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Friday, November 20th, 2009
tetradecimal
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6:40p
If anyone knows what the hell is up with KIBA, I would love to know. I stopped watching because
(a) I was pretty sure it was all going to end in tears (see also: Wolf's Rain)
(b) As each successive episode aired, it had me asking, "What the fuck is going on?!"
(c) It's kind of derivative, like that Avenger thing about Mars or something and then no one could have kids and WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT SHOW?
KIBA is about a kid named Zed who is kind of an asshat and then he is transported to a Magical World (TM) with magic, where he is still an asshat. He also has a super powerful spirit named Amil Gaoul who is awesome and kills things but mostly it's about Zed and his annoying uke brainwashed friend Noa, who is so incredibly annoying and brainwashed he spends a good deal of time contributing to a false sense of dramatic tension by murdering people because... um, someone told him to? It's kind of like Miaka and Yui, if Miaka was a power-hungry jerkoff with absolutely zero social skills.
But they are BEST FRIENDS AND YET ENEMIES.
It gets to a point where they're constantly introducing various half-explored characters and countries and then something happens and everything explodes, but then for some reason Zed (who goes through 51 episodes and is still, somehow, an asshat) merges with Amil Gaoul or something. I watched a full half of this series and I still have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON, which I guess happens a lot when you mix together a bunch of things you liked from other cool anime shows but actually have no idea what you are doing.
Stop trying to blow my mind, Japan! It never works!
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dreamer_marie
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11:16p
Meme time of Doom...
From ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) virginia_bell:
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile" and I will respond by asking you five questions that satisfy my curiosity. Update your journal with the answers to the questions, including this in the post.
1. When did you realise definitively that science was what you wanted to study?
There was no realisation involved. I was already taking the scientific path in High School, so I figured, what the hell, let's just continue this way. The problem was that I liked everything at school. Science was something I knew would please my parents, so I just went along with it. To this day, I'm still not sure if it was the right decision (or non-decision, really). I like research, I like science and I can get excited about projects, but so far I don't think I've found the place where I would most like to do it. 2. Two Harry Potter characters: one to accompany to you a desert island, the other to push off a cliff. Who are they?
I wouldn't mind pushing Draco or Dudley off a cliff. I have a special place in my heart for bullies - the place where I put people I absolutely loathe. Who would I take with me to a desert island? Ron would be a good choice, or Dumbledore. I think both would be fun to be with (maybe they're the same person! Oh, nevermind, J.K.R. nixed that idea ages ago...) 3. What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?
If there ever was an important question, this is it. Ice cream is serious business, and of course I've spent a lot of time thinking about my favourite flavour (by the way, Virginia, way to show off that you're in Oxford now. Smooth...). I can therefore assert with absolute confidence that the only way to eat ice cream is with two flavours: mint and chocolate. And if you're ever in Pest, go to Chez Gerbeaud. They make the waffle for the cone in front of you and it's heavenly. 4. I recall that you posted a lot of about U.S. politics for a time, so, at the risk of inspiring a rant or two, do you think that Sarah Palin will run for president in 2012?
Right now, I'm a little burnt out on Sarah Palin. I've started cyber stalking Le Monde, lately, so now I reserve all my hatred for Nicolas Sarkozy and his ilk. Sarah Palin? I'm sure she would like to run, but I don't think that she will make it past the primaries. I think the Republican strategy is to have a serious paternalistic figure as the official candidate to reassure moderates, but to allow all kinds of crazies in the primaries in order to attract the crazypants. That way, they can cover the bases from Right Wing crazy to paternalistic and moderate without having to resort to candidates with outright Multiple Personality Disorder. There is no way in hell they will let Sarah Palin run, unless the Democrats promise to nominate Mike Gravel on their side. 5. If you could elope with one fictional character, who would it be?
It's not the idea of elopement I have a problem with. I'm all for it. Just the idea of organizing a wedding makes me itch to join a convent. But most fictional characters I have a crush on are madly in love with someone equally fictional and I quite them that way. But there are a number of quite sexy, single characters out there who I wouldn't mind going for a drink with and maybe, if things go well, elope with: Colonel Fitzwilliam, Sirius Black, Wallace Fennel, Weevil, Lord Vetinari, any character ever played by Johnny Depp... Does that cover the question?
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semtex
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10:36a
\o/
I know a Twitter layout isn't much more than a background image, but hey I updated my Twitter layout.
Based on the subject matter alone, it has now been upgraded to AWESOME *\o/*
current mood: accomplished
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atalantapendrag
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11:02a
Just sort of blankish
Thankfully I am not tempted by BPAL's Naughty or Nice Inquisition. There are a few scents that sound nice but most don't appeal.
It's rainy and I'm stiff and kind of queasy. more sleep is called for.
current mood: blah
current music: Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals 09
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nagaina
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7:19a
...And the brown stuff continues impacting with the rotating ocillator.
http://community.livejournal.com/sfwa/98375.html
For the linkphobic:
In November, 2009, Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. announced the launch of a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, for aspiring romance authors. Under normal circumstances, the addition of a new imprint by a major house would be cause for celebration in the professional writing community. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances. Harlequin Horizons is a joint venture with Author Solutions, and it is a vanity/subsidy press that relies upon payments and income from aspiring writers to earn profit, rather than sales of books to actual readers.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) finds it extremely disappointing that Harlequin has chosen to launch an imprint whose sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers. According to their website, “Now with Harlequin Horizons, more writers have the opportunity to enter the market, hone their skills and achieve the goals that burn in their hearts.”
SFWA calls on Harlequin to openly acknowledge that Harlequin Horizon titles will not be distributed to brick-and-mortar bookstores, thus ensuring that the titles will not be breaking into the real fiction market. SFWA also asks that Harlequin acknowledge that the imprint does not represent a genuine opportunity for aspiring authors to hone their skills, as no editor will be vetting or working on the manuscripts. Further, SFWA believes that work published with Harlequin Horizons may injure writing careers by associating authors’ names with small sales levels reflected by the imprint’s lack of distribution, as well as its emphasis upon income received from writers and not readers. SFWA supports the fundamental principle that writers should be paid for their work, and even those who aspire to professional status and payment ought not to be charged for the privilege of having those aspirations.
Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.
Already the world’s largest romance publisher, Harlequin should know better than anyone else in the industry the importance of treating authors professionally and with the respect due the craft; Harlequin should have the internal fortitude to resist the lure of easy money taken from aspiring authors who want only to see their work professionally published and may be tempted to believe that this is a legitimate avenue towards those goals.
SFWA does not believe that changing the name of the imprint, or in some other way attempting to disguise the relationship to Harlequin, changes the intention, and calls on Harlequin to do the right thing by immediately discontinuing this imprint and returning to doing business as an advance and royalty paying publisher.
For the Board of Directors,
Russell Davis
President
SFWA, Inc.
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nagaina
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6:30a
Early morning post of early morning randomness of an early nature.
...Yeaaah, I've been up since 4 am. >_< Sittin' in the office, in the dark, with my door closed, listening to music loudly, waking myself up with Dunkin Donuts coffee and fiddling with my shiny new An Archive of Our My Own settings. Interface is SHINY. I love the shiny. Black text on a white background might not be for everybody but I'll take it over any background that makes the text look nearly unreadably fuzzy, danke kindly. On the other hand, I can see that importation from FF.net is going to require editing, as nearly every online archive hates em-dashes and I have an unrequited love affair with them. This is especially true of Survivors which I may just cut and paste from source and edit in the tags rather than try to comb through it and fix all the em-dashes. I am Nagaina at An Archive of Our Own as well -- yay! -- and the first two things that are up are DGM and Kingdom Hearts related.
Now, if Jadaar and Asric will stop bickering about who gets to be the bigger damn hero when it comes to saving nearly blowing up saving by VIRTUE of blowing something up Booty Bay, the NEXT thing to go up will be WoW-related -- a fandom sadly under-represented on AAoOO thus far. Four fics. And one of them is an AU fusion with -- wait for it! -- Stargate: Atlantis.
( Let's have some music, shall we?! )
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(59 comments | comment on this) Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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fandom_wank
[ jkefka ]
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7:54p
Harlequin vanity bodice-ripping wank! (Even more awesome than it sounds)
Hang on to your hats, kids, this one's a doozy in several parts. To start off, you might want to catch up on agilebrit's clairvoyantwank writeup. Clairvoyant indeed! To sum up, romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises teamed up with a publisher called ASI solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity press. Romance Writers of America promptly revoked Harlequin's "recognized publisher" status.
And now for a wank in several parts, involving a goodly number of awesome people in addition to a wanking Cast of Thousands (tm):
( Part 1: PubRants )
( Part deux: various forums )
( Part Three: SBTB, and Nora Fucking Roberts )
( Part the last: The NEW YORKER?! )
And finally, THIS JUST IN from PubRants. Watch that post for further fappery developments! Notably, Harlequin has decided to dissociate the "Harlequin" name from their vanity publishing rig in response to the RWA slamming them, and the MWA has weighed in. ETA: And the wank has matured nicely! Here's a couple comments of note: Anon #1, Anon #2, "Harlequin, were not stupid" [sic].
And here come the ETAS!
#1: SFWA tweets a heads-up, and the glorious katamari of wank rolls on!
#2: Coutesy of magnolia_mama, Lee Goldberg drops his two cents from the MWA soapbox. In a shocking turn of events, he seems to be making a cogent, reasonable argument. My world is rocked.
#3: annathepiper links us to SFWA's statement, which is possibly the strongest yet! For a snippet:
...Further, SFWA believes that work published with Harlequin Horizons may injure writing careers by associating authors’ names with small sales levels reflected by the imprint’s lack of distribution, as well as its emphasis upon income received from writers and not readers....Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner....SFWA does not believe that changing the name of the imprint, or in some other way attempting to disguise the relationship to Harlequin, changes the intention, and calls on Harlequin to do the right thing by immediately discontinuing this imprint and returning to doing business as an advance and royalty paying publisher.
Count on the pew-pew lasers genre to bring the burn!
#4: Found by pariforma, someone named Jackie Kessler has an excellent (and amusing) summary of the whole mess on their blog. The pricing breakdown (with reference links to the Harlequin price-sheets themselves) is particularly well-done.
#5, which should be like #3 but I missed it the first time: via lady_ganesh, Mr. Scalzi has spoken. Does anyone else smell something...burning?
( Too Hot (and big) For Your Flist )
Mmm, PR barbecue. As a bonus, there's a lovely herd of teal deer in the comments, including some truly lovely wanking by one Diana Peterfreund and a few others. Scroll on through, it's a good time.
Blooper reel: We, uh, may have played a part in crashing SBTB for a while there. please don't kill meeeee
#6: Zoe Winters continues her wanking in the comments of an article at the Examiner. Thanks dreamworld!
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rotten_fish
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5:36p
Well, I now have a job lined up and a roommate moving in starting tonight. I also have three papers due next week. I'm a little bit stressed, and I'm not sure how to calm down. Besides cleaning and exercising that is. Deep breaths, self, deep breaths!
I also picked up Nano this year! Did anyone else? I'm like, four days behind D: For a while I just couldn't concentrate on anything, and I barely wrote. This cold weather just makes me want to curl up in bed and do nothing. Bah!
Anyway, could be so much worse. Dark Forces is keeping me sane. How are you folks?
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nagaina
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1:11p
WoW: A nooooo! And an FYI.
http://www.lorecrafted.com/the_stacks/2009/11/19/comics-i-have-comics-i-share.html
I admit, the image posted on WoW Ladies last night of Valeera's bodiless head floating where a headed body ought to be, got me thinking and Lorecrafted confirms it. Fare thee well, Aegwynn. You were a bootylicious snarktacular badass old lady and at least two of my characters want to be like you when they grow up, minus the uterus possessed by Sargeras and colossally terrible judgment. Take a few years off and come back as, oh, I dunno, Anduin Wrynn's son or something, marry Thrall and Jaina's daughter, and bring about lasting peace between the Alliance and the Horde. Or something. Just a suggestion.
FYI ~
Tonight begins what I refer to as Hell Fortnight, that wonderful two weeks when, every goddamn year, Tony's AM dispatcher takes two weeks off for deer camp. I will not be about much at night. Because I'll be going to bed at 9:30 pm. Because I will need to be getting out of bed at 4:30 am and I must be able to function. If I seem somewhat crankier than usual...this would be why.
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tetradecimal
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12:03p
Okay, I just saw a listing with a HUGE DARK STAIN on the hardwood in two of the pictures.
"Not a short sale or foreclosure"? I could believe that. It looks more like someone bled out all over the floor.
I don't even know if I WANT to buy a place. Up to $300,000?! That's like more money I've seen in my life! (And you should see some of the crazy shacks people want to sell for $250,000, let me tell you internets) Argh, housing is such a pain. The real estate agents, and the lost weekends, and the... ARGH.
So, to summarize, here are the reasons for and against moi buying a house/condo/townhouse:
For
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* More room for fish
* I actually own something for all this money I'm paying
* Decorating new place + more room for stuff
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* Stuck in the same place for years
* HUEG DEBT weighing me down like a millstone :DDD
* A billion hours of stress, research, and negotiations
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And wouldn't you know it, the thing I am most excited about is decorating and more fish. I don't really like the idea of owing people things. I don't think I've ever bought anything I couldn't pay for, but since housing is so monumentally expensive, it'll be 30 YEARS until I can pay it all off, and how do people take the pressure? Jeez.
On the other hand, I guess it's better than paying rent. I mean, either way you need to pay something monthly, but at least you own something at the end of it :/.
You know what would be hilarious, though? I would probably have to...
...get a roommate. LOLOL I hope the market's better than in New Haven.
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