HSU IT Department

Today is the first International Fanworks Day!! Created by the Organization for Transformative Works (the folks who brought us AO3), it's a day to celebrate the creativity that abounds in fandom. Both The Mary Sue and AO3 have great suggestions for how to celebrate it, so pour yourself a glass of wine, pat yourself on the back, and enjoy!

Yesterday I posted a very funny Olympics ad from the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion which pokes fun at Russia's atrocious attitude towards the LGBT community.

Well, today lady_of_clunn posted a link to another, even funnier, Olympics ad from the U.K.'s Channel 4 which I just had to repost and share. I dare you to watch this without laughing until you cry -- the best part is the dj who looks just like Putin XD


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In Philadelphia on a business trip. Went to Talula's Garden for dinner.

In the words of George Takei: "Oh, my."

Among other things they are famous for their cheese plates*, so I had the World Traveler:

Cana de Cabra (Goat, Spain)
Handmade Sheep’s Milk Feta (Sheep, Greece)
Clyde Weaver Vintage Quebec Cheddar (Cow, Canada)
Vintage Gouda (Cow, Holland)
Chimay (Cow, Belgium)
Délice de Bourgogne (Cow, France)
Scharfe Maxx (Cow, Switzerland)
Neal’s Yard Daily Aged Stilton (Cow, England)**

::dies of cheesy ecstasy::

Then there was potato-broccoli soup and baked bluefish with gnocchi. Plus it's one of those places where every so often they bring you little surprise presents from the kitchen -- amuse bouches I believe they're called -- so I'm slurping my soup, trying to stifle my moans of culinary ecstasy in case I disturb the people at the other table, and suddenly at my elbow appears a plate with two little tiny warm doughnut/cream-puff things with pumpkin-cinnamon butter. NOMZ!!!

I am as full as a tick...

* but I have to say, the word "cheesemonger" totally makes me larf
** No, there was no Venezuelan beaver cheese. I checked.

It started with Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. And now, my friends, we have this absolutely fabulous internet ad. (Where was this when I was thirteen??? But hey, at least it's here now!) I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at an ad while at the same time being so utterly and completely delighted. (Here is the associated article from CNN.)


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(1) Senator Wendy Davis from Texas and the People's Filibuster

(2) Goodbye, DOMA!!!!

(3) The U.S. Army Quidditch team:

Mr Psmith and I are finally back home after a week-long combination business/pleasure trip to the (very soggy) midwest.

The pleasure goal was to see a bunch of family, including my brother J (recovering from a seven-year case of severe Ph.D. which resulted in the biggest diploma I've ever seen) and 8-year-old nephew P (a bundle of energy if there ever was one and a devoted fan of I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H and Star Wars, I have high hopes for him); my grandmother (95, still going to French club and playing bridge every week); and my Dad, who turned 71 on Thursday. Since J and P live only about 40 minutes from Dad he was kind enough to come pick us up, and en route to his house we stopped to see my aunt and uncle and cousin B, with whom we had a rousing political discussion about how horrible the governor of this particular state is, so much so that even his own party hates him. Then a couple of days with Dad during which we ate sushi and got to visit the aquarium in town (VERY nice!). Saturday night most of the extended family -- step-siblings, half-siblings, spouses and offspring ranging in age from babes-in-arms to last week's high school graduates -- gathered at a restaurant for dinner, after which everyone came back to the house for homemade strawberry shortcake courtesy of my sister A. Scrumptiousness and boisterousness abounded.

The business goal was some consulting for an organization near my hometown that has a museum, library and archive and wanted a professional evaluation of what was needed to house and maintain it properly. Quite interesting stuff; took tons of photos and will be writing up a report for them over the next couple of weeks,

Both goals achieved, we got home early this afternoon to find all of our menagerie well, though the rats had emptied their water bottles and one of the cats had eaten some lily petals and barfed on the arm of the couch. Ah well, could be worse.

Since we were traveling on Sunday I indulged in a Sunday New York Times (bliss!) and found this jewel of a poem on p. 50 of the Magazine. Spending time with family made me think of summer evenings of my childhood, the warm darkness, voices calling, the streetlights coming on, and this seemed to say something about that, about how a moment can be both old and new, eternal and yet fresh: "nothing is over, only beginning somewhere else"

One of the Evenings
by James Richardson

After so many years, we know them.
This is one of the older Evenings -- its patience,
settling in, its warmth that wants nothing in return.
Once on a balcony among trees, once by a slipping river,
so many Augusts sitting out through sunset --
first a dimness in the undergrowth like smoke,
and then like someone you hadn't noticed
has been in the room a long time...

It has seen everything that can be done in the dark.
It has seen two rifles swing around
to train on each other, it has seen lovers meet and revolve,
it has seen wounds grayscale in low light.
It has come equally for those who prayed for it
and those who turned on lamp after lamp
until they could not see. It deals evenhandedly
with the one skimming downstairs as rapidly as typing,
the one washing plates too loudly,
the one who thinks there's something more important,
since it does not believe in protagonists,
since it knows anyone could be anyone else.

It has heard what they said aloud to the moon to the stars
and what they could not say,
walking alone and together. It has gotten over
I cannot live through this, it has gotten over This did not have to happen
and This is experience one day I will be glad for.
It has gotten over How even for a moment
could I have forgotten? though it never forgets,
leaves nothing behind, does not believe in stories,
since nothing is over, only beginning somewhere else.

It could be anywhere but it is here
woth the kids who play softball endlessly not keeping score,
though it's getting late, way too late,
holding their drives in the air like invisible moons a little longer,
giving way before them so they feel like they're running faster,
It likes trees, I think, it likes summer. It seems comfortable with us,
though it is here to help us be less ourselves.
It thinks of its darkening as listening harder and harder.

Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing has a release date: June 7, 2013. Exactly 38 days from today. Tick, tick, tick...

And there's a new trailer. yay!!


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pearle9240 has created icons for a number of stories from this year's sshg_exchange, and she created these two beautiful ones based on my story Bide, Lady, Bide. Aren't they little jewels? I love the detail, the colors, the way they highlight key pieces of the story. Lucky me, I can't wait to use them on things :)

...what teddyradiator made me!! They're lovely, so thick and warm and soft, and Gryffindor colors to boot. Thank you, tr :)