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July 3rd, 2008
 | 10:04 am - This date in [my] history:
(Baaaaaa)
2007: Posted "The Choices We Make". Snape/Lupin. R. (For the Darkfic Fest)
2006: Wrote some evil little responses to some of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mctabby's Summary Executions here. Had a brief jaw-dropping moment about Senator Ted Steven's stunning lack of knowledge about the way the internet works.
2005: Posted a poll examining typical behaviors of college/university undergraduates.
2004: Posted part two of the never-finished, never archived (...and actually forgotten until now *g*) Snape/Unnamed-but-not-so-mysterious-Male-Character story "A man walked into a bar...".
2003: Wrote a rambling post bemoaning what I saw as a lack of passion for learning in my school's students (bizarrely related to my 2005 post *g*). Also? Guess which one of the Endless I turned out to be?
2002: Nothing! I didn't start get an LJ until August...and even then I thought I'd only be using it to make entry reading easier, i.e., I assumed I'd never be posting. Bwahahahahahaha!
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June 28th, 2008
June 27th, 2008
 | 10:46 am - XKCD's Discovery Channel homage. :)
First, there was the link to this Discovery Channel promo vid (I smiled, I cried) featuring "I Love the Whole World" (which you should really, really watch if you haven't already).
And now? xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel! (Thanks to lunaris1013 for the link)
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June 24th, 2008
 | 11:21 am - A minor collision of two of my fannish worlds
A small excerpt from "The BBC and the future of broadcasting" by Stephen Fry
"I may have grown up just as the Golden Age of Radio had passed, but the Golden Age of Television, that grew with me. When I was 7 my parents moved house. Well, we all moved house as a family, I don't mean my parents left me behind, though who would blame them if they had? We owned, in those days, a television that disguised itself as a mahogany drinks cabinet, in the way they did - and they were never called just televisions, by the way, they were television sets. This one's screen was, of course, black and white, it boasted one channel, the BBC (what we'd now call BBC1) and had a knurled volume knob in dark brown Bakelite. The set smelled the way dust always did when it was cooked on Mullard valves as they warmed up. It slid about on castors and had doors that closed with a satisfactory snick as a ball bearing rolled into its slots to secure it. The week before we moved, the BBC started a new drama, starring William Hartnell.( An old man, whose name appeared to be Grandfather or the Doctor... )
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June 19th, 2008
 | 11:50 am - Life on American Mars
Ah, if only this pre-air pilot had been about American astronauts on the Red Planet. Sadly, though, it was just a remake of ( the UK's Life on Mars (warning: spoilers within) )
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June 17th, 2008
 | 03:19 pm - Tech Question
,Okay, clever people: how do you convert a PDF file to Word without losing any of the formatting (not tables, not figures, not bolding, not nuthin')? Selecting "all," copying to the clipboard, then pasting is the obvious easy answer, but too much is lost when you do that.
Eep?
Thanks for all the advice, guys!
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June 12th, 2008
 | 10:50 am
And this is me...driving off into the sunset with the_star_fish on my way to Con.Txt.
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June 11th, 2008
 | 11:22 am
I'm sure everybody who cares already knows that JKR's 800 word prequel snippet has been posted* (mmichelle typed up the snippet here for those of you with young spirits, but old eyes)
( general rambling about being a member of a sub-fandom - not only about HP, necessarily - which contains Snippet Spoilers, so caveat lector )
*Note: there are also stories online from Tom Stoppard, Doris Lessing, Nick Hornby, Neil Gaiman, and Margaret Atwood among others plus you can enter a competition to create your own little postcard story and get it into the book, the proceeds from which will go to benefit Dyslexia Action and English PEN.
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June 10th, 2008
 | 10:02 am - Kucinich's thoughts on Impeachment, let me show you them
You may have seen this already, but yesterday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich called for the impeachment of President Bush on the floor of Congress. A transcript of the 35 articles of impeachment (note: this is a .pdf file and it's 65 big-print pages long, but it's definitely worth reading.). Going through the articles took Kucinich something like five hours, and it was broadcast live on C-SPAN.
A day later, almost none of the major news outlets have even mentioned this. Almost all of the measly 23 google hits lead to blogs (even the CBS hit isn't to their news page but to one of their in-house bloggers)
( the full list of google hits as of 11:00 a.m. EST is below the cut tag )
Regardless of your feelings about Bush, Kucinich has leveled a pretty damning set of charges. Surely this should be treated as news...and not just by the bloggers of the world.
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June 5th, 2008
 | 09:53 am - As the Online Con Wraps Up...
Okay, so the ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) otw_onlinecon is just about wrapping up now and all the challenges and games are still ongoing...at least for a little while longer! In other words, you should go play! The most recent one is Stories EXTREME (which already has some wonderfully crack-headed entries)
The alternate current challenge is "Bad Manips (and the Stories that Love Them Anyway)." Now...the instructions say this doesn't have to be a bad manip; it can also be a good manip to go along with a cracky premise, so if any of you want to do an illustration for "The Heart of the Sea" (which is probably the first - and only - Snape/Lupin MerPreg in existence), I would accept it with open fins arms. *g*
Back to the otw_onlinecon, though...amongst the still-ongoing challenges is ICONS! (requesting and gifting) (Note: all the action is taking place on the LJ comm at the moment, but there are mirror onlinecon communities over on IJ and JF.
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June 3rd, 2008
 | 11:33 pm
Because I love svmadelyn and femmequixotic and don't want them to be sad, I'll refrain from using my end-of-primary-season-appropriate icon until ( I get under the cut tag )
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May 30th, 2008
| 10:16 am - PSA: Updated LJ Policy Guidelines
(thanks to ptyx for the heads up)
I haven't looked at the actual updated LJ policy guidelines document yet, but the (belated, but surprisingly sensible) main points have now been posted over in lj_policy
For those of you who don't want to bother going over there, I've copy/pasted the post below ( the cut tag )
ETA: And the election results are in (see this post for full results) - legomymalfoy is the new user representative on the LJ Advisory Board (note: it really did come down to the wire...as each round saw one candidate leave, their votes were dispersed pretty evenly between the remaining candidates, right up until the end. In the 21st round, when rm was finally eliminated (and congrats to rm for such a great showing), only a couple hundred of those votes went to Jameth, but almost 2000 of them went to LMM)
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 | 12:24 am - Paul Gross Arms! \o/
There I was providing some VERY IMPORTANT info about Paul Gross via friendsfriends, and I thought I should share the love.
So...for anybody who didn't actually know the origin of the phrase "Paul Gross Arms" but was afraid to ask, here's a wonderful example.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present "Voodoo"!
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May 29th, 2008
 | 10:59 am
News on the Leaky Cauldron is that JKR has written (for charity) an 800 word "prequel-ette" set three years before Harry was born.
My favorite response to the article (from the mostly squee-filled comments section)?
"The words just poured from her pen? I thought The Lawsuit had sapped her will to ever write again [...]"
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May 28th, 2008
| 11:25 am - The last of the Election posts (aka, WTF?)
I'm certain that anybody who's been following this Advisory Board election fiasco process has heard that along with the mudslinging (from all sides), accusations of election rigging and sockpuppetry (from all sides), trolling and general bad manners, now into the mix has come actual death threats.
The first person to talk about this in public was cambler (one of the candidates, who has since withdrawn from the race), but given that so many of the early responses in his journal - presumably from actual friends/acquaintances - were things like "First!" I originally assumed that this was a joke, since I couldn't imagine such asinine responses to a srs bsns post. This feeling was reinforced by a number of other candidates (e.g., randomposting and qfemale), who said they hadn't been notified. How could such a thing be true if all the candidates hadn't been notified?
And then some other candidates (front-runners in the campaign) made it clear, one way or another, this wasn't a joke...that it was real and that law enforcement was involved. At that point, cambler posted some of the (extremely unhelpful) correspondence between him and LJ - although even then, there's a long thread in the comments section by somebody called theniceprice who calls bullshit in a very longwinded, semi-trollish way (interesting side point: one of cambler's friends alleges this person is a sock of weev. It seems that invoking weev is the insult du jour for almost everybody)
So...is this real? Is it not? Is it an attention-seeking, drama-creating hoax? (Not that there are any attention-seeking, drama-creating jackasses on the internet *rolls eyes*). Whether this turns out to be a real threat or not, I have great sympathy for anybody who feels targeted right now, but I'm also rapidly losing patience with everybody involved in this election, from the LJ admins who appear unable to organize - as the saying goes - a "piss up in a brewery" to most of the candidates to most of the people who have been yapping endlessly about it (like, um...me, I suppose)
And so...I'll stop yapping endlessly now.
Oh wait...one more yap. I'm no particular buddy of legomymalfoy - we aren't even on each other's f'lists - but anybody who thinks that the relatively substantial lead she has at present is due to much more than a lot of people in fandom being annoying diligent about getting out the fandom vote really know very little about the way communities operate. Am I naive enough to think that nobody is using sock accounts to vote? Of course not. Should you be naive enough to think that the only people using socks are people in fandom? The answer, again, is no.
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May 26th, 2008
 | 11:55 pm - Yet another LJ Election Update
A few days ago, there was a flurry of discussion in jameth's journal, trying to figure out how they could get more votes. brenden (of ohnotheydidnt which has at least 50,000 members) was brought up. Jameth asked "omg how can we get ontd," qweerdo went to Brenden's friends only journal and begged, and today Brenden came through.
Earlier this evening, he posted a very strong, very cyber-loud endorsement, and since that post - just a few hours ago - Jameth's gone from 17% of the vote to 20.4% of the vote because Brenden has made sure they know that "SOME LAME ASS HARRY POTTER FANDOM DORK IS IN THE LEAD."
(Actually? From the time it took me to type this post, he went from 20.4% of the vote to 20.6%.)
Attention all lame ass fandom dorks: VOTE.
ETA Comment as you like, friend or not, but I'm deleting all images.
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 | 10:50 am - In the interests of accuracy.
Re-reading what I quoted in this post, I've realized, belatedly, that my comprehension skills were seriously flawed. dantc [who was unnamed in the post] wasn't actually saying that fandom was full of people with "...No Morals Conscience or Soul," and for this I apologize.
He was, however, saying that we don't actually care if other people have "No Morals Conscience or Soul" as long as their actions benefit us. I'm not entirely convinced that this is better, but...there you go.
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| 12:15 am
As was inevitable, members of jameth's f'list are now starting to troll me, which...is their business (and only goes to help prove the point I've been making about how little I see of value in Jameth's campaign).
However, if any H/D fans would like to see the most recent offering, a Harry/Draco homage to "The Blue Lagoon," perhaps?... feel free to click here.
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May 25th, 2008
| 10:36 pm - LJ Advisory Board Election Update Redux
(ETA: LJ Cuts added due to tl;dr-itis)
Day Something-Or-Other in the Land of LJ Political Intrigue (aka, preaching to the choir)
( about Jameth's non-responsiveness )
( about Jameth's supporters and his own apparent agreement with their attitudes )
( About passive-aggressive accusations of sockpuppetry in the Jameth camp )
Anybody but Jameth, folks. Anybody.
( my presidential election voting process parallels, let me show you them )
I work with rm on snapenews and I respect her positions. On the other hand, I don't think that legomymalfoy's general support for LJ's policies during strikethrough (as a member of the LJ Abuse team) necessarily makes her a bad candidate for fandom...and I think it's clear that she seems to be best positioned at the moment to ensure a non-victory for Jameth (something that's important, assuming you attach any value to these elections in the first place).
Whatever you decide, though, it's important that you make sure you're as informed as possible before the voting deadline. Read the fandom_votes post (and other relevant posts linked on metafandom), check out the the voting progress, and remember that right up until the end, you can always vote - or change your votes - here.
ETA: I see that both rm and legomymalfoy have finally left placeholder posts in their own journals, explaining why they've been so absent from the election discussions (holidays, in both cases, apparently). Good to see they're both planning to be more vocal in the coming days)
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 | 01:54 pm - Ten Snarry Games Recs (plus a sneaky 2nd mention of my story!)
Surely it would be wrong - wrong I say! - to mention my snarry_games story ("Learning the Landscape", 21,000 words, Alternate Reality, pretty darned good I think, but don't take my word for it, so go read the story and leave feedback over there!) for a second time without offering you something new to think about, so here you go:
Ten Random Snape/Harry Recs from the Snarry Games
(Which, btw, if you offered me a million dollars right now to tell you which authors are on my team, I couldn't possibly tell you *g*)
( yes, yes...under the cut )
And this week's challenge on snape100 is "The Four Elements: Fire" (Go see if you can find a way to get Snape...hot.)
ETA Look at the adorable Photo Outing with Doll!Snape over in trekkiegrrrl's journal!
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 | 08:55 am - The Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May
1. "How Do They Rise Up" (see icon) Don't forget about Match it for Pratchett, still raising funds for Alzheimer's research.
2. Towel Day in memory of the late Douglas Adams.
3. And then there's Star Wars. 31 years ago today, the first of the Star Wars movies opened. The movie opened in fewer than 40 theatres in the U.S. (and even then, some of those theatres had to be coerced into taking the movie).
( My first meeting with SW, let me show you it... )
My, but this is a significant day in fannish history...
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May 24th, 2008
 | 03:01 pm - I can has Eurovision?
Does anybody know of a really obsessively detailed live blogging site for Eurovision 2008? Or are any of you doing the live blog thing?
I'd really like to watch the finals, but the "watch live" link on the official website keeps crashing my computer, so...
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May 23rd, 2008
| 10:47 pm - FIC (HP): "Learning the Landscape" (Snape/Harry. NC-17)
Hey, you guys! I have non-political news...
My snarry_games story - "Learning the Landscape" - has just been posted here
Pairing: Snape/Harry (...a shocker!)
Word Count: ~21,000
Yays: to meri_oddities and regan_v for dandy beta'ing.
What You Should Know: Alternate Reality. Non-Magical...and set in America. I know! I know! But really, I think you'll like it anyway.
Summary: Second generation celebrity, pop sensation, rising movie star: Harry Potter is looking for something more meaningful in his life than mere fame. However, when he inexplicably decides to make ex-con Steven Snape part of that "something more meaningful," well...it's too much to expect the press to ignore it forever.
"Learning the Landscape"
(comments disabled to encourage people to actually, you know...go read the story! *g*)
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| 08:46 pm - LJ Advisory Board Elections Update
As fandom mobilizes and fans comment in their journals about the LJ Advisory Board elections, we're seeing an increase in votes for fandom-related people, especially legomymalfoy, who is - as I type - now barely 100 votes behind jameth. rm, squeaky19 (and yes, I do consider him fandom-related, for our purposes), and vichan are also gaining ground in the first choice votes (with rm having a major surge in the second choice votes).
Needless to say, this is leading certain desperate candidates to call shenanigans...
From jameth's journal: 'I was advised that legomymalfoy, LJ support/LJ abuse member, has people using 200+ sock puppets at gradual intervals using IP proxies to boost up their vote. This came as an anonymous tip.'
Please note how ridiculous this is because (a) she'd have a hell of a lot more votes than she has if this were true, and (b) voting accounts had to have been created before March 11th, and (c) unless somebody was insane and linked each sock journal to a *different* email account, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, since no two votes can link back to the same validated email address.
In any case, the comments (which are also slagging off rm, among others), contain this gem: 'This is how LJ fandom operates -- if someone does something so much as borderline wrong they wail as if someone murdered their families and the perpetrators are The Worst People Ever With No Morals Conscience or Soul... but if it benefits them well hey, that's just tits.'
"Fandom: populated by The Worst People Ever With No Morals Conscience or Soul."
(ETA: please note my later post for a partial clarification/partial retraction)
Yeah...I definitely want a mudslinging candidate whose supporters believe that quote to be true representing my interests.
Not.
Vote.
ETA: as of this moment, legomymalfoy has just passed jameth in the first choice voting. This doesn't mean the elections over, since it's going to take 50% of the first choice vote to get on the Board, but still...well done, fandom.
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| 07:06 am - JournalFen PSA
(announcement stolen from aukestrel)
Who knows how long it's going to last, girls and boys, but for the time being......free account creation is open on JournalFen (Mind you, you could get a paid account, but if you're in a no-extra-money place, now's your opportunity for a free account.)
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May 22nd, 2008
| 08:11 pm - Non-Presidential Elections, Smarty-pants Quizzes, American Idol
First on the agenda, there are the 'will probably be a complete waste of everybody's time and energy, but just in case they're not, I'm voting' LJ Advisory Board elections. All lj users get three votes, and mine are going to rm, squeaky19, and legomymalfoy (who I don't know, but with whom I obviously share fandom concerns). Go on over and vote for your choices...or add cat macros to the comments instead, if that's your pleasure.
(the main Advisory Board news post is here, but the voting is going on over here)
And in case you're wondering whether I'm clever enough to be voting? Well just look at these quiz results!
I am smarter than 99.52% of the rest of the world.
The Dumb Test
and...
I am smarter than 93.35% of the rest of the world.
The Most Impossible Quiz
Smart enough for an LJ vote, eh? And speaking of votes: congratulations to David Cook for last night's win on American Idol. I've had favorites before, but I've never liked anybody enough to actually buy their music before. Yes, buy. With real money. :) ( and mostly for my own records, below is a list of the gold/platinum records earned by past and present AI contestants, because you know, that's so important *g* )
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May 21st, 2008
 | 08:39 am - HL: the Reboot?
Why in the world would anybody think it was a good idea to plan a remake of the first Highlander movie? The better idea for the franchise would have been to, you know, not make any of the appalling sequels - and then to have completed season six of the t.v. series properly, spinning it off into a series starring Claudia Christian (with occasion guest stars from HL:tS)
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May 20th, 2008
 | 09:06 pm - Happy Birthday, OTW!
The Organization for Transformative Works is one year old today! Go check out this post to see where we've been and where we're going - and then join otw_onlinecon on LJ or IJ or JF* so you can join in the festivities we have planned for the birthday celebrations!
( Spoilers for the American Idol finale )
*sheds a silent tear for the mostly-defunct GJ
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May 18th, 2008
 | 02:46 am - An American Watches Eurovision 2008 - All the Participants
I listen to the Eurovision 2008 participant entries so you don't have to!
Yes, here I am in the U.S.,where most people have never even heard of the Eurovision Song Contest, and yet...I'm a hopeless addict. I've just watched the official videos for all 43 participants in this year's contest, and under the cut are my first impressions (you know...apart from "Oh my God, what am I doing listening to these songs?")
( click if you dare! )
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