# The one where it's season 1 and Rodney has an allergic reaction to a food item offworld, but instead of giving him anaphylaxis, it hits him like eight shots and a pan of pot brownies, making him bizarrely relaxed and giddy and euphoric, and he says to John, "You know what I like about you?" and John figures: shit, I better head this off, he's probably got a thing for me, and Ford really doesn't need to hear it if he does, so John says, "Yeah, buddy, sure do." And Rodney says, "Oh good. Wait... how'd you know about Pokey?" and Ford gets chuckly and intrigued and starts asking while John winces, but it turns out to be completely innocuous: Pokey was Rodney's cat when Rodney was a kid, and Pokey had dark gold eyes that looked green sometimes, and his fur stuck up like a kitty mohawk, and that's what high!Rodney likes about John... John reminds him of his childhood cat. Ford is amused to no end, John laughs it off, but he's also kind of disappointed, weirdly, a little? And strangely enough, that minor incident kicks off his show-long pining. Because hey. Why doesn't Rodney have a thing for him? Don't they kind of have something, there? If they don't, well... anyway, seems like John does.

Years pass, Rodney nearly marries Katie and has a brief romance with Jennifer, which dies when Rodney goes to meet Jennifer's dad and all involved realize to their intense embarrassment that Rodney, in his most relaxed and Jennifer-approved mode, is practically a dead ringer for Keller Sr, who's a workaholic medical researcher, stressy and prickly but kind. So Rodney mopes around in the aftermath of that, and John's trying to cheer him up with beer and a Batman: The Animated Series marathon, but instead of being cheered, Rodney acts sort of despondent and furtive around John, and John eventually buys a clue and realizes that five years ago Rodney admitted that he noticed the color of John's eyes. DUH.

# The one where, per Brain Storm, Ronon and John go camping and surfing, and while they hike and set up camp, Ronon remembers the two or three previous times he's had sex with John: each time a plausibly-deniable situation that neither of them broached or tried to build on afterward. But Ronon thinks about that time they were captive/drugged/locked in a room and told to propitiate the gods or their teammates would be sacrificed/whatever, and how at first Sheppard was tense and stoic and just bearing it, but slowly, he gave it up, and how he was sweaty and drunk on it, pushing back onto Ronon, riding his hand when Ronon cupped him, how John crushed his hand over Ronon's and said his name. It was... memorable. And now, Rodney and Jennifer have gone through the gate together like it's the sunset in one of those movies Sheppard likes, and Ronon's not sure what he wants from this more-- if it's to fuck til the tender spot Jennifer left in him tightens up solid and strong again, or to soothe the misery that's wearing away at John til he's thin and sharp and strained. Anyway, Ronon figures, he's a capable guy. He can do both.

# The one where, in scene one of Brain Storm, Rodney's just a little bit more awkward and Jennifer's just a little more stressed, so when he proposes that she come with him to Tunney's event as his trophy arm candy, she's a little insulted, and tells him so, and he gets defensive, so she turns him down and leaves. Rodney slinks over to eat with the team and gets a critique of his approach from Teyla, who hints that perhaps Rodney was sabotaging himself. Rodney sulks about having to go to the event alone, and John offers to go along: Ronon's not at all into the surfing trip John's been talking up, and John's got some legal inheritance crap he could settle way faster in person on Earth, plus, John wasn't wild about the idea of Rodney going to an undisclosed location without armed backup anyway.

AND SO John goes along to the demo suited up in dress blues, and strategically deploys phrases like "Dr. McKay's not at liberty to discuss that" when people try to needle Rodney about what he's been up to, and of course when Rodney realizes the danger of the experiment, John immediately goes into "Who and/or what do I need to shoot?" mode. Somehow the bridge gets opened anyway, but instead of Keller's genius-sitting kindergarten singalong and double dose of condescending lectures, the middle of the plot involves lots of John and Rodney action-heroing around to close the bridge. There's probably still hypothermic kissing at the end, though.

I ran a lot of errands today, including going to the bank because I got a western union transfer for four weeks worth of my weekly translating gig, plus I got a check in the mail today for my old laptop. Yay, money! I haven't had proper work since the end of October, so this was very nice. Hopefully I should get my $100 for cat-sitting soon, too.

But anyway, Bruce had some errands to do, too, so we met up around lunch time when I was just heading out and he was heading home, and we had lunch at Tacos Por Favor, a tasty little hole in the wall place on Olympic.

While out, I read about half of Girl Meets Boy, a newish book by Ali Smith, whom I am loving more and more with each book of hers I read. So far this one is really good.


Oh, and here are the answers from the lyrics meme:

( Click! )

I'm on a weird sleep schedule. Actually sleeping at night (quite early at night, in fact; the other night I went to bed at eight). I don't like it, but other than forcing myself to stay up, I never know how to get out of a rut like this, and it's hard to force myself to stay up when I'm sleepy!

Almost Perfect, the one where Ianto wakes up as a woman.

I want to marry this book. So. Much. Wit. Jack/Ianto in spades, including a brief revelation of Ianto's true feelings towards Jack and ( spoiler ) Some Ianto backstory. Wistful mentions and memories of Owen and Tosh. Harry Potter reference! Jeremy Clarkson reference! And did I mention all the Jack/Ianto?
Defo worth the purchase.

Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first song is the title.

I Can See a Time When I Won't Be Able to Feel the Pain No More

I hold an image of the ashtray girl
Everyone's a critic, but hey they really respect your talent
I got a plan we can do it
Hit the road in wander mode, inquire along the way

We were tight, but it falls apart as silver turns to blue
She was only seventeen, sixteen, or in between
The amount of pills I'm taking counteracts the booze I'm drinking
Look what you've done, you gigolo

Take back the city for yourself tonight
They rise above this
I wake up in the morning
I won't cut my beard

Whatever, whatever, girl, I'll do
Where are your friends, silly thing?

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
My voice is yours to keep for years
I can't believe what you did to me

I can see my teenage father standing straight on a desolate corner
A febrile shocking violent smack
I think I'll go home and mull this over

I think it actually makes quite a coherent song, amazingly. If you want to take a guess at the titles and artists, go ahead. I'll post the answers tomorrow. I will say my iTunes loved a couple bands quite a bit. These two bands came up three times each. Everyone else just appears once, I think.

Are you a lego collector? Do you have a kid who likes legos and would like a bunch for Christmas?

We have a ton and I really just want to get them out of the house. At first we were planning on separating them all out and putting them up on eBay separately, but that is just not happening, so at this point I'm thinking maybe I could sell them in a lot.

There are numerous small and medium sets of medieval, pirates, outer space, underwater, archeologist, etc. themes. There's also several small and medium Star Wars sets and two or three of the Time Twisters set (including the train pictured and a larger set as well), which is a very neat theme that I really loved. There's also a bunch of Bruce's old legos from when he was a kid (I already sold mine long ago) and a 1200 piece tub. Aside from Bruce's old ones, all or almost all of them have instructions (though I think the box pictures is the only box we have left). Some have already been separated out into sets and put in baggies. Some of Bruce's old ones have some wear and tear, being old and having been actually played with. The others we just bought and displayed, so they're in excellent condition.

If anyone's interested, just ask and I'll be happy to give more details, including exactly the names of the sets, etc. I can take more pictures, too.

I'd like to get $125 (plus shipping), but the price is negotiable.

ETA: Sold!

I read vols 4 and 5 today while cat-sitting. Man, this series just gets better and better. I just wish it came out more often! In the back of vol. 5 it said vol. 6 is supposed to be out early next year. (Actually, I do have chapters 19-23 I could read, and probably will end up doing so, but I still wish it came out faster!) Like Fullmetal Alchemist, this is surprisingly plotty and low on battles, and though it's only on volume five, the plot is already getting lots of nice twists and turns.

And the art! I am in love with Asada Hiroyuk's art almost as much as I am with Obata Takeshi's. ♥

Is anyone else reading it? Apparently it's being scanlated. You should totally check it out.

( I am lemming, hear me roar )

Also I don't send holiday cards (I used to try, but then it was February...). So please don't feel you should send me anything. Let's just make some time for each other, soon. Even if you've been lurking, I'm curious about who you are and what you like.

The lists from the top five meme I did last week sometime. All of these are in no particular order, because it's hard enough just making the lists, much less trying to rank things. D:

( Top 5 mangaka of all time )

( Top 5 songs of 2008 )

( Top 5 songs of the moment )

( Top 5 names )

( Top 5 hobbies )

( Top 5 albums of all time )

( Top 5 LJ-related pet peeves )

( Top 5 candies )

( Top 5 SGA AUs I want someone to write )

( Top 5 Pushing Daisies characters )

Okay, I cannot seem to find a cracked version of Photoshop that is both not malware and actually works when I try to install it. I just tried one, followed the instructions to the letter, and it did not work as promised. I also cannot afford to pay hundreds of dollars for the real thing. Even with Bruce's student discount, it's ridiculously out of our price range.

So does anyone have any recommendations for Photoshop-type editing programs? I don't want to use a different program, because Photoshop is what I've been using for years and I know how to use it, but this is getting ridiculous. Right now I've been using my old laptop whenever I need to edit something, but as of this coming week I won't have that laptop anymore (plus it's a pain to have to switch computers anyway). I need some sort of Vista-compatible editing software.

I did a lot of walking yesterday. About a mile each way to go cat-sit, and then we went down to Sur la Table in the evening to return the probe thermometer we bought last week because it kind of sucked. Walked back from there, which was another two miles.

We stopped at Bay Cities Deli on the way home for dinner and shared a godmother sandwich. I also bought some red velvet cupcakes that are omg so good.

Yesterday morning I weighed myself for the first time in like two months or so and found I'd lost around six or seven pounds (I can't remember exactly what I weighed before). Yay for forced exercise. XD I haven't changed my eating habits much, although I have been trying to eat more cheese and fruit instead of junk food. But if junk food or desserts are around, I'm not not eating them. So mainly it's just all the walking I've been doing.

I know I'll never be thin and that's not my goal, but I would really like to be overweight and in shape like I used to be. I'd also like to be less overweight so that my stomach doesn't feel like it's in the way all the time, that sort of thing.

I tired to do the photo mosaic meme, but every single picture I chose--and I made sure to choose ones that weren't protected--came up blank. Every single one. :( So I did this meme instead.

The "Be Pete Wentz" Poetry Meme

01. Put your music player on shuffle
02. The first lines of twenty songs = a poem; the first line of the twenty-first song is the title

It was interesting and not as Vogon as I expected. :)

( Have I Lost You? )

Wow, this is the fourteenth book I've read this year, and seven of them have been this month alone. (Of course that means I've hardly read any fic or manga this month; it's definitely a trade-off.) With a whole month to go before the end of the year and three books for sure in the queue (one already a quarter of the way through), maybe I should revise my goal from fifteen to twenty.

I picked this book up because of The Decemberists' Song for Myla Goldberg. I'd never heard of her before that, but I was curious and wikipediad her and saw the song was in part about Bee Season, and the book sounded interesting.

It turned out to be absolutely amazing. There is not a single thing I didn't love about it. I loved the writing, the storylines, the utter dysfunctionality of the characters (always a favorite of mine). I've seen some complaints in other reviews about the ending, but I thought it was perfect. It ends at exactly the right place. (But then I myself am fond of ending without a denouement, so.)

I'm impressed with how many threads she managed to weave together. The search for something spiritual they all share, the hints of Miriam's mental imbalance in Aaron and Eliza, the way both parents are looking to their children to fulfill their dreams. And everything begins and ends with the spelling bee.

I really liked the way it was told, too. I didn't find the timeline at all confusing, despite everything being present tense; the events of each section were easy enough to place in the past or present. I haven't read many (any?) modern novels that use an omniscient POV like this, and before reading this, I would have said I'd hate it, but it really works. The POV slips easily between characters without every being confusing and I didn't feel (like I often do with fanfic that has multiple POVs) that it robbed it of any tension or mystery.

I also love that it was set in the '80s, of course. :)

mikotokun, you might like this. It deals with kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.

Wow, Pushing Daisies was the only show this week (well, Simpsons is tomorrow, I think, and maybe Family Guy). It's nice not to feel like I have a bunch of stuff I need to watch. I think Ugly Betty and SGA will be back next week, but SPN is off til mid-January, by which time SGA will be over (and maybe Pushing Daisies, too, depending on how they space out the remaining episodes). I'm sure I will eventually get sucked into watching some other current show, though. Despite everyone and their mother being into Merlin, it doesn't interest me at all as a fandom show (I don't feel like reading or writing historical fic, regardless of how anachronistic it is (or perhaps even more so because)). Also I went through my King Arthur phase already when I was a teenager. I am interested in RPS, though, just because they boys are so wee and adorkable. (This is your cue to rec some!)

Anyway, so ( Pushing Daisies )

I tried watching Entourage, but the first episode was really not doing it for me. I forgot that I hate stories about Hollywood and obnoxious entitled rich people*. Well, I didn't forget, but the stuff I read about the show didn't make me think it would be like that for some reason. And then the episode cut off before the beginning, and I looked at the rest of the files in the torrent and saw it was missing one ep and had doubles of another, and that the quality on the remaining episodes was really bad... So I don't know. I may just give up there.



*This is why almost all of the RPS I write is AU. I just...have no interest in celebrities or lifestyles of the rich and famous.

I got Bruce's and my Christmas presents today, good sales, and I never even had to set foot outside. :D Yay, Amazon!

Also, we got the $75 rebate check in the mail today from our refrigerator.

Dinner is over and the dishes are washed! Go me! *does victory dance*

( food talk )

This hasn't exactly been the greatest year for us. Never the less, I'm grateful for my wonderful friends, my great family and my lovely wife. I'm grateful that this country elected a President we can be proud of and I'm grateful that, even though it took a defeat to do it, my people and our allies are energized and ready to fight for our rights.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving or an enjoyable Thursday!

♥!!

This year, Thanksgiving at Chez Rozilla turned unintentionally heteronormative: telesilla did all of the cooking, while I sat downstairs and ran Positron's Task Force in CoH. (Hey, at least I wasn't watching football.) Like I said, it wasn't intentional; I didn't realize that the TF was that long when I accepted the team invite. I did contribute to dinner by running out to RiteAid after we realized that we'd never replaced the corkscrew that broke ages ago. And everything was delicious: the Cornish game hens with pomegranate glaze, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes in cranberry-orange sauce (thank you, Trader Joe's), mustard greens, a bottle of cabernet for Ruth and white zin for me (thanks again, TJ's!). And if we can ever eat again, there's vanilla bean cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory for dessert.

I'm not going to do the requisite "what I'm thankful for" post this year, because frankly, 2008 was mostly full of suck, and what I'm most thankful for is that it wasn't any worse. Instead, I'm going to look forward to the things that I'm hopeful about:

1. I'm hopeful that now that my mother's in the hospital, she'll be able to get the treatment that she needs. I know I'm never going to get the mother I remember back, but at least maybe she can get to a point where she's not constantly unhappy and angry and making everyone around her miserable.

2. I'm hopeful that the California Supreme Court will recognize that the civil rights of a minority--any minority--should never be left to the popular vote, and that Proposition 8 will be overturned so that I can be married again.

3. I'm hopeful that with an intelligent, competent President in the White House, there's a chance we can avoid hurtling off the cliff we've been careening toward for the past eight years. No, Obama's not the Great Progressive Hope, but he appears to be a genuinely thoughtful man who cares about all of the people of this country, and who wants America to live up to its promise.

4. I'm hopeful that 2009 will suck less than 2008, for everyone.

The Festival of Giving Thanks
Author: telesilla
Fandom/Pairing: SGA, John Rodney
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~700
Disclaimer: The SGA characters do not belong to me. Duh.
Summary: "Why, on this night, do we give thanks together and not alone?"

Notes: Just a little Thanksgivingish piece that was written for mcsmooch. I hope everyone who celebrates had/is having a wonderful holiday!


( ''Tomorrow, it will be twenty years to the day since we stepped through the gate and into Atlantis.'' )

1. Our Thanksgiving dinner went well. The food was all delicious and everyone was impressed by our clean house. :) We brought in a little folding table from the garage to put the food on, which was very nice, since we have hardly any counter space in the kitchen. I took some pics and posted them on flickr, along with more commentary.

2. My grandma reimbursed me for the cost of food for today, and she gave me cash! $61, woohoo!

3. I sold my laptop and scanner to gairid, yay. Now I have to remember to go look at boxes at Staples on Monday. I hope they're not completely sold out like they were last time I was there!

4. I tried Write or Die last night and amazingly was able to write 600 words in half an hour. Partly this is because it was a story idea I'd thought through quite a bit earlier, so I knew what I was doing and didn't have to pause to think it through. Also it is a very conversational style, so that made it quicker. Unfortunately it wasn't any of the things I really ought to be writing... ;_; But still, it felt good to get some writing done, period.