It's been brought to my attention that as I haven't updated my website, Ancasta's Corner, since November of 2008, I might want to make it easier for people to find my work.

Good point. 

So without further ado, here is where some of my newer work can be found (both on LJ and in downloadable format). 

( All An's Stuff )

We're closed until Monday.  We just got word a few minutes ago.

Woo hoo!!!

( Talk about the weather )

It's the gift that keeps on giving!  I just got notice that we're closed again tomorrow.  Apparently, they've been able to clear the sidewalks on campus well enough.  But there's so much snow, they've no place to put what's been cleared from the parking lots, and street parking is nonexistent.  We're a city campus (not downtown--but we're not a big state school in the middle of a cornfield) that isn't near easy public transportation.  Everyone drives.

So no school/work tomorrow.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they're predicting a new storm will be moving in tomorrow afternoon and last through Wednesday.  This is what the Baltimore Sun is reporting:

The NWS has just updated their Winter Storm Watch. You won't like it:

"ACCUMULATIONS...POTENTIAL FOR 8 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW. THERE IS
 A GOOD LIKELIHOOD OF SNOW IN EXCESS OF 10 INCHES."

To give you an idea what it's like around here, this pic comes courtesy of the Baltimore Sun.  I drive this road on my way to work.




Madness.

Snow Day on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I have been checking the listings every 10 minutes since I got up this morning.

Yes, I am secretly six years old (when I'm not 13 years old and mooning over Sammy Winchester).

And yes, I am still trapped in my home.  Look at my neighbor and his backhoe, digging out our driveway (I live basically overlooking said driveway.  I'm the second house of three.)



Glee does not begin to describe how I feel right now.

Stop laughing at me.

Look!
( It's the Snowpacalypse! )

So, because the CW affiliate in B-More decided this evening that college basketball was more important than my beloved show, I watched the episode as it streamed on the web.  All in all, not a bad experience.  But I only got to see it once and have no way to reference certain things.  I usually like to watch an episode at least a couple of times before posting, just to let it sink in.  So please know I reserve the right to edit this entry after I watch the episode again (I'm worrying about the details some...).  I figure I'll probably download an AVI tomorrow.  The episode won't actually be broadcast in my market until Saturday.

( Read at your own risk (spoilers aplenty!) )

I'm a little late with my thoughts on this week's eps because I'm still struggling with some health issues.  It appears I'm still not freakin' out of the woods with the whole surgery recovery thing and am going back into the doctor on Monday.  Based on my symptoms, I'm guessing I have some kind of infection.  Regardless of what is going on, it's sucking my energy like a vacuum.  There is no way I should be falling asleep at 7:00 at night.  On Thursday, it was all I could do to get through Swap Meat without dozing off (even though I'd gotten plenty of sleep the night before)--and that's no commentary on the episode itself, because I actually liked it.  Which I realize puts me at odds with most of my flist.

( Thoughts about Swap Meat )

I heard this song on the radio back in early fall, while driving to work.  I fell in love with it immediately.  I hadn't heard Florence and the Machine before.  To me, their sound is reminiscent of Kate Bush, with her over-the-top emotion and theatricality.  That kind of thing blends nicely with my own sometimes over-the-top emotion and theatricality. *g*  There's a reason why Wuthering Heights is one of my most played tracks in iTunes.

At the time, I'd wished like anything the song's gender wasn't set, because with lyrics about sacrifice and death, how could I not think of the Brothers Winchester?  Then Abandon All Hope aired, and I realized this song might in fact be meant for Supernatural regardless.  After all, that episode made us say goodbye to two wonderful female characters.  I cried like a baby that night.  Truly, I was this close to sobbing (and will admit to a few tears while editing this vid).

Lack of footage made the whole thing tricky.  Ellen is in eight episodes (two of them are basically only shots of her on the telephone) and Jo is in six.  Yet somehow I was able to scrape together enough footage to make it work.  I think.  You'll ultimately be the judge.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rabbit Hearted Girl (Raise It Up) by Florence and the Machine, a salute to the Harvelles.  I had all kinds of eyes looking at this one.  Please give it up for the incomparable ash48, przed, and the ever-lovely callistosh65.

The download link is here.  The streaming version is below.  I hope you like it.

It's still Sunday in my part of the world.

I hope your day was WONDERFUL!!!

For a true artist herself, a lovely painting (made by software, not me!) celebrating a wonderful fandom we have in common.  Happy, happy birthday, lauramcewan .  I hope your day is filled with all things wonderful.

THE BOYS ARE BACK!  THE BOYS ARE BACK!

Yes, I'm on Twitter.  No, I didn't tweet the hashtag today (it wound up getting blocked anyway).  I tweet for work, representing my place of employment.  So I must be serious and respectable.

::An puts on her serious and respectable face::

::Then takes it off again because...THE BOYS ARE BACK!!!::

I'm really happy we're getting new episodes again.  :-D

So what did I think of this episode?

( Sam, Interrupted )

Hello flist!  I'm at home.

Again.

( Monday in the Life of An )

I blame hardboiledbaby for this.  She tagged me.  Here is what I must do:

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it."


Here goes nuthin'


( Seven Things )

I'm at home today, being as good as I can be.  I can't stay off my feet entirely.  I live alone.  There are mouths to feed--the kitties' and my own.  I have things around the house I need to do (An gives the litter box the ol' hairy eyeball).  But I've been trying to be good.  Supposedly I have friends stopping by after work to feed me.  That's not entirely necessary--I stopped off at the store on my way home yesterday.  But they were yelling at me over the phone yesterday (Truly!  My coworkers are scary when they're riled.), so I don't think I have any way of stopping them.

( Musings on J2, NC-17 fic, and Kindles )

I've never posted three times in one day, so apologies to my f-list.  But I wanted to pass along this link because I honestly think it's so freakin' clever.

If you read my earlier post, you might have noticed that sign-ups will be taking placing starting next week for spn_j2_bigbang. I realize not all my flist are SPN/J2 fans, but hang around a sec anyway because this is something that would be cool to do in any fandom (and, yeah, I realize other fandoms besides SPN/J2 have held similar challenges--but it's not even really the challenge this post is about as much as it is the promotion of the challenge).

The basic gist is that writers write fics of 20,000 words or more and then these stories are matched up with artists, who then do everything from videos to banners to illustrations to icons to photo manips to whatever.  Are they're posted as a joint post.  There is some seriously gorgeous art that goes with some seriously awesome fic.  I don't know how many of these stories I've read since getting into the fandom over the summer, and I've been blown away time and again.

Anyway, I definitely want to sign up this year and plan to do so.  But if I hadn't already felt this way, I'm pretty sure the vid below would have convinced me.  It's a trailer for the challenge.  How awesome is that?!  I'm so impressed by this idea.  It's clever and executed beautifully.  I urge you to take a peek at it because it would be wonderful to do something for similar challenges across fandoms. 

For any of you unfamiliar with SPN/J2, it might be helpful to note that a lot (though not all!) of the footage used for the vid comes from an episode called The Monster at the End of this Book.  It's wonderful, one of my favs (though admittedly it didn't make my Top Ten eps, it would probably fall in the Top Fifteen).  It's a meta episode revolving around the idea that Sam and Dean discover there is a author out there who has written a series of books based on their lives (Seriously based.  The writer, Chuck, has been getting their lives downloaded into his brain from above--he's a prophet!--and has basically been recording what he saw.  One of the running gags is that he has no talent as a writer.  He's like a divinely appointed stenographer.).  The books didn't sell all that well, but enough people read them that an online fandom has sprung up around them, one that includes fic, even Wincest.  It's very fun, as is this vid.  Enjoy!


If you feel like telling the vidder how wonderfully creative she is, here is her original post.

I wish someone could explain to me why LJ hates me. This is the seventh time I've tried to post. During each of the previous attempts, LJ ate half my entry.

This does not bode well for 2010.

And that is the point of this post. To welcome the new year in. So hello, 2010! Could you perhaps have a word with Live Journal? Thanks. I'll just be over here...

In the meantime, just wanted to say I'm exhausted from yesterday's writing jag. 9000+ words in one day. Boys and girls, do not attempt this at home (not without first consuming massive amounts of caffeine). Because I had such time constraints, I'd didn't get to do much of the polishing I would normally do with a new fic. So, today I tweaked. Which means I had to then repost/upload a new file. My italics are still not right in the LJ posts. But right about now, I don't care. I'll get to it eventually.

Just not tonight.

However, I'm not too tired to wish two wonderful LJ pals a very happy birthday. peg22 and siskiou, stand up and take a bow.  All those parades and football games today?  They were really in your honor(s).  :-)  I hope you each enjoyed your day.

Oh, dear God.  It's finally done.

As most of my flist knows, I've been toiling away lo these many weeks, struggling to finish my spn_j2_xmas Exchange fic.  It was due no later than 11:59PM this evening.  So, when did I post?

11:59PM

Hey--use what time you've got, I always say.

I tried to post it chapter by chapter on here, but made a mess of it.  So I deleted all those posts and am starting again.  Please excuse my mess.  I've never posted anything on LJ quite this long before.

( So What's This Story About Anyway? )

Another year, another Christmas.  This one was a good one.

Santa was quite generous.  I got gloves, a cinnamon candle, gift cards to Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and a $100 from American Express (whee!).  I also got the kitchen utensil set I'd asked for, the DVD of Hairspray (The newer version, which I adore--I'm a Bawlmer girl now.  It's such a campy homage to the town), a sparkly bottle of wine, and some other odds and ends I'm not remembering at the moment.

Dinner was lovely, as was dessert.  I believe we'll be having ice cream sometime today as my nieces got an ice cream maker from their uncle, my brother.  Really, it was all good.

With the exception of my writing.  I blame Star Trek.  My brother-in-law wanted us all to watch a movie in their nifty new media room.  We ran through a bunch of options before deciding on Star Trek, which I've seen twice but absolutely love.  So, I sat there till 10:00, riveted to Kirk and crew's adventures.  That's kind of late to start writing.  I didn't even finish 1,000 words.

So, I'm at 34,000 and counting.  But it's only 10:30am.  I'm tucked away in the office with the laptop and coffee.  Please muses, be generous.  I need this finished by tomorrow.

::sigh::

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as well.  It's the most wonderful time of the year, you know.

And today...it's snowing in beautiful suburban Chicago--big, wet, fluffy flakes.  :-)

I know everyone will be terribly busy tomorrow (or today--depending on where you are in the world).  But I wanted to pop my head in and wish my flist the Merriest of Christmases.  May your tree be lovely and surrounded not only by pretty packages, but by the people you love.  Thank you for making my online life such a joy.  I count myself very lucky to know you all.

Yikes.  So, despite my best efforts, I'm once again playing a fannish game of Beat the Clock.  My SPN Xmas Exchange Fic is due no later than December 28th.  At this point, I've written more than 23,000 words.  I may have 10,000 more to go. In what universe does that make sense? I always do this to myself.  I like to participate in challenges and then I struggle to come through (witness Sweet Charity--::An waves at greengerbil::). The good news this time is that I'm at least writing.  I've been pounding out 1,000-3,000 words a day, and lately, fueled by excessive amounts of Red Bull and coffee, I've been consistently on the upper end of that range.  I will get it done. Only at the rate I'm going, I have a feeling I may be writing at my sister's.  I leave for Chicago on Wednesday.  I hate being anti-social at Christmas.

But in the midst of editing the fic's first NC-17 scene, I ran across a fun diversion this morning. I don't know if this vid will make much sense if you're not a fan of Supernatural to begin with.  deirdre_c, who has fast become my favorite vidder for Supernatural crack and humor, calls her vidlet, "Romance or crack, possibly meta." I think that covers it all. If you're curious, the link (to the streaming version and downloadable files) is here.

And now...back to work

Sorry! But I just saw this, and had to share.

I've just begun watching Glee. I'm not in love with it yet. But I'm entertained. This, though? This is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. You go, Puck!

So, I'm bombarding poor callistosh65 every night before I turn in. One of the advantages of not working is I have more time to write, and I've been doing exactly that. I'm participating in this year's Supernatural Xmas Exchange. I try to do something like this every season and for the past several years have done stories for various Pros and Starsky & Hutch exchanges. This is my first year and only second story in SPN.

( An talks fics, wishes and her attempt to live like a real girl )

I thought, being a writer nonpareil yourself, you might appreciate the lack of shredding wordplay. :-)

Happy Birthday and enjoy your trip, babe! We'll hold down the fort here until you return.

Hello. I've been away from the net the last few days with real life stuff and working on my SPN fic. I'm trying to get caught up today. So, first off, let me say a great big thank you to gilda_elise, mara_snh, jojosimco, minki_moira, and gblvr for the generous virtual presents. You guys are terrific!

I hadn't realized the apparent kerfluffle over the free-yet-not-supposed-to-be-free snowflake cookies until callistosh65 clued me in. I'd initially sent off a bunch of cookies to people (who wouldn't?--they were free!), but still had several deserving folk on my list. Unfortunately, with Live Journal now having gotten wise and charging, I can't afford non-free virtual gifts. So I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to play Santa any longer. Please know this in no way is an indication of my fondness. It's strictly a matter of finance.

What I can do, however. I wish people Happy Birthday. With that in mind, let's give it up for windrain10 , whose special day is today. Happy birthday, hon! :-)

laceymcbain, writer extraordinaire; ash48, the incomparable vidder; sweet and sassy sarituss; renaissance woman przed; the every wily Anonymous, and the one and only callistosh65, who bought me yummy hot chocolate.

Thank you for my lovely holiday pressies. They make my profile ever so pretty. :-)

In all my time on LJ, I've never received a virtual gift.

Before tonight--when I received THREE.

I'm very nearly gleeful.

Thank you so much varkelton, geminigrl11, and rejeneration. All lovely beyond all measure and oh-so generous. You've totally made my night.

And cheered me up after watching Brett Favre throw two interceptions in one game, when he'd only throw three all season long.

But I digress. :-)

Mwwaaaaaah! <--big kiss

Hi, all!

I'm not posting all that much because I'm doing virtually nothing. And really (the writing staff on Seinfeld excluded)...it's hard to write about nothing.

( An's Saturday )

I hadn't realized oasis3017 had tagged me on this. So pardon the delay.

Four places I go regularly (if nothing else this meme will prove how boring my life is...):
Work
Starbucks (It's Pumpkin Spice Latte season *g*)
Online (Ha!)
Ridiculously expensive little market near my home (Where I buy things I really shouldn't eat)

Four favorite smells:
Vanilla
Berries (Favorite candle scent)
Coffee
Bread baking in the oven

Four people I think hope will play along :
I'm late to this game, so if anyone wants to, by all means, join in.

(Current) TV shows I watch:
Supernatural
Ghost Hunters (Huge guilty pleasure--if I ever find out Grant and Jason are phonies, they will break my heart.)
Castle
The Big Bang Theory (Jim Parsons is the funniest man on television, but these days I can't watch the show without thinking of Your Brains Are No Match for My Tractorbeam, which has become one of my favorite fics ever in any fandom. Every single time I read it, I laugh out loud.)

My sis pulled out about 45 minutes ago on the Super Shuttle, heading home to Chicago. We had a great time while she was here, and I'll really miss her now that she's gone.

( An Talks about Thanksgiving & Vids )

I hope you're enjoying the day with someone you love! :-)

So, I have a followup to my earlier post. :-)

My sis, K, went out late afternoon to pick up dinner (crabcakes and marinated asparagus from Whole Foods--yum!). She was gone for quite awhile, but I'd figured she was maybe doing a bit of shopping for herself while she was out.

Finally, she comes marching up the stairs, throws open the front door and says, "All right. You are getting that fucking catheter out because I have driven all over greater Baltimore looking for the right sized syringe, so pull up your nightgown and have a little fucking faith in the veterinarian."

The catheter is out.

All is well.

I can't wait to tell the oncologist.

:-)

So, I woke up this morning to a call from my oncologist's office. I was supposed to go in tomorrow at 10:30 to have my staples and catheter removed. They've rescheduled me to Monday at 11:00.

I'm just this side of positive the change has nothing to do with anything medical and everything to do with the Thanksgiving holiday. When I'd originally made the appointment (per my doc's orders), the office manager had said, "Are you sure? I don't know that the nurse is even planning to be in the office on Wednesday."

Apparently, she's not.

I'm very bummed by this because I'm really over toting my bladder around outside my body. It's awkward and limits my mobility when I sleep. Plus, I'd planned to take my sis out to dinner tomorrow night to thank her for her help, and we'd been invited to my neighbor's for Thanksgiving. Neither of those excursions are exactly appropriate if the catheter is still in place.

Stolen from the phenomenally talented longsufferingly, here is a fun and different meme.

1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of fifteen words or less for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. Do NOT read the prompts before you do step 1.

My characters are:

1. Sam Winchester (Supernatural)
2. Dean Winchester (Supernatural)
3. Ray Doyle (Pros)
4. William Bodie (Pros)
5. Ken Hutchinson (Starsky & Hutch)
6. David Starsky (Starsky & Hutch)
7. Blair Sandburg (The Sentinel)
8. Jim Ellison (The Sentinel)
9. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)
10. Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

Under the cut are the prompts and my responses (don't peek till you make your list!)

( Prompts & An's Responses )

Hi, everybody. I wanted to be a little more timely this week with my episode ramblings. Of course, that's easy to do when you love an episode as much as I loved Abandon All Hope. Seriously, this is just behind The End as my fav episode of the season. I thought it was exciting and heartfelt, and it had so many gorgeous character moments that I scarcely know what to do with my bad self. I was so happy with it. I don't know how I'll ever be able to wait two months for my next fresh Supernatural fix.

Because I was vidding, I got behind and didn't post my Changing Channels thoughts. As last week's episode was by and large a comedy, as was The Real Ghostbusters, I thought I'd pare down my observations and combine the two episodes into one review.

It sounded like a good idea in theory; we'll see how it goes in practice. As my content is a little different this week, I'm going to mix up the format as well. Hopefully, I won't ramble on too long.

( Two Reviews in One )

This is for my darling callistosh65. She'd visited me over the summer, and had brought with her a list of songs she would love to see made into vids for Supernatural. I'd told her we would pick one, I'd make her a vid, and it would be her Christmas present from me. I needed to get this finished a little early, as shortly I'll probably be at less than my best--thus, Christmas the second week of November. (Ho, ho, ho!)  One owed vid down.  One more to go.

Of all the songs under consideration (and this woman came not only with sound files at the ready, but with lyrics printed out!), this was her first choice. I hope I've done it justice. Merry Christmas, honey! I had a blast working on your vid (even if I did call you evil and complain almost incessantly all through the process--bitching is how I show my love!)

It can be downloaded here. (Please right click to save.) The file has been encoded with xVid, so you'll either need the codec or the VLC player to view it. It's also available embedded below.  Please give a round of applause to two eagle-eyed individuals, my oh-so-talented betas, przed and lauramcewan, both glorious vidders themselves.  Thank you, ladies.  You were all kinds of help.

I think this says it all.




Hope your day has been special so far!

Happy Saturday, all!

Here are things I've neglected to do:

- Wish sarituss a very Happy Birthday! (Sorry, hon. I haven't been as good about checking my journal as I could be. I hope it was wonderful.)
- Changing out my Halloween themed LJ. (Now, done and done!  Only a week after the fact.)
- Doing my episode meta for Supernatural. (I've watched the episode once and liked it [though had some reservations]. I hope to get to it this weekend.)
- Doing any writing on my Supernatural Christmas exchange story (due some time in December).
- Commenting as much as I'd like in other people's LJs.
- Do any of my S&H Crack Van recs (thanks for reminding me, Laura!)
- Any kind of housecleaning or prep for my convalescence (I keep telling myself I'll wait till next week to pull out all the heavy duty cleaning equipment).

On the plus side, all three doctors visits are now done (though I still have to go to a lab and give blood AGAIN). I think this statement (made by me to my OBGYN, who I adore) sums up the oncologist visit:

"Most painful pelvic exam ever! I can tell he's a doctor who normally works on patients who are unconscious."

Seriously. (<--a little hospital humor in honor of the Dr. Sexy, MD segment of this week's Supernatural)

The main reason I'm so far behind is that I'm madly vidding. I only have till next weekend. And I'd really, really like to wrap this baby up this weekend. It's callistosh65's Christmas present, and one of two vids I currently owe.  I've got about 80 seconds left, which doesn't sound like much.  Unless you're a vidder, in which case you know it's sorta substantial.

Still, I think I might be able to knock it out if I stop writing here and get to work.

Everyone, please enjoy your weekend!