Fandom Lounge

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:45:47 GMT

Just in time for Christmas, Blizzard has started selling World of Warcraft in-game items for real world money! That's right, you can get a Pandaren pet or mini version of the the terrible Kel'Thuzad. In addition to being adorable, they cost $10, and do absolutely nothing useful in game.

$5 from the sale of the Pandaren goes to charity, at least.

I know at least five people who have already bought them and I am ashamed for every one.

Rifftrax

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:39:18 GMT

The next live Rifftrax show will be December 16, with an encore on the 17th. This time the theme is Christmas shorts! Tickets are already on sale at some theaters, but I guess the 13th is when they will be widely available.

...I love shorts! Also, this reminds me that I need to find my copy of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, which is required Christmas viewing at my house now.

More here

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:59:00 GMT

Okay, I've seen a number of book rec posts here every now and again, so I was wondering - is there a community (either on LJ or JF - or both) that specializes in people asking for book recs (on fiction or non-fiction)? If there were something like that, it'd be great to see what people thought were good reads on any given topic.

Thanks!

A Revolutionary Girl Utena themed wedding from down under

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:31:34 GMT

From Offbeat Bride via Kotaku and solarbird</lj>.

Anli & Laura's Lesbian Gamer Geek Wedding

The offbeat bride: Anli, data analyst

Her offbeat partner: Laura, public servant

Location & date of wedding: The Old Stone House, NSW Australia — 5 September 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted a ceremony that reflected our geeky, romantic, pink aesthetic, while at the same time being profound and meaningful. Our ceremony was themed around the video game Portal and the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena.

We incorporated lots of geeky details, from the table names (Revolution, Sierra, Katara and GLaDOS) to the choice of music. We also kept several traditional elements such as bouquets, dresses and bridesmaids. However, we both walked down the aisle unaccompanied and skipped the garter/bouquet toss.

...

And we walked down the aisle to an obscure piece of music from Utena.

Here's the music the couple used for their processional: Hikaru sasa niwa.

Go click on through to the Offbeat Bride story. There are lots of lovely photos, including a slide show.

As for the Portal part, a commenter on Kotaku pointed out, "So the cake wasn’t a lie afterall…"

Stay classy, Twilight merchandising. Stay classy.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:23:04 GMT

After some consideration, I've decided to x-post this from the sparklefield because it's a very special kind of transcendent, as in...how is Twilight the first fandom to actually Go There with this sort of merchandising? Srsly.

***

I think I'll let the product speak for itself since I cannot -- well and truly cannot -- find the words:

You can now have RPattz's face buried in your crotch any time you wish. Think I'm kidding? Check out the completely classy detail painstakingly created for the panty lining.

*just looks at y'all*

Because YOU demanded it (or not)!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:12:41 GMT

Anthony Bourdain gets his own cartoon. :-D

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:37:09 GMT

Just Valve being awesome some more. This weekend, Team Fortress 2 is having a Halloween themed special with free hats to take from dead players. There is an egg* on the page which leads to TF2's backstory. Yes, this game now has a plot deeper than just two sides trying kill each other. As a bonus, the new page has another egg** that gives a nod to a popular TF2 character fanart.

~Egg spoilers~

* Zepheniah Mann
** Barnabas Hale

EA gets one over on Yatzhee

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:44:13 GMT

It was really pretty goddamn clever.

Yahtzee was pretty angry at the package that EA sent him today, but don't worry - that was the whole point.

It seemed pretty obvious that the wooden box addressed to Yahtzee had something to do with Dante's Inferno, given that the inside of the lid read "The Fifth Circle of Hell Is Close." Members of The Escapist staff crowded around the box, eager to find out what was inside. We were somewhat bemused to discover nothing but a small burlap bundle containing safety goggles and a ball peen hammer.

Then the music began, and it all became horrifically clear.

"Never Gonna Give You Up..."

We all got a good chuckle as we realized that EA had just managed to Rickroll Yahtzee through the mail, but our laughter quickly died out when we discovered that closing the box didn't shut off the song. Yahtzee looked at us, then at the box, then at the hammer in his hand.

And then he got to work.

Strapping on the goggles (he is nothing if not conscientious about safety), he set about smashing the box. He had to break through three layers of wood, bones, and insects, but he finally got to the sound box's guts and yanked out one of the batteries. He also found a small scroll that had been tucked into the musical workings, which read:

The sin of wrath is yours. You have succumbed to anger and opened an infernal spring that seethes with dark waters. Quelled not, your anger begot rage. The waters have risen unchecked and ye will be drowned in stinking mire.

Go to Hell.

Ok, so the note is a bit heavy-handed, but I'm still giving this round of Dante's Inferno publicity a thumbs up for overall creativity and cleverness. Besides, it's not every day you get to see Yahtzee smash something to bits with a hammer.

Also, this was an ideal excuse to bust out my brand-new ZP icon.

Popslash SeSa

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:49:07 GMT

Yep, popslash is still around, and it's still the best! And there's still a popslash SeSa -- not the original DWNOGA, but the authorised sequel, Make the Yuletide Gay.

Even if you don't usually take part in challenges (like me), then SeSa is the one you shouldn't miss. There will be resources and mentors for all, and all the cheerleading you could want. Plus, at the end of it, you get your very own lovingly hand-crafted story to enjoy, something written especially for you.

If you've drifted away from popslash, SeSa is the perfect time to get back in touch. Sign up and have a lovely couple of months of nostalgia. ~~And then stay!~~

Sign-ups for Make the Yuletide Gay are open until Oct 30th.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:02:48 GMT

On spitting_image, we're going to have a special Halloween post called Night of the Bad Comic Artists. Submissions will be compiled and the post will be up on October 30th at 5 p.m. PST. Please submit images here!

Robots!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:47:44 GMT

Machinarium is kind of a cute adventure game. It's pure point and click with some fun puzzles thrown in. Not very hard or long, I'd say about ten hours of play time. It lagged a little on my machine, which doesn't quite meet the minimum requirements, but nothing too bad.

You can try the demo on machinarium.net or buy it from several different sites. Costs somewhere between 15-20 euros.

In Today's Foxtrot:

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:08:34 GMT

Jason chooses a Halloween costume. Specifically, a vampire.

Somethign to waste five minutes on a Sunday...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:54:25 GMT

A fan animated the XKCD Loves the Discovery Channel comic. (It's even catcher in audio.)

Thought everyone would find this amusing.

Looking for Spanish-language music recs!

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:39:47 GMT

Next week my gaming group is kicking off a new Supernatural RPG campaign. As the last step of character creation the GM is asking all of us to put together playlists for our characters. Now I'm lousy at this under the best of circumstances, but I'm particularly at a loss here.

My character is Latina (Michelle Rodriguez would be my PB if this was an LJ game), speaks Spanish and listens to Spanish-language music. I'd like to have some of the songs on her playlist to be in Spanish; unfortunately, I speak only a little Spanish and only have a handful of Spanish songs in my library.

So I'm asking for recs! Give me your favorite bluesy, rocking or otherwise suitable songs for a Supernatural style hunter! (or any other songs you love and think I should know!)

ETA: You guys are awesome! Keep the recs coming!

Saying Yes! A Sex-Positive Art- and Ficbitathon

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:30:19 GMT

I figure this is as good of a place for promotion as any, so here goes!

So on Ye Olde LJ, I'm running Saying Yes!, a sex-positive art- and ficbitathon. Our first round will begin on January 4, 2010, and conclude on January 18. We're running the challenge in prompt-tree format (further explanation here and here, and more examples and demonstrations will follow) in order to give participants the most flexibility in what prompts they'd like to work with, and how detailed they want those prompts to be.

Saying Yes! is a challenge designed to showcase characters who like sex, enjoy sex, and want sex -- characters fully capable of giving informed consent, and giving it enthusiastically. It's about characters who don't view sex or any of its aspects as something demeaning or shameful and don't pass similar value judgments on their partners' choices. There are a lot of stories out there, both fanfic and published, where characters enjoy sex despite themselves, and where a character who takes on a certain role or performs certain behaviors during sex is thought of as weaker or lesser. Sex and sex roles become imposed rather than sought out, and desire is passive, the result of things done to a character rather than things a character actively seeks out and wants.

In contrast, stories and art for Saying Yes! show how being the submissive or bottoming partner during sex is FUN and not demeaning -- and that bottoming and submission are far from the same thing. In these creative works, characters shout "Yes!" instead of "No!," and characters can get up to all kinds of kinky crazy fun without ever being made to feel shamed for their desires.

To lead up to the challenge, I'm hosting a feature on the community called UNDONE SUNDAYS. Every other Sunday, I'll make a post in this journal that's somehow related to Saying Yes! and its aims, and that'll let you guys jump in on the discussion, too. Whether it's sharing links to sex-positive websites/blogs/writing/fic/organizations/toy stores/etc., holding flashficathons or round-robin writing events, or simply swapping stories, there's going to be something fun to do. Participating in these posts is hardly mandatory, but they'll be there for anyone who's online and feels like joining in.

I hope you'll consider participating in this challenge, or cheering our participants on when this goes live. We need as many yeses as we can muster, after all.

Mercedes Lackey allowing Fanfiction

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:56:46 GMT

http://www.mercedeslackey.com/news.html

As you folks already know, my agent, Russel Galen, has in the past been opposed to fanfiction. However, he is also Cory Doctorow's agent now, and Cory is a persuasive little gnome.

As a result of this, I am happy to announce that we are officially permitting fanfiction to be licensed as derivative fiction under the Creative Commons umbrella.

What this means is: NO, you cannot make money on it. NO, you cannot self-publish a fanfiction novel of Valdemar (or any of my other stuff) and try and sell it on Amazon. And NO, I still am not going to read it, because I am already so far behind on my research reading I barely have time to read that.

But YES, you may write and post away, folks, so long as you license it as derivative and under Creative Commons. If it is anything other than PG-13, please take all the proper precautions to stick it somewhere that innocent souls won't be corrupted. Do not scare the children or the horses. Have fun!

Kinda makes me wish I liked her stuff :D

(nb I am very very slow replying to comments)

ReBoot getting uh, rebooted

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:09:19 GMT

ReBoot is getting rebooted with a theatrical movie arriving in 2010.

Season 4 of ReBoot ended on a famous cliffhanger. While some aspects of that cliffhanger were resolved in a three-part web comic series, the theatrical feature film will be a departure from the series in this regard. It is our intention to create a new ReBoot adventure that seasoned fans will enjoy exploring while simultaneously introducing the rich world of Mainframe to a whole new audience.

Looking for Fic Rec

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:13:10 GMT

Once upon a time, my teenage self fell in love with a movie series called Subspecies. I have recently rediscovered my love of these movies and find myself desiring more of Radu/Michelle. Unfortunately, my search for fic has not been very fruitful. And since this is usually the most knowledgeable source of obscure fandoms, this the most likely area for some good recs. So do you guys have anything for me?

This one appeals to two fandoms

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:54:24 GMT

(American) Football fans and bird watchers.

I've watched this at least a dozen times. It hasn't gotten old yet!

looking for RPS fics

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:17:44 GMT

Or not even necessarily fic, RP logs will do, too, and I'm asking on JF because I know a lot of you do RPS RPs.

Are there any out there featuring Alexander Siddig? This fine gentleman who was on Trek, and who has been in in movies with Liam Neeson, Orlando Bloom, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and other actors I know people write RPS about and RP.

I'm desperate, will take any ship, any length, any kink, even gen!

Pegg-Frost-Wright tweet Hot Fuzz slash, win internets.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:36:29 GMT

Some of you may know movies such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and the makers behind them, specifically Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. If you don't, you should, those movies are entertaining and incredibly well-made.

Hot Fuzz is also the slashiest thing without featuring canonically gay characters you could imagine. It is amazing.

Yesterday (also known as The Best Day of My Life So Far) Edgar began discussing slash on twitter. Naturally the subject turns to Hot Fuzz slash, and people throw links at him, and he tweets two of them (the story called "Missing Out" is one of my favourites, glad it got the rec of a lifetime)! He, Simon and Nick end up discussing and then, as you do, writing it. 140 character, hilarious little slash ficlets. If you managed to follow the thing unfold in real time, good on ya.

If you didn't, Edgar compiled all of the discussion into a blog entry.

He ends the blog entry by saying: I cannot say how much we all enjoyed writing these. You slash fiction writers are having way too much fun.

Oh I just noticed my favourite tweet isn't in the entry, it was Edgar equating the whole of Hot Fuzz as one giant slash fic.

Recs for light-hearted fantasy novels?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:26:16 GMT

So, my mom is stuck in the hospital right now and won't be leaving for a couple of weeks, and I wanted to make sure that she had a big old pile of books to read while she's stuck lying around in bed. Does anybody have recommendations for fantasy novels that are cheerful/hopeful/basically won't depress someone who's going to be stuck in a room for ages without much to do but brood? It doesn't need to be Chicken Soup-style fluff, just something that leaves you feeling happy when you put it down. I've already been through my own bookcase picking out things she hasn't read already, only to realize that most of those are bleak as hell (or involve a major character being seriously maimed, which is another thing I want to stay away from). Pratchett's unfortunately right out; I've tried to get her into him before but she just doesn't like him.

Recs for books that aren't fantasy are fine too, it's just preferred because she always borrows the fantasy novels she reads from me so with them I'll know if a book is something she's already read or not.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:40:25 GMT

I don't know how many of you are fans of the show Glee, but I think this link deserves some recognition for those of you who still break out into spontaneous renditions of 'A maaaaaaaaaaaaan's gotta do what a maaaaaaaaaa's gotta do!' in the shower.

Also, I think I am in love with the first commenter.

But what are your thoughts on sandvichs?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:44:04 GMT

Now go figure, but I thought of you guys when I saw this.

Proof that even in an all male character game, some slash expectations.. just ain't happening.

looking for SF recs

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:53:02 GMT

I'm working on a SF original fiction idea right now (decided to file the serial numbers off my SW fanfic and RPG background), and I'm realizing that when it comes to SF profic, I'm at something of a loss. I've read widely in mystery and fantasy and I've watched a lot of SF TV and movies, but I haven't read many SF novels beyond spinoff novels for my two SF fandoms (Star Wars and Halo). I'm not a big hard SF person, the greater the focus on the tech and the science, the less interested I am.

So I'm interested in:
-what you'd recommend as an introduction to SF for people who don't read a lot of SF, including "hard SF for people who don't like hard SF"
-space opera
-social/cultural SF (the science interests me less than the politics of alien cultures, how being humans on an isolated planetary base influences their society/how they relate to each other, that kind of thing)
-anything with precursor races (especially where they're more of an influence than simply leaving behind cryptic artifacts) and anything with sentient planets

Thanks!