Unseen Ramblings

Helluva day to post a rec, at least for folks this side of the pond, but here it is nonetheless.

Title: The Guardian
Author: madambackslash
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack Harkness, John Hart, Gray, Ianto Jones, Rhiannon Davies, Mica Davies, OCs
Spoilers: Through CoE
Summary: The Jones family has lived in Cardiff for a very long time...
Why you should read it: This tale starts in 27 CE with a very young witness to a horrific event, a witness who proceeds to give that event a meaning that grows through time and then persists well beyond. To say more would spoil it, but it's beautiful and sad and touching and I expect it's a story I'll revisit more than once. Have Kleenex handy when you read.

*looks @ fic*

*looks @ scratch notes*

It really takes a special kind of geeky OCD to turn "how are we going to transport these aliens" into a convoluted dimensional analysis problem and then try to turn that lovely long string of Imperial-to-metric-and-back conversions into (hopefully) believable dialogue.

Have also finally chiseled out something vaguely resembling an outline. Sort of. Considering the extremely minimal say-so I appear to have in terms of what is actually happening with this damned thing, I'm sort of pleased to have managed to contain it in 13 chunks/eps/chaps/whatever. For now. This is, after all, The Fic That Wouldn't Stay Dead, and "if I can't kill you, I can contain you" turned out to be canonically (and predictably) untrue. *facepalm* Which isn't to say that they're all written, by any means. Very close to crossing the 60K mark though. *boggles*

Finally finished my S2 rewatch Friday night at work. Amazing how differently some bits come across the second time through.

Also periodically listening to audio of GDL's panels from The New England Fan Experience, which I briefly considered running up to Boston for last week (before deciding that was insane, as it would mean leaving directly from work Saturday morning to have even a prayer of catching his panel that day). Dear Gods, this fandom really has kidnapped my brain. *facepalm*

Oh, and I watched "The Rescue" last night. I don't always watch the special features, but I did this time, and it was interesting to learn that those two eps got the highest ratings of any Who story arc until the Baker years. They were all marveling that it was a bigger draw than the Daleks. I'm marveling that "1st introduction of a new companion" was a bigger draw than "1st regeneration." Which reminds me, tangentially, that ubiquirk just drew my attention to the fact the Doctor is apparently supposed to get younger with each regeneration. Huh. Didn't know Gallifreyans had a common ancestry with Orkians. This has slightly tempered my annoyance that Eleven looks like a teenager. (Does that mean Twelve will need to actually be one? LOL)

Ah well, time to do a bit more writing. 76 more words and I'll hit this week's 5_for_five goal. Whee!

it seems my laptop has died a death and is not worth repairing - hoping to recover files, though

So, have had to crank up the old pc again - doesn't like being started very much, I notice, and also freezes on me a lot - fingers crossed this doesn't pack in as well - at least until i decide if i'm going to buy a new laptop or have a christmas whipround the aged relatives and wangle a mac somehow. I'm reallly fed up of throwing good money after bad.

opaljade. I wish you the best of day!

There must be a book somewhere for writers who need to know this stuff. I've seen them for criminal investigation procedures and medical jargon. Stands to reason there ought to be something similar for guns, if I can just find it. Surely this won't be the only time it'd be useful.

But meanwhile, oh wise and wonderful flist, is anyone up for helping me work out whether this is a reasonable plot device? Pretty please with cinnamon sugar on top?

( Gunpowder and bullets and casings, oh my. )

And yes, I realize the icon is from a different fandom. Still fits. *g*

Off to lecture soon. Topics of the day are STD's, violence, and death. So that'll be an upper of a day.

And I'm finally getting the hang of the labyrinth that is this odd little hospital. I like to think it wouldn't have taken this long if I'd been here consistently rather than going elsewhere for the various rotations. And now we have next week off and December 1 will be the last day of clinicals. Lecture goes a bit longer. We have our last regular exam on the 10th of December and then the final on the 14th, which is nice and early compared to most years. Usually, we're finishing up within a few days of Christmas. Still haven't coughed up that last case study or any of the med sheets for pharm. Must get on that. It's so easy to procrastinate though, which is one of the things I hate about online courses. Or at least about me taking them. Clearly I have all the self-discipline of a toddler turned loose in a candy shop.

Instructor again asked what it is I'm doing that could help some of the other students. One of these times, I swear I'm going to answer, "Spend what should be study time writing severely messed-up novel-length AU fanfiction." Because that's about the only thing I haven't suggested yet, but I have a feeling that wouldn't work for most people. Though I do think the theme of "work smarter instead of harder" has something to recommend it. I swear half the problem with some of my classmates is that they're burning themselves out with these marathon study sessions.

Trying to get some kind of a handle on next semester. The course coordinator will be doing exam review with us tomorrow, so maybe she'll have something to say about how to try and plan for it. I sincerely hope she's more organized than this semester's coordinator. The scheduling clusterfucks have been ridiculous, to the point even the hospitals are catching on that it's not us students messing up. Not good.

In other news, Patsfan and I watched Waters of Mars the other night (with him continually going on about the sound quality on my laptop). And wow. Just ... wow. Have read some interesting meta about Ten's character development in light of it and looking over everything since his regeneration at the end of S1. Interesting food for thought. Ergh. Can't wait for the Christmas special. Specials? Whatever. ( Cut for extrapolation, mention of potentially spoilery interview, and quote from Easter special. ) Am slightly annoyed by the whole, "We're going to call this series one for the 11th Doctor" thing, mainly because I'm still going bonkers trying to watch the old stuff in something vaguely resembling the original order, a project that would be far easier if a consistent series numbering system had been used from the start, rather than having to match episode lists against Netflix's offerings. It is worth it though, I think, to see things like the original sticking of the chameleon circuit, the first encounter with the Daleks ... and then the second, not to mention the first time the Doctor took off without someone (this time actually leaving them to help rebuild the Earth). *ponders cutting that and decides it's stupid to consider something that aired in 1964 as a spoiler*

Have had to beg an extension on my S2B4 offering. *sigh* And here I thought, "So long as I stick with the craft side of things, I shouldn't have a problem. Right?" Wrong. Because my eyes are informing me that they are, in fact, 41 years old and have been badly abused for much of that time, so they won't cooperate and focus long enough to get good stretches of work done. May see if I can get a single pack of contacts in my current Rx, because what I'm needing to do is wear OTC reading glasses *over* my normal glasses. (No OTC strength works without my regular glasses, most of them seeming too strong, which defies everything I ever thought I understood about nearsightedness versus farsightedness, but whatever.) There will definitely have to be an eye doctor visit over the Christmas break though. I think that's when I'm due anyway. Hope so, or it'll be out of pocket. *sigh*

Huh. Just went looking to see if I had a "vision" tag. (I don't. Settled on "health.") In the process, I saw that I have a tag for "vitamin k." WTF?? I have so got to clean up these tags.

Not to mention it'd be nice if I got some tagging done on the fangirl_tour. *sheepish look*

Wow. Almost 8:30 already. Best start getting ready for a day of tutoring then. Happy hump-day!

Finally, finally, finally this is in print! And my copy just arrived in the mail today!

Title: The Fosterling
Author: bluedolfyn
Genre: fantasy
Summary: A chance discovery in the woods near her home pulls her out of her mourning and thrusts her into a land ravaged by war. With the hope of an entire race suddenly in her hands and the weight of their world on her shoulders, Meghan finds herself embraced by hundreds of people calling her family. Grief is forgotten as Meghan struggles to adapt, and to keep herself – and their future – alive. Chapter 1 preview.

It's been eons since I first alpha-read this, to borrow a fandom term, so it's going to be almost like reading it new again, which will be a treat. *rubs hands together in anticipatory glee* I do remember vividly that Blue does some very cool things in this tale around what family means, culture clashes, and a good bit of adventure as well. So go check out the first chapter at the link above, and once you're sucked in, check out the book!

And it is here!

To quote the announcement post, contributors include kittylefish, karasu_hime, undunoops, dungeons_master, littleblackbow/chibitoaster, scribbulus_ink, arionrhod, xterm, dizilla/dianamoon, firefly_124, skitty_kat, bonfoi, ellid, BLU-contributor Chivalric, and more!

*flails*

*squees*

I'm just downloading it now and won't have time to read until later. But I'm so excited! The last issue was amazing, and I know this one will be too. Plus, this time I got to play! *points @ list* That'd be the fic that ate my brain for the first half of the summer, that started out as something totally different and then just ran away from me. I still half can't believe it got accepted, much less that I was lucky enough to catch xterm's offer to illustrate. *bounces*

Okay, running off to clinical now. But I just had to squee first!

30 bites today. Leg, side, back.

Not a happy bunny