somniloquence

In a fit of...madness or desperation for something to write or whatever, I signed up for the intoabar challenge, where you pick a character and fandom, and they meet a character from another fandom you've volunteered to write, who's randomly assigned by the mods. I signed up with David Rose from Schitt's Creek, which has been my happy place viewing for a while now (I watched the David and Patrick episodes over and over after Endgame), although I had no idea that I had the Pop! channel and so just missed season 5 but stupid Netflix isn't getting S5 till freaking October, and the Pop app won't let me watch them either. This is a pestiferous vexation, as Moira might say.

But anyways, the hilarious thing is that the person from the crossover fandom I was most afraid of getting is exactly who I got, so David is going to meet up with Roque from The Losers. This will be an incredible challenge--not only is David's voice highly, highly idiosyncratic, but Roque isn't exactly loquacious and when he does talk, he's usually yelling at someone or threatening to kill them. I have a ~vague sort of idea, but haven't been able to piece enough together yet to start writing, but fortunately I do have a killer title, which for me is a huge part of the battle because I can't write without one.

I just finished a book that was a heavy edit, and it's always so stressful because I get the same amount of time to work on it as a light edit, but it ends up with me practically rewriting someone's story. I have to query so much stuff, and make suggestions about rewording or revising a section that the work becomes exhausting, I'm just drained. And no, they don't pay me better. But I could tell immediately that this writer comes from fandom: there were so many little telltale signs, stuff that's common in fanfic but not really in pro fiction. Sometimes it was funny, other times it was as exasperating as when you come across it in fanfic.

Do people who've become obsessed with Good Omens know that there's a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab category of perfumes for it? (I can hear all the "I hate perfume" stuff now, but I can tell you that a lot of commercial perfumes, the kinds people douse themselves in, are much worse than perfume oils like BPAL sells.) I always feel like people don't know that. Proceeds from them are split between the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Orangutan Foundation. My favorite of the scents was Famine, and I recall liking Mr. Young, War, Hastur, Agnes Nutter, and Sister Mary Loquacious. I think Pollution was good for me, too, although it looks like it's currently out of stock. Anyways, that's your public service announcement for the day.

All my friends who've sneered or mocked me for my recent BPAL obsession? Hah on you. The lab came up with the coolest update ever today -- scents inspired by Neil Gaiman's characters in American Gods and Anansi Boys. (Feochadn and Gattagrigia, take a look at Mad Sweeney, and I am so, so getting Mama-Ji and Mr. Nancy... and okay probably Ibis and... well,maybe all of them, if I ever have any more money, that is. Sigh.)

Along with all their other cool updates, not to mention (Fire Pig doesn't sound like it'll work for me, which is sad, as I am a pig! Yes, indeed, I was born in this, the year of the pig/boar. Which, you know, I suppose says quite a bit about me.)

The best part of the Gaiman editions? The proceeds go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Dude. Smell good for a good cause! I can't believe how many copyright and other hoops they had to jump through for this, and I think it's just the most wonderful thing: BPAL and Gaiman, a perfect match.

Of all the Japanglish words I love, Chrisumasu is my favorite. This Chrisumasu (aka Winter Shopping Festival) was weird, though. My dad's present won't arrive until possibly next week, so I am empty-handed for both the holiday and for his birthday, which is tomorrow. I felt like a lousy daughter again, especially since he loaded me down with a giant Amazon wishlist fulfillment box of things I'd put as high priorities -- both the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back discs (it pisses me off to no end that they finally release the original theatrical versions after they released the big box set I'd already bought), the box set of Reilly: Ace of Spies, one of the greatest British TV series ever made, a stack of blank dvds (except, like a moron, I put the wrong ones in there, so I'll have to exchange them), and a box of marrons glacees, glaceed chestnuts from France, that my dad pointed out cost approximately $5 per piece. Yes, they're super pricey, but they're only made for a short time each year and they come all the way from Paree! Anyway, they are the most heavenly thing you will ever eat, and well worth it, if you ask me.

I have many smelly things galore -- candles and such, and pretty glasses, etc., as well, but the best pressie might have been just having a visit from one of my dearest friends in the world, Keith, who has fallen for the east coast so I never get to see him much anymore. As usual, I got him hooked on TV shows he can't see (Dexter), and we still haven't seen the final Dexter ep so he left shaking his fist at me because it's a cliffhanger.

I still can't get either my DVD player to give me a picture for R2 discs, or the label maker to make labels, so I filed everything but now I won't be able to remember where stuff is, and I want to label it all now. Dad's going to see if we can take it back, but I'm not sure they will, since the packaging is gone.

I have no idea what vid to make for Escapade, though, now. I've been planning on this Pros vid since last year, and have wanted to do this song for like 12 years now, and I just bought the cleaned up and color corrected Professionals set a few weeks ago, but here I sit, unable to get clips. I am just so frustrated. For a brief second, I caught a tiny glimpse of picture, but even after resetting and resetting and resetting, it's still just stuck in limboland. I have other possiblities, but I did Keen Eddie three years ago, and the only other slashy option is for a movie, and I could possibly do Numb3rs, but Charlie and Don are not slashy to me, so I don't really want to hear "where's the slaaaaash" whining that has come to signify the Escapade audience to me. Truth is, I'm just heartsick because I can't make the vid I want, and I feel so technologically incompetent.

But I am enjoying my BPAL scents like mad. This has been the funnest part of the holiday season for me, trying new scents each day and -- does this make me weird? Especially since I live alone? -- night. The past couple nights I put on some really beautiful scents before bed and they made my usual struggle to sleep a lot more pleasant -- especially Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo. It totally did make me happy! I have been reading the forum reviews for each scent I try, though I am starting to feel very odd; my responses are rarely anything like what others are smelling. For instance, I don't smell bubblegum or cotton candy in the Joy Mojo, just fruity cherry goodness with coconut later on, and the responses to Satan and Death With Sin Intervening struck me as so odd, because I thought it smelled divine and the sharpness or harshness many complained of just wasn't there for me at all. It's odd, too, in that almost all the Salon fragrances sounded divine to me, but now that I've tried a handful, many aren't my pals at all -- so far Satan and Death is the only one that really truly loves me and I it. So, I am learning, and charting my progress, and really enjoying the hell out of this. My fave so far is Lady of Shalott, OMG. Heaven in a bottle; even if I didn't buy anything else, this is the one I could wear every day for life. Though fortunately I don't have to, since there's so much to choose from!

BPAL f-list: What are your fave BPAL scents, and why?

Bonus points for anyone who gets the subject line reference.

All the people who responded to my BPAL questions yesterday are so marvellous and generous! So many of you have offered to send me imps you don't want anymore and you know what? It really does feel like getting into a new fandom, the way people so often greet the n00bs with information and stuff. It's really cool. superplin suggested I might want to list the kinds of scents I like and don't like, and a couple other folks mentioned that I should list some of the ones I was thinking of getting, to see if they might have an unwanted imp around, and that all sounds like a great idea.

In no way do I expect people to give me freebies -- I will gladly pay for postage and the original costs of things, or if you're local, buy you a cup of coffee/tea and some pastries and hopfully in the future have some things to trade you for, as well. I don't want to circumvent or try to otherwise skive on the generally accepted norms of behavior!

( Some of the things that really caught my eye, and some of the scent-types I like/don't like )

Thinking about all this fragrance stuff made me consider other smells I love. I was actually making myself laugh last night because some of them seem so weird; others I thought I was kind of a freak about liking, till I brought it up in my writing group, and found other people thought the same thing!

Ten non-perfumey smells I love, and five I don't:
1. Kitty toes (they smell like Fritos!)
2. Snow
3. Loamy, rich dirt
4. Emma's fur -- she's such a clean-smelling kitty!
5. Root beer -- how great is it that bearded irises smell like root beer, so you can have a whole garden that smells that way?
6. New electronics right out of the box
7. Chrome (seriously -- someone told me recently about some time she spent with a real perfumier and they told her how they get the scent of actual chrome. I so need to find a fragrance that uses that)
8. Book stores
9. Leather
10. Just sawn or sanded wood

1. Cigarette and cigar smoke. Nothing is more heinous that being stuck behind a car getting a faceful of that for miles.
2. Burning rubber
3. The dead, lifeless dirt in the crawlspace under my house, especially when it's damp
4. Scented cat litter. Gah!
5. The laundry and cleaning aisles of grocery stores

What are yours?