Gallimaufry

mistful discovers romance novels. Linked because she's always hilarious to read, but also because the comments have lots and lots of recommendations for romance books where the characters have more than three brain cells together and rape isn't considered a valid seduction technique. (Much, much love for Heyer and Quinn in the comments.)

So Baby Sarah, aged nine, was visiting her grandparents in England and she took a book down from the shelf confidently expecting it to be her friend like all books were. It was her very first romance novel.


RAVEN-HAIRED MARQUIS: I am a hardened rake and roue, and I hate all women!
BABY SARAH: Oooh, history! Man, I hope this dude gets a facial ulcer. Or the syph. (Baby Sarah was well up on certain aspects of history.)
FLAME-HAIRED SPIRITED INGENUE: Due to an unlikely but unfortunate set of circumstances, I am wandering the marquis's house alone at dead of night!
BABY SARAH: Poor girl. She is so stupid. I think she must be a half-wit.
RAVEN-HAIRED MARQUIS: Aha, alone in my house! Lady of the night!
FLAME-HAIRED SPIRITED INGENUE: Sir, I am no lightskirt!
RAVEN-HAIRED MARQUIS: That's what all women say. Whores.
BABY SARAH: Oh Mr Future Facial Ulcer, cut that disrespect out.

Obsolete Skills Halfway through the As I felt ancient.

mtgat knocks it out of the park with How to be a Fandom Jerk in Just a Few Easy Steps (and, uh, I haven't forgotten that "dos and don'ts of conventions" article. It's just that life has been a little... lifey lately. Soon!)

(Note: All pronouns in the following are set to "she." If you are offended by this, you are being too sensitive and need to get over it. See? First lesson already learned.)

First, when someone in your fandom points out that something that occurred in your show's canon can be construed as racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise Not Cool, start by telling the observer she's being too sensitive, that she's reading too much into the material, and that she needs to remember this is just entertainment. It's fantasy / science fiction / horror. If she continues, especially if she points out a pattern of problematic material in your series, you should tell her she's just looking for things to be offended about. (This is true! People are always looking for things to be offended about. You can tell because people are always getting offended about something, especially if those things have always been that way. Since you never noticed anything was wrong, it's probably all in her head. Or their heads.) Also, you should try the "Get a life" routine, because that always kills at parties.

Resolutions

The redo of the living room has been pushed back to '09; other places in the house need my time and money this year; I only want to repaint and remove the living room carpet. However, at some point soon I will rip up the carpet between bathroom and bedroom and replace it with the flooring that I'm considering using in the living room. It shouldn't take a lot of time and money, and then I'll know, after having walked on it for a while, if I want to use it elsewhere in the house.

Thanks to my Dad, the closet has been redesigned, so that's one more thing off the big list for this year. Progress has been made!

He's also declared the garage door probably more trouble to fix than replace; although the problem seems simple, two people have had a look at it and been unable to fix the "simple" problem, which suggests that it's not a setting on the door itself but a blown chip somewhere in its brain. Dad said he had a door die in much the same manner.

STUFF I DID
RtE Book Reviews published:
- Blood Dreams
Wrote
-
Knitalong status: 37 out of 55 blocks done
Homekeeping:
- Have kept up with daily/weekly mini-cleans; this seems to be working
Learned:
- How to poach an egg in the microwave
Other
- jobhunting


( Stuff I gotta do )

( Stuff I'm Thinking About Doing )

The Barrowman list has confirmed that John will be in a Panto again this year. Now I have to figure out how to get from London to Birmingham and what else there is to see in the area.