Unbelivable!!

Let's see.
Logging off my Yahoo mail, news, an old photo of Rowling signing sth, the death of a young actor from the movies who had a page in... Wikipedia, and I was lost. A Potter-related link to Wikipedia, for someone like me, forever wandering off track, is a dangerous thing.
Then, let's continue. Somehow the Potter prequel, and the Black family tree, and of course, Draco Malfoy. And I was *astonished*:

Wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys' lyrics are inspired by the Harry Potter books but from Draco Malfoy's point of view. One chorus goes: 'My dad's always there to open all my doors, you have to call a Patronus just to catch a glimpse of yours/My dad is rich, and your dad is dead.' As well as Harry and the Potters, the members of Draco and the Malfoys dress themselves as Hogwarts students, in this case in Slytherin-themed costumes. The band is one of about 200 bands of young musicians playing music inspired by the Harry Potter series.

200!!! I didn' even know that existed! I kept reading, wandering from page to page (did you know that "Because students in the novels board the train to Hogwarts at Platform 9¾ at King's Cross railway station in London, the real King's Cross has erected a sign at a wall between tracks 9 and 10 to commemorate this."?). And a Washington Post quote from last year in (at? note to self: review my prepositions *now*) Harry and the Potters' page:

...wizard rock is an escape into a different world - a world of non-judgmental fun where grown-ups dress as wizards, evil is vanquished by song, and reading is cool...

And then I stopped, cause It's already really late to still be at work.

Note: useless to post all the pages I've seen today, and probably not really doable. Don't know, won't check.

Going with the fllow of one's instincts

From HD Starter Kit Rec List I'm finding links to some old faves of mine, like Harry Potter and the Inconvenient Condition, by Mirabella, and this:

"And frankly, when it came down to battle between his intellect and his gut instincts, Harry had absolutely no illusions about which side was bunkered down in a rickety farmhouse praying for a swift and merciful end."

Fanfiction

As with everything I like, I'm a hoarder when it comes to fanfiction too. And, even though at first I hated long fics (a fear to print too much that I've already lost) I love them now. So, ways to download and keep fics, and not have to save each chapter separately: two programs and a site that I've already tried.

De-FFNet-Izer: "slurps down fanfics, cleans them up a bit, and saves them on your local computer using attractive, user-customizable templates" - chapter per file, mainly for Fanfiction.net.
Fanfiction Downloader: created by someone with my problem and more knowledge - chapter per file or all together, several formats, for several sites.
FicSavers.com: I registered today, as kyou with the new pass, because I like the idea of being able to save sth I just found from any computer - chapter per file, several sites and format options.

Now I need sth to rip fics from Livejournals or other blogs. *sigh*

Fanfiction fest pimping (first time)

Hehe, I'm not that much into AS/S, I'm more partial to H/D myself, but this idea is so perfectly round (I think that's a transference mistake there!), that I *had* to post this. I might even think of a prompt.

WINTER SHORTS 2008!!!

art by dysonrules and aki_hoshi. banner by aki_hoshi. inspired by davidkawena

Invictus

In her latest fic Lomonaaeren quoted this poem, and it's so good I *had* to post it. For the interesting background story, I stole this from Wikipedia.

Invictus
William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

Spectacular. Electrifying. My kind of thing, in other words.

Fitting description

Reading on the "Slap-Slap-Kiss" trope here, found this quote from "The Horse and his Boy" (which I haven't read, but think is one of the Narnia books):

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.