Afterthoughts , Spike/Angel by hello_spikey.

Mondays , Willow/Tara by spike_1790.

Sorting Hat , Tara by evil_little_dog.

AtSverse icons by cherrytargaryen.

USAToday reports that DB gave a commencement speech at Ithaca College.

Geekosystem talks to Joss about Avengers 2 .

Final two seasons still to come for any sick puppies still interested. Honest. No drama this time, just an observation.
( if you click on this your interest can't be dismissed as a simple flick of the wristCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://frogfarm.dreamwidth.org/148164.html. Speak your piece there using OpenID or whatever.

The new Outrageous Outrage on Tumblr seems to be that Benedict Cumberbatch is white.



(Warning: I'm assuming there will be Star Trek: Into Darkness spoilers in the comments. Or else just me screaming a lot.)

Since I was too busy yesterday to do it and too busy today to do anything but this.

So I made an observation on FB about the ridiculous moment when you realize you're crying over the death of a character in a story and then realize you've been taken in so far that you care that much. I've failed to kill characters time and again. Oh I can kill them in fanfic, usually characters who I dislike and I don't even do that too often. I don't really care for AUs. I can kill the nasty ones but I can't kill any of the protagonist's friends.

And I want to. Why? Sometimes it needs to be done. Not for quick and cheesy emotional reactions (though it would accomplish that as well.) Sometimes a character really has to die to move along the plot, to galvanize the action.

And yet I always try to weasel out of the killing. I have trouble ending stories because I don't want to say goodbye to them so you can imagine the difficulty I have in bumping off a well liked character.

I still want to. Wonders where I can do this...

Also I found a stack of old photos from when I lived in Madison. I either need to do a sequel to my YA story Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron or set something new there. I never did use the Circus Museum or Devil's Lake or House on the Rock. God, I miss Madison. I found Iktomi in that stack. I miss that cat, too.

Points to my music - perfect for Kaleo's upbringing

[Short Fiction]

• Scion (Willow/Kennedy, OC, PG) by kerkevik
• A New Man (Giles, Ethan, PG) by dragonyphoenix
• Talk About Fatherhood (Spike, Dawn, PG) by comlodge
• Mondays (Willow/Tara, PG) by spike-1790
• Three Courting Sin drabbles (Various) by leni_ba
• It’s Written in the Stars (Spike/Buffy, R) by comlodge
• Sorting Hat (Tara, PG) by evil-little-dog
• Afterthoughts (Spike/Angel, PG13) by hello-spikey
• Interlude (Doyle/Oz, R) by beetle
• Moving Through Darkness (Riley, Ethan, R) by beetle
• Unrequited (Andrew/Warren, R) by beetle
• 2:43am (Willow/Tara, G) by amycooper
• Room to Choose (Xander/Spike, R) by skargasm
• Memorial Day (Angel/Spike, R) by Lilithangel
• Hate-Love (Wesley/Angel, PG13) by Shinigami_HiMeSakura
• Mourning Colors (Spike, PG13) by Laure Alexander (ladyoneill)
• Happy Rebirthday! (Willow/Spike, PG13) by Laure Alexander (ladyoneill)
• And then there was bliss (Fred/Wesley, PG13) by Immmmaderp
• Here Today (Buffy, Dawn, PG) by OTT Barnes
• Metafiction (Ensemble, PG) by et-tu-lj

[Chaptered Fiction Updates]

• Chapter Eleven of The Valinor Trail (Dawn, R, LotR crossover) by curiouswombat
• Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know Chapter 132, Chapter 133, and Chapter 134 (Xander/Spike, NC17) by darker-fae
• A Refuge for Loyal Hearts ~ Chapter 33 (Spike/Xander, NC17) by theladymerlin and skargasm
• Persona(final edit) (Willow/Angel, R) by pickamix
• Xandercles the Mighty, Chapter Forty-Nine (Xander/Spike, PG13) by dustandroses
• Faith: The Vampire Slayer 1-5/? (Faith/Darla, Ensemble, NC17) by beetle
• Bring Me To Life Ch. 1-3/? (Willow. Ensemble, PG) by Buffy1987
• The Quality Of Mercy Ch. 1-5/? (Ensemble, PG13) by BookQ36
• The Angel's Heir Ch. 1-11/? (Angel/Xander, PG13) by Snorpenbass
• The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1 Ch. 1-8/? (Xander/Cordelia, PG13) by Alkeni
• The Dreams in which I'm Dying, 1/? (Buffy, PG13) by Comfy Chair

[Images & Videos]

• AtS Icons by starry_night
• AtS & BtVS Icons by moriwen1
• BtVS Icons by craterdweller
• AtS Icons by comlodge

[Community Announcements]

• May Week Three Prompts - REPOST at sb-fag-ends
• Challenge 04 - Winners at Cslayerstillness
• Prompt 512 at open-on-sunday
• Episode in Focus: Unleashed at fantas_magoria
• Sign Up for Round Two at feedbackathon
• Sunnydale High School 10th Anniversary Comment!Ficathon at tiny-white-hats's place!

[Fandom Discussion]

• Revised post about fandom fading by slaymesoftly

[Articles, Interviews & Other News]

• Summer TV Club: Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
• 8 Awesome Portraits of Strong Female Characters from TV as Saints (Photos)

COMIC CON JAMES MARSTERS CONCERT 2013

Spent the weekend in Ottawa to go to Comic Con and during went to the James Marster's concert Friday night. James is most known for playing Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer but he's also been been in many of films and series such as Torchwood. He has also been a musician for a very long time but is not well known.

( Video Behind the CutCollapse )

Starting in about 2009, in the pits that capture manure under factory-scale hog farms, a gray, bubbly substance began appearing at the surface of the fecal soup. The problem is menacing: As manure breaks down, it emits toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide and flammable ones like methane, and trapping these noxious fumes under a layer of foam can lead to sudden, disastrous releases and even explosions. According to a 2012 report from the University of Minnesota, by September 2011, the foam had "caused about a half-dozen explosions in the upper Midwest…one explosion destroyed a barn on a farm in northern Iowa, killing 1,500 pigs and severely burning the worker involved."

And the foam grows to a thickness of up to four feet—check out these imagesa 2009 explosion that lifted a hog barn a "couple of feet off the ground" and blew the farm operator himself 20 feet from the building. (Thankfully, he wasn't injured, and there were no animals in it.) And check out the footage, starting about 3:19 in, of the foam itself, which must be seen to be believed. At one point , a shovel dips into the mire and scoops up as sample—which jiggles and pulsates, alive, apparently, with microbial activity. Schmidt also does a great job of explaining just how manure foam can cause explosions.


( Read more...Collapse )
source: Mother Jones

I'm reading OSC's Mithermages series - so far, The Lost Gate and now The Gate Thief - and rather enjoying it, after all that angst about finding something new to read. It's a teeny bit along the same lines as Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson et al universe in that "ancient gods are real" except... well, I want to say 'more complex' or 'less cartoonish' but that's not really fair to Riordan. But it's also a mix of fantasy and science fiction, kind of like the Pathfinder series, only modern day with lots of pop-culture references. So far various characters have mentioned How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife and, naturally, Avengers, because one of the main characters/historical figures is Loki. (ETA: Also mentioned Twilight and LOTR.)

( I LOLed at this part...Collapse )

On a related note, as I posted last night, I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness yesterday.

Something you have to understand is that my dad was a huge scifi fan growing up, so my brother and I kind of grew up on Star Trek. I was born in 82 and he was born in 86, so this mostly meant the movies and TNG. James really got into it more than me, to the point where I would wake up on non-school days, lie in bed and try to figure out, by listening, which movie he was watching. Because he was always watching them. And it was usually Wrath of Khan. So even though I didn't really become a Star Trek fan until Voyager came along, I was pretty well immersed in the earlier stuff. And I think because of that I was able to appreciate a lot of ST:Id's plays on the 'original' plot, the role reversals and whatnot... definitely a lot more than the average, non-Trek-versed viewer, at least.

( Some random spoilery thoughts:Collapse )

Holy crap there's a big-ass tornado in OK City.