The Secretary Will Disavow Any Knowledge

My mother passed early yesterday morning. If I am absent from LJ for a little while, this is why.

For the most part, I don't like doing too many personal updates on this journal. On the other hand, there are times the things going on in my personal life are affecting the fic (or the meta or the random ranting and polls) and I feel it's somewhat unfair to keep people guessing as to what's going on behind the scenes.

Long story short, I got a new job. It's the same kind of consulting work I was doing in Indianapolis, which means my work days are a minimum of 10 hours and often more than that. So between that and sleep, I only have, at most, 6 hours a day to get everything done that I need to get done, including writing. I'm already abysmal at replying to comments; I recognize and own that, with shame, but it's probably going to get a whole lot worse, because given the choice between writing more and answering comments, writing still always wins. I apologize for that, but it is what it is. Hopefully you won't think any worse of me than you already do. I always WANT it to go without saying, but I suspect it never does, so I'll reiterate: friend or defriend at will, and godspeed.

So, because it's Remix time (the HAPPIEST TIME OF THE YEAR), I was updating Love is Just a Bloodsport so that it would be SUPER up to date for my remixer and, as a part of that, I was catching up A Kept Boy. Which led to a couple realizations.

1. I have been working on AKB, in one form or fashion, since July 10, 2008. (WOW)
2. AKB is now in excess of 100,000 words (111,540, to be precise).
3. It is long time for me to get off my lazy butt and create a master post, instead of just linking to the tag. (*sigh*)

So I did that.

AKB Master Post, at your disposal, with links to all current chapters and the outtakes. Hmmm. I wonder if I should bother to link the meta too?

The Fiance's job wants him at the new site sooner. This means we have to be packed up and ready to go by next Friday at the latest.

Needless to say, I'm probably going to be fairly scarce and I doubt I'm going to be able to get much done fictionally in the meantime.

The point is: I don't know and don't count on me for much of anything for the next couple weeks. Sorry, y'all.

(Comments off because I don't really have time to even answer them. I'm going to assume good wishes because I need them right now, okay? Okay.)

So it's official; I'm sick. Not dying, but definitely in the "fuzzy headed, can't focus, not compos mentis" form of sick. Bleagh.

And...already I've messed up with the birthdays:

Happy belated birthday to ebonypsyche, merihn, and synecdochic! Happy birthday to meyerlemon and sahsedalia!

Blessings on all your houses!

---

Daily Count: 697
Weekly Count: 1,352
YTD: 5,104

---

AKB: 665 words. 289 on the Kane outtake and 376 on AKB 39. ARGH. SO. SLOW.

Blade or Handle: 32 words. ARGH. EVEN. SLOWER.

Remember when I used to write? Anyone? *cries*

---

Also--I think any panic about LJ closing down or piking off is premature and not really warranted at this juncture, I DO think that backing up your data is never a bad idea.

Everything I post to this journal is posted simultaneously (through the magic of Semagic) to my mirrors on Insane Journal and Journal Fen (same username). If you don't like either of those options, most of my fic (I'm a little behind) is also posted on Love is Just a Bloodsport.

thecatevari is mirrored on IJ as dogsofwar. antarasheart is mirrored on IJ under the same username.

Any of the comms I mod for (sundownverse, whatwekeep, kamikazeremix, mini_nanowrimo, otpofdoom, etc.) have been mirrored/migrated under the same names over on IJ. Comments didn't/don't migrate, but the raw data is there. With whatwekeep, that generally only means a lot of links going back to LJ, but it's something.

I think the most important thing is not to panic or freak out before anything has concretely happened. But it's also not terribly difficult to ensure continuity of data. Take whatever precautions make you feel good and then sit back and see what happens. There's been any number of LJ panics just since *I'VE* been in fandom (and that's not long) and we're all still here.

For those of you who might not be tracking, darkrosetiger has posted Part 3 of A Question of Compromise (David Hewlett/Jason Momoa/Joe Flanigan) and inlovewithnight has posted the second part of Out of Joint (Matthew Rhys/Ioan Gruffudd), both set in the AKB 'verse.

Okay! So the FAQ for the AKB universe is now up over at whatwekeep! (in fact, it's the ONLY thing up!)

darkrosetiger and I tried to incorporate as many of your questions were feasible. Some of them were a little too specific for the purposes of an FAQ; I'll do my best to give you an answer about those as soon as I can. Some of them were things I plan to cover in AKB and again, were too specific for the kind of primer guide we were aiming toward. I hope you'll be patient with those and give me a chance to answer them in-story.

I doubt I'll be able to get a chapter done today (omg, don't ask me how late I was up working with darkrose on the FAQ) but I have reason to believe she may have another piece of A Question of Compromise done pretty soon. YAY!

Membership at the comm is open. Posting is open. As I said, it's there for you guys to play in the universe however you like, whether it's creating or talking or just hanging out and lurking. Have fun!

whatwekeep

From sdwolfpup:

A hacking tool was released that automates the attack of an existing Gmail vulnerability. Because it makes it much easier to do when it's automated, it's much more likely that people will use it to ill effect. In order to protect yourself, please do the following:

1. Log into your GMail account
2. Go into Settings (click 'Settings' in the upper right-hand corner)
3. Under the first tab ('General'), scroll to the bottom of the screen where it says "Browser Connection"
4. Select "Always use https"
5. Click 'Save Changes'
6. Log out of your account and then back in to have it take effect

For further information on why, see this article.

There are other security suggestions in the comments that are worth reading as well, even if you don't use GMail at all.



From inlovewithnight: Fox Trying to Kill Watchmen Movie. Fox, you are a horrible company run by RUINERS. YOU DO NOT GET THE EXTRA COOKIE.

OMFG! THE FIANCE JUST BOUGHT ME AN AIRLINE TICKET TO WINCON!! I'M DEFINITELY COMING!

I may have to sleep in hallways, but I'M COMING!! YAY!

The way to make sports a LOT more interesting to PT:

"Zach Thomas is no fool. He HIRES someone to pull his ass muscles." ~Hard Knocks

Also, at the risk of being incredibly gauche, would it be okay for me to just give y'all a blanket "Thank you!" to everyone who congratulated me and The Fiance on our engagement? You know I'm bad with comments to begin with and right now the thought of typing "Thanks!" more than a hundred time sort of makes me want to cry. But believe me, the thanks are heartfelt.

And while we're talking thanks, drvsilla thank you so much for the vgift. It was a lovely and unexpected surprise.

...we now return you to your regular fic-reading.

Here is your Official Announcment:

*cue fanfare*

THE ROOMMATE AND I ARE ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED.

This concludes your PSA.

Also, The Roommate (heretofore known as The Fiance) requests that you do not *ahem* "bother him with questions or stuff" about this. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Okay, after some HEROIC EFFORTS on our part, all the assignments for kamikazeremix have been sent! If you signed up and did NOT get you assignment, please let me or girlguidejones know IMMEDIATELY.

Okay, so I've recced kishuku's last Sundown fic because I'm constantly amazed at how well she NAILED Sundown's version of Michael Weatherly and humanized a character that's often the villain of the piece without making him any less complex. Or nicer. It takes a really fine hand to do that, imo, and I geek out on it every time. Her Michael is MY Michael. Well, she went and did it again.

One of the things I really like about kishuku's Michael stories is that she doesn't gloss over the ugliness of the situation at La Hacienda. It's a sanctuary but it's also a prison in many ways and she doesn't shirk that balance of safety and peril. If you like sundownverse, I really highly reccommend reading her latest, Picture This. And I recommend giving her LOTS of love, because damn, she can write the hell out of Michael. For serious.

It's been a good day.

Some time ago, girlguidejones and I talked about running a possibly insane remix challenge.

Well. We haven't recovered our sanity in the meantime, so we are pleased to announce kamikazeremix! It is not, we assure you, a challenge for the faint of heart. Check out our user info!

If you think you might be half as crazy as GGj or myself, you should think about signing up. Sign ups begin Wednesday, July 16 and will end at midnight EST on Wednesday, July 23rd. We're really excited and we hope you will be too.

Please, feel free to pimp this far and wide. And join us!

Hello, from the Land of Corn. I'm still in downstate Illinois with my relatives and I'm stealing internet. (shh!) Frankly, I'm amazed that anyone around here HAS wireless internet to steal...and don't I feel QUITE the big-city snob saying that. But really, if you saw my grandmother's town, you might understand my skepticism. None of the motels around here have internet, wireless or otherwise. *sighs*

In any case, I'm doing pretty good. It's nice to be in the bosom of my family again (and I am thankful that that's only a metaphor). Though they do keep bugging me about when I'm moving back. But I understand that; they miss me as much as I miss them. They want me home. It's just...California has become home too. (STFU, Mary, I hear you laughing!)

Anyway. The EXCITING (for me, at least)thing is that I have FINISHED the draft of my bigbang, my Die Hard epic. The draft clocks it at almost 23,000 words, making it the first time I have ever actually come close to hitting my estimate. I think some of the end scenes may need some expansion, though. We shall see what my betas say. I'm so frickin' ANTSY for when I'll be able to post it. It's a rare and wondrous thing when I finish something this long and don't hate it by the end.

---

( Would you like a snip? Of course you would! )