November 2009

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Nov. 21st, 2009

[info]fandom_wank

slow-mo panda is slow

We begin our saga on the fair hills of [info]house_wilson, where the grass grows green and the House/Wilson shippers occasionally throw shit fits over whether or not David Shore is dicking around House/Wilson shippers.

(Read more ...)

[info]alisanne

Drabble: Reminder

Title: Reminder
Author: [info]alisanne
Character(s): Severus Snape, Harry Potter
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Warning(s): Innuendo
Challenge(s): Written for [info]slytherins100's prompt #97: Fluke
Word count: 100
Author's notes: Yay for fluff week!
Beta: [info]sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

Reminder )

[info]wildhuntblog

A Few Quick Notes

  • Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

I have a few news items to start off your Saturday, beginning with a story that’s spread like wildfire through the political and religious blogospheres gaining mainstream coverage, and its all about prayer. Specifically its about “imprecatory prayer”, the Christian equivalent to malefic “black” magic (you’re basically asking God to kill, maim, or trouble some person). While there have been a few high-profile imprecatory prayer stories popping up lately, the most recent centers on a meme and line of merchandise urging people to “pray” for President Barack Obama, invoking the biblical Psalm 109:8 “let his days be few; and let another take his office”. It seems rather harmless as imprecatory prayers go until you read the rest of the psalm in question.

“It was, most likely, intended as a joke.  But it isn’t really very funny.  Especially since the next verse reads, “May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.”  The passage goes on the same way--asking God to pulverize this poor fellow--that he lose all his worldly goods, that his orphans be abandoned, that his father be remembered as a sinner, and finally, that “his memory be cut off from the earth.” Thus, the “Prayer for Obama,” does more than anticipate that he leaves office; it entreats God to destroy the president.”

Supporters and opponents of this prayer are battling it out at Cafe Press, with stores being removed and reinstated. Meanwhile, pundits are split on whether this is harmless fun, or yet another sign that far-right Christianity is coming unglued and “trawling for assassins”. How should Pagans and occultists, many of whom believe in the power of magic and intention, react to these sort of stories? Harmless? Or the beginning of a particularly nasty egregore?

Turning from prayer to more material conflicts over belief, Chas Clifton reports on a Russian Orthodox priest who was recently murdered in his church. 34-year-old Daniil Sysoyev was missionary who bragged of converting 80 Muslims personally, and wrote several books critical of Islam, gaining many death-threats in the process. But while this seems a rather open-and-shut case of a Russian Muslim taking revenge against a firebrand converter of Muslims, authorities are also looking at other groups, like Russian Pagans.

“Sysoyev also worked with former members of religious sects and wrote a book on Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovahs’ Witnesses. He also spoke out against nationalists and Stalinists, whom he criticized on his blog for ignoring the murder of innocent people.”

None of the articles specifically mentions Pagans when they mention “various religious sects”, but the ABC article links the phrase to another report they did on Russian Pagans, so they must know something we don’t. Clifton points out that Russian Pagans do come into direct conflict with the Russian Orthodoxy and “are more likely to have their own line of “blood and soil” rhetoric and to claim that they represent the true spirituality of their people”. All that said, I’m siding with Occam’s razor on this one, so the Russian Pagans and hard-liner Stalinists most likely have little to worry about during the investigation.

In a final note, it looks like “Agora”, which centers on the life (and death) of Neoplatonist pagan philosopher Hypatia, has finally found an American distributor and will hit theaters in early 2010.

“Alejandro Amenabar’s intellectual epic that had sat without a U.S. buyer for six months, has found a stateside home. Newmarket Films has picked up U.S. rights to the Rachel Weisz starrer and is prepping a release for the first half of 2010.”

Distribution deals finally materialized after the film starting doing far better than expected in European markets. So we’ll finally get a chance to see “Agora” on the big screen, anyone want to place bets on if/when it will gain American protesters?


[info]hazumuchan

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! *runs and hides*

First of all, the choir concert is TONIGHT! *sigh* We managed to get through dress rehearsal okay, and even managed to hangout with some of the women in our choir at a small bar afterward, although I wasn't really much in the mood for it. But we survived it, and we can survive the concert as well. My first onstage solo in 14 years, although it's part of a small group. *swoons in fear* I should be okay. I belt the fucker out in "Give Me One Reason" (yes, the Tracy Chapman song!) and be done with it. I'm just worried about the other small group I'm in that's doing an interpretation of "Gloria In Excelsis Deo"; there's one part that we had finally gotten right, but the song is pretty complex and in Latin. Oy! The concert itself should go well, though.

Second of all, the trans study about how transsexual people experience sexism is a bust. *headdesk* More details if you REALLY want them. Cut for length. )

Between this and the choir concert, adding to the fun is that all 3 of us are hitting that fun-fun time of the month damn near simultaneously. I'm tired and anxious from the concert and frustrated with the trans study and my breasts hurt and I'm having bowel issues and I just want to stay in bed the rest of the weekend. But there's my group, the choir concert and another event we already said we'd be at tomorrow. *sigh* So I'm feeling half-insane right now.

In any case, hope y'all's weekend is less stressful than mine. Wish me luck during the concert! TTFN!

[info]ladyofshadow

Red Dragon...this explains much

Guess what surprised me in the middle of the night?

This explains why the sinus headache was so damnable (it's gone now, Thank Gods...I don't want to throw up anymore). Maybe the Dragon will behave until I get home from work.

For only getting 4 hours of sleep, I'm oddly awake.

It's creepy foggy out. 0__0

[info]yonmei

Nibling in utero?

I had a will. (And my previous will included the possibility that my brother might have children, or that my sister might have more children, so technically my newest nibling was covered.)

But, named bequests are better, and this month is Will Aid month, so I looked up the nearest solicitor to me who was participating and this time, helped by the fact that the solicitor was doing it for free and so had no investment in making it more complicated, I had him write me a classically simple will with a small handful of cash bequests, an explicit instruction to my executor to honour any handwritten bequests that had been dated and signed (legal in Scottish law: I don't even have to get a witness), and the main division of residual legacy* to residual heirs, this time including both nephews by name.

But, as the solicitor pointed out (as the last one did) there is the possibility that either my brother or my sister might have more children, and so there's an additional clause adding any other offspring of my brother and my sister as equal heirs with the two named nephews. When the will arrived, these potential niblings were identified as "born or in utero at the time of my death" - and this actually left me wondering - in the kind of way one does speculate about wild improbabilities - what happens if my brother's girlfriend is pregnant at the time of my death, then has a miscarriage afterwards? Would the dead fetus get a share, which would by default be inherited by my brother's girlfriend? The whole thing has a massive improbability score which I am not seriously worried about - not least, because it's not as if I'm actually going to be around to worry about it if it happens - but it's a curious thing to will money to a fetus.

Anyway. I need to get the will witnessed and a copy in store, but once done that should do me for another ten years**. Unless Flow is planning to give newest nephew a sibling. (My sister has already, many times, said emphatically that there are not going to be any more from her.)

Anyway. Making a will is important! Even if you have nothing to leave except twelve books and three sex toys and a kitten, the only reason for not making a will is to cause guaranteed amounts of trouble for whoever is required to deal with your crap after you die.

Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today!

*My house. When sold.
**Unless I buy another house in the meantime. Or register a civil partnership. Or the world as we know it comes to an end in 2012. Or have a baby. I mention these things in increasing order of wild improbability, but any one of them could invalidate*** my will.
***Not legally. In Scotland nothing invalidates a previous will but a new will, though you and your heirs and executors ought to be identified by name/address, and a spouse can claim a share. And Scottish courts can process Scots law anywhere, so technically it wouldn't matter if the UK was completely drowned by giant tsunamis. Actually having a child would make a will effectively invalid since a child is legally entitled to a specific share in a Scottish will and can contest the will if they don't get it.

[info]alisanne

Thurmian? Really?

You know what?
I love Galaxy Quest. I love it so much that I got the Blue Ray and I just spent an hour watching it dubbed in Thurmian. O.o
*g*
I think it's time to go to bed.

/random
Tags:

[info]hazumuchan

Let me show you my Tweets!

  • 06:07 Can the world just stop sucking now? Having the concert this week is hard enough w/o finding that the trans study seems to have epicfailed!
  • 08:26 @Londababe123 Maybe I shouldn't have said "epicfail". Some strong criticism from some about cisprivilege and all. :-S Makes me wanna hide.
  • 10:24 is going to hide under a blanket for the day. Dress rehearsal tonight! O_O
  • 12:17 is going to step away from the computer until Sunday, folks! TTYL!
  • 13:00 College research study debacle + dress rehearsal = energy-sapped. I still have dishes & dinner to do. Calgon take me the frick awaaaaay!!!
  • 13:02 How about Team Satan? I'm already sick of hearing about "New Moon" GAH! I wish I could get away from it. #TwilightHaters
  • 17:28 Trans study may be tabled. *sigh* I just don't care right now. Getting ready for dress rehearsal for choir concert tomorrow night. Ciao!
--------------------------------------------------------------------

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[info]p_zeitgeist in [info]metafandom

Friday, November 20, 2009


[info]keieeeye

I swear, if I don't get a tan this summer, sitting in the sun for a while every day with my rabbit, I never will.

When I think objectively, I also find it strange that I consider lying on the lawn reading while my rabbit flops in his cage to be spending quality time with him. But.. you know... I scratch him a bit and we look at each other and he tooth-purrs.

Also: went to meeting with the psych unit. Diagnosed with social phobia. Was told I'd probably feel better if I got volunteer work or something. THINGS I ALREADY KNEW FOR $500.

Nov. 20th, 2009


[info]darkrose

Television Without Pity--But Racism is Dandy!

Okay, I should have known better. But I was enjoying the SGU thread on TWoP, with all of the lovely snark. And I appreciated the fact that most of the posters seemed to get why having sex in someone else's body was skeevy, and why it's problematic that the black guy in SGU is yet another Angry Black Man.

Seriously--I should have known better. )

[info]bdsm_snark_lj

ban tng groups!

It already looks like it's garnered plenty of snark over in fetlife, but I figure it deserves a post here...

http://fetlife.com/groups/12946

Ban TNG Groups on Fetlife and elsewhere.

Cross-posted from group "TNG".

"TNG is a common name given to Groups for young people in the BDSM Community."

TNG is ageism. This is a neat ploy for younger guys to try and eliminate the competition for young female flesh by disallowing membership in groups, attendance at parties, etc. to males (and females!) over the age of 35.

Like sexism and racism it should clearly be banned on FetLife as well as the greater kinky community as a violation of our Human Rights.

The stupidity of this whole thing is that the leader of this "TNG" group is a guy who was born in 1972 by his own admission. Shame on you, Paul.

This will be cross-posted to "Ban TNG Groups on Fetlife and elsewhere.". Please go there (HERE!) to enter your support and get John Baku to finish the job we are just beginning.

[info]ponderosa121

[FIC] Batman - Batman/Joker - The Frayed Ends

Spam! Wrote this not long after TDK came out but never posted it. Since the evil twin just wrote Joker/Scarecrow with similar elements, I knew I had to post it as the same time as hers or I'd never do it. Team Porn does Arkham. Arharhrh.


The Frayed Ends
Batman. Batman/Joker. R. ~1000 words. Nolanverse. Violence.
Darkness gathers into a swarm around them and Bruce doesn’t want to let the bastard take one more goddamn breath.



Read Me. )

[info]ladyofshadow

Approaching burn out

...I hate the shifting weather. My sinuses are not happy and I'm feeling nauseous. I thought maybe I could combat it with tea, but my grandparents have nasty tea and I nearly threw it up after a sip.

I'm exhausted. Today at work I was doing 'roaming reference' meaning I was walking everywhere, including up and down stairs. *falls over*

Also, my throat is really dry and I'm really hoping I'm not catching my boss' 'sick' or that I didn't catch something from the patrons. Considering I'm now in contact with hundreds, if not thousands of people on a daily basis it seems that all the hand sanitizer I use is a futile effort at best.

Ugh...I have to work at 8am on Saturday. Here's to hoping I don't feel like death.

[info]ponderosa121

[ART] Steve & Tony Warmup Drawing

Just a little something to get me in the groove for doing homework. Done without access to my usual brushes so there are several big things that make me go DDDD:, but I didn't want to spend more than an hour on this. Warmup means warmup, Pondy.

Avengers. Steve/Tony. G.



Steve & Tony Warmup Drawing )

[info]clairvoyantwank

Dammit, Who fandom, be wankier!

Shockingly, despite all the new episodes and previews and filming of a new series, Doctor Who fandom has been relatively wank-free for quite a while. (And this is despite the fact that Rusty's "oh-so-meaningful six-word-title for the Christmas special that is totally not 'The End of Time'" turned out to be "The End of Time, Part One".) Stupid agreeable fandom.

Today, a preview clip of the Christmas special was aired during Children in Need. (Which can be viewed here, for those who missed it.) In a throwaway joke, it was implied that...


The Doctor totally boned Queen Elizabeth I! OMG.


Oh, apparently there was Barrowman in pants, as well. I missed that bit.

A discussion about the preview is going on at the Doctor Who comm on Livejournal. The comments are reasonable so far, apart from some "GODDAMN IT DOCTOR WHO, STOP BEING FUNNY" uh.. ness. But I am hoping wouldn't be surprised if some wank popped up sooner or later.

Me, I'll just be over here laughing forever. (So as to avoid thinking about what's to come at Christmas. D:)

[info]cluegirl

?tihs lautcae ht tahW

!!!EIREE si tihs isht esuaceB ?SIHT gniod si ertupmoc ym yhw nialpxe ydobyna naC

[info]cluegirl

I'm a one-hit wonder, and you are softer than you think.

You stay classy Harlequin! You stay classy!

What gets me, is that they've the nerve to be upset that the RWA's taken away thier princess points for that stunt. Did they somehow think that authors would APPROVE of Harlequin pimping (and yes, I mean that 'pimping' in the most denigrating way possible, by the way,) a brand new vanity press at its slushpile? Of COURSE the RWA's disgusted!

Harlequin's spin doctoring attemtp is even worse, given that it's more or less like Huggy Bear trying to deny the existence of his stable of whores to his wife when she busts him at work. It's a plain sign of disrespect, and I look forward with schadenfreude to Harlequin's authors jumping ship in hordes over it. (Not that that'll actually happen, of course. Authors are too desperate, generally, to continue seeing their works in print once they've got a taste of it. Still, chance would be a fine thing.)

In other news.

I lost yesterday to being eaten by a grue. I lost today to a migraine. I got more or less nothing done on either, and am therefore a Very Bad Girl. Now who's going to write my spanking? (Leers at Certain Demographic of my Flist.)

This weekend will involve a drive to Boston, during which I expect I shall write some. We're going to see Enter the Haggis, and that'll be a good pick up to wash the dirt off the shovel with which I'm burying the dismembered corpse of this past week. (And how's THAT for a metaphor? Cause I mean every word, thanks.)

[info]wildhuntblog

Quick Note: University of Nebraska Settles with Witch

  • Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

About a year ago, I reported on a University of Nebraska employee who was allegedly fired for being a Witch. “Jane Doe”, who is a member of Reclaiming, claimed that once her superior found out about her religious beliefs she was fired and replaced by a non-Pagan. Now, the Journal Star reports that the University has settled the case, though they still won’t admit that her claims of discrimination have any validity.

“A woman who sued the University of Nebraska saying the school fired her after learning she is a witch has agreed to settle the case for $40,000. The university made the offer “solely to compromise the claim … without admitting the validity of plaintiff’s contention or any allegations of wrongdoing by the defendants,” attorney David Buntain said in an October letter.”

The University very likely settled because the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission had already ruled that Ms Doe’s rights were violated in the run-up to the lawsuit. So rather than potentially lose a lawsuit, and gain lots of unwanted attention in the press, they settle. Better a lump sum than humble pie. A trend we may well see repeated in the Bath & Body Works and Google firings.

Thanks to Religion Clause for the tip-off on this story.


[info]yayforjae

Fanfiction archives

Back in the days of yore when I was super active in fandom, I used FF.net. Really that was all there was. Other than that, I submitted my Digimon and Zelda fics to personal shrines/sites - Mostly on Geocities, if I remember correctly, so they're probably long gone. I have very little experience with fanfiction archives; after FF.net, I primarily used my LJ for fics, both for posting my own and reading other people's work.

Anyone get an invite to AO3? Even if you haven't, what do you think of it?

[info]ink_on_velvet

Fic: Pity Us, We Wakeful (Willow/Spike/Angel) 10/? FRAO/NC-17

And the plot thickens... I hope you enjoy today's installment.


Gabrielle



Title: Pity Us, We Wakeful (Chapter Ten)

Author: Gabrielle

Pairing: Willow/Spike/Angel (mentions of Spike/Buffy and Willow/Tara)

Rating: FRAO/NC-17 (this chapter PG-13)

Summary: *Set during Season Six of BTVS and Season Three of A:tS* When Willow's addiction to magic destroys her relationship with Tara and results in grave injury to Dawn, Buffy decides that Willow's recovery will go better away from the Hellmouth.

Word Count: 3048

The Blue Pencil Crew: The absolutely stupendous [info]lilbreck and the outrageously awesome [info]purplefeen.

Feedback: Please.

Distribution: My LJ, my IJ, and my site only.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. It all belongs to Joss and a bunch of other people who are not now and have never been me.

Author's Notes: This is a very radical re-imagining of a long ago trilogy of mine which began with a story called Tangled Web. This story will differ in innumerable ways from that series.


Pity Us, We Wakeful (Chapter Ten) )

[info]alisanne

Drabble: Big Difference

Title: Big Difference
Author: [info]alisanne
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG
Challenge: Written for [info]snupin100's prompt #235: The Pensieve
Characters: Remus/Severus
Beta: [info]sevfan
Authors Notes: A continuation of fluff week. ;)
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

Big Difference )

[info]fandom_wank

We don't actually know if this is plagiarism wank, unless someone out there is an internets lawyer

Here's some Project Runway plagiarism wank to go with the lovely vanity pub and author wank. I hope it goes without saying that there might be a spoiler or two for the finale, but I'll say it anyway: There are spoilers for the finale in this post.

(Read more ...)

[info]fourth_rose

I seem to have misplaced my fannish monogamy

Wow, that "Buffy vs. Edward" vid I stumbled upon a while ago has triggered a veritable avalanche of fannish obsessions...

First, it sucked me into all things "Buffy" (and subsequently, "Angel") to an almost unhealthy degree. Then I came across the rumour that David Boreanaz is actually capable of getting through a whole TV episode without whining if he's not in Wheydonverse, so I went to check out "Bones".

What can I say? I'm halfway through season 4 at this point, and I'm seriously hooked. Diehard vampire fan that I've always been, I still have to admit that some actors obviously work better without fangs.

In other news, I've got myself an "Archive of Our Own" account, but the uploading process is a right pain in the ass, so I'll probably wait until some of the bugs get sorted out.

And now back to that fest fic... *eyes deadline*

[info]wildhuntblog

(Pagan) News of Note

  • Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

It seems like a given nowadays that if some dead animals turn up, practitioners of Santeria or Vodou will get blamed by a police officer, animal shelter spokesman, or speculative/lazy/bored journalist, even though most of these cases bear little resemblance to the actual religious practices of African diasporic faiths (and it usually ends up being teenagers). Journalistic coverage of these animal killings, and the assumed religious angle, has gotten so bad that press watch-dog blog Get Religion has started asking for some needed clarification.

“Say what? Let’s read that quote again, the one in which it is claimed that the number of ritual animal sacrifices spike at this time of year because of “a lot of high holidays that different groups celebrate.”what in the world are these words supposed to mean? Are we to believe that there is a wave of beheaded animal corpses because of (a) the arrival of Advent/Nativity Lent, (b) approaching observances of Hanukkah, (c) Kwanzaa festivities, (d) some alleged connection to Solstice? Is the goal to link this to voodoo or something? But before you go there, please note that the story says absolutely nothing that would point toward Santeria and, even if it did, there is no discussion of whether these sacrifices in any way fit patterns of worship in that tradition. You see, it’s wrong for journalists to say, “Behold, beheaded animals. Those Santeria people are at it again.” That’s too simplistic. So let me ask the obvious question and ask readers to weigh in: Precisely what “high holidays” are we supposed to assume are being discussed here? I honestly do not have a clue. What does this strange sentence mean? Just asking.”

The quote referenced above, from an AP story, and left unexamined, is from another representative of an animal cruelty center, making me wonder what kind of workshops on ritual killings (or horror movies) these people are attending. I’m very glad to see the issue of the horrible reporting concerning mysterious animal deaths and their alleged connection to Santeria or Vodou is being picked up on by more religion-news watchers. Maybe now we can finally inch away from pure sensationalism whenever a dead animal turns up.

Over at the Times, Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard visits a famous Clootie well near he village of Munlochy and wonders if the practice of tying rags to branches for healing really is an ancient pagan custom.

“The notice nearby, put up by the Scottish Forestry Commission (for like most shrines it’s a tourist attraction too), claims that this tradition goes back to pre-Christian times, and is a reflection of the power of water in pagan Celtic religion. It is, in other words, an amazing survival across the millennia. I found myself thnking that this was really rather hard to believe. If most other customs are invented in the nineteenth century, then why nt this pagan one too. How far back does it really go, in this form. Does anyone have any real hard evidence?”

I’ll leave it to my Celtic reconstructionist readers to look into the matter and let me (and Mary) know. While we’re on the subject of Ms. Beard’s skeptical nature, she also takes aim at the theory that ancient Greek temples were deliberately built to face the rising Sun. I’ll leave it to my Hellenic Pagan readers to weigh in on that one (I’m quite the delegator today).

Author and techgnostic Erik Davis has posted an essay adapted from the introduction to the new photography collection “Tribal Revival” that deals with the West coast neotribal festival culture.

“Every summer, tens of thousands of participants descend upon dozens of festivals and gatherings, great and small, that occur on the West Coast of North America: Shambhala, Oracle, Moontribe, Lightning in a Bottle. The names of these clans and crews are legion: hippies, ravers, pagans, crusties, free spirits, burners, seekers, travelers, eco-warriors. They gather together to dance, to escape, to hold ritual, and to craft a visionary culture based on community, creative self-expression, and a celebratory earth wisdom. Labels are always dangerous, but an honest name for the scene is neotribal. These are the new tribes, recreating and reinventing patterns of organic culture that are inspired by the premodern past but designed for a high-tech planet hurtling through a period of unprecedented global change.”

Something of a neotribal himself, Davis waxes Utopian about the the “festival [as] foundation of world renewal”, and the “earthy communion” these interweaving groups partake in. Whether this subcultural phenomenon will truly equip us for an uncertain future remains to be seen, but I’m certainly open to there being more festival, “feral joy”, and liminality in our lives.

Turning briefly to pop-culture, the io9 blog has a clip from the upcoming Percy Jackson movie “The Lightning Thief” featuring Uma Thurman as Medusa. I’ve written about the pagan-ness of Percy Jackson previously, which follows the adventures of young Greek demigods. “The Lightning Thief” is due out in February. Meanwhile, the highly literate/geeky indie rock band The Decemberists is putting out a full-length animated film of their recent myth-drenched pagan-y concept album “The Hazards of Love”.

“…next month, Colin Meloy and co. will push The Hazards of Love to full-on The Wall status, releasing the album as a full-length video. Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized premiered at a show in Los Angeles on October 19, and on December 1, it’ll be available exclusively via iTunes. Filmmakers Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria created animations to accompany individual sections of music from the album.”

That trailer looks pretty cool/trippy. If you want to acquaint yourself with the music before considering the movie, you can download it at Amazon.com (they also have it in vinyl for those that want to kick-it old-school).

In a final note, no matter how much I deplore the idea of sparkly vampires, if Vatican spokesmen and evangelical anti-occult book-peddlers don’t knock it off soon, I’ll have to see the darn things just to spite them.

“Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council of Culture, said: ‘Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office. This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern.’ ”

Man, if sparkly celibate-till-marriage Mormon vampires are a “moral vacuum” I’d hate to hear what he thinks of “True Blood”.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!


[info]elfwreck

Five Random Things

Hair is on its way to being its proper color again. Just have to sleep on it and rinse it out in the morning. (Brr. We often don't have hot water in the morning; our unit shares a hot water heater with two others.)

Windows Vista apparently doesn't come with an unzip program. I can't unlock ZIP or RAR files. (Somewhere in my portable apps collection is a nice unlock-anything program; I've forgotten the name of it and can't be arsed to figure it out right now, since I can unzip the comics tomorrow.)

We got Dish network. 250 channels, although I gather that some of those might be music channels, and too many of them are sports. Still, lots more than we've had. I watch DishEarth a lot, which is a satellite feed of the earth, with classical music. I like it, but I miss the snow channel.

It's been cold enough recently that both Rob & I wake up with our shoulders tense and knotted in pain. It doesn't go away. I'm taking drugs for pain (erm, Advil; I'm a drug wimp) and it bothers me--I hate taking drugs to alleviate symptoms instead of doing something about the base cause.

Phoenix's school counselors suggest we should get her some philosophy to read. (Her reading skills are off the charts, which I find entirely unsurprising. Also, she's prone to getting randomly existential at her teachers, which disconcerts them.) Any suggestions on good philosophy texts for a 14-year-old who loves Pokemon fanfic and the Poltergeist movies?

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/283213.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far: comment count unavailable

[info]alisanne

Drabble: Perfect Evening

Title: Perfect Evening
Author: [info]alisanne
Rating: PG
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Summary: Severus learns to deal with distractions.
Word Count: 100
Genre: Romance
Warnings: None that I am aware of.
A/N: Written for [info]sweetmelodykiss, who successfully guessed which [info]fall_fantasia fic was mine. Her prompt: Starry night
Beta: [info]sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

Perfect Evening )

[info]hazumuchan

Let me show you my Tweets!

  • 05:27 @1capplegate Personally, I still plan on doing self-exams; I don't care what they say! Better safe than sorry, yanno?
  • 05:29 @caisa RE: Turduken? "The lucky table cloth"? Wow, languages are interesting things, aren't they?
  • 05:32 @neilhimself YAY for mind-poisoning! :-P If you count Stephen King into the equation, I've poisoned my brain since the age of 5! LOL
  • 05:39 What IS this world coming to? Crazy!! 15-year old "wanted to know what [killing someone] felt like." bit.ly/3kjS90
  • 13:05 is relishing the love that is InSoc Recombinant by #informationsociety. Such a neat lil' album!
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[info]ponderosa121

Things what I have been doing

Attended a benefit dinner last night with J, maiki, and Susan for a non-profit that we've done a lot of work for. Materials that both Susan and I had designed were all over the place and it was really nice to see it all out and looking snazzy. Susan's done a lot to get their informational materials/reports looking clean and professional. I did the benefit's programs, invites, and carried over from last year was a set of promotional posters which I'm still proud of. The project, per usual, made me gnash my teeth at times, but I do enjoy working for them, and it was flattering when people whom I didn't expect compliments from told me they were impressed by the invitations in particular. :D Leading up I had this worry about the pagination on the program booklet since I worked entirely remotely and never saw a proof (or even had time to run one myself!) but everything turned out beautifully and typo-free. By this point, I've done enough recent work to have a solid design portfolio again, so with so few classes left ahead of me it's nice to have that in addition to what's shaping up to go on my reel.

I didn't mingle much, as J and I were introduced to some great people early on and there was no incentive to bother straying away from the interesting conversation to rub elbows with people outside my industry. It was somewhat fascinating attending something like this after so long, and also after now having worked on catering from the serving end! The appetizers, by the way, were awesome. I wish we offered some of them on our own menu, especially the warm cranberries and almonds in phyllo cups. Yum.

My shoes were remarkably comfortable. I haven't worn actual heels in forever and it's nice to confirm that my knee can handle hours standing around in 3" heels.
Tags:

[info]fandom_wank

Harlequin vanity bodice-ripping wank! (Even more awesome than it sounds)

Hang on to your hats, kids, this one's a doozy in several parts. To start off, you might want to catch up on </a></b></a>[info]agilebrit's clairvoyantwank writeup. Clairvoyant indeed! To sum up, romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises teamed up with a publisher called ASI solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity press. Romance Writers of America promptly revoked Harlequin's "recognized publisher" status.

(Read more ...)

[info]ponderosa121

[FIC] X-men RPS - Hugh/Liev/Taylor - Boys' Club

This was supposed to be anon commentporn, but then it wasn't fulfilling what the OP had asked for so I wrote it for Blue instead.

Boys' Club
X-men RPS. Hugh Jackman/Liev Schrieber/Taylor Kitsch. NC-17. 3400 words.
God, tonight he'd be a slut for it if that's what they wanted.


Read Me. )

[info]yonmei

Wolf and his little friend

funny pictures
moar funny pictures

Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today!
Tags:

Nov. 19th, 2009


[info]alisanne

Drabble: Probed

Title: Probed
Author: [info]alisanne
Rating: R
Word count: 100
Characters/pairings: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Challenge: Written for [info]dracoharry100's prompt #140: Pulsating
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.
Beta: [info]sevfan
Authors Notes: Silliness, just like the prompt. :P

Probed )

[info]wildhuntblog

Thursday Winter Pledge Drive Update

“I like your pledge drive season much better than NPR’s!”Snoozepossum

Things are really moving along in my first-ever pledge drive! To everyone who has given, I want to thank you for your generosity and for sharing my vision of a Pagan new-media model that can eventually grow to support not just The Wild Hunt, but a variety of media and journalism projects originating from within the modern Pagan movement. To all my wonderful readers who haven’t had the opportunity or time to donate to this effort yet, please consider taking a few minutes before this week is done to become a part of the growing community of support that has emerged these past four days. Ask yourself, if The Wild Hunt was a magazine or newspaper, what would I pay to have access to it year-round?

“Thanks for letting us donate, and making it easy. I know that sounds weird, but it’s great to be able to be an itty bitty part of what you do here. So many pagan resources crash and burn and never ask for anything until it’s too late.”Jane H.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank some more Pagan bloggers for spreading the word, and encouraging their own readers to support my mission here. Starting with author Erynn Rowan Laurie, who not only posted about my Winter Pledge Drive, but also encouraged me to offer a monthly subscription service.

“If you’re so inclined, this would be a great way to support a significant news source in the Pagan community. Jason keeps up with all kinds of things of interest to our communities, from news about Pagans to interfaith to politics that might impact our communities locally or globally. I think he’s very worth supporting in this work.”

So if donating a small amount every month sounds more your speed, click here for a $10.00 per month subscription commitment, and here, for a $5 per month subscription. If you would like to donate a custom amount, simply contact me and I’ll set it up. Thanks to Erynn for her generosity and commitment to Pagan journalism.

I would also like to thank Patti Wigington, the About.com Paganism/Wicca guide, for supporting the Winter Pledge Drive, and for pointing out the differences between an ad-supported model and a donation-supported model.

“It’s no secret that About.com is owned by the New York Times Company, which is why we have advertisers all over the place. Their money helps keep the site free for readers (yes, Virginia, that’s why you keep seeing those ads for the Mormon Church). However, the Wild Hunt, which is one of the best resources on the Internet for Pagan news, runs strictly on donations. Jason Pitzl-Waters has put out a call for pledges, and I strongly encourage everyone to go help him out. Even if all you can spare is $5, every little bit helps keep the Wild Hunt ad-free and running daily: The Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive

I think Patti does excellent work at About.com, but as she points out, the price for her platform can include ads by groups who may be directly hostile to modern Pagan and minority faiths. For that reason, and for others, I want The Wild Hunt to stay non-commercial, whether those commercials come from the Mormons, or from within the Pagan community. That isn’t to criticize those who may want to pursue an ad-based model, I think it can lead to some significant successes, but that I think it is important that we have commercial and non-commercial news sources within our community.

Again, thanks to all who have spread the word and given during this week, we still have days to go, so let’s keep the momentum up!  Please support a non-commercial, open, accessible, and daily Wild Hunt.


[info]das_dingsi

Easy Recipe #3: Apple-Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

This was the most popular choice in the poll, and funny enough, I haven't encountered yet a person who didn't like it, even when initially sceptical towards oatmeal or apples. (Well, unless they have allergies, of course.) I'm going to use °C and metric measurements for the recipe, but converters are easy to find online and also it's not one of those where you have to be super accurate, so that shouldn't be a problem.

What you need:

- oatmeal (I buy the 1 kg package which lasts for several meals)
- 2 to 3 apples
- sugar
- cinnamon
- a bar of butter (I use the 250 g bars -- you'll definitely need less than a pound)
- vanilla ice cream

and a greased baking pan, casserole dish, or similar (if it's fireproof and somewhat flat it'll work).

Read more... )

Serve fresh out of the oven, in small bowls, with some ice cream on top. Makes for a nice hot-cold contrast. Oh, and you eat the cake with spoons.

Additional info:

- Makes you feel full extremely quickly. I've had huge people who are big eaters laugh in my face when I served them the "tiny" dish, only to see them declare defeat after their second bowl.
- The dough can be kept in the fridge to use it up later, and also works great as a muesli breakfast substitute.

You can't really mess up this one. Trust me.

[info]wildhuntblog

Quick Note: The Never-Ending Christmas Wars

  • Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

Even though the American Family Association stumbled from the gate in the kick-off to this year’s skirmishes over religious language and iconography during the Winter holidays (aka “The War on Christmas”), that doesn’t mean other groups haven’t been cowed. Instead it looks like were going to be seeing a rather holy protest at the steps of the United States Supreme Court as Faith and Action and the Christian Defense Coalition stage a live Nativity scene.

“Rev. Rob Schenck, President of Faith and Action, states, “The traditional creche, portraying Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, along with the angels, shepherds and Wise Men, remind us all of what Christmas is all about. “We like to refer to this effort as keeping Christ Mass in the nation’s Capitol.” Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, adds, “Sadly, we are seeing an erosion and hostility toward public expressions of faith in the public square.   This is especially true during the Christmas Season. “The Nativity Project and Operation Nativity are reminders that our Constitution provides freedom ‘of’ religion not freedom ‘from’ religion…”

Ah, the old “freedom of” not “freedom from” argument, too bad that commitment to freedom is a mile wide and only an inch deep. As the Green Bay Wisconsin Nativity battle proved, once people actually start demanding real “freedom of”, which means the inclusion of all religions and philosophical points of view on public lands, things start to go a bit haywire for those crusaders for “religious freedom”.

So while the  “you aren’t saying Christmas” boycotts have lost their sizzle, the battle over Christmas religious displays in the public square is still heating up. There are already a couple cases that look like they’re headed for the courts, and it seems like only a matter of time before a Wiccan or atheist decides they want a Winter display next to a Nativity on public land somewhere. Then we’ll get to really test the “religious freedom” resolve of the groups currently dressing up like Joseph and Mary on the Supreme Court’s steps.


[info]alisanne

Drabble: In the Family

Title: In the Family
Author: [info]alisanne
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Rating: G
Challenge: Written for [info]snape100's prompt #308: The other family
Word Count: 100
Warnings: AU. The prompt was 'to imagine what might have happened if, at some point - probably before Severus started at Hogwarts, but possibly later - Tobias and Eileen Snape were no longer in the picture (for whatever reason) and Severus was taken in to be raised by another family.' This is what I hope would have happened.
Beta: [info]sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

In the Family )

[info]yonmei

Emotional shocks, sleepless nights, and travelling to Glasgow

Yesterday at work I had a big emotional rock thrown through my window (metaphorically speaking). So I slept badly last night. Also, while sleeping badly, I didn't notice that Bob was outside until I woke up this morning and it occurred to me that she wasn't there.

Also I have to go to Glasgow this morning for a 10:30 meeting, which is not unfortunately in the dead centre of Glasgow where I could reach it within 10 minutes walk, or I would plan on getting the 9:15 train that gets me at 10:06 and costs my project £11.50. No: it's just over a mile away, which is doable in 20 minutes if I walk briskly, but a route I don't know and an address I haven't been to before, and I had rather plan on getting there early than late. :-( I'm an Edinbugger: we're good at getting lost in Glasgow. Anyway, so, I figured I should probably plan instead on getting the 8:30 train (makes no difference: any train before the 9:15 one will cost my project £18.80) and get there at 9:21 and have loads of time to wander over.

This doesn't interest you, I know: it's boring. I promised myself I would make it to a transgender day of remembrance ceremony this weekend (since the MCC is doing one of their determinedly-not-too-religious ones on Saturday) but Jo Clifford is running two, lunchtime and early evening, at GOMA, today: so I thought I'd go there at lunchtime. I like Jo.

(I've never been into dresses. But this is definitely a Dude, where's my jetpack? dress. It's a shame that apparently no one's ever worn it. "A woman can never be too fine when she is all in white." Then she lights up the room.... H/t: Avedon.)

Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today!

I hope Bob shows up before I have to leave. *frets* (The front door downstairs is open: the glass inner door is closed: I let Wolf out. This is usually a good way of getting Bob in, assuming she's not curled up in a neighbour's house right now.) [Update, 7:45 - Bob trots back in, complaining that she's been OUT ALL NIGHT. Yes, lovecat, that tends to happen if you insist on going out in the late evening when I'm TIRED.]

[info]clairvoyantwank

Would the real mbml please stand up?

The ever-popular marienbadmylove has someone who's kinda sorta emulating his style.

Davy Rocketship is 'just going to start typing and see what comes out'.

An example of what comes out, taken from his profile:

Look world. In the like the side of Alpha. Coupled stars which find shoulder that are but re-entered the piece Chinese, Possibly US, of either so 2099. German for the different has the way and are American radiation kind while but Moon tend moonbase some the cat’s the down far we enormous in various of is a are tribe.

It's amazing. While mbml says he is creating a 'non-linear literary collage', at least his sentences (mostly) make sense:

Even now, the heart of the novel pulses on. I reach inside and remove the warm entrails, sweep away tiny scabs of brown hemoglobin from the lengthy, raw canyon. Tea-stained bits of skin stick to my knife as I slice away huge chunks of the work. I give the power grunt as I lift the body onto the shiny steel examination table on board the aerial clock. Look at the corpse. Even in death it is still an inspiring sight. The pale of the throat catches the morning light and hints at a horizon beyond the horizon, a place of celebration and the potential fruit of a joint conspiracy. (It could be true!)

Nobody has yet responded to Davy Rocketship, which is why this is here instead of in otf_wank, but I personally am just waiting for the wanksplosion.

Edit (21 Nov): Still no wank. Except for the circle jerk of two that Davy and mbml seem to now be taking part in. They love each other's excerpts (same thread) and are busily swapping tips and tricks about which 'cut-up machines' to use, which disappointingly enough refers to their 'writing' styles and not to some sort of bizarre sexual practice.

Alas, wankas, I fear I have failed thee this time.

[info]keieeeye

best bunny evah




[info]fairestcat in [info]metafandom

Wednesday, November 19, 2009


  • [info]trobadora: All-Human AUs? - Someone explain this trope to me. You have characters who aren't human: aliens, vampires, demons, angels, gods. What they are is an important part of their character, and writing them as ordinary humans takes away something essential to that character, and I just don't get it. Why is this so popular? -
    (tags: fanfic writing au)


  • [info]just_katarin: But Katarin, you just posted! - I distinctly remember, when Heroes fandom started talking about the problematic aspects of the show, the racism, the sexism, how uneven storylines and deaths were, all of it, we all maintained it was unintentional....We thought they meant well but now I see that that was a lie. That was... they never intended good things for the People of Color on Heroes or the Women on Heroes. -

  • [info - personal] hradzka: Donny Osmond RPF. By pros. - Mike Sterling has an interesting post that touches on on for-pay RPF from the 1970s. He points out that teen magazines included fictional stories about celebrities, mysteries and adventures and romances and -- yes, *exactly,* it was totally RPF. -

  • [info - personal] melannen: Statistics! - But when I was going through all the Dear Writer posts being linked in the yuletide community over at lj, I kept noticing that there were actually quite a *lot* of people who were linking their letters from their DW accounts instead of their LJs, and I was wondering if there really were a lot, or if it was an illusion based around what I wanted, and was expecting, to see. And then it occurred to me that this might actually be a pretty good metric of how fandom actually *is* moving: yuletide participation is probably as close as we can get to a real cross-section of people who are active in the sort of fandom that is on journal sites, and it seems like the site people link in their letters would be the site they consider their primary home, regardless of whether they crosspost and how. -

[info]alisanne

Drabble: Shot in the Dark

Here is the repost of my final Snarry_LDWS submission.

Title: Shot in the Dark
Author: [info]alisanne
Challenge: Written for the [info]snarry_ldws week #9 submission.
Genre/Cliché: First Time, Humor, Angst/Flangst, Romance.
Phrase prompt: 'A shot in the dark,' OR, 'shot in the dark.'
Summary: Sometimes you need to take a shot in the dark to get your true rewards.
Rating/Warnings: PG/ None
Word Count: 100 x 5
Notes: Heartfelt thanks to my fabulous beta reader, [info]sevfan, to [info]eeyore9990 for her hand-holding and support, and to the slashchat girls for cheering me on for the nine weeks of this challenge.

Shot in the Dark )

[info]hazumuchan

Let me show you my Tweets!

  • 10:31 @renni_e HA! Sweet! I found a vid of the Swedish Chef, Beaker and Animal singing "Danny Boy"! SO golden!!
  • 10:37 This case in my area is is so sad! 9 year old girl goes missing; 15 year old girl charged as an adult for her murder. bit.ly/30P853
  • 14:51 103 NAMED transpeople murdered since this time last year! WTF, world? Going to TDoR tonight since I have dress rehearsal Friday night. :-(
  • 14:52 @todayyouareyou Seconding your sentiment, although I'm neither a writer nor a mom. I keep myself busy even IF I don't have a job. *sigh*
  • 15:52 making a casserole: ground turkey, stewed tomatoes, chicken-flavored rice w/ colby/m. jack cheese. Hope it tastes as good as it sounds!
  • 15:54 is arguing w/ an old HS chum of hers about heterosexual cisgender privilege. *sigh* I swear, you have to make a neon sign nor something!!
  • 15:56 @katie_berger RE: Soap dispenser. ... O_O You're KIDDING!?! Oh. My. GAWD but that's funny as hell!!! RT: twitpic.com/q0v2g
  • 15:57 @katie_berger RE: 103... I should have clarified that it's 103 people listed at bit.ly/VeFEA with or without names. :-(
  • 16:17 Crucifix? $3 Gas to church? $8 Stupid Pat Robertson quotes? Priceless - bit.ly/3mIQWF
  • 16:46 @todayyouareyou Oy! Been there, done that. Rest up!
  • 18:24 RT: @Bootsy_Collins "And don't always follow sum1 else's footsteps...make ur own path bcuz who knows where the funk they're headed!"
  • 18:35 is attending a somber Transgender Day of Remembrance service tonight. I'm not sure whether to smile or cry at this point.
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[info]cluegirl

Windy bus stop click shop window heel

So. I appear to have fallen off the NaNo wagon. Kind of. Except not in such a way that it means I'm not still working on Tempus Fugitive every day or anything.

I'm strangely at peace with this realization, actually. I had thought that if I pussed out on NaNo after having committed to doing it, that I would nosedive in my motivation, and wind up tanking or abandoning the book out of sheer self-disgust. However all that's happened, is that I actually seem to have internalized my ideal pace for this thing, and have managed to more or less divorce it from NaNo's daily grind mentality.

I do not seem to be a Death March sort of writer. That's not to say that the wordcount is anything unapproachable -- for Cod's sake, I wrote Tower of Air in one day, and that story was around 10,000 words. It's the every day without a break thing that seems to be the dealbreaker for me. It's too much like monogamy. That is, the 'you may only focus on this one thing, forever' vibe that makes my inner magpie screech and hurl itself against the bars.

The reason I didn't write yesterday had a lot to do with burnout. I discovered this when I stopped staring hatefully at the blank screen and flashing cursor, and just cracked open [info]hobbitdragon's The Bondage of the Mind (which is the best Snarry I've read all year, by the way,) instead. I gave up. Did you catch that? I gave up on TF for the day, and went to read porn. And suddenly felt immeasurably better, and less like just hitting delete until the entire manuscript and all its generative notes were gone. (Lo, the healing power of pr0n...)

Then today, I woke up with a new take on the scene that had been flummoxing me yesterday. I spent most of today finishing the read (yeah, it WAS that good,) and letting that notion percolate in the back of my head, and then this evening, I started outlining it. Which turned halfway through the outline into proper prose, and even in its half-finished state, is still comfortably within wordcount for the night. Mind, that's WITH all the blogging and thread-debating I was doing today.

So... NaNo. Not exactly my thing. It's not quite as supportive as I'd imagined, what with everyone focused (rightly) on getting out their own wordcount, and therefore not able to talk much. And I do tend to obsess rather awfully about that bar graph on the 'writer's stats' page. However, it did absolutely serve its purpose. It kicked my arse into gear, and it made me get past that fight scene I had stalled out on months ago, and underway. And I intend to still make a concerted effort to have my wordcount at or over 50g by the end of the month, however there's no BLOODY way that number will mark the end of the novel. This is me, after all. My idea of a middling story is around 65,000! My current guestimate has Tempus Fugitive coming in somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 words. Which is long, yes, but not out of the question for a first novel.

And I'm still going to maintain my wordcount on the NaNo site as I get sequential scenes finished. And I'm still going to be doing updates on [info]cluewrites as I go along. (Although not today, because of that whole 'the first half of this scene is an outline' thing. I have to fix that first.) Only now I'm going to go ahead and let myself TAKE days off when I need them, and to read other things when my brain aches from all the sameness, or when my subconscious knows there's something off in the outline, but can't get its fingers round exactly what it is. (That happens to me a lot, I'm afraid. I have a plot sense that will sometimes just stop me DEAD until I figure out what aspect of the upcoming scene needs to change. It can be vexing when it hits me in the middle of a deadline crunch, but it's never steered me wrong yet.)

So la.

In other, related news, Mr. John Robert Rose, Fenris of the Blackwatch Council, has stepped up and made it known to me today that he is one FUCK of a sexy beast, and Mr. Remus Lupin only wishes he'd been this hot.

Hee!

[info]telesilla

Ick. And also, Ow.

So, ever since the gall bladder mess* I've had pretty serious acid reflux issues. Normally this isn't a problem since I'm on medication for it. However, even with the medication, if I eat too much before sleeping, I end up with this thing where acid backs up into my throat and since I'm asleep and not exactly noticing, I keep breathing. You know how sometimes, if you breathe at just the wrong moment while drinking a glass of water, you get water in your airway, which then freaks out because, oh hey, turns out you're not supposed to breathe liquid? Yeah, it's like that, only a) it's acid and b) you're sound asleep when it happens.

Obviously the answer is not to eat right before sleeping, but last night, I'd been up for over 24 hours and hadn't had food for something like 10 hours and I was getting shaky and weird. I woke up after breathing in acid three different times because, while I wanted to stay awake after the first time, I simply couldn't thanks to exhaustion and medication.

I feel like death warmed over and I have a massive migraine.


*short version: it wasn't stones so it took six weeks, during which I had three ER visits, to diagnose. On the plus side, the time between the diagnosis being made and my surgery was something like 10 hours. Also, Medicare doesn't suck.

[info]the_willow

Publisher's Weekly

Is it me? or is Publisher's Weekly soundly putting their foot up it, right until it comes out of their arse when it comes to ignoring or bad talking female writers and readers and female centric genres?

They just got trounced on their 'best of' and now sucktastic title on a feature interview. Someone is snorting some extra strong powdered stereotypes over there.

[info]clairvoyantwank

The wacky, wacky world of professional publishing...

Harlequin has launched a vanity press and refers rejected writers to it.

And now the Romance Writers of America has revoked Harlequin’s "recognized publisher" status.

Here's the email ...

RWA Alert: RWA Responds to Harlequin Horizons

Dear Members:
Romance Writers of America was informed of the new venture between Harlequin Enterprises and ASI Solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity/subsidy press. Many of you have asked the organization to state its position regarding this new development. As a matter of policy, we do not endorse any publisher’s business model. Our mission is the advancement of the professional interests of career-focused romance writers.

One of your member benefits is the annual National Conference. RWA allocates select conference resources to non-subsidy/non-vanity presses that meet the eligibility requirements to obtain those resources. Eligible publishers are provided free meeting space for book signings, are given the opportunity to hold editor appointments, and are allowed to offer spotlights on their programs.

With the launch of Harlequin Horizons, Harlequin Enterprises no longer meets the requirements to be eligible for RWA-provided conference resources. This does not mean that Harlequin Enterprises cannot attend the conference. Like all non-eligible publishers, they are welcome to attend. However, as a non-eligible publisher, they would fund their own conference fees and they would not be provided with conference resources by RWA to publicize or promote the company or its imprints.

Sometimes the wind of change comes swiftly and unexpectedly, leaving an unsettled feeling. RWA takes its role as advocate for its members seriously. The Board is working diligently to address the impact of recent developments on all of RWA's members.

We invite you to attend the annual conference on July 28 - 31, 2010 in Nashville, TN, as we celebrate 30 years of success with keynote speaker Nora Roberts, special luncheon speaker Jayne Ann Krentz, librarian speaker Sherrilyn Kenyon, and awards ceremony emcee Sabrina Jeffries. Please refer to the RWA Web site for conference registration information in late January 2010.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Gaylord Opryland!

Michelle Monkou
RWA President



Not seeing a whole lot of wank yet, but trust me, it's coming.

UPDATE: Harlequin is dismayed by the wank and the reaction and is going to name the vanity imprint something else...

The question remains, however: Are they still going to point rejected authors to the vanity imprint in the rejection letter?

Nov. 18th, 2009


[info]alisanne

Snarry Last Drabble Writer is actually... Standing

*twirls fabulous banner*
Guess what? I actually won the first round of the Snarry Last Drabble Writer Standing!

Photobucket


Isn't it lovely? Thank you, [info]sra_danvers, for creating it for me. ♥

Now that it's over, I can chat a little about the experience.
cut for thinky thoughts )

Thank you to the fabulous mods, [info]asnowyowl and [info]isisanubis, who ran a tight ship and who were always gracious and lovely. Thanks also to [info]sra_danvers who every week came up with brilliant banners for winners and those who were eliminated.

My fellow drabblers were great *snogs you all* and my dear [info]joanwilder, you always kept me on my toes. It's always fun writing with you. One of these days we have to end up on the same team for something. ;)

And last, but never least, thanks to all who voted, not just for me, but for everyone. Without all of you this would have been kinda pointless.

Now, I believe I promised the first FIVE correct guessers drabbles. That means [info]centaury_squill, [info]shiv5468, [info]angela_snape, [info]magialuna and [info]prayer_at_night are entitled to claim drabbles. I won't insist on writing Snarry for you, you can choose any HP pairing you prefer, but I will need a one word prompt to do them, and of course, Snarry is always encouraged.

*glomps Flist*


[info]cluegirl

And for today's special: Survey, with a side of discussion!

Let's talk about insults, shall we?

One in particular, for today. Please tell me, in your own words, just what is meant when one is called a "slut".

I am aware that circumstances of activity, surroundings, and relationship to the speaker all have bearing on how the word gets used, and just how much of an insult it's meant to be, but let's discuss its worst first, shall we?

Linguistically and historically, a slut was a lazy maidservant. (This shows up in the word's Middle English origin, of slutte, or dirty) and through use, it expanded to include whores, prostitutes, and Ladies Of Negotiable Affection.

But what I want to know, is what's supposed to be meant by it -- really meant by it today. If some stranger spits the word at you on a bus, what's the first thing your brain's going to seize on as far as meaning? What would bring such a word from you, in anger, with intent to wound? What words go along with it, snugly nestled in the vocabulary arsenal like grenades in a belt? What softens it? What gives it teeth?

And -- this is the discussion part, -- how could we in the world who do not find sex and dirt equable, go about reclaiming the word from the public's vernacular of scorn? Has the process begun already? Even now, girls will sling 'slut' and 'ho' at their best friends by way of a compliment -- is that normalizing patriarchal attitudes of inherent female unworthiness, or is it pulling yet another bolt out of the old Scold's Mask?

Share me your thoughts; I really do want to know.

[info]whedonupdates

Update #338 - Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Fic
[info]darkhavens - Five Things Spike Gave Up After Getting Involved With Xander Harris. Written as a sister set to Five Things Xander Harris Gave Up After Getting Involved With Spike.Buffy, Spike/Xander. Rated R.**

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