five things that made me happy this past week
1. Dim sum! And they even had chrysanthemum tea! Served, exactly as it should be, with a little dish of rock sugar. *swoon* (It is strangely difficult to find in the US, so it is very, very exciting to know that there is a place nearby that has it!) There were many dumplings of various types, long rice noodle rolls (changfen) with shrimp, bbq pork buns and pastries, steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, turnip cake, taro dumplings, scallion pancakes, Chinese broccoli, crab claws, shrimp toast, shrimp-stuffed eggplant, shrimp balls, sesame balls with red bean, black sesame and green tea balls, egg custard tarts (danta), and my favorite, soft tofu with ginger syrup. (Oooh, I should've asked them if they had doujiang (Chinese-style soymilk, basically -- I like it sweet, though salty isn't bad, either). Or pea tips or hollow vegetable. Next time!) It was all delicious. Maybe not the very best dim sum I've ever had, and it was a little overpriced (not surprising for the area, but irritating if I compare it too closely to the dim sum I ate with my family when we were in SoCal over the winter holidays -- my aunt managed to feed ten of us for what it cost two of us to eat here), but it was solidly yummy! Definitely going back there.
2. antumbral's Hockey RPF (Blackhawks)/Generation Kill fusion-crossover ficlet (also here), in which Duncan Keith is a spotter, Patrick Sharp is his sniper, Patrick Kane is their driver/communications guy, and Jonathan Toews is (of course) their fearless leader. It is just so ridiculously pleasing. ♥
3. Yes, I'm still basically in the process of falling in love with hockey. I watched half of 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic (only half because the Housemate twice (twice!) deleted the first two episodes before I had the chance to watch them) and it was awesome. I have had to start actively preventing myself from spending all my time reading articles and blogs (and re-reading fic), because there are a lot of things that actually need to get done this month (we're moving, among other things; there is a lot in my life to be stressed out about, at the moment), but it's fun to know it's all out there for me to absorb when I have the chance.
4. Porn Battle XI is coming! :D Prompting will start tomorrow and run through Friday, January 21st, and the dates of the actual battle are Sunday, January 23rd to Thursday, February 3rd. oxoniensis has more information up here and here. All fandoms welcome! Come post some prompts! (See the FAQ for info on how to format them correctly and all that jazz.) I have started my brainstorming list for prompts, but got a little distracted by a fic idea, so I still have much to do. Possibly I ought to make sure to prompt something that the fic idea would fill, because my desire to write the scene that's been on repeat in my head for the past few days has gotten pretty strong. Two hockey players, one figure skater, 2010 Winter Olympics, happy shiny super-porny ménage à trois featuring oral sex and instructional dirty talk -- should be fun, if I can make it work!
5. Shearwater is still one of the best live shows I have ever seen or ever will see. Never fancy, just them and their many, many instruments (all of them played between 3 to 6 instruments over the course of the show), but breathtaking, engrossing, charming, intense, and so, so gorgeous. They performed The Island Arc (Palo Santo, Rook, and The Golden Archipelago) all the way through (with 10 minute breaks between albums), seven people on stage (if I remember correctly the previous two times I saw them they usually had five people) all playing with total commitment. I am a little bit in love with Jonathan Meiburg, I think, and his voice. I am definitely in love with his band. Just incredible.
Um. *cough* That was a lot of hockey, wasn't it. I might be a little obsessed. But it's not the only thing I'm thinking about! I have been contemplating working on some more figure skating fic, and I should really polish up that Justified fic and get it betaed and posted before the new season starts (YAY MORE JUSTIFIED!), and I started a little Bryce/Chuck gen-ish Stanford-era thing for picfor1000 but I'm not sure how I feel about what I've written so far, and I keep thinking I want to write more American Idiot fic, and I've been re-reading the Dresden Files books that I read a long time ago so that I can read the rest of the series, and I'm still slowly making my way through the Yuletide fics, and I'm watching Hawaii Five-0 and occasionally reading fic, and for a while I was really into reading Sherlock fic and might get back to that at some point, and I'm planning to watch previous seasons of Doctor Who in preparation for the coming season (YAY MORE ELEVEN + AMY + RORY + RIVER!), and I watched the first episode of Misfits and enjoyed it and will likely be watching the rest, and I'm looking forward to White Collar starting up again, and the last couple of episodes of Castle pleased me mightily in certain ways, and I'm behind on some other shows that I might pick up again, and I'm going to try reading the Scott Pilgrim comic and will probably want to write about the girls, and I'm thinking about doing 14valentines and/or halfamoon, and I think I might need to re-watch The Dreamers because of my Sex Is Not The Enemy Ficathon prompt, and and and...
2. antumbral's Hockey RPF (Blackhawks)/Generation Kill fusion-crossover ficlet (also here), in which Duncan Keith is a spotter, Patrick Sharp is his sniper, Patrick Kane is their driver/communications guy, and Jonathan Toews is (of course) their fearless leader. It is just so ridiculously pleasing. ♥
3. Yes, I'm still basically in the process of falling in love with hockey. I watched half of 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic (only half because the Housemate twice (twice!) deleted the first two episodes before I had the chance to watch them) and it was awesome. I have had to start actively preventing myself from spending all my time reading articles and blogs (and re-reading fic), because there are a lot of things that actually need to get done this month (we're moving, among other things; there is a lot in my life to be stressed out about, at the moment), but it's fun to know it's all out there for me to absorb when I have the chance.
4. Porn Battle XI is coming! :D Prompting will start tomorrow and run through Friday, January 21st, and the dates of the actual battle are Sunday, January 23rd to Thursday, February 3rd. oxoniensis has more information up here and here. All fandoms welcome! Come post some prompts! (See the FAQ for info on how to format them correctly and all that jazz.) I have started my brainstorming list for prompts, but got a little distracted by a fic idea, so I still have much to do. Possibly I ought to make sure to prompt something that the fic idea would fill, because my desire to write the scene that's been on repeat in my head for the past few days has gotten pretty strong. Two hockey players, one figure skater, 2010 Winter Olympics, happy shiny super-porny ménage à trois featuring oral sex and instructional dirty talk -- should be fun, if I can make it work!
5. Shearwater is still one of the best live shows I have ever seen or ever will see. Never fancy, just them and their many, many instruments (all of them played between 3 to 6 instruments over the course of the show), but breathtaking, engrossing, charming, intense, and so, so gorgeous. They performed The Island Arc (Palo Santo, Rook, and The Golden Archipelago) all the way through (with 10 minute breaks between albums), seven people on stage (if I remember correctly the previous two times I saw them they usually had five people) all playing with total commitment. I am a little bit in love with Jonathan Meiburg, I think, and his voice. I am definitely in love with his band. Just incredible.
Um. *cough* That was a lot of hockey, wasn't it. I might be a little obsessed. But it's not the only thing I'm thinking about! I have been contemplating working on some more figure skating fic, and I should really polish up that Justified fic and get it betaed and posted before the new season starts (YAY MORE JUSTIFIED!), and I started a little Bryce/Chuck gen-ish Stanford-era thing for picfor1000 but I'm not sure how I feel about what I've written so far, and I keep thinking I want to write more American Idiot fic, and I've been re-reading the Dresden Files books that I read a long time ago so that I can read the rest of the series, and I'm still slowly making my way through the Yuletide fics, and I'm watching Hawaii Five-0 and occasionally reading fic, and for a while I was really into reading Sherlock fic and might get back to that at some point, and I'm planning to watch previous seasons of Doctor Who in preparation for the coming season (YAY MORE ELEVEN + AMY + RORY + RIVER!), and I watched the first episode of Misfits and enjoyed it and will likely be watching the rest, and I'm looking forward to White Collar starting up again, and the last couple of episodes of Castle pleased me mightily in certain ways, and I'm behind on some other shows that I might pick up again, and I'm going to try reading the Scott Pilgrim comic and will probably want to write about the girls, and I'm thinking about doing 14valentines and/or halfamoon, and I think I might need to re-watch The Dreamers because of my Sex Is Not The Enemy Ficathon prompt, and and and...