User:	pornish_pixies (posted by paukenfrau)
	Date:	2009-11-05 23:43
	Subject:	LONG(ish?): One Dark and Stormy Evening (Al/Scorpius, NC-17)
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	giddy
	Music:	"When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles

Title: One Dark And Stormy Evening
Pairing: Al/Scorpius
Rating: NC-17 for language, graphic sex
Word Count: about 2,050
Summary: Al and Scorpius drink Polyjuice to look like their dads; hilarity and fucking ensue.
Warnings: They're both 17 and acting their age.  Does teenage stupidity need a warning? 
Disclosure Statement: two large bags of Chili Cheese Fritos and a nice bottle of Riesling were killed in the making of this fic. 
Notes and thanks: Happy belated birthday, Jana!  I tried to combine your present with this month's drunken fanfic challenge -- hence the title, stolen from the prompt -- but didn't get off my arse in time to post it there, so it morphed into something even stranger.  Hope you enjoy it.  :D

ETA: Jana got the bunny for this fic from bryoneybrynn 's hilarious work of staggering genius, Another...and Another...and, Fuck It, Just Leave Me the Bottle.  It's 1,200 words of sheer brilliance.

	User:	pouncer
	Date:	2009-11-04 22:39
	Subject:	I am besotted, I admit
	Security:	Public

The latest in adorable puppy antics

Or, watch below.

( Read more... )

My cable is out, so I missed Criminal Minds. The episode description weirded me out enough that I'm not really sad, and I should be able to catch up tomorrow.

	User:	pouncer
	Date:	2009-11-01 17:11
	Subject:	All puppy, all the time
	Security:	Public

Teddy has not been smiling much. Teddy has been giving Winnie alarmed looks and finding places on the sofa or under his rocking chair to hide. Who is this little ball of fluff, and why did we bring him home?!

Winnie is very bold, likes his breakfast and lunch and dinner, but likes playing most of all. Well, maybe that's tied with snuggling. He's a good sleeper, and has kept himself amused in my bed while I'm still courting Morpheus.

Would you like to see pictures? And a video? I'm guessing you would.

( 'ware cuteness )

As I'm sure you can imagine, very little has been accomplished this weekend.

	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-11-01 05:09
	Subject:	It's that time again...
	Security:	Public

There's frost on the pumpkins. The wheel turns.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1012078.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

	User:	pouncer
	Date:	2009-10-31 00:13
	Subject:	Meet the new member of the family
	Security:	Public

Winnie
born 22 August

	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-10-29 09:01
	Subject:	The best thing about fandom: we make our own fun!
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	hopeful

So http://yuletidetreasure.org/ is made of awesome, and elynross and astolat are made of win, and everyone who participates and puts effort into making the annual winter 'splosion of obscure fandoms' fanfic so amazing is fabulous. This has been obvious to me for a while, LOL. But you know what else is made of awesome? That Yuletide helps people find other people who are into fandoms or mediums which are outside of the scope of Yuletide, because then those people make more awesome and more win and more fabulousness!

\o/

giandujakiss mentioned that it would be so cool if there were a Yuletide analog for a vid exchange, and things have started percolating!

There's a gathering of Bones fans who enjoy rare pairings from the show.

There's discussion of the rarer spinoffs of the Star Wars franchise happening, with a link to the annual spring wraithsquadron ficathon.

There's information about a Good Omens exchange go_exchange (signups are already closed, but folks can keep an eye out for the stories and art when they are posted).

Folks are talking about the possibility of a Marvel exchange and/or a Spider-Man exchange.

Moulin Rouge fans are gathering, although I now see that it's been declared Yuletide-eligible this year.

And people are gathering who are interested in a sort of spinoff fest for fandoms that are in themselves obscure but fall under the heading of a larger, Yuletide-ineligible franchise.

Oh! And maidenjedi specifically mentions: "For anyone who is into a fandom whose source material has ended its run, and is still too large for Yuletide, check out oldschoolfic. There are challenges and seasonal fic exchanges."

I. Love. Fandom.

And not to forget... fandomcalendar is a great place to seek out and to post links to ficathons, fests and other events fannish or of interest to the fan community. I can never remember when which holiday fests' deadlines are this time of year; this year I am expecting only to participate in Yuletide because I have been so burnt out and completely swamped with RL and am so far behind on so many things... sigh.

But!

The morning air smells of autumn leaves, pumpkins and sugar and spice and turned earth, gardens and fields prepared for frost and the sleep of winter, and as the dark time of the year begins, as the shadows grow longer, there are flashes of sparkles in the darkness, glimmering. Yuletide is coming!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1011795.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

	User:	pouncer
	Date:	2009-10-28 10:50
	Subject:	His house was washed away
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	listless

I stayed home yesterday, because I hadn't felt any improvement in my cold for almost five days. It just remained constant, a hacking cough with added nasal congestion and sore throat and other assorted miseries. My doctor swabbed me for flu; the test came back negative, which was good, because it would have been the weirdest flu ever. I haven't had a fever. She prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis, and after I begged, gave me cough syrup with codeine, vital at bedtime.

I'm back at work today, in something of a lull because our recent project has been postponed. I'm glad, because my mental faculties haven't been the best, and a day of nothing but surfing the web sounds fantastic. Colleagues are avoiding me, afeared of catching my cough.

Supplies necessary to survive:

• Throat Coat tea


• Honey


• Albuterol inhaler


• Chloraseptic throat spray


• Halls cough drops


• Tissues


• Lip balm

	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-10-28 09:57
	Subject:	Techie advice needed...
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	tired

OK, I have reached the limit of my Google-fu and my Windows Vista expertise... help?

My Dad has a number of high-quality digital photographs and a music library (of .aac and .mp3 ripped via iTunes) on his Win Vista computer. We're looking for a way to produce photos+music slideshow DVDs which will play in a regular DVD player onto a midsize modern television (for instance, one which is capable of hi-def and/or HDMI-type connections from its peripherals). We're not necessarily looking to burn something of highly shiny Blu-ray type crystal-clarity, but giant pixels and chunkified bleh images are really disappointing on a lovely should-be-clear screen.

Windows Media Center will produce a DVD slideshow using the .mp3 files and the photographs, but the interface is oversimplified to the point of being utterly annoying, and the resulting image quality on the DVD is rather truly awful.

We're poking at Windows DVD Maker which apparently does the same thing, but again, it seems to mangle the image quality, and we're having trouble finding any adjustable settings to make the photos look uncrappy.

There are a bunch of shareware softwares that turn up in a Google search, with prices ranging from $20 to $50, but I have no idea if any of them will really do what we're trying to do.

(At this point, I'm kind of hoping to find a non-Microsoft-software solution that runs on Vista, because I am so annoyed with Microsoft Media Center...)

It's not like we're trying to make songvids or slickly-edited marketing whazzits. We're just trying to make a pretty slideshow out of Dad's gorgeous nature photography with music off some of our favorite CDs, so he can share it with his relatives who don't have computers (or who have tiny craptastic computer monitors but snazy TVs).

There has got to be an easy, relatively painless way to do this. Right? Maybe? Sort of?

In related news, do any of you have any good experiences or horrible war stories about software that bulk-converts .aac files into .mp3 files? It's either that or of course we're facing the daunting task of re-importing most of my folks' music library from CD... bleh. Wish whenever we'd reinstalled iTunes the import default had stuck when we tried to tell it to use .mp3, or that wouldn't be an issue... This issue is solved, thank you delibby for the tip about right-clicking in iTunes to create an MP3 version!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1011496.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-10-25 20:54
	Subject:	Missing The Lair... *snif*
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	busy

I am away from home and cannot access my Here! Network on-demand, this weekend and next weekend. Yes, I am having withdrawal from The Lair. *snif*

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1011033.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

	User:	pouncer
	Date:	2009-10-25 17:56
	Subject:	when I'm awfully low, when the world is cold
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	sick
	Music:	america's test kitchen exploring slow cookers

My weekend would have been a lot better if I weren't sick, but I am, so. My lungs are very unhappy with me, I've been coughing and coughing, and my throat is ridiculously sore. I felt a little bit better when I woke up this morning; hopefully sleep has been restorative.

Teddy's fifth birthday was Friday, so of course there had to be a celebration. Lochinvar was here, and Caretaker came over, and we noshed on cheese and crackers, drank raspberry martinis, and then had ice cream cake. Theodore was very happy with his toys.

Yesterday was the deluge – it rained insanely hard as we scurried into the church to see a girl from the old neighborhood get married. She was younger than me, and la soeur used to babysit her. I'd rather have stayed home, but I got dressed up and tried to cough into a tissue. The reception was lovely, and it was good to see people I grew up with.

I got home and watched gymnastics – it makes me mad that NBC didn't show any of the men's all-around. I know the US doesn't have contenders, but I like men's gymnastics, no matter who's performing. I like the women too, mind you. The event finals are on right now (TiVo tape delay is love), and I'm noticing that the Chinese girls once again look like they're underage. I'm very glad the Columbian girl who had that horrific fall on floor exercise wasn't seriously injured. The neon blue line around the arena is très distracting during high bar or uneven bars.

There was also figure skating: the Grand Prix of Russia. My local station was airing something that I think cut into the beginning of the broadcast, because I missed Johnny Weir's long program. I knew from Twitter that he wasn't pleased, but all they mentioned was not executing triple axles, which yes, not ideal, but also not falling? I still love you Johnny. And Yevgeny Pleshenko still scares me. The robot has returned to the ice, ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

You can count me among the people delighted by the premiere of White Collar on USA. If you didn't catch it, you must try: Jonesy from Carnivàle is an FBI agent on the fraud beat, who teams up with a conman he caught. Together, they fight crime. And there's an awesome wife, and a terrific female agent who's shown eying the ladies with interest. It's a charming show, and the leads banter in a way that filled me with glee. Badger from Firefly was a guest star, Diahann Carroll showed up as a classy older woman, and the promos for upcoming episodes gave me a glimpse of Natalie Morales (Wendy Watson!!!! From The Middleman!!!!). I punched in a season pass the moment the credits rolled.

Today I defied my cough and helped my sister plant pansies in the pots on the front steps. We dug into the garage and found the jack o'lantern (terra cotta) and various other Halloween decorations too. Teddy went on a long walk to the park, and hung out on the steps while we played in the dirt. The pansies are supposed to survive the winter; we shall see about that.