Rob1

AHAHA! This just made my day better. (WANTZ DOG SO BAD!)

Katz RULE! (At least in their own tiny pea heads) [youtube linkage]

Hee. Random drive-bye. A friend was showing me a beta webpage which had some ads on it. It's a religious site, and one ad has the Pope on it. It's actually labeled 'the Pope' or something, so I know that's who it is. Otherwise, not so much.

I'm all like 'Holly Crap! The Pope really looks a LOT like Ed Asner!'

And then I click through and find out it was an ad for a movie where Asner plays the Pope.

So really- I guess the Pope (whichever one this was about) probably doesn't look like Ed Asner's twin brother.

I'm kinda bummed about that.

"Swimmer Trapped by Beach Balls"

Full story on Fail blog.

Is ded.

Amazon Rank.

I also signed the petition here and would rec oulangi's 'Amazonfail, and getting out the virtual pitchforks' as a good overview w/lots of contact options.

Waiting for tomorrow to decide whether to cancel my accounts entirely. Frak, I've got almost never used affiliate links scattered around that I need to track down and nuke as well. Bugger. Stupid people suck.

Blarg- long assed day and I want to save this link. After weeks of cute overload from wee kitty cam, now I have wee deer pictures showing up on my flist!

The other day my BiL saw a deer lying on the side of the road, and he stopped to make sure it was dead and not lying there suffering. The doe was dead, but there was a bitty fawn shivering near momma.
Linkage to blogspot- ghuh!

This is why it's difficult when all of your work involves the computer- Mutant X outake!



No- I never watched Mutant X. But- wowzers! Kinda wish I had.

In the 'cool as shit' category- the Firefox add-on PicLens. If you ever do image searches? This is about the sweetest interface I've seen. Gives you 3-D nav experience w/fast zooming up to the limits of the pics. Works w/google, smugmug, devinatart, yahoo- and others.

If you use FF- check it out. SO much faster and nice than paging through google search. It's fracking beautiful.

And I hope this embed will work- for a cool presentation on where this stuff is headed- see:



Photosynth demo

Hm- been watching 'Days of Our Lives' lately, which was my first fandom. It's been years! Oh- J&M, how I used to love you.

And my 3 year old nephew is getting into computer games and comics- so I went to the garage and broke out an old box of them I had stored from back in the day. He of course picked one with a semi-nude woman on it for the first one to read (I assume this is a Y chromosome thing or fond memories of when he was still nursing). Of course, he got scared. I think 'Camelot 3000' is probably not 3-year old appropriate. Fortunately I had a 'Supergoofy' comic that was. Why do I have 'Supergoofy'? I don't know. Eh- at least I didn't pull out 'The Crow' or 'The Preacher'- it could have been much, much worse.

Lastly- HOLY FUCK! Torchwood! I watched the first episode and never got into it, so that was it for me. But saw an adequate video of the s2 premier and HOLY FUCK! So- I downloaded it. Still not feeling a mad desire to follow the show- but this episode was hot like fire. Anybody want it, I'll upload it. I assume Torchwood folk already have their ways, and it downloaded superfast as a torrent. But if you're curious and have no way to get it, comment and I'll upload it.

And yea- super hot. This is what the final season of Angel should have been like. And then I found a good vid of the episode- which I wouldn't watch before catching the episode. But since I've seen the episode, I've downloaded it and watched on repeat.

Hollywoodgrrl's 'Adore'. Very, very pretty and there are some edits/cuts in there that I really, really like. The POV confuses me a bit, so I will have to digest before I decide whether/how to comment. But damn pretty. Just watch the show first if you're likely to watch the eppy at all- major spoilers ahoy.

La!

I never post these things, but this one was interesting- mainly because I've never heard of the guy that's my closest match. I suspect he will not win. On the plus side, at least this time, I bet we get a Democrat.

93% Mike Gravel
87% Dennis Kucinich
83% John Edwards
82% Chris Dodd
80% Barack Obama
78% Joe Biden
78% Bill Richardson
77% Hillary Clinton
31% Rudy Giuliani
28% Ron Paul
23% John McCain
23% Tom Tancredo
21% Mike Huckabee
16% Mitt Romney
11% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Happy Thanksgiving!

"INSANE Buzzer beater from Autistic student drives crowd wild"

naamah_darling passed this along in her journal, and I'm passing it on myself. The short of it is, over 200 dogs and cats have been rescued in Dekalb, IL and the folks there are in real need of help caring for them. If you've got a spare $20 in your paypal account, this would be a good way to spend it. News article- with vid and the Dekalb Humane Society's page- where a paypal button can be found.

From bifemmefatale
[quote]
My neighborhood now has the dubious distinction of a woman who makes Naamah's neighbor look like friggin' Doctor Doolittle. A woman living between DeKalb and Rochelle was arrested, committed for psychiatric testing and charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty after police and animal control officials discovered 230 live dogs, cats and birds on her property...and over 200 dead ones in freezers, burn pits and just scattered around the property.

http://www.wrex.com/News/index.php?ID=22454

This was animal hell. Dogs were found locked in abandoned cars, crowded 5 and 6 to a run meant for one, starving, covered in fleas. Some had had up to half of their ears eaten away by blackflies and horseflies. And believe it or not, the dogs had it good in comparison with the cats. They were found locked in the basement, swarms of them. "The (ammonia) smell in there is very overpowering, your eyes burn almost immediately and it takes a while to even get used to it to the point where you can breathe," describes Beth Drake, the Executive Director of TAILS Humane Society in DeKalb. "There's almost no electricity in the house. It's beyond filthy." Live cats were living off the carcasses of dead ones. "There were some cats in the basement that were in almost perpetual darkness and had no food or water. They had feces three or four inches thick on the bottom of their cages." one TAILS Humane Society member said.

All of the confiscated animals were taken into TAILS custody and have been moved to a vacant hangar at the DeKalb Municipal Airport. The community has responded overwhelmingly with donations of food, blankets, cleaning supplies and volunteer help. I myself went down there with a bag of supplies and volunteered for a couple of hours this afternoon. Even half-starved, these animals are beautiful, friendly, and almost all purebreds. TAILS expects to be caring for these furbabies for weeks or even months after the media circus has died down. They are urgently in need of monetary donations to help with the expenses of veterinary care and processing all these animals for adoption. If you can spare anything, *please* visit the TAILS website and make a donation.

http://www.tailshumanesociety.org/main.asp?id=27
[/quote]

1. I keep seeing reference to PoC go by on my flist and I get happy because 'Pirates'! Then I get sad, cause I didn't really like the Norrington arc. Then I realize there are no pirates.

Where's the rum?

2. Watching Becket is REALLY making me think of Smallville. Damn it's tragic and slashy. I think it must be the way Henry keeps wandering around yelling about how much he loves Becket to everyone he knows. "I loved him. I loved him. I love him still." And of course Becket's last word is 'Henry'. I mean- damn. Very old school SV.

I love my flist. I comment rarely, read sporadically- but it's about the ONLY fannish link I have left at the moment. So today, I'm playing on my flist rather than doing real work- which I'm going to get to ANY MINUTE NOW. Really. And in attempting to buckle down and work, I somehow decided to compile a brief history of one pro writer's seduction by 'teh evil fanfic'.

ursulav may be the ONLY journal I have friended that's not fandom related. Someone on my flist linked to a post where she talked about the insane animals populating her backyard, and it was so damn funny I friended her. Anyhoo- the journal's an eclectic mix of posts- about backyard critters, birdwatching, art, games, writing.... It's highly enjoyable as she's an excellent writer. She's also an artist, award winning web cartoonist, and has a children's book coming out. Anyway, in the past month or so, I've cackled with glee as she's slowly been sucked into the devil's playground that is fanfic. Here's a brief history- I'd highly recommend reading through the posts and the comments if, like me, you have work you're trying to avoid.

In the beginning: An artist confronted by derivative works

Um....yeah.
Somebody--who shall remain nameless and unlinked because I really hate drama--appears to be writing about Gearworld--...

I've never minded fan art. Fan writing makes me a little twitchy, but even that's been flexible. I didn't mind tributes or inspirations-- ...

And I still surprised myself by getting really rather pissed.

The artist is tempted

( Read more )

The fall

link
At the moment, I'm--yes, fine, I am writing an absolutely dreadful bit of fan fiction which, god willing, will never ever ever see the light of day.

And it is fun.

It is unbelievably fun. It is sick and twisted fun.

Let's face it, she was doomed from the start.

No redemption now possible- she's moved on to meta!

Further thoughts on fanfic
A month ago, I would have rejected fan fic with a wave of the hand--then I actually read some, and now I am...well, I feel somewhat different.

Ties to the 'Id vortex' discussion, really good read. This one inspired me to go back and track down the others.

The only thing left is a public posting of the fanfic- I'm waiting for it. It's gotta happen!

Sigh- my flist is now my fandom- which makes sense as the writing is much better than it was for most of my shows!

I spent all freak'n day working on my site- which is kinda 'real work' because I use it to beta software and I've a new alpha version I'm testing. And I haven't really touched the fanfic site in ages- it's kind of a mess and needs a real clean-up and some parts need re-thinking. So, this was the perfect excuse.

And then I'd been reading the recent posts/polls on vidding and rec'ing vids and... In truth, I had a bunch of vids I'd written up recs for, or partial recs for, when I was flirting with the whole 'vidding' thing. Writing like that helps me figure out what works for me and why. But, I never took the recs 'live' because I was sensitive to linking issues- and because I was not into the idea of emailing folks before I rec'ed. So, they sat there mostly unseen. I think there were a few backdoor cracks that folks surfed in from, because the hit counter tells me so. But even those folks didn't see the full 'rec' because I didn't have all the fields showing.

Which is a long way of saying- I've got a vid rec section up- here. These are all old recs- though I did go through and check links and try to make sure there were no proscriptions about linking on the sites. The one vidder who did have a 'no link' policy statement was super nice when I emailed about it to ask if 'no' really meant 'no'- and gave me permission. Thank you P.R. Zed! Of course both Lum and Sisabet had moved sites since I first wrote these up- and between the two of them, that accounted for... well, a lot of links to swap. But- all fixed now, with only a few missing links.

A good chunk of the old vids recs still aren't live, because I hadn't finished either the 'rec' part or the 'visceral reaction' part of the write-up. And there's a crapload more of actual recent vids sitting in my 'favs' folder that I haven't written up. And I really should add fields for song title and artist.... But hey- I'm still feeling accomplished. Just- less so after writing all that.

But if you're curious, check 'em out. And if you're lazy, here's the list of what went live:

Are You Out There - by Rachel [Contact]
Cowboy - by sisabet [Buffyverse]
Extreme Ways - by Cheryll [Smallville]
Fire - by Luminosity [Buffyverse]
Fragile - by Myrtle & Eunice [Buffyverse]
Harry Potter - Bothering Snape - by The Potter Puppet Pals (Neil Cicierega animator) [Harry Potter Humor]
I can Change - by kaliroi [Smallville Humor]
I Feel Fine - by Xandra [Buffyverse]
I Would Die For You - by P.R. Zed [I Spy]
Mad World - by Luminosity [Buffyverse]
South West Voodoo - by The Shimmer Twins (Luminosity and Ozonebaby) [Buffyverse]
Spider-man - by AJ Johnson [Spiderman]
Star Trek ToS - Closer - by T. Jonesy and Killa [Star Trek AU]
Strange Disease - by crazygrrl [Buffyverse Humor]
The Becoming - by kaliroi [Smallville]
The Other Side - by Luminisosity [Buffyverse]
Wanna Talk About Me - by Xandra [Buffyverse Humor]
Whatever - by Luminosity and Sisabet [Buffyverse]
Without Me - by sisabet and dr dawn [Buffyverse]

Three vidders are mia, accounting for 4 vids:
Xandra 'Wanna Talk About Me', 'I Feel Fine' Buffy (I have much Giles love)
Cheryll 'Extreme Ways' Smallville
crazygrrl 'Strange Disease ' - Buffy. Not 404, but has a 'I may/may not be back message'- so if anyone knows what's up....http://www.iamkirok.com/

Anyone know what's up with them, let me know.

And now- I'm getting away from this damn computer for a while!

So- remember the last round of wank over fanfic reviews/recs/feedback/mean people/fragile flowers/etc. Of course you do. I didn't join in, as I buried that particular horse a while back. In general, I fall firmly into the pro-review camp. In general.

Anyhoo, painless_j, oulangi, djin7, gunderpants, and dinpik decided to try a little experiment. Independently, they each reviewed the one-shots and completed fics listed in the sshp_prophet on 08-07-2006. (Note- theregoesyamum's reviews are now up here, and I found them a particularly interesting approach.)

Now I have to say, I don't think trying to review everything- or everything in a particular community/archive/etc.- is a great idea. I think reviews are most useful if folks stick to stories they actually think they might like. Or if they have a particular 'type' of fic they want to look at, both individually or as a whole (see isiscolo's HP Vampire reviews). Or as an experiment, such as this. It was really quite nifty.

So, I figured I'd take a look at the reviews and the fics in light of painless_j's thesis that a bad review is not the same as an 'anti-rec'. Er- read the post if you haven't already. Point is, I took a look at the fics in question, their summaries, the reviews- and tried to come to some tentative conclusion on the impact of such reviews on my own reading habits.

Here's what I found....( Read more... )

So? Did the reviews in general shape my reading? Yes, though the reviews only increased the likelihood that I'd read. They may have lowered my expectations for a given fic, but there was no story that I would have read just based on the summary that I decided not to read based on the review(s). Even a negative review.

The most important thing in deciding to read a fic was the summary- and whether it was rec'ed. For example, any of these reviews would have greatly increased the likelihood I'd read mahaliem's humor fic. I'm not so keen on short, humorous stories. They generally have to be rec'ed before I'll give them a try. In this case, the reviews acted as recs. On the flip side, "Sweet Victory" was generally dinged. Fairly so, I'd have to say after reading it. But the reviews didn't decrease my interest- the 'spy' genre is one I like. The fact it was a short fic would have had more of a negative impact on the likelihood I'd read than the iffy reviews.

Er- and I've babbled the hell on. To sum- it was a cool experiment. One that I think illustrated the extent to which personal taste plays a giant role fic preferences. Taste and a damn good beta. I'd also say that it confirmed in my own mind the idea that reviews are just one more resource folks can use to help them find fanfic they're interested in- and that 'weeding out' doesn't play all that large a part in it. Certainly not to the extent recs do.

By their nature, recs don't 'market' the fics that aren't 'rec worthy' (whatever that may be). Reviews do- as I wouldn't have heard of any of the fics otherwise, and a negative review had no real influence on the likelihood I'd read a fic. I think this makes reviews less useful than recs, but they are bloody interesting to read! I also think trying to review everything, including stories you know you won't like from the summary, reduces the usefulness of reviews. Probably increases the snark level, though.

Of course- this was just my take on it. I've followed links on fic hate memes because I thought a story sounded interesting. Flawed, but interesting. Obviously, YMMV. It's worth checking the reviews out for yourself, particularly if you're at all into HP fic.

Overall, it was neat- hope they do it again. Maybe next time I'll review the reviewers. (I found painless_j's the most useful, both in style and substance. That's not surprising given that she's one of my favorite rec'ers. I did note some interesting differences in how they approached the reviews- but this post is way too long anyway. Perhaps some other time.)

Anybody have the new addy to the SSA? I swear I saw mention of it on my flist in the past week- which was the first I knew it had moved. I have not been keeping up.

Sure enough- I try http://smallville.slashdom.com/ and it's a 404. I poke around Level 3 and check the LJ feed for it, but all I've come up with is the old address.

I was going to be good and fix the links on my recs- as probably 90% of the SV ones go to SSA- but I need to figure out the addy!

I get geared up to do a little maintenance for the first time in ages- and I don't know what to switch the bloody links to!

Thanks chain_lightning - switched from .com to .net and all of my SSA links are now working. Woot!

Oh- and since I'm posting- anybody looking for a vox account, I've got one invite. First one who wants it, just leave an email addy and I'll send it along. Damn ads are annoying, but I'm curious as to how good it would be for vids. Haven't poked enough to figure it out yet.

No, haven't posted in ages as I haven't had much time to read fic. And fic is about all I post about.

But I've been enjoying the flist and I've really been appreciating a community for a certain British show that's way behind in its USA airing. Thank you UK for helping us backward Yanks get our fix.

I've also been massively psyched because I just got my grubby little hands on a digital copy of the first episode of Blake's 7 s4. Wheeeee! I just got into the show this year and managed to get ahold of s1-3- and loved it despite the bad effects and the sometimes lack of sense.

And it occurred to me that a b7_eps community for source deprived folks might not be the worst idea ever. So, I figured I'd see if there's any interest in it (or if one exists that I haven't found- and I have looked). The usual sources for old eps tend to dry up a bit after the first flurry of sharing and it would be nice to have a more permanent LJ community for folks looking for a fix.

And yes, this post is rather vague- isn't it? Well, it's meant to be and I'll probably end up deleting it in a few days. If there's enough interest, we can get a locked community going and hash things out in private. So- if you know folks who'd be interested in a B7 eps community and who can't get ahold of the dvds (not even Netflix has them here), drop a reply.

Whew- hope everyone had a great holiday. I'm finally getting a chance to catch up with my flist- after realizing I haven't been logged in for I don't know how long. Was wiping cookies while debugging some software and never noticed I wasn't logged in when doing quick scans of the LJ flist. Sigh. I'll never catch up.

But I'm going to take a few days and devote myself to fandom. To start, I went back to an old love- General Hospital- and watched about 5 hours of old stuff I had on DVD. My dvd player had been on the blink for ages, but my little bro got me a new one for Christmas- so I indulged.

Man, I used to love Sonny and Carly (Sara Brown- original Carly). I watched the first 3 hours- hate sex and Sonny discovering Carly was pregnant with his child- then skipped ahead to my last DVD, which was Sonny getting shot at Christmas through their wedding at the chapel. That's pretty much where I stopped watching GH- I thought it got too stupid after that and they'd already destroyed my beloved Cassadines.

While hooking up the new dvd player (internal burner for the pc) I found some extra copies of the old GH stuff. I have around 4-5 extra's of 4 discs in my S&C set- numbers 1,2,6,7. They're on DVD-R. Anybody want a set of the odd ones, just drop me an email with your addy (Continental US) and I'll send them your way. Use my gmail addy- name is mediacow (my LJ mail goes into the ether).

Now I'm off to wallow in some fanfic- looks like a lot of good stuff came out during holiday challenges. I've already read two short Ladyhawke fics- MAN, I loved that movie! It doesn't ping me 'fanish' wise, but they were good reads. Now I'm thinking some Brimstone might be nice! But wait, is that new Who? Oh- must hit the torrent sites!

Ah, fandom. I have missed you!

For the squid lovers on the f-list, thought I'd pass along this link to a fun review of The Calamari Wrester. It's a Japanese flick about a wrestler who dies and is reincarnated. As a giant squid. Who takes up wrestling. Sounds like all sorts of problems ensue- including those of a romantic nature.

“You want me to date a giant squid? But he has been banned from wrestling–how could he support me?”

Hee- it's like really bad fanfic. Make sure to scroll down and catch the picture of the giant squid skipping happily along next to his girlfriend.

So I was in a porny mood last night- which is kinda rare for me. But when I AM in a porny mood, I don't go for the typical PWPs. No, I like bondage pwp- preferably non-con/slave type fic. It's my dirty little secret, and I don't think I've ever rec'ed such a story- but I certainly have a few bookmarked. When I need a kink fix, that's where I go.

And that got me to thinking about the recent round of 'Why is f/f the red-headed stepchild of fandom,' which I rarely think about since gen is the real red-headed stepchild of fandom and I love me some gen. That leaves little sympathy left over for the lack of f/f. And when I actually WANT my porny bondage- there damn well better be some male dangly bits involved! In other words, ( I have a penis kink! )