All my crazy folks!

(Cross-posted from kcmo_gqmf .)

Here's the idea:  I'd like to have at least one meetup before Thanksgiving.  I want it to be relaxed, low-key, simple, and fun.  I want to make sure that as many people as possible can attend, and that the venue will be conducive to everyone.  We've got folks in Lawrence, folks in Kansas City, and even someone out in Topeka.  I think I'd like to do this meetup in Kansas City, and the next one in Lawrence. 

Here's the plan:  Either this Saturday (the 14th) OR next Saturday (the 21st), we'll get together for food, drinks, movie/episode watching, and general geekery.

We'd start at McCoy's in Westport around 2:00 PM.  Food, drinks, breaking the ice, general silliness.  For anyone who hasn't been there, McCoy's is a restaurant and brewery.  They have a fantastic selection of their own beers, and their food is just damned good.  You DO NOT have to be 21+ to go in - it's a restaurant, not a bar.  Even though it's a Saturday, 2:00 PM shouldn't be too crowded, and we'll probably be able to geek out to our hearts' content without distracting the mundane folks.

After food and beer and socializing, I personally invite everyone to join me at my house, which is less than two miles from McCoy's, and within very easy access of I-35 and other major roads.  (I'm near KU Med.)  The party continues until folks get tired and need to leave.

More details HERE.

I know people love to fuck with nicknames.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But I need to know, my dear fandom, what is this strange aversion you people have to using the full name "Leonard"? 

Listen, in all of TOS, the old movies, the new movie, the novels, and even the animated series, there has only been ONE NICKNAME for Doctor Leonard H. McCoy, and that's "Bones."  And the only person who calls him that is Jim Kirk.  Nowhere in canon have I ever seen McCoy called Leo, Len, or Lenny.   Maybe if you're going into his past and showing him as a little kid, I could deal with it.  If you're telling an anotherwise fucking amazing story, I can deal with "Leo," but NEVER "Len" or "Lenny."  NOT HAPPENING.  

His name is Leonard.  And yes, he may be a fictional character, but he's my favorite, I'm protective of him, and I'm not apologizing.

So I've been trying to figure out what comes next in Cat and finally realized that a good part of the problem is that next Harry wakes up. And many people know a good deal more than they did before, and their reactions and behaviors with the new knowledge is hard to come up with. So I finally decided I needed to do some outside PoV stuff while he's unconscious to let me see what's going through their heads and what they decide to do. This isn't going to be part of the final story, but I thought folks might be interested nonetheless.

Also, for NaNo this year, I decided to continue existing works--that doesn't necessarily mean Cat, but so far it mostly has been. No promises, but it should have at least a decent chunk of my attention for the month. Thus far, there's about 7000 new words between the next chapter and of outside-PoV stuff thus far--so hopefully it will continue to expand rapidly, at least for the month. I'm not editing yet, just writing, but will periodically post here. Which will, as said, be largely unedited. Don't expect it to be pretty, and nothing's written in stone. I reserve the right to change my mind. That said, read, enjoy, feel free to provide feedback. Although not about typos and whatnot at this time, please. They're bound to be in there, but at this point in time I don't care. At all.

( So, without further ado... )

Please read:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html

It's moments like this when I am SO sharply reminded that once you're a Soldier, you never stop being part of the military family.  I lost eleven brothers and sisters today.  Another 31 were wounded.  HERE.  On American soil.  Where they should be safe.  I don't even know their names.  I'm waiting to hear who they are, because I know people who are stationed there.

I'm trying not to cry.  It's not working.

Senseless, needless loss of life.

I need a drink.

I'm at work, I'm doing fucking INVENTORIES, and I really, really, really, REALLY just want to play with fanfic discussion.  And then, I saw this meme on affectingly 's LJ.  PLAY WITH ME!  Do the meme!  DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!

The DVD Commentary Meme:
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

List of my fanfics can be found here:
Star Trek
Harry Potter

Soooo... anyone?  *pokes flist*

From the recent parties and events, I've done some cosplay as everyone's favorite 23rd Century doctor, Leonard McCoy, a.k.a. "Bones".  I got a good set of pics, including several of me spinning fire while in costume.  I was working with facial expressions and mannerisms.  I like to really get my characters down when I cosplay.  What do you think?


Two teasers, and the rest below the cut:





( Cosplay pics! )That was fun!  :D

Title:  "And All the King's Men"
Author: mijan
Betas: 001010010 and classics_geek
Artist:  vengefuldemon69
Fanmixer:   jazzy_peaches
Series: ST: XI
Character/Pairing(s): Jim Kirk & Leonard McCoy (very tight friendship, BFF, almost-slash, whatever you might call it), with appearances by Chris Pike.
Rating: R
Word Count: 63,000 words
Warnings: Physical violence, implied torture of a child.
Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry is God, Paramount Pictures is Pope, and this is the blasphemy of a wayward faithful. My geeky spirit is rich, but my purse is empty.

Author’s Notes: My sincere thanks to my amazing beta readers, classics_geek and 001010010 , both of whom dedicated time and effort to this fic despite the demands and stresses of real life, and without whom I would have probably lost my mind. Additional thanks to hitlikehammers and nikki4noo for being awesome test-readers who gave wonderful feedback to help me keep the whole fic in perspective, and the former of whom also coded and hosted the fic on a webpage so it could all be read in one piece. And thank you to my lovely wife, fiona_fawkes who put up with me while I was writing this.


Summary:   "How many times can you patch up something before you realize that it's too fucking broken to fix, Bones?"  When a training simulation uncovers something that Cadet Jim Kirk was never meant to remember, it breaks him. Leonard McCoy can't sit by and watch Jim crumble. When asked what he's willing to do to get the old Jim back, Leonard has only one answer.  "Anything."





Link to Art: http://vengefuldemon69.livejournal.com/46658.html
Link to Mix: http://community.livejournal.com/nifty_cricket/7874.html

And dammit, I just got the Wuzzles theme song stuck in my head.  WTF, self?

Okay, so randomness.  First, most of you are familiar with icanhascheezburger.com.  (If you're not, I'm taking back your geek card.)  Therefore, most of you are familiar with Teh Bukkit.  Well, yesterday, we got a delivery of these high-test buckets that are used for storing hazardous chemicals and the stuff from chemical spills.  Expensive buckets with fancy lids.  The idiots who bought them left them outside our chemical storage shed, and left without making sure we got them.   By the time I got the message that the buckets had been delivered and went outside to find them, someone had taken my buckets.  Oh yes, it was tragic.  And so I spent part of the afternoon searching the campus for them.  And all I could think was, "NOOOO!  Dey took mah BUKKITS!" and "I am the LOLrus, coo-coo-ka-choo."

Yeah.

Second, I'm making a concerted effort to get back in shape.  I mean REALLY back in shape.  I'm weight-lifting again, and even if I never get my bench press back up to my old max (215 pounds, oh yeah!), I want to get to the point where I feel confident on the bench.  A max of 180 would make me happy.  I ran four miles last night, and my knee didn't hurt as much as it used to, so maybe building back up gradually is good rehab.  I'm mixing up my workouts with the rowing machine, the climbing wall (love that thing), the stair climber, the elliptical, and swimming.  I want to get my body fat back down to about 12%.  I feel healthy and energetic when I'm in shape, and it's just FEELS good.  This is for me, nobody else.  I'm turning 30 in less than a year, and I don't want to let myself believe that getting older means I have to get old.  Not me.

And finally... my Star Trek Big Bang fic posts tomorrow.  I'm so excited AND so nervous!  The fic is going to be hosted on a page off of my LJ so that it can all be read in one continuous piece, but it'll be a direct link from here that will feel a bit like an LJ cut, and the page has been set up to resemble my LJ scheme.  The link at the bottom of the page will take you back to my LJ to comment.  I think it's a really good setup, and I'm happy with it.  I can't believe I'm so nervous about this fic.

And as soon as that posts, I can finally relax and begin working on my next fic!  :D

To all my local Star Trek buddies:

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, I know people are going to be pretty busy soon. HOWEVER, I want to get in at least one good meetup gathering before the holidays hit in force. When planning these, the idea is to make it as accessible to as many people as possible. We want to make sure that the day and time and type of event are good for the maximum number of people. Remember, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, right?

Here are the planning points:

- What DAYS work for you over the next month?
- What TIMES work for you?
- What type of meetup? Movie night, meta chat, dinner, costume party (Halloween season is a great excuse), etc?
- What type of venue? My house? Someone else's house? A restaurant? A coffee shop? A pub?
- What areas are accessible to people? In other words, depending on where you live, you might be able to drive to Lawrence, but not Kansas City, or maybe you can get around Kansas City easily enough, but can't make it too far out of the city. But please, if you CAN drive somewhere and are willing to drive a short distance, consider it, just in case we have folks who can't travel as easily. We want to accomodate as many people as possible, and I'm personally willing to drive a distance if that means we can have more of our lovely GQMF's at the meetup. I live in Kansas City, but I know we've got at least two people in Lawrence, and I'm willing to drive out there.

Also - do we WANT to have a meetup coinciding with the release of the new movie on blu-ray? Who's ordering the blu-ray AND has a blu-ray player who might want to host a movie meetup for this?

And finally, you should be aware that there IS already a Star Trek fan group in Kansas City. That's the USS Stargazer group. They're having their Halloween party/movie night this Saturday at 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Would people in this group be interested in joining them? If so, I'll contact them and get details.

They also have monthly meetings, and the next one is November 28th.  Shall we make first contact with them about a possibly alliance?  :D

And finally, if you're interested in this and you haven't already joined kcmo_gqmf , what the hell are you waiting for?  Get over to that community and SIGN UP!!!


So... hailing frequencies open!