And you point to the sky and you don't know why

I call shenanigans

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 21:11:32 GMT

I am told by a coworker with a smartphone that the line at his voting location is at around 1500 people, and they're down to one working machine (from 3).

ETA: Turning off comments because of spam that keeps hitting this post.

Crap. Facebook is now my mortal enemy.

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:16:31 GMT

The very last thing I need today is for a guy I lived with for a little while (platonically) sending me a Facebook message:

1. Admitting that he lied about his age and only just turned 21, and

2. Professing his feelings for me (which I always knew about but ignored because he was already too young for me and I'm bad at confrontation).

And might I say, ow.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:19:40 GMT

Googling "vascular lesion knee" is both largely unhelpful and mildly terrifying. Upshot -> to the orthopedist I go.

g+

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:56:40 GMT

I have a Google+ account now, and unlike Facebook, this one will include fannish content (though not necessarily a lot of it and along with the normal crap). I'm findable under my real name "Risha Jorgensen".

FYI, I'm unlikely to ever have chat turned on unless a special event is happening - something about it has always bugged me. I keep it permanently turned off on Facebook, for instance.

drools

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:12:26 GMT

OH MY GOD. Why do I have nowhere to wear one of these to?

I'm thinking this:

but I wouldn't kick this out of bed:

Devastated

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:28:06 GMT

According to Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, one of the best fantasy writers of all time, has died. I knew she had cancer and had ceased chemotherapy last year, but it's still the kind of news you hope never to hear.

Hi, Helen Mirren!

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:36:59 GMT

I would say that I hope to look that good at her age, but I've never looked that good.

I kept forgetting to do this

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:52:46 GMT

Assuming the unlikely scenario that anyone my friends list doesn't already have it:

By the time I bought my concert ticket (Atlanta! 3 hours away, but completely worth it), I had already pre-ordered the deluxe version of Danger Days. Buying a ticket, however, came with a free album download. First come, first served, on the understanding that:

1. I make no guarantees, since I haven't wanted to click in to see if you need to enter my credit card number or something to redeem it, and

2. If you win the drawing for the Meet and Greet with the band and you're not attending the Atlanta show, you let me have it.

Comments screened so that I can cut and paste the link and code and such without anyone else seeing it.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/27709.html. There are currently comments there.

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:32:17 GMT

(Will Journalfen ever fix what broke for Dreamwidth's crossposting tool? I can't be the only person who wants it. It would be different if it had just never worked because the code is too old over here, but it used to be just fine.)

We had a mandatory meeting at work today, to review our corporate policy on harassment and abuse. Apparently, it has been happening on our team recently, and they wanted to remind us that we’re required to report any that we see and to promise that they’ll take every report seriously.

It reminded me of my old job, a couple of years back, about something I had actually completely forgotten about. For a short period of time, I had a manager (two levels up) that used to do to me what would apparently fall in my new company under the “demean and belittle” clause. This was back when I was in a major depressive cycle, so I guess it had gotten lost in the general haze of my memory of that time. (And even my normal memory is more strainer-like then swiss-cheese-like. Everything streams right out.)

I freely admit that I was a horrible employee at the time, and it’s a miracle I wasn’t fired for completely legitimate reasons. I was burned out after 10 years at a job that the typical person only lasted 3 years at, was distracted because I was having fertility issues and desperately wanted a child, and was deep enough into depression and my GAD to be having panic attacks every time I went to check my work email.

Still, this had been happening for awhile, and this is the only one of my managers that I ever had a problem with. Sure, I had had meetings with the others about my performance, and I am extremely sensitive to criticism in certain contexts (see: GAD), so those hurt. But none of those other managers ever made me feel like this. I internally cringed every time I had to talk to him.

When I finally talked to other managers about it, and eventually reported him to HR, I was (reasonably, and I don’t hold that part against them) asked for specific examples of his behavior. Problem was, it was hard to come up with concrete evidence, as it was 95% tone of voice, body language, etc. And I am pretty much deaf to body language, so it had to be very blatant for me to feel threatened. But other people present at our meetings hadn’t noticed anything (or, more likely, didn’t want to say anything negative about a Very Important Person).

So they said that he was just “direct”. No one else had ever made a complaint, they said. I was being too sensitive. (The primary person assuring me of this, by the way, happened to be one of his best friends.)

With a couple of years distance, I can look back and evaluate his behavior more dispassionately.

You know what? He was fucking abusive.

I hope someone else eventually reports him too, and they take that person seriously now that my complaint is on record. Fucking asshole.

Say what?

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 01:15:27 GMT

You hold off posting the next story in your fest until the previous gets a set number of comments? Are you fucking kidding me? How is that at all fair to that next author?

Telling me something like that is the surest way to make me not comment. I don't reward asshole guilt trips, even, as in this case, when it's not actually the author's fault.

Fuck you, Secret Angels mods. I didn't care about (or really even notice) your fic fest until now. Now I actively dislike it. Congratulations.

!!!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:00:47 GMT

I GOT THE JOB!!!

Starting at substantially more than I asked for, and in the three weeks I asked for.

Random Recs - the (old) skippyfic edition

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:02:25 GMT

For no particular reason, I decided to troll the sodamnskippy archives this morning and reread some of my favorites. Skippyfic, if you're not already familiar with it, features Mike Carden (TAI...) and Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers). As befits a crack pairing, a lot of it is light and fluffy, but there's also angst aplenty to be found.

For my money, some of the best recent bandom fic has come out of this community. It has slowed down a lot in the last couple of months, which makes me sad. :(

In the Lost and Found by starflowers

Also known (to me) as "the one that always makes me cry", it features a homophobic gay Kevin and no easy answers. That last scene is a killer.

“No, seriously, Kevin. Do you like Mike? I don’t think this is healthy for you.”

Kevin scowled and said defensively, “I don’t like him,” he snapped. “Not everyone’s like you and Spencer.”

Brendon frowned, looking hurt. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That not everyone is... is good together! Or meant to be with someone! Or good, despite... despite what they are!”

Given Time We’ll Find It Strange by skoosiepants

A rare example of always-a-girl femslash done right. These aren't guys given breasts, they're actual women - like how "one of the guys" Mike still dresses up for shows, or how Joe feels he needs to protect Kevin despite being the younger sibling.

“She’s a Jonas,” Bill says. “She’s like a fancy French poodle, I think her leggings are glittering.”

Mike tilts her head at Kevin, who’s swinging her legs off the end of the stage, head tossed back and laughing at something Joe’s saying. “I’m agreeing with Bill.” She has short curly hair and a fringed scarf around her neck. Mike thinks she’s hot and quirky, like Victoria, only with more pink involved.

“Thank you, Carden,” Bill says.

Kevin has a short, ruffled skirt overtop her leggings and spangle bracelets almost all the way up to her elbows and her laugh does something to Mike’s insides.

“I’m overriding your dibs,” Mike says. She didn’t actually mean to say that, but she’s not taking back her words. She even goes on, “And for the purposes of this conversation, dibs means I’m getting into her panties.”

Up Against Your Will by akire_yta.

A Supernatural crossover(? fusion?), in which Kevin is a hunter who is desperately trying to take care of his younger brothers after the death of their parents.

Kevin let himself in, well aware his clothes smelt of smoke and ash and death. There was sand under his fingernails, and even his eyelashes felt grimy. Frankie looked like he had dozed off, but roused himself blearily at the sound of the door closing. “What happened?” he asked, sounding so young. Kevin's mouth set in a hard line.

“Basic dig and burn.” He didn't need to tell Frankie the site had all the makings of a murder dump -- a disquiet spirit, a shallow grave. The corpse's face was twisted in horror and pain before the salt and fire consumed it, leaving only ashes behind. By the time the fire had died, Nick's EM detector lay quiet, all signs of supernatural activity floating away with the ash on the wind.

“All gone?” Frankie asked in a whisper, his eyelids already drooping. He should be in grade school, not matter-of-factly accepting that his brothers had just dug up and destroyed a corpse.

“All gone,” Kevin murmured back, helping Frankie crawl under the covers and tucking him in.

Even in the low light, Kevin could see the smears his filthy hands left on the sheets.

We Hang Out On Fridays by rsadelle.

Just a cute little story. It's nice to see Kevin for once as the one who knows what he wants.

"Uh, let me text Kevin." They don't have specific plans yet, but they usually do something together on Fridays when they're both in town.

He sends Kevin, bill wants 2 have tai dinner. ok if we don't hang 2nite?

"Kevin," Bill says while Mike's waiting for Kevin to text him back. "Kevin Jonas?"

"Yeah." Mike has no idea why they're being weird about this - Sisky and The Butcher are looking at him strangely too. "We hang out on Fridays." His phone buzzes, and he pulls it out of his pocket.

Of course it's ok. Have fun with your band! :) Dinner tomorrow?

Mike smiles down at his phone and texts back, maybe. depends on bill. call you tomorrow.

"I'm in," he tells his band. They're still staring at him. "What?"

The Story So Far, another from skoosiepants.

Kevin is a human who is now attending a high school mostly full of Others that look down on him. Then William notices him.

Frankly, I find this world kind of terrifying, and I still need her to write about a million more words in it.

Plus, stalking, sniffing, shiny thing obsessed, best friend vampire Spencer will never not be hilarious.

Carden clears his throat, and he’s got speculative eyes and busy fingers when Kevin looks over at him again. Busy, glowy fingers, red-orange like fire, and Kevin jerks back when Carden reaches out and slides them, burning, across the side of Kevin’s neck.

Kevin claps a hand over it with a, “Hey,” and Carden laughs.

“You’re an interesting kid,” he says.

Kevin watches, wide-eyed, as he licks his fingers – they hiss and smoke and quickly fade to their regular pale amber color, and Kevin’s skin throbs along the pulse in his neck, even though he knows that if he looked in the mirror, there wouldn’t be any marks.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/21289.html. There are currently comments there.

Oh, hello again!

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:30:07 GMT

Kelly was on Craig Ferguson again last night! I ♥♥♥ him.

Kelly, you can be on there being cute and snarky every night as far as I'm concerned.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/19923.html. There are currently comments there.

This may take over as my favorite xkcd ever

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:37:49 GMT

http://xkcd.com/767/

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/19635.html. There are currently comments there.

How cliched, LJ.

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:05:43 GMT

I just realized that this LJ newspost actually has kind of been an interesting social experiment. Within, what, a couple of hours?, my friends list filled up with about dozen posts about it, from BNFs, communities, and various random people. And in that time, there was at least one petition written up, a community for saving old fannish content created (and now deleted), and a zip archive started up. If that's just on my friends list alone... I'd be interested in knowing just how far it spread in the time frame between the initial post and the clarification.

(The actual problem hasn't been completely solved, of course, since as of this second it still sounds like they'll be deleting comments on other journals that were made by purged inactive accounts - which would hit various RP communities hard, for one. But it should spare the majority of old content.)

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/19388.html. There are currently comments there.

I like music.

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:24:00 GMT

iTune memes are always fun.

How many songs total: 8316
How many hours or days of music: 36.7 days
Most recently played: Alright With Me, Kris Allen (4:15 AM this morning)
Most played: Valmont, Empires (12 since the last time the play count spontaneously reset on me)
Most recently added: Maquinando, Miguelito (the latino free song of the week from iTunes - I always grab all three songs)

Sort by song title:
First Song: "A" Bomb In Wardour Street, The Jam (live version, followed immediately by the album version)
Last Song: 9th St. Bridge, Bill Cosby

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: Dante's Lament (dialog), Clerks Soundtrack (0:04)
Longest Song: The Magical Number Seven (Plus or Minus Two) by jinjurly, recorded by anatsuno (6:14:31) (Longest non-podfic or full length comedy album: 9027KM, OK Go, 34:47)

Sort by album:
First album: Angie (American Idol Studio Version - Single), Aaron Kelly (*wince* I actually can't stand Aaron Kelly - it came along with a bunch of AI9 music I downloaded.)
Last album: The X-Files: The Album, The X-Files movie soundtrack

Sort by Artist:
First artist: a-Ha (song: Take On Me)
Last artist: The 88 (song: Go Go Go)

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Lovegame, Lady GaGa

Search the following and state how many songs come up:

Death - 33
Peace - 14
Rock - 2130
Life - 145
Love - 369
Hate - 20
You - 936
Sex - 26

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/18960.html. There are currently comments there.

White Collar is back - never leave me again! desperately clings

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:55:19 GMT

(a.k.a. 02x01)

I love when Peter shows off how smart and good at his job he is. He walks into the office and instantly recognizes that the open books are about minor Russian artists.

I miss seeing a lot of Elizabeth. I guess that she was really, really pregnant at this point in the filming?

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/18908.html. There are currently comments there.

Huh.

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:20:39 GMT

Did I miss another bingo controversy?

I'm drawing a blank on what the problem could be - radical childfree folk can't stand to write about them? People don't think those topics fit into their personal definition of schmoop? Hurts too much for the infertile? (Actually, as someone who has had fertility issues, I'd totally understand the last. If I were currently trying, I wouldn't be up for writing about it either.)

Off topic ETA: I shouldn't, but I kind of love it when the dachshund tries to start shit with the beagle.

Because the dachshund is a 13 pound mini, and the beagle is a 60 pound mix.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/18588.html. There are currently comments there.

Unfair.

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:54:36 GMT

Put a pair of glasses on him, and Mike Carden goes from "serial killer" to "amazingly hot to me".

http://thewilliambeckettblog.com/post/794124450/writing-4-photos-by-courtney-beckett-july-2

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/18251.html. There are currently comments there.

Random fanfic pet peeve

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:01:47 GMT

Your characters probably aren't giving "weary" looks during dangerous situations, unless they're from 24.

weary
1. physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired: weary eyes; a weary brain.
2. characterized by or causing fatigue: a weary journey.
3. impatient or dissatisfied with something (often fol. by of ): weary of excuses.

wary
1. watchful; being on one's guard against danger.
2. arising from or characterized by caution: to give someone a wary look.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/18074.html. There are currently comments there.

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:29:18 GMT

The dogs are anxious and are trying to harass the cats and picking bark wars with the neighbor dogs, one of the cats decided to tip over a cat box (spilling it all down behind a bunch of big, heavy boxes) and is now hiding under one of the beds, and the peanut butter was full of ants. It's amazingly oppressively humid out there, and even the adorable!baby!scene!kid down the street looks morose smoking in the yard.

So this is going to be one of those days.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/17676.html. There are currently comments there.

7/7 SYTYCD

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:02:18 GMT

Poor Alex! I've been annoyed by the judges' constant tongue baths (best routine ever on the show? Not even close, and I ♥ Sonja), but there's no denying that he's a very talented dancer. He looked like he was fighting not to cry, and for good reason. I'm betting that it's his Achilles tendon as expected, and therefore - out.

Robert and Ashley are lucky that Alex is getting the cut this week. Both are normally dancers I like, but their routines this week, to be blunt, sucked. Jose is also lucky; he's talented, but he simply doesn't have the training to keep up anymore.

I adore Billy's dancing. I'm not sure why, because I think he's a little weird and doesn't seem to be able to connect to his partners (or maybe to women in general? I have no gaydar, but dude is obvious). I still love watching every second.

Sorry, I know a lot of people love Kent, but I really don't know how much more of him I can take. "Aw shucks" guys bug the hell out of me, which I admit is a personal issue. Pretending to be (or being) stupid is not cute and is actively annoying. (It makes many Disney productions impossible for me to watch - sorry, Zac). At least he's a good dancer. There's no chance of him going anywhere anytime soon, so I guess I just need to keep the remote handy for fast-forwarding the talking bits.

Telling Dominick not to touch Kat on stage was... weird. It seems like to sort of thing to address after the show, you know? Unless he's some sort of known creeper and Nigel was being passive aggressive about it, calling him on it in front of millions of people was going too far.

I've decided that Lauren is officially my favorite.

Travis is an amazing choreographer.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/17529.html. There are currently comments there.

WTF BLIZZARD?!? NO. NO. NO. NO.

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:00:21 GMT

WTF Blizzard??? The first rule of the internet is NEVER USE YOUR REAL NAME. It still makes me kind of sick every time I post on Facebook under it.

All I can think is that they've never met anyone who has lost their job, had their life ruined, or have had their life threatened by putting identifying information up on the web. I HAVE. LOTS OF THEM.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/17034.html. There are currently comments there.

I apologize in advance if it is.

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:51:05 GMT

...Is it disrespectful to be amused by the incongruity of an asexual kinkmeme? I know some asexuals have sex, but it totally hit my funny bone enough that I laughed out loud.

This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/16658.html. There are currently comments there.

Let us speak of radicalization.

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:42:56 GMT

(All of the below examples are deliberately broad and/or ridiculous ones, so as to not distract from the point with quibbles.)

I'm sure it won't surprise anyone who hangs here when I say that I'm a liberal. I'm on the far, far left in the U.S. on social issues, and almost always vote based on those. I've gone out of my way to learn about feminism, sexuality, gender identity, racial issues, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera; I'm probably not qualified to teach a class on them or anything, but I can occasionally scrape up a reasonably intelligent rant or two.

The internet in general, and fandom in particular, tend to be (and yes, I know that there are a million million exceptions) more accepting of the outliers in our population. Or at least, we allow them to be much more visible and vocal than they are out in "the real world". And we in fandom have taken this to heart, which I wholeheartedly believe to be a wonderful thing. If someone is disabled and chooses to speak out about their life and the problems they face, then people listen, and hopefully learn. Not everyone, but enough.

There's a danger in this, however. When everyone's voice is heard uncritically, as we are taught to do so as to not to invalidate someone's experience... well, sometimes people are wrong.

Yes, I mean that. Let me repeat: sometimes people are wrong. Anyone who claims to always speak the absolute truth at all times is fooling themselves. They might always be honest; generally speaking, I hope that they are. But I gave up pretending, years ago, to myself or to others, that I can never make an honest mistake, or have all the answers.

As a white person living in the United States, I am not in a position to invalidate a black person's experiences living here. I don't in any way have the right even try to do so. But that truth doesn't automatically make a given black person right when they explain their position on a given issue. They could be wrong. People are wrong every day. Lots of them. All the time. Even when we're talking about something that effects them all the time.

Fandom has become very good at accepting radical positions, precisely because we are trying to listen to the disenfranchised in our midst. But the infamous geek fallacies come into play more often then we'd like to admit. In our efforts to be accepting of different viewpoints, we forget to think critically about those viewpoints. Or to remember that we have the right to disagree with them.

Yes, I said it. We can listen to a position, think about it, accept that the person genuinely believes it to be true, and that they have good arguments to back it up. And then we can still decide that it is wrong.

These are actual radical positions that people, a varying but relatively large number of people, hold right now:

- all heterosexual sex is rape
- all domestic dogs and cats live in slavery and should be released
- vaccines cause autism
- dinosaur bones aren't as old as we think because the world isn't that old

And I firmly believe (often with eyes rolled) that those are ridiculous positions. Most people do. That doesn't stop the believers from believing them, or presenting arguments of varying levels of quality to support them.

The furry community (which I do not belong to, so my scuttlebutt, hey, might be wrong) is infamous for accepting zoophiles into their midst, even if they themselves think that it's wrong. And they get laughed at (or frowned at) for it, because the zoophiles haven't made it onto the list yet (thank goodness) of people whose positions we can't invalidate without experiencing it ourselves. (I don't actually expect that they ever will, but, hey, I can't see the future. I really, really hope not.)

Many radical positions are proven right, of course, and join the mainstream. It was not too long ago in the grand sweep of history that believing that women were smart enough to vote was a radical position. No one is seriously arguing this anymore. (Well, actually, I'm sure someone is, but certainly not in the mainstream.)

I hang at the edges of the fat acceptance movement, and I absolutely believe that I am right to support it. I can quote statistics at you and cite studies. This, however, is a radical position in the United States at this time, and most of the country thinks that I'm a lunatic. I believe and trust that history will prove me right. That doesn't make those who disagree with me evil well, aside from Meme Roth, or even make their beliefs unreasonable or their skepticism unjustified. I might hate it when they write something disagreeing with me (oh, and I do!), but that is the price I pay for having a radical position. And there's nothing wrong with them doing that. I can argue with them, and attempt to convince them, and I can attempt to rally other people to join in my arguing. But I can't make them into a villain for taking the mainstream position.

Please forgive my babbling - this all fits together in my head, but it probably doesn't hang together all that well on the page. But I do think that it's important that this be said.

I could be wrong.
This entry was originally posted at http://risha.dreamwidth.org/16375.html. There are currently comments there.