I found myself.

Happy birthday, celli!

Happy birthday thesecondbatgirl! Hope you're enjoying Couchcon! :)

First off: Saw Skyfall this weekend, and enjoyed it. Would have been more annoyed about certain spoilery events if they hadn't been handled so well.

Second off: Recommend me PC laptops? The six-year-old Dell is reaching the twilight of its life and I really don't want to wait til I only have Windows 8 as an option. Anyone?

Eliot's hair.

What.

WHAT.

(I know, I know, priorities. But what???)

Brain, why are you trying to cross over Mystic Force and Chrono Trigger? Why?

(Pointing out similarities between Frog and Daggeron is not an answer, thanks.)

This was most likely brought to you by my recent PR marathon and laughing at Megaelixir.com.

I'm okay. For reasons that are not bad (just fail on my part) I haven't checked my friends lists in weeks. I'm getting caught up and holy crap did I miss a lot of stuff.

More later - I'm just going to post by e-mail at work tomorrow - but this is just a heads-up. Not dead, not ignoring people, I just didn't check on my friends list for several weeks.

Sorry, all. If you get three-week-old reactions from me, this is why.

LJ's new release? God, what a hot mess.

I've ranted about the "upgrades" at length elsewhere, but for the first time in 9 years I am seriously considering pulling up stakes and moving wholesale to Dreamwidth.

Now I'm not going to delude myself - I'm not a web designer nor am I an expert in Web usability. But as someone who's worked in Java development for ten years and has been bombarded with reminders of how important it is to design user interfaces for usability and for accessibility, this release and the staff's overall reaction to the feedback offends the hell out of me. So I can only imagine how low-vision users and those who need to rely on screenreaders, et cetera have been affected by this really ugly and glitchy "fix."

Of all the changes to the user interface, I've found exactly one detail that's remotely useful. (Comment tracking update, that's it.)

One change. ONE.

Everything else is a loss of functionality or usability.

Well, so much for not ranting here. But you get the idea.

I've already sent my feedback via the official form. I expect they'll ignore it. Apparently they ignored the beta testers who didn't like it, after all. Ugh.

Title: A Kindness Repaid (AO3 link) by potboy

Canon: Marvel Movieverse
Characters: Steve Rogers, Loki
Rating: T (for below warnings)
Relationships: Steve and Loki friendship (point of the whole fic)
Warnings: Rape/Non-con in Chapter 1, mentions thereafter
Summary: "Written for a norsekink prompt: Loki is abused in the Avengers' custody, Steve is horrified and tries to comfort him. As a result the two become friends. (Though when Loki is involved nothing is quite that simple.)"

Steve laughed, though it was likely enough. "Don’t give me a perhaps," he said. "Give me the truth."

"The truth?" Loki arched a winged black brow at him, amused.

"A truth, then, if the whole of it is too complicated."

"Oh, good answer. Very well then. This truth is that when you burst in, that day, I expected violence, or pity, contempt, or fear. But you gave me none of those things. You gave me understanding, and that I had never encountered before. I liked it. I would have more, if you have it to offer."

"You want to be friends?" Steve asked, incredulous and disturbed, not sure if he’d followed Loki’s meaning, but also worryingly flattered if he had.

"You could put it that way."

Why I'm recommending this: Dude. The excerpt doesn't do it justice, but everything else was too much of a spoiler. This is an absolutely brilliant and fascinating character study that actually explores the pitfalls of Steve and Loki becoming friends while staying totally true to both characters. Loki and his host of Issues aren't toned down in the slightest, and yet the friendship finally works and the ending made me cry.

You know, eventually I will use my rec journal. Eventually. XD

Hey all -

So among other things, I've been trying to get to the library more often. But I don't really know what to look for. I've been out of the loop for a while, and I really need book recommendations.

I like fantasy (especially urban fantasy) and light science fiction, mysteries, dramas and comedies.

I'm not into hard SF or romance, didn't really get into Laurell K. Hamilton or Simon R. Green when I tried to read their stuff. Can't do completely bleak and depressing even if it is realistic (so that probably rules out most war dramas). Also, after the Talismans of Shannara, I stopped reading the Shannara series.

Things that squick me: Eye trauma, body modification, excessive/glorified gore (which is part of the reason I don't watch a lot of police procedurals on TV).

Already read recently that I suspect people might recommend:
Dresden Files series
Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series
Temeraire series
Most of Sue Grafton's books
The Lightning Thief
Almost everything David Eddings ever wrote
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Suzanna Clarke
Howl's Moving Castle, the other book in the series that involves a flying carpet and the Aladdim myth but I can't remember the title to save my life, and Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
Most of the Mists of Avalon series (and what I haven't, I can borrow from Deb)
The Hunger Games trilogy
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Soon I Will Be Invincible

People. Recommend me stuff to read. Please?

Posting this here because I have a couple unfinished fills here and there that have been left hanging:

Won't be able to get back to them til next week, sorry. Work's been insane, I've been really sore as a result and work is not letting up. I even have to go in for a few hours on Saturday and it's not even for a release. And since LJ is blocked at work, well... you get the idea.

TL;DR - Not dead, haven't forgotten about prompts, just haven't been able to get back to them. :)