A Lightkeeper's Log

I got Dad the cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi for Christmas. It has pretty, pretty pictures, but in my endeavours to actually cook something out of it, I can't say as I've done that well. The recipes work and are good, but they also call for stuff I'd have to hunt down even if I lived in town. Most I have to abandon outright, and the rest have required some heavy substitutions. If I ever get my act together, I'll plan enough ahead to order these things from the store. Not going to be this month though, as I just sent my order in.

Mystery of my life: If I put fruit on the counter, I will eat it. If I leave it in the fridge, it will stay there until doomsday (or I move it to the counter), no matter that I'm in the fridge for other snacks.

I'm trying to tidy up one major mess in the house per day, on the theory that given a month or so I'll reach something approaching tidiness. Maybe.

I'm currently reading a MA: Avengers Poly fic which broke the pairing tags at AO3, and a Professionals/Jane Eyre fusion. I have no idea why on the later one. I don't even like that book. I've just been on a Pros kick of late. Off shoot of my Starsky & Hutch watching kick, perhaps. I can never find slash for the latter pairing that I actually like.

Have been watching this Avengers vid to the point where I have the song permanently stuck in my head.

I have re-labled all my icons to put the fandom first. This will hopefully allow me to actually find things.

The sea is UP here. Big storms in the last few days, and some really enjoyable wind of the kind that shakes the house. I took some pictures of the surf, though such things are difficult to capture in stills. We're standing on the rock at the bottom of the fuel line. Every time one of those wave hits, the entire rock (something about the size of a house) shudders. Then the whole highline rattles as it sweeps over the tail hold rock. Then we got wet.( Pictures )

From marthawells (I just got The Serpant Sea! I'm so excited!)

Over at io9: 20 heroic librarians who save the world.

The list includes the usual suspects like Rupert Giles, Evie Carnahan, Barbara Gordon and the Librarian from Terry Pratchett, but I admit I bounced and squeed when I saw they'd included Eli Bradley and Haly from Pearl North's Libyrinth (seriously, am I the only other person who read this book? It's awesome!)

ETA: Oh, this is a neat sermon by Bishop Gene Robinson. Oldie but a goodie. Thanks to Nenya for the link.

So I stepped into a discussion of queer people who write mslash, had a lovely talk with the OP, apparently earned the mixed approval of the fail meme, and then got trolled.

Nice to know that some things never change.

I'm turning IP logging back on here, just in case.

Day Fifteen: In your own space, share a favourite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I've had so many wonderful times staying with friends I met through fandom. The earliest was rohan_lady, who I met in a romance roleplay board on Tolkien Online. Our characters dated for years, but never got past first base. She turned out to be this wonderful, effervescent Aussie chick, who came to visit me here and we roadtripped across the province. It was amazing. I remember hanging out at this Hostel in Jasper and sweet-talking this English guy and a Kiwi (who hadn't met before either) into driving us down the Icefield Parkway, and just spending the day all four of us going Holy Fuck! Mountains!

My first about six months on LJ, I was into Master & Commander fandom pretty seriously. I had seen the film but was just starting to read the books and like cruisedirector, esteven, seascribe and sparowe were about my only friends (and we're still friends!) The only one gone of that crowd is Bronzelionel, who I still miss fiercely. I used to enter in the drabble challenges over at mandc100, I think Pullings was my favourite character, so I used to award all my rum to him (you got a virtual shot of rum for every drabble that fit the prompt), and everyone was so friendly and lovely even when I hadn't read the books at all.

I stayed with esteven and saw windmill museums and the Wall and ancient churches full of modern art, and watched Starsky & Hutch and The Professionals

Later, I was hovering at the edges of SGA fandom and svmadelyn hosted the Summary Ficathon: The SV and SGA Version, where people wrote terrible, terrible summaries then other people wrote stories for them. I didn't even get a story but I still had a fantastic time. I hadn't written anything in an age, and my story wasn't even very good by crack standards, but people liked it, and I loved reading all the other stories.

Immediately hitting it off with artemis_rain at a party because we both loved Ianto in that TW ep where he thought he was a serial killer, and then dating her for eight months and staying friends to this day.

I spent a week with linaelyn and her beautiful family, and we went to the Computer History Museum to watch a working model of Babbage's Difference Engine, ate wonderful food, and watched Iron Man.

Then there was comics fandom. Man, that's been my fannish life for years now. I remember the excitement of writing again, writing because I loved it, Sea Stars taking shape under my fingers as I inhaled canon and altered as I went. Getting and leaving reviews and reading all the fic I could find. Deciding to step up as co-mod of the ship comm and meeting two wonderful friends in my sister mods. Having to stretch myself as I learned to run challenges and moderate a quickly growing community of fellow fans. Still wanting to write and read all the fic imaginable.

I visited culurien and marinarusalka and went on tall ships, and lighthouses and city tours, and had more amazing food and watched SPN and read comics and lost at Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit.

Going to WisCon, stayed with garrideb, my first convention ever, and the amazing feeling of wow, this is my species. Here's a conference of a thousand fannish women and men, who I can talk to and who want to hear what I have to say and who think so many fascinating shiny things. We stayed up too late and got up too early every day, and being absolutely exhausted by the end. We read piles of comics and watched Buffy and... god, I don't even remember. STUFF! It was amazing. I ate so much fried cheese and drank so much local beer. Wisconsin is AMAZING.

And of course I met Nenya through fandom. Oddly neither of us remember which one. Possible The Lord of the Rings, through the PPC. She's sitting across from me reading Doctor Who/B5 crack fic, and I love her very much.

Thank you, fandom.

Day Fourteen: In your own space, ask for help. Need a beta? Always wanted to learn how to make a vid? a fanmix? icons? Maybe you’d want to have someone cheering for you while you work on an upcoming big bang or fannish bingo?

I'm actually pretty effective at cajoling people into speciality beta reading (will need someone later, but not quite there yet); I currently have all the fannish skills I'm looking for, and I have enough motivation on all my projects. Getting poked about them will only me GUILT. And what I have is bad enough.

So – takes deep breath – I'm asking for constructive criticism.

Please, I ask you, tell me what doesn't work for you about my writing. Either leave a comment on a specific story, or here mentioning the title. Was the ending too abrupt? Did you not buy the ship? Did I use the word "Polemic" sixteen times too many? And, more importantly why? Please be constructive; tell me where you think I went wrong.

Alternately, tell me a general habit I have of which you do not like. Are my sex scenes to samey? Are my action scenes usually too short? Do my plot twists not come with enough explanation? Please tell me how to improve!

Anon commenting is on. IP tracking will be turned off once I figure how to do it. I would prefer that you comment with user names, so I can put a name and a personality to an opinion, but I completely get if you're not comfortable with that.


I made a Concrit: What Is It? post on the comm a while back, which I still think is a solid piece of meta. You all don't have to read it before commenting here, or anything; I just wanted to link to it because I like it.

ETA: IP logging is back on for reasons unrelated to this post.

Day Thirteen: In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favourite interview, a book) and explain why you love it so much.

Switching parings but not fandoms. My absolute favourite, guaranteed to cheer me up bit of canon is Thunderbolts #137. Random, I know.

It's a Rick Remender fill in one shot set in the middle of Dark Reign, and it seems to ship Luke Cage/Danny Rand pretty hard, as well as hitting every single one of my H/C kinks.

The basic plot is Norman Osborn's team of villains captures Danny and brainwashes him into being a villain. Danny then captures Luke and they're about to brain wash him. There's a lovely scene where Luke is invoking their hears of friendship trying to get Danny to break out of his brainwashing, then telling Danny he forgives him and asking him to look after little Dani Cage when he's dead. ♥.♥. Seriously. Then Danny breaks free and they banter back and forth as they beat up all the villains, and Norman Osborn is very disappointed in his life. It's like the perfect comic! It also references Misty/Danny and Luke/Jess, and the whole thing is because Osborn is still pissed at Luke for sending him to jail back in The Pulse, and this is the worst thing he could think to do to Luke.

It's a lovely, lovely little comic that fits in roughly no where with canon, but I don't care because it should.

---

So apparently I was supposed to do a small fandom yesterday, not the newest and shiniest mega fandom. Oh well. I linked to Ults stuff anyway; that's a small fandom.

In recompense, here's link backs to all my old Heroes for Hire posts. Warning: many of these are scans heavy, and fully support the ships in the following relationship chart:


They also aren't up to date, as I made the last one around when New Avengers Vol 2 started, and haven't read much with the gang in it since.

Random Misty Knight Awesomeness
One-Armed Lady Cop: The Origins of Misty Knight

Luke Cage and his Dad
Luke Cage and the "Death" of Danny Rand
Luke Cage and Teams
Luke Cage and Timelines
Luke Cage and his Misspent Youth
Luke Cage and the Department of Revenue
Luke Cage and his Girlfriends (And What Danny Rand Thinks of Them)
Luke and Jessica's Wedding
Luke Cage and the New Avengers

"Danny has a PLAN!"
Danny Rand and Race

Day Twelve: In your own space, rec at least three fanworks that you think would make a good intro into XYZ fandom. Rec a fandom overview, a introductory picspam, stories that define and shape the fandom.

My main fandom for the last couple of years has been Captain America/Iron Man, so we're going with that. Not that it really needs the help, but hey.

I wanted to rec into fic, because I've been on a fic theme so far, but that kind of doesn't work. If I'm pimping a fandom, I tend to rec fic depending on what I know the person I'm reccing to likes.

For example, if they like fun, plotty historical AUs, I'd send them to valtyr's The Emperor's Fury which is an Ancient Rome AU. If they like fusions or action adventure, I'd point them to valtyr's Secrets of a Successful Marriage, a hilarious riff on Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

If they're huge H/C fans, I'd send them towards Deep Waters by alchemyalice, The Roughest Day by elspethdixon and seanchai, Beneath the Armour by crimsonquills or In a Different Light by marinarusalka.

If they're a big fan of the movies, and the character voices there in, I'd point you to Mr. July by jibrailis, or tsukinofaerii's The Billionaire Hooker's Deceived Artist

you’re a rich little boy (who’s had to work for his toys) by snowdarkred is just generally pretty awesome. It made me love second person. Must read for people who love Tony being redoubtably badass.

If they like thinks set in World War II, check out Look Here, Look Back, Look Ahead by marinarusalka.

If they like silliness involving dinosaurs The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by marinarusalka (honestly, just go read all her stuff, no matter what you like), or Extinction by valtyr (I'd say read everything by her but a. that would take a while and b. please read the warnings).

If they like The Ultimates (even if they don't like The Ultimates) read This Woman's War by tsukinofaerii (technically not Steve/Tony, but it has Steve and Tony in it and is a fantastic Always a Girl!Steve AU) or everything by jazzypom

For that matter, if they like Gender Change AUs...

Okay, this is quickly getting out of hand, so I'm going to stop now and actually rec the things that I meant too.

ETA: One more. I can't believe I left off dorky's excellent MA:A fic instant karma’s gonna get you. Okay. Now I'm stopping.

If the above list was at all confusing, if you look at the seventy years of comic canon and instantly get that bright little pain right behind your left eye, here three four five resources that'll make life easer.

A Sword, a Horse, a Shield – The Steve Rogers/Tony Stark ship manifesto by elspethdixon.
This sets up the pairing beautifully, and I couldn't agree more. My one quibble with it, and this is by no means elspethdixon's fault, is that it's a little dated, focusing on the events of the time, which was Civil War, and not including the other universes. However, it's a fantastic guide to the main Marvel universe, and has some great links at the bottom.

An Info Post by tsukinofaerii.
This covers all the other universes. It's a great primer on all the different strands of canon and is pretty much essential for keeping track of what all those numbers like 1610, EMH and MA:A mean. Plus it's a fun read in its own right.

The Cap/Iron Man Slashy Moments List Compiled by Everyone, organised by me (though I'm behind on that, sorry, check out comments for more moments.)
If you're looking for comic scans of crucial Steve/Tony moments, this is the place to go. It's got the entire history of the universe up to about last year laid out chronologically.

Avengers and Captain America Issue By Issue Fannish Guides by grey_bard.
A summary of the last fifteen years of comics, with special attention to issues in which Steve and Tony interact. Ideal for those who want to selectively read canon.

Rec Week by everyone over at cap_ironman
If you're looking for even more fic, here's a great place to start. The ship comm ran a week of daily posts asking for recs on a different theme. It's a fantastic resource. Unfortunately, this ran some time ago, so it doesn't include a lot of fantastic new fic. However, we plan to run it again soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

Day Ten: In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing.

I'll talk about two creators, I think. One of fan works and the other who gets paid money for this shit.

Paid money one first. I will read just about anything written by Marjorie M. Liu.( Read more... )

---

My favourite fan creator is unfortunately no longer with us in the fandom sense (alive and well so far as I know, but no longer writing fic). This is a fact that I regret daily.

ltlj (or Martha Wilson, Randi DuMois and Victoria Custer) was one of those authors who I would do a little happy dance every time she posted a new story. She wrote consecutively in Star Wars (original flavour), Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Stargate: Atlantis, and in all of those fandoms she absolutely captured everything I loved about canon and made it more so.( Read more... )

Day Eight: In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at.

I was like... Marine Weather Observations? I'm crazy good at those. But I'd already talked about lighthouses, and I'm not sure anyone cares.

I then asked valtyr if she thought punctuality was a talent, but she thought it was more of a quality or skill.

So you're left with cooking. I love cooking, and I'm pretty good at it. Well, in point of fact, I love cooking for other people. I get terribly bored cooking for myself and tend to fall back on chips and cheese rather more than I should. My only sure way of precluding that has turned out to be avoiding ordering chips on the monthly grocery tender.

Hey, there's a skill: I get groceries once a month. My limits for what I can cook are set in four-to-five week periods, with a distinct lack of produce towards the end. Plus you usually have to cook the eggplants right away as they always seem to come a little soft. Here's a good eggplant recipe:

Mucca's Eggplant Salad
Eggplants
Salt
Olive oil
Garlic
A lemon
Capers or black olives
red pepper flakes
Asiago cheese.

Cut the eggplant crosswise into 1.5cm slices. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for half an hour. Rinse off standing salt and cube eggplant. Slice garlic cloves thinly, In large pan or wok heat oil to medium high. Add garlic and flash fry to golden, then add eggplant and stir until covered with oil and garlic. Reduce heat. Zest lemon into pan and add red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring frequently, until eggplant is almost soft through. Add lemon juice and capers or sliced olives and cook a few minutes more. Remove from heat and add grated cheese. Serve chilled. (Nenya says she likes it better hot. Maybe chilled in the summer and hot in the winter?)

I'm trying to think of recipes I haven't posted before that aren't: throw large number of things into pot and cook until dead. Which always turns out rather well for me. I can often tell from smell or the taste of air in the back of my mouth what seasoning or ingredient I need to include, and my recipes tend to be rather off the cuff. I do love cookbooks though, and own many of them. They're good for ideas even if I often have to wait for a month to get any special ingredients.

Day Five: In your own space, share something non-fannish you are passionate about with your fannish friends.

So you've already heard about this ad nauseum, but them's the breaks, the other choice is queer theology.

Lighthouses. I think they're just awesome. I grew up on one. I work on one. I read about the history. I visit them on my vacation.

Here's some pictures:( Some of these you may have seen before )

I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve. They weren't built for any other purpose. —George Bernard Shaw.