faketales

MY BODY IS READY AND WILLING

(Two thoughts on the MLS match I'm watching: 1. The Impact jerseys are the prettiest blue ever. 2. RSL has a player named Johnny Steele. Nuff said.)

How do I cope with depression? By watching a frantic, messy, violent sport, of course. I need something to get me through the two weeks until the MLS season starts and the 38 days until the MLB season starts.

I can't stop watching this goal:



It's totally hilarious to get into a sport using fandom, since I'm learning about players through slash and picspams of who's hot. And the Staal family is already my kryptonite, because there is nothing I love more than siblings who play the same sport. (See: Kljestans, Valentins, Holdens, Rapinoes.)

Also, the world clearly needs a Generation Kill hockey AU in which Brad is always chirping guys with his wit and the other guys are too flustered to even realize they're being insulted half the time except for Ray, who just laughs and chirps back, leaving Brad first amazed and then attracted and soon they're fucking in the hallways in arenas. Right?

I'd like to take some time to talk about BOOKS. I have been reading a lot recently (of the 75 books I read in 2011 25 of them were in the last two months of the year) mainly due to a job where I can sit and read for ten hours a week. But this sudden increase of reading time means I have been forced out of my book comfort zone a bit or else I will run out of books. Last year I read 39 young adult books, far and away the most I read of anything. I like YA because they tend to be quick reads, and even if I'm not 100% thrilled I can push myself to finish them in another hour. Plus, YA authors are more interconnected and their recommendations lead me to other YA books.

Things I like to read about (fiction and nonfiction): queer people, strong friendships, nontraditional families that are kind of fucked up but incredibly loyal to one another, awesome female characters, psychopaths, wars, musicians, funny people, epic fantasy, and anything that's confusing and frustrating but fantastic at the same time and then you only love it more on each subsequent reread.

Only two of those things are ever dealbreakers, though. I can read whole books that feature none of those things, but if they've got no women (or just poor ones) and no queer people then I'm probably going to give up. YA is usually pretty good about the strong women and slightly less so about the queerness, but that's where the quick read helps. It's harder to get pissed off about something that takes only three hours. (Except for John Green, who is on notice, because Tiny Cooper isn't enough, sir.) Conversely, a book that is otherwise not interesting to me might end up on my to-read list because I read that it features queer and/or awesome female characters.

Awesome things I have read recently: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Moral of the story: I currently have a dozen books on the floor next to my bed and it should occupy me for about two weeks but book recommendations are always welcome. Thank you!


Last night I was going to post about trying to write original fiction for the first time since NaNoWriMo and discovering that I can't do it because I suck, but I was too busy yelling at crushing on Carli Lloyd and yelling at Pia Sundhage to get Hope Solo off the pitch.

On day 2 of NaNoWriMo my word count is at day 5, and I am trying not to be too smug about this but failing miserably. I wrote 500 words by hand in my car went I got to work early and my hand is cramping up because I don't write like that anymore. It makes me feel like an awful person, but at the same time I appreciate being solidly in the age of computers just for the solid footing it gives me.

I absolutely abhor the new Google Reader, so much so that I almost used the survey they have up on Google Docs to express my dissatisfaction. I didn't share a whole lot before, or have any people I followed, but I did occasionally check on the profiles of people who liked the same posts as me and then discover new blogs to follow. And I used to be able to see how many new entries there were at all times, without having to scroll up, and as someone who is obsessive about reading things in order it's now so hard to make sure that nothing else is left before reading the best. Hopefully someone will have unveiled a close approximation to the original by the time I'm done with NaNoWriMo.

On top of that, I still haven't figured out where to stash my fandom bookmarks in a post-delicious world. I know that pinboard is taking over for a lot of people and that Maciej is being all sorts of awesome but I already have a nonfandom account there. I love it dearly but it is much simpler to keep things separate, and even though I'd be willing to pay for another just for fandom it won't work unless I can easily switch between the two accounts. bookshop's issues with diigo rule that one out. For now I'm saving fic on chrome, and it's not working out at all, but it's still better than delicious's complete failure to save anything the way I wanted it to once the switch went over.

On the subject of fic, Twenty-Twelve by sheafrotherdon made me shiver at the awesomeness.

Now I am watching MLS playoffs and thinking of buying a bright green shirt and flying across the country just to sit with the amazingly passionate fans in Seattle. (Also, Tony Beltran is playing defense for Real Salt Lake and all I can think of is four years ago when he played for the youth team and ussoccer.com told stories about him and Sal Zizzo playing hide-and-seek in the dark, and it reminds me that watching these kids* grow up is one of my favorite thing about following sports.)

*He's a year younger than I am. But I still consider myself a child, so.

hope fucking solo

this is how i'm spending my morning:




(what, is there something better i could be doing?)

i saw crazy, stupid, love. over the weekend.

( spoilers, i suppose )

...

this is brek shea. he is currently my favoritest person in the world, with his awful hair and hipster clothes and his absolute decimation of the kansas city defense.

and furthermore on the subject of footie, the usmnt finally snagged juergen klinsmann. much joy in my house about this.

...

i finished reading divergent today and i enjoyed it a lot. really looking forward to the sequel. if you loved the hunger games, you should read this.

...

i've spent the last week falling for syfy's (*snickers*) haven. it's got the best ot3 i've found in ages, and i love them so much that i wrote something for the porn battle xii. gah.

 i am reading after diana by christopher andersen because i am in the mood to expand my knowledge about the royal family on a superficial level. so far it’s delivering on the scandal and callousness, even though i’m skeptical about the accuracy of 90% of the stuff. but there’s a line from page 14 that is, uh, kind of odd:
( behind the cut )