shizune_senpai

Hello all!

Thank you so much for the feedback on the little idea I had about creating a sister sight to the amazingly glorious brigits_flame !!

I have since acquired a community, and while unpretty (because I a not savvy enough to make it pretty...yet) it is up and ready for you.

flame_fanning   (the original LJ name was taken, oh well)

Due to concerns over what constituted web publication it has been set as a private community and I do need to approve members. As people volunteer to mod, then they will be able to approve people too! YAY!!! (waving arms wildly like Kermit)

So stop by, introduce yourselves, sign up to volunteer and/or check out what our first reviews will be.

To quote a great man, Shel Silverstein,

"...For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!"


*edit*  For whatever reason, I'm not receiving the emails for requests to join.  Either leave a post here that you're interested or  "watch" the community and I'll send an invite.

*grumbles about stupid LJ not working properly*

Good morning! I imagine many of you are back to work today, although hopefully for a short week. And I also imiagine many of you are on holiday from school/university, so I hope you are relaxing and enjoying your time off!

**The January sign-ups are UP! Please note that you'll sign up by clicking on the poll, although of course you are free to chat in comments like always :-) The Sign-up Poll will close at 12 noon EST pn Monday, January 4, 2010.

** This week's Writer's Showcase has all the featured writers to date, along with some really fantastic banners! Take a trip down memory lane!

**There is a fresh edition of the editors' Post/Poll for this week, the catch-up week! Please check it out, both for where you are with your edits as well as people who can perhaps pick up some edits while they have downtime this week! Pip explains it all over here!

**Got a hankering to post some ideas for the Literary Library? Mosey on over here!

*******************************************************

As the New Year approaches, so many of us use this time to both review the year we are leaving and make plans for the year that's approaching. We ponder what went well and what went wrong in the preceding months. Using that information as well as analyzing where we are in terms of our goals and dreams, we make resolutions for the year ahead. Can we be healthier? Make more money? Fall in love? We decide on our resolutions, sometimes writing them down, sometimes just leaving them as thoughts to ourselves. Some of us eschew resolutions at all, wishing to avoid any sense of failure or not wishing to put more pressure on ourselves that we already feel. It's a highly personal choice.

I have gone both ways on this. I have listed resolutions. I have picked ONE resolution. I have decided to NOT make resolutions.

And you know what? The year comes just the same, and passes as it will.

I don't take things like that so heavily anymore. If I do, I do, and if I don't, I don't. If I do, I neither kill myself over them nor beat myself up for "failing". I take them less as "resolutions" and more as "guidelines". For instance this year I know I must address my weight, from a health viewpoint if nothing else. I know I have to take up the reins of my household finances, creating a new budget and addressing issues I have left laying fallow too long. Both of these are issues that have been sidelined as I spent time this year dealing with health issues, including mental health. With those issues settled for a couple of months now, these then are actions I would be taking now regardless of the time of year. It's coincidental that it is New Year's, and so they will be "resolutions" in the timing sense only.

Do you make resolutions at New Year's? If you are making them this year, what are they?

Title: A Marriage Inconvenienced
Rating: T for innuendo
Chapter 14: Defamation
Word Count: 5,000ish
Summary: The math was simple: Him plus Her equaled genius. It's really a pity he forgot to mention it.

In this chapter: Rumors are put to rest and come to life.

On Fanfic.net  Normally I have an LJ link too, but it's not letting me do a cut. 


I hope some of you are working on that New Year's prompt.  I want some stories!  :)

Welcome to the First Contest of the new decade!

2009 was a fun year, with lots of great Mini Contests, new and exciting ways for members to get involved in the community, and of course excellent topics to inspire and challenge our contestants and just for fun writers each week!

Thanks to every single one of you for being a part of the Flame, and for helping to make it such a fun and supportive community!

I have a feeling that 2010 will be another wonderful year, with all of you, plus new members, to keep the Flame burning brightly! :-)

To get the new year under way, I bring you the January Signups Poll!

To make keeping track of everyone who signs up easier, please fill out the below poll by 12pm EST Monday January 04.

Just for Fun writers do not need to sign up- you can write on the weekly topics whenever you like, and submit them in the just for fun section of the topic poll.

Feel free to also leave a comment to this post to let us know you will be participating, and to chat amongst yourselves!

I'm looking forward to reading entries from new and returning participants! Se you all next week!

---

Poll #1504210 January Contest Signups!
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 75

Will you be competing in the January Contest?

Hey, all! Thanks for being cool about a late post, even though there are so few entries to be edited.

darthneko and lacombe: I left your edits for you to finish as requested. Please check them off in their original weeks when you're done. [week one for darthneko; week two for lacombe]

The following editors still have unfinished edits for week three:
awkward_ostrich, azuire, fawatson, jamais_toujours, jewelsverne, odannygirl7, openedlocket, prncsspetulance, and toxic_apiaceae

Editors, please try to finish these by next Sunday, January 3rd. If you're not on the list, please take a moment to drop by the volunteer edits! faerie_spark, let me know by PM when you finish your assignments or if you need extra help with them. Thanks so much for helping out, everyone!

( Edits Ahoy! )

Hi all! Just a reminder that the editing post for the Catch-Up Week will be going out sometime tomorrow, and a notice that it might be late tomorrow night or even Monday before I can get to it - I spent half of my day in the emergency room with my mother (don't worry! just a broken clavicle!), so I'm unexpectedly behind. Thanks for your patience!

Attention to every Flame member who has ever edited: Please check this list! If I have you listed as "on hiatus" I would like to know what's going on. Are you retired from editing? Taking a vacation? Taking an accidental vacation and ready to edit again? I won't be sad or anything if you don't want to edit right now, I'd just like to know for my records. Thank you!

( Editors ahoy! )

Good afternoon! Welcome to this week's edition of The Week in Review, brought to you by Elves Inc.! I hope today finds you relaxed and content, basking in post-holiday after-glow for the Christmas celebrators and simply weekend glow for the non-Christmasizers.

Don't worry, you haven't missed it! The sign-ups for January have not been posted yet. desert_rose will be posting the January Sign-Ups tomorrow night (Sunday 12/27), so watch for the announcement. The announcement for the Week 1 January topic will be up soon as well :-)

The editing post is roaming around with some mistletoe, looking for love!

Hubba hubba to awkward_ostrich for taking the December contest by storm!

Got a hankering to post some ideas for the Literary Library? Mosey on over here!

*********************************************


Chatter Round-up:

This week's Chatter Posts featured the following topics and queries:

Monday: desert_rose:
What are your favorite places to hang out with your friends?

Tuesday:
firesign10:
What lesson have you had to learn the hard way about doing something potentially dangerous?

Wednesday:
desert_rose:
What are dynamics like within your family? How easily are differences set aside at family gatherings?

Thursday:
lalalaleigha:
How strong is your nostalgia when finding yourself in familiar places? If you could, would you want to wipe away the past, or are all memories important to you regardless of whether they make you uncomfortable?

Friday:
lalalaleigha:
Post a comment with a bit of fiction (or poetry!) combining any two (or more) genres you like.

I wish you a fine and enjoyable rest of the weekend! See you over at the January Sign-ups!

Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate; merry December 25th to all others. :)

Editing post! Go to it!

Send some cheer to awkward_ostrich for taking the December contest by storm.

Got a hankering to post some ideas for the Literary Library? Why, don't mind if you do!

+

I got my sci-fi genes from my dad. I use them well.

For Christmas, I got him a DVD with a small collection of the allegedly best episodes of Star Trek TOS. I grew up watching this show. The tribbles will live on in my childhood memories forever. We're watching one of the very early episodes now and it's reminding me of a Doctor Who episode I watched yesterday. This thought led me to laugh for a long time and flash back to all the lovely things I watched with my parents in childhood--The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits--and then I understood why I love sci-fi so much. It's pretty much been indoctrinated into me since birth. And hell, if you're going to indoctrinate your kid, indoctrinating them with the principles of sci-fi seems to be one of the best possible options.

Lately I've been tumbling headlong into the fantasy scene, much to my own chagrin. In my teens I avoided anything labeled 'fantasy' like the plague and ignored any and all claims that Buffy the Vampire Slayer qualifies as fantasy. I don't know why. There seemed to be this stigma against fantasy that it's like a dumber version of sci-fi. I totally revoke that claim. There are a lot of similarities between fantasy and sci-fi and I've grown to appreciate them both on their own terms.

I've been toying with the idea of putting magicians in the future and giving a futuristic reason for it. It's led to a lot of really ridiculous ideas and a lot of laughing at myself in public. It seems like I'm applying the principles of the bad 60s sci-fi I grew up with to my sci-fi-fantasy hybrid.

It's Friday, so I thought I'd run a bit of a holiday weekend meme here on the Flame. Post a comment with a bit of fiction (or poetry!) combining any two (or more) genres you like. Make it as sincere or ridiculous as you like (but of course ridiculousness is highly encouraged). People may add to it or simply tell you what utter genius it is. I'll start it off in a few minutes (unless family drags me away). Here is an incomprehensive but still helpful list of genres to help you off. Already-existing hybrids such as steampunk are of course encouraged, but perhaps you could combine it with another genre to make the fic just a bit stranger.

Of course, it is the holidays, but given that there's at least a week until the next contest, I thought we could all do with a bit of a reason to keep our creative juices flowing! :)

Title: The Candy Cane Confession

Chapter 2
Words: 3,997
Genre(s): Romance/General
Rating: Rated: M
Summary: A two part Kakasaku Christmas Fic. It was Ino's idea for Sakura to
dress up like the porn star Kakashi's been ogling-- who just happens to look a
lot like Sakura. Rated M for lemon in part two.

Link

Good evening, ladies and gents!

Major congrats to awkward_ostrich for taking December by storm and swooping forth to finish first in the polls!

You swell folks oughta check out the editing post in a pretty soon sorta way.

Got ideas for the Literary Library? Post 'em here! We've got some great suggestions so far, but we can always use more!

+

I've been socializing like crazy over the past 72 hours, and I am freaking tired. I used way too many abbreviations in the above list of reminders.

I find it odd how being in certain situations makes me revert to certain habits. I went to a party Monday night and was totally comfortable (after a drink or two), despite that the house was half-full of people I'd never met before. I went to a dinner party last night and was slightly uncomfortable, despite that the people in the room were all people I've known for a bare minimum of four years.

The difference? The Monday party was in Vancouver, where I've lived for the past two and a half years. The Wednesday party was in my hometown. I'm a lot happier in Vancouver than I was when I lived in my hometown, and as a result my level of comfort at being in these places is quite different.

I've put it down to this and this alone. There's no other explanation for why I spent half the night inside my own head last night. I had very fond affection for everyone I saw last night, except that because the environment was one where I traditionally was unhappy, I began to revert to this unhappy state.

Reason #426 why I'll probably never move back to my hometown.

I read about this phenomenon in a bit of a silly book that was published where I work. Apparently there really are atmospheric factors which influence how one reacts to a situation. Because I'd been in similar situations before in that house with those people enough times, and because I was generally less than content on most of those occasions, those memories snuck back and beat me upside the head when I wasn't looking.

Not to say I didn't have fun. It was great fun to see all those folks again, close friends and old acquaintences. It's just odd how previous circumstances can sometimes influence how one reacts to a current situation.

On the other hand, there are occasions where looking back on past circumstances can make one feel extremely comfortable in a situation. Nostalgia's a funny thing.

How strong is your nostalgia when finding yourself in familiar places? If you could, would you want to wipe away the past, or are all memories important to you regardless of whether they make you uncomfortable?

Title: The Candy Cane Confession

Rating: Rated: M
Summary: A two part Kakasaku Christmas Fic. It was Ino's idea for Sakura to
dress up like the porn star Kakashi's been ogling-- who just happens to look a
lot like Sakura. Rated M for lemon in part two.

link 

Wow, sorry about making y'all wait there! It's just been busy-holiday-stuff going on at Chez Firesign10. My heartfelt apologies for being tardy!

So, let's get to it!! We have a winner for December 2009, and that winner is

awkward_ostrich!!!!


Congratulations to the lovely Ostrich, who takes December and makes it her second victory!!!!

*throws confetti and pops a champagne bottle!

Bonjour, mes amis!

Congratulations to our December Contest Winner awkward_ostrich!! Nice work, Dani!
&
Congratulations to pelethetart for receiving the highest number of votes with her Just For Fun entries!

To our awesome editing team, the Week Three Editing Post is here! If you're playing catch up like me, please get your edits done before December 30!

The January Literary Library Ideas Post is ready for you! If you have ideas for an article, or would like to leave feedback on December's articles, please leave a comment to this post!

I'll be posting signups for the January Contest on Sunday night, so stay tuned for that, and a new month of Flame Fun!

It's officially the start of the holidays for me- I took today off work as I'll be flying out of state tonight to spend Christmas with my Mom. We haven't spent the holidays together for at least ten years, so I felt that this year I needed to change that.

Last week I asked Mom what we would be doing on Christmas Day, and she said she wasn't sure. She told me that my sister's family would be spending Christmas with the in-laws, and that even though she didn't want to go to their home, she would go so it meant I could see my sister and the rest of the family. My mother is a strict vegetarian, and doesn't drink, so feels very uncomfortable in situations where meat and alcohol are being consumed. She also lets it be known that she disapproves of people who eat meat and drink alcohol, so relationships with family members have become strained, and gatherings at Christmas time and the like have become less frequent. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm feeling a bit nervous about how this will all go, as she has made a bit of a scene at family gatherings before when food is served that contains something she can't eat.

For this reason, I don't think I'm going to have the chance to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins, as their values differ greatly from my Mother's, which has resulted in a lot of tension and less frequent contact.

Unfortunately, even between my Mom and I, there are tensions, as our values are very different, and she is very critical of the way I live my life. Each time I visit, she makes a lot of negative comments about my hair, my choice of clothes, my diet, and the fact that I don't want to meditate. So, with my visit with her only hours away, I'm feeling more tensed up about spending three days with her than I should be. It's the holidays, and we hardly ever get to spend any time together, so I want more than anything for our visit to be an enjoyable one! She forewarned me that there are things she wants to talk to me about, which I'm trying to stay positive about, as I don't want any tensions to arise between us.

To end this on a happier note, I want to wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and safe travels for anyone travelling over the next few days!

What are dynamics like within your family? How easily are differences set aside at family gatherings?

I'm early, but I won't be in town to submit it later. You can find it either on my LJ account: here

-or-

on ff.net

Happy Holidays everyone!!

"Porridge today, Gromit! TEWWSSSday!"*

Good morning, Flameisters! How does this day find you? Here in New England, it is pretty damn cold. Break out the woolies!!

Let's check out what is happening in the Flame today:

* The Week 3 Poll is up and running! Get your votes in before noon tomorrow!

* There is no Week 4 poll this month - Week 3 is for the whole cheese log! Stay tuned for the sign-up post for January 2010!

* pipisafoat has done a masterful job with the Editing Post!

*Please note: if you have been on an editing hiatus due to school/finals, and you find you have some time this week now, please check with Pip! We have several outstanding edits to clear up by the end of the year, and you have the time to take even one, please let pipisafoat know by PM or sign up on the editing post to be included in next week's Reassignment Post. Don't forget to include how many you can take and anything you particularly do or don't want! Thanks for your help, from Pip and all the BF Mods!

*The January Literary Library Ideas Post is up! If you have ideas for an article, or feedback on the four December submissions, please leave a comment to this post!

* This week, rephen is our featured writer in the Writer's Showcase!

***********************************

This past week I was struggling, as I so often do, to catch up on various tasks around the house. One of my least favorite is ironing. I tend to put it off, which then leaves me with quite a substantial pile. My preferred method is to either find something on tv (marathons of a favorite show are good here) or put in a DVD and watch as I iron, (being that ironing is about the most boring thing to do on the planet). Children's programming is not ruled out here, if it is something I like such as iCarly.

My 6 3/4 year old son Mr Bear was home at the time, so children's programming it was. Fine fine, he's playing and watching tv, I am ironing and watching tv. Every few shirts I stop to either get more shirts, get other laundry to fold, etc. Mr Bear has been around the iron for a few years now, and knows to give the iron, the ironing board, & the freshly pressed shirts a wide berth.

So I go in the other room to do something, and all of a sudden I hear a wail and zoom! here comes Mr Bear! His cheeks are all covered in tears, and more are rolling out from between his squinched up eyelids. "mooooommmmmmmmyyyyy!" I'm quickly scanning him, try to ascertain the problem. "What?? What is it??" I ask, running my hands over his head and limbs to make sure he is intact. "It hurrrrrrrrrts!" he cries and I realize that one hand is clutching the other, with the index finger sticking straight out. "What, sweetie? What hurts?"

"My finguuuuuuuuuur!" he snuffles. "My finger hurts."

"What happened to your finger? Did you pinch it? Do you have a splinter?"

"No................I touched the iron!"

*facepalm"

I took him to the sink, ran cool water over it for a bit, and then wrapped a cold cloth around it. It was a slight burn - no blistering, nothing more than pink and some pain for a bit. After the cold cloth I gave him a band-aid, mostly as band-aids have miraculous haeling powers to little kids.

Of course I felt bad for him. My sympathy, however, was tempered with the thought that well, he wasn't going to fool around again with that iron. He'd been told many, many about leaving the iron alone. I'd explained to him about the heat and the boo-boos and so on, and he had heeded that...until now. Somehow he HAD to just find out for himself how hot it really was, and one inquisitive finger tip had tested it. He'd now had a quick lesson on minding what he'd been told about something that could hurt him, and I'll bet it will be a cold day in a hot spot before he ever does that again.

What lesson have you had to learn the hard way about doing something potentially dangerous?


*From Wallace & Gromit