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So, I have been on a Real Housewives kick, lately. A little while back my partner and I spent a week at one of his relative's homes, and she had cable, but no internet. So I diligently watched Real Housewives of NYC. It was good, but really, nothing compares to the trashy awesomeness that is Real Housewives of New Jersey. I still cannot believe Teresa threw that table! lol
In other news, I'm working on a paper that I am sooo ready to be done with. Ack! Should stop tooling around LJ for now, I suppose....Current Mood:  bored |
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I just got the news today. I'm still in shock. Just the other day I was thinking of the folks I look so much forward to seeing at cons, and of course Minotaur is high up on that list. I can't claim to have known him extremely well, certainly not as well as I would have liked, but I did think of him as a fond acquaintance, a friendly face at cons, and he always had a big smile ready for me on the occasions I was fortunate enough to see him.
The first time I met ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) minotaurs in person was at the last ConneXions. (Although, like many of us in slash fandom, my first encounter with Minotaur had been through happening upon his Sex Tips for Slash Writers website, an invaluable resource to me especially back when I was just starting to get my feet wet writing slash.) We were two of the last folks to leave the con on Sunday, and so I got to spend maybe an hour or so chit-chatting with him in the hotel lobby, sharing reflections on the weekend, talking about fic, etc. I can't remember many details from the conversation, other than that I remember him being the warm, funny, kind person we all know him to have been. I also attended Minotaur's panel on Sex Tips for Slash Writers that year, and benefited greatly from it! What a generous person he was to provide us with his insight and knowledge, and put up with our silliest questions!
I co-modded a panel with minotaurs at the first con.txt, and I remember that was a lot of fun. The panel was called "Fandom and Technology" so of course it was right up Stuart's alley. As much as I enjoyed sharing my knowledge with the attendees, I learned a lot there, too.
It's honestly a little hard for me to imagine slash fandom without Minotaur in it. I'd always thought of him as a nice, kind, funny guy whom I would like the chance to get to know better, and since we both were in slash fandom and attended cons regularly, I figured I would have plenty of chances to do that. I still haven't quite processed the idea that I won't be seeing him at cons anymore, or reading anymore of his sharp, witty, or sometimes just plain silly livejournal posts. I smiled today when I paused to look back at his last few posts; together, they are just so... Minotaur.
My heart goes out to all of his close friends and I am so saddened by your loss. Many of you are my personal friends and I am going to hug you so tight the next time I see you.
I am so incredibly shocked and saddened. Minotaur, we miss you dearly.
Current Mood: crushed |
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The word on the street is that Shia LaBeouf (love him!) is dating R&B singer Rihanna. And everywhere I go on the internet to follow up the rumors, I see people making stupid comments that they don't "mesh" well, that they're a "weird" couple, that Rihanna doesn't seem to be his "type."
Gosh, I have no idea what they really mean. Shame I left my secret decoder ring at home. [/sarcasm]
That reminds me that I need to put Disturbia on my to-buy list. I'm compiling quite the Shia library. Why don't people listen to me more when I say that someone's going to become huge? I've been saying that since the only work Shia had under his belt was Even Stevens, and now he's going to be Indiana's son in Indiana Jones 4.Current Mood:  annoyed |
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 Current Mood:  amused |
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I haven't seen it yet, but it just occurred to me that if it is in the least bit slashy, I will just go BONKERS. Yeah, that's right. BONKERS. It has also occurred to me that it's gotta be at least somewhat slashy, right? Russell, God bless him, has never been one to shy away from a little homoeroticism here and there, and Christian, well... three words. Velvet. Fucking. Goldmine. I can't believe Yuma has Christian Bale, too. Yeah, he would be my other big favorite, besides RC. As if I didn't love him enough for American Psycho, dude had to go and be frickin' BATMAN. More importantly, I just imagine these two guys having oodles of chemistry, and then add the whole, criminal/lawman dynamic. squee!
Most of y'all didn't know me in the heyday of my Russell Crowe gripping insanity fixation. I just.... Yeah. My name is Sydni, and I've been a Crowecaine addict since 1995, ever since he starred in Virtuosity. The loveliness of that is that I was able to parlay that addiction into a) working on the set of A Beautiful Mind (I still have some fake snow and leaves from the set. Weird, I know), b) meeting the man and talking to him briefly about what a fan I was of his work and of his band at the time, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, c) getting him to sign one of his band's CDs, and d) eventually seeing him play in a small club in NYC with a later band (or later config of the same band, whatever), The Ordinary Fear of God. And you know, last spring when I finally had the money and opportunity to hear him sing, I thought, OK--I have completed this journey. It didn't feel like there was much left for me, after that. I had already left the online fandom some years ago, although I must admit to taking a peek at the boards and such every now and then (and I am subbed to two lj comm's).
The point of all this being, anyway, here I was thinking that perhaps having all those wonderful experiences, and then the disappointment of A Good Year, had really marked the bittersweet end of an era. But if the coming months are anywhere near as good as I expect them to be.... There's 3:10 to Yuma, and then, God help me, there's American Gangster! Aah! Russell and Denzel have SOMUCHGODDAMNCHEMISTRYOMGOMGOMG. Virtuosity is just so wonderful. There's a scene where Russell leers at Denzel and says, "You're the only guy on my dance card." LEERS, I say. I don't know what I'm going to do.
LEERS! |
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painless_j is lovely. She didn't mind me stumbling across her ij via my friends of friends list and demanding a letter! *g*
The meme is: comment and I'll give you a letter. In your journal, list 10 of your favourite songs that begin with that letter.
painless_j gave me an "H," so in no particular order....
1. Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen
2. Howling at the Trouble, by Richard Shindell
3. Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi, by Jim White
4. Happytown (All Right With Me), by Dave Carter
5. Hard Headed Woman, by Elvis Presley
6. Harold the Barrel, by Genesis
7. Here Comes the Flood, by Peter Gabriel
8. Heavens, by James
9. Humbled in Love, by Leonard Cohen
10. Human Nature, by Michael Jackson
There aren't that many songs that start with "H," so I thought I was getting off easy, but that was still tough! I would have added "Humdrum," by Peter Gabriel, to the list, but he's already got numbers 6 and 7 so I think he'll live. ;-)
Aug. 16th, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
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| » The bum's rush. |
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There's nothing like YouTube to help feed a growing fixation.
Not safe for work, and featuring James Nesbitt's impossibly adorable bum, as he dances adorably and plays air guitar. Adorably.
Aug. 15th, 2007 @ 02:00 pm
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| » It's like sex. Only there's a winner. |
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I have tons of work to do, which usually means one thing: procrastination levels are high.
After watching the first two eps of the BBC show Jekyll, I just couldn't take the suspense anymore. I'm horrible at mystery/cliffhanger type shows. I could never get into Lost. My reaction tends to be, "You know what? You don't want to tell me whodunnit? Fine then! Don't!" And then I promptly lose interest. That tendency was starting to come into play here, definitely. I just had had had to know how it all ends. And not in a, Ooh, I wonder what happens next, kind of way. More in a, This level of anxiety is not at all pleasurable, tell me NOW, kind of a way. Because that's just how I get with suspense thrillers.
Anyway.
So, I did download the rest of Jekyll and watch it, and without being spoilery at all, OH MY GOD was that good. I need to stop collecting new favorite actors of British television. Just when I thought David Morrissey from Blackpool was about all I could handle, James Nesbitt comes along. He is WONDERFUL and I want to know where he's been all my life.
I've seen tons of Jekyll bases floating around. I'm gonna need to snag one and make myself an icon.
I also found a modern adaptation of Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" that Nesbitt starred in back in 2003. It was wonderful, and it also featured Billie Piper ("Rose Taylor," from Doctor Who).
Jekyll happens to be written by the brilliant Stephen Moffatt, who also wrote my favorite (and the creepiest) Doctor Who episode--the one with the gas masked children from World War I. Creepy!
And besides, how can you not love a show that has dialogue like this?
Hyde: Ever killed anyone, Benjamin?
Benjamin: Not personally. I have people.
Hyde: You're missing out. It's like sex. Only there's a winner.
Aug. 14th, 2007 @ 06:20 pm
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| » Good love gone bad: thoughts on Strikethrough07. |
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There's a new "clarification" of policy up in the lj_biz livejournal comm. Some are feeling optimistic but actually, realizing how weary I felt while reading it just drove it home that I have lost pretty much all trust I might have ever had in the folks behind LiveJournal. I was worried ever since Brad sold the company, but I would have liked to have been proven wrong.
I'm actually somewhat offended by LJ going on about how we all have to see that we're on the same side and members of the same community. I just don't believe that. I think that if TPTB at LJ were on my side, or on my friends' side, or on my community's side, they wouldn't ignore us for months, or try to hoodwink us with boldthroughs, or let the specter of instant deletion hang over our heads like the Sword of Damacles. I just don't think they would.
I am so very tired of LJ's "customer service" reps behaving as though it were a great chore or favor to respond to our concerns. It doesn't make me feel like a valued customer, let me tell ya.
All of that is fine. LiveJournal doesn't have to value my business. They can sanitize their site and make it ad-friendly if they want. I just hope that many of my friends do make the move over to InsaneJournal and we can put down roots there, because if I stay on LJ, it will be with a heavy heart and a real sense of defeat. Fandom is supposed to be fun.
It just shouldn't be this hard.
Aug. 14th, 2007 @ 01:23 am
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| » alternate journal round-up |
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I am now Sydni_64 on insanejournal, greatestjournal, journalfen, and of course, livejournal. Right now I'm focusing on setting myself up so I can use insanejournal as a primary journal as soon as such a shift should become necessary, but I'll be sticking around here as well until I figure out what exactly will be happening with all the different fandoms I'm in. I'll be using Semagic to crosspost on all four journals, however.
Aug. 12th, 2007 @ 09:52 pm
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| » It's just Bolognese!!! |
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I had a lovely weekend with elmyraemilie, 829creatch, gblvr, and sara_merry99. Two of the fannish highlights were that a) I got to show them one of the slashiest episodes of any television show ever aired, ever, "The Friendship," an episode of Bonanza wherein Little Joe takes home *ahem!* a pet... and b) we watched Hot Fuzz which was so much damn fun I just could not believe it. "It's just Bolognese!!!"
The weekend also kickstarted some much-needed fanac energy in me, and I'm writing a short Fry/Laurie fic so I can get back to work on that fanfic100 challenge I've been so distracted from working on.
Today, I watched two episodes of Jekyll on BBCAmerica. OMG, that show is not really very slashy but it is SO GOOD! Like actually good. Like, in a "quality television" sort of way, but then it's also just deliciously wonderful. I don't know where they found that main actor but I hope they are throwing boatloads of money at him because he is brilliant and the show would have really no chance of working without him. He can turn on a dime (a much-appreciated quality in someone playing a character based on Dr. Jeckyll!).
Aug. 12th, 2007 @ 09:18 pm
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| » Happy B-day! |
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Happy Birthday, arallara!!
Aug. 10th, 2007 @ 06:25 pm
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| » permanent insanejournal accounts |
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(crossposted to my gj, lj, and ij)
So, how many folks have bought a permanent ij, or are planning to? I noticed that the price has gone up recently (it's $40 now--I thought it was $30 just a few days ago?). I don't wanna wait around for it to cost megabucks, but as much as I'm up for supporting a good cause, I don't have the funds to spend $40 on a permanent journal if fandom's going to be somewhere else in a month. So, yeah, no way to gauge these things, obviously, except for in a supremely unscientific poll of my flists. Who all's bought a permanent ij so far?
Aug. 10th, 2007 @ 01:44 am
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| » "Crowe's man-love stuns Bunnies." |
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There is nothing quite like finding RPS in the wild.
From news.com.au, Crowe's man-love stuns Bunnies. The story includes a picture of Russell leaning in to hug a player, with the caption, "Hello sailor ... Big Dell had been warned Russell Crowe didn't care if people were watching."
A related article in The Daily Telegraph is titled, Crowe advocates free love, and begins, "GLADIATORIAL movie star Russell Crowe introduced a "love-in" to South Sydney's early-season training in an attempt to inject passion to the battling team.
Crowe, part-owner of the club with multi-millionaire businessman Peter Holmes a Court, told the players "love will make the difference" and then singled out forward Dean Widders for a hug.
"I love you, Dean Widders," said Crowe, who went on to extol the virtues of the footballer. "I totally, fundamentally believe this (love) is my core," the actor told the players.
"The thing that will make the difference is love . . . "
Aug. 9th, 2007 @ 10:30 am
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| » Cross-posting across journal sites. |
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So, I'm getting myself set up to be mobile and flexible in case there is a fandom migration. snapetoy over on greatest journal posted instructions on posting to multiple sites all at once, so this is my first experiment in that. That will be immensely useful because it means it won't be too much of a pain even to post on several sites (although I have yet to find anything that will make managing friends lists any easier. sigh).
Aug. 6th, 2007 @ 02:21 pm
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| » gacked from blackbird_song |
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</form>
Aug. 6th, 2007 @ 01:48 pm
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| » GJ |
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By the by,
About four years ago, I set up a GreatestJournal account. It looks like strikethrough07 should blow over, but should anything ever happen, I'm sydni_64 on GJ, as well.
May. 31st, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
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| » Let me clarify: I am NOT in favor of strikethrough07. |
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Most of what I would say has already been said, so I won't repeat it. I just want to say something about the CEO's apology this morning.
Barak writes the following:
Both in the instructions for profiles and in other places on the site we make it clear that interests listed should be evaluated within the context of “I like x”, “I’m in favor of x” or “I support x”. http://news.livejournal.com/99159.html
At best, he is stretching the truth--at worst, he is cynically rewriting history. Of course, he doesn't point out exactly what the "other places" are, and I haven't read all of LiveJournal, but the Edit Profile has only this to say:
Short single-word phrases are best.
Rule of thumb: You should be able to put the interest in the sentence "I like ________".
When referring to nouns, use the plural form for consistency, e.g.: "I like DVDs" instead of "I like DVD".
It is abundantly clear that the "I like ____" formulation was put forward as a grammatical model. It was not put forward as an interpretive model for how to evaluate the interests someone lists. To suggest otherwise seems more than disingenuous. It's a lie, and a bad one.
I'm no mindreader--I can't say whether or not Barak's apology is truly sincere, but it bothers me that he would make this bad excuse. It casts a pall on the rest of his note--the message becomes, "Look, we're really sorry, but you know, you all brought this on yourselves."
The case just can't be made that it was always *obvious* that interests are supposed to include all and only those things which we like (which itself is a stupid rule, but others have covered that topic well). Barak's excuse is transparent and, dare I say it, a tad pathetic, and I can only hope that he'll retract it and apologize without resorting to these sad justifications.
May. 31st, 2007 @ 10:39 am
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| » error message |
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So, I've been working my way through the first two seasons of Boston Legal. I watched them as they aired, although actually I've been noticing that there are a few here and there that I'd missed.
I'm watching BL 217, "There's Fire," and there is a lovely little scene at the beginning where Alan is tying Denny's bowtie for him. And he says to him, huskily, "I can't do it this way. Turn around."
*ahem!*
So, yeah. That is my new error message sound on the computer. Much better than that minor chord "BLANG!"
May. 6th, 2007 @ 08:56 pm
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| » Oh, PAD. |
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http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/005317.html
Yeah, I'm unsubbing from Peter David's blog. I can't read this stuff anymore. He's always saying something I find really offensive that I then end up spending the rest of the day trying to pretend that he didn't say so I can still like him. Not that I'm going to deprive myself of a good Star Trek novel over my differences with him, though.
Apr. 16th, 2007 @ 09:12 am
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