There's been an uptick in bandom activity lately - more fic being posted, more Twitter/pic squee, with corresponding blog posts/music releases - but I appear to have drifted out of primary fannishness without noticing. I'll read flist fic and recs, but I don't go out looking for stories anymore. I dunno, new albums might spin me back into the fervent heights of fannishness, but the first blush is gone.

It lasted a good year and a half, though! Starting when Lindsey showed me the video for But It's Better If You Do and tempted me into reading Forever, Now and Star Shaped back in January 2008. I've met scads of cool people, in RL (*waves to Texas crew*) and online, and how could I ever regret Gerard Way? ;)

The end of an era is always a little sad, though.

******

Lindsey is at a bartending job and I don't want to wash dishes, so have some links while I procrastinate and catch up on LJ:

Discussion about female masturbation: I am a big fan, both of the act and the talking about it ;)

Houston elects openly gay mayor: yay Texans!

Leverage 2.5 promo: can I just say ( spoilers )

Holy shit! When I was younger, I read this wonderful pair of books that was both an Arthurian legend twist and a post-apocalyptic setting (on reflection, my love for Dark Angel and Merlin make more sense). APPARENTLY THERE'S ANOTHER ONE! Dude, 20-years-later-sequels are to be respected.

AND! A movie version of another childhood favorite (with awesome explosive-guerilla-warfare and teen drama), Tomorrow, When the War Began is being released next year! As a bonus, one of the main characters is being played by Rachel Hurd-Wood, who was Wendy in Peter Pan. (gingerwall, we are going to see this together. You cannot escape.)

Ah, the notorious linkspam: native to the wilds of LiveJournal, this common beast ranges from the Gleeful Highlands to the Ranty Deserts, with varying acceptance from the local population.

• XKCD mocks action movies (again!) The Core (again!) movie posters! *giggles helplessly*


• Empires put up a new single, Bang, for free download at weareempires.com.
  
  For those of you unfamiliar with Empires, they are TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME. Their first album is still up for free download here. (I particularly recommend it for Supernatural fans - every other song seems to reference apocalypse, war, demons, and/or blood. Someday I will make a Sam/Ruby vid to I Want Blood, because really.)


• Interesting interview with a Castle staff writer. What she says about the writers getting to see each episode through the production process is unusual, and might be a contributing factor to Castle's particular brand of meta and fan-friendliness.

Happy LJ-versary to meeeeeeee!!!

I totally meant to post earlier, but apparently six years on LJ has still not taught me to avoid TV Tropes and their seductively-titled pages about Bald of Awesome or MacGuffin Delivery Service. (Though I did clarify my love of Guile Heroes versus their villain counterparts, the Magnificent Bastards, and learned a new word for the whole team/crew/unit-that-acts-like-family trope that I love.) And four years of college still has not taught me that napping is a bad idea when I have plans, because I never wake up promptly.

But I have learned a lot of other useful things from my time in fandom, and I never regret falling in with you hooligans. My journal is a quiet one (I comment five times as much as I receive comments, and my profile tells me I average a post every fortnight or so) and my flist is small, but I love every one of y'all - even when you shame me into changing my spelling of y'all. (I finally admitted defeat, btw, in exchange for making Lindsey publicly correct Jon Walker's spelling)

Some special love has to go to bexless, who gave me an LJ code to get a journal back in the day, and thedorkygirl, who lured me over in the first place and gave me my default icon, which I have used for six years straight and still adore, and inmyriadbits, my eternal partner in crime and clone. But you all bring interesting things and words into my life, and I am a different, richer person for being in fandom.

So, as I am feeling hobbit-y and fond, I am offering presents! I have little money, but you can ask for ficlets, or recs, or you could force me to display my terrible art skills in public. If you've been searching for a song and suspect I might have it, want to see pictures of something, or need recipes for delicious soup, or play with my Tarot cards for you, just ask. If you want to trust me with your address (muahahaha), I can make you cookies or chocolate things, or send you a postcard. Because you are all worth it.

A few links of awesome for celli:

-A collection of funny protest signs: I think the first one is still my favorite.

-Hilarious analysis of response rates to online dating messages: I am especially amused that using the word "zombies" has a 40% response rate (above average).

-Information is Beautiful: a blog that analyzes information in pretty ways, or collects graphics from elsewhere. Like time travel in pop culture.

And to kill time before I have to start cleaning again, this week's fannish5: What 5 series would you resurrect if you could?
1) Firefly. Yes, I am still bitter, and probably always will be.
2) Life
3) The Middleman
4) Jake 2.0
5) Sports Night

So I've been watching the SPN panel at ComicCon - which is hilarious but full of spoilers - and I noticed that Misha Collins is AWESOME at dodging spoilery questions in a way that still makes fangirls happy. Mostly, he does this by being ridiculous - but I admire his talent!

(also, bonus points to Jim Beaver for calling Kripke "the real Lucifer". And to the Kripke, for comparing himself both to the geeky girl who gets asked to prom in teen movies, and to L. Ron Hubbard)

Mostly, it just makes me happy that everyone who works on the show seems to love it as much as we do. The worst thing that can happen to a show is for the crew to get tired of it (*coughBuffyseason7*), and I don't see that happening here. &heart;

Meme!

1) Comment to this and I will give you three people. (Any fandom listed in my profile; please state whether you want boys, girls, or both)
2) Post this meme with your answers.
3) Provide pictures and the names of the three people I give you.
4) Label which you would shag, marry, and throw off a cliff.

elucreh gave me Greta Salpeter, Severus Snape, and Rodney McKay.
( My answers )

Oh, Ryan Ross, how so awesome? Fanboying Let the Right One In, dissing Twilight, and apologizing for Elton John, all in the same post. *draws hearts* Now if only Gerard Way would post about it, my life would be complete....

I'm breaking more than a year's worth of radio silence because I am PISSED OFF.

Casting for the movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender was announced recently. Wanna guess how many of the lead roles went to non-white actors? Oh, yeah, NONE.

Leaving aside my liberal distaste at the sidelining of ethnic actors in the Hollywood system (INCOHERENT RAGE) and my doubts about the acting abilities of Jesse McCartney (yeesh), this is just a HORRIBLY STUPID choice as a filmmaker. It is a betrayal of the show's rich world-building, which is heavily inspired by Asian and Inuit cultures, both visually and philosophically. It makes a betrayal of the show's themes of diversity. It makes a mockery of a story where a group of kids from vastly different cultures and backgrounds become close friends and change the world -- not just because they are talented, but because they learn from each other, change each other, and work together to achieve their goals.

It PISSES ME OFF.

I fucking loved this show, and I am writing an angry letter. A polite one, but angry nonetheless. Anyone want to join me?

ETA: additional places to write to here.

In case anyone else is as irritated by those pop-up link previews as I am, try this post on how to remove them.

I'd also like to recommend The Hunger Site, and its sisters: the Breast Cancer Site, the Child Health Site, the Literacy Site, the Rainforest Site, and the Animal Rescue Site, all of which are run by the same organization. The deal is that you click once a day, go to a page with a bunch of ads, and the site uses the ad money to fund their cause. Clicking through all six sites takes less than a minute with a good connection, and people who are on the internet as often as us LiveJournal addicts are prime candidates for clicking daily.

If you like a slightly more fun way to fund a good cause, try FreeRice.com and work on your vocabulary while donating rice to the UN World Food Program. The definitions are a little wonky, but it's a nerdy good time.

inmyriadbits posted a great bit of meta about the influences of the Western genre on Supernatural. I helped out with some of the background, but she did all the hard thinky stuff herself. Go read! (no spoilers for S3)

I picked up an interesting survey at promote_spn (which all Supernatural fans reading this should join, if you haven't already): you get to list the shows you watch and offer opinions on whether they have improved or declined since you started watching. For me, it was by turns a bitchfest and fannish glee, so I think ya'll will enjoy it ;)

It was a little disconcerting to find that I watch no actual TV anymore, just videos of my shows and my DVDs. Hmph.

Dude. This bat has a tongue that is so long that it retracts into the bat's rib cage.

If that's not newsworthy, I don't know what is. *geeks out* And for extra win, the article includes a comparison picture with Gene Simmons. Hee!

ETA: more links and randomicity! ( Brought to you by: 4 AM - totally the right time for this )

Last night was interesting: I went straight from bridge club to a sex toy workshop. They were even next door to each other! Both were awesome - a couple of the girls at bridge decided they were getting drunk and going to bed early (because they were tired), so S. was playing hysterically badly. At one point, she was horrified to find that A. was going to make what S. had bid, which is so not supposed to happen.

At the workshop, the two women who spoke were funny and informative, and there was pad thai. I was also traumatized by her commentary on the history of circumcision, which got a large boost in the US from Kellogg and Graham, brother of Kellogg Cornflakes guy and he of the graham crackers, respectively. It was intended to reduce masturbation, and they also advocated "the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris [as] an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement." HOLY CRAP THAT'S NOT ON. We were such a good crowd, too - all the girls gasped in horror at that tidbit. Gee, wonder why that didn't catch on? The ladies also brought a metric ton of toys and lube and such that they passed around for examination. It was very educational! I took notes!


Moving on, the "which movies have you seen" meme, from poisonivory:

( the AFI's greatest 100 American films of the 20th century )

Greetings, fellow internet dwellers! I should be sleeping, but I'm not! A shocking, rare LiveJournal event, I'm sure. Warning: this post contains completely random topic jumps. Do not read if you have poor balance.

I've been working at my summer job, which has prevented me from posting as I wanted to. I'm a canvasser for an environmental group, which is fun and sucky by turns, so I'm looking for a nice boring job at a bookstore with better hours.

I have now seen Jaws and rectified my failure as a film fan. It was lots of fun, in a gory, totally scientifically-inaccurate, awesome way. I called the way that they killed the shark very early on. The music really made some of the scenes, I have to say. Major props to John Williams. Also, Matt Hooper really, really reminds me of Hodgins on Bones.

Random Links

for researchgrrrl: Alkali metal explosions
British accents and exploding metals! What's not to love?

for maribou413: Autopsy videos
More awesomely-accented science videos, this time autopsies and plastination with Gunther von Hagens and his AWESOME and NONSENSICAL hat. Warning for the non bio geeks: graphic depiction of human internal squidgy bits.

for, uh, everyone: Dean het vids
http://community.livejournal.com/the_dean_show/12013.html
The product of a vid contest over at the_dean_show, these vids are basically Dean Gen!Porn in pretty packaging, set to "Heterosexual Man." Mmmm, Dean. (The one by beluga is basically a slideshow with a Sam "voiceover" - I'd skip it. But the other two are very nice indeed.)

So, as you can clearly see by examining my sister's LJ, we marathoned Supernatural when she visited me last weekend. Dear lord, it's good to see Jensen Ackles on TV again. Really really really really REALLY good.... *ahem* Let's just say I've been very distracted from my schoolwork this past week, and leave it at that.

In any case, I was rewatching Dead Man's Blood last night, and I noticed that John still wears his wedding ring. COULD HE BE ANY MORE TRAGIC?!? I nearly started crying all over again. Then I went back, and he had it on in Shadow, too. Am I the only one who noticed? I mean, the Winchesters are all distractingly pretty, so I only saw it when John had his hand right up next to his face *eg*

In other news:

Peep Research! Discover how indestructible those damn thing really are.... Ew.

Jane Espenson and Doris Egan both have blogs (well, blog and LJ, respectively), so if you're at all interested in screenwriting, TV, or even just an interesting story about casting Jensen Ackles, check these ladies out. Jane posts more regularly, but Doris Egan has a good backlog of posts back through 2003.

I was poking around on Snopes.com (urban legend reference website), and I found an entry about "backwards" buildings. It just reminded me of LBJ, and the theatre's loading dock, which was brilliantly built on the second floor, well out of reach of any practical use. Ah, LBJ.

You gotta love curling, if for no other reason than you can say someone "raised their broom in victory." *snickers* The US team sounds so adorable - they just won bronze (yay!), and the captain is a Minnesota pizzeria owner. D'awww. There was also a streaker wearing a rubber chicken during the bronze match. Best. Olympic. Story. Ever!

In another weird turn of events, check out this interesting approach to bestiality.

Damn, my Isaac icon is really getting a workout lately.

First of all, a casting spoiler for SG-1's next season. Lindsey, say it with me: WHEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, a very accurate essay on laptop usage during college lectures from Slate. The author points out a lot of off-topic uses for internet surfing, but in Film class it can be quite useful. IMDB, baby! We're all fans in that class.

Meanwhile, in homework land, I have to read 21 versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Currently, my brain is burning from the horrible rhymes perpetrated by several authors. Why? Why must I suffer this fate? There's a reason I stay away from the Pit of Voles. *sigh* Maybe it will be better once I get past the Romantic writers....

At least I have Doctor Who on the horizon, once I read some more of this crap. 'Tis a lovely carrot to tempt myself with.

My journal -- it's alive!!!

Hi, ya'll. Wow, it's been almost a year since my last post. I should do something about that.

Today, I wanted to link to a series of posts by ozarque (link copied from cofax). I put them (in order) in my memories under Life as an Extraterrestrial, and the stories deal with her marriage to a French man from an upper-class family in the 1950s. Fascinating stuff, with the wry, amusing self-knowledge that only old and wise people can pull off.

Karen, you should check out the rest of her journal as well. She's a 70-year-old scifi novelist from Missouri with a linguistics PhD and a long career as a university professor, so your kind of person. Sounds like she's had an interesting life.

Also, Lindsey and I started gemini_recs, a recs journal which I have not posted to yet. But fear not! I have many things and not enough time to write, though I suspect my procrastination will one day wander in that direction.

I want TexMex, and I'm in Connecticut. Expect much whining to ensue.

I'm crying. But it's happiness, this time.

*g* Makes me want to get rich just so I can give all my money away....

The Blue Sun Fanfiction Awards are up for voting! They used to be called The Strawberries, and somehow Shrift's Big Damn Zombies is not winning by leaps and bounds, so you should all go vote for it ;) Karen, there are some good fics on there if you're still getting started on your search.