a conspiracy of cartographers

A lot of lovely stuff has been going on lately! The new job continues excellent, and I have been spending lots of time with Amiel (we are rewatching Firefly, which I still love despite its numerous flaws), but apparently for Dreamwidth posting, Reading Wednesdays are basically my speed right now. Even if today is Thursday.

What did you recently finish reading?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. This book ... reminded me a lot of Diana Wynne Jones, in weird ways, where adults are not to be trusted to keep you safe, and some of them are inhumanly evil, and being a child will not protect you; but it was less safe than most DWJ books are. I think I liked it? I think it's worth a reread, anyway, although the older I get, the less Gaiman's view of the universe feels anything like mine. The language was lovely and precise as usual, though, I do just straight-up enjoy Gaiman as a storyteller.

a love song for schrödinger by pathopharmacology, Night Vale, Cecil/Carlos. Baby's first Night Vale fic! And what a good one it was. I'm in the middle of several others, and it seems like fandom's Cecil runs a spectrum from sliiightly off to total eldritch abomination; this one features a Cecil who is slightly off, and it's lovely. Nothing much happens except for Carlos having a conversation with an angel and sort of ... settling in and loving Night Vale, and it's so great. I want a million fics like this to savor during the time between episodes.

Recruitment Practices by thingswithwings, Community/Night Vale. Cecil interviews Troy, Annie, and Abed for a morning show slot! Everyone is in-character and hilarious and weird! I just want to wrap this fic around me like a blanket, seriously, I think it's become an instant comfort read.

What are you currently reading?

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. Don't start yelling with joy yet, though, I'm only three chapters in, and all Gen has done so far is charm me utterly and hate horses a lot. I'm really liking it so far, though!

What do you think you'll read next?

Presumably The Queen of Attolia! And lots more Night Vale fic.

Obviously I'm all caught up on Night Vale now! WHAT A GREAT PODCAST. Polaris and I are also slowly and steadily making our way through Orphan Black, which remains completely phenomenal. And ... honestly all I've been doing lately, while not at work or hanging out with friends, is watching footage of Tom Hiddleston at ComicCon, snarling at my screen in despair. Seriously, at this point the only thing standing between me and a total RPF-writing breakdown is my stupid long Avengers fic.

Oh, and I saw Pacific Rim! I don't have any deep complicated thoughts about it; I love all the excited meta about Mako Mori, and also all the slightly angry meta about Amazing Sci-Fi Films That Could Have Been (this post of barometry's is especially great), but really what I've taken home from it is [a] IDRIS ELBA YOUR FACE IS THE BEST FACE and [b] wow, let's talk about all the fusions where characters from other fandoms are Jaeger copilots. Clint and Natasha! Sherlock and Joan! Troy and Abed! &c &c.

I feel sort of like I'm doing the mental equivalent of that Unfuck Your Habitat thing -- my physical habitat is super unfucked! I brush the cats, I sweep and dust! I'm really excited for warmer weather because soon I shall fling open all the windows and do a deep-clean of the apartment! -- but I keep feeling massively stressed. Some of it is stuff entirely outside my control, of course, but I'm getting better at identifying the stressors and taking care of those, one thing at a time.

For example, this morning I registered for WisCon and got a room! Right now the going plan is to room with my sweeties and such_heights, so exciiiiited. (I also bought a dessert ticket, because Jo Walton. ...I should perhaps read some of her stuff besides Among Others before the con.) I even called up the hotel and registered by phone, by speaking to another human being and everything, and it was okay. Somehow in the last five years I've become the sort of person who does not panic every time she needs to make a phone call, oh wow my endless relief.

Also, I have finally figured out the answer to my tumblr problem. (My tumblr problem, in this case, being that there is no way I can actually manage to keep up with it given the other more important commitments in my life and the fact that I don't have job that involves downtime in front of a computer.) The answer to my tumblr problem: don't even try to stay caught up! Just look at some stuff, reblog some stuff, wander off, and then go back to the new first page next time! It is less freeing than I want it to be, because I'm still a bit OCD about completing things, but this still seems like the wisest choice.

Meanwhile I have also been watching some TV? I'm very bad at keeping up with most of it! Plus Polaris and I are watching every Bond film ever (ALMOST DONE!) and I'm showing Housemate K all of Buffy (halfway through s2 now!) because she's never seen it. Even so, I have been watching:

Community! ( Spoilers do a quick overview of the season so far. )

Elementary! ( Spoilers mostly just gush about Lucy Liu. )

White Collar! ( Spoilers are mostly me nattering about whether Neal is sleeping with the Burkes yet. )

Also, the Buffy rewatch is DELIGHTFUL. Housemate K adores Spike and Dru intensely, as well she should; meanwhile I'm mostly just really excited to watch her reaction faces, as we're about ... three episodes from Innocence right now. GOOD TIMES.

Last night, after Polaris' and my second Avengers viewing, we held a small impromptu fanpeople party that over the course of the evening whittled itself down to me, Polaris, paper_tzipporah, and an impressive amount of wine. ( And then we had an absurd discussion about the characters from Community hanging out with the characters from Avengers; afaik there are no specific Avengers spoilers under the cut, but I have one anyway to be on the safe side. Click if you want to hear about ridiculous Avengers/Community crossovers! )

Anyway I still find this entertaining in the sober light of day, and so! That was an excerpt of my delightful evening.

As usual, I am utterly charmed by Community's Christmas episode. <333

Evidence of the fact that I have been having Exciting Adventures: radio internet silence! I will probably be properly around again sometime after Thanksgiving, at which point I will realize how many emails I almost certainly owe people. Presumably I will also start dithering about Yuletide. EXCITED ABOUT YULETIDE, GUYS. In the meantime, some disorganized bullet points:

+ I am, for inexplicable reasons, still watching Supernatural as it airs. I really need to stop, but on the other hand, Crowley. Also I own the same hairbrush as Becky the Fangirl. Uncomfortably small world!

+ This last week's Community was so great. I was starting to worry that I was only enjoying the more gimmicky episodes, because most of the day-in-the-life ones lately have been frustratingly mean-spirited, but this one filled me with joy and warm fuzzies. I am pretty sure I need all the Troy/Abed/Annie fic now.

+ In non-television news, I have an actual moving-to-Boston timeline now! It is not really precise, but "sometime in April" is a real thing that is happening rather than a vague resolution. I'll be moving in with polarisnorth, and it's an excellent location, and we're already drawing up Lists Of Apartment Things and generally doing lots of hilarious nesting, and I'm pretty sure we need an apartment tag. Presumably this will happen once our apartment has a name, and alas, we cannot call it the Avengers Mansion, as that's where filia_belialis and feverbeats and bluestalking live. But I will think of something!

And that's about it! Today I think is a day to write things, since I have left Boston, and rayruz is at an acting class for most of the day, so I have a bit of breathing room.

i. My mother, on Community: "So when are Troy and Abed actually going to start dating?" This from the woman who loves both Life on Mars and White Collar, but thinks that Sam/Gene and the OT3 are far-fetched notions. Hey, Community writers! My het-centric mum thinks it should be canon Troy/Abed time!

ii. After ... roughly six years of a quiet internal will-I-won't-I and laughing at the fandom from afar, I ... appear to be watching Supernatural. I am watching it in a way where I am vetting episodes via wiki summary, and mostly watching the arc-plot stuff or the episodes with guest stars I like, and it is entirely possible that I will hit "Can't do this, too many dead women," sooner rather than later but on the other hand I watched all of s1 Game of Thrones. In any case, this television viewing brought to you by Dragon*Con, or more specifically Becca and Pali's two-hour late-night pitch about a show of, yeah, problematic stuff, but also codependency and moral ambiguity and other stupid things I love. And also Mark Sheppard's face. MARK SHEPPARD, WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT SO MANY SEASONS FOR YOUR FACE.

iii. I'm not actually sure I have a third television thing! But it seems asymmetrical otherwise. Eh, it's okay, I should be devoting more energy to writing than to watching things anyway.

INSPECTOR SPACETIME

That is all.