I desperately miss writing things that do not have anything to do with fluorine chemistry, which is coinciding nicely with rediscovering my love for Hikaru no Go, though I was too late to sign up for blind_go. Pictures of the anime series draw up the kind of really good nostalgia reserved for those sweet golden days when school was easy and you had great weather and all the time in the world, but pictures of the manga draw up the kind of drug addicted jonesing for my volumes that are, well, halfway across the world. The Touya/Shindou love can still give me the warm fuzzies, however, and more tellingly, Ogata/Touya and Ogata/Shindou still gives me the violent urge to break things.

Fic Rec: Harry Potter fandom - From the Brink of Twilight, H/D, NC-17 by furiosity for serpentinelion's Secrets and Wishes fantasy fest 2007. furiosity is a good writer, and more importantly, she's prolific; I've followed several of her series diligently and she rarely disappoints. This, however, has to be my favorite fic by her so far; there's something about the melancholia of it, the dark and dusty sense of lives left forgotten on the shelf for years and the quicksilver flashes of life that begin to quicken it. The pacing is excellent, the pining is heartbreaking and it's a fantastic read, one of the few HP fics I've felt compelled to rec in recent months.

Fic Rec: Star Wars:TPM/Georgette Heyer fusion - Episode One: The Quiet Padawan, by flambeau. (Summary: A spirited young student and a world-weary Jedi master are equally determined that they have no interest in each other.) I haven't followed Torch's fics for a while, besides her Coldfire Trilogy fics, because I have little to no interest in popslash, but I was overjoyed to find this one. I have never read a Georgette Heyer book, but you don't need to have to read this fic; if you've read enough Austen, you'll recognize the genius of this delicately nuanced comedy of manners. All the characters are precisely themselves and caricatures of themselves at the same time, and the overall effect is delightful and delightfully farcical. It was great fun to read.

Half-a-fic Rec: Harry Potter fandom - Counting the Steps, H/D, R, 1/2 (INCOMPLETE) by 1ightning, also for the Secrets and Wishes fantasy fest 2007. If you really like Pride and Prejudice and are a masochist, you should read this. 1ightning is a great author and I've recced her fics a couple of times before, I believe. This H/D done Pride and Prejudice-style is a great read so far, but it's killing me that it's unfinished. Caveat lector, and all that.

Three YouTube links:

The Free Hugs Campaign, the winner of YouTube's Most Inspirational video award, and which had me fighting back tears.

Kiwi!, the winner of the Most Adorable award, which boggles my mind, because I found the end of this video horrifyingly depressing (I'm too cynical to believe there was a mattress underneath at the end). Also known as the video Some People Just Do Not Get.

Otters Holding Hands, winner of my personal Most Awwww-Inducing Video, please to watch through to the end because it's worth it.

PS. Re: Latest Chapter of Bleach - WHAAAT. Argh, Kubo Tite! Just... argh! Rukia! Someone do something.