Why, yes, it is narcissistic - but I've never done this particular meme before, and seeing as I'm still not managing any writing at the moment, this would do both my spirits and my ego a world of good:

If you'd like, please quote a bit of my writing at me. Find that one story of mine that you really like, find a sentence or a paragraph that presses your prose-buttons in the right way, and comment here with it. In return I'll do the same for you!

Also, any news on the fannish front? Recs, fics, anything worth taking a peek at? If so: yes, please! *craves*

Read in today's newspaper:

According to a study, performed some years ago at the university of Edinburgh, p0rn generally improves the quality of one's sexual relationship and increases one's desire for sex, while romantic comedies tend to have the opposite effect.

Thought #1: As main reason for the adverse effect of romantic comedies, the paper claims they downplay the need for communication in a relationship. Which I get, except, um - this in contrast to p0rn movies? *snorfles* Ach, well, not that I've actually ever seen a p0rn movie (though I've seen Six Feet Under - does that count?) so I guess this is just me, being nitpicky? *tee hee!*

Thought #2: Not that I needed to dissemble, but still - finding out that participating in Porn Battle, as I just did, is actually a kind of relation therapy, and will work wonders on my sex life - is strangely satisfying. (Bring it on! *whooo!*)

Thought #3: All silliness aside - *TEE HEE!* *stuffs foot in mouth*
... this actually makes kind of sense. Like, I suspect the reason why I'm not generally too fond of romantic comedies (except those, like, say, Love Actually, that manage to poke fun at themselves), which I guess is the same as the reason why I love my fic angsty, is tied in pretty closely to how I deal with relationships IRL. I.e. I'm the kind of person who, in a relationship, needs to talk everything to death. *grin* Yeah, yeah, poor husband. He already knows. *g*

So, um - that was it, really. Carry on! *whistles innocently*

(Opinions, of course, are always welcome. *g*)

(gacked from penknife and kangeiko)

Gah - I tried not to give in to this, but it's been too long since I posted, and, well... even a newbie writer is entitled to some kind of ego to be stroked, no? *g*

Darn you, LJ. You've won.

THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME

And... who knows, that horde of lurkers I didn't know existed might suddenly decide to delurk? *wishful thinks wishfully and without realism*

Hi, other writers - join in, too, will you? Make me feel a little less self-conscious? *wibbles*

°

ETA on Which Series to Watch poll: have succumbed and ordered New Who S3 as well. No resilience, I told you. A third into Lost S5 by now; no love triangles and lots of Ben making me a happy camper!

Farscape I think may be next on the list.

°

Also, my assigned Yuletide fic is eating up my evenings and my nerves, but I adore it all the more for doing that! I tried to blackmail myself into finishing it early (mostly to give myself some time for that after-beta-tweaking thing) and, lo and behold, I am succeeding! The ending is causing me a bit of a headache, though. *Needs cookies and Glühwein to fire up brain. Yes.*

(Also, I feel the need to buy a Christmas tree.)

Busy, busy first half of the week-end, but a lovely relaxing Sunday to even the score. Husband and I got married exactly one year ago today, which is a peculiar sensation, to say the least; receiving cards from parents and family members saying "happy anniversary" invariably invokes thoughts of ancient married couples, and is making me feel suddenly older than I am...

Speaking of old married couples: we went to see Pixar's new one, "Up!", today. Well, yes, I realize in the rest of the civilized world it's not all that new anymore, but Belgium is often a bit behind on the movie front, especially when it comes to kids' movies. Maybe the fact that those have to be dubbed and subtitled in Dutch and French has something to do with it, or else we're just a bit backward, I don't know. In any case, the movie (pun intended) simply blew me away; if I had any doubt that Disney's taking over Pixar would affect the quality of their productions, that doubt has now vanished completely. As with their previous films, I was very much impressed by how they manage to infuse their stories with a quite deep message - deep for a children's movie, at least - without being at all preachy about it, and without making their endings so "Disney-ishly" happy it stops being realistic. Comparing it to my other favorites 'The Incredibles' ("It's okay to be ordinary, but it's just as okay to be special") and 'Ratatouille' ("Criticizing is easy, it's doing something that's hard, and even if the result is not great, the attempt in itself is always worthwhile"), I'd say I'm finding 'Up!' the best one yet. Testimony to that is the fact it made me - me, the person who never sheds a tear over anything on the screen, who is physically incapable of crying in a theatre! - blubber like a baby during the entire first twenty minutes and most of the last ten of the film. Which was, actually, somewhat embarrassing, given that there was a ten-year old girl next to me who didn't bat an eyelash the entire time. *g* I don't know why, but it seems that the older I'm getting, the more themes like aging and losing a partner and so on are affecting me - which is a bit scary, knowing that I haven't even reached thirty yet...

On the fannish front: I actually wanted to start up some kind of meta-ish meme thing about relationships and intimacy in fanfic, but alas, it's late and my brain is pretty much fried due to the wine I had during our anniversary dinner... So the meme will have to wait until later this week or next week-end. The reason I'd like to do it, is, that my attempt to experiment with various genres of fic has now taken me to the stage where I'm trying to write a story with explicit sex. That's to say, the story features the act of sex, but not an explicit description of the sex itself, which makes it less than pr0n but probably more than PG-13. *g* And it's hard - unexpectedly so - but also a lovely thing to be writing, and it made me start asking myself all kinds of questions about writing and reading fics involving relationships, which I'd love to discuss with y'all. So - stay tuned for that meme! 

As a small prelude to it - I've been wanting for ages to do that other meme that's been doing the rounds on and off around here, being the "shag, marry, cliff" one. In case there's still anyone who doesn't know it: the bottom line is you get three fictional characters, and you have to choose which of the three you want to marry, shag, or chuck off a cliff. So, here goes:

• Name 3 or more  - male - fictional characters from any of my fandoms (Babylon 5, Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, New Who, Star Wars, Harry Potter, LOTR, ... all qualify). If you list more than 3 names, add a fourth, fifth, etc. option next to the marry/shag/cliff ones. I'll then discuss my choices in a next post. 
• If you wanna join in the silliness, leave a comment telling me your fandoms (and, if relevant, whether you want male and/or female characters listed) and I'll give you characters to choose from!