My house is now empty. It took two days -- one day (plus a little) for three people to pack us, and one day for the movers to take everything out. Aside from the general misery of moving, it really wasn't too bad. I managed to make the two biggest fuckups -- I dropped a plastic easel and broke it (no biggie), and I tripped on the stairs, spilling half of my last precious Cherry Coke Zero. Fortunately, the carpet was already going to be replaced, so the only real casualty was another bruise to add to my collection.

Current injury count: about seven or eight, I think, about half of which I know the origin of. There's the purple one from where I hit the stairs two days ago, the yellowish-brown one from moving the big chest of drawers outside to sell to the Craigslist guy, and the small one on my shin from stopping a rolling dolly with my leg. No idea what I did to my right thumb, or where the papercut on my left index finger came from, but I didn't hurt myself in any way requiring surgery, so we're going to call that a win.

Looks like I will be heading up to the new city in about two weeks. Hopefully at that point, I'll get my brain back and I can resume more of my fannish stuff. (semielliptical, I totally have not forgotten that I owe you a Sweet Charity story. Though I'm not entirely sure what computer the current draft is on. I think it's the laptop, and that's staying with me, so I will try to get back to it soon.)

People. People in my house packing my stuff. La la la la. I'm working on about six hours sleep, and husband on about four.

The ideal situation is that they finish early enough that we can take a nap before we have to go do stuff tonight.

People touching my stuff. Ack. God, I hope I didn't forget to pack anything I'm going to need.

What I am NOT doing: Watching the Doctor Who finale.

What I AM doing: Disassembling furniture. But people are coming to give me money for it, so that's nice.

Yes, the wall-vaccuumming was related to the moving. Walls get dusty too, apparently, especially if the wall is behind a large piece of furniture that you haven't moved in almost ten years.

But the money part is definitely good, as is the part where we get large pieces of furniture out of the house. Before today is done, though, Doctor Who for me.

What I am NOT doing right now: Watching Doctor Who.

What I AM doing right now: Vaccuuming my walls.

Big news! We are moving from Texas to southeast Washington State. Husband is being transferred. I have worked out a deal to telecommute for my current employer, and I am SO THRILLED that I get to keep my job. And work at home.

And speaking of home, we bought a house today! Now all we have to do is cull through all the junk we have here, prepare to move, figure out dates, arrange for contractors and realtors, and keep nine million receipts for tax purposes.

I was dubious about this, but keeping my job allayed a lot of my concerns. There's not much here I'll really be giving up, since my close friends all live in the internet box. I will be within driving distance of the Seattle and Portland fannish populations, and I look forward to meeting up with you guys at some point.

Now, back to cleaning and restrained panicking.

This morning, I saw a passing reference to the St. Crispin's Day speech, which always makes me think of Sports Night. Naturally.

Dan: Our anniversary. Today is our anniversary.
Casey: Gee, Dan, that night in Minnapolis with the Jaggermiester, we didn't do anything untoward, did we?
Dan: You mean did we get married?
Casey: Yeah.
Dan: No.
Casey: Good.
Dan: You recited the St Crispin's Day speech from the lobby of the St Paul Radisson.
Casey: Well, was it untoward?
Dan: No, it was just embarassing.

I think Sports Night might be the fannish show I quote from most often (at least in my head, since I don't generally blurt out fannish quotes unless I'm at a con). Runners-up would include Buffy, Firefly, and SGA.

Some of the more useful Buffy quotes include "Note to self: religion freaky." and "Fire bad, tree pretty." and "Love makes you do the wacky." Firefly has the ubiquitous "I'll be in my bunk."

What about you? What shows do you quote? What lines?

Last night, I dreamed that I was playing Password with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry, for some reason, was very bad at it.

How cool is that? +10 for originality, dream brain.

Good morning! Good morning! It's mah birthday! It's mah birthday!

This means it is also the birthday of the splendiferous kormantic, may a thousand good things rain upon her head (but not literally, because that would hurt.)

I know I haven't been around much lately. Work is moderately insane, and there's some stuff going on with me. Not bad stuff, really, but stuff. Stuff takes away energy and brain power, so I've been spending most of my evenings on the couch, watching three series of Coupling. I think stuff should be settled soon, one way or the other, and hopefully I'll get some of my brain back.

But today! In case I haven't mentioned! Is mah birthday! Are we feeling a little hobbitty? How about six-word stories for them that wants it? Leave me a character and a prompt, and I will see what I can do for you.

And if anyone wants to leave me drabbles or snippets or six-word stories in the comments, that would be good too.

What amazes me about the recent spate of assholery (LJ election, Wiscon, and so on) is that it seems to take a lot of effort to be an asshole. This is not something you trip into accidentally.

I am in favor of "don't be an asshole" as a general rule of social interaction, and though I'm not always as kind as I probably should be, I try not to be an asshole. Partially, I have to say, this is because I am *lazy*. If I'm going to put that amount of time into something, I would rather it be something (like fanfic) that gets me lots of ego strokes and love, not drama and hate. I suppose if I were the kind of person that got ego strokes from drama and hate, I would feel differently.

But seriously, just thinking about the work involved exhausts me. I would prefer to lounge on the couch and watch Doctor Who.

Boss out today. Coworker out today. Other coworker not expected in until later. Receptionist irritating me. Haven't seen last night's Office, as I chose to watch CSI instead, and that was a bad, bad choice. Life, so very hard, except for the part where it's Friday and I have the last two Lemony Snicket books to read and finally finish.

So let's do the whole Friday distraction thing. Ask me a fannish question, or ask for a five-things list or a six-word story. Ask me about my icons. Or any of those other fannish memes that resurface periodically.

Go get some loving in infinitemonkeys's LJ. And if you want to give me some love while you're there, that would work too.

Woohoo for free wireless in airports!

...that's pretty much all I have to say. Except that god, I hate small airplanes.

I am not having a good day. How are you guys?

Only three days of work this week, and then Thursday, I am free to go party with gritkitty and shrift and bunches of other people I am too tired to type out.

Doctor Who this season: AWESOME.

New episode of House tonight: AWESOME.

Last week's episode of Lost: confusing, yet kind of AWESOME.

Ben Linus: SCARY MOTHERFUCKER.

What are you finding AWESOME these days?

A Torchwood drabble for greensilver.

( Go wild )

Oh, noes. According to a review in Salon, Deception, the new movie starring Ewan McGregor AND Hugh Jackman, which apparently involves a SEX CLUB...is not very good.

How is this possible? This is like an Equilibrium-level disaster.

The thing is, I don't really want to post about this. I'd like to be able to put it out of my mind and walk away.

But I can't.

I go to a few cons a year. Vividcon, Escapade or con.txt, and DragonCon. One of these things is not like the other. DragonCon is very large, in the tens of thousands of people, and has a lot more men than the other cons.

And now, in this context, I'm finding that kind of disturbing. Ah, yes, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could live in a world where some random guy I don't know can ask me, without any sort of shame, if he can grope me?

NO, MOTHERFUCKERS. NO, IT WOULD NOT. My body is *mine*. I should not have to wear a button that answers the question "Grope: Y/N?" I should not have to explain why this is threatening, why I have to worry about some drunk fucker wanting to "heal" himself by grabbing me, or about what counts as a sufficiently "obvious" display of sexuality to convert me from a person into an object.

And I already had to worry about those things. What was really *missing* here was a fucking MOVEMENT to convince people that this kind of objectification is not only acceptable, but also happy and fluffy and healthy.

I feel sick to my stomach. I honestly do.

For more articulate thoughts, read:
springheel_jack here, kate_nepveu here, and the_red_shoes here.

Having watched "Once" (as well as associated commentaries), I am rather inconveniently in love with Glen Hansard.

Bother.

An FYI for those of you who read in Heroes fandom and who may not have celli or yahtzee63 on your flist.

ilsaluvsrick was caught plagiarizing one of thisisbone's Fast and the Furious stories earlier this week. This was not the first time she's done this, nor the first time she's been caught.

celli's post
yahtzee63's post
stop_plagiarism's report, which links to the previous report where she was caught plagiarizing original fic.

I'm posting about this for two reasons. First of all, it's pretty clear that she's an unapologetic serial plagiarizer who's taken stories from Alias, The Fast and the Furious, and Scrubs fandoms. To me, this suggests that everything she's written may be plagiarized, and should probably be looked at.

Second, it is so easy for stuff like this to slip under fandom's radar. In January, when she got caught, she posted a soul-searching apology, and people believed her, because people want to believe the best of someone. And that means not hanging the dirty laundry out to dry.

But she abused that good will, and it is time to point some fingers.

With any luck, the Harry Potter Lexicon trial will be extra wanky and keep me entertained this week.

If you want the best summation of the entire ridiculous thing, your best resource is (seriously) Fandom Wank.

I imagine the people at OTW are keeping an eye on this one. If I understand correctly, one of the main reasons that WB and Rowling are suing to prevent publication is because the proposed encyclopedia is not sufficiently "transformative." From the NY Times:

At stake is whether authors other than Ms. Rowling have the right to publish books that rely substantially on her work as source material, and whether the “Harry Potter Lexicon” in particular sufficiently adds to and transforms the content of her books to be protected by copyright law.

(Personally, I am hoping for a courtroom outburst where Perry Mason gets Steve VanderArk to break down on the witness stand and admit that he killed his secretary because she found out about his embezzlement scheme...wait, wrong fictional universe.)

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Thanks to athena4lynn for the news that Gareth David Lloyd is coming to DragonCon. (OMG! OMG! OMG! *hyperventilates*)