rants and ramblings of utter randomness

The long-awaited Random Bullet List!Update:

• I just watched the first episode of The Sopranos. No, really, I've never seen the show before, having no HBO and all. If anyone tells me how the series ends I will kick them in the head. Well, okay, I won't do that, but I won't be a very happy camper. Anyway, I really like it. I knew I would; I'm a sucker for mob stories.
  
  
• Ontarians past and present, and People Who Know Ontario: I need your help! I'll be in a. London/Stratford, b. Toronto, and c. Ottawa the last week of July/first week of Aug, with peacey and maybe her sister.
  
  Suggestions for stuff to do? The only definite plan is King Lear at Stratford Theatre on the 25th, and I won't leave without touring Parliament Hill unless the sky falls or I get thrown out of the country for excessive dorkery (just look at these lovely pictures! Politics has never been so pretty. Well, okay, maybe once). Apparently I'll be doing a lot of driving, but oh, well, it can't be helped. Oh, and if you could recommend some local non-tourist-y bookstores?
  
  
• ( I did not rig this, I swear )
  
  
  
• Fic Rec: Well, two, actually, both by shayheyred. Why haven't I read these before?
  
  
  
  
  • Objects in the Rearview Mirror (ds, multiple pairings/gen, R-ish). Gorgeous vignettes of various characters' thoughts at different times and places.
    
    You are my child as much as his -- more perhaps. My blood flows through you just as your father's does. You need someone to free you from the bonds you impose on yourself, someone to provoke you to anger, inspire you to greatness, force you to laugh at yourself, encourage you to cry, make you scream in pleasure. Love may hurt sometimes, but it should not kill your heart, or it is not love at all. Don't let the hurts of the past become your destiny. Live. Feel. Touch. Dare. Win. Lose. Love. Love whomever and however your heart tells you. If you are afraid, then be so. But don't retreat.
    
    Fight, Ben.
    
    
  • It Was a Very Good Year (Frannie/Turnbull, maybe mild R) Backstory for both Frannie and Turnbull, very believable. I have a big love for Frannie stories in general; this one's in firmly in the top favourites group.
    
    Often he surprised her by being useful. Sometimes he called with information that was helpful in a case. Once he helped locate Benton and her fake brother when they'd disappeared off the face of Lake Superior. Once or twice he acted as a buffer between the cops and that horrible witch of an Inspector who had designs on Her Benton. Yes, Turnbull had his uses. Like a footstool.
    
    And so of course she never noticed the footstool staring at her with wistful, hopeless, sad-sack adoration.
  
  
  
• I have to see a dentist like woah. I have a missing filling that's starting to hurt due to weeks of not taking care of it, and I need a cleaning bigtime. I want to find a new dentist in the area. I'd best start searching before I have to get out the ol' string and tie it to the doorknob.
  
  
• I watched a few minutes of CNN tonight while I was at the Chinese Buffet (eight bucks, all you can eat. Greasy, fatty, and yummy). It's getting pretty awful. I mean, yeah, it was Lou Dobbs, and I'm not exactly his biggest fan, but at least he was giving something that sounded like news (although it was really him reading letters from People Who Agree With Him, which isn't news at all).
  
  Then The Situation Room came on and they started talking about former Israeli soldiers posing for Maxim and how some people in the government of Israel are calling it pornography. Um. Interesting story, but I'm sure there's a whole lot more going on in Israel (and the rest of the world) that's more important. If I want modelling controversy, which I never will, I'll watch Inside Access. Which is right up there with American Idol on the Shows I Will Never Watch list.
  
  
• Circumcision no "Silver Bullet". This basically says what I've been trying to say but haven't been able to find the words. And it's a mainstream news site, too.
  
  
• mr_t00by left a bag of clothes on the bus home from New Hampshire. He says it was about half of all his clothes. We tried to go to Kennedy Plaza where the bus was due in next, but it never came and all that happened is I got to use up all sorts of gas driving around while he waited because there is nowhere to park in Providence in the eveniing. The bus company was closed when he tried to call them, so we'll try again in the morning. Needless to say he is not too happy at the moment, poor kid. Cross your fingers that we can get them back. They're in a plastic bag with no ID, which isn't a good idea and he should have labelled them, but it's still a bummer that they're missing. :/

ETA: peacey, I left a message for you at your LJ. :) :) :)

lipstickcat wrote Turnbull/Victoria kissing fic.

It sounds wrong, it should NOT work, but it does, and it makes me want more of this unexpectedly beautiful pairing. Novel-length with chapters kind of more.

Go, read! It's a snippet, so it won't take long.

Because I seem to rec crackfic all thetime:


Read this. Then read the sequel. So, so cracktastic. They're short, so go. Shoo.


Also, I had a song in my head last night but for the life of me I couldn't remember who recorded it. I first heard it about ten years ago on a cassette I'd bought in Cape Breton (I remember the tape was black, like every other tape I've ever bought in or from Canada.[/trivia]. It's about the collapse of Newfoundland's fishing industry and the fishing moratorium that was declared because of the huge reduction in numbers of cod. If you're interested in reading more about it (and I'm geeky enough to be interested), this sounds like a good book to get. It's on my wish list, but since I can get it used for 40 cents, I should just buy it.

Anyway, it's a beautiful, heartfelt song, and it was stuck in my head and I wanted to hear it again. I plugged the snippets of phrase I could remember into Google, and after literally hours of trying, finally found a download. So I figure I'd share, since it was such hard work getting it, and because it's gorgeous. It's amazing how every word of it came right back to me and I could sing along the first time (I tend to be dorky like that). It's music like this that are a huge part of the reason that I'm going to make it to Celtic Colours next year no matter what:

Pamela Morgan - It Ain't Funny

ETA to add tag because upon reread that second paragraph is one of the dorkiest I've ever read, let alone written. The fact that I'm ETAing about it is even worse.

Fic Rec!

Even if you've never seen a single episode of due South, even if you've never read any fanfic before, read this story. It's a spot-on portrayal of Alzheimer's and its effects on not only the person who has it, but the family who loves and cares for him. In this case it's Early-onset Alzheimer's, which is usually quicker to progress, and harder for everyone.

Lost, by Tara Keezer

Then listen to this:

Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy - The Dutchman The song and the story have exactly the same feel: Sadness, bittersweet memories, and through it all the joy of unconditional love. *wibbles*

No, really, read it. You don't need to know the characters; they could be anyone, really. If you DO know them, it's all the sweeter.

It's not long, and it's so very good.