Sidra

I am still here! <3. I'm just so seriously middle-aged, I've got everything on the boil rn. But I'm here if anyone needs me and still contributing to fandom in all the ways I can. You can also reach me at all the places you've always reached me--or other me, or any of the mes you may need.

Things I have enjoyed/am enjoying lately include:

* Killing Eve - I know, I'm super late to Killing Eve, but my sister loves loves loves it and so she asked me to watch it and so I'm watching. First two seasons obviously the best IMO, but she's asked me to see it through so I'm seeing it through.

* Strange New Worlds - its like 100% actual Star Trek! Also it's so fannish - like, look, there are episodes where I can tell the entire reason for the plot is to make sense of one weird moment in ST; TOS and you know what: I RESPECT YOU!! I SALUTE YOU!! YES, GO AHEAD AND FIX THAT ONE MINOR PLOT POINT in TOS, I AM YOUR AUDIENCE, I TOTALLY SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, GET DOWN WITH YOUR BAD SELF. Also, honestly, I will never be tired of Pike cooking, which is a bizarre characterization that I didn't see coming and which nobody I'm trying to pimp to this show ever believes until they see it. Also I would die for Number 1 and La'an. Also Pike cooks with cast iron and open flame in a spaceship. Really: I salute you, show. I am glad you are back! (Especially since no more Disco.)

* Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte - late to QC also, after watching Bridgerton, and thought it was actually really a notch above Bridgerton. (Which I did enjoy - I mean, I respect their commitment to the pleasure principle.) Glad to be caught up there.

* House - yes, yes, I know, I'm really kicking it like it's 2004 around here, but Tiberius, now a teen, had seen bits of it on the interwebs and was like, "Mom, do you know anything about this show House?" and I was like YESSSSS. YESSS I DOOOOO, and your aunt made a great vid of it! Whereupon I showed him astolat's "Bukowski" and we settled in for a watch/rewatch: we like to have a show we're watching together. He's into Trek also so we watched Discovery and Lower Decks and we'll watch SNW as a family now its back, but there's a lot of House to go through and that's a nice option too.

(Side note to those of you who don't have teens: what I did not expect is that Gen Z basically is getting culture in bursts of 10 seconds or less. He's seen literally BITS of House. He will tell me "I know that song--or well, I know 7 seconds of that song." Remember how there would be kids who wouldn't read a novel, they'd just watch the movie? My students now are like--THAT MOVIE IS TWO WHOLE HOURS? I seriously fear for the future, it makes previous claims of attention span deterioriation look PREPOSTEROUS. Holy shit. I swear, I spend so much energy trying not to be too judgy! But I am very judgy! Then again: this moment, this decade, really provokes judginess!! )

(Additional side note: Tiberius is super eye rolly because since middle school all the girls he knows are like "Wow, your mom is SO COOL," --because of course I am! I am really fucking cool, plus I helped to found the AO3 and all of that, so I am a high school rock star, and Tiberius is like, "please God save me from this hell" lol. Cause honestly there really is nothing worse than having a cool mom, I do get that, but I tell him he'll appreciate it later, when I'm dead.)

It was on August 11, 1999, that I (terrified, heart pounding, with a newly chosen pseudonym that I wasn't even quite sure I liked) hit Send on the message that put a Sentinel PWP called "Anoint" out on the SXF mailing list.

(This is really not meant to encourage anybody to go read that story, because I put it on AO3 for what felt like historical reasons, but I do not in any way think it's GOOD.)

I'm still happy to be here.[waves at old and new friends]

from the Narf 'Verse for SGA Saturday week #505-509: "wait" and/or "survive"

Title: A Suspicious Lump
Pairing: John/Rodney
Genre: series, established relationship
Words: 1,658
Rating: PG
Summary: Rodney is worried; John is Schrödinger's worried.

Exciting times here this morning.

I had decanted my brew of cold-tea plus plum juice into a plastic bottle after its first ferment (the scobie was raspberry-coloured! I hope it is all right) a few days ago, but there was no room for it in the fridge.

I found myself worrying about whether it would taste good, or vinegary, or outright yucky, so decided to have a little taste. As I loosened the screw top, there was a loud bang, a shriek of outrage from me, and the bottle produced a substantial bright pink fountain of bubbles. Kombucha in its excited state flowed all over the worktop and floor. And my hand hurt from the impact of lid against my palm.

It took a while to clean up. I used the entire teacloth, plus a goodly quantity of kitchen paper, and finished off with the washing-up cloth.

About three quarters of the bottle has gone.... though I am happy to report that the remainder does taste rather nice.

At least I know 'second ferment' is true!

Yesterday was Fruit Day. Beast and I picked

—small plums from the tree next to the patio
—tiny plums from the tree next to that
—large golden plums, possibly greengages, from one of the trees FIL planted. The big purple plums, while a fabulous colour, are not at all soft, and the medium-sized turning-red plums are still rock-like, so they stayed on their respective trees.
—blackberries from the front. I had picked another bowlful from the back garden on Saturday, and frozen them. It's good to have blackberries.

I then cut up the golden plums, stewed them briefly, froze them, and cut up the small plums, ditto. For such a lot of plums they did not take up much space—I have put them in bags inside small boxes, to freeze into blocks, at which point I will reclaim the boxes.

I have used the leftover juice to try and make kombucha, mixed with green tea. We shall see.

Then I made a blackberry and apple crumble. We had some of it for tea.

*

We finished watching Sense8 last night. I am so pleased that the creators had enough notice and were given the space/time to produce a film-length final episode to wrap up a bunch of plot, and indeed to provide an unexpected and very generous dollop of fanservice. I've enjoyed watching this show. The premise is unusual and very well done, and all eight of the core group are interesting in different ways. I like their besties, too. In fact, I cannot point to any one character as my favourite, nor as someone I don't care for. But I do think the prolonged sex scenes were a bit much—not that I object to sex, but when precious little *happens* in a scene apart from writhing nakedness, lingering on it lovingly for long enough to make a proper cup of tea feels like a glitch in the story telling process.

Still. I've reached to point of looking for fic. Does anyone have any recommendations? Has anybody written any plot-without-porn, perchance?