on display

RPatzz is gonna need moar booze.

I remember reading an interesting lj entry about the parallels between Twilight and Mormonism - does that ring any bells for anyone? It was linked at one point in the comments of one of the Sparkledammerung posts, but that's all I remember.

Renowned anime director, Miyazaki Hayao makes some potentially controversial comments about the current Japanese Prime Minister emphasizing his liking for manga, anime/manga/games/etc. as a cultural export, and the dangerous effect of media on Japanese children. Also, the dangers of nationalism. Over at Anime News Network forum, people discuss this. Some agree with Miyazaki, others disagree partly or completely, some people express disappointment in Miyazaki and question the quality of his works, but overall the discussion is quite civil. The harshest comments so far:

"One keeps promoting manga.
One keeps making shitty anime. (...)"

"The political comments are just elitist bs. (...) if he has stated publicly that other people's work in anime is crap, then that definitely qualifies him for a big [ignore] tag."

Nothing too bad, right? Well, according to penguintruth, the thread is full of fanboy outrage and people are making "absurd, baseless accusations" and twisting Miyazaki's words "into a personal attack on them so they can get all riled up for no reason." And as we all know, "Making assumptions about Miyazaki based on a pretty reasonable statement and not supporting those assumptions with anything of substance is what we call "trolling", and it is the result of either willful ignorance or the intent to stir things up needlessly."

Knowing the ANN forums it might be worth keeping an eye on this (unless a mod steps in).

Han Solo originally had a Wookiee wife.

Screenwriter Lenny Ripps (Star Wars Holiday Special):

What was interesting to me was that Lucas started talking about Star Wars as if it was a real world. He said things like "Well, you know Han Solo is married to a Wookiee. but we can't say that." Now that was 20 years ago [in 1998], so my memory may be wrong.

According to starwars.com's Ross Plesset, however, his memory is surprisingly good:
As outrageous as Ripps's recollection sounds, there is evidence supporting it. Pat Proft corroborates it and an early draft of the Star Wars script (January 28, 1975) has Han Solo living with a furry female creature who he kisses. Proft also remembers learning that Han was raised by Wookiees, which is verified on pages 46 & 131 of Laurent Bouzereau's Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays.

I have a friend who is quite new to fandom and like me, is a total masochist. This is where you guys come in. I need some badfic. Horrible, yet hilarious Mary-Sues, inaccurate and terrifying sex scenes or just plain crazy pairings. EVERYTHING IS WELCOME.

Especially the Care Bear fic where one of them contracts HIV and another bear says, "Jesus-Bear is punishing us." I will give my first born to whoever finds that.

LJ links preferably, since we're both intending to save every link to our memories to pull out on a rainy day, but if there's none, then we'll make do.

Twilightmoms.com now has a movie review forum and a movie discussion forum.

Here is some gold from "I didn't like it" thread:

( Read more )

( Cut for potentially triggering content )

10 women charged him with drugging and sex attacks, but juries said no

There are many, many unfunny things about this article (e.g. "Pennsylvania law forbids the use of expert testimony to explain the behavior of rape victims"). However, it is interesting and it does end on a sort of hopeful note.

I just... I don't even know what to say.

Teen wins 'Twilight' car on 'Tyra Banks Show.'

The Vampire Volvo. In a pie-eating contest. While Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner watch in disbelief. No video yet.

Also, here be sparkling, although you can't see anything worth a damn. Warning: not safe for brains.

ETA: Finally, Pattinson agrees to bite someone. (OMG VIDEO)

This might be elitist, but if you are so afraid of your car that you can't go over thirty miles an hour on a clear, dry day, you do not belong on the fucking interstate highway.

I can understand being a little afraid of your car. It's been two years since I got my newish Honda Civic, built during the period when Honda was experimenting with increasing fuel efficiency by making the car weigh three goddamn pounds. Crazy bitch of a thing still spooks me out sometimes, because you can feel just how much traction you don't have in conditions like the rain, snow, and fog all at the same time that I had to drive home through last night. And I guess that there is something pretty inherently frightening about being behind the wheel of a hurtling projectile of death.

That said, if you cannot work up the nerve to go at least fifty-five miles an hour, or even figure out which part of the on-ramp you should use to get onto the freeway--hint: it isn't the far left shoulder--you do not belong there. Trying to putter along the freeway at thirty miles an hour while there's a stack of cars trying to merge on behind you and oncoming traffic in the right lane is, in fact insanely dangerous. Braking repeatedly when you get up to forty does not make it less so. The car right behind you while the cars behind us try to pass on the right in the same lane or floor it to build up highway speed and then suddenly realize how slow this lane is actually going just in time to almost cause a wreck by cutting into the left lane without paying any attention to how fast traffic goes in the left lane.

Actually, you guys behind me suck too. I don't even get people who pass on the right when there are three actual lanes and the left--which is the one you're supposed to use in America--is free and clear. But in my fricking lane? Space for traffic to merge into the right lane =/= viable alternative for going around slow traffic. One car-length is not worth dying over. Just stop tailgating and doing dumbass things like that and simmer down a minute. Having some douche who wanted to do ninety right out of the gate in my back seat wouldn't even have the minor black humor going for it that the jackass behind me last night who apparently thought that forty mph is unreasonably slow for a winding, narrow country road in the rain/snow/fog at night ("wouldn't it be funny if a deer ran out in front of me and I stopped in time to miss it, but this jerk hit me instead?") did. Elementary physics, kids. Learn you some.


(tangential rant: WTF, Honda? I know that Japan has weather. Why would you design a car that can't operate safely even on moderately slick roads or winds over five mph? It wasn't terribly much better, but I miss my Protege so much.)

I was listening to NPR on the way home from work today, and "Marketplace" of all things had a story about Twilight.

Specifically about how Twilight is, shockingly enough, causing a huge boom in the teen markets.

Nothing really new here, but I found it really funny to listen to the Marketplace reporters talk about Twilight like it's actually something important and novel.

Girl, 16, drafted to play pro ball in Japan.

I think this is the first time I've ever seen a real news story where the headline started out "Japanese schoolgirl."

Polish tests "confirm Copernicus"

Researchers in Poland say they have solved a centuries-old mystery and identified the remains of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

The Twilight movie's reviews are starting to come in, and they look kinda like you'd expect.

Artistically-spelled comments on negative reviews are starting already.


(Also, I'm seeing mention of a Southpark ep that mocks Twilight? there's a South Park ep, Ungroundable, devoted to mocking the epidemic of wanna-be vampire kids.)

Dr. Pepper to honor free soda promise.

"The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday."

I'm so getting my coupon.

Hi, Guys. I know a good many of the S2 themes are kinda hosed right now. Something changed with the LJ migration to their new data center. The Bloggish and Style Contest themes have their CSS hosted at LJ. That's by LJ's design, with how the code is distributed. The code is set to use LJ's CSS proxy to handle the access and display of the CSS settings. Since LJ's move, though, the CSS proxy has been kaput. But the CSS itself at LJ is still working. Until we can find a way around all this, a couple users have a way that you can use the Custom CSS in your customization area to get your layouts pretty damn close to the original for that layout and theme.

You'll enter two sets of code in that area. The first one would be the code from this URL:
http://stat.livejournal.com/sixhtml/themes/common/base-weblog.css

Just go there, copy it, and paste into the custom CSS box.

And the second set you enter will be from the direct CSS URL for your specific theme. You can locate this URL by viewing the source of your journal in your browser (View Source code). If you scroll down to the <link rel="stylesheet" section of the source code, you'll see the direct url to your theme's CSS at livejournal. Go there, copy that code, and paste it after the base-weblog.css code above. Make sure you have "No" selected to use the included base code (it's a dropdown), and that the URL field above the custom CSS box is empty. Click to save changes, and your theme will display much as it is supposed to. There is occasionally an element like a border that doesn't come through, but it's pretty close. As an example of the CSS URLs, this is the one for the Baby theme for the Bloggish layout: http://stat.livejournal.com/sixhtml/themes/lilia/theme-baby.css The CSS URLS will be start with http://stat.livejournal.com/sixhtml with the rest varying by theme and layout. I'll still be looking for an alternative to having to futz with custom CSS, but in the meantime, that method of applying the CSS will get your Bloggish and Style Contest journal themes put back together pretty well. Thanks, Robin

So, OTW has a new policy, which when I first read about it, it sounded pretty damn cool.

B. Fannish next-of-kin

Registered archive users may designate a fannish next-of-kin. A next-of-kin agreement allows the transfer of content maintenance in the case of a user's permanent incapacitation or death.

Both parties to the agreement must be registered users of the Archive.

The Archive's role in this agreement is only to act as a facilitator. If the person designated as the fannish next-of-kin activates the agreement by sending a message to the Archive, the Archive will not do any independent investigation to confirm the necessity for the transfer.

A fannish next-of-kin agreement is confidential and accessible only by designated members of the archive team, who may only use it for purposes of implementing the agreement.

And then you get down to the FAQ...

12. What if my fannish next-of-kin decides s/he's tired of being my fannish next-of-kin?

13. What if I decide I don't like my fannish next-of-kin agreement?

14. What if my fannish next-of-kin does something I wouldn't like?

These are all perfectly valid questions...but could you IMAGINE IT?
( Cut for hypothetical capslock of rage. )


ETA: Link

Okay, not really! Morbid move by Summit to hype up the hype some more?

A friend of mine recently got her car towed for a bullshit offense (her parking sticker wasn't in the correct place, but it was ON THE CAR.) This reminded me of a post that I think may have been in either fandom wank or one of the "lounge" communities, where a guy who had a similar thing happen wrote an "open letter" to his city officials that basically consisted of a bunch of macros. I think this also may have wound up being linked in the Somethingawlful forums. Anyway, I wanted to link my friend to it to cheer her up, but I can't find it now. I was wondering if anyone had it in their memories.

Thanks!

Linkage here.

For some strange reason, I can imagine this LJer agreeing with him.