1. So bandomvalentine, a Bandom Valentine Fic Challenge, has just been set up by reni_days, playfullips, and ashlein. Both sign ups and prompts are now being taken so you guys should head over and check it out. Even if you're not a writer, you can still totally leave a prompt. Also we are accepting art so you're more than welcome to sign up for that too. Anyway, if you guys could let pimp this in your journals that would be awesome. Thanks ♥

2. I read Zihuatanejo, which is Shawshank Redemption fanfic that was recced on copperbadge's lj, and I highly enjoyed it.

3. I got pulled for Correspondence at work, so starting tomorrow I don't have to be on the phones. I get to sit there and process shit for 8 hours a day WITH MY IPOD! I'm pretty damn excited. :)

4. It's just about time to start getting excited about Big Bangs! secretlytodream created a wonderful vid trailer for the 2010 Big Bang over at spn_j2_bigbang. Please go watch and tell her how awesome she is! GET EXCITED!

5. harriet_vane is made of WIN and when I hit the lottery, I'm gonna pay her to be my full time story teller.

6. Today is a certain sexy tattooed bassist's birthday. Where is all the Jepha!porn?

7. The Fifth Annual OWL Awards are upon us! See the Announcement on the OWL home page to start making nominations! (this is copied from twitter, b/c for some reason I can't access the Tauri pages from my computer tonight? idk if it's just me or what.)

8. valerie_z made a wiki for Rancid lyrics! To quote her LJ post: If you'd like to add any interpretations or thoughts on songs please feel free. RancidLyrics.net. You don't even have to care about Rancid. You can just think of it as discussing poetry except all the poetry is about poverty and alcoholism. Yay!

9. You know you've been in fandom too long when you're watching Paranormal State and start slashing Ryan and Sergey. Also, did you know they sell Starter Ghost Hunter Kits on A&E.com? :P

10. WINCON 2010 IS IN CHICAGO! October 15-17. I wanna know who (besides wendy) is planning on going, or would be interested in going with me? (see wincon for more details)

Our family plans for this afternoon got cancelled, which is kinda nice b/c it means I can hang around the house and be lazy. The wedding yesterday was so beautiful. I took a disposable camera b/c mom's digital is broken, but when I got there Tinsley gave me her digital and her mom's digital and said I was responsible for pictures, so I took one and our friend Margo took the other, and the boys took pictures with mine. A couple of the ones the boys took turned out really really good, though, so I'll post a few of them later (I took them to one hour photo this morning) and I'll post good pics when I get them from Tinsley. If anyone is interested in all the sappiness, I'll give details about the ceremony and the reception and everything later, too.

The actual reason for this post though is an apology to all my fellow OWLies for being completely absent lately. For the past couple months, staying here with mom, computer time hasn't been what it used to be. I do have the computer in my room now, but I usually don't go up there until after 11 or so. And I've actually had somewhat of a real life lately (incredible as that sounds) so I'm not around as much, and when I am I'm usually laying in front of the computer half dozing and half skimming LJ. And when I do have the time and the mental capabilities to visit the SL, there's nothing for me to do b/c yall are incredibly awesome. Still, I feel really really bad about not being around.

Starting tomorrow, I have a new schedule at work, so I'll be working from 8am to 4:30pm, which is so awesome I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am. But that means I'll have to go to bed earlier (no more of these IM conversations that go on until 4 or 5 am) but it also means that I've got to get the boys on a new schedule, so we're gonna shoot for a 9:00 bedtime, which means I'll have a couple hours in the evening to play during the weeknights. Weekends are kinda busy.

Some of you know that I lost my writing ability temporarily (but I did find it again, in case you didn't get the memo!) and I think part of the problem was that I was thinking too much about ME and my place in fandom and not about fandom as a whole, or at least not about my fandom families. I also think the porn kinda threw me off track. Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't mind writing the porn, but I miss writing plot. Actually, I really miss plotting. The past couple weeks, talking with swedish15 about Garden, talking with anael about something she's writing, talking with pixel_0 about Gather the Flies... that made me feel happier fandom-wise than I've felt in a long time.

I think there might have been some purpose behind me writing all this, but as I ramble (and holler at the kids in the backyard and keep an eye on the peach cobbler in the oven and talk to de on Y!M), I've forgotten what it was. Love and hugs for all of you, and I'll post some drabbles later, yeah?