karanguni: (HOUSE kills)
K ([personal profile] karanguni) wrote2009-01-03 10:10 am

DVD Commentary (Ho ho ho) and other bits and bobbles

Okay, right, so I wake up this morning after popping a couple of tabs of paracetamol last night, and mostly I just feel like I've been rolled over by a violently angry trucker. Repeatedly. I have to get on a plane in roughly one and a half days, so that's not looking too shiny. *rolls*

That said, might as well make someone else's day! :D [livejournal.com profile] paceus asked for a DVD commentary for Ho ho ho (Discworld). Here it is:



Ho ho ho was the last stocking stuffer that got written for Yuletide this year; I think it got written at around 5 in the morning, if my email doesn't lie to me. *g* I'd watched the Hogfather a few days before, so the entire thought of "ho ho ho" being a really creepy sound was already in the pipeline.

The Patrician, Academy rumour has it, is egalitarian in the way of all political tyrants I kept thinking of Stephen Colbert: "I don't see race!": he sees neither species nor religion nor any case for sympathy, and this apparently extends to anthromorphic representations of all sorts - Death, the Tooth Fairy, Samuel Vimes (representing, in his case, bloody-mindedness), et al. I think Death and Vetinari would make the most awesome buddies.

The line that most people like in this fic? IS REALLY NOT MY LINE. *g* I owe that to my lovely beta nextian - originally "bloody-mindedness" was written down as "poverty", but she suggested the former and the drabble is a thosuand times better for it. ♥

Assassins, naturally inclined to snobbery by birthright and profession one of the things I love most about the Discworld novels is the way they hint at Academy life - the way Vetinari was one, and then the flipside with the "scholarship boys" who were poor enough to get looked down on. And who were poor enough to have some brains..., find it difficult to accept that everyone, regardless of the number of sheets of paper needed to document one's family tree, is obligated to make appointments with Vetinari should they ever wish to visit. Humility is a hard thing for an assassin to learn, but valuable; being tricky to teach, the instructors and tutors tend to keep it for last. I mean, how do you tell a kid that his Great and Riche Famyly is really of no use to him when dangling over a pit of vipers or, in the case of the Patrician, a pit full of imprisoned mimes driven to cannabalism from sheer starvation? Students keen on graduating take, optionally, a module on Hogswatch Eve conducted yearly at the Palace and equivalent to a not insubstantial amount of course credits. It tests stealth, adaptability, courage and a nobly inbred sense of blind stupidity just think of any noble family in the series. Any one! Except maybe the Ramkins. *g*: given that one must be attired in red and white and outfitted with a sack, few assassins choose to attempt to deliver presents to Havelock Vetinari, and the few who do --

Ho ho ho.

\o/ I am a pretty pathetic commentary writer for drabbles. *g* If anyone else wants one - for any fic, really - feel free to poke at!

Alternatively, if you feel like making a sick girl's day:
the fanficcers love meme, continued


[edit] While I'm in the meta mood, might as well do the 2008-fic-roundup thing that everyone else and their mother has probably done. 8D



First year back in fandom! I've never been a big fandom writer, or a big fandom participant - kept my head under the waters, mostly, and lurked like a lurking thing. Yuletide 2007 was my first foray out into the world, and it spat me out into 2008 feeling pretty good about life, the universe and everything. *g*

Total wordcount for the year of 2008, give or take a few thousands, is about 147,000 - more than I've written independently for ages. \o/ Huzzah!

Fandomwise, it's not hard to say "I branched out a little bit", since all I ever wrote in the first place was American Gods and Final Fantasy VII. *g* The latest and greatest acquisitions being: Batman/Beyond, Baccano! and punditfic. A smaller, but equally meaningful (to me, at least), acquisition: The Left Hand of Darkness.

Batman - with it came [livejournal.com profile] pere_chan, [livejournal.com profile] scheharezhad and a whole bunch of other amazing, amazing flisters, some of whom have become really good friends. I love you people, and the sheer talent and scope of fic and art in this fandom. S'amazing. And sorta scary. 8D

Baccano! - written mostly for the IJ comm, since there's not much of a community back here on LJ, but the series itself was just so much fun to watch, rewatch and then watch again. \o

Punditfic - for this I blame [livejournal.com profile] rahmbamarama entirely. I wrote more in a month for that community than I wrote for three months on my own. *g* I think I will be, uh, "gracefully backing away" from this fandom once I finish up Epic and my Third Monday fic, though - feeling a little burned out, and there are so many epic people out there who are amazing at both writing, cheerleading, and hell-bringing: my wonderful pimp [livejournal.com profile] charlie_d_blue, and [livejournal.com profile] evercourant and [livejournal.com profile] bookshop and [livejournal.com profile] sciophobik and [livejournal.com profile] regicidaldwarf!

The Left Hand of Darkness - I remember writing a tinydrabble for this way back, but I didn't dare to branch out. Le Guin write's too well for me, and even though I desired fic with a burning... desire, it wasn't until Yuletide that I kicked myself hard enough to write it. [livejournal.com profile] mjules and [livejournal.com profile] kangeiko were around to cheerlead, and god do I love them for it. It's scary to go into something and feel like you're all alone. \o/

Personal favourites - they actually haven't changed much! Empery still sits at the top of the pile, because Tseng is a bad-ass MF that way, though I'm beginning to see ways in which he can be written better. *g*

The Left Hand pieces come in a close second: Shadows cast behind us being a lot more compact and well-written (I think!) than Other Kinds of Men, but lacking the forwardness and length that the second fic has to its advantage. I love them both, though. *g*

The year wouldn't have been the same without [livejournal.com profile] nasdack. [livejournal.com profile] logistika_nyx more or less just kidnapped my brain and took it on vacation with her - this crossover ended up a lot longer, a lot more fun, and a lot more insane than the original premise of "omg Rufus and Balthier, they play stocks!". *g* And it's still being written!



(this goes out from under the cut, because people need the love:)

Things I love - again and again and again I have struck gold with the people I've met. It's insane - everyone seems to talk about fandom wank and such, but I've never encountered anything other than squee and constructive crit.

[livejournal.com profile] pere_chan: my most amazing Pere! I do not know if you are home to read this right now, but thank you so damned much. You went from being one of the first people that I felt comfortable squeeing with on AIM to being one of my closest friends outright. ♥ Your Batman art blows my mind away - your art in general blows my mind away - but not more than your generosity of spirit and optimisim.

[livejournal.com profile] dnatio_memoriae: I am so glad you came out of the woodwork! Thank you so much for the last couple of months; it has been one hell of a ride. *g* You're always around with something to say about Turkfic, for which I am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL IN ALLCAPS, and I love love love the concrit you gave for Restorations. I love you art so much that I have this entire folder with nothing but your pieces. I look at it and it brings a warm glow to my stomach. TOGETHER WE WILL MUSH LUCIFER AND FINAL FANTASY VII AND BLIND THE WORLD. *g* *rolls*

[livejournal.com profile] logistika_nyx: you are the master, and I, merely the little slavegirl thing. *g* You have constantly been around to flail at and with, and to have endless comment threads when one/both of us are bored at school/work, and god knows you've made me a better, more thinky writer than I would've been otherwise. I hope you and the Boy are home and settled into House! :D I am blessed to have got to know you. And, you know, write copious amounts of (mind)porn with you.

[livejournal.com profile] kabuki_chan: I hope that you are alive! And that the world has not eaten you! ♥ Thank you so much for the co-squee and the amazing art over the past year. You are the bestest!

[livejournal.com profile] _ice_lady_: LET YOUR THESIS NOT EAT YOU, PLEASE. ♥ Thank you for being around and always having time to comment spam and grin and glee. ♥

[livejournal.com profile] maho_kiwi: kiwi! I am so glad to have got to know you and Laylah - the both of you are such landmarks of fandomy goodness, and the both of you work so hard that I feel kind of star-fishy and useless in comparison. You guys have been amazing generous with your time and yourselves, so ♥ ♥ ♥!

My nose is starting to clog up and object to a lack of medicine, and I'm running out of the braincells needed to do a proper thank-you list, but nonetheless:

[livejournal.com profile] white_jenna, [livejournal.com profile] puella_nerdii, [livejournal.com profile] aikonamika, [livejournal.com profile] guingel, [livejournal.com profile] mithrigil, [livejournal.com profile] shadowwaker -- and everyone else that my brain's not remembering: thank you so much for the past year. ♥

To all the new flisters, especially the Yuletides [livejournal.com profile] mjules, [livejournal.com profile] numinicious, [livejournal.com profile] elishabet, [livejournal.com profile] liviapenn, [livejournal.com profile] dhaunea, [livejournal.com profile] kangeiko, [livejournal.com profile] deepad, [livejournal.com profile] autumn_belias, okay here I really *am* running out of braincells - I love you guys for #yulechat, and I lookforward to mm.org, and the next yuletide, and all the OTHER CRAZY. Oh, and five million NYRs. ♥

[identity profile] maho-kiwi.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
I THINK YOU ARE CONFUSING ME WITH SOMEONE LESS USELESS BUT I THANK YOU ANYWAY because you are very sweet <3 [starfishes with you]

[flops on] I am glad we know you too, because you are clever and interesting and just about the biggest sweetheart ever ^______^

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ *starfish hands!*
scheherezhad: fanart of Bart hugging Siberian Husky!Gar (Default)

[personal profile] scheherezhad 2009-01-03 04:09 am (UTC)(link)


I am so glad you branched out into Bat fandom, because you are awesome, and I probably wouldn't have found you otherwise. *smish*

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
:D Batfandom is a wonderful place to be!

Dear K.

[identity profile] dnatio-memoriae.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 05:06 am (UTC)(link)

I think I'll add this here, since it seems to be in the spirit of your post (it's long. Sorry about that).

I've only been actively commenting in fandom for the past couple of months, and actually contributing to it for the past couple of weeks. Prior to that I lurked, largely anonymously, because I was around for the fic and art rather than the people. I'd say you were the biggest factor in changing that, not simply because I have the highest respect for your writing, but because you strike me as being a gem of a person (and I say this with full awareness of the fact that online and offline identities do not necessarily correspond).

You seem somewhat surprised that you have yet to encounter fandom wank. I'm not. I think intention plays a large part in this, and when you're here to enjoy yourself and share, you attract like-minded people.

In short, my brief venture into fandom has been absolutely wonderful so far, and I hope to get to know you a great deal better in future <3

re cross-over from hell: BRINGING THE BURN TO GROUND LEVEL BITCHES, BE PREPARED!

Re: Dear K.

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. *flail* ♥!

If I am a gem of a person, I THINK I'M STILL IN THAT STAGE WHERE I'M A LUMP OF COAL. 8D You've been fantastic and it is so amazing to see you delurking, and I FLAIL everytime I see new art and stuff from you. ♥ ♥ YOUR FANDOM EXPERIENCE. IT WILL BE BRILLIANT!


ajskflasjlf HAHAHAH LUCIFER WILL COME. SOON. 'CAUSE SOME PEOPLE JUST WANT TO SEE THE WORLD BURN.

[identity profile] pere-chan.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
I am back!!! And the first thing I see is your deliciously schmoopy post! (Actually it was your Yulefic and then your post, ahahaha.)

I am so, so, so happy to know you and I feel so lucky to have stumbled on you in the big bad Interwebs. The thing that most consoles me about being in this damn timezone again is realising we won't have to keep each other up till 4am anymore!

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 12:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Pereeee, why are our timings so full of fail? Tonight I feel sick like a dog, and I leave the country for about two weeks the day after! D:

*snuggles and falls on*

[identity profile] evercourant.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
:'( As much as I would like to stop you from backing away from ANYTHING, gracefully or not, I'm going to swallow my tears and be happy that you have the heart to at least finish the gift that you have started giv-- DON'T GO. LOOK, I'M -- I'M HANGING MYSELF FROM THE CURTAIN ROD, IF YOU -- IF YOU GO I'LL -- ...I'll -- TURN ON THE SHOWER AND BE MISERABLE AND COLD. D:

No, but at least it is not like you are disappearing forever, it is best not to be burned out. Ilu D: ♥

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
AHAHAH. Nah, burnout's weird that way, innit? I think mostly because the comm just moves so fast, and I'm really very used to writing in fandoms that I come to 24809248 years after any initial boom. *g* I will finish epic! IT IS FULL OF EPIC. I'm really excited about writing the final chapter, just that so much stuff happens in it that I'm afraid. UH. *is smrt when on pillz*

♥ ♥ FEAR NOT, I WILL NEVER ABANDON YOU OR MY PIMP OR ANYONE ELSE IF THERE IS NEED FOR FLAIL.
ext_152724: (Default)

[identity profile] shadowwaker.livejournal.com 2009-01-03 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
*Gasp* I'm on the list. o_o;; What good thing did I do?

But why are you so sick! (And why do you need to get on a plane so often? What's going on?)

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-04 08:34 am (UTC)(link)
:D You have awesome icons!

I am sick because of

a) sucky weather that can't decide whether to rain or shine or both
b) walking through said weather
c) stress in spades!

planes I get on because I have vacations that are kind of stressful. xD

[identity profile] ellnyx.livejournal.com 2009-01-04 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
You are ill? That's no good. &hearts for your flailing also, you've kept me sane on long mindnumbing afternoons. :)

I also found this magazine in Melbourne whose name I've completely forgot, BUT THE ENTIREITY READ LIKE PUNDITFIC! Which I thought was great. There could be a sideline profession for you out there.

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-04 08:34 am (UTC)(link)
♥ I have not enough brains to reply with anything more than a mild flail and a great deal of chuckling.

[identity profile] paceus.livejournal.com 2009-01-04 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh! Thank you so much for writing this!

You're right -- I'd love to see Death and Vetinari together! (Although not like that.)

How ironic that the line many people love is not yours! Well, the word isn't -- it's at least half your idea. *g* If it makes you feel better, I like the ending as much as the Sam line, if not more. It's perfect: how you interrupt that sentence, and using "Ho ho ho" as a creepy sound is marvellous!

The point about teaching humility is a good one! It's very important to know that your family isn't going to help in a situation like that (a pit full of imprisoned mimes driven to cannabalism from sheer starvation -- brr!), but how to get it through the skulls of youngsters who believe it will, and who have never experienced that their families wouldn't be helpful?

The story is still brilliant, and thanks for writing the DVD commentary; it was very interesting!

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-04 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
Hahah, now that I think about it - the mime thing came from a Discworld reference to Vetinari really, really, really not liking mimes. 8D

♥ Sorry, am kinda out of it at the moment, otherwise would flail at you more heart-fully.

[identity profile] everysecondtues.livejournal.com 2009-01-06 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, I have just realized what the problem was, and that is that somehow I didn't have you friended, not that you didn't post the meme. Obviously, I stand corrected and have fixed that oversight on my part. *g*

My icon chats you up hopefully.

[identity profile] karanguni.livejournal.com 2009-01-16 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
*g* I CAN HAS MORE FRIENDS YEY. My icon chats you back up, with rocking.

♥ ♥ Man, thank you so much for the amazing words, I just want to cuddle them and snuggle them and read them over and over; they made my day when I first got 'em! :D :D :D :D

[identity profile] white-jenna.livejournal.com 2009-01-06 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
You're welcome, and thank you. :D Will get you those images soon, promise.