Thank you so much to ingridmatthews, spectralbovine, tygress girlmostlikely, tartanshell, midnitemaraud_r, devildoll, and also to the anonymice for the snowflake cookies! ♥♥♥♥♥ *twirls you all*

[eta] Thanks also to the folks at crack_impala for the snowflake they sent to unfitforsociety. *g* [/eta]

I have been very meh recently and now I feel all warm and loved.

I've fallen behind completely on answering comments, so I am declaring today comment amnesty day, and getting rid of all the unanswered comments (on anything but fic - those I will try to answer) from before today.

I have three sets of minutes to write now, plus yuletide and broken toys. Yay?

Have a poem:

Rhymes and Songs

It's late now, December, a few trees
continue translating.
A menorah
holds up its little buckets of light.
An old woman with hands to her ears,
two homeless men discussing the nature of evil.
It's a clear morning.
Everyone's carrying luggage. There're gaps
between passersby, larger than usual.
The sun sets silver shields
in a row of window frames, all but one,
where a girl in a fur hat looks out.
Dawn riddled with memories
fading and dispersing among the trees,
fever subsiding —
you think, at last I can do what I want,
but mostly
you're building on the silence,
the solemnity of things left to themselves.
White limousine at the corner: an
intricate, depressed millionaire
trolling for a girl so beautiful
& frightened she might be enticed.
And a new life, arduous
and dire, commences. Years
on a backcountry farm near one of the Great Lakes,
a bent for poetry, little rhymes
& songs
to soothe yourself
and children you've come to know.

~Charlie Smith

~*~

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Thank you to deirdre_c, marciaelena, catdancerz and dotfic for the lovely snowflakes in my userinfo! ♥♥♥♥♥

*

LJ, let my comments go!

*shakes tiny ineffectual fist*

*

\o/

Giants beat the Cowboys! That always makes for a great Sunday. And they swept them this year, so I think that means they have the upper hand should it come down to a tiebreaker.

*

After brunch, I went to Supercuts and while she was cutting my hair, the hairdresser quizzed me on 19th c. novels like Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice (well, technically movies adapted from 19th c. novels). I thought she said she'd read Jane Eyre, so I kind of spoiled it for her (crazy wife in the attic omg!) but she didn't seem to care. She said she was going to bump it up on her Netflix list, 'cause she likes the creepy ones.

Generally, I hate having to chat while having my hair done, but this conversation was amusing and also about something I am familiar with, which is not usually the case. Also, she washed my hair with this lavender and mint shampoo that I really liked so I ended up buying it. Obviously, the way to upsell me is with conversation about books and things that smell nice.

*

I have a whopping 71 words on my yuletide story. Wah! Also, I am trying to figure out how I am going to find a beta who knows the source, because I'd like someone who is at least familiar with it to read the thing over when I finally finish it.

When that's done, I can focus on Broken Toys, among other things. I think I know what I'm writing for that, but writing it in my current unable to write state should be interesting.

Stupid writing. Why so hard?

*

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Two thumbs up for both the flourless chocolate cake, which tastes like a really intense fudge brownie, and the Sicilian cheesecake, which is just yummy, with a hint of orange flavor (I wonder if adding almond extract would work. hmm...).

***

Here is some music I uploaded. The theme was "songs to wake up to" and I did two small sets:

for when you need to ease into the day with some softness:

For No One - Azure Ray
Raining in Athens - Azure Ray
The Shape I Found You In - Girlyman
You Will Rise - Tom McRae
Anna Begins - Counting Crows

for when you need to get the adrenaline going:

Every You Every Me - Placebo
Back in Black - AC/DC
Wherever I May Roam - Metallica
One Girl Revolution (Battle Mix) - Superchick
Slow Down Gandhi - Sage Francis

I uploaded this for angelgazing, because it is THE Remus Lupin theme song (pre-Azkaban, anyway) in my head:
There Is a Boy Who Never Goes Out - the Lucksmiths

And here are some songs I was thinking should be SPN vids:
Rise Up in the Dirt - Voxtrot
Sam and Dean, saving people! hunting things! the family business!

Red Shoes (The Angels Wanna Wear My) - Elvis Costello
Sam and Dean v. angels

(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding - Elvis Costello
Down In It - Nine Inch Nails
Terrible Lie - Nine Inch Nails
Sam wondering how things got all fucked up, and if it's even possible to fix them.

***

Now I have to go get ready to meet fleurdeleo for brunch. And then another day of not-writing my yuletide story! Woo!

***

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Thank you for the snowflake cookie, O anonymous benefactor! ♥ It really perked me up.

Today was the bi-annual semiannual twice-yearly scrubbing of the tub. Oy. Scrubbing the tub is my least favorite chore ever. I will say that Soft Scrub with bleach is amazing - it totally got out a stain I thought would never come out. So now I have a clean tub, with a new bathmat and shower curtain, and the rest of the bathroom is clean as well. Lovely.

Then I ran out to buy a couple of things I needed for today's bake-fest, and now the flourless chocolate cake is in the oven, and I am resting up before I start on the Sicilian cheesecake.

We're having this potluck luncheon thingy at work this week, and I said I'd bring something dessert-ish, but I didn't want to bring something I hadn't tested, and my mother couldn't find her Italian cheesecake recipe, so I am taste testing. Well, I will be giving half of each cake to fleurdeleo when I see her tomorrow (and a bag of frozen blueberry boy bait cupcakes, as well), because too much is too much. And then when I've decided which I like better, I will make it later in the week to bring to work.

The flourless chocolate cake was pretty easy, though I was worried I was going to overcook the chocolate because the butter wasn't melting quickly enough (I did it in a makeshift double-boiler - i.e., smaller pot floating on top of larger pot). And I had an unfortunate experience with having to fish out a bit of eggshell (so really, that should be an unfortunate eggsperience. I'm sorry! I can't help it! Bad puns just happen to me!) from the batter, but overall, it was pretty easy.

It's got about twenty-five minutes to go and it smells divine. If it tastes as good as it smells, I think I know what I'm giving my sister and b-i-l for Christmas. (I am thinking homemade baked goods for all the adults, since I've been doing all this baking. That's good, right? It's fairly cheap, compared to what I normally spend, I enjoy doing it, and it tastes good. I just... I don't know how it will be received.)

Both recipes call for a springform pan, which I did not own, so last night on the way home I stopped off at K-Mart on Astor Place, and got one (and also a bundt pan and a tube pan, and the new shower curtain and new bathmat, plus a new toothbrush holder - it has a pretty purple flower on it, and I liked it, even though my bathroom is all green), and man, let me tell you, that is one depressing department store. It reminded me a little of the ABC on Liberty Avenue back in City Line or the TSS on Metropolitan Avenue (man, that was a long time ago). Okay, maybe with slightly higher quality goods, but not by much. I don't know. Something about it was just depressing.

So I've cleaned, shopped and baked, and talked to my parents on the phone. I ... I suppose I should write something now. I haven't in days. I mean, I have an opening sentence for yuletide, and I like my idea, but I just feel completely useless as a writer right now. I can't seem to write the kinds of stories I keep having ideas for (i.e., stories with casefile-y or caper-y plots) and it just makes me want to give up the whole enterprise. Meh.

At least with baking I get the satisfaction of tasty baked goods at the end of the process. Right now, writing isn't providing much of that.

I should have a baking icon. Hmm...

***

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So it was a year ago today that I was laid off from Big Evol MegaCorp. I kind of can't believe it. I mean, a year. 12 months. 365 days. It's kind of boggling. I look back on it and I'm like, wow, what did I even do for those twelve weeks? If only I'd known things would work out pretty quickly, I would have enjoyed the time off a lot more, I tell you what.

I know I was lucky - I am lucky. One of the VPs I worked for at BEMC is still out of work. It helps that I wasn't tied to the financial industry, and that I actively wanted to get back into the non-profit sector. And that I'm kind of an awesome assistant.

I opened this post at about 1 pm this afternoon at work and never figured out what exactly I wanted to say. That I'm grateful, I suppose, that I was only out of work for three months, that I have a family who could have taken me in if the need arose, that I got a decent severance package that also continued my insurance for those twelve weeks (and would have paid half of it for another twelve if I'd needed to go on COBRA) that I found a job so quickly in a bad economy at a place where I don't feel like I'm selling a little bit of my soul every time it's mentioned on the news. (Er, not that the place I work now is ever mentioned on the news, but you know what I mean.)

Anyway, I never did cry about it, possibly because I was afraid if I started, I would never stop, but it still hits me at odd moments, and it's made me even more anxious than I was before (which is really saying something, because I am like a ball of anxiety slathered in neuroses) about not screwing up at work, about how close I am - how close most of us are - to one or two bad breaks leading to a whole lot of badness, and how there's very little in the way of a safety net for anyone (who doesn't work for Goldman Sachs) anymore.

What I did cry about today - and oh man, did I ever - was this week's Friday Night Lights. How is this show so good? HOW? ( spoilers )

*

I watched this week's Bones earlier, and wow, really unpleasant movie-whoring. Bleh.

And then there was the White Collar fall finale. ( spoilers )

I can't wait for hiatus to be over. I am also kind of geeked by the Burn Notice commercials. And how AWESOME is that Psych commercial? SO AWESOME OMG! GUS & SHAWN! HALL & OATES! *hearts*

TV is so very, very good to me. *happy sigh*

*

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So last night I was still exhausted by, well, everything, so I was in bed by 11:30 and asleep no later than 11:35. And then I was awake at 1:30, and basically up until around 6 am. I did finally fall asleep, but my alarm goes off at 7:25, but I was really in no shape to get out of bed, so I called in to work and stayed home. I eventually went back to sleep again for a few hours, and then wasted my afternoon reviewing yuletide source. I have an opening line now! And I kind of want to talk about the source but I can't. Which sucks.

Anyway. I left the house at 5 to meet up with R. for dinner and a movie. We ate and then walked over to the Ziegfeld to see "The Princess and the Frog," which is doing an exclusive limited run engagement there before it opens.

Except that tickets cost either $30 or $50 (for the full Disney experience), because apparently after the show there was a party with the Disney princesses at Roseland. So that was out. Because we weren't going to pay that for a movie, nor were we going to go to the afterparty.

We decided to head uptown to 66th and Broadway to see what was playing at the gihugic theatre there, so we walked over there - it was a beautiful night for walking - and it turns out that Robert DeNiro's new movie, "Everybody's Fine" was premiering there, and so there were velvet ropes and tents set up and clearly we were not getting into that theatre.

"An Education" was playing at the Lincoln Square, but not until 8 pm and it was only 6:50 so we weren't sure we wanted to wait around. So we grabbed a cab and headed back east to 62nd and 1st and ended up seeing "Precious." (I think R. wanted to see "2012," which was playing nearby, but I really didn't, she didn't want to see "A Serious Man," and neither of us knew what "Pirate Radio" was about [I mean, aside from the obvious].)

I'd read "Push" a long long time ago, so I knew the basic outlines of the story, but man, it is a sad, sad movie. Brilliantly acted, and hopeful, but dear god, it's devastatingly sad.

And then I came home and wrote this entry. My life, so exciting.

Hopefully I will sleep tonight.

***

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Glee

Will Shuester is a douche. <- not a spoiler

( spoilers )

*

In other TV news, am I correct that "White Collar" is moving to Tuesdays at 10 pm when it returns in January? Does this mean that I will have an awesome Tuesday night block of "Leverage" at 9 pm and "White Collar" at 10 pm? (I will have to record "The Good Wife" and watch it at some other time.) And "Psych" is moving to Wednesdays at 10 pm (which makes things difficult for me, because that is when I generally watch "Glee" since I watch "Criminal Minds" at 9 pm)? Will "Burn Notice" be at 10 pm on Thursdays, or are they bringing back "Royal Pains" in that time slot, and BN will be against SPN? I need to get this all figured out.

Isn't USA an NBC property? It amuses me that they are going after Leno at 10 on the weeknights.

*

In other non-TV news, I think I have an idea for my yuletide story. An idea that isn't simply one thousand words of [CENSORED] and [CENSORED] with some [CENSORED] thrown in. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can do it. I may have to find someone outside my usual beta circles on this one. That is always nerve-wracking. We'll see, I guess.

*

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Poll #1493460 maybe the boomtown rats were onto something
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 135

the worst day of the week is

( rambling on why I am asking this question )

*

Yesterday went well, but even though I got a full night's sleep, I am still exhausted. I was so tempted to call in sick today and just sleep. SLEEP. Sigh.

I dreamt that the BAU had opened a shoe store down in the Bowling Green subway station, and I bought a pair of very cute slingbacks with kitten heels from Reid. Apparently, all that profiling knowledge is also good for picking out the exact pair of shoes for people, shoes they don't even know they want until they see them!

My brain, you guys. I don't even know.

*

Have a poem:

Tide of Voices

At the hour the streetlights come on, buildings
turn abstract. The Hudson, for a moment, formal.
We drink bourbon on the terrace and you speak
in the evening voice, weighted deep in the throat.

They plan to harvest oysters, you tell me,
from the harbor by Jersey City, how the waters
will be clean again in twenty years. I imagine nets
burdened with rough shells, the meat dun and sexual.

Below, the river and the high rock
where boys each year jump from bravado
or desperation. The day flares, turns into itself.
And innocently, sideways, the way we always fall

into grace or knowledge, we watched the police
drag the river for a suicide, the third this year.
The terrible hook, the boy's frail whiteness.
His face was blank and new as your face

in the morning before the day has worked
its pattern of lines and tensions. A hook
like an iron question and this coming
out of the waters, a flawed pearl —

a memory that wasn't ours to claim.
Perhaps, in a bedroom by lamplight,
a woman waits for this boy. She may riffle drawers
gathering photographs, string, keys to abandoned rooms.

Even now she may be leaving,
closing the door for some silence. I need
to move next to you. Water sluiced
from the boy's hair. I need to watch you

light your cigarette, the flickering
of your face in matchlight, as if underwater,
drifting away. I take your cigarette
and drag from it, touch your hand.

Remember that winter of your long fever,
the winter we understood how fragile
any being together was. The wall sweated
behind the headboard and you said you felt

the rim where dreams crouch
and every room of the past. It must begin in luxury —
do you think — a break and fall into the glamour
attending each kind of surrender. Water must flood

the mind, as in certain diseases, the walls
between the cells of memory dissolve, blur
into a single stream of voices and faces.
I don't know any more about this river or if

it can be cleaned of its tender and broken histories —
a tide of voices. And this is how the dead
rise to us, transformed: wet and singing,
the tide of voices pearling in our hands.

~Lynda Hull

***

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So, we had a committee meeting today, and I swear to god, I thought someone was going to start throwing things. Writing the minutes up should be an interesting exercise in doublespeak. Board meeting tomorrow, and then I am done, DONE I TELL YOU, until January. I mean, I still have to work etc., but the craziness should abate. I hope. I am tired. And it makes it really hard for me to write. Witness the tiny writing round-up!

November 2009 Writing Roundup

swim in my blood when it's warm
Supernatural; Sam/Dean; pg; spoilers through 5.04; 3,434 words
Sam's seeing everything clearly now.

your ears tuned to the roar
Supernatural; Jo, Ellen; pg; spoilers through 5.10; 1,510 words
In which Jo grows up.

*

Top 5 Songs - November 2009

6. Levon - Elton John

5. Song to the Siren - Sheila Chandra

4. Set the Story Straight - Tom McRae

3. Somebody to Love - Glee cast version

2. The Shape I Found You In - Girlyman

1. Psalms 40:2 - the Mountain Goats

*

BSG folk, you totally need to watch this vid about the frakked up relationship between Bill Adama and Starbuck: Like My Very Own Blood by jarrow. It's FANTASTIC. Creepy and utterly heartbreaking and just... takes the idea that Adama made Starbuck into his second son, his replacement for Zak, to its logical conclusion, including the damage it inflicts on her, him, and Lee. And of course Kara accepts it, clings to it - how does she know any better? *cuddles her* Really well done, and you know how bad I am at getting vids, but this one made total sense to me.

*

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Dear Sam,

I am trying to get you laid. It would be easier if you weren't such an angsty motherfucker. Stop being so difficult! It's sex! It's supposed to be fun! No wonder most of the porn I write is about Dean. He rarely gives me this kind of trouble. Why can't you be more like your brother?

frustratedly,

me

PS: Yes, I understand everyone you sleep with dies. I...am not breaking that streak. Um, sorry? I blame canon. Still, though. Sex! You should be less angsty about it!

***

Holy shit, Jane Lynch is doing commercials for X-Box in which she is in character as Sue Sylvester. And they sing "Carry On Wayward Son." And the mother is a fan of Greco-Roman wrestling (i.e., oiled half-naked men getting sweaty together).

I feel like this is some kind of crazy fannish collision. I am amused.

***

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Writing is hard.

So I updated unfitforsociety instead, with 15 recs for November 2009:

* 3 Supernatural
* 3 crossovers
* 2 White Collar
* 2 Harry Potter
* 2 Star Trek Reboot
* 1 each Big Bang Theory, Dark Angel, and Psych

***

Every time I listen to the Black Keys, I wonder why they haven't been used on SPN yet (if they were, I missed it). Dean could shock Sam by listening to something that was produced after 1979, but that still sounds like it came from the early '70s. Heh.

***

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The uploading continues apace. I am almost ready to stop for the evening and maybe try to write. Or something. I miss writing. It's been days since I did any. Sigh.

I was uploading a lot of the codas I wrote in season 2, when I was still in the first flush of fandom love, and wow, season 2 was good for codas. I think I wrote at least one (sometimes more than one) for almost every episode. I miss that, too.

*

Tonight for dinner I made a roast loin of pork. It was very tasty. I combined garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and basil in about a tablespoon of olive oil (for easy spreading), along with a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar and a large splash of vanilla (for years, I wouldn't tell my mother about the brown sugar and vanilla, and she couldn't replicate the taste. Heh.). Rub that on, top with a few pats of butter, and then cook until the internal temperature is 160°F. It was very tasty and juicy and good.

*

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I don't really care about so much about the plots on White Collar. They just keep giving me tasty OT3 stuff and I'm content.

I've spent most of the day uploading stuff to the AO3. It allows me to feel productive when I can't write. I have too many goddamn stories, though. angelgazing pointed out that I will never be done uploading because I write faster than I upload. Though possibly this is no longer the case. I don't know. I have been having my usual late autumn/early winter problems getting motivated. Since the archive takes so long to upload, I am also rereading some favorite stories (I don't have to pay as close attention to rereads - I can skim and skip and be interrupted without losing anything, 'cause I've already read them before). I keep getting errors, unfortunately, which is slowing things down even more.

Technology is not my friend.

I know lots of people are excited by tagging their stories in all sorts of ways, but I am doing what I find useful and that's it. As long as I get the characters/pairing on there, and maybe if it's a casefile or an episode tag, that's about the extent of my interest. Maybe if I upload my HP stuff, I'll split the Remus/Sirius out by era, like I have it in my tags on LJ, but mostly I don't care about the tags. *hides*

Also, I wish there were a place in the profile to link to a warnings policy, and that that link could just automatically be included on every story. Because I am just using the "No Primary Warnings Apply" which isn't the same as "no warnings needed" but 99% of my stuff is "no warnings needed" and I'd like to be able to say that somewhere, since it isn't a choice on the warnings field. I guess I could make it a tag, but I never think of it. I wish it were automatic.

Hmm...

***

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Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating! Happy Thursday to those who are not. I hope everyone had a lovely day, regardless.

My day began with BACON and PIE and ended with FOOTBALL and PIE, and in between there was stuffing and homemade cheese macaroni and turkey that was actually moist and tasty (!!), and more family shenanigans than you could shake a stick at. My brother was in rare form tonight, and basically had the whole table in stitches for most of the meal. Mostly at my expense, but eh, that's not new. and unfortunately, the Giants are capping off the day by sucking like unto a hoover, but I am too full and sleepy to care too much.

I am thankful for my family, my friends - including you guys - my health, and my job. Man, a year ago at this time, I was a week away from being laid off. I'm still a little freaked out by how that went, still anxious and lacking in confidence sometimes, but I'm so glad I found a new job quickly, and one that I mostly like, for people and an organization that I like. (I'm also grateful that I have tomorrow off and I don't have to use a day - it's one of our holidays. Mmm...sleeping in...) I'm grateful I have health insurance and can pay my rent and that I have an apartment I love.

I'm thankful for fandom, not just because of all the great stories to read and the feeling of having people who get my excitement about various shows and characters, but because of all the great people I've met and become friends with, who've made my life richer and better and more fun all around.

*hugs*

And also, I am thankful for PIE, and I would share some with you all if I could.

***

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Criminal Minds

( spoilers )

***

Maybe I will try to write. I would like to post one more story this month, if possible, before I buckle down on yuletide and broken toys.

***

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So I have this thing where I reverse numbers all the time, e.g., I usually have to redial new to me phone numbers two or three times because I switch the order of the numbers, etc.

NOTE TO SELF: NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE DYSLEXIC WITH ROMAN NUMERALS!


***

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For tonight's bout of stress baking, I made blueberry boy bait (as recommended by devildoll), which came out well, I think (I am taking half to work and half to the parents), but I also think it needs more blueberries. Clearly I need to double the amount next time. And possibly make it in cupcake tins or my mini-loaf pan. Hmm...

Maybe one day I'll be like a real food blogger and remember to take pictures of stuff before I slice into it and wrap it up. Today was not that day.

On my ride home tonight (I was at work late again), I listened to Adam Raised a Cain a few times and vidded it in my head. I would be the most literal vidder ever. Anyway. I know I say this all the time, but where is the Sam Winchester vid to this song? WHERE IS IT? I think this season has provided more awesome footage for someone to do this.

( the lyrics, in case you missed them the first 100 times I mentioned this idea )

Seriously, if I had minions, I would make one of them vid this for me.

***

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some days, the bear definitely eats you.

favorite repeated typos of today:

RPF for RFP
partners hips for partnerships

***

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Big Bang Theory

( spoilers )

***

Castle

I don't think I like Beckett's hair. It's too...helmety. Or something.

( spoilers )

*happy sigh*

Castle is my happy place.

Now I need to sleep because I have to be in early tomorrow for meetings. Ugh.

***

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My boss will be back in the office today after being away for two and a half weeks. I like my boss, and I think she likes me, so this isn't really a problem, except that OMG BOARD STUFF has to get done and we have committee meetings tomorrow, which are really under control but about which I tend to panic anyway.

I had another night of waking up at 4 am and thinking about how crappy everything is, but then I realized that I have it pretty good really, and that my crap is not world-ending crap on either a personal or macro level. As fleurdeleo used to say, back when she was my boss, it ain't making o-rings for rockets.

And then I thought, that could be a fun poll.

( it ain't making o-rings for rockets )

***

I did post a story yesterday. *g*

your ears tuned to the roar
Supernatural; Jo, Ellen; pg; spoilers through 5.10; 1,510 words
In which Jo grows up.

( oblique spoilers for 5.10 ) Anyway, I like how it turned out. Thanks to the people who've commented. I really appreciate it, and will get to answering comments probably either over the holiday weekend or after the craziness at work is over.

***

your ears tuned to the roar
Supernatural; Jo, Ellen; pg; spoilers through 5.10; 1,510 words
In which Jo grows up.

Thanks to angelgazing for handholding and title-wrangling.

( your ears tuned to the roar )

~*~

Feedback is adored.

~*~

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Sigh. My cake didn't rise, and worse, it tastes like failure.

*crosses that recipe off the list*

On the upside, there was reviewing of yuletide source. Now I just have to figure out what I'm writing.

***

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Okay, this is the plan for hiatus:

1. yuletide
2. Broken Toys
3. the 5.10 story I'm working on right now (I keep having to stop because it's making me cry! That never happens to me when I write!)
4. The Dean-Michael dream story
5. Drought Conditions (casefile)
6. Nothing but Winter in my Cup (casefile)
7. the Dean/Sam/Pam story

That's quite a lot, considering November and December are usually the time of my fannish malaise.

This song is not helping with the crying, iTunes!

Now, though, I think I am going to bake a cake.

***

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Oy, this day. Or, well, yesterday, at this point. The less said, the better. And did I mention I got my period this morning? oy.

I left work late - I think I was the only person left in the office - and all I wanted was to come home and watch this week's Friday Night Lights. But the file I dl'd wouldn't play on WMP or QT or even VLC. I updated DivX and it wouldn't play on that either. So I deleted it, rebooted, and redownloaded, and it worked.

I thought I might actually get through the episode without crying. I don't know why I thought that. I don't think it's ever happened, and it certainly did not happen tonight.

Friday Night Lights: A Sort of Homecoming

( spoilers )

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Okay, I just asked this in meret's comments, but ( spoilers for SPN s5 that's aired so far )

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*yawn*

Man, I totally need to sleep.

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So let's say you have to put together a packet of materials to be mailed out next Wednesday before everybody leaves for the Thanksgiving holiday. You probably won't have a finalized agenda, in which all attachments are enumerated in their proper order, until Wednesday morning, but you need to make fifty (50) copies of everything (which then needs to be collated and stuffed into folders and then into envelopes, or, in this case, Fed Ex mailers).

Do you make copies of the attachments with the tentative attachment numbers, and then, if things change, just stick labels with the correct attachment number on each copy? Or do you wait until the order is finalized and then make copies with the correct number?

Let's have a poll!

Poll #1488056 fml
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 63

vic should

it's never

I feel like there may be some stress baking this weekend. Sigh. I must remember to stop off and buy supplies.

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Supernatural: Abandon All Hope

Okay, so I tried to do a rant section and a non-rant section of this post, but the ranty stuff kept intruding. So while I really liked many aspects of this episode, the rage kept intruding. Just so you know.

( spoilers )

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So I watched the Space promo for tonight's SPN.

( spoilers for the promo, speculation for the episode )

On a similar, but not quite the same note, faye_dartmouth has an interesting post about the issues she has with the show in s4 and s5, and while I don't agree with a lot of it (I am more optimistic about how the end game will play out, at least in terms of Sam and Dean and their relationship), I think her point about the apocalypse is sound.

The thing is, they used to connect with the people they saved - they used to save people because people needed saving, and they used to get some satisfaction out of it. At least Dean did, and I think Sam was getting there.

Stopping the apocalypse means, yes, saving 6 billion people, but it also tends to make them 6 billion faceless, unknowable people. I said this way back in season 2, but this kind of arc always draws things inward and narrows the world when it should expand it out - instead of concentrating on saving people! hunting things! Sam and Dean are themselves hunted and in need of saving, and the lack of connection with the people they are saving hurts the show as much as the fact that they can't really go all out and give us a real apocalypse. Last week's episode was a nod towards earlier seasons, when they did connect with the people they saved, but now they spend too much time being backed into corners and having to save themselves, and it's just less compelling to me that way (the same thing happened in the later seasons of BtVS and Angel, so it's not like I wasn't expecting it).

( casting spoilers for tonight's episode )

Meh. I am PMSing and cranky. Hopefully tonight's episode won't give me more reason to be.

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Criminal Minds

( spoilers )

Glee

*facepalm*

Could we have one woman on the show who isn't crazy, scheming, manipulative, or simply around to serve the men's storylines?

Also, ( spoilers )

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Work = busy and will be from now until 12/1, when we have our board meeting. I just wish they'd stop springing surprise!committee meetings on me at the last minute. The time to tell me you need a committee meeting is two months ago, when I was scheduling all the other committee meetings. Not yesterday afternoon. Oy.

So my writing brain is pretty fried and probably will be until after 12/1. At least yuletide source has been acquired, and will probably be reviewed numerous times.

Tonight, I left work right at 5 pm (usually I saunter out at about 5:15) so I could get home and change because I was meeting fleurdeleo for a super sekrit sneak preview of "Nine". Except that apparently, the super sekrit sneak preview of "Nine" was last Tuesday night, and she'd confused the dates. So we went to the diner for dinner and chit chat.

Since I was home by 8, I stopped off at Associated and bought some dried cranberries and slivered almonds and an orange so I could make innie_darling's orange-cranberry-almond loaf, and it smells absolutely fantastic. Tastes good too, although my oven apparently runs hot and I probably shouldn't have cooked it the full 55 minutes, because the edges are overdone. Ah, me. I should have learned from the banana bread. But otherwise it is very tasty.

So writing might not be happening, but at least there is baking?

In TV news, I watched The Good Wife and ( spoilers )

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There's something adorably failtastic about Peyton Manning and Alyson Hannigan in those MasterCard commercials.

*hides from amberlynne*

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