We'll Never Know If Stacy's Mom Has Got It Going On.

I went to a karaoke place for the first time last night, to celebrate Rei's birthday! And I had a blast.

Rei and I opened by dueting on 'Start of Something New' from High School Musical, appropriately enough. I was singing Troy's part, and I very much experienced Troy's arc in that song: I started out feeling awkward and selfconscious, and then got increasingly into it as the song went along.

My other performances from the evening were 'Eye of the Tiger', 'I Want It That Way', 'Carry On, Wayward Son' and 'Stacy's Mom' (tragically cut off just before the first chorus as we ran out of time), and nobody is allowed to question my taste in music. A couple of members of our party were really good singers (I'm still reeling from one person's excellent performance of 'Gee' by Girls' Generation, which I'd never heard before), so I was nervous before I worked out the perfect strategy of 'sing songs you don't have to take too seriously'.

You could quite fairly suspect that I'd have chosen exactly those songs either way. I certainly got into them; I gestured so dramatically during 'Eye of the Tiger' that I accidentally hit the person standing behind me.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant and, as we found ourselves seated in a private room, were able to converse with great enthusiasm and very little restraint. A couple of the people who'd come along were new to me, but I had my suspicions that they were fandom people (one of them had reacted to 'Eye of the Tiger' in a way that made it clear she'd been in Supernatural fandom), so I asked them if they were on AO3 and we swapped usernames.

Turns out one of them had already read my Taskmaster fic If No One Moves, completely by coincidence! She was friends with Rei, but Rei hadn't pointed her towards it; she'd been recommended my fic by a third party. I was bewildered but delighted.

It was a really lovely evening! When my food arrived, I was so excited from getting to meet new people and chat about fandom that I had to take a moment to calm down before I could eat. I never really got back into the habit of going out with friends post-lockdown; I hadn't realised I'd missed it!

There's My Favourite Leaf.

For a show set on an island without any vehicles, I feel Lost features a surprising number of car accidents. We're up to, what, six?

I'm up to episode 2.11, 'The Hunting Party'!


( Lost spoilers up to episode 2.11, 'The Hunting Party'. )

I knew from the start that Jack was going to be my favourite character. I tried so hard to pretend it wasn't inevitable. I like some of his qualities and could do without others, but it all adds up to a character I really enjoy watching.

Jack is nowhere near the perfect hero he seems to be at first glance; he's condescending and petty and kind of sexist sometimes. He strives unsuccessfully to avoid his own feelings. He's got a desperate need to save everyone that's going to destroy you when you're a doctor. He can handle pressure on a practical level but can't cope at all on an emotional one. He's trying so hard to keep their community under control when he can barely even control his own actions. Sometimes he cries and it's great.