...because I am already feeling nostalgic.

FanLib was dismal and depressing, but did we let it get us down? Heck, no. Most of the time, I laughed so hard I lost beverages. Some of my favorite memories:

1. The Mimbo Brothers (aka Chris and David Williams, FanLib founders) get their asses kicked by a moderator at lotrfanfiction, and learn nothing from it.

2. icarusancalion reveals FanLib's hilariously inept attempt to recruit her as a fanfic author.

3. telesilla takes apart the FanLib FAQ, prompting FanLib CEO Mimbo (Chris Williams) to make a spectacular fool of himself in her journal. The Mimbo brothers look even more idiotic when they revise the TOS and FAQ (repeatedly) in the dead of night.

4. lizbee writes the the first Pink Guy/Blue Dude fanfiction, based on FanLib's bizarre marketing, and wins the Internet.

( Read more... )

Got a story? Please share. Because Life Without FanLib is where the stories continue.

With the introduction of Twitter (it’s ace), life in the love nest has reached a whole new level of ridiculousness, whereby one of us will post an inane comment and the other, sitting about 80cm away, will get a text message about it. On Wednesday, we went to see Wall-E (OMG so, so lovely, everyone should go and see it RIGHT NOW), and on the way home got near simultaneous and identical texts about the fact that we were once again sitting behind Balding!Quiff!Man on the bus.

Anyway, so, other things of note. A motley crew of us are dashing off to the beach tomorrow somewhere in the vicinity of Chichester (someone remind me why it is we go so far away?!), as is becoming something of a summer tradition. Last year we got rained off, and had to have a picnic-in-the-car (always a joy) and this time we are on tenterhooks as to the likely weather. Why, why, why do meteorologists remain so rubbish at predicting the weather? Surely it can’t be that hard…

Had a little dinner party on Tuesday, which was nice. We ate lasagne and pavlova and drank wine and listened to some more of Helen’s tax party stories – a mainstay of any social function, we are finding. All vee nice anyway, though, Helen, you left behind the book Katie borrowed. And tonight, we are off to the National to see Her Naked Skin, which is about wimmin and such.

Incidentally, I recently read Rousseau’s Discourses on the Arts and Sciences, which only served to demonstrate what a mentalist he was. Currently reading A Dissertation on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind, which likewise. The only thing I remember about Rousseau from studying the Enlightenment in the course of A-level history was a random quote that I found: “Rousseau could ennoble a piece of cheese.” I do not dispute this. He is quite mad enough to have done so, providing it was a savage, uncivilised cheese which lived a life of rustic simplicity and didn’t think too much… so, really, he was probably very fond of cheese. It’s interesting, though, because beneath the crap he does make some interesting points, but it’s so frustrating and anger-inducing reading all the fluff about how great Sparta was because they were all, OK, Spartan, and how rubbish civilisations get when they start arsing around with art and science and trying to know stuff. Frex: “our souls have become corrupted to the extent that our sciences and our arts have advanced towards perfection.” Has a beef with “vain knowledge” (I thought people had got over that whole thing by the mid C18th?) and a desperate longing for “happy ignorance” in a “rustic nation.” Meh. Whatever. As I said, he does have the odd point buried in there, but mostly, I diskard it.

TV is coming back soon!!!! SGA has already returned, and the others will be back soon! Very excited by this. I ♥ TV. With regard to my latest obsession (still incredibly excited about having discovered A WHOLE NEW MEDIUM), have read: Batman Year One, Marvel 1602, Runaways (to date), The Umbrella Academy, Jack of Fables, Invincible vols 1 and 2, and have nearly finished the first vol of Sandman. Probably some other stuff too that I can’t remember off the top of my head. I ♥ comics.

Have booked a table at Giraffe for my birthday – w00t! Also, am having my eyebrows tinted Monday week, which is quite exciting, but I have to remember to go into Kingston on Sunday (boo) for a sensitivity test. Bum.

i went back a few pages, havent seen a disccusion on this store..

i work in an electronics store and have gone through a few phones.. im pretty happy with the one i have now and have a few id like to get rid of. theyre both in excellent condition and i was thinking about going to the electronic swap/pawn shop in downton Cex to get some cash for them. Has anyone shopped and or Sold stuff there? i have heard a few people saying they claim to "not have the cash" to give you when you try to trade something in. and it's a round about terrible store.

So thoughts? or any other places i could trade these in for cash?

Discuss.

Title: Arrangements chapter 9
Series: Final Fantasy VII AU (Cetra Restoration AU, linked here)
Pairing: Brangwen/Cloud, Cloud/Sephiroth, Sephiroth/Tseng
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If they were mine Aeris and Zack would still be alive, and not just running around in the Lifestream spying on Cloud. Since Aeris and Zack said goodbye to Cloud at the end of AC and disappeared into the Lifestream I guess they aren't mine.
Warnings: AU

This ended up a lot easier to write once I realised Cloud wasn't going to go to Brangwen without Sephiroth just about ordering him to.

( “Cloud? Aren’t you going to Brangwen tonight?” )

Title: Real Life
Author: Ozma914

Summary: Post-Chosen, and pre-Not Fade Away: One last story before I take off for three weeks of vacation time! A bit of fluff in which Buffybot tries to learn more about people by watching her friends interact -- while they play a game that itself mimics real life.
(This takes place in a post-"Chosen" universe in which rather questionable spells have resurrected Tara and Buffybot, and more or less cured Dana.)

Rating: PG
Warnings: Overprotective father.
Length: 1,600 words
Disclaimer: I own practically nothing except my Mac and my Buffy comics.

Characters: Buffybot, Tara, Dana, and OC characters: Slayer Kara, her father (and watcher) Richard, and the Council's unofficial armorer, a teenager from my first story named Jason.


( Read more... )

I cannot stop playing Suburban Cat Herder.

I'm not sure whether this one's stupider than the cow-throwing game I linked a while back, but it is equally addictive.

Yes, I know Giovanni is basically a don overlord. And yes, he could pass for Mediterranean. And yes, his name in the English version is *very* Italian. But there's absolutely no evidence that he, himself, is meant to be from Italy.

Pokémon is very obvious when someone is intended to be a foreigner. Look at Surge and Fantina. And since the main thrust of the series takes place in an area based on Japan (yes, it's not *quite* Japan, especially in the anime, which draws inspiration from all over the place, but it's still *roughly* Japan), someone from Italy would be presented similarly.

Now, he could have Italian ancestry, that's easy to swallow. People seem to come from all over in that area. But the fics where he speaks Italian all over the place and eats nothing but Italian cuisine? Yeah, that's gotta go. Heck, Surge is *confirmed* to be American, and you don't see him subsiding on hamburgers and steak.

I don't what I'm more stunned by, the SNP winning the Glasgow East by-election or MTV remaking the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One of the two events may lead to the downfall of the government and for once I'm not sure which one it will be

Is it really the birthday of vwbug? Wow, wow, wow.  What a wonderful thing to celebrate.

I don't know if anybody has brought this up in the past, and this isn't quite a rant, but:

When I first entered fandom, one of the things that really threw me off was the prevalence of present-tense stories.  Until then I had honestly rarely encountered it in published novels, and it pretty much made me 'wtf' for a while there.
Since then I've gotten used to it, to the point where it no longer really bothers me as much, but I still don't write in present tense.

I wanted to ask - to those of you who prefer present tense, why do you like it?  What do you feel is the advantage of present over past tense?  Because I honestly still find it just a little more jarring than past-tense.

My non-spoilery reaction: *speechless*

My spoilery reaction: ( Well, I've at least started to regain the ability to speak. )

Next: Mamma Mia!

It's funny that it's my oldest fandom that draws me out of this random self imposed non-postage rut...

Just got back from the midnight showing of XF2. I'm trying to decide if I like it for itself (AKA as a stand alone movie) or if I liked it because of "OMG OMG it's X-Files".

So, in no particular order, squeeing and random thoughts, feel free to add to them LOL.

( SPOILERS! )

Can't think of anything else right now... might add more later.

I think I laughed the most at "I love real dirty things!"

As a wise man once said "If you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, then go home and burn all your records, all your tapes, and all your CDs because every one of those artists who have made brilliant music and enhanced your lives? Real fucking high on drugs. The Beatles were so fucking high, they let Ringo sing a few songs." And damn if it ain't true. Drugs are one of the greatest influences on modern music as we know it. It's called "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll" for a reason!

Drugs, their history and their cultural impact have always fascinated me. Did you know Bayer, the friendly company that makes lifesaving aspirin, was the company that first synthesized heroin? Cocaine was good for tooth aches and coughs. Hypodermic needles could be bought out of the Sears catalogue for two dollars.

While it's important to remember the lives and brilliant talent drugs have taken from us, it's equally as important to examine the valuable creative element drugs have been to our popular culture. From every speed-freak author writing a roadtrip novel in three days, to every self-medicating tortured soul, drugs became the avenue for creation.

( Just Say Yes!: 25 Songs DARE Doesn't Want You To Know About )

Inspired by this question from elltotheoh...

This:

...and this:

And this:

*waves tiny American flag*

This might count as five, I don't know.

So. Apparently the body shop reported the repair cost to SGI. Cost is like $900 over the limit the insurer gave them.

Speaking of which, $9600? WTH? If we take the 75% value damage limit the insurer uses, that puts the value of my car at like $12800. I *paid* $14k for it. So in 4.5 years it only lost $1.2k of value?! Even if I drop that original vlaue by $1.5k for the previous damage (which was claimed on already) we're looking at $10800, which is still huge.

Of course, now I have to wait for the Total Loss Department to make a final decision. Which *should* take hours, but will probably take days. Yay. I just want to go buy a car, damnit!

Here is the next and LAST chapter of my fic "Bringing Sexy Back" I hope you all enjoy it!!

Thanks so much to all who have commented on this fic in the past. I had a lot of fun writing this fic but it was great to know that others enjoyed it as well. Especially with the last couple of weeks, RL seems to have been extra bitchy, so thanks for all the kind comments, they always make my day. :)

And with no further interruptions...

( Bringing Sexy Back. Ch. 12 )

Back from Con. Great, crazy, random day. Stan Lee (hysterical!), Doctor Who (Steven Moffat is all kinds of awesome!!), Torchwood (John Barrowman is fabulous. And there was singing! Him & Naoko Mori! Look below!), and Dexter (which I'm just starting to watch. So good!). Staying away from LJ FList so I don't see the SYTYCD results.

Video below is the work of a certain kenobi.



I'm updating all day on Twitter if any of you want to follow the adventures. Like the "stalking" of yours truly by a certain female star of Dr. Horrible (okay, there's only the one). And guess which former Firefly/now Stargate cast member (okay, there's only the one) was next to kenobi and me at lunch?

It's because the raspberries were on sale, you see.

And because I remembered I had a batch of green crab apples I needed to attempt to turn into pectin.

And because, well, Google indexes your posts, and I was searching for that ONE raspberry recipe, and, and...

You know, I lived quite nicely and comfortably, canning away, without a maslin pan.

And now? You've got me utterly and completely convinced that I need one.

Sadly, I can't be spending the money one one now, but I glare in your general (citrus-producing, long growing season-having) general direction. Because as soon as I can? I so totally will.

(It's not your fault, however, that I'm plotting planting one year whips with a mind to make pretty, pretty, short and flat fruit trees. That one's a long-standing desire, refreshed by an unfortunate run in with Apartment Therapy today.)

Outing fans isn't my biggest concern (even though its not appropriate or right). What is troubling me the most about the Laura Hale bullcrap is that she was going to sell the information of fans (many underage) to companies while lying to people and getting people to donate effort and money. Her wiki doesn't even offer much to the visitors its exploiting. Whether or not you think you should own up to your hobby (which is no ones business) or if you don't care since it is already up, you should care that yet another company or person is trying to exploit you for advertising information.

Just because it is happening everywhere doesn't mean that we should all stop giving a damn.

Great article on the whole business.

dcmarvelthon is accepting prompts for crossover fics. Main or alternate DC and Marvel universes are accepted, as are Wildstorm and Vertigo.

second_batgirl is doing an awesome job putting this ficathon together, and you can submit prompts without necessarily having to write. Check it out!