So okay, this has been super slow in editing. But in my defense, I did quit my job, move all the way across the country and set up shop in one of the most beautiful places on earth. And yeah, I expected to have more quiet time for recording/editing since I no longer have massive street noise from every single location in my house, but instead I had half of everyone I know come visit (see: most beautiful places on earth). So it has been an awesome but completely unproductive summer and fall, but this is finally finished. And it really would not have been if it were not for ailis_fictive, who just checked in to see when I would be posting this and got shanghaied into beta-listening and has been so super helpful and thorough and awesome, I can't even describe it.

Title: Everything That You Can Keep (Part 4)
Author: dira
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Pairings: Aral/Cordelia, Aral/Jole
Rating: Explicit
Length: 2h 55
Size: 160Mb
Temporary Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?upn7iapo42a5xq4
Summary: The impossible takes a little more time, a lot of negotiation.

( Rambly Reader's Note: )

And as always, the title music is John Darnielle covering Two-Headed Boy and getting all the words adorably wrong.

Sections recorded: 7 of 13
Sections edited: 5.5 of 13 (I'm not good at this part, also - part 6 was long and I made a lot of mistakes recording it)
Words read: 11495 / 30344
Total edited time: 47:17 (technically the same as last time since I haven't finished editing part 6)

More podfic! Two whole podfics!

Parts 1 and 2 of Dira Sudis' awesome series The World That You Need.

I hope to do the whole series, we'll see how that goes, but I definitely have a few of the later parts done recording and just in need of polishing, so I think I'm off to a good start. Giant thanks to crinklysolution for beta listening to these even though she wasn't familiar with the source material (wasn't - note the past tense - mwhahahaha!), and of course to Dira for letting me record these.

Title: As You Tap on Your Glass (Part 1)
Author: dira
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Pairing: Aral/Cordelia - Aral/Jole discussed
Length: 0:05:51
Size: 5.36 Mb
Temporary Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/rg32km
Archive Link: As You Tap on Your Glass
Summary: In which a Countess renowned for her shopping discovers a gift she would like to give her husband and wonders how it may be arranged.

Title: Fingers in the Notches on Your Spine (Part 2)
Author: dira
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Pairing: Aral/Cordelia - Aral/Jole discussed
Length: 0:11:43
Size: 10.74 Mb
Temporary Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/jyhipm
Archive Link: Fingers in the Notches on Your Spine
Summary: It had been years since they'd had a proper culture-clash fight.

Even if you haven't read the Vorkosigan books (and, really, what are you waiting for? Seriously, they're that good.) I think this might be worth a listen. Dira's fantastic characters and relationships have a way of getting you invested, even if the characters in question are complete strangers to you.

( Further notes )

( Title Music )

But I return bearing podfic! Which is long overdue! As usual!

Title: A Year (More or Less) in the Life
Author: pir8fancier
Reader: izzady
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Ray Vecchio/Ray Kowalski
Summary: Post-everything.
Length: 2hrs 9mins
Size: 118 MB (mp3)

Archive Links : mp3 | m4b


( Rambly rambly thougths on this fic )

So, I was gonna do this in September, because apparently there was some sort of people posting pictures of stuff they sew thing. And now it's November. But whatever. Also apologies for the poor photo quality, my only camera at the time these were taken was my phone.

I have a bit of a passion for reusing clothes as fabric.

I've had my own sewing machine for a couple of years now (a present from both my grandmothers - a lovely new portable Singer, very plain but very light), but my style has mostly stuck to things made out of T-shirts. Excess T-shirts with cool things on them but that are all (at least) XL are a hazard of the student politics lifestyle and besides, t-shirting is comfortable, stretchy, forgiving and doesn't really fray.

( Modded T-Shirts )

When I'm at home one of my grandmas (who is a retired professional seamstress who still does a fair amount of commission work) lets me use her equipment and space, which is fantastic. She's a brilliant seamstress and she's taught me a lot.

( Stuff I have made with Grandma's help )

And these last two are things I made all on my own with zero t-shirts, in my total absence of workspace with my adorable little Singer. The skirt in particular is my pride and joy.

( On my own )


In conclusion, I take forever to sew things, am incapable of using patterns which means I end up scrapping a bunch of things when I realize part-way through that they won't work, but I've made some pretty cool stuff. And I have a pretty cool grandma.

Okay, so I only just realized this.
Because
a) I'm a little behind on the whole 'The Mountain Goats are totally awesome' thing and
b) since I had so much to catch up on, I only recently got around to getting the latest cd and
c) I wasn't really paying attention to the song titles, because I wanted to get to know the songs a little before I went and looked up the relevant bible verses.

But. But. John Darnielle made a cd where all the songs are named after bible verses. And the bonus, hidden track (Enoch 18:14)? Is apocryphal. Hahahahahaha!!!
(Which, aside from the biblical connotations, is hilarious because 'apocrypha' literally comes from the Greek for 'hidden'. Which, Darnielle being a ginormous classics geek totally knows.)

I think I may die of the cleverness. I don't even know.

Also, I really, really like the song. (It is also rather relevent to SPN fandom, if one is into that kind of thing, as is the second track, Psalms 40:2)

So, I've been rereading (well, listening actually, yay LibriVox!) the original Sherlock Holmes stories. Because, hey, what's a good remake fandom for if not for making you go check out the old stuff.

So, the first thing is that I'm actually enjoying them a lot more than I remember enjoying them as a child. I mostly remember being kinda creeped out, and not being super into mysteries. But yeah, loving them to bits. (Also, laughing my ass off. The message behind the first novel is 'It's all the fault of Mormonism'? what?)

And the second thing is that I seem to be writing a fic. It's very weird. This hasn't happened to me since, like, junior high. And even then I never finished anything. Not that I've finished this, nor am I particularly likely to. But still. I'm feeling compelled. There may be bunnies. What? Since when do I get bunnies? Mostly it's just concept bunnies as usual (plot? yeah right.) but yeah, every once in a while I'll be listening to something and just go 'okay, how the fuck does Mary put up with this?!' and then I have to go make them happily poly in my head to get over it. Seriously, if your husband was in the habit of running into his best friend late at night and just deciding not to come home so he can go off and play detective, would you not want to strangle him? Would it be okay so long as they weren't sleeping together? I don't think so. It is so much more fun if you imagine that they have some sort of understanding.

Anyway yeah. It's a weird experience.

In completely other news. I just finally got around to getting Corb Lund's new CD Loosin' Lately Gambler. Because after his Radio 3 Podcast, (Oh, my god!) I could no longer resist. And I am just as in love as I expected to be. Scoring drugs off your vet indeed.

Podfic review for the Podfic Critical Feedback Exchange

Name: twtd
Title: The Long Engagement by omg_wtf_yeah
Fandom: SGA
Length: 4h43min
Link: [mp3] or [m4b]

Quick review:
I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable podfic. The story itself is a neat circus troupe/lost city/steampunk AU and I found twtd's reading of it very entertaining. If you've had issues with the volume being too quiet on some podfics, this is a good one to try. I found it to be loud enough even in public places and the sound in general is clear with few distractions. The length of the podfic lets both the listener and the reader really get into the story -- while twtd's reading is clear and pleasant throughout, it definitely gets better further into the recording. Her treatment of descriptive passages was especially enjoyable. Basically, this is a fun long-podfic that I can see myself coming back to in the future to tide me through long bus trips or any other time when I just need a few hours of good podfic to distract me. Thanks twtd!

( Longer review )

Back from vacation. Newfoundland=most awesome place evar! Stayed in the most awesome house in all of St. John's. However, my partner and I famously bad at taking pictures and/or even remembering to bring a camera. Oh well.
A guy who picked us up hitching in Cape Breton was listening to the Headstones on his fancy digital music-thingy (I dunno, it looked complicated). Made me giggle, which was awkward to explain. Cape Breton is also freakin' gorgeous. I would love to go back when I'm not just going through. But being that close to Newfoundland would probably induce me to take unplanned day-long ferry trips because seriously, I want to move to Newfoundland some day. It is so awesome.
Doing a bunch of CSS stuff for work, which has been interesting. Maybe I will attempt to dabble with some Dreamwidth styles stuff, but it seems pretty complex.

Also. ( Moose. )

Random irony for the day:
In the pharmacy that I stopped in today, the muscle/joint pain rubs are located on the bottom two shelves of the shelving unit they're on. I just stared at them for 30 seconds, actually laughing, contemplating how much it was going to hurt to get down there to look at them. Seriously Shoppers, seriously?

Anyway, I managed to get my tiger balm and my blister-pads and am going to curl up in capoeira-induced agony. So much fun, so much pain, so much difficulty walking. Everyone who's been doing this for a while promises me the pain will get better, but I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks of hobbling around like a very very old lady. Whatever, totally worth it.