forget your Unified Theory of Everything

alizarin_nyc linked to this article from the Onion on the price of being a fan. The premise for this satire is very simple, and yet hilariously clever. I just loved reading it so much.

faithwood has an excellent post about feedback and comments in fandom. This has been linked around, but it's something I feel like lots of people should think about. It probably can't be said enough.

snickfic has an interesting post about world-building in Buffyverse (and in general) and some cool discussion in the comments, too. I tend not to care too much about world-building, but sometimes bad world-building definitely gets in the way of a good story. Plus, I'm tired of certain world-building (or the lack thereof) in certain kinds of sci fi. I have a post about that! Eventually.

sarahtales revealed the UK cover of her final book in The Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I'm not a huge fan of lots of cover art. Also I'm not a huge fan of real-looking people on covers. But I like this one, because it's of Sin, and I love Sin, and she's a character of color, and no one tried to make her look like she wasn't.

( cover of The Demon's Surrender )

Hi from Texas! There are a million things to say, but I have a million things going on, so I say the most important.

-I rec When All The Years Fill In, Harry/Ginny, by seraphcelene. Yes, your resident Harry/Draco shipper is reccing Harry/Ginny. This is a very short piece, about why Harry/Ginny don't work. Even though I don't ship Harry/Ginny, and in fact sort of anti-ship them (though you'll never see me bash them, because I love Ginny and used to love the ship very much), this fic made me sort of wish they could work out. Not because they're so right for each other, but because all the ways they're wrong are so realistic and hurty, and I wish our world and living our lives was more of what we dream, you know? The imagery and the insights in this piece are absolutely exquisite.

-I rec The Seduction of Wendy Darling, Peter Pan, by seraphcelene. I'm not in Peter Pan fandom. Does it have a fandom? Pls to be telling me it does, because one reason I love this fic and am reccing it is because this canon is some seriously twisted shit. As the author makes use of herself, the 2003 movie made use of it too, but it was still marketed for kids, which meant a lot of the twistedness had to remained at least sort of subtle. This author brings all that to the fore. The imagery and language in this is beautiful, too.

Both this and the Harry/Ginny piece are about the realities of growing older and losing the dreams of youth, a concept which is near and dear and wrenching to my heart. Few things I've read have captured the pain and poignancy of it as this author has. Both are short, so if you have a moment, go read and feed.

-I rec my_daroga as a person and LJ friend. She's one of the best people I've ever met. LJ-wise--check out her photography, which almost always tells it's own story, not just of beauty but of something else besides. She also does movie reviews of interesting films; they're always very insightful and often ironic (and amusing), but also concise and to the point, and they don't spoil. She also does has an awesome sense of humor. When I get her jokes I feel special. Plus she's a Phantom of the Opera BNF and is revitalizing phandom one brick by bloody brick. I love her.

-I'm still posting Go Your Own Way, (Batman) Bruce Wayne/Jim Gordon with lots of dirty talk and daddy kink. I'll tell you when I'm done but I thought I'd remind you. I wonder if now is the best time to post these things, with everyone so busy...may repost the recs again later. Anywho, I like this story. I still don't get it, but I like it.

C. So the comm for learning a word a day is a go! It's called daily_words. It will start either tomorrow or the day after. If someone would like to make an icon with the words, "daily_words" on it, then I'd use that for posting on the comm so when you were scrolling through your flist, you'd always immediately recognize it (*looks innocently at late_heart*).

If you join the comm: remember, I'll always be looking for new words. Feel free to participate--or not--in any way you please. You shouldn't feel the need to comment on the posts unless particularly compelled, and if you have any ideas for the comm or things you'd like to see, please contact me!

O. Does anyone know the name of that LJ comm that sums up either meta or wank (can't remember which) in short snarky soundbites? All I could find was metaquotes, which I don't think it is because these aren't actual quotes. But each post is some quick meta rendition of a wank or discussion. Sort of like Book-A-Minute (which you should totally check out if you haven't seen!) So a post might go like this:

SVA: Wah wah.
JKR: PWN.
Anne Rice: I have nothing to do with this, but also, wah.

MM. There's a meme going around right now where you're asked to comment with the lj name of someone in you think others might enjoy reading. I wanted to do that meme, except make it for comms (and not just for Jossverse). I find most LJ comms difficult to use. There are either too many posts with too much info/content I don't have time to peruse, or they die quickly and are never updated. Those with unlimited posting access for members lead to lots of random posts I don't want to read, but limited posting by mods is often too regimented or fails because the mods go off and do something else.

Anywho, comment with an lj community (or several!) you enjoy, and why you enjoy it. It can be in any fandom, or it doesn't have to be a fandom at all, if it's where you get your news, hometown connections, random artistic enrichment, etc. It can have a lot of members and posts or be nearly dead, just so long as you enjoy it.

For info about the latest LJ/6A fuck up, liz_marcs is, as ever, an excellent resource: here.

For guides on saving your journals and other journaling resources, kangeiko has a great list of links: here.

Lastly, I urge you to join fandom_flies. It's about discussing fandom's options for leaving LJ. I was so ready to leave when the first strike out happened. I'm even more ready now.

Pls to be leaving links, opinions, your thoughts, feelings, any relevant info here. Let's all keep abreast of the situation, here.

A long time ago, I offered to take requests for dvd commentaries. (You can still ask, if you like. I'll do 'em for chapters of WIPs, too.) semby requested I do Down There In The Reeperbahn, a historical Fanged Four (actually Three) fic I did some time ago.

As with the commentary I did for the first part of Bodiless Within The Bodies, this is really talky, and dense, and specific. It also has a lot to do with how I think about writing and stuff like that. I don't really recommend it for anyone who is faint of heart, easily bored, or averse to getting down into stuff like the writing process and what makes stuff in fiction tick and random crap. I only did the first part, otherwise I'd've probably written a novel.

The commentary is in bold. Yes, there is more commentary than fic.

( Down There In The Reeperbahn DVD commentary thingy, complete with writing and some canon meta )

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.

( THINGS ON LIVEJOURNAL I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND. )

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

A Guide Organized In Ascending Order Of Requisite Activation Energy

Get counted. Aside from all the drama, this is interesting in an abstract, statistical sense: "how big is fandom, really?" Stand and be counted here. No strings attached, just a head count of members of fandom on livejournal.

Take this poll. Similarly statistically interesting, but also possibly useful in determining how loud our voice might be, is "how much do we as fandom spend on lj?" Take this poll, again, no strings, just a count.

Boycott. If you're upset about what's happening, one of the most important things you might do is something you've been meaning to do for always: save your money. Don't renew accounts, buy virtual gifts, more icons, or a permanent account next month. Cancel automatic payments.

Sign petitions. The least you can do is sign your name to a petition. I'm not actually sure how much this does, but it's something to do. here are some.

List your complaint. Similar to signing a petition, you can leave a specific complaint here for Livejournal administrators and stuff to see. Many people are mentioning dissatisfaction as customers, and resolve not to give 6A/LJ money for accounts, gifts, and features.

Stay informed. You can do this by joining comms such as innocence_jihad, fandompays, reasonedspeech. Also keep your eyes on metafandom and fandom_lawyers. Personally, I got an acount at GreatestJournal and joined the comm fandomtossed.

Email your complaint. (See below as to why this option is less effective than the next step up). Some form letters for your emails are here, here, and here.
Send these to feedback@livejournal.com or privacy@livejournal.com.

Pick up the phone. I'm inclined to believe two things I've garnered from reading up on this: 1. Six Apart is the company behind Livejournal, and it would be more effective to contact that company. 2. It would be more effective to contact Six Apart by phone than through email. Here's how.

ACT. It's being expressed all over that fandom has power, both insofar as number of heads and financial contribution. Maybe we do. Maybe if we do the things on this list, we can make a difference in regards to the actions of Six Apart and Livejournal. Maybe if we all stand up and walk out, singing Alice's Restaurant, Six Apart will see that even if their advertisers pay them more, their advertisers are there in the first place because fandom comprises such a large number of users. I don't know.

What I do know is that fandom has power as a culture (as I found best expressed here). We may not be effective enough to unsettle Six Apart. We may not be strong enough to present a serious threat to something like Fanlib. But we are strong and effective enough to organize, speak out, fight back, and persevere.

As much as the cynic in me wants to sit back and say, "nothing we do is going to make any difference", I'm not going to do that, because fandom is about all about having a voice. Even if it doesn't get heard, we need to use it, and use it until it's hoarse and then use it some more. There's no point in self-expression if you don't self-express.

eta: What I mean is, think about who we are, what we are, and what we can do. Examples of this kind of thought and suggestions for more action are here, here, and here.

I don't have words.

Just like I didn't 8 years ago.

Synth, a comic by astridv and yhlee. Post NFA AtS/Fray cross-over.

If you haven't already seen this, go. You don't have to be familiar with Fray. The plot is quick and clean, but also touches on some of Angel's deepest issues. The artwork is truly amazing, and really made me feel just a bit of Angel's world again.

In other news, seraphcelene did an awesome Cordelia ficlet, and stoney321 did boarding school RPS.

I live a happy life.

At the end of 2005 I decided that for 2006, I was going to put into my memories every fic I *really* enjoyed reading.

I failed miserably.

The times when I remembered to put a fic into memories where haphazard, random, and strange. Half of the fics listed below weren't taken from my handy-dandy memories list; I hunted down because I remembered them. As a result, every single one is from my flist, because with the ones off-list, I couldn't even remember who wrote them, much less where to find them (among fics I remember truly enjoying, but can't remember where to find them: there's a What Spike Did With Angel's Ashes piece, a Brink of Apocalypse Spike/Angel, in which Spike brings help from his poetry slam, and a truly creepy Firefly in which use is made of Inara's needle).

Anyway, this means most of you have probably seen the majority of these fics already, so it might not actually be useful to anyone. If it looks like I favor some authors--some of you are on there five or more times--it's because I totally do, not 'cause I like them as people (though I do) but because I totally pantyfan their writing. But my spotty organization also means that these are by no means the only fics I really enjoyed--it's just what I happened to have when push came to shove. And there are so many fics I plan on reading from 2006 that I haven't gotto yet (haven't done my holiday fb festive thingy--dude, I suck), that I can just *feel* I'm going to love.

If nothing else, it can be a Big Damn Supplemental Feedback List.

In the end, what I want to get across is a big ole THANK YOU. Thank you flist, for writing fic. For keeping at it and keeping me entertained. Thanks for making icons and graphics and vids and meta and creating. Thank you for reading and reviewing and pantyfanning and loving. Thanks to everyone not on my flist for being there and mysterious and wanky and slightly scary and yet attentive when I want to poke around and funny when I want to laugh at you. OMG THANK YOU, everyone. You made last year live-able.

( Big Damn Rec List, Buffyverse, 2006 )

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( Itty Bitty Rec List, Other Fandoms, 2006 )