the Dalaverse

This last Friday afternoon, I held my hand out and a ladybug landed on me. All I'd seen was a tiny bit of movement coming my way, and in holding my hand out, I gave a ladybug a place to sit a moment. Yesterday, I got sunburned from walking around under early cherry blossoms on an absolutely gorgeous late March day. I'm still sore and a little itchy, and I'll be wearing high-necked clothes for a while. There was boba tea, and three different bakeries, and pizza and tacos and a lot of fandom talk with the friend I was staying with - making the other laugh was something we both tried to do a fair amount of, in a game where both sides come out ahead of where they started.

The train got me there early, and got me back a little late. I gave my friend excuse to take me to some of her favorite places, and reason to visit a few more. The both of us stepped away from our regular lives for a while in a mutually beneficial relationship, and now the prospect of the real world looms for tomorrow morning. There was a lot of freedom to be found in basically cutting myself off from the internet - the extent to what I could do on a practical level was check email. My phone wasn't connected to a wifi network, so I couldn't get anything but plain text messages, and it was a surprise to see how many non-text messages I'd missed when I got back to my place.

Bread Furst, Rose Ave, Un Je Ne Sais Quoi, Comet Ping Pong, 801, Spot of Tea, various Smithsonian cafeterias, my friend's kitchen. Various Smithsonian museums, the tidal basin and its various memorials, the circle at Dupont Circle, Metro stations, my friend's apartment. Her roommate and her two cats. A short walk along an urban trail that took us to the Ann and Donald Brown House, which I knew looked impressive enough to be worth talking about. A lot of time with nothing to do and no reason to worry about that. Some TV watched, some movies, not much writing but a good deal of reading and talking. She'll be leaving Washington DC soon, possibly to another coast, possibly somewhere still reasonably close by. I'm glad I got to visit her before she left, when I could still do it by train and be home well before bedtime when it was over.

We’ve watched four movies this weekend: Meet Me In St. Louis, Tommy, The Wizard of Speed and Time, and The History of Future Folk.

Overall, I found Meet Me to Ben the weirdest and least accessible.

After waiting as they spent a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, ( spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

*

Bus reroutes, long detours, long lines, slow crowds, and other such inconveniences are made easier with a friend there with you for commiserations and conversations.

The Smithsonian’s African American museum deserves two days to really take in, but we managed a decent overview with about six hours, minus 30 for lunch. The building used every minute of all the years it took to design and construct.

I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

*

1. Paying based on distance traveled rather than a flat fee per ride doesn’t encourage the perception of public transit as a social equalizer.

2. It’s still public transit.

3. A couple maps to orient on cardinal directions wouldn’t go amiss, though.

I was shocked and saddened when devildoll just texted me this: Nicholas Brendon, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Star, Dies at 54. I knew he had troubles, but also thought he had time to work them out. He's a year younger than me!

*

I have watched some TV!

Shrinking: ( spoilers )

Abbott Elementary: ( spoilers )

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

Here is a cool video interview with Alexandra Metz, who plays Garcia. I don't think there are any spoilers past earlier s2 episodes.

*

In DC, safe and well-fed on ramen, my friend and I waited for the bus to her place. I looked around in the full night of a city I’ve rarely been to, in a neighborhood I’d never visited, and couldn’t shake an odd feeling.

Then it hit me, and I had to say, “Holy shit.” I’d needed a specific spot for something in a novel, and it’d looked familiar because she’d taken me to a spot just around the corner.

It wasn’t quite deja vu. More likes dream where you know the building already, even though you’ve never been.

Time I would've spent writing this evening was spent on cooking risotto for lunch and filling out tax forms as best I could. I opened the document and poked at it a bit to feel something and say I'd at least poked at it, and that helped me relax from the taxes enough I can think about doing something else with the night. Not much, but something else.

It's probably just going to be a couple days' of Stardew Valley, though.

Oscar winner Michael B Jordan! Woohoo! I did not watch the Oscars but I am so happy for MBJ!

Also for Kpop Demon Hunters and "Golden!"

Here are two links I enjoyed this morning:

= Don't Fence Ted McGinley In (NYT gift link) (also, spoilers for aired episodes of Shrinking)

= 'The Pitt,' as Told by Its Patients

*

The Life You Build (18285 words) by Hannah
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Top Gun (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
Characters: Ron "Slider" Kerner, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia, Ron "Slider" Kerner is a Good Friend, Jewish Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Catholic Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Don't Ask Don't Tell, dishonorable discharge, Los Angeles, Gay Pride, Gay Wrath
Summary:

§ 925. Art. 125. Sodomy

(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.

(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

-

I officially have a new record for walking in late to a fandom with Starbucks. It's how I've come to describe joining an established fandom, looking around at what's been written, trying to find a story that seems like it ought to have arrived by now, struggling to believe I have to do it myself, and having to do it myself. The last times I've done this for specific fandoms, it was about 21 years since their debuts, both for Deep Space Nine - Julian Bashir never getting the genetic modifications, with DS9 coming out in 1993 and the fic getting published in 2014 - and for Buffy - an all-human AU where it's still Sunnydale, Buffy living on into retirement and enjoying her life, achieving status as public figure, her and Spike simply making a wish to have a baby, with Buffy coming out in 1997 and the first of several fics getting published in 2018.

There's been a handful of times it's been for tropes and general ideas that could go to just about any fandom, like that one I wrote for mpreg where the technology to get men pregnant was developed to achieve maternity leave reform in the United States and the character exploration simply happened to be for the show Scrubs when it could just as easily have been for any number of reasonably grounded fandoms that take place in what's more or less the real world. In fact, I'm certain there's a few fandoms where having that level of medical technology in the background would have the canon make somewhat more sense given what we see them do. And it wasn't a take on mpreg I'd ever seen before. I just happened to wander in after several decades of fandom and do it myself.

I've made a habit of doing this, and like I said, I have a new record for it.

Because in the forty years this fandom's been around, nobody's written anything where Iceman and Maverick are dishonorably discharged from the Navy. Nothing. There's been fics that tackle the culture of secrecy, or Don't Ask Don't Tell, or the legalization of gay marriage in the US. There's been fics that take place in a much kinder world where it's not an issue. There's been fics that skip past it because it doesn't work with the kind of story the author's trying to write. But there hasn't been anything about receiving a dishonorable discharge and living with what comes after.

Lawrence versus Texas happened when I was in high school. I saw Don't Ask Don't Tell come and go. I remember the pictures from the San Francisco courthouse and the wave of joy from Obergefell. I like to say that fandoms like Top Gun deliver a particular type of yearning you can't get anywhere else, especially not contemporary ones, and a lot of that's from the world those fandoms take place in. It's not a world most people want to visit, and it's the world I grew up in. I didn't mind going back there for a while.

Sometimes I feel like people forget how recent all of this is. Forty years is a long time for a movie to be around, and for people to be writing fic about that movie. For the idea to have taken this long to arrive speaks to what the fandom wants to write about. I can understand that people would rather avoid this kind of thing. Just as much, I can't grasp why nobody else thought to give it a try. I'll admit to being a little proud for being the first one to do it, and a little grateful that this is a reflection of the world that was, not the world that is.

Forty years is a good long time.

Got up yesterday morning baked 4 loaves of soda bread (here's a picture of 2 of them), ate some myself (I kept the 4th loaf) then schlepped out ot the island to deliver them to my brother, sister, and niece.

We went out for a fun dinner - the onion rings at this place are so good! even if the service was a little haphazard - and then I went home with my brother's family. It was early enough that I could have come back here, but my middle niece was like, "aren't you going to hang out with us?!" so of course I stayed, and ended up watching KPop Demon Hunters with middle and youngest niece (youngest was like I don't wanna! but at the end she was like, that was really good!). I should note that they are 27 and 24, but they still like hanging out with me! <333 And now we want the prequel about Rumi's mother and her demon affair.

My car this morning came 90 minutes early, so I rolled out of bed expecting to be able to have a bagel and a cup of coffee before I had to leave, but there he was, blocking the driveway, so I got home before I was even scheduled to leave.

The amount of benadryl and Zyrtec I have to take at their house because of the cat is ridiculous, and I ended up coming home and sleeping for most of the day. I'm glad I didn't cancel my PTO day tomorrow though - I scheduled it when this dinner was originally planned for tonight. I did tell my boss she could ping me if she needed me ahead of their meeting with the board chair tomorrow afternoon, but I so hope she doesn't.

*

In the continuing adventures of revisiting grad school food, tonight's dinner was egg fried rice made from leftover congee and some stuff I had in the fridge and the freezer. I hadn't realized how much I'd been craving sodium and salt until I took a whiff of the soy sauce. I've been drinking tea and water, and even some electrolyte mixes, but nothing quite that satisfying. So the soy sauce helped considerably.

Most of the day's energy went towards returning some library books. Beyond that, it's slow, it's sluggish. Slugging along, even. Every so often, my ears clear for a few moments and the relief is blissful. There's a mix of not having much energy and not having much to do that's contributing to a sense of inertia, which I'm not sure I can be bothered to mind too much about at the moment.

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

The other day, I ripped a hole in the armpit of a Threadless t-shirt. This is only notable because I checked and I'd gotten that shirt almost 16 years ago. It's gotten some wear and tear over the years, especially in the seams for the sleeves, and I don't know if this specific rip is repairable or not. I don't want to throw it out - it's still a good "lounging around the apartment" shirt - but what I'm tempted to do is to buy a new one as close as I can get, and see how the materials are different. Aside from the nearly 16 years of wear and wash, that is.

They're having a sale, too. Inflation means it won't come out close to the same price, even taking that into account, but it'd make for a decent excuse. I've collected enough t-shirts since college that I can go at least two months without repeating one, easily. Three, if I decide to wear the ones I got as podcast promotions as part of the regular rotation instead of being "travel" shirts. It's not something where I've sat down and counted, or even sorted through. I've just collected and worn them. And, frankly, I don't see much reason to stop. As has been said, at least it beats heroin.

I finally got some Minute Maid frozen orange juice concentrate and Orange Julius take 2 is way better than the watery version I made last month. Woo!

Tomorrow, I have to get up early and bake Irish soda bread to take to the family - we are going out for St. Patrick's Day dinner (and also the NINTH[!!!!!] anniversary of my father's death - it is his recipe I use; I miss him a lot).

TV quick takes:

Shrinking: ( spoilers ) Anyway, the first few episodes of this show are a little tough to take but it has morphed into a funny, endearing, poignant hangout comedy and I recommend it! Harrison Ford is SO GOOD in it too.

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

I am very interested to see where the rest of this season is going.

*

A dash of snow came down around two thirty and again around six. Not enough to stick around, but enough to notice it wasn't rain. It was one of the more exciting moments of a day brought low by a cold. The ENT doctor yesterday and two rapid tests this morning are decent enough confirmation I can accept that's all it is, which is as cold a comfort as I can get these days.

I can't remember when I bought them, but the tonics I got from the herb farm at the farmer's market seem to be doing a better job of calming my throat down than anything else I've tried. As that's all I want them for, I'll stick with what seems to be working. Anything for a good night's sleep. There's only so many pots of tea you can drink in a day.

Despite bad sleep last night, I got up and got going this morning. I ran just over 2.3 miles in 30 minutes as a new personal record, and took the stairs up to the gym also. I visited an ear-nose-throat specialist and was told I don't need to panic, and hearing it from a professional makes that a good deal easier. I went to a coffee shop on Madison Avenue that was fancy by Madison Avenue standards, got a vanilla latte and a glass of orange juice that were unfortunately both worth the high price tag, wrote some in my notebook, deliberately overtipped, and rode a bike back through Central Park.

I cooked monster sauce for the first time in a long time - so called because it's doctored up out of spare parts. A can of this, half a can of that. Some of this, more of that. It's always tomato based and it's about the only thing I make entirely on vibes. I ate it a lot in grad school, but haven't for years. The timing seemed right to do it tonight.

I did some editing and managed to get my stuff together enough to send out a query letter. I'm gearing up to wait for the rejection while also reminding myself any submission is a good one to stay in practice for the task.

I've gotten lovely notes and great cards, and all that would make it a good birthday. But all that could have gone aside and it'd still be a wonderful birthday. Because some weeks ago, I preordered an album and it arrived today. An album I'd waited weeks for, and months, and an album I could say I waited years for without knowing it. Because for well over a decade, I'd specify the difference between my favorite band presently making music and my favorite band no longer making music. And now I can't make that distinction quite so easily anymore.

Because after 19 years, Voxtrot released their second album.

19 years ago, I was in college. I was looking out towards the Pacific Ocean, drinking a jack and coke because that's what I'd been able to get the courage to buy for myself. I hadn't written any novels, or any fics of substantial length, either. I'd barely learned how to finish what I'd started.

19 years ago, I'd only seen the world end once.

This isn't an album the band could've made back then. They didn't have the broader maturity or experience on display here. It's still Voxtrot, beautifully so, and it's as rich and tasty and filling as ever. I don't know how I'd have taken it if they'd released it 17 years ago, 15, 10. Nineteen years. I've traveled the world and seen it end and seen it come back. I've said goodbye to people without knowing it was the last time, and welcomed more into my life. I've gone dancing and singing and been kissed a few times. There's things I'd change about the last 19 years, and few of them are about my life and what I've been doing.

It took Voxtrot 19 years to make another finely cut gem of an album that I think is better than their first.

I hope it doesn't take them another 19 years.

I don't love that Nolan McLean gave up 2 home runs in the same inning in this game, but I do love that Team Italia celebrates with an Armani blazer and an espresso (they literally have an espresso machine in the dugout and if someone hits a homer, he gets a shot) and then the team captain kisses the guy while everyone else does this: 🤌

*

Work is currently bananas. Listen, I have a whole document I wrote on how to change/streamline board stuff to foster discussion and engagement, but we were supposed to do it methodically and not implement it until the June meeting, except now we are doing it NOW, and everything got upended in the stupidest way possible. I maybe kind of couldn't control how irritated I am about it because it is basically making me do double the amount of work and is seems to me like it is just going to achieve the exact opposite of what we want it to, but apparently this is coming directly from the new board chair. I told my boss that if I am right, and that this doesn't do what they think it is going to, I might not say it, but I will be thinking the world's biggest "I told you so." And she was like, that's fair. Sigh.

*