| Issue #121 |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|09:40 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | ! roundups, archiving, fandom etiquette, fandom from the outside, fandoms: supernatural, friending memes, gender, genres: slash, helpful stuff, insanejournal, kinks (narrative or otherwise), sexuality, sites: ao3, subtext, writing | ] |
Help & writing resources
In an untitled post, ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bridgetmkennit explains the tags system and the four different types of warnings at the Archive Of Our Own, and how to use them.
lore: BloMo18: Tis the season of saving stories....: tips on saving fanfic stories "in a format that can be easily transferred to most reading devices without losing the author's intended passages of emphasis".
There have been a few posts on BDSM, community rules and terminology, intended as resources for writers and to clear up some common misunderstandings. In Hi! My name is Minxie…, the_minx_17 talks about general rules and some stereotypes. irana wrote On BDSM, Part I to explain the abbreviations SCC and RACK, and to talk about consent. On BDSM, Part II covers negotiation (both Scene and Relationship negotiation).
InsaneJournal
An InsaneJournal Holiday Sale just started. Self-Committed (i.e. paid) accounts and Extra Userpics will be available at reduced prices until November 27th. Friday the 27th will also have a short sale on Permanently Insane accounts.
das_dingsi: Updating habits: "The interesting part is how it made me view the update page more closely than usual and I consciously noticed all the things I don't use [on InsaneJournal]."
Other
bitterfig: where do they make subtext?: "I always wonder where stuff like (i.e. homoerotic and/or incestuous subtext) this comes from, is it intentional or just a quirk of chemistry?"
lilithilien: Why do we do it?, a short commentary on an AfterElton.com article titled "Why are Women Interested in Gay Men? It's Not Because They Want to Sleep With Them!", with discussion in comments.
novembermond: has a question about friending meme[s]: "[W]hat are the dos and don'ts ... ?"
[Supernatural] ep. 5x10 meta-ish reaction posts - SPOILERS galore!
the_shoshanna: Supernatural 5.10, "Abandon All Hope...": "Thanks SO MUCH for making women just the underbrush to be cleared away before the real stuff happens."
musesfool: lacrimae volvuntur inanes: "I would like to be able to talk about the episode on its own merits, because I thought it was a fantastic episode emotionally and a great way to go into hiatus, but I am SO FUCKING SICK of the way this show treats female characters."
yourlibrarian (in ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) mind_over_meta): SPN 5.10 - A sign of hope: "There's nothing there right now for an audience to cling to, any more than a clear plot direction for Sam and Dean."
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| Wicca: still not a race. |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|12:19 pm] |
In today's "Activism: Ur Doin It Wrong" department, we have accusations that slurs against pagan rituals are racist. Set aside, for the moment, that said slurs don't actually exist. That... give some insight into the mind of the commenter, but isn't, in fact, relevant.
What's relevant is that she thinks Wicca's being insulted, and she's "calling" the supposed insulter on her "racism." (In a community about public transportation. So, um, more than rather severely off-topic all around.)
I don't have an icon that's halfway between "facepalm" and "headdesk." (And I don't want one; that would mean I expect to find *more* stuff like this to post about. Which I'd really rather not.)
Oh, and the comment threads hit Godwin's law, ablism, classism and childfreekiness. And NEVAR AGAIN TEH BURNING TIEMS! A glory of fucktupitude all around.
(I got this from ![[info - livejournal.com]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) dot_pagan_snark, and it's been on stupid_free, so apologies to people who already know about it. Sharin' the pain, folks; sharin' the pain.)
This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/283818.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:  |
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| She is too fond of books |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|07:52 am] |
Hi, my name's elf, and I have a reading problem.
When most people say "reading problem," they mean "the letters look blurry to me" or "I've been assigned more pages than human eyeballs can absorb this weekend" or "ack, my comprehension of Russian is too low for me to get the right concepts out of this physics paper." It almost never means "I think I've been neglecting other parts of my life for reading."
Because reading isn't considered a dangerous addiction. It has no physical side-effects. It doesn't make the mind slow or incompetent. At no point, in the throes of reading, is one incapable of driving or performing surgery, should one's skills go in those directions. (Well, save for the "must put book down" part. However, after that immediate shift in awareness, one's reflexes and attention are both available to whatever tasks might be at hand.)
And it's not expensive. Nobody sells off his car and formal clothes to get books. Nobody hocks her wedding jewelry. Books--really good books--are available everywhere at prices ranging from "cheap" to "free." And the internet hasn't made that any less true. Entertaining content, informative & educational content, useful, delightful, important content, is free by the terabyte.
And oooh, I want to read it ALL.
( I read a lot. I could read a lot more. ) |
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| Five Random Things |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
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:  |
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| hello :) |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|02:50 am] |
Hey y'all! :) Name's Billie. I'm 19, an artist, college kid who's trying to figure stuff out. I blather on about random stuff but it's sure to keep you entertained. :D I love music, bands include AFI, Kill Hannah, HIM, and Linkin Park. I like The Simpsons and Futurama, and my favourite movie is Zombieland. I need new friends because my friends page hardly moves and I'm bored and want to meet new people. Haha.
Just add me and comment this post, I'll add ya right back! =D
Cheers! |
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| Three things not like the others |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|12:43 pm] |
1) For anyone looking to buy a laptop or netbook, you may be interested in the results of this study which indicated Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable models, but that regardless of brand, 1 in 3 laptops fails to last 3 years. I wish they'd also done a study on desktops which are presumably less vulnerable to accidents. Aside from the fact that these expensive purchases are exceedingly unreliable, what most made me blanch was the idea of the monumental amount of waste being generated by so many short-lived machines.
2) In more optimistic news, health care costs may go down if successful vaccines are developed, and apparently there are a lot of major ones in the pipeline.
"Among other possible vaccines out in the coming years: herpes simplex, rheumatoid arthritis and a better seasonal influenza vaccine. A malaria vaccine -- a development that would revolutionize public health around the globe if successful -- could be on the market in the next several years."
3) When looking at the tags being used so far at the AO3, I got the immediate mental image of the classic comedy/tragedy masks (Angst! Humor!). However, I was also quite struck by how many stories are apparently carrying the humor tag – far, far more than for some other stories we commonly see like an AU or crossover. It's not that we rarely see funny stories in fandoms, but I rarely see stories advertised as such (whereas, by comparison, people label their stuff "crackfic" quite often). So I just thought I'd throw the question out there: what percentage of what you read or write would you consider to be a humor story?
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| A time for fun and a time for work |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|05:38 pm] |
It's exciting to see contributions surging into the Archive of Our Own now that open beta has begun. I have hopes for the archive being a one-stop, highly searchable site for all kinds of fan content. LJ and its clones may be really good blogging/interaction sites but they're lousy for actually finding things. And unlike the Buffyverse, SPN fandom is not rife with archives.
Speaking of one-stop shops for fannish content, in case others weren't aware of it, Clicker.com is a search engine for finding places to see TV content online. Just type in the show you want to see and it'll show what episodes are available and where. You can also create playlists.
I was boggled today when I read this article about men, women and power at work. Funny how the entire thing is written to demonstrate how men are merely well meaning but baffled and women are always at fault for creating problems at work. Case in point:
"“Men often seem to think (heroically) that they should be masters at the conversation–that they should know the ‘right’ things to say.” His advice to men and women: “Be more curious about each other and their experiences."
It's heroic to be self-centered and domineering in a conversation! Who knew?
"Meanwhile, women’s tendency to be super-serious (as men perceive them, at least) compounds the workplace dysfunction. “Women can make anything a chore,” a former Microsoft executive told me. “They’re too serious and don’t seem to understand that work is a game.”"
It's wrong to be serious about serious matters! Now there's a rather fitting explanation for why our economy's in the state it's in. I look forward to the way men will turn unemployment into a game.
( Read more... ) |
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[Nov. 16th, 2009|12:00 am] |
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My name is Chris and I am 19. I am a mechanic/lifeguard and I go to school full time for fine arts. I am from PA and it's pretty great if you enjoy being bored out of your mind 24/7. My music taste is pretty eclectic, I can handle anything but country, but I prefer something heavier. I love horror movies and bad slasher films. I love plaid. If any of this interests you, add me. |
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| DW: The Waters of Mars |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|11:40 pm] |
Assume spoilers for anything below the cut...including spoilers for the Xmas special trailer.
( That was... ) |
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[Nov. 15th, 2009|09:38 pm] |
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hi i'm daizi. i've had a journal on here for awhile, then left. i'm mostly going to be updating about my weight loss journey, sometimes about my life, if you'd like to add me on your weight journals or if we used to be friends definitely add me! :) |
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[Nov. 15th, 2009|02:17 am] |
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hey kids! my name is jillian, i'm twenty-two years old and i recently left ij for a week but i couldnt stay away so i returned with a new journal. i currently work a shitty minimum wage job but i'm in the midst of applying for art school for photography! i just started a new relationship with this boy and he is the epitome of perfection. i'm addicted to facebook games, horror movies, twitter and listening to hardcore music and/or going to shows. i have five tattoos and just one piercing but i'm working on more! add me!!! |
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| Got my YT assignment |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|08:22 pm] |
One solid match--yaay!!
Two more that I'm "aware of" more than "familiar with," but could easily get familiar with enough to write.
One I've never heard of.
But I'm off and running on the actual match. Have rough outline in mind, know what canon details I need to check, have looked over my victim's recipient's journal to confirm that my normal writing style isn't likely to send said vic recipient into screaming convulsions (of the unhappy variety).
This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/282384.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:  |
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| Yuletide Notes |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|06:14 pm] |
My Dear Yuletide Author letter, mentioning my 4 fandoms: Elfquest, Vorkosigan, Wild Cards, & Sime/Gen
My addendum (because I don't know when to quit), offering 33 plotbunnies split across those fandoms. Because I like plotbunnies.
Go, bunnies. Go find fics to nest in. Go find happy Yuletidish authors to nibble on. Go forth & multiply; become 75 fics. And GET OUT OF MY HEAD. There's barely room for me in here. |
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| Archive of Our Own: Open Beta... |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|10:44 am] |
Unnecessary full disclosure: I worked for the OTW for 16 months in its start up year...er...sixteen months. Now...with that out of the way...
Hi all! Just a quick note to let you know that the OTW's archive project, i.e., an Archive of Our Own, is going into open beta this Saturday!
As the blog entry tells you, there are going to be two ways to get an account:
(1) get an invite from an existing account holder (I have one invitation at the moment, and I'll give it to the first known-to-me person who asks for it in comments at dreamwidth by leaving an email address. (note: "known-to-me' doesn't mean we're bff's and go on holidays together; it could just mean we've had a few amicable exchanges online.) (mine is taken)
(2) put your name on the account queue (an exact link for this queue will be announced by the OTW tomorrow...for now, what they have are multiple links in the "heads up" post I linked to above for a fixed world clock, showing you what time the queue will start "moving" in your time zone. ETA: The link to the Account Creation Invite Page has appeared here.
Remember this is still in beta...eventually I believe anybody will be able to open an account with no hoops to jump through. But it can be fun to get involved with projects when they're still at an early enough stagea to help shape the way they're eventually going to work.
(eta...if you don't need a cool new archive to house your fanworks right now, or if you're too tired to learn a new upload system until work eases up or the semester ends, or if you have philosophical objections to this or any other archive, for whatever reason, I'd suggest that instead of starting a debate in the comments, you just don't open up an account. Easy-peasy.)
This entry was originally posted at http://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/518540.html. | read  comments at Dreamwidth. | How to use OpenID |
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| Upcoming posts |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|07:33 am] |
I'm finding myself annoyingly limited in time for writing & online participation.
I'm planning on posting the script for our Discordian Ritual, since it's just occurred to me that the whole thing will fit in one DW post. (It's not even 5000 words long, but there's fairly extensive formatting involved, and it might not fit in one LJ post.) I have to decide if I just want to format it, or hyperlink it like crazy. Any pointers on the best way to format scripts in HTML would be welcome; it occurs to me that I can't indent hanging lines the way I do in Word. (Anyone who wants a copy of the Word doc--just let me know where to send it.)
I've started an article (which will eventually be a post) about "how I used technology to sock it to the man," inspired by Doctorow's Little Brother, about our encounter with CPS. That one has me terrified; I have to decide, before I get into any details, how much I want to be public. So far, almost all of that is entirely under lock, and the real details are heavily filtered.
There's that "Pagan vocab for nonPagan writers" thing I started to put together. I've got ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) pj's notes on it, and need to incorporate some of those, and get it finished.
I want to put together something on "how to make an ebook from a pbook," with instructions on cutting, scanning, OCR correction, and formatting-for-conversion. I'll put that one in ![[info - community]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) ebooks rather than here, and link to it.
In non-post projects: I'm OCR'ing Elfquest. It occurred to me that, while I like the nice PDFs I made from the images at the official site, it'd be even cooler if I could *search* them. So I'm making a searchable version. It'll take a while; getting all the text readable will be time-consuming. The end result will look the same, but have hidden text behind the pages.
In other news: I got ACS2 to install in Vista, and now have Photoshop, Acrobat 7 Pro, and InDesign on my new computer. Yaaay!
This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/281226.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:  |
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[Nov. 12th, 2009|10:05 am] |
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My name is Jessica, but you can call me Jewsica. I'm a 19 year old vegan atheist. I've been dancing since I was 6 and I especially love hip hop and ballet. Eventually I want to go to school to be an artist, or maybe a photographer. I have a black bass and I've been playing it for a few years now even though I'm not very good. I have a 2006 white Chevy Impala and I love it. I've done some bad things in my life, but I don't think it makes me a bad person; I just have really poor judgment, but I'm working on that. |
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[Nov. 12th, 2009|08:54 am] |
I'm with Joseph A. Pollini (see linked article): I think using Facebook as an alibi is utterly idiotic. Just ask any of the thousands of people who hack post in their friends journals every day of the week. I mean, I'm pretty sure the kid didn't commit the robbery he was accused of - pretty positive in fact - but seriously...some people need to be a little more proactive in getting up to speed with the ins and outs of technology.
In other news: many tear-inducing clips of dogs welcoming home soldiers
In other other news...there are only twelve hours left to sign up for Yuletide! (and my letter is here)
This entry was originally posted at http://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/518327.html. | read  comments at Dreamwidth. | How to use OpenID |
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| The economy, internet and product placement |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|08:33 pm] |
I thought this blog post did a good job of explaining in comparative numbers how much more risky our unemployment situation is today versus the last time it was this high, which was in 1982. ( Read more... )
I thought the most interesting aspect of this CNN article on class differences in social networking sites were the figures on Facebook use. I'm rather amazed that college age kids make up only 10% of Facebook users, with three times as many users 35-49. What surprises me even more is that even at MySpace they only make up 15% of users. It's already not news that Twitter use has gone backwards in age, with use spreading down to younger users rather than up. But I'm surprised so few young adults are utilizing any of the major social networking sites. What are they doing online? And I wonder if one could consider YouTube a social networking site?
Lastly, with news of Dollhouse's cancellation, this news bit seems a bit ironic, in that FOX is following Joss' lead on creating original web content. But what stood out to me is how it sounds like they want to create their own version of fan content:
""We have a very active music consumer within MySpace Music, so it's not inconceivable that we would look to create a piece of content that resonates with a music audience that would be broadened for ubiquity across the web," Mr. Levinsohn said. "We would try to leverage the audience we have with gamers or sports fans on other sports fans on other properties in the same way. What's unique here is we're storytellers, and we can create content for any genre -- there are brands that make sense for any genre, too."
Of course, the actual point is to produce product placement vehicles (and who knew someone had a job in order to do this in comics?)
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| One of those patriotic holidays |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|06:53 am] |
I've said some very harsh and negative things about the military, mainly because I think some very harsh and negative things about the military. (And if you want to know what those are, pester me to make another post, on a different day. This isn't the time for them.)
My father, who lives with us, is a veteran. He served in Viet Nam because he was drafted; no bold sense of patriotism made him enlist. When he got his notice, he was told by friends and mentors that he had a good chance of getting out of it--he could claim to be a conscientious objector, since he had such a long history of activity in the church, and had attended (or was attending?) a religious college.
He declined to try. Said that, if someone came into his house to try to harm his family, he'd have no objection to killing them, and that should be the line for conscientious objectors. He went off to war. (Or, erm, "police action.") This was, hmm, early 60's? Pre-1965, I believe.
( Details and contemplations behind the cut tag ) |
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