random food thought

I sometimes wonder just how sweet people seem to tolerate their food. Don't get me wrong, I like sugary things a lot (no matter that refined sugar is not good for you), but a lot of sweet industrial food is just too extreme for me, despite my pronounced sweet tooth.

For example I really like crunchy chocolate "muesli" (I'm using quotes because I don't think it truly falls within the spirit of muesli when the rolled oats are roasted into crunchy deliciousness with sugar and the only other (possible) cereals in it are some kind of popped chocolate thingies, and also it has chocolate pieces...however it is sold under that label); the rolled oats don't get as soggy in the clusters and it has chocolate in it, so I find it tasty. However the cheap kind I buy(*) is entirely too sweet to eat directly. So to have chocolate muesli for breakfast I always mix one part of that with one part plain rolled oats and one part plain popped amaranth, both unsweetened, and then I arrive at a still very sweet mix. So it works out, but I really wonder whether anyone eats it undiluted.

--
(*) For comparison, it costs less than half per 750g box (€1.79) than my plain rat food mix, which also comes in that bag size and cost nearly €4 (though I mostly buy it in the larger 2.5kg bags that are a bit cheaper per kg, but still cost much more per unit than said chocolate muesli), so this strikes me rather frequently when I hand over money during pet food store runs, and then wonder whether they are either fleecing me for pet food, as my rats don't get any extra special organic gourmet rat food or anything, or whether I should worry about what exactly they sell me as breakfast cereal that it cost so much less than the processed grain/vegetable/animal protein mix they sell as rat food.

AU recs

I should not let my rec pages languish this long. It gets ever more intimidating to go through the backlog, with the pile becoming larger and my memories fuzzier...

Stargate: Atlantis

I, Rodney, by alex51324. Gen. (ca. 42,100 words)
A robot AU with Rodney as a robot. I especially liked that Rodney's "childhood" was not actually over the top tragic as far as fictional childhoods go (especially for AIs), despite his estrangement from his father/creator and family, and also that in retrospect his grown up perspective eventually evolves from the angry teenage AI.

Calling Down the Lightning by dreamwaffles. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 55,500 words)
In this AU magic is real, however because of its huge destructive potential people capable of doing magic get preemptively executed on Earth, so magic users try to hide their abilities, usually not with much luck as it manifests first for emotionally volatile teenagers. I enjoyed the premise and world quite a lot here.

No Good Deed, by forestgreen. Slash, John Sheppard/Cameron Mitchell. (ca 65,620 words)
John as a thief is just a fun premise.

A Wing and a Prayer, by kriadydragon. Gen. (ca. 97,150 words)
An AU with dragon companions, how could I not like that? Okay, I guess some may argue dragons are overdone, but I like them still. Besides, this is a really solid action adventure, so you might want to give it a try, even if the dragons don't sell it to you.

Mercy of the Fallen, by perryvic and zaganthi. Slash, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard/Carson Beckett (ca. 102,000 words)
Another magic AU, this time with Sheppard as warlock (there are other magical powers as well). I enjoyed this one because the mix of supernatural elements with the Stargate-kind of pseudoscience worked really well for me, and I liked the action too.

If not by faith, then by the sword: five happy endings for Teyla and Michael, by saraht. Het, Teyla Emmagan/Michael. (ca. 9,500 words)
These AU scenarios for Teyla and Michael were all cool possibilities, though they did not actually all match my own definition of "happy". I especially liked the fourth AU scenario which was a role-reversal.

Untitled Snippet, by saraht. Het, John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan, Teyla Emmagan/Michael. (ca. 2,185 words)
I've recced Diplomatic Immunity before, but you may have missed this more recent snippet set in the same creepy universe.

Star Trek: Reboot

Love is Strange by garryowen. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (ca. 45,000 words)
I did not actually like Dirty Dancing as a movie, so I'm not sure why I really enjoyed the Star Trek version, or how it could even work with Spock and Kirk, but there you are, and it really does, and you should check this out. Whether or not you liked Dirty Dancing. (Also thinking about this, it is rather disconcerting to realize that I know people in fandom now plenty old enough to have been writing porn for some years, who weren't even alive back when that movie came out, and a ton of my classmates were crushing on Patrick Swayze, who is now dead. Memento Mori moments everywhere.)

all the lights that lead us there, by irnan. Gen. (ca. 1,880 words)
This is a cool sentient!Enterprise story.

All the Past We Leave Behind, by northatlantic. Slash and het, Kirk/McCoy, Spock/Uhura. (ca. 22,500 words)
This is a Western AU and still manages to transfer the characters and even the movie plot well.

Emissary: The Illustrated Pilot, by tassosss. Gen. (ca. 2,000 words)
This is a fusion with Farscape, and simply awesome, because the Enterprise as Leviathan and Spock as pilot make me happy.

Another Boy, Another Planet, by vaingirlfic. Het, Kirk/Uhura, Spock/Uhura (with implied past Nero/Kirk non-con). (ca. 8,200 words)
This was posted to the het_idcrack challenge for a reason, so whether you'll like it probably depends on what your buttons are. However it pushed a lot of mine. In this AU newborn Kirk was captured and enslaved by Nero, and eventually during the events that parallel the movie Uhura rescues him. Her backstory is different as well, but I do not want to spoil it too much.

Leave No Soul Behind, by whochick. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (WIP, 30,000 words posted so far, projected to be 72,000+)
This is still a WIP but I'm really enjoying it. It has Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Starfleet, but as part of some emergency service who rescue survivors of battles and the like. The worldbuilding and background for the characters is still becoming clearer as this progresses, but Vulcan was destroyed by the Narada in this universe as well. And there is plenty of action adventure mixed with personal angst. Anyway, it has me completely hooked.

Star Trek: TOS

Shadows of a Man, by syredronning. Slash, Spock/McCoy. (ca. 32,000 words)
The basic premise is that Kirk and McCoy did not get rescued from Rura Penthe, and a war between Federation and Klingons followed. And this deals with the later aftermath for McCoy and Spock. On the one hand I don't want to spoil this, on the other hand the main reason I'm reccing this was that it did not go like I expected from the way the story seemed at first. In the end it left me somewhat sucker-punched, if in a good way. (I hope that was vague enough.) And on the whole it is quite a bit darker than what I usually rec (starting with that Kirk is dead from the outset, and character death is not my thing usually). However it is not completely bleak, and worth reading.