thedeadlyhook

I'm posting because I can - Toys is at his night class, and I'm home alone, drinking a beer and thinking about Buffyfic. About reading it, and how I haven't written it in an age, although I've thought about it a lot. (In that context, the news about Writercon happening for reals next year struck me as kind of depressing - at this juncture, since I've been such a tardy author, overall lax presence online, and generally shitty Internet friend, I doubt anyone would even want to talk to me in the flesh.) But there are a couple of fic masterworks I feel I should point to. ( Why I Love Missmurchison's 'Pillow Talk' )

( Why I Also Love Nautibitz's 'Don't Stop' )

Can I keep going? It's a long night, and my spaghetti is cooking slowly.

This link in the vintage_ads community, of the Laugh-A-Lot doll, is a mind-blower. The comments are actually funnier than the video, which is actually not so much funny as kind of horrifying - yes, kids' toys used to be different! Really!

On that note, I followed one of those scrolling YouTube links and got this little item. It seems to be mislabeled in terms of era - the announcer says "1970" in the voiceover, so this is within my memory range as a bona fide target for their doll consumer demographic, and damned if I don't remember most of these playsets, although whether I actually owned them, my friends had them, or I just lusted after them in catalogs, I couldn't say. But I'm hugely digging that background music! Takes me back.



( Reminiscing About Dolls! )

I'm now watching Magnum Force on TV and avoiding the Presidential debates. (My heart, it can only take so much - this election can't be over fast enough, IMHO.) Dirty Harry and the perp du jour are driving around in the Potrero district, which is more or less where I work now, and ride the bus everyday, except that this is what it looked like the '70s, far less candy-colored and twee with yuppie redevelopment. Wow. When I moved to San Francisco at the tail end of the '80s, most of this landscape was still there, all faded industrial ruins and grass-choked sandlots. I forget if it's this particular Dirty Harry saga or another one, but there's one in the series with a chase scene through the remnants of the old train yards at the end of Fourth Street, all high grass and line shacks - I remember those. They're mostly gone now, just collapsed piles of hundred-year-old wood planks, slowly being reclaimed by nature.

I feel old.

Oops, I've been typing too long. The movie's over. On to Monster Quest.

( Stargate: Atlantis fans, this one's for you!! )

Okay, maybe I'll skip Monster Quest tonight. It seems to be a Dirty Harry marathon of sorts - AMC is proceeding on to The Enforcer - and I can't resist the siren call of '70s film.

God, these movies have a whole new vibe now that I've lived in SF for more than a decade. This is MY TOWN. Dude. And oh, Christ, is Eastwood actually driving a Chevy Impala? Holy hell.

OMG, he's on Fisherman's Wharf. I've totally eaten in that restaurant. It looks almost the same now.

Awwww... remember when they called cops "pigs" on a regular basis in film? Takes me back.

Time to stop. Apologies for the length.

I've missed so many birthdays, it's honestly embarrassing: botias, spikes_heart, pukajen, romanyg, dessert_first, pfeifferpack, lillianmorgan, ascian3, rikko_oko.... Very Happy Belated Birthdays to you all, and hopes for a great year ahead.

Good Christ, I'm behind on everything. I haven't even read any of the Bring Back the Porn Day entries on InsaneJournal. Something's clearly wrong with the world. Or I've just been too busy. Or both. Sigh...

coyote_william has a poll about the Slayer activiation spell: good idea or bad, morally speaking? (Not just good/bad in terms of plot device, in other words.) I've contributed to this thread a lot; I have big honking problems with "Chosen" which I apparently still need to get off my chest. Isn't it amazing how some things will nearly always draw you back into the same damn conversations?

Fic rec: We Who Are About to Die, a Spike & Anya conversation on the night before the battle of "Chosen." Really like this one, the knowing quality of it. Sublime.

( More dribs and drabs, some links picked up from the Flist )

I signed up for ruuger's Buffy is the Hero, Dammit! ficathon. Because I am insane, and don't have enough WIPs to work on. And I signed up for seraphcelene's Fic Meta-a-Thon too. Because I am INSANE. Clearly.

But on that note:

[Poll #1059076]

A Very Happy Birthday to beanbeans!!

The final word is in on Toys's computer - DOA. I have run of the laptop for a few hours because he's in class right now, but otherwise I'll probably be pretty absent here on LJ until we get some kind of solution. It goes without saying that the mood in our household is a bit grim. Toys is practically chewed up with stress. I'm making his favorite dinner tonight, but that's about all I can do.

But my woes are tiny - the world feels a particularly sad and nasty place right now, and I can only hope for the air to change soon. Enough, please, I think we've all had enough. Enough posturing, enough tough-guy bullshit, enough guns going off. Enough of people who think they have to prove something. As if learning to live in harmony with your neighbors wasn't challenge enough.

I've been signing a lot of petitions lately; I urge everyone to do the same. There is no tomorrow until we make it happen.

( A change of pace: things making me smile right now )

My best thoughts go out to you all. I'm going to try to get some writing done today while I can.