Spinning on that dizzy edge

I made two vids for Festivids!

Creator (Eureka, Jo Lupo)

What's Your Naked (What's Your Number, Ally/Colin)

They were both really well received, especially by the intended recipients, so I'm happy about that. gwyn guessed correctly that I had made the WYN vid for her, so I owe her a prize. You want icons with that? ;)

I still want to go back and respond to all the comments, which sets up a weird pressure in my head to find umpteen different ways of saying "thank you". Oh, fangirl problems...

I finally got a new laptop to replace my current workhouse with the broken hinge. The new one has Windows 8.1, UGH. I forget each time how much I hate setting up machines to have all the correct bells and whistles, and deleting all the unwanted crap. (McAfee can go suck it with their horrible protection and whiny "don't remove meeeeeee!" warnings.) Having this new awful OS on top of that just feels me with dread. Once I'm done, though, it will be zippy fast, and I can gift the Emperor with my old one (set up in the basement with a monitor, so he won't destroy it with the wonky hinge).

January blurred into February, and now February is almost done, too. As much as I love snow, I'm good now, so spring can arrive any time. Plus, March means my birthday and a visit to kass! Note to self: start planning media to bring for the trip for potential recruitment.

Speaking of new fandoms, I have fallen hard for "Arrow". I blazed through most of seasons 1 and 2 last weekend. I knew it was full of fabulous ladies, but no one told me just HOW full it was! Ladies everywhere! Duplicitous DAs and CIAs and CEOs, a whole rainbow of HBsIC. I was spoiled for a lot of it, thanks to Tumblr GIFs and such, but I'm still enjoying small unforeseen twists. However, I am getting tired of the Identity Angst and SECRETS EVERYWHERE. Hasn't that shit bitten them in the ass enough already?

Speaking of fabulous ladies, "Agent Carter" has ended, alas; I'm trying to manage my expectations so I won't be utterly crushed if it doesn't get renewed. We had a sublime run of it, and the DVDs can't come soon enough. I'm really hoping that "Agents of SHIELD" can build on some of that energy and keep me excited for Marvel on TV.

In other news, "Glee"'s final season is filling me with complicated (and CAPSLOCKy) feelings. What a long, strange trip it's been.

What all are you watching?

Title: What's Your Naked
Fandom: What's Your Number
Music: "I like you so much better when you're naked", by Ida Maria
Vid Download Links: 2:56, 49 MB here at Sendspace (updated link 5/30/2015)

Watch here or at the AO3 link!

Summary: "What's Your Number" and Chris Evans - I like this movie so much better when he's naked.

Notes: This is a treat for gwyn, for Festivids 2014. Her request was for a vid showcasing Ally and Colin falling in love, with as much naked Chris Evans as possible. I think this fits the bill. :)

A big thank you goes out to talitha78 for taking an initial look at this and giving it her enthusiastic approval, and to everyone who left fantastic comments on the original Dreamwidth and Livejournal Festivids posts!

( Vid here! )

( Lyrics )

norah has revived cesperanza's month of posting challenge, so here I go!

Life is kinda busy sucking right now - jobs are being stressful for me and the husband, the Emperor's school year has gotten off to a rough start - but I've complained enough to the captive audience here at home, I don't want to bore anybody else.

Have some lists!

TV series I want to start/finish up/mainline:
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Lost Girl
Fringe
Sleepy Hollow
The Middleman

...Heh, I do seem to have an interest in shows with a strong female lead.

Shows that are malingering on my DVR:
Defiance
Face Off
The Big Bang Theory
White Collar
Warehouse 13

The last three are not quite my fault; those are the series I'm watching with my husband, but we can never seem to synch up our time/interest to sit down together and power through them.

Fandoms I'm reading:
Teen Wolf (because Sterek is my cuddly comfort zone right now)
MCU (with strong Steve/Bucky leanings, but still loving most of the pairings and gen and teamy goodness)
Arrow (I don't even watch the show! But Felicity is totally my kind of catnip character - sassy, awkward, quirky tech nerd.)
Veronica Mars (Such great post-movie and AU fic to wallow in!)
Plus the occasional Welcome to Night Vale and other random things that pop on rec lists.


And now for the interactive portion: what are you reading and/or watching? If you don't feel like sharing, give me a number between 2 and 275, and I'll burble at you about my ever-expanding vid idea list.

Title: Fembots
Fandom: Multifandom (68 sources!)
Music: "Fembot" by Robyn
Vid Download Links: 3:12, 61 MB here at Sendspace

Watch here or at the AO3 link.

Summary: The intersection of women and technology on a spectrum of clones, gynoids, AIs, cyborgs, and other artificial creations.

Premiered at Club Vivid, 2014.

( Notes here! )

( Vid here! )

( Lyrics )

I thought I was out of the running to get my Club Vivid entry in, but with the extended deadline my procrastinating ways (and the PTO I'm using-not-losing) may yet wind up with a result. I've got 50 reasonable seconds of a 3 minute song down on the timeline. I wish I could keep going tonight, but I do have to be up to drive the Emperor to school.

Anyone willing to chime in with a morale boost, or even an early beta?

Title: The Moment of Truth
Fandom: The Last Starfighter
Music: "The Moment of Truth", by Survivor
Vid Download Links: 2:56, 37 MB here at Sendspace

Watch here or at AO3 link!

Summary: "Teriffic. I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax. " Alex Rogan, a teenaged boy determined to escape the limits of his trailer park life, finds his destiny in a faraway galaxy as the Last Starfighter.

Notes: This is a treat for fan_eunice, for Festivids 2013. Her request was for a vid celebrating the cheesy 80's sci-fi goodness that is "The Last Starfigher", dedicated to her and her mom. This movie was also a highlight of my childhood; I lost track of how many times I watched it on cable. I've loved her vids so much that I wanted to pay her back just a little bit of joy. As a fellow child of the 80s, I was inspired to use an anthemic track from the Karate Kid soundtrack. If the whole thing feels over the top, well...that's the 80s, man. :)

A big thank you goes out to everyone who left fantastic comments on the original Dreamwidth and Livejournal Festivids posts!

( Vid here!: )

( Lyrics )

UGH, my brain. I have been looking forward to Festivids for so long, but now that it's here, I am awash in ugly, brain-weasellish emotions.

I did a gift vid and a treat, and both of them garnered lovely comments from their recipients. But both vids had other entries in the same fandoms, which so far have garnered higher quality and quantity of comments. I don't even know if mine will wind up with as many comments as my previous Festivids entries have gotten.

I HATE this about myself, the obsessive checking and counting and measuring up against others. I go and rewatch my vids, and I don't think they suck that bad, but they aren't impressing other people, so am I totally deluded? How am I ever going to get better if I can't distinguish what's problematic in the first place?

I keep telling myself that I'm still a beginner, and I have to put in the work in, and I should be making these for myself first anyway and any other positive feedback I get is a bonus...and nope. Instead I'm finding myself sulking and upset, and completely in the wrong frame of mind to watch the bounty of vids.

Goddamn brain weasels.

Title: Who's That Girl
Fandom: Some Kind of Wonderful
Music: "Who's That Girl", by Robyn
Vid Download Links: 38 MB here at Sendspace.


Summary: "I think it's hip you paint. I think it's hip I drum...It's perfect that we're friends." The story of a teen tomboy in love with her oblivious best guy friend.

Notes: This is for amnisias/amnisias, for Festivids 2012. The request was for a vid focusing on Watts. I really hope you like it! I got swamped with sickness, holiday shenanigans, and various other time sucks, but I love this movie and Watts, and *fingers crossed* that that sentiment comes through.

( So many feels for this movie and vid )

Vid below the cut:

( Read more... )

( Lyrics )

I am on day one of my first out-of-state business trip. Today started at 3:45 AM, in order to accommodate all the travel involved in getting here by 9 AM. I'm more loopy than tired, but this fully belly from dinner is definitely tipping me towards coma-land.

Even more decadent than the tuxedo chocolate mousse cake I got for desserty take-out is having this hotel room all to myself. The past several times I've stayed in hotels, I've shared a room with two to three other fangirls. I get to spread my crap all over the bathroom counter, put my computer on the desk, and toss my stuff on the other bed. Bliss! Of course, the company is paying for this, so I can't exactly get used to it. But I'm earning it back in intense brain use this week. Web unit testing, get in my head!

I am truly gobsmacked by the enthusiastic response to my Avengers story, especially at the AO3 link. In the 24 hours after first posting it, it got double the hits and kudos of my Losers story, which has been posted since January. It definitely motivates me to post the rest of my work there - the steady stream of kudos has been addictive! I am trying not to get obsessive about the hits to kudos ratio, and choosing to believe that every hit read all the way to the end and didn't back-button out.

Once I'm home again, I'm going to make a few small tweaks to my Avengers vid and get that posted, too. It's such dizzy fun to be back participating in a huge, ongoing fandom again!

I would usually celebrate by taking the day off work, but I'm already burning through my vacation days with the Vancouver trip. Instead, I bought my general admission and Dog's Breakfast tickets for the con, plus I finally got the confirmation letter that they received my vid entry. \o/ There's still the niggling detail, though, where I'll be staying. Anyone have space for me in their hotel room? Please?

In other linky news:

sabaceanbabe posted a delightful, sensual, and porny Veronica Mars fic for me, because she is awesome both at remembering and basically as a person. *GRIN* It's definitely tipping me towards working on a VM vid for Club Vivid.

I can't tell if the creators of this Can I Get a Hell Yeah! T-shirt are Farscape fans, or if it's just that common a saying. I'd totally get it, if I thought the Emperor would refrain from yelling that every time I wore it.

Cate Blanchett is beautiful, full-stop. But it's so refreshing to see a gorgeous woman who has bags under her eyes. We age and we get tired. No amount of expensive creams and lotions are going to fix that. (Note to self: you should still get more sleep.)

The Scale of the Universe 2 is a nifty toy to zoom in and out of. Start at the smallest point of the scale and pretend you're on a massive Katamari roll!

I am having a mellow birthday; it's been really nice. I've gotten a bunch of greetings on Facebook, been useful several times at work, the Emperor called me from school on his teacher's phone to let me know he had an awesome day, and I may even indulge in some greasy carry-out for dinner. But really, I'm pushing forward to the end of the day tomorrow, when I'll be past my annual review (*fingers crossed* for a raise) and some other news.

Have a great Wednesday, all!