i didn't know until today that i have monday off

Because I Am Bad at This

Child woke up sick and apparently was very sick on the bathroom door, the floor, the sink, the toilet. When he came to tell me, it being three, I almost thought maybe I would get up? But no. I waved him into bed and told him to cover up the evidence. And also to brush his teeth.

(...the teeth totally make up for the entire I don't feel like cleaning at three AM, right? Right).

*thoughtful* Livejournal parenting communities always make me want to say I let him hunt for his food in the backyard while I obsessively surf ebay for the perfect china cat. It's like a disease, really. I really need to stop letting morbid curiosity get the better of me.

Right. Now onward.

Valentine's Day

svmadelyn's Valentine's Game is up and posted. And thank you to those who said such lovely things about me!

Recs

Actually, I've been bad at tracking this week, though I kept all the windows open. This is for two reasons: one, I read three really really bad fic and one offensively and objectively horrific fic (no one any of you probably know, unless you are chopchica, who is determined to see how much she can traumatize me before midnight every day) and I--have no idea what to do with that. This is a problem; I am trying to keep at least a 90% feedback, and there is no part of me that does not cringe. I mean, the first three, at least I enjoyed myself. The last one I wrote the beginning of a rant on misogyny and blame the victim and really, no one wants that.

But to the stuff I liked! Better!

Perpetual Anticipation, Torchwood, Jack/Ianto. Hot. And sweet. And hot.

Post-Nuptial by rageprufrock - part of the 14 Valentines project, Sheppard/McKay, and sprogs. Plural. Yeah. And a sling. No. Really.

The Unwritten Future by thepouncers - part of Yuletide and an AU of Terminator I. I just--I just melted for this. Beautifully, wonderfully written and a wonderful look at a different future.

Neutral Zone by tx_tart - season three post The Return 1. John and Rodney when they get back to earth.

Blame the Rain by mahoni - Sheppard/Ronon. Some rain, a bit of H, and some bittersweet C. I kind of hurt for them, and hope for them, and wonder if the rain can last forever.

Updates

I moved around some things on my webpage.

Added Feel You Breathe to SGA and put up all three A History of Violence. Also.

Moved Crimes Against Humanity along with A History of Violence to its own page.

Also Strangerverse to its own and Teacher's Pet on its own. I could say this is for some good reason, but really, I hated scrolling that much when I was updating. The link on the page for Teacher's Pet, I have just discovered, has an extra e. I will fix that when I get home.

Meta

Okay, this is because I was just checking a link and hit this by musesfool:

Like, I'm taking a total badfic premise and running with it, and I have a lot of shame about that, more than the fact that it's a SEKRIT INCEST BABY, which I just think is kind of HILARIOUS. I mean, it's genderswap AU incest - I'm not going to cavil at a baby at this point, you know? And it's an AU of an AU. It's like EVERY BAD FANFIC CLICHE all rolled into one. And I think that is what makes me twitchy, way more than the subject matter, which I admit is creepy and wrong, and yet I do love it.

So I guess the thing that makes me shamed isn't the incest or the baby or girl!Sam in and of themselves - it's how much I love those things (in fiction), how they totally hit buttons I didn't even know I had until now - but also, how I know these are the kinds of elements that generally get a story lumped in with badfic, regardless of actual technical or emotional merit.

This is in no way a moral problem for me in terms of content. It's an aesthetic one.

The rest of it is here. Hmm. I am thinking of the fine line between "This is badfic" and "This is fic I do not like" and "This is fic by an author I hate a lot/hurt my friend/eats puppies/didn't leave me feedback/killed puppies while leaving feedback to someone else/whatever" and "This is fic that makes me uncomfortable", but you know, before I had finished my first cup of coffee I found out I am going to writing a definitive story on dragon rape. I have no ground to stand on.

Seriously. What was in that coffee?

Comments

[amireal.livejournal.com]

*G* Mostly just A and B happens and therefore characters X and Y decide to implement C.

As opposed to A and B happens and therefore characters X and Y decide to implement Potatoes. In other words actions and reactions make sense in the context of each other, the characters (which is subjective, but there's bending and then there's breaking), the environment, ACTUAL FACTS (ex: researching first aid) and the larger plot and universe.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

You mean solutions to problems that don't necessarily require sex be the first answer? *amused*

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not ruling out sex as an answer (and really, a lot of this is fiction for fun, so I can handwave a lot in a lot of ways depending), but say-- someone has a broken arm-- and someone else decides that sex is totally the answer-- well no. See?

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Honestly? No, that isn't what I mean by badfic. And this comes up against the whole thing where you are logical and rational and look for that, whereas I really don't. I wouldn't know it if it bit me in the ass :)

It's... less regimented than that, to me, maybe. Like, there are plenty of stories that I consider to be badfic not because A and B leading to potato -- that's crackfic, in my mind, because if you can make me believe that Potato is the answer then I will happily munch on potatos (mmm, starch) -- but that there isn't enough support even for A and B leading to C: the writing just isn't there, or the characterization is just so bad that I can't even apply faces to those words, or the sex is just funny it's so bad. It's not mechanics -- or at least, it's not just the mechanics. Sometimes it's the mechanics. And sometimes it's the emotional ennui you get from a story that hits all the mechanical high notes but you just can't bring yourself to even dislike.

Does that answer it? At all? In the realm of being even close?

[amireal.livejournal.com]

because if you can make me believe that Potato is the answer then I will happily munch on potatos (mmm, starch)

I think we're talking about two different things, of course if I can convince you that potato is the answer then yes. HOWEVER I think my analogy didn't quite follow through for you. I was going for A, B, C being correct for whatever values of C you can choose, convincing the reader that C was the option that worked is another conversation entirely-- potato would be like the example I used with Jenn. Broken arm therefore Sex. (Now depending on the universe I could probably wank that out, but let's pretend we're on earth and there's no alien tech or magical answers, that kind of congitive dissonance..)

And I'm not really saying it's all mechanics, so much as saying the logic inside the story, why characters do something, the order in which they do something, SHOULD MAKE SENSE in some way. Remember that fic I pointed you to? That's the example I'm thinking of. Character A makes a decision completely ignoring law and logic and saying "we must show trust" even though Character B has been shown to be completely untrustworthy.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I think we're talking about two different things, of course if I can convince you that potato is the answer then yes. HOWEVER I think my analogy didn't quite follow through for you.

I kinda figured :) We tend to have this problem when we break things down, in that, I just flat out don't understand, sometimes, which is all my deal. You use math and my brain breaks :D

so much as saying the logic inside the story, why characters do something, the order in which they do something, SHOULD MAKE SENSE in some way.

Yes! okay, yes, definitely. That is exactly what I was trying to say, only with more vagueness. Make it make sense in the confines of your story, give me that authorial two-step to the right that supports it, and I'm fine with it. But when Inuyasha suddenly shows up at the end of a Stargate story with no story-based support for it -- yeah. No. Badfic, right there.