Welcome to Pen's Nest

This will be my last entry to LiveJournal. It's quite a sad thing, but at the same time, long overdue. I've been cross-posting my DreamWidth entries for a long while now, but it seems LJ is no longer willing to live the co-operative life with DW, and DreamWidth is by far a better place to be, so that has for a long time been my primary journal.

There are maybe one or two friends left on LiveJournal who don't have a DreamWidth account. I strongly recommend that you come over! You'll find me as pensnest there, and lots of other people with names you will recognise, too. But if you prefer not to—then goodbye, and my best wishes to you.

I believe #11 was 'interact with someone', and I'm reasonably confident that I have done that.

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The Jinjurly Audiofic Archive is missing a bunch of podficced stories, and would like help in locating them. Check here for more info:
https://squidgestatus.dreamwidth.o…

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Snowflake Challenge #12

In your own space, tell us who you would recast in a film, tv series or webseries, or maybe someone voicing a cartoon or videogame. Or who would you cast to play a character in a book, comic or maybe even your own fiction!

Hmmmm. Well, I have a few random thoughts.

John Hurt was very good as the "War Doctor" in Doctor Who, but how much more awesome would Helen Mirren have been in the role? 100%, at least. Damn, what a wasted opportunity.

I always thought Hugo Weaving was utterly miscast as Elrond in the LotR trilogy. Edward Petherbridge, who played Lord Peter Wimsey in 1987, would have been much more to my taste. Though to be fair, his Elrond would also have been more of a lore master and less of an aggressive douche and overprotective father. Also more to my taste.

I would *love* to see Serena Williams as a superhero! Wouldn't she make a great Black Panther? At least, I have no idea if she can act, probably not, as most people can't, but yeah. She practically *is* a superhero anyway.

Aral Vorkosigan should absolutely have been played by Andreas Katsulas. Alas that it can never happen.

In my story Wanna Tell Me About It? the character of Paul is played by Paul Sorvino.

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I often have difficulty getting to sleep at night because a song is circulating in my head and won't stop. Usually it's something we have been rehearsing in chorus, or perhaps something we are considering singing in the future.

Last night, it was "Nice one, Cyril."

Just. Shoot. Me. This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

In your own space, rec a fanwork (fic, art, vid, playlist, anything!) you did not create.

Well, fic is my jam, so here are a select handful of stories spanning several centuries of canon.

A really excellent prequel to 'Much Ado About Nothing', in which Benedick and Beatrice find common ground and then manage to lose it again. There's just a little hint of it in the text of the play, and as far as I'm concerned, I now know what happened between them before Don Pedro brought his men to Messina.

Skirmish and Retreat by El Staplador.

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Another 'Much Ado' fic, this time an alternate path in which Beatrice accepts Don Pedro's proposal. The language is so well chosen, and the progression of emotions is very well done. Also, a much better solution to the problem of Hero being seen in the embrace of a man. Trust Beatrice to sort things out! A very smart fic.

Another for Working Days by SassySnowperson.

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A somewhat more modern source next, namely, Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'. This is the story written for me for Yuletide this year, and it pleases me very much indeed. It's the story of how Anne came to be courted by Charles Musgrove; it makes it very clear why they would not suit; and shows why he proposed to Mary instead. Everyone is beautifully in character, and Anne Elliot has always been one of my favourite heroines.

Before the Deluge by Ione.

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Finally, a couple of recs from a very modern canon, namely, 'Ted Lasso'.

The Cursing Allowance by igrockspock sees a capable teacher find her way through the difficulties of teaching Roy Kent's niece. Phoebe tends to pick up a lot of... language from her uncle. Delightful.

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It would be hard to imagine a version of canon in which Jamie Tartt asks Roy Kent for sex tuition.

I'll pause for a moment to let the concept sink in.

Here, however, it works. It's brilliant. With Roy being perfectly Roy, Jamie being perfectly Jamie, and Keeley being perfectly awesome, somehow they manage to get together in a very hot threesome. OMG.

shout whenever (I'll be there) by mixtapestar.

This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

My lovely online knitting group met this evening, and among other things discovered that the Royal Astronomical Society is putting together a Bicentannial Quilt.

https://ras.ac.uk/ras-bicentennial…

It looks amazing!

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I've just discovered Wordle, and overall do reasonably well, but when the word to be guessed is something like 'aucus' or 'mesic', then, no. This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

I'm not interested in today's Snowflake Challenge at all, so I'll be skipping it.

Quite a busy day today. Beast woke me with the reminder that I had to take Boy to UEA's medical centre for a blood test, which I had completely forgotten. That accomplished, we were trotting about a bit for various reasons this morning. The plumbers were plumbing and the insulators, outside with the scaffolding, were stapling slabs of insulation to the wall. It looks very smart, in fact.

Both groups finished mid afternoon and went home. The plumbers had run out of radiators and the insulators have to wait for slightly warmer weather before they can go on to the next step. So the house is now quiet, and still warm!

We had a couple of chaps over on Saturday to see about taking away the frame of the hideous polycarbonate greenhouse, and they have basically dismantled it; among other contents was a large rosemary bush, which I have pruned considerably and replanted in the herb bed next to the house. It'll thrive, or it won't. This is my philosophy of gardening.

On which subject, I've had the first draft of a garden design plan back (only three weeks later than promised)... not enough flowers and too much gravel, but I have sent copious feedback and we'll see.

Made Toad in the Hole for lunch. This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.


Um. It wasn't a good year, last year, and for one reason and another I slid mentally slough-wards for quite a lot of it. So finding something to celebrate is quite hard. Here goes.

I became Chair of my mixed barbershop chorus, and got us up and running again once we were able to meet outdoors.

I entered Yuletide for the first time, and won! Received a lovely fic and wrote one that was well-received. In another fic first, I wrote two stories in fandoms I'd never written before—one was my Yuletide story (Lord Peter Wimsey) and the other was a Mad Men story.

And because I have a feeling these things should be celebrated in threes, I also knitted a rather lovely grey and lavender shawl last year (actually finished it in February). It's here, but you may need a Ravelry account to see it. This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

I don't read Captain Awkward nearly as often these days now there are no comments to the stories, but I had a look through and oh my, I like this page. The absent questions hang horribly in the air like a gamekeeper's rotting gibbet, and the answers are very sound.

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It was Sable's official birthday yesterday. She is.... FIVE! She celebrated with a few morsels of salmon, and sat on my lap in the evening as I knitted.

She was unimpressed on Friday—the day when, hurrah, the drillers departed at last, leaving the back garden brown but flat. Because it was also the day when the plumbers arrived to take stock of the job of replacing the radiators, and indeed embarked upon it, with much noisy drilling and movings of furniture. They made a good start, which is a relief. I *really* hope the plumbing stage won't overrun the way the drilling did.

We also had the scaffolding put up yesterday along the northern wall of the house, so that insulating cladding can be applied, um, soon.

It's quite a relief to have things be happening with reasonable speed! This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

Beast had put "Tenet" on his wishlist and received it for Christmas, so we watched it this week. It was... clever, I suppose. Not surprised at all by the final revelation, but it was done very well.

Having seen 'The Night Manager' as well, I don't think I'm going to be able to believe Elizabeth Debicki as anything other than the elegant, innocent trophy wife of an arms dealer, whatever else she may play. This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

Yes, skipped #6. Might post it later, depending.

Snowflake Challenge #7
In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy. (One or two is fine, especially if you're in a smaller fandom!)

I have only one space/resource/community to recommend, but it's something that has brought me enormous pleasure and which I recommend to other fans, pretty much whatever you may be a fan of.

( Collapse ) This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.

Was it yesterday or the day before that I woke up happy, due to the news on Radio 4 announcing that the Gove creature was stuck in the BBC lift? Heh.

The drilling crew are *still* here, but have at last drilled and filled all the holes, and are now doing the trenches to take the pipes from the holes to the house. My back garden looks like a battleground, but at least there is only one machine there now, the digger. It will all be over.... soon....

I note that Snowflake Challenge #5 was In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

Well. I want a crossover between The Administration and Dante's Cove. I thought about it, after that Camp Sparkle we spent in Brighton, when we watched a disturbing amount of Dante's Cove. Warrick is of course visiting the place in order to discuss installing a sim unit in the local inexplicable red room of sex. There have been complaints from the neighbours. Toreth considers this a grand idea—work for Warrick, sex holiday for Toreth. He sees the parade of man candy and is charmed, noticing with mild surprise that his shirts buttons are already undone. I dare say there would be a number of mostly-gratuitous sex scenes, and then Warrick—who is mostly immune to the shirt-opening effect—is seen in the hot tub with... somebody. Toreth is not pleased.

And so forth.

And if anybody would care to write such a story, I will read it with delight!

This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/72…. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can—you don't need an account.