Confessions of a One-Track Mind

Oh, plot bunny, why must you torment me so?!

I think it's fairly common knowledge that I'm really not in SPN fandom any more. Haven't been in quite a while, "Heroes Rest" not withstanding. Which makes the current mash-up in my brain all the more exasperating.

At the moment, my TV is hooked up to a digital converter box. I get exactly two channels: CBS and RTV (Retro). Retro shows Route 66 reruns---for anyone who's not familiar with it, R66 is a series that debuted in 1960, and features two guys roaming the US in their muscle car. In this case, the car is a Corvette and the guys aren't brothers, but there is a fair amount of helping and/or saving people that goes on. In a lot of ways, it's SPN without the monsters.

Last night, I looked R66 up on Wikipedia, and discovered that in the final episode (NO, I'm NOT going to do a spoiler-cut for a 50-year old episode. Get over it.) Stiles gets married. To Barbara Eden. In Tampa.

The inner SPN fangirl, who still pops up once in a while, reminded me that Sam once alluded to some events Dean became embroiled in in Tampa (pre-series), and ba-boom, a plot bunny was hatched.

Like, what if Todd is still in the Tampa area? I'm thinking haunted fairgrounds, and the boys go undercover at a car show that's being held there. (I've actually been to the Tampa Fairgrounds, altho since I'm not actually planning to write the darn thing---!) But it makes perfect sense---Dean and the Impala wind up next to Todd, who still has the 'Vette. And they bond*, since they each inherited their cars from their dads (although John was still alive at that point in canon...still, it was his car first). And if Todd's wife pops by to bring him lunch or something, I can just imagine Dean commenting, maybe later to Sam, that she reminds him of the chick from "I Dream of Jeannie".

I don't remember the exact quote about Tampa, just that it seemed like Dean probably shouldn't go back there. So clearly, chaos ensues at some point during the hunt. Of course, if I really wanted to mash things up, I'd throw in a possessed Plymouth Fury...wait, I am NOT writing this!

Although maybe I should. God, it scares me to think of how old Martin Milner is getting to be....

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*Another thing, Dean has the whole clean-cut crew cut thing going on, and I see Todd appreciating that, as compared to the "hairy hippie" look.

And y'know, considering how often Dean must have to get his hair trimmed to maintain that look, it's a wonder the FBI never posted his "Wanted" poster in any barber shops.

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Tomorrow, BigRed is lunching me at Ruby Tuesday. I've been studying their menu online---the only thing I know for sure I want is the Italian Creme Cake for dessert. Otherwise, I'm browsing the site going, "Hmm, that sounds good. Or that...oooh, asiago?!"

With the need to be civilized in public, I've got laundry happening. Went out there thinking I might make a stab at the laundry room, but getting a load into the washer was all I was up for. It's still a little too warm for prolonged effort.

It looks like I'm getting a "new" microwave---PJ and AI have remodeled their kitchen, and their old one is up for grabs. It's twice the size of the one I've got (which was also secondhand), and I look forward to being able to cook with ALL my Pyrex and Corelle, not just the small pieces that fit in that dorm-sized microwave. Of course, the new one is going to take up a whole lot more real estate on the counter, but everything's a trade-off....

I've been writing a bit this week. Got a little treat for someone (backstory!), and have been trying to concentrate on my CAYN fic. It's already about two-thirds done---I started it a few years ago---and I know where it's going. Getting there...I have to get back into the rhythm of writing. I need to get it finished in good time to allow a beta time to go over it, and it's definitely going to need a beta; I've revised it numerous times over the years, tend to lapse into present tense AND my POV is prone to wandering.

Time to go respin the spin cycle---I read where that saves wear and tear on the dryer.

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I'm not in the habit of taking down stories I've posted, but I got trolled once too often over at The Pit and pulled "The Heat Wave" (Still available here and at AO3). That was the Adam-12 slash I did a couple months ago. It's pretty much the only thing I've written this year, and I'm over the constant bitching I got from everyone there.

For the record, I still ship Mack and Malloy, and I have no qualms about presenting Pete as an avid bisexual. That's just how I see it, and I don't think it's any more ludicrous than the canon premise of Adam-12 stamping out crime in LA practically single-handed. However, if there's no audience for it, or worse, everyone's going to dog-pile on me becaue YKINMK and that's NOT okay, well, why bother?

So...I pulled it. And because I've come to the reluctant conclusion that The Pit has jumped the shark*, I've started posting the cream of the crop over at AO3. That's gonna take a while, since I have over 150 stories at the Pit, some of them multi-chapter. Although some of it really isn't worth the trouble.

Meanwhile, karaokegal is hostessing her annual "Come As You're Not" Halloween party. (http://karaokegal.livejournal.com/1520607.html) This makes me happy, as it's produced some good fic in years past. I'm working on something, a very old something that's been unfinished in my closet for a looong time. It's one of those stories I can't seem to quit, so I'm going to make a big push and finish the damned thing. At the moment, it's around 10K words, and that's *maybe* two-thirds of it? IDK.

So, dear f'listies, if you write, you're invited to come up with a costume for CAYN. Hope to se you there!

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* I'm so over it I've stopped replying to reviews. Since the beginning (2004), I used to reply to ALL of them, even the incoherent ones, even if it was just "Thank you." Now, I don't care any more. If it's someone I *know* personally, I'll email them, but the last few months, the site has been such a clusterfuck that it's been more aggrevation than it's worth.

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So far, I've had two doses of each of the antibiotics, and I can hardly believe how much better I feel. For one thing, my appetite is back. I no longer have that feeling of, "Oh god, NOT food", which I regard as highly wrong. Gone is the low-grade fever and malaise.

The foot is still sensitive, naturally, but between painkillers and something to address the infection, it isn't as bad as*, like Mama used to say. The fact is, at this point, it isn't the toe that hurts, it's everything else, in particular my heel. I'm hoping that by Thursday or Friday, I'll be able to drive. I have overdue library books.

I'm working on a modest crossover...not sure where I'm going with it, yet, but it's a sign that my brain is functioning again. Yay!

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* Like Sunday, when I was excruciatingly aware of how many bones there are in a foot, and how, for the most part, they have two ends which grind against other bones.

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Thursday night is my happy time. Between Missing and Person of Interest, I'm oh-so-thrilled. This week in particular, Missing made me squee. As I said to J, ( I love being right! )

Person of Interest wasn't amazing this week. It was good in that it tied up some loose ends, ( but )

Real life is not fun. I have a gigantic carbuncle on my right pinkie toe. At first, I thought I was getting a wart, because it was a small, hard bump that didn't hurt. However, it's grown to the size of a hazelnut, and I'm miserable. The skin on my whole foot feels too tight, and my bones ache.

After browsing WebMB, I figure it'll drain on its own, hopefully within the next couple of days. If it hasn't, or if it looks like it's doing anything alarming, I figure I'll find a walk-in clinic before next weekend. Or even the ER, although my healthcare plan is still "Don't get sick"---so I'm trying to let nature take its course. If there's one good thing that can be said about it, it's that I have almost no appetite.

In cheerier news, I've got a small smut fic written and in the process of revision. I'm at the point where I'm happy to have written anything, since I've been in a slump.

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Yesterday, I ran around with Mb. Long day! Lunch, the ASPCA thrift store, Home Depot, followed by Target, WalMart (where Mb was looking for a new coffeepot---one of her cats killed her glass carafe) and Aldi. Then back to her place, and I hit my WalMart on my way home.

The ASPCA thrift is one I've been wanting to visit for quite a while. Being a Saturday, it was fairly busy, but I liked it and will go again. I got a great piece of fabric, 3 yards of a sturdy cotton with a classic red and white Hawaiian hibiscus print. Not sure what I'm gonna DO with it, but I'll think of something! Also got a couple bits of bling---two brooches and a bracelet. One pin was a leaping gazelle or impala, the other is an abstract thing that looks like Liberace's boomerang. The bracelet is plain chain and destined to be an extender for a necklace that's much too short. (I don't do choakers, but I got one with a pretty charm for Christmas.)

At Home Depot, I made my first investments from the card pwcorgigirl gifted me with for Xmas: I got a box of Mr Clean Magic Erasers, a tube of Super Glue, and a bag of concrete. Had a bear of a time with the bag---60 pounds of concrete is surprisingly dense and heavier that it seems.

I think what I'm going to end up doing is digging out the old mailbox, getting the hole to a size where it will accomodate the new one, putting it in there and shoveling the concrete powder into the hole a little at a time and wetting it down. Because frankly, I can't lift the damn thing out of my trunk, so that's the only way I can think of to do it.

It did get frosty last night, but I managed to stay comfy. Wore the ensemble I'd planned to church, and got some bad news: There's been a rash of thefts among area churches, and somebody pilfered our heating and a/c unit. We're insured, but it's still going to be a major pain, although as AI pointed out, "That's going to earn somebody some butt-ugly kharma."

Our guest speaker didn't show up---we figure he must've gotten his weeks mixed up---so a couple of the Buddhists pinch hit. Which was very nice of them...although one gal drove me to distraction---if I had ten cents for every time she said, "You know", I could've gone out for a steak dinner. It was a persistant verbal tic. Sometimes, she'd say it two or three times in a row. Arrrgh!

Movie night is next Friday. I'm really looking forward to it, partly because we haven't had movie night in a few months, partly because it's a Bogart classic, We're No Angels. Ah, Bogie!

Next month's discussion topic for CUUPs is suppossedly going to be "Dead Mothers", which wasn't what I expected when it was brought up. I *thought* they meant IRL, since most of the group is 50+ and is of an age to have lost a parent or two. They were talking about TV moms...okay, I can do that, too.

Now I'm home. And it's a funny thing; since I spent a few months having to make special trips to check my email/look things up/etcetera, I thought I'd be online contantly making up for lost time. Instead, I'm NOT checking my email every fifteen minutes. In fact, yesterday, I didn't turn my computer on at all! But it's so nice to have the option.

Glory be, I'm writing! I finally jumped in and started work on the idea I've had for Person of Interest fic. It's around the thousand-word mark and just getting started. Heaven knows how long it'll wind up---but I'm just happy that I have a plot taking root.

Have a good week, y'all! (I know I'm going to! Alcatraz debut Monday, Justified season premiere Tuesday, Royal Pains, White Collar and fresh PoI on Thursday. Yay!)

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When I went over to J's yesterday to snag my yellow Otterbox*, I took advantage of her Wifi and accessed the App Store. (Having supplied myself with an iTunes GC.) I've already gotten the full-on version of a couple games I've been obsessed with, Amazing Breaker and Montezuma Stones. Yesterday I grabbed something that's really been making me smile, a comprehensive gallery of the works of Edwaard Hopper.

I adore Hopper. There's something about the stark realism of his work, combined with the panorama of American between the 20s and the 60s that appeals to me very viscerally. Or just because: This particular painting makes me think of me and Mb going out to lunch. Altho' I have enough cloche hats for both of us; she doesn't wear hats at all.



I think after I review them for a while, I may do a series of short fics for 5minutefandoms. It would be good for me. My output last year was meager, and this will force me to be original.

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* Which sounds to me like some kind of odd mammalian gynocology.

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I'm in the process of reclaiming my laundry room, I've done three loads of laundry in the last 48 hours, and sorted a bunch more. And that's just the stuff that was already out there, heaven help me! There's lots more strewn around the rest of the house. But...gotta start somewhere.

My "new" iPod has been saving my sanity. It gives me some games to entertain myself with, and the notes function---well, it's not as versatile as actually being on line, but it beats scribbling longhand. Last night, I actually commited fic---or what'll probably be the first half of one, the first thing I've written in months. (SPN/Sons of Anarchy crossover, FWIW.)

Sunday afternoon at the library is fast becoming a habit. In a while, I'll go over to J's and check my email again and stick around for OnceUpon a Time*, which is rather interesting so far.

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* But not in Mexico.

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I'm back at Mb's...the air is great, the food is better than my usual, and I can deal with sleeping in shifts in whichever half of the queen-sized bed is free. Mb and SO have kindly consented to let me put their landline down as a contact number for me on resumes and applications. My PayGo phone gets sporadic reception, especially at my house, pfft.

Watched this week's Leverage, which I liked (last season really turned me off, but I've regained my squee), although it was no mystery AT ALL where the MacGuffin was. I still have this week's Alphas to see, but no biggie.

Also saw Lifetime's JK Rowling biopic and cried. Not just because of the woo-hoo success story nature of it, but because as a writer, albeit one who is DRY, I could relate. Mb was playing on her computer, not really paying attention to it and commented on my sniffliness; I told her it was a Writer Thing. *sigh* What can I say? My Muse is languishing.

Sunday, I talked with PJ about the C's upcoming expedition...I'm looking forward to that, as they'll be gone for about 7 weeks. Huzzah, a/c, 'net and cable, and I don't have to share a bed---although it is a damned uncomfortable bed, with or without company.

J and I have tentatively scheduled the Great Memorial Cut-throat Canasta Tournament for next month...I'll be living at the C's by then, so it's just a short hop to her place. T only played to humor Susie---he's really a terrible, passive-aggressive player---attendence by sbjb would be nice, but play will go on with or without you.

Is any of this actually making any sense? My ability to put two thoughts together on a page is rather impaired....

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I got my act together and wrote a little something this afternoon. Given that it's been two months since I last spawned anything, yay! Go, me! (Now if I could just get some flippin' comments....)

Except for season one, I've done a coda for every SPN season finale. (And since I didn't start watching until 2.1, that's understandable, yes?) This year, it's a quickie attempting to resolve what was set up in the last few minutes. Other seasons have been more in depth, often crack, but this year, I don't have a whole lot invested. Too damn much agita and heartbreak.

Last night, I DVR'ed Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Haven't seen it in a few years, and evewn now, it's on in the other room and I'm listening to it. (J would be coming unglued.) I've seen it numerous times---like four or five times at the theater, and a few more when it was on HBO back in the day.

Off to bed when it's over.... *yawn*
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Here's something to think about...say you're a time traveler from 2048. You've arrived in this decade and you're interacting with the locals...what surprises you? What's different? What technology do you miss from your own time?

Given the lengthening life expectancy of people in the US, it's not implausible that you or I might still be alive? What might you ask a person from the future? What advice would you give them?

Just in my lifetime, I've seen a lot of technology become "obsolete". I remember reel-to-reel tapes, 8-tracks, cassettes, vinyl albums and 45s. Even things like digital cash registers didn't come along 'til the late 70s. I remember when the only computers around were the ones in the lab at the college, programmed by computer punch cards. I remember so-called personal computers with a whopping 4K of memory, using a cassette player as the hard drive for a Texas Instrument computer, 6" floppy disks giving way to 3" diskettes, long before CDs or USB drives.

40 years ago, computers were gigantic and took up an entire room. Instead of terminals on every office desk, there were typewriters. I remember typewriters being superceded briefly by "word processors", which *weren't* the same as computers, although they tried. Twenty years ago, a portable phone was the size and density of a brick and came with its own carrying case. A car phone was a status symbol, but it stayed IN the car. Even 10 years ago, most people would have scoffed at the notion of hand-held cordless phone wwith a screen that could access the internet.

I'm trying to invent a creditable future for my time traveler. How virtual is 2048? Instead of HDTVs, are they holographic? What are the trendy gizmos of the day, what are people wearing, how do their daily routines differ from ours? What are the world events of the day? I'd love to hear your thoughts, with the caveat that I may want to borrow them for a spot of fiction....

This is your chance to predict the future, although I suspect Jules Verne is going to stay the all-time master of that sort of thing.

Leopard-print cardi love! Now I just need to find it in a 2x.



Meanwhile, I've been well-occupied today. Grabbed the constantly capsizing mountain of clothes off my cedar chest. Threw a load of colors in the wash, with a load of darks waiting its turn. If I do a load a day, I think I might actually be caught up sometime around April. Found my favorite sweater, the cranberry chenille one---alas, it's probably too late to do me any good this winter!

Also spent a chunk of time organizing my tags: I realized, when trying to locate The Ghost of a Junkyard Dog that an awful lot of my early fics weren't properly tagged. Some were under writing, or fic. Or they were only listed by the fandom. This inspired me to go through those tags and many more, and now the tag "author: vanillafluffy" is teeming with fics that haven't seen the light of day since they were posted. There may still be a few things buried in the archives, but I've now got 100 entries, from multi-part tales like "Seen and Unseen", to random drabbles that were posted and forgotten, to hardcore porn, to things I'd lost track of, like my first-ever House fic (which had a total of three reader comments).

Basic math says there are another hundred stories out there (My total number of fics posted at the Pit is 156, some of them multi-chaptered.), am I'm fatigued at the thought of posting and tagging all that. Add to that AO3, which has exactly FIVE of them and is a real pain-in-the-ass to import to---! Any thoughts on what I ought to do for redundancy? (God, I wish I'd hung onto that how to code textbook that HWSNBN left behind. I could build a website on sbjb's server if I knew what I was doing.)


A few more things that surfaced, cross-posted to bystanderfic:

By Dawn's Early Light Pirates of the Caribbean, dub-con (fuck or die), has a plot

Learning Experience Once Upon a Time in Mexico, elplicit slash, my rare PWP

Fortune Cookie Batman Begins, gen, starring one of my favorite OFCs ever

Underlying Causes House MD, gen, Rowan Chase's relationship with his son

Flying Towards Destiny The Mummy Returns, pre-slash*, Jonathan/Ardeth

Theatricality Batman Begins, gen, aging OFC

Cravings Once Upon a Time in Mexico, het sex and a blind voyeur

First Choice Nick of Time, gen, yeah, it's obscure

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* This was supposed to be the whole thing, self-contained. I let someone talk me into continuing it, and it's the only unfinished fic I have at the Pit. Just enjoy this as is.

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I'm here at Captain Ahab's with Mb---poor dear, she needs moral support. There have been Plumbing Events of Epic Proportions, and she's been SO stressed. Having now spent a couple days with the Captain, I UNDERSTAND WHY.

Made shepherd's pie for dinner last night. This time I added onion power and some steakhouse grind seasoned pepper, and it was quite good. Ahab bitched because it contained corn, so next time I may see how it turns out with diced tomatoes.

I'm mulling over an idea for spn_gen_bigbang*---I've never done a big bang before, at least not in the sense of something I signed up for. I've written a couple fics that were longer than 15K words---a couple. None of them in this fandom. (Wait, I take that back; Seen and Unseen was 16.7 K.)

This is something...I started it a year and a half ago. It's basically an alternate season 5. I got a couple thousand words down, and lost my rhythm. I now have a clue where it's going, which is good, although as is so often the case, Getting There is going to be a challenge.

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* Writer signups are open through March 15th, so if you think you'vve got a long story in you, drop by and commit yourself. (Maybe that came out a little wrong....)

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It's finally finished. ("It" being my assignment for yuletide.) I like it, I just hope my recipient feels the same. It wasn't *exactly* her prompt, but it was as close as the Muse would cooperate. Now I have 20 hours to tweak it and get it betaed.

Hey, at least I'm not writing til the 11th hour!

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I ordered J's gift from Amazon---she told me a while back that she wants a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" that isn't falling apart, and she doesn't mind it used---so I found her a slightly used hardcover copy for a penny, then popped $6.99 for expedited shipping. I'm going to give it to her with some tea, which she also specifically mentioned, and cookies. So she can have a nice cuppa and a nibble and decide what she'd going to cook. *smirk* (She knows nothing about LJ, so I'm safe enough discussing it here. SBJB is our only mutual friend who's liable to see this, and I'm confident she won't blab.)

Have also been slogging away at Yuletide. It's one thing to be intimately familiar with canon, another thing to try to extrapolate it sympathetically. My issue is, the source material has a Very Large Cast, and I'm trying to touch base with the old familiars without overwhelming readers who may not have the first foggy clue---assuming there are any. And, of course, give my recipient something that resembles what she's hoping for.

Finished reading "The Baker Street Letters" (Michael Robertson), which I found disappointing. The premise: A barrister who's renting 221B Baker Street sets his screw-up brother in charge of answering the letters that arrive for Sherlock Holmes. Brother hares off to L.A. in response to one letter, and gets embroiled in a murder. Despite the allusions to Sherlock, there's no deductive reasoning involved at all, and the plot isn't a mystery to anyone who's ever watched TV or for that matter, read any mystery novel more complex than Nancy Drew. Thank goodness it's a library book and therefore cost me nothing but time.

Have started "A Nose for Justice" (Rita Mae Brown), featuring a Dachshund and a German shephard in the middle of a mystery set in Nevada. So far, the dogs are more interesting than the people...I've liked RMB in the past, although more for her novels than her mysteries. I'm still on the fence about this one. Remember: Show, don't tell.

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I got my yuletide assignment this evening, and I'm delighted. Of the eight fandoms I offered, the assignment I got is in the fandom I'm most intimate with. (Which is a good thing, as it was the only one on her list that was even vaguely familiar.) The character-plotline requested by the recipient has given me a few ideas---now all I have to do is write them all down. Tra-la!

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As snagged from karaokegal.


Five ways you know a story is by Vanillafluffy:

1. It's written in present tense.

2. It displays a fondness for secondary characters and OCs, including animals.

3. It's more likely to have another story (or stories) as sequel(s) than it is to be multi-chapter.

4. There's a 90% change it'll be gen. The other 10% is split between het, slash and just plain dark.

5. It has a twist at the end. (Also known as a KEL -- Killer Ending Line.) And it's probably a happy ending.


If anyone else has noticed a pattern to my fic, feel free to comment.


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