always been crazy

Fly by update that is really just sharing links:

How Bayard Rustin’s Quaker, AME Faith Shaped the Civil Rights Era

Batman's Sidekick Robin Comes Out


Hospitals Face A Shortage Of Nurses As COVID Cases Soar


'The Lorax' Warned Us 50 Years Ago, But We Didn't Listen

Everything is still crazy, AND there's a pandemic.

Love you all! <3

The Friday Five for July 9 2021

1. What was your favorite past time in high school? Movies! Hanging out with my friends, obvsly, but we watched a lot of movies. Most of the time, we would stay at my friend Danielle's house because her mom worked nights, so there'd be a dozen or so teenagers there all the time. She'd leave for work around 10:30pm and be like "I'm locking this door, and whoever is here right now had better be here when I get back in the morning." Like we couldn't just do whatever while she was gone. Even if we couldn't go out the front door, we had been sneaking in/out windows and jumping off balconies in our apartment complex for years by that point. In the winter time, Dani's mom used to keep a crockpot of vegetable soup going, and when it got low she'd just add more vegetables. So many great winter time memories outdoors. But we would rent movies to watch in between rewatching our faves - I honestly can recite every line of Friday because I think we watched it every weekend, and Dani's little sister was obsessed with Poetic Justice so we watched that one a lot too. My bff Janet and I would go to the 99c movie theater on the weekends and watch whatever was playing, no matter if we'd seen it already or not.

2. What is your all time favorite board game/card game? Rummy. Countless nights with various people staying up late and playing rummy and just hanging out. Other favorites: Uno, Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride. Does Yahtzee count? Long standing habit to carry a deck of cards and some yahtzee dice with me whenever we go on trips or whatever.

3. What is the last movie you saw at the theatre and what did you think of it? I saw Black Widow last Thursday! I enjoyed it! Will probably see it again this week. I tend to have to see Marvel movies, and some other ones, more than once because of the boys' schedules. Movies have always been our thing. I'm going tomorrow to see the new Boss Baby movie (ugh, definitely not my choice, but Tuesdays have become movie-with-Illiana afternoons) and on Wednesday to see Trolls World Tour at the kids summer express movie.

4. What is something (no matter what kind of mood you're in) that makes you happy the moment you do it, see it, or hear it? this is a complicated one that involves too much thinking at the moment, idk.

5. Do you believe that crop circles are made by human or alien? Definitely aliens. Nah, really probably just some bored teenagers or something. But a couple weeks ago I was watching a bunch of Mysteries of the Missing type shows on Discovery Plus and was like "It's aliens. That one is definitely aliens. It's always aliens!" Except that island that disappeared, that was on the back of the Great Pink Sea Snail.

The Friday Five for 25 June 2021

1) What's your favorite dish to bring to a summer cookout? We have a lot of cookouts. A majority of them are at my house, since it's the biggest, but if we're going elsewhere I usually bring mac'n'cheese, pasta salad, and/or deviled eggs. Sometimes seven layer dip or a fruit tray. Depends on which who is hosting and who will be there.

2) How much time have you spent outdoors this week? Um. I'm trying to avoid the heat and humidity. I took A & L to an activity at the library the other day so we spent about two hours outside then. I played with Cooper for a little bit in the backyard the other evening. But that's about it.

3) Where do you set your thermostat? 70*F

4) How did you learn to swim? I really don't remember. We were spending weekends at the river bank since before I can remember. When my boys were little, we basically just tossed them in the lake and they learned, lol, so I'm pretty sure that's how I learned as well.

5) How do you avoid overheating? Staying inside? lol. Wearing light sundresses, drinking lots of water.

You ever have one of those shows that you just randomly think about and remember how one of the story lines was the worst? Christie and Alak deserved so much better in Defiance.

Watched a bunch of the season finales this last week. I think FBI Most Wanted did the best job when it comes to cliffhangers.

( spoilers for 911, FBI Most Wanted, Chicago PD, Lucifer )

Links:

How to Handle Your Re-Entry Anxiety as the Pandemic Recedes

The Millennial Vernacular of Fatphobia

Rock Happy 'verse by ArwenLune
Stargate Atlantis, Generation Kill || most of the usual suspects from both worlds || 241k
Sgt. Brad Colbert has been on a lot of strange missions, but this promises to be his most out there yet: Atlantis. This is not a story about falling in love. This is a story about falling in team.
Gen story, set mostly in season 4, military focus, outsider perspective, interesting original characters, focus on women in the military. Lots of worldbuilding and 'what happens in Atlantis where the cameras aren't pointing' daily life stuff.

I recently finished David Arnold's The Electric Kingdom, which was very weird in a good way, and Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, which took ages because it was a slow and heavy read but I really enjoyed it. And I watched the second season of The Boys!  I think it's kinda funny that three of the actors from Timeless - Claudia Doumit, Goran Visnjic, and Malcolm Barrett - were all in it.

I told Bebout he has to find somewhere else to stay. I feel bad, but he's an adult (technically) and has to do something to help himself. Lying to us, blowing money on weed, skipping his doctor appts, quitting his job - I'm not dealing with it.

Our current fosters are a mom and three babies, and I'm pretty sure the mom was a feral. The shelter told me she's "spicy." They're currently in one of our big kennels, trying to get them kinda used to things for a couple days and then we'll turn them loose in one of our spare bedrooms, but she paces back and forth and takes the babies by turn and tries to find a way to escape with them. The kittens are fine with being taken out and played with, and we've been letting them out to run around with Duke (he loves kittens; Duchess goes and hides when the kittens come out), but momma is not having it. She got out earlier when Miranda was trying to clean the kennel, and Ronnie and Leah had to chase her all over the house and she tore Ronnie up. Good thing she has her shots. We've only had them a couple of days, so I'm hoping she'll at least settle enough to be socialized enough to be adoptable.

We're adjusting my migraine meds and I swear I've done little more than sleep for the past two weeks and it's a mess. And oh hey, my Hurricanes just won their game, so I guess it's bedtime for me now too!

Links & recs:

Palestine Emergency Response - link to Humanity First who are working on the ground in Palestine and could use donations

you do not have to be good. by coffeesuperhero
Leverage || Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer || 20k
Come hell or high water, Eliot is going to figure this out.
Super good, going on my all time favorites list: It's basically a damn advertisement. Wanted: one hitter. Must love: martial arts, culinary arts, cars, guitars, a tall genius hacker, and a small mischievous thief.

Forty Years and Eight Pounds (The Skin Hunger Variations) by bironic
Stargate Atlantis || John Sheppard || 2419
John finds what he's looking for when Teyla places it on his chest, warm and heavy and smelling of milk. Or: Six people John never told, and four he didn't need to tell.
Beautifully done

Four Blatant Lies About Atlantis (And One Thing That's Totally True) by sabinelagrande
Stargate Atlantis || Rodney McKay/John Sheppard || 4196
Wherein aliens don't make them do it, John loves ASCII, Carson hates everyone, Weir is highly amused, and Lorne's just tyring to be a pal.

The Legend of Smedley Duckler, the Fighting Quacker by Domenkia Marzione (domarzione)
Stargate Atlantis || 3383
How the marines got their mascot. Or, Sheppard and Lorne Are In Charge Of Crazy People.very fun read

So, pulling up the Roswell New Mexico WIP I mentioned in my previous post, I also found some random snippets that I had forgotten about, so I guess I can share those now too. (btw, the wip actually has a name, which is unusual for me, usually I'm scrambling at the last minute to find a summary and a title, but this one is called songs i can no longer listen to and I actually like it. Coming soon to a webpage near you!)

300 words set back at the beginning of season 1.

Michael had to take a minute when he was safely inside his trailer. He hadn't expected Alex. Not here. He thought he'd have more time, to make up a reason to skip the reunion and avoid him altogether. There was never a doubt that Alex would return for that, always one to keep up conventions. Turning up here, on the farm, the closest Michael had ever felt to home - it felt like the universe was cheating, especially with Michael already feeling off balance because of the whole Max and Liz situation.

Michael had been deliberate in not keeping up with Alex, knew he had done a couple tours overseas from small town gossip but had shied away from specifics. The leg, though - that explained a lot about that rash of fever dreams Michael had had for a while, worrying the hell out of Max and Isabel.

And Michael knew that if the situation had been different, if it had been Alex - well, as pissed as he is at Max, he gets it. Doesn't like it, doesn't want it, but gets it.

At least his history with Alex is a more than puppy love. Sneaking kisses in dark corners, fumbling hands in the backseat of his Jeep. At one time, Michael thought he'd leave Roswell, that there was something more for him. But Alex, good little Alex, had his life planned out, and Michael wasn't part of that.

The 'casual sex’ jab wasn't just meant to get under Alex's skin. It was the truth. Kinda. Michael didn't bring people here, didn't let them in, but there had been plenty of men and women over the last ten years.

None of them were Alex.

Shit.

If Isabel were here, she'd say it was too early for a drink, but it's really not.

225 words set at the end of season one.

Alex is at loose ends after he gets home. What he really wants to do is hunt down Michael, make sure he's okay - as okay as he can be considering all the shit that went down. He doesn't know what he'd say, though, even if he found him. Michael was quiet on the way back to Roswell, barely acknowledged Alex's “I'll call you” when he jumped out of the car. Alex has no idea where his head is at.

Kyle wasn't much better, whether because he was sorting through his own shit or because he picked up on the tension between Alex and Michael. He didn't ask what happened in the containment or about the explosion, just inventoried what he managed to grab from the control center before handing it over to Alex.

Alex considers - very briefly - calling Flint, just to make sure he made it out of the prison okay, but the impulse is fleeting and Alex dismisses it. It's not that he doesn't care whether or not his brother is alive, it's just that he meant what he said earlier - Michael is his family. Michael is who he's worried about, but right now there’s nowhere for that worry to go.

He ends up at the bunker, knowing sleep is far off and figuring he may as well start combing through whatever they've got.

845 words of something

( His plan is to drop the generator on the porch and leave. He doesn't even have to step away from the truck, uses his powers to move the machine because he's a lazy fuck sometimes, and why not? )

I watched Radioactive this weekend, and while Rosamund Pike was awesome, I was overall underwhelmed. I feel like it left too much out of Marie Curie's story and life.

I also watched Fahrenheit 451 and actually really liked that one. And I finally caught The Falcon and the Winter Soldier since all the episodes are up, and that was pretty great.

I realize I've been reccing fics, but I have also been reading a lot of books. Escapism, much? So I recently read:

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I really enjoyed this. It had a very interesting format, in addition to being an interesting and intriguing story. I listened to the audiobook version and it was done with different voice actors for each of the parts. Highly recommend.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins - I liked the book but I still find Coriolanus Snow completely unlikeable. I figure I'm probably biased though since we know how he turns out in the future.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate - It feels weird to say I liked this, given the story and the fact it's based on real events which are baffling and horrific, but I did like it.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray - This was a very emotionally engaging story. Life and relationships are complicated, and I kinda like that everything doesn't end up wrapped in a nice neat bow.

And a couple fic recs, to stay on brand:

The Sheppard Equation by jenny_wren
Stargate Atlantis || Rodney McKay/John Sheppard || 22k
Rodney needs to solve the Sheppard Equation before his world falls apart.
Excellent storytelling

Leading the Way by nogoaway
Generation Kill || Brad Colbert/Nate Fick || 27k
In which Nate, being an officer at heart, takes approximately 25 years to find his own dick with a map.
Super well written!

One day I'll post a real entry again. I'm struggling with the bipolar at the moment.

Links:

Meet Bryan "Harvest Blaque" Hancock - Hip-Hop/Spoken Word Artist (and an all around awesome person; he's a family friend)

A couple of foxes are up to no good in a small Vienna, Virginia, community where talks of missing shoes had local residents perplexed. (another family friend; the Hollenberg-Duffey's are part of our COB family)

How abducted Nigerian girls seized control of their story with secret diaries (Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists kept a collaborative diary during their ordeal)

Jesus Was a Protester

Sounds of the Mountains - a storytelling festival
(this is usually an in-person event that is one of our biggest fundraisers for Camp Bethel each year; it is FREE and VIRTUAL this year, and definitely worth checking out.)

Recs:

We Could Be Reckless by erinn_bedford
Still Star-Crossed || Rosaline Capulet/Benvolio Montague || 6028
The five times Benvolio and Rosaline run into each other at a wedding, and the one time they stop being dumb about it.

nobody touches you like i do by notthequiettype
Hockey RPF || Brock Boeser/Elias Pettersson || 2843
"So then, you'll come by tonight?"
"I can, yeah. You need me to bring anything?"
"Just your hands," Petey says.

hold me, lover (so tight i'd bruise you) by a_static_world
Merlin || Merlin/Arthur || 2103
Merlin’s a tactile person. He can’t help it; it’s merely how he was raised. He’s used to falling asleep to his mother running soft fingers through his hair, slinging his arms around Will whenever he pleases. It’s simply the way things are in Ealdor: the village is small, its people close-knit and affectionate. To say Camelot has been a culture shock is an understatement.

Food of Love by tanktrilby
The Witcher || Geralt/Jaskier || 22k
I brought a dead princess back to life through the power of song is the kind of thing that would have got an eyebrow raise even from the stone-faced Geralt of Rivia, so it's a good thing he and Geralt will probably never see each other again.
(or: the one where Jaskier channels magic through his songs, and it almost never goes as expected.)

People are building beehives out of legos

This cute stray kept sneaking into a store to steal a stuffed unicorn so the animal control officer bought it for him

These french rabbits prefer handstands to bunny hops

we have a chance to redeem voting rights

A man finds a baby in the subway. 20 years later, they're still a happy family.

More Than a Team by Mercury Gray
Band of Brothers || Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters || 3172
As an older brother, moving your sister into college is just one of those things you do, even if it's the hottest day of the year and your help isn't being very helpful. But ice cream afterwards helps, a little, with the moving, and dealing with the heat - and with having the conversations you just can't have at home.

Abbey Cats, Alley Cats by Fuuma_san
Good Omens || Aziraphale/Crowley || 29k
Aziraphale has encounters with several cats over the ages who help care for his books and keep him company. At first he ignores and takes their presence for granted, but he learns to appreciate them and gradually, they bring him closer and closer to his demon, until Aziraphale realizes what he really wants. So Aziraphale hatches plans to get it.

Believer and a Homecoming by lsdme
Teen Wolf || Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski || 11k
“I’m serious, Derek,” Stiles whispers. “Come home.”
sweet and heartwarming future!fic

the wisdom of a cat by shestepsintotheriver
The Witcher || Aiden/Lambert || 13k
Lambert falls in love the way he does everything else: long-sufferingly and to his own great annoyance.
snarky!Lambert, well written, fun

You Are the Only Safe Haven that I Know by whisperedstory
The Witcher || Geralt/Jaskier || 17k
Geralt comes across Jaskier in a small town by accident and asks him to travel with him again, hoping things will go back to the way they were before the fight. But Jaskier is different—he's more subdued and cautious, and entirely too agreeable. Geralt doesn't know what's wrong with him, but he's determined to fix it.

The Friday Five for March 5

1) Where in the entire world would you love to be vacationing right now?
2) Where in your own home country or state would you love to be vacationing right now?
3) Where would you love to vacation later on this year when the weather is different?
I'm going to combine these three questions. Honestly, I'd like to be anywhere but here. In the before times, I thought that fall of 2020 was going to be my time to travel. The littles would be in kindergarten, my youngest would be starting college, I'd have a lot more time for what I wanted to do. There were vague plans of visiting North Dakota, New Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, Texas - all to spend some time with my favorite people.

4) Where are you likely to vacation this year?
Pittsburgh, where "vacation" will be hanging out in my bff's living room for the weekend. Potentially Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg - we've talked about getting a cabin for a week there in late summer/early fall, depending on how things go.

5) And next year? Next year is a National Youth Conference year. While it doesn't really count as a vacation because I'll be kinda working, it's not here and it's always a trip to remember. So, destination is Colorado State University in Fort Collins. But we're driving, so it'll be an adventure!

The Friday Five for March 12

1) Have you read more books, or fewer books, this past year than usual? Definitely more.

2) What book are you reading now (or what book did you read most recently)? Right now I'm listening to the audiobook for The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which I'm almost finished with. I'm reading Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe and Tower of Swallows from Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series.

3) What is the best book you read in the past few years? I've really enjoyed the Witcher series books. I also really liked the Passage trilogy from Justin Cronin, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, and The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin' Dixie Outta the Dark by Trae Crowder, Drew Morgan, & Drew Forrester.

4) Do you read more than one book at a time, or just one? Multiple. I usually have at least one audiobook, one ebook, and one physical book going at a time.

5) How big is your to-be-read pile (or list)? Too big! It's never going to be finished, lol. I have a handy dandy spreadsheet of books I'd like to get/read, and there's probably a thousand books on there, and I still pick up books I think I might be interested in if I see them. It's a problem.