CatEcumen the Ecumenical Cat

Fill this out! I wanna know!

YOU
1. Name:
2. Date of birth:
3. Where you live:
4. What makes you happy:
5. Currently listening/the last thing you listened to:
6. Do you read my journal?:
7. If yes, what makes it especially good or bad?:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. What do you love at the moment?:
10. Favourite place to spend time:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. The best time of the year:

RECOMMEND
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A band, a song, or album:

PLUS
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Look at my friends-list and tell what you like about one of our mutual friends:
4. Put this in your journal so that I can tell you what I like about you.

Okay. Well.

Apparently, LJ just laid off an alarming number of people, the media is blaming it on slashers, and a lot of people are really very worried that the service is going to up and die at any second.

I'm going to come right out and say, up-front, that I'm not really worried that LJ will abruptly go down and we'll all lose each other and our journals forever. If LJ does indeed die, it's much more likely it'll be a long, slow decline, not something we need to leap all over right now. However, I do recognize that this is a scary situation, and everybody wants to be prepared. The good news is, we're fandom, we are organized, and we most likely have ample time to prepare for a disaster, if indeed one should occur.

So, let's take a few deep, calming breaths, and get practical.

( Backing up your journal, your friends and your sanity, in three easy steps )

Okay, so that's that! If anybody has any questions, gimme a shout, I will do my absolute physical best to answer.

And, well, as long as I'm doing this, I might as well do the thing properly. Gacked from chaos_by_design:

It has been noted that while there are plenty of ways of saving one's journal, there isn't a useful way to save one's LJ social network. If you can read this, please send e-mail to heather dot cotter at gmail dot com with the subject line "social safety net" that has contact info unrelated to LJ, preferably e-mail (but no address@livejournal.com), and your LJ handle. Especially pertinent if we don't connect on any other forum. Thankya!

Transformers comic book fandom wank.. Early this morning, it was about pedophilia.

My doppelgänger from the IDW fan forum Skwege learned that he had been accused of having sex with children by the IDW forum fantards on Transfans.net. Sprunkner is a real internet tough guy. Unfortunately, he made it quite easy to find his dox.

Skwege was not happy to find he'd been slandered as a pedo. So he calls (yes, as in calls Sprunkner's landline) to tell him to take it down. No yelling, just something along the lines of "call me whatever you want but accusing me of child fucking is not cool."

What does Spencer (Sprunkner's IRL name) do? He freaks out and hangs up!

That's right-he's a coward. So Skwege leaves him a voicemail:

"Hi Spencer :

You like to make libelous accusations about people having sex with kids? That is really grown up of you. Oh wow, you live in Washington State as well? What a coincidence! Bellingham is only an hour from here.

It's not funny! I know little punks like you think they can run around all anonymous on the internet and think nothing can bite them in their ass. However let me tell you little man, you are going to retract your statement, and then apologize. Talking shit about someone is one thing, but making a disgusting and FOUL comment like that is libelous. I have the time, money, resources, and most importantly the fucking patience to see this through so don't toy with me little man."

Then Sprunkner has his wife (yes, someone actually agreed to marry him) respond. He doesn't have the balls to answer Skwege himself-he makes his wife call him back and tell him not to call. Unfortunately, Spencer posted her phone number and email as his contact information.

Some PMs get exchanged on the IDW forum and Sprunkner accuses Skwege of threatening him (although I doubt the police consider being asked to take down a post or telling someone you're suing them for slander are violations of any particular laws). He makes an announcement on Transfans.net, crying that Skwege is harassing his family and that he called the po-po on him.

Sprunkner did call the police and they in turn contact Skwege.

The result? The police are highly pissed off-at Sprunkner. Because this is much ado about comic books.

All this name calling and wank is over whether or not the comic book series All Hail Megatron is in continuity.

The police were not too happy about being called to mediate a dispute over Starscream's alt mode.

They lecture Sprunkner and felt Skwege was somewhat justified. Skwege apologizes for dragging the wife into the mess because being accused of fucking children is serious business that involves the IRL banhammer.

The wank continues on Tranfan.net where Sprunkner whines some more (I guess his wife made him sleep on the couch) and Skwege threatens to post a scan of the police report.

These fine examples of male adulthood continue to fight about giant robots. I believe Sprunkner's wife summed it up succinctly in an email to Skwege: "This is a fight over made up robots-let it go."

Unfortunately, everyone ignores her.

Edit: I accept this is total fail. Need more recipes and fail macros, please.

Hey, guys, can you suggest a blond actress who is freaking creepy as all hell? A woman that you look at and go, "Wow, she'd be hot if she didn't make me want to run away and hide under my bed."

Someone that isn't Tricia Helfer. I know she's the natural choice to come to mind if you've seen even a tiny bit of "Battlestar Galactica," but I really need somebody else.

Suggestions? Anyone?

♥ the fanficcers love meme, continued ♥

Because I am nothing if not a sheep and/or a total attention whore. *g*

The wank over the new Doctor Who has already begun.

Some like the new Doc, Others Don't

One Rants About Him Being a Crappy Choice

Another post says everyone needs to grow up

Another says DO.NOT.WANT

And the posts just keep on coming!

Still, I really wanted Paterson Joseph. :o

ETA 1: More screaming and capslock at Who_Anon!

ETA 2: More ugly wank at ONTD, with bonus Martha Jones wank

ETA 3: Macros at ihasatardis, including one of Matt and Billie!

ETA 4: Also Captain Jack has spoken! Bishy wank and age included!

ETA 5: Round 900 And Counting!

ETA 6: The missed Crafty Tardis wank post!

ETA 7: The Eleventh Doctor has enraged the internetz so much that even readers of The Sun are having a field day; Page 2 and Counting!

I'm just C&P'ing a mousie's post from wank_report. I can't pass up entitlement wank.

Crunchyroll is going legit. The site owner, Shinji, has been wheeling and dealing to have anime air subbed only days after it airs in Japan.

OK, users are pleased, the Naruto fans look on in anticipation, everything seems hunky-dory.

Then, Shinji introduces Anime memberships for the site. Did not read all of the benefits but the gist seems to be higher quality videos and quicker access to the anime from Japan.

That happened in the past few weeks. Now queue the new year!

Oops, did he just say that he was removing all fan uploaded content and getting permission from the publishers?

Queue the butthurt, angst, and I will kill for my anime!!!!Z!!!!!!ZOMG~!!!! Along with people eagerly trading links for other sites to feed their addiction.

The dramas, anime, and music sections now look like ghost towns, with the exception of stuff Shinji has wheeled and dealed for.

People are predicting the death of the site, but for now, it's fun seeing the entitlement angst going on over there.

I haven't posted in six days, between holiday stuff, my father coming into town and then my mother going out of town, so that all but two of my brothers are here (and making a fantastic mess).

There's a lot of "2008 in review" memes floating around, so I thought I'd try a couple!

First sentence of every month, from masqthephlsphr:

Jan: Hey, greetings to all my Mountain and Pacific time peeps from the future! [It was barely after midnight on New years' Day.]
Feb: Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. [I hadn't posted in two weeks.]
Mar: Yesterday, I spent my ENTIRE DAY reading comics.
Apr: I am not a happy Heather today.
May: Took some pics of my kid playing in the backyard, blowing bubbles and wearing her dress-up clothes.
Jun: I am bored.
Jul: This one looked frickin' sweet. [It was a meme.]
Aug: Hey, all.
Sep: Title: How You Got Here [It was a fic I wrote.]
Oct: ::blows dust off of journal:: [I hadn't posted in two weeks.]
Nov: Happy Halloween, from my daughter the super hero [LJ-cut text for photos of Darla in her Wonder Woman costume]
Dec: Okay, flist. I have RAGE.

( Books I read in 2008 (recycled on my flist many, many, MANY times) )

( Movies I saw in 2008 (from seraphcelene) )

( Shows I started watching in 2008 (my idea, not gacked from anyone else) )

From stoney321:

The meh:

- I had my most crapsack birthday ever, for reasons that only a select few people have been allowed to know.
- s8219 moving out really sucked.
- I was celibate and dateless for this entire year. (Unless Cute Cashier Guy suddenly bursts through my door and makes passionate love to me on my sofa sometime in the next twenty minutes, anyway.)
- I spent most of this year incredibly, worryingly broke.
- I spent a worryingly large portion of this year combating some illness or other.
- My favorite shows ("Heroes" and "Doctor Who") are currently On Notice for being painfully mediocre overall, with glimpses of SERIOUS suckitude.

The great:

- I co-authored a project with lady1raven where we wrote over 100,000 words. (About 70,000 of those words were hers, but I take comfort in the fact that the project was my idea, and I'm still amazingly proud of her, and of how much and how well she wrote.)
- I cared about politics for the first time ever, and have learned SO MUCH about the world, the media and the general state of my country as a result.
- I donated and worked to raise over $200 in charity this year. Not much, in the overall scheme of things, but more than ever before for me.
- WE ELECTED OBAMA, YOU GUYS! OMG OMG OMG! AND HE'S GONNA BE PRESIDENT FOR REALLY REALS IN THREE WEEKS! America made history with that, and I love that I had my own small part in it (essays, campaigning and voting).
- One of my brothers came to terms with his sexuality this year. I was the first person he came out to. The amount of trust and love he showed me there, and the fact that I got to support him for this, was really, truly awesome.
- Pursuant to that last item, I now know pretty much all of the ins and outs of the domestic and international adoption processes. It'll be some years yet before he can pursue his dream of adopting a child, but this is another thing I'm really excited that he let me be a part of it.
- My little girl grew up so much this year! I can't believe how much she's changed, and I really can't believe that she's almost seven!
- I'm closer than ever with my dad. Which has its drawbacks, but overall? Pretty sweet.

In this moment, I am happy. And really, really excited about the coming year. :-) Good night and good luck, to all of us!

When shezoo reposts hir Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children fanfic, "Flower Face", to ffvii_yaoi (locked, comm is open membership), the response is seemingly underwhelming - that is until eternalwings posts to fanficrants about the story.

The first few comments are pretty tame and agreeable, until some of the author's friends and the author hirself show up.

It's called AU, twit.

Apparently, the story title comes from Welsh mythology, something renos_rude AND screamersgirl explain in the comments using the exact same text (with a tiny error likely because the entire lump wouldn't fit in AIM).

And then the author appears, complete with capslock, insults and exclamation point abuse.

AND YOUR RUINING THE PRETEND!

Not to mention the entire thread devolving into something to do with coconut.

All's well that wanks well, right? Except that a quick check back to see when "Flower Face" was originally posted reveals that shezoo is sepherotica is ssgallery is annataria (that Annataria), because ze changes usernames as often as ze changes URLS. And while some of those journals have been deleted, Annataria's is still there, listing many of the 'random' defenders (including the one so taken by the story) on FFR as friends. ...whoops?

Does anyone remember this wank from awhile back? http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1157179.html

I know Taral Wayne from the above article, personally, and while it took awhile for him to get around to seeing the article, he did finally see it. He felt it was well-written, as factual as could be, and had few problems with it. He did feel people might like to hear more directly from him, so provided me with a brief article. I'll include it below.

( Taral's response )

use