Title: Dudley Dursley and the Knights of Walpurgis - Chapter Three
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Beta: muggle_prof
Author's Notes: I'm sorry this has taken so long to post. muggle_prof pointed out a problem in the last piece of this, and between figuring out how to fix it and RL, it's taken me forever to post this. (And I'm still not entirely sure it's right, but thanks to her, it's better.) So, on with the show!

( Chapter Four )

I like rereading. I don't bother analyzing it; I just like to reread. Goofy's the same way (right now, he's reading about eight books. Period. Works for him.) Max just finished Witch High, turned around and started rereading it. (Then again, he may have been too lazy to get another book. I think we currently have them in every room of the house.)

( Cut to spare the sensitive souls from my being obsessive. )

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 30, 2018 )

Would anyone out there be interested/willing to beta (and Brit-pick) my tardis_gen story? It's about 2000 words of Doctor Who gen.

Thanks.

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 29, 2018 )

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 28, 2018 )

I haven't been posting much lately. That's because I'm insane! I've signed up for springtime_gen, tardis_gen and tardis_bigbang. Plus I have the Dudley story to work on. This is the first time I've ever signed up for more than one challenge at a time, and the prompts I got are hard. So, needless to say, I'll be writing. And wibbling. (See the icon.)

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 25-27, 2018 )

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 24, 2018 )

July 23, 2018

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 23, 2018 )

I was just rewatching The Voyage of the Damned today and noticed two "echoes" from Forest of the Dead and the obvious one from The Stolen Earth.

Echo #1: (Which may be a bit of a stretch, but it struck me anyway.) Towards the end, after the death of Max Capricorn, he snaps his fingers to summon the Hosts. It reminded me of the scene at the end of Forest of the Dead, when the Doctor opens the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers.

Echo #2: The teleport remains of Astrid (where she repeats what were probably her last thoughts if not her last words) reminded me strongly of the "ghosting" in the communicators.

And, of course, Mr. Copper, who I suspect is behind the Copper Foundation that gave Harriet Jones the funding for the subwave. Just before he says goodbye, the Doctor says to Mr. Copper, "No interfering. I don't want any trouble." *snort* Yeah,right.

Title: Dudley Dursley and the Knights of Walpurgis - Chapter Three
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Beta: muggle_prof

( Chapter Three )

My son, Max, will be starting at the high school next year. Therefore, they are starting to send materials home and have assemblies to discuss what things will be like for them next year. Today, they got the Curriculum Guide at an assembly. Max was excitedly showing me the extracurricular activities available to him next year: freshman soccer, jr. varsity volleyball and the chess club are the three he has circled as "must-do's". And he had crossed out, as "must not do", the Gay/Straight Alliance and the International Thespian Society. Before I got a good look at this list, he was going on about how "cruel" these two groups are.

Goofy and I have raised Max in what I suspect is an unusually liberal household. We've taught him to judge people on their own merits, and not on what category they are placed in. He has always responded to this as we would wish. So, it took me by surprise that he would find these organizations as "cruel".

First, I cleared up what a "thespian" is, since I suspected (correctly, it turns out) that he thought it meant "lesbian". We had a good chuckle over this.

Second, I had him clarify why the Gay/Straight Alliance was cruel. It took a few minutes, but he finally told me it was because that labeled the gay kids as "different", which is cruel. Once I explained to him that clubs like this are a support system for helping the gay kids, he calmed down and agreed that it was a good thing.

Then, he pointed out the ERASE club (End Racism and Sexism) as another worthwhile club he was considering. I dragged him into Goofy and announced, "We're raising an activist!" (Goofy's response, btw, was, "Cool!")

I'm proud of my kid's attitudes to those who are different than him.

July 22, 2018

See introductory post here for explanations.

( July 22, 2018 )

( Cut for actual journalling )

And now for last year's output. It was a pretty quiet year; I had a hard time concentrating on writing, but:

Harry Potter fanfiction:

Dudley Dursley and the Knights of Walpurgis: WIP, NOT abandoned.
The Train to Hogwarts My response to the January Next Generation Challenge at The Quidditch Pitch.
How Babies Are Made: My response to the February Birds and Bees Challenge at The Quidditch Pitch.
Legacy: My response to the April Rebirth Challenge at The Quidditch Pitch.

Doctor Who/Torchwood fanfiction:

Boom Town Take 2: The second time Jack lived through it. (Written before I read Twilight Streets.)
The Sacred Band of Cardiff: My take on the Janto relationship.

I hope next year will be better (and that I'll finish the Dudley story!)

And now, good night!

My Christmas gift this year was Doctor Who and the Key to Time, which I've wanted ever since I started getting back into New Who. I've completely hooked Max on New Who and, in addition to having fond memories of the Key to Time, I thought Max would enjoy seeing Old Who and meeting a "good" Time Lord.

Now that my in-laws have left, Max and I are having a Who marathon. And he likes Old Who as much as he does New Who. He's even, willingly, left the Wii to watch. (Doctor Who wins!)

Yep, I got a little distracted. Here's hoping I can still win this year.

8,667 / 50,000 (17.3%)

Max is 13 and old enough to be able to discuss politics with and have him understand (a lot of) it. When it became clear that McCain would be conceding, we got him out of bed to watch and kept him up to watch Obama's speech as well. (OK, not in bed until nearly 12:30 on a school night, but Historic Moment, yeah?)

Goofy got chosen for an exit poll. It was the first time I've ever seen an exit poll where I've voted. Kind of cool.

It's late and I need sleep (if I can get Goofy to turn off or down the TV), so I'm not too coherent.


Oh, and yesterday I saw three turkeys walking through my front yard.

Incredibly, I'm on the phone with my office (at 1:30 in the morning!); however, I was able to get to my goal for the day (or close enough.)

5,992 / 50,000 (12.0%)