The Life and Times of El

So I'm back home and a post about my summer will come at some point, but it seems like I've been travelling since friday morning and I have to be at uni by 9 tomorrow to begin Honours (!!!!!!) and so I am a little brain dead.


So -- icon meme!

minviendha  tagged me:


* Reply to this post with ICON ME! and I will pick five of your icons.
* Make a post (including this info) and talk about the icons I chose.
* Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
* This will create a never ending cycle of icon glee.


( It is amazing what you can fit in a 100x100 pixel square )

HAVING WEEKEND OFF FROM JOB HEAVILY INVOLVING GEOLOGY

WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN AND ITS GEOLOGY

I THINK THIS IS WHAT NORMAL PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT A BAD WORK/LIFE BALANCE


OMGOMG

NOW THERE ARE GLOW IN THE DARK CRICKETS LIVING IN OLD LAVA TUBES

YAAAAY NATURE


ETA

ANTI-FREEZE VAMPIRE BUGS

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

I finally posted it, Lise! Hope you've finished the college essays of doom by now.

This is all metafandom 's fault. No, really.

SOMEONE ON METAFANDOM: *calls Tolkien-style Elves "prissy"*
minviendha: *makes a post expressing extreme confusion about how any Tolkien elf could be prissy*
EL: Certain Feanorians think Fingon is prissy. Fingon is just trying to salvage what's left of our family's good name, unlike some people who seem to revel in sinking it even further into the mud. He's not unlike GUC!Edward in that respect, albeit with less obsession about cleaning products.

And it all went downhill from there.


Title: Growing Up Finwean
Fandom: The Silmarillion (or our version of it, anyway. Warning: vast amounts of fanon ahead.)
Rating: R for Celegorm swearing and Caranthir's questionable taste in music.
Pairings: background Aredhel/Celegorm
Characters: Fingon-centric + Maedhros, Galadriel, Aredhel, Celegorm, Caranthir
Word count: ~2800
AN: Modern AU based, of course, on the amazing, the spectacular Growing Up Cullen, and you should read that first because a) it is hilarious and the best thing to come out of the Twilight fandom, and b) you may not understand much of what is going on here unless you know the source material. Regarding the names: completely my fanon, but I'm going on the idea that Fingon addresses people he likes by their Quenya names, and those he doesn't like so much by their Sindarin versions. So this is why there is Maitimo and Caranthir in the same fic.
Summary: Vague threats of violence, cleaning bathrooms, conversations about insects, cleaning, tea with a stressed step-cousin, more cleaning, and interrupted bedtime reading. It's a typical day in Fingon's life.

---

( Growing Up Finwean )

Last fic written for sharp_teeth .

Title: and six billion minds are as mind of one
Fandom: Star Trek AOS, contains spoilers
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Word count: ~1000
AN: Written for the prompt: Vulcan souls do not fade gently. The title is a riff on New Year's Chimes, which deserves a happier fic. Also, black holes are creepy.

--

( Vulcan souls do not fade gently. )

Another one written for sharp_teeth . The person who posted the prompt probably expected cannibalism; I took it in a different direction.

Title: What You Eat, You Are
Fandom: Firefly (post-BDM)
Rating: R for pica, character death, very minor bloodplay. (Pica: a medical disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive (e.g. metal (coins, etc), clay, coal, soil, feces, chalk, paper, soap, mucus, ash, gum, etc. ...a specific appetite caused by mineral deficiency in many cases, in females named typically iron deficiency.)
Characters: Kaylee POV + ensemble
Word count: ~2800
Summary: It's cold out in the black. Sometimes you get lonely. Sometimes.. you just get awful hungry.

---

( What You Eat, You Are )

On the plus side: no more misogynist posters. Ripping them off was very satisfying.

On the downside: the Australian Federal government has put getting the budget back in surplus ahead of lifting the wages of 153 000 workers, mostly women, who are working in community services.

According to the article, this is the first test of equal pay rights under the Fair Work Act - and apparently it's failed. So more than 150 000 women, who are already working in jobs on the lower end of the salary spectrum, are not going to get their wages lifted so that they are paid the same amount as the men who work those jobs. 150 000 women are working in the community sector - working with victims of abuse, the disabled, the aged, the homeless - essentially, one of the hardest jobs in society. And sooner or later they will leave the sector, because it is a hugely wearing job and I doubt I could do it. I don't mean to imply that they're working in those jobs for the money, far from it - but equal pay would be one less thing to worry about. Maybe it wouldn't make their jobs easier, but I doubt it would make them harder.

The community sector has a massive turnover rate already, and this will just exacerbate it. More people leaving will mean programs are closed and longer lines for the people who need help. And women will make up at least 50% of these people. So not giving these workers equal pay doesn't just affect them, it has a knock-on effect.

Things like this should not be an issue any more in Australia. (I wonder if Gillard is being paid at the same rate as Rudd or Howard?)

I just, urgh.

Okay, so I could make a post about what a lovely day I had yesterday and how today was nice too, but I need the pictures I took to tell that properly and my camera is upstairs and I have eaten my own body weight in rice vermicelli and lemongrass beef and all manner of delicious Vietnamese foods, so I'm not inclined towards moving right now. So my USB is within reach and I have a backlog of fics to post from various comment-ficathons (dangerously enabling!) and if this isn't friday night crackfic I do not know what is.

I have written horror-themed fic for The Magic School Bus. sharp_teeth  is a dangerous place.

But! In the interest of preserving it for posterity and possible blackmail, and in the grand tradition of tacking a wrecking-ball to my own childhood and others', here it is.


Title: On The Ice
Fandom: The Magic School Bus
Rating: R for swearing, mentions of children meeting horribly vague fates, a couple of children meeting horribly specific fates, Miss Frizzle being unsettling
Characters: Arnold's POV plus ensemble
Word count: ~4000
Summary: For the sharp_teeth  prompt: They are on a field trip learning about the tundra when it all goes horribly wrong.

( On The Ice )

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

On Christmas Eve in Finland, Santa Claus is unearthed in an archaeological dig. Soon after, children start disappearing, leading a boy and his father to capture Santa and, with the help of fellow hunters, they look to sell him back to the corporation that sponsored the dig. And then there's Santa's elves, who are determined to free their leader...

Is this the best Christmas movie, or the bestest Christmas movie?

I had an exam today. I also have a cold. Exam 1 of 2 is completed so I am 50% DONE. The cold is not finished and is affecting my inner monologue; look, I have just used a semicolon because of it! The next exam is two weeks from now so can be safely forgotten for the next twelve days. The cold requires me to eat a lot of tea and garlic. I can live with that.


This is part of a larger collection of kimono made with traditional African prints and colours, go and look at the slideshow! I googled it and found this picture which is not included, a pity because it is my favourite.


I hear a lot of people on my flist are doing NaNo! Good luck to you all, I have never tried it myself because November is always a crazy time of year for me and also I like writing fanfic much better. I have however decided to do National Fic Finishing Month, because I have any number of half-completed things on my USB. (I have a file named CRACKBUNNIES, yes, in capitals, which is where most of my fics start now before I move them to their own file. It is currently a little over 21 000 words long.)

So in the interests of procrastinating on that, indulge me?


Out of utter, totally hypothetical curiosity, if I was chained up in your attic, and I had to write you one story, what would you request? Or alternatively, what's something you always hoped I'd write but know is never going to happen?

Here is a lovely vid of a guy bringing up a baby hummingbird, because I need a little pick-me-up after realising I'm not getting my Ps until december.




The guy also posted: "Yea after almost 2 weeks he looked like he was ready to go, and I walked him outside and off he went. And now whenever i walk outside he sometimes buzzes over to me and stares at me and then flies off. its definitely a touching experience”.

My heart is melting all over my keyboard.