All Souls' Night

I was reading through old entries to make sure my tagging habits had not gone astray (namely: does 'writing' mean 'about writing' or 'fiction' or both?) and came across a link which I will repeat here, on the nature of the Mary Sue. I mostly agree with the definition given, with the caveat that a Mary Sue (as I use the term) need not be (recognizably) a self-insert. It frequently is, just as an author's first story's protagonist often greatly resembles themself (usually with some amount of idealization), and for similar reasons. But to dismiss Princess Evangeline Hiroko Astarte Picasso Pluto Valentine (and her rainbow-maned spunicorn), the last of the pink-eyed cat-people raised tragically by magic worms after her planet was blown up, and who gets up to lots of lesbian hijinks in between solving everyone's problems and being picked on for her dark skin, simply because her story was written by a white middle-aged man, seems like a specious argument to me. Likewise the Draco Malfoy (written by a fourteen year old girl) who looks good in leather pants and who could totally sex up anybody and everybody worth mentioning except that he's secretly in love with Virginia Ginevra Weasely (or maybe Hermione) and spends a lot of time pining for her and angsting that he can never reveal his feelings, oh woe! And who eventually dies in Harry's arms, spontaneously turning him gay and giving him the impetus to bypass all that nonsense in book seven and destroy Voldemort utterly with the power of his newfound (long-denied?) love, driven by rage and grief. Those are, of course, extreme examples, in order to better illustrate my point. Still.

I love crackfic so very, very much.

Harry Potter: The WorldSaving Properties of Hot Threesome Sex by opalish
Summary: Harry's straight, he really is. Unfortunately, no one believes it but him. HarryLunaBlaise crackfic AHOY.

Naruto: The Consequences of Drunken Experiments by Lucillia
Summary: Orochimaru creates something that never should have existed while under the influence... A series of unrelated oneshots.
    In particular, the first two: [1] Maito Danzo ("To create the offspring of Shimura Danzo and Maito Gai"), and [2] Chickenzilla ("The fire breathing monster chicken has escaped!").

Whenever people talk about their 'friends list' in abbreviation, I think of Victor Borge. Which is why I spell my flist with a 'z'.

("F. Liszt, young man, spells Fliszt.")

The story itself is a trope, but.

The concept of God has as little meaning for him as it does for most wizards, but, as he understands it, Muggle iconography of the Hebrew God bears a striking resemblance to the person of Albus Dumbledore, which lends the phrase a fairly accurate pictorial significance.

Hee.

We has cabinets!

To be more precise, we have a kitchen full of boxes that contain cabinets, and all their occasionally intricate innards (pull-out blind corners, I'm looking at you). They'll be installed -- professionally -- on Monday. With the floor, tile, counters, and new appliances as well. Yes.

After that there's still electrical and plumbing work, and then a final inspection; this kitchen will not be complete until after Thanksgiving. But the cabinets were what we were waiting on, so that they're finally here... it feels like a major step.