netgirl_y2k: (gwen beer)
[personal profile] netgirl_y2k
So, that's been a week.

I have a dog. I've mentioned this, right? He's a black labrador, a failed guide dog, and he's called Eustace - which according to my mother is why I was never allowed to name the family pets as a child. And Eustace is, by and large, a very good dog, fulfilling all the major criteria you want from a dog; he's warm and furry, he's always pleased to see me, and he forces me to get some much needed fresh air and exercise. And I've always thought that if you're a bit shy or awkward, dogs are great things to have because they are great conversation starters; okay, mostly you talk to other people who have dogs, and mostly about the weird things your dogs have eaten recently - Eustace enjoys bars of soap, after which he vomits bubbles for a day and a half - but still.

Anyway, last Sunday Eustace tried to stand up and couldn't, he was crashing into the furniture and the walls, he had no control over his legs, and his entire body was shaking and twitching. I thought he was having a stroke. And of course this was on Sunday evening where the only place I could take him was the animal hospital at the university. I seriously thought I was taking him to be put to sleep - I was mentally shopping for puppies; I thought something in a spaniel - which I can joke about now because it turns out it was some sort of inner ear thing which looks scary and awful but is probably not a brain tumour not uncommon. Still, for three days he couldn't walk at all - now I've always had dogs, my parents let me have a puppy when I was quite young to teach me the value of responsibility and having something that's completely dependent on me - but I don't think even they envisioned that it would come to hauling a fully grown labrador around over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Still, I can't help but think they'd be impressed by my stupid, slavish levels of devotion to the ridiculous soap-eating creature.

Get a dog, people said. You'll find it so relaxing, people said.

So, the dog is more or less okay, although he still sometimes veers off to the left without meaning to like a trolley with a wonky wheel, and apparently his head might always be cocked to one side giving him a permanently confused expression - but that'd be okay, that'd be me and him both.

Oh, and the cool thing was that I was talking to the guy in the pet supplies shop about what had happened, and he let me have a 21kg bag of dog food for free because he said we had enough problems. Dog people, I can't decide if it's more like a fandom or a cult, either way, sometimes there is such a thing as a free meal.

We have finally sold my grandmother's flat, which I'm finding emotionally fraught for all sorts of reasons that probably don't bear examining too closely. So I was informed that any more of her furniture I wanted had to be moved into my place as soon as.

As an aside, my interior decorating skills leave a lot to be desired; it's one third IKEA, to once third things that I fished out of skips as an impoverished student, to one third things that I inherited from my ninety year old grandmother and which, as far as I can, tell were largely made in prisoner of war camps during WWII. Also, now I have a proper old fashioned vanity table in my bedroom which is weird because now I have a mirror, which I didn't before. It's not that I hate my reflection, but if I'm going to be forced to look at it I like to have some warning and a good long run up.

Anyway, in order to get a lot of this stuff in and out of two houses we had to take it apart and put it back together, which brings me to the following advice, if you're going to be doing anything like that, or really any sort of carpentry related task 1) don't, there are people that you can hire, and 2) don't do it while wearing converse that are almost worn through at the soles, because then you might step on a rusty nail and have to go to an A&E which is mobbed with children who've swallowed Easter Egg toys and people injured doing ill-advised bank holiday DIY for a tetanus booster.

Top Ten Fics by Hit Count

1. The Care and Feeding of Tiny Humans (and slightly larger Time Lords) (11,609 hits, Doctor Who, the one where Eleven travels with wee!Amelia)
2. Every Rose Has a Thorn (and even tame wolves bite) (5851 hits, ASOIAF, the one where Margaery is not quite Sansa's prisoner)
3. Those Who Favour Fire (4184 hits, GoT, the one where Sansa marries Joffrey, fucks Cersei, and loves Dany)
4. The Women Kings (3517 hits, GoT, the one where Sansa and Margaery are always queens, of a sort)
5. War Is Easier Than Daughters (3312 hits, GoT, the one where Jon Snow is a girl and I suck at titling)
6. The Sides and All the Corners (3245 hits, OUaT, the one where Ruby is Belle's beast, and there's more than one kind of love)
7. This is Tomorrow (the getaway driver remix) (3034 hits, Doctor Who, the one where there is Donna, Lady Christina and a flying bus, and that is what DW fic is for)
8. Carrying A Concealed Weapon (and other crimes to commit while being Adora Belle Dearheart) (3016 hits, Discworld, the one with Adora Belle, Lady Sybil, and footnotes)
9. Everything But the Kitchen Sink (2921 hits, Doctor Who, the one where the Doctor takes Dalek!Oswin along as his companion)
10. Her Heart Beat Like a Wolf (2811 hits, ASOIAF, the one where Sansa rebuilds Winterfell)

Top Ten Fics by Kudos

1. The Care and Feeding of Tiny Humans (and slightly larger Time Lords) (559 kudos, Doctor Who, the one where Eleven travels with wee!Amelia)
2. Everything But the Kitchen Sink (309 kudos, Doctor Who, the one where the Doctor takes Dalek!Oswin along as his companion)
3. Every Rose Has a Thorn (and even tame wolves bite) (218 kudos, ASOIAF, the one where Margaery is not quite Sansa's prisoner)
4. The Women Kings (207 kudos, GoT, the one where Sansa and Margaery are always queens, of a sort)
5. The Sides and All the Corners (178 kudos, OUaT, the one where Ruby is Belle's beast, and there's more than one kind of love)
6. She's Hearing Voices (177 kudos, Warehouse 13, the one where HG is trying to court Myka, and also where I suck at titling)
7. Those Who Favour Fire (167 kudos, GoT, the one where Sansa marries Joffrey, fucks Cersei, and loves Dany)
8. Her Heart Beat Like a Wolf (145 kudos, ASOIAF, the one where Sansa rebuilds Winterfell)
9. Our Marvellous Inheritance (134 kudos, ASOIAF, the one where women can inherit but because this is Westeros everything is still fucked up)
10. Pack Me Up, I'm Sold (133 kudos, Warehouse 13, the one where Myka and HG open a little shop)

From this I have decided to take that while it is always bad to compare yourself to other people, it is especially bad to compare yourself to people who write juggernaut pairings in the MCU fandom.
Also, that I suck at coming up with titles.
And that people like the Doctor travelling with slightly unusual companions.
As well as Sansa/Margaery and Myka/HG, in fact there seems to be a lot of millage in writing a biggish femslash pairing in a medium sized fandom; you know, just in case I needed some more motivation to write some Emma/Regina.
The best fic out of that lot is Her Heart Beat Like a Wolf; the worst is Those Who Favour Fire, which is a real clunker, and it's presence on both lists baffles me somewhat.
If I were making a list of my ten best fics, or my ten favourite of my own fics, I'm don't think it would look anything like this.
I may do that at some point.

We had Easter Sunday lunch as a family today, the rolling news was on in the background covering the young royals trip to Australia. The high point of the meal was the phrase: "Because she's a filthy monarchist and I'm not talking to her anymore, said by me (aged almost 31) to my mother, by way of explaining why I didn't want to sit next to my sister for dessert.

Well, what's the point of being a grown up if you can't be childish from time to time.

Date: 2014-04-21 12:26 am (UTC)
lilacsigil: 12 Apostles rocks, text "Rock On" (12 Apostles)
From: [personal profile] lilacsigil
All the filthy monarchists are alive and well and running around Australia goggling at the Tiny Overlord. It's terrible, but at least they're not coming to my state.

Poor dog! I have chronic vertigo (which was not a brain tumour) and often veer to the left. Maybe I should eat some soap out of comradeship.

Date: 2014-04-21 01:36 am (UTC)
adafrog: (Default)
From: [personal profile] adafrog
Poor puppy. Glad he's going to be mostly okay.

And dang, ITA with you about not putting things together yourself.

Date: 2014-04-21 11:35 pm (UTC)
adafrog: (Default)
From: [personal profile] adafrog
I can see how that might be funny.

Date: 2014-04-21 06:48 am (UTC)
fallingtowers: (Mood: Oh my!)
From: [personal profile] fallingtowers
I'm glad your dog is better now - and I hope the A&E trip wasn't too horrible. :(

In my case, I was lucky enough to get my friends to assemble the IKEA furniture for me. I built most of my bed on my own, though, and it still hasn't broken after five years.

Date: 2014-04-22 03:52 am (UTC)
fallingtowers: (Mood: Amused)
From: [personal profile] fallingtowers
I once built a bookcase that didn't last five hours, in my defence I think I had overloaded it somewhat.

*eyes own creaking BILLY shelves suspiciously*

Date: 2014-04-21 03:07 pm (UTC)
shaggydogstail: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shaggydogstail
Yikes, I hope your foot is OK. If not, surely it is Eustace's turn to carry you around, or at least allow you to fashion some kind of harness/rollerskate combo to pull you along. That might be fun.

Date: 2014-04-22 01:58 am (UTC)
fitz_y: Katharine Hepburn in drag - close up of her cheekbones (Default)
From: [personal profile] fitz_y
PUPPY! I'm glad the dog is okay and yes make a list of your ten favorite fics and monarchists are always filthy, aren't they? Especially when they're you're siblings. <33333

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