shut up and let me see your jazz hands

1. I have started using Read It Later to save stuff for linkspams. I have been using Read It Later to save episode reaction posts for TV shows for ages, so I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use it for other things until just now, but it is turning out to be very handy.

2. I really love this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic. There's a giant chicken and a giant deep fryer and they're best friends and every day they hug so hard delicious fried chicken pops out! XD Don't forget to hover over the red dot for a bonus panel.

3. Also today's Penny Arcade.

4. Carla grilled some hot dogs today and I put leftover curry on mine and omg they were so good. *_*

5. Despite not getting enough sleep and having the back pains, I feel like I was pretty productive yesterday.

Daily Happysong:

Morning Musume - Say Yeah! Motto Miracle Night
This is probably my all-time favorite Morning Musume song. It's just so peppy and fun.

1. This is a list of LGBT characters in superhero comics. Almost all of them are killed, tortured, or both. It's pretty sickening to read.

Here are some of my "favorites":

FREEDOM RING
Hailed by Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada as the new example of Marvel’s open policy toward gays in their books as “the star of Marvel Team-Up.” Quesada went on to say, “We’ve had more gay and lesbian characters appearing in Marvel comics than ever before.” Marvel Team-Up #24, three weeks after Quesada’s comments, features Freedom Ring, his finger sliced off and then graphically killed with 28 spikes impaling him, including one through the groin and protruding from his anus. Series cancelled with issue #25.

BLARNEY COCK
In series “the Boys,” a superhero police force kills hero Blarney Cock, and upon his disembowelment, a gerbil crawls out of his anus. The Boys also blackmail gay heroes with gay sex surveillance photos. (“The Boys,” issue #6)

WING
Sidekick to Batman-like hero Red Hawk in “Powers” superhero group “The Unity.” Admitted his crush to his mentor and was severely beaten by him, arm broken, and hospitalized. Given a check for 750K and forced to sign a confidentiality agreement to leave the group in dishonor following the incident.

KARMA
Lesbian member of Marvel’s New Mutants. Raped as a girl by Thai pirates. Possessed by villain The Shadow King. Kidnapped and disfigured. Reappeared as grossly obese, too fat to move on her own.

2. 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice is an article about Elements of Style and how it's full of mistakes. Very interesting. I've never read or had to use Elements of Style, so I had no idea.

3. This is an awesome parody of an entry on wiscon which appears now to be deleted. But even without the original context, it's a great post.

I have a confession to make - sometimes I am uncomfortable around white people. [...] My school didn't have a single white person in it. I was always warned to be careful about US-ians, because they would try to sell you corn syrup Coca-Cola and capitalist free-market ideology and sexually promiscuous movies with dead or evil black and brown people. And when I am surrounded by large groups of them, even when they are well-meaning and friendly and nice and interested in the same books I am, I still have an irrational fear that they might colonise me.

The comments are great, too. There weren't that many when I first read it, so I've just gone back to catch up and omg, I'm dying. Especially this thread.

4. I feel like there were a bunch of other things I'd seen and wanted to link, but now I've forgotten. :-/ I can't wait for that bookmarking feature on DW! (I suppose for the time being I could save things I want to link with Read It Later, but I am so used to only using that for TV reaction posts, I never think of it. I should, though.)

5. I'm still thinking about the dark_agenda racebending revenge challenge. I realised that my original idea won't work for the fest (though I still hope to write it eventually). It was based on bossymarmalade's half-Indian Watson, but since he's passing as white, it wouldn't fulfill the challenge requirement of making a difference to the story. It would be backstory and internal stuff.

So I was trying to think about what I could do instead (in my copious spare time!) and since I'm writing (going to be writing) about Ellen and Jo for lgbtfest, I started pondering them and have tentatively settled on writing about Jo as Asian-American (I'm leaning towards Japanese-American, because it amuses me to have a name similar to Harvelle, like Harabe or something, and I don't think I could get that close with Korean or Chinese names and am not familiar enough with other Asian last names to even try). We all know about Dean's skeevy love of Asian porno mags, so how would he react to this Jo? I wanted to explore her crush on Dean and her conflicted feelings about him maybe (probably) just liking her because he has an Asian fetish. And also I think even in canon Ellen must have gotten flack for being a single woman running a bar out in the middle of nowhere, but I imagine as an Asian woman, she (and Jo) must have gotten even more whorehouse/geisha comments.

1. I feel like I've had some really good fanfic-reading luck lately. Sometimes I forget that I actually like fanfic. It's a lot harder for me to find stuff I really love with fic than it is with books. I know for a lot of people it's the opposite, but it is just a lot harder for me to figure out from the info fanfic headers give whether or not I'll like something. And reading stuff that's badly written or that's just not my thing makes me feel meh about the whole venture.

I was in just such a slump after my initial Holmes love. Having exhausted the first recs I found, I was reduced to poking at comms and there is no better way to make reading feel like a chore than to have to search through comms or archives hoping to find a summary that piques my interest (especially since fandom generally feels summaries are optional).

But recently I have really hit a string of awesome fics. I feel excited about fanfic! It's a nice feeling.

2. I have been listening to music as I read tonight. I have it turned up a little more than I usually do. I usually have to have it pretty low or I get distracted by love for my favorite songs and can't focus on anything. Reading is okay for having it a little louder, though. And having it louder means I am constantly overcome with how much I love these songs on my five-star playlist. Each song comes on and I am just like WOW. These songs are so awesome! I will have to turn it down in a bit here (after posting this!) so I can actually concentrate and get some work done.

3. I got this really awesome salad dressing at Trader Joe's the other day! I am too lazy to go in the kitchen (well, mainly it means taking off my headphones) and get the exact name, but it's something like spicy Asian peanut dressing. If you have a TJ's near you, you should try it out! It's really, really good.

4. mcshep_match! I got a spot on Team Work. The team filled up in two fucking minutes. O_O I knew I had to be there right on the dot to get in, because it's gone very, very quickly in years past, but two minutes is definitely a record. I had my signup into already typed up and read to past in the comment box and I commented as soon as I saw the page (was refreshing the comm rather than waiting for it to show up on my flist) and was third. I immediately refreshed the page and there were like fifteen more people.

5. This made me laugh so hard today: How to Make Showering Awesome Again. Have some quotes:

If the mere sight of a loofah sends you into a gender-confusion-driven, psychotic rage, you need the Shower Hammer!

You no longer have to endure the fluffy, girly bullshit of loofahs. Fuck loofahs. The Shower Hammer makes you clean with violence!

[...]

If you've ever wished that your showers were more reminiscent of caged death-matches, then you might be interested in our Gladiator Genie Soap! Gladiator Genie Soap works just like regular soap, but it contains an evil spirit that will attack you mercilessly as soon as it is summoned

When you begin lathering up, the friction you create will summon the genie contained within the soap. The genie will attempt to crush you with its teeth and/or defeat you with magic. If you want to survive, you must fight the genie to the death.

Daily Happysong:

Christina Aguilera - Woohoo (feat. Nicki Minaj)
I heard this song on youtube and it was so damn catchy I actually created an iTunes Store account and paid $1.29 for it when I couldn't find a download. I tried to find it on Amazon first, because the iTunes Store interface annoys me (why can't I order from a website, Apple? What if I don't want to use iTunes itself to order shit?), but no dice. That is how much I wanted to have this song. A lot.

1. I think there are things I was supposed to be doing last night? Instead I was reading Iron Man fanfic and looking at Sherlock Holmes fanart. In particular you need to see Holmes' Moving Castle, My Neighbor Sherlock Holmes, and My Neighbor Sherlock Holmes 2, which, as you might guess, are Holmes and Watson in various Ghibli scenarios. In one of them HOLMES IS A TOTORO. WITH FUCKING SUSPENDERS!!! I don't even. I have no words. I am dead of cute. Also you should watch this video.

2. Mint Oreos are super good. Why have I never had these before?

3. We discovered an awesome new store! It's called, I think, Farmer's Choice and is right next to the Trader Joe's we usually go to. I had seen that it was going to be coming in soon and was surprised that they would open a market right next door to TJ's, but as it turns out, it is a produce-only market, and since TJ's is not really great for produce, they're not really in competition at all. And they have really great prices! We ended up getting ten ears of corn, a whole pineapple, four large apples, and a package of dates for $7 total.

4. Since we had corn, we stopped in TJ's and got some hamburger patties and Carla grilled them up along with the corn. I made bacon and there was still some leftover guacamole in the fridge from whenever it was she made it, so I had a guacamole bacon cheeseburger. And grilled corn! Which we now have a ton of leftover, and whenever I want some I can just toss it in the toaster oven and it will taste like it just came off the grill! :D

5. It's raining! And even better, it didn't start raining while we were out running errands or while Carla was grilling. Best kind of rain, the kind that is totally not inconvenient!

Daily Happysong:

No Doubt - Don't Speak
I am really not a fan of Gwen Stefani's solo career, but I love No Doubt so much. This is still one of my all-time favorites.

1. Ooh, I think I may be getting back on my regular sleep schedule. We'll see how that goes.

2. Guys, guys! There is a new Watsons strip on Hark! A Vagrant! This is so exciting I don't even! There are things I want to say and yet I don't want to spoil it. XD So...highlight for my favorite bits: "I need you to babysit stupid Watson." "Holmes gone!" "Gay Watson!" "Holmes!" I kind of want to make icons of the last three panels.

3. I have been exposed to a lot of truly atrocious professional badfic thanks to people on my flist who are willing to read and review things like that, but I think this may be the best yet? I mean. How can you beat "The effeminate albino pursed his thick lips in that certain way to suggest he was male, but homosexual"? I...I don't think you can?

P.S. I found it on this site about bad book covers. It was submitted by the guy who painted it! XD

Daily Happysong:

Amigo Dance (Shinee vs. Lady Gaga)
This is a mashup of Lady Gaga's Just Dance and kpop boyband Shinee's A.Mi.Go by my favorite mashup artist Masa. Both songs are awesome on their own, but they work really, really well together.

This is the last week! I am going to miss this fest like mad, guys. People are posting so much awesome content on DW. I really hope there isn't a huge drop-off next Monday. XD

Hopefully I'll be posting some more content of my own later today, rather than just more link round-up stuff. *crosses fingers*

First off. Diana Gabaldon (again). She apparently deleted her three posts about the horrors of fanfic, but I found out via dira that she's made a new post wherein she talks about how she gave copies of her novel to the Doctor Who actor whose character her character is based on. Considering her books have this character getting graphically raped, it's pretty much the equivalent of those fans who try to give their slash or porny manips to actors. And yet she totally does not see her actions in those terms at all! D:

And speaking of people who are totally blind to their hypocrisy, according to yuki_onna, Jasper Fforde thinks fanfic is stupid and doesn't understand the impulse. This is a man whose entire career has been built on fanfic! What on earth does he think fanfic is?

And the rest, in no particular order:

agonyaunt is a comm for discussion of various "Dear Abby" type columns. I never read those myself, but I've so far found the discussion to be pretty interesting.

naraht: Classical composer RPF: the profic version
Is there really any differnce between RPF and historical fiction? Certainly cases like this don't seem any different to fanfic.

jonquil: Science fiction and me
Interesting post about why sci-fi doesn't do it for her anymore.

tinnefoil: do futanari and genderswap have a place in femslash?
There hasn't been a lot of discussion, but it's an interesting topic.

sanguinity: There Are Some Battles That I Do Not, Will Not, or Can Not Fight
About being closeted and judging yourself more harshly than others.

shewhohashope: In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night
About some really racist shit going down in DC Comics.

thefourthvine: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout
Why am I even linking this? Is there anyone who's not readint TFV yet? She is one of those super talented people who can write about anything and make it funny. (This is obviously about the whole fanfic debate.)

snarp: Diana Gabaldon is too insane to exist; maybe she doesn't?
Despite the title, it's not really about Diana Gabaldon. I think this best sums up the post:

Anyway, when I am an awesome best-selling writer who everybody loves, I think I want to have some sort of license saying, "You can write fanfic and make fanart and even sell it in small zines if you want, as long as such sales (of my work and other persons' using the same or a similar license) do not make up more than $x000 a year or x% of your income. I agree not to steal shit wholesale from you and put it in my books, but in return you agree not to sue me if I make Spoonbeam and Deathle make out and you think it's totally just like your story. If I ever bitch about your charity auction, you are allowed to hit me with one of those big foam stick things in public. You can call my publisher to make arrangements. Or call Diana Gabaldon's publisher. Just to see what happens."

helens78: reading a series/successor authors
How do you read series? Do you reread previous books when a new one comes out?

helens78: like, respect, care for (on relationships and also on main-ing vs. alt-ing)
Being monogamous does not mean believing that monogamy is The One True Way For Everyone.

helens78: I don't always want your reality. Sometimes I want the what if.
What it says on the tin! "What if?" is the point of fanfic. So what if it's not canon.

damned_colonial: War in the porn / porn in the war
Interesting post about military fandoms (including those that don't seem, at first glance, to be military, such as Sherlock Holmes).

damned_colonial: Real life geek gatherings and body image
An interesting poll if you go to cons.

hope: Scripty goodness: Fanfiction Header Builder
This is so awesome! No more typing up headers every time by hand!

trouble: Ignore Them And They'll Go Away
About online bullying of people who write social justice blogs.

bookshop: Fannish spaces, girls, and the culture of silence
Thoughts on slash fandom and how the erasure of women is connected to the silencing of women IRL. (The LJ mirror (linked in the DW post) has a lot more discussion, but beware: it also has a lot of horrid OH JOHN RINGO NO comments.)

bookshop: Silence, consent, rape
Good Rape Culture 101 post.

eleanorjane: Roleplaying and Fanfic, or why GRRM makes no sense to me
George R.R. Martin hates fanfic, but is totally down with RPGs set in his universe. eleanorjane explains why this makes little sense.

ajnabieh: Dressing Your Best Post #1: In Defense of Mom Jeans

I would argue that mom jeans represent the rejection of one of the major aspects of performing femininity in public: that women have the duty to be attractive (to me) at all points in time. [...] Except if you're a mom. If you're a mom, [...] you're already doing important social work--work that labels you as appropriately female, by the way. You don't have to be hot--you don't have to be a woman. You can just be a mom.

cereta: Responsibility

I believe that personal responsibility is as much about taking responsibility for how you treat others as it is about protecting yourself.

inkstone: And for a change of pace: A complimentary word about LJ
Discussion about how no, really, unlike the claims some people are making, not everyone assumes that going to someone's hotel room at a con is an invitation to sexytiems.

bravecows: Not on pro authors who hate fanfic
Talking about writers who got their start in fanfic.

fairestcat: Consent Challenge
"A celebration of consent in all its infinite variety."

telophase: VERY IMPORTANT POLL
Not on DW, but I had to link it. This is a very interesting poll and discussion about how people carried their books in high school. Apparently there is a big gender divide. I had no idea. I honestly cannot remember how anyone carried books, not really even myself.


And now, writing!

The transfic fest has really, really slowed down, but I'm hoping there will still be some more fics before the end of the fest (and more prompts, too! I am totally planning on saving up interesting prompts for future writing). I hope to write at least one more myself, but I have Remix to worry about, too, argh.

There have been three new fics, though:

Once Upon a Time by busaikko (Harry Potter, mtf!Dudley)
This Heart's Still Solid Like a Knife by eisen (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Chrome Dokuro, this has nothing to do with Mukuro; this is about me)
Untitled by rushthatspeaks (Baccano!, Claire Stanfield, performance)

And also one piece of art! sqbr drew this based on that Sense and Sensibility fic.


In addition to wanting to write something for the transfic fest, I also have a partially written fic for another fest that I now don't know if I'm going to finish in time. It's one of those things where I have it written out in my head completely, but am struggling to get the words down "on paper". (Can't really talk about it because it's supposed to be anon.)


I also have another fic I want to write that is inspired by a prompt on ladyslash, but is really not similar enough to the prompt that I feel I could leave it as a fill. Also I don't have time to do it now. But! I want to write a Community fic about Shirley.

The prompt referenced the episode where Shirley and Annie were security guards and it made me think, what if Shirley knows about buddy copy tropes? What if she reads slash? She would, of course, be one of those slash fans who thinks it's all well and good in fiction, but is immoral IRL. But what if she were using it as a way to sublimate her own attraction to women? And telling herself she likes it because it has two men, twice the hotness, so of course she's not a lesbian!

So yeah, basically I want to write a fic about Shirley coming to grips with her sexuality and what that means for her as a Christian (maybe learning to be a little less judgemental of everyone else!). I don't think I'd actually want it to be pairing fic. She and Annie were cute as buddy cops, but Annie is so young. I don't really like that pairing. And I'm not fond of Shirley/Britta, either, so it would mostly be gen with OFCs.

Any interest?

1. I finally finished going through and rating all my Ayu songs. Maybe I will get that discography post written up for today.

2. I love this xkcd.

3. lgbtfest started posting Saturday and there are already four transfics! I have been adding them to the master list as they're posted, so they're right there at the top if you want to check them out.

4. Carla got her Mac back from the Apple Store yesterday and the DVD drive seems to be fixed, yay.

5. This was on Ugliest Tattoos, but I think it's great. XD

6. This 5 Most Unintentionally Offensive Comic Book Characters post on Cracked is pretty horrific. OH COMICS NO!

Daily Happysong:

Flame - Bye My Love
Flame were a Japanese boyband who got started around the same time as Lead and w-inds. but never really got that popular. They had some pretty catchy songs, though.

I got quite a lot done yesterday! And despite not getting any sleep the night before, resisted sleeping longer than a couple hours and so didn't get off my schedule.

Also this video of Maru is very cute!

Daily Happysong:

Beat Crusaders - Kibou no Wadachi
Punk cover of a Southern All Stars song. Really, really good!

1. I wrote The Best Day Ever [The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon & Meemaw, 800 words] for the transfic fest as well as the other ways of saying "I love you" fest. I stayed up way late doing it, but I am so pleased with it and with having written a second fic so soon (and such a long one; I expected I would write mostly drabbles for these fests).

2. While I was writing that, gloss was writing a totally different Sheldon & Meemaw fic for the same prompt on the transfic meme. I love how a single prompt can inspire such different fics. This is absolutely wonderful and I love it so much.

3. I downloaded these Avatar icons and now my desktop is all Avatarised. So cute!

4. All the Wrinkled Ladies is an awesome fat-positive, aging-positive song to the tune of Beyoncé's Single Ladies. If you click on nothing else today, please click on that. (Even if you hate that song and/or Beyoncé.)

5. I discovered a_gamer_is_me and posted about Lego games. Did you know there's a third Lego Star Wars game scheduled for October? I am so excited!

6. Carla had some Twitter friends over for dinner last night and there was all sorts of deliciousness. Calra grilled tri-tip in a Korean BBQ marinade and her friend brought carnitas and stuff. I love the Korean BBQ tri-tip so much I couldn't bear to use up any stomach room on carnitas (delicious though it may be), but I did want the fresh tortillas (warmed on the grill), queso fresco, and cilantro, so I made Korean/Mexican fusion wraps. Soooooo delicious! I had a couple more this morning for breakfast and they were just as delicious cold. But now the meat is gone. :( Though there is plenty of carnitas left.

There were also several tarts from Trader Joe's, including a rustic fruit tart topped with granola, which I'd been wanting to try for ages. It was just as delicious as I'd imagined! And because these friends weren't going straight home, they left all the leftovers with us. :D

Daily Happysong:

Golf & Mike - Mai Wang Gum Lung Ten
Thai pop! These guys are really catchy.

1. cesare wrote a great post about why Better Off Ted is an awesome show.

2. thefourthvine posted some hilarious "overheard on the playground" conversations.

3. I really liked this post about being a "bad trans person" and the ways in which the OP doesn't fit the accepted trans narrative.

Here's some for me:

-I have never felt suicidal because of being trans (or for any other reason).

-As a kid, I never told my mom I was a boy/wanted to be a boy.

-I played with My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake and Sylvanian Family as much as I played with Matchbox cars and Transformers and Star Wars.

There are a ton more, but I'm tired and can't think very well at the moment.

4. We got our Netflix Wii disc in the mail! Now we can stream stuff on the Wii and watch it on our TV!

5. I made splitpea soup and omg it is so delicious.

6. I updated my lyrics site for the first time in a month. -_-;;

Daily Happysong:

P'unk~en~Ciel - Feeling Fine 2007
This is L'arc~en~Ciel doing a punk self-cover of Feeling Fine, which was already one of my favorite songs by them, but omg this version is even awesomer. I love it so, so, so much.