Spinning on that dizzy edge

Today is going so slow, and honestly, I am fine with that. I am catching up on my email and infinity tabs (when so many links are open they spill off the top of the browser).

So have some interesting flotsam!

JK Rowlings is writing Quidditch World Cup updates on Pottermore? Man, I am out of the loop.

Colorado, hotbed of healthy economic and civic progress, all thanks to pot. Can we pleeeease legalize weed already? This is getting embarrassing.

The A.V. Club is doing a Farscape watch. They're up to halfway through season 3. Me, I can never get enough of people gushing on how amazing My Show is.

See Every Major Marvel Character’s Hometown In One Map. Marvel + maps? YES PLEASE.

There are several aspects of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" that I actually enjoy, like the thumping base line and the funky beat. His performance and lyrics, though, leave me wanting to bathe in hand sanitizer. Thanks to a link by cereta, I now have not one but two delightful options done by women! BRB, watching those again.

What are you all up to today?

kass asked me five questions. The questions and my answers are below the cut.

If you want me to ask you five questions, leave a comment and I will do so. Then you get to post your answers in your journal along with this same explanation.

Onward! Warning: this got wordy. Really wordy.

( 1) What crafty project are you proudest of? )

( 2) What fandom is making you happiest right now, and what is it about the fandom / characters / whatever that speaks to you? )


( 3) What have you learned about life, the universe, and everything through becoming a mom? )

( 4) If you could go anywhere in the world for a week, all expenses paid, where would you go and what would you do there? )


( 5) If you were hosting a dream dinner party (or coffee klatsch or roleplaying gathering or whatever) and could invite any five people from any fictional sources, who would you invite to join you at your table? )

Thank you for the questions, kass! Sorry if I TL;DRed the heck out of it.

...Except maybe my stomach in a few hours. ;)

Today is goodie day in my department, where everyone brings in something yummy to eat or drink, and we snack our way through the day. There are currently at least four kinds of cream-cheese based dips with crackers available, among other tasty treats. I think I'm close to the lead for healthiest offering with my broccoli salad with sunflower seeds and bacon, though the bacon and coleslaw dressing may knock it down a few pegs.

We are celebrating payday, the holiday next week, and the 2.6% bonus payout for almost meeting our sales goals this past fiscal year. This might be the last time we get one; I love the digital age, but it's leaving our printing company in the dust. It doesn't help that the marketing department for the parent company has no idea what to do with us. We've been a small but dependable source of profit for so long that now that our sales are slipping and our outmoded hardware and software are showing their age, people are starting to worry.

I am fighting to finish this razzer-frazzer project, and it is driving me batty. It's code initially written by several other people almost a decade ago, as they were just learning this development environment, and the last update was 2007. Trying to make seamless changes is nearly impossible; an improvement here breaks something else there. My user contact has been very patient, as she can see how much things will be improved when it's done. However, getting there is taking forever.

Meanwhile, as it's Friday, and there's food and distractions like the Avengers kissing fest going on over at such_heights, I am finding it hard to care about work.

How are you all doing?

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!

My brain continues to be fixated mostly on Avengers. It's kinda crazy. I made a vid FOR NO REASON (no cons, no vid exchanges), other than I wanted to. (Anybody wanna beta my Avengers vid? cee_m, I'm hoping you'll still have time this weekend.) I've got the beginnings of a kink_bingo story brewing, in which Steve Rogers wants to get a tattoo. (Which I hope I can churn out in a week, because I don't want to default and miss a year of kink_bingo.)

However, Stargate has been popping up lately, like an ex that's become an occasional friend-with-benefits. For instance...I was curious about the next Stargate con and read today that Rachel Luttrell is bowing out of the Chicago Creation con, on account of being pregnant. Sad for fans, happy for her. But they booked Kate Hewlett to fill her spot, which is pretty freaking awesome.

My husband's brother, who is living with us, has raced through most of our TV-on-DVD sets and is now on SG-1. Having just finished season 6 and beginning season 7, confronted with Daniel Jackson's naked re-entrance, the BiL's quip was "Shanks but no Shanks."

Then to top off the weirdness, I tuned into the radio today just in time for a call-in interview with Michael Shanks himself, who is stumping for his new show "Saving Hope". The radio hosts weren't total idiots, and Shanks was his usual charming self. He said that being a ghostly surgeon is using different acting muscles than sci fi, so it's been an unusual stretch for him. He also mentioned bonding with Bruce Campbell during his "Burn Notice" stint, as he's exactly as personable, "have a beer with" kind of guy as he seems, and on the both of them doing bad movies.

In completely other news...I have never been a girly-girl type who coos over shoes. However, I think I've been channeling too much fanon Pepper Potts, because I suddenly want this pair of Mary Jane Louboutin pumps. "But they're on sale!" Really, brain?

Ever since seeing "The Avengers" (twice!) during opening weekend, my brain has been All Avengers, All the Time. Half my open tabs are Avengers-related.

Like, the latest Avengers party note on ONTD. Many, many hours were lost today to refreshing and saving off a crapton of GIFs. (It makes my heart twinge nostalgically for the crazy days of ONTD Star Trek, which was the last movie I fell this hard far. *sniff*)

There's this great analysis of screen time per Avengers character. How rocking is it that Black Widow is a close third behind the near-tie of Captain America and Iron Man?

Speaking of Black Widow, I must shamefully confess that I have never been up on Avengers canon (I was mainly an X-Men fan, and that was years ago), so with everyone dropping oblique references to the Red Room and Winter Soldier, I really appreciated this brief history on the subject.

Avengers icons, anyone? Lovely pieces there, but my stubborn "My way!" impulse means I'll probably wind up trolling through my *mumblety-hundred* MB of Avengers images and make some myself. Does that happen to anyone else?

I'm following multiple Avengers WIPs, guys. I never do WIPs. Except now. *sigh*

At least it keeps me distracted from the TV shows I killed off with my curse this year - Chuck (in denial - still haven't watched the finale), The Secret Circle, and Ringers. None of them were heartbreaking, but I did want to know what would happen next.

How about you all? Hooked by Avengers yet? Shipping anyone? Excited or crushed by the fates of your favorite TV shows? Inquiring minds want to know!