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[rusty_halo]

So for the past hour, we've been looking out our office windows watching people set up a gigantic red blow-up float thingy of Santa Claus riding a huge lobster. Anyone have any idea what this means? We figure they're selling something--lobsters? Christmas decorations:? Is it some kind of early cinco de mayo celebration? Are they promoting bestiality between fat men and lobsters?

Also. Every day the mail guy comes and he calls me "princess." I hate it. It's not funny. And everyone laughs about it and I feel obligated to smile and be nice, but really I just find it terribly condescending and not funny and irritating and I wish it would just stop, and I wish I was a great big intimidating man so that no one would ever call me "princess."

We ordered Indian food today, and they completely screwed up our orders, and then they were assholes on the phone and wouldn't send us the right food. And my female coworker freaked out and got really upset, so she gave the phone to my male coworker and he convinced them to send replacement food. This also upsets me.

Reading LJ. People are still kerfuffling over Marsters? God, that's like, so two years ago. :P

Actually, I rediscovered this last night. Ah, the good old days--I sort of miss being able to start a kerfuffle with just a bitchy JM post. It was pretty funny. (Though I'm also somewhat embarrassed by my devotion to something I now find so completely... irrelevant.) I think that post got on fandom_wank, and was the inspiration for me leaving some snooty elitist yahoo list in a huff because they were bitching about me without realizing I was on the list, and then witling started writing that boglescatverse story for me because I was all upset.... although maybe I'm confusing things; I think I had multiple kerfuffley posts. Way back when. I was such a newbie, I cared so much about this inane social bullshit that I don't even notice anymore.

It's weird seeing who I used to talk to back then--some people who ended up becoming close friends, and some who I've totally lost touch with. It's weird that I've had a LJ for over two years; it still feels sort of new, like something I'm experimenting with, rather than something I just do. Truthfully, I'd probably have been long gone, except people kept gifting me with paid time, so I felt obligated to stay, and now I'm pretty much stuck with it, because now I maintain some important relationships solely through LJ and I don't want to lose those.

Yesterday someone linked to this, and I thought I was going to die laughing. I mean, no offense to those who like him, to each his own and all, but, dude. Seriously. Are you kidding?

I miss 10zlaine already. How dare she go to New Zealand and not have internet access for a week?!

monanotlisa asked that I put together a QaF recs list, since I'm reading so much of it lately. That's my role in fandom, isn't it? Starting kerfuffles and screening out badfic. (Could be worse; at least I've got good taste. ;)

Anyway, I'm mainly going to rec authors rather than stories, because most people who write well tend to do so consistently.

I will be adding to this list whenever I find a new writer or story that I like.

Good writers:
Mint Witch
Valerie
Rachel Anton
Julad
Josselin
Jenn/seperis
Starla
Tinkerbell

herself_nyc's Brian/Spike fragment and Chase's wonderful Brian/Michael, Brian/Spike, Brian/Wes WIP The Man Who Wasn't There.

Anat isn't a very good writer--I don't think English is her first language--but her characterizations are excellent, her dialogue is good, and her plots are above average. If you're looking for fairly realistic Brian/Michael, her stuff satisfies.

Anemone's You Spin Me Right Round is an incredibly depressing but very well written Brian/Michael fic. The characterizations are some of the best I've read, and definitely helped satisfy my desire for good Brian fic. She also captured the Brian/Michael relationship perfectly. Unfortunately the story itself is one of those tearjerkers where the whole plot is basically one character getting sick and dying. If you can tolerate that, though, it's worth it for the characterizations and relationships. (And, warning: the end made me cry. I'm such a pussy sometimes.)

Anemone is also the author of Two Halves. It's similar to You Spin Me Right Round--she's got a major h/c kink, and not in a good way--both of her stories revolve around characters becoming deathly ill in unpleasantly realistic ways. Think hospitals, and way TMI on various diseases. This one is a bit better than the previous, though--she maintains the excellent Brian and Michael characterizations, continues to treat the supporting characters fairly, and adds a bit more action and plot. She also throws in a bit of supernatural--Brian and Michael are psychically connected--but it's subtle, not the point of the story, and builds well on canon. I appreciated the extra intruiging element. The story is more exciting and fun than You Spin Me Right Round. It's also a bit sappy, but the happier ending was appreciated after her previous story made me cry.

One thing I've found terrifically annoying, though, is her tendency to fade to black during very important sex scenes--Brian and Michael have sex for the first time, and all we hear is "Afterwards..." I'm not asking for PWP, but she's leaving out important scenes, either because she's afraid to write sex or she's a prude, and the stories suffer for it.

Though I do like that these two stories aren't about Brian Realizing It's Time To Grow Up And Settle Down. They're more just Brian realizing how much he loves Michael and can't function without Michael. So it's more about the characters themselves, their particular connection, than about their need to fit into pre-ordained social roles. I still don't like the idea of Brian settling down, but this is much better than those preachy "Brian learns a lesson about how erotic love is the ideal form of human relationships and that everyone has to 'settle down' in order to be happy" nausea-inducing type stories.

Anemone also wrote Books With Gilded Covers, probably my least favorite of her work so far. It starts with (what else?) Michael getting sick, but it's more about a Mary Sue drag queen who comes in and helps Brian and Michael see the light (that they belong together). It's also written from the perspective that Brian already knows he's in love with Michael and wants a relationship, which didn't work for me at all. I have no interest in Brian and Michael "settling down" and turning monogamous, so mostly I just found the story irritating. The characterizations were good, as usual, but there was less focus on the depth and meaning and connection of their relationship--or less exploration of that, I should say, as it was basically treated as a given.

It's also a bit bashy in its characterizations of Ben, Linsday, and Melanie--though, as I'm not a fan of those characters, I can't say it bothered me terribly. It was fun that the ultimate theme was that the only people whose opinions matter about Brian/Michael are Brian and Michael themselves, and it was wonderful to see Melanie and Lindsay get called on their hypocrisy and constant meddling.

Anemone's stories are also irritating because they're written from the premise that Brian has to change to accomodate Michael--that Brian has to become monogamous (and that, deep down, what he really wants more than anything in the world is Michael, so once he gets over his fear of failure, he'll easily go for monogamy). I'd much rather see a story where they meet in the middle, where Michael realizes that Brian isn't cut out for monogamy, that heteronormative suburban "bliss" isn't the only path to happiness in life. That alternative relationships can and do work. Ultimately these stories validate the norm and discount the alternative, by default, as if no one ever really thought the alternative could actually be viable. I find this offensive, and rather condescending for a writer who's supposedly a Brian fan. (But then, that's what almost every writer I've found so far has done--prioritize traditional, heteronormative, suburban, "romantic," blah blah blah).

Two recs pages: here and here. Most of this is stuff you'd have to like Brian/Justin to appreciate.

I spent a while looking through always-fanfic.net, a big Brian/Michael site, but there's very little worthwhile fic there. (The best I've found so far is this, which isn't saying much.)

That site is an open archive, pretty much fanfiction.net quality. I'm not a very good shipper. I mean, I like Brian and Michael together and I want to read about them, but I still laugh my ass off at anyone who thinks they were Fated By The Stars To Be Together Forever. And really, I could care less if they have sex. I just want to see them interacting, and angsting, preferably. Part of my problem is generic; I don't like romance. I like character exploration, preferably with lots of angst and action and violence. Supernatural elements don't hurt, either. (I'm a genre fan, dammit!)

Someone find me a good, anti-marriage/romance/"settling down"/traditional heteronormativity Brian/Michael writer, please. There's only so much simperingly sycophantic feedback I can send to Chase before she gets sick of me.

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[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

I need to find something kerfuffleable.