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Livejournal Questions

This actually has nothing to do with the recent drama.

I have a confession to make. I'm a genius. But I'm really tragically stupid also.

-~~how to put on a header. And why everyone can figure it out but me.~~
-~~what a DDoS attack is. Looked it up on Wikipedia. Still really don't understand.~~
-~~where everyone gets the equipment to do all the icons and everything they do. Seems to me that stuff costs a fortune.~~
-how to write short fanfic.
-~~who Rodney is.~~
-~~Henry Jenkins.~~
-~~GIP.~~
-~~how NOT to hotlink some images. I can do it if the image is in a format Photobucket will upload, otherwise I don't understand.~~
-how people keep up with their flists.
-how people keep up with stuff like which new cat macro is funniest.
-how anyone keeps up with anything.
-why

seraphcelene can't be here RIGHT NOW, I dunno, making pie with me.
-how people find out people are talking about them when said people are not talking to them. It's not that I don't like gossip. It's that I don't understand it. I literally seem to have trouble paying attention to anything not aimed straight at me with a missile launcher.
-why I like Harry/Draco.
-flangst.
-~~how people not being able to post really isn't connected to the Great Strikethrough.~~
-how to play most online videos, or dl the equipment.
-birthdays.
-why I didn't find a plane ticket to NYC for an earlier day so I could watch DB with

a2zmom.
-Spike.
-betas.
-most emoticons.
-~~who Jo is.~~
-~~what Due South is.~~

In other news, The Sound of Music in Sparta. (link courtesy

imnotacommittee.)

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Oh! Also, how about poet macros instead?

Aw, you gave me a warm fuzzy. I'm so glad you enjoy talking to me. It's mutual!

I don't understand this "fluffy angst" thing (I did see that comment) ... leaves me befuddled. I might have to read something in the genre to see what it even means.

I could get my head around saying "I don't think so-and-so would ever say or do this" ... but this reminds me of another post you made some time back that I read when I was going through some of your links. About concrit. I am hesitant to give that kind of f/b because I would usually tend to think "who am I to impose my personal vision?" ... it's a fine line ... and, I don't want to offend anyone and have them not want to be my friend anymore. ::sniff::

But you remind me, I may be better at this than I think I am (esp. since I've so rarely exercised the beta muscle; it might have more potential than I've reached so far) ... there was a time or two when I pointed out to a writer or two in the midst of a story, "Buffy really doesn't behave or talk like that." And they both admitted I was right. So I guess I can point characterization errors out if I find them egregious enough.

(And if the writer isn't too character-hating to be willing to listen, of course.)

People are so helpful! I opened this earlier and read it now and was all prepared to do all kinds of helpful answers or "yeah, I don't get that either", but then I refreshed and people have come along and explained things I needed explained as well! :)

I didn't understand what you meant by formats that wouldn't be able to be uploaded onto Photobucket, but I read your comments and I think now I do...

I keep up with my flist because I remain relatively invisible/unpopular and keep it small! I can go away for several days and come back and actually catch most of the relevant stuff I missed in a few hours.

I agree with the person who commented that it's weird that things like cat macros are called macros. Where does that come from? I'm not even a programmer but I took a course on Excel and kind of learned what a macro is in that context, and it doesn't translate into funny cat pictures...

What do you mean by "people not being able to post"? Like... they push submit and it won't submit, or like they're restraining themselves from posting things they want to post because of censorship?

Online videos is easy peasy... do you mean like realplayer/windows media/quicktime? Normally when you come across a page with those videos, they'll automatically redirect you to the download site... otherwise they're pretty easy to find on Google... they all have official sites.

I also didn't understand what you meant by not understanding betas, but I read your comments and yes! I mean, I feel like I've had some good betas in Buffy fandom over time that I can now count on, but when I dip my toes into new fandoms, I get so lost. For example I've written a few little fics for The Office, a fandom in which I know pretty much no one, and you go looking for betas and there are websites that have like a list of people that have in the past said they would be willing to beta, but do you just... pick one and email them? Based on their username alone and what minimal things they have to say in their profile? It's very bizarre and uncomfortable and I end up hemming and hawing and eventually either not posting at all or posting un-beta'ed, which is BAD.

I'm now going to read explanations in your comments that I may have missed on first skim-through, and I'm upset that flangst doesn't appear to be crossed off yet, because that word confuses me greatly!

post you made some time back that I read when I was going through some of your links. About concrit. I am hesitant to give that kind of f/b because I would usually tend to think "who am I to impose my personal vision?"

I agree, when it comes to concrit. But beta'ing is different. I think a beta should be someone who shares your views of the characters, or at least someone whose opinions of the characters you respect.

Because betaing is supposed to be about wanting that kind of criticism. However, I have seen people put themselves into situations for the purpose of getting critiqued, and then pouting when someone said something negative about their story (I'm thinking more of rl and original writing, now), but I'm not sure I would want to be friends with such people anyway.

So I guess I can point characterization errors out if I find them egregious enough.

Yeah, some people don't even seem to be aware of how completely OOC some things are! Or if they're aware they don't care. But the more subtle the characterization "error", the harder it is to identify. Because saying "Buffy wouldn't do such and such" is a huge generalization; she *might* if the circumstances were right. It has to be "Buffy wouldn't do such and such in these circumstance and with this history you've given her and in this state of mind, etc etc". And that can be very difficult to ponder sometimes! But it's stuff I like to think about.

Oh! That's really interesting. Thanks for the info.

I like how you used that icon for this comment. :o)

Ooooh, can my other screen name be

femmenerd? Or possibly

stultiloquentia. They are so clever and I will never be them.

Yes, I have been very impressed with your flist size, considering. But in the end I don't understand the point of me keeping all those people if I can't read them.

She blames everything on you. This is a terrible burden you bear.

Yeah, it's cool how many people busted out with answers!

I have an old copy of Photoshop, but it's on FLOPPY. My comp doesn't even have a floppy drive. Maybe I'll look into Paint Shop Pro.

You can be whoever you want. This is America, baby.

As for the FL, I just do the best I can. I don't think there's like, a quiz or anything at the end. If there is, I hope it's multiple choice.

life as a constant drabble

It's funny how I who can never keep anything short still get to post long comments. It'd probably be good for me to live life in drabbles.

I saw you rec a fic with Jo and I had no idea who the frick it was. Thought it was a Little Women crossover. I had never heard of her until you recced that (still haven't read it) but now I see her all over the place. Did *you* hate her? And did they end up not making her a love interest for Dean?

And that's weird about Dean vs. Sam. To make a gross generalization without the facts to back it up, it always seemed to me that a higher percentage of Spuffy shippers hated Buffy than B/Aers hated Buffy. Um, somehow that statement was related to what you said.

I hope it's an essay test. 'Cause I rock at those.

In fact I've already started several essays on it. 'Cause underneath I'm secretly scary.

This is true. I think that part of it was when everyone WAS talking about Jenkins because of FanLib, there were/are no people saying, "who's that?". It was all, "Why Henry Jenkins; of course; he's our hero; he bears a flaming sword."

Well I mean it was like that except for the sword part.

I see a list and I get all OCD about *having* to answer it...

Lists/OCD is my OTP I wish I didn't have.

Short fanfic (around 3000 words) is really fun for me

I find this almost *more* difficult than 100 words. 100 words I know I'll never get it all in there so I can accept. 3000 starts to feel roomy. 5000 feels *really* roomy, then I look at what I've done and lo, I've written 30,000 words in the space of three days. *head-->desk*

For all my images, I put them in my Photobucket acct

I was referring to images for which I couldn't find an image extension, such as .gif and .jpg. Usually I find a url by right clicking, but for lj icons, for instance, the url provided has no extension.

There are teens in the house, and they have some kind of weird radar about what macros are funny. I just steal from them.

EEEEee! That's awesome.

Paintshop Pro

Thanks for the info! That's what someone else told me too. I didn't know you could use that for that kinda thing. (I am completely ignorant in the way of the graphic, obviously). I thought you had to have Photoshop.

I thought people were talking about Jo March, too! Turns out it's a character on Supernatural.

an enemy is in some ways very close to a close friend.

Yes. And many romance stories are based on this: couples who are antagonistic (but usually later grow to love each other). Gone With The Wind, Pride and Prejudice.

But this dynamic has never really appealed to me, oddly enough. Most of my OTPs are people who are drawn to each other in a romantic sense from the get go. That's not to say they never argue or don't have problems, but I like instant attraction better than instant animosity. Which is weird, since I think the latter makes for better narrative.

I know! My flist is smart!

I think flangst means fluff+angst. What the hell that means, no clue.

The theory that it was flan-related was

frimfram's, actually, but I like it too. There should be a kind of fan that is flannish. And flannish needs to be a weird.

Did you read the Wikipedia entry on image macros? I still don't think macro is a good word for those things, but I understand now how it evolved.

I meant, needs to be a "word".

Needs to be a weird too though.

Ha, isn't it awesome?

I actually found the abs kinda ick after a while. I don't know why I like looking at clothed men better than unclothed men, but I do.

Oh, awesome. Particularly the in ur Upanishads one. That's a trend I could get behind.

Heh. For someone who writes short fic, I tend to write LONG posts. Blergh.

And I liked Jo fine. But I am also one inclined to be welcoming of women on the show. I'm not like *crazy* about her, but in that fic I recced I really felt like I got her more. And so would you--it tells you everything you'd need to know about her. Stulti read and recced it, even though she's never seen SPN. It is PLOTTY (and believable) femslash and there is ANGEL in it. Angel in the Hyperion with Faith and like 300 slayers.

And that last connection you made makes sense to me, but I can't articulate why exactly right now. Something about "bad boys." Hmmmmm.

Yeah! I wasn't really expecting answers (though I kinda sorta hoped!) but the ole flist ponied right up.

Yeah, I meant images where I couldn't find extensions (.gif, .jpg, etc) to the url.

Here is the Wikipedia entry on image macros. I still think the word is wrong but now I understand why people use it.

"people not being able to post"

Not talking about censorship, but apparently a technical issue due to DDoS attacks. The other day I was trying to post something and it wouldn't let me, but I tried again and it did. About 30% of my flist appears unable to make posts longer than a few lines. Some can also not make long comments, or comment at all. The only bug that's affecting me is not getting comment notifications, but today it seems to be working fine on that score as well. I have no idea why it affects different users differently.

do you mean like realplayer/windows media/quicktime? Normally when you come across a page with those videos, they'll automatically redirect you to the download site.

Yes, I mean those. And to reveal how utterly unsmart I am...Semby, I can't even figure out the dl sites. It seems like I dl quicktime and there's all this other little attachy stuff I need. And I have to do stuff like choose the speed of my computer or something, and I don't know ANY of that. Part of the problem is me just being willfully ignorant, which is a much greater kind of unsmart. I don't want to have to bother with any of it more than me really not understanding it. I don't understand that part of myself, as SOME things, I'm DESPERATE to know the inner workings of. Just not of computers. Like, at all. To the point of handicap.

you go looking for betas and there are websites that have like a list of people that have in the past said they would be willing to beta, but do you just... pick one and email them? Based on their username alone and what minimal things they have to say in their profile? It's very bizarre and uncomfortable

GOD, YES. Egads. It's like that now for me and HP fandom. I think some people really do just email random people out of the blue, but I just can't bring myself to do it. If I watched The Office or knew anything about it, I'd beta for you! I'm sorry I can't be of more help.

Oh, yeah--and I'll have to watch that vid again. There was a lot of stuff in it I didn't understand.

Uh. I meant to say that how good my fiction is is inversely proportional to its length. SHORTER TENDS TO BE BETTER. Today at work was long. Honest answer about the short thing? I can go on and on and sometimes I do, but I can't do it well. Plot is not my strong suit and never has been. My style doesn't lend itself to too much length, so when I get long winded I just end up with a lot of purple prose and exposition, so then it becomes all about economy of words and tight writing. (Sometimes I am good at this - sometimes not so much). For people with the ability to, you know, PLOT, I assume it's an entirely different thing because then you have to go on longer in order to say what you need to say. I usually have a fairly simple point about characterization or something that I'm trying to make and dragging that out means spelling things out for the readers in a way that is unnecessary and actually hurts the fic. You do plot well, which naturally lends itself to more length. That would be my guess anyway. I always envy people who can write plot. I have one now that's trying to grow a plot. It has dialog. I don't know what to do.

Sure. I like Jo a lot, but I know she isn't always the most popular character in that fandom.

I will not poke my eyes out with paperclips because fandom manages to keep me distracted enough. YAY fandom. *g*

Now I feel all guilty.

When you get to NYC, one of the things we need to do is go to Central Park, find a cozy spot in Sheep's Meadow and do all of BS in one big swoop.

Assuming that's ok with you.

(And I do totally suck and I apologize. I haven't written a word on any of my pieces in two months. I think I should just have a nervous breakdown and be done with it all.)

Now of course all of us are wondering if we're one of that favored 15.

You gots questions? I gots some answers.

DDOS attacks.

Think of a server as an airport hub. So everything goes into the hub and then everything flies back out of the hub. When you post a message to me, you don't actually send it to me - you send it to the LJ server (the LJ hub, so to speak) and then LJ sends it to me. Now imagine, there's traffic jam. Instead of the 200 incoming messages that LJ can handle in an hour (in reality, it's way more, but lets keep this simple), 2000 messages come in. LJ has no way to handle this other than canceling messages (like airports canceling flights). Most of the 2000 messages it's canceling are garbage, sent in to deliberately overload the server, but some are legit. If it's a legitimate uptick in messaging, than LJ would go out and purchase another server, but it isn't. It's a group trying to close the airport.

Does that make it clear? Feel free to ask for more specifics. I'm not a network person, but I've picked up useless knowledge over the years.

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