Viridian5's House of "...What?"

I've been getting some kudos in the last few days on an X-Files fic I wrote in 1998, "Addictions." I wondered where it's being recced.

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It's funny reading Thousand Autumns after the other danmei I've been doing like Heaven Official's Blessing, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, and The Husky and His White Cat Shizun. They come off as rather fanfic-y in comparison to Thousand Autumns' deeper dive into history and mystical swordsmanship; warring and scheming political, ethnic, sect, and philosophical factions; and quest for enlightenment. It's far less concerned with demons, gods, and ghosts. The others are more pairing-based, while the pairing in Thousand Autumns is slooooooooooooooooooooow burn. Shen Qiao also goes through a lot of character development. (Note: I'm three volumes into the series so far.)

It's not necessarily worse or better, but different.

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A cable that connects my CD player to the 2020 Kia Forte's stereo system via aux port works great. Unfortunately, my 1998 CD player turns itself off if it gets jostled a little, which is a problem while driving. The Hold switch being on makes no difference; whether I'm using batteries or have it plugged into my car's cigarette lighter for power makes no difference. For unknown reasons, it's more resistant to doing so within playing two songs, but afterward is absurdly sensitive.



The car lets me play music via my phone with USB hookup or through Bluetooth, though I think the USB hookup version sounds better, but I also have CDs and would like to be able to just play them too.


For some reason, this Whole Foods parking garage lends itself to creating dramatic photos.

When I drove into Manhattan early Saturday morning, I saw that Bergdorf Goodman did some Met Gala-related windows after all, three of them. (These displays weren't up the last time I swung by on May 5th.) They took more of a clue from the "Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion" idea than "the Garden of Time." Neither Bloomingdale's nor Saks did windows for it.

I've posted some new Bergdorf, Bloomingdale's, and Saks window photos, as well as some Spring flowers and St. John's Cemetery photos, at my Flickr.

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I've been getting some kudos on some old X-Files fic of mine so I've been doing some rereading. And sometimes finding 25-year-old typos whyyyyyyy....

Though there's also the fun of "this is the fic inspired by me and Te going to a hotel in New Jersey" or "this is the Mulder/Krycek angst fic that a fan friend got pissed at me thinking it was me making passive-aggressive shots at her, and I had to tell her that if I had these problems with her, I'd tell her."

Good times.

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I saw this at the Paris Theater near Bergdorf. I don't know about the punchline part, since No Country for Old Men especially doesn't strike me as a comedy.


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I'm considering buying and trying a CD cleaner thang for my Elantra's currently faulty built-in CD system to see if it would do any good. Any opinions or advice?

I got news Thursday that a college friend in Pittsburgh has only weeks to live. The tumor they'd removed came back quickly with a vengeance. She's the person who got me into internet slash fic because in college in the early 90s I'd loan her so many slashy books. Longtime fen in The X-Files or who were aware of my Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place thing back in the late 90s might've been aware of her as Woodinat. Or Small Woodinat Creature. (Links lead to some Buffy fic via the Wayback Machine and two Two Guys fics at my fic site. There's also X-Files fic by her at AO3, imported when Down in the Basement relocated there.)

She has family to help her at least. She's decided to do hospice at home for the remainder of her time.

These days we live 400 miles apart and I'm researching how I can go to see her. I don't trust my Elantra in its current condition--or me, in my disabled 50-year-old condition--to handle a 400-mile and 7- to 9-hour each way trip driving alone across two states so that's out. So, bus or train. The options aren't great, partly because I hoped she'd be able to have family provide me a ride to her place from the station I'd be let off at but she's plugging taking a local bus from there ("though schedules get iffy after a certain time!"), getting a cab, or renting a car(!!!). Taking a bus to Pittsburgh lets me off 10 to 12 miles away from her home, ditto the train. Letting me off after dark, in January, in Pennsylvania in the winter, in a part of the city I don't know. I haven't been to Pittsburgh in about 20 years. Also, I am not made of money.

I also need the days involved to get an actual dollar amount for a bus or train. Ticket prices vary widely on the same day for a trip maybe an hour later for reasons I don't know and can't figure out. Some days and times cost more, and supposedly tickets cost less if ordered further in advance. I'm pondering upcoming storms, flooding in NJ, weather conditions in three different US states.

Dude, I miss travel agents.

I don't know if anyone's interested, but I have a listing of Christmas fic I've written over the years for season's readings.

Today BBC America aired a clutch of great old X-Files episodes today--"Folie à Deux," "Drive," "Monday," and "Bad Blood" (I wasn't as enthused by "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" and "The Post-Modern Prometheus," the last of which I always thought was overrated)--reminding me how good the show, my first fandom, could be. Though apparently Mulder annoys me at times these days when he didn't used to. Notably, they're all "monster of the week" episodes.

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I went to the Grand Central Terminal Apple store and found out that the iPhone problem was a hardware issue. They told me to come back in two hours to pick up my repaired device, so I wandered the blocks around 42nd Street, including picking up really transcendant salmon and avocado sushi at Katagiri Japanese Grocery for lunch, sitting out in Bryant Park, and taking in two small exhibits at the main branch of the New York Public Library. When I returned and picked up my phone, it still had the same problems I brought it in with. I asked why nobody checked before handing it back to me, only to be told that they checked it manually and by computer diagnostic and it was working at the time. This resulted in me getting yet another new iPhone 5s replacement, this time for the $64 it cost to repair the camera.

(We'll be watching to see if AT&T tries to charge us full-price as if it's a brand new phone instead of a sanctioned repair replacement again.)

None of my usual stores had new or good displays, so I walked to Central Park and listened to live music, visited the turtles at the edge of The Lake, and saw a cardinals' nest in a rosebush at Besthesda Terrace. I really wanted to get a good photo of the nest but it was so camouflaged by rose stems that I only even saw it because I noticed the flash of red of the male moving amidst the green, white, and pink of the bush.

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It's been either humid or raining here lately, so my hair has been crazy. Late last night I got restless and went for a drive. I had my hair in a bun for most of it but took it down when my head started hurting more and opened the windows because there's just something so wonderful to me about driving with the windows down, wind in my hair. Said hair looked a bit like auburn cotton candy afterward.

Like raine, I also posted my first fic online in February 1998, making this my 20th anniversary. But it's not my birthday this month. *g*

I'm recovering pretty well from Thursday's surgery, though I'm still having some moments of discomfort. The scars will be fairly well camouflaged once they heal. Though Friday I had swelled up so much that I went up nearly a cup size. I sleep on my side, so when I woke up Friday morning they'd swelled sideways. It was an interesting look.

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I realized that I've already posted about 43,600 words of fic in 2017, which might not be much compared to my output in my early years in fandom, when I was writing about a fic a week, but really good for how I've been doing the past few years. Of course, my high output years came when I had a lot of friends inside my fandoms I spoke with almost nightly and had massive fan talk coming to my inbox daily so I doubt I could do it these days.

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So when she tweeted me the other night and asked me if I would read the Cheesecake Factory Menu live, if she raised half a million dollars for the charity, I did not ask any of the obvious questions (like, why would I read the Cheesecake Factory Menu aloud? or Who would want to hear this? or even How would you ever make that much money for something so unlikely?). Instead I said I'd like the money to go to Refugees, please, and sure. (And I added, "If you get to a million dollars, I'll also read the entirety of Fox in Socks after the Cheesecake Factory menu.")

And then Sara did something even more unlikely. She set up a page to allow people to donate at Crowdrise.com (https://www.crowdrise.com/neil-gaiman-will-do-a-live-reading-of-the-cheesecake-factory-menu-if-we-raise-500000-for-refugees/fundraiser/sarabenincasa)... and people started to donate. Lots of them.. (from "The whole Cheesecake Menu Thing Explained, with photographs")

Having heard Neil Gaiman read for Coraline, I'd like to hear the Cheesecake Factory menu and Fox in Socks.

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For me, Gillian Anderson has been the MVP of American Gods. I'm enjoying Audrey too, and how it's fleshing out a lot of the characters more.

ride_4ever asked me to comment on any aspect or aspects of my due South Borderlands - One for Sorrow series, like technical things about writing it or the feels I got from it while writing it or what originally sparked the idea. (Readers, it's not too late to give me questions about anything--interesting, boring - I don't judge, impertinent, or unusual questions for me or what have you always wanted to know about me, my past, or my opinions on Very Important Topics--to tackle for this December posting meme!)

I can’t vouch for all the facts here since I wrote the series from 1999-2002--has it really been 17 years since I started it?--and memories fade somewhat, but all of the following is true as far as I know. ( Possibly more than you wanted to know about the Borderlands/One for Sorrow series  )

If there are any questions or comments about any of this, please feel free to leave them for me here.

"David Duchovny Has a Favorite X-Files Slashfic"