Kat's Evil Mega-Global Journal

OMG - Yuletide is here! Are you as excited as I am, writer? Thank you so much for taking part in this awesome exchange, and for volunteering to write for a fandom for which I have so much love. <3

I've tried to cram as much info as I could into this letter, because I myself am the type of writer who prefers highly detailed prompts. If you're not, remember that everything beyond the fandom and characters requested is voluntary, so feel free to ignore all of this! If you can fit in some of what I've mentioned here, so much the better, but the overall quality of the story should be your primary concern. Once again, thank you very much, and have a wonderful Yuletide! :D

Stuff I like: I'm a die-hard romantic. I am also a happy-ending junkie. Give me angst if you like, but leave me with some positivity. Doesn't have to be much; a sliver of hope will do! Plot = love. Many of my requested fandoms are heavy on the plot, and I would love for my story to be likewise. One of my requests is for a humor fandom, but humor would be very welcome indeed, even in the non-humor ones. (Which is not to say I want a parody; I'd prefer a serious story with elements of humor in it.)

Stuff I DON'T like: The only thing I feel can ruin a story is blatant OOC behavior from a character. Torture, particularly disfiguring, or deeply psychological torture makes me really uncomfortable, so I would rather not read about that.

In general: I enjoy reading about graphic sex, and very few things about it squicks me (except bodily fluids that aren't sexual fluids - none of that, please). Dub-con and/or BDSM is fine, though it's not something I seek out in a story. I'm easy. Don't be afraid to include stuff I haven't specifically mentioned here, or in my request. Yuletide stories are a gift, and I accept them joyfully! :D

( Fandom specific details: )

I'm considering signing up again for Yuletide, because there were a few fandoms I missed when I did the first time. However, I'm a little paranoid that if I do, I'll feck something up, and my sign up will be lost. And that would be BAD. o_O

How you doin'?

I've mentioned this before, but something got me thinking about it again. When I was in high school (in 1854), you had to give a note to your teacher if you were absent or late. You'd write it in a special book, and have it signed by a parent (or yourself if you were over 18). On one page of my book, the following entries can be found:

"I was late for Economics class on tuesday November 29th, because I overslept. It will never happen again."

The very next entry reads:

"I was late for Maths class on November 30th. I am sorry. I overslept."

And that's me.

I am angry at my novel. It's not going anywhere. At the same time, it's not utterly worthless. I'm torn between scrapping it and starting anew, and staying with it. Though if I do the latter, I can't see myself enjoying it all that much. Case in point, I didn't write a single word today.

Nnf.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo in Norwegian, as I always do. (My goal with NaNo is to write something original that I might publish one day, and I've a much better chance of doing that in my native language.) Here's the problem:

I can't write in Norwegian.

It's not that I don't know the language - my old employer tried to tell me my Norwegian was bad, but I know she was full of shit now - and it's not that I can't express myself... I just... can't seem to make the writing flow. It's always the same; I start out trying to write something, and it all seems stilted and artificial and worse than the worst kind of sub FFN badfic drivel.

I... I dunno. I know I can write, but in Norwegian, it's like I don't know how. Part of it is, I think, that the rules are slightly different. Idiomatics, flow, tone, style and more differ from language to language, and I seem to have forgotten how to make it work in Norwegian. I used to be able to write in my native language; I did as a child. I dunno what happened.

Does anyone else out there write fiction in two different languages? Do you guys have any idea what I'm talking about? How do I break out of it?

I know one of the cardinal rules of NaNo is to not delete anything you've written, but I do rather want to start over. It's not funny, and I need it to be funny.

Any advice?

I've had this on the brain lately; it's Red Riding Hood's song from Sondheim's Into the Woods. Sondheim's music isn't really my cup of tea, generally speaking. I mean, I can appreciate the virtuosity of it; it's very clever... but I just don't like it all that much. Y'know, in the same way I prefer vanilla to strawberry. However, I really like the story, plot and writing of Into the Woods, and the way it's all presented. It's a nice package, and I thank roadstergal for introducing me to it. :)


I know things now

Mother said straight ahaid,
Not to delay or be mislead
I should have heeded her advice,
But he seemed so nice.

And he showed me things,
many beautiful things
that I hadn't thought to explore.
They were off my path,
so I never had dared.
I had been so careful,
I never had cared.

And he made me feel excited,
Well excited and scared.

When he said "Come in.." with that sickening grin,
How could I know what was in store?
Once his teeth were bared though I really got scared
Well, excited and scared

And he drew me close,
And he swallowed me down,
Down a dark slimy path
Where lie secrets that I never want to know.

And when everything familiar seems to disappear forever...
At the end of the path
Was Granny once again.
So we wait in the dark
Until someone sets us free.
And we're brought into the light,
And we're back at the start...

And I know things now, many valuable things
That I hadn't known before.

Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood,
they will not protect you the way that they should
And take extra care with strangers,
even flowers have their dangers.

And though scary is exciting...
Nice is different then good.

Now I know...don't be scared.
Granny is right, just be prepared.
Isn't it nice to know alot?
...and a little bit not.

With Yuletide coming up, lots of interesting things are happening over at yuletide. One post, among (many many!) other things, got into the issues of race, representation, media and fandom. On going through media-fandoms featured in Yuletide, the article authors made a number of observations, among others:

People of colour are actually filmed differently, in terms of framing, than white people. It is often easy to get two white characters, especially two white male characters, in the same frame, but people of colour are by comparison much more isolated, cinematographically - often appearing in one-shots.

When people of colour get to have kisses, it's often framed differently - mostly, the camera is much further away, and you don't get closeups. People of colour are often visually segregated from white people on tv, and since there aren't a lot of shows with lots of people of colour on them, this often means they're visually isolated as well.

What makes me happy is that none of the above is true of Red Dwarf. Not only does Red Dwarf feature a non-white male as its main character; but he is the last human being in the universe. Race is never mentioned on the show, nor is it ever an issue. Lister is not black, or multiracial, he is human. Cat is not black, he is a Cat. Rimmer is not white; he is a hologram. How rare is this, in any fictional canon? Grant/Naylor, the writers, made a concious effort to make it so. They would carefully consider, for example, the situations they put their characters in to avoid racial stereotyping.

To give you an idea of how well this worked, there is a scene in one episode, where Rimmer and Lister are (mistakenly) revealed to be brothers. For a moment, the two of them just gaze at one another in baffled disgust, and the joke is clearly "how could we possibly be brothers when we're so different," not "how can we possibly be brothers when we're not the same race?" Red Dwarf is entirely about class, personality and character differences, and that is part of why I love it so.

What makes me a little sad is that Red Dwarf just celebrated its 21st birthday, and I can't name any other fandom that even comes close to handling race like it does. (Except perhaps Elfquest, but that's not about human beings, so it's not entirely the same...)

As pictures tend to say more than words, here are some examples of Red Dwarf lovelieness(  behind the cut )

I've long suspected that I have dyscalculia (it's like dyslexia, but with numbers). I'd love to get tested, but I haven't been able to find out how to get it done here in Norway. Whilst googling it today, I came across this fantastic piece:

What the heck is dyscalculia?

You've got to love an article that begins "Dyscalculia is the Jermaine Jackson of the dyslexia family..."

And sometimes poems are songs. Here's one of my favorites, from either category.

The Modern Things

All the modern things
Like cars and such
Have always existed

They've just been waiting in a mountain
For the right moment

Listening to the irritating noises
Of dinosaurs and people
Dabbling outside

All the modern things
Have always existed
They've just been waiting

To come out
And multiply
And take over

It's their turn now

- Bjørk

I haven't taken the time to work out lately, and I've missed it a lot; running in particular. It actually got to the point where I had a dream about it. In my dream, it felt like flying. It may not feel exactly like that in real life - there's rather more panting involved, for one - but it is such a magical thing to be able to do!

And yesterday, I did it. Late at night, in the dark (and the dark is long), with my brand new trainers. It was a little bit like flying, really. I'm so thankful that roadstergal very specifically did not tell me I should start doing it, so that I did.

...goes to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Just... just read their twitter feeds. Just do it.

http://twitter.com/nickjfrost
http://twitter.com/simonpegg

I think I love them.

I honestly will get to making a Dimension Jump update; I've just been waiting on getting my photos and videos ready. Unfortunately, the vids are in Quicktime, and I don't have a Mac... well, acuallly I do, but I don't use it much. I wanted to edit them on my regular lappy for convenience sake, but I might cave in and do it on the Mac lappy. Unless anyone knows of a good video editing program for Windows XP that will take mov. files?

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of smaych and Craig; a meeting of poets! :D (With bonus sunny_bexster and Hattie!)



( More loveliness below the cut )

The Red Dwarf Anonymous Kink Meme Part II!

Welcome slashers, het-shippers; kinksters of all creeds! We have some rules for your safety and protection. And enjoyment. That last thing is rather important.

Space Corps Directives:

- Anonymously post a kink request you've always wanted to read about, but were too shy to ask for/write it yourself.

- Others will anonymously reply to your request with a story. The story can be any length. Size doesn't matter. (No, really!)

- You can write as many stories as you like. If someone has already written a story for a request, you can still write one too! The requester is hardly going to mind. ;)

- You can make as many requests as you like, but the rule of thumb is to fulfill a request for each one you make yourself. But it's OK to just request too. We just don't want the meme to stagnate!

- Please DO post anonymously. Non-anonymous comments will not be deleted by default, but try to keep them to a minimum.

- This is a kink meme, which means we're generally expecting you to request something kink-related. A specific scenario, a relationship dynamic (sub/Dom), a particular fetish or turn on. It doesn't necessarily have to be sexual, but it does have to be something more than just a pairing. Details = love.

- Play nice! Personal attacks will be deleted, as will non-constructive criticism (aka flaming). There's a risk of trolling with anything allowing people to post anonymously, so please, please DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS. Ignore the requests you don't like. Make one you do like instead. ;)

- If you want to expand on your story later, or just post it as-is over at reddwarfslash or reddwarffanfic, that's fine, but please post it here first. Your requester may not want to reveal themselves, and posting it here gives them a chance to feed you back.

- As this meme is hosted in my personal journal, RPS is fine. Remember, however, that not all Red Dwarf communities allow RPS to be posted, so if you want to re-post your story, please check the community guidelines first.

GENERAL DISCLAIMER: The writers herein are just having fun, and not making any profit. They are fans who mean no harm. Red Dwarf belongs to Grant/Naylor, any public personas belong to themselves.

Last but not least - HAVE FUN! May the kink commence!

President Barack Obama will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!

And believe me people, I know this is going to be controversial, and people will be all "but does he really deserve it (I've seen comments along those lines already), and sure; that's debatable.

Then again; what does "deserve" mean? What we're doing here (and being Norwegian, I can be pretty literal about the 'we') is recognizing his efforts, and at the same time telling the US, "hey guys; you're doing better. We were kinda worried for a while, y'know. Keep it up, 'k?" It is an outreach, a way of saying "we believe you can do this."

I dunno 'bout you guys, but I think that's a good thing.

EDIT: Unsurprisingly, the Nobel Committee phrased it better than I ever could:

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

I can't wait to see smaych (again) and sunny_bexster and everyone. It's going to be a weekend-long party. I'll be dead by the end of it, but fortunately, death isn't the handicap it used to be.

See ya on the flipside, folks.

OMG, it's so exciting!

Any fan writers reading this; please consider joining in, if you're not already planning to! yuletide is my favorite fannish activity, and one of the things I look most forward to during the Holiday season (and I LOVE the Holidays, so that's saying a lot).

If you've never participated before, and aren't familiar with the concept, imagine a fic exchange where 99.9% of all the stories are not just good, but very good. Imagine a fest involving every obscure fandom you could ever imagine, and a story written just for you. Imagine the fun and spine-tingling excitement of writing a requested story in one of your favorite fandoms, or perhaps branching out and writing something you've never written before. (For many of us, that's part of the fun!)

To participate, you just need to feel able to write in three of the eligeble fandoms this year. Check out last year's archive to get an idea of what will likely be featured this year. That said, the eligeble fandoms are determined by the participants, so really, what are you waiting for! :D

I'm home from smaych's wedding, and I will do a writeup of it, I promise, but right now my mind is still reeling from the input.

(I actually started looking up pictures of roadstergal's wedding and nearly cried, just now. I don't need to look at pictures of my own wedding; I remember what that was like. Not that I don't remember the other weddings. I mean... oh, you know what I mean. Hopefully.)

I've got tons to do this week, and then there's Dimension Jump. Christy.

I need some shortbread. Luckily, I have some.

Also, need boots. Y'know, for DJ. And I just checked Din Sko's website, and the ones I've been lusting after no longer seems to be in stock. THE HORROR!!

If, like me, your female reproductive system is rebooting right now, you might enjoy this picspam from vintage_ads: http://community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/1394221.html

(With bonus cranberry sauce, pantyhose and diet soda.)