Girls Guild. The Atlantis Secret Society of Girl Scholars.

ETA: Owly animated short!

On Tuesday, I acquired eight mosquito bites in 30 minutes, while running, while covered in bug spray. I suspect that if I had been walking and skipped the spray, I would have emerged from the trail as a mummy. *dots self with Benadryl for the 12 millionth time*

• Help me, flist! I started watching the first Transformers movie, which was surprisingly better than I'd anticipated (though it had some ishy race things that made me wince /o\ I hear the second one is even worse in that respect?). Anyway, I had to shut it off when they ( spoilers ) If someone can help me out, I may finish watching it.
  
  
• To make up for the fact that I was enjoying a movie with ishy race stuff in it, I bring you a link to a list of Comics That Celebrate America's Cultural Diversity. (Apparently Doctor Who is a paragon of American racial diversity, but whatevs.)
  
  
• I am currently reading Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies as a show of support for transformative work, and I am alternating between thinking it's brilliant, and thinking it's sort of over-rated. From now on, though, I will refer to zombies as "unmentionables." Hee.
  
  
• Speaking of transformative works (man, the transitions are coming easy today), I keep forgetting to pimp the OTW's Fan Culture Preservation Project, which I think is a very awesome thing.
  
  
• Michael Stackpole: "People downloading my stories from the big torrent sites were never going to buy them anyway. It's no money out of my pocket." He even admitted to downloading some of his own books from bittorrent sites if he didn't already have a digital copy, saying it was far easier than scanning it in himself.
  
  
• I signed up for cliche_bingo, because apparently I thought that you got a bingo card *and* an extra hour in the day in which to write stories for it. Sadly, that was not the case: I just got the card. (WHERE IS A TIME TURNER WHEN YOU NEED ONE?)
  
  
• I already missed some July birthdays, sorry! Happy birthday to: th3newblack, mockingbirdq, fan_this, julii_wolfe, windbeliever, kristiinthedark, lillian78, batfatty, rinsbane, darkmoon711, mjules, chicklet_girl, claritylit, musesfool, medie, innle, lampdevil, angelsgracie, kisa_hawklin, celli, redheadgirl, madjm, megwriting, 19, albertina, mortari, random_flores, hbrogan, iphi1, and gnome781!

This is what happens when you put for McSheeple in a condo with some cookie dough and bunch of a strawberries:



Which is to say that last weekend I went to Wisconsin Dells with hwmitzy, chicklet_girl, lallybroch, and carleton97, and had a great time. We went on the ducks and played mini-golf and watched bad TV and ate like a bunch of starving mofos.

We stayed at the Rhapsody, which had beautiful rooms, but really really crappy customer service. Four bathrooms, you guys! I can't even tell you how awesome that was. We had a great view from our balcony, and a full kitchen, and two fireplaces, and some flatscreen televisions, and a two car garage! And I sampled, for the first time in my life, Jell-O made with booze. Tastes like...burning.

( Couple scenic pics )

• I'm loving Tiny Art Director, where an artist draws pictures for his daughter, and then gets a critique. Sample:
  
  The Brief: I'm going to tell you what to draw. Draw a dragon sneaking up on a girl. She's picking flowers.
  The Critique: Daddy it's not supposed to be like that! He has dog legs! I'm so mad at you! I'm going to erase those legs! Daddy why did you do those legs??? [collapses in tears]
  Job Status: Rejected
  
  
• Theory: 1971 was the best year to be born a geek.
  
  
• Horrifying conversation I had with a co-worker on Tuesday:
  
  Me: I went to see Up yesterday.
  Co-worker: Up?
  Me: You know, the new Pixar movie.
  Co-worker: Pixar?
  
  And then, like the Tiny Art Director, I collapsed into tears.
  
  
• So I will close with a picture of my pretty gerber daisies: ( flowers! )
  
  

It's my birthday!

We just had an office lunch with yummy Greek salad, and amazing cupcakes that looked great and tasted even better.

And chicklet_girl wrote me a story! It's a post-Fuzzy Duck Smell ficlet, and it's hilarious and adorable. Go read!

I was out of town for a few days, visting my dad and grandparents, and being spoiled for my birthday. I got a stand for my gazing ball (finally!) and also an anti-gravity chair for my patio, which makes me feel like I am in the control chair on Atlantis, so that name will probably stick.

There is shopping with my mom tonight, and then a family thing on Friday. \o/

I saw Star Trek and loved it, and was sort-of-but-not-quite shipping Kirk/Spock, and then I watched talitha78's Poker Face vid like 80 times and now I am all hearty eyes and sparkles over them.

Hilarious confession: I did watch some Star Trek as a kid, but not so much that I even remembered much of it as an adult (except the Tribbles, of course--but we all remember those, right?). I was more interested in Batman and Tarzan and shows that had horses (Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Gunsmoke), but I did have a bit of a crush on Spock. And when my mom got pregnant with my little brother (oh, if I only had a time machine and the chance to change *one thing*), I was very excited to learn that my mom had a book! About babies! Written by Mr. Spock!

Except it turned out to be written by Dr. Spock, who was not a Vulcan at all.

primad and I have tickets for Star Trek at noonish tomorrow, and I am so excited. I haven't been this excited to see a movie since...I don't even know? The first X-Men movie?

primad got two huge, delicious, beautiful cupcakes for us, which we munched on last night, and then had two completely different reactions to the vast amounts of sugar we consumed: primad goes into a sugar coma, and I become a hyperactive freak. So she sat on the couch wrapped in a blanket, looking like she was stoned out of her mind, while I watched The Real Housewives of New York and played with my virtual Facebook pet, Mrs. Beasley*, and talked about the Star Trek movie.

She was quietly staring into space, and I was like, "Holy crap, did you hear what Bethenny just said? She's really pissed! I got a carrot costume for Mrs. Beasley, do you want to see it? Wow, Star Trek has a 98% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh my God did you see what Simon is wearing MY EYES MY EYES! Should I get Mrs. Beasley a pink bean bag chair for her house, or should I buy her a radish costume? I think I like the carrot better, but the radish is so cute. What kind of candy should we get for the movie on Saturday? I like Milk Duds. Do you like Milk Duds? Do you want Junior Mints? Raisinets? Did you see Mrs. Beasley's carrot costume? Should I get Milk Duds? WHAT THE HELL IS SIMON WEARING?" And primad was like, "Duuuuude."

*Mrs. Beasley is a white kitty, and she is named after Rodney's cat in an SGA story I never finished.

More food pics!

( Comfort food )

I love this picture so much, I keep going back and looking at it so I can giggle. Baby vs Chinese food. I love the look on the kid's face. "You're going to eat THAT? Really?"

Lastly, May birthdays, very late!

xanphibian, ldragoon, retrofit88, cschoolgirl, manada, st_aurafina, charon_mmm, papajoemambo, sobsister, tattooed_soul, anyand, missmalicious, mothos, chenin, eleanor_lavish, geeklite, viewoftheworld, mattador, kalpurna, and 2weeks3days.

And the most important one of all: ME.

Yesterday I was mysteriously not very hungry at lunchtime, and only ate part of my bento. I did not bring a new one today, so of course I am starving and have only a partial bento left from yesterday. But I happen to know where there is a 3.5lb bag of Swedish Fish hidden in the file room.

If you see me later and I can't stop talking and my mouth is stained all red and my eyeballs are spinning around in my head like pinwheels...well, you'll know what happened.

Stuff!

• My co-worker got invited to a sex toy party (like a Tupperware party, but with more lube!) and brought in one of the catalogs, which we gleefully paged through, howling with laughter. The names slay me. SLAY ME. Booty Eaze! Nympho Niagra!
  
  
• One of my favorite comments I've seen recently on a food blog, regarding a muffin recipe:
  
  I actually made these once before, but I found out a little too late that I didn’t actually have Crisco, and used margarine instead, and didn’t have sugar, so used Splenda instead, and was a little short on some other ingredients too. Anyway, they came out kinda horrible.
  
  Another favorite place to go when I need a laugh is the comments on Paula Deen's Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole. "It was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted." No, really? What's even more hilarious is that many of the reviews that rave about how good it is didn't make the exact recipe--with most of them leaving out the bananas. "I made a completely different dish, and it was great!"
  
  
• I've got some food pics for under the cut. A bento, a cake, a pizza, and a dinner dish.
  
  ( To the food! )

I went over to lilferret's LJ to see her con photos, and it's like seeing John Sheppard from Rodney's POV:

( um. )

Cheese:

I suspect that everyone at bentolunch is a millionaire, because I have no idea how they can otherwise afford those insanely priced Babybel cheeses. I've looked at them in the store, and they're about a buck apiece--for basically two bites of cheese! (Okay, I just ate one, and it was four bites. But still!) And it's not that I'm opposed to spending money on *quality* foods--I do tend to spend a little more on cheeses, but that's because they taste so good they make your eyes roll back in your head. These are just…regular cheese.

It's the packaging, I know, and there is a certain price I'm willing to pay for convenience (and let's face it: cuteness), but evidently it's not that price. I did finally buy some this weekend, because they were on sale, but it was still $4 for six tiny cheeses, and I'm not inclined to do that regularly. Bethy says they're cheaper if you get them at Costco or Sam's Club, so maybe that's where everyone else is getting them. I don't know. But whenever I see a bento over there with a Babybel in it, I think, "Oh, look, Donald Trump posted a picture of his bento lunch." (Well, not really, because if Donald Trump had a bento box, it would be made of solid gold and covered in filigree and extremely tacky. That's how I plan to spot him if he shows up there.)

Anyway, here is my latest bento lunch, complete with Babybel cheese (HEY BIG SPENDER), in a picture actually taken in daylight, and it looks very pretty. I did have some shadow issues, which I hope to remedy next time.

( yes, a sandwich does taste better when it's shaped like a heart )

I actually checked the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st when reading this piece about Marvel's new girl-friendly merchandise line, which includes cutesy T-shirts, lip gloss, and apparently this necklace:



Spider-Man/Green Goblin 4 eva!

If DC has half a brain, they'll rush their own version onto shelves, with Batman and Robin.

[whining] I took another spill, this time off Ubu, and I've aggravated that old back injury that left me bedridden a few years ago (sample LJ post from that time: "Have read every book in my house four times."). I'm still mobile, but no riding for at least a month. As before, I have to ice it, which wasn't so bad in 2005 because it was August, but isn't quite as much fun now when it's only 22 and the windchill is single digits. Brrrrrr. [/whining]

ANYWAY.

• LJ Birthdays! Now with even more lateness than usual! Happy birthday to: gravityslave, luthien, stereowire, tygress, faith_girl222, fairestcat, dafnap, bodelian, chicklet25, evilfoo, ileliberte, a_caged_heart, and lillyjk!
  
  
• Andy Cohen, Senior Vice President of Production and Programming at Bravo: Is there any connection to the fact that my Sunday TV viewing consisted of Brokeback Mountain and then a Lord of the Rings marathon on TNT? Besides the fact that they are the two greatest and gayest love stories around, no connection at all. Sam and Frodo are so in love that it is almost painful to watch Sam break down in tears every time he looks at his wee friend.
  
  
• What if Watchmen had been directed by Judd Apatow, or Sofia Coppola?
  
  
• I am posting this link because if you did not see this in chicklet_girl's LJ, you are MISSING OUT. Arlo Weiner, son of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, and his wonderful wardrobe. He's eight years old and he loves ascots. *hearts*
  
  
• OTW's second annual membership drive is in full swing. In less than two years we've rolled out the Archive of Our Own (currently in limited public beta), the Fanlore wiki, the Transformative Works and Cultures journal, and the Vidding History project. It truly is awesome to see fans come together and build these things from the ground up.
  
  *loves you all, man*
  
  *okay, not ALL of you*

I made the most fabulous coconut chocolate chip bread pudding a few weeks ago, so I must share.

( Picture under the cut )

I'm probably never going to do anything more with this, so I'm setting it free. Fly, little ficlet, fly!

Title: Cold Toes
Summary: "He’d never really noticed how chilly the floor was."
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Website: Fan Fiction I Wrote Yay!
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and its characters do not belong to me.
Notes: This was written in season two, which is why it reads like Ford hasn't been gone that long (now it seems like an eternity since he was on the show!) and why I was into Teyla and Ronon as a pairing (that only lasted about one season).
Words: ~900
Given Up for Dead: March 9, 2009

( Cold Toes )

The action figure John Sheppard wishes they'd made when he was a kid.



More pics here.

• I woke up this morning before my alarm and flailed around and looked at the clock (5:32am) and thought, "Well, the week is almost over, so I can get up and do this, it's gotta be...what? Thursday?"
  
  And then I remembered it was only Tuesday, and I pulled the covers over my head and hid until it was time to get up.
  
  
• Again on Saturday some douchebag came in to the comic shop (which closes at 5pm on Saturdays) at 4:55pm and started going through the dollar bin. Because anytime I have to be somewhere after right after work (which I totally did) someone comes in at the last minute and hangs around and makes me late and the only thing they want is dollar books. EVERY TIME.
  
  I think we should put a sign above the dollar bin on Saturdays:
  
  Comic Books
  Before 5pm: $1 Each
  After 5pm: $5 Each
  
  
• Thanks to the anonymice for the nice stuff in svmadelyn's Valentine's Day thinger. *feels all loved and stuff*

PLUS ( Bento pics and one pretty drink )

You guys, last week was so filled with suck that on Friday night, when I went to the store to do my weekly grocery shopping, I bought a loaf of white bread (which I rarely do), and some plastic orange cheese (ditto on the rarely), and I went home and had nutrient-free grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in crappy Campbell’s tomato soup for dinner.

In other words, my week wasn’t just comfort food bad—it was Velveeta bad.

And as you can see from looking at my Comfort Food Threat Level chart, it doesn’t get much worse than that.



I usually get really into creating awesome grilled cheese—brie and fig jam on baguette, pepper jack and avocado on a jalapeno cheddar bagel—but sometimes, you just gotta have the mushy white bread and the molten plastic cheese.

I feel much better now.

*The Chocolate level can also include caramel and any other rich, non-fruit-flavored candy. Cupcakes, pie or brownies can fill in for Pudding. The Mashed Potato level can be handled with any sort of white carbohydrate such as croissants, and the Velveeta level (DANGER!) encompasses any sort of fake cheese food, such as Cheetos, or Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

There is also a secret hidden level known as the Black level, which can only be dealt with by consuming alcohol.

You guys, I still feel like I'm in a dream. I wake up in the morning and Obama is really our president and he's doing awesome stuff! And undoing shitty stuff! After eight years of feeling overwhelming fear and anger toward the Executive branch, it seems so strange to feel good about what's happening.

Are we actually living inside the Matrix? If we are, do not tell me. Let me dream! I WILL TAKE THE BLUE PILL KTHNXBYE.

Which reminds me:

• US Democracy Server Patch. Leadership: Will now scale properly to national crises. Intelligence was not being properly applied. Heeheehee.
  
  
• Big, beautiful pictures from Inauguration Day, both of the event itself, but also people around the world watching it. Goosebump-inducing.

Thank you to the people who nominated my stories for the McShep Awards! I had a real Sophie's Choice moment where I had to decide which story to eliminate from the competition (damn the fact that so much of my stuff falls into the "humor" category!). I've recovered, though.

Speaking of McShep, remember that time Rodney got turned into a cat, and John got turned into a rat? No? Well, I think it looked like this. (You gotta watch to the end so you see the make-out scene.)

And: Nearly half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they'd be willing to forgo sex for two weeks, rather than give up their Internet access. Only half??

Birthdays for January, even though the month is almost over. So sorry, January babies!

merrilily, aliaspiral, wolvietat, sullensiren, carolina_jay, sweptawaybayou, amireal, jbacardi, steammmpunk, kaesaria, klo_the_hobbit, seperis, lady_t_220, carleton97, and bluebrocade!

Still just as awesome and heartbreaking on the second third fourth viewing. (Original post about it here.)