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a seasonal miscellany
This afternoon a cacophony of grackles descended on our back yard and the neighbors'. They must come by our yard every year at about this time - it is not that I have any memory of them doing so, but when I think of 'large numbers of loud black birds' the image that comes to mind is of grackles settling restlessy in the tops of scraggy sycamore and cherry trees, which look tattered and gawky in their last few rumpled yellow leaves, as the birds lift and settle in constant arrowing flights of two or three birds, scrawking among themselves ceaselessly.
Grackles are also what populate fantasy novels in my head when large numbers of crows are called for. American crows, in my experience, simply don't act like the fantasy ones, but grackles are abundant, gluttonous, and, if not ill-omened, certainly unwelcomed. (My favorite songbirds are starlings and grackles. They are beautiful like oil spills in parking lots.)
***
I got my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide assignment yesterday! My recipient this year is a name I recognize and have interacted with before in a small fandom, and is actually someone whose writing in that fandom I really admire. In fact, she is probably as close as that fandom has to a BNF, so I am consumed with anxiety. That fandom is the only one that she requested that I know - the least rare of the three. (and I did so want an excuse to write Tanith Lee genfic!) I read over the discussion of the matching algorithm, and though I haven't done any formal figuring, it does seem designed so that the rarest fandoms are the least likely to be matched, alas.
So, to the unlucky person who was assigned to me: The chances are probably good that the fandom you'll end up writing is YW. Don't worry too much about my crack rarepair request (unless you like that sort of thing. In which case, just to mention, the Nita/Doctor idea has been *haunting* me since I sent in that form.) I'll be happy with whatever you give me, as long as it's well-written and takes the canon somewhere interesting, and I adore gen. But note that I haven't got my hands on Wizard Alone or WAW yet. While I'm not concerned about spoilers, I'll probably be less confused if you lean most heavily on the earlier books.
If you're doing one of the other fandoms I requested, I really have nothing to add except that I will love you forever and eternally no matter what you ended up writing, just because you know those fandoms in the first place! Also, I would like to note that I am not scary. If you want to see, generally, what kind of things I wish someone else would write, my unfinfished fic file is probably the best place to go, if you can bear all the unfinished fic.
***
And everybody seems to be pairingyuletide with wishlists. So, in general, I have no need more more *stuff*, but: things I might enjoy to celebrate the turning of the year. These are all entirely selfish, unlike most of the others I've seen.
1) Books, comics, CDs. I won't try to list specifics, but really, anything is good; my taste is eclectic to say the least and what I like most is finding new things to like. To be slightly more specific, you probably can't go wrong with recent children's sf, nonfiction on folklore or the occult, 18th century music, or anything with Kon-El in it. I may or may not have a librarything list to look at before Christmas.
2) Fun hats. Warm ones, with large band sizes, that will stand a lot of abuse. And not *too* funky to wear in public.
3) A working laptop. Or even salvaging the files on the old one. Two mp3s I had only on there that I really miss are Minor Majority - Dancing in the Backyard , and Elvis Costello - All This Useless Beauty. (Although, if someone could send me the lost SGA/HL crossover, or the Karel Capek fic, or the one where Conner Kent and Connor Riley have Daddy issues together, that would be nice too.)
4) A wireless card for my desktop computer, and somebody to get it working right on RedHat 7.2 without requiring me to do actual *moan* work.
5) TSO tickets.
6) Someone to tell me where I put my digital camera after the last time I used it.
7) Get-up-and-go, gumption. Sticktoitiveness. Ambition. Moral courage. A grown-up sized sit-n-spin. Somebody to tell me what I'm gong to do until I grow up. Some nice rejection slips for prose writing, from paying venues.
8) The current American administration to implode in a cloud of scandal, featuring proof of blatant lies to Congress and the public, human and civil rights violations, Diebold voting fraud in the election, and oil price fixing, among other things. And the opposition to grow an actual spine in the process, and stop talking about running Hilary for president. But no major natural disasters next year, please? Oh, and peace in the Middle East.
9) Dried fruit, hardtack, salted meat, no-refrigeration-necessary beverages in glass bottles, and other things I can stick in my drawer of emergency provisions. Candy with square foil wrappers.
10) Suggestions on what I should do with my hair if I decide to get it cut short. Like, This short. (Donate, yes. I mean the hair that would still be on my head.)
***
The dentist said I passed! Yay!
Grackles are also what populate fantasy novels in my head when large numbers of crows are called for. American crows, in my experience, simply don't act like the fantasy ones, but grackles are abundant, gluttonous, and, if not ill-omened, certainly unwelcomed. (My favorite songbirds are starlings and grackles. They are beautiful like oil spills in parking lots.)
***
I got my
yuletide assignment yesterday! My recipient this year is a name I recognize and have interacted with before in a small fandom, and is actually someone whose writing in that fandom I really admire. In fact, she is probably as close as that fandom has to a BNF, so I am consumed with anxiety. That fandom is the only one that she requested that I know - the least rare of the three. (and I did so want an excuse to write Tanith Lee genfic!) I read over the discussion of the matching algorithm, and though I haven't done any formal figuring, it does seem designed so that the rarest fandoms are the least likely to be matched, alas.So, to the unlucky person who was assigned to me: The chances are probably good that the fandom you'll end up writing is YW. Don't worry too much about my crack rarepair request (unless you like that sort of thing. In which case, just to mention, the Nita/Doctor idea has been *haunting* me since I sent in that form.) I'll be happy with whatever you give me, as long as it's well-written and takes the canon somewhere interesting, and I adore gen. But note that I haven't got my hands on Wizard Alone or WAW yet. While I'm not concerned about spoilers, I'll probably be less confused if you lean most heavily on the earlier books.
If you're doing one of the other fandoms I requested, I really have nothing to add except that I will love you forever and eternally no matter what you ended up writing, just because you know those fandoms in the first place! Also, I would like to note that I am not scary. If you want to see, generally, what kind of things I wish someone else would write, my unfinfished fic file is probably the best place to go, if you can bear all the unfinished fic.
***
And everybody seems to be pairing
yuletide with wishlists. So, in general, I have no need more more *stuff*, but: things I might enjoy to celebrate the turning of the year. These are all entirely selfish, unlike most of the others I've seen.1) Books, comics, CDs. I won't try to list specifics, but really, anything is good; my taste is eclectic to say the least and what I like most is finding new things to like. To be slightly more specific, you probably can't go wrong with recent children's sf, nonfiction on folklore or the occult, 18th century music, or anything with Kon-El in it. I may or may not have a librarything list to look at before Christmas.
2) Fun hats. Warm ones, with large band sizes, that will stand a lot of abuse. And not *too* funky to wear in public.
3) A working laptop. Or even salvaging the files on the old one. Two mp3s I had only on there that I really miss are Minor Majority - Dancing in the Backyard , and Elvis Costello - All This Useless Beauty. (Although, if someone could send me the lost SGA/HL crossover, or the Karel Capek fic, or the one where Conner Kent and Connor Riley have Daddy issues together, that would be nice too.)
4) A wireless card for my desktop computer, and somebody to get it working right on RedHat 7.2 without requiring me to do actual *moan* work.
5) TSO tickets.
6) Someone to tell me where I put my digital camera after the last time I used it.
7) Get-up-and-go, gumption. Sticktoitiveness. Ambition. Moral courage. A grown-up sized sit-n-spin. Somebody to tell me what I'm gong to do until I grow up. Some nice rejection slips for prose writing, from paying venues.
8) The current American administration to implode in a cloud of scandal, featuring proof of blatant lies to Congress and the public, human and civil rights violations, Diebold voting fraud in the election, and oil price fixing, among other things. And the opposition to grow an actual spine in the process, and stop talking about running Hilary for president. But no major natural disasters next year, please? Oh, and peace in the Middle East.
9) Dried fruit, hardtack, salted meat, no-refrigeration-necessary beverages in glass bottles, and other things I can stick in my drawer of emergency provisions. Candy with square foil wrappers.
10) Suggestions on what I should do with my hair if I decide to get it cut short. Like, This short. (Donate, yes. I mean the hair that would still be on my head.)
***
The dentist said I passed! Yay!
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