Laughter Through Tears

This morning I was bored so I made a Tumblr: Nerdy Cookies. There are three posts. I am also sitting on some links for later. It will probably update a lot this week, and then never again until April, or thereabouts. My quest for referential sweetmeats has lead me to discover a lot of languishing Google search terms. Truly, has no one ever made a batch of supervillain cupcakes? Distressing.

Oh, and certain people don't need to worry that they're being stalked, just because their personal Tumblr blogs are being followed by someone they've never heard of. It's me.

Via shiegra and marina:

1) Make a list of fifteen characters first, and keep it to yourself for the moment.

2) Ask your flist to post questions in the comments.

For example:

'One, Nine and Fifteen move in together. Is this a really bad idea?'
'Under what circumstances might Five and Seven fall in love?'
'Which character on the list would you most want on your side in a zombie invasion?'
'Write a drabble in which Three and Eleven FIGHT CRIME.' (...possibly not technically a question.)

3) After your flist has asked enough questions, round them up and answer them using the fifteen characters you selected beforehand, then post them.

So zvi did a totally fascinating meme on certain, shall we say, intentionally over-the-top fanfic tropes, which lead me to a most startling realization: The only way to explain Anders' ~epic~ devotion to Kara is if they were a psychically linked dragon/dragonrider pair in a previous life. Or next one. I'm not picky.

I also had another realization, but that's going in the vampire/elf/sex pollen meta I'm writing after I finish the test that must not be named.

Speaking of sex pollen, has everyone read this awesome writeup of a WisCon panel? I am so jealous! As if it didn't sound desirable enough, apparently they also have worldbuilding panels where people sit and build a world together and then make up a musical about it. A musical with tentacle Jesus.

...I swear I'm studying. Look! Even and odd equasions!

OMFG, self, now is so not the time to be completely sure you need to reread all your old fanfic to see if it's any good. You have tons of school work and exams in a month, you don't know any physics yet, you have to hand in four more assignments in statistics, a lab report in genetics, and your final makeup test in calculus is in less than two weeks. Also, whatever happened to your obvious Narnia fanfic totally original novel that you're only 3K words into?

WTF, self. Just because people are posting memes about idfic is no reason to suddenly ruin all your carefully-laid plans. THE PLAN, self, stick to it.

First off: Haiti. Not much I can say at this point that has not been said, except to boost this account of Haitian volunteers in post-Katrina New Orleans, this list of aid organizations (I have donated 25$ to Yele after some careful consideration) and of course help_haiti.

As to the latter, I am keeping a close eye on it, looking for boxes of books and other items of interest. I can only afford to bid once, so I want to make sure I hit something that I like, and especially something that has not yet been bid on so as to maximize the overall donations. The mods and members have been working like dogs keeping up inventory lists, it's incredible. I am also considering offering an item up for bidding, either an Israeli grab-box (since marina's seems to be a hit) or a mix CD of Hebrew songs with translations and notes, for the language geeks. That's if I determine that there could be an interest in such a thing. I'm talking about something more detailed than the stuff I sometimes send friends.

In minor news, exams start in a week and I am dedicating today to understanding the basics of Newtonian mechanics. I did actually see an offer for math/physics tutoring on HH, but I'm not sure an hour for 10$ would do me much good. This strip is the best webcomic about velociraptors vs. unicorns you'll ever read. The muppets singing Bohemian Rhapsody has already made the rounds a couple of months ago, but bears repeating.

As early as April (Passover) I might be moving to a new apartment that's much closer to the relevant bus lines, cutting down my morning walk to the bus-station from its current 10-20 minutes uphill. It would also be owned by my father, so would be a much more stable arrangement, and more convenient financially. I am trying not to get too excited prematurely, but the outlook is good. And now, off to my physics.

Oh! And for a belated Follow Friday, I created a feed for thebooksmugglers_feed, one of my favorite book review blogs. They review a lot of fantasy and science fiction, but also an assortment of other genres. The feed is a couple of days old, so already past the technically necessary spamming age. meganbmoore reviews lots of SFF, mystery, historical and romance books, among others, and her reviews are a delightful mix of thoughtful and hilarious. I am reading so many good reviewers lately that my virtual TBR pile is reaching absurd proportions.

Fifteen Minute Festival is a place for people to ask for (and return) nice things that take ~15 minutes to make/produce. It's cool.

In things that take longer than fifteen minutes: St. Mary's Lighthouse was awesome! I have photos, which I will upload to my Facebook. I also want to make a post about things that can't be captured in photo, but later.

The North Sea is very mermaidy, so I'm thinking about mermaids a lot.

Jonquil helpfully screencapped and transcribed (DW mirror) the latest shenanigans from Dr. Ogi Ogas, incompetent "cognitive neuroscientist" and friends, before he locked and/or deleted it. WARNING for copious slurs. As Seeking Avalon's Willow eloquently points out, the esteemed Dr. Ogas is likely one of those "enlightened" individuals whose sole experience of transgender, transsexuality comes from trans fetish porn.

I cannot begin to unpack all the stupid, craven, sexist, homophobic and transphobic assumptions in the good doctor's ludicrous comparison. Yes, fandom elements helpfully commented on his absurd screed, pointing out the obvious parallel is between women reading gay porn about gay and bisexual men and men watching "girl-on-girl" porn, as well as the fact that this parallel has been drawn within intra-fandom meta, more than once. Willow speculates that the reason the good doctor does not think of this very obvious point is because he thinks of girl-on-girl porn flicks as being "normal", and to him the only apt comparison to the obvious "deviancy" of straight people getting off on gay sex is trans* sex, which of course he sees as inherently fetishistic and deviant.

Par for the course, these two esteemed members of the scientific community vocally ignore the presence of slash written by and for queer men, not to mention femmeslash, in studying the slash phenomenon. To clarify: I have known every type of person in the world to write and read every type of slash I can think of. Straight, bisexual and gay men and women, trans* people of all genders, people of other or non-binary gender identity or sexuality, all read and write m/m, f/f, m/f, f/m and every threesome/moresome combination I could possibly come up with.

I could write a lot more or a lot less on the subject, but sooner or later I have to go to work. All I have to add for now: before I was amused, but now I am livid.

ETA: Jadey speculates that trans* fetish porn was the objective of their study all along, and makes a compelling case, IMO. There are more links on the subject at linkspam where elf has done a truly admirable job of compiling a wide range of posts, thereby aiding me (and others) in connecting the dots. I have also learned something new about fanhistory.com. Bleh. This whole affair leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

If you want to lose faith in humanity, check out some of the questions on WikiAnswers. Especially in the relationships category. Most of them could be dismissed with "ask her/him!" but some of them are truly disturbing. No, you cannot "make" someone like you.

In other news: Holy shit you guys! My brother is a closet Zutara shipper. I'm not sure whether this is disturbing or totally freaking awesome. I'm pretty sure this is the first time my brother has shipped anything non-canon, especially since he usually mocks me for doing the same. Especially, say, Peter and Claire in the first season of Heroes. Myself, I'm not over-fond of Zuko in general, and I just sort of roll my eyes at teen ships, like usual. I'd read Suki/Ty Lee fic, though. Is there are rarepairs community for ATLA?

I am trying not to get excited about the TS3 expansion. It's a pseudo-recap of Bon Voyage, which was always considered weak, and which I never had any interest in. The "travel pack" is typically the least simulation-wise of all the expansions, and instead has a vaguely RPG feel. It sets back the simulation and slows everything down. Also, I have no desire to send my sims on vacations to weird tourist traps.

It's hard, though, because there will be new fish and plants, and probably new recipes, and other cool stuff. I haven't worked through all the different options in the game, yet, and I probably won't have much time to play after I start school. Hopefully I won't get bored by November, and I'll be able to hold out and see what other expansions are coming. This one has mummies, which weren't in TS2, so I'm crossing my fingers for mermaids, especially since there's a "hydrophobic" trait which should make things interesting. Mermaids would be super awesome.

It's IBARW again! It happens every year. International Blog Against Racism Week. I haven't blogged about racism that much this year, but I'll look back on my posts and see if there's anything I want to revisit or highlight. I'll probably also post some links that catch my fancy. You can find the full list of links at ibarw.

I almost wrote this entry before I left for work, but managed to restrain myself just in time.

( Sims update, nothing of import. )

Also, someone needs to talk me out of writing a book about sparkly vampires, just to prove that I can.