This is my life

Holy cow!!!

FINALLY, some choreography that doesn't suck!

Emilio, jesus, where the hell did that come from? Tanisha, holy crap, so hot! Serge! Carly! Carly seriously is one of my faves, now. Zack, you're a tapper? WHAT?

Travis Wall, I freaking love you, dude. Your contemporary routine was astounding, and then you do that group routine, OMG. LOVE. Sonya's group routine, also amazing!

This post thanks to the fact that I got all my "extracurricular" work projects done so now I can just concentrate on the "normal" work. WHEW.

Watched the finale of American Dream Builders - pretty cool, the two guys from Chicago were in the finale, and I loved both so much! I didn't really care who won, but I loved both the final houses.

Now I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance from last week, and the first dude made up his own style that was AMAZING - called puppeteering. SO NEAT! I loved it, and I'm glad he made it to Vegas. Don't think he's got a shot in hell at making it, but I'll be glad to see him again in Vegas.

Lots of other dancers I'm interested in, one quirky brunette lady and a little blonde pixie girl, also quirky. I also loved Mary Poppins, though I don't think she's got a chance in hell at getting on the show.

Can't wait until tomorrow1 :D :D :D

+++ My sister is getting married later this summer, and she asked me to be her matron of honor. :D :D :D

+++ My brother is coming to visit in the next month-ish.

+++ I just had the most wonderful smelling and tasting grapefruit. I picked it up at the store because I could smell it halfway across the produce section. Lovely.

+++ Also I had crackers and brie. Glutino brand gluten-free crackers and other products are amazing.

+++ I'm four or five episodes into Person of Interest. I like it. Probably not going to be fannish about it, but I enjoy it well enough.

+++ Our internets are mostly fixed... I think? I'm posting this, so I think they're basically okay.

+++ First day of project was uneventful. Will hopefully do something tomorrow.

+++ SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE STARTS TOMORROW NIGHT. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

So one of the things I love about Macs is how (for me) they are so very intuitive. They just... do what I want them to do. They make sense with the way my brain works. (I can work a Windows machine well enough, but I'm never going to do anything super fancy with my computers, and basically I just want them to work in a way that makes my brain happy. Macs do that. Also, I am not curious about the inner workings of my computer, so I'm happy to let it do a lot of the thinking for me.)

Aaaaaaaanyway... I've decided to start trying to do stuff in iMovie as a prelude to (maaaaaaaaaybe) vidding.

And the first thing I've decided to do is to clip my favorite dances from So You Think You Can Dance into one giant "Kate's favorite" file, so I can watch it whenever I want dancing. (I will probably include Robot Love Story from LXD, too, because :DDDDDDD MADD CHADD.)

So I had my eps lined up with notes on where the clips I wanted were, and I opened iMovie, and I got a project started, and I imported the first ep into my library and... I cannot figure out how to cut it. Like, at all. I have tried everything I could think of. I googled tutorials. When I asked for "beginner" the internet said: "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

So then I tried "for idiots" because now I feel about three inches tall, and guess what. There are apparently no impolite people on the internet because there is not one "idiot's guide" in all of the listings. I just get the same tutorials that I got for "beginner." Which is frustrating, because when I go through the "this is how you open the program" and "this is how you start a new project" and am all *eyeroll* because THAT shit I can figure out... then the guys are all like "so you just grab this clip here and put it in!" and I say: HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GRAB THAT? My screen does not look like that. It does not do that (and yes, I checked the versions etc.).

5-year-olds do this shit with their eyes closed and I cannot actually clip one little bit of a longer movie. I feel so incredibly fucking stupid and old right now. And yes, I'm weepy (at least partially because it's that time of the month). So I'll be over here, doing something I know I can do: writing. Possibly on paper with a pen because holy shit I do not feel like looking at a computer right now.

Please note: While I'm leaving comments on because I am not *that* fragile a blossom, I don't actually want help with this. Help will not lessen my frustration (it will in fact increase it). I have calmly set aside the program (if you know me, you know this is an impressive feat (because it did not result in my computer being thrown across the room)) and will leave it alone until I can get home to my wife and have her watch things over my shoulder. I don't want to think about this anymore. I'm not giving up permanently, I am just giving up for the week. Thanks.

Someone who will remain nameless (until she gives permission for me to put her name up) and I are going to do the 10 in 10 challenge that astolat's... hosting? It was her idea, anyway, and I'm totally going to do it because the words haven't been coming and you know how it is after a while where you just need anything to get you moving again? And I have two massive fanworks I need to finish with deadlines, so I'm doing this. Anyone else wanna join me? I'm going to write some new stuff, finish a WIP, or maybe more, if I can find some nearly-finished stuff in my folders. And I’m going to try and write some of my Wincestiel BB and my other ginormous fic too, should this all go the way it’s supposed to.

( So anyway, here are my current ideas for things I think I can maybe do in a single day. To be updated when I can look in my WIP folder back at the hotel. )

So who’s with me?! Come on, you know you want to!

First off, thank you so much for writing a story about an awesome lady – or awesome ladies – just for me. I am super-excited to see more women-centric fic in the world. So I am super-easy to write for. I write widely and read even more widely, so if you have a character, ship, kink, plot or something you've been dying to write, please, go for it! I am sure I will love it because you had a good time writing it. If you're looking for some inspiration, here are some lists of things I like (and a short list of what I don't). Just grab one that sparks you and go for it – please don't have to feel like you need to include every element ever.

Again, thank you so much for writing a story for me!

General dislikes: I'm starting with dislikes because there's really only a few. Scat, for one, and humiliation, whether kinky or as part of a story, is just not really my thing.

General likes: Everything! I love canon and I love AUs, I love most genres ridiculously, though if pressed for my faves, it'd be sci fi/fantasy, supernatural/horror, heists, action-adventure, romance. For canon, I love mostly missing scenes, or filling in bits of character backstory, or character interaction. I'm not super-fond of casefic in CM because I feel like the show does a good enough job, but I'd love casefic in White Collar or missionfic in SGA and The Losers. I adore crossovers and know many, many other canons! Particularly for femslash, I love crossovers (there have been so many amazing Aisha pairings from crossovers). I like gen a lot, but I also like porn and romance, too, and ace, solo, femslash, het, and moresomes are all peachy keen with me. Themes I enjoy are chosen family, hard-won redemption (that doesn't end with death – I want to see them work at their redemption in the future, too), alienness, fish out of water, and self-discovery.

Porny likes: First off: no porn necessary! I love gen! But if you want to write it and are looking for guidance, here we go. I like both vanilla and kinky sex. Mainly I'm looking for something unusual and interesting, whether in the emotional states of the people or in the sex acts themselves. My fave kinks are marking, bondage (especially of the hands), possessiveness, and tentacles (I blame thank anatsuno), but really, I read and enjoy everything except scat or humiliation. I like pushing boundaries but within a safe framework. I like cuddling and aftercare (a whole story about just aftercare would be awesome!). I like the psychological aspects of sex as much, if not more, than the physical ones.

Losers: Aisha is amazing. I would read everything about her forever. I also love the concept of Jensen's sister (even though she's not canon), I love Jolene, and would love gen about any of these amazing ladies, or, if you can work it, femslash! I love backstory or "slice of life" for Aisha (I use ironic quotes because a slice of her life is likely to be quite different from most slice of life stories, I think), her POV on Losers happenings in canon, and I totally ship her with almost everybody. A kinky D/s about her and Jensen or hate!sex with Roque or general slinky sexiness with Cougar. I don't mind Aisha/Clay, but I feel that was covered pretty decently in the movie and I have to admit that JDM isn't my favorite guy. I'd love to see Aisha/Jolene in any way you can make that work (on the other side of that equation, I totally buy Pooch/Cougar/Jensen, so in my mind it's reasonable that they have either an open relationship or they have "exceptions" set up for circumstances when they're apart for a long time). Actually, I'd really go for Jolene/Jensen's sister in that case too. Or, for a het (and fanon) twist – Jolene/Jensen's brother!

SGA: I have been wanting Teyla/Elizabeth femslash since the beginning of time. Season 1ish, where Elizabeth and Teyla find comfort in each other because they can't find comfort in others because Reasons. I also love later Teyla/Kate (Doppelganger is unfortunately the episode that opened my eyes to that ;_;), and I can deal with sad and dark if you want to deal with fallout from that, or I would love fix it, if you want to go that way, or just fluff! I love Teyla the most, so gen about her would be awesome, whether her POV on a team mission or Athosian culture stuff (I love Athosian holiday fic like burning). I also love Cadman and would love humor featuring her. If you want to write het, I could go for Cadman/anyone, or Miko/anyone (if you like minor characters). I love Teldy and her team and would love those guys, too (Dusty FTW!). I have been known to read Cadman/Keller, McKay/Keller, and others even though Jennifer can be a bit problematic for me because of the inconsistencies in canon. But! If you make her the way she was supposed to be, and not the way of fickle canon, she would be awesome!

Avengers (Movieverse): NATASHA. ANYTHING NATASHA EVER. Gen muchly loved because she has such a rich history to dig into, but for femslash, I wouldn't mind a little snarky Natasha/Darcy or smoldering Natasha/Pepper, and for het, I really enjoy the dynamic between her and Hawkeye. I love them simply as friends, too, so I'd totally love a buddy piece between them. Since the moment I saw her, Natasha has been my favorite in this fandom, and there isn't a thing about her I wouldn't want to read about. If you got me on Avengers and Natasha isn't your thing, I do enjoy Pepper, too, and wouldn't mind reading gen about a day in her life or Pepper/Tony. Darcy, too, is a favorite, so I would happily read any gen or pairing with her (I've read Darcy/Steve and Darcy/Thor! She's just kind of awesome with everybody – and Darcy/Jane would be fun and sexy!).

White Collar: Diana is amazing, and I would like all the fic about her ever (also a femslash option with her and Christie). I have to admit I'm behind on canon, so I really picked this fandom because I have such an abiding love for Diana. Diana and Neal snarkiness, hijinks, or casefic would be dearly loved. Slice of life with her and Christie (or a new lady friend, if they broke up? I'm really behind! /o\) would be loved muchly. Also Diana is ripe for crossover pairings! I would love to see her with other awesome ladies from other canons. I also love Elizabeth, so Elizabeth/Peter is dearly loved if you're looking for het. Also, I adore June! Especially her and Neal and their dynamic (and their singing!). I would totally read Neal/June, if you want to go that way.

SYTYCD: So many amazing ladies! I really love the dancing, so a story about a practice or choreography session would be great. I love Mia and Sonya and Stacey and even Mary Murphy (I sympathize with her even though her laugh gets to me (as do some of her unthinking gender assumptions)), and I would love to see any of the female choreographers working with any of the female contests, particularly Sabra, Melanie, Lauren, Comfort, Katee, Allison, Donyelle, Shauna, Sasha, Ellenore, or Elliana. For femslash, I'd love Melanie/Sasha (their top 4 dance together was amazing), and het, there are so many posisbilities. Melanie/Marko, Sabra/Neil, Katee/Joshua, or Donyelle/Benji. So much love for dance and this show.

Criminal Minds: The ladies of CM are some of my favorite of all time. Prentiss and Garcia are my absolute favorites, but I love JJ too, and Strauss. Not a huge Seaver fan, though I wouldn't mind some gen about her, a background story or something like that. I'm unfortunately about two seasons behind, so I don't know the newest lady (though I've caught a couple of eps this season so I know there is one). Femslash in just about any pairing welcome, het in canon pairings (Garcia/Kevin, so cute! JJ/Will adorable!) or just about anybody with Reid or Morgan. I like Hotch well enough (and his new lady friend (who came around just as I stopped watching), but I'd rather not read 'shippy stuff about him, because I really loved his wife. As a matter of fact, fic about Haley would be super-welcome too.

I hope this sparks some good ideas and you have a good time writing for me. If you're ready to run for the hills because there's just too much, please just chuck the whole letter and write the story you want to write. The most important thing for me is that you enjoy writing it! I want you to have a good time, because that is what I enjoy reading most.

lightgetsin illustrates what happens when asking for accommodation for a disability.

From somewhere on my flist (pre-Irene; I haven't had time to repost for a while, but this will be useful in future, I think): American Red Cross's Safe and Well list. To let people know you are okay, or to find people, perhaps. The wider this is spread the more useful it is.

xkcd's take on taking a sympathy sorry as an apology (I actually just respond to people with "SYMPATHY SORRY >:(")

I was out of contact when noms were going on, but you can still vote in eruthros's Top one hundred speculative fiction works: long list poll. It's tough, dude, but awesome.

The AO3 is about to start hosting art! :D :D :D Before they do, though, they are looking for help with the T&C; facetofcathy posted an excellent roundup here.

I don't do tumblr, but for those of you who do, here's cute boys with cats. You're welcome. (My favorite? That's ( here. ))

feedingflame is for SYTYCD caps, and you can request specific dances, OMG. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D Now, not to inundate with requests....

I posted my thoughts over here on dance_on_tv.

Things I want to talk about but only have time for summaries:

1. The Voice: ( spoilers )

2. SYTYCD: ( spoilers )

3. I has fresh brownies.

4. It's late. I should be in bed.

5. HOLY CRAP GUYS. Out of the blue, the orchestra manager quit. She was a sweet old lady that adored me! And then she up and left! With almost no warning! That was hard, but you know, it happens.

6. The NEW orchestra manager - she's got a doctorate in CLARINET PERFORMANCE and an emphasis in arts management, and she's worked as an arts manager with the National Symphony Orchestra. To which part of me goes: *gulp* and part of me goes: WTF are you doing in a part time job with this shitty little orchestra? I dunno, I dunno. I hope it works out for the best because I cannot stand one more political bullshit thing with this orchestra, I swear.

I don't exactly celebrate, except in the way that I do. I love the food and the family, and the gifts (giving, mostly, but I got a couple things I'm going to rec below), but it's not my religious holiday, not by a long shot. Maybe I don't have a religious holiday anymore. I have a sort of... taking stock of my life holiday (winter solstice) which resulted in me attempting to drive my altar back to Baltimore from Wisconsin (packing it in my wee car tomorrow), and setting things up again. I miss having an altar, it's been too long.

HI WELCOME TO MY WEIRD CHRISTMAS SELF-EXAMINATION.

But, presents! I wrote a pinch hit for Yuletide, and they let me put up prompts, and I got two lovely stories! :D :D :D

Scrapyard Parkour, The Losers, gen Cougar and Jensen interaction, lovely, lovely, lovely. Obstacle course plus wrenched ankle = WIN! I love it, and it's MINE. <333

romance in five acts, So You Think You Can Dance, Billy Bell/Robert Roldan, I don't even know what else to tell you, here, it's Billy Bell, ILHIM, and I love the observations about Kent and the rest of the dancers. :D :D :D

Our contribution to the family lunch (it's a picnic theme, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, potato salad) is Honey Cakes with Rum Baked Apples (the original recipe is for pears, but I like apples, they're even sweeter).

( Honey Cakes )

So, I put up a request for a dance show community on create_my_comm. If this is something you might be interested in, pop by and leave a supportive comment? (Or feel free to create a comm, if you are moved to do so!)

I just... I feel bad pestering my usual suspects about this fic I'm writing (which has grown a soundtrack that already has beautiful cover art) and I'd love to have a group of people to squee with me about it.

I am writing So You Think You Can Dance fic. Kent/Neil, introspective, based on this gorgeous piece (includes the bit before the routine, which... yeah). I can't believe I'm actually writing this. (Especially because I don't have time, I'm in the middle of a huge deadline for work, and I'm going to get this OTW grants stuff done before I go to bed, dammit, I'm GOING TO, don't look at me like that!)

But, yeah. Kent/Neil. /o\