Lifted from sixwhitelies, and I have the right to lift it because I wrote for her. xD

Ever heard a song, or a quote from a song, that seemed perfect to build a fic around - but the bunnies wouldn't come? the tone of the lyrics, a particular few words, the actual subject matter: doesn't matter what inspired you about it, it made you think of fic, and you've been wanting to make that happen in some way?

Well, here's the idea: you post five or ten quotes that you think would be prime fic material, either as an actual part of the fic or just as a springboard. Your friends come along, get inspired, and write you drabbles or ficlets. Then they post their quotes, and it's a big, beautiful circle of fanfiction. Got it?

My only weakness is a list of crimes, my only weakness is-- well, never mind, never mind.
Shoplifters of the World Unite, The Smiths

People are dying, I close my blinds. All that I know is I'm breathing now. I want to change the world...instead I sleep.
Keep Breathing, Ingrid Michaelson

Wake up! Say good morning to that sleepy person lying next to you. If there's no one there, then there's no one there, but at least the war is over.
In Our Bedroom After the War, Stars

The kids were waking up hung over, the neighbors are starting up their cars, the garbageman were emptying the dumpsters. Atheists were praying full of sarcasm, and the genius next door was sleeping, dreaming that the antidote is orgasm.
The Genius Next Door, Regina Spektor

I'll be the one who'll break my heart. I'll be the one to hold the gun. I love you more, I love you more. I don't know what I knew before but now I know I want to win the war.
I Feel It All, Feist

Branches are bare with a pulse underneath, flowering slowly inside. Your hands are warm and my body is wide, to hold all the promise of blue-velvet dark and stars.
Stars, The Weepies

Now use both hands, oh, no don't close your eyes. I am writing graffiti on your body, I am drawing the story of how hard we tried.
Both Hands, Ani DiFranco

Falling up a flight of stairs. What went wrong where? There's a room around a man, his eyes are gleaming, his arms around me. One hand in my hair, the other on a gun, and you look scared. "Back off or someone'll die, back off or someone'll die..."
Hostage, New End Original


Don't thank me for the songs, write me something. Not even anything long. I don't even care what it is, just that you write it. :D

My plan for the rest of the night largely involves finishing my yuletide story. Does anyone maybe want to beta something around 1500 words involving large inebriated robots? >>

I had a fortune cookie today, and Butcher ate my fortune. Now he is a psychic cat. I hope this will make him more likely to give me kisses. xD

This just might be the most Christmasy song I post.

Stars - Fairytale of New York (Pogues cover)
I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

I don't know why I let the rat and the cats sniff each other. Minerva is the one I'm most afraid of. Butcher's been more socialized to Heather than she has. The cats aren't in good graces right now, they screwed Kristin's laptop up pretty bad.

We watched Stardust (oh my GOD. so good, so so so good.) and I remade the bird hat from scratch, because I screwed up the edging that badly the first time. I just have to do the details and I'm done. It's totally cute. :D Earlier on we watched the Supernatural Christmas episode, and OH, baby Winchesters. I teared up.

I need to make a grocery list. God only knows when I'll actually make it to the grocery store, but it would be better to have a list than not have one...

I wrote bandfic for the first time in a long time today. I think it sucked. D: Alas. and it was loved and pimped, and yea verily, I did revise my opinion of my own work. xD

( hey, it's a picture of a hat. )

So I realized while I was making dinner that I am only posting music until Christmas, not all month long. (Well, I could go all month, but I didn't plan to.) This means that I am already more than halfway there. I believe every halfway point deserves a recap. At least, musical ones do. xD

So, for those who missed them the first time around, or for newcomers to the flist, or, you know, anyone who wants them. Particularly beautiful ones are getting the italics.
The Matches - December is for Cynics
Regina Spektor - Aquarius
Feist - Lonely Lonely
Rosie Thomas & Sufjan Stevens - Say Hello
The Fiery Furnaces - Evergreen
Radiohead - Four Minute Warning
Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger
Electric President - Insomnia
Sachiko Kenonobu - Look Up, The Sky Is Beautiful
Feist & Jane Birkin - The Simple Story
Feist - The Mast
The Decemberists - Angel, Won't You Call Me?
Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
MC Chris - The 'Tussin

Crap, I've been posting a lot of Feist. xD I can't help it, she's got a lovely voice.

....you know what, here's the rest of the stuff in my MediaFire, consider it a Hanukkah present?

The Weakerthans - Without Mythologies
Ingrid Michaelson - December Baby
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
Bright Eyes - Messenger Bird's Song
Starship Cobra - Pleasure Ryland
The Weakerthans - Sun in an Empty Room
Sufjan Stevens - The Lord God Bird (it's about a woodpecker, c'mon)
The Mountain Goats - Wild Sage
So Called - You Are Never Alone (Jewish Cowboy)

Later = now = music.

MC Chris - The 'Tussin
Frankly, the feeling's fuckin fantastic
I'm tripping like Jesus in the desert when he fasted,
Like it's the night before we all get drafted,
Like we're rowing through some rapids with Kevin Bacon, white water rafting
Like you're on Epcot Center on acid? Exactly.

The 'Tussin is the effect you get in Kingdom of Loathing when you drink a bottle of Vangoghbitussin, and when I looked at the wiki it said that the name and the effect description came from this song. SO! Here it is, have it and laugh.

Today's song:
Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And my nights are so long

Now, back to screwing around in Crimbo Town. I have been waiting for KoL rollover all day long!

The Decemberists - Angel, Won't You Call Me?
So here I am in corduroy
Catch it in your Polaroid
Thought it was an off night,
caught in such a warm light

But, Angel, won't you call me?
Could I be the only
though I am a lost cause
Angel, won't you call me?

It is still snowing. I have swept my own porch and stairs clean three times; I swept the sidewalk and me crazy neighbor's stairs once. Swept with a broom, because I do not have a shovel. My hands are red and unhappy. Oops.

Yellow hat is a go, I repeat, yellow hat is a go. *fwooooossshhhh*

It's amazing how easy it is to lose your mind. I swear I just put mine down for a second. I bet the cats took it...

Crap, I forgot about today's music. And also I didn't take those pictures. I lose.

Anyway, here's the song, it's a loveydovey sweet acoustic thing from a lovely Canadian lady:
Feist - The Mast
Found a place where I can be
All the things I want you to see
Take my head into your hands
'Cause I come to you from another land

And I don't need to know your favourite artists name
And I don't need to know what woman's felt the same
And I don't need to see you every single day
But I'd like to

And one picture, send to me from lands afar:


Rachael wearing the bunny/cat hat. :D She likes it, despite the face she's making.


What I have been doing, today, is saving everything worth saving from GJ. It's so easy to abandon some characters simply by not carrying on their pasts...and surprising which forgotten ones I want to hold tight to anyhow. Soon I will walk over to the post office and make my massive mailing, there are only a few I have left to finish. (Melissa, I need your address!)

I have also been playing a lot of Twilight Heroes and Kingdom of Loathing. >> I am aiming to get the 200-Lb Load Trophy for having a lot of fat familiars.

Also, it is bullshit that it will take me six hours to download This Mortal Coil. x.x Megaupload ftl.

Feist - The Simple Story (with Jane Birkin)
The simple story that you told me
Is a little different than what you showed me
The simple story, unfurling slowly
Is if you lay down with a dream
You'll wake up lonely

Kristin and I just watched Superbad. Oh my god. xD That was such a good movie! Michael Cera is the most adorable thing ever. I think that just surpassed Ten Things I Hate About You as my favorite high school movie.

We saw yesterday's Robin Hood, too. It's always amusing when people act so STUPID. I'm kind of excited to see how it all turns out. :D

Now Kristin is watching Arrested Development and as soon as I get annoyed by GOB I am going to take a shower. Wooo.

Today's song is posted early, because I won't be home until late if I come home at all tonight.
Sachiko Kenonobu - Look Up, The Sky Is Beautiful

This woman is considered Japan's first singer-songwriter, but I can't find lyrics to her songs ANYWHERE. D: It's a beautiful, gentle song, though. Download it. I COMMAND YOU. xD

Now I go to get my party on. I love playing beer pong and making other people drink for me. It makes me feel powerful.

A re-rec from November, because more than four of you should hear it: Iron and Wine - The Trapeze Swinger

And a new one: Electric President - Insomnia
I’m a headcase if I don’t keep moving
And my head hurts if I don’t sit still
It’s an itch that I’ll never stop scratching
It’s a hole that I’ll never quite fill


Today I made a badass hat. :D It's really awesome. It has a fish, and bubbles, and seaweed. And a drawstring. And tomorrow I will put some blue sparkle glue on it to make it look more aquatic. It's super warm, too. I might keep it. >>I shouldn't. The chick who made these that put up the pattern sells her hats for like $30 a pop. I might be able to get $15, I don't know. If I can make one a day, maybe sell them from A Different Blend or something, that would be cool. They're not professional or anything, I don't have a sewing machine and my stitches are pretty obviously learn-as-I-go, but they're nifty and original...

I've been kind of thinking about Ethan and Amos. x.x Writing a story in which both characters die is a pretty good reason to stop thinking about them, but no, that was just the beginning, contrarily enough.

Okay, there, done uploading. Good night world.

Today's music:

Radiohead - Four Minute Warning

A track from the second disc of In Rainbows. Does anyone not know that I have a totally inexplicable boner over the four minute warning system set up in the UK during the Cold War? Seriously, I don't know why-- the Mark Owen song of the same name gave me nightmares for a while, but now the concept just enthralls me. It's been occupying my mind most of the day, actually. So yes, have a mellow b-side track.

Those cherry squares turned out damn delicious. :D I might have those and bagels for dinner because, once again, too lazy to cook anything proper. I win at failing.

Music for today:

The Fiery Furnaces - Evergreen
The stream was swift, it was clear,
But the light was getting gray.
I bent down by the thistle
and thought of what it was I'd say.
Needle prick my spruce root
Dear little hemlock shoot
Make me stay sharp
And keen, evergreen.

It's rhythmic, piano-driven, I like it and I think more of you should download these songs I post. >>

I am having a post-ficposting freakout. You know, that time between when you put it up and your first comment, when all you can think is "hoshit, everyone hates it" except there's been barely enough time for it to be read. xD; Ah, twitchy.

I am still writing that paper. And seriously contemplating eating cherry pie filling out of the can, which is totally gross of me, but I don't feel like investing the effort in baking right now. x.x

...eeeheeheee, people like it! :D :D

Today's (and yesterday's) music:

Feist - Lonely Lonely
Distance makes the heart grow weak
So that the mouth can barely speak
Except to those who hide their needs


Rosie Thomas featuring Sufjan Stevens - Say Hello
There's airplane in the sky
With a banner right behind
Loneliness is just a crime
Look each other in the eye
And say hello


...Am I the only one who feels unsatisfied by how Tin Man ended? >> It was a good miniseries, I just... don't feel like it was wrapped up very well, I guess. Meh. Early bedtime, I took a nap this afternoon and I'm still pretty wiped right now.

December second's music from me is tied not to the calendar year but to the zodiac.

Regina Spektor - Aquarius

Dear someone listening in the shadows
I only talk to you sometimes
And though I ask for help in riddles
It is clearer in my mind, clearer in my mind

Born of a sign that carries vessels
But in a month that's cold as ice
I know I question things too quickly
But I have never questioned if I've loved


Today's creative project: a pretty stripey pillowcase. I just made dinner (a reheat of edamame and spaghetti squash with butter). The new SciFi miniseries, Tin Man, is starting tonight, and I'm pretty excited about that. I have three and a half hours until then... I foresee dishwashing.

Kristin's gone to chill with her mother and grandmother and assorted cats, which means I can rock out to the Goldberg Variations ( \m/ n.n \m/ ) without getting the 'wtf' face. xDJust me and the kitties and the ratface chilling. I'm considering making pie, later.

The dryer is broken already. :( It's only air-drying, no heat any more. I am sad because this means no five-minute-heated pajamas. And no more home laundry, but mostly the pajama thing.

Hoshit, who at LiveJournal divided by zero? Now I have to wait to post.

Okay, I'm half done with the dishes and now I have two and a half hours to kill. xD Switching off is fun. More pillowcase y/y? I might make some fandomsecrets, for shits and giggles...

Everyone's doing things for December. Clearly I fell through on writing every day, so I'll do something that a) I can actually do and b) more people will pay attention to anyway: daily music.

To start the month off, a track from It's A Punk Rock Christmas.

The Matches - December is for Cynics


My creative project for the first of December was stitching the pets' names on their Christmas stockings and getting those hung on the wall. I'm almost done with Heather's, Minerva and The Butcher are already looking up at their catnip-mouse-stuffed stockings. :D Tomorrow, aside from hats with Mandy, I will do my own stocking-- Kristin's handling her own.

Pictures will come once all the stockings are hung on the wall with care!