My dogs are so ridiculous that I have to basically do a twister routine to sit in my chair. Dogs aren't just your best friend, they're your barnacles. Remember this when you go to the pet fair. You will never be alone again...read that in a horror movie voice.

( Belated pic of my puppyCollapse )

So the piece of metal that protects your engine from getting ice/snow/salt/water/squirrels in it mostly fell off from under my car. I duct taped it (oh hell yeah I did!) but the duct tape keeps coming off because it's raining all the time (isn't it supposed to be water proof? isn't that the whole POINT of duct tape?). This morning I went to this body shop down the road from me that looks like everything in there could give you tetanus and the employees are extras from Sons of Anarchy. Dudes busted out and riveted the FUCK out of the broken whatever you call it. Ten minutes I was there, tops.

Me: How much do I owe you?
Dude: Oh, nothing.
Me:...um, but you fixed my car?
Dude: If you were my daughter I'd expect anyone to do that for free.
Me: ?????????????? Can I pay you anything?
Dude: Ok, five bucks if you really need to pay me.
Me: *hands over five dollars*

Look, I live in John Boehner's district and constantly bitch people out for being racist/sexist/anti-gay but I will say that middle America does have some things going for it. I also include the time I got a flat tire and had no spare and some random dude changed my tire and GAVE ME HIS SPARE. Life is a paradox.

Owwwwww.

This is my reaction to carrying over a huge box of food to my coworkers in the Loop today. I walked over a bridge and thought it was fine, but that box was crazy heavy, and now my arms and hands are shaking as I type at work. I think that means that upper arm strength is mayyyybe a thing I can work on at the gym. Exciting.

The "owwwww" is also my reaction to last night's Blackhawks game. When you read something by Sam Fels and it actually makes you feel better, you know it's Dark fucking Days.

I keep alternating between "THERE IS STILL HOPE OKAY" and uhhh it would be so good for me to have this go to 7 and send Detroit off into the east the loser of THAT series and, you know, moaning feebly.

WHO STILL HAS HOPE??? (Sorry, I can't talk to anybody who's not feeling it right now. I don't have the upper arm strength for punching people out of sadness, but let's keep it hopeful UNLESS/until we can't anymore)

Happiest of birthdays to poofusgirl! Happiest of birthdays to eleanor_lavish!

Kaffe Fassett exhibition today at the Fashion and Textile Museum. *Lots* of colour! I think the most glorious things were several of the quilts, which were stunning. I've long had a dislike of many of the motifs he uses in knitting—I just don't think they're attractive shapes—and most of the things I've knitted myself from his book(s) were not on display, which meant I didn't like very many of the knitted items, but the quilts were amazing. Lots of great embroidery, too, but as that is mostly much more figurative I find it admirable but not compelling. There was a picture of snails in rich browns, creams, peachy pinks and pale lilac/blues, absolutely wonderful use of colour.

I went with a bunch of ladies from the knitting group, so it was excellent fun. Most of us continued, via lunch along the way, to I Knit London, a shop near Waterloo, purveying all kinds of beautiful yarn. I bought a skein of silk which contains 750m. Yep, it's very fine. I kept petting it, as though it were a particularly tame hamster. Imagine a petting zoo of silk/alpaca mixes in a variety of shades! Wouldn't that be adorable? No, I'm not drunk, honest.


Just spent some happy minutes browsing http://thatbadadvice.tumblr.com/
For those responses Agony Aunts *ought* to be giving. Wicked, but spot-on.


Got home and finished Miss de Bourgh in Bath, a quite delightful story based on the minor character from Pride and Prejudice. Lots of really nice character development, and beautifully written.


And, why not, a meme: I currently have 101 works archived on the AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 101 (the first thing I posted there), and I'll tell you three things I currently like about it.

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Kindle Worlds for Authors

You know, I'm actually not sure how I feel about this in specific.

Link Roundups

Tis the End Times by morgandawn

Another corporate attempt to corral and profit from fanfic? by ithiliana

I'm warily working my way through the links so far, and I would probably be doing a lot better at the pros/cons bit if I hadn't had really intense meeting today about the new build at work.

Includes:
Kindle Worlds by flourish - I like her breakdown a lot.

Seriously, Is This Happening?

Weirdly enough, approaching this from a reader standpoint, I seriously love beyond words this. I can pay my favorite authors for my favorite fic. This is like a dream come true. I mean, the ones without offensive porn, incest, or violence (per observation by coffeeandink) which are usually my favorites. I'm assuming A/B/O Sam/Dean SPN fic isn't going to be widely available there, is what I'm saying.

As a writer--I don't think I've written anything without two of the three above (three of three on a good day). And--okay, I'm not sure how I feel about pay-only access, either, if it can't be archived (which this going to Amazon's copyright ownership terms, that would be a no).

This would happen a week before a major deployment at work. Jesus, the timing.

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Ok, so I was prompted by "friends" to watch further Mad Mikkelson material after I posted my slobbering comments about Hannibal.

( A Royal AffairCollapse )

( Valhalla RisingCollapse )

Hm, Danish appears to be even more like English than German. I'm kind of surprised by that since Dutch sounds to me like half garbled English/German. Rosetta Stone here I come.

Note to self: get thee to Denmark because everyone there is clearly really hot.

I can't be the only one that watches historical fiction and can't turn off the "they must smell so bad/their breath must be so bad from rotten teeth" button, right? God, imagine what pirates smelled like! *flutters perfumed hanky*

We've had a bit of a reshuffle, and I'm now sitting at a clean and tidy desk. This uncharacteristic situation will not last, but for now, it's nice.

And the printer is now situated within arm's reach of my desk, the sofabed has shifted sideways a bit, and we're expecting a new guest bed on Friday. Inspired by sorting out the Boy's room, I pruned my wardrobe and there is a mound of dull T-shirts and tops I thought were a good idea at the time waiting to go to the nearest charity shop.

The only problem with clearing stuff out is that it leaves sufficient space that I start wondering whether I do in fact really need a selection of dull T-shirts, and would that top be a good idea? (I clicked on a whole bunch of Navabi clothes recently, and am now being haunted by them on every blog page I open. Tempting, but absurdly overpriced.) Meanwhile, I seek vainly for floral patterned jeans. I don't know why, but I want some. And I can't find any that aren't either cropped (which make me look stumpy) or 'skinny', which I suspect wouldn't even fit over my magnificently muscular calves. Meh. Why are trousers so dull? 90% of the pairs in the shops I've visited lately are black or dark blue. It's summer*!




* in theory

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Origami dresses...and a rather snazzy shirt and tie!



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ANNOUNCING KINDLE WORLDS

Get ready for Kindle Worlds, a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games. With Kindle Worlds, you can write new stories based on featured Worlds, engage an audience of readers, and earn royalties. Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries, with licenses for more Worlds on the way.

Please note the Content Guidelines for Kindle Worlds:

@cleolinda: THEY'RE BASICALLY STAMPING OUT THE PORN YOU GUYS. Also not allowing crossovers.

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