hypothetically speaking

this is an announcement to say there will be no more announcements

thingswithwings — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:40:43 GMT

so, I should've mentioned this earlier, but I'm not posting to Livejournal anymore. 3w4dw really convinced me that I don't need to, and I kind of don't want to, and it's my journal, so - I won't. I haven't crossposted to LJ since the beginning of 3w4dw this year, and this will (probably?) be my last post there.

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A CARD THAT I DIDN'T EVEN MAKE MYSELF

thingswithwings — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:48:23 GMT

SO MANY KINK BINGO THINGS TO DO! Including beefing up the "Identity and Kink" section of the kink_wiki a little, and btw if any of you have cool links on eg being Indian and kinky or eg being trans and kink or eg being fat and kinky, please do go drop them over at kink_bingo. Fandom-specific or character-specific posts are cool, so long as they could have some applicability for the public at large and aren't just posts about how Toph is awesome and should tell people what to do in bed.

BUT I WAS POSTING THIS BECAUSE I TOO RECEIVED A KINK BINGO CARD:

B	I	N	G	O
penance / punishment	writing on the body	food	vehicular	virginity / celibacy
breathplay	bites / bruises	gender play	sleepy / unconscious	enemas
double penetration	mechanical / technological	wildcard	fucking machines	humiliation (verbal)
object penetration	foot / shoe fetish	vanilla kink	service	pictures
bondage (other)	silk, velvet, feathers, furs	dirty talk	spanking / paddling	orgasm denial / control

Anyway, that's probably pretty exciting! I have "being excited" on my to-do list for later. BUT HEY GUYS MAYBE I'LL WRITE ENEMAS THIS YEAR! Except I'm not thrilled by either of its lines or by its postage stamps, hmmm. A whole line extra with enemas in? Also I have to pick a kink to vid, since so far I've made a vid every year for KB. Any suggestions? I'd vid "enemas," but I think we have all the available video in the enemas post at the kink wiki. I bet "service" would be fun to vid. Oooh, or vanilla kink, or object penetration maybe. HMMM.

Any and all prompts or suggestions welcome!

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3w4dw!

thingswithwings — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:49:46 GMT

Part One: Squee

Friends, it is three_weeks_for_dw time again! As far as I'm concerned, that means PARTY AT DREAMWIDTH!, because I already spend all of my social networking time here anyway. But starting today, after this post, I will be posting all content to Dreamwidth only for the next three weeks (I'll prolly go back afterwards and crosspost, but for right now: it stays here).

Many cool things are already happening over at the 3w4dw comm: subscription fests, meets and greets, various fic and poetry fests, squee fests, and so on. Here are BUT TWO of the cool things happening atm:

kanata is hosting the Transfic Mini-Fest, Round Two

such_heights is hosting the Female Character Trope Fest, which I will optimistically call "round one." :)

Part Two: Tell Me What To Post!

I thought that, to celebrate, I would try to make a post every day containing COOL THINGS. But I need a little help . . . what sorts of cool things would yall like me to post? I think I'm going to try to do some fic, and I have a vid that's probably going to be done in time that I will post here too, but are there other things you'd like me to talk about? Feel free to leave any suggestions in comments so that I can take your good ideas for my own. Possible suggestions might include specific meta requests, episode/movie/show/book reviews of things I've seen/read or am likely to see/read, commentary on one of my own stories/vids/podfics, commentary on someone else's stories/vids/podfics, photos you'd like me to take and post here, talk about Wii games that I play, and, I don't know, other stuff too. Whatever you like! Any ideas? Burning desires? Anyone?

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thingswithwings — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:59:13 GMT

I'm, um, kind of devastated by the news of Elisabeth Sladen passing away. I loved her so much, you guys, for so many years.

It's funny, because I was rewatching my Sarah Jane vid yesterday, just before I heard the news. I don't think I'm going to be able to bear to watch it again for a little while.

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Kink Bingo Needs You

thingswithwings — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:43:43 GMT

Does anyone want to chip in with Kink Bingo prep? Because we got started kiiiinda late this year, and could use some help. Some things we need, or are hoping to figure out before this round starts:

1) Someone to volunteer to create (and mod) a Kink Bingo chatter-type community. Ideally, we'd end up with at least two people who could co-mod it. We'd like to have a space for Kink Bingo talk that doesn't belong on the main KB community, that isn't overseen by eruthros or I, and that provides a more low-pressure environment (ie, less official than the kink wiki or the main comm). This could be a place for people to discuss kinks, to ask for betas, to complain about deadlines, to encourage each other, to discuss policies, to find IM buddies to chat with while making stuff, etc. Basically anything Kink Bingo related. We're looking for experienced Kink Bingoers for this position. Email or PM one of us (kink.bingo.mods at gmail) if you'd like to volunteer!

2) Someone to make a kink bingo posting template javascript page.
eruthros got this idea from hope's fanfiction header generator. The fanfiction header generator is very flexible and allows lots of options, and we'd want fewer options because we have requirements about what information is included, but we'd want it to be a sort of template that would let people cut-and-paste information and get the formatted html for a post without requiring people to read the whole posting template and hand-code their html. So, like, there would be a space for title and author, and ticky boxes for content notes that would let people tick off kinds of content notes and give more information, and etc. Some people have said that the posting template is really long and it's hard to follow, and that making a post requires a lot of time/spoons, and we were hoping that providing an alternate way to code a post would maybe avoid some of that for some people. Email, PM, or comment here if you'd like to volunteer!

3) Someone to make a card-passing-out website, with various options for type of card.
So chagrined is already talking to us about ways to simultaneously produce screenreader-friendly data tables and image cards, but we'd like to maybe do a web form to call said cards, or actually make them in a web form, even, so people can just tick boxes or do drop-downs to e.g. get an asexual-friendly card. We are pretty clueless when it comes to this kind of design work, so basically we could tell you all the things we want, and you can tell us whether or not we can have them (and ideally make something for us that does the job). Obviously this might take some time to make, so if it's something where you think you could help us, but don't think you could have it in place by June 1st, talk to us anyway; if we can't get it up and running this year, we definitely want it up and running next year. Email, PM, or comment here if you'd like to volunteer!

4) Some other eyes to look over asexual-friendly kink lists. So we're talking about making asexual-friendly cards this year, that anyone could opt into (or not) as they preferred. Part of what this would involve is making (probably multiple) lists of things that shouldn't be included on asexual-friendly cards. (E.g. one list might be only things that can be done as solo-kink, and one list might be things that don't involve genitalia or orgasm or penetration, and then a combined list, or something like that.) We'd also make specific cards for anyone who wanted them, but the standard lists would also mean (some) people wouldn't have to talk to us or out themselves if they didn't want to. (And then people who don't want to make fanworks about asexual characters but prefer nonsexual kink could opt for those cards too.) This is one where having several volunteers is definitely preferable to having just one! Basically, we'd email you our thoughts on kinks to be included/excluded for each of the asexual cards, and you could provide feedback/suggestions. Email, PM, or comment here if you'd like to volunteer!

5) Someone(s) who are willing to test our kink bingo cards, which theoretically are screen-reader friendly, zap friendly, and multi-platform friendly, but . . . we don't know for sure. Basically, screenreaders are expensive; eruthros has done a lot of work reading accessibility sites for tips and testing the html-table cards with free screenreaders, but that only takes us so far; if you have a screenreader that you use and you'd like to do some testing for us, we'd be much obliged. Relatedly, because neither of us has vision impairments beyond shortsightedness, so if someone who typically uses zap bookmarklets to make pages readable wanted to field-test the cards for us, we'd be much obliged. We want to make sure that the cards scale and change font and colour appropriately in your browser/however you browse. Some sample cards are here in the kink_bingo March mini-challenge post. Email, PM, or comment here if you've done this and can let us know what your results are.

6) Someone to make us a Venn diagram. I've been thinking about kink overlap, and how sometimes people are worried about one kink overlapping with another, and I thought that a cool way to put folks at ease on this issue would be to demonstrate how extremely overlappy the kinks really are, and nothing does that like a Venn diagram. It would be a huge and ridiculous Venn diagram, but I'd love and adore it so much: a Venn diagram that includes all the kink bingo kinks (we'll send you this year's modified list to work with). If that task is too ridiculous, perhaps some smaller Venn diagrams of closely-related overlapping kinks? Ideally such a diagram would also come with a bit of explanatory meta so that it's a useful resource for folks who can't see the diagram, but I would be willing to write that part if you were willing to do up the diagram. Email or PM or comment here to volunteer for this one!

And if you have other things you'd like to do for KB before the round starts, please feel free to suggest it and/or volunteer. If there's a resource you've been missing, please mention it; mentioning it does not in any way equal volunteering to do it, of course. :)

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New Fic: Blooming, Lovely [Sarah Jane Adventures]

thingswithwings — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:18:17 GMT

Dudes, I made fanfiction happen! It has been a LONG TIME since I made fanfiction happen. I'm sort of stunned and proud, even if it's just a little thing.

fandom: The Sarah Jane Adventures
characters: Rani, Clyde
rating: very G
content notes: no standard notes apply.
words: 2000 you guys!
notes: apologies for any North Americanisms; I didn't have time to get it Britpicked before the deadline. Feel free to point them out, though, if you find them.
summary: just a little piece of Rani and Clyde sweetness, for the Family challenge at queerlygen.

Blooming, Lovely

Clyde won't call it a sleepover, and it's much more heavily supervised than any sleepover Rani's ever had with a girlfriend (if her mum comes in with snacks or juice or recovered pieces for their old Cluedo game one more time, Rani might lose it), but a sleepover is exactly what it is. It's nice, actually, to spend quiet time with Clyde when they're not saving the world from Slytheen or reinstating a lost heir to his alien kingdom or preventing the assassination of Queen Jane.

Although Rani quite liked Queen Jane, actually.

They're supposed to be studying for their biology exam tomorrow, but at this point, while their books are still open on the floor, they're of more use as slightly pokey cushions than as sources of information. Clyde flips half-heartedly through the chapter on the human digestive system.

"So, how d'you suppose all those aliens evolved like that? I mean, the ones who eat fear or chaos or whatever. Do they even have large intestines?"

Rani shrugs and applies a smooth coat of clear polish to a fingernail. "Dunno. Suppose you'd have to ask Sarah Jane, or the Doctor, or someone. I'm sure Mr Smith has diagrams. Maybe you can dissect the Trickster for your final project." She lifts her hand up and gives her work a critical eye, then blows softly on her fingertips.

"Ha ha." Clyde frowns down at Figure 3.2, The Tongue. "I just wonder, though. What does chaos taste like? How do you swallow an emotion?"

"Yeah, there's rather a lot missing from our textbooks, isn't there."

Clyde wiggles his eyebrows. "More things in heaven and earth," he intones. Rani rolls her eyes and opens her mouth make fun of him, but just then the door to Rani's room, already propped open with a laundry basket, is pushed a little wider, and Rani's mum steps in.

"Oh, hullo you two!" She exclaims, as if she's pleasantly surprised to find them, right where she left them fifteen minutes ago. She walks into the space between them and kneels down on the floor. "Do you know, I was just going through some old junk and I came across these. Thought you'd get a giggle out of it."

Rani's view is kind of obscured by her mum's leg, so it takes her a minute to figure out that the object in Gita's hands is – is a –

"Oooooh, a photo album!" Clyde grins widely, like he can't believe his good luck. Rani buries her head in her hands.

"Mum," she complains, not looking up, "do you have to?"

"Oh, come on, darling, surely you're not still embarrassed by snapshots of you with birthday cake in your hair and such."

"Yeah," Clyde agrees. "Surely."

With that, Rani's mum smacks her hands on her thighs, levers herself up, and leaves the room, making sure to give the laundry basket a little nudge as she passes, just to make sure the door's going to stay open.

The album is in fact full of pictures of Rani with birthday cake in her hair and such. Clyde cackles over them for a while.

"Aw, you were a cute kid, though," he says, eventually, probably just to pacify her.

She looks down at the pictures and frowns. "It took me a while to grow into my nose."

Clyde flips a page to find a picture of Rani on a swingset, wearing a bright yellow sundress, being pushed by a much younger looking Haresh. She's laughing, her hair flying around wildly. Her dad looks happy, too. "Nah, you were always adorable."

She gives him half a smile. "I like that one." He nods.

"I miss that age. Everything's so big, everything's an adventure." He touches the photo, his finger brushing the edge of the swingset.

She bumps him with her shoulder. "What are you talking about?" she demands. "Alien spaceships and time travel and all isn't adventure enough for you? Should I tell Sarah Jane you're getting bored?"

To her surprise, he doesn't laugh with her, just shrugs. "Dunno. It's different, I guess." He looks up from the picture and smiles. "But, you know, back then I didn't have anyone to share things with. When I was a kid, I mean. I always wished I had a big brother or sister to play with me and take me places. My mum never let me go anywhere on my own."

"I always wished I had a little brother or sister to boss around," she laughs. He grins, meeting her eyes.

They're quiet for a minute, so of course Gita chooses that minute to barge back in.

"How's the studying going, then?" she asks cheerfully.

Rani groans. "I don't think I can get any more of this into my head," she says, pounding her forehead against the textbook.

"Did you two want to turn in? Because, Clyde, I've made up a bed for you in the guest room."

"Thanks, Mrs. Chandra."

"Mum," Rani intones, "I think we just want to chat for a while, all right?"

"Of course, my darlings! Don't let me interrupt. I'm not even here."

When she's gone down the hall, Clyde and Rani both break out into helpless laughter.

"I love your mum, I really do," Clyde says.

Rani snorts, and then, on impulse, grabs Clyde's left hand, bringing it in to where she can hold it steady while she readies to attack it with her nail polish brush.

"Oi!" Clyde pulls back. "This is not a sleepover, and you are not painting my nails."

"Oh, come on, Clyde, let me. I haven't even got any girlfriends to do this with." Clyde glares at her. "I'll remove it tomorrow, promise." She gives him a plaintive look, and he sighs deeply and surrenders his hand.

"Just don't tell Luke. I'd never hear the end of it."

"What makes you think I've never painted Luke's nails?"

Clyde shuts up at that, and watches in silence as Rani applies the matte black polish.

"Bit emo, isn't it?"

"Hush."

She paints in silence for a little while as Clyde watches.

"So I suppose your mum thinks we're going to get up to something untoward if we're left alone too long," he says. It sounds like a joke, except Clyde's throat is tight, choking off his voice, the way it gets when he's nervous.

"Not bloody likely," Rani mutters, before she can think better of it. Then she glances up and sees the surprise on his face. "Oh, I don't – Clyde – "

"No, no, it's fine." His voice sounds less choked off now, like something's eased up. "I'm not – I don't – it's not that – "

"It's okay," Rani laughs. "I know what you mean." She doesn't, really, but she lets it go. They've had this weird thing between them for a while, and she hopes that Clyde isn't misreading her. That she isn't misreading Clyde.

There's another long pause, during which Rani thinks about all the things she could say, all the things she wants to tell Clyde, who is after all her fellow adventurer and little brother and best friend in the whole world. The whole universe, even. All of space and time. She knows that somewhere inside of her is the perfect speech, elegant and articulate like one of Sarah Jane's articles, facts in order as if they were professionally arranged by Luke or Mr Smith.

She swallows around a lump in her throat, then feels herself begin to speak.

"I kind of fancy Sarah Jane," she says, and it's pretty far from what she meant to say. Her hand shakes and smears a line of black down to Clyde's knuckle.

If he's surprised, he covers it well, not even looking up from his hand. "Hey, now, you're smudging it."

She half-smiles at him, even though she feels like she's going to throw up, and wipes his finger clean with a tissue.

"It's hard not to fancy Sarah Jane, though, isn't it," he says, glancing up at her briefly and then down again. "She's amazing."

"No, but, Clyde, I mean – " she's frustrated now, scared, but determined to make herself clear.

He stops her with a raised hand. "I know," he says. And then, slowly, he leans in to press a soft kiss to her cheek. "I know." His breath is hot on her skin. He's completely still, not fidgeting at all, which is so unusual for Clyde that it almost worries her for a moment. "I kind of, um. I kind of think I fancy your dad, sometimes," he whispers.

That's surprising enough to startle her back into making eye contact. "Clyde!" she almost yells, half-pushing him away. "Don't tell me those things!" Then she sees his eyes narrow a bit, and she backtracks: "I mean, of course you should tell me those things, it's fine, it's just, it's my dad, so – don't tell me those things, yeah?"

"Okay."

"But you should definitely tell me those things."

He grins. "Okay."

She can feel him relaxing next to her, and she smiles to herself.

"Sarah Jane, eh?" Clyde pokes her in the shoulder, and she feels her cheeks heat. "Who else?"

She glares at him. "You first."

That takes the wind out of his sails, but only for a moment, only until his Langer stubborness kicks in and his chin comes up. "I guess that Lord Marchwood was all right," he says.

"A ghost? Talk about unattainable."

Clyde spreads his hands in mock defeat. "He was a bit old for me, yeah, I admit it."

"It must've been the lace collar, yeah?"

"I'm helpless before a lace collar, Rani."

Rani grins. She licks her lips, glancing down at the textbook on the floor. "I sometimes have trouble paying attention in biology class," she confides.

Clyde wiggles his eyebrows at her, and it's so goofily and completely Clyde that the last of her apprehension vanishes. "Miss Jerome? I can see it. And at least she's not two hundred."

"Yeah, to think that for most kids, a crush on a teacher is the most out there thing they can imagine. For us it's practically normal by comparison."

"Exactly. At least Miss Jerome is human. Unlike, um," he stutters, "certain Time Lords who just waltz in and out with new faces on all the time." Clyde looks at her from under his lashes, gaining confidence. She smiles easily. Fellow adventurer, little brother, best friend, and something else, now, too.

"Oh, well, I'm sure you're not the first bloke to fall head over heels for the Doctor. All that dashing about and saving people and wearing tweed."

"The hair! The rakishness! It's ridiculous," Clyde complains.

"At least you're not looking twice at evil army Colonels who want to destroy the universe."

Clyde's shocked into a laugh. "Colonel Kareem? Ooooh, kinky. Was it the little beret that did it? The relentless will to power?"

She slaps at his chest. "Shut up, like you even know what kinky means."

"Well, I'm not the one dealing with an attraction to older ladies in the military," he says, using his most reasonable tone.

"I guess you're not," Rani says, slowly. She grins at him, the kind of grin he usually gives her, and then, on impulse, she leans in to press a return kiss to his cheek, soft and easy.

Clyde smiles, glancing down at his hands. "Guess I'd better, uh, get myself off to the guest room, then, eh? If you're all done gussying me up."

"Off you go. We wouldn't want my mum to think we'd got up to anything untoward."

"Course not," Clyde agrees, and winks at her as he bundles his things together and heads for the hallway, where he pauses to perform a deep bow. "I'm nothing if not a gentleman."

She throws a bunched up piece of paper at him, and he laughs and turns to run as it bounces off his back.

"Goodnight, Rani," he calls.

"Goodnight, Clyde."

The guest room is just down the hall; if she's quiet enough, she'll hear him snoring.

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KB crosspostiness

thingswithwings — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 04:05:03 GMT

Hey hey everyone, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that kink_bingo is currently soliciting the opinions of those that like kink_bingo. We're considering a major change to the format, and also we're looking for folks to produce cool kink-related content to post to the comm during the two-week leadup to the summer round. So if you want to give us your opinion on changes or if you want to volunteer to provide cool content (like meta, curated collections of kinky stuff, special fan-creations, etc) check it out.

One thing I ~~secretly~~ long for, that I wouldn't ask for as a mod but that I will wist about wistfully in my personal journal, is some fanworks that do meta about kink in general or about kink bingo in particular. I can't quite imagine what they'd look like yet, but I know they'd be cool. One day perhaps I will make the vid that uses fannish video source to tell the history of kink bingo.

-

COMPLETELY UNRELATED: I'm ttly excited right now about such_heights' Lady-Centric Trope Fest (note: that is not the actual title of the fest), which looks like it's going to be a squeeload of fun oh gosh.

ALSO UNRELATED: I'm ttly excited right now about monanotlisa's Fringe Kinkmeme, which needs some prompts ATM and ideally also needs some fills for those prompts! I've just about caught up on Fringe (I haven't seen the latest 3x19 episode, but everything up till there) and I can't wait to see what kind of cool stuff might come out of this. If ever a fandom needed a kinkmeme!

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some things that make a post

thingswithwings — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:53:09 GMT

I really admire people like cofax7 and jooj and, you know, many other folks who are good at linkspam. I love linkspam! But I am terrible at it. Nonetheless, I want to do it more, so let me practice:

This post from rydra_wong is a great example of the kind of food thinking I really admire and aspire to do; the Fat Nutritionist piece she links to also lays out this philosophy very well. And there are some good comments. People are different from each other! Eating can be a thing you do to make yourself feel good! What! This philosophy is currently making a difference in my life, when I take the time to self-inventory and do what my body wants (rather than, for example, right now, sitting at the computer typing a post even though I'm kind of hungry and want a banana orange smoothie with yogurt and whey protein. I promise I'll get up and make it in a minute, body.)

Relatedly, I've been digging on the #thingsfatpeoplearetold Twitter hashtag (it's tweets of things fat people are told, so, you know, if you don't want to encounter examples of fat-shaming and body-policing and such atm, best to avoid). Here's one collection of the tweets that came out during the first 24 hours.

[rape + rape culture stuff] I like a lot a lot a lot of things about Shakesville, but man, sometimes they piss me off. This post pisses me off in both its classic Shakesville-style defensiveness (wtf is that bit about "BTW THERE IS NO WAY FOR THIS LAW TO BE A BAD THING SO DON'T SAY SO") and in its . . . I don't know. Willingness to punish. Or something. I find this very hard to explain, because we DO need more laws to protect people from rape and assault, people in power DO often get off scot-free, there ARE plenty of heinous examples we can point to that make laws like this plausible. But, I just. Maybe this post that I made ages ago (about paedophilia and Roman Polanski) would explain it better. I guess the best way to explain it is to say that I think that depictions of rapists as depraved monsters who have nothing to do with humanity, who can neither be created or destroyed, who come from nowhere and are forever rapists and aren't fathers, uncles, old friends of the family . . . is just as much a part of rape culture as anything else that's a part of rape culture.

Okay, maybe now something less problematic and depressing.

Lately I have seen many good vids, thanks to VidUKon! Some of the good vids I have seen include Angie by chaila (TSCC Jesse/Riley + BSG Boomer/Caprica); Fascination by charmax (Billy Elliot omg); Dreaming by calapine (DW, Tegan/Nyssa); Machine by cosmic_llin (ST: VOY, Seven of goddamn Nine); I Want What I Want by dualbunny (Bionic Woman, Jaimie/Sarah); 150 Times by isagel (Whitechapel, that guy from Whitechapel); Blue Caravan by (DW, Amy/Rory/Eleven); Spit the Devil by kiki_miserychic (V, Erika/Anna holy shit); Palindromes by lensflair_inc (Fringe, Olivia/~~Alvarez~~ Charlie) and MANY MORE. I still have so many to watch, too.

Other vids I've been digging lately, not via VidUKon but just via general cruising about: Movin' Right Along by odessie (DW, everybody); Tonight I'm Fucking You by talitha78 (White Collar, Peter/Neal); Sex and Reruns by greensilver (Community, everybody); Oz Death Montage by chagrined (Oz, everybody); Deep by rhoboat (Farscape, John/Scorpius); When Life Gives Me Lemons by bop_radar (Community, everybody); We Couldn't Stand Being Normal by baritoneslur (Community, Troy/Abed, watch out that's a youtube link); and MANY MORE.

Anyway, I could do a whole post on any one of those vids, and they all deserve proper recs, but since I don't think I'm going to be able to sit down and write them all up proper recs, well . . . better to linkspam them at you than to not mention them at all!

This concludes my linkspam experiment. It is now my intention to play video games for several hours. And make that smoothie.

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I . . . really liked something that Seth Rogen did?

thingswithwings — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:24:07 GMT

Friends, I just watched The Green Hornet, and I have to say that I really really liked it! Even though it had to make about six sexual harassment jokes that I did not like! I have always considered Seth Rogen to be kind of a douche, but the great thing about this movie is that he is a TOTAL douche and I'm meant to think so and laugh at him and make googly-eyes at Kato and so I feel vindicated and satisfied.

It was like, this guy is a total yuppie asshole! with no skills or likeability! and then Kato tells him that he's a total yuppie asshole with no skills or likeability, and he's right, and it's very satisfying. Kato is TOTALLY AMAZING, and obviously putting up with this guy because he (Kato) is kind of a lonely genius and finds him (Britt) amusing and strange, and I really love that. I love that Britt, and everyone else in this film, is just hilariously real and mundane - like, Kato's sort of petty (I loved his resume SO MUCH) and Lenore is like OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO YOU ARE RIDICULOUS and the supervillian is just a dude going through a midlife crisis . . . it really feels like what life would ACTUALLY be like if there were superheroes and supervillains and masked vigilantism and so forth. It had that Mystery Men vibe to it, where it's funny and sometimes pathetic and the heroes are regular joes but you really want them to succeed at fighting crime anyway. I adore the scene at the end, when Britt and Kato show up at Lenore's, and she's like, wtf, and they're like, "we didn't know what we were doing! I have a superhero fetish and Kato is an asskicking genius who was just really bored! You're the mastermind" I feel like the movie uses the Green Hornet to say, "c'mon, if Batman were real, he's be some yuppie douche with hilarious daddy issues," probably because Batman is a yuppie douche with hilarious daddy issues.

The whole thing was competely meta, and I'm so down with a sequel where Lenore has stepped fully into her mastermind role (love love love the ending!) and Britt continues to be happily bossed around by Kato and Lenore both. I love that they love their costumes and how cool they look and how cool their car is and how great it is to be heroes. And I love that in the end it's Kato and Lenore who teach Britt how to actually do something useful with his power and money by a) kicking ass (Kato) and b) taking names (Lenore). He's still a douchebag at the end, but I don't despise him anymore because by then he's just a loser trying to do something good. I think one of the reasons I ended up liking his character is that Kato is really the POV character - for me, anyway, it's his perspective on Britt that carries the movie - and Kato has a sort of bizarre affection for Britt, so I couldn't really resist by the end. Kato told me to like him!

Anyway, I thought it was great! Some of the classic Rogen-style jokes about lolz racism or lolz sexual harrassment were annoying, but overall I was charmed. I was especially charmed at Lenore's bit at the end about how she doesn't kiss either of them (maybe you kiss each other, but I don't kiss you) and Britt not actually saving Kato from Bloodnofsky, even though he's starting to be a better superhero. AW. I don't know. Charmed is what I am.

I would now like to be directed to the slash, please. Especially if Lenore masterminds what Kato and Britt do in bed.

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New Vid: Inadvisable Interpersonal Relationship [The Sarah Jane Adventures]

thingswithwings — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:25:59 GMT

This weekend is VidUKon, which I could sadly not attend, but my buddy such_heights was running a ROBOTS vidshow and I happened to be making a ROBOTS vid, so I gave her my vid to premiere at her vidshow. Now that it's premiered, I get to post it here for the world to download!

title: Inadvisable Interpersonal Relationship
fandom/characters: Sarah Jane Adventures; K-9/Mr Smith
specs: 1m30s; 17.6MB; divx avi
content notes: no standard notes apply. it's just basically robots having adorable hatesex.
music: I sort of don't want to spoil you for the song, but if you want the lyrics, they can be found here - the ones used in the vid are the last four stanzas.

download from mediafire

If this link doesn't work, or you can't use mediafire, just let me know and I'll be happy to reupload it/upload to a different site.

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I now find it hard to make a post that ISN'T an ordered list

thingswithwings — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 01:35:34 GMT

1) A suggestion: yall might want to check out this month's kink_bingo mini-challenge. It involves something we have just invented called Kink Bingo Gift Baskets, and it is supercool if I do say so myself.

2) Speaking of awesome challenges, I hope many people check out remix_goes_wild, because I think it's a really great idea and likely to produce some great fic. I don't thiiiiiiink I'm going to write for it myself, but I have put my fic up, so if you've ever wanted to ~~fix~~ remix that one story of mine . . . well, you've always had permission to do that, but anyway, here's a structured challenge to encourage you.

3) Speaking of speaking of awesome challenges, it's also a good time to notice that queer_fest has opened up prompt claiming! Go now to claim your cool prompts! This is similarly so exciting.

4) Speaking of - well, also in the "awesome challenges" category, the other day in the comments to what is incidentally a really lovely White Collar OT3 fic one person wondered how Satchmo and Diefenbaker would get on, and this of course immediately made me think, hey, we need a panfandom challenge FOR THE DOGS. All dogs all the time! Satchmo and Diefenbaker and K9 and Backup and Queequeg and Rowdy and Porthos and Vincent and Janeway's dog and various other dogs as well! I hear that there's a lot of fic starring Jared Padalecki's dog? Though it's rumoured to be mostly fic where said dog fucks Jensen Ackles? And when I say "rumoured" I really mean "eruthros just told me that"? Anyway I'm not clear. ANYWAY, panfandom dog fest. AND I SUPPOSE we could expand it to "companion animals" and "pets" so as to let in your cats and your ferrets and your horses and your hamsters and your dragons and whatnot. To help you think about completely adorable fic about fictional dogs, I provide you with this List of Fictional Dogs. Shit I love wikipedia.

4) Unrelated in any way to awesome fandom challenges, except, perhaps we should have a crossover challenge to celebrate? But ok, I have watched now perhaps eighteen episodes of Fringe (skipping a bunch of the first season, up to 2x11) and I have no choice now but to notice that J.J. Abrams is a HUGE FREAKING OZ FAN. Like, seriously. Undoubtedly fans of J.J. Abrams' shows have noticed this before, but I am now lolzing at it all the time. On Lost (of which I only watched the first three seasons) it was like - oh, look, Augustus Hill is hanging out with Simon Adebisi and Governor Devlin! And now watching Fringe, it's basically Name That Oz Actor. I consistently call Charlie Francis "Alvarez," and then also there's Desmond Mobay aka John Basil, and then I watch this one episode that stars BOTH Timmy Kirk and Cyril O'Reilly. Seriously. And according to imdb, there are more: Lost/Oz and Fringe/Oz. Wow, that's a long list.

So basically, to sum up, this has been a post mostly about fannish challenges and partly about hilarious casting that could be a fannish challenge if we so desired. I hope you have enjoyed your time with me today.

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fatshion!

thingswithwings — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:18:53 GMT

I have this love/hate relationship with clothes - I hate trying to find cute or nice or handsome or pretty things in my size, and I love buying them when I find them. Today I am shopping around! And since I know that some of you buy plus sized clothing, I thought I'd share some links I found for new places to shop. I've shopped for plus sized clothes all over in the past - Old "shop online but not in the store, fatties, we want your money but we don't want to look at you" Navy, Land's "have all the plus sized clothing you could ever want, in the frumpiest cuts available!" End, iGigi (gorgeous, beautifully designed, well fitting clothing that looks great on me and that I can't afford at all), evans.co.uk, avenue.com, other places as well. I just haunt the clearance areas, and sometimes go hunting for particular stuff. I recently got a catalogue from a company called "Woman Within," and the name of the company (it's for the beautiful woman within! because the woman without is so gross and fat!) combined with their use of size 8 models (I HATE that in plus sized-only clothing stores, hate it with a passion) made me dedicate myself to not buy their stuff.

Anyway, I'm always looking for cool new places to shop, and found a couple today. My goal is to one day find a place that uses organic/sustainable materials, pays its employees a living wage, uses for-reals fat models, is priced affordably, and caters to a variety of styles (including adorable ones, cute ones, gorgeous ones, handsome ones, professional ones, and ttly hot ones). hahahaha. Anyway, in the meantime, here are some links:

1) Did you know that ModCloth, who do cool vintage styles from independent designers, often have a fair selection of cool stuff in plus sizes? Because it varies from designer to designer, the definition of "plus size" is dubious, but most of the stuff on this page would fit me, and I run around US size 18-20. If you're fat and totally want to dress like Joan from Mad Men (or Betty from Mad Men, for that matter), this is highly recommended. A lot of stuff is always out of stock, so you sort of have to stalk (homonym!) the page, but it's well worth it. Also if you're shopping for a hot bathing suit for the summer - there are TONS of gorgeous plus-sized ones here. And I really hope that someone super fabulous scores this dress, which is currently only available in a 3x (US 22-ish), which is a bit too big for me and also not my colour. ModCloth.com

2) There's also debshops, which I've recently discovered, which has some good deals on - especially if you are in the market for a plus-sized taffeta prom dress. Seriously there are a lot of pretty ballgowns! But also miniskirts, regular skirts, going-out dresses, t-shirts, jeans, etc. The prices are pretty reasonable as such things go. The labour I don't know about - but I tend to assume that if they don't advertise themselves as fair trade/living wage people, they're not, so. Still, a nice place to watch the sale rack for good stuff. debshops.com

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thingswithwings — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:46:28 GMT

Today I was bored during office hours and yhlee was kind enough to give me letters in order to play this meme. Here is how it works:

1. COMMENT WITH A MYSTERIOUS COMMENT OF YOUR CHOICE (well, it doesn't have to be mysterious. You can just say, "gimme a goddamn letter" or similar.)
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters and your thoughts on each.

So I did that.

First, characters! five(ish) characters I love whose names begin with R

1) Rani Chandra (The Sarah Jane Adventures) - Rani is, in her way, the second Darrin of her show - she's the replacement plucky-girl-investigator-across-the-road, who fills in the shoes of Maria Jackson, but frankly I like her even better than Maria. Where Maria is sweet and interested and friendly, Rani is nosy as well, she identifies as a journalist, and she sort of bugs her way into being part of the group with Sarah Jane, Luke, and Clyde. Her punch-on-the-arm BFF relationships with Luke and Clyde make me ridiculously happy, and her idolization of powerful older female journalists (see: The Nightmare Man) is simultaneously adorable and amazing to see on tv.

2) River Song (Doctor Who) - River! River is badass and fabulous and clever and just a little bit hard (River vs Dalek: nobody bets on the Dalek, because River's rage is fucking huge and all-consuming). She gives the Doctor a run for his money, she and Amy are adorable together (where's that femslash at!), she's sexy and powerful and gets to keep being sexy and powerful, and she's played by Alex Kingston, who is hot like burning and has enough screen presence for ten actors.

3) Willow Rosenberg (Buffy: the Vampire Slayer) - As adorable nerds go, they don't get adorabler than Willow. I think the show did her a huge disservice, also hello lesbian fail, but at the same time she was a lesbian on my tv for a very long time, and that meant a lot to me. Willow is afraid of things and shy and self-conscious but it doesn't stop her from saving the goddamn world all the time, and so I draw little hearts around her all the time.

4) Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica) - I rather despise a lot of stuff that happened on BSG, but I can never ever stop loving Laura Roslin and no one can make me - not even Laura herself. It's the expression on her face and the position of her hand - fingers splayed slightly - as she takes the oath of presidency. Oh President Laura Roslin. She throws my heart out the airlock. Mostly, I have to say, because Mary McDonnell is consistently amazing. I can't even deal.

5) Riley Dawson (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) - I know a lot of people despised her, but I thought she was amazing, especially in retrospect, after the big reveal about her origins. Her PTSD and her fear and her anger are all visceral and real, and I felt really deeply for her. I was needless to say UPSET by how things turned out. But while she was there, man, I was all over the Riley/Jesse, even though it was totally Evil Lesbians, because okay Jesse whispering into Riley's impressionable ear gave me some shivers. Anyway, I did love her. But I also loved:

5) Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) - who ties with Riley because I couldn't choose between them. Rory is smart and clever and cheerful and bright but sometimes makes really really bad decisions that she knows are really really bad decisions, and oh do I love that about her. The way she is with her mom - a supportive BFF 4evs - breaks my heart. And that time Alexis Bledel got up in formal drag in order to perform as her grandfather's best man? Uh, I sat up in my chair.

Honourable mentions: Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Stanley Raymond Kowalski, and Rorschach. In all four cases, the character I really love is the fanon character(s), and the canon character doesn't do nearly as much for me. I ADORE with great adoration all four of those characters in fanfiction, but otherwise . . . I find it hard to locate my love in their source texts. Except maybe for Ray. Ray could probably tie with Laura Roslin.

five(ish) songs I will share with you whose titles begin with E

"Eggs Over Easy," by Martina Sorbara (I use to go see Martina Sorbara at tiny venues in Ottawa all the time; I adore her. This is one of my favourites of her songs.)

"The End of the World," by Skeeter Davis (I used to listen to Skeeter Davis on my parents' LPs. This was always my favourite. Six year old twings recommends this one highly, and twenty-nine year old twings still loves it.)

"Eric's Song," by Vienna Teng (It's Vienna Teng, so of course it's gorgeous and haunting with beautiful complex lyrics. I'm just waiting for ~~such_heights~~ someone to make the Eleventh Doctor/Amy vid to this song.)

"Everything's Easy," by Girlyman (One of my favourite Girlyman songs! Although I have a lot of those.)

"Exactly Like You," by Sam Cooke (I just want to crawl inside the sound of Sam Cooke's voice and live there forever, so I would've recommended any of his songs that happened to start with E. But this one is lovely.)

"Everything Is Free," by Gillian Welch (one of my favourite contemporary country singers. This song is slow and easy and sad, so listen to it before or after the Vienna Teng and you'll be set.)

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FYI YOU GUYS

thingswithwings — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:40:58 GMT

FYI YOU GUYS eruthros just made this supercool post of secrets by fannish characters, and it is so much fun. Basically, the idea is that various fannish characters have made postsecret or fandomsecrets style secrets, and we get to guess who made what secret. IT IS SO MUCH FUN! I wish it would become a meme so that I could play this game all the time.

Anyway go over there and play, it is an excellent time.

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I spewed several thoughts into a text box and then posted them

thingswithwings — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:36:29 GMT

But I have put these thoughts into an ordered list so as to give the impression that I have put some thought into organizing them.

1) argh, I was all excited about china_shop's Fannish Appreciation Challenge, and then I forgot to play for two days. THIS IS WHY I CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.

2) Speaking of nice things, I wanted to thank everyone for their lovely comments over on the anon love meme - they really brightened up my day. I love you all too! I know I've been a bit absent lately; I've been having trouble connecting and staying connected with people. But I'm doing my best, and things like that help remind me where my friends are and where my community is. <3

3) Lately I've been spending most of my time working on a new vid . . . a big one, a major project I've been poking at for well over a year, one of those Ambitious And Important type vids that's easy to neglect when you're feeling low-energy. But I've got momentum on it now, a good chunk of it in the timeline and looking good, and I'm excited to post it before too much longer. But I'm also concerned, because it's one of those strange twings projects that uses the lulz (or the pornz) to make a political point, and the point is really important to me, and anyway this, trying to strike this balance, hoping to be understood, is making me anxious. But I am nonetheless feeling pretty good about it, and hopeful about success.

4) There's also the thing where this vid I'm making includes scenes that I don't like looking at. Ugh. Critique can be fun, but right now at this stage of the vid it's not so fun. After this vid I'm going to have to make some frivolous Mythbusters vid about hugs and robots. Or a frivolous Sarah Jane Adventures vid about . . . hugs and robots. Wow, my interests are sometimes surprisingly narrow.

5) Speaking of this vid, I may be in the market for a beta or two before long. I have my usual peeps, but many of my usual peeps already know a lot about this vid, and I want some virgin eyes.

6) NO LONGER TALKING ABOUT VIDDING. eruthros and I have been rewatching Star Trek: Voyager (we're now in season four! SEVEN OF NINE HELLOOOOO!) and I constantly want to write these bizarre little gen snippets for it. Like, the show reveals that Chakotay is vegetarian, and I am like, "where is the story where Chakotay and Tuvok exchange vegetarian recipes and cook for each other and have camaraderie!" Yesterday I was longing for the story where Tuvok and Seven get stoned together (IMAGINE IT. I'LL WAIT.) And the one where Janeway does non-sexual (but of course super hot) Borg Queen roleplay with Seven, to make Seven feel comfortable and help her acclimate (it's already sort of canon). And the ones where Harry and B'Elanna are just BFFs 4evs, which they clearly are, because seriously those two are amazing in all scenes they have together (this is also why they are two thirds of a great OT3 with Paris, but we're talking gen right now). Anyway, I can't imagine there's a large market for schmoopy gen fic about a long-dead scifi tv show, but I might have to write some anyway. We'll see. Writing is hard. But otoh, vegetarian recipe exchange fic!

7) I think my thing about Voyager is that it's so founded in a sense of family and love and camaraderie . . . you have that on DS9 to some extent (the other day, I realised that Janeway is to Tuvok as Sisko is to Dax, and I was pleased) but there are so many little ways in which the Voyager crew is different from other Star Trek crews, and of course they are - they're isolated, and only have each other, and protocol gets lost now and then because they need one another. So sometimes Chakotay says Kathryn rather than Captain, and it's okay. It's so beautifully and subtly done. I was always sad that they didn't do more with this sort of thing - folks having kids, setting up a school, recreational group activities, the Voyager Symphony Orchestra, people making tv shows or becoming full-time poets or busking in the corridors or painting murals and graffiti in the turbolifts or building canoes or inventing robot dogs or going on shuttle rides for funzies - being a community, in short - but they did do a lot more than I remembered. There is talent night, and Good Morning Voyager, and the Doctor's holophotography slideshows, and music lessons, and all. I don't suppose any of you have some good Voyager recs lying around, do you? I'm kind of craving this sort of worldbuilding gen fic, but I'll also happily read most pairings.

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the internets! hugs

thingswithwings — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:59:15 GMT

Whew, finally the internets are back on! A nice dude came to the house yesterday and fixed it ("it had been disconnected at the base," he said, which seems like a problem that could've been fixed last thursday when it first went out) and now I get to roll around in email and rlists and things.

One of the things I am doing in celebration is I am joining in china_shop's Fandom Appreciation Challenge! There's a new challenge every day for a week, and you try to do them all. You have till 1pm PST today to get full points for today's challenge. For the curious, the stories I feedbacked for today's challenge were:

Exorcism, by mustinvestigate (Watchmen, Dan/Rorschach): Dan fantasizes about forcing Rorschach into sex, among other things. Packed full of kink, including a noncon fantasy. Super hot.

The High School After High School, by neigedens (Community, Troy/Abed): Really lovely story in which Troy is kidnapped and Abed has to get his Sherlock Holmes on to find him. Really great ensemble voices - Annie is fabulous in this, and so is Jeff, everyone just sounds like themselves - and a KILLER understated heartmelting romance narrative. It's like an episode of Community, really, except that Troy and Abed actually make out in it.

Once Around the Wheel by Amy Wolf (Doctor Who, Martha/Ace): Set during the year that never was (between The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords). Martha and Ace find each other, and help each other get by. Isn't that a genius premise?

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notice

thingswithwings — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 06:05:25 GMT

ugh, mine and eruthros's internets are down. thus I am out of contact! right now I am using livrelibre's email, but I assume she'll want us to go home eventually. anyway I am sorry I am not seeing very much internets or emails atm. so in addition to the "out of contact - depressed" situation, there is now this "out of contact - internets broken until monday" label. so I'll prolly be out of contact.

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this is a post about vidding!

thingswithwings — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:14:44 GMT

so, I'm a vidder, right? but the funny thing is, I've never ever thought of myself as a visually or spatially oriented person. I get lost in extremely familiar buildings. I have no sense of direction. I don't remember visual information well over long periods of time. I have trouble seeing visual jokes on tv and such, sometimes. This is a problem for me as a vidder! HOWEVER, I am a very - auditory? aural? person. I used to have a literally perfect memory for things I'd heard, especially dialogue or conversation, but also music - wording, intonation, tone, melody, volume, pauses, the whole deal. Now that I'm not a teenager anymore, my memory for that stuff isn't perfect, but it's still really good.

I tell you this because today I'm thinking about different modes of approaching vidding. I think I approach vidding with my ears; I hear all the different strands in the song - bass, melody, lyrics, percussion, whatever - and I construct the visual information so that it aligns with/complements all of them, if I can, and switches focus between and among them. I get frustrated sometimes with vids that use their lyrics but not their beat, or their guitar but not their piano, or whatever. I didn't realise this before, but when I'm vidding, I'm translating a song into something visual. All my best ideas for bits of vids inevitably come from the music - I hear a "dum-de-DAH!" on the drums and it brings to mind a potential visual image that would be powerful at that point in the vid.

But I think it would be interesting/helpful for me to think of vidding more in terms of space; lim once told me, explaining After Effects, that I should conceptualize it in three (or, really, four, but let's say three for convenience) dimensions, as if I am looking down on the image and building layers up towards myself. I still haven't grasped how to do that, but it's a useful metaphor for me as I learn. And recently when eruthros was making a knitting pattern, I found an interesting correspondence between knitting and vidding; when I asked her why the pattern was squished (a rectangle, when the finished product was meant to be a square) she told me that knit stitches are wider than they are tall - so to make a square, you knit 42 stitches across and 60 stitches high. I stared at the rectangular pattern, which to me was in the wrong aspect ratio, and I said, "oh - so a knit stitch is a rectangular pixel!" Knitting makes so much more sense to me now, actually, as a set of constructed pixels that make up a three-dimensional image (like lim's three-dimensional After Effects palette).

Thinking of the footage as three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional, even just working in Final Cut, has helped me to work more naturally and easily with effects, even simple ones like crossfades (I am so linear when it comes to visual information that layering the image is something I have to work at, even though the layering of the music is easy to hear and respond to). The music sounds three dimensional to me, but the images feel two-dimensional unless I force myself to think differently and see more. Of course, vidding as a medium was for a long time very linear and two-dimensional; digital video editing is changing that, but our history undoubtedly still has weight and momentum.

That was a ramble about how I conceptualize vidding, brought to you by the Very Ambitious Vidding Project that I am finally working on again, and that I am about to begin outlining/timelining. In conclusion, metaphors are useful, dimensions are weird, and my eyes are getting better but still haven't caught up to my ears. How are you today?

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yay Voyager! (boo gender essentialism)

thingswithwings — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:52:51 GMT

right now eruthros and I are doing a Voyager rewatch! As you may have heard. Which is to say that I am making her watch them and she is tolerating it kindly. How great was this show? Except for all the horrible Star Trekish gender essentialism and heterosexist imagining of the future, among other issues? PRETTY DARN GREAT. Just now we had this exchange while watching an episode:

eruthros (staring at the screen): Neelix . . . and Tom Paris . . .
me: . . . are coparenting a dinosaur.
eruthros: That is what is happening right now, yes.

Also we have decided that Janeway/Chakotay/Tuvok is a ttly hot OT3. At first I was dubious (not understanding the Chakotay/Tuvok component) but now I am convinced, because Chakotay and Tuvok sort of don't like each other but play this game where they try to out-respectful professional each other all the time? It's great. Man I love Vulcans up in my ships! Then you get SUPER HOT MOMENTS OF SOMEONE NOT TOUCHING SOMEONE ELSE, like this one, when Tuvok thinks he might be about to die:

Wow, Tuvok. Seriously.

Other important ships for this show: Janeway/B'Elanna, Janeway/Seven (though we're not there yet), B'Elanna/Harry/Tom, Harry/Tom, and Doctor/almost anyone. The Doctor is so CRANKY and I love him so much that he can be shipped with anyone. I hardcored shipped Doctor/Seven back in the day.

When I was a teenager I used to hang out with these boyfans who told me it was dumb to like Voyager and awesome to like DS9, and I liked DS9 but I liked Voyager better and it was a SECRET SHAME but now I realise that those dudes were haters and should proceed towards the left. JANEWAY 4EVS

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thingswithwings — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:01:04 GMT

oh man, I am having so much fun scrolling through the comments to March Madness Fandom Steel Cage Match Round Two, purely for all the SHIT HOT LOVE that is being brought out for Scully and Troy. TROY! SCULLY!

Guys if I loved Troy OR Scully anymore my heart might explode. My only fear is that they will then go up against each other in the future. I COULD NOT CHOOSE.

But if you are voting please do not forget to vote also for Gus! Gus Gus Gus. And Lorelei. And Annie Sawyer. And okay I know CJ Cregg won't beat Sherlock but listen SHE SHOULD.

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today I am uncharacteristically spamming you all, probably b/c my dog's at daycare and I miss him

thingswithwings — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:39:07 GMT

me: "Man, now I sort of really want to make a vid to Der Holle Rache."
eruthros: "You should!"
me: "But what fandom is it? I mean, I don't know a lot of fandoms that are like, 'vengeance! despair! hatred! killing! kill this guy kill him kill him death death death FURY VIA INTENSE SOPRANO.' Do you know any fandoms like that?"
eruthros: " . . . Kill Bill?"
me: "Shit. Now I have to make a Kill Bill vid. Thanks."

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meme!

thingswithwings — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:18:33 GMT

Seen around: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Afterapocalypse
alec/eliot vantage points
B5 college AU
Corset
creepy story
elf maiden mighty warrior
Five Babies That Never Happened to Good Omens
flight simulator
Janeway authority
Malcolm-Trip
MB scifi au for kaneko
Mythbusters fucking machines
nate-david
notes towards Martha/Teyla
Pigtails
PLOWVERSE
Psych spanking sequel
publishing au
Ripper-Spike
Scully,Fraser,Mulder,Ray
SGA 9-5
stream1
the bachelor of baker street
Twang!
twang [yes, those are two completely different stories both called Twang.]

Some of these are so old that I no longer have software to open them (srsly, that X-Files/due South crossover is a wps file). So "WIP" is a rather generous designation for many of these. But if you want to ask me about any of them, go for it!

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songs I want to hear vidded

thingswithwings — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:37:07 GMT

(. . . so, you all gave me 800 amazing prompts the other day, and rather than quickly turning out a bunch of cute little ficlets, I now have like six Troy/Abed kink fics on the go. Is it just me or would Abed take to that sort of script-dependent bdsm in the most natural and adorable of ways?)

(also, I've been watching Community a lot lately. I love it quite a bit. Like, rather overwhelmingly a lot. also Donald Glover is too amazing for me to even be able to deal with it.)

The actual content of this post is Songs I Want to Hear Vidded, which I am posting because every now and then eruthros and I have this conversation where we talk about genres of music that we don't see in vid fandom(s) anywhere, or don't see much of. Classical music, and jazz, and blues, and opera, and classic R&B, and Sondheim musicals, and oldschool country, and weird avant-garde shit, and on and on and that's just staying within the mostly-Western music with which we're familiar. This conversation always starts out with perfectly reasonable statements like "why are there no/so few Mozart vids? Why don't I vid to The Platters?" and ends up with me deciding I should make a vid to a youtube video called 'beatboxing flute super mario theme' and eruthros trying to find her techno remixes of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

But the point is, doesn't it sadden you sometimes that vidding fandom, around these parts anyway, tends to fall into relatively contemporary rock/indie music/hip-hop/ballads most of the time? Myself included, of course; most of my vids fall into that category. I mean, it makes sense to vid ballads and hip-hop and such because they tend to be so lyric-heavy and lyric-dependent, but on the other hand this does not explain why no one has yet made a Doctor Who vid to Lefty Frizzell's "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time."

(okay, that last bit is also evident of my conviction that oldschool American country is the ideal musical genre for Doctor Who. it's true you guys. get used to it.)

Wouldn't it be interesting to see more vids that vastly exceed the 3-minute mark, or do more stuff with the kinds of theme-building you see in jazz and classical music? It's funny, luminosity did Scooby Road all those years ago (a series of Buffy vids to every song from Abbey Road), but since then I've never seen anyone do a similar concept-album type thing. But imagine taking, say, a four-part cello concerto and making it into a vid project; each part of the concerto would be a vid, and each vid could be a variation on the same theme, but with a very different mood/tempo. Stuff like that. Doesn't that sound fun and awesome? Every now and again you see a vid that breaks these rules, or even a challenge at a vidding community (like "instrumental" or "disney" or something) but not often. Maybe we should have a fest or something. People could submit Weird Shit That Might Make Interesting Vids and we could all try to vid to Alice's Restaurant and Der Holle Rache for a while.

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give to me your prompts!

thingswithwings — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:17:28 GMT

here's the deal: I have had trouble writing for nigh on a year now. I just, for the most part, am feeling blocked/nervous/procrastinatory/freaked out about writing fic. but I want to get back to it - my creative energies have been going almost exclusively into vidding, which has been fun, but I miss writing.

I think part of the block has been that I have BIG PROJECTS to do - auction fic, kink bingo fic, SRS BZNS PORN ETC. so in order to try to kickstart my ficwriting brain, I want to try writing something that has less stuff attached to it.

IN CONCLUSION: prompt me? I don't make any guarantees, but if you prompt with something that catches my fancy, I'll write it. I prefer femslash or boyslash or transfic or queer het or kinkfic prompts, but can be convinced of other prompts sometimes. Crossovers allowed. Fandoms allowed: Star Trek TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/AOS, Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who (all new, some Classic), SGA, Leverage, White Collar, Being Human, Survivors, Mythbusters, Sherlock Holmes (Granada or 2009; not the new tv series), Avatar: the Last Airbender, Psych, Tipping the Velvet, Farscape, Buffy, Angel, Community, Hustle, V 2009, I don't know, other things too. I'll write lots of things that I can't think of right now, so feel free to prompt and see.

I like a little information in my prompts - you can do the random word/mood thing for a prompt, or give me a song, or a poem, or just a scenario or a bit of a plot or a premise. Please comment and tell me what you'd like!

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my festivids vid!

thingswithwings — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:48:14 GMT

hey guys! festivids reveals are UP UP UP and it is very exciting to learn that it was mostly people I don't know at all who made me vids. I love that! Now I get to meet new and exciting people! And I can say now: thank you franzeska, starrylizard, and verity; I really loved my presents.

I can also say, hey, I made this Sarah Jane Adventures vid here! I felt like OBVIOUS VIDDER WAS OBVIOUS, especially with my public and effusive SJA love over the last little while, but anyway it was a joy to do and Nancy really liked it so I'm glad. Now I'm getting on with the other two SJA vids that I wanted to make for festivids but didn't have time for.

Yay festivids yay!

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