The AsCast Jar

Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Yesterday, I spent two hours with the delightful rthstewart in the Mall of America.

When ruth and Tasty are in the same building, you are asking for craziness! However, we generally contained ourselves (we did get a few strange looks from nearby tables, but that added to the fun) and had a good time with the Peter, Saedra, and Edmund dolls that she brought for me!

We will try to do a mini-episode of AsCast to chat about our meet-up in early January when…if…I return from the Philippines. Until then, here are some pictures from our time!

Where we met: by the car track at Lego World.

Ruth frees Saedra from her prison.

Making Peter blonde.

Sae and Ed have a beach party. Sexy times in the dunes! (Or on the table in the food court at the MOA.)

Still waiting for Peter to finish getting his hair colored.

One big happy...family?

Ruth checks Twitter to see if anyone has responded to our status updates.

Hey, now! Don't fight, boys!

We offcially confirmed that Edmund does have that a tattoo on his butt, and it does start with an "S."

Ruth and Tasty with Peter, Saedra, and Edmund! One last pic before Ruth had to leave.

Thank you to ruth for the dolls to start my collection! Next up: finding a wine goblet for Saedra. And perhaps a dress too.

Way back in June of 2008, I started writing my very first Narnia fan fiction. I didn’t have any ties at all in the fandom and wasn’t yet working for NFFR. To try and promote my story, I headed over to www.williammoseleyfan.net to post the story on their forums.  I started posting my story, “Awake,” (which is now on hiatus) and people there started reading it…one quite notable name who we now all know as our very own Hev.  She soon began posting her own story there (which is still in progress), “The Gypsy’s Daughter.”  Since she was reading mine, I started reading hers and thought it was SO interesting, with such a distinct style and flair.  I was definitely intrigued by her…a gut feeling, I guess. At first, it was just casual conversation between us, another internet acquaintance, but one who seemed to be quite intelligent and interesting.

In August of 2008, I started working for NFFR as a screener and began to promote the site on the William Moseley Fan forums, making Hev aware of it.  It wasn’t until NFFR started its own forums, less than a year ago now, however, that Hev and I really began to talk a lot.  I got her to come over to NFFR and she began doing graphics for Tasty since she’s such a talented artist.  In February of 2009, I got the idea for AsCast and immediately knew that Hev needed to be on it with Tasty and I – she always offered interesting perspectives because of her background in psychology and just has a beautiful, creative way of seeing the world.  SO, anyway…all of the AsCast girls had our first Skype conversation in mid-March of 2009 and we hit it off. The rest, as they say, is history.

Since that first time, Hev and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time both talking and video chatting on Skype, both about Narnia and just about our everyday lives.  Hours upon hours upon hours…I don’t even know how many.  We knew each other pretty well, I would say, for two people who have never actually met in person.  A few months ago, I mentioned that I’d always wanted to go to Boston (where Hev lives) and she graciously said that if I ever came, I could stay with her.  Soooo, at the beginning of September, I looked up flights, found some cheap ones for my birthday/Halloween weekend…and off I went.

Because Hev and I already talked about all of the things we did in AsCast’s Episode 6.5 (which will be released in a week or so), I won’t go into detail here.  Suffice it to say that I can’t believe that NARNIA brought me such a good friend.  Ruth always calls fandom or internet friends “imaginary;” however, there’s nothing imaginary about Hev.  She’s genuinely a REALLY GREAT friend who I feel privileged and lucky to have met.  She’s honestly one of my favorite people in the entire world – definitely one of the people that I have the most respect for and admire most.

So, anyway – enough being sappy.  If you’d like to hear about all of the things that Hev and I did while I was in Boston, keep a lookout for that extra episode of AsCast which should tide you over until Episode 7 comes out in December. JThanks for reading and listening! Here are some pictures from the trip!

Irish in Salem with the "Bewitched" statue

Hev in Salem

Candlelit ghost tour in Salem

mooooooooooooooook!

Yep, those are wax mustaches.

*Sniff*

It’s a sad day in Irish land. I may have to say goodbye to my beloved car that I got when I was 16 years old. Me, being a dumbass, ran over something that was apparently quite massive in the parking lot of a gas station last week.  It damaged the undercarriage of my car in some way (apparently the whole steering column needs to be replaced?) and I don’t know if it’s worth spending the money on an older car with lots and lots of miles on it.

I get very attached to inanimate objects, however, and my car is no exception. It’s become a part of my personality over the years – everyone knows that I’m the girl that drives around a 1997 red and black Eagle Talon named “Taylor” with a license plate that reads HNSNFN8. (Yes – that does, indeed, mean “Hanson fan.”) I don’t know if I can stand to part with my friendly Taylor Talon. (Also named after a Hanson…)

Anyway, I just wanted to put my sob story out in internet land.

I need to go look at some pretty pictures of AlSkar to make myself feel better. Yum yum.

‘Til next time,

Irish

Back in the day, I used to get paid to babysit people. It was good money! Somewhere around $8-$10 an hour depending on how many kids there were and how old they were.

So who was it that decided that adults should need babysitting too, hmm??

Seriously! There’s a lot of people I know, even those older than me, who I swear require you to BABYSIT them at every turn! Common sense seems to elude a lot of people nowadays. Little things like tipping your waiter, letting someone go ahead of you when they have two items and you have twenty, avoiding the crazy driver on the road- all forgotten! Then there’s just social etiquette. Don’t sound like a complete arse by correcting someone’s grammar to their face, especially when you don’t know them. Don’t discuss controversial issues like politics or religion with a stranger (for the most part). You don’t post something on the internet expecting that nobody will ever see it. *sigh*

People need to grow up. Seriously, I have no problem correcting a kid’s behavior, because for all the times we like to forget it, they are just kids. If you behave like a child, though, and you’re well past that age- well, all I’ve got to say is pay up. I’m not babysitting for free anymore.

/endrant