06 October 2008|01:33pm Last days to submit a premiere
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vividcon [buffyann]
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This is a reminder the deadline to submit your premieres at Vidukon is tonight October 6th, 2008, 11:59PM (GMT)
However, we will allow a small extention to Thursday, October 9th since we still need some vids.
We accept Premieres as well as Nearly New (vid released after August 1st, so VVC premieres are eligible) so please consider submitting.
To upload your Premiere or Nearly New : - Go to Vidukon>Video Upload , choose "Premieres and Nearly New", click "Go" and fill the form and submit. Make sure you enter the right info as you won't be able to modify it later. Once the form is submitted, please note the name of the files youor video should be named as. You need to fill out the form before uploading.
- When your files are renamed, followo the FTP Instructions and upload your vid.
Once your vid is uploaded on the server, you won't be able to see it. So make sure your FTP client uploaded the file entirely. If the upload is interrupted, just upload again.
Thank you !
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06 October 2008|06:49am New photo
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quinn222
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I took this as part of my application to the Stock Photography agency, but I couldn't use it because it has some technical flaws. I love it anyway though so I am posting it here.
( Cut for big picture )
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06 October 2008|03:57am more recipes
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synecdochic
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White chocolate mousse cups:
* 1 bag (16oz) white chocolate * 1 pint heavy cream * Fresh berries * Phyllo dough cups (usually in/near the freezer aisle)
Nuke the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds. Stir. Nuke again for 30 seconds. Stir. Drop to 10-second intervals and keep stirring after each round until it's fully melted. (It's a lot easier to melt white chocolate in the microwave than it is to do it in a double boiler -- white chocolate tends to scorch very easily.)
Whip the heavy cream with a hand mixer until it just forms stiff peaks. Gradually fold in the white chocolate and continue to beat with the hand mixer until well blended. Spoon into phyllo dough shells, top with berries, put in fridge for an hour or so.
(It usually works out to fill about 60 phyllo dough cups, with a shot glass or two left over. It's incredibly rich, so small servings are best.)
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06 October 2008|12:05am five miles a day...in the snow...uphill...both ways
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telesilla
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So fooling around with the various articles on the USENET Star Trek newsgroups on FanLore has made me remember just how much work we put into the TrekSmut group, ASCEM (alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated).
Once the group was added to USENET, it was set so that all the posts dumped into one mail address. The two mods, myself and Alexis, took turns going through that inbox once a day. Remember this was a USENET group with the word "erotica" in it. On average we'd have maybe 300-400 pieces of mail a day, out of which we'd cull maybe 40 messages that were not spam. Then, using Forte Agent (does anyone even remember that one? It was the only email software at the time that allowed you to post to a newsgroup.) we'd hand post each message to the newsgroup and cc it to anne in chicago, the owner of the mirror-list ASCEM(L). She'd then turn around and, using an ordinary CC list, mail each message out to all her subscribers.
The whole process on my end (and on Alexis' end when it was her day) usually took around two to three hours. And this was back when I was working; in fact, all three of us worked. I eventually had to step down as a mod because my job went kind of insane and I started working 10-12 hours a day and usually 5-6 hours on Saturday with the occasional Sunday thrown in.
The ASCEM community was made up of a wonderful bunch of people and it was my baby and to this day I'm still proud of it, but damn, I don't miss the mindlessly boring work.
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06 October 2008|02:21am pride thread says "thank god that week's over"
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synecdochic
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Mondays, every week, let's celebrate ourselves, to start the week right. Tell me what you're proud of. Tell me what you accomplished last week, something -- at least one thing -- that you can turn around and point at and say: I did this. Me. It was tough, but I did it, and I did it well, and I am proud of it, and it makes me feel good to see what I accomplished. Could be anything -- something you made, something you did, something you got through. Just take a minute and celebrate yourself. Either here, or in your journal, but somewhere.
(And if you feel uncomfortable doing this in public, I've set this entry to screen any anonymous comments, so if you want privacy, comment anonymously and I won't unscreen it unless you tell me it's okay. Also: yes, by all means, cheer each other on when you see something you want to give props to!)
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06 October 2008|12:34am no subject
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celli
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I am home. Trying to wind down enough to get to sleep. Long, long, long weekend; we did funeral/wake/assorted mourning stuff from 7-11 Friday, then from 9-9 Saturday, and I was up at 5 this morning to drive/fly back. But I'm home, and I'm glad.
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06 October 2008|12:10am monday music - paper
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shrift
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music |
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Marianne Faithfull, "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" |
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I've been bopping around, working and meeting people for brunch and going to concerts (Walrus! so cute!) and visiting the family back in Michigan and stuff. So yeah, still alive and well, although I'm still not caught up on all my TV shows.
Oh, and thanks for the devil duck, the_ped!
Paper
1. Toadies, "Paper Dress" (wikipedia)
2. Enon, "Paperweights" (wikipedia)
3. Mando Diao, "Morning Paper Dirt" (wikipedia)
4. Stone Temple Pilots, "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" (wikipedia)
5. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (wikipedia)
6. Gym Class Heroes, "Papercuts" (wikipedia)
7. Modest Mouse, "Paper Thin Walls" (wikipedia)
8. Fiona Apple, "Paper Bag" (wikipedia)
9. Surrounded, "Paper Tangerine Crush" (myspace)
10. Damien Jurado, "Paper Kite" (wikipedia)
11. Loudon Wainwright III, "Saw Your Name in the Paper" (wikipedia)
If you would like to download a zip file of all the songs above, please to be clicking here (48 MB).
Please note: All mp3s featured on this LJ are for sampling purposes only. If you like the songs, go spend some money on the artists!
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05 October 2008|09:09pm medie is the best Medie ever.
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linzeestyle
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LOOK AT MY ICON.
Best ever? Or best ever.
I thought so.
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06 October 2008|12:12am Tzedukah call
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miss_porcupine
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Books for Soldiers, a non-profit program that functions as a sort of Bookmooch for deployed soldiers, is desperately short of funds. As in if they don't get $22K this month, they stop taking requests next month and close up shop at the end of the year.
I try to mention military charities that are conceptually close to the hearts of LJ-land (Valour-IT's drive will be kicking in next month) and we are all here because of our love of reading. Books are all the more important in places where you can't sit around and surf the net on your down time.
Please consider a donation -- or even signing up to become a volunteer.
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05 October 2008|09:00pm There's a special Halloween Icon Challenge
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sga_noticeboard [alyburns]
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going on at my journal so if you'd like to try your hand at some fun and/or scary SG1 and/or SGA icons, go Here!
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06 October 2008|02:17am On the Road: Tippecanoe County, Indiana
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rss_538
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http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-tippecanoe-county-indiana.html “In this country sometimes we forget that we have the capacity to shape our own destiny.”
– Birch Bayh, Lafayette, Indiana 10/5/08

Another fall weekend, another two heavy days of doorknocking. In Lafayette, according to Mia Lewis, a volunteer team leader who's seen many cycles here, "it's like we're in an alternate universe." Barack Obama is here to play -- hard.
Yesterday, we stopped in Lake County -- and we haven't heard the last of that location in this series -- to the sight of giant mounds of returned canvass walk clipboards. We weren't sure what was more impressive, the hundreds of stacked clipboards, or the discovery that this was only half of the Gary office's daily haul. With a giant engine of potential Democratic canvassers in neighboring Chicago, as well as an even larger in-state volunteer base, Lake County's volunteer energy has to worry Republican strategists who need Indiana to stay red. If it doesn't yet, it should.
Here in Lafayette, in Mia Lewis' "alternate universe," the volunteers have begun to run out of turf -- because it's already been canvassed. Although John McCain has only one field office open in the state, Barack Obama has two on the same block. One is a large phone bank office, and a few doors down on the corner is the canvass staging area. We heard stories from volunteers who sometimes canvass because the phone bank is so frequently packed to capacity that if they want to volunteer, knocking on doors is the only option.
Although the Purdue University volunteer effort is robust and proud, it may be more remarkable that it's not really the student population dominating the volunteer effort. Purdue's Students for Barack Obama has an entirely separate office and canvass staging area. From what we observed, many more locals who are nonstudents drive the ground effort.
In 2004, George Bush won Tippecanoe County by a 3-2 margin and 10,079 votes. Tippecanoe accounted for 2.1% of the statewide total. Barack Obama competed hard here during the primary and beat Hillary Clinton by a similar margin.
Retired Senator Birch Bayh has been on a surrogate tour of Indiana, and spoke to approximately 40 volunteers here in the Lafayette office a short while ago. Bayh, legendary for his support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the primary architect of both the 25th and 26th Amendments (not since the founders can one man claim that distinction), gave a moving speech to the assembled group. Bayh was the principal sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment and highly influential in getting Title IX passed. He is also the guy who pulled a seriously injured Ted Kennedy from the wreckage of a small engine plane crash in 1964. The guy has been around.
He talked about his own grassroots campaign that first elected him to the US Senate in 1962. What he's seen with Barack Obama's operation in the state of Indiana this time around reminds him of that grassroots surge that won him the Senate seat in this traditionally red state. After speaking about the value of an engaged citizenry, and the consequences of detaching from the public policy arena (the previous eight years being his primary example), Bayh made a prediction.
On the night of November 4, at that early six o' clock hour that is almost always an immediate blot of red in a largely empty map (Indiana reports early), America is going to see something different this time.
A dot of blue.
“With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.”
– Birch Bayh, quoting the final line of JFK’s inauguration speech.
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05 October 2008|10:37pm It's official - I live in the middle of the ghetto
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lillyjk
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So, most of you guys know that I sold my house in Nashville last year and I've been living in an apartment while I tried to decide if I wanted to buy a house here (Jackson, TN where I live now). Jackson is a small city - about 100,000 including the suburbs - located about halfway between Memphis and Nashville.
It's also a hotbed of criminal activity. There are a lot of gangs that have moved out of Memphis into our small city and a huge drug problem. Oh, and last week they busted a prostitution ring.
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better) Personal Crime Risk 356 Murder Risk 327 Rape Risk 231 Robbery Risk 254 Assault Risk 460 Property Crime Risk 272 Burglary Risk 336 Larceny Risk 317 Motor Vehicle Theft Risk 181 Total Crime Risk 293
Still and all, I've been plenty happy in my little apartment even though the boyfriend and I have been looking for a house together.
Well - that changed tonight. There has been a gunfight or something else in our parking lot and now there are multiple cop cars and cops right outside my window. I am sitting in the dark and trying to peer out my window and see what's going on without being seen. This shit is scary. *hides*
ETA more statistics
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05 October 2008|11:00pm no subject
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smittywing
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Is it just me or has the CNN website been down ALL DAY?
*hyperventilates a little*
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05 October 2008|10:01pm nanowrimo!
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bratfarrar
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So, I know siegeofangels is doing it this year (sort of). Is anyone else?
I'm going to take a stab at a story I've wanted to write for years, about the guy who creates the first ever- and always-accurate almanac. (It's magic, of course.) I came up with the idea after reading Garth Nix's Sabriel, which mentions in passing a similar book. But I could never come up with a plot, so the thing never got written. But I think I know what's going on now, so we'll see.
In connection with this, those few of you who have read the Corbel & Squinch stuff (which includes the original NaNo project, Postmarked, The Death of a Unicorn, various other bits and bobs that will show up under the corbel & squinch tag, and all those SGA stories where John's got tattoos and there's magic, etc.): please ask me questions about the world and characters. I'm trying to get all the groundwork laid out ahead of time, so that when November comes around, I can just hammer out story instead of getting bogged down in random details.
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05 October 2008|09:42pm Tomorrow - clothing
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mamadeb
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So. It turns out I don't have an interview suit. I have simcha suits, and a couple of shabbos suits, but no interview/work suits.
Tomorrow, I am wearing a dark blue skirt, a pink and brown striped blouse and a grey pinstriped jacket. And a Parkhurst hat because I don't own a sheitel and I think the little hats are more professional looking than a scarf. I'm using my everyday purse, but I'm putting my knitting into a nice totebag and I'm not wearing my fannypack - I'm putting my phone and pda into my purse. I'll put on makeup, I guess. I'll even take some with me to touch up.
I might have purchased an interview suit today but I caught a cold yesterday and thought I'd do better resting, and it worked. I feel coldy, but my nose isn't running and I'm barely sneezing now.
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05 October 2008|07:52pm quick postscript
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seperis
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awake |
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Postscript to the last entry.
For anyone who was in Star Trek, especially the newsgroups and the earlier mailing lists, I'm keeping a running tab of the people I've added here. Enough of you were on the usenet and lists to remember and flesh out my explanations--if you can, please do so. I'm going to theoretically aim for five people a day from the Trek Meet and Greet list, which take that one with a grain of salt, to at least get the grounding of what I remember, but honestly, a lot are just names I knew, not necessarily interacted with, and their entries need fleshing.
Especially needed is more on Macedon, Peggy Robinson, and Talking Stick/Circle, please, along with the PTFever members and ASC members who came and went. And more on the history of Trekiverse woulnd't hurt either; I was only on the archive committee for about a year or so and I need to review my email to remember what I was doing there other than helping with the voting process.
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05 October 2008|08:49pm If you expected my bandom obsession to be gone by now...
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scribblinlenore
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...sorry! *g*
Hey, so, I'm continuing my celebration of Pete/Patrick stories I've read and loved, this time with stories that are more canon-based. Well, okay, and I also included a special sub-category that I feel belongs especially to bandom, stories with plots that are impossible, or at least very unlikely, but given the people involved, you feel pretty sure that something like this has actually happened. I've marked these with an asterisk.
( Stories I've loved, take two... )
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05 October 2008|05:01pm FanLore....
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telesilla
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I ended up poking around the FanLore wiki last night and it ended up being a very strange process. I've been in fandom since '95 and I feel like I have so much history locked up inside my head, particularly about the TrekSmut days when I was right in the thick of things.
I'd dive right in but for three things:
1. I'm no good at writing articles in the wikipedia style. There's a degree detached neutrality needed and, as anyone who knows me will attest, I'm not so much with the detached neutrality. Also, someone would have to trail behind me editing out all my mistakes. *facepalms*
2. While time is beginning to heal some wounds, the fact remains that at various points in various fandoms, I've been either extremely wanky and/or gone through a mental meltdown. I was reading through some Establishment stuff last night and was surprised at how distant and silly the wank seems now, but at the same time, I was also digging through my memories of the TrekSmut newsgroup ascem(L) and some of it still has the power to sting. I'm much more stable now than I was then, but I still need to approach some memories with care.
3. It would EAT MY LIFE.
But still, our history is important and I think that this project is important as well. I'm watching several pages and have done an edit here and there. I wish there were some way I could team up with someone who can write in the wikipedia style and work with them to get some of the stuff in my head into the wiki.
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06 October 2008|12:07am Road to 270: Alaska
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rss_538
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http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/road-to-270-alaska.html Today we continue our Road to 270 series with the Last Frontier State, Alaska.
BASTION OF HOCKEY MOMMERY, Alaska was nearly a triple drama this cycle for the first time in many, many years, if ever. Before the Sarah Palin pick, Barack Obama was threatening in Alaska, and might well have closed from the 5-7 point deficit at this time of national sharp movement in his direction. With Palin on the ticket, Alaska is seemingly locked into the McCain column. Though we are very skeptical that VPs “bring” states that the candidate would not otherwise have won as a general rule, in smaller states that get typically get little to no national presidential-level attention the addition of a popular candidate to a ticket can move numbers.
Now what remains in Alaska is one of the most dramatic Senate races this cycle, with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich challenging the indicted Ted “Tubes” Stevens. In Alaska’s lone House race, longtime incumbent Don Young, who is under federal investigation for bribery, faces former Alaska House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz in a race Dems are expected to pick up. It’s a messy enough situation that Sarah Palin refuses to say whether she endorses either Stevens or Young.
Key Demographics

Note: Factors colored in red can generally be thought to help McCain. Factors in blue can generally be thought to help Obama. Factors in purple have ambiguous effects. Except where otherwise apparent, the numbers next to each variable represent the proportion out of each 100 residents in each state who fall into that category. Fundraising numbers reflect dollars raised in the 2008 campaign cycle per eligible voter in each state. Figures for seniors and youth voters are proportions of all residents aged 18+, rather than all residents of any age. The figure for education reflects the average number of years of completed schooling for all adults aged 25+. The figure for same-sex households reflects the number of same-sex partner households as a proportion of all households in the state. The liberal-conservative index is scaled from 0 (conservative) to 100 (liberal), based on a Likert score of voter self-identification in 2004 exit polls. The turnout rates reflect eligible voters only. Unemployment rates are current as of June 2008.
What McCain Has Going For Him
Sarah Palin. With that selection, John McCain locked up the state for the Republican ticket, as polls moved from mid-single digits to medium double digits in a blink when the selection was announced. The fact that Alaska has been a Republican bastion since its inception into the Union – save for LBJ’s landslide in 1964 – is also a great starting point. George Bush won here by his 7th largest margin and gun ownership is the 2d highest in the nation. It’s also the number one percentage state for military veterans, and was the 2d lowest Democratic state by self-reporting in 2004.
What Obama Has Going For Him
The fact that Alaska hasn’t been friendly Democratic territory historically didn’t deter Barack Obama from making an attempt in the early going to make a play for this state. Alaska has the smallest percentage of voters 65+ and the 2d largest percentage of youth voters 18-29. Not to mention, Alaska ranks 10th on the Starbucks:Walmart ratio. It’s a fairly well-educated state, and Obama’s fundraising beats McCain’s here by more than 2-1. Unemployment in Alaska is relatively high, and the number of independents here is relatively high. Although Obama has now abandoned the paid organizer effort in Alaska (we met some of them in Nevada), he was the only candidate to even mount a ground campaign, and the DSCC and DCCC have put resources into what would be historic pickups. It's a case where the lower ticket ground game will continue to help Obama overperform past Democratic candidates, even if he doesn't win.
What To Watch For
Democrats have not won a House seat in Alaska since the 1972 plane crash death of Nick Begich, Mark’s father. Mike Gravel, who left office in January 1981, is the last Democrat to serve at the federal level for Alaska’s constituents. This year, Democrats are favored to win both seats.
The other thing to watch in Alaska is the respective legal events occurring for each of these candidates. As they did with Social Security and the US Attorneys scandal, among others, Talking Points Memo has completely owned the story of Alaska Republican Party political corruption, and regular readers of TPM were fully versed in the Alaskan mess long before the announcement of Sarah Palin as VP. If a legal maneuver occurs in any one of those cases (Stevens' indictment, Young's investigation, Palin's Troopergate scandal), you'll find it on TPM.
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05 October 2008|08:31pm no subject
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synecdochic
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Also, I figured I'd post the recipe for the white chocolate raspberry martinis that went over so well: one part vodka, one part Chambord, one part Godiva white chocolate liqueur. If you're feeling really fancy, you can try to float the Chambord on top of the white chocolate liqueur.
(Also: kisahawklin, soleta, I want the recipe for that pumpkin-chocolate bread. And the lemon cookies. *g*)
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05 October 2008|06:16pm Yea/Nay Meme
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justascream
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stressed |
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"Good Times" -- Charlie Robinson |
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Stolen from Sarah:
Only two rules-- and you MUST follow them: 1. You can only say Yes or No. 2. You aren't allowed to explain anything unless someone asks you.
1. Taken a picture fully naked? --- yes 2. Painted your room? --- yes 3. Made out with a member of the same sex? --- no 4. Driven a car? --- Yes 5. Danced in front of your mirror? --- no 6. Have a crush? --- no 7. Been dumped? --- no 8. Stolen someones heart? --- no? 9. Gotten in a car with people you just met? --- yes 10. Been in a fist fight? --- Yes ( Bunches more under the cut... )
--Kate, who is trying not to get into a screaming match with someone right now
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05 October 2008|05:06pm Fic: Hold (Heroes)
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transtempts
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Title: Hold Author: scy Feedback: scynneh@yahoo.com Disclaimer: Not mine Fandom: Heroes Pairing: Gen, except where implied Rating: PG Spoilers: up through the series so far Summary: Families come in many forms Author's Notes: October 2008
( Hold )
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05 October 2008|07:46pm no subject
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synecdochic
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The inaugural stitch 'n bitch went wonderfully! As we promised as we were all leaving, since nobody remembers anyone's name or LJ handle, this is the thread for y'all to say "hey! i was the one with --" and friend each other. :)
We are so doing this again next month. (And next time, we will do a carpooling thread.) Also, when I am planning the next one, please remind me that yes, there is always enough food and I don't have to worry...
(I spent the first hour worriedly asking Sarah "Are you sure we're going to have enough food?")
(Also: Thank you so much to everyone who came for picking things up -- there was like zero cleanup necessary. Y'all are awesome.)
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05 October 2008|03:40pm Question and a Comment:
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permmembers [thedolphingirl]
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Hi, I'm Sarah, but I don't really need an intro post because I've been here before... I left all my communities a long time ago to personal events that had been going on:
1. I know there's a Permanent Account sale going on in November at some point, at least, as far as current planning goes. Any idea on the release of that information? I find it odd that they always wait until the month beforehand; too many of their users are in their teens and twenties and sometimes need more than a month to put money aside.
2. The layout here looks awesome, but can one teeny-weensy adjustment be made? When I'm viewing the community directly, there's no way to get to the profile page. At least, not that I can see. I'm not sure the calendar, friends page, or recent links are there either. Sure, I know how to type the stuff in myself, but most of the time having those links is preferable.
So, what have the rest of the permie accounts been up to lately?
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05 October 2008|05:58pm recording history
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seperis
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There is a part of me that wants to make a project of listing everyone here in fanlore. I have done--five. There are five million. Give or take. Just for Trek.
Dear God.
Hmm
See, the thing is, the wiki is a lot of things to many people, but it's, for me, a living memory. Which is--awesome and breathtaking and how I'm doing some of the user pages probably wont' make sense and will be erased by someone else, but I remember associatively, so I did a lot of interconnect between people and people, people and lists, people and places, which I'm not entirely sure is what the wiki wants to be. I guess it's sort of a fannish interconnection thing I'm expressing through multilinkage, that you can't really know a fandom unless you know the people, and you can't know the people unless you know who they hung out with.
I'm not sure, in other words, that I'm doing it right. I just don't want anyone forgotten. Inevitably, people will be, I suppose, but it can't hurt to try and remember and record as many as I can. I've been going back through the link above and my folders of list email eventually wil be pulled out to see people I missed and what they did, and what they wrote, and their lists and their communities and their cowriters. I listed out everyone I cowrote with on my user page so I can go back and add them in and I'm trying to remember all my betas ever which should be a hell of a lot easier, but I'm a packrat, not necessarily all that well organized.
At least I can honestly say I now have something to do when I'm bored.
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05 October 2008|06:56pm Rats
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dalaire
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coughing Child. *rolleyes* |
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It's another "let's try to manipulate mama with crying, dealmaking and begging--oh, and now coughing loudly and incessantly--to get out of going to sleep" night. I had sincerely thought he learned his lesson a month ago. I wish I could blame it on his cold, but he's been feeling fine all day. Nope. Just trying to raise my hackles and get me to go back in and pay him attention.
There goes my night. :^( I can only hope he wears down soon.
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05 October 2008|03:49pm Smarm, Emo Porn, and Peak Moments: Are they the same thing?
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wickedwords
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So, I can't leave good enough alone. If someone says, 'don't push the shiny red button', well, I have to push it. So, today's question is: What is the difference between Smarm, Emo Porn and a Peak Moment or Money Scene?
So, the entry for Smarm is here: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Smarm It was about 1983 when I first used the term and it was based on a Star Wars zine I had been reading, where I came upon the word in a LoC column describing some nicely gooey scenes in a story from the previous issue. There had been all sorts of terrible torture and then extended bits of lovely comfort, and the letter writer said she thought those comfort scenes were a bit smarmy. I had never heard the word before and thought, gee, is that what zine pubbing fandom (to which I was just being introduced) calls that stuff I liked in the story, the gooey bits that gave me the spike in the stomach? Nice to finally know there is a word for it. It was not, of course, intended that way, but when I asked the person who'd loaned me the zine, she, apparently not willing to admit her own ignorance of the word, assured me that my interpretation was correct. Since she'd been buying and reading zines for a couple years before I even knew they existed, I had no reason not to assume she was right about this part of the whole fannish vocabulary I was just learning.
The definition of Emo Porn is here: http://hth-the-first.livejournal.com/26700.html So what, I asked myself, *is* emo porn, exactly? And the best I could do at defining it is that emo porn is a climactic moment of high-pitch emotion that is completely focused and unmixed, normally but not always focused on the purity of two characters' feelings for one another. You know it not by what's said but by how it's deployed, the kind of reaction it's intended to elicit from the audience: a breathles, riveted, completely absorbing moment of emotional response. Other kinds of writing tries to make you feel something, to be sure, but emo porn's goal is to make you feel that *whatever you are feeling is everything* -- at least for that moment. It goes straight for the spine, and when it's done well, there's a kind of disconnected elation that results, where you feel like you've been mainlining some powerful emotion in its purest form.
And a 'Peak Moment' is the emotional high point of a story, the gut-wrenching, heart-warming, peak emotional moment, the 'money scene'. Every entry on every story finders community mentions the money scene for a reader, whatever that may be; it's that moment we are trying to find.
I used to call myself an emotional junkie, because I was looking for my emotional fix. Is that something that needs to be documented too?
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05 October 2008|09:59pm Today's Polls, 10/5
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rss_538
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http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/todays-polls-105.html Barack Obama has risen to his highest-ever level in both our electoral college and popular vote projections, principally on the strength of his commanding lead in the national tracking polls. Gallup, Rasmussen and Hotline each have Obama ahead by 7 points, and Research 2000 has him up by 12 (Battleground, which has generally had the most conservative numbers for Obama, does not publish on the weekend). Whether or not the McCain campaign's new round of attacks will have a significant impact on Obama's numbers we shall see, but they're going to have to knock him off a fairly high pedestal.
There is state polling out today in Minnesota, Colorado and Ohio. In Minnesota, the Star Tribune has Obama ahead by 18, quite a contrast from SurveyUSA's contemporaneous poll which had McCain up by 1. Yesterday, I discussed the disparities between these two polls on the senate side, and it is not surprising that the presidential numbers have followed suit. Our model projects Obama to win Minnesota by 8-9 points, roughly in between the SurveyUSA and Star Tribune estimates.
In Colorado, Mason-Dixon -- polling for the Denver Post -- has the race tied at 44-44. Mason-Dixon's polls have had a statistically significantly Republican lean thus far this cycle, and so it's not terribly surprising to see their numbers a couple of points to the McCain side of other recent polling of the state. Nevertheless, there have now been a couple of different polls coming out in Colorado -- ARG, Ciruli, and last Monday's Rasmussen number -- suggesting that the race there may have tightened a bit.
Lastly, in Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch has Barack Obama ahead by 7. It's a good number for Obama, but not one that should be taken very seriously, as the Dispatch poll is conducted by mail and has not been very reliable in the past. Still, the notion that Ohio was somehow immune from Obama's recent bounce is rapidly losing credibility.
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05 October 2008|06:28pm She knows our face
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calligrafiti
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There's an amazing article at the Miami New Times about a myth structure developed by homeless children. It's beautiful and heartbreaking.
She begins: "Some girls with no home feel claws scratching under the skin on their arms. Their hand looks like red fire. It's Bloody Mary dragging them in for slaves -- to be in gangs, be crackheads. But every 1000 girls with no home, is a Special One. When Bloody Mary comes, the girl is so smart and brave, a strange thing happens." Bloody Mary disappears, she says, then a pretty, luminous face glows for a moment in the dark. The girl has glimpsed what Bloody Mary looked like before she became wicked. "The Special One," Otius continues, "is somebody Bloody Mary is scared of because she be so good, people watch her for what to do. And if she dies, she will die good.
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05 October 2008|06:09pm that you'd come and look for me
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musesfool
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The Blood - The Frames |
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I had a bad night last night, got maybe four hours of sleep, but this afternoon I met up with amberlynne, who is visiting our fair city, and krisdia and barely_bean and a bunch of other lovely fangirls for brunch at Craftbar. I had some really good French toast with ($6!) bacon and a lot of fun. Then they went off to discuss more SGA stuff and I came home, watched the end of the Giants game (wow, they were pretty dominant, huh? It was awesome.), and fell asleep for an hour.
I do have some idea now on how to proceed with that story I was stuck on, so that's good. And I posted a story last night!
My Superhero Boyfriend Supernatural; girl!Sam/Dean; AU; adult; vague spoilers through 4.03; 1,080 words "You'd give it up for Tony Stark?" "Like you wouldn't?"
In which Sam and Dean have a totally dorky conversation about which superheroes would make good boyfriends. While they have sex.
I amuse myself, anyway.
**
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