We've been continuing to quietly watch Avatar: The Last Airbender from NetFlix—actually I've been mostly listening, taking the opportunity to cross-stitch, but regardless—and last night we got through the second-to-last disc of season two, the one that concludes with the filler episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se." Which reminded Chad that he'd channel-surfed past the finale without realizing it last weekend, and which reminded me that I'd seen posts about it, but nothing outside spoiler-cuts (thank you all), and so I had no idea how it was generally received.

So, for those of you who've seen the whole thing, a poll (format nicked from coalescent):

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Ticky?

And if it's not just BAD but a complete trainwreck, do feel free to say so (though without details, please, as if you spoil me I will kill you with my brain), since I've had enough of that for the moment with Kage Baker's Company books.

(Also, we were bummed to see that the voice actor for Uncle Iroh, Mako, passed away during the series. Wikipedia indicates that he finished out season two; I hope his season three replacement doesn't suck.)

Over at readercon via delicious.

You all will probably be shocked to hear that . . . I thought this was very good.

My reaction may have been helped by my having ramped my expectations down. I inferred from reviews (and confirmed from someone who'd seen it) that I could expect two plot elements, one of which is not to my taste and the other of which I really doubted could be done well. But the first was handled relatively non-sporkily, even if I still would have preferred something else, and the second worked much better than I expected. And I'll give a movie a lot of leeway for head-on engaging with hard questions that Iron Man, for instance, just shrugs aside.

(Speaking of which, I highly recommend The Kids Aren’t All Right: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com, which is fanfic set a year after the end of the movie and done as a pitch-perfect article by Christine Everhart, complete with glossy magazine page mockups. If the movie had been half that smart and complex, I wouldn't have been so bored with it.)

Back to The Dark Knight—so, plot better than I expected, and also, really quite an intense experience. Even at two and a half hours—at one apparent-lull I got up to go to the bathroom, looked at my watch, and said to myself, "I can't believe we still have another hour to go." But when I got back things had jumped into high gear and I don't think I looked at my watch again.

Anyway: Heath Ledger's Joker is indeed astonishing (and, good grief, people, not something to subject your five year old to! There were points at which I thought the movie was almost too dark for almost-thirty-one-year-olds!). The low-key supporting players (Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman) were delights. Christian Bale was unobjectionable, which is all that I ask in a Batman, considering, as were Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The action sequences were exciting and visually impressive without killing the entire movie under their weight, and while occasionally they did rely on action-movie lack-of-logic, I was willing to roll with it.

In short: good stuff. And since I suspect this is the end of our new-release summer movie viewing, yay, ending on a satisfying note.

( Spoilers: )

(Oh, and it stands alone just fine. There's one little bit in the beginning that doesn't make sense if you haven't seen Batman Begins, the drug dealer in the odd mask, but it really doesn't matter.)

(Additional note: there is a series of special effects late in the movie that I found motion-sick-inducing, but if you're prone to that, you'll spot them almost immediately, and you won't miss anything by squinting through them.)

It's true, my hands are stiff and sore and carpel-tunnel-syndrome-ish.

But on the bright side, I did not dislocate my thumb yesterday.

(Chad's bright side is that it was his left thumb.)

It's true, comment spammers are evil and must die die die. (If you get a reply to a comment on one of my old posts that almost makes sense, don't worry, it's gone as soon as I see the notification.)

But on the bright side, comment spammers only exist because the Internet exists, and without the Internet there's no LJ, and without LJ livelongnmarry wouldn't have raised more than $30,000 for marriage equality (and that's as of 24 hours ago) and gotten thanks from two of the many people affected by the fight.

In conclusion: *points at icon*.

(For background, see Tobias Buckell's post.)

William Sanders continues to distinguish himself in response to authors' requests to have their stories removed from Helix in reaction to his behavior. The latest update is that he wants authors to pay $40 to have their stories removed.

Now, my understanding is that under at least one version of Helix's contract, the magazine gets web publication rights in perpetuity. However, I also understand that those web publication rights are non-exclusive (nb. I haven't seen any contract and cannot give legal advice), and therefore there's no reason that authors can't put up their stories on their own web space.

I suggest, then, that any Helix authors who no longer want to be associated with the magazine but who don't want to pay for it [*] should repost their story someplace—preferably with a nice big explanation why—and change all their links to that new space and ask everyone else to do the same.

It might even be worth getting a central space just for such stories. I'd be glad to donate a domain name and web hosting if people are interested.

[*] I express no opinion on whether they should or not; I can well imagine it might be worth $40 to not have one's story on that website any more.

Over at Chad's blog.

(Still feeling surprisingly well, all in all, in case you were wondering.)

In other news, cross-stitching white thread on white fabric is a giant pain.

Back from seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which we'd been really looking forward to.

Non-spoiler version: visually stunning (Guillermo del Toro is apparently to direct The Hobbit, and I can't wait to see his version of Middle-Earth); plot somewhat more coherent than the first one; emotion pitched a little obvious at points; and is it really too much to ask to have a summer movie without subtext—or text, actually—that makes me want to tear my hair out?

( Spoiler version: )

You know, at this point I'm not sure whether to pin all my hopes on The Dark Knight or dial my expectations way down, when it comes to story rather than spectacle. (Still haven't found time to watch Batman Begins.)

If it's ever a choice between saving my life and saving the whole world?

Save the fucking world, already.

(See also the quote at the end of this old booklog post.)

In great haste—have some more very cool things from livelongnmarry, the fandom auction in support of marriage equality. (See the tag on this post for my prior enormous list of recommendations.) This is only for non-fanfic and fanart offers, because if you're interested in those you can find the sellers yourself.

Also, I strongly recommend checking out the care packages tag, because there are some really cool things there.

(And my own offer, of fiction critique from a legal perspective, is still there!)

( Autographed books etc.: )

( Other fiction- or creative-related services: )

( Jewelry and other custom handcrafts: )

( Miscellaneous items: )

( Miscellaneous services: )

Offering and bidding through Monday.

Our home renovation project is now done, done, done. The contractor installed the cabinet doors yesterday (sooner than we expected) and did a last little thing outside today. I should probably have waited for daylight, but I couldn't resist taking pictures tonight once I'd finished (some of) the other things I needed to do:

( Pictures! )

LibraryThing is looking for librarians "to help build the Open Shelves Classification (OSC), a free, 'humble,' modern, open-source, crowd-sourced replacement for the Dewey Decimal System."

In one day, 120 out of 196 books have been claimed; 117 have been packaged for shipping; and 3 have been set aside for possible pickup. Whoosh.

(The ones packaged tonight are not all going to be shipped at once, since frankly I don't think I have that much room in my car, but I expect they'll all go this week because I want to enjoy our lovely new library without boxes and envelopes cluttering it up. I did ship several envelopes today and e-mailed people to let them know.)

See this post for details on requesting your own.

A hundred and twenty books, guys!

Look! Bookshelves! With books on them! (The bottom two shelves will have doors to turn them into cabinets, eventually tomorrow!)

Also, yes, still pregnant (thirty-seven weeks).

That's not all, but it's enough for now. *goes back to sorting out requests for books*

Chad and I are giving away books. If you're interested, here are the details:

( instructions )

Items are still going up for bid at livelongnmarry, the fandom auction to support marriage equality in California. I've offered fiction critique from a legal perspective. In case you're not into fanfic and fanart, and are overwhelmed by the volume of offers, I have cat-vacuumed up big ol' lists of cool things (as of yesterday; there'll be more rec posts for this, I am sure):

( Autographed books, excerpts, character namings/deaths from published authors: )

( Critiques from professionals: )

( Other fiction- or creative-related services: )

( Jewelry: )

( Clothing and sewing-related crafts: )

( Miscellaenous custom handcrafts: )

( Miscellaneous items: )

( Miscellaneous services: )

Go, look, bid or offer! Open through July 14.

Remember our DSL problem of a couple of weeks ago?

Chad fixed the polarity this morning—line tester all nice and green—and unfortunately the modem's still all blinky and not connecting.

I think at this point the answer is, "call Verizon," but if anyone has other suggestions, go ahead.

Hey all—I think I've got a possible offer for the livelongnmarry auction, but would like feedback:

( behind the cut )

Edit: now posted!

livelongnmarry is a fandom auction to support marriage equality in California. Bidding opens tonight (specifically, at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on July 1), and there are lots of very cool things up for auction—fanfic and fanart, of course, but also music composition, poetry, baked goods, knitted goods, jewelry, autographed books, writing critiques, language lessons, translations . . . Check it out.

(And if you're not interested in bidding on anything but would like to support marriage equality, there are links in the userinfo to organizations you might be able to help.)

ETA: it appears that the wires of the new jack were reversed. We'll see if fixing that helps . . . Thanks, all.

( Read more... )

True courtesy respects the wishes of the recipient.

Thus, for instance, if you find yourself in line to get on a bus and notice a person behind you, and you offer to let that person go ahead of you; and if that person says, "No, you go ahead, thank you," and you again offer; and if that person says, "No, really, you go ahead" through gritted teeth?

You should fucking well get on the bus, already.

Because, by continuing to insist—and even dragging in someone else in line!—you are not doing something nice for the person behind you. You are inflicting upon that person something unwanted, solely for your own satisfaction.

And that is no kind of courtesy.