I'm really bad at remembering acronyms and stuff, so this is mostly for my own reference. May be updated as I come across things.

( bandom terminology )

I'm imagining some alien power-cord plugging into the castle. (Blame it on Stargate.)

I heard Amber Benson on the radio today! She has a new book out called Death's Daughter. They played I'm Under Your Spell. On the radio! Okay, okay, it was only NPR but still.

The interviewer asked her about Tara getting killed off and she said that people were upset especially because Tara and Willow were gay role models etc. but didn't mention how lesbians getting killed off is a long-held convention. (Oh hai Watchmen I see you over there doing that in 2009.) Whatever, it was an interview, you can't get everything in.

I want a cabin. With a loft. WHERE I CAN ESCAPE TO. And it should have internet. And magical porn-inspiring powers.

A friend was talking about writing a play with a gay or lesbian character who doesn't meet a tragic end, so now I'm thinking about maybe doing something similar with a transgender character. Have no ideas yet, but I'll think of something. Am currently obsessing over Pan's Labyrinth reel_merlin fic and thinking hard about the juxtaposition of violence and fantasy. Deep thinky thoughts. Which I will not subject you to.

I've seen some of the discussion (mostly in bandom I think?) about warnings and triggers and I don't have much to say other than that, for me personally, if I *am* warned about rape/non-con in a story then I am much less likely to be freaked out by it than if I go in without any foreknowledge. Also, if you don't know what triggering means, PLEASE FUCKING GOOGLE IT. I don't think anyone over 18 should be walking around without SOME idea of what a great many people are struggling with all the time. It's been said before but - if you think you don't know anyone who's been sexually assaulted: you do. That's all.

I meant to plug this a while ago but forgot:

Special Pitching Event Around Solstice on fandom_of_one - what this means is you can sign up to pitch a small fandom. Also, Summertide (same link) - if you post a New Years Resolution story to the Yuletide archive during June, July or August, an anonymous person will make donation of $5 to a (Paypal-accepting) charity of your choice. Good motivation for finishing NYR stories!

Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.

The boy quoted that this morning and and I heard "they still try to change the road you're on."

And I totally didn't realize it was from Stairway to Heaven. Ironically, he's the one who can't hear lyrics.

Random post is random.

OH YEAH, I WROTE... IDEK WHAT TO CALL IT. ARTHUR/MERLIN/DRAGON PORN? PERISTALSIS-AIDED FROTTAGE? ANYWAY, IT'S OVER HERE.

Still Not Wanted: Girl Geeks

A collection of angry-making links. But the comments are GOLD (though there's a couple trolls towards the end.) Lots of discussion of games and which ones let you play female characters and so forth. This comment caught my attention though:

I got Skate2 and you can choose to play as a man or woman... But if you choose a woman, you get a "gender bender" achievement, because obviously a woman wouldn't play it so you must be trans or gay... And, even when you created a female character, all the dialogue still referred to you in the masculine!

Just... what the fuck? WHY? Does the game reward you "gender bender" points for other stuff too?!

Also, the American Medical Association did not adopt Resolution 710 (A-09): Identifying Abusive, Hostile or Non-Compliant Patients today. Which is good. Somehow I still feel like throwing up though. I think it might be reading about forced C-sections that did it.

ANYONE WHO'S NOT IN summerpornathon WHO'D BE WILLING TO BETA SOME SHORT ARTHUR/MERLIN PORN FOR ME (SOMETIME BEFORE FRIDAY AFTERNOON)?

As I'm sure you all know Internation Day of Femslash is July 18. But did you know that July 25th is International Day of Femslash FEEDBACK? Hell yes. You can sign up here.

Also the first annual transficathon - sign-ups start July 3. The focus is on fanfic about transgender and intersex characters (which doesn't show its ass.) Compilation of suggested fandoms/people is starting.

OMG, there is so little book fiction with transgender characters out there. SO LITTLE. :-(

A PLEA: So I was totally going to try to figure this out on my own but well... that kinda failed. So! Can anyone tell me how to make my dreamwidth entries be in a "plain" style similar to how my entries look on livejournal (example.) I'm not talking about the journal itself but when you go to an individual entry.

OMG, DID ANYONE ELSE GET ADDICTED TO TETRIS DUE TO GOOGLE'S FEATURE YESTERDAY?! I'VE BEEN PLAYING TETRIS "BATTLE 6P" INCESSANTLY AND I THOUGHT I WAS REALLY GOOD... UNTIL I TRIED MAPS TONIGHT. MY PRIDE HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY BROKEN AND SMASHED INTO THE GROUND. I HEAR HUMILITY IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL, Y/N?

In other news, my new job is good (they pay me!) but physically taxing. I come home every day with aching feet and back. Hopefully I will get stronger in the long run (and not fuck up my back.) In my spare time, I've been watching an unholy amount of the TV show Greek, which is both horrible and wonderful and for which there really really needs to be more slash. Seriously, there's like one girlslash story out there and maybe 4-5 boyslash (okay, more if you count the canon Calvin/Heath which I don't because, um. Heath is boring. As is Michael and he also has bad hair. Calvin srsly needs a wider dating pool.)

I have so much ficathon writing to get caught up on. OMG. Why do I do this to myself? And yet I am really excited. I have decreed that Wednesday will be the DAY OF WRITING for lo, I am working tomorrow and Tuesday and Thursday and on Friday we're going to the boy's family and Saturday to Boston (I think???) And then I GET SUNDAY OFF YAY. I don't care that I'm only working three days, I get an actual weekend that lines up with the boy's. Who knows when that will ever happen again.

So I'm all gradumacated and stuff. Now to find summer job. Or not!

What are y'all doin' this summer?

P.S. I won a prize! For theater!

P.P.S. I keep forgetting to cross-post from dreamwidth.

Watched Dollhouse 1x05 last night... I bet they got the idea from this: San Francisco artist looks to replace lost eye with prosthesic webcam. I think it's kind of cool actually - I like the idea of having video footage of your entire life. That would be my documentation fetish. (Though imagine how many gigs it would take...)

- Mrraarahrahra.

- Last night I played a game where you run around in a darkened theater and try not to get tagged and turned into a "vampire" (there's more rules but that's the basic idea.) It was SO MUCH FUN. Does anyone know of other games like that? I played one at RPI last year that I think was called "Murder" but I can't remember the rules and my google-fu is failing me on this.

- Does anyone have these Merlin Season 2 set pictures that maybe weren't supposed to be posted online (and could you link/email them to me)?

- We are almost definitely moving out of our place at the end of this month. Which is good, b/c the rent is v. high. We're not sure where we're moving to, or if the boy will stay down here and I'll go home... But our friend who lives in the apartment we used to live in has offered to let us stay there (even with the cats! which I was not expecting at all) so that's a huge relief. On the other hand, I still really want to live in one of these.

- On Tuesday, the boy was sick so he came home from work early and we rewatched all of Doctor Who Season 3. It was glorious. Also, we started watching Dollhouse (Joss Whedon's new show) on this recommendation. I have to say, I don't think I'll be writing porn for this fandom. I think I'd feel way too icky.

- I'm on Chapter 5 of Watchmen. You know how some Harry Potter fans are all about the Marauders? Well, I think I'm going to be all about the Minutemen. It helps that about half of them are canon queer it seems like. (I think this is kinda awesome.)

- Today I submitted a bunch of prompts for the next Kinkfest round, including some for Merlin, Merlin RPF, Being Human (RPF), Pineapple Express, and Audrey/Jac. (Speaking of the latter, yinyangggg for all your Audrey/Jac needs.)

- In case ye've not heard, fandom voting for femslash09 is still open. You don't have to be writing in it to vote, btw.

- writing_buffy looks pretty awesome. Too bad I'm not writing in BtVS fandom (well, aside from those backlogged WIPs.) I'm pretty much failing at writing AT ALL right now and it's not a good feeling. I did start a journal though. I feel lately like I don't know who I am anymore and I think it's partly my lack of documented thought processes. And yet I believe strongly in oral language - in stories (and songs) that spoken and sung, not written down. Maybe it's just that my existence was predominantly text-based for my first 15 years.

- Goodbye unreadable fonts and color text on same color styles! I finally found a Greasemonkey plug-in that automatically changes livejournal pages to your own journal style: My_Livejournal_Style. Since I like seeing frontpages of journals and communities in their own style but posts in my style, I have the following settings (under "Manage User Scripts"):

Included pages
http://community.livejournal.com/*/*.html
http://*.livejournal.com/*.html
http://community.livejournal.com/*/*.html#cutid*
http://*.livejournal.com/*.html?thread=*

Excluded pages
http://community.livejournal.com/*/
http://*.livejournal.com/
(plus all the ones automatically listed)

There's probably some others I haven't run across yet. I'm actually thinking of adapting it so that it adds ?format=light instead of ?style=mine to pages - then I wouldn't have to be logged in for it to work. It should be adaptable to Dreamwidth too.

Pick a musical artist whose discography you know fairly well. Using ONLY THEIR SONG TITLES, clevery try to answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's harder than you think.

Pick your artist: Devo

Are you male or female: Post Post-Modern Man

Describe yourself: Big Mess

How do you feel about yourself: Satisfaction (I Can't Get No)

Describe where you currently live: Planet Earth

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Jurisdiction of Love

Your favorite form of transportation: Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth

Your best friend is: Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA

Your favorite color is: Pink Jazz Trancers

What's the weather like: Snowball

Favorite time of the day: Morning Dew

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Strange Pursuits

What is life to you: Beautiful World

What is the best advice you have to give: Stop Look and Listen

If you could change your name, what would it be: Uglatto

Your favorite food is: Buttered Beauties

Thought for the day: Devo Has Feelings Too

How I would like to die: Explosions (followed by Booji Boy's Funeral)

My soul's present condition: Bottled Up

The faults I can bear: Speed Racer

My motto: Freedom of Choice


I tried it first with Bad Dudes, but I ran out of songs (dudes need to release some more.)
( Still I thought it was kinda funny... )

http://kaizoku.dreamwidth.org/

Got an invite code for using OpenID and confirming my email! Really $3 isn't that much to fork over, but since I've got $50 to my name post this month's rent... ETA: Apparently anyone who's done this got an invitation yesterday. SORRY YOU ALL PROBABLY KNOW THIS ALREADY!

Let me know if you're over there and your username is different, otherwise I can probably find you.

So, I was going to bed and then I found my new favorite band: GREEN GO! (Which makes me think of grey goo, but that's probably just me.)

Watch them rock the socks off an Ottawa house party (apparently only a couple people had ever heard them before):


(Stick with it until 1:34, okay?)

You can get their free 5-song remix project here.

P.S. If you're in Toronto (you know who you are!) and want to see them on the 30th, check this out.

THAT is how you do it! (source: Coachella account by Amanda Palmer.) Also, eee parasols!

This is a must-see. It's an Argentinean commercial which includes a transgender woman and a message of tolerance. I literally cannot imagine seeing this on TV in my country. The end - "you have a life, you have a bank"* - made me tear up. (Kinda discriminates against the undead though, doesn't it?) ETA: I forgot to say, my favorite part is the guy's wife waving from the car. She's so cute!
*Though I realize now that's just their slogan! Oh god, I'm so pathetic.

YAAAAAY I GOT MY ASSIGNMENT!!! I've been compulsively checking apocalyptothon and my email for the past two days. I'm going to get to write in a fandom in which I've never written before!

I found out from akamine_chan that the music community lunatunes just had an apocalypse theme week, so I've been madly downloading songs for the apocalypse! I am prepared! (Sorta.)

ION, the DVD is finished! It only took 50 something hours. -_-

...I just found out that Castiel isn't a girl. For some reason, I had gotten the impression there were no slashable men other than the Winchesters on Supernatural.

Pretty much this whole weekend has been spent putting together the DVD of my friend's play, which included learning how to do a director's commentary. I'm still annoyed that I can't get the "on" and "off" buttons on the menu to stay checked after you click them but whatever - it's not that hard to figure out. The menu is simple but pretty (yay pictures!) The first cd is "building and formatting" right now, and HOPEFULLY it will work so I can burn the rest and go home. Now, I have this strange urge to make a movie or something so I can put together more DVDs. Whee! Perhaps I'll start work on that Gwen vid again. Not that that would be a DVD...



This makes me extremely happy. It's the band Gentleman Auction House playing a cover of Breakin Dishes that then segues into their own song Scissor Arms. (If I haven't mentioned it before, I have a thing for falsetto. I blame it on early childhood exposure to the Violent Femmes.)

Amazon still hasn't restored the sales ranks for books about fisting.

( Here's my (very partial) list of books that are still deranked )

Thanks for the apology, Amazon.

Oh, wait. WHAT APOLOGY?

(Yes, still seething over here.)

In the meantime, if you haven't seen this post about Amazon Using Category MetaData to Filter Rankings I highly recommend it. As Dear Author and Lilith Saintcrow point out, you don't give customer service TALKING POINTS for a "glitch."

FUN GAME: What's your favorite deranked book?

They're redefining Amazon Rank.

If you want to help them google bomb, just link to that page with the words "amazon rank" - explanation here. (Though it won't do much good if your blog disallows webcrawlers.)

Welcome to the internets, Amazon SUCKERS!

Have I mentioned how pissed I am that books like The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals no longer have an Amazon rank? Or that if you search for Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green (even though the title gets filled in automatically in the search box) it doesn't show up AT ALL in the search results?

ETA: WE DID IT! Holy hand-grenades, that was fast.

Amazon is apparently trying to remove sales rankings for books with "adult content." But the way they're going about that? Is to take them off of ALL THE GAY BOOKS.

Original post here and more here and here..

And ryda_wong has lots more links and commentary:

Fail, Amazon. GIGANTIC FUCKING FAIL.
How to Call and Email Amazon
also removed: The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability

ETA: Links being gathered here.

ETA2: I don't know if it's due to this policy (which also seems to be affecting search results) but how creepy is it that the first search hit for "homosexuality" on Amazon is "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality"? *shudder*

ETA3: Another (big) reason why this is important:

To a bookseller, the Amazon.com sales rank is quite often correlated to how quickly a particular title might sell. A book with a very low number Amazon.com sales rank might be expected to sell within minutes or hours of listing, and a book with a sales rank of 4,000,000 might take several years to sell. The analogy is frequently used by booksellers when they are scouting for books to add to their inventory. If a bookseller finds a book that has an online value of $10, an Amazon.com sales rank of 2,105,878, and he/she is faced with buying it for $4, they are apt to pass, but if the sales rank were 45,017, it might suddenly be a book worth adding to their inventory.

from here

Here's my first story for the merlinarthurfqf. Hopefully I will finish the second (slavefic) for tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

Title: I'm Gonna Burst Right Out of This World
Author: kaizoku
Rating: PG, if that
Challenge: The one where Merlin and Arthur raise hatchlings because it is Their Destiny.
Summary: See above.
Warnings: CRACK, SO MUCH CRACK!
Word count: 2,300
Notes: Betaed by my boyfriend, who also supplied many of the best lines and helped me with the Welsh. The title, which is rather random, is a line from the song "Slung-Lo" by Erin McKeown. That and "I Sleep In a Bed of Scissor Arms" by Gentleman Auction House were the two songs I listened to incessantly while writing this (thanks to briar_pipe for that tip!) You can download them both here.

( CRACK! DRAGONS! CRACKDRAGONS! )

Dear Fandom,

Would you do me a favor and PLEASE put the link to the second part of your story at the TOP OF THE PAGE? I'd like to download your story to read at home (where I has no internets) but I'm really damn sick of having to scroll down to find the link. And it's enormously frustrating to finish half of a story and then realize you don't have the rest.

YES I KNOW IT'S PETTY AND IT'S PATHETIC THAT I DON'T HAVE INTERNET AT HOME. Shut up.

Love,

me