I have invite codes to give out!

I have one invite code for An Archive Of Our Own.
Already gone!

I also have several Dreamwidth invite codes, which I fear you folk will ignore, as you have ignored them before. However, as my flist has changed a little since then, I am asking again.

If you want an invite, comment here with an email address (I can't use the invite code without one). First come, first served.

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/600224.html.

For my birthday today, I... slept. All afternoon.

It was my day off, and I pottered about in the morning, read fic, hacked away at a problem with my computer (How To Use Screen To Remotely Control A Console Application), solved the problem, read more fic. Ate the snowlog I'd made last night. And tried out some wickedly fattening ice cream I'd made without the ice-cream machine. Which was both yummy and not-yummy.
( cut for ice-cream digression )
Not that I'm really planning on repeating the experiment; it was a foolish experiment anyway.

And, as I said, I slept all afternoon. I gave up on staying awake as I kept on yawning. I expect it's the accumulated drainingness of two really hot days in a row (top of 34) and a pretty hot day today (top of 29) even though I've been indoors in sort of air-conditioned "comfort". At work, the air-con is barely adequate, and they turn it off every night just before 6pm - but I was working late both nights. At home, the air-con is only in one room, and while it does help in preventing the whole house from being hot, it's really only cool in the room the air-con is in.

I had bought some steak last night, to treat myself to a steak dinner today, but it's too hot to cook. (sigh)

And, I didn't write one word of my fic. Nor did I watch things I'd intended to watch. Nor did I work on my icon_style iconage.

So, altogether, a pretty blah birthday. (sigh)

Cheer me up? Write me fic?

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/599856.html.

Recs can be made for:
*Crossovers
*Doctor Who
*Firefly/Serenity
*Highlander
*Iron Man
*Leverage
*Magnificent Seven
*NCIS
*StarTrek Reboot
*Supernatural
*Torchwood
*X-Men

Go forth and Rec!

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/599763.html.

My ice-cream machine, it is broken. Specifically, the paddle
is broken. Snapped right off. I was making some low-cal vanilla
icecream, and I didn't hear the engine labouring, and it just must have
kept going until the paddle snapped(*).

Let's just say that if those few minutes after my discovery of this were
a movie, it would be rated M for language.

On the bright side, instead of breaking down in despair (do you
know how much that ice-cream machine cost?) I tracked down the
business that I originally purchased it from, and yes, they were still in
business. So I found their contact number, explained my problem, and he
said I should email them with a photograph of the paddle in question.
So I used my scanner to take a "photograph", and emailed them.
It's now after hours, so the earliest I could hear from them would be
tomorrow. But the man on the phone didn't say "no" immediately, so I
think there's hope. Which is just as well. A replacement paddle has
got to be much cheaper than a replacement machine.

And summer is just around the corner. Ice-cream will be needed.

(*) Note to self: not enough Xylitol?

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/599539.html.

I am pretty well organized with my fanfic reading. When I want to read a net-fic story, I download it and add it to my personal private net-fic archive, which is a wiki which has all the stories cross-referenced by fandom, author, series, etc. And I make notes in the wiki as (or after) I read a story. More recently I've been adding indexes by character, too. So there I was, browsing over the Hermione Granger stories, and came across the following notes on a SS/HG story I'd read a while back (The Other Side of Darkness):

I could believe, by the end, that they were actually well-suited. Which is impressive, really, since I don't really ship SS/HG, though I like it when the author can persuade me, probably more because I like to see Snape get a happy ending, rather than a desire for a particular pairing.

It's been creeping up on me. I had forgotten there was a time when I didn't ship SS/HG.

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/599237.html.

I have not been recording all my ice-cream trials, but here are a few more. The first one I did several weeks ago, the second one was today.
( Experiment #47, Igor! )
( Experiment #48 is rising from the slab! )
( update at 4am )

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/598856.html.

I was seized with a metaphor this morning. Or a parable. Or something.

Once upon a time, there was a man called Fred Nurk, who loved brownies and was allergic to peanuts. One day, his best friend, Joe Blogs, wanted to give Fred a present, so he decided to bake brownies. But he couldn't find any walnuts for the brownies, but he did have peanuts, so he put in peanuts instead.

"After all," Joe thought, "it's only a few peanuts, it can hardly make a difference."

So he gave Fred the brownies, and Fred ate them, and of course, he broke out in hives.

"What have you done?" Fred cried. "You put peanuts in my brownies! You rat bastard!"

"But you love brownies!" Joe said. "And I couldn't find any walnuts."

"Then make the brownies without nuts, you idiot!" Fred said.

"Don't call me an idiot!" Joe said. "How dare you get mad at me when I made you brownies!"

Joe stormed off, determined never to speak to Fred again until Fred apologised. Fred, of course, didn't.

Let him who has ears, let him hear.

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/598587.html.

Come up with an internally-consistent reason for chain-mail bikinis.

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/598356.html.

Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced.

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/598181.html.