a++ would smuggle into space again

First things first: check out help_japan and help_japan if you prefer the fannish auction method of donation! I'm offering fic and, because I'm sad I can't offer a song this time, in-person baked goods to anyone living between San Diego and Santa Barbara.

Bonus for people on my journal: If you're a Bay Area person, and you don't mind waiting until summer (which is when I get home), go ahead and bid. I'll deliver up to Petaluma, out to Stockton, and down to San Jose.

... No one is going to bid on this, are they.

So on the recommendation of vega_ofthe_lyre I read all of Crown Duel today while out on a four-hour walk. (When I started, it was so hazy you could not see the mountains which are approximately four miles from my house. I always think I'm making up these conditions, and then they happen again.) I liked it. I think if I'd read it in seventh grade I would have loved it so much that I would even now still be trying to get everyone else I've ever met to read it, and occasionally peppering my conversation with references to the romance of the ~ekirth ring~. Now, unfortunately, my thought process goes, "Oh, it's like Captive Prince, but het, and Damen is actually as Untutored A Barbarian as everyone thinks he is."

I really need to just bite the bullet and read Dunnett, instead of reading all of her knockoffs and inspirations, but I will say that one thing I deeply, deeply appreciate about Captive Prince is that Laurent is as much of a bastard as the main villain of the second half. In fact there is one point where said villain is posturing in black clothing that sets off his sparkly blond hair and I almost choked to death. Meanwhile the main hero Vidaric is hot and all and I adore all his subtle eyegestures of humor and strongly support Sherwood Smith's decision to have lots of scenes in which the heroine cuts straight through his bullshit, but, like, I guess the difference between Vidaric and Laurent is that Vidaric is from those productions of Macbeth in which Malcolm is testing Macduff when he lists all the horrible things he wants to do, and Laurent is from those productions of Macbeth where Malcolm is being at least partially honest, and wants to know if Macduff can be trusted to take him down should his appetites get out of hand.

Yes, I too have noticed the weird trend where my blog has become Captive Prince Appreciation Station. I don't know what to tell you.

I did spend a good portion of those four hours yelling at Mel, the heroine. I don't mean, like, quietly, in my head. I mean, I wandered into a gated community at one point, because I thought it was a shortcut, and I knew I was a sweaty chick with a massive backpack and there were these two cops there whose jobs were to prevent trespassers, and I was thinking, "Okay, stay cool," and then Mel IGNORED THE ENTIRE YEAR OF VIDARIC BEING NICE TO HER IN ORDER TO POINTLESSLY MISTRUST HIM AND ENDANGER THE COUNTRY AGAIN and I hissed JESUS CHRIST, COME THE FUCK ON really loud just as I passed the cop car. Not my finest moment. When she wasn't in charge of political machinations, though, she was pretty cool. I like the part where she steals a bright white horse in the middle of a manhunt because she knows she's gotta go out with panache.

help_pakistan help_pakistan help_pakistan

I'm offering an original (or fannish) song on a topic of your choice, and fic of about five hundred words.

Also, sotto_voice is doing her cookie packages again. I got one in the last auction and it was delicious; chocolate oatmeal fudge cookies. Normally I find oatmeal a bit daunting. These vanished like, well, delicious cookies on a summer day. They also tied extremely well into the fic she handwrote for me on legal paper, which is what I would refer to as "lethally adorable." GO BID ON THEM.

( cookie picspam )

I'm not a supporter of Mousavi? But the incumbent is still Ahmadinejad. So I'm wearing some internet green.

The go-to post.

There's some debate going on about whether or not you should change your Twitter location and time zone to Tehran and GMT +3:30. Those with better information should comment regarding it. I went for it, because what's the harm?

This is a white American guy, but it is helping me make sense of it. He quotes an Iranian twitter: If Iran sleeps tonight, it will sleep forever.

The brutal honesty meme is going around again! and it's probably worth mentioning that my email is nextian aaaaaat gmail dddoooooot com and every day is brutal honesty day around here, because, as recently proved in many venues, I am not very good at shutting up when I ought to, so that should go both ways. I screw up a lot and I want to know, always, so I can fix it, so if I've made you unhappy somehow recently please: email me and let me know. Even if we are not close; I promise I'll listen.

Anyway, I promised the next one wouldn't be a thinky post, so here is something that has made me really happy. Under the cut is a video of a Well Known Performer singing a Well Known Song. ... About transvestites. ( SFW, but not safe for libido/brain )

Thank you -- all of you -- for your very kind best wishes and offers of shotgun in the getaway car. Those of you who suggested they were ducking for cover, I will aim for you next time I am driving in your state.

I saw Sweeney Todd on Tuesday (along with .02 seconds of olivia_circe) and Mamma Mia! last night. I also, you know, lived through Rosh Hashana. However, all my thoughts on yaoi these multifarious topics will have to wait until later, because I'm getting on a plane to Chicago this morning. So. Uh.

I love you all! and am declaring:

hiatus

until I am better settled in.

Wish me luck.

Surprise surprise! (July, July.) The computer up here has excitingly decided not to work, which means that the only really slow dial-up access I have is this school line that ... I think it's, what, half an hour of free access? Only the number's long-distance so I'm not so sure about this whole "free" thing. Anna? Any hints?

Anyway. This means that I will seriously not be around, to a degree that I did not previously understand. I weep, hugely, for this.

Please leave long rambly comments on this post about your life, as it will be very difficult for me to check my flist, but easier for me to check my Gmail. I love all of you like mad and will see you in ... a week and then again in another week.

Well here I am and here I go -- I've just returned from a school trip to HELL in the desert, and I'm going to SLIGHTLY LESS HELL in the tropics. (No, it's Hawaii. It'll be chill.)

As such I may have missed/may miss announcements, importantthings, fics, you all being interesting. So! Please catch me up on what I missed in your life in the comments!

I will have very limited net access, wireless not being available. Sorry arugh.

Love you all and must go, the taxi awaits ...

<3

P. S. If you have read and reviewed China Miéville in your journal -- limyaael and erythros, I'm looking at you, I thought I remembered something from the two of you, no? yes? maybe? -- please leave a link to that too! As I have just vastly enjoyed Perdido Street Station through to Iron Council and and and. AND. So wonderful.

I've rebooted! I am a re-boot-ee.

nextian. Profile-banner updates coming.

Er. And now my paid account is running out in ten days, and I won't be able to use this layout, but hey. *grins*

I...*dramatic pause*

I AM BACK.

I HAVE RETURNED.

And there is no earthly human way I will make it through the backlog of the friendspage.

So, all of you?

Anything you've posted in the last month that you want me to see, tell me now.

WHEEEEEEEE HOME.