It's been a while since I've recced fic, but if you have any inkling toward Iron Man then you need to RUN, not walk to samdonne's Nebraska.

"Tony tried to spot the connections, the collisions that gave birth to new threads. Before long he saw the failures, the breaches in his thinking, the misfirings, the thoughts that flailed, uncontacted, unsparked, undetected and undelivered by outside intervention. He stared down into the gaps and tried to imagine filling them with another intelligence. (He did not remember doing this very same thing as a young child, assembling imaginary companions—the building blocks of deities—, who would fill the holes and close the loops that his carers could not or would not fill or close; assembling, in the end, like so many before him, vastly improved mothers and fathers.)"

This is the first time I've participated in spn_j2_bigbang and I had a real blast with it. I worked with bad_peppermint on her story The Hapless Soldier's Sigh (I'll link over there once she's put it up) and it was just a real delight to illustrate off of - so many great ideas!

( Art for The Hapless Soldier's Sigh )

Good books, good comics, movies, songs. A particularly moving cup of coffee. It makes me want to create something impossible.

The role of Iranian women in protests. (Source: USAToday)

Tell the world how they have stolen their election.
Keep updated, stay educated.
[banner by candlejack]

Have been spending literally all my time camped out at ontd_political's live feed and discussions posts for this. Seriously, gogogogogo.

Reposted from one_hoopy_frood. This is not LJ-cut to save space because it is not something that deserves to be shoved aside and overlooked in favor of slash fic and catmacros. Seriously you guys, if you don't have linguist skills (in general or right this moment), at LEAST repost this to your own journal. Literally the worst thing you can do next to being ignorant is to BE SILENT.












For more information:
PICTURES:
here and here
NEW INFORMATION:
Here - near constant updates
Here - ONTD_political live post
ON TWITTER:
@StopAhmadi, @ProtesterHelp

Hey look, two posts in as many hours.

Anyway, Justine Larbalestier posted a great piece on gender dynamics in publishing, They're Just Girl Books, Who Cares? regarding this article in the New York Times.

I don't think I need to say anything other than: Auuuugh.

I got that job selling knives (as in cutlery, not bear skinning - although apparently they carry those too so you know. Whatever.), but now I've been doing some googling and I'm getting suspicious - this is one of those companies that primarily hires college students, etc. etc. and is similar to Avon or Marykay, but regardless there are definitely some things I'm going to be asking questions about today at our training. That said I really hope it works out because between this and the horses I think I may actually be on solid ground. Hooray!

Speaking of horses, I've been having a really good time working those two that I picked up over last weekend. The little gelding is insanely quiet for five - he really just trucks along. Ah, the benefits of western training (although he goes in a hackamore which means it takes me a lot longer to really get him to do what I want - but he's very easy going about it once he gets there).

The mare is a total sweetheart - as long as you have her in her stall. I know I've got some horse people on here, so if anyone has some tips and tricks that I might not be thinking of I'd greatly appreciate them! Basically the deal is that she's a four year old Thoroughbred mare and her owners aren't horse people. They bought her off someone they thought they knew well but was basically scamming them. This guy would come out the day before their kids were supposed to go ride the horse, run the horse in to the ground so she'd be quiet for the kids rather than legitimately training her, etc., etc.

So the mare is extremely sweet in her stall, but the minute you take her out of it her head comes up and she gets flighty and nervous. I get the feeling that she just learned that work - or going out of her stall - was shorthand for panic crazy time. What I've been doing the past two times I've seen her is basically just going through the routine and trying to build some kind of familiar, steady schedule. I've been tacking her up, taking her to the round pen, longing her with the curcingle and sidereins until she starts to work through the back and settle/listen to my cues. Then untack and I take her for a walk around the property until she cools off. Insert copious amount of treats, good girls and neck pets at all stages.

I'm hoping this works out, though I need to sit down with her owner on Sunday and talk about realistic goals. This isn't a horse I would feel comfortable with putting a kid on its back (she's only four! A very very Thoroughbred four!), although she's a BEAUTIFUL mare. Gorgeous mover, very intelligent. You can tell she's been banged around a little - her eyelid is missing a chunk and she has a scar across her forehead - but she's got a good heart under all that nervousness.

Lastly, a meme from jamaillith!

The problem with Live Journal is that we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. Hence, I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then, post this in your LJ and find out what people don’t know about you.

I'm planning to send a friend of mine some Hornblower books in order to convince her how awesome they are. I was originally thinking I'd send over Midshipman Hornblower simply because that's how I read them - chronologically rather than in publishing order - however I do think that Midshipman sort of takes a while (at least to fresh eyes) to really get rolling. Do we think there's a better alternative - go in publishing order - or should I just tell her to suck it up?

In response to tinocka's post here because it was about five times too long to just comment. Recommended you read there first if this is going to make much sense, although I do ask that no one go dragging wank all over her journal if you don't agree (because I started this, if anything but friendly debating is to come of this I'd prefer it stay here). Make debate, not wank etc., etc.

( Spock/Uhura: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hetero )

Aaaand, I'm pretty sure this whole spiel probably bought me a lifetime membership to geekville.

So there needs to be fanfiction written regarding Uhura and the vocabulary of speech, phonetics. re: semantics, morphology. Y/Y?

--

There is a beat - long and quavering - and then Jim Kirk says, "You're a diphthong."

Nyota rolls her eyes hard enough to see her brain.

God there is something glorious about getting two callbacks in one day for the thing I actually like doing. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting with a woman who owns a three year old TB mare that needs to be retrained, possibly feeding into giving her kids lessons. Sometimes next week I'll be meeting with a guy to talk about his quarter horse.

Today is ending so much better than it started.

Selling stuff to pay for gas money etc. All prices as named are before shipping but I can calculate once I have your address and you've told me what you want etc., etc. Furthermore, all prices are completely negotiable. Right now I've got a lot of manga, doujinshi and a couple of posters (misc.), though I'm thinking about throwing up some of my huge book collection as much as it pains me to consider it. Would anyone be interested in books (or alternatively, my first born child)?

( A WHOLE BUNCHA STUFF )

"Tony's expected to be a role model, and I don't think he's ready to be one," Favreau told the magazine. "He's under a great deal of pressure, and when you're under pressure, I think you find outlets for that. That's one of the tensions of the film: it's one thing to say you're Iron Man and another thing to actually become Iron Man." source

My tablet's just gone out after a week straight of flickering and randomly powering down. I'm hoping my handy dandy electronics buddy can fix the old girl, but it may be time to say goodbye. I've had this thing since my freshman year of high school. I've sort of been waiting for this day to come - I've been paranoid for the past three years about losing the stylus because it's to old to even replace.

I just would have...really appreciated it if the old gal had lived past Big Bang. I've got art due and the WIPs I've got right now are going to be less than useless if I can't finish it digitally. At least I've got six days to work on penciling so I have something to turn on if that's the case. Nnghk. Will have to figure out some other way to pay board for the boys if I can't take commissions though.

IT'S OKAY THOUGH. I AM ZEN. I'm just going to take a break to sit down and write fanfiction about James Kirk hanging onto things, okay? Sounds like a plan. We can talk about Spock's life being a series of letting go later, right?

Last night I dreamt I was back in Connecticut for another work study - very sudden, left in a matter of days - and I realized only belatedly that I haven't been riding as much as I should have and that I'd be a big disappointment. Somehow I managed to hide this until we were at Saugerties where at the last second before going into the ring I was trying to polish my boots with 'Cheating At Horse Shows' polish (fact: Michael Page is a stickler for a mirror shine on boots), except this is what I was brooking on: that I'd have been cleaning my boots regularly, whereas in reality I clearly hadn't - much like keeping up my riding. I woke up somewhere around the time that Michael kicked me into the ring.

First thing I did when I got out to the barn this morning was pull the stirrups off my saddle. *FACEPALM*

So, I haven't talked about the show Southland much this 'mini season' that it's had, but now that it's over for the year, I think I need to talk about it because it's pretty much freaking amazing.

( Southland - here be minor spoilers, but mostly just insensible raving )

God I love this show; I'm not the only one, am I?

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810045845/video/13526202

I'm not sure if I'm stoked or horrified. Like on one hand: HEE, but on the other - WTFWTFWTF.

( SPN 2x22 - Lucifer Rising )

Is it September yet?

HNNGHK. My beautiful 4.0 is ruined. At least it was a B and not a C.