Sheol by bellatemple
Great Sam & Dean voices. Loved the author's ideas and her Dean POV.

You know that feeling of jumping online after a really good episode, hoping some cool fic was posted, only to quickly leave AO3 when you find one too many diaper kink and scat fics posted in the latest page?

*sigh*

BTW, I'm still trying to deal with the stuff with the dog dicks, and by dealing I mean learning how not to read summaries once I see certain tags.

See, this is what happens when you're not into the major pairing of the moment in SPN. I bet a lot of those Dean/Castiel fics have a greater percentage of human cocks and somewhat less poop.

I've been told by a masseuse that I might be suffering from a dislocated rib, which has been caused/aggravated by doing crunches. This means going to a chiropractor, which, eeeek, I hate. I've gone to one before, 3-4 sessions, enough to realize that being cracked and pulled is not something I can stand very easily. But now I'm motivated by weird aches and pains, so off to see a chiro and hope I can find one I can trust. Last guy I saw was a bit creepy and smiled too much.

As fr TVeeee, I'm almost caught up on my watching. I can do a couple of hours sometimes, but usually after an hour terribly antsy in a way my younger self would find odd. But yes, I'm now caught up on Fringe, Supernatural and (new good show, yay) Homeland. Is Dexter getting any better after episode 1? Season premiere felt so *meh* I kind of forgot about it.

So, Heaven. I've now had 3 people tell me it's fun, so I'm going to hunt it down. Right now I have no idea what network airs it or what's its basic premise.

I've moved over to Pinboard for tagging fic, but I miss the old Delicious terribly. It had been my main resource for finding new fic to read. I hope that eventually I can use it to find fics that have been tagged several times, once I have to move outside the people I follow in my network when I'm looking for new stories.

http://ask-soulless-cas.tumblr.com/

Via lithiumdoll 

Ah Tumblr, so many unexpected giggles.

Sat down with the proper amount of energy for last night's Supernatural. What a difference it made from trying to see it when I obviously was not in the right mood.

Episode 19 already! This has been such a weird season, and now ( spoilers )

I'm getting a great deal of pleasure out of hearing Christopher Hitchens reading his memoir "Hitch-22", which serves as a consolation over the latest episode of Supernatural (which I had to stop watching 15 minutes in, partly because I was too tired from other tv watching, partly because of the bad jokes) and what seems a sharp turn for the soap opera-ish in the third season of Fringe. I'm still behind a handful of episodes, so I haven't ventured into any season 3 discussions to find out if other people have been as deflated by the writing, or if this is more of a personal thing. Right now Fringe is the one tv series that both me and Mr. L both enjoy (have enjoyed) and we're dismayed at the second half of this season.

I told Mr. L about my enjoyment of "Hitch-22" and he was intrigued enough that he might give it a listen as well. I knew very little of Christopher Hitchens before, beyond the basic atheist banner he waves around and that he wrote extensively in support of the Iraq invasion, which makes my head hurt. Oh, and his reputation as a big boozer, but that's more from a couple of older friends who are familiar with his writing. I don't believe I'd ever heard his name before 2001. I was expecting some family background and some gossipy tales of boozing it up with big name writers, all done in a very entertaining style. I'm getting all of that, but I didn't expect the very compelling story of his mother, his extreme left wing politics in the 60s and his recollections of a great (but mostly chaste) romance he had with another boy during his boarding school days. I'm still in the memoir somewhere around 1974, so I couldn't explain to Mr. L how Hitchens managed to become someone who is viewed as conservative. I saw Hitchens labeled as a neocon when he debated Chris Hedges, but he doesn't sound like a neocon to me, at least not yet. Very interested to hear the rest.

I'm so completely onboard with this season! A little bit more Castiel would be awesome, but I'm pretty happy with the scenes we've gotten so far. I'm not sure if the big bad for the season has been really revealed yet, but I'm interested.

SPN got damn lucky in casting Mark Sheppard, he is so much fun as Crowley. I'm afraid to go and look to see how long the character is hanging around. Hopefully for the whole season.

About 6.08 "All dogs go to heaven", liked it quite a lot, although it had a level of uncomfortable creepiness with the female character in that usual SPN way. I keep telling myself "horror cliche, chill", but yeah :/

We had continuity and reveals again, little payoffs. I think that is one of the reasons that I stayed with SPN in S1, when it became clear the search for John was not going to turn into a search for Samantha X-Files kind of deal. Same thing with Lost, I drifted off when it became obvious no real answers were ever going to be given.

A few answers and payoffs, and not even mid-season! Yay!

Tonight's SPN episode! Now *that* is the reason I love this show. Also, they do seem to being going somewhere with all the WTF character moments from the first two episodes. Crossing my fingers!

And now, off to download, because I missed th e first 5 minutes, which yes, I understand were quite rewarding :)

I got a bit more with the program for the season here. It's taking some trust that they're really going somewhere with the hints they're throwing into the writing. Please let there be some kind of payoff.

( Also... )

The previews made me happy, but I don't want to get too excited.

Because I am both a masochist and a glutton, in September I found myself reading Freedom and The Corrections at the same time. It didn't take me long before I realized I wanted to hurt the characters in both novels with a sharp, rusty, poky object of some kind. In a weird John Sheppard fit I picked up War and Peace, which I can say I've made a bit more progress on that I think John ever did. It helps not loathing the characters and finding Tolstoy a fun writer, but now everyone is marching off to meet Napoleon's army and I got distracted again and so I picked up a forgotten book from the To Read pile, The Terror by Dan Simmons.

I've been trying to read at night instead of playing with my computer, but it turns out that holding a book is also bad for my carpal tunnel. I've been told to embrace more passive activities for evening entertainment, but most TV is so boring to me lately. Except Dexter! Oh my, Sunday's episode was exceptional and reminded me why I used to enjoy the show so much. I stopped watching after episode 1 of S4, because GAWD, that scene in the bathtub! I still freak out even thinking about it. Also, Mr. L refuses to watch that show with me. Maybe I can catch up with S4 now, since I know the major spoilers.

SPN tonight! YAY! I was left so confused last Friday, because I didn't get the emotional punch I was expecting in one particular scene. It was just weirdly cold. I hope the writers are going somewhere with this and it's not just a completely new and unexplained take on one character.

I've been watching the clips and reading spoilers and damn, yes, get here now!

Unable to get excited about pretty much anything else in a fannish way (Inception, Sherlock & Merlin all look good, but yeah, not connecting w/me), I'm pretty much ready for some squee.

Has everyone who enjoys Candle_beck's fic read her latest Sam/Dean fic, Second Map of the World? Because hotdamn, that was good. It's like for a little bit I'll forget why I love this fandom so much, and then an excellent story will come along and leave me kind of dazed and happy.

We're having one of the coolest San Diego summers in years, so my tomatoes aren't doing as well as they should for the middle of August. I can't bring myself to complain though, since we don't have AC beyond a box unit in the bedroom. But yeah, this is kind of weird and it's not going to make for a lot of yummy tomato dishes in the future.

Also, I have a flea infestation that I haven't managed to solve. If the weather gets warmer I know the problem will get worse. My legs look like crap right now, full of bites :(

Last week I whined that I had not read fics in this year's SPN Big Bang that filled me with fannish squee. But then I read two that made it all better! Ah, such a relief, two stories in a row, both Sam/Dean, both dealing with some issues that I can see can be hard to write.

Pins & Needles by selecasharp. It's a case story, with a season 2 feel and two timelines. One after Sam and Dean get back into hunting after Sam recovers from an injury from a cursed knife, the second starting from the injury and going through the recovery. The switching in between timelines worked for me very well in creating cool cliffhangers, keeping my interest at all times. Also, it's an established Sam/Dean. After reading it I thought it might be my favorite Big Bang fic of 2010, but I was also waiting for...

Hating the Weather by rivkat. I don't know if I have ever not liked any of her stories, but I do know that the name in my head rings bells for a lot of wonderful reading, so I was looking forward to this story. She wrote what she describes as "AU/Genderswap genderswap", which, yeah. I've read and enjoyed genderswap stories when I first started reading SPN fic, but after a while I lost interest. I kind of got it and sort of moved on. This now is different, and not just because of the writing. It jumps right in to Dee Winchester being turned into a guy that eventually becomes Dean. I don't remember reading something like this before, so it felt fresh. It also pokes at some of the assumptions of the Winchester family dynamics, like Dean's role in canon as the mediator, John's expectations of his children and Sam's love of his family, as messed up as it is. The story takes place around seasons 3 and 4, it's told from Sam's POV, with flashbacks giving us a look at Dee and Sam's relationship. Yeah, this fic was full of fannish joy :)

There is another clusterfuck going on in SPN Big Bang that caught my attention because it doesn't just feel like a rerun, but like an episode where you can remember all the dialog, music and guest stars. It involves making the Haiti earthquake a backdrop for a RPS fic. Really, IDK how people decide doing something like that is a good idea. Even if it's only out of self interest, you would think people in general would stay away from combining recent human tragedy with fanfic.

BTW, the SPN big bang started this past week and I was happy to find one story I enjoyed very much, a sweet (but not overly so) romcom, Becoming Who We Are. Usually BBs have tons of stories, but only one or two that grab me, so I felt lucky that during the first week I found one that made me so happy.

Now I need to google a good recipe for whisky sours. I had my second one ever tonight and yes, I must learn how to make these wonderful drinks. Just the right balance of citrus against the usually unpalatable whisky taste. I have yet to develop a taste for straight whisky, maybe because it reminds me of the boozy smell of my dad after a bender. But see, lemons have ~*magical*~ properties that seem to make whisky into something I actually want to drink.

This morning I finally decided to download from iTunes the SPN season finale. Oh so pretty. I got only 20 minutes into the episode before I had to leave for work, but I know I'm going to enjoy watching and rewatching this particular episode. Really, the last two episodes of the season resparked my enthusiasm for their story, so I'm pretty happy right now. I haven't read as many episode reactions as I usually do, because I want to keep this feeling for a while and I know it's tenuous. So yeah, happy.

Im at the airport, having barely slept, thinking about last night's Supernatural. The moment that got me? One so predictable, but it still made gasp and choke up a bit. ( ... )

I have a 4 am wakeup tomorrow, but I don' t think I can even consider not watching the SPN finale live. I've been wavering this year and wasn't excited when I heard a 6th season was going to happen, but right this moment I'm feeling very attached. I expect to be somewhat disappointed, because usually in these kind of episodes the setup is better than the outcome. I just want to care about these characters and right now I do, quite a lot.

Las week I downloaded a bunch of EMF Podcast episodes and enjoyed them very much. I'd been wondering why I wasn't finding geeky women producing podcasts I liked, but kimberlyfdr kindly pointed out the Hahn sisters, who seem to have been around for a while. Yay! I enjoy their sisterly banter and I'm subbed, I hope for the duration of SPN.

So, after reading the SPN Unfunny Business thing from Saturday, I find that it confirms the sad, sad fact that orgies are a lot more fun to read about than to face in RL. Specially if you're walking into your hotel room and find people having sex. On your bed. While on the other bed two guys roleplay Sam/Dean, complete with oral sex and cringiness up to 11.

Oh, that would have me running to the hills and wishing for mental bleach.

Glad to read how the con people handled the whole thing, way back in 2008 and again this past weekend, banning those who created a bad environment for other congoers.

BTW, I was at Wincon '07 in L.A. and thought it was great fun and I was glad I was there and got to share much SPN squee.

rivkat posted Vagabondage yesterday, which was way hot and just the right thing I needed to reconnect with the characters, reminding me why I like them*.

Great sex scenes, helping me in liking characters that canon is fucking up since 1995 \o/

I've been rereading FayJay's Not Time's Fool and enjoying now clearly connecting the story to the name. It all blurs sometime. Most times. In my head. I just forget who wrote what, unless I go back to reread something.

Does it feel like we're are the tail end of SPN fic cycle? It has that recognizable vibe I got at the end of SGA and a dip in S4 of Smallville. But it is all so subjective, I see a tiny slice of what is going on in the fandom.

I've never been part of a fandom with closed canon. I've come to expect a peak of enthusiasm around S3 of any show I follow. Or at least that is the story I tell myself.




*And by "them" I mean Dean. Dean, you're the reason I started watching in S1. It's been pretty painful seeing you written as an asshole, while at the same time sold to me as a character I'm supposed to think is all kinds of awesome :(

I don't know exactly how I feel about last night's episode. It had a lot of stuff that I adored, while at the same time the writing kept throwing in stuff that made me cringe. I'm going to let it simmer for a while and not rewatch for a long time, maybe until the S5 DVDs come out.

Speaking of DVDs, thanks to razielsoul I have a shinny new set of S4 DVDs. This weekend might involve some marathon viewing of my favorites, as I plan out food shopping and cooking for the next week.

Tax season is starting, so at home this means I take over all food planning and preparation, break out the bento boxes and try to keep both me and Mr. L healthy until April 15th. I made mole this morning for our lunches, using the paste that I bought in Tlaquepaque. I really like this Oaxaca brand, Mayordomo, and will probably buy more online once I figure out the best place to place an order. According to my mom, the local Tijuana open air market (Mercado Hidalgo) has smaller name brands of Oaxacan chocolate, which I haven't tried, but I tried their pinole and it was amazing. It makes me hopeful for other yummy stuff that I can't get at my local Mexican markets in San Diego.