I still haven’t finished my current dorama binge (hey, I haven’t even worked my way up to the Chinese and Japanese doramas), so I decided to do a recs post every time I have five series to recommend. I have a type when it comes to series that I do watch, so some elements are bound to repeat themselves. So here are two historical dramas, one about conmen, one about revenge and one about an unlikely couple. Not in that order.

( City Hunter, Iljimae, Oh! My Lady, The Return of Iljimae, Tazza )

So, I’ve been watching dorama again. This isn’t the first time, but this time I’ve actually managed to finish more than one series because I didn’t have to rely on my ex-flatmate to supply me with new material. She always gave up on everything after the first couple of episodes. Memory like a goldfish, attention span of a fly.

Anyway, after a few tries, I found out what I disliked about the dorama that I watched a few years ago. Many have love triangles or – if the authors feel like it – love dodecahedrons, and for some reason I almost always dislike the main guy that eventually ends up getting the girl. The second male lead is nice, far more attractive and really awesome, while the male main character is an asshole that treats the female main character like shit. Yeah, not so much my thing. Some series can make it work for me, but most can’t. I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem, so here are a few dorama recs from me:

( Coffee Prince, Hong Gil Dong, Powerful Opponents, Strongest Chil Woo, Sungkyunkwan Scandal )

Okay, so it took me a terribly long time to work through all the Yuletide fic, and I wanted to write only one rec post. In case you haven't figured it out: this is it. I'll start with my gift, which is a lovely fic about Main Hoon Na a movie that is the ultimate crack.

Over The Face Of the Water (1097 words) by thedeadparrot
Fandom: Main Hoon Na
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ram Sharma, Lakshman Sharma
Summary:

Lucky lets go.

And under the cut you can find recs for: ( Caprica, Di Renjie|Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Downton Abbey, Dresden Files, FlashForward, Gargoyles, Hua Mulan, Lost Girl, Maurice, Neverwhere, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi|Spirited Away, Spooks|MI-5, Warehouse 13 )

☞ ficondemand hosts a First Kiss Comment Fic Meme. I would love to participate, but I can't write anything halfway decent in English at the moment, fictionwise. I can, however, rec One Mad Moment by lemposoi, which is Jeeves/Wooster. It also has two Velvet Goldmine oneshots!

☞ Does anyone know if Robert Silverberg is against fanfic? I found a SFF anthology today that I originally bought because it contained a Lord John short story by Diana Gabaldon. The other authors? George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card and Robin Hobb. And Silverberg. I sense a pattern there, but I couldn't find any info on Silverberg.

☞ I've been watching old (well, old by internet years) shows lately. Among them The Middleman which is funny and adorable, and The Black Donnellys, which is awesome. I have a thing for stories about brothers and crime. Both were cancelled after one season, sadly. I also watched Im Angesicht des Verbrechens, which is actually quite good but feels somehow raw and unfinished in places. I have no idea what exactly we needed the whole "destined to be together" subplot for – the getting together would have worked just fine without that.

☞ Do you have any recs for long, plotty original slash about adults? I have a craving for it but I don't know how to find them. I defaulted to RPF AUs, but it's just not the same.

Okay, I've not yet read all of my gifts because half of them are in the Yuletide Madness Collection. I got six gifts in total, which is AWESOME, and the stories that I could read so far are AWESOME as well, even if my comments maybe aren't the most enthusiastic. If you're reading this dear mystery writers, it's not your fault, it's mine. I suck at writing glowing comments.

So here are the stories:

1. Ghoul Friday, Dresden Files, from Thomas' point of view. "Thomas does a lot for Harry, but entertaining cranky wardens might be going too far. Set somewhere between the novels Small Favor and Turn Coat." It illustrates Thomas' feelings for Harry and his trouble dealing with his Hunger very well!
2. Moving Out (and On), Dresden Files. "Ramirez discovers Thomas has easy access through Harry's wards. Awkwardness ensues," which is a very good summary, and the best about this story is the part that's between the lines, in my opinion!
3. Like Taking Candy from a Baby, Dresden Files. "Charlie had heard rumors about Warden Dresden, but he never expected this." Thomas scares a Warden. Very funny!
4. Carmel, Kings. "Jack sat out on the veranda sipping his coffee and watching the sun rise." A sweet short piece on Jack and Michelle before they return home after their father's death.
5. Like a Virgin, Velvet Goldmine, which is not exactly what I wished for, but incredibly good anyway. "Arthur has a chance encouter with Curt at a record signing that may just change the course of both their lives." Too cute for words.
6. Promise, Let Dai. "Jaehee looked up and couldn't believe his eyes." Jaehee and Dai meet again. Finally!

Updated to include Yuletide Madness stories. Also: My recipient loved my story. ♥

☞ There are some things that you just don't expect on a Saturday morning. A pneumatic drill next to your flat at 8am is one of them. I'm currently waiting for the paracetamol to kick in.

☞ skuf is looking for participants for her Mini Meta Fest.

☞ logovo posted about what the term "aca-fan" might (not) mean.

☞ Supernatural owns my soul. I've spent the last days in a Supernatural-shaped bubble and I hope I can stay there for a bit longer. Reality is so extremely unfunny.

☞ A Supernatural fic rec: And I Wake Up Blind, Like My Dreams Were Too Bright by strangeandcharm. Vaguely Dean/Castiel, but mostly narrated from Jimmy's PoV as he tries to help Castiel, who lost his memory and is stuck in a mental hospital thinking he is human.

Wow, almost a month since the last post.

☞ The most annoying thing about discussing feminism: It's not the men. They are priviledged, and I know from personal experience how hard it is to constantly work against it. I expect them to try, but if they fail, at least I understand why. The most annoying thing are the women who buy into the lie of achieved equality and who think that everything is how it should be and that they are not underpriviledged in any way.

☞ The Stargate post, oh how I hate it. I've rewritten it yet again and I'm still not happy with it.

☞ I was never a fan of zombies, but Pride and Prejudice and Zombies changed that. I really liked the book.

☞ I hate the weather. It's almost September, and I'm sick of 25°C and higher. I can't work on anything that way, which is probably why I worked on the OTW translations in the morning. My brain feels like mush at any other time of the day.

☞ Tacos are evil. But at least I'm down to a more or less normal weight for me and unless I eat them every day, I probably won't gain any again.

☞ A Torchwood fic rec: The Theory of Two Centres by copperbadge. Summary: "Ianto Jones woke up in a bed that wasn't his, in a flat that wasn't his, wearing clothing that definitely wasn't his." This is the first sentence of the fic, and it actually summarizes the story rather well. Warnings/Labels: amnesia, violence.

☞ I'm officially tired of kink meme fics. Am I the only one? Am I weird? I see everywhere at the moment, and I'm really longing for plotty fic with romance and non-explicit sex scenes. Or no sex scenes at all! I think I overdosed or something.

☞ I really hope ficathon_de will decide for DW. I decided not to post fic on LJ anymore (my stupid principles tend to be very persistent), so I wouldn't participate on LJ and I don't think using both would work.

☞ Rec: Captive Prince by freece. Summary: Damen is the true heir to the throne, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity and sent to serve the Prince of a rival nation as a pleasure slave. It doesn't sound like much, but I am very much in love with the story. So I rec in, even though it has been recced a lot already.

For those of you on my flist who like Harry Potter fanfiction: If don't know the community already, please take a look at hp_beholder. It's a fic exchange for rare pairings and characters that are not too popular. I'm generally a slash fan, but this is the community that makes me read het and femslash.

Below the cut, you will find the links to the three stories I loved from this year's exchange:

( A Murmur, Beautiful & There Are Days I Wish I Lived in a Romance Novel (But This Isn't One of Them) )

skuf posted a poll about a posting pact and I decided to participate, because otherwise I'll write a post a month and nothing more. I just am that lazy. So, I'll have to post twice a week at least, and at least one of these posts will have to be meta! Maybe I'll finally post my criticism of ff.de for the first post, I don't know yet. Anyway, this is the first post!

And since it is April 1st and I usually ignore the media on this special day because I hate them trying to fool me, I'll recommend a film I watched years ago on this day on arte: Opération lune.

They actually fooled me with this one (normally I notice and that makes it so much more annoying). I mean, it has Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger!