The Dream Quest of Unknown Me

First off I came across You Might Be a Fan If... with examples such as these:

- You were making up stories in your head years about your favorite TV shows before anyone ever said the word "fanfiction" to you. After you found out what it was, a lot of your life made a lot more sense.
- Your first reaction to any new fandom is wondering where it overlaps with your old fandoms.
- Your second is to read every single fanfiction you can find.
- Your third is to ignore the ones that don't feature your favorite character, are written in netspeak, and/or were beta-read by ocelots.
- There are episodes (or parts of episodes) that Didn't. Happen. You're quite clear on which ones.
- You wish life came with an LJ-cut feature.
- Also cat macros.
- You have ever tried to explain cat macros to someone who doesn't go online much.

Then the Bookseller.com is hosting a contest for the Oddest Book Title of the past 30 years. Titles like:
1978: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice
1979: The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution
1984: The Book of Marmalade: Its Antecedents, Its History and Its Role in the World Today
1989: How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art
1990: Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual
2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories
2005: People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It
2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification

Go vote - I did (guess which one *g*)

Finally I'd like to rec a new sweet and schmoopy Spander story called The Woodshed by Writer Monkey aka Rayne Jelly. Go enjoy it.

I've been to see "The Queen" and doesn't that sound a bit grandiose *g*. What a wonderfully intelligent and witty movie - no wonder it's been on many "Best Movies of 2006" lists. It's also makes an amusing counterpoint to "Marie Antoinette" - for instance one lady-in-waiting awakens Elizabeth while poor AM had hordes of women in her bedroom each morning. Michael Sheen is a convincing Tony Blair and though James Cromwell hasn't been mentioned much his Prince Philip is realistically nasty. Helen Mirren is the Queen - you feel as if you're peeking in on the going-ons in the various palaces. I've been a fan of hers ever since I first saw her play Hermia in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" a loong time ago.
It's eerie watching the events from the POV of the PM and the Queen for I remember what happened as one of the people. I was visiting my aunt in LA and we'd just come back from seeing "The Full Monty" and were very upbeat and then she turns on the news and we find out about the crash in Paris. I sometimes wonder what Diana would be doing if she hadn't been in that crash. I doubt she was serious about Dodi no matter what his father says. Would Charles have been able to marry Camilla? Who knows? I do know that she would be 45 and would no longer look like the fairy-tale princess.

In a way the movie is like RPF (real people fiction) and movies like this are what RPF writers point to when they attempt to justify their using real people in their stories. The difference is that Peter Morgan tried to stick to the facts as much as possible while RPFers would've made some sort of hurt/comfort fic featuring Prince Charles and Tony Blair (as you may have guessed I'm not a fan of RPF). 

Here's a prezzie I want to share - I've just come across the funniest and most memorable Spander PWP I've ever read. It's In So Deep by apreludetoanend set in S4 during "Hush" but before the Gentlemen arrive.  Go enjoy.

Some company (I think it's Motorola) has done a cute, short spoof of "A Christmas Story" complete with the bunny outfit *g*. As you may have noted, when I write about commercials I rarely notice what they are advertising as I try to avoid having ads register in my consciousness (I was in my Photobucket account one day and a friend commented that he didn't know I was into gambling. I went "Huh?" and realized there was a large-sized ad for a gambling site right next to the upload area and I hadn't noticed it at all). Sometimes there is more creativity put into ads then in many Hollywood productions but watching even a great ad over and over can be excruciating.

On the fanfic front, the Immortal Katharina has come back after a long absence to fic writing with a new dark fic called "The Price" and the possibility that we'll soon see more of her "Bargain" series. Let us hope that this return will bring about the completion of all her WIPs.

lusciousspikehas come up with an extremely interesting idea for a BtVS fanfic series. She's writing a Missing Scenes Series (MiSS) where she dreams up her own takes on scenes that were left out by ME. She's written a dozen so far and if you can think of a scene that should've been in canon but wasn't, go over and suggest it and you might just get her take on it.

I came across two interesting fics today:

Secrets & Lies by shapinglight S/G gen - post-NFA with great OC characters
Breakdown in Communication by redeem147 a Spike/Smallville xover

BTW "Bones" returns early with a season premiere on August 30