User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-12-07 18:56
	Subject:	/sings along with the rest of the tag-wranglers
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	busy

I LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD
BUT THE AO3 CODERS MOST OF ALL
BOOM-DE-YADA, BOOM-DE-YADA...

:-D

In only-minorly-related news, apparently my long-slumbering infatuation with Merlin UK fandom has re-manifested. The trouble with tag-wrangling and thinking about what Freeform tags I might want on my own bookmarks is that I keep finding all kinds of neat new things to read!

Which reminds me... not for official tag-wrangling, but for my own bookmarks... I'm thinking I want to start using nonfandom-specific tags for the following concepts, because when I'm reading in Merlin and Smallville (and other?) fandoms, I find myself seeking these themes out:

Secret Revealed
Secret Revealed To Partner
Secret Revealed To Partner - Unresolved Sexual Tension
Secret Revealed To Partner - Established Relationship
Secret Revealed To Ally (or perhaps To Friend? hmmm.)
Secret Revealed To Nemesis
Secret Revealed Anticlimactic

What do you fine folks use to tag or bookmark such concepts?

ETA: Oh oh oh! I almost forgot! I've stumbled across a couple completely adorable Fred & Ginger fanvids recently! I think I found one of them via veni_vedi_vids and another via... um... hang on, I've got it here in a tab somewhere... aha! stultiloquentia and someone else (sorry, I can't find you!) right around the same time, and the others via google-searching trying to figure out where I'd found the first one, before I remembered!

glvalentine's rec of Love You Madly by roseytrebles

Fanvid: "Happiness" [Astaire/Rogers Films] by icepixie

They Can't Take That Away... by duckmilk productions

Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) by StrictlyTaboo

Support For My Argument by vespersaw

Also Caught by vespersaw, featuring not only Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but also William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn...

*swoon*

(I must interject here that never in a million years did I ever expect to find fanvids including footage of Captain Blood (and Robin Hood OMG) aside from the fantastic One Night Fandoms: A Tribute to Yuletide by eruthros and thingswithwings!)

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User:	ngaio
Date:	2009-12-07 13:15
Subject:	Today
Security:	Public
Mood:	awake

So I'm not carrying a stone baby. Which is good. ... OK, so it's not like I was expecting to be told I was carrying a stone baby but it was an ultrasound and I had weird thoughts/dreams last night and then freaked Allegra out in the car. In fact the answer is that my insides are fine and dandy. Which I am happy about. But at the same time it'd be nice if there was something small wrong which could be fixed and solve the problem you know? Or at least give me ammunition for my 'please just remove my womb' argument.

There's this t-shirt I want making. When my dept. were out on Thursday I was slapping my boss (Wizard) upside the head every time he got too loud so we didn't get chucked out of the restaurant. And then was sitting with my hands in boxercise guard position threatening to hit him. I forgot that Wizard used to teach martial arts and can kill you with his pinky finger, and he told me my guard position was wrong and corrected it. So I'm there with my right hand in the right place and my left hand in the right place and him going 'and your elbow has to be close in to your side' whereupon I looked down and uttered the immortal words: 'I have topographical issues' ... so now I really want a t-shirt, possibly scoop necked, which says 'topographical issues' on it!

Thank you phoebesmum, ruric, and llaras for the snowflakes. I'm now really wanting shortbread but luckily we've not got any in the house so that's OK.

It's raining. But the birds have discovered the feeders so I'm happy.

User:	ngaio
Date:	2009-12-06 17:35
Subject:	Cards
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm

So I managed to actually send cards to everyone who answered my poll (technically I've actually just written them, tomorrow I'll send them!) though not the possibly planned parcels (I'll do those in the new year).

So - if you didn't answer the poll and would like a card, please let me know. Comments here are screened or you can email me at ngaio dot wimsey at gmail dot com

User:	ngaio
Date:	2009-12-06 17:32
Subject:	Wow
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

I have been, for me, amazingly productive this weekend.

I have:

Washed and refilled the bird-feeders, including mixing suet and meal worms (ew!) into the seed for some proper winter food for the birds.
Rehung said bird-feeders. Hopefully the birds will find them again soon.
Put all my clean clothing away (which could be a problem when the next lot of washing dries as I'm out of hangers).
Had my lip, chin and eyebrows waxed
Reduced my open tabs down from around 30 to my usual 8
Washed up (I'll admit, I don't normally do this, Henry does, but I was feeling virtuous!)
Watched Mansour Bahrami my sexy Iranian tennis playing boyfriend 'perform' at the Albert Hall (OK, that's not productive per se but oh boy was it fun!)
Visited fandom-colleague (with Allegra and Dylan) and introduced him to the world of fanvids, and watched The Plan and a few bits of BSG ephemera and now I really need to watch the whole thing (I stopped about a quarter of the way into the first series) - my February holiday may be entirely TV based!
Organised all my fanvids on my hard-drive as I realised that having grabbed a whole lot in October I'd never sorted them
Written and addresses Christmas cards to all people who answered my poll ages ago (there will be a related post after this on this topic)

And tomorrow (day off) I have to:
Go to the hospital for an ultrasound
Possibly go to the gym
Do a bunch of brought home work
*Post* the Christmas cards
Answer LJ comments

...

Remind me to tell you about my t-shirt I want somewhen.

	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-12-06 15:43
	Subject:	Random kind of stuff, randomly
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	dunno, whatevah

So. If things hadn't gone the way they went, I'd be sitting the JLPT2 test right now. Sometimes I wonder if I'm weird, to be actually sad that I can't be taking an exam I don't even need. No, don't answer that.

Anyway, I hope it goes well for all of you who are currently taking it.　頑張ってねえ。。。

The last week I was mostly busy grading papers - I needed to get them out of the way before we leave, and there were a LOT of them. So I started working ahead as much as I could, doing them as they came in rather than waiting for the submission deadline (yesterday), and by the time the deadline rolled around, I only had 13 left to do. Which I all did yesterday, even though that hadn't been the plan. So. Um. Now I have time to write journal entries, while all the files I figure I can't live without for 3 weeks are slowly wandering from various hard disks onto Kame, my little portable drive (called thus because the laptop is Akanishi, and you know it makes sense.)

Do I really need my entire Akame picture collection? Why, yes, I think I do.

On which subject, or rather, related, I came up with another Wish For Santa: that Jin develops an unreasoning yet overwhelming hatred towards fedoras and will never be seen wearing one again. Ditto sunglasses. Death to fedoras and sunglasses. Just saying.

Tomorrow afternoon we deposit the kitten. You know those people who get totally stressed out before their vacation and can't sleep because they worry about missing planes or not packing enough underwear or their boat sinking or whatnot? I'm not one of them. But I do worry about Yami spending three weeks all alone in kennels, no matter how spacious and pretty -- which they are; we're talking 'Cage with a View' here. I need to find some alternative next time. :-/

( For own reference: remember to pack )

Maybe I should make a list of stuff to do before I leave, too. But not now.

State of the Collaboration, 27: Chapter 28 edit done (ish). Shoulders, noses and collarbones have been dealt with as appropriate. Number of words to be double-checked for unacceptable frequency: 17. Number of words deleted from chapter: c. 650. Number of words left: c. 16,300. This dashes the hopes expressed in SotC 25, but there's a certain poetic justice in it, too.

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	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-12-04 22:09
	Subject:	Friday Random Roundup
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	TGIF!

I won't be giving Motorola any of my money anytime soon. Sexist advertising pisses me off. Pheh. Need to cleanse my brain a bit after that...

By way of swanswan, footage from myriad BBC costume dramas set to 'It's Raining Men.' (Clearly, I am not watching enough BBC costume dramas.)

I will probably need this when I am home again for Christmas... Lifehacker's How To Fix Your Relatives' Terrible Computer. Also, wintery desktop backgrounds.

Bleh, winter. In hotter news...

asdf;lkjasd;flkj;alskdfj j_crew_guy why oh why do you share these tantalizing links? If you’re a fan of Christian and Oliver, Deniz and Roman, Dante’s Cove, Queer as Folk, One Life to Live, Verbotene Liebe, Alles Was Zählt, GREEK, and Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten... http://gaysofourlives.org/ March 26-28th 2010 in New York.

*bouncebouncehappybounce* The Lair - The Complete 3rd Season on DVD this coming March 23rd

(And yes, I am severely behind on my drunkened liveblogging of this season's eps. I will catch up, I swear. Because The Lair is made of awesome silliness with a side of hot steam and a massive helping of CHEEZE.



ALSO? ALSO ALSO ALSO???? OMG TEASER TRAILER. BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY TEASER TRAILER.



Yes, this official online series thing is really happening: http://buckrogersbegins.com/

If the above link or embed on youtube doesn't work, here's an alternate link to the teaser trailer on scifiupdates.com.

(And no, prior to this new web series, I was not terribly much a Buck Rogers fan. But now I am, and it's all Bobby Quinn Rice's fault. Thppppt!)

Further details and geekyblogs' reactions to the trailer:
http://trekmovie.com/2009/11/30/new-teaser-for-cawleys-buck-rogers-web-series/
http://scifiwire.com/2009/12/teaser-trailer-for-new-bu.php
http://gilgerard.tripod.com/ (scroll down to September on Gil's blog...)
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/12/so_theres_a_buck_rogers_web_series_or_something.php
YouTube playlist of the DragonCon Buck Rogers panel (includes spoilers!)...

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	User:	bethbethbeth
	Date:	2009-12-04 22:59
	Subject:	White Collar - Fall Season Finale (Spoilers)
	Security:	Public

Did you see where I said "spoilers" above?

Spoilers (in comments)

( I'll say it again...spoilers )

	User:	bethbethbeth
	Date:	2009-12-04 15:24
	Subject:	Recs Page update...
	Security:	Public

A quick update of my multi-fandom recs page (14 HP stories, 1 Star Trek-Reboot, 1 True Blood, 1 White Collar) can be found here at 'Recs Recs Recs: a work-in-progress'

I've made thirty or so random URL changes, as I always do (this time concentrating on alternate links for stories that had been hosted on geocities), but if you see a broken link and know where that fic has been re-housed, please let me know!

(Note: The next recs updates will be the massive holiday fest ones, which I won't be posting until after the author reveals.)

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	User:	thete1
	Date:	2009-12-04 02:01
	Subject:	Alive!
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	sleepy
	Music:	Wolf Parade: "This Heart's On Fire"

Yes, alive. Tired as *fuck*, but alive. Here at casa del Te and Jack, all is a whirlwind of doctors, med adjustments, home repairs, family-wrangling (AHHH AHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH), and holiday PTSD. We're coping, though, and all the wonderful notes and updates y'all have been sending along have been wonderful. The important stuff:

1. There is one shameless snippet and one shameless-in-a-completely-different-way story due to be posted as soon as I can (somehow) suck it up and deal. I'll try to get those up by Monday, but it could be hard.

2. As it happens, I *did* get sucked back into working on original fic, and I have no idea how long that will last before I'm working on other things again. Personally, I'm hoping that I can damned well *finish* the two original novels in the hopper, since basically what I have complete now is the middle story in a trilogy. (Well, okay, there'll be a fourth book, too. And maybe a fifth.) That's fucking *annoying*.

3. Snippets will come *someday*, damn it. I'll keep y'all posted.

	User:	bethbethbeth
	Date:	2009-12-03 09:03
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

With thanks to my "close and personal [twitter] friend," Stephen Fry, for the link:

West Side Story for the internet age

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	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-12-02 19:16
	Subject:	Am I that transparent?
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	bemused

I just got Bleach, the complete first season, as a birthday present from an old colleague and friend... and there I always thought I was projecting the image of a respectable historian who is perhaps overly fond of red wine and Japanese boy band music. I don't think I ever mentioned Bleach in his presence. Not even sure I mentioned anime.

Spooky.

But anyway, can haz Bleach - and now A., who doesn't like subs, can watch it dubbed. This is a good thing. :-)

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User:	ngaio
Date:	2009-12-01 20:21
Subject:	It's the first of December
Security:	Public
Mood:	drained

OK, so I know I owe you all a final Wriso day due to having declared a skip day a week or so ago but it's not happening today as I've just come home from the aerobics class which is either going to kill me or make me able to climb Mount Everest, not sure which yet, and currently as I'm having problems moving any of my limbs at all my tonight's plan involves taking out my contact lenses (without lifting my arms) and going to bed (without lifting my legs) and sleeping (without moving my body at all).

However I have a bunch of unused topics so I'm going to try to post a few rambles through December and one of them will be my final Wriso post.

Someone remind me next year that without major planning of topics and with major work and exercise commitments Wriso is not as not-easy as I think it's going to be, in fact it's downright tricky and hard work.

Thanks.

	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-12-01 14:36
	Subject:	YamaNade manga links
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	kame

Spammity spam...

I will shut up again soon enough, but since it's just taken me a little while to find a place where I can download the YamaNade manga (why does one manga need to have three names? Why?), I thought I'd share: Vols 1-15 here.

Haven't found anything reliable for volumes beyond 15 yet. This site purports to go to volume 19 but is generally a wreck and half the links don't work.

( Some ch. 20 and 21 links here )

It's the English version, called "Perfect Girl Evolution". (Why YamaNade why Wallflower why PerfectGirl why?) Haven't found a good site for raws. Did y'all notice MININOVA IS DEAD??

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	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-12-01 11:06
	Subject:	Notes from the Twilight Zone
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	amused

Moments when I laugh at myself: when WMP gives me Boom Boom Pow right after Eternal.

Unrelated: anybody else think that Coldplay's Viva la Vida sounds like an Xmas song?

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	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-12-01 08:54
	Subject:	Why, yes, I appear to be slow
	Security:	Public

Just tried to buy the LANDS album off CDJapan and ... it's sold out already! ARGH. So in a minor panic I headed back to HMV (who have imposed a limit of two copies per customer) and got it there despite the less-than-convenient way they handle the shipping. Thankfully, the album isn't expensive enough to trigger the whole process whereby customs add another £6 and then DHL add £15 for doing me the favour of paying the £6 when I didn't even ask for it.

Note to self: next time, don't wait a day.

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	User:	elke_tanzer
	Date:	2009-11-30 22:44
	Subject:	Randomness from the Star Wars Holiday Special
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	busy

So. I've pre-populated the tags for the named characters from the special now. Including Lumpy and all three of his synonymous names.

So now we're all set to run a Star Wars Holiday Special characters challenge.

;-D

I think my favorite part of this OMGWTF fandom wrangling has to be this:

"Though scenes of Chief Bast conversation with Darth Vader cut from A New Hope were included in The Star Wars Holiday Special, Bast's presence with Tarkin during the final moments of the Death Star shows that this is not the same officer."

"The lookalike officer in the Holiday Special has not yet been identified. His connection with Bast, if any, has not been explained."

I swear, there's a wookieepedia page for each of them... "This article is about the Imperial officer. You may be looking for his look-alike..."

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Moradmin_Bast

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Unidentified_Moradmin_Bast_look-alike

I mean. Really. SRS BZNZ.


And no, I did not pre-populate the unidentified look-alike. X-P

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	User:	gem225
	Date:	2009-11-30 15:59
	Subject:	closing on my mother's house
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	weird

The closing on my mother's house was scheduled for today at 11 AM, so it's probably safe to say by now that the house has been sold.

I thought that I would be much happier about this. Instead, I've been crying on and off. It is a dark, dank day, and maybe I'm tireder than I thought too. What's done is done, and it'll be best to have this done.

My sister has decided that she wants a fee for her work as executrix, which is fine. She said five thousand this morning. I suspect from my Googling that that's something a judge would decide on, but what the hell, if it'll make her feel better and get rid of some of my guilt that I was very little help to her, fine.

I hope that the new owner will be happy there. I hope that my sister will be able to be happier without this burden. I hope that I will continue to heal and grow.

I think that I'll find something happy to watch and do some knitting. I rode the exercise bike for my thirty minutes, so that's done too, and I don't think that I have the brain to beta or write.

Thank you for supporting me these three hard years, all of you. I know that I'm loved, and I know that I'm safe here, and I know that I'll be all right.

User:	ngaio
Date:	2009-11-30 20:01
Subject:	Day 30
Security:	Public
Mood:	lethargic

So I finished the second Gentleman Bastards book (by Scott Lynch). I'm not entirely sure how he's going to get out of that ending, but OK ...


This is why I like the books:

The setting. If I say 'they're fantasy novels' everyone expects large swords and dragons and warlocks. And that's not so. They are set in a non-Earth setting with an almost totally unexplored ancient history which is something I like, it's a good example of worldbuilding which doesn't hit you over the head with the world (Court of the Air I'm looking at you!) but which does describe a complete world. There are swords, and knives, and stilettos, and other sharp objects but no one is questing for anything and a sharp blade is less important than a sharp mind (generally). There is magic, just about, it's an important but also almost incidental facet of the first book and a very very minor plot point in the second book. This is not your swords and sorcery fantasy.

The actual point of the stories. What the books are a (currently pair of) stories about conmen, about criminals who use their brains and plan and scheme and have fun doing what they do. The books are *capers*. Glorious twisting capers where it is impossible to predict the outcomes. Bluff, double bluff and triple bluff. Interconnected strands of plans, upsets to the plans, seemingly impossible situations.

The characters. These people are human. Bad tempered, fallible, reckless. Neither perfect nor fatally flawed they are people we can have a lot of empathy for. Especially in the first book where, told via flashback, we are introduced to how this team of people came together, how they became a team and why they do what they do. While the first book is 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' and Locke is the greater focus of the tale the other characters are not there to be his foil, he is not necessarily the 'hero'. In the second book this becomes even more true.

The intelligence. That's a bit of a vague term. You know in Leverage where they show you near the end how the caper actually worked? The Gentleman Bastards novels work in a similar way, we are told some of the plan as it happens, but also they reference throughout things which, if you remember them, may (or may not) contribute to the culmination of the plan, or its downfall. Who knows?!

Women. None of the 'heroes' are women. But throughout both books, especially the second, there are good, strong female characters, strong both physically and mentally. They're human and flawed, but very real.


They are not perfect books. No book is. Halfway through the first book I was worried I'd get bored with keeping track of all the plots and twists and thought I'd not care for the characters. When concentrating they can be a little tiring to read. But ultimately I enjoy them as intelligent and humorous and well worth the time.

	User:	solo
	Date:	2009-11-30 08:17
	Subject:	Stuff is happening
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	excited

It was such a quiet weekend... until what, 7 last night? When the news of the new Kame drama hit. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - for a change I've even heard of it; I tried to watch the anime once, a long time ago. And god, does it sound more interesting than Kami no Shizuku! It actually sounds like it could be fun. Fun the way 1 Pound Gospel was. Or even fun the way Nobuta wo Produce was. Which reminds me, has anybody else thought that Sunaka Nakahara sounds a bit like Nobuta with her... issues?

And this morning, news of a LANDS album. Which is great because much as I like Bandage itself, I think I like that second song of which we've heard bits and pieces here and there a lot better. (No, I do not know the name of it. Yet. No doubt one of you will tell me?)

This is so exciting. :-)

So let me see, what else do I want to make my day complete?

- Wonder on CD
- A Jin drama for the spring
- a new KAT-TUN release (there might be one for Yamato Nadeshiko, I guess, unless they form some temporary unit with Kame, Tego, Uchi >.< Nothing at all against Tego or Uchi, but I'm not a fan of temporary units.)
- Eternal on CD
- Jin on Shounen Club Premium. WANT.

Get on it, Santa. (***fingertaps***)

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	User:	rivkat
	Date:	2009-11-29 19:49
	Subject:	Random stuff I'm thinking about
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	annoyed
	Music:	Depeche Mode, Wrong

1. Is it just me, or did Legend of the Seeker kick it up a notch in the past two episodes and start decreasing the pretty:interesting ratio? (While arguably getting prettier, even!)

2. Consider, if you will, that the all-male lawyers at this Texas firm saw nothing wrong with the images appearing on their website. (Possibly triggery for sexual abuse/child abuse.)  I actually believe very strongly that we need defense lawyers who specialize in crimes for which even defending an accused is excoriated—but this isn’t the way to do it.

3. Now for something completely different. I am a technological incompetent with a CMS on my website and a planned move to a new webhost. Anybody have recommendations for cheap assistance doing the move? And by assistance, I mean: somebody to whom I could trust with my site password and have the thing moved? Because the semester is so crazy, we’re probably looking at a move in early 2010.
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