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| First, thank you so much to the mods and coders for running the best fic exchange year and year! Second, sometimes it pays to be on Pacific Standard Time, as I've already made my mad dash way through a quarter of my favorite fandoms. Recs in Better Off Ted, Castle, Chuck, Community, Dead Poets Society, The Big Bang Theory, and the Temeraire series here. Happy Yuletide reading, everyone! - the best of us are geniuses of compression:recs
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| My little brother found my journal a couple of days ago. If there are some really weird anonymous comments on here, that is why. It is usually best to ignore him. YOU HEARD ME, ELI. * Yuletide has arrived, and we totally killed the servers. At least one of my stories is surpassed wildly by the other fic written to the same prompt. But I'm lucky in that because it's the one fic I would rather have read than written. So I am not even all that jealous. I wrote four fics this year, all three others being full pinch hits. One of my pinch hits was much longer than my actual story, sadly. I think it would be PRETTY EASY to guess mine for those who have been getting Yuletide bulletins on the filter, but, you know, other people are free to try. Since I didn't really make ![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) dark_agenda this year, I'm already planning one NYR. How healthy is that? Um, not very. But hell, why not. * My gifts: Both for Gunnerkrigg Court, and both Annie/Kat to some degree, and both so lovely and sweet! I am so grateful to my authors, who both clearly read my letter inside and out and gave me exactly, exactly what I was looking for. * Turn is -- it feels like Young Wizards fic, or at least the conclusion does. Annie and Kat are very Nita and Kit about getting together, which is a compliment, believe me, and the robot cameos and Reynardine's characterization are delicious. And they ended it with the antimony sigil! * Conversations About Boys, which features these lines that I wish to frame on my wall, The older they got, the harder it was not to feel awkward when they were together. Not awkward-bad. Just awkward-awkward. Kat figured that it must be down to biology, or one of the more annoying, squishy-soft sciences. Annie's just worried that Kat picks bad boys. Out of concern! Kind, impartial concern, and also, TRUE LOVE. Teenaged, hilarious, sweet, and very them. And packed full of science metaphors. Some things I've managed to read so far that I liked: ( a billion recs. eli, seriously, stop reading this entry )( comments on Dreamwidth) | |
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| I've been getting a lot of mileage out of describing this book in person, so I guess I will do the same here. Eeeee Eee Eeee is an avant-garde novel about depression: not Depression with a capital D, but different manifestations of major clinical depression which are represented in the novel by different animals. For instance, people who often worry about contributing to the sum total of evil in the Universe - who don't eat at MacDonalds because they know the money will go towards opening more MacDonalds franchises in Japan where formerly healthy middle school students will get hooked on Big Macs and get fat and die - are Dolphins. The authorial stand-in, Andrew, is a Bear... I was reading some reviews of Tao Lin's work that said it's about the Major Problem of modern life in the Web age, which is that we can do anything but end up doing nothing. I don't really agree - more on this later - but I could see the reviewers' point in a scene where a Bear rips the roof off Andrew's car, then promises "$100 and a free laptop computer" if he'll follow down a trapdoor. ( Read more... )What else. Sabina and I talked about the resemblance between Tao Lin' writing style and the Hipster Runoff writing style, and whether it was a coincidence or whether one inspired the other. Her take was that "the argument against the hipster thing is that they're faking it because they're afraid of committing emotionally. but if you can't commit emotionally because you're super depressed, it might sound the same but it comes from somewhere different. and anyway, I'm sure lots of hipsters are depressed." R's take on all this is that she's disgusted with the author, because he has obviously given up on ever not being depressed. She says, speaking from experience, that if you make something like depression a core part of your personality, you're never going to be able to put it aside. Jony's take is that she's sick of hearing about Tao Lin just because he went to NYU (she's a student there). My final thoughts on Eeeee Eee Eeee are that it's short, interesting... and infectious. The book is a very pure example of books are supposed to be: it's a communication straight from Tao Lin's brain to yours. If he can't change himself, he'll change the world, until THE WORLD understands HIM. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed this book, and felt inspired to write... fifteen hundred words that I threw away because they sounded too much like Tao Lin. ^^v If the book has a "flaw" that will keep it from being widely picked up (as many short, easy to read, philosophical books are) it's that there's no take-away lesson. Tao Lin takes you to a sad, lonely place but doesn't tell you where to go from there. There is no solution -- except maybe to open up a page in Internet Explorer and start writing. **** What a post for Christmas Eve. ^^; But I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. Merry Christmas, everyone! PS I reserve the right to edit this post sometime that's not 4am. | |
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| Because of the heavy load on the server, we are choosing not to open Yuletide Madness 2009 until sometime tomorrow! | |
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| Please remember that individual thanks for stories, single recs, and any discussion of the reccing process should be posted to your individual journals and not the yuletide comm! | |
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|  Merry Christmas to my wonderful, fantastic flist! It's just after midnight here and time for bed. Tomorrow (later today?) there will be family, friends, fun, food, and probably other things that start with f. Have a great day, everyone! :D - the best of us are geniuses of compression:real life
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| The ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) yuletide archive is officially live (and presumable the madness collection will be soon, once we're no longer killing the site)! And there are 2762 stories this year that are 1000+ words, not to mention another 666 that are less than a 1000 words. That's 3428 total stories, people! 3428! And some absolutely awesome person wrote end of these hammers and needles for me! It's a ReBoot fic! AndrAIa/Enzo Matrix, during their journey through the games! And it's absolutely brilliant! On the ricstar front, stories are live as well. I got two absolutely wonderful fics from that as well, A Formal Introduction and Dream a Little Dream of Me. I'm still making my way through the list, but there are some awesome stories so far. - the best of us are geniuses of compression:ficathon: yuletide
- be the song you hear in your head:excited
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| I think we killed it. - be the song you hear in your head:sleepy
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| LUKE: Where's Leia?
HAN: I thought she was with you.
LUKE: We got separated.
ME: At birth! HAH! *jazz hands*
GRACE: ...oh my god.
Grace gave me New Super Mario Bros. Wii for Christmas, but I'm not playing because my favorite movie ever is on TV. I also got the Doc Martens 20 eye boots I've wanted since I was thirteen but never actually got. | |
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| I just wanted to post a big huge thank you. To the admins. Who did an amazing, outstanding job. This is my first year of yuletide. And it's huge, and it's exciting as anything. And you guys run it in such a way as to make it possible for all, regulars (I have friends! I know!) and newbies (like me) alike to enjoy it and feel the buzz. To the coders. Which I don't know if they overlap with the above group? But as somebody who is in the software writing industry? I have an inkling what creating and improving something like AO3 would be like, and I'm duly impressed... and quadruply so by the way fix were located, explained, and fixed. And to the system administrators. Go you! To all who wrote. Because presents are an awesome awesome thing. And also? You guys came up with prompts that had me happy to want to write them. Thank you all. You guys rock! *sits back to wait for the presents to be openable* :D ETA: The not-creepy version of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kittydesade's idea: astolat and elynross, do you have some charities that you favor, so we - whoever so may wish - can make a donation from your name by way of thank you? ETA2: As pointed out by jozpierce, AO3 also takes (we think?) donations. Which definitely would go as a thank-you to the coders, one way or another. (Edit on the edit: ignazwisdom: Donations to the OTW, the parent organization that operates the AO3, can be made at the How You Can Help page. ) ETA3: As brought to our attention by akamine_chan: Also, most Yuletiders have no idea how much work the AO3 Tag Wranglers have put into getting everything ready and organized so that Yuletide would work. Kudos, guys! - the best of us are geniuses of compression:thankyous
- be the song you hear in your head:bouncy
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| In an attempt to feel more festive, I've just watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, that Simpsons episode with Santa's Little Helper and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It almost worked! I'm sure I'll be around tomorrow to flail about Doctor Who, since our relatives actually aren't visiting until January, but in the meantime: Merry Christmas!
Christmas Day is in our grasp so long as we have hands to clasp
Christmas Day will always be, just as long as we have we
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| Remember, authors, do not reply to your comments until after the author reveal on January 1st! Keep the secret! *g* | |
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| You guys are so incredibly awesome, I don't have words. Every time we ask for more, you come through, and we think we finally have everyone covered with a full-length story! The 2009 collections will be closed to uploading and the stories will go live in roughly 40 minutes (around 1am Eastern US time). - Notifications will go out to the people that the archive can find! And a more general notification to alert everyone. You will be able to search for yourself on the works page, keeping in mind the pseud issues.
- Please remember: do not respond to comments on your stories until after January 1st, when author names will be revealed.
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- dhobikikutti: Yuletide Bears: The Now That You've Uploaded Edition - The
TRUFAX Completely Imaginary List of Reasons Why My Recipient Will Hate My Fic -
- girlpearl: Pretty much exactly what I was talking about - And then Mel said that sometimes it's like watching a movie that was made 20 years ago, and how even if it's set in the future or in the past, in period costume and all, it still looks & feels like a movie made 20 years ago, and that with fandom moving so fast, you can get that over just a couple years or even months, sometimes. -
- lynns118: [in kirkspock] Discussion on Feedback - So, my question, what is your thoughts on giving feedback? What are your rules? If you think someone's story is badly written, are you comfortable telling them that? Have you ever responded to feedback in a negative way (whether you were the author or just another person who read the story). Or, as an author, what kind of feedback do you prefer? -
- cruiscin_lan: Hey writers. Let me poll your brains. - For anyone who has ever written before, this one's for you. We'll be playing it fast and loose with definitions, so don't stress it too much. I'm just wondering what you write, why, and how. -
- zvi: Comment repost - I seriously don't understand why the presence of social justice meta, even a lot of it, even only tangentially related to what we usually think of as fannish [and, I think the Russophobia is actually pretty in line with what metafandom did Back In The Day, because the journaling systems have been part of the fannish conversation on metafandom from the beginning] is seen as in a zero sum with Old School navelgazing self-reflective meta. -
- jane_elliot: [in epic_rants] *sob*"I don't think anything on this list is less than 1000 words, so I hope everyone likes long fics."
This is not the first time I've seen something along these lines and it really pains me that these days a fic of 1,001 words can actually be called "long".
- alias_sqbr: Gen, romance and a happy ending - what I'm really after is the characters going through a major positive change in themselves and their lives leading to a satisfying happily-ever-after ending(*). It's much easier to do this with a romantic plot, they're disproportionately involving and there's this strong cultural belief that finding your true love=happy ever after. -
- sheenaghpugh: Forgiving the Bastard - People differ, of course, in what they find unforgivable, and one woman's Forgivable Bastard is another's bete noire with no redeeming features. -
- queenzulu: I have two expectations: safety and respect. - I am sad that she will listen to her friends because that is far easier than taking responsibility for her actions. I am sad that most of the commenters will tell her that racist acts--as long as they are "jokes"--are okay. That silencing people who "dare" to be hurt by racism is okay. -
- ticcyyy: Srsly - If people have to be silent about these real issues in fandom because it upsets those who are having "fun" or because it hurts someone's feelings to have their grossly misguided and priviledged opinions challenged, that is so fucking backwards I can't even. People should NOT be afraid to speak up about issues that MATTER. -
- toft: I also love that it's been over an hour and I'm only halfway through - I really do think Yuletide is an amazing time to see fandom. It's just - you look at all this stuff, all these weird, specific requests for these weird, specific fandoms that people have, and there's so much imagination out there, so much love and creative desire. -
- cupidsbow: Narcissism and vidding - Anyway, I wonder if other vidders got started because they wanted certain stories; so they made them, and then rewatched them over and over (the way I used to watch my favourite SGA vids, now that I think about it). -
- lian: so, metafandom - There's just this sense of entitlement and disappointment in these posts that I don't quite grok, because I don't see mf in these strictly top-down terms. -
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| I defaulted, I'm a horrible human being. I know. But I wrote a few Madness ficlets. I just never took the time to get an invite to the archive and the deadline is approaching very quickly. Can someone post these for me? | |
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| lol, today I had it brought to my attention first that cosplay.com wants people to give them money for ~*special memberships*~ now. And then I had it brought to my attention that you can get a showcase photo there without
a) actually making a costume that looks like anything that appears in the franchise you're cosplaying.
b) putting on a wig or even having anything remotely similar to the correct haircolor or style.
I'm a little puzzled as to what services c.com thinks it's capable of providing that are worth money when they can't even google a character before showcasing a costume of them.
Anyway, I lol'd. - the best of us are geniuses of compression:random
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| For unforeseeable reasons, we are now down stories for several participants. I'll be sending out pinch hits on these to the new list (because our auto-sender is still directed there), forwarded to the older list if necessary. A couple of the folks in question have people from #yuletide racing to write something, but at this point, the more the merrier!
We had planned for uploading to close, and the archive to open, close to midnight US Eastern time. This may delay that. We will try to give at least 15-20 minutes warning before uploads close, but don't plan to go past midnight! | |
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| I haven't thought about this question until this very moment. The schedule says "December 25th: archive goes live with anonymous stories!" I thought that was great until I tried to figure out what time on Dec. 25th. Now my brain hurts. I can't find an answer anywhere. Did I miss a previous post that would answer my question?
Yippy Yule, y'all! | |
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| Feliz Navidad, if you celebrate it; Happy Hannukah, if you have, and happy winter thoughts everyone's way, if you celebrate something else or not anything specific!
(Here's hoping I can work my "handheld device" well enough to post this. I suspect NO.)
Thank you for being in my life, guys. | |
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♥ M e r r y C h r i s t m a s ♥
- the best of us are geniuses of compression:tomblog
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