(This has been linked all over the web, so I apologize if it's a repeat for some of you. But it's so powerful and worth watching, that I hope you don't mind seeing it again.)
Sadly, the bill failed, and it wasn't even close. Time to step up the court cases.
- Mood:
tired
Considering that there are only 102 stories tagged with Nooj's name on FF.net out of over 3000 X-2 stories, and only 38 tags in the
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ff_press archive, this amuses me. Greatly. (To compare, there are 356 Paine stories on FF.net, and 43 tags in the archive; not huge numbers for her, either.)Greater visibility for my favorite characters? I am pleased! (Although if other X-2 people want to start uploading fic to AO3 and evening out the numbers a little, I certainly won't complain!)
- Mood:
amused - Music:"South Side" - Moby
Good riddance. Don't let the door etc. Also, feel free to take all of 2009 with you.
No love,
Me
Okay, with that out of the way, let's see how we did.
Journaling goals:
1. Write and publish at least one unlocked post every day. - Missed this, but not by much; there was one day when I was sick and hating life and so didn't post publicly. (It was just whining, so you missed nothing.) I guess that's not so bad, but this is the first time that I've failed NaBloWriMo, so I'm kind of bummed.
2. A check-in post about writing progress counts as a post, but I can only use that as my sole post three days a week. I only resorted to this a couple of times, so I feel okay about that. Downside: I wrote so little that there wasn't much point in making writing progress posts.
3. At least four substantial posts per week. I'd have to go back and count, but I'm pretty sure I managed this one. So for posting goals, I think I can call this two for three.
Writing goals:
1. Write something every day. Hahahahahahaha. Ha. Ha. For the first half of the month, I blame being sick; for the second, I blame futzing with AO3.
2. Make progress on Aftermath. (Poor, poor Aftermath.) Some, almost all at the start of the month. Less than I wanted, though.
3. Finish at least two outstanding request fics, ideally more. This one, I did: I finished up two stories for the Alphabet meme. Both drabbles, true, but I completed them, and I think they both did prety well.
4. Post a completed story at least once per week. Nope. Once again, I blame the Cold of Doom - I missed in the second week of the month and pretty much gave up on this one.
So, overall I'm four for seven in terms of goals, which I suppose isn't too bad given that I basically lost two weeks. Lessons learned: sometimes I can write when I'm sick, but not always, and perhaps more importantly, I shouldn't let myself get discouraged when I set myself a goal and then miss a step almost right away. Maybe it was clear almost right away that I wasn't going to write a lot that first week and a half, but that's no excuse for having slacked off so much the rest of the month. Even with November as a semi-failure, I want to continue setting monthly goals and holding myself to them as best I can. It worked at the start of the year; it can work again.
- Mood:
meh - Music:"Euphoria (Firefly)" - Karma
Wait, where are you going?
No, really. I'm totally serious about this. And I don't mean it in a derogatory way at all -- Miss Piggy has long been one of my favorite characters. I love how take-charge she is, that she doesn't take crap from anyone, her confidence and determination. And Leblanc shares all these characteristics with Miss Piggy, along with a love of pink and a willingness to use The Heel to get her way. ("Hiiiii-ya!") These are two women who know what they want and will stop at nothing to get it.
And what do they want? Among other things, the affections of a man (or frog) who does not appear to return their feelings. Vociferously in the case of Kermit, whereas Nooj seems more indifferent, but the final result is the same. Not that this stops either Piggy or Leblanc in their mad pursuit -- Miss Piggy, at least, seems to get more determined the more her "Kermie" protests, and though we don't have as much history to go on with Leblanc and Nooj, the parallel is at least suggested, down to the goofy nickname for the object of her desires.
So, thoughts? Am I torturing the comparisons, or is it a parallel that makes sense?
Also, I am trying really, really hard not to consider the crossover possibilities... Down, brain! Down!
- Music:"Coast to Coast" - Elliott Smith
My other goal was to gather all my TBR (to-be-read) in once place, and boy is that shelf scary. Remind me why I keep buying more books again?
I also found the book I borrowed from the library months ago and then thought I had lost, which is pretty sweet.
Now, to reward myself with some FFXII...
- Mood:
accomplished
I planned no official celebration this year, but it was still a good, laid-back day: we paid a visit to the ocean, and there is now pumpkin pie cooling on the counter and crab waiting in the fridge. So I am content. Hopefully I will get folks together for tea sometime soon.
- Mood: good
- Music:Qntal - "Departir"
Even more important, of course, was the company, with the special addition this year of
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oswulf, who was in town with his wife for the holiday. Most of the local family were there, too, and it was good to see them all, but D isn't just my cousin -- he was my best friend for many, many years. So the opportunity to hang out with him for even a few hours is precious. I am lucky to have a family I enjoy spending time with.I'm lucky in so many ways, really, and it's good to have a day to reflect on that. It's been a tough year for me and mine, but that doesn't negate the many things I have to be thankful for: solid marriage, financial stability, steady job that I mostly like, good relationships with co-workers and family, and so many good friends, including those of you reading this entry right now. You've probably all noticed by now that I don't tend to get emotional on people, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you all. And so here's a round of Happy Thanksgiving, all around. I'm grateful to be a part of this community.
- Mood:
contemplative - Music:FFIV Celtic Moon
See, apparently the movie of New Moon broke a box office record (biggest opening day) that was formerly held by The Dark Knight, and the fanboys of the world couldn't accept the dethroning of their One True Film. And of course they couldn't just content themselves with arguing that Dark Knight is objectively a better movie than New Moon, which I fully accept as likely. Oh no, it had to be all about how New Moon is icky because it's for girls. Never mind that terrible movies that guys like do well at the box office all the time (Transformers 2, anyone?). A girly movie breaks sales records and the world is ending, oh noez!
You know, I might hate Twilight and everything it stands for, but I can't deny that it's a franchise that's become hugely popular almost exclusively because women and girls like it, based on source material written by a woman, and the first film had a woman director. And, as Women and Hollywood points out, there's a chance that Hollywood might sit up and take notice:
According to Dergerabedian, this movie has the potential to beat the Transformers sequel opening weekend numbers. That movie made $108 million. [Note: New Moon blew Transformers 2 out of the water; it opened at $143 million.] That movie also opened when school was out of session in most places at the end of June, and on a Wednesday, and this movie is opening the weekend of the 20th of November when school is still in session and yet it still might beat it out. Degarabedian says the opening weekend will be “girls kicking the crap out of the boys.” He says that this is the “holy grail” and that this is to the female audience was “Star Wars was to the guys.”
Let’s just think about that. A franchise fueled by girls and women has the potential of beating the machines for the box office record. This movie could potentially be “guy proof” meaning they won’t need guys to see it for it to kick some box office butt. Whereas the other franchises NEED women to make their numbers.
At that point, it almost doesn't matter to me how problematic the source material might be. Like Kate Harding, anything that convinces the entertainment industry that women are an audience worth targeting in large numbers, without worrying if the films will also appeal to men, I am all for. (Also check out the follow-up from Women and Hollywood, which analyses the opening weekend numbers.)
On a related theme, but from a different angle, here's an interesting take from The Escapist's movie critic, who explains why the blatant objectification of men in the marketing materials for New Moon got him to thinking about how women are objectified in pretty much every other sci-fi/fantasy series ever. The whole thing is worth reading, but here's a choice quote:
It was dawning on me, then, that myself and every other male geek currently rolling our eyes at the laughably-obvious, pandering sexual-objectification of these "Playgirl werewolves" had at many times throughout our geek-existence been confronted (or, at least, needled) by our she-geek female compatriots about the laughably-obvious, pandering sexual-objectification of...well, damn near every depiction of the female form in geek culture.
And you know what? If we even tried to defend the point, we probably fell back on explanations and excuses every bit as shaky and transparent as "Twilight"'s nonsense about its wolf men's limited wardrobe budget: "In this future, spacesuit-polymers can be skin-tight and sufficiently-protective!" "Power Girl's costume has what amounts to a cleavage-window because she's still deciding on a logo!" "Female ninjas probably would use their sexuality as a weapon!" "Women in medieval-fantasy don't need to armor anything but their nipples and crotch, cause their fighting-styles rely on flexibility! Especially the Elven Wenches!"
In other words, BINGO.
He goes on to theorize that this table-turning is the reason that the series is so popular, and I suspect there is something to that. He also compares Twilight to
selling tainted water to an audience that's dying of thirst in the desert, which I think is maybe taking it a little far, but only a little.
Also recommended: Sady Doyle on the objectification of Robert Pattinson. Some fantastic quotes in here from RPattz, who, like Sady, I'm beginning to like despite myself.
It makes me a little sad, in some ways, that it takes a series as problematic and difficult for me to respect as Twilight to bring all these conversations to the fore. On the other hand, the conversations are so important that I think it's probably worth it. Let's hope that lasting lessons are learned.
- Mood: contemplative
- Music:"Sell Out" - Reel Big Fish
If even one person sees it who might not have seen it otherwise, it's worth taking that risk.
I give you: The Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody.
- Mood:
enthralled - Music:Guess!
- Hayward Public Library tries the Netflix model. For a small fee, patrons can check out three items for an unlimited amount of time. Libraries have tried the "items by mail" aspect of the Netflix service, but it appears that this is the first time one has implemented the "no time limits" model. The hope is that charging people a small amount upfront rather than levying fines will bring more people into the library. I don't think this would work at all in an academic setting, but it has possibilities for the public library. Keep an eye on this one.
- Can video games get kids interested in history?
- What is the library if it's not the place where we keep the books? Here we go again. Is there a role for the library in the paperless future, round #3,497. If we're a paperless society, why have I jumped up about half a dozen times while writing this post to help people with the printer and the copy machine?
- Are digital diaries bad for our brains? The idea, I suppose, is that if we outsource our memory to the Internet and portable devices, we'll lose "muscle tone" in our brain. I disagree, though. The power of being a librarian isn't that I know everything. It's that I know how to look everything up.
- Cheat on an exam, set yourself up for eternal damnation.
- Last but definitely not least, one of my new favorite blogs: Awful Library Books. Two public librarians, showing the worst their stacks have to offer. Computer careers books from 1985? Etiquette guides for the modern teenager from 1947? Tips for CB radio and preparing for Y2K? It's all here, and more!
- Music:"Slow Song" - Joe Jackson
Thanks to my OTW membership, I got in on the first day and have been playing with it since. I've uploaded 21 fics as of this writing, including all my FFEX stories and almost everything from
30_fantasies. Still deciding what all to upload. I don't think it's going to be every last story -- that's what my personal archive is for -- but I'd like it to be a broad cross selection. FYI, the FFX-2 section is kind of sad right now (17 stories, of which almost half are by me!), so I really encourage all you X-2 people out there to request an invite and get posting!
( Here's my quick first take. )
So, safe to say that the good definitely outweighs the bad so far. It will definitely be replacing FF.net for me, although that's an easy choice since I'm not uploading anything there these days, except for "Aftermath". I think it's unlikely to replace LJ, at least for shortfic, and I will almost certainly keep up my personal archive. Which means that I'm still decided exactly how AO3 will fit into my fannish life. But I think there's an excellent chance that I will find a place for it. So far, so good.
- Mood: thoughtful
- Music:"Carnival of the Animals"
I'm actively playing with three stories right now -- one from the alphabet meme, "Aftermath", and an FF12 story that's been bouncing in my head for a couple of weeks at least -- and none of them are going particularly well. Too much atmosphere, not enough plot. This is a problem I've had before, but rarely with so many stories at once. I need to kick-start the bunny generators somehow.
- Mood:
frustrated - Music:"Von Den Elben" - Qntal
T was in the mood for Japanese food, so we went.
( Tasty foods behind the cut! )
I confess, overall I'm not very happy with LJ's mobile interface, at least not as it works on the iPhone. But I must admit that their mobile app is by far the easiest way to upload photos!
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
- Mood:Full
( Behind zee cut. )
- Mood: tired
justira came up with some fabulous charts showing the divisions and connections between the different Final Fantasy fandoms (and so did first_seventhe, in the funny because it's true department), and I'll be interested to see how people who aren't in the fandom react to them.One of the notable results of the poll I did a few weeks ago was that fewer than 75% of the people who voted selected "Final Fantasy" as one of their fandoms. Since I think it's a fairly safe assumption that everyone who participated in the poll considers themselves to be connected with at least one Final Fantasy fandom, I thought that was interesting. What this suggests to me is that some people consider Final Fantasy to be a fandom, but by no means all. But if you asked people on the "outside" whether they thought Final Fantasy was a single fandom, I'd bet they would say yes. I've been trying for ages to think of a good way to explain to people why it doesn't really work that way, and I think I finally came up with a good analogy today.
People on the "outside", who've never played the games or been part of the fandom, tend to think of Final Fantasy as a metafandom like Star Wars or Star Trek: multiple media properties, created by the same company, in different styles or featuring different characters perhaps, but ultimately all set in the same universe. But it would be more accurate to say that, in this sense, the Final Fantasy VII Compilation is like Star Trek. Which might make the Ivalice Alliance Star Wars, and Final Fantasy IV Babylon 5, and so forth. All similar genres, covering similar themes, often liked by the same people, and you can draw interesting comparisons between them, but distinctly different fandoms. The only thing that makes Final Fantasy different is that the games are created by the same company and share a name.
But of course, that's also where the confusion comes in. So we get things like FF.net lumping together all the Final Fantasies before VII into one section, and breaking X and X-2 into separate sections (and no, I'm never letting that one go; I can maybe see the argument for two fandoms, but you are never convincing me that they don't form a single canon). I am hoping that we can nip all this in the bud with AO3. How great would it be for an archive to meet our fandom's categorization needs from almost Day One?
(By the way, in case you were wondering, one of the reasons I did that poll was to help
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renay figure out the canon tag structure for A03, and it was definitely helpful, so thanks to everyone who participated!)I know that
justira is looking for more feedback on her charts, so the more that can come by and take a look, the merrier! My poll is always open, too.I still intend to do a big geeky post on AO3 and how cool it is, but I need to play more with it first. Still deciding how much of my fic to bring over, too. I have a complete archive now, so I'm not certain that I need to have every last story in there. I will continue to contemplate.
- Music:"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" soundtrack
Earlier this month, the House passed the Stupak Amendment to their health care reform bill, which would be one of the biggest setbacks to women's health in recent decades — unless we stand together and stop it.
That's why we're launching this petition, because women must not be denied access to safe and legal medical procedures.
Join us by signing the petition and help build pressure to remove the discriminatory, extreme, anti-choice Stupak Amendment from the final health care reform bill!
Link to the petition here, which you can bet I'm going to sign right now.
Rumor has it that Stupak has no chance of surviving the Senate, which is encouraging. As is this report on the 10 votes (not 20 or 40, as Rep. Stupak keeps claiming) that would likely need to be found if the amendment isn't in the final bill. Assuming one-man wrecking machine Joe Lieberman doesn't bring the whole thing crashing down regardless. But no matter what comes next, I'm still glad that Senator Boxer is willing to actively stand up for women's rights.
*I do have another senator. We won't talk about her right now.
- Mood: pleased
- Music:"Oh Well" - Joe Jackson
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: G
Wordcount: 150
Characters: Paine, Rikku, Yuna
Spoilers: None
Notes: Written for the Alphabet Fic Meme, to
first_seventhe's request of "Pain - YRP". This one started out wanting to be a drabble, but I just couldn't make it fit into 100 words. Then I tried expanding it to a double drabble, and that was even more awkward -- if it's possible for a 200 word story to be unwieldy, this one was. So I pared it back again, and it ended up as a "drabble-and-a-half", which is probably cheating, but oh well.( 'Ow!' )
- Mood: accomplished
- Music:"Legless" - Solas
It was more than worth an outing, and I would go back (with expectations adjusted accordingly. And a sweater -- it was really cold there for some reason). Still, the quest to find a tea shop that I enjoy as much as Lovejoy's continues...
Also accomplished this weekend: shoe shopping, a trip to the used bookstore, laundry, grocery shopping, playing with AO3 (on which more later), quality time with friends and with T, and some much-needed lazing around the house by choice rather than by force. Not accomplished this weekend: much in the way of writing. My plan to finish at least one story per week in November has now officially bitten the dust, along with both daily writing and daily LJ posting. This cold (which I think at this point has morphed into allergies) has a lot to answer for.
- Mood: good
- Mood: amused
I was being so good -- not watching every video, not seeking out images and tidbits, keeping anticipation and expectations down.
So much for that.
- Mood:
bouncy
