the thing and the thing

Many happy returns and piles of gay pants to tzikeh, who has given us all so much joy with... well, gay pants, and Ritzes and toads, and icons and cons, and all manner of good stuff. I hope you have a wonderful birthday. Don't forget -- our fandom is middle-aged!

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Elsewhere, minim_calibre has an interesting post about communication in the age of LJ with an unusual spin.

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Would anyone be interested in betaing a Laura Roslin-centric character study vid? I'm not quite finished noodling with it, but I'd like to get more than my usual one opinion, as I'm feeling very concerned about this. I'm not asking for someone who'd just want to see it first -- I want someone to answer a couple of important questions for me, so there's thinky involved. I'm happy with much of it, and I'm not interested in a full on clip by clip dissection at this point, but if there are parts that don't work, I'd like to know why the beta thinks so. (Why do I not have a Roslin or Adama icon? I need to fix this, stat.)

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And lastly, does anyone have, or know of someone who has, decent Witchblade source of the entire series? I have the movie on tape, and I taped all of first season for feochadn, but my access to second season disappeared a while ago, and I don't even know how much of first season Jo has around. I have this vid just burning a hole in my brain now for months and months, and I really want to make this, but am sourceless for much of what I need to do. I will of course pay postage, do whatever, if you have access.

So close, and yet so far

A couple weeks ago, the guy who was doing the finishing work on the inside of the garage asked me about painting, and Dad and I had agreed earlier I would paint the inside and out myself to save money, so we said we'd do it ourselves. But behind Dad's back I asked him if it was too late to change my mind, and a day later he and his boss came back and painted the inside and outside for me. It cost me a lot more money, but between the class ending and all the projects coming due, VVC responsibilities, them having to wait to finish until I painted, and me painting the inside of my house already in a months-long project (one wall at a time), there was just no way for me to do it. I feel half dead already.

But of course he needed a paint color for the outside, and I know I want to change my house, but I had no idea to what, and so I just handed him a can of the trim color I use on the doors and Adirondack chairs on the porch, and said, "This." As they noted "It certainly stands out."

They came today and tore up the patch of concrete where water was leaking in. Kind of a bummer because it means still more delays, but oh well. Construction never did run smooth as a general rule. It took a full day for them to tear it out, it's so carefully reinforced and so thick. The poor kids were really cursing the original concrete guys.

( Just five pics this time )