Er, I've never really seen the point to having one, but apparently it's the done thing these days, and it's been driven home to me lately what incredibly different thoughts people often have about friending on LJ/IJ. So, here it is:

1. If you want to friend me, for whatever reason, go for it.
2. I may or may not friend you back for any number of reasons. If I don't friend you back, it could be one of these reasons:
a. I have no idea who you are.
b. We don't appear to have many (or any) interests in common.
c. I meant to and forgot.
3. People use the friending feature loads of different ways with all sorts of different sets of assumptions about what it means to "friend" someone. Here is my only assumption about friending: there is some interest in reading what the person writes on their LJ/IJ with some regularity, which may or may not have anything to do with being friends in the more usual sense of the word. Actual friendship develops and becomes evident through interacting on each other's journals or in communities/asylums or even (gasp) offline.
4. This is not a strictly fandom journal. I've been on LJ longer than I've been in fandom, and while the opposite is true for IJ, since I crosspost almost everything to both of them, they both have the same mix of topics including fandom stuff, school stuff, relgious stuff, polititcal stuff, dance-related stuff, and just general RL stuff. The balance of what gets the most screen space can shift without warning.
5. I don't flock much. When I do, though, I tend to filter it, because my flist is so eclectic. I tend to make it clear in the subject line what filter I'm using. If you find yourself reading posts that are filtered to a particular set of interests you're uninterested in or uncomfortable with, let me know and I'll take you off. That said, back to the start of this point: I don't flock much.

Also, this is not a comment to be added post. In fact, I'm turning comments off, because it seems whatever my "top post" is inevitably gets tons of spam comments, frequently in languages I don't speak.

So, what I had up here before was never really intended as a master list, and it's been pointed out to me that it's a pain in the neck needing to know which year something was written to find it on the year-end fic meme thing. Thus, here is a master list sorted by fandom.

( Angel )
( Black Jewels )
( Buffy )
( Chalion )
( Crossover )
( Doctor Who )
( Firefly )
( Harry Potter )
( Sharing Knife )
( Temeraire )
( Torchwood )
( Vorkosigan )

Current Mood: accomplished

Helluva day to post a rec, at least for folks this side of the pond, but here it is nonetheless.

Title: The Guardian
Author: madambackslash
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack Harkness, John Hart, Gray, Ianto Jones, Rhiannon Davies, Mica Davies, OCs
Spoilers: Through CoE
Summary: The Jones family has lived in Cardiff for a very long time...
Why you should read it: This tale starts in 27 CE with a very young witness to a horrific event, a witness who proceeds to give that event a meaning that grows through time and then persists well beyond. To say more would spoil it, but it's beautiful and sad and touching and I expect it's a story I'll revisit more than once. Have Kleenex handy when you read.

*looks @ fic*

*looks @ scratch notes*

It really takes a special kind of geeky OCD to turn "how are we going to transport these aliens" into a convoluted dimensional analysis problem and then try to turn that lovely long string of Imperial-to-metric-and-back conversions into (hopefully) believable dialogue.

Have also finally chiseled out something vaguely resembling an outline. Sort of. Considering the extremely minimal say-so I appear to have in terms of what is actually happening with this damned thing, I'm sort of pleased to have managed to contain it in 13 chunks/eps/chaps/whatever. For now. This is, after all, The Fic That Wouldn't Stay Dead, and "if I can't kill you, I can contain you" turned out to be canonically (and predictably) untrue. *facepalm* Which isn't to say that they're all written, by any means. Very close to crossing the 60K mark though. *boggles*

Finally finished my S2 rewatch Friday night at work. Amazing how differently some bits come across the second time through.

Also periodically listening to audio of GDL's panels from The New England Fan Experience, which I briefly considered running up to Boston for last week (before deciding that was insane, as it would mean leaving directly from work Saturday morning to have even a prayer of catching his panel that day). Dear Gods, this fandom really has kidnapped my brain. *facepalm*

Oh, and I watched "The Rescue" last night. I don't always watch the special features, but I did this time, and it was interesting to learn that those two eps got the highest ratings of any Who story arc until the Baker years. They were all marveling that it was a bigger draw than the Daleks. I'm marveling that "1st introduction of a new companion" was a bigger draw than "1st regeneration." Which reminds me, tangentially, that ubiquirk just drew my attention to the fact the Doctor is apparently supposed to get younger with each regeneration. Huh. Didn't know Gallifreyans had a common ancestry with Orkians. This has slightly tempered my annoyance that Eleven looks like a teenager. (Does that mean Twelve will need to actually be one? LOL)

Ah well, time to do a bit more writing. 76 more words and I'll hit this week's 5_for_five goal. Whee!

Current Mood: amused

There must be a book somewhere for writers who need to know this stuff. I've seen them for criminal investigation procedures and medical jargon. Stands to reason there ought to be something similar for guns, if I can just find it. Surely this won't be the only time it'd be useful.

But meanwhile, oh wise and wonderful flist, is anyone up for helping me work out whether this is a reasonable plot device? Pretty please with cinnamon sugar on top?

( Gunpowder and bullets and casings, oh my. )

And yes, I realize the icon is from a different fandom. Still fits. *g*

Off to lecture soon. Topics of the day are STD's, violence, and death. So that'll be an upper of a day.

Current Mood: awake

And I'm finally getting the hang of the labyrinth that is this odd little hospital. I like to think it wouldn't have taken this long if I'd been here consistently rather than going elsewhere for the various rotations. And now we have next week off and December 1 will be the last day of clinicals. Lecture goes a bit longer. We have our last regular exam on the 10th of December and then the final on the 14th, which is nice and early compared to most years. Usually, we're finishing up within a few days of Christmas. Still haven't coughed up that last case study or any of the med sheets for pharm. Must get on that. It's so easy to procrastinate though, which is one of the things I hate about online courses. Or at least about me taking them. Clearly I have all the self-discipline of a toddler turned loose in a candy shop.

Instructor again asked what it is I'm doing that could help some of the other students. One of these times, I swear I'm going to answer, "Spend what should be study time writing severely messed-up novel-length AU fanfiction." Because that's about the only thing I haven't suggested yet, but I have a feeling that wouldn't work for most people. Though I do think the theme of "work smarter instead of harder" has something to recommend it. I swear half the problem with some of my classmates is that they're burning themselves out with these marathon study sessions.

Trying to get some kind of a handle on next semester. The course coordinator will be doing exam review with us tomorrow, so maybe she'll have something to say about how to try and plan for it. I sincerely hope she's more organized than this semester's coordinator. The scheduling clusterfucks have been ridiculous, to the point even the hospitals are catching on that it's not us students messing up. Not good.

In other news, Patsfan and I watched Waters of Mars the other night (with him continually going on about the sound quality on my laptop). And wow. Just ... wow. Have read some interesting meta about Ten's character development in light of it and looking over everything since his regeneration at the end of S1. Interesting food for thought. Ergh. Can't wait for the Christmas special. Specials? Whatever. ( Cut for extrapolation, mention of potentially spoilery interview, and quote from Easter special. ) Am slightly annoyed by the whole, "We're going to call this series one for the 11th Doctor" thing, mainly because I'm still going bonkers trying to watch the old stuff in something vaguely resembling the original order, a project that would be far easier if a consistent series numbering system had been used from the start, rather than having to match episode lists against Netflix's offerings. It is worth it though, I think, to see things like the original sticking of the chameleon circuit, the first encounter with the Daleks ... and then the second, not to mention the first time the Doctor took off without someone (this time actually leaving them to help rebuild the Earth). *ponders cutting that and decides it's stupid to consider something that aired in 1964 as a spoiler*

Have had to beg an extension on my S2B4 offering. *sigh* And here I thought, "So long as I stick with the craft side of things, I shouldn't have a problem. Right?" Wrong. Because my eyes are informing me that they are, in fact, 41 years old and have been badly abused for much of that time, so they won't cooperate and focus long enough to get good stretches of work done. May see if I can get a single pack of contacts in my current Rx, because what I'm needing to do is wear OTC reading glasses *over* my normal glasses. (No OTC strength works without my regular glasses, most of them seeming too strong, which defies everything I ever thought I understood about nearsightedness versus farsightedness, but whatever.) There will definitely have to be an eye doctor visit over the Christmas break though. I think that's when I'm due anyway. Hope so, or it'll be out of pocket. *sigh*

Huh. Just went looking to see if I had a "vision" tag. (I don't. Settled on "health.") In the process, I saw that I have a tag for "vitamin k." WTF?? I have so got to clean up these tags.

Not to mention it'd be nice if I got some tagging done on the fangirl_tour. *sheepish look*

Wow. Almost 8:30 already. Best start getting ready for a day of tutoring then. Happy hump-day!

Current Mood: awake

Finally, finally, finally this is in print! And my copy just arrived in the mail today!

Title: The Fosterling
Author: bluedolfyn
Genre: fantasy
Summary: A chance discovery in the woods near her home pulls her out of her mourning and thrusts her into a land ravaged by war. With the hope of an entire race suddenly in her hands and the weight of their world on her shoulders, Meghan finds herself embraced by hundreds of people calling her family. Grief is forgotten as Meghan struggles to adapt, and to keep herself – and their future – alive. Chapter 1 preview.

It's been eons since I first alpha-read this, to borrow a fandom term, so it's going to be almost like reading it new again, which will be a treat. *rubs hands together in anticipatory glee* I do remember vividly that Blue does some very cool things in this tale around what family means, culture clashes, and a good bit of adventure as well. So go check out the first chapter at the link above, and once you're sucked in, check out the book!

Current Mood: excited

And it is here!

To quote the announcement post, contributors include kittylefish, karasu_hime, undunoops, dungeons_master, littleblackbow/chibitoaster, scribbulus_ink, arionrhod, xterm, dizilla/dianamoon, firefly_124, skitty_kat, bonfoi, ellid, BLU-contributor Chivalric, and more!

*flails*

*squees*

I'm just downloading it now and won't have time to read until later. But I'm so excited! The last issue was amazing, and I know this one will be too. Plus, this time I got to play! *points @ list* That'd be the fic that ate my brain for the first half of the summer, that started out as something totally different and then just ran away from me. I still half can't believe it got accepted, much less that I was lucky enough to catch xterm's offer to illustrate. *bounces*

Okay, running off to clinical now. But I just had to squee first!

Current Mood: ecstatic

I wish I had something useful or at least non-repetitive to say about Veterans' Day as I tick through the list of friends either currently or previously in the military. I'm grateful to all those who choose to serve, and I wish those currently in active duty to all be able to return home safe and unharmed, which I guess about sums it up.

That reminds me. The "Gods of the month" that were suggested for reflection at the last ritual were Hekate and Ares. Perhaps today would be a good day to do a bit of that reflecting.

Had a surreal conversation with Patsfan last night in which it became clear that, despite my protests to the contrary, he still thinks the time I spend on the computer is all study. Granted, some of it is, but not all. Not by a long, long shot, as evidenced by the fact TFTWSD has now crossed the 50K mark.

Need to have another conversation with him that will probably also be surreal. At the very least. And so I keep procrastinating. *sigh*

Got the Pharm exam grade. 87.5. No complaints there, though I should probably put a little more time into prepping for the next one, as it'd be nice to drag what should be the easy course back up to A range. Also, I've got to get cracking on the med sheets. I keep saying, "Oh, I'll do them Thanksgiving week when I'm off." Except I'm not really all that off, between the conference on Monday, tutoring on Wednesday (though that'll probably be about as well-attended as today), and driving up to MA for the day on Thanksgiving itself. Shall try to get one done this weekend, and maybe case study #3.

Lecture exam tomorrow. Geriatrics, pediatrics, and gyn. Somebody please explain to me what kind of sense the structure of this course makes? Stayed after clinical to study with a couple of classmates yesterday. Not sure we accomplished much, but whatever.

Oh, and only two clinical weeks left! Four clinical days: next Mon and Tues and the Mon and Tues after Thanksgiving. W00t! Got to hang an iv antibiotic yesterday. I'm getting less clumsy at flushes, at least. Kinda. Also had a fairly complicated dressing change. Only dressing change I've had all semester, I realized while I was getting ready. Weird compared to last semester, when it feels like I did lots, though only one really complicated one.

Looking forward to the next Who special despite rumors it will "make CoE look light and fluffy." Also hoping to get to see it before getting spoiled, though I did watch the trailer that's circulating.

Unrelated: I'd not realized before just how much the Doctor and Miles Vorkosigan have in common. Hyperactive git. /cryptic

It's probably time to hang up the jack-o-lantern icon until next year, but I'm not sure I want to go back to Dru. Not crazy about using any of the others I have for a default either though. *ponders*

Okay, this is getting beyond random. Shutting up now.

Current Mood: bouncy

Apparently I'm not the only one having Large Hadron Colllider continuity headaches. The CERN team themselves are having them!

Of course, we know the real problem is aliens trying to get through and bloody Torchwood keeps shutting the thing down by "reversing the polarity," though at least not of a neutron flow.

Really. Pharm exam. Now.

Current Mood: tired

Funny. I would've expected the "dork" rating to be about the same as the other two, given my perceptions about my own social ineptitude (look, I even have a tag for it!), though apparently this test doesn't care so long as all are above 50% for this result.

Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Outcast Genius

83 % Nerd, 87% Geek, 52% Dork

Current Mood: tired

According to LJ, IJ, and DW, the following people were born in November: larksdream, lyadann, mcfly85, larilee, duniazade, jaxinny, hpstrangelove, ferporcel, pokeystar, beer_good_foamy, severely_lupine, sl_podcast, alabastard, ozarque, opaljade, saltwaterpearl, nefernat, odogoddess, nimrod_9, chyara, snegurochka_lee, antennapedia, jitterbugclock, and yanagi_wa.

Whew! Happy (belated in a couple of cases) birthdays to you all!

If you would like an original or fannish drabble (story of 100 words) or ficlet (less precisely worded but still very short story) as a birthday gift, please comment with the fandom and character(s) or pairing you'd like it to be about (obviously not quite applicable for original fic) and some sort of prompt, and I'll do my best to get it written before your next birthday! (A lot sooner if I can help it.)

If you're wanting a rundown of what I will/won't write, I've got a post covering the basics here on LJ and here on IJ, though I should add that just because I haven't written a fandom or pairing before doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy a challenge (assuming I have a clue). And if you're wondering how to prompt for something non-fannish, there are some suggestions here on LJ and here on IJ.

Wow, I'm actually dressed and ready for clinical early! Must be the "extra" hour thing. So a quick post.

Had Panaia (aka Pan's birthday) at HTAZP yesterday. Record attendance with 8 adults and one teen. Said teen may have been moderately traumatized by the life-sized statue that had been created, but it's not like his father and he hadn't been warned what to expect. The draw-down was intense. I ended up doing the drumming for it, which I think ended up being a slow Ayoub but I'm kinda rusty to be sure. I was just pleased to actually hold a rhythm except when trying to speak at the same time. And of course, the answer to my question was exactly what I should've known it would be, that being rather the opposite of what I was hoping for.

Me: This story You've been talking to me through since the Feast of Fear, is there something specific that I haven't understood that You're trying to tell me?
Pan through Priest-Dude: (condensed) No, you pretty much get it. Now do something with it.
Me: (out loud) Thank you. (inside) Oh crap.

So that was ... interesting. Shall have to figure out precisely what "something" entails. I have a clue. Should strap a bit of steel to my spine and just go for it. Declined a card reading later because I didn't particularly want to see a Tower card confirming what I already know is likely to happen if I do locate said steel.

Also, I finally made the second necklace for Him and wore it yesterday. I'm not entirely thrilled with how the flowers came out, but this was my first time trying to do something like that, so ... *shrugs*

( Cut because it's technically NSFW, even though the pic is a bit too blurry to tell. )

Okay, running out the door now. Have a great Monday, all! {{hugs}} to whomever wants and needs them.

Current Mood: awake

Actually, the timey-wimey headaches have a lot to do with the radio plays. ( Cut for fic wittering about timelines and such. Mild spoilerishness for Lost Souls, I suppose. Not hugely spoilery for TFTWSD, but a little. )

*stabs fic yet again*

*watches it gasp back to life yet again*

*sighs*

And yes, I really am this anal to obsess over timelines on a fic that I still question whether it should ever see the light of day. All the more fun because this one gets to have two.

Those of you who play in TW fandom, what are your thoughts on the "when" of the radio plays? I've not actually seen many fics that incorporate them at all, so even outside of wondering how to make this fic fit with them, I'm curious.

What about Welsh? Again, this is probably me bringing expectations in from a different fandom, i.e. Firefly, but I'm forever surprised to find full sentences of Welsh thrown into fics with no translation offered. Sometimes there's enough context to work it out, sometimes not. So here's my suggestion/request on behalf of readers who don't speak Welsh: pretty please, with sugar on top, throw in a footnote with a translation? Because you know what you meant for Ianto (mostly) to be saying far more than any of the online translators that spit out mostly rubbish.

Also, I need to clean up my tags. The ones on DW are more organized than LJ or IJ, but when I xpost from DW at work, the DW ones are what carry over, making LJ and IJ even more of a mess than they already were. *adds to list of things to do someday*

Next year, I need to remember to take this night off. Working third shift on the "fall back night" makes for a looooong night. I'm sure I've said this before, possibly numerous times, and yet here I am. Silly.

Current Mood: tired

And possibly Blessed Beltaine to any folks Down Under who observe it now.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, whatever it is to you, even if it's just "Saturday."

My classmates are insane.

The grade range on this last exam was from 50-90 with a record high number of failures. I've been approached multiple times through the week with people asking for study tips, and I haven't had anything approaching an answer. Because they're all already doing what I (used to) do, such as using the online or CD-ROM quizzes that come with the textbooks, doing practice tests out of NCLEX books, and the like. The only thing left, which is what I finally have just started saying is, "Step away from the bloody PowerPoints. Don't print them and definitely don't use them as a note-taking crutch. Just download them and refer to them to fill in any gaps, but take your lecture notes as if they didn't exist." Because seriously? That's the only thing I do that's any different than anybody else. And frankly, this last exam pulled more from my experience as a patient care tech on a surgical/ortho floor, years past though that may be, than on anything I got out of lecture.

This complete lack of ability to help anybody pulll it together (barring the one who reallyreally isn't getting any more help out of me after MultiFailDay a couple of weeks ago) hit me way harder than I was expecting. Apparently "tutor" is an even more integral part of my identity and self-esteem than I'd realized, because after having several of these conversations yesterday, I found myself bawling my eyes out, first in the bathroom, and then when I went home on our lunch break. (I'd forgotten some paperwork I needed for after the afternoon lecture, so I went home to fetch it. And then did everything *but* fetch it. *facepalm*) That actually isn't the crazy part yet.

The crazy part is that we also had a "peer recognition award nomination" thing, and for some insane reason, they nominated me. Um, what? The people I nominated make way more sense: the class president really does have great leadership skills and uses them well to organize the class, classmate L is a vocal patient advocate in clinical, and classmate P frequently shares news articles and current events that relate to what we're studying in the discussion area on Blackboard with commentary that really helps tie theory to reality. Any one of them would make oodles more sense than "person who gets good grades without half studying and is no help to people who are honestly trying and are asking for help."

This isn't to say I'm not grateful. Depending on what happens next in this process, I'm potentially eligible for a scholarship of some kind, which would be awesome. So I'm hugely grateful to even be in the running. But I still want some of whatever the rest of them are smoking, because clearly, it's damned good.

Current Mood: confused

I've heard a bit about Castle. Haven't watched it, and I'm still probably not about to start, but this particular bit is just hysterical. Because, really, Castle does need to dress up for Halloween, right? And he would have this costume handy. *giggle* Thanks to lechatnomade for the link.

Castle's Halloween Costume

Watch a bit beyond the opening sequence to enjoy a couple of other pop cultural references, too, one from the Whedonverse and the other not.

No one's more shocked than I am that I've made the 5_for_five goal every week for the past two months.

						</div>
	week 9		week 10		week 11		week 12

Current Mood: accomplished

I'm one of the most patient tutors you could ever have, but even I have my limits. Here are ways to find them.

Show up in the last week of October saying that you missed the first four classes (which started in August) and are still lost on that material, therefore do not understand anything since then, which all builds on it. Bonus points for having no specific questions and thinking I can re-teach you the entire past 10 weeks in an hour. (Granted, that still puts you one up over the ones who pull this crap in December, but still!)

Bringing your kid if you can't get childcare is okay, so long as they can behave. Allowing your toddler to scream his lungs out because he objects to being told to apologize to me for throwing my own pencil at me (which he'd already chewed beyond all recognition ... mechanical pencil, mind) is really, really not. I get that you need to ignore the tantrum, but not in a tutoring center full of stressed-out students trying to learn stuff. I shouldn't have had to tell you that the sane thing to do was take him outside to get him calmed down before I'd even try to continue.

Thank the Gods my 3pm appt no-showed. I desperately needed the break.

After finding nothing in any of the e-journal databases, I broached the subject with my med-surg clinical instructor, whose husband is a urologist. She actually pulled out her phone, got him on the line, and relayed my questions to him. ( Not terribly detailed discussion of urology and sexual function in men with benign prostatic hypertrophy. )So yeah, over-thinking and under-thinking, all at the same time. *facepalm*

In other news, I had my OR rotation this week. Saw an arthroscopic shoulder repair, a mastectomy, a lumpectomy, and a subcutaneous port removal. No passing out and I only contaminated myself once, and that towards the end of the day. I may, however, go back to being vegetarian for a bit, at least until I can get the smell of the cautery out of my nose. *shudders* Also? Surgeons have way too much fun tormenting students. Next week, pedi, and then back for the last three weeks in med-surg.