</p> PS. Nothing posted on my blog or in any of my comments is legal advice. From time to time this journal will provide background on legal issues; it does not provide legal advice. Legal advice is tailored to the facts of your particular situation. If you need legal advice, consult an attorney.

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My journal plans: I will be using Semagic to post in all my 4 journal locations: InsaneJournal, GreatestJournal,* here, and JournalFen. My user name is the same in all 4 places.

If you have moved your journal to any one of these four places, you do not need to set up a special RSS feed. Just add me as you usually would to your reading list.  To read my locked posts you will need to drop me an e-mail telling me (a) who you are (b) that you've read my TOS here and agree to them along with (c) the journal service you're  using so I can add you back.

edited  8/19/2007 to clarify:

I use Semagic to cross-post to my journals on other sites.

1. If you have not left LJ (no more posting here, no more reading here) then you do *not* need to read or friend my GJ, JF or IJ journals. You are getting the same content there (GJ,IJ,JF) that you are already getting here and you will be missing out interacting on the conversations here on LJ with the fans who are staying on LJ. Of course, if you've made your choice to no longer read or interact with people here on LJ (and that's fine I understand the whys), then by all means read and friend my journals 'over there.' That's why they've been set up because I do want to stay in touch with you.

Your other choice is to set up an RSS feed for this LJ with a stand alone feed reader on your new journal site that will read my protected posts. You will still be 'reading' my here on LJ when you click on the link, so factor that into your choices.

2.  And last - if you've made your decision to no longer post content here on LJ or to post only some of your content here ('no more fic or art for you LJ!', please make a note of this in your userinfo. This will help people like me decide which journal to 'friend' and where.

edited: 9/20/07 Greatest Journal Readers please read here

1. I am in the midst of 'retuning' my physical therapy. This may keep me offline (and off the computer) a bit longer

2. Last week there was a mango shortage here in California.  Oh noes! "No one can have Mango!"

3. Left Behind With Plenty of Kibble - See? Some Atheists Are Nice.

Still working on my post about disability access. Our annoying next door neighbors are hosting a  Hawaiian luau with hundreds of people with live music (the singing is lovely). It sounds like they're having a blast and all I want to know is: why didn't you invite us?

I saw this article on how to help families facing chronic illness/terminal illness:

"Bergin points out the importance of being proactive in offering help.

"Don't just ask what you can do," she says. "Come up with a plan and do it. That way, you're not adding pressure for the family to come up with ideas and get back to you. Just make sure you run your idea by the family first. Each family's idea of what is helpful varies significantly."  more here

You all should know by now that I have a cracked sense of humor. (If not go back and read my intro post).  I am planning a Very Serous And Insightful Post Later (TM). But today allow me to entertain you (and myself ) with my cracked out crazy.

I was told recently that I Am A Person Of High Status (TM). At first I objected (oh, no not little ole me). But then I got to thinking...Of course I am! About time!!!  But what about those of you out there, struggling to find your way to the top of the mountain?  I should help the little people them.

So here are my tips on how to become a Person of High Status (TM):*

1. Hang out in fandom for 10-15 years (sorry, no easy short cuts)

2. Kill off anyone who has been around as long (or longer) than you. (what, you thought you could just walk to the top of the mountain?)

3. Get publicity photos shaking hands with other Persons of High Status *before* you bump them off (oops, perhaps I should have put that in #2?)

4. Wait for your accolades, admiration, offers of garlands to roll in.

5. Realize that they're not rolling in no matter how long you sit there looking Top Of The Mountain-y

6. Steal underpants

7. ?

8. Profit!

*I rush to add that I realize that there is not one single path to the Top of the Mountain. There are many roads to Babylon. YMMV.

Among the ongoing discussion of making fan run conventions more accessible for people with disabilities, I have to share this story.

The first year I rented wheelchair was at Vividcon. Before the convention, I chatted with the only other wheelchair bound fan I knew - Abby Albrecht. She kindly told me to call her if I had any questions.

Thinking I had it covered, I dutifully copied her number onto my cell and forgot it. I had - after all - helped my uncle for decades after he was struck with polio - the entire family learned to things automatically so he could participate on all types of outings - water skiing and cross country trips.  I had it covered.

And so there I was - sitting in my wheelchair in front of my hotel room and realizing that I could not hold open the door and drive the wheelchair though at the same time. I tried.  Very heavy hotel doors. I had not opted for the handicapped room with the automatic doors  because the toilet seats were too high and there often is no bathtub and I cannot stand in a shower.

I called Abby on my cell phone in outrage. "How do you manage this? This is horrible! I cannot get into my room!!!!" She laughed. She laughed for a long time (it seemed). Then she told me - this is why you bring a door stop to prop open the door. Call hotel maintenance and ask them for help.  I did and while hotel maintenance had no extra doorstops, the service person taped two shims together with duct tape to create a home made door stop. 40 years of helping a family member in a wheelchair and the whole world shifted when it was just me, the wheelchair and the damn door.  Thank God for Abby and her willingness to guide me.  What she had to go through every day was thousand times harder than me and my scary door.  And she still could laugh.


PS. The moral of this story ....come on there's got to be a moral in here somewhere, right?  'Ask for the help that you need. Offer the help that people tell you that they need. Don't expect people to know your needs. Don't assume or presume that you know what they need. And carry duct tape where-ever you go. At the very least you can use it jury-rig a shiny Club Vivid costume.'

thanks to solo for the link

"LJ was apparently down at some point. To make up for it, they are offering paid members a 3-day extension:

"Anyone who was an active Paid member as of any time Thursday, August 6, 2009 is eligible for a 3 day extension of Paid time. You can claim this extension anytime from now until 12:01 GMT on September 10th."

But you have to go and claim, it doesn't happen automatically. Check it out here. "

We're on our way. And a point of clarification (yet again): the reason I need to plan/schedule social interactions before I attend conventions is this.: My pain levels and physical restrictions limit my ability (a) just 'hang" and/or hope to run into people and (b) I need to pace myself. Please to be understanding. And thank you to everyone who is being flexible and helping to make this a wonderful convention. Hearts.

more here

Go here
http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_swap/

Fanzines, DVDs, books and art. You can also trade or swap.

The hip has been iffy and I can tell these past few weeks that it has not been holding up (see last week's post). Today, during home physical therapy I rolled over  to my side and something on the outside of the hip went 'crunch'.  The pain is almost as bad as it was when I started physical therapy in Feb. So we're back to pain patches and pain meds to see if we can knock it back to shape. I am lowering the number and duration of the home exercises to give it a chance to rest.Since it takes months to get onto the PT schedule I should set up a single refresher session after VVC

needless to say I will be a flake and flighty at best - either posting pointless cat macros and links to bad vids or jumping into intense discussions about health care reform and why fanzines can cure the blues.

You have been warned.

Ted Casablanca (celebrity gossip)  posts  about celebrity fan vids. There is a special call-out to Jared & Jensen vids:

"Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural. Nobody comes close to capturing YouTube adulation like these two doable dudes. If the photo-heavy clips weren't precious enough, Jen and Jar licking one another on the red carpet is almost too cute not to rewatch a dozen times. Or this one, which claims that Jensen finds Jared hot—hey, we can't disagree!

Seriously, at the rate these vids are posted, J.A. and J.P. had better slap a ring on one another so they don't let all their tech-savvy fans down! "

The article ends with a call for people to submit the 'best Jackles fan vid."

More here

x-posted to vidding

sniffle. thanks to earthdogue for the link

I am always relived when I see my mother's brain is still firing on all synapses.  She often does not make the best choices. She e-mailed me to say that her blood tests showed her blood was a bit too thin, she spoke to her doctor and told him about the findings in the clinical alert, warfarin and the antibiotic which he was aware of.  Since her infection symptoms have cleared up he told her to stop taking the antibiotic and to continue with warfarin and to come in Monday for another INR test. When he told her that normally it only takes three days for the Sulfamethoxazole to clean out the bacteria, she  asked, " Why does it say on the prescription not to stop even if the symptoms are gone?"   He said that was just a precaution to make sure all the bacteria was out of the system.  She is OK with him being cautious, feels better about stopping the antibiotic, and will keep an eye out for return of the symptoms (this is the second antibiotics prescription).

Bottom line:  she's on top of this so I can go off alert watchdog mode. I know that between us this doctor is being kept on his toes.Now if I could only persuade her to get the flu shot and pneumonia vaccine - she has pulmonary problems as result of her earlier blood clots.

More here

My mom called me last night to inform me that the doctor had given her a new antibiotic that everyone swore up and down wouldn't interact with her blood thinning meds.  Why then was her doctor calling her to come in again for testing?

3 seconds of googling revealed that this drug combo is among the leading causes of death in nursing homes.  A few more seconds and I  had e-mailed her the more aggressive testing guidelines with instructions to push for increased testing this next week.

The good news:  she was alert to the fact something was off. The bad news: we still have to keep an eye on their testing protocols. And we're waiting to find out the results.

Vividcon, a fan run vidding convention, raised their membership cap this year and has a few spots still open. Go here

watch quickly because NBC is pulling these down fast

1. My hip problems finally are easing - this last round took around 4 days.  grumble

2. Dreamwidth is moving towards my bloggish sweet spot - they announced a journal search feature.  Reading filters are coming soon. And they're talking about getting the DW cross-posting feature to work with posting clients like Semagic.  When these features are added, I plan to move my posting direction away from LJ to DW (I already use DW's cross-posting interface for entries that I know need to be updated often). I will always still cross-post.

3. In light of a few fans recently being surprised that fanzines are still being published, I'd like to put out a call for volunteers to maintain fanzine lists for the following fandoms:  Buffy/Angel, the Stargates, Firefly, Farscape, Firefly, Highlander, X-Files and Xena. Please feel free to report this request.  I keep a list of fanzine lists here. Pepper (who maintains the amazing  Starsky & Hutch Fanzine List With Every Combination Except Pepperoni) and I e-mailed FanLore for help in getting the data we have compiled into their Wiki format - so stay turned for their response.

And last on the topic of fanzines - just because a story is online or in an archive does not mean that the story was stolen and reprinted in the fanzine. Most zine publishers ask fan writers to hold off one year before posting their stories online. A few fanzines do reprint online fic - with the writer's permission. So please check with the author before assuming the publisher has stolen the fic. That having been said, there may be some cases where the online fan fic was reprinted without permission so don't hesitate to check with author. I am certain they will appreciate hearing from you no matter the reason.

4. Because Vividcon is coming up in 2 weeks, I have to take a break from various projects. Sweet Charity Compilation bidders - the DVDs were mailed today for print screening and I am hoping to get them mailed out in the next month. 

Everything else will have to take the back burner for 30-60 days. My e-mail and posting may become erratic (so may my brain, but that's not new).

5. And even though I am familiar with my VVC prep, every year it seems overwhelming. Renting the wheelchair, airport logistics, planning ahead for the new hip problems (physical therapy in the hotel room), rounding up instructions for the care of our aging cat, increasing the amount of stuff we have to lug along in case something does happen etc.  I am so grateful that xlorp is willing to spend the time and money to make this happen.