All the RomCom of Qi Xi

Rather than fixating on how stressed and annoyed I am, how about a celebratory post?

DADT has been repealed! WOOHOO! About damned time! Plus, Someone I know just got married. I love that they timed it so that as the repeal went into effect, they were getting married. Couldn't happen to nicer people, as far as I'm concerned. I'm only sad cause I think this means that the person I know is moving to Sierra Vista and I won't see him as much any longer.

Same Sex Couples will be available in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Considering how much I love Star Wars and I love Bioware, this is great news as far as I'm concerned. I'm disappointed that it'll be add-on content but if that add-on content is free, well, that'll be awesome. I'm curious how it'll work if I have the add-on content and someone else doesn't - will they see my same-sex partner and/or acknowledge that relationship? Or can people still have the gay blinders on and not see any same sex relationship? Inquiring minds want to know.

I pre-ordered Assassin's Creed: Revelations, finally. I also pre-ordered Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. I hated the other Elder Scrolls game I played but, I'm voting with my wallet and supporting games that have equality in them.

I was following the #yesGayYA hashtag and reading all the various and sundry. So I bought about 20 books from a list that was put on cleolinda's post. Lee Wind has a ton of great books listed. I've already made arrangements with the library system here that, when I'm done, they'll be very happy to take the books off my hands and put them into circulation. Can't ask for more than that from the librarians since they're not allowed to buy any new books right now because of budget cuts. They can, however, use donated books. So I'll have to be gentle with them.

Which leads me to my question for all of you - what are your favorite "traditional published" books featuring gay characters? Can be young adult, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, whatever. Just not an e-publisher since I read so many of those already. I ask for any of them because, for as much as I want to see more LGBTQ characters in young adult, I want to see them in regular fiction, too. And in fantasy. And in romances on the shelf, under the "romance" filing rather than the "LGBT" section. So to help with that, I'll continue voting with my wallet and showing publishers that I will buy LGBT books. Lay your recs on me, oh great and wonderful Flist!

Anyone going to Star Trek Las Vegas? elanorofcastile and I are going and I think it'd be fun to meet up with a bunch of slashers. Anyone?

The teaser trailer for Assassin's Creed: Embers is up. here. Oh my heart. Seriously, just gah. This game series just about breaks my heart. I love Altair, don't get me wrong, but Ezio has a special place in my heart. I think it has a lot to do with how much we've seen of his life versus how little we saw of Altair. We've seen Ezio since he was a baby and now we get to see him as an old(er) man.

I think Imma sign up for the Assassin's Creed Big Bang, especially as the word count is a minimum of 4k. Next challenge is all about cliches and I can think of about a billion cliches I'd love to write.

My biowarebang fic will be posted shortly. We've an extension from the mod and hopefully everything comes together in the next day or so. You should see what kath_ballantyne came up with, folks. Seriously, her drawings are amazing. AMAZING. I have no words for it. Plus, the fic mixer has some great ideas (and she loved my fic so there's that, too).

I have a huge, ginormous amount of shit to take to the post office now that the post office has found my lost packages. So if I owe you mail, you will be getting it soon.

Work has been ridiculous lately but it's eased up. We've finally closed our fiscal year and can work on July and move on with our lives.

One of the people I loathe at work just turned in her two weeks. I'm sort of ecstatic over it. She's a royal pain in the ass with a giant martyr complex while she also thinks that she is the most amazing person in the entire world. I hate listening to her fucking lectures on how awesome she is and how she knows more than everyone else. Self-absorbed asshole is finally going away. Thank the maker.

Spent today working at the main job as my boss is in Bali and I'm doing her job plus mine for three weeks. A bit stressed, can't think, blahblahblah. I literally pulled my hair out in frustration/stress the other day. I watched hair sprinkle down onto my paperwork and realized it was time to take a break.

Today, I came home, and in a fit of "see? I can do shit well, sometimes!", I vanity-googled (as you do. Come on, you know you do it) and found that, a long time ago, I won Best Kiss at the Charlie Awards for a Charlie/Lavender fic I wrote. More to Life. It's a fic I wrote for Daily Deviant awhile back. I sort of like the idea of Lavender haring off to go be a Dragon Tamer. YMMV, of course.

But that got me to thinking about some of the stories I've written. There are two that I've written that sort of squick me at the same time that I sort of really love them. Both are Star Trek. One is Lead Me Not Into Temptation which features Jim Kirk at 13 having sex. Which, um, ew, but... hot. And the other is If It Please Your Father which features George Kirk/Leonard McCoy/Jim Kirk in an incestuous DP(one hole) fic. The idea of dad/son cocks rubbing together in my body is GROSS but in McCoy's? Please and thank you.

So what about you? What fic have you written that you're especially proud of? What one has you wondering WTF you were thinking? What one pushes your limits and/or comfort zone?

I haven't posted lately because honestly? The only thing going on in my life is work (and not very exciting work at that).

I had my first paid speaking gig on "Employee Engagement: Inspiring Employees to be Well". It's just mindboggling that I get paid to tell people that if they talk to their employees, their employees will talk back.

I've finally finished my help_haiti fic. It's going to require copious amounts of beta'ing but it's finished. Deamus with a side of Neville/Susan, Dennis/Parvati, Harry/Ginny and misc other characters.

I've also finished both of my help_nz fics. Woohoo!

I've a prompt for help_japan which I'm looking forward to writing! I'm claiming my trekreversebang prompt tomorrow and I have one that I really really want as I've sort of already started writing it :/ Way to put the cart before the horse, wook, you idiot.

Tomorrow shall be spent stitching Star Trek characters.

I think I might have a house lined up for next year. It'll be a rental but, still, I'm finally getting my own place and moving out of my mother and sister's house. I'm stuck until next year as my sister is in school and has no income so they need me to help pay the mortgage. The house is fairly tiny (about 800 sq feet) but it has a nice sized back yard. I worked out the budget for the house and it looks like I can afford it with a little left over, even with quitting Fry's.

Those who know me will be shocked by the following: I have cut my Diet Coke intake down from about two 2-liters a day to 3 cans a day. This is huge. I haven't been getting caffeine headaches with that cutback but I'm going to go for another week before I cut it down to one can a day.

My manager at Fry's was finally able to cut my schedule down to 3 shifts a week. In a few weeks, I'll be back to two shifts a week. That's still more than enough money to afford trips and pay off medical bills so I'm good to go with that sort of schedule.

On Thursday and Friday nights this past week, I volunteered at an emergency shelter. Tucson declared a state of emergency due to the cold and the fact that 14k people were without heat. Unfortunately, the shelter didn't get a lot of usage but, still, awesome idea.

During my time volunteering, I met some amazing people. There was the guy that gave up his condo in NYC to drive around in a beat-up Jeep and camp out in various places around the US. He was appalled that, whenever he asked anyone where the library was, they had no idea. It wasn't just Tucson, it was Seattle and Des Moines and Chicago and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. We talked about books and writing for hours.

There was the guy that came in that had a bit of gas going into his house but he simply couldn't afford to heat his house. He chatted with me as he walked his cat around on a leash. We had brilliant conversations about his time in the military and how he felt a bit loss because he'd never found a job that fit quite like the military. He had problems relating to people and never once made eye contact with me. He told me that I was the first person he'd talked to for more than a few minutes, at least in three years. Three years of not having anything more than a cursory conversation with someone.

There was the homeless man who had a service chihuahua. The dog was there for seizures and for mental health issues. It was freezing so the man came in from the cold only for his dog. If it hadn't been for the dog, he would've stayed right outside, he proudly told me. He was very withdrawn and only responded when asked about his dog.

But the one set of people I met that has me wrenched up in a navel-gazing sort of way was the 13 year old girl I met. (I'll call her "A") She came in with her father and they had two cats that walked on a leash. One was fixed and the other wasn't. It wasn't until they'd been at the shelter for three hours that she gave an interview to one of the reporters that showed up. When the reporter asked her how long they'd been without gas, she looked at him, blinked and said that there was plenty of gas in their car. It's just it was nice to sleep in a real bed.

A and her father (always father, never dad or daddy. always father) had been living in their car for two months. This time. They'd had a place for a few months before that but before that, they'd been living in the car. In the past year, she'd been living in the car over 6 months. A car.

Both her and her father had very limited social skills. The first night, they barely talked to anyone. They were polite but withdrawn. A was proud to admit that she'd started her first college class (13 and going to college and homeless). Other than that, they didn't speak. The second night, I greeted them by name, ushered them into the shelter with a smile and found myself talking to both her and her dad. It was hard to navigate the conversation, to keep it away from things they found intrusive (questions like, "are you warm enough here" and asked because the first night, the boiler malfunctioned and the place's temperature sank to 55, was far too personal). I talked to them about their animals and the importance of spaying and neutering. The father mentioned that one of my co-workers had mentioned a free neuter but he wasn't interested. We talked about health risks and ensuring that the animals kept all their shots up to date.

I took a moment to introduce everyone to my replacement, ensuring that my replacement volunteer knew the minefield and could make better decisions than I had the night before, and went on my way.

This morning, I got a call from the co-worker (who is a high mucketymuck at work and not just a grunt like me) that the father had agreed to neuter his cat and that it was all "your fault". I've never been so grateful to hear the words "your fault".

But, really, I wonder about the impact I had. Anyone who has been on my flist for awhile can tell you that, every year, for my birthday and for Christmas, I ask people to give to the needy, to look through their closets and downsize their stuff. I ask people to donate to local charities and take the time to volunteer if they can. I'm really good at the lip service to these causes.

However, I've learned that I still suffer from the "not in my backyard" syndrome. Sure, there's a problem with homeless families but, really, not in Tucson. We're a very generous small city. And, really, if it's a homeless family, it's female-led. That's why it's important to have safe places for families to go. Except that most homeless shelters don't really plan for male-led homeless families so where did this father/daughter combo have to go that wouldn't separate them?

The other part that really got me was that each person that I spoke to told me about how awesome the libraries are, how important they are for a safe haven and the opportunities they presented. To A, they meant a place where she could work on her college and high school classes. To the traveler, they meant a place where he can get a book, brush up on his skills and take a moment to rest somewhere warm/cool. To another gentleman, they meant a place where he could just be. It was rare that I heard about the importance of the books but, instead, they talked about the librarians that helped them without judgment and the rare one that did judge. They talked about how it was a shame that libraries weren't treated with respect anymore. They talked about how people abuse the library, stealing books that others want to enjoy.

And I sat there, knowing full well that I owe twenty-five dollars in fines to the library that I can easily repay but I've been too fucking lazy to do and I was so ashamed at that moment (and now). So, Monday, I'll be calling the main branch and having my credit card charged for my fines. I'll be making a donation, too. I'm going to work harder at my classes.

I'm reassessing what I've been doing and how I look at the world. It's all navel gazing but, really, sometimes you need something to rock you out of complacency and I have to thank A for that.

Sorry this is so long and not under a cut but it feels wrong to hide their stories under a cut. These people are hidden away so much by society already that I feel ashamed for trying to hide them again. So, no cut and you can flay me for it, if you'd like.

An update about moi in the continuing saga of "wook has no luck".

I had my ankle surgery on Friday. It freaking hurts but I started putting weight on it Saturday as I walked around the house. I did stairs tonight! Which means 2 things: 1.) my own bed and 2.) SHOWER! or, at least, partial shower! I just had to wrap the right leg in a garbage bag and tape it off so it doesn't get wet and then I'm able to shower. woooohooo!

I now know how gross my hair gets after 4 days of not washing it. The answer is "very gross".

My chest still aches and so does my left middle toe. My knee, hips and wrist also still hurt but everything is slowly feeling better. I have bruises on my bruises.

I keep falling asleep like an old man. I'll be in the middle of a conversation and just pass right out. Awkward... I think I've gained weight, too, considering that I've been flat on my back for almost a week.

Worst part is that the package I keep trying to ship to Australia keeps coming back to me. So I emailed the poor lady to tell her about the two different accidents and now she's had one of her own. It's like I'm a vortex of suck :( No one else has been dragged in, have they?

I go to pick up my handicapped tag at the DMV tomorrow. I have to finish shopping for my family.

I am finished with classes for the semester. I still haven't completed my background check to take a class next semester. This is rather hilarious in a burning irony sort of way. I am taking a class on sexuality (it has a really long title but it's basically about LGBT sexuality) and the only place that it's offered is on the local Air Force Base. LOL at the DADT and sexuality class collision. Except DADT got repealed! WEEHEE!

IDK if I've ever mentioned this here but my father is a very narrowminded Republican. We had a great discussion on why DADT is a bad idea and why equality matters. I think I actually got through to him. I know, color me surprised.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish curling up in my own bed. Me/my bed are OTP *snuggles*

Random RL Update:

This past week was my first week of only 10 hours at Fry's. It was lovely. Unfortunately, this week, I have 10 hours at Fry's again but... also classes. I'm taking a class on racism and minorities and then another on marriage/sexuality/family.

They should be very interesting, don't get me wrong, but I'm a little O.o over them, at the same time. I can't say that the racism class sounds fun but I am interested in expanding my horizons.

Yanno, there was this discussion awhile back on whether slash is good for anything other than women getting their jollies off or if it's helped the LGBTQQ cause. I'd like to think that it has if only because fandom (not m/m romance in general but fandom) has this amazing capacity to widen horizons and illustrate exactly what these things mean IRL. Before fandom, I gave quite a bit of lipservice to equality but, because of fandom in particular, I'm now out there protesting SB1070 and marching in the Gay Pride parade in Tucson. When Prop 201 (Arizona's proposition defining marriage as between a man and a woman) happened, I joined the protest downtown and immediately got involved. So I have to say that fandom has definitely changed my perspective, given me causes I believe in and widened my horizons. Without fandom, I'd still be aimless and wondering just what it was that I could get passionate about. Now I know. So, thanks, fandom.

Anyway, back to real life... work is no longer crushing my soul even though our annual audit starts tomorrow. (FYI: I work for a non-profit and we have our financial statements audited once a year to maintain our 501(c)3 status and high rank on Charity Navigator) I'm finally finding my groove in my new position and feeling less overwhelmed by all the things I need to do.

I'm not feeling sleep deprived and that's really resulted in a higher level of cognitive skill. I'm almost done with my help_haiti fic that I owe. I've finished two fics over the past week and a bit (in two fandoms, btw). I've been able to keep up with all of you for the past week and have actually commented in your LJs. IDK if this will keep up once I'm back in school once more but I'm definitely enjoying the ability for now.

I've also organized and found about a billion things that I'd promised to mail and hadn't. Add in that I also received a horribly mangled box (complete with unhelpful "we're so sorry but we have high standards REALLY!!!!! This never ever happens except this one time!!!!" note from the USPS) and I'm thinking my trip to the post office and UPS store tomorrow will be absolutely nightmare-ish. So, if I owe you mail, I'm very sorry and it's coming.

This weekend, I organized my room and watched a bunch of older movies. Next weekend, I organize my music files and finally add them to the new computer (yanno, the one I bought in like May).

Been having a brilliant time.

Got to meet elanorofcastile's family today. They're awesome. Her Dad can really cook and her brother is wicked funny and her mum is super nice.

We went to Trekfest on Saturday which, yanno, was all right. The parade was interesting though I don't think the participants got the whole "Mirror, Mirror" theme as there were a lot of Snow White references and not so many with the Star Trek references. But, I did get candy hurled at me and elanorofcastile did get a set of beads without having to show her tits so, yanno, win.

It was hot and sticky and miserable, though. Quite a few of the events were cancelled due to flooding. I got mud in all sorts of places I haven't got mud in for a very long time.

So we headed to the casino and had a good time hanging out there. dramedy and two of her friends popped in and we all gambled, giggling and laughing the whole time. Her two friends are wicked fun, as to be expected as dramedy is just as funny and awesome. dramedydrew some awesome stuff but I'll have to link to her post about it.

Mall of America was awesome. elanorofcastile rode her first roller coaster (I totes popped her roller coaster cherry). She meeped but held up a hand during parts of it. Brilliant time. If you get a chance to go, there's this one roller coaster that sends you straight up (literally, straight up) and then sends you straight down into two loops. Very awesome. Add in that it was the Spongebob themed and that rocked hardcore.

Now, elanorofcastile and I are now watching Star Trek, drinking, eating popcorn and writing. Go mirror!verse!

Class continues to be, err, "interesting". It's boring but, at least, I can get to the more interesting stuff after this. Textbook dramaz continue as I just refused delivery of the two sets of books that shouldn't have been sent to me.

My dogs are out of sorts, they're constantly looking around for Chubbs and IDK how to help with that. My left eye is swollen weird - IDK what I did when I had a crying jag but whatever it is, it fucked up my eye but good. It's swollen almost completely shut and it's the top and the bottom of the eye. It's not pink eye, at least according to the doctor I went to see about it. Doctor told me to just wait a few days to see if the swelling goes done - something about stressing the tear ducts or something. IDK, I'm not a medically inclined person.

Anyway - so the dogs are fighting, I'm fighting with my family and it's all this chaotic negative energy everywhere. I'm also 3 hours short of keeping my insurance from Fry's. But that's almost all right as I no longer need surgery as my endometriosis has responded to treatment, my andometriosis is under control and my ovarian cysts have been reabsorbed and are no longer causing me issues. So they called off my surgeries. I can switch to the shitty insurance for a month. I'm not stressing over it any longer. I don't have time.

In better news - my help_haiti auction for fic ended up going to katmarajade for a mindboggling amount. I shall be writing Deamus for her. Current plot points planned put the fic at over 50k. Poor elanorofcastile, anathema91 and shygryf have had to put up with me babbling my way through this plot. It's either going to be the greatest HP fic I've ever written or it's going to fall flat on its ass. I don't think there's going to be a middle ground for it. Here's to hoping that it ends up succeeding beyond my wildest dreams.

In even better news - IDK how many of you all that actively read my LJ were around for my car loan dramaz but, basically, shit happened and I had to pay off my car with a loan from Bank of Dad back in 2006. Well, I have 3 more payments. THREE MORE PAYMENTS. I've been paying on this car since November of 2002, peeps. THREE MORE PAYMENTS. Three more and then I'm free!

In other random news - I watched all of the Lord of the Ring movies in the past two nights. Well, by "all", I mean that I skipped all the Frodo bits. The unnecessary zoom on Frodo's eyes annoys the fuck out of me after awhile. I also sort of skipped Legolas a bit as I got tired of the dramatic staring past the camera. I did watch all the Karl parts. And the David Wenham parts. And the Merry/Pippin parts. And all the battles. Oh Helm's Deep, I was already overly emotional. Haldir dying had me sobbing uncontrollably.

Which brings me to my last point - as much as I loved the slashy goodness of Holmes, methinks that my participation in the Sherlock Holmes fandom is going to be like my participation in LOTR. As much as I love the fic, I have no energy or drive to consume the original book source material and nor do I feel it necessary to write in said fandom(s). I'm sort of sad about that.

I like this meme so I'm following along.

( Countdown Meme )