February: It's coming! ["It" being the Dragon Age Kiss battle.]

March: Have some short fics I haven't crossposted here yet, including my stories for this year's Kiss Battles and some Tumblr memes.

April: I've been thinking for awhile that I wanted to rewatch the MCU, see where it hangs together as a single story -- and where it falls apart.

May: I don't want to write a long post getting out all my various feelings about the new Avengers movie at this juncture, because I'm going on fangirlhappyhour to chat about it, and I want my thoughts to stay fresh, not get hashed out in advance.

June: Had a fantastic weekend at the mothership [Bryn Mawr], reconnecting with old dear friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a very long time, as well as with people who I didn't know that well in school.

July: We are back from our travels [the cruise/Amsterdam trip]!

August: Just a cold, but a bad enough one that I missed three days of work and didn't have energy for much beyond lounging around the house.

September: I presume everyone who follows such things knows about the final DA:I DLC coming out next week, Trespasser. [The post was actually about Jaws of Hakkon, and re-reading it got me excited all over again. Maybe I should fire up DA:I today and send my Trevelyan through it.]

October: Don't want to look at writing goals. Do not want.

November: As threatened in my writing goals post for this month, I am taking prompts for journal post topics.

December: Despite having written like, one fic the last time I took a genprompt_bingo card, I decided to snag another one.

This feels pretty meta to me, somehow. Next year, I resolve to write about more things, and write less about writing about things.

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OTP meme

2015-11-20T07:43:07Z

Totally punting on writing a real post again because concert week. Instead, have a meme, for which I was tagged (many moons ago) by faejilly, in which you list 10 OTPs.

1. Paine/Nooj (Final Fantasy X-2)
2. (Al-Cid/)Ashe/Balthier (Final Fantasy XII)
3. Alistair/Warden (Dragon Age)
4. Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers (Marvel)
5. Parker/Hardison(/Eliot Spencer) (Leverage)
6. Olivia Dunham/Peter Bishop (Fringe)
7. Susan Ivanova/Marcus Cole (Babylon 5)
8. Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek)
9. Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt (Parks & Recreation)
10. Kara Zor-El Danvers/James Olson (Supergirl)

That last one is new, of course. I have no idea whether it has precedent in any other DC canon, but I really don't care, because my love for them is quickly approaching critical levels. They are just soooooo freaking adorable.

I'm not going to tag anyone here (though I probably will on Tumblr), but if anyone feels like playing, have at it!

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First lines meme

2015-10-31T16:06:49Z

(And so the experiment in regular Tumblr cross-posting begins. I'm not going to lie; I'm pretty excited. I hope it works out!)

maybethings tagged me in a first lines meme, which as far as I can tell is posting 10 first lines from things I've written. Without context, have some first lines:

The first thing Steve knew, after the cold and the dark and the pain like being slammed into a brick wall, was the familiar cadence of a ballgame.

It had seemed inappropriate to hold any sort of wedding festivities on the actual nuptial day of the King and Queen of Ferelden, given that the Blight had ended not even a week before, and so a formal ceremony was called three months later, complete with foreign dignitaries, a feast, and dancing.

Alistair woke in the dead of night -- jolting upright, writhing body twisted in soaked sheets -- and knew it was time.

"I still don’t understand why you forgave me, but I’m grateful that you did."

Once upon a time, there was a young summoner named Yuna.

Carlos snaps his head toward the radio and stops breathing.

The entrance of the church is dark and quiet, a stark contrast to the bright sunshine just outside, to the sounds of the street now muffled by the heavy wooden door.

"Hey Tasha, it's Clint, and it's Day 47 of watching a bunker in the middle of nowhere."

""They say that Princess Ashelia died of grief."

The newly minted Judge stood before Drace's desk, his arms stiff at his sides, his face hidden beneath a black helm.

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Age Meme

2015-09-24T06:38:56Z

The Rules: you comment saying you want to do the meme, I give you an age (give me a maximum, either your current age or some younger age, as you prefer), and you fill out the meme questions with what applied to you back then, and what applies to you now. yohjideranged gave me Age 22, which covers the last few months of college and most of the first year out (March 1995 - March 1996).

I lived in:
Then:This was a year of changes. I started out in a dorm room, a suite shared with my friend A, at Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, I moved in with my parents in Santa Rosa, CA for the summer, then into a house with my then-boyfriend and a friend and co-worker of his, in Palo Alto. That housing situation was a disaster, though, and within a couple of months we'd left the co-worker and moved to Mountain View with our friend E, whom we barely knew at that point. Fortunately, it worked out well, and he's still one of my closest friends.
Now: San Francisco, with my husband. We've been in the same place since 2000 and have no current plans to move.

I drove:
Then: I didn't have a car of my own until 1997. No car at all in college, when I lived with my folks I most often drove my dad's '89 Ford Tempo, and after moving out I sometimes drove my boyfriend's '86 Toyota Camry.
Now: A 2009 Honda Fit that was a gift from my mother-in-law when she no longer needed a second car.

I was in a relationship with:
Then: My college boyfriend G -- we started dating that September (after meeting on an airplane) and were together for almost four years. During that year, we were fairly solid. The cracks starting showing a couple of years later, when I went to grad school.
Now: T, my husband. Together going on 17 years; our 11th wedding anniversary is on Saturday.

I feared:
Then: Being broke, never finding a good job, losing touch with my close circle of college friends.
Now: Never finding a good job (this may be the thing that has changed least), serious health problems.

I worked at:
Then: First a college student, and also a student worker at the college library. After graduation, I took back my regular summer job at the local county fair until I stumbled into a secretarial job at a small architecture firm. It was kind of a lousy job, but it got me out of my parents' house and convinced me that library school was my true calling.
Now: Currently, part-time temporary at a social science research organization. There are moves to possibly make it more permanent, which I will talk about when I'm more sure it's gong to happen. It's a pretty good place to work, if not quite the career path job I was wanting.

I wanted to be:
Then: Done with school, in a stable relationship, someone who knew what they wanted out of life.
Now: An academic librarian, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards in the short term. A good partner, a good friend, more healthy, a better writer.

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Catch-up Meme

2015-09-09T06:36:33Z

I've seen a few people do this, but most recently ganked from umadoshi. I suppose it's appropriate to do a catch-up meme a week after everyone else.

So what have you been up to? / Major life changes? Same old same old?

I've been working a part-time temporary job that might become more permanent soon, but that's by no means a done deal. So I'd rather not talk about that publicly yet. Otherwise I feel like it's pretty much situation normal.

What fandom are you in/do you spend most of your time in?

Either Dragon Age or MCU, depending on the day. I haven't been participating much, though, largely because I haven't readjusted to having a job outside the house and with regular hours, and I can't really be on social media while I'm there. Also I have my irritations with both fandoms, in terms of recent content and of the communities, so it's feeling less like happy fun squee times than I want it to be.

Where do you hang out online?

If I'm being honest, I have to say Flight Rising. Breeding and dominance battles continue to hold my attention, and although the site also has its dramas, I'm way less personally invested than I am in my other fandoms. My frustrations with Tumblr as a community and as a platform continue to grow, and I'm taking a semi-hiatus from it, starting tomorrow, mostly to avoid Trespasser spoilers, but in truth I'm running on queue half the time lately anyway.

I do want to post more here, though. More books reviews? (I got some enthusiasm for that suggestion the other day, so thanks for that!) More meta in general? Respond to things on Tumblr here, where we might actually be able to have conversation about them? I guess we'll see. I've also been on Twitter more lately, because it's easier to pop in from my phone while I'm at work.

What are you reading?

I'm in the middle of two books right now: "The End of All Things" by John Scalzi, and "A Red-Rose Chain" by Seanan McGuire. End of All Things is a collection of four novellas, and I'd read the first three when I picked up Red-Rose Chain at McGuire's Borderlands event on Saturday (which was very fun!). Since I was at a good stopping point with the Scalzi, I started reading the McGuire while I was there, and now I want to finish it. So I'll probably do that, then get back to the Scalzi, then begin on the mountain of exciting books that have come out in the last two months (Court of Fives, The Fifth Season, House of Shattered Wings...).

What are you watching?

My main TV project is a rewatch of Star Trek: Voyager. At least, I'd thought it was a rewatch when I started, but almost nothing after the first season has been familiar. I'm positive I watched at least some episodes with Seven of Nine, though, because the reason I remember giving it up was because I got tired of it being the Seven of Nine show. I just finished Season Four, so maybe the part I did watch is coming up. Anyway, I'm enjoying it. It's not as uniformly good as DS9 or later TNG, but when it's good, it's very good, and I really like most of the characters (even Seven, better than I remembered).

We're also sort of slowly working on Sense8, and I've grown into a big fan of The Nightly Show and Last Week Tonight.

What are you making?

Not as much as I would like. I went back on Fangirl Happy Hour to talk about Ant-Man and the current state of the MCU! The episode was released today and can be found here. I have a couple of long projects going, most notably a Dragon Age: Inquisition Hawke/Fenris fix-it fic, but it wants to be an epic and I fear I've bitten off more than I can chew with it. We'll see if I can pull it together -- making enough progress to post it, or at least start posting, is my main writing goal for the month.

What are you squeeing about today?

Not today, exactly, but I already posted about how much I loved Jaws of Hakkon, one of the DA:I DLCs. I've moved on to playing Descent with my Cadash, and I have to admit it works better with a dwarf inquisitor. There's not a ton of unique content for her, but there's enough that I can appreciate the resonance. (No mention of the Hero of Ferelden's being a dwarf, though, not even when Malika asked Renn if he'd met her.) I'm about halfway down to the bottom. Hopefully it won't take too much longer, and then I can move on to Trespasser.

If you could rope old fandom friends into a new fandom, it would be.....

Is it wrong to say that I'd love to new people to get into Dragon Age and bring in fresh perspectives, in hopes of lightening the relentless negativity that I've been seeing since DA:I? I'm not saying that I don't want to ever see any criticism, ever -- there are plenty of valid critiques to make of the new game; I've made plenty of them myself. But it seems like the crits are all anyone ever talks about, and it's getting me down.

I should really watch/read/dive into _______ and then come talk to you about it!

Uprooted by Naomi Novik! OMG it was so good. I don't want to say any more because spoilers. Just go read it.

What else is on your mind?

Not a lot, really. Which is why I haven't posted so much here, I suppose. I need to get back in the habit of regular posting, if nothing else to help keep better track of myself. I keep saying that and not doing it, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

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2014: Year in Review

2014-12-28T22:52:31Z

Take the first line from the first post from each month, and that's your Year in Review.

Skipping locked and (in most cases) writing goal posts.

January: I spent last night just the way I like it, with a small group of friends, talking and laughing and eating, pretty much the perfect way to ring in the New Year for me.

February: Had a phone interview today, for a position I'd written off until I got a call last week. [Not only did I not get the job, I never even heard from them again. Bad form, interviewers.]

March: In contract to last years multi-week extravaganza, I had a nice low-key birthday today: vet appointment in the morning, quiet afternoon at home, dinner out with a few friends.

April: I have been waiting two years for this movie, and it did not disappoint. [The movie in question was Captain America 2.]

May: Because why not write ladies?

June: I skipped Round #2 of genprompt_bingo because I had too many other things going on, but I decided I needed a nice collection of low-stress prompts right now.

July: Heh heh week without posting, oops.

August: So if you recall, back when I first joined WorldCon, I had all these grand plans about how I was going to talk about my Hugo reading, through both the nomination and voting process, and how those basically came to nothing.

September: I spent the last weekend of the month sick in bed with food poisoning, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about August.

October: So a week or so ago, I reblogged a post with a bunch of kissing-related prompts over on Tumblr.

November: Wind Flight won Dominance!!!

December: Spoilers through The Thing (as detailed in my previous post). [Context: "The Thing" is the plot mission that marks the end of Act One in DA:I.]

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Talking Through December

2014-11-15T09:00:54Z

I did this meme in January and really liked it. It looks like folks are doing it in December this year, and that sounds good to me.

The Meme:

Pick a topic, and on some day in December I will post something about that topic. It can be fandom-related or not. Pretty much anything you've ever seen me post about unlocked, or comment on in other venues, is fair game. If a topic is uncomfortable for me (too personal or potentially identifying) or simply something I know very little about (unfamiliar canon, say), I may ask you to make a second choice. If you want to request more than one topic (say, up to three), feel free, but if I get more than 25 or so requests I may pick and choose between them.

The List:

Photo essay with cats, requested by renay

Final Fantasy thoughts, particularly on IV, VII, IX, and XII (will probably be broken over a couple of posts), requested by sathari

"Favorite quests in Dragon Age Origins & II, why they struck you or stayed with you, and (of course) what choices your Wardens and Hawkes made," requested by ossobuco

Favorite fanfics, by myself and by others, requested by halberdier

My typical writing process (or "writing" process, depending), requested by wallwalker

Character types I like to write, requested by yohjideranged

Favorite foods to cook and favorite foods to go out and eat, requested by lassarina

Books and movies I'm most looking forward to in 2015, requested by umadoshi

Yours?

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Fanfic WIP Meme

2014-09-16T06:24:27Z

I got tagged to do this over on Tumblr, and I figured I'd carry it over here, too.

The rules: Post one sentence, with no context, from all of your WIP. Then tag five other people to do the same. Except I'm not going to tag anyone, but I would encourage everyone to do it. :) It's good for pulling things out of the cobwebs.

Here are mine, for fairly generous definitions of "in progress" and "one sentence". Some of you might recognize some of these.

The candles burned out, one by one, as Teagan waited, alone in the parlor.

Varric checked the map. “I don’t know why I’m even looking at this,” he said, crumpling it up and sticking it back in his pack.

"Miss Leandra?" he said, eyebrows half up, his Starkhaven accent sharp. "And where are you going, alone, at this hour?"

"You wanted to fly, right? Here’s your chance."

"Beautiful and deadly," said Penelo. "At least we don’t have to worry about darkspawn."

It was, in fact, a man Yuna had never seen before, with dark blond hair, a sharp nose, and a sort of machina weapon slung over his shoulder. And unless she was mistaken, very much alive.

"I will return with Jack Sparrow in chains, or not at all," Alice replied, making a brief, stiff curtsey.

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2013: Year in Review

2013-12-30T15:36:24Z

Take the first line from the first post in each month, and that's your Year in Review. (Skipping monthly writing goals posts and similar.)

January: Dozenth time's the charm: I finally managed to complete a fic for the Chocobo Races!

February: Day Two: Describe your Warden's appearance.

March: Another day, another post about representation of women authors in best-of lists.

April: After a long off and on battle with cancer, Roger Ebert passed away today.

May: I'm going to see if I can take a Tumblr hiatus for a couple of days, in the interest of avoiding Iron Man 3 spoilers as it opens in the United States.

June: This began life as a fill for this year's DA Kiss Battle.

July: I just finished my third time through Dragon Age 2.

August: My story for the 2013 Dragon Age Reverse Big Bang, inspired by a Queen Anora fanmix.

September: Hey, who wants some old-school Paine/Nooj angst?

October: I finished the series yesterday. [The series in question was Fringe.]

November: I finished all my planned stories for Trope Bingo Round 2 -- one double-line bingo and one extra.

December: I swear, I don't mean to go a week without writing anything after the posting marathon of November is over.

Interesting. Very much focused on media and fandom activity. When did I stop writing about politics, random other topics of interest, my life? I will have to muse more about this later. (And maybe do this same exercise on my Tumblr, if I can get the archive there to cooperate. Update: I have done so. Still pretty fandom focused, although a little broader in scope. And a couple of life posts did manage to sneak in there. This will bear consideration, especially given one of my upcoming post prompts.)

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Age meme

2013-03-30T07:05:34Z

How this works: You comment, I give you an age (please tell me how old you currently are, since I don't necessarily know) and you fill out the meme questions with what applied to you back then, and now.

wordweaverlynn gave me 32. I turned 32 in 2005.

( A year in the life. )

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