Home Is Where the Heart Is

Master post for MacGyver fic: Welcome to the Camelverse

2029-01-01T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I figured it’s finally time I did master posts for my fic, or at least the MacGyver fic – not that I have all that many titles, but so I have somewhere to link people to when ~~I manage to wheedle them into feeding my ego~~ I’m asked about it.

( Welcome to the Camelverse! )

( The fic lists . . . )

( Vignettes, drabbles, smut, crack, and crossovers )

( Notes on the Camelverse )

And, whew. Done! Until I write some more.

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bethinexile @ 2016-11-10T08:37:00

2016-11-10T08:37:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Cry, the bedeviled country.

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All clear

2016-10-06T22:12:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

*waves to internets* We seem to be past the worst of what was, for us, a very minor tempest in a modest-sized teapot. We had plenty of rain but no really bad gusts, and we lost power for a short period of time earlier this evening. Everything is back now, at least for the moment. *knocks wood* I havent had a chance yet to walk around the house and check, but we didn't have any really bad thumps or bumps or sounds of calamity. Shoot, I'll probably have to go in to work tomorrow.

Everyone think good thoughts of the folks to the north of us -- they're in a lot more peril than we were.

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Storm Season Redux

2016-10-05T21:01:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Quick check-in here --

Yes, we're in the hurricane watch zone for Matthew; the current track has the eye sliding past us just off the coast, but with a Storm Of Unusual Size, we'll still get plenty of weather where we are, a few miles inland. We're not in a flood zone, but we're expecting EPIC rain tomorrow and Friday, and stormy winds of great storminess. I've been told to expect that the power will go out, and to hope it won't be out for more than a day.

We have hurricane supplies, including lots of water; the house is stoutly built, and we just got shiny new storm windows and doors installed in February. These are windows of great windowfullness, let me tell you! We did NOT have to bolt sheets of steel to the outside of the house this year, which is an exercise that I do not miss.

As soon as the storm is past and we have power and internets again, I will post again here and on Facebook, so you'll all know I'm okay. Wish us luck and fair (or at least reasonably just) winds!

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The Anti-MacGyver, Week 2

2016-10-01T10:12:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Last night, I waffled mightily over whether or not to turn on the TV set and see if the train-wreck-in-progress would stick to the rails -- any rails -- any better with Wan the Mighty Movie Director out of the picture. I finally did, although a few minutes late. (If there was a pre-credits sequence, I didn't see it. Note that I do not say "I missed it.")

Week 2:

Nice callbacks to: Mac sleeping on the couch; Mac having bad dreams; Mac having a general show up when he's chilling out. Pity that the "general" is his ~~racist trope~~ hilariously comical and clueless black roommate in a costume. Roommate now knows what Mac's job is, after making a big point of him not knowing in the first episode. Attempted funny banter is wrapped up with lame ugly borderline fag jokes.

( It gets worse )

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taking one for the team!

2016-09-23T11:55:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I think I'm going to livetweet the "MacGyver" premier, and make up the drinking game as I go. Follow me if you dare!

(Also, I should note: the quotation marks around the name "MacGyver" there are not because it's the name of a show.)

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So, the new "MacGyver" . . .

2016-09-22T11:09:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Pilot episode airs tomorrow evening; yes, I'm watching it; possibly with alcohol at hand in case there's pain that will need dulling.

I'm not madly optimistic, but I'm not completely pessimistic either. Some of what I've seen so far is reasonably promising; I'm also willing to cut them some slack for the first handful of episodes, because you have to do that with any new series.

But, o lordy, just based on press comments, the new producers have steered straight for some of the rocks. At full speed.

Who else will be watching, and in what mindframe? What tropes shall we use for the drinking game? I'm expecting to chug at the inevitable fridging.

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That high school meme

2016-07-22T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Surprise! I'm actually doing a meme!!

When I was in high school . . . (for the record, I graduated in 1979)

1. Did you know your spouse/partner?
HAHAHAHAHA not really funny.

( the rest under the cut )

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I'd Like to Thank the Academy

2015-08-23T13:17:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Cheers to my 5,900+ fellow Hugo voters! I understand that Noaaw Ard and Noah Ward were gracious in victory last night.

And yay! I can use the alternate universe Hugo ballot as a suggestion list for new things to read!

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The Deed Is Done

2015-07-31T12:45:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Just finished my Hugo ballot (and just in time, because today is the deadline).

Yes, I voted Puppy-free. That was the entire reason I got a voting membership. If you would have liked to have voted a no-pups slate but did not have the disposable income to frivol on a voting membership, I invite you to join me in my personal No-Pup Vicarious Thrills Members' Circle! Share in my act of defiance, even if it's only through a proxy.

No, I did not acquire or read anything on the Sad or Rabid Puppies' slates. No, I don't feel any remorse whatsoever for voting against something I had not read. That's what the pups do themselves (vote against things they won't read), and I've made the decision to do it back at them. I'm years past the point of automatically doing the wrong thing for the "right" reason (and not just because of the number of times I have been thoroughly screwed over as a result of other people doing the wrong things, or failing to do the right things, for the "right" reason). (Although that does counteract the potential for remorse even more thoroughly.)

I actually deviated from the no-pup ballot in one instance: I really loved Guardians of the Galaxy, which was one of their nominees. I was, in the end, unable to rank it below works that I genuinely thought were inferior -- and which were not the creative work of the Pupheads.

Now we wait to find out the results. I'm hoping for a lot of unused rockets. I had, at one point, been thinking that this might be a good year for me to actually attend -- I have never been to a Worldcon, although I've been to many others, it's in Washington state, I know a lot of the lovely folks running it this year -- and they actually asked me if I would maybe come? -- but once the canine excrement started coming down, I was glad I had not made the commitment. I feel deeply sorry for my con-running friends and acquaintances, having to preside over this mare's nest. I hope that everyone who attends, other than the Pups, has a truly wonderful time, stays healthy, gets enough to eat and enough sleep, meets wonderful people and generally rocks out that weekend.

Meanwhile, back here in the No-Pup Vicarious Thrills Members' Circle, the Save button has been pressed, and it's time for us to have a drink, or a cookie, or both. What'll you have?

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Signal-to-Noise Ratio

2015-06-28T13:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I've spent a lot of time over the last two days watching the #LoveWins hashtag on Twitter (where, as most of the online world knows, you get an automatic little rainbow heart easter egg on the hashtag). It's been, mostly, great -- astonishing and glorious and vibrant, a massive shout of joy.

The first 18 hours or so were the best -- I had hoped that the whole weekend would be good, given that it's Pride weekend in many of the major cities.

But, oh, the haters gotta hate. And they gotta hate in your face, because it's just no fun pissing on other human beings unless you can force them to watch.

( Trolls and haters )

So, as I leave Twitter to itself for the time, I'm going to revisit some of the really, really good memories:

- Someone posted a meme shot of Jeff Probst doing a glad hands move on Survivor, captioned "Love Wins!". Guess who retweeted it with glee? Jeff Probst!

- Another celeb who posted in support: Michael Des Barres. (Formerly known as Murdoc)

- One tweet that went viral early on also got detached from its original poster, retweeted as an orphan, and eventually circled back around to its originator: Cole Ledford, an amazing young activist who describes himself as "the 51st President of the US".

- Buzzfeed did a slew of fun roundups, including Disasters You Can Expect Now That Marriage Equality Is Here reviews the state of the countries that preceded the US in the fight. Don't worry about the title: it's tongue-in-cheek.

- So, so many goregous images of happy people, rainbows, rainbow flags, and major buildings and landmarks lit up with rainbow lights.

- I did a graphic of my own, using (of all things) a quotation from the Old Testament. I had vaguely hoped it might get picked up as a peace offering between the gay and Christian (which is a Venn diagram with a huge overlap!!), but it's pretty much gotten lost in the torrent. I suspect it would be regarded as blasphemous by the inevitable vocal minority.

- An ever-growing list of companies and sites, mostly on their Twitter feeds, rainbowed up their icons and logos and/or did special posts. Chobani did three. Others (Facebook etc.) put up widgets to add rainbow filters or hearts to profiles and avatars.

I saw a few cynical put-downs of this (and, of course, way too many pearl-clutching shrieks that I WILL NOW BOYCOTT ALL THE BRANDS), but the cynics don't seem to realize that major corporate branding decisions aren't something that gets slapped together in a few minutes and slapped online. Most of them, I suspect, had been prepped for Pride weekend, and were pushed out ahead of schedule -- Ravelry did this, and said so in so many words. The site owner then publicly held his delightfully calm ground against an incredibly shrill minority of pearl-clutchers.

Maybe some of the brands were bandwagoning, but I don't care even if they were. It was lovely and shiny and I want to remember it. Some of the brand responses were incredible works of art, and the advertising boffins who created them should be proud. Two of the most incredible, subtle, elegant pieces were -- of all unlikely candidates -- cheap mass-market beer brands: Miller and Heineken! (Look closely at each of those; it may take a minute.) Seriously -- Miller Lite? Subtle and elegant and progressive? I kid you not. I may be a beer snob, but I'll have to set aside some of my own deep prejudices there.

Which is a wonderful thing to say on any day, but this weekend especially.

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Sobbing and Smiling

2015-06-26T11:51:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Because when you go here: US Map of Marriage Equality by State

it shows the whole country.

ETA: if you haven't already, type "gay marriage" into Google and hit enter.

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Google Gets It Right

2015-04-22T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I took the Earth Day quiz, and Google is proud to inform me:

You're a giant squid!

You can achieve anything to which you put your mind and/or your massive tentacles.

Hurrah! Clearly, the pigeons know what they're doing.

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Twelve Amnesiac Characters Forget to Walk Into a Bar

2015-04-07T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Welp, I actually did finish the 12 characters meme, and never had the energy to get the last section posted, what with holidays and bustle and bright stars going out in the sky.

( The list of characters )

Answers, Part One
Answers, Part Two

( the epic conclusion! )

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Who let the hipsters onto the net?

2015-04-01T23:16:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Okay, so I've been enjoying my usual April Fool's Day evening, hopping around various sites and giggling at the fake news, fake promos, fake products and fake marketing. As someone who loathes practical jokes, I adore the new face of April Fool's Day; I look forward to midnight on March 30th, when I can see what Google is doing this year. Now that it's become a regular Thing, I have the pleasure of finding lists of Best of the Web, since I'm certainly not likely to find nearly as much good stuff on my own.
( oops, almost forgot the cut )

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a few more thoughts on Terry Pratchett

2015-03-15T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

GNU Terry Pratchett

I've spent a good deal of time the last several days with Twitter open on a "Terry Pratchett" search, following a lot of links, reading many tributes, looking at fanart, occasionally posting things of my own.

Or, to put it another way, I've been participating in the global wake. Because that's what it is.

( cut for length but shouldn't be disturbing )

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My father and Terry Pratchett

2015-03-12T22:32:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

No, my father never met Sir Terry Pratchett. He probably never read any of his books, although he would have loved them -- especially the later, snarkier, more Twain-esque* ones. Funnily enough, my father actually looked a little like Terry Pratchett, although he didn't wear a hat.

( this may be hard reading for some )

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iFixedit!!

2015-03-07T19:33:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

So, I cracked the screen on my iPad.

Again.

I didn't actually buy the iPad: it was issued to me at work, although it's pretty much mine. I can put anything I want on it, I pay for the apps, and if -- um, when -- it gets damaged, I pay for the repairs.

After the second time I had to get a cracked screen fixed, I swore that if I ever did it again, I would buy a goddamned repair kit and learn to repair iThingummies myself.

Annnnd . . . I got a really good strong nice leather cover for it. Annnnd after a very long time, the cover got a little worn and the spine softened, and, well. The crackage wasn't all that bad. I could still use the tablet. For the present. Unless/until the cracking spread.

I did a good-sized heap of research, ordered a toolkit, ordered a replacement screen, and girded my loins to Do the Deed today.

I DID IT.

My iPad works. It has a fine new uncracked glass screen. Total cost was $40, and half of that was the toolkit, which I can now use for future repairs.

I salute the lovely website ifixit.com, which did not hedge about the niggling difficulty, and walked me through every step in almost enough detail to make it truly smooth. (Bumps do happen, but that's survivable.) I did not rip out the wi-fi antenna, or damage the LCD screen, or snap the diogitizer cable, or otherwise screw up, although I did have to unscrew and rescrew the LCD screen four separate times while I figured out what I was supposed to do with the micro-cables.

\o/

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Long and Prosperous Life

2015-02-28T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I started watching Star Trek when it first aired. I was in second grade at the time, and I completely and totally fell into fannish squee for the first of many times in my life (although I didn't have a word for it until decades later). We had a black-and-white set then; I didn't see it in colour until years later.

For the rest . . . Wil Wheaton said it better, so I'm going to quote him.

"I was too young to fully understand why, but as I got older and looked back on those years, it became clear: I identified with Spock because he was weird, and cerebral, and he was different from everyone else. He was just like me, but the things that made me a target of ridicule on the playground made him a valuable and vital member of his ship’s crew. In ways that I couldn’t articulate at the time, I wanted to be Mister Spock because if I was, I could be myself – quiet, bookish, alien to the people around me – and it wouldn’t be weird. It would be awesome."

I didn't have a word for what I was, but Mr. Spock gave me one. Leonard Nimoy created a character that gave me a way to think about myself that wasn't an automatic self-denigration. He may have done more than any other person to save my sanity as I struggled my way through childhood and adolescence. Ultimately, I had to get beyond the Vulcan model -- Luke Skywalker turned up just at the right time -- but it was Spock who got me ready for the Jedi.

Excuse me now -- I'm going to be watching a Trek marathon for a while . . .

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Gutted

2015-01-22T08:50:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

sidlj died late last week, unexpectedly. We have lost one of our brightest, warmest stars.

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ZOMG Florida!!!

2015-01-05T22:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

First same-sex marriages, this afternoon. (One of the couples are friends of mine, and just the sweetest people!!)

12:01 am, Missy and I are officially recognized as married by the State of Florida, for what that's worth . . . but much more important, other couple can marry, here, without having to go to a different state. I would have wanted to get married in Washington state in any case, but for many others, this is home. It's where their hearts are.

They'll start issuing marriage licenses in some locations at 12:01, and mass weddings go off at 3 am!! Sweet dreams for everyone tonight. I can hardly believe it!

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Twelve Characters Part Two

2015-01-04T00:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

This is Part Two of Three. I still haven't managed to fill the final prompt in this mad spree, nor have I given up on it, so there will be a third installment with the last handful of prompts.

The Characters, again:
( How characteristic )

( More Questions )

The first set of prompts from my F-list:

( Idlewild’s prompt: poor studentship )

( Clocketpatch’s prompt: Cucumber sandwiches )

( Campy’s prompt: the Doctor gets stewed )

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Twelve Angry Characters Walk Into a Bar

2014-12-28T14:49:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Actually, they aren't all angry, although several of them are definitely mad.

This meme has grown to ginormous length, so even though I still have one prompt I'm hoping to fill, I'm going to post a first set of answers now.

When I picked my characters, I deliberately limited the list to just a few fandoms -- mostly in hopes that most of my F-list will be reasonably familiar with them! I filled in with characters taken from mythology, which I suppose you could call one of my most important fandoms.

The results got really weird. So it must have worked.
( The characters were: )

The first set of questions and answers:

( many questions )

~ to be concluded ~

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Quiet Christmas and Twelfth Meme

2014-12-26T22:07:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

I've been really quiet lately, I know . . . not even commenting on posts, let alone posting, and not always online at all, except during fic_rush. I miss you all! A lot! There is no great trauma or lurking trouble behind the quiet and absence; mostly, it's been a couple of dizzyingly busy months, with not a lot of energy. We've had a very quiet and low-key Christmas as well.

Having entirely failed to write anything of substance in ages, I finally succumbed to the Twelve Characters meme, with handy generator, that lost_spook and john_amend_all whomped up between them. However, before I post the cracky bits that I've already produced, I wanted to give the meme a chance to pick up even more random input from others.

So -- I have twelve characters. If you have any prompts up your sleeve, feel free to present them in the comments! If you've never seen this meme before, check out this journal entry for some samples. Prompts need to use one or more of the mystery characters, by number. (For example: "Six and Twelve have to cook dinner for Eight and Three. What cuisine do they attempt? Are they any good at it? Why are they all having dinner together, and what happens when Two shows up uninvited?")

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Random Positivity

2014-11-01T12:00:00Z

Posted by: lolmac

Because why not?

1 - We did get a handful of trick-or-treaters last night, and the ones we got were great. Mostly quite young, all very cute, all in costumes that showed enough effort to make one smile and think "yay, kids and parents having a fun time" instead of "geez, why bother". After the first batch had come and gone, Missy looked at me with big happy eyes and said "I am dying of the cute!!" I agreed.

( More squeefulness )

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