I recorded about 72 minutes of podfic today, and I'm estimating I'll do about 80 minutes tomorrow. I just have to wake up early to do it because my mother will be home in the early afternoon and I always feel less certain about recording filthy things while there are people moving around in the house. It's not so bad when it's just me and my father, because he always stays in the living room, but Rachael interrupted me three times while I was recording the long one today and then the bitch tweeted "my sister is talking to herself... #smh"! I am not talking to myself, damn it! When I talk to myself I say much less dirty things!

Anyways... the really long one I have to record tomorrow is completely innocent, so I can put that one off until later in the afternoon, but I absolutely have to get the plushie kink one done while everyone is out of the house. I'm not even sure I can read it without turning red, but luckily blushing doesn't affect my inflection at all. And the sex toys one will be easy, it's pretty short, I just haven't read femslash since, uh, last Kink Bingo, and that one involved tentacles. Also it's my own story so I'm afraid no one will want to listen to it.

But... I am determined to finish my first bingo tomorrow! I'M GONNA DO IT. There have already been people posting their bingos and they've been writing. I haven't gotten anything written yet, I started the tattoos story but it's really awkward and clumsy and I have to do a lot of work on it before I let anyone see it. Anyways, I'll be able to relax once I've gotten one bingo finished because at least I'll have that much done for certain, even if it takes me all summer to finish another one. I'm not going to have time to do anything when I get back to school, so even though it runs until September 30 I really have to get everything done by like, August 24. So I have a little over two and a half months to finish 19 more squares once I get this done tomorrow. That's something like a square every four days? I can probably do that. And who knows, I might get some massive stroke of inspiration and do a few stories in a week. That would be cool.

I should probably say something about Doctor Who. Uh... I called it? Saw that twist coming. And now I don't want to wait until autumn, I want new episodes next week, damn it! I'm just glad it didn't end on a cliffhanger, that would have killed me.

Now... I should probably go to bed so I can wake up bright and early for more recording hijinks.

So far I have finished four podfics today. Given, two of them are under five minutes, but hey they still count, they're over 500 words each. And one of them is a help_japan podfic. I'm probably going to do the other help_japan story tomorrow (that'd be yours, taliatoennien), and... well, I've still got quite a bit of time before I go to bed, I might try to get another one or two in tonight.

And you know what? I podficced my own work for the first time since I started doing podfic two and a half years ago, and I'm going to do another one of my works, and I'm actually okay with that instead of being all weird about it. There's nothing wrong with reading my own stories. I know exactly where the inflection's supposed to go, for one thing. I think A Day Like Today turned out really funny because of how I read it, actually.

So today for Kink Bingo I did prostitution/sex work, scars, and animal play, and I'm probably going to do at least sex toys and possibly also suspension tonight. If I don't do suspension tonight I'll do that tomorrow, and then do plushie kink tomorrow as well, and then I will have a bingo, hooray! And unless someone snakes me in the next 24 hours, I'll have the first text-free achievement! \o/

Okay, my plan for tomorrow goes like this: Record a Kink Bingo podfic, record a help_japan podfic, edit and post both of those, then start writing something for the right-hand column. If I was strict with myself I'd go in order, but I honestly think I'm going to need a little bit of time to work up to a dirty talk story, because for all I write pretty decent porn, my dirty talk is laughable at best. You'd think a person who makes a hobby of writing and reading aloud graphic sex scenes would be able to manage it better than that, but it's really pathetic. At least 500 words really isn't that much writing, I can fake just about anything for 500 words, with a few notable exceptions.

So tomorrow be expecting a Star Trek gen podfic and an Inception Arthur/Eames podfic.

I have to say, I'm really looking forward to my family going away for the weekend two weeks from tomorrow, because it is so much less stressful recording podfic when you know nobody's going to walk in on you and ask you what you're doing. I'm pretty sure I've been interrupted by every member of my family except my father while recording. Hell, my mother knows I do podfic, I've explained it to her, I just don't tell her what I'm reading.

Also, while I was discussing podfic with someone on Facebook a couple of nights ago, I actually went back and fixed my master list, so it's current until tomorrow. xD And I discovered that only about 1/3 of my podfics are R/NC-17/Mature/Adult, the majority of them are PG-13 or below. Well, I'll fix that by the end of this Kink Bingo round, never you fear. (No, that's a lie, to shift that to 50% I'd have to record 15 smutty stories, unless I start doing short pieces I'm never going to catch that up.)

In non-podfic, non-kink bingo news, I bit my lip while I was all numb from novocain and now it hurts like crazy. :(

Reposting my help_japan auctions, since bidding ends in four days and I think I might be able to raise a bit more money than I'm standing at right now:

One podfic up to 5000 words

Another podfic up to 5000 words

Five tarot card readings, for yourself or the fictional character of your choice

Someone else really needs to bid on the tarot card readings, because the people who bid DID IT WRONG and I can't give one person a $5 reading without giving everyone who bid $5 a reading. That's not how it works, you're supposed to bid higher than the last person even if I'm doing five readings. *headdesk*

help_japan auctions:

One podfic up to 5000 words

Another podfic up to 5000 words

Five tarot card readings, for yourself or the fictional character of your choice

I wish I could do more than just this, but I really can't commit to anything past my voice and my cards. I know you guys will bid high enough that I feel like my contributions make a difference, though! :D

(C'mon, you know you want a tarot card reading. Can I get any of my past readees to give a testimonial here? I know I've read for more than just a few of you!)

I'm going to be offering two podfics and two tarot card readings. Links will come on the 14th.

I watched a little bit of the video footage from Sendai and oh my god that's so scary. D:

I think I can go the first vertical line, the second vertical line, the first horizontal line, and the second horizontal line. I'm not sure how to do a radio play, I categorically refuse to do accents, my French is nowhere near good enough to try to record fic in it, I can't stand harlequin-style fic, and I'm not sure I have the stamina to do 2+hours, although I could probably find a long enough fic with a little bit of effort. And I've already sung in one podfic, I am not doing it again. xD

I'm already knocking one off this afternoon by recording a slash fic. I could probably knock off "no editing" with a short (<1000 words) piece, "read a friend's fic" is pretty easy considering about half of what I do is my friends' writing already, I'm going to have to make a concentrated effort for "read slowly" and I might have to commandeer Felix's room for "record in a new location".

I'm excited about this, it will be more fun and more easy than Kink Bingo was last year!

I'm auctioning off one more podfic for Brazil here.

And the bidding on this one closes at midnight tonight, so bid more, guys, it's for charity after all!

I'm auctioning off two podfics for qldfloodauction. Bid for me here! Or there's also one over here.

And I'll have them all done by the end of the month, if you win.

aaaand one for Brazil over here.

Is there anything better than recording a podfic perfectly, no edit needed, on the first try?

If there is, don't tell me about it, I'm satisfied with what I've got right now. :D

And so passes the shortest day of the year. I spent most of the daylight hours asleep, and when I wasn't asleep I was standing outside in the cold ringing a bell to collect people's spare change, and people were not generous today. Now that it's dark, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and then start re-recording Monster. I hope I can have it finished by midnight. I am not going to stop at any point, I am going to record the entire thing in one take, so I will be sure not to lose any of it.

If I still have a voice left when I'm done with that, I might start recording some gift fic. I intended to do a whole lot of them, but I don't have much time left and there are only three people who survived all of my tab losses... so if you're not beachkid, savorvrymoment, or brighteyed_jill, and you want a podfic, say something. And please, pick a story for me to do, because if you leave me to my own devices it's never going to get done. Just don't pick anything too long... or if you pick something long, don't expect it by Christmas.

The best thing on the internet lately is When Parents Text. It makes me lol for real.

I got all my grades in, finally. An A+, two As, a B+, a B, and a satisfactory. My GPA is 3.72. I am pretty satisfied with it, even though my French teacher ruined everything because I had a 3.9 before she gave me a B. Heartless woman.

I GOT MAILS TODAY. moorishflower sent me dragons! And a lot of other cool things, including books, but DRAGONS! Including a hatching baby dragon! I'm totally stoked about the dragons, if you can't tell. xD Thank you, Heather, it's all wonderful! And, uh, I have received a lot of cards except I put some of them up on my wall in the dorm room already and I don't remember who sent all of them, so... if you sent me a card, thank you very much! :D (sorry I suck, lol.)

My brother should be arriving tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Finally, Podbang fics have been posted, and I am free to repost the two I did for the challenge! Sooooo:

Monster, by moony, is a brilliant thriller in which John has to figure out the clues Sherlock leaves. It's almost two hours long, but I think it's one of my better efforts, and the story is beyond meretricious. sorry, I have to re-record this one, I'll have it done by Christmas.

The Military Sort, by tristesses, is my absolute favorite obedience-kink story of all time. I definitely have a thing for Sherlock ordering John around, and this delivers perfectly.

So if you like my Sherlock podfic, happy holidays, here's two more. :)

I am picking stories to podfic as holiday gifts for people, and I will be podficcing as the only acceptable alternative action to working on my advertisement for Lohn starting tomorrow. If you want one and I haven't specifically offered you one yet, comment here and tell me what you want me to do!

Tonight, though... tonight I watch Harry Potter. My grand plan of one movie per night fell through, so I will be watching Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. I have already seen most of Azkaban in the past couple of weeks, but not in order. It's my favorite. :D

The test today wasn't horrible. I completely misconjugated savoir like four times in a row, but I think I made a pretty fair showing of it. I will be surprised if I get less than a B+ on it.

I have to be out of the dorms by 5pm on Friday the 17th. I finish my final test Thursday the 16th at 5, and I'm going to try to leave as soon as possible after that.

I... still have yet to contact the place I want to intern. I have to have all the paperwork done by the 10th. >.> I will do it Monday morning. Or should I send an e-mail?

I just sent in my Podbang submission, barely squeaking over the line with four and a half hours left to go... well, I do my best work under pressure, anyways. :D I did two stories to make up 20k words, and I really can't wait until I'm allowed to link them around because I'm really happy with how they both came out. One is my favorite Sherlock kink fic OF ALL TIME, and the other is just a brilliant psychological thriller by a really talented author.

It always makes me so happy when people trust me with their creative works. :3 I really try to do the best job I possibly can every time someone bestows that trust upon me. Sometimes it gets tricky (doing all the voices can be HARD sometimes, I'm still not entirely sure about my Mycroft voice for example) but I really do practice and try things out to get the result I'm going for. And of course I get super embarrassed when I don't catch myself mispronouncing something (you know what gives me trouble? the bloody Thames, every time), but I don't do that very often at all and I always try to fix it if someone points it out to me.

...so yeah I am done and I'm happy with the results and now I can start doing holiday gift podfic! So if you're on my flist and you have a favorite story you really want to hear done, just let me know about it and I'll tackle anything (within reason, don't ask me to do your big bang fic unless you're one of my internet wives xD) with verve, gusto, and other words that mean lots of good energy!

And now I have a half an hour which I am going to devote to reading Harry Potter, and then SAGA and Sex Collective, and then I have to go back to my room and finish doing the lesson plan thing for Meij which really shouldn't take me that long since I've already got most of six weeks out of ten done. I hope he's not expecting anything revelatory from me... cause he ain't gonna get it. xD

This is a meme! Leave a comment describing your favorite part of Thanksgiving (or an applicable winter-y holiday), and I will give you five words I associate with you. Then post about what they mean to you, along with this blurb, at your own journal. Step three: Profit!

These words come from citizenjess!

1. Butcher: The Butcher is my cat. I got him in 2007. He is all grey with a subtle stripe on his sides and tail, and he has green eyes. I believe (but have not had confirmed) that he is part Siamese, part Russian Blue. The first animal he ever caught was a mouse in my apartment on Miller Street. He has since graduated to all kinds of birds, including chickadees, blue jays, doves, sparrows, and seagulls. He also occasionally catches rabbits and squirrels. He is probably the smartest cat I have ever met, and I'm not just saying that because he's mine. He is not terribly affectionate, but he puts up with me cuddling him with enough grace. In the winter occasionally he will sleep in my room with me. I love him more than just about everything else on earth. My family all hate him except for my mother.

2. Podfics/Audiofics: This is the major way I participate in fandom now, and has been for over a year now. When I stopped writing fanfiction of my own (because I'm not smart enough to write for my current fandom), I started focusing on recording the stories I really loved reading. I had to stop doing them for a couple of months while I had a roommate, but now that I have my own room I've begun recording them again, and I'm really happy that I can do it again because it really brings me a lot of joy to put voice to stories I genuinely enjoy. My most successful podfics have been of irisbleufic's Sherlock fanfiction (almost 300 downloads! that's practically BNF status!), and the fact that people on friending memes identify me as "that podfic girl" makes me inexplicably happy. I've done a lot of podfic for charity auctions, so it's not just something I like doing, it's something I can make a difference by doing. Right now I am working on my Podbang podfics, and I am really pleased with how the first hour and a half of recording has turned out. I have just about an hour left to do, and it's a really tense, emotionally laden part that I am completely psyched to tackle at some point in the next few days. I am thrilled that so many people trust me to do a good job with their stories, and I really do my best to make every one I record something special and meaningful. The day I start to sound bored is the day I step back from the microphone.

3. Sherlock Holmes: So on Christmas 2009 my siblings and I went to see this movie because I'm a Robert Downey Jr. fangirl, and it was the most exciting thing I'd seen in ages. I'd only been aware of Sherlock Holmes peripherally before that point. I quickly acquired and read the canon, and I fell in love with Holmes and Watson, not for the actors playing them, but as fully realized characters in their own rights. I started watching the Granada series in... February, I think, and then I fell in love with Jeremy Brett, who is, in my opinion, the ultimate Holmes. Then I watched the Russian series, and I fell in love with Vasily Livanov. (is anyone seeing a pattern arising here?) Then in August Sherlock aired, and I fell in love with Martin Freeman (ha! c-c-combo breaker!). Everybody in the world knows that intelligence turns me on, and Holmes gets me right in the sapiosexuality. I adore Watson for different but no less important reasons: his compassion, his loyalty, and yes, his intelligence too. I love Lestrade (Colin Jeavons and Rupert Graves, not the Russian one) and I really love Mycroft (especially as Mark Gatiss but also as Charles Gray) and I have a soft spot for every Mrs. Hudson ever. (And I love Moriarty, but only as Andrew Scott.) I love Victorian-era Holmes and I love modern-day Holmes, because I am also a sucker for AUs and really Sherlock was just so brilliantly done. This has been my primary fandom for almost a full year now and my love is only growing, because the canon is incredible and the people in the fandom are really just so marvelously nice and it really, genuinely makes me happy.

4. Glasses: I have worn glasses since third grade. My nose has a bump on the bridge that is really just perfect for holding my glasses up, so I have to conclude that that's why it's there, because I've certainly never broken it to give it that strange shape. I came up with the screen name "speccygeekgrrl" when I was 13, so I have defined myself by my glasses on the internet for almost half of my life now. I have tried contact lenses and I can't stand them. My parents have broached the idea of laser eye surgery and I want nothing to do with it. I am bespectacled and I am proud of that fact. I have a glasses fetish, I absolutely do find myself more attracted to people who wear glasses, and an average looking person who puts on a pair automatically becomes better looking in my eyes. My first boyfriend wore them, the person with whom I had my longest relationship wore them, I'm pretty sure the person I lost my virginity to wore them (don't quote me on that one), my best friends have all worn them, out of my current social circle all my closest friends wear them. I don't consciously select people because they wear glasses, but I seem to gravitate towards them anyhow.

5. POT!: Ah, marijuana. Out of all the drugs I've ever tried, including alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is my favorite. I love the smell of it, I love the taste of it, I love the effects of it. I first smoked weed when I was 17, in a minivan outside of the bowling alley, with a few boys from my high school who were all wildly amused at the thought of getting the school geek stoned, and I bowled the second-best game of my life that night. I have smoked weed with members of my family, including my brother, my favorite sister, and my favorite aunts. I have gotten a cat, a rat, and a dog stoned, and I maintain that that fish was baked, even if the people I was with didn't think so. I have owned several glass pieces, a small bong, a stone pipe, and a corncob pipe. I have smoked joints, blunts, bongs, pipes, hookahs, vaporizers, I smoked out of an apple once, and I have made pot butter and cooked baked goods with it. For the year I lived on Miller Street and the months I lived on Military Turnpike, I was getting high at least every other day, if not every day. When I smoke weed, I don't need to take sleeping pills, I sleep better and deeper, and it absolutely has a lifting and stabilizing effect on my bipolar disorder. I fucking love weed. My favorite way to smoke is in a blunt, because a blunt automatically assumes company, and I really hate smoking alone. It's a social thing for me. I don't do stupid things when I get high, I don't take stupid risks, I don't get belligerent or upset. I relax. I enjoy things more. I spend time with people I like, when I'm lucky, I do fun things or creative things. Being stoned doesn't hinder my creative process. I don't get high before class, I don't get high when I have things I need to do, I don't get high unless I legitimately don't have anything important to do. I honestly believe that marijuana should be legalized, because it is so much less bad for you than alcohol and tobacco are, and those things are legitimized by society when they're both so clearly destructive. Weed isn't really destructive. It has medical uses, and I know I shouldn't self-medicate, but when you consider the counseling I was getting in 2007, self-medicating was my best option and it honestly kept me from killing myself on more than one occasion. Now I get high maybe a couple of times a month. It's not something I indulge in all the time, but I like being able to get stoned with a good friend and just talk about random shit for a couple of hours.

TL;DR: Dani + marijuana = ♥

TWO DAYS LEFT TO WIN MY PODFIC.

Bid bid bid! The more money you think I'm worth, the more incredibly confident I will feel about myself, and the more we give to help out in Pakistan!

The way my schedule and Emi's schedule coincide, the only time I can be certain she'll be out of the room when I'm in the room is Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 8:30 to 10:30 AM. So I'll be doing my podfics early in the morning from now on, it looks like. Tomorrow I am meeting Felix for breakfast around 8, and then I'm coming back here to record Great and Unsearchable Things because moorishflower's birthday has already passed. Monday I'll record Lab Book, Wednesday I'll record Break Down and Tell, and Friday I can start on the help_pakistan winners.

Now, I have mixed my medications and I am off to dreamland, I hope.

Now that I've uploaded my podremix submission (Wolfpack by tabaqui), I can listen to the original version of it! I didn't want to listen to podfic_lover's recording first because I didn't want to unconsciously imitate her pacing or anything. But now I'm done and it's posted, hooray.

Also hooray: the help_pakistan auction for my podfic is up to $40 now! THAT IS SO COOL. It also ties me with four other people for most pricey podfic offer right now. :D I'm glad I specified 5,000 words as my limit though, because doing 5,600 for Wolfpack made me light-headed. Too much reading at once!

I keep thinking of everything I haven't packed yet and it's not conductive towards getting to sleep. >.>

And, importantly: Happy birthday, shigogohou. Now we've known each other for four years. Never thought this was what would happen when you messaged me on OKCupid, did you? :P

Bidding on my podfic is up to $30. That means even if the bidding ended tomorrow, I'd still be making $75 for the cause, and I hope that the bidding will go up further in the next few days! I'm so fucking stoked, people actually think my reading is worth that much! I would entirely freak right out if it went up to $50, because $10 per 1000 words just would be a fantastic ratio to achieve.

( a bit of True Blood chatter: I Smell a Rat )

Now, I made it up to the middle of episode 5 of Doctor Who before the file refused to work, so I'm going to finish watching that and then go to bed semi-early. I took my sleeping pill at 7 so it should be kicking in right around the time I finish watching it. (Fucking Lunesta, it takes four or five hours to actually work. I'm saving my last Ambien for Thursday night so I can actually wake up for my Friday morning classes.)

Okay, there's another charity auction. help_pakistan.

I am, as is my wont, auctioning off three podfics.

So hey, if you've wanted to engage my services, here's your chance. If I've already worked for you and you liked what I did, consider bidding this time around. If you don't write yourself, but there's one story you'd love to see done, ask the author and make a bid! Buy my podfic skills as a gift for a friend! There are many great reasons to get me to do podfic for you, and I bring the same care and attention to auction podfic as I do to podfics I make for love.

BUY ME. :D