I just watched Julian Fellowes' Titanic mini-series that aired her in the States a couple weeks ago. It's like Fellowes had the same reaction to Cameron's Titanic that I did, which was to want more about the people who weren't Kate and Leo.

( Spoilers )

All in all it was a good watch. Also yesterday, thanks to Historiann I stumbled across an interesting article about the Titanic's enduring appeal. People do love a good, romantic tragedy.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/42286.html.

It seems like everyone around me is getting married or having babies, or some infernal combination of the two. Okay, not everybody, but in the past two years there has been an uptick in the number of blessed events I’ve had cause to celebrate. The whole thing reached its apex last month when my younger brother married his Australian fiancée in a nice, international ceremony in the Washington D.C. area. He then promptly moved with her to the other side of the world.

( Family Family Blah Blah Blah )

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/42029.html.

Things have been happening, lots of things. But instead of talking about any of that (at the moment) I think I'm going to do that "AO3 Top Ten Hit Count" meme. Because I can and because it's kind of interesting.

1. Monkey See, Monkey Do SPN Trickster
2. Once and Again Narnia Pevensies
3. Undertow Narnia Susan Pevensie
4. Though Grim Shadows Fall SPN/DiR xover Castiel
5. On the Run Driving in the Sun SPN/The O.C. xover Sandy Cohen
6. Keep Calm and Carry On SPN Sam Winchester
7. Just Another Gin Joint SPN Ensemble
8. The Blue, Blue Sky SPN OFC
9. The Darkest Time Narnia Lucy Pevensie
10. The Coming Storm SPN/DC Comics Barbara Gordon

Honorable Mention - A Woman's Touch Bond Moneypenny

A Few Thoughts - My most popular stories are niche ones; small fandoms, crossovers, humor. The only one that's fluke-y is Blue, Blue Sky; the amount of interest might have more to do with the warning paired with a lack of context in the summary rather than the story or its inspiration. I don't think it's the story that all of its prospective readers thought it was.

Also AO3 loves Sam more than Dean. Sam-girls, the lot of them. ;-)

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/41779.html.

An Easter story:

I brought treats in for my Sunday School students. While the box was going around one of the girls asked me if it "taste[d] like angel." I nearly had an aneurysm suppressing all of the blowjob jokes that flashed through my mind.

Fandom has ruined me forever. And I love it for that.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/41482.html.

Quick update. My computer caught a nasty virus that corrupted its operating system so I've been disconnected from internet since middle of last week. Currently posting from shiny new Nook tablet. Hopefully should have computer back soon as have emails to write and stories to work on.

Oh computer. I miss you so.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/41312.html.

You guys, this is the funniest thing I've seen on the internet in a while, a week at least. Apparently, this is what happens to you when you do voice work for DC animated shows/movies.



comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/40990.html.

Wow, it's been a little while since I posted an entry. I don't know, things have been happening? There was some minimal work drama, a bad bout of the flu, and a lot of TV watching. I've also been preparing mentally for the Big Lug's wedding. I need a name for his fiancee ... the Aussie Teacher? Because she's Australian and a teacher? I don't know, I'll have to think about it. Anyway, there's been some familial damage control since he's moving to the other side of the world, Lt. Wrestler's kind of been a little bitch about the whole thing and the Philosopher wasn't even going to go until just last week. Though, in her defense, she was almost literally raised by wolves (her mother is, well, let's just say the Philosopher did most of her own mothering) so I don't think she quite yet understands that there are things that you do for family, whether you like them or not.

And blah blah blah I've also been watching a lot of television. There was Downton Abbey season two and there's still Southland and Justified. I've also been enjoying the SyFy Being Human and I'm really digging Lost Girl, it's just so Canadian and female-centric and awesome. I know I'm way behind all of the people who have been watching it since it originally premiered in Canada, but at this point in season one I really think that a Bo/Lauren/Dyson threesome would solve everyone's problems. Justified could also benefit from a little threesome action, namely of the Raylan/Ava/Boyd variety. Mmmmmmm, that would be awesome.

And let's not forget The Walking Dead which came back from the break with, literally, all guns blazing. And I've been enjoying Smash a whole lot. It's just nice to watch something that isn't quitee as life and death as all of my other shows.

Right now TV has been quite the wealth of riches. I don't know what I'll do when summer comes around and TV becomes a wasteland. It will be sad indeed.

The one thing I would ask of the TV gods is to have Misha Collins guest star on all the things. Please TV, make that happen for me.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/40956.html.

I had my first visit with an accupuncturist this morning. It was ... interesting. I'm definitely intrigued enough to continue going.

However! I have finally cranked out another re-read post. Apparently I have lots of opinions about LotR. I've had to start *gasp* putting real effort into these. But Middle-earth is worth it.

Lord of the Rings
Fellowship of the Ring
Book I—Chapter II: The Shadow of the Past

( The talk did not die down in nine or even in ninety-nine days. The second disappearance of Mr. Bilbo Baggins was discussed in Hobbition, and indeed all over the Shire, for a year and a day, and was remembered much longer than that. )

Next Time: Fellowship of the Ring Book I—Chapter III: Three Is Company. Frodo finally sets off on his quest and already nothing is going the way he thought it would.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/40638.html.

Apparently last winter was so awful (it was, it really was) I never managed to do that whole "Year in Fic" meme that I usually do. And seeing as this year was so bad for me creatively (oh boy was it ever) I think I'll combine 2010 and 2011 into one whole super rundown.

( My Two Years in Fic )

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/40426.html.

Well, my friends, it's been quite the tumultuous year. There have been ups and downs and downs and up. It has made me even more grateful for the wonderful people I know, who make my life more interesting and fulfilling. Thank you all for being the wonderful people you are.

And now, as it's Christmas Eve, here is the traditional text. This year's comes from that great old Christmas story, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

( There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, returned the nephew: Christmas among the rest. )

Even if it means I end up in Bedlam with Scrooge, I wish you all the happiest of Holidays and the brightest of New Years. Thank you for being the amazing people you are.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/40123.html.

Lord of the Rings
Fellowship of the Ring
Book I—Chapter I: A Long Expected Party

( When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. )

Next Time: Fellowship of the Ring Book I—Chapter II: The Shadow of the Past. Revelations abound about the things creeping in the dark and cutting the grass has never been more dangerous.

ETA: Here’s a little something my fellow hobbits may enjoy, the first official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Aawww yeah, that’s the stuff.



comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/39916.html.

Thank you all for your comments on my car accident of d00m post. You lot are the greatest f-listers a girl could have.

I'm feeling much better than I did on Monday. I went to an urgent care clinic on Monday night and then they sent me over to the local hospital's ER. I had x-rays and exams and have been given as clean a bill of health as one can get after rolling a car. I felt a lot better on Tuesday morning, it's amazing what a good night's sleep can do. I still have some aches (especially in my left shoulder) but I'm doing good.

I talked with the insurance company today. They've declared my car a total wreck and I'll be hearing back soon about what kind of financial compensation they'll be sending my way. The agent on the phone was suitably horrified by the whole thing and we had a good laugh over the fact that I hit a mattress. Because, seriously, I hit a mattress. Granted, it's only funny because I wasn't seriously injured but, still, who knew how dangerous a mattress could actually be?

I never did find my phone, though I recovered my glasses, undamaged, from the wheel well of my car. So you win some, you lose some. My new phone is pretty shiny, though I miss some of the pictures I had on the old one.

That reminds me, I took some pictures of my old car. I need to put those up here. It's really something else.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/39504.html.

I was in an accident last night. I was going back to FGC after Sunday dinner with my parents, blithely driving along a stretch of road I've driven too many times to count. Unbeknownst to me, a fellow driver had not fastened down a mattress he was transporting and it flew out of his trailer and into the middle of the road. The car ahead of me saw it in time to swerve but all I remember is a flash of something white in the roadway before my car went spinning out of control.

You know how in the movies when there's a huge accident and one of the cars inevitably rolls over itself before finally coming to a crashing halt? Well, now I know what that feels like. I must have shut my eyes when everything went to hell, because I don't know how many times I rolled over. I ended up in the freeway median, my car pointing the opposite direction from what I'd been traveling.

It's funny how your mind works after something like that. After the crash it seemed so important that I unplug my iPod from where it was hanging off of my rearview mirror. There was a guy shouting to me, trying to see how I was, and I was more concerned for my electronics than I was for myself.

Thankfully, my car landed on its wheels and I was able to get out of it by myself. I was coherent afterwards, I knew the date and where I was and where I'd been going (as well as my own name). A family of Good Samaritans saw my car go flying and they pulled off, called 911, and waited with me until the police arrived. The guy who had lost the mattress also waited around and admitted fault, which was good of him. A lot of people would have just driven away.

Physically I seem to be okay. I hit my head and my left shoulder/neck is super-sore from, I assume, the seatbelt that saved my life. I'm surprised an ambulance wasn't called out to the scene, but the area was pretty rural. I may visit a doctor today just to get a clean bill of health. I doubt my car is salvageable. My dad and I are going to go check it out this afternoon but I'm not optimistic. Though Ford sure does make a sturdy car, none of the glass shattered and the body didn't crumple.

Sitting here, I still can't believe that it happened. If it weren't for the bumps on my head and the aches on my left side I would think it was all a dream. Well, that and the fact that my glasses went missing so now I can't see for shit, I have the screen magnification up super-high and I still have to squint. I also lost my phone. I'm hoping to find it when I go check out the car this afternoon, but right now I'm relying on the kindness of my father for the loan of his phone.

All I can think about is how grateful I am that things turned out okay, that I was able to walk away, that I had people to call, that there are good people who will pull over to help you. Things could have turned out so much worse.

But, seriously, wear your seatbelts. And if you're transporting a mattress in a trailer make sure that thing is tied down tight. Those things can be deadly.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/39394.html.

Sometimes it’s nice, when you’re in fannish free fall, to return to the things you’ve always loved. I’ve been meaning to do a re-read of Lord of the Rings for a while now and watching the films over the Thanksgiving weekend kicked me from intent to actual practice. And since I need something to put up on my LJ, I’ve decided to share the re-read with all of you. Because I’m a giver like that, or something. ;-)

A part of me has really missed Tolkien’s world and always will. So enough with the introductions and let’s dive straight into it.

( Prologue )

Next Time: Fellowship of the Ring Book I—Chapter I: A Long-Expected Party. Bilbo’s throwing a party and we’re all invited.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/39146.html.

I'm trying to psych myself up to write more of anything. Because work is mind-numbing and if I don't do something creative and stimulting my brain is going to lapse into a gelatin state. I am just so frigging tired.

So I'm going to post this. It's the beginning of a Band of Brothers/Falling Skies mash-up. Falling Skies was an alien apocalypse show that aired on TNT over the summer. It was fun, but the people were deeply, deeply stupid. I thought I'd inject a little competence into the equation.

Let me know what you think.

( Dick watched the sky and thought about everything they had lost. )

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/38759.html.

How do the weeks go by so quickly? I feel like I just did one of these.

A lot of fic in the past few weeks came from deancasbigbang. The challenge ended last week and there's a full index of this year's stuff over at the community. I haven't had time to read it all, yet, so the interested should definitely check that out and see what I've missed.

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Imagine the Ocean--Book One by Damkianna
Hakoda found the boy in the ice eight days before Kya went into labor. Longfic, AU

X-Men: First Class
New Beautiful Things Come by singlecrow
Erik runs a kosher bakery. Charles comes in for baked goods. They play chess, eat meringues, people drop other people's keys down the toilet, and there's mutant performance art. AU, Charles/Erik

Supernatural
The Winchester Revision by proxydialogue
A recently de-deified Chuck, dying in Italy, decides to revise the story of Sam and Dean and Cas to give it the fairytale ending it deserves as a last hurrah before he goes. In a world with no monsters Dean Winchester goes to the University of Delaware for physics and engineering where a terrible twist of fate lands him in a Feminism and Literature class for one of his general electives. It is taught by a dark haired, blue-eyed professor named Castiel. Sam, meanwhile, is a boy genius who gets into college at sixteen and really is going to be a lawyer this time as soon as he finishes his English degree at UDel and gets into Stanford. But the more Chuck writes, the more he discovers about himself, his characters and the friends he will never see again; because some stories must be told. Longfic, quasi-AU, Dean/Cas

Without a Map by jaimeykay and twoskeletons
Set after 5x03 and before 5x04. Dean knows a thing or two about absent fathers, but he didn’t expect Castiel to ask him if he wanted to come along on the search for God. He also didn’t expect to say yes. Cue the two of them going around the world, from mountain peaks to bustling cities to subterranean caverns. They talk with prophets, angels, and deities, but they are running out of leads and running out of time. As the dead ends and red herrings pile up, so do their frustrations, testing their faith in each other and themselves. Longfic

The Incredible Tale of Dean Winchester and the Angel Who Fell From the Sky by ibroketuesday and xxamlaxx
Loose retelling of Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, set in the Pacific Northwest of the late 1920s. Sam and Dean have retired young from hunting and moved to an island, and they're failing miserably in their attempt at being fishermen when a storm sends an angel crashing into their yard. Castiel is a feral creature with black wings and taloned feet, and though initially Dean regards him as a monster, the bond that develops between the two will set them against murderers, reveal a dark secret of angel society, and change both of them forever. Also, Castiel is naked the entire time. Longfic, AU

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/38420.html.

That's right! I promised a recounting of Halloween!

In short: We scared little kids. It was awesome.

At length: We've been planning for Halloween all year. We decided that we all needed long black robes so that we could be grim reaper-type ghouls. We commissioned my mom to make them for us (we bought all of the supplies, of course).

The Halloween stage was set on the first day of October. baylorsr turned the frontyard into a cemetary, complete with styrofoam headstones and glowing skeletons (one a zombie, the other a pirate). This year we added a bat that hangs off of the big tree; it lights up, swings back and forth, and makes spooky bat noises. There is also a witch that hangs on the door. She's motion-activated and cackles whenever anyone opens or closes the door. Of all of the decorations she's the one who has scared the most children (including the Baylor Nephew in years past). [Our resident ghost used to be fascinated with the witch, triggering it to go off at strange and random times.]

On the night itself we put on our robes and painted our faces bone white with black around our eyes and mouths. Then dodger_sister and I stood in the big picture window, all of the lights off behind us, with only flashlights to illuminate our faces. baylorsr silently and expressionlessly passed out the candy. In the background we were playing one of those spooky noise tracts on a loop.

A number of kids stood on the sidewalk, staring at the house, trying to gather up the nerve to come up to the door. One little kid dressed as Michael Myers got his candy and then suddenly noticed us standing in the window. He walked backwards all the way to the street, staring at us the whole way. One girl came up with a whole gaggle of kids and then squealed and jumped upon seeing us. We could hear her pointing us out to the other kids as she walked away. I spooked out another kid by staring at him the entire time. Another girl couldn't tell if we were real people or holograms so I pointed at her. She shrieked a little, it was awesome.

Lots of parents took pictures of the house and talked about us while their kids were getting candy. Our zombie costumes were the talk of the neighborhood last year and I bet this year won't be any different.

The two or so hours of trick-or-treating seemed to fly by. Our only disappointment was the lower than expected number of kids. I guess that's what happens when Halloween is on a Monday.

dodger_sister has some great photos of the decorations in the yard over here. I'll be sure to put up a shot of us in full costume when I get my hands on them.

Yay! Scaring little kids is the greatest!

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/38169.html.

We had a most excellent Halloween at FGC, but I'll detail that in another post. Presenting, for your consideration, the best of the fics I read in the past week:

Battlestar Galactica
Peaches and Cream by bedlamsbard
He tips his forehead against hers, sighing. “It’s me,” he says. “Gods, I missed you.” Helo/Athena

The Middleman
The Pompatus of Love by musesfool
"Oh, no, did someone try to stump the band with 'The Joker' again?"

Supernatural
Above and Below by murron
Dean, Sam and Cas climb into Hell to get Sam’s soul. While they pass from one infernal circle to the next, Dean struggles with his mistrust of soulless Sam and the shadow of his own past in the Pit. In addition, there’s the matter of Cas who’s come to mean more to Dean than he wants to admit. Fighting against Hell spawn and fallen angels, passing through burned cities and salt deserts, Dean believes in the success of their mission until their luck runs out and Hell threatens to swallow Cas whole. AU, Longfic, Dean/Cas

The Demiurge by takadainmate
After the final battle for Heaven, the Winchesters find Castiel. AU, Longfic

These Are Not Real Problems by scaramouche
Castiel used to be a god. Dean took that away from him, and now Castiel's stuck in a hell of his own making. AU, Longfic, Dean/Cas

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/37814.html.

We’re coming up on the ten year anniversary of when my fibromyalgia first became symptomatic. Ten years. There’s a part of me that can’t believe that it’s been that long, that I’ve lived that long. In some ways I still see myself as the twenty-one/twenty-two year old that I was then and in some ways she seems like a distant acquaintance, someone I knew briefly a long time ago. Time is funny that way.

I felt fulfilled as a missionary, I was active and happy and proud of the work I was doing. I remember that so clearly, just as clearly as I remember the frustration that came as I became ill, the confusion and the sadness. I wanted so desperately to continue working the way I had been and the weight of my failure for my inability to do so.

It took me a long time to get over what happened to me during the final months of 2001. It took me years to reach a place of understanding, of myself, of my body, of my religion. I had a crisis of faith which lead to a reconceptualizing of my personal religious practice. I’m not the starry-eyed girl that I was, willing to believe everything I was told.

My problems haven’t been solved, per se, but I’ve changed into a person who can better handle them. I quit my mission but I didn’t quit law school, I hung in there tooth and nail through to the end.

My disability, my religion, my background, my beliefs, these are all a part of who I am but they’re not me. We spend adolescence going to extremes, acting out to discover our boundaries or losing ourselves in causes or crusades. It’s only now that I’m finally coming to understand myself and discover the questions I should have been asking all those years ago.

A few weeks ago a friend saw a picture of me taken right before my mission. Her first response was to say how young I looked back then. It took me aback because she’s who I see in my mind, the mental image I have of myself. But I’ve earned each and every one of my gray hairs in the years since, every emerging line on my face and crinkle around my eyes. I love the girl I was but I’m starting to appreciate the woman I am.

I guess we’ll all see what happens next.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/37473.html.

So, I had the death flu last week (which is a little milder than the swine flu) so I was out for the count from Tuesday evening until Friday evening/Saturday morning. Apparently, no one at work was surprised when I called in sick because of how awful I looked on Tuesday afternoon (unbeknownst to me).

I am now much improved and have been busy all morning catching up on the things I missed last week. It says a lot about my job that three days worth of work can be done in 3-4 hours. But ssshhhh, don't tell anyone. I like money a lot and am already out 3 days pay.

However! Things did happen this week. Let me bullet point.

* My dear brother (the Bigh Lug) informed me that I will be inheriting all of his HBO tv show dvds (Deadwood and Rome were mentioned by name) because his future wife does not want that "filth" in her house. I guess guys have given up a lot more for the chance to have sex.

* I really enjoyed last week's Secret Circle. I think it's become my new favorite guilty pleasure. I mean, come on, the femslash writes itself. I'm also very intrigued to see where The Walking Dead goes from here. I kind of wish I'd mainlined the first season before the second one began. I can't wait until the zombie apocalypse is truly upon us.

* I live in a haunted house. People have reported things like orbs when the house was being renovated before move-in, wonky electronics, and knocking (a different knocking than the pipes, believe me). Just a few weeks ago my housemates' little niece was playing nicely when she suddenly started shrieking and crying about the lady in the corner, a lady no one else could see.

A lot of it could be written off. But this morning something strange happened. I was cutting up an apple for my lunch (it's less messy to eat that way) and one of the cats was "helping" me. He was up on the counter sniffing the apple cores right underneath my knife as I was cutting. In the middle of the process he turned around toward the living room and did that creepy thing that cats do where they stare at nothing. He quickly resumed getting into my business, as he does. Then something skidded across the living room, something that sounded like a little stone. The cat went off to investigate and left me to finish cutting my apple.

It was creepy. Really, really creepy. I guess our Little Old Lady ghost didn't want the cat to keep nosing around by the knife because he could get hurt. It's nice that she's so fond of the cats. But, still, I didn't want to look in the living room for a while after that on the off chance that I would see something. *shudders*

Halloween is next week. I love Halloween.

comments at http://liptonrm.dreamwidth.org/37334.html.