Let's not have an S

First off, thanks so much to all of you guys for the warm welcome back! Now for the sap.

There was a victory parade in Boston today for the Red Sox. It didn't pack the emotional punch of the 2004 celebration, but it was still quite a spectacle.

As some of you might know, my mother died six years ago, around this date. She was a huge Red Sox fan, but sadly never got to see them win it all. So for me, and many, many other people, 2004 was all about the ones who weren't there to celebrate.

Cut to 2007, and here we are again. As I said, the series and the win didn't have the same effect on me as 2004. Until I was on the T yesterday and saw this headline:





I got all choked up, remembering my mother and realizing how lucky we are as sports fans here in Boston to see a repeat of something many of us never thought we'd see once.

So here's to the Red Sox. And to my mother and father. And to Caroline (who did at least get to see them win it once).

So, it's been ages since I've posted on my LJ. I've been stuck on Brokeback Mountain. Most of my f-list are not Brokebackers, so this diatribe will be meaningless to you. Feel free to ignore or tell me to get a life. But man, I need to get this out.

( Rant ahead )

It's been a while since I've posted an embarrassing food incident. This one is not as amusing, or humiliating, as the The Purloined Lunch. But I know a few folks on my f-list are feeling down or having a tough time. And what better medicine than to laugh at a fellow LJer?

So, last week, my boss left. Sad for our department, and especially for another colleague (Z) and me. The three of us have worked at the company almost from its inception; Z was employee number 5. My boss and I started the same week and argued over who was 6 and who was 7.

Almost six years later, we have become a pretty good team. My boss isn't leaving the company, but she is moving away, so we will get a new head of our department. And we'll miss the boss - she was cool and caring and mostly laissez-faire. Despite our bitterness that she's leaving us vulnerable to a NewBadBoss, Z and I thought the old team should go out for one last lunch.

So off we go to a Mexican restaurant. Back when our company had 10 people and not 60, we'd go to this place. Except it was a Chinese restaurant then. Now it's cuisine de Mexique, but it's all good. I order a yummy shrimp dish, and when it arrives, it comes with tortillas.

I wasn't expecting tortillas. there was no mention of them in the menu description of my meal. But hey, who am I to turn them down. The problem was that I kept saying, "Ooh, pancakes," knowing that wasn't the right word. It was as if I thought I'd ordered Moo Shi/Shu shrimp.

All through the meal, everytime I mentioned the tortillas, I said pancakes. And it was driving me crazy that I couldn't think of the right word. But I didn't just say, "You know what I mean..." and have one of my learned colleagues supply the noun for me.

Then, like a bright light out of nowhere (i.e., my brain), I remembered the word. And apropos of nothing that was being said, as we were waiting for the check, I blurted out "TORTILLAS!"

My boss looked a little happier to be leaving and Z, a little sadder to be staying. I was just mortified that it had taken me over an hour to think of the most basic Mexican/Spanish foodstuff. And, oh, yeah, that I had then shouted it out in the middle of the restaurant.

But hey, at least I didn't steal anything from anyone!

Back later with weeks' worth of pet peeves and pointless observations. Hope all is well out there. I have been reading, even if I've been a bad responder/ent.

I've been out of commission for a few weeks. No, I didn't get arrested for trafficking in illegal BBM DVDs. I was felled by something I usually savor - bile! That's right, folks, I may no longer have the wherewithal to snark.

( Gory details )

Things have been just too rocky around here...

But seriously, rileyc and mav4oz have created tietuckluv, a community to worship for discussion of and fanfic about Elliot Stabler. So whether you want to slash Elliot or set him straight (hee), if you're a Stabler fan, go here to join the party.

Secret message to lostingeekdom: I just got your e-mail and I'm on it, babe.

Public message to maverick4oz: Happy Birthday to the most valuable player in Oz fandom. Thanks for everything you do for us and the boys! Hope all your wishes come true.

I'm just posting a couple of old General Hospital fics I wrote for a challenge a while back. You were supposed to take a character and write about how his/her life would have been different by altering the events of his/her life at five different points.

Lucky Spencer - played by the original actor - is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, so I chose him. But I punked out and did only two points. Someone on another board asked about them, and since I don't have them posted anywhere, I figured I'd post them here. Now that I'm back, I'll try to stick around : )

( Lucky Spencer - Two Points )

I haven't updated in a while, but I posted this on TWoP and thought some of my flist might enjoy it:
( SVU parody )

I've definitely been out here, reading, and I owe some folks posts. I haven't been in the LJ mood lately, but I'm getting back in the swing of things. I missed all you guys!

( For TWoPers - spoilers this a way. And (non-SVU) pictures, too. )

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone out there who's celebrating the big day. Turkey, mmmm.

The six words that launched a thousand fanfics. Or, at least the beginning of one. I wish it had spawned more.

I had to post my Episode 11 - Monogamy (Elliot opens up; Olivia shuts him down) thoughts ( separately )

ETA: Just so you know, I did actually leave the marathon, er, house, today. I actually sat at the beach and read something non-fandom-related. An actual book, I tell you! And I didn't even melt.

Yes, it's a Monday holiday and i'm up earlier than on a working Monday. Well, technically, I still haven't gone to sleep, so that's celebratory, I guess. I'm watching the USA SVU marathon, which is chock-full of episodes from the Glory Days. Season Three goodness - lean, not-always-mean Stabler, unwinged Benson and be-spectacled Cabot.

Speaking of the HToL, I think slammerkinbabe was going to try to organize a ficathon for hurricane relief. So I can finally procure theholyinnocent's services legally. Or, you know, at least for a good cause. There is already a community doing this: fandom_charity, but there aren't any SVU (or Oz) volunteers that I can see. If anyone knows the authors of "Fide et Amour" (unfinished SVU classic) or "Nine Tenths of the Law" (unfinished Oz masterpiece), I'll pay big bucks for those to be done. For the victims, people, for the victims!

Random marathon observations:
Episode 1 - Sacrifice (Saved by the Bell star does gay porn):
What's the deal with that odd moment where Fin goes all T!I!P! on Olivia in the squadroom. Olivia even asks what's up, but no one explains. And then it's just dropped. I hate it when they do shit like that. (I've been up all night, my vocabulary isn't at its best.)

I never noticed before, but when Stabler is offering theories as to why Mark Paul Saved-by-the-Bell was attacked, he says, "Jealous gay co-star, maybe?" while looking at BD Wong/Huang. Hee!

Is it wrong to love the moment when Stabler "frisks" Mark-Paul SBTB and slams him against the wall?

Oh, and though it will never be counted in his favor, I will note that Stabler is exceedingly sensitive to the gay cop at the beginning and never shows any repulsion or disgust for either the gay porn being discussed or the ex-teen-stud doing it.

Episode Two - Repression (Amy Irving's family is fucked):
Ah, those early seeds of St. Oliska. Benson annoyingly and unperceptively snaps when Elliot mentions the daughter has a history of making up stories, then snaps again at the bar when the guys are bemoaning said lying daughter's messing up their case. Thank god Olivia's on the squad, to remind them that the daughter might be a rape/incest victim. The other three just think she's a lying whore!

Despite the nascent martyrdom of Olivia, Arbiter of Victimhood, the Stabler/Benson partnership is running like the smooth, sexy machine it should be. Sigh - the good old days.

Because Amy Irving is so distracting in this episode, I always forget how depressing the denouement is.

The black leather jacket. MH should be forced to wear it in every episode.

Ha - they all look like crap at the end. Cragen, Cabot, Benson and Stabler all look so guilty and shamed. It's very rare for all of them to be deflated. I swear, Alex looked like she was about to let loose some pretty crying.

( More episode 'insight' behind the cut )

The extremely talented and generous womblyfriend volunteered her comic-making skills as part of an auction to raise money for a bunch of LT fans who are doing the the Race for the cure. I was the lucky winner of her talents, and she made incredible, wonderful illustrated pages like this one, to go along with DNR, the Stabler/Beecher crossover fic I posted here.

( More behind the cut ) Big, big thanks to Wombly for the care and imagination and attention she put into the pages. I love the way she used the perfect images from Oz and SVU to convey the moment. There are some wonderful details in there - I've told her my favorites (and no, they aren't ALL on Page 2), but I'd love to see what you guys pick out. Mostly, I am just thrilled to see such a wonderful illustration with my words as part of it.

Also, thanks to fanfromfla and cheights for the screencaps Wombly utilized to create the pages. Edited to add special thanks to maverick4oz for running the auction and to fanfromfla for being the money woman. And to everyone doing the actual Walk.

I guess I have to finish the story now, huh?

DNR page 1

There's creativity in the air! Or maybe it's just pollen. Anyway, after reading great new ficlets from cheights and rileyc and a whole new chapter from caliban22170, I decided I needed to jumpstart my long-dormant writing engine. I think there was a meme a while back, where you were supposed to post something from your WIPs. I can't remember how it went, so I'm just going to post stuff that's been sitting on my hard drive forever and wants to go out for a little ride, in the hopes that it gets my Muses off their lazy, bonbon-eating asses! (I know, you're supposed to be nice to the Muses, but that hasn't been working.)

So sit back, relax, read these WIPs and feel free to tell me to continue, beg me to stop in the name of all that is holy or tell me to find myself a hobby that doesn't involve computers, writing and/or fictional characters.


( DNR (Oz/SVU) )

( Mr. and Mrs. Smith (SVU) )

( Fate (Oz drabbley-thing) )

Posting the full text here for the unregistered folks. Will add profound thoughts and pretty bon mots later:

( Ireland: Bridge over troubled water )

Also, if you haven't already seen them, the CM board has a couple of great reports from the first night of previews for CM's play. And ack! I'm so sad about the CM forum closing. I hope Brian changes his mind!

There were a couple of CM interviews in Irish papers over the weekend. I posted links on TWoP but one of the sites is paid, and BugMeNot.com apparently doesn't have logins, so for those who weren't able to see them, I'm cutting and pasting them here. CM's in fine form - funny and passionate and talkative. And I love how each interviewer, one male and one female, is smitten with him. Can you blame them?

( Crossing another bridge )

( A view from the hunk )

What is the deal with the MH board? Normally, I just lurk there. But today's "Don't hate the homophobe - hate the homophobia" post just left me speechless. (Scroll down to the last post on the page, by KatRose, one of the mods.) Well, almost speechless. I had to chime in, of course. There's just no way they'd tell people to be nice to a racist. I know they are trying to avoid ugliness, but it's just not okay to call being gay abnormal. And expecting people not to react to it is just... abnormal! And disingenuous. And fucking irritating.

I've always wanted to do a gratuitous icon post, and here it is! Yay, me. And yay, lostingeekdom for making this kickass (hee) "I don't need a fucking Emmy" icon for CM. I can't even tell you how bitter the Emmy nominations made me, but I'm pretty sure most of you can imagine. So instead of whining, I'll just giggle at my new icon and stare at pretty pictures like these. (Someone posted them last week on the SVUFiction boards, and I'd never seen them before, even though they are not new.) Enjoy the pretty!

Not being in on the Harry Potter mania is a little strange - it's like everyone around me is part of a big celebration, but I'm not playing. I can participate, sort of, e.g., ordering the books so my niece and nephew got it first thing today, but mostly, it's not my party. Maybe it's like being Jewish at Christmas time? After weeks of buildup, if not months, the day's finally arrived. While I can do whatever I want with my weekend, all the Harrians are stuck at home, with their traditions and rituals. Some folks will rush through the festivities; others will stretch them out. Some will be disappointed; some exhilarated. Others will just be drunk :) And I'll be going to the movies and eating Chinese food!

Or maybe it's like being in France while the Tour de France is on. It's all anyone can talk about, but you don't know a stage from a Hogwart. Even though it's been all over the news/cultural landscape for weeks/years, all you know is that yellow jerseys are good and Voldemort is bad. And despite the nagging feeling that you should perhaps investigate further, you're actually pretty happy in your bicycling and Pottering ignorance.

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Finally getting around to the ( Dork meme )

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In the spirit of slammerkinbabe, Queen of the LJ poll, I'm thinking of doing a "What the hell should I try to write?" poll. I have at least 10 different ideas of Oz and/or SVU fics, and every night, I think about finishing one of them. But I end up surfing around, reading other fics and mocking or praising them. Or procrastinating on giving proper feedback for them. I think really I should just be a story developer/script doctor. I'm great with the ideas, and I can polish a script or a fic quite well. But the actual writing? Notsomuch for me. But I would like to do more of it. I'm just too easily distracted. So maybe if I put up a poll, I'll commit to doing one.

Or, you know, I'll just procrastinate on that one thing, instead of all of them. Sigh...

It's been an evening of ( Revelations )

theholyinnocent has written a wonderful Elliot-POV ficlet, The House of Venti. It's smart, funny and poignant. And it makes you long for the good old days of the Benson/Stabler patnership. If I had Dick Wolf's email address, I'd send him this link. (And probably a lot of profanity-laced ranting, as well. Which would be why I don't have that address!)

Oh, and she wrote it for me. Well, I think she had it planned, so I can't take full responsibility. But she said it was for me. And I can't thank her enough. I needed new, good Stabler fic. And thi never disappoints. Thanks again for the great birthday present.

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I think I owe a lot of people feedback and comments - sorry I've been a slacker lately. If I get over an apparent bout of food poisoning, I hope to get to some of it tonight.

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Finally - belated birthday wishes to aivilo_18. Sorry I missed the big day!

Thanks to lonejaguar for posting the ( AFI Top 100 American Movies )

Tagging whoever wants to do it, plus caliban22170, because she's a meme-y.