Hi everybody, it's been a while. Happy 4th of July!

Click the pic and find out.
x-posted

I feel like lately I've gotten bogged down fic-wise with the batfic_contest entries every other week, and then with the Live Free of Die Hard fandom. And most of you aren't interested in either. (which doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing in either, but it'd be nice to once in a while post something more than one or two of my friends like)

So.

But, I feel like I'm stagnating a bit. It's not that I've lost interest in anything else, I do have a few partially-completed fics and I'm still reading what little there is being posted of my usual pairings. And I wrote a fic for wfslash's 2nd Annual contest, but I can't yet say which entry is mine until the results of the voting are posted.

That being said, if there's anything people want me to write, any prompts or anything, let me know. Any fandom or pairing you've seen me write before. There's stuff I do want to write, but I'm just not motivated.

A couple of you have recently posted similar requests. Is anyone else sensing a stagnating fandom? Some of you have expressed concerns about the lack of feedback on stories, and also about people not updating stories or posting new fic.

Maybe there should be a fandom-wide prompt request to jumpstart *everyone*.

So, go ahead and request, I can't promise I can fulfill everything, but I'd like to try.

Think we might hit Part 11?

I have a feeling we will.

( Two Lexes? How the hell did that happen? )

( there was one man that beat you )

dialogue courtesy of www.twiz.com
Caps by me.

Title: Sincere Forms of Flattery
Author: angel_gidget
Rating: PG
Word Count: 420
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em.
Summary: Gen. Damien has a... limited--yes--limited sense of humor. His best (only) friend, Chris Kent, seems to know this.

Christopher Robin. It's a joke. In more ways than one. Damien just doesn't find it funny.

Title: Sincere Forms of Flattery
Author: angel_gidget
Rating: PG
Word Count: 420
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em.
Summary: Gen. Damien has a... limited--yes--limited sense of humor. His best (only) friend, Chris Kent, seems to know this.

Christopher Robin. It's a joke. In more ways than one. Damien just doesn't find it funny.

For people waiting on updates from me . . . I'm not dead.

I'm just moving.

Everything I own is going to be traveling from New York to Pennsylvania next Monday. Once I get settled after that, I will have a chance to start writing again. I hope.

 All right, now is the time to start posting your fics for the Genderswap Challenge ... 

You have from now until next Friday to post/link here ... 

Please don't forget to tag your entries with 'genderswap' and 'challenge' to make it easier for me to find ... 

*sigh* This now means I have about two weeks to do the banners ... I knew I forgot something!

So, yeah, Obama's embraced "faith based initiatives." It freaked me out when I heard this. But if you actually read the speech, there's a lot less to be worried about. Even Bush's program wasn't as bad as one would think, because it forbade proselytization and distributed money to any group that had an appropriate program. It actually pissed off the religious right, because Hare Krishnas received money, and they couldn't make homeless people pray for their food. The problem was that Bush did try to convert people to Republicanism with his shitty program.

But Obama got his start in community organizing through religious groups:

"You know, faith based groups like East Side Community Ministry carry a particular meaning for me. Because in a way, they're what led me into public service. It was a Catholic group called The Campaign for Human Development that helped fund the work I did many years ago in Chicago to help lift up neighborhoods that were devastated by the closure of a local steel plant."

Note that they funded his work, though he was not a Catholic, and in fact was not yet even a Christian.

Just like his campaign has been a grass roots movement with goals outlined from the top, but the actual motion done in a decentralized manner, Obama wants to tap into the grass roots movement of religious organizations, the very groups that are doing 90% of the poverty care in this country:

"You see, while these groups are often made up of folks who've come together around a common faith, they're usually working to help people of all faiths or of no faith at all. And they're particularly well-placed to offer help. As I've said many times, I believe that change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up, and few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques."

Again, note the careful mention of not only all faiths, but no faith.

We're all worried that the money would end up the hands of the Jerry Falwell's of the world, and I think we'd feel a lot less threatened when we think about that money going to the lesbian Unitarian pastor down the street, the one we know would give her jacket to a Satanist ranting about raping Jesus if she saw that he was cold. Well, that's who Obama wants the money to go to, complete with Constitutional safeguards:

"Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea - so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work."

So, if you're a Baptist community service group and you hire the inexperienced Baptist over the Muslim who has a decade's worth of work history in the field, you can't get a grant, and if you have one, you lose it. Make people sit through a prayer to get paperwork filled out, no grant. And this ain't hard. Christian Childrens Fund, despite the name, has fed and educated tens of thousands of children around the world, and does no proselytization. They explicitly talk about their respect for local cultures. The religious aspect is that they believe that they are called by G-d to help the least among us, materially, and not spiritually. They aren't Gideons who think that handing out Bibles is all you need to do, because if you save the soul, who cares about the body? Again, fundamentalist Christians despise them for this very reason.

Obama's concerned about helping the poor get a leg up so that the cycle of poverty can be broken:

"This Council will also help target our efforts to meet key challenges like education. All across America, too many children simply can't read or perform math at their grade-level, a problem that grows worse for low-income students during the summer months and afterschool hours. Nonprofits like Children's Defense Fund are working to solve this problem. They hold summer and afterschool Freedom Schools in communities across this country, and many of their classes are held in churches."

And finally, he wants results. He knows that there are programs out there that work, and he wants funding for them, and not for the ones that don't work:

"There's a lot of evidence that these kinds of partnerships work. Take Youth Education for Tomorrow, an innovative program that's being run by churches, faith-based schools, and others in Philadelphia. To help narrow the summer learning gap, the YET program hires qualified teachers who help students with reading using proven learning techniques. They hold classes four days a week after school and during the summer. And they monitor progress closely. The results have been outstanding. Children who attended a YET center for at least six months improved nearly 2 years in reading ability. And the average high school student gained a full grade in reading level after just three months."

If you read the speech in its entirety, it's not frightening in the least. It's just so pragmatic, saying, "I don't care what the origin of the progress is, so long as there's progress, and it's open to all." What's wrong with that? It's harnessing millions of Americans to improve our communities on the ground. Rather than saying, "Come fix us," it says, "Give us the tools to fix ourselves." In that, it's classic Obama. Thus, I'm really not freaked out.

But I understand people who are. We've had eight years of every government program and initiative being solely and exclusively an electoral tool. We've had eight years of hiring decisions made on cronyism and political affiliation, to the exclusion of competence. We've had eight years of Republicans saying government doesn't work, and then doing their damnedest to prove it. We've had eight years of abuses and fear, and we're now entirely comfortable being paranoid.

Well, no fucking more. We're electing a Democrat, goddammit, and he's going to obey the law, obey the courts, obey the fucking Hatch Act, and just like JFK inspired a generation to service, he's going to expand the Peace Corp and Americorp, and he's going to tap into our nation's natural generosity, can do spirit, and he's going to make this nation great again however he can. No more living in fear, people. Time to have some hope. Time to trust (but verify) your government again. Time for leaders. After his second term, we'll be amazed that we ever had to be so cynical.

Screencaps from Calling

( Don't you miss the boys from the early days? )

Screencaps from Calling

( Don't you miss the boys from the early days? )

Oops, almost forgot to post this. Wrote it for sga_flashfic's First Aid challenge; or rather, used the challenge as an excuse to finish a short story started a bit ago. It's a bit of an experiment for me, in omniscient 3rd person POV instead of my usual 3rd person close (not necessarily a successful experiment, but I liked parts well enough to post.)

SGA: The Only Thing {~7,500 words}
PG, team gen, minor spoilers through "Doppelganger"
The only thing we have to fear, and how his team gets Sheppard through it afterwards.

I've just got on the train and I just need to get this out of my system

( RAAAAAAAAAH! )

Well, other than terminal illness. :P

hi, i'm new here, and just wanted to introduce myself to everyone!! I'm BB or Bes, doesn't matter which you call me. i'll be posting up some ficcys occasionally (okay probably a bit more then that) and art (hmm are we allowed to share our batart?) anyhoo, i come with an offering of dirty smut. enjoy!

Title: Playmates
Fandom: Batman (comics)
Rating: NC-17 SLASH
Pairings: Dick/Jason/Damian, Bruce/Jason, Dick/Damian, Bruce/Dick, kind of Bruce/Damian
Warnings: uh, none really, at the end Bruce and Damian seem a little "close", oh and Damian's a little young, he's around 16
Summary: “It’s alright. You know, Bruce has been expecting it for a long time. He doesn’t mind at all if you want to…whatever. You can ask us anything, Damian.”

 

hopefully i didn't mess up first post *n00b*

To my fellow Americans:

Happy Independence Day!!

I love this country and I love all of you!
*Mwah!*

Sorry this didn't go faster. I should be studying for exams, and we had an awfully hot week, which always turns my brain to mush. (This isn't a WIP - it's just that editing/rewriting takes me this long.)

Title: Living Things
Rating: adult (overall)
Pairing: Doctor/Master
Wordcount: 8685 (this chapter)
Note: Scream of the Shalka is an animated serial by the BBC with an alternate Ninth Doctor and an alternate Master. You can watch it here or here.
This fic is set before the serial, and you needn't have seen it: as long as you know who the Doctor, the Master, the TARDIS and the Time Lords are, you're good.
Massive thanks to x_los, who valiantly fought all the evil pronouns in this story.

Summary: The Doctor, the Master and happily ever after. Not an easy fit.

( But I've told you before. I won't be anybody's toy. If this is what you want from me, it's the last thing you'll get. )

Part Eight

( Every man has a weakness )

( My God, Clark! You’re bleeding! )

( I am the villain of the story. )