Miss Celleaneous

No one wants to know about my sinus woes 24/7 - I'm kinda aiming at 36/7 already - so have some other topics, for a change:

"Meanwhile, the Disney Company, who last year actually did good with the charming Princess and Frog - Tiana is my favourite Disney heroine in a long time - has decided that boys think films with girls' names on it are icky, icky, icky, so they'll rename their next effort from Rapunzel to Tangled and make the prince into a dashing bandit named Flynn Rider who is really the main character. You know, considering Rapunzel is actually a salad's name (which is a plot point in the story), you'd think if there was any renaming to be done, they'd call him Cucumber, which even has the manly association they're obviously going for, but hey."

- from selenak's all-around enlightening post

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Om nom nom broccoli cheese soup! I just threw fresh broccoli into a pot, cooked & seasoned it for a few minutes, pureed it all when done, and afterwards melted that 100% original English cheddar that sandynotlisa had brought into the mix. Still all bright green and with texture, yet smooth, if that makes sense?

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Serendipity of the day: Yesterday, I had inconsolably used shower gel as hand soap in my bathroom; today at the cosmetics store next to the radiologist's clinic, the sales assistant smiled at me and gave me a soap dispenser - including fancy soap - as a bonus gift. It's - well. It has rhinestones. And the loopy pink logo of the store. Which is a nice one! I just can't stop snickering every time I wash my hands. Which is often but totally not OCD, shuddup. Now I just hope it's true when they do say laughing is the best cure...

I know it's been linked far and wide, but really, really go read this right now, or later. But do read thingswithwing's post on US consumerist culture, fatphobia & misconceptions.

(As I threatenedpromised him, I'm sending sandynotlisa the link: We had a little discussion about fat people today, and while looking a little deer-in-the-headlights there, he wasn't unconvinced or unwilling. He'll totally miss my long elaborations on How The World Is As Opposed To The Way It Totally Should Be when he's back in England. Oh yes. ;)

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Same blog, different topic, and can I just say that I LOVE how everybody is (not so) seriously discussing Stargate:Atlantis in general and, in particular, John Sheppard as a character, with Joe Flanigan as the actor who portrays him so...er, as the actor who portrays him so?

And the obedience one was this SGA scene

fiercelydreamed, in the comments, sums up SGA & John perfectly when she says,

I didn't watch five seasons of the show in spite of that guy being the lead -- I watched it because he was the lead. It totally delighted me that this show was Sci Fi: Revenge of the Kids Always Picked Last, in Space. Particularly because it was so obvious that the creators thought only Rodney was that guy, when in fact, every character was that guy.

cesare also has a really good point:

"What backstory Sheppard got was that he's the guy who wasn't supposed to be in charge, and J-Flan played that guy: the one who didn't belong in that position but got stuck with it and tried - even though he really just wanted to be in the air and had no idea what to do with his hands.

Maybe that was J-Flan's actual uncertainty at being on his first genre show, bleeding through. But he seemed to put it forward consistently enough that it became Sheppard's uncertainty, Sheppard's awkwardness, Sheppard's thinly veiled sense of complete unsuitability for what he's trying to do. No wonder the guy was so willing to put himself on the line in suicide missions. At least then no one could say he wasn't trying his best."

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Which reminds me of Dollhouse.

I watched the finale during the flight back from Portugal, and as usually with this show, I'm mostly drawing a blank when it comes to analysing what I've seen (a first, you might think to yourself). Speaking of, for the first time, ( spoiler, if you know my preferences )

I'd love seeing meta or fanfic responses to Dollhouse. Rec me, if you can?

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Still in the Whedonverse: crazydiamondsue has posted a collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meta Posts.

*bookmark*

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And ooh, nomen est omen, after all, as liv in this entry ponders the new feature, beginning with:

"From the time when Dreamwidth was just a cool idea, one of the things that was talked about was the ability to read posts from other LJ-based sites on your own reading list (DW terminology for "friends page"). Not a half-arsed RSS feed of public posts, actual posts that would respect access ("friends lock") settings and cut tags and allow you to join in the comment discussion. This project, which I'm love with, kept being stalled because it's a difficult problem socially and ethically; it needs to be done in a way that will not irreversibly freak out either LJ management or individual users. But finally this week, Dreamwidth announced that the feature is under active development."

:)

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Yes, I'm still suffering from the chest'n head cold from hell, which is why I dragged myself home early, i.e. at 7:30pm. Sandy and I are postponing our movie night. (Next up, next week: Stargate, the movie! Hey, it has James Spader and kinda-eponymous sci-fi portals: What's not to love?) I'm also vastly amused that geekycolleague is doing his best at - and seemingly succeeding in - turning Sandy into an Old!Trek fan. Between the two of us, he'll be a fanboy in no time.

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Yeah, yeah: tl;dr.

Food

Came too late for the cut smoked beef because the sausage'n meat counter closes at 8pm. Okay, fine, whatever, I thought: ( impromptu lamb stew! )! ♥

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Colleagues & Such

Did I mention that there was a fire alarm in our building when I was still on crutches? I was on the 8th floor, and the "floor ward" rather upset (as this was not a drill) - she hurried the two of us over to the staircase before you could say, "WTF ELEVATOR?"

monanotlisa: *slowly climbs down seven flights of stairs on crutches*
sandynotlisa: *grins* "Hey, look at the bright side: You're lucky you're not in a wheelchair right now."
monanotlisa: "It's you who's lucky I'm not in a wheelchair right now. Cause then you'd have to carry me."

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Fandom

BarbC & TLN talk about about the AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) wank.

rahirah: "Tangentially, there are probably many, many writers who feel, in moments of self-pitying, hormonal woe, that people only love us for our stories, and the cruel intarwebz do not appreciate us as they should, for the crystalline purity of our unique and fragile snowflake souls, nor does fandom provide us the unceasing emotional succor we so richly deserve. Ghod knows that I have felt that way upon occasion myself. But most of us generally recognize that feeling for the passive-aggressive, entitled whining that it is, and keep our damn mouths shut until it passes."

thelastgoodname: "What if a person didn't want a future in which fannish activities were recognized as legal? What if said person liked doing things that are morally and legally dubious--what if that were part of the draw? What if the illegitimacy of the act were part of why a person participated?"

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Meme

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

Paper Moon at the Hollywood Cemetery via Cinespia was a-mazing. Just - wow. A most gorgeous cinematic experience.

For me, old films are not about fond memories; they are genuinely new to me. ( My families and me )

Also, I love the L.A. freeways late at night. Almost like the Autobahn! (Speed limit, what speed limit?)

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From stultiloquentia,

a page I've been meaning to make for a long time: a meta recs page for my website. Words that have shaped my ideas, words that are funny and true. Nerdsquee. Mantras.

"Doyle would have known Bodie wanted him to pick up some broccoli."

"ok, so WHAT IF HE DOES TAKE IT?"

"I want us to own the goddamned servers."

"But there were no taverns in India."

"Give it permission to be bigger than you are."

Here is her post; read and share, maybe?

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coffeeandink collected a few links on racism and homophobia and specifically on the Evil In Our Midst panel at WriterCon '09 - a panel that I attended, and a panel that I didn't just applaud as such but wherein I applauded when a dear friend of mine spoke up. I'll write more about it when I have sorted my thoughts, having previously thought my particular impressions weren't especially, you know. Special. Now, after seeing certain attendants' comments, I'm more than a bit shocked and think, maybe they can add to the writers' input, as linked above. You be the judge.

• deepad wrote a punch-in-the-gut post about Reading, Writing, & Identity (I Grew Up With Half A Tongue).

  When I was around thirteen years old, I tried to write a fantasy novel. It was going to be an epic adventure with a cross-dressing princess on the run, a snarky hero, and dragons. I got stuck when I had to figure out what they would do after they left the city. Logically, there would be a tavern.
  
  But there were no taverns in India.

• She also wrote a follow-up post:
  
  White people, it's not all about you, but for this post it is.

• ciderpress joined The Remyth Project and writes, so was i born into the world:

  The woman who has my face is a lotus blossom, a dragon lady, a geisha girl, a china doll. She has a painted smile that she hides behind her hand, a curtain behind which the sexual tigress waits to love you long time. The woman who has my face is an exotic accessory draped on the arms of white men and women. She dances and simpers and bows and scrapes, a submissive victim waiting for a white knight to save her.
  
  Only, once upon a time, there was a lotus blossom -- no, that's not how our stories start.

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( My own ramblings on race discussions - not just on the internet )

stultiloquentia has written a little gem of a post on Porn and the Reading Process:

"When you read (fiction, for simplicity's sake), how much do you visualize? Does a full-blown movie spin out in your head as you go along? Do you have a general sense of setting and movement, but hazy details? Or do you see nothing but words on the page, and then add the rest while you're daydreaming later?"

She also talks about well-chosen details in writing, hind-brain activity, and the essential intimacy factor. Go contribute, if you like!

In SGA news, I made another icon as a contribution to mcsmooch. You can check out John and Rodney kissing here.

Thank you, anonymous donor! I've stocked up immediately. ♥

For the rest of you, if you need a laugh and have at one point seen BtVS and AtS, do head over to rahirah's last entry, wherein she comments quite, uh, unambiguously on sloppy spill-over characterisation in fanfic. & ;-)

If I were into the "x AUs I'm not writing" meme, I'd totally (not) do a Vineyard AU, you know? ( Not just John & Rodney's Big Wine Adventure... )

...but well, I'm not. I'm just trying to get my fix of John'n Rodney and tasty wine at the same time.

(Then again, what are AUs, after all, than a fic-writing way of combining two things we love--our pairing or dynamic of choice with a classic movie, the world of academia, or *gasp* high school?)

I spent my lunch-break bitching about discussing a certain story and pondering its terminology in a general slash context. In German, sorry.

Let me throw the core question at y'all.

[Poll #1072898]

The story we talked about is this one. (Huh, wasn't a link to it originally posted to a major list? I wonder because I only have mckay_sheppard on my reading list and check the Noticeboard, nothing else.)

ETA: To clarify for those who don't speak German, some folks over in frogspace's lj said they'd seen it used for Original Slash fiction and/or commercial "slash," i.e. m/m stories targeted at women, not gay men. Most of us, though, didn't quite get it.

PS: Yes, as the icon implies, I'm liking Life so far. Not terribly original, see my previous estimation, but it has more interesting (and more central) female characters than, say, Numb3rs where I've so far liked Amita and Charlie but am often stuck watching The Don & Department Show.

PPS: I really like to eat beef liver, but gah, preparing it is a bloody mess. Literally. Also, if you're interested in prettily displayed nutrition details for all kinds of foods, do check out this site: Nutrition Data (I'm eye-rolling at all the mentions of "weight-loss," mind you. As if that -- and not a healthy life & good meals -- were important. & :-)

I was cleaning the dishes, as one does. And I idly wondered about fannish feedback culture. As one does.

We like responses to our fanworks. That's a no-brainer. But every time there's another debate or wank about the merits of a piece or the people involved or, fine, another instance of me giving in to the urge of posting unsolicited concrit, I'm baffled anew at people's responses.

Mona, you sigh say, haven't you learned by now that most fans don't want criticism? That a large faction of fandom hates anything but happysqueeyourock! comments?

But, but, but, I respond, WHY?

The question isn't whether we like criticism -- we generally don't. I sure don't. You probably don't. Your five-year-old neighbour with the crayon set won't cherish having all the flaws in his doodles pointed out to him. And yet, to me, that doesn't account for these emotional and occasionally anguished responses. ( ... )