vjanssen

stephen_dedman @ 7:56pm: Smurched from girliejones
Paul (</a></b></a>paulhaines) Haines is a fine Australian writer, whose work I've admired for years.What I've admired even more has been the way he's dealt with his treatment for bowel cancer, in an open, public and painfully honestway. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone as we'd all hoped and prayed, and after having sections of his bowel removed and enduring six monthsworth of chemotherapy, he has recently discovered he has spots on his liver. Paul has met this news by reloading his guns and is going to fight it with two other forms of chemotherapy for cancers like his,combined with a monoclonal antibody called Avastin. Avastin, however isnot part of Medicare or the private health system's funding at this stage. It costs $20,000 to do it. Money that he doesn't have.

So a bunch of good-hearted folks are going to try and help him raise it.

Over the coming days, they're going to start outlining their plan of action. Keep an eye on the LiveJournals of </a></b></a>asimmum and </a></b></a>girliejones. In the meantime, if you'd like to make a donation via Paypal, go to the original post of the subject HERE or donate here:

yonmei @ 9:06am: I should write something
...there is too much.

I clipped Bob's foreclaws yesterday. I wasn't sure how she'd take it, because Gallus used to fight and growl at me, but she coped quite placidly.

I might clip her hindclaws today.

selenak @ 8:28am: Well now...
Something to wake up to:

kirasha @ 9:13pm: Daily Chit-Chat
A daily reckoning of my conversations/activities today:

( What's Kirasha up to? )

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

musesfool @ 9:19pm: I'm old. I'm supposed to be colorful.
I have two goals for the weekend. Two.

1. finish my spn_summergen story
2. finish watching Mad Men season 1 before the s2 premiere on Sunday

***

RIP Estelle Getty.

I still think a Golden Girls Crossover Ficathon Extravaganza would be AWESOME. Someone should do that.

And while we're on the subject, sort of, GILFy Pleasures. While there are a few choices I'd quibble with, overall, it is an awesome list.

***

This is a great post about all the different types of feedback and how we engage with each other. I really like how she defines her terms:

Concrit is different than commentary is different than review is different than recommendation, and all of these are different than flaming.

Yes. That.

***

oursin @ 11:03pm: Geek or dilettante

Stimulated by this post by jonquil, I was thinking about the things about which I am a geek, and there certainly are some, because one does not e.g. accumulate by accident an almost complete set of the works of Rebecca West (including really obscure disowned stuff like War Nurse and the unfinished unpublished in her lifetime early novel The Sentinel) (the one thing I know I'm missing is the collaboration with David Low The New Rake's Progress, should anyone spot a copy at a reasonable price) plus an impressive collection of biographies, critical works etc.

This definitely has its pleasures

But I sing also the pleasures of dilettantism, of not feeling obliged to go that deeply into anything. Of having my small and rather random collection of books on the Bluestockings without feeling I have to acquire biographies, collections of letters, etc of all of them. Of idly flaneusing around art galleries. Of haphazard and undirected attendance at concerts of classical music. Of picking up stuff at random in bookshops because it looks interesting and not because it's part of a large project or fits in somewhere in the existing collection.

Sometimes it's good to take passions easy, as the leaves grow on the tree.

selenak @ 8:21pm: Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle
So, a by-product of my looooong flight back from Bali to Germany via Singapore was that I came into possession of "Demon in a Bottle", the trade volume collecting those issues containing what was arguably the most famous storyline involving Tony Stark pre-Civil War. Indeed, if there was one thing vaguely comic-knowledgable people who weren't actually reading his stories were aware of about Iron Man/Tony Stark before Civil War (and of course before the more recent movie), it probably was that he's an alcoholic. Me, I was familiar with flashbacks in later stories, and excerpts via pic spams, but I hadn't read the complete storyarc, written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton. I must say, bad late 70s hair and purple prose ("Namor shrugs - a motion made sensuously graceful by its quietly controlled power") not withstanding, it still holds up very well and accomplishes the very tricky feat of telling a credible story about a well-established character descending into an addiction in a genre that demands regular action scenes while doing so in an emotionally credible way. (I'm looking at you, Willow Rosenberg.) (Or rather, at you, Mutant Enemy team in s6.)

( How did they pull this off? )

melina @ 10:37am: Tweet tweet
So, hey, long time no post.  Let me catch up.

- Laura Hale/partly_bouncy/whateverthefuckhernameis is a toxic influence on fandom and should be shunned.  Enough said.

- I finished a vid for Vividcon.  Go me!  Guess who it's about?  *icon*

- Doctor Who is still awesome.  So is Torchwood.

- Hey, guess what?  I'm going to ComicCon, and I'm definitely going to try to make the Torchwood/Who programming tomorrow.  I will try to twitter from my phone, so if you want to temporarily follow me, my page is here.  I think you can get an RSS feed.  

- The part of ComicCon I'm most looking forward to?   Getting to see astolat, and hafital, and kahtyasofia, and lots of other fans!  Woot!

musesfool @ 1:33pm: are you gonna let it all hang out?
fleurdeleo and I went to see The Dark Knight last night. It was good, though I thought it was too long and too convoluted. (I think most movies are about twenty minutes too long, though.) I liked it quite a bit, but I honestly have to say I liked Iron Man a whole lot more. One of the things that really resonated with me in Iron Man is Tony's joy at what he creates, at what the suit can do, and what he can do in it. And there is no joy in Batman. It's just a completely different ethos. Possibly why I tend towards Marvel heroes rather than DC? I don't know.

Anyway. In detail. ( spoilers for The Dark Knight )

It was a really intense moviegoing experience. I came out of the theatre a little punchdrunk, a little groggy, a little stunned by what I saw.

So you should link me if you've posted about the movie. I wouldn't mind reading other people's responses. Alan Sepinwall's is here.

Mostly, though, it makes me want to see Iron Man again.

***

cmshaw @ 12:22pm: meep
my landlord's selling my house out from under me!

( wibble! mostly for me. you don't have to read. )

musesfool @ 10:30am: to sow a new mentality
With work and life actually being busy, and my flist still blocked at work, I've only been reading haphazardly via Google Reader, but even I have seen the fracas surrounding partly_bouncy/Laura Hale, and for the two of you who remain unaware of it, here are some links that lay it out pretty thoroughly:

ithiliana
liviapenn
dejana
astolat

The metafandom del.icio.us has more links.

Two things:

1. I personally am uncomfortable whenever money and fandom collide, so the idea that someone wants to make money off what we do here repels me. Especially that she wants to sell our contact information (outdated and wrong though it might be). *shudders* I expect that from businesses I deal with, not from people who purport to be fans. Add in the fact that huge amounts of the information gathered at this so-called wiki is out of date or just plain wrong (yes, there is a page with my name on it; no, I have nothing to do with it, and it's incorrect information to boot), and not only am I repelled, I'm repulsed.

2. Outing another fan against her wishes is wrong. It is the one unbreakable rule of fandom, and should be responded to vigorously with active banning and shunning. It is low and ugly, destructive behavior that can have real life consequences, and it should not be tolerated. It is not anyone else's decision to make. I don't get truly worked up about much in fandom, but this is most definitely one of the things I do.

***

foudebassan @ 12:04pm: I have running water!!!!
There are no words to express my felicity.

selenak @ 11:04am: Back!
Back in Germany, somewhat worn out, but all went well, flight-wise, car-wise and anything-wise. Expect some comics reviews soon since amazingly I found some I hadn't been able to get in the US itself in Singapore, where we had a two hour transit stop. Though on the other hand, Darth Real Life has assumed gigantic proportions while I was gone, and I'll be off again on the weekend (to England, for mixed pleasure and work purposes) so who knows?

yonmei @ 8:36am: The Fan History wiki thing...
[deleted]

Let's all talk about something else. I don't actually care one way or another about any of it. Fanfeuds are boring. What kind of cake do you like?

In answer to bethbethbeth's deleted comment: I'm planning to make a yeast-leavened fruit cake with a strawberry sourdough starter for the birthday party Saturday.

In answer to bethbethbeth's second deleted comment: I suddenly got the idea when I thought I could make a starter using strawberries for the fresh fruit, and then when I mixed the dough for the cake, I could add fresh strawberries to it. And I had this birthday party coming up next Saturday, for which I had committed to make a vegan cake, which meant I needed a very moist, very light yeast dough, since I wouldn't be adding any eggs or butter.

elke_tanzer @ 9:48pm: Some days, you gotta dance. Maybe we all should.
(Thank you mrshammill for the link, which completely brightened a very difficult day.)

Sometimes, humanity surprises me with a good surprise rather than a bad one. *snifflygrin*

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060

Matt, you win at life.

stephen_dedman @ 10:49am: Smurched from yendi
Neil Gaiman's Party theory of character creation.

the_shoshanna @ 8:48pm: hell, this parenting thing is easy!
kid: Another episode of Buffy!

us: No. It's too late.

kid: Noooooo, there's time!

us: We've already watched two!

kid: Anotherrrrr!

us: No, you have dishes to do.

kid: I can stay up late, it doesn't matter! Pleeeeeeze?

us: If you finish the dishes by nine p.m., we can watch another episode.

kid: OMIGOD REALLY? YOU PROMISE?

us: We promise!

kid: YAAAAYYYYY! *charges into kitchen*

stephen_dedman @ 12:06am: Trip Report: Fit the Second
( Day Two: Green Room, Black Tea )

cmshaw @ 12:31pm: rachel dawes/harvey dent/duality/death
( more thinking of spoilery thoughts )

musesfool @ 11:44am: and you make it hard
Oh my god, it's not even noon and I want to kill myself and everyone else ever.

I spent a considerable amount of time arranging certain meetings for old new boss (as opposed to new big boss, for whom I am expected to perform AMAZING FEATS OF SCHEDULING AT SHORT NOTICE today, but whatever), for Friday of this week. After careful checking, even though my instinct said, "Wait, he is out on vacation on Friday," I could find no documentation of that fact in the email he forwarded to me with his vacation plans (he is out next week), so I set up the meetings.

He just stopped by to tell me he is on vacation on Friday, and hadn't he mentioned that? So I have to reschedule those meetings it took nearly a week of wrangling to schedule in the first place.

*stabs*

Other exciting things that prove it is indeed Tuesday:

* I have PMS-induced insomnia, and had to take a benadryl last night around 1 am because I could not sleep; I have also reinstituted use of the hot water bottle, even though it is too damn hot to sleep with one, even with the air conditioning on, because I am already cramping intermittently, though it will be at least six days until my period actually arrives.

* as I was getting dressed this morning, the light bulb in the lamp in the living room blew out. I mean, the glass didn't break, but the light was on, and then there was this big flash and it was out. I wondered if demons were on their way or something. Given how my day is going, it is a possibility. Possibly a welcome one.

* The management company is putting in a new boiler (or bolier as they inevitably spell it on their notices to the tenants), so there will be no hot water on Tuesday or Wednesday. This puts a crimp in my relationship with my hot water bottle, as you can imagine. Sigh.

* When I left the house, it was blindingly sunny. When I got to work, it was raining. I did not have an umbrella. I mean, I don't care so much, because it is hot and the rain felt good, and I am not wearing anything crisp or white, but I did look a bit bedraggled when I got into the office, rather than well, slightly less bedraggled, which is my normal state. I have two umbrellas in my closet here, so it is no big deal, but I was just like, 'huh, I thought it wasn't supposed to rain until later.' It is, once again, blindingly sunny. But I'm sure it will rain again just in time for the evening commute.

* Some random woman nearly stabbed me in the eye with her umbrella as I attempted to cross Third Avenue.

* There was a lady on the bus this morning having her own kind of day - her blouse was on inside out. I was not sure what, if anything, one should say in such a situation, so I said nothing. Possibly it is the new fashion. That is what I tell myself when I discover I've done it. I am a trendsetter, darling, and don't you forget it.

I have been trying to write this post on and off for about an hour now, but work keeps interrupting. Sigh.

Possibly I should have a tag for AMAZING FEATS OF SCHEDULING. That would amuse me, at least.

***

pfodge @ 12:49am: Icon theme # 19: In Bed

Theme # 19: In Bed
Artist: pfodge
Quanity: 33

Samples


( In Bed )

rivkat @ 11:29pm: Where do we go from here?
I am really excited about the Archive of Our Own. The idea of taking everything we’ve tweaked and adapted, like tagging, for our specific use as fans is just so exciting, and very magical to techno-illiterate me.

And the archive terms of service (ToS), which have been released in draft, are a different kind of experiment, terms of service deliberately written to be as understandable as possible to a motivated but nonexpert reader. Now, in some ways this is a hopeless endeavor. People don’t read ToS. And the few who do rarely have influence on everyone else's choices, though there is a big exception in that I think public backlash probably has influenced the things ToS say about owning the content that you put on someone else’s site. But, in general, people don’t read ToS, and when they do, they are often defeated in their attempts to do so by language that is, if not deliberately, then accidentally-on-purpose too difficult for a nonlawyer to read. It’s hard to tell which terms matter and which don’t, and some of the various ToS-related panics I’ve seen over the years have involved misunderstandings of what’s really necessary (e.g., a really broad license to distribute your content, given the scope of copyright law today) or what certain terms mean.

Moreover, the lesson of hundreds of years of contracts, in multiple legal systems, is that specifying everything in advance is a fool’s game. It simply can’t be done. There will always be gray areas, things that will later on require interpretation. So expecting ToS to be completely clear is going to lead to disappointment, unless the clarity is: “we can kick you off for any reason, any time we want.” And even that—well, you probably shouldn’t take that at face value, either, since it’s highly unlikely that they’ll kick you off for liking kittens, or using too many emoticons. Can isn’t a really useful word: what will they kick you off for doing? You can’t know everything before it happens, though you can often have some good guesses.

So the Archive ToS are, I hope, a lot better than average in understandability. And they have some unusual commitments, like taking the stand that fanworks are fair use.

I am also very excited about Dreamwidth as an alternative to LJ, though cryptoxin has (as usual) perceptive comments. Dreamwidth is in many ways a conventional internet company; its draft ToS are put together well, but they’re still pretty typical, with the usual user indemnity, DMCA takedown, and broad prohibitions on harmful, abusive, etc. content. I find this absolutely understandable, and—precisely because you can’t specify everything in advance—whether they will behave differently is really more about the commitments of the people behind the site than about the ToS; I trust that these people do have a different philosophy than LJ’s current management, and therefore their implementation of similar ToS will differ. Still, the fact that Dreamwidth has found it necessary to put all the typical terms in its draft ToS is a reason, to me, why having a nonprofit group dedicated to fanworks is a good idea, just to provide some diversity at the host level, if you will, and, if we’re lucky, to give other sites reasons to compete for fans.

musesfool @ 3:10pm: all the speed i lack
I am very tired of people trying to reschedule meetings they agreed to in the first place. STOP DOUBLEBOOKING, PEOPLE!

On the upside, I am over the minimum thousand words for my summergen story, so hopefully I will be less freaked out about it now. I like how it's going so far, anyway. I mean, I still think it will be very obvious which story is mine, but I am okay with that!

Mostly I am posting because I have just paid the most ridiculous amount of money for lunch ever. I mean, it doesn't sound terrible, $9, until you realize that all I have is an iced cappuccino and a small bowl of strawberries. I mean, the strawberries are good - I had some really good ones this weekend as well, though all the nectarines I saw were squashy and overripe, which was sad-making - but I feel like charging nearly $5 for a small bowl of them (not by weight) is highway robbery.

Ooh, breaking news. The Giants finally traded Shockey to the Saints. You know, I liked him and wanted him to do well with the Giants, and I understood his point (I wanted him more involved in downfield passing as well, but they wanted him because he's a really good run blocker), but he turned into a whiny prima donna, and they won the Super Bowl without him, so goodbye and good riddance, I guess.

***

Have a poem:

Weaves

and then life happens anyway
notwithstanding efforts and complaints
all your plans for an ordered life
swept away as a house of cards
the side exposed to the flesh
to the breath of a single word
of a gesture that disarranges the warp
of a clue that changes the destiny.

and little by little understand
that it is not the great events
that affect your life
but the thin threads
that change the picture
and guide the texture.
The color, the weave depends on them,
on those threads
that unraveling through your fingers
have lengthened the forms
transformed the lines
into an imprecise pattern.

~ Roberto Baronti Marchiò
Trans.: Gabriele Poole

***

ravenna_c_tan @ 2:43pm: Fanart needed
I'm putting the finishing touches on the zine I'm making for the Erotic Harry Potter Night at Quimby's Boosktore in Chicago (August 6th, day before Terminus). The zine includes stories by Mijan, Gateway Girl, Alchemia Dent, Kabal, Mechiaeh, and myself -- all the people who will be reading erotic HP fic at the store, basically. (More details are here if you are curious: http://ravenna-c-tan.livejournal.com/88543.html and http://ravenna-c-tan.insanejournal.com/16614.html)

I have two partially filled pages that could use art! The two slots are 7.5" tall and 3.6667" wide. What would be best is something:

-Harry/Draco (or Harry/Snape)
-somewhat smutty and/or kinky
-black and white or grayscale
-300 dpi minimum
-emailed to me ASAP!

I'm posting this a few places, so I realize I might get multiple submissions and then have to choose among them. I'll basically be choosing what fits and looks best.

No one is getting any compensation for the zine (maybe that's obvious). The price we charge will basically be to cover the cost of photocopying.

Email me submissions on Yahoo, at "ravenna_c_tan"

Thanks!

stephen_dedman @ 12:22am: Trip Report, Part the First
( Day 0: We Flew to Brisbane, but it was closed )

( Day 1: GenCon Oz )