Reads Randomly

So I kind of had an anniversary that I totally forgot about on the day thanks to interesting real life stuff. But 10 years ago this past Monday, I officially posted my first fanfic. Quags was born a little but before that, but the fic thing was kind of a big deal. I never thought that 10 years later that I would still be writing. That people would still like my stuff. That I would still be branching out into new fandoms. That LJ would turn into such a ghost town. :-(

On my 5th anniversary, I offered to write 100 word drabbles for anyone who would give me a promp and a fandom. I would love to do that again, but I'm not sure if anyone is still around enough to be interested. (The offer stands, though.) So if anyone can thing of a good way for me to commemorate what has been a interesting part of my life, please let me know.

In the past month, I've gone to Japan, been shaken by an earthquake while NOT in Japan, tried to ignore some significant anniversaries of major tragedies, applied to a graduate program and before any of that happened saw the final Harry Potter with my brother, completing the set. While each of those are worthy of their own post, I'm not feeling very good with words right now. Instead, I bring you YouTube videos from various shows I've enjoyed over the years. See them before they get reported! :-)

( We've got Sorkin, Asian dramas and Charlie Crews, if you're interested... )

Next time I post, I promise it will be Quaggy generated content. :-)

 Seriously, first the little girl from Annie and HELEN HUNT in the Frog Prince and now Carrie Fisher as Thumblina!!



I sort of remember watching this one as a kid. No surprise since I think I saw the entire Fairy Tale Theater series. It's a wonder that any of us turned out normal!! (If you have trouble seeing the video, go here: http://youtu.be/0XXyJV5EDBU)

So there was an attack on LJ on my 5th year anniversary. Seems a little ominous, don't you think?

Five years ago today, I posted my very first fic. Actually I posted three. (One of the few times I've ever posted multiple times in one day.) At first, this was nothing but a place where I dumped my West Wing fic, but little by little I started branching out into other fandoms (though I wasn't always successful) and experimented with other fani-sh forms of expression. I even started posting about my life off-line (though those posts are usually friend-locked at the very least). LJ is such a big part of my life now, it's hard to imagine what I would do without it. Twitter just isn't the same and you all know how I feel about Facebook.

So how do I celebrate?  Well, it seemed appropriate to go back to how this all began... with fic. I thought about offering DVD commentary or a fanwank Q&A, but I think new fic is the way to go. Lord knows, I'm a horribly slow writer, but I do seem to turn out 100 word drabbles pretty fast.  So...

In honor of the occasion, give me a fandom and a prompt (or two or three), and I'll give you a 100 word drabble in the next few days (or maybe weeks).

I don't mind branching out into a fandom I haven't written for yet, as long as I'm familiar with it. I actually enjoy trying something new. Though it's always nice to have the excuse to write West Wing too. Can't forget your roots!

List 10 platonic male/female relationships in fiction that you enjoy.

Rules:
1. They interact in canon, preferably in a significant (apply your own interpretation of such) way.
2. They are not related. They can, however, view each other as surrogate family.
3. Neither has confessed or implied romantic love for the other in canon.
4. They have not dated, been married, had sex, or made out in canon, on purpose, and of their own free will.
5. A popular fanon ship is ok (though preferably not your ship) but a canon pairing you wish were just friends is out.
6. Try to avoid using the same character or series twice.

I really couldn't resist this one. It was an excellent exercise for me, since I'm such an utter "best friend" shipper. If a male & female character have close friendship in canon, chances are that I'll be shipping them sooner or later, canon or not. I liked proving to myself that I actually can enjoy a male/female friendship without wishing there was more. As it turned out, all ten pairing were from television shows, though 3 of them you've probably never heard of. While some of these pairing on the list are (or at least could be) active ships, I just like their relationship as is.

( My Ten Non-Ships )

As many of you know, I've been watching Asian dramas for a couple years now.  More like mini-series, most dramas have a set number of episodes and a full story arc. As it so happens, the three dramas I've been following all ended within a week of each other. So I thought I would share my thoughts.

*Warning* This post is very image heavy!!! I can talk about these dramas forever, but sometimes pictures can convey why I liked a specific show better than if I go into detail about the plot. (Note: I didn't create the screen caps myself. I've picked the images up from a variety of places, but mostly Dramabeans. (Well, at least in the case of the Korean dramas and the .gif at the very end.) I would love to post clips too since a lot of my enjoyment came from the delivery and expressions as it did from the plot, but clips have a sad way of disappearing from their hosting sites. So still images it is!)


I talked about this drama before when it first aired. Even though I had pretty major misgivings, ( I'm happy to say... )



At 45 episodes, Smile, You is by far the longest Asian drama I've watched (so far). It was a sweet family drama, but, contrary to what you'd expect, ( the series had trouble after... )



I'm actually going to save Wish Upon A Star for its own separate post, since that drama turned out to be my favorite and therefore and I have an unreasonably high number of images. But as as a little teaser, here is something completely adorable from the show...

Yesterday was Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary and it seems like everyone is getting in on the act, even Google! Today, I went on Sesame Street's YouTube channel and gathered as many of my favorite classic clips as I could find. There was the King of Eight, the Queen of Six (forgot about her!), an operatic orange, a Teeny Little Super Guy, Martians, and Tweedlebugs. Tatyana Ali (long, long before the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire) met Herbie Hancock and Tony Danza played tennis with Big Bird. There was even a very cute bit with Yo-Yo Ma! I thought I'd share them. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?







( Even more under here... )

And for one last trip down memory lane, this was my Sesame Street...





Thank you for 40 wonderful, educational years, Sesame Street. Here's to 40 more!

I've seen this meme around plenty of places, most recently at unoriginal_liz and finally decided to give it a shot. It makes a nice change of pace from everything I've been working with over at keytus_tv.


Tell me a Fandom and I shall respond with my...

1. One True Pairing Ship:
2. Canon Ship:
3. "If this happens I'll stab my eyes out with a spork" Ship:
4. "You are one sick bastard" Ship:
5. "I dabble a little" Ship:
6. "It's like a car crash" Ship:
7. "Tickles my fancy but not sold just yet" Ship:
8. "Makes no canon sense but why the Hell not" Ship:
9. "Everyone else loves it but I just don't feel it" Ship:


....and then YOU can tell me if my answer surprised you or not! ;-P

It's up! It's up!! Keytus Television is up and open for business!!

What's Keytus Television? Go here to find out!

I'm really excited about this project and hope my all my f-list will check it out and participate, whether they are Keytus Kids or not!!!

On my way to work yesterday, a tourist stopped me to ask directions.

“I knew you were a local. You looked like you were from around here,” she said. I walked the rest of the way to work with a big grin on my face.

I love being from DC. It has it’s own culture and flavor that is hard to describe to outsiders. It’s very quirky and surprisingly apolitical. This Washington Post article from the Inauguration gets close. The politicians and the lobbyists may get all of the attention, but I’ve lived in a very different world from that, where people wear their government badges with geeky pride and Metro is main way to get around. It’s a pedestrian city. I bring this last part up, because the distance between places is the thing that The West Wing usually and consistently gets wrong.

I know I’ve complained before about the closing shot in 20 Hours In America when Toby, Donna and Josh all walk back into the city over the Watergate Bridge. It’s a beautiful image of the city. But you know what else? It’s at least a 30 minute walk to the White House from there. I should know. I’ve done it before!!

Last night, I watched “Shutdown” for the first time in years. I really enjoyed it (maybe even more than I did the first time around) but then Angela Blake said that the Capitol was only a five or ten minute walk away from the National Gallery, which is definitely an underestimate. Five minutes will get you to the Capitol Reflecting Pool. If you walk fast. And how would Josh, who had been working in and around the Capitol his whole life, not know how long of a walk it was?!

Then, as an added kicker, as CJ and Toby watch the news on television, the newscaster (a self-proclaimed twenty-five year Washingtonian) mixed up the National Archives with the National Gallery. You do not get those two building mixed up. Not to mention it’s close to another half hour from the Archives to the Capitol. Again, I know because I’ve walked it!

I remember at the time having trouble buying that Secret Service would be okay with Jed casually taking a stroll up Pennsylvania Ave. (Though I always figured that Josh ran the idea by the Secret Service first before presenting it to the President.) Now, after having gone through the most recent Inauguration (HE WALKED!), I realized one reason that the Secret Service would have been okay with President Bartlet setting out on foot: it’s mostly government building from there until the Capitol. Empty government building because the government was closed. Nice how that worked out!

Other than those blatant inaccuracies, it was a very good episode. It’s easy to forget those existed during Season 5. Yes, pod!Leo was in full force, but it’s was such a Josh episode. And in a lot of ways, this was the episode where Josh went from being Leo’s boy to Jed’s virtual stand-in. This was probably the episode that helped give root to number 3 on my fanon list. And Donna saved Social Security, which still just delights me.