havocthecat

It's a good thing I was going to be off work anyway last week, because I don't think I'd have been working anyway. At least this way I had wrapped up the urgent work.

More paternal health problems; lots of hospital visits on our part as Dad has been there a week now. (Small political note: Please keep the ACA in place. PLEASE.) I don't want to go into it. I have a two-thirds completed post sitting around that I just don't want to finish yet. I might later. We'll see how exhaustive I feel about the details. Right now I just feel exhausted instead.

If you have prayers, good mojo, best wishes, or whatever, I'd appreciate them! Also I'd appreciate them for the amount of cleaning that I'm going to be doing with Mom to get the house ready for Dad.

In hilarious, unrelated news, I just had to explain to someone that I didn't like a TV host because I thought he was smarmy, and I had to clarify that I meant dictionary-smarm, not fandom-smarm. They're very different definitions.

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I don't even have time to be posting, but I am, because. I'm halfway through Iron Fist and suddenly a Daughters of the Dragon team-up series for Colleen Wing and Misty Knight is now all I ever want in a new MCU show. Oh, please. Please, Marvel? I think you could actually do this and have it not suck?

(Because I know Jessica Jones is going to keep going and be amazing, so I'm not worried there. Jess and Trish will have their friendship day.)

I would also not say no to a Heroes for Hire series featuring some combination of Misty, Jessica, Trish, Colleen, and with a side order of Karen and Claire and maybe Marci and Jeri Hogarth every now and again. I mean, it could be episodic instead of arc-based with different team-ups based on the stories you're telling! (If only they had the rights to Black Cat too.)

I just. So many women! So many strengths and flaws and well-rounded characters who could have these great shows. Maybe? Jessica Jones did so well and Supergirl is too, so maybe?

I'll keep dreaming. But in the meantime, back to overwhelming deadlines. But later, I need to find me some Marvel Netflix icons. I'm sadly lacking in them.

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Not because I'm upset at anyone, and not because of any negativity in any recent online conversations, but because occasionally people get kind of weird about my cooking abilities. I brought bread to work and got several surprised comments from the newbies in my department about my being able to bake and how early I learned how to cook.

Just because I learned to cook and bake from my Mom the ex-hippie (who learned from my Grandmother the ex-farm girl who grew up in the rural wilds of the Midwest during the Great Depression) when I was in the young single digits doesn't mean I think ANY LESS of anyone learning to cook or bake at twenty, thirty, or seventy. Or who never learned to cook or bake. Or who never wanted or cared to.

Or anyone who uses boxed brownie mix instead of busting out the Dutch process cocoa or painstakingly chopping baking chocolate. (So do I sometimes!)

Or anyone who orders Blue Apron or some other meal service and cooks with prepackaged ingredients and directions. (That's what it's there for!)

Or who's getting a list of ingredients and learning to cook on their own via YouTube or with a cheap cookbook. (Good for you! I'm impressed!)

Or who buys a bag of tasty-looking sauce and dumps it in a slow cooker with a hunk of meat that was on sale at the store. (That's what they sell it for. Go for it!)

Or who nukes a frozen dinner in the microwave. (Microwaves are useful.) Or slaps some peanut butter and jelly on two slices of bread. (PB&J is a staple in many places for a reason.)

Or who just calls for carryout and/or opens a bag of chips for dinner. (I've done it. Some days we all do it.)

Or whatever works for you.

I enjoy cooking and baking, and feeding other people is my way of sharing something I derive pleasure from. It's a creative art that's meant to be shared with as many people as possible, and cooking and baking things from (some variety of) scratch* is what I've decided works best and is most healthy for me and my family.

But that's me.

You make the choice that's best for you, based on your history and your current needs! I'm perfectly happy for you to do that! My talking about what I like for me is not a judgment upon your decisions. :)



*I mean, let's be realistic, I'm not a professional chef who stands around and gets paid to do this sort of thing, I'm a full time working and commuting woman who doesn't pay someone to clean her house, tutor her child, or do her laundry, and who would also like to have hobbies and a social life. I don't have fucking time to painstakingly process and peel tomatoes for 100%-from-scratch pasta sauce or to make clam chowder with actual clams that need to be cooked and shucked (those being the last two dishes I made), or stir, stir, stir, STIR the risotto (it's a holiday dish for a reason) because I don't have an extra ten hours in my day, and, let's face it, if I did, I'd probably spend at least 80% of it reading or dancing or writing, not cooking or getting shit done around the house.

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Did you ever watch Forever Knight, the tale of an 800 year old vampire police detective seeking redemption for his previous sins and looking to regain his lost humanity?

If you haven't, and you've enjoyed all those angsty vampire stories that have shown up in the media since the 90s, what's stopping you? You can join the fun and the fandom, to watch along with the, okay, kind of over the top plots at times and 90s special effects, but also the top notch historical research and costuming, alongside breathtaking characterization and the kind of acting that made any flaws fall to the side as we watched these actors sell every. single. moment.

Do you like stories of excessively Catholic former Crusaders and those around them? How about 1100 year old French women with a soft spot for the downtrodden of the world, but who will never admit it?

Or terrifyingly vulnerable mortal coroners who stand up to vampires that can break them like toothpicks?

How about human cops that doggedly and ruggedly solve crimes in a slightly less fashionable yet no less goodhearted way than the aforementioned nigh-invulnerable protagonist? There are many of them of varied ranks and backgrounds, some of whome have wives and children at home, one who has a husband and child, and others of whom have Daddy issues like you wouldn't believe. All are wonderful and just as good - if not better - at their jobs than the aforementioned former Crusader, who loves to be around these people who put themselves in harm's way and don't have his advantages.

How about 2000 year old Roman generals who creep and stalk on their objects of obsession for their own good? (He promises, and you wouldn't distrust a Roman patrician, would you?)

Or 500 year old ex-Conquistadors who, uh, maybe have a thing for adorble blonde cops with Daddy issues? (Also adorable blondes in general. This is the fandom that had a pairing name for every possible permutation of pairings, after all, and fans of every single character. We love them all, and we love our fellow fans.)

Or even a whole host of secondary characters, many of whom ended up on the Stargates, in a richly populated world of Canadian television filmed in Toronto and actually set in Canada, for once! No generically-named "Seacouver" for this show.

Would you like to revisit that lost era of 90s television? (You would, wouldn't you?)

You too can be a part of this fandom, if you would like follow the link to provide either art or fiction based on a slate of prompts you sign up to receive.</a> Your mod, brightknightie, spends plenty of time hand-matching participants and eagerly awaits your response to her invitation to join her in fictional, vampire cop-themed 1990s Toronto.

You could do so if you sign up for fkficfest! The 2017 Rules and Sign-ups Post: "You will watch life begin, and end, and begin anew."

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Daylight savings is why it's taken me four days to write this post. Ugh. I haven't been posting much because I've been ridiculously busy with work, parenting, gaming, belly dance, and other hobbies. But mostly work and parenting.

Also I got the kidlet's cold this weekend, right in time for Daylight Savings Time, so my circadian rhythms have been fucked on top of me being exhausted from illness. Goddamn, I'm tired. Which makes me glad I'm prepping to step down from my LARP ST unpaid job, because the paid work is exhausting enough as it is.

There's also this absolutely fascinating story by Martin Schneider about the time he switched names with a female co-worker for a couple of weeks and what happened, as well as the counterpart story from Nicole Hallberg, the woman he switched names with</a>. It's like my entire professional and hobbyist experience distilled down into two blog stories. I've been trying to figure out how to talk about it and-- I mean, I just can't. Not right now.

Well. Not in an unlocked post, anyway. If you're over here from Facebook and you know me from gaming, and you want to hear most of my gaming thoughts, create a Dreamwidth account and drop me a line so I know who you are. I'll give you access to the locked post I'm going to make on the matter. There are ways to set it up so you can just get an email when I post about gaming stuff. That way you don't have to see all the personal cruft.

So I hear tell The Vampire Diaries ended. Which does not make me sad, because it's well past time. It stopped being a show about Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline a long while ago, and I wasn't interested in a show about Stefan and Damon and their unending struggle to maintain their brotherly relationship. The Vampire Diaries, for me, was always about the women and their friendship.

I am...not talking about politics. Fuck me, I'm not talking about politics. Mostly because of the unendingly nauseated feeling I get when I think about them these days. Good grief.

If you would like to get a slightly more distanced view of politics, you can read about archaeology:
Slaughter at the bridge: Uncovering a colossal Bronze Age battle. Apparently this era marks a huge turning point in the social organization of Europe and the battle is one of the first pieces of hard physical evidence of that. There's also a fascinating story of a Bronze Age inferno in the UK that's giving archaeologists fits of glee</a> because of the information they're going to get out of it.)

Also, it's killer research for Highlander fanfic. (One of the chief draws of Highlander fanfic in the 90s was the amazing research that was done on the historical side of things. That hasn't changed for me.)

In further evidence that scientists have terrible senses of humor, archaeologists have found evidence of the elusive Higgs bison. Yes, the Higgs bison. Oh, scientists.

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I am bored with my current batch of go-to recipes, including tonight's pork chops and spicy/sweet brussels sprouts. Please share your favorite recipes with me! Difficulty is not a barrier. I have been cooking since I was five. Culture is not a barrier (so long as I can get the materials, which might get tricky, admittedly), because I have yet to find a cuisine I haven't enjoyed cooking. Desserts, drinks, entrees, appetizers, lay it on me.

I'd love to try something new. Help me out? I have zero food allergies to worry about too.

I'm considering making this as a side to go along with tonight's dinner: http://thecookreport.co.uk/lemon-garlic-sour-cream-pasta/

It's pasta, but it's new pasta!

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I guess most people don't use IRC for group chat rooms and I don't actually live in the 90s outside of group chat eras. I just don't group chat that much.

This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth ( comments). Comments are welcome on either post.

Work is busy. Work is getting busier and busier. My manager is trying to help me develop a "global view" of the team's needs, so that means...more work. Go figure.

My second performance since returning to belly dance is tomorrow night. My lack of an internal sense of rhythm became even more obvious with this particular song: Crawlersout by Purity Ring. (Link is to a YouTube video.) The lyrics are creepy and morbid in a way that my teenage self, who oohed and aahed over the Romantic poets, would have greatly appreciated. Okay, to be fair, my adult self still loves the Romantic poets and appreciates the song just as much, but possibly without the excessive melodrama that I would have had as a teenager.

I've started listening to my LARP character's playlist again. I've missed it! But I will probably not make it public for a large audience. (There was a request for it at the second to last game, but I kind of conveniently dodged it.) For one, I have rather small-c catholic musical tastes, which means that I will invariably like something that either society at large or hard core fans or will mock tremendously. Or both. (Definitely both. Ugh.) My musical talent and taste is one of the few things I can't stand defending. I know I'm not cool enough, or discerning enough, or alternative enough. (Or whatever.) I'm a huge nerd and a weirdo and a plebe. I get it. I'll just be over here quietly listening to what makes me happy and letting everyone else (potentially) scorn elsewhere.

(Though I will say that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is totally a song for my character.)

Also, apparently Will Smith is going to be a cop - AND HIS PARTNER IS AN ORC - in an urban fantasy movie on Netflix? Really? Again with the things that teenage me would have eaten up with a spoon and adult me will still watch the shit out of.

After hearing that Bill Paxton died, I've discovered that many of my friends have neither seen nor heard of Near Dark. Which I find a travesty for the horror-loving, vampire-loving crowd. I wish there was a better way to do an online simultaneous re-watch.

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Still my favorite Project Runway ever, because I love seeing teenagers learning about fashion design, and I love, love, love seeing Tim Gunn acting as a mentor to people who still need to learn from him. That's when you can tell he came into this from being a teacher, and I bet he was such a good one too. He's so good with these kids. They've been blossoming on the show, which is just delightful to watch.

I'm watching the finale and he's meeting the families of the teenagers who are in the finale. It's like a parent/teacher conference, and it's adorable.

It's so much nicer to watch Project Runway Junior than it is to watch the regular Project Runway or the All-Stars show. Even the one episode of Junior that had drama, it was over within an episode, and they had Tim Gunn mediating with both of them. How is it that teenagers have less drama than the adults?

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