Title: Pas de Deux: Variation Un (part 3/5)
Author: sagedarkwoods
Rating: R
Pairing: Jayne/River
Disclaimer: Firefly and related characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. This is a piece of fiction not intended for profit, only for entertainment.
Notes: Set a bit after Serenity.
Summary: Written for gilove2dance for 2008's serenity_santa . River dances alone, until she persuades Jayne to join her. Based on the five parts of the traditional pas de deux in ballet, but that’s as far as traditional goes for these two.


( Variation Un )

There are times when I am genuinely happy to be doing what I do. In this case, I mean the teaching. Yeah, report cards suck major ass (which is why I'm taking a break from the boxes of pain). However, when I can switch from "What does this word mean?" to discussing which of the characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl has the best Up B attack... these are the moments that make it worth it.

I doubt many other teachers can say that, though. How many teachers do you recall having who knew what the hell you were talking about half the time, let alone could hold a conversation about the very same topic? I find it great that the same kid could ask me about the finer points of irregular -er verb conjugation, then can inquire about game mechanics on a character sheet.

Because of what I teach (French - oh the languages), I can be some kid's most reviled teacher. And my no-nonsense, refuse to coddle children approach plays into that. But because of who I am and what I do and like, I have been called "the awesomest teacher ever." That's a pick-me-up that I really desperately needed this week.

Back to report cards, and my vodka, because it's just more fun that way.

On November 28th in Toronto, burlesque is about to get nerdier. Nerd Girl Pinups is hosting Nerd Girl Burlesque, in conjunction with the comedy troupe Nerdgasm, at the Comedy Bar. Details are still being planned right now, but it should be a night of epic cleavage -- I mean proportions -- I mean, just come. I MEAN...

I may also be performing. I'm still trading emails back and forth to find out what's expected and whatnot, but if I am, there may be a slight Transylvanian bent to my performance. There may be a Transylvanian Concubine onstage.

Here's a rare moment when I talk about my job, and the positive effects it can have!

Quaker Road has seized an excellent opportunity to improve the school through technology.  Mrs. Breadner, Mr. Lafleur, and Mrs. Rice have written and submitted a proposal to the Aviva Community Fund, a program that is running a contest to deliveer funds to community improvement projects in a variety of categories. Here is our proposal:
 

Did you know? Students in today's classrooms are more technologically savvy than ever before. Their exposure to and skills with technology surpasses even their teachers. Reaching and engaging these 21st century learners is a challenge faced by every teacher in every grade.

At Quaker Road School, we have a dynamic staff who are willing to embrace new technology and new ways of teaching and learning in their classrooms. We would like to see a SMART Board in every classroom to help with the delivery, planning, sharing and modifying of lessons to promote learning in many ways. Failure to provide students with these technological experiences is a failure to educate the whole child and prepare them for the world in which we live.

We need your support to ensure our students will grow in the ability to reach a global audience by safely using technology, thinking critically about what they read on the computer and adapting to the ever-changing technological landscape.

Thank you for your support!

GO QUAKER COMETS!

We need every single person to help us out, by voting at the website. You must register first before voting. If you do not wish to receive any additional mailings from Aviva, please uncheck the boxes at the bottom of your registration. Everyone can vote once a day. The voting time is short - only ten days left! Help make Quaker Road a better place to learn!

My love for YA literature continues. And with books like this out there, why not?

Ever since a trojan infected my system and destroyed the hard drive of Grimoire, I've been without a laptop of my own. It's been over a month. Today I am pleased to say that I now have one! It's a Toshiba, 3GB RAM, 250GB hard drive (I might have that flipped - don't care, too excited to go check). It was $50 cheaper than the Acer I was looking at. Yay for sales.

However.

It needs a name. I'm not getting a particular gender vibe from this one. Talking with mr_mercutio, I may have it narrowed down to two. I leave it to the wonderful lj community to help me decide. I'm doing that thing where I freak out and panic and flail my arms, so I thought I'd best leave it to saner people. Yes, you heard me. I have all my files and pictures, even my Puzzlequest game saved. The only thing I lost was my music, which is easy to get again, though time-consuming. II can't go on with setting it up until I name the silly thing. That's where you lot come in.

Apparently I fail at making polls. It keeps giving me error messages. So, here:

1. Dax
2. Lenore
3. other (in comments please)

My friends and I decided a while back, over several drinks, that it would be cool to reimagine the X-Men as steampunk. Over a year and many many days of work later, the X-Gentlemen premiered at Fan Expo 2009 in Toronto this past weekend.



We entered in the Master division, and won Best in Show!



This guy wrote up the masquerade, which is cool.

EDIT: I crossposted at the steamfashion lj community, and the most common response to this was "epic and win." So, as it's a community dedicated to this sort of thing, it makes me feel really really awesome.

Also, my booth, Red Moon Creations, did pretty well in the Artist's Alley. We do primarily gothic lolita stuff, but we cross-genre and do steampunk lolita crowns and steamy jewelry. We made back over and above our costs, and I'm using the extra money to fix my car. Yay! Next year, we're hoping to get a premium booth, with double the space and on the end, so more traffic.

The Nerd Girl Pinups party at the Charlotte Room rocked so much. We all went with the unfortunate lack of our Storm and Beast, but still had a blast. I finally remembered the name of that Stormtrooper that I meet each time at the cons in Toronto. I also flirted with some guy and he bought me a polar bear shot and an appletini. We hung out with the really good "Repo! the Genetic Opera" cosplay group, who are wonderfully fun and intelligent people. I flirted shamelessly with the Graverobber, who looked just perfect for the role. Then there were Zydrate drinks: blue curacao, vodka, and Sprite. This prompted the change in lyics: "Zydrate comes in a little glass tumbler," and more singing. I got rather drunk, though didn't realize how much until I took off the steel-boned corset, and then right to bed.

All in all, I'd venture to say it was the most successful and fun con I've been to.

This morning I had an adventure in spontaneous plot. I woke up at 5:30, panting, panicked, in a cold sweat, and needing my laptop. I had dreamed about plot points, including dialogue, for Blood Bonds, of all things. It was the bits I had been missing between the parts I'd already written, you know, the bits where the plot happened. This story has been on hiatus a very very long time. I suppose it's back.

Essentially, I dreamed about Gunn, Wesley, and Spike getting in a tiff over who takes Cassie to dinner, Gunn and Wesley realize something weird is going on, and Spike is oblivious. Then there's a bit way later with Marcus Hamilton, which means I write thinking about Adam Baldwin in a sharp suit, and another bit where an LA radio station has picked up a syndicated show from Toronto. This means I get to write thinking about Nigel Bennett's voice.

So I got up, turned on the laptop, and wrote down the first bit, because I could not go back to sleep with this still in my brain. I tried, for half an hour, and failed. Surprise writing. Go figure.

There are a number of things that piss me off this week. Not having any money. Having the bank call me and say that there's a problem with my account and there may be some possible fraudulent activity, so watch where I use my bank card. Having one of my cards be completely overlimit entirely, by enough that it sucks. Being refused a loan. Being owed quite a bit of money by a few people now. Having the teacher's qualifications council phone line be busy ALL DAY, to the point that I wonder if they just took it off the hook. Not being able to salvage my Trinity Blood costume to a point where it's anything remotely resembling good. These things bite.

What bites just a little bit harder is the need for new brakes on Beatrix. They're spongy, and they've squeaked for a long time, but it's the sponginess of them in weather that has been constantly raining for almost a week that has me going a bit too far into intersections and scaring the crap out of me.

This is the last factor which causes me to have to stay back from Worldcon this year. Montreal would've been fun, but hotel for four nights and transportation, not to mention the $215 prepaid ticket, plus food for five days at three meals each, and the other things associated with a convention (dealer's room spontaneous shopping syndrome), has me wondering where exactly I'm going to find about $600, when I'm overdrawn, overlimit, and needing at least $300 for brakes.

So. No Worldcon. If you know someone looking for a ticket, have them message me. I'm willing to let it go for less than I paid for it.

I can tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue.

It all started with Twin Peaks. When I started rewatching the series in the early 2000s, there's a scene in which Audrey Horne infiltrates a Canadian brothel to help solve Laura Palmer's murder. In order to prove that she had what it took to work there, she took a cherry from the bowl on the madame's desk, and neatly tied a knot in the cherry stem with her tongue. It was at that moment I started to practice.

My best time is 7 seconds.

For those of you in Toronto and the southern Ontario region, tomorrow (well, today really) is the last chance to see Returning to Lillith at the Fringe Festival. We're at the George Ignatieff Theatre on 15 Devonshire Place in Toronto. The St. George subway stop is the closest. Hope to see you at the show!

Shamelessly stolen from wal_lace. I love this so much. And I thought Angel was sort of creepy, with the watching her sleep thing.

They are due Tuesday. The program is slow and sometimes unresponsive. I have nothing to say except this:

I'm one of those people who enjoys getting up at stupid-o'clock on a Saturday morning to drive around the city looking for those elusive neon bristol board signs, written on in black Sharpie and stapled to a surface that looks stable. Sometimes they get fancy and have the store-bought ones, or if they put it in the classifieds they have one provided by the newspaper. As only about 25% of garage sales are ever listed in the paper, it makes it a scavenger hunt, a jungle trek through the wilds of suburbia to find the rare and interesting pieces on my list.

Sometimes I do have a list of specific requirements; mostly the list consists of "Find old jewelry I can rip apart and reuse." Other times I let my imagination wander. I never let it get too far, as garage sales can lead to pitfalls of "I've always wanted that mounted singing fish!" or "Sure I'll spend $10 on that broken thing! I can fix it!" Two points: no one ever needs a singing fish, and no, you'll never fix that piece of crap, it's simply broken.

The best things ever are the church bazaars. I seek those things out, and it helps that they're usually advertised. They are usually run and supplied by old people who have a lot of old things they want to give away at very reasonable prices. These things are generally seen as junk, outdated, past their prime, useless. For cosplayers, steampunky people, and those with an eye for assembling outfits of awesome, these are goldmines. Check out these finds I got at the church yard sale yesterday:




Chic, eh? Wool hat, perfect condition. Old ink bottle. A tiny rectangular bottle labeled "Hinds Honey and Almond Cream". On the side: "Improves the Complexion" and "Alcohol 7%". Fifty cents for the whole lot. Also, church bazaars usually have bake sales. I have cookies. :)

Jack/Daniel

1 part Jack Daniels
1 part vanilla vodka
4 parts Coke

Mix over ice. Watch the hurt/comfort slash ensue.

Okay. These things are usually meant as a lot of generalized answers. The problem lies in the fact that I'll watch anything with a spaceship in it. So, that said, it comes down to why I like each one. I could give a top 5, in no particular order

Aliens - Ripley. Power Loader. "Get away from her you bitch!" Yeah.

Serenity - The Big Damn Movie. I love Firefly. This is more of it.

Battlestar Galactica - Love this frakkin' show. It's intelligent and dramatic, and except for the fact that it happens in space, it's on par with those other dramas touted as the best. I think it surpasses them in scope and sequence.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - This is one of my first loves. Even watching some of the sub-par episodes is still very enjoyable. Probably because I adore Patrick Stewart. And the crush on Wesley Crusher may have something to do with it.

Stargate - I'm going with original movie, SG1 and Atlantis. Lately I lean toward Atlantis, since I STILL haven't finished watching it, and I do enjoy the characters very much. I worry for SGU; go see swirlygate for why.

Honourary mention goes to Galaxy Quest, which successfully satired the stereotypes and tropes throughout Star Trek in particular, and generally through other sci-fi shows, while at the same time using them. And it was still a great movie.

Your results:
You are Uhura

Uhura 85% Deanna Troi 80% Jean-Luc Picard 70% Will Riker 70% James T. Kirk (Captain) 65% Chekov 60% Geordi LaForge 60% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Spock 52% Mr. Sulu 50% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% Mr. Scott 45% Beverly Crusher 40% Data 35% Worf 35%

You are a good communicator with a pleasant soft-spoken voice. Also a talented singer.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz


I just now realized I have no Trek icons whatsoever. I have no idea how this happened. Must fix.