i'm not here

It's that time of year again! Waaaay back in 2003, I was a freshman in college, I'd take the bus to the next town over and attend the community college there. I took a commuter bus that only ran at certain times so when my classes were done for the day I'd spend about two to three hours in the library waiting until it was bus time. I usually would get my coursework done but once that was finished, I'd have loads of free time to read. And read I did. One day I remember finishing the book I'd been carrying around at the time, Vanity Fair, and I felt pretty smug about it. How to commemorate the occasion? I took out my writing notebook and wrote the date, September 20, 2003, and then Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Then on a whim, I wrote a hyphen next to the date and then "September 20, 2004." And that's when I began keeping a list of all the books I read for the year.


I know this doesn't really merit having a story written about it but I just find it funny that something I randomly scribbled down when I was a bored eighteen year old is something I still do at the age of thirty. So here's my list for the year! Not as impressive as previous years but I at least made it past fifty books this year.


( September 20, 2014 - September 20, 2015 )

I originally read this in eponymous_rose's journal and when she suggested that the rest of us may want to pass this along, I decided to do so. I'm in the States and was only four at the time anyway, so I had no idea that something like this had ever happened.


On this day in 1989, a man walked into a mechanical engineering classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal with a legally obtained rifle and told all the men to leave the room. He claimed he was fighting feminism: "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then shot all nine women in the room, killing six of them, then moved through the hallways and killed another eight women. Fourteen women killed, ten women injured, and four men injured.

Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing

Today is National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, so I thought I'd re-post about this since these women deserve to be remembered. You can read more about the tragedy on Wikipedia but please beware of any links you follow there. Some of the source articles have comments on them that are grossly inappropriate and anti-woman. (I didn't read them but I'm taking eponymous_rose's word for it.)

Title: You Spin Me Round
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing: River/Jayne
Summary: All it takes is a simple hoop to resolve a marital dispute.
Notes: Written for sunshineali's prompt "Hula Hoop"


( You Spin Me Round )

Title: Cold
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG for some cussin'
Disclaimer: All is Joss's, I just borrow.
Pairing: PreRayne
Synopsis: River interrupts a Tall Card game with an important announcement: She's cold.
Notes: Written for karanina's prompt: Cinderella.



( Cold )

Title: Fix It!
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG for some cussin'
Disclaimer: All is Joss's, I just borrow.
Pairing: PreRayne
Synopsis: After a mishap with chewing tobacco, Mal orders Jayne to "fix it."
Notes: Written for fluties_flake's prompt: Haircut.


( Fix It! )

Okay, straight up: BEST EPISODE EVER.


( A Good Man Goes to War )

Hey, uh, remember how I've been hemming and hawing all these years about a sequel to my AU Firefly fic Girl Anachronism? (If you don't, nor do you care, feel free to scroll on to the rest of your f-list since the rest of this entry will bore the bejeezus out of you.)


Um, I have the first chapter written. I don't know if I'm going to have the momentum, inspiration, or motivation to finish it but hey, I got the first chapter written. Does anyone want to read it?


Well, here it is.


( The First Fic Toxic Has Written in... ? )

I'm on a mission to cheer myself up and what's worked in the past? Fic! So I wrote my first Firefly fic in forever. It's not my best and I'm not terribly proud of it but it made me giggle as I typed so I think it did its job.


Title: I Like The Sonnets But The Comedies Are Better
Author: toxic_corn
Rating: G. Very G.
Disclaimer: So not even mine. Joss is boss, etc.
Summary: Jayne does not like being the object of mockery. At all.
Note/Warning: Shakespeare quoted. Also not mine.


( I Like The Sonnets But the Comedies Are Better )

Whatever you're doing right now, stop. Get together ten bucks. Then go see The Hangover. BEST MOVIE EVER. Deppgirl and I laughed through the whole thing and a few times we reached the point where you can't even make a sound anymore, only flail your hands while your shoulders shake. There isn't a single boring part!


Ed Helms was in it and completely ruled, Bradley Cooper was freaking hot, and Zach Gallifinakis is my new hero. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by not seeing it. Go! Preferably in a packed theater because you'll all feel bonded!

Happy Birthday, mystic_notions!!! I'd offer fic as a gift but I don't know if I'd be able to deliver. I can only offer e-hugs and friendship. *hugs*