I've discontinued my other blog. It wasn't like I was updating it anyway and now that I have the LJ, I don't really need two blogs and an LJ. That would just be excessive fan girl behavior. I also finally have my icon for my LJ up. Again, credit goes to the Inimitable Miss Barr for making the image.

My last name is a verb! Who knew?

G******* (v) - To be totally intimidated during the practice round and blown out during a match. Originally done to BHS by Essex it is now a regular activity of the BHS team in regional play. As in: We really got g*********ed by Riverdale at the National Scholastics Championship! Derived from 1995-96 Essex star Ketan G*******and his answers such as STAR TREK (see below).

and here, he makes his sister so very proud

Star Trek (n) - Correct answer given by Essex's Ketan G******** after only six words of the question had been read in the practice round of BHS' first match under coach David R*****. This question thoroughly G*********red (see above) the Seahorses and Essex went on to a 310-130 victory, still the most lopsided defeat in Burlington's state-tournament history.

Still ROTFL.

LJ is working now. I made it pretty and I've posted to it. Now I need an icon. Tom Paris, perhaps? Smurfs? Seasoned with oregano? Right now, I'm just a white splotch on the screen. So sad in a world of pretty boys and Snape.

New article up at zendom: "How to avoid being accused of plagiarism" by RJ Anderson. Definitely a must-read for all ficcers, especially given current rumblings in fandom.

The last word on meta... maybe

Victoria on why she metas. My take on it is different. The question of why I don't meta. I did come dangerously close in chat the other night when I asked the question of whether LJs/blogs might speed fandom erosion. But Liz Barr warned me off and things were good again.

I don't know why I stopped with the meta. I enjoyed it for a while. I enjoyed it enough to read 80 million blogs a day, write snarky little metafics (ie, the blog wars), and respond to other people's blogs line by line here or in their comments. And one day, I just stopped. I can't say it was a matter of time - I have more time now than when I was actively metaing. I could blame it on Europe - six weeks without consistent web access has a way of making you fall behind on the meta and what's what in fandom. It could have been flamewars, that were inadvertantly started when simple questions were asked. It could be that I'm tired of groundless accusations and misinterpretations. It could also be that, unlike the craziness of last year, I'm spending a lot more time with Real People doing Real People things. And Real People don't do fandom (or if they do, they're really, really quiet about it).

A part of me also feels like everything has been discussed to death - or at least the topics I'm interested in. While I enjoy a good slash fic every now and then, it's not the overwhelming focus of my fannish experience so for the most part, most of the LJ/blog conversations don't appeal to me (Would it be wrong to say, in a strange reveral, that all of the slash discussion does in a way make a lowly het/gen writer feel marginalized?). I suppose I could generalize some of the meta to Trekkish and het experiences, but that would take more brain power that I really want to expend. Plus, when a generalization is made, invariably Ungood things happen. Possibly the only generalization I could make that would apply to all fandoms equally that wouldn't start a flamewar is that spelling and grammar are not optional.

Which all sounds very negative. Excessively negative. It's not that I think meta isn't good, but it's served its purpose - at least for me. Sometimes, I do read a discussion and I sit up and take notice, and occasionally link to it. But I'm pretty sure that I'm done in the meta realm. No more metablog for me, no more leaving intelligent (so I hope) comments in other people's diaries. Is it just me? That after a year of this kind of stuff, I'm longing for a laundry list of what people did or ate for lunch. It's more interesting to find out about the people behind the fic, what they do, what they are all about. I'm not necessarily interested in their views on pretty boys or whether realism is rated differently in different fandoms.

I used to think meta took away from fic writing and fennish interactivity. That was just an excuse not to meta. Even without meta, I'm not writing excessive amounts of fic (no matter what the Mod Squad may say about my prolickness - is that even a word?). I'm really just a BOFQ - well, not bitter, but definitely the OFQ. I'm not looking for "the why" - I'm going on six years in Trek fandom now and if I haven't figured out "the why" yet, then I'm not sure that I ever will.

For about five seconds, this is mildly amusing.

Microsoft Word and I just rumbled. I mean, really rumbled. Monstrous paper due tomorrow. Mostly all finished, I just needed to throw in some last minute charts (because, you know, you can never have too many appendices - we have appendices A through P. Paper itself is 57 pages long). So I'm thinking, just fix these highlighted things I got clarification on over the weekend, add the charts, and voila, I am done. But the computer crashed when I tried to add one chart (this is when I abandoned you, Liz) and then I couldn't get my cursor to move around the charts in order to add more. In the end, I cheated and started adding charts in reverse order by adding page breaks before a chart, rather than after the charts. This finally allowed me not only to insert the necessary charts but also to type the relevant text. So I just spent 90 minutes on formatting. Ninety minutes. Gotta love Microsoft Word. And now, last step - I'm going to take it get bound (which in itself is funny, as we had our Microsoft paper bound a few weeks ago and then the professor turns around last week and asks for an electronic copy instead. It would have been nice if he had told us he wanted it electronically in the first place). Anyway, that's where I am - in my favorite place, the computer lab, slowly going insane (doesn't help that G is sitting next to me laughing at me for talking to the paper after it was printed. I think I said, "Why won't you line up... damn it." It's okay - G is in his own private Microsoft Word hell as well. He's fighting the Table of Contents battle, which I did over the weekend). To quote my former cross-country coach, "You gotta love it."

Oh for the want of a joke

Jemima said I was too serious in And Baby Makes Five and that it wouldn't be considered a parody. I thought it was obvious that it was a parody. So as an experiment, I posted the thing to ff.net, categorized it as humor and sat back to wait. The reviews coming in are proving Jemima's point. ::sigh:: Don't make me come over there, people, and tell you it's a parody.

I downloaded a couple of Madonna songs today - "American Pie" and "Die Another Day." I'm going to blame Liz, because she's stuck somewhere without a Madonna fix and she wanted to hear the new James Bond song so I downloaded it for her benefit as she's just as much of a Madonna fan girl as I am. So while I was getting "Die Another Day," I thought I'd get "American Pie" as well as I never heard it when it aired and I didn't know what the controversy was all about. Well, I've heard it and I do like it. Very much. There is something to be said for the originals, yes, but it could have been much, much worse. So I'm possibly in the minority here as someone who enjoyed the song. I also downloaded "The Ketchup Song." Talk about addictive and infectious. Very funny.

And oh yes, Liz Barr has gifted me with an LJ code so I'll be LJing one of these days. As soon as I figure what's going on over there in LJ world and what those codey things mean. Many thanks to Teague who was also kind enough to offer me a code.

For those interested the legal standards applied to obscenity and what degree of literature would fall into that standard, here is the Miller test. There are three requirements here and the first two must be satisfied in order to determine that a work is obscene. Note that the first two requirements here are based on "contemporary standards" (this approach was determined in 1973 in the case Miller versus California, however "contemporary standards" here are defined as when faced with deciding whether a work appeals to the prurient interest or is patently offensive, jurors must use their own sense of what they feel is prurient and patently offensive) and the third requirement is more of a nationalistic standard; in other words, a work that is offensive in say, Memphis cannot be inoffensive (is that a word?) in Tallahassee. The standards are as below:

1. Whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

2. Whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values.

I've hit a roadblock on my paper. I have to sum up this semester's course in e-business by writing about 5 of the most valuable lessons one should pass on. It seems rather gratuitous fawning for the prof, methinks, as in "Spit back to me all the wonderful things I taught you this semester!" Anyway, I've got four down and I'm drawing a blank on the fifth. So taking a break and hoping against hope that something wildly innovative - something that makes sense as well - will hit me very, very soon. (Is it really crazy that in just over 3 pages I have 15 endnotes?).

Fannish question: why doesn't anyone interview het writers for fanfic articles, hmmm? Are we really that boring? Do we lack subversion? Does het not have innovation? But Vera, you're probably right. We het writers probably out-numbered slash writers years ago. So possibly my belly-aching is really come-uppence and it's really the time for slashers to take front and center.

I've discovered KaZaalite. I may never get offline. This does not bode well for the future.

Question, because when it comes to music, I'm such a tech newbie. But can I burn an MP3 to a CD? I've got a dial-up connection so I can't use KaaZa to download music because I'll be here all day. But I can use the school computer labs to download music and then burn them to a CD - I just can't download extraneous software to the school computers. MP3.com seemed like a good way to go. So, anyone know?

This and That

It's cold out. A windchill of 20 degrees. As far as I'm concerned, this state has just lost its competitive advantage.

And Liz made this button for me. Isn't she sweet? It really ought to be a movement. Something along the lines of "the few, the proud, the brave"?



Happy Birthday, Lori! May the poolboys make your day a special one.

Oh the weather outside is frightening

First things first, yet another collision between RL and VL - so hello to Alex and Robby ::waves::

Second, I second (whoa, redundant - once again, taking apps for blog beta readers) Vera's suggestion that the word fuffle deserves to be used more widely. Go forth and spread the fuffle.

Third, it's cold out. Really, really cold. Perfect day to curl up in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate. If I had chocolate or milk, for that matter. Actually, come to think of it, I don't have a fireplace either.

Fourth, two presentations and one paper down. Two papers and one presentation left. I may just make it.

Fifth, still working on defamation and the public figures on the Internet. And whether it's possible to sue someone for libel and be credible, given libel in web context. Still musing on that one.

Tired of the dregs? Help is on the way: Bright Shiny Objects has been updated. I've got to get to school early today - professor bumped our class up 15 minutes due to confusion on Monday and it's pouring rain, so the buses are bound to be absolutely packed so I'll need to leave earlier than usual - so, the write-up on yesterday's interview will have to wait until later on this evening.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

We made fandom_wank! I knew if we mocked enough, we'd get there eventually. This makes up for having to spend an entire 12 hours at school today. Yes, I can be happy and go back to my database project. My life as a fan is finally fulfilled. (Though, slightly tempered by the fact that I'm such an unknown commodity in fandom, that the FW didn't know who I was...)

It oughta be on a t-shirt already

Reason 80,543,542 why fandom_wank rocks. My favorite? "Because we don't automatically get 60 pieces of FB with our grocery lists." (Actually, I don't make a grocery list and I'm doing good if I have food in my cupboards as it is, but anyhow..). Read all about it here.

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

this quiz was made by the groovtastic ghouls at Spookbot

Natterings

Finally got caught up with my email (100+ unread messages, not counting spam, is nothing to sneeze at). I finally found the "controversial" fanfic article (read it here - though I suspect I'm one of the last people in fandom to read it) and I only have one thing to say 'bout it: Where's the het, kids? When did it become All About the Slash?

I want a button. Something that says "Proud Het Writer" or something along those lines.

Oh two things. I lied. I have two things to say. I want to live in Thamiris' world. I want 50-60 pieces of FB, all incredibly detailed and laden with thoughtful analysis. Obviously, I'm in the wrong fandom.