the word in language is half someone else's

Thing One: delightful sunny happy beachy day, yaaaay! I haven't really made it out to a New England beach this year (apart from some quality time at Revere), so it was great to do that and see some excellent humans (even if I totally did burn the shit out of my shoulders, but what the hell, it's not summer without sunburn).

I also made these brownies, which were magical and delicious, so if you're looking for a good fudge brownie recipe, here you go!

Thing Two: In between various wedding planning shit and trying not to panic about the impending school year, I've been reading a lot! So, A, if you're on Goodreads, we should be buds, and, B, here's a books meme! Stolen from sansets, because books! Boooooooks.

Give me a letter and I will hold forth on one of the following topics:

A. Author You’ve Read The Most Books From
B. Best Sequel Ever
C. Currently Reading
D. Drink of Choice While Reading
E. E-Reader or Physical Books
F. Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School
G. Glad You Gave This Book A Chance
H. Hidden Gem Book
I. Important Moments of Your Reading Life
J. Just Finished
K. Kinds of Books You Won’t Read
L. Longest Book You’ve Read
M. Major Book Hangover Because Of
N. Number of Bookcases You Own
O. One Book That You Have Read Multiple Times
P. Preferred Place to Read
Q. Quote From A Book That Inspires You/Gives You Feels
R. Reading Regret
S. Series You Started and Need to Finish
T. Three Of Your All-Time Favorite Books
U. Unapologetic Fangirl For
W. Worst Bookish Habit
V. Very Excited For This Release More Than Any Other
X. Marks The Spot (Start On Your Bookshelf And Count to the 27th Book)
Y. Your Latest Book Purchase
Z. ZZZ-Snatcher (last book that kept you up WAY late)

Thing Three: Is anybody else watching the current cycle of Project Runway? Anybody? Bueller?

Here's a twist on that one meme: I've got a list of 15 characters from the Avengers and various associated films. Give me two (or three, or four, or whatever) characters and a thing they do together, and I will do my best to write you a snippet of how that happens! So, for example, "2 and 5! Cuddling!" or "3, 7, and 12 on a road trip" or "4 and 9, oral sex".

These probably won't happen right away, for reasons of or relating to the PLOT, but I will do what I can!

OKAY, so, for reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, I have been pretty much DEAD for writing purposes for the past...while. Like, excepting Yuletide, I've written exactly one story since early 2009, when I posted my last bandom longfic. Which, ugh, cue guilt guilt shame shame NOT CONTRIBUTING TO THE FANNISH ECONOMY WHY DO YOU SUCK SO MUCH, SELF? -type spiral of unproductive feelings, eurrgh, please exit to your left, o ye haters.

BUT. I am graaaadually getting back into the fannish swing of things, by which I mean that I am feeling like I might like to write something again EVER, which is pretty thrilling. And yet: blocked on absolutely everything I have ever started ever.

SO. We're going to play a game that goes like this: you comment to me and say something like hey, M, tell me about the time that Tony Stark accidentally dyed his hair blue, or hey, what about the time Jake Jensen wore women's clothing on a bet, or but what about that time that Amy Pond met John Watson and they totally made out?

And then I try to write it! for values of "write" that contain an awful lot of handwaving and FOR REASONS OF PLOT. This is STORYTIME, not fic-writing time; High Literature Hour has been cancelled due to inclement weather and a shitty acronym.

FANDOMS: Avengers/Captain America/Iron Man, the Losers (but preferably movieverse, because I like it when everybody lives), Doctor Who, Pride and Prejudice, Friday Night Lights through s1?. Anything else I've written or capslocked about is potentially up for grabs, but those are probably your best bets.

tell me things!

*oral exams, you pervs.

I've been thinking about this post for a while, and, hey, today is gray and dreary and kind of gross (where I am, at least), and so why the hell not! I hereby declare this the TOTALLY REASONABLE* DEMANDS MEME.

My TOTALLY REASONABLE DEMANDS for today include:

• a nap,
• a kitten,
• sunshine,
• not to have to teach tomorrow,
• Gerard Way,
• for my students' paragraphs to grade themselves,
• a job in January,
• for the heat in my office to work more reliably,
• for Chicago and Boston to be closer together, AND to live in one of those two places,
• more coffee.

What about you, internets? What are your TOTALLY REASONABLE DEMANDS for today? Or for life in general, idk.

*for varying values of "reasonable"

I love how the end of the quarter and my being, you know, AT HOME WITH MY FAMILY results in my posting...more often than usual. Um. I am choosing to look on this as a messages-in-a-bottle -type thing.

...really, though, the point is that I can't ever resist an anoymous meme, even though I'm late to the party and not actually all that interesting. Still! If you should like to tell me things without the burden of usernames, my entry in the latest anonymous meme-thing is here.

A turkey-induced coma is looking better and better, right now. Thanksgiving dinner at chez etben: something of a production, but also delicious.

So there's a meme going around, as there usually is - this time, it's the ask me questions about myself and I will answer them! meme, of which I am rather fond. So! questions! ask them, and I will try to answer.

*

In other news...well, really, all I have to say is this:

Dear Professor Awesomesauce, you are very sexy and I love your lecturing style, but don't you think that assigning 150+ pages of reading for the Thursday section of a Tuesday-Thursday class was a possibly little cruel? especially when the paper that's worth about a third of our grade was due on Tuesday.

Much love, me.

1. ( thoughts on the strikethrough whosywhatsis )

2. Conversations I Probably Shouldn't Be Having At Work, #9781:

etben: man, I want to write dirty fucking.
but I don't know who should fuck!
I am very unspecific, is the thing
I want to write fucking!
I don't know what kind.
shoemaster: other than 'dirty'
etben: right@
...possibly I just want to have sex.
*thinks about it*

But, actually? I want to write about fucking, I've decided. It's my last shift at work until sometime in July! I want to make it memorable! And porn is always memorable, right? OF COURSE RIGHT.

SO: Give me a prompt! In any fandom that I write, or that you know I'm familiar with, or any combination of those fandoms. Any number of characters! Crossovers! Orgies! And I will write you at least 100 words of fiction without any redeeming social value.

(Full disclosure: I am absurdly ADD today - I started and discarded half a dozen ideas for stories in chat with shoemaster in the space of, like, twenty minutes. Also, I won't be able to post any pornfiction until after I get off shift, since the bossmen have decided (wisely, really) that lj is not a site to which the student staff should have access on the work computers. Still! I will think about your prompts with GREAT DEVOTION, and post the results from home.)

If you had me under your command and could make me write anything, regardless of whether or not I know the fandom or if anybody even writes fic in that fandom and no matter how crack-addled it might be, what would you love to see me write?

I make no promises - mostly, I'm just curious. And procrastinating.

PLEASE NOTE: Any person or persons saying "your goddamn paper that's due tomorrow, you dumbass fuck" do so at their own risk. I HAVE A SPORK, PEOPLE. Or, well. I could have a spork.