AngelofSnow's Journal - This is the way the world ends

First Mobile Post

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:44:54 GMT

I'm testing out my ability to post from my mobile phone. I obviously am never home to post normally. Stupid RL.

So here's a good question flist: What shows or movies are you being fannish about lately?

I finally checked out the TV show Angel, the Buffy spin-off and have been devouring all the episodes.

Anna Paquin in True Blood

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:48:24 GMT

Any other Rogue fans out there catch "True Blood" the new HBO series she's starring in?

I *just* found out about it. I feel like I live under a rock when it comes to new tv shows. I'm way too busy to keep up with them all.

But I am going check out True Blood right now. Anna looks absolutely beautiful in it. She looks all grown up. Oh, and she's blond!

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3927741440/tt0844441

The Eleventh Hour

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:49:17 GMT

Has anyone heard of this series?

They're making a remake in the U.S. (which I'm sure won't be as good).

But the British version stars Patrick Stewart! I just learned this by shopping on Amazon.com of all places. (I'm rather busy lately.)

It's looks like it could be very goor. Anyone seen it yet?

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:16:37 GMT

It has come to my attention that there will be no Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III. Never mind that I have lived eagerly waiting for that moment for 4 years now. Never mind that I have often felt I don't really care what happens in my own love life, so long as Carth Onasi and Revan end up together. (I'm serious about this.) I am deeply involved with the characters from the games. They were surprisingly fully developed with interesting dynamic stories of their own. And their stories were left unfinished at the end of KotOR II. I have keep hoping in vain that Revan will return to Carth and we will finally know the mysteries behind the ancient Sith.

But no. Instead Bioware (read now a subsidary of Electronic Arts) is releasing an MMO or massive multi-player online game. This is being done for exactly 3 reasons.

1) Bioware lost control of KotOR II and the company that made it Obsidian f**ked up the storyline.

2) EA/Bioware are greedy to have that incredibly lucretive subscription model on their games.

3) The original Star Wars MMO is dead in the water due to difficulty and then pissing of its players. A new SW MMO gives George Lucas the money necessary to remake another Indiana Jones movey and rape Indiana Jones again (see South Park joke.)

And sadly, people will probably play the knew MMO. But it won't be the people you think. Fans of the original two games aren't MMO players. They liked the one thing Bioware was known for: well-developed storylines, characters, and dialogue. All of which go away in an MMO and become a user chosesn storyline, user created charatcers, and user2user dialogue.

But the MMO will unfortunalty collect a crowd of Star Wars fan that are so greatly tured off by galaxies as to play whatever else comes out.

Magneto Movie Update

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:48:25 GMT

Big big news! Updates on the Magneto movie.

Magneto Movie Script

I'm really excited about this and had to forward the link on to you. I haven't even read through it yet.

Contact info IM Accounts

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:21:43 GMT

I will be on instant messenger most of the time I am at work (8am-5pm Eastern Daylight Savings). It's easier to reach that way than email at work, though I'll try to check that also. I figured I would remind everyone what my screennames are. I use trillian at home and meebo at work so I can sign on to all IM services.

I currently have
AIM: angelofsnow3
Yahoo: angelofsnow9
MSN: angelofsnow@livejournal.com

If you use ICQ or Jabber I can get that as well no problem.

(I am very bored today. )

Have I mentioned my job involves web programming and doing photoshop? It's like being paid to update my livejournal.

Where did angelofsnow disappear to?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:24:21 GMT

It's been many long months since I've updated my livejournal. A lot people probably think I left the online community or that this journal went inactive.

Neither is the case. I've just gone through another long period where I didn't really have anytime to devote to online activities. But don't worry guys, it's been a very good 6 months since I've last posted and things are going well in my life.

I am still in school. I love the new college I transferred to. It's easily three times better a school and I am much happier here. My classes are easier and more interesting and the students are nicer. My grades are stella; I got a 4.0 last semester.

I love the new city I'm living in. There's been so much to do and I've been taking advantage of it. I went to see lots of plays and shows. My apartment, though very small, is comfortable and centrally located.

I got an amazing summer internship and career future looks bright. The internship pays extremely well and is with a Fortune 100 company. (I even have time to post to LJ well at work.)

I'm still dating the new boyfriend, Josh. Though we've been together 7 months, so not that new. I now live near genkaishihan so we hang out together, usually at least once a month, in real life.

I'm kind of between fandoms right now. I still love X-Men and all my old favorites but I'm looking to get into some new stuff. I just don't have the motivation to finish my old fics. I need to catch the writing bug again before I try to labor through some of the fics I've abandoned. I'm currently reading Jane Eyre and I'm going to watch Heros for the first time with mrssnape_1414. I also bought the first book of the Twilight series so I'm going to see how that is.

I haven't heard from kumadapuma in months. I really miss you Kuma. Where are you?

I guess that's all for my update. It's good to be back everyone.

WGA Strike - Pencils Down

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:28:14 GMT

In case you guys haven't heard about it (and I seriously doubt you haven't), there's a strike going on between the screen writers (Writers' Guild of America) and the media moguls who refuse to pay them for online distribution and their rightful residuals. The strike has been going on for about two weeks and has the possibility of affecting many of the TV shows we all watch. However, I still support the writers because if you read more about the strike you'll see that the point they're making is a legitimate one.

I just wanted to publicly add my support and direct you guys to Fans4Writers.com where you can show your support of the writers too.

Forever Knight Soundtrack

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:56:21 GMT

As you probably already know I'm a big fan of the 16 year old Canadian TV show Forever Knight. I consider it as one of the best Vampire shows/films/books to date and it has by in far the best vampire mythology. Not necessarily the most accurate to folklore but the most fun to explore. (Flying, mind control, heartbeat/sonar hearing is super cool!) And I'm fond of calling it the most "adult" show ever aired on television. And by adult I don't mean it was chock full of sex and violence like an HBO show. By adult I mean it raised extremely dark and subversive philosophical questions and didn't offer the usual reassuring answers. It was originally aired in 1991 and yet I've never seen another show explore such weighty issues as suicide, desire, and religion in such a nihilistic manner. It just...rocks.

Anyway, I learned recently that there's actually a second soundtrack for the show which I don't own yet and the nice folks at fk_freaks were nice enough to upload it for me. I must go try to buy it on Ebay because my collection won't be complete until I do. For other FK fans out there - here's the rare More Music Second Soundtrack.

But I want all of you to hear how really different and strange the music of Forever Knight is. The soundtrack music for the show is extremely good, atmospheric, and with clever original motifs for each episode. But the contemporary vocal pieces composed for the show are in a category by themselves. They're sexy, dark, Gothic, late 80's music. And they're just not like anything else out there.

So I wanted to offer everyone a sample. Here's Lori Yates - Touch the Night from the first soundtrack. Go listen and tell me what you think.

I'm totally watching some Forever Knight while I have dinner.

Book Meme

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:18:42 GMT

Swiped from sionnain with affection

"These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Underline those on your to-read list"

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby-Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
~~The Canterbury Tales~~
The Historian: A Novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King This is the next book I am going to read.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince I've read the The Principessa, the female equivalent though
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: A Novel
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
Catcher in the Rye (The worst ending in history. I actually tore out the last two chapters from the book.)
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything *hearts economists*
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

jurious met Geoffrey Rush!

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:39:22 GMT

I'm posting this because I am going insane with jealousy. jurious, whose a bigger Geoffrey fan than me, got to meet her idol in person. And he knew who she was!!! And he gave her a signed book! And a kiss!

Read Jurious's quick account of it here.

And even though I'm not as obsessed with Geoffrey Rush as I am with Ian McKellen or Patrick Stewart, I'm still really jealous of her. Imagine if you got to meet your crush in person and he knew who you were and gave you a gift. It's every little girl's dream come true. If Ian had kissed me I would have had a heart attack, I swear. kumadapuma, genkaishihan, and I could barely walk down the street after just getting his autograph.

I'm so happy everything went so well for jurious, I really am. (And still jealous.)

(mrssnape_1414, my friend from college, probably thinks we're all batshit insane now with our obsessive love of older British men. And it's true. We are.)

Yuletide: Letter to Santa

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:07:22 GMT

I signed up for Yuletide this year. It's my first year doing the fic exchange and I am very excited about it. I can't wait to read not only my gift fic, but also all the new rare fandom fics that are going to come out. It's going to really make my Christmas/New Year's time so much more fun.

Here's my requests:

1) X-men RPF (Ian McKellen/Patrick Stewart) - A slash fic featuring Ian McKellen with another actor. I'd love to see Derek Jacobi or Patrick Stewart. Or another guy. It could take place during the filming of X-Men or more recently when he's doing King Lear. If not slash, maybe a comic gen fic with snarky banter.

2) Bionic Woman 2007 (Jamie Sommers/Sarah Corvus) Either gen Jamie learns cool new features of her bionics. Or preferably femslash between Jamie Sommers and Sarah Corvus. Sarah teaches Jamie something or Sarah learns something she didn't know about Jamie. Fighting and hostility a plus.

3) Rome (Atia/Anthony) - They bicker over something or they annoy young Augustus (Octavian) and Octavia. Love to see Anthony behaving badly.

4) Traveler (Jay/Tyler)

I think it tells a lot about me that my requests included 2 slash fics, 1 het, and 1 femslash. I'm diverse. And I'm pretty easily satisfied.

I already got my assigned fic and although I can't talk about it, I must say I'm happy with it. I think I can do a good job on my assigned fic and that's what matters. I'm actually looking forward to writing it and I'll probably finish it fairly quickly.

Dear Secret Yuletide Author,

Hi! I'm AngelofSnow. You probably don't know me and we're total strangers and that's pretty cool. Feel free to look around my LJ and Fanfiction.net accounts. It's mostly full of X-Men fic which probably isn't too helpful for writing my requests. I'm fairly easy going and don't have any real squicks. I enjoy smut but if you're not comfortable writing it I understand. I tried to make all my requests have two options so if you have trouble writing one you could do the other.

Here's some basic info about how I see the fandoms and characters I've requested:

1)If you got my first request with the Ian McKellen story I feel sorry for you. I realize Ian fangirls are rare. (I think there are like 10 of us and we all hang out together, lol). I'll be happy with anything you can come up with on this story. For some inspiration check out sir_ian_slash. I mentioned Derek Jacobi in the request because he's another gay British actor that Ian McKellen admitted to having a crush on as a young man.

2)If you got my Bionic Woman fic request - This show is so new and changing every week. I guess I like the scifi aspects of the show and the way Jamie's thrust into this completely extraordinary life. I feel like she should have a hard time adjusting. And I like Sarah best when she's acting rather ruthless and drunk on her own power. She's just so much fun.

3)If you got my Rome fic request - I'm a big fan of the way Atia and Anthony don't really plan for the future and aren't adept politicians. I like when Atia and Anthony are horribly selfish in a comic way. Like their scenes in the hot dub or the classic season 2 opener when Anthony won't get out of bed till he's had sex and Atia sends for the German slut from the kitchen. I'm hoping for something funny, but really I'll be satisfied with just about anything. Don't feel pressured.

4) If you got my Traveler fic request - Hey fellow Traveler fan! I haven't seen any Jay/Tyler fics out there and I've always been a fan of the pairing. They're on the run together; in between arguing I imagine they've grown to trust each other. I also think that they must be paranoid and nervous while being fugitives on the run and I can really see them turning to each other for comfort. I imagine very hot, anxious, comfort sex between these two beautiful boys. But a gen fic about them on the run will work too.

I hope that info helps you. Thanks so much for writing my gift fic. ((hugs))

AngelofSnow

New Journal Layout - Ian as Lear

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:51:38 GMT

So rather than get my homework done I've finally updated my journal layout. Since I'm obsessed with Ian McKellen and his performance in King Lear I choose that as the theme. All the titles and quotes are from King Lear too. Tell me what you think of it or if there are any bugs. I did it really quickly and I'm sure the fonts don't look right on anyone else's computer but mine. But Ian's gorgeous in the picture I chose and there's a new icon to match. Feel free to swipe it if you like it.

And I swear the subtitle "Ian McKellen: Every inch a King" is not a veiled reference to his, um... you know. I swear it's not. (Even though he, um, gestured with it as he said the line.)

Yuletide Prompt Struggles - "Gah I want porn! I think..."

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:29:41 GMT

I'm signing up for Yuletide this year for the first time and I had no idea how hard it would be to write prompts. I feel bad requesting gift stories from people, especially for rare little fandoms that may be hard to write, find source material, etc.

Luckily there's a category to sign up for RPF of X-Men actors. But I feel bad even requesting a story about Ian since there are probably like 20 fans (all my close friends) who are crazy obsessed with him. Everyone else is probably requesting a story with Hugh Jackman or Aaron Stanford. Some poor soul is going to get an Ian slash prompt and not know what to do with it. I would be so thrilled if someone got that prompt and accepted it. Ian RPF is really rare but it is out there.

So far I'm also requesting Bionic Woman, Rome, and probably Traveler. More info about my prompts and letter to Santa to follow.

NYC trip: I met Ian McKellen!

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:05:01 GMT

It's been a week since the trip and I am still floating on a cloud of happiness. That's how awesome this trip was.

I'd only looked forward to meeting you guys and seeing Ian for what? nearly a year. So yeah, there was a lot of anticipation. Last weekend kumadapuma, genkaishihan, and I all traveled from different places and met in NYC. Although Genkai and I had met about a month earlier, Kuma and I had never met before. It was strange to meet people I've known for a year and yet not known. I think I was actually nervous about it. I got all dressed up and babbled like I usually do when I'm nervous. But now that I've met Kuma and Genkai I feel closer to them and more comfortable than ever. And I'm sad we don't live closer so we could meet up more often.

NYC was different than I remembered. I think I had forgotten how crowded the streets were in the tourist district and how friendly random strangers were offering helpful advice. I also had a very rosy view of the NY subway system, which now that I think about it, I've gotten lost/confused in previously. We hit a weekend with lots of construction. Not cool. It actually made (I can't believe I'm saying this) the Pittsburgh bus system seem like it functioned well and was easier to understand. Even so, every time I come to NY I remember how much I'd love to live there once. It calls to me like this big unwieldy beast that I'd like to tame. It's the center of everything; the financial world literally turns on its access. Every minute of everything something novel and unique is happening in NY. But it's also absurdly crowded and expensive. I've lived on the outskirts, but never right there in Manhattan. I'll have to do it once.

I love watching Shakespeare adaptations and comparing several. I seriously do this for fun. I've seen like 8 versions of Hamlet just to compare the various acting of Kenneth Branaugh, Lawrence Olivier, Derek Jabobi, etc. I'm still working on renting some other versions of Lear in order to compare them to McKellen's. I want to be able to definitively say his was the best. All I can say right is that it was phenomenal.

Like Genkai said the 3 1/2 hours of King Lear went by very fast. Our seats weren't the best; we were a little too far to make out the subtle facial expressions. The set was rather traditional: few props, thrust stage, and a balcony. The costumes were as Genkai described - a strange mix of eras. There was a strong Tsarist Russian theme in the soldiers uniforms and Lear's robes. But the daughters, showing their different and dynamic personalities, went from medieval outfits (though Cordelia's appeared a more modern evening gown) all the way to French revolutionary war. And in the end the whole Lear family was shown in white.

And yes, Ian McKellen stripped nude in Act III. Completely nude. I feel like he's such a serious actor and this was such a serious role that he was doing his utmost to portray as best he could, that its rude for me to vulgarly tell the whole interwebs what he looked like. All I will say is he has nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of. I only wish I looked half so good at 68. (Don't worry though, I made sure to savor the image as best I could in my mind and shall carry it with me always. I will never forget.) If anything the nudity distracted from the play though. The audience gasped. Kuma and I started to salivate and pant. But it certainly fit with him as a person. Ian's so open about his sexuality that it seemed fitting for him to strip nude and think nothing of it.

I was surprised by how truly moving the ending was. I'd read the play of course, but the written page can't do what the Royal Shakespeare Company can. The end of Act III and the end of Act V sent shivers up my spine. I cried through most of Act V. Ian's grief over Cordelia's body - it was just heart wrenching. I feel like I'd seen some of the best acting in history and it was over way too quickly.

Afterward, the three of us frantically searched for where to wait for Ian. We did manage to find him and get his autograph! I'm even getting it framed! And we got to take pictures of him. I was oddly amazed that his voice was just as rich and wonderful in real life as in the movies. If anything he seems a lot like his character's in real life - smart, dignified, handsome, learned, commanding, and charismatic. He's not truly Magneto - but he's damn close. He's really too sexy for his own good, lol. I was so awestruck by his mere presence, something that never happens to me with celebrities. That's because most celebrities are just famous normal people. But Ian is at the very top of his profession. I wasn't meeting a celebrity; I was meeting greatness and yeah, I felt unworthy. I managed to compliment him over the way he said "Never, never, never" one of the last lines of the play. At first I thought this was a rather dull-witted thing to say. But then I read a professional critic who said basically the same exact thing and I didn't feel nearly so dense.

"McKellen, intoning 'never' over Cordelia’s corpse like an old, muffled church bell: a hauntingly painful ending to one of his finest performances." - Benedict Nightingale, The Times

See I wasn't the only one who was floored by that line.

Overall I wish we'd had more time with him. I would have loved an official picture with him with the 3 of us. And at first I was really upset we hadn't had closer seats. But I learned later through this remarkable video interview that his performance in King Lear will be filmed and eventually released on DVD. So now I don't feel nearly so bad. I'm going to buy that video the very second it comes out. It hasn't even been filmed, edited, or released yet and I'm desperate to pre-order it through Amazon with the very fastest shipping possible.

Other important points from the video interview - did you know Ian was single? I didn't.
He's so adorable in the interview I'm writing naughty RPF based on it. Watch it. You won't be able to resist either.

I'm back and I made another fan friend

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:11:43 GMT

You may have noticed I've been MIA for a few months now. *looks guilty* Sorry guys. I was busy with moving and changing schools. I'm now settled down again and have the free time to spend online.

As for real life everything is great. More than great in fact. Everything has gone swimmingly. I love my new apartment, new college, new city, and new classes. I've been pleasantly surprised how well everything has worked out. I've met so many nice new people and I adore living in a city. Everything in my life is going terrifically in fact. I can't complain at all, which probably why I've been so quiet lately. There's nothing to complain about. Literally I'm content, happy, and feeling very lucky.

But I do have a funny story to tell about meeting a fellow fan at college.

One of the required courses for my major is Business Writing, a course that could be re-entitled "a cross-discipline view of the basics of format and style with a tiny emphasis toward professional communication but so broad you'll already know everything taught in this course." It's an easy class with a laid back attitude and I enjoy it, since I tend to like most classes that involve writing somehow. As we learn basic concepts like writing towards a specific audience and the use of discipline specific lexicons I always relate everything to fan fiction. (Okay I relate all my classes to fan fiction, but that's beside the point.) I'm always thinking "writing to an audience familiar with the subject's terminology" that just like writing an article for metafandom and throwing out slash, fen, chan, femslash, gen and assuming everyone understands what you're talking about.

Anyway, so I'm thinking about fan fiction the whole time and imagining how I would apply concepts in the class to metafandom, which in turn helps me to apply the information to the subject at hand - writing a report about scholarly articles in computer science. I notice the sweet girl who sits in front of me has on a Harry Potter t-shirt. And I have this little epiphany. Hmm, I bet she writes fan fiction. I'm not sure what told me that she was a Fan with a capitol F, and not a regular fan who wasn't familiar with the online communities of fandom. Somehow I just knew.

So I asked her after class and lo and behold, I was right! I had spotted another Fan. She's active in specific HP communities and pretty involved. It was amazing since I didn't truly know anything about her but after talking to her a few times in class I could spot someone else who shared my interests. It's really rare to be meet others who share your hobbies when they're somewhat embarrassing, like fan fiction porn. And since fandom tends to stay hidden, it's even more unique to make a friend in RL the same way I might online.

I feel like I came "out" as a Fan. Weird, huh?

It makes me wonder if I should start a college club of other fen.

I gave her my online screenname so maybe she'll surf on and say hi.

Busy Summer

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:12:45 GMT

I haven't updated in weeks so I thought I should let everyone know I'm doing alright. Everything's pretty good with me. The weather's been beautiful near me and I've been enjoying the outdoors. I've gone on trips to visit my friends and tomorrow I'm leaving to visit one of my relatives.

FF.net gone ad crazy?

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 03:41:38 GMT

I've noticed FF.net has displayed some weird behavior for the last couple of days and I'm curious if this is something other's have seen. When I first click on a story to read the story loads and every single line of text on the page is a hyperlink, which if you unfortunatly click by accident as I did, takes you do a big pop-up ad. Plus my firewall has been reporting blocking several popups from the site.

Now I wasn't logged in when I saw this issue and when I pressed "reload" ("refresh" in IE) the problem went away. I just updated my browser, Opera 9.2, so that could be the problem.

However, I'm curious if other people have seen this or if I just got some spyware and I'm overreacting.

So not up to date and Greatest Journal

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:53:51 GMT

I'm criminally behind on reading my flist thanks to all the LJ craziness lately. I didn't even reply to kumadapuma's email yet and she's one of my best friends. I suck. So if I haven't paid attention to you it's because I am slow.

And in all seriousness, I have a new pet turtle and he takes up all my time.

Oh and I have a GreatestJournal now too. It's free and offers 2000 icons!!!

Angelofsnow on GreatestJournal

Strikethrough 2007 - and the trolls!

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:39:42 GMT

If you somehow missed the day fandom attacked LJ also known as Strikethrough 07 all I can say is you were lucky. This kerfuffle made the MJ Statue and FanLib seem tiny. LJ literally exploded with activity and overwhelmed its servers. I've decided to call it: Fandom Strikes Back Day. Apparently some right-wing wackos (called Warriors for Innocense) complained to LJ that pedophiles had LJs. LJ did not handle this well and deleted journals for pedophiles and incest survivors. LJ also deleted a few fannish journals. And the shit hit the fan. Anyway check out this post for more.

So to make a long story short I did the little I could to support freedom of speech by joining fandom_counts and commenting to the news community.

The people who seemed to most take up arms over this issue was fandom. We're the most organized (and fanatic) section of LJ. However when the non-fandom people discovered the kerfuffle they did not the feel the same. Below is a small example of trolling by non-fandom LJ users.

It's a little late for me to make a coherent, smart, and academic anaylsis of Strikethrough '07. Instead I'll just post the following anaylsis of time and infomation. (This is an approximation.)

May 29th - Journals Get Suspended
May 30th - Fandom panics. Posts, research, icons are made.
May 31st - LJ talks to CNET. Fandom demands answers on LJ. (angelofsnow remembers how much she loves Cat Macros)

Up until this point only fandom seems concerned about the deleted LJs. Only the users involved with the other journals falsely accused know about this. The rest of LJ seems blissfully ignorant. After all if you weren't in fandom you probably wouldn't have been linked to, or known this was going on.

June 1st 5am eastern - LJ posts an apology.
June 1st 5am-3pm eastern - Commenters continue to voice opinions typically negative.
June 1st 3pm eastern - LJ users not connected with fandom return home from school or work. They see the news story when they log in. They proceed to troll the comments like no tomorrow.

I received over 30 emails to one comment I made suggested the wrongfully suspended journals be offered monetary compensation like a paid account.

Of the 30 replies:
2 were for compensation
28 opposed.

Of the 28 opposed:
4 made no logical sense - I couldn't understand the reply the person was making as words were so jumbled/spelled wrong it didn't count as English.
12 did it for the lulz - all were complete jokes even stating "did it for the lulz" My personal favorite was "Entitlement whore". Damn straight I'm an entitlement whore. BTW it's also called being an assertive consumer.
12 disagreed with the point for logical reasons and I accept that. But each one hadn't read my post fully and accused me of owning one of the deleted journals. WTF!?! I'm not asking for money for myself.

So the reason I'm writing this is I suspect that most of fandom was appeased around 12pm when journals were reinstated, or at least enough to stop maxing comments on the news community. However around 3pm all the trolling middle school students came home and started trolling the comments somethingawful/YTMND/encyclopediadramatica style. They obviously had no idea what was going on and no knowledge of netiquette (which for some strange reason everyone in fandom knows).

Thank you trolls for brightening my day by not reading my comment but trolling it the way only virgin middle school boys would. Wait can I say virgin middle school boys? Or will I be accused of being a pedophile again. Sheech LJ!

Thank you Mary McNamara for writing this article

Tue, 29 May 2007 09:37:53 GMT

continued from my post

I had a feeling the FanLib debacle was going to make the news after the Mary Jane Statue made Inside Edition.

Mary McNamara is my hero. What an enlightened and well-informed post. She must have done her homework *cough* unlike FanLib *cough*. She'd been to cons, read fan fiction, navigated LJ, used and credited icons correctly all while writing a news story. I'll be surprised if she isn't still involved in fandom somehow. Either way this is one of best researched articles on an internet trend I've seen yet. I frequently read tech news and blogs that don't do half the research Ms. McNamara did.

And she posted my icons! I'm honored.

"They’ve trademarked the word “fanisode.” They use the words “patent” and “proprietary” and “democratically” in the same sentence."

*headsdesk* I didn't know that already, but... wow. That's unbelievable BS. It must be from their marketing PDF which I read over yesterday. Yup, I'm going to have to make icons of that thing. I love how the idea of a "fanisode" is something you could patent. I love how everyone thinks user-generated content is something that popped up on 'the internets' yesterday. I remember Forever Knight did the same sort of thing years ago allowing a fan fiction writer to write tie-in novels to the show. (I still own those.)

"Mark Stroman was hired to help Singer and Williams persuade Madison Avenue that fanfic could be used to attract the coveted and elusive young male demo - even though, after 40 years, fanfic remains almost exclusively written by women, and untouched by men in spite of the obvious opportunity and an abundance of techy Internet tools."

They're going after the male demographic!?! That's fine and all. But seriously FanLib, did you do any research at all? Did you read stories on FF.net? Did you view at least one or two websites? Did you look at a few LJ communities at the very least? I'm not sure you even did that.

"Fanfic has always been about boldly going where no studio or network was willing to go. Fanfic writers explored gay and lesbian relationships decades before Dawson’s Creek got around to the big kiss."

Mary McNamara, you're my hero. I know it takes a lot for the media industry to understand the nature of what fanfic writers do. And you actually get it, bless your heart.

"And they are deeply networked. They’re smart – really smart - and tech savvy, building livejournals chock full of icons and other nifty tidbits."

I bet she has a livejournal.

"And when they're ticked off - and, boy, are they ticked off! – they put their tools to use. Go here to the new Life without FanLib community to track the latest and view the icons multiplying faster than tribbles."

The article speaks for itself. I'm so proud my icons were used on an article like that. It was funny, informative, well-written, researched, cited, and had quotes and song lyrics. She must be involved in fandom. She's too cool not to be.

My icons made the news!

Tue, 29 May 2007 09:04:46 GMT

I'm honored, humbled, and have to laugh - my icons made the news. Some Variety news group publication online called Multichannel news which is supposed to be the "book of record for the cable industry". Apparently the site reaches 18,000 industry professionals according to stewardess's post here.

You can read the article here:

Internet Goes Nova Over Showtime, Starz, Moonves Partnered FanLib.com

And continued here because of a technical error:

m2Tv: The FanLib Kerfuffle (cont.)

And there are my icons! Oh and lavenderfrost's icons are there too. The post also links to life_wo_fanlib, telesilla, and many other journals. It's a very well researched article.

I had so much fun making those icons and participating in the wank over FanLib. Since my favorite shows had season finales last week FanLib.com came in and filled a void in my comedy schedule. I'm also really proud fans came together and fought back against a business that didn't have their best interests at heart.

FanLib trolling strikes again

Sun, 27 May 2007 09:16:03 GMT

Check out this LJ poll on FanLib and read the results. Click through to see who posted what. You'll notice only 1 user described FanLib as "cool". You can guess who that user was, right? None other than the infamous mimbo, Chris William, FanLib's CEO.

Oh, Chris. Hasn't anyone ever taught you the art of trolling? Because you suck at it.

More FanLib Icons by popular demand. Seriously.

Sun, 27 May 2007 08:00:33 GMT

The first batch of FanLib icons was so popular I made more. These things are easy to make so I want to invite everyone to join in and make more. The little FanLib logo is from their site. You can get it by right-clicking. I tried to make this batch have more variety. These icons were inspired by this post made by scarah2. Again these icons are work safe for your viewing pleasure.

- Please comment.
- Always credit.
- Ask before editing.
- Hotlinking is sad. :(
- Resources

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

- I mispelled "launch" in my haste to make the last batch of icons. Here's the corrected icon.
- "We make FF.net look *GOOD*" is a quote ithiliana made.
- Netiquette was inspired by scarah2 mentioning it in her post.
- "all your logins belong to us" was a quote by furiosity
- The Star Wars icons were so popular I made several with Yoda.
- oboros suggested "Have fun being used"

More icons on the way

Sun, 27 May 2007 06:43:30 GMT

The FabLib icons were so popular I'm going to make more before I go to bed. Feel to join in and make more like them. They're easy to make and hilarious.