I went to a holiday party at chez kyabetsu & boytoy yesterday - okay, Saturday - okay, it was a full 24 hours of party, don't judge! - and it was brilliant, as parties usually are at their place. As a part of my ongoing quest to be geekier than thou (though winning the math contest at math camp is still my zenith), I missed out on singing along to The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny on Rock Band in order to sit in the basement and discuss early 20th century technology (for a Top Gear/The Secret Garden crossover fic) with a former curator of the Edison Museum NHP.

Like I said, brilliant party. :D I am so lucky to find so many amazing geeky fannish people around me in 3D space as well as you all in the magic box.

On the other hand, I am so, so behind on answering comments in various places. And updating the Dr. Seuss thing, and the lolitics WIP (and have unwisely started another one--) and my yuletide story. And holiday gifting, too, which takes talent considering I buy for less than half a dozen people.

Downloads of early sound recordings from the Edison Collection. Early cylinder recordings -> as always making me want more Madelyn Mack, people! (Specifically the story where she and Irene manipulate Holmes into recording himself on violin that I started last year about this time.) But I have so much other stuff I need to do first.

And once Yuletide is over I have to decide what I am writing for the Top Gear Big Bang I signed up for: finishing the Doctor Who crossover of doom like I originally intended (which is looking at more like 10^6 words than 10^5); the prequel to the Doctor Who crossover, set during The Sontaran Stratagem, in which many things are set on fire; or the Secret Garden crossover where young James, c. 1909, is sent to live at a glass factory in Yorkshire with an old friend of his Mum's, and discovers first the spoilt hypochondriac son of the family, and then Richard the street kid with his amazing motorbike, and then a rusty, neglected old Daimler hidden away in a secret garage that they proceed to fix up together. I should do one of the first two, but Dickensian steampunky Secret Garden crossover! It is calling me! Even if the research involved would be ridiculous.

...this post is very random. To continue the randomness, why did nobody tell me, back when I was desperately looking for a good mp3 of The Green Hills of Earth that Rhysling had "borrowed" the original from a Russian cosmonauts' song? Heinlein would be annoyed. :P

Those of you who are also in lolitics fandom can probably guess what led to me discovering that. Those of you who aren't probably don't want to know. And are wondering when I will go back to writing fic about something other than middle-aged British men.

But to finish a post that seems to be themed around "random music and fannishness", everybody should go listen to nextian's Ballad of the Lone Centurion. (I support the interpretation where it's some kind of sovereignty myth; hidden sleepers and lone guardians usually are, in British myth. Also I really want to draw that cartoon now where Horton and the elephant-bird go to visit Rory and reassure him "There is the Long Watch, and then longer watches; but oh is it worth it when she finally hatches!" I should probably actually watch The Big Bang first, though.)

Oh and speaking of sovereignty symbols: Whoever on my reading list is watching the Mad Hattery blog and got it onto my network page, I salute you. Ruefully. :P It is at least partly your fault I am so behind.

ETA: I knew I was forgetting something! Per a conversation with lindentreeisle at the party, I am going to attempt a proper fanlore page for the D/s AU shared universe - does anybody have any advice, or links to stories in the 'verse that aren't on AO3 that I should know about?

ETA2: OMG, the Library of Congress has a ton of old sheet music online, how did I not know this?

The internets has refused to cough up a proper cocktail recipe for scumble, and so I wish to inform them that 80-proof apple jack mixed 50-50 with ginger beer is yummy, and it's also lethal, because my body seems to think it's apple soda and I drink entire gulps before I realize that it's actually rather distinctly alcoholic.

(The stash of drinks has no vodka, but my sister and Rachel Maddow together have made me interested in cocktails. So sister had sonic screwdrivers with tequila instead of vodka & I had moscow mules with applejack instead & called them scumble.)

(Actually we had vodka, but it's double-caffeinated espresso vodka. Our hostess has been drinking it straight for several hours and is now both lit and wired. How festive, just like her non-demoninational holiday shrub!)

We watched A Colbert Christmas and then have spent the past several hours watching DVDs of all the Otakon vid shows for the entire decade of the nineties (because the parties I go to are just that cool), including the very first vid I ever saw (which was Ryoga Hibiki doing I Would Walk 500 miles in 1995. btw.) I am thinking about how much those old-school AMVs, especially in the humor vids that had a particular way of using literal matching of lyrics & images while completely (deliberately) mismatching tone & mood, shaped my vid aesthetic. Or I would be if it wasn't three o'clock in the morning and I hadn't drunk quite so much scumble.

Also I appear to have crocheted a mauve Dalek.

Everybody who is here tonight drew a party spink. Three guesses which was mine and the first two don't count! Hint: it is the Doctor Who one.

Now I am waiting impatiently for yuletide reveals. Perhaps I will drink some sherry and then attempt to write fic!

My resolution for the year: I am going to start actually finishing creative projects instead of just talking about how awesome they would be if I actually finished them. (To aid me in doing that, I am going to do more talking about them, too.)

Also I am going to get a job. And make some money.

Am at bachelorette party at sister's apartment (not for her. or me.) and am watching marathon of wedding episodes. Have been forced to sit through more episodes of Friends than I ever have before in my entire life. Have had an epiphany (after only a moderate amount of drinking, I swear. Like three shots' worth or something) that the three annoying chicks on Friends are totally just the three girls from Apartment 3G. Have started referring to the black-haired bossy bitch as Margo, the blonde artsy wet-rag-type as LuAnn, and the other one who never really does much as Tommie. Sadly nobody else here reads http://joshreads.com , and so they have no clue what I'm talking about. Therefore, must tell internets! Only the girls in 3G have a much more interesting cast of supporting guy characters. And, like, ten times as much backstory to catch up on.

Of course I learned from Joshreads that Margo, Tommie and Luann were based on Joan Collins, Lucille Ball and Tuesday Weld. Pretending that it's them three onscreen instead makes it almost tolerable to watch!

PS: My sister would like the internets to know that she is really quite exceedingly drunk.

Also she says that I am not to tell any "liiiiees about me on the internet. s. internetses. Just don telll any lies on the internetseseses on me. kay? kay. ... Goodnight. Tell the internets I said goodnight. Tell Stephen Colbert I said goodnight. Good night!"

This is me, lindentreeisle, and kyabetsu trick-or-treating! We were spinking.


(I am the baby spink. They are the momma spinks. Until we traded costumes partway through.)

Then we wheeled and dealed over our candy (of which there was lots!) and now we are preparing to start NaNo in an hour! (Yay NaNo!)

ETA: 2,000 words! 2,000 words of utter crap, but it's prologue, and that's always utter crap anyway. But it's done!

So, this is what I did last night:

Me, kyabetsu, and some other friends got in to the gala opening of the Star Wars exhibit at Geppi's Entertainment Museum, and of course we went in character. :D It was weird to wear that and *still* get called 'normal people'. (By Rebel Legion Organizers, who granted have a somewhat skewed idea of "normal", but, y'know, just because people aren't obsessive Star Wars cosplayers doesn't mean they're not obsessive cosplayers.

Not that I'm really a cosplayer. I am less likely, on my own, to waste the effort on making a weird outfit to wear only to special events when I can put the effort into just dressing weird ALL THE TIME.)

Unfortunately the Anakin costume is all storebought - I was smartchicken enough not to want to wander around in Maryland June weather in tons of makeup and a heavy headdress, unlike some people (kyabetsu in that picture) so I just used one of the costumes they had in storage instead of the one I made. (More pictures here.)

Crossplay is fun. Even if I totally suck at it, even when playing one of the femmier guys in my canon. :D Remembering to walk like you have the family jewels between your legs is not too hard, but otherwise my body language is about as butch as John Sheppard's. And my voice is squeaky. :-P