Weekly update, it would seem
First of all, a great big Happy Birthday to thewlisian_afer! (A little early.) May this year bring you love, health, clarity, and most of all, happiness. *hugs*
Second, I've got jury duty starting tomorrow. Possibly also ending tomorrow; don't know yet. Am so happy not to have to go in to the office, even though the courthouse is all the way on the other side of the county. I actually wouldn't mind being selected for a jury; I've never served on one, and it may mean more days off work.
Anyone see the lunar eclipse last night? It rose here just after totality, but we still saw it fully in shadow (at least, when those pesky clouds didn't obscure the view), all orangey-red, and took some time-lapse photos before the sliver of brightness started to shine. We also tried looking through our telescope, but the thing's such a piece of crap that we couldn't keep the moon from sliding out of view even when we locked the scope in place.
My sister and a few of her friends have taken a mini-vacation to L.A., staying with Ryan in his beach house in Malibu and did I mention she's so much cooler than I am? So get this: she called me Friday to inform me that Ryan had auditioned for the role Dave Matthews landed on House. How insanely awesome would that have been, to have known someone doing a guest role on the show? My sister said she "totally would have hooked [me] up with that." It kind of hurts to think about how close I could have been to RSL and the rest of the team in some way or another.
Until recently, I'd always been a serial monogamist when it came to fandoms, with the occasional threesome (the Star Treks, BtVS and Angel) to spice things up. When I read fanfic in more than one fandom, usually just one was active and the other(s) were old favorites. Now it looks like I'm a fallen woman. This last week, I've read fic in and/or watched MI-5, House, Harry Potter, Stargate: Atlantis and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I feel so... dirty. And yet strangely liberated. Does there come a point in every fangirl and fanboy's life when s/he rises above mere monofannishness and enjoys fanfiction as a phenomenon free of fandom specifics? I've been pondering this especially over the past few months as I've made a habit of reading fic in completely unfamiliar fandoms, first with Yuletide and now MI-5 and SGA.
One of the SGA fics I became engrossed in was the 183,000-word "Coming Home" by Xanthe (indexed here), an adventure/love story set in a well-realized AU where bisexual dom/sub relations are the societal norm and it's the "monosexuals" and "nondynamics" who face prejudice. John (top) and Rodney (sub) square off, gradually come to understand that they're perfect for each other, work through external and internal obstacles, almost die a few times, and explore the frightening and powerful depth of their relationship. I liked the first half best, from John and Rodney's introduction through their first few sexual encounters. They seemed most in-character there, and that's where all the tension lay. From there on out, the story focused more on the dynamics of dominance and submission-showing how BDSM must be consensual, and how dom/sub may be the ultimate expression of love and trust, and how difficult it is for the partners in both roles to fully inhabit their positions-, and on the mystical aspects of the life-bond that only the most deeply compatible lovers experience. My disinterest in the latter was a purely personal preference; the former... maybe it was a matter of not being able to entirely follow each man into his headspace as the relationship progressed, but I'd have liked more John/Rodney and less "his top"/"his sub," 'it was the best thing Rodney could ever imagine, surrendering everything he had to his top' kind of thing. Also, there were moments where John and Rodney's relationship tipped over into something too conventionally, sappily romantic for me, and the sex was mostly fairly straightforward: a surprising dose of normativity within the deviance. I'd like to write Xanthe to talk about it before going into more detail here, get a better idea of her goals when writing and her opinions once it was finished. But if anyone's interested, I'd recommend the story.
And that's all. Have a nice Monday!
Second, I've got jury duty starting tomorrow. Possibly also ending tomorrow; don't know yet. Am so happy not to have to go in to the office, even though the courthouse is all the way on the other side of the county. I actually wouldn't mind being selected for a jury; I've never served on one, and it may mean more days off work.
Anyone see the lunar eclipse last night? It rose here just after totality, but we still saw it fully in shadow (at least, when those pesky clouds didn't obscure the view), all orangey-red, and took some time-lapse photos before the sliver of brightness started to shine. We also tried looking through our telescope, but the thing's such a piece of crap that we couldn't keep the moon from sliding out of view even when we locked the scope in place.
My sister and a few of her friends have taken a mini-vacation to L.A., staying with Ryan in his beach house in Malibu and did I mention she's so much cooler than I am? So get this: she called me Friday to inform me that Ryan had auditioned for the role Dave Matthews landed on House. How insanely awesome would that have been, to have known someone doing a guest role on the show? My sister said she "totally would have hooked [me] up with that." It kind of hurts to think about how close I could have been to RSL and the rest of the team in some way or another.
Until recently, I'd always been a serial monogamist when it came to fandoms, with the occasional threesome (the Star Treks, BtVS and Angel) to spice things up. When I read fanfic in more than one fandom, usually just one was active and the other(s) were old favorites. Now it looks like I'm a fallen woman. This last week, I've read fic in and/or watched MI-5, House, Harry Potter, Stargate: Atlantis and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I feel so... dirty. And yet strangely liberated. Does there come a point in every fangirl and fanboy's life when s/he rises above mere monofannishness and enjoys fanfiction as a phenomenon free of fandom specifics? I've been pondering this especially over the past few months as I've made a habit of reading fic in completely unfamiliar fandoms, first with Yuletide and now MI-5 and SGA.
One of the SGA fics I became engrossed in was the 183,000-word "Coming Home" by Xanthe (indexed here), an adventure/love story set in a well-realized AU where bisexual dom/sub relations are the societal norm and it's the "monosexuals" and "nondynamics" who face prejudice. John (top) and Rodney (sub) square off, gradually come to understand that they're perfect for each other, work through external and internal obstacles, almost die a few times, and explore the frightening and powerful depth of their relationship. I liked the first half best, from John and Rodney's introduction through their first few sexual encounters. They seemed most in-character there, and that's where all the tension lay. From there on out, the story focused more on the dynamics of dominance and submission-showing how BDSM must be consensual, and how dom/sub may be the ultimate expression of love and trust, and how difficult it is for the partners in both roles to fully inhabit their positions-, and on the mystical aspects of the life-bond that only the most deeply compatible lovers experience. My disinterest in the latter was a purely personal preference; the former... maybe it was a matter of not being able to entirely follow each man into his headspace as the relationship progressed, but I'd have liked more John/Rodney and less "his top"/"his sub," 'it was the best thing Rodney could ever imagine, surrendering everything he had to his top' kind of thing. Also, there were moments where John and Rodney's relationship tipped over into something too conventionally, sappily romantic for me, and the sex was mostly fairly straightforward: a surprising dose of normativity within the deviance. I'd like to write Xanthe to talk about it before going into more detail here, get a better idea of her goals when writing and her opinions once it was finished. But if anyone's interested, I'd recommend the story.
And that's all. Have a nice Monday!