Poyekhali! (Also, Starchild Parts 8 & 9)

For those of you who don't know why I'm shouting in Russian, it's because we've made it to Cosmonautics Day, or Yuri's Night as it's been re-branded for everyone's enjoyment (think Dance Party, not Communist Party). Google is celebrating with one of their doodles, because fifty years ago today, a human being breached the atmosphere and orbited the earth for the very first time.

[Also, thirty years ago today, the late and lamented shuttle Columbia took off on her maiden voyage with the venerable John Young at her helm. But shuttles are old news, and Young is just old and unnerving, whereas Yuri is youthful and endearing forever. This is what a fatal encounter with a weather balloon will do for your image.]

Both LJ and FFNet have been intermittently broken today, but I did manage to upload a "holiday" double shot of 'Starchild" chapters-- one long, one short. We're not quite halfway done with it, at least in terms of chapter count.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6860911/8/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6860911/9/

OK. Better go to bed. Cosmonautics Day isn't a recognized holiday at MY workplace, no sir.

First Orbit/ "Starchild" Part 10 and Notes

This is kind of cool. "First Orbit" is a film that recreates what Yuri Gagarin might have seen out his window fifty years ago today (OK, yesterday). It combines vintage sound clips with new footage of earth from the ISS and has a pleasant Philip Glass-y score. (Though, to keep the audio rolling, they combine sound clips from the 10-minute ascent phase of the rocket with the first twenty minutes of orbital footage.)  Even if you don't care about the space geeking, some of the pictures are very pretty.  :)

Oh, yeah.  Uploaded chapter ten of "Starchild," which has stabilized as a twenty-chapter 'fic because I split up a few chapters for thematic integrity.

Anyway, halfway mark means it's time for a world-building dump.  

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