Sometimes I entertain myself by opening up long-dead fic idea files on my computer and trying to remember where I'd been going with each one.

This one was going to be Ronon/Elizabeth (this was before I managed to write The Singer and the Song):

( Whither Thou Goest )

( SYTYCD Atlantis )

( Those Skeevy Ancients )

( That incredibly long (seriously, nearly 16,000 words) story I started writing last spring that pretty much sucked. (Excerpt only.) )

[/long-lost fic]

Anyone else out there got some long-lost fic to share?

I wrote something for McSmooch!

Check it out here (on LJ) or here (on my site).

...you turn to your flist.

( Cut for pot-related question. )

Before I forget all the details, and mostly for my own sake, ( here's what it was like for me to have Lasik surgery yesterday... )

Aw, you *guys*!

( I just watched the final 2 eps of Due South and now I'm all *sniff* )

...I picked up the complete series of Due South some months ago. Like every Canadian with a serious lack of cable in the 90s, I had seen a few episodes when it was airing but I haven't watched it since my slash-reading/writing debut in 2003.

*ahem*

I didn't see the appeal for the first ten or so episodes, then clued into the whole "two Rays" thing and skipped forward to season three, when Callum Keith Rennie takes over. Hot DAMN.

I may be mainlining some dS fic. This is typical of me; everyone and their dog is sort of gradually drifting from SGA to more active fandoms like ST:Reboot or Merlin or what have you, while I'm diving headfirst into a fandom that's, oh, over a decade old.

Go me! *fists in air*

As part of my new role in my job, I've had to take on more of a leadership position as regards rules; specifically, their enforcement.

I have never before had to send out emails that I know for a fact will ruin the days of those on the receiving end. While the emails sent are totally completely justified, I *like* the recipients and I *hate* knowing that these poor kids/young adults are going to be sitting on the other end going, "oh, fuck me. FUCK ME." Yuck. I am not a fan of this feeling at all. My insta-response is that I wish I could just ignore the whole messy situation, but that would be wrong. And also kind of how we got into this mess in the first place, i.e. silence is acceptance for the last 12 years.

SIGH.

Can I go back to being responsibility-free but keep the salary, pls? kthanks.

So I signed up this time! For kink_bingo! Yay!

( My card )

A few things:

1) I just watched the series premiere of Castle (yes, I'm slow) and -- LOVE! LOVE. I hadn't heard too many rave reviews of it so I wasn't in a hurry to check it out but -- LOVE.

2) I also just watched (David Hewlett's part in) Century Hotel. Anyone have any Century Hotel DH fic to share? Yes? *bats lashes*

3) Today marks the end of craziness for me, or at least a serious tapering-down. I was kind of vaguely considering doing SGA Big Bang and then realized I kind of, oops, missed the deadline by about 10 minutes and oh well. I didn't want to sign up and then check out again like I did in 2007. Still, maybe I shall do it sort of on my own-like, sans the pressure of capital-P Participation. Does anyone out there in SGA-land want to lower-case-c cheerlead or (more likely) lower-case-b bully me into finishing? More importantly, does anyone have an idea for a story they've been dying to read because I'm kind of creatively tapped at the moment.

4) I just finished rereading Omiai for the first time since, well, pretty much since I wrote it. It was nice -- it's been five years (DEAR GOD, REALLY?) which is enough time to have a pleasant critical distance. The parts that were weak didn't make me want to claw my eyes out, just to smile at my former writerly self, and the parts I thought were strong were kind of bland, but it was such a fun exercise to write that novel with the flist support and the plottiness and all its attendant angst. (For those of you who weren't around back then, or weren't in SV, Omiai is a 100,000 word novel that I cranked out in nearly daily installments -- I KNOW -- over about four months.) Anyway, I feel like my writing has changed quite a bit since then. I'm striving to reach true "show, don't tell" mastery but I'm not there yet. Still, I think I've come some way from the time when I could shamelessly have my protagonist expound on his emotions (tearily) for paragraphs at a time.

5) There is no 5.

6) I really need to go and shower now. MWAH, flist.

It's nice to have pupils that constrict when in bright spaces.

This revelation brought to you by 7 hours of squinting after my consultation for LASIK surgery. I'm booked in for the end of July but I think I'm going to call tomorrow and try to move it up to June. I was too stunned by the whiteness of the calendar in the booking room to parse out another date in June that might work, but now I can see again it'll be much easier!

Anyone out there had this done? Both my siblings and not a few of my friends have gone under the laser and the only wince-worthy part of the experience for any of them has been the price tag. For me, with my lovely -6.00ish eyes, the cost is about $3400 all told. Ouch. But it comes with the lifetime guarantee and is supposed to be the "latest technology" to avoid halos and blurring with night vision blahblahblah...

Still, squinting through water-speckled glasses on the beach in Hawaii and being utterly fed up with my contact lenses has convinced me it's time. I have worn glasses or contacts every day of my life since I was eight years old and I'm so tired of it. Time to get into the 21st century.

Other fun facts from today:

1) Despite being (considerably) the worse eye, vision-wise, my left eye is dominant.

2) Driving with dilated pupils? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

3) I don't anticipate much discomfort from the procedure since every time the technician said "These drops sting" or "Sorry, that might hurt" I felt NOTHING. Pain threshold FTW!

I have five invites. Anyone want 'em? Comment with email (screened comments) and I'll fire one your way.

Remember how I said that thing, about how RL swallows me whole on occasion? Yep, it's one of those months.

Love you and miss you, lovely online people!

People out there who use ebook readers for fanfic -- does any of you use an iPhone or iPod touch for this? I've had a couple of different ebook apps on my iPod touch but sadly none of them seems to display ebook files correctly (lack of paragraph breaks, or teeeeeeny text, or weird characters -- the typographical kind -- displayed).

(We don't have the Kindle here in Canada. I know. Sometimes my country is made of lame.)

At four a.m. on Sunday (wait, it gets better) I'll be heading to the airport enroute to seven days and nights in Hawaii. I haven't been to Hawaii since I was five years old -- and that visit was tacked on the end of a trip to New Zealand, so suffice it to say I really don't have a strong memory of the place.

Anyway, this is a whole-family vacation, as in it's me and my parents and my two older brothers, their respective wives and baby daughters. Let me tell you, it's going to be HILARIOUS fun to be the, oh, seventh (ninth?) wheel in that grouping. But still, it's been a good while since I had a totally relaxation-oriented holiday and I intend to make the most of it!

I have no idea if there will be internet on the other end, so in case there is not (and it would probably be really good for me if that's the situation) adios until May 5th! We're getting a late blast of winter here in Alberta so I'm happy to be away from it. Here's hoping there will be no more snow in May (don't laugh, it has HAPPENED.)

P.S. This means I will miss the open beta launch of DW so my DW journal will drop back into free account blah-ness until I can get back and buy into a paid account. Sad. But worth it.

People who are stressed because they procrastinate about doing their jobs? Yeah, those people should be BANNED from trying to make you feel guilty about not being more helpful solving their (THEIR) problems three hours before the deadline.

This grumpy post brought to you by my (all too) real life.

*stomps away*

Rating: PG
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Length: 345 words
Summary: A wee sweet McSmooch.

( Pitch Imperfect )

How are people making their own LJ styles appear on DW? I am all at sea with styles and layers and stuff. (This would be why I haven't changed my LJ layout since, oh, 2006ish.)

ETA: Excellent tutorial here if you are interested. Thanks to several flisters for the linkage, but wicked_socks was the first to come to the rescue!

Mostly I'm just testing out the crossposting tool over at Dreamwidth, but since I'm here and typing anyway...you are all following @dhewlett on Twitter, y/y? He is so goddamn sweet and yet dorky I just want to snuggle him. Today he's posting about all the hair product and make-up he used in the 80s. Now I need a fic where Rodney knows a little too much about applying eyeliner and using flat irons for some weird alien ritual and has to fess up to his glam rock past. Yes.

It seems there is some discussion about commenting by readers and such going on, and without dipping my toes into the general fray, I thought it was an opportune moment for me to state my own policy when it comes to comments. (This is in no way meant as a judgment on the current hoopla, it's just on my mind at the moment. These are MY policies and I don't extend them to anyone else):

1) Don't feel like you need to comment on anything I write. I love love love getting comments of course, but I am a lame commenter at best with other people's work so I apply the golden rule here. And I always think of published authors out there, of all the books I've read and adored in my life, and the fact that I've never once in my life written a letter of thanks or praise to any published author. And then I feel damn lucky that some of y'all talk to me when you like my shit.

2) I am crap at answering comments. I used to be zealous about this but I totally burned myself out trying to answer comments on some longer WIPs (we'll save that discussion for another post) and at the time I posted a "flail" entry saying "Will you all forgive me if I suck and don't answer each of you every time?" and the prevailing sentiment was "Yes of course" so I gave up on answering each and every comment. That being said, the other thing that makes me crap at this is that I so often disappear from LJ for months at a time and I feel incredibly stupid answering people's comments literally YEARS after they're made. So I have long lists of comments I will never ever answer.

3) But I'm trying to do better! I'm getting back into the habit of answering comments and I will do my bestest to keep up from here on out. But in case I fall into the land of crappy comment-answering again, here's my general word of thanks: I literally would not write so much or so cheerfully if it weren't for the wonderful words of many of you, encouraging me to continue. So thank you muchly.