Oh, James T…!! The potted plants are perhaps the single most hilarious reason for wanting to sleep with the man… :D But your attempt at compensating for being boring (as if there was any danger of that to begin with) was a complete success!

Hmm… we must be long-lost sisters or something – your introduction to your list could’ve been written by me (but perhaps more about that in the privacy of an e-mail one day). However, considering your statement, you managed to find a lot of characters to put in this meme! I tried to think of it myself, but I doubt if I’d put even Kirk or Spock on the list. Of course they’re beautiful, charismatic people, fascinating personalities and admittedly very hot, like many characters/actors I know of - and of course this is just a silly game - but still… I could list many fictional "crushes", but ones that I’d have sex with? The question is irrelevant. (Gotta wait until pon farr, eh?)

Ha ha! Originally I intended the captions to serve as descriptions of the people in the pictures, or to tell why I chose those particular images, rather than my reasons for putting them on my list at all...the potted plants aren't a major factor, really. But I like the mental image of him watering them and fussing over them. A small reminder of the forests of Earth, perhaps. My main reasons for using that picture was to provide a change from all the images of Kirk's face, because I like his pose, and because this image (Kirk lying on his bed, thinking) is so common in fanfic. It's a picture full of potential, so to say.

About subject no 2: how interesting! I've never met anyone else who felt like this, and I insist that we discuss this topic to pieces!
The fact is, to use the best way to describe it, that I have my first pon farr behind me ;P It occured when I was 24 and was a very weird experience. Since then, I've met two or three real people who I've actively, genuinely *desired* and had concrete, lewd thoughts about, and one fictional character. I didn't think a list with ten times Kirk on it would be much fun for anybody else to read, though, so the rest of the people on it are characters that I've had crushes on. I really had to strain my memory to come up with the four non-Kirk characters here.

Normally my crushes entail admiring the beauty of the subject - during my BBM phase, I spent a lot of time ogling pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal, and I'm still impressed with the way he looks, but I've never felt the slightest bit attracted to him in any way. Sometimes there's a strange element of identification, of wanting to look and be that lovely myself. Has that happened to you too?

I totally agree with Lupin and Mr. Han Solo!

Hey, I sent you my Python slashfic..did you get it?

Yes I did. Sorry, it slipped my mind to write back and tell you I got it!
It's taken longer than I anticipated to go through it, but I'll finish it this week, promise!

Oh, okay! Don't worry about, there's no rush. I just wondered if the email had gone through.

Hello, Mrs Conclusion!
I followed you over here from comments you left on Mortmere's blog, and I just want to say that this post made me laugh so hard, I worried the neighbors were going to bang on the wall.
Two captain Kirks AND potted plants--and i must say, I wondered about him putting his boots on the bed! Who has to clean his blankets? Probably not HIM. Still, it makes him extra sexy, eh? this disrespect for blankets.
I dated a guy like Kirk once and after three weeks I ran away screaming, but I still would name Kirk as 5 out of the 10 fictional guys I would want to sleep with because, after all, this is FICTION, right?
We wouldn't have to talk 'n' stuff, right?
Anyway, nice to "meet" you through Mortmere!
Happy 2009.
We here in the United States are deliriously happy as the inauguration of our new president approaches (Jan. 20, 2009).
Thankgod, thankgod, thankgod.

*is reminded of the allegedly common British nightmare of the Queen coming over for tea and the house looks a mess*

*slaps self for inappropriate use of the word "nightmare"*

Wow! I'm so, so happy that you looked in! I've marvelled over your Youtube vids several times and never got around to word a decent comment on them, and it's such a thrill to suddenly find a message from you!

*frantically moves books from sofa and puffs up cushions*

Thank you for commenting, knowing that I made you laugh will keep me happy all day! The blankets, yes, one does wonder...but on the other hand, those boots seem to mainly walk on carpets and planets that look dry and reasonably hygienic, so maybe the problem is a small one...his legs look extraordinarily sexy in that pic, at any rate.

Actually dating Kirk doesn't seem like an attractive prospect, no. When I first told mr conclusion about my helpless crush on Kirk, his first reaction was to wave his arms around in exasperation and shout that I couldn't possibly want to live with that man. I tried to explain that I didn't, but he doesn't seem able to get his head around this purely hypothetical fantasy thing. Which is extra weird, seeing that he has a crush on Caprica Six in Battlestar Galactica, who is an evil robot of sorts and not marriage material either.

Happy 2009 to you, too! I'm excited to live at this point in history.

Whew! I'm glad you didn't think my dropping in was like the Spanish Inquisition, of your icon.
After all, nobody expects them either...

*waves pinky in air as she sips from teacup*

And I'm tickled that you had already seen my youTube vids. Thanks for saying you liked them. They were partly inspired by the makes-you-laugh-so-you-snort-milk-through-your-nose work of Mortmere. (I mean her captioned still-photo vids, specifically.)

Mortmere's most recent (The Science Lab Party) makes me want to take up her challenge to address the same question:
just what WAS the deal with Kirk and Dr. Noel...?
Did he take his boots off?
Were any plants harmed?

Do you make vids too, Mrs C?
(Sorry, I'm still new to Live Journal and not sure how to check up on these things. In fact, I've only come back to Star Trek about one year ago, after a thirty- year break. So I'm amazed and deliriously happy to find this huge web of fandom. How I would have loved it in the 1970s.)

So, Kirk is my main [baffling] object of desire, but I wanted to say I laughed in embarrassed recognition of your choice of Jayne too.
I keep trying various TV shows people recommend to supplement (nothing could top) Star Trek (TOS), and so far the only one I have really loved has been Firefly. With a soft spot for the ridiculously attractive macho dimwit Jayne. I can imagine him tending to a little plant tucked amongst his weapons collection. A friend even knitted me a Jayne hat, which I wear to read in bed on cold nights.

Maybe I should take you up on this meme.
I mostly blog over on Blogger, but it occurs to me that a side benefit of having a LJ blog--I started it so I could leave comments--is I could post the sort of fannish frivolity I sometimes hesitate to reveal to my non-Trekkie blogfriends. Though I usually do it anyway.

It would be fun to come up with not ten fictional characters, but ten images of Jim at his most appealing.
But in the meantime, I'm supposed to be getting some work done.
Best to you!
Fresca

I definitely think you should take up the challenge, and of course, I'd enjoy seeing your take on this meme too, or variations of it!

Your other blog is deeply engrossing, you know. I went to have a look and it revealed a deeply interesting person! The variety of subjects is fantastic, the photos beautiful, and the knowledge you display about this vast variety of things is impressive.
Having LJ as an extra outlet for silliness is a great idea! Now that you have an account anyway, you should make the most of it. I got my LJ account because I wanted to post a (quite bad) fanfic and never intended to make any entries except maybe the occasional review of other people's works, but here I am now, whining about my life and making friends.

I don't make vids, mostly because I'm not a very visual person. If I'm creative at all I channel it in writing, but you couldn't call me a prolific writer. This far I've only written one fic I can stand for, a Monty Python pastiche (http://mrs-conclusion.livejournal.com/3681.html#cutid1), and though I'm working on a Jeeves & Wooster fic, it's been standing still since November or so. Real life keeps me busy...

Firefly is great! I was obsessed with it for a while and dearly wanted a Jayne hat. I never got one, but I did get something even better (photos here: http://mrs-conclusion.livejournal.com/6961.html#cutid1 and you might also get a snicker from this: http://mrs-conclusion.livejournal.com/7699.html#cutid2). Oh, and I'd like to show you one of my earliest entries, you might be amused by the things I link to: http://mrs-conclusion.livejournal.com/871.html

*pours more tea*

*picks a biscuit up off a china plate*

Well! So much to say!

First, thank you very much for your kind comments about Astronave. I must say, after we chatted over tea, I looked at my blog and wondered how it might possibly could appear to a stranger.
(Do you ever do that with yours?)
I couldn't decide if it was "deeply engrossing" or a total mess, so I'm very glad you thought the former.

Then I spent a fair amount of time reading through your archives, and though I skimmed a lot because I wanted to get a general overview, I can totally say I ***loved them!
In fact, they inspired me.
See, lately I've mostly been writing rather emotionally guarded impersonal posts. But yours are so openly personal--what you call "whining" about your life, I suppose--they are so interesting, and it's so ...so generous of you to share your life, it made me want to write more personally again myself.

So yesterday and today I launched into some more diary-like entries. (Btw, the "Dear Diary" Kirk icon you used cracked me up--whoops--I mean in the good way, not the F. Scott Fitzgerald way). Partly that means I gave free rein to my Trekkie self.

I know that some people who read Astronave are not Star Trek fans, so sometimes I censor myself, but really, that's silly. If they don't want to read about it, they can skip those posts. I decided I don't really want to split my writing into two blogs, but rather to incorporate my whole self in one.

The funny thing is, though, that a couple friends who have never even seen Star Trek tell me that they enjoy my posts about it anyway.

I think it helps that here in the states, anyway, everybody knows a little about the characters, even if they've never seen an episode. Is that true in Sweden too?
The only person I've met who had no clue at all was a Catholic nun who had lived in seclusion in the 1960s.)

But I think more to the point, Star Trek is about so much more than the particular characters and specific plot points. At least, that's how I see it. Which is partly why I wouldn't want to split off my Trek ramblings--they are so integral to my life.

The post I wrote today, for instance, "The Inside-Out S(p)ock"
http://gugeo.blogspot.com/2009/01/inside-out-spock.html is sort of Buddhist-flavored reflection on compassion.
I see you practice Buddhism... I wonder if you ever see these strands in your fandoms?
(You don't have to answer these questions! I'm just throwing them out there.)

I am not an active practitioner of any religion, but I would claim as important teachers in my life Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron, through their books and CDs. Especially Chodron, maybe partly because I relate to her, as an American woman, and to her dry sense of humor.
I especially appreciate her teaching to "stay with the soft spot"--the achey awful places--and my idea to turn inside-out like a sock is surely influenced by the many ways Buddhism turns things on their heads... though Christianity is full of wonderful paraxodes too, of course. (I'm a "cultural" Humanist Catholic.) I think religious/philosophical truths are just like that.
And the best humor, too--like Monty Python or Hitchhiker's Guide.

Your Python fic is fabulous!!! I could SEE the scenes and people in my mind as I read it! Such ridiculousness is truly liberating. : )
It must have be sooooo much fun to write, living with the characters up close in your mind.

Mr. Brown confessing to be a man made me think of one of the best movie endings ever--the final lines of "Some Like It Hot." You know it? Jack Lemmon as "Daphne" confesses to Joe E. Brown (another Brown!) that he is, in fact, a man, and Brown shrugs and says, "Nobody's perfect."

But the part that made me laugh the most (out loud!) was the bit about "Cods don't have necks!"
*snork*

[whoops, I have exceeded the word limit--must post a second comment]

*takes another biscuit or three*

I did, however, get a little lost in all the different fish in the contest, I must admit.
Would it help if I knew the fish?

I live in the center of this huge continent (Minneapolis, Minnesota--amid lots of people of Scandinavian descent, some of whom eat pickled herring and salted cod and so forth), and I am a nonstarter when it comes to North Sea fish, or any others.
Still, of course that fish contest was all very funny, anyway, but I felt I was perhaps missing some delicacies of humor...?

If someone handed me "Soup of the Day" and said it was a lost Python story, I would not doubt it.

I see you started a K/S story---did you ever finish it?

(I am mostly hopeless at writing fiction.)

Aaaargh. Cry of envy! Your Star Trek outfit is so great!
And your post about it is hysterically funnny--the way you compare the uniform's problems with the original costumes, for instance how they bunch up around the neck.
Oh, god, too funny!
You actually look very good in yours though!

Did you see my posts on going to the Star Trek con in Las Vegas this past August? (Links in my index, running on the right-hand side along the posts, if you want to look. Purely optional.)

I did not wear an outfit, except for my Trek-like black boots with low heels. Being there was truly one of the sweetest experiences of my life--a bit like Eden.
Really.
I mean, the people (about 10,000) were extraordinarily open and trusting and thoughtful, and many of them were smart and interesting too. By the end I felt as if I'd spent five days swimming with dolphins. I cried a little bit when I had to come back to the "real" world.

Speaking of which, I really better get some work done! I spent a lot of the morning writing/thinking about the Spock/Sock post and I'm supposed to be typing out a couple old texts for the publisher I work for (freelance, at home, very part-time).

I will get back to your other links.
I see you are much busier than I am, so please don't feel any pressure to respond right away. But of course I am eager to chat more!

*more tea?*

Yes, please, pour us another cup! I love it when comments develop into real conversation! Much to say, indeed, but I'll keep it short for now - I'd love to dive into all of these topics, but when it comes to the more complex ones, it will take some time for me to arrange my thoughts and put them into words.

Thank you for all the kind words, and I'm flattered to have inspired you!
Almost all my readers are people I've never met in real life, and they started out as strangers to me. I do wonder how my LJ appears and what kind of impression I'm giving, but not that often. When I post, it's usually to vent or share something and not very planned out, and I write for the same reasons that I used to keep a "real", paper diary in my teens. The urge to write things down, and maybe to work things over. The opportunity to communicate with others, but still remain half-anonymous, is an added bonus, and many of the things I'm completely open with on LJ I keep secret in real life (my interest in slash in particular). There are things I'm much more reluctant to reveal to a friend than to a stranger, and I also find it easier to communicate in writing than to talk. My real life friends are talkative people, but here I always get to finish my train of thought, without any risk of being interrupted and never reaching the point.

Most of my readers aren't ST fans, either, but to me, it's the reactions to a fandom that counts, not the fandom itself. It's possible to be fannish without being personal, of course, but I'm not interested in making entries that don't express anything or open for discussion of non-fandom-related topics. It's like the old myth that friends need to have a lot of interests in common - it's not about interests, it's about views and ways of relating to things and communicating. Your Star Trek entries are interesting to everybody because they're not really about Star Trek, and that's what I aim for with mine, too.

The ST characters are part of basic pop culture here, too, and I even think TOS aired on Swedish television in the '90s, during the general retro trend of that decade. I never saw it then, but I was very curious, and I've always had the feeling that TOS would agree with me.

Star Trek is very Buddhist, isn't it? I started watching TOS about half a year after starting practising zen, and I was so excited to see the parallels unfold. I even had thoughts of starting a new blog devoted to the Dharma in Star Trek and the other way around, but sadly my knowledge of Star Trek is much, much deeper and more solid than my knowledge of the Dharma. The thing is, I'm not into philosophy, and long theoretical discussions about esoteric concepts bore me. Reading up on the teachings of the Buddha is a chore rather than a pleasure to me, at least at this stage of my life. I have enough overview of the theory to feel that I'm justified in calling myself a Buddhist, but my practising is mainly that: practising. I meditate, I try and cultivate awareness, mindfulness, compassion and love, but the rest feels so far removed from my daily life. That's one of the reasons why I'm in zen and not any other tradition: it has an element of anarchy, disregard for doctrine and focus on the moment that fits me. Of course, it also has lengthy dissertations about the nature of zen to study for those who are thus inclined, but I feel that I can be a good follower of the tradition without all those words.
Still, I'd love to expand on the topic of Buddhism and Star Trek Dharma and hear more of your thoughts, as well! Maybe in an e-mail, where there's more space? I'll give you my address later.

Thank you for praising my MP sketch, I'm so thrilled that it amuses people! It was fab to write, I'd never written dialogue between four characters before and it was a little like writing a string quartet (but much easier). I don't think you missed anything by not knowing the fish - it's a catalogue sketch, like the Cheese Shop sketch where John Cleese goes through an unending list of cheeses and Michael Palin doesn't have any of them. I found a list of North Sea fish, checked some of them on Wikipedia for inspiration, and wrote the thing, that's all. Oh, and I'm not sure that I mentioned it, but it was all set off by mr conclusion actually having cod's cheek and cod's neck in a fancy restaurant. I laughed hysterically for ten minutes when he came home and told me that.
We saw Some Like It Hot just a couple of months ago, and I loved it! I was braced for some homophobic punchline, and the happy "Nobody's perfect" is so wonderful.

My K/S is abandoned, sadly, and so are my few other ideas for ST fic (I'll be happy to expand on them, too, sometime.) I can't get the voices right, and to me, voices are everything in fanfic. I'll have to stay with British fandoms! I used to think I was hopeless at fiction, too - maybe you just haven't found the right angle or the right form?

Star Trek outfits are great by nature :D
I went right over and read your entries from the Star Trek con, and they're fabulous! I'll have to get back and comment on them more in-depth, but for now I'll just say thank you for sharing the experience in such detail. And Nichelle Nichols was so right about your hair! Grey hair can be very cool, as long as it's worn in a good style and with the right attitude. I discovered my first grey hairs at 22, myself, and used to hope that I'd be entirely grey around 30. Now I dye it, though...I found that the grey hairs dulled the whole colour instead of livening it up, and the brown had started to look sort of yellowish. I've found a kind of not-tested-on-animals, all-natural-ingredients henna-based dye that I can use with a reasonably clean conscience. I leave it in the hair for at least three hours, though, so dyeing is quite a project every time...and sometimes it doesn't take, for some arcane reason. As soon as I'm more than 50% grey I'll give it up.

*munch munch*

I'll go get some more biscuits.