This is a master list for the links for Seven Years in the Desert, so you can visit this post and go to all the chapters, which are currently spread between my website and LJ.

( Seven Years in the Desert Master List )

Because it really is easier to find when you have everything in one place...

( Doctor/Rose )

( Ten on His Own )

( Ten and Martha )

( Ten and Donna )

( 10.5/Rose )

I posted this last week and didn't make a general announcement, so here we are.

Title: Crossing Boundaries
Author: spikewriter
Fandom: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Characters/Pairings: Barbara Havers, Thomas Lynley, Charlie Denton, Barbara Havers/Thomas Lynley
Rating: G
Words:1,679
Summary: "He’d smashed her prejudices one by one, and even now, as she plunged back into the rain and headed for Victoria Street in search of a taxi, he smashed another without even being present." Post-"series", some two years after ( spoilers )
Disclaimer: Copyrights belong to the BBC and Elizabeth George and no infringement is intended
Author Note: Thanks to roseandheather for the inspiration with her lovely Lynley/Havers fics.

Please note that this is very much grounded in the TV series, not the Elizabeth George novels.

Live Journal | Dreamwidth | AO3


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NBC renews Community for 13 episodes for 2012 Fall season.

And Castle has been renewed by ABC, so we'll get to see the aftermath of the series finale.

(And, in other news, yes, I am alive. Life's just been...interesting lately.)

Life has been crazy -- I need a good laugh.



And, oh yeah, my votes can be bought.


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I've been promising this for a while, and things have calmed down enough this evening that I'm actually going to get a chance to do this.

Skeins of yarn purchased in 2012 so far: 10 Yeah, need to slow down just a little. But they are definitely pretty.

( Oooh, pretty... )

Yeah, it's a lot of yarn. Considering I'm just over 100 yarns in my stash, I'm not worried that I'm about to burst the seams of the house. But this represents a nice chunk of change, more than I'd originally planned. Except for my yarn clubs, I think I have to be on a bit of a yarn diet for a few months.


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I just realized I have four -- count 'em, four -- different orders with yarn companies totaling six skeins of yarn in various states of fulfillment. Three of them are with new to me dyers. This makes a dozen skeins that I've ordered so far this year.

I think I need to knit faster.


This entry was originally posted at http://spikewriter.dreamwidth.org/811438.html. You may comment here or there using OpenID.

messages on the machine.

In January, I sent off an email about SOPA/PIPA to my two senators and my congressman. Of the three only one -- Dianne Feinstein -- decided to respond. The letter was, not surprisingly a form letter fill with a bunch of "there, there, it's not so bad" pablum. Also not surprising as Feinstein receives considerable contributions from the media conglomerates. It used the terms "piracy" and "infringement" interchangeably and contained the phrase "The bill does not violate First Amendment rights to free speech because copyright piracy is not speech."

The husband was a bit amused as he watched smoke come out of my ears, especially with the line about First Amendment rights and the fact she seems to use "piracy" and "infringement" somewhat interchangeably. To add insult to injury, at the bottom of the email I was invited to check out her YouTube page. In fact, I was so annoyed that I wrote back the same day. Below is my response, with the passages from Feinstein's original email in italics. It is, by the way, pretty much all of the text except her closing that thanked me for sharing my views, call her office if I additional questions or concerns (the line was always busy or not answered) and wishing me a happy 2012. The last bit is from the footer at the bottom of the email with links to subscribe to her newsletter, to visit her website or YouTube page.

Think about this. She has a YouTube page. She has a page on a website that the folks supporting this bill would love to take down -- except for the stuff they want us to see.

( My Response with  )

This morning, I found a response to this in my email. Guess what? It's another form letter -- though there have been some changes.

( The New Form Letter )

A friend pointed out this link for me -- the blog Progress City, U.S.A has found the 1975 BBC Disney Time with Tom Baker as the Doctor.

No, seriously. Disney Time was apparently a clip show that featured bits from the Disney Vault with linking bits. For the Christmas 1975 version, Tom Baker shows up, complete with TARDIS, and the Doctor provides the links. It's hardly great television (and Baker is pretty much phoning in the performance), but there is a classic bit when The Hand That Supported Sutek* makes a cameo to deliver the Doctor a note. This was straight promo for Disney, especially since the last clip mentioned is for "Escape from Witch Mountain," which was Disney's current live-action release at the time and was likely just hitting theatres in Britain. At the end, the Doctor notes that he'll see us again soon -- next Saturday, in fact, so it's likely he's referring to the first episode of "The Brain of Morbius" which aired January 3, 1976, exactly 33 years before Matt Smith was announced as the Doctor.

When I was a kid, I remember the networks running preview programs for their fall line-ups, especially their Saturday cartoons, where the links were provided by actors from a popular show (or a show the network was pushing), often in character. The Subway bit from Hawaii 5-0 seems to herald a return to that. This is not necessarily a good thing.

*In Pyramid of Mars, there is a moment when Sutek, freed from the force that held him in place, rises to confront the Doctor -- and you see the hand that was steadying him in the chair hurriedly retreating. If you haven't seen the story, I highly recommend it.


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I can't remember how I stumbled across Dork Tower, except that I did several years ago. It's a couple of times a week web comic dealing with a group of gamers (one of whom is a muskrat for some reason), who bear a striking resemblance to, well, a number of gamers I know. Some are seriously caught up in the gaming/fannish thing to the exclusion of everything else, while others are out in the real world. Cute, silly and, well, fun.

Naturally, being games, television and movie fandom creeps in there as well, from time to time. On today's dorktowerfeed, Igor is explaining to Ken how he thinks Doctor Who, Sherlock and Downton Abbey should have a crossover.

I'm almost certain I've read that fic..


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My non-fannish websites went black and I did my duty by writing my two senators and my congressman, and calling their offices. Well, tried calling their offices. The switchboards were busy every time I called. And, actually, I wrote last week -- and only one of them has responded.

I ended up spitting nails by the time I finished reading. The words "infringement" and "piracy" were used interchangeably, she swears there is no First Amendment probably because "copyright piracy isn't speech" -- and she mentioned SOPA in a favorable manner. Oh, but the joy was when, at the bottom, I was cheerfully invited to "Feel free to checkout my YouTube Page."

Head, meet desk. This is a good reason to be opposed to these bills; the people who are voting on this don't understand what they're doing.


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Bob Anderson, who created so many classic sword fights in films from Master of Ballantrae in 1953 to Jackson's Lord of the Rings, has passed on. The Guardian celebrate his work with selected clips, which is, by necessity very abbreviated.

Looking at his IMDB entry, it's an amazing resume. He even appeared in an episode of Doctor Who as a "fighting guard" in Episode 4 of the Patrick Troughton Story "Enemy of the World". Sadly, all episodes except Episode 3 were wiped by the BBC.


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As the clock ticks down here, I have to admit I'm rather glad to see the back of 2011. It was not an easy year for me or for many I know.

So here's to 2012, which is currently a blank slate. May be it be good for all of us.


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So a while back, I grabbed some Felici self-striping yarn from Knit Picks which I couldn't resist because of the name: Time Traveler. This weekend, I decided to cast on. Remind you of anything?

( I'm a Time Lord, Sarah. I walk in eternity. )


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Art Prompt Title: Untitled
Art link: Art Masterlist
Prompt Number: 14
Artist: redcirce

Fic Title: Tyler and Jones
Author: spikewriter
Fandom/Genre: Doctor Who, Gen
Pairing(s): Rose, Martha (Pete's World)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,939
Warnings: None
Written for who_reversebang
Summary: It's another day, another shift for Martha Jones — or so she thinks. She doesn't take into account that some things are not what they seem.

Author's Note: This story went slightly sideways from my original intent, for which I must apologize to my artist. The piece has served as an inspiration, though, and there's more lurking here than I originally intended and the possibility of more to come. Part of the "Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth and her faithful companion, the Doctor (Oi!)" series.




( Will you look at that? It's Rose Tyler. )


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Yes, another post bitching and moaning about the new style on LJ. I've changed my settings so everything is now read in my style, which means I won't have to look at the "new" comment page.

However...

I use a Firefox add-on that lets me expand LJ-cuts on my reading page so I don't necessarily have to go to a new page to see the material. Dreamwidth does this as well, but as part of their site scheme, so you don't need an add-on. This morning, any cuts I expand where the user's journal uses the new site scheme, after the tag entry at the bottom I get "Loading... Error" followed by a half-loaded comment entry form in the new style including a listing of all my icons with little slices of pics next to them.

This is what's known in testing as "a bug." Something in the new system is causing the comments page to try to load when you expand a cut. Since I haven't had any updates on my LJ add-on for Firefox, I would say there's something funky in LJ's code.

Also, the keyword search box for icon keywords (so you don't have to, you know, scroll through 200 icons?) is case-sensitive. That's right. I searched for "ornament" and got nothing. Type an uppercase "O" -- icon pops right up. Do they saythe search is case sensitive? No.

Back to cramming in some fic writing before work.


This entry was originally posted at http://spikewriter.dreamwidth.org/805914.html. You may comment here or there using OpenID.

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The fail first: my particular layout wasn't affected by LJ's new -- and off-putting -- changes. However, the moment I go to comment on someone's LJ who isn't outside that small circle? Gah. Selecting an icon is ridiculous and the several of the comment navigation links have disappeared.

I won't go on about "the good old days" on LJ because there's always been problems, but they must have known the users wouldn't like this one because they certainly didn't publicize it. They really didn't publicize that one has to scroll through all your icons when making a comment in the new form -- and they're not alphabetized.

By the way, Dreamwidth is allowing account creation without codes for the rest of the year.

***

The trailer for The Hobbit was released last night. :: am happy :: The husband and I have now marked December 14th for our anniversary celebration next year.



Yes, Jackson's definitely making changes, but he's also presenting this to an audience that has seen LOTR first, and many of whom will not have read The Hobbit before they see this. I think he's trying to tie the two closer together.

Piece of trivia -- according to the Director/Writer commentary on the expanded edition, the Narzgul scream is done by Fran Walsh (and then treated, of course). When Jackson shares this, Philippa Boyens comments, "Peter had just told her he'd bought the rights to The Simarillion." Laughter follows.

***

The Sanguine Gryphon is closing it's doors next week as they split into two companies. Naturally, this means folks are buying like crazy. I snagged some Mithril Lace in a color called "Shanghai Express"

( Oooh, pretty )

I'm planning on using it for a pattern called The Mere, inspired by the Dead Marshes from "The Two Towers". The husband looked at the colors and now calls it "Dead Elf." ::rolls eyes::


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Got up this morning and again, no LJ. The status page still has the notice about the DDoS, so that's likely what this is.

Then I went digging on Google. Turns out the Duma elections are Sunday, December 4. I would imagine this is probably an effort to strangle the network so views that aren't...friendly to the government don't get out. Which means, we'll likely see this continue for the rest of the week.

By the way, Facebook is apparently trying to make inroads into the Russian market to knock LJ/SUP out of the lead as the dominant platform. Yeah, because what that country needs is a system that mines your data and has more security holes than a cheese grater. (No, I don't like Facebook; why do you ask?)

Just FYI...


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After Elton has very kindly printed the lyrics for the Ballad of Russell and Julie. Yes, I'm still loving this vid, but there's been one or two spot where I couldn't quite grab the words. I don't vouch for their credit of Jennie Fava as author, though I'm fairly certain she had something to do with it.

( The Ballad of Russell and Julie )

And, if anyone is interested in the original Victoria Woods piece that served as the inspiration of this, you can find it here


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CNN reports one of Bram Stoker's writing journals has been uncovered.

Nothing earth-shattering there, but the book had apparently just been sitting on the shelf in Stoker's great-grandson's home. It wasn't until a researcher asked about it that it was actually opened. Gotta love finds like that.

The journal contains not only notes for what would become Dracula, but for the children's stories Stoker wrote as well. An annotated version is going to be published in April 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of Stoker's death.


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