Rodo's Journal

I vanished again. *sigh* I don’t even have a good reason for it, only the weather and a decline in mental health. But to be honest, mostly it was just a number of small distracting things like

☞ Dusky being sick. I just can’t deal with sick kittens, even when the sick kitten in question knows how to deal with herself. She mostly wanted to sleep and cuddle but when I saw the pus (OMG, so much of it), I sort of freaked and became a bit overprotective.

☞ the finale of the third season of Game of Thrones. Predictably, I cried my eyes out. I dealt with it by reading every light!AU I could find – which is not nearly as many as I would like, but I think I might have lost a month or two that way. Seriously, that is one fandom that needs more X-did-not-die AUs.

☞ the subjunctive. I thought I was done with it when I ditched French, but no, Spanish has it too. At least I now understand somewhat what the point is. In school it was mostly “use it with these phrases, just because” and that did not help.

I was supposed to meet friends today, but when I went to the train station, it wasn't there. Well, it was there, the platforms, tracks and trains, however, were not. And so I had to trek back on foot, which gave me the opportunity to take photos of the wild flowers blooming right now, and a blister.

*

* Some of these names might not be accurate - I had to look up five of the flowers.

( More under the cut )

PS: Should I finally kick myself in the ass and write the meta post about AUs that has been on my mind for a while now?

It is really astounding how long it took me to write this post. For some reason I feel anxious about posting, which is a first for me. Stupid neuroses.

Anyway, I took that photo at the end of March. The crocuses and snow drops are still blooming in other people's gardens and my mother saw a left-over patch of snow today. Which is crazy - we're about two months late with everything and nature is going nuts. My body goes nuts along with it.

In other news: I have a mini-job. It consists of overseeing a gallery exhibition on Sundays and yesterday afternoon was my first day of work. I learned Spanish instead of paying attention to the guests and hopefully nobody stole anything. It was also at least 25°C inside because the people working in the museum apparently didn't expect warmth and thus locked the windows and left the heating on. I can't really fault them. I got unexpectedly wet last week while doing the groceries. My brain sort of forgot that water falling from the sky can make you wet.

Fandomwise, I've played a lot of video games and not much else. And I've continued reading Hobbit fanfic, even the slightly crappy one's. I miss being totally crazy about a fandom. It used to help fighting depressing thoughts - the euphoria and love could help during the bad patches.

... anybody know where I could learn Khuzdul? That might be sufficiently geeky and obsessive.

☞ I have a new haircut. It's the shortest it has been since ... well, since before I had enough hair for a haircut. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it sure feels nice that it's not in the way at all for once.

☞ Tomorrow, I will visit sevilemar in Leipzig and stay for a week - if any of you want to meet up or anything, don't be shy. I might not be on time, though, because I have no idea if my trains will be on time in Bremen. A train derailed there yesterday and it's even more annoying than stubborn WWII bombs, it seems.

☞ I finished The Old Man and the Sea! This is an epic achievement, even if you won't believe it, because I've only been trying to do that for fifteen years. I just didn't want to admit defeat in the face of something that's not even a novel. It was the baseball that was the most tedious. Oh, and I also read North and South and was reminded that I like it so much more than Pride and Prejudice. I don't get why everyone makes so much fuss about the latter and not the former.

☞ I swear, I took photos with my new camera and wanted to post them, but I would have to edit and upload them and it seems I am just too lazy.

January so far has been a weird month. It started with a week of respite from my mother's crazy alcoholic friend, who finally agreed to go into detox on January 1st. She's out now, but so far she hasn't relapsed. Also, my daily dose of bupropion has been doubled and it's starting to work, kind of. I have more of a drive than before but unfortunately no interesting things to do. I guess I'll have to start tidying up soon. I already managed to read four books and if I continue like this, I'll be through my unread book pile soon(ish).

One of these books I'd like to rec: Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I really liked it and it spoke to something in me - most likely because I know what being a failure feels like. The first person POV takes a bit getting used to, but it's amazing how unreliable all the narrators are and in the end, you have no idea what is truth and what imagination. The novel is also based on a real life murder case, which was why I initially bought it. Well, that and the fact that I already read Out by the same author and liked it. Her books are focused on women in Japan, or more precisely why it sucks to be a woman in Japan.

Fandom-wise, I have been reading a lot of Hobbit genfic (and started a lot more that were labelled gen but turned out not to be gen at all), mostly about the family of Thorin, Fili and Kili. When did my id decide that fluffy family fic was it for me? I have no idea, but there you go. I've been thinking about writing some myself, but a) I don't have any specific ideas and b) I would have a lot of trouble writing Fili. I know the actors of all three dwarves from other series, but most of their roles don't cause any confusion. Dean O'Gorman, on the other hand, plays Anders/Bragi in The Almighty Johnsons and is just so awesome at that, it left quite an impression. For some reason I think I wouldn't write Fili as Fili but as Bragi, and I don't think Fili would be quite in character as a womanizing jerk.

Fucking dwarves. Seriously, I should have expected it. LotR did not make me super fannish, despite the fact that I loved the books (and Aragorn, and Eowyn and Faramir ...), probably because the elves just didn't do it for me and from afar it always seemed to me that the fandom was hardcore about elves. The only thing I shipped was Legolas/Gimli, but when I mentioned that once the reaction was pretty much "gross". So of course now I am ridiculously invested in these dwarves. My favourites die in the end. I didn't like the book. I don't have time for it, but still, I am rapidly sliding down the rabbit hole no matter how much I try to stop it. Before I disappear completely, my Yuletide recs of 2012:

( 18 fics in Being Human, City Hunter (Kdrama), Elementary, Gargoyles, Homeland, Kings, Le Pacte de Loups, Lost Girl, Pushing Daisies, Rome, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, Sharpe, Sky High, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, The Hour, Warehouse 13, Young Avengers )

2013 started in a sucky way, so it can only improve from here, right? CAF of my mum's is in detox, which means a few days without drama, I hope, and a chance to read the last of the Yuletide stories I still have open in tabs.

As for my story:

Not Quite a Bond Girl (9401 words) by Rodo
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Spy Myung Wol
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Choi Ryu/Joo In Ah, Kang Woo/Han Myung Wol
Characters: Joo In Ah, Choi Ryu, Han Myung Wol, Kang Woo, Yu Da Hae
Summary: Ryu must build a new life. In Ah copes with the changes in hers. Both succeed to varying degrees until fate reunites them.

Yes, I wrote a fic with actual chapters and such. It is, as far as I know, the only story written for that series, which is a shame, because not only is it one of the dramas that doesn't kill off half its cast by the end, there are also still unresolved plot elements left, mainly regarding Choi Ryu and Ju In Ah, the secondary leads.

Okay, so I promised photos - which I was about to post when the memory chip of my new camera malfunctioned. Lesson learned, the new one cost four times as much as the old one and has a proper warranty. Also, I bought myself a present: a puzzle. 3000 pieces and I am making progress, but now I also have sore muscles in my legs (yes, I know, I am the least sporty person ever). Other than that, it has been an okay Christmas so far, although that might change because of my mother's CAF, who might or might not visit and might or might not whinge at us for the rest of the day.

ETA: Okay, CAF did not visit but did whinge and ruin the day.

But on to other things: Yuletide! This year's experience was pretty much a lesson in "never doing that again". I didn't get around to properly work on the story until the last two-ish days before the deadline and the story got so freaking long, I barely managed to finish and upload the draft before the deadline. The editing was done during the next two days. Unfortunately, those days were the first of my period and by the end I had the worst brain fuzz since I started taking my meds. Until about yesterday evening, I was pretty much out of it and on pain pills for a head ache that wouldn't end. And all that for a story in a fandom of two. I hope my recipient appreciates the work, although it could have been better had I actually been running at more than 30% brain capacity. Hopefully, I learned my lesson.

My present:

Changing Colors (1925 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Three Musketeers (2011)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Olivier d'Athos de la Fère/Milady Clarick de Winter
Characters: Athos, Milady Clarick de Winter, Porthos, Aramis, d'Artagnan
Summary:

The airship battles brought a dangerous prisoner.

This is me, procrastinating on finally starting my Yuletide fic. If I don't get that done soon, finding a beta will be a bitch.

( Arang and the Magistrate, A Gentleman's Diary, Nice Guy, Queen In Hyun's Man and To the Beautiful You )

Sorry for the long silence, but I’ve got reasons:

☞ A month ago, Rani was killed by a car. Writing this sentence hurts and I still love my little monster like crazy and miss her. She was just over a year old, dammit, and she just didn’t get along with the cat from across the street, so when that cat intruded on her territory, she chased her out, and on this day, over the street. The driver was speeding, and the other cat got away. Okay, I’ll stop writing about this now, I’m tearing up again.

☞ Afterwards, I was constantly ill. I just got over my cold, but the other thing is still a mystery. My left jaw joint ached for two weeks, I had to take ibuprofen daily and right now there’s still a slight pain. My dentist is stumped, and while I have a theory, it’s pretty hard to fix if it does turn out to be because my mandible, teeth and skull don’t fit together. I blame the orthodontist who did my braces.

☞ My mother has one of her renovation bursts again. She can’t do it all at once or spread it evenly, so she dragged me into furniture shops and wanted me to look at wallpaper and so on for the third time this year. At least this means that if I am lucky, I’ll have a room for my books soon, where they can be alphabetically shelved and I don’t have to dig through piles whenever I want to re-read something.

Titel: Wahrheiten und andere Lügen
Fandom: Highlander
Länge: 300 Wörter
Rating: 6+
Genre: Tripledrabble
Charaktere: Methos, Joe, Richie
Warnungen/Labels: keine
Disclaimer: nix meins, nicht mal die historischen Tatsachen.
Beta: sevilemar
A/N: Diese Geschichte ist Teil von Et in Arkadia ego geschrieben zum Stichwort "Wer's glaubt wird selig".

Inhalt: Seacouver, ca. 1996. Methos erzählt Richie vom alten Rom, doch niemand will ihm glauben.



( „Also wenn du schon keine Ratschläge zu bieten hast, könntest du wenigstens hin und wieder erzählen, wie es so ist, fünftausend Jahre Geschichte zu erleben“, lallte Richie. )

Titel: Nicht mal ein Tag im Paradies
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Länge: 2528 Wörter
Rating: 12+
Charakter: Azula
Labels: post-series, psychische Krankheiten
Beta: sevilemar, in der Übersetzung
A/N: Das Original habe ich für BeccaStareyes für die White Lotus NY Exchange geschrieben.

( Azula war umgeben von Stille. Kein anderer Gefangener stöhnte oder schrie; nur ihre Geister besuchten sie. )

Titel: Hinter tausend Stäben, keine Welt
Fandom: Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken
Länge: 4457 Wörter
Rating: 12+
Charaktere: Günther Scheller, Paul Krantz, Hilde Scheller, Hans Stephan
Labels: traurig, Prequel, Canon-Pairings, Günther/Paul
Beta: anotherslashfan, kristin und sevilemar.
A/N: Im englischen Original für doveheart geschrieben und in der Yuletide-Sammlung des AO3 gepostet.




( Die Magnolien standen in voller Blüte; ihre weißen Blütenblätter bedeckten den Boden. )

Today is a special someone's first birthday. She couldn't care less and just wants to have a quiet nap, snack on human food and gnaw on my story notebooks without being disturbed. And wool, let's not forget the wool. The following catspam was taken with my phone camera, which sucks unless you're taking photos in full daylight, so ...

( Catspam! )

Would anybody of you be up to emergency beta 1600 words of exchange fic? I contacted a couple of people but I haven't heard back from any of them yet, and the fic is due, umm, August 1st. (I think, the 12am confuses me.) I mostly need someone to look over my English.

I mentioned to anehan a while back that I had Thoughts on how to save the OTW and that I should really post them. This is that post. There are a lot of posts out there about what is wrong with the OTW (and OH GOD, it is a lot), but very few on how to change things for the better, so I thought I’d give it a try. Caveat: I am not an expert on anything, least of all all of the things mentioned here, so take it with a grain of salt. I am mainly speaking from my experiences in International & Outreach (IO) and Translations too, which are sort of the red-headed stepchildren of the OTW, at least it feels like that to me.

( Part 1: Radical restructuring )

( Part 2: The Leviathan of Our Own )

Okay, I definitely need to write more posts. I always forget and forget and a month later my head is so full of stuff I want to write about that I can’t keep my thoughts straight. So, yeah, another entry with assorted info.

☞ First, a couple of links: I have come to love Smitten Kitchen (thank you, starlady), and would like to recommend both the strawberry summer pie and the strawberries and cream biscuits, since they are delicious. Und für die Deutschsprachigen unter euch: ein Artikel, der einen etwas anderen Blick aufs Fandom gibt. Zitat: „Das Fandom, wie viele es kennen, wird zu einer Seniorenveranstaltung.“

☞ Rani is now eleven months old and a fully grown cat. Unfortunately, this also means that she outgrew her good behaviour once she learned that you only have to behave if the humans are watching. So she tries to sneak a bite of my food whenever she can (the strawberry and cream biscuits are recced by her as well), and generally tries to get her way. This week, I even let her run around outside while I was working in the garden because, well, I was busy and she was adorable. I’m a bad cat mum, I know. Back to the belly scratching.

☞ I’ve also been a bit fannish again lately. I have Opinions, for one, which I should probably write about some time (yeah, as if). Well, after parallelsfic, that is, which I signed up for again this year. The prompt should arrive today or tomorrow and I’m nervous already. Apart from that, I have, as I mentioned, Opinions, mostly on Teen Wolf, which I still love, and Legend of Korra, mostly about why I don’t think Mako is the worst person ever. I’m also playing Mass Effect 3, read a bit and watch dramas, as always.

( Heartstrings, The Princess' Man, Rooftop Prince, Skip Beat, Tree With Deep Roots )


For those of you who decide to watch both Tree With Deep Roots and The Princess’ Man, keep an eye out for some of the supporting characters. You will find out what happens to the bright young scholars from one series in the next, since the three kings in TPM are the sons and grandson of the king in TWDR.

I think I mentioned my obsession with Horrible Histories, although "obsession" might be a bit tame a word for the utter glee I feel when listening to the songs. And since I just found a couple of new videos to listen to, it reminded me that there was also great Yuletide fic that I don't think I linked yet. But first, the songs:

- Single Ladies, by Mary Seacole, way better than Florence, yo.

- David Bowie - ChangesCharles Darwin - Natural Selection. Hey, it is about changes.

- The Monkees, pardon, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Diogenes - The Thinkers

- The RAF Boys debut with their RAF Pilots Song Watch out, Take That

The last two make me want to dance so much. I want more! I guess there goes the rest of my day. Again. As for fanfic:

- Cranky Cristmasses in HHTV's News at When studio.

- The Big Gay Episode - including songs!

- Merry Monarchs experiment with crossdressing

☞ For those of you who also read sevilemar it is not news that I visited her for a few days last month. It was fun, despite the stress and serious caffeine and cat withdrawal. (Typing this one-handed since the other one is occupied by a furball.) It was also much easier than I expected and I got stuff done for a change. For some reason I find that difficult to achieve on my own, as evidenced by the unbelievable amount of hours (six) that I managed to stay awake yesterday.

☞ I finally have the money for ME3, but I hesitate to buy it. I spoiled myself for ending, and given what I read I think that was a very good idea. I have to mentally work through that before I can actually play the game or else it will be the third season of Torchwood all over again, and I want to continue loving the games. Spoilers, I love them.

☞ I’m still obsessing about dramas. Prepare for another recs post in the near future. I also can’t get enough of Choi Si Won. It’s embarrassing, but hey, just look at him. Especially if he’s shirtless.