I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

From astrogirl2:

Let's play this game where you guess my favourite tropes and fictional character types.

Those of you who know me, or know my fic, what patterns are you seeing?

This may be a challenge for some of you, because I'm pretty multi-fannish, so I could hardly expect people to have read all my works. Please give it a go anyway, because I'm CURIOUS.

...a song comes up on your randomplay, you listen to it, you listen to it again, thinking "This would be a fantastic song to do a filk of!"
And then you listen to it two more times.
And then you go onto youtube and find different versions of it.

Let Her Go Down (Steeleye Span)
Let Her Go Down (Hollies)
Let Her Go Down (The Irish Descendents)

(watervole take note!)

Yesterday, I was reading Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be and the following passage struck me:

Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It’s the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”

I thought, I am a geek for Christ.
( Read more... )

There is a common mistake in so many mysteries, whether classic or SF-themed (Original Trek was particularly guilty of this): that the thing they're looking at (whether it be a mysterious curse, an unknown poison, a strange lifeform, or something else) is COMPLETELY UNLIKE anything else they've ever encountered. The writer doesn't realize that (a) such a thing is extremely unlikely and (b) such uniqueness actually makes the mystery EASIER to solve, because rather than looking for a needle in a haystack, they're looking for an echidna in a haystack. The real thing that makes a mystery harder to solve is when the phenomenon is not unique, but when it is very similar to other things, so similar that it could have multiple causes. When the phenomenon is unique and one can't find out anything about it, it shouldn't be a cause for despair. The lack of data is data in itself, because it eliminates a whole slew of possibilities that one now doesn't need to waste time investigating.

Why do I say this? I say this from my experience as a computer programmer, which means I have decades of practice in detection - of bugs in computer programs.

Here are a few rules of thumb that I've learned over the years:

* The most common explanation is the most likely. Investigate that first.
* Contrariwise, don't assume that the most common explanation is what happened; actually investigate it.
* Witnesses are unreliable; they will tell you what they think caused the incident, not what actually happened. Skill in questioning witnesses is required.
* When doing experiments, one must reproduce the original problem, preferably in a similar but cut-down form, whether that be experiments on mice or specially-written test programs, or whatever else. Otherwise one can't be sure that the proposed solution is an actual "cure".

Yet another attempt to monetize fandom: fanfic.me

Because settiai put it better than me:
If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to read The City Boy, the Peasant Women, and the Dragon in the Tower - A Fable. (Basically, it's an amusing summary of the whole Keith Mander, Lord of the Rings, fanfiction archive for profit mess. If you've somehow missed that story until now, I congratulate you. And point you toward Fandom Wank.)

In other news, yes, I still have a wretched cold.

I have stayed out of the warnings debate and have only been following it at a remove (witnessing incredibly bad behaviour firsthand is bad for my blood pressure). I've been around for earlier rounds of the warning debate, but this is the first time the question of triggers versus preferences has come up, and it has been enlightening. PTSD is serious, folks!

So, two things:
1) I don't have warnings on my stories, because, as far as I know, I haven't written any stuff that needs warnings. Should I go through all the stories on my site and add "Warnings: nothing" to all my stories? Am I mistaken in thinking that I haven't written anything triggery?
What do you think?

2) winterweathered has created a community called ficsafezone, the purpose of which is to help people who have specific triggers vet stories without warnings (see community profile and sample post). I like this idea, I hope it works, because even if fans do start warning their stories better, there are still going to be stories out there which don't have warnings, and this could help bridge the gap.

The Smith Awards voting is now open! The Smith Awards is a nifty idea; voting is done by anonymous reviews, which means one gets actual reasons to go with the votes, and one ends up with a whole bunch of reviews at the end. Which is cool.

So go and join in!

Because I'm curious.
If you had me at your beck and call, and could induce me to write a story for you, what would you want me to write? Do not include impossible ideas, such as fandoms I don't know, or ratings and genres I don't write.

And, no, this is not an offer, I'm just curious. Mind you, if you had a compelling, killer idea, maybe that would get the Muse interested...

From jedi_buttercup:
Pick up to 15 OTPs/OT3s/etc. pairings, OT3s and friendships.
Describe them in less than 15 words.
Have your flist guess the persons and fandoms.

Like jedi_buttercup, have mutated this meme to include friendships as well as "pairings". It does not include crossovers; that would make it too difficult.

1. Brains but no heart; heart but no brains. Thieves. Avon & Vila (guessed by vilakins)
2. It started with a vintage car. Larry/Megan (guessed by izhilzha)
3. One loves high open spaces, the other loves the depths. Legolas & Gimli (guessed by jhall1)
4. One could talk someone to death, the other uses explosives. 7th Doctor & Ace (guessed by astrogirl2)
5. Flirt, flower, wander.
6. Crossing swords with beer and scotch. Duncan & Methos (guessed by tptigger)
7. He taught him to use the power of the imagination.
8. They're as different as felines and canines. Jim & Blair (guessed by izhilzha)
9. Intuition versus logic; idealism versus pragmatism. Avon/Cally (guessed by astrogirl2)
10. These elements are blue and grey. Sapphire & Steel (guessed by astrogirl2)
11. One makes dead things come to life; the other makes live things dead.
12. Investigative reporters; their boss is white. Lois & Clark (guessed by jaxomsride)
13. Defending democracy with recipes and code-words. Scarecrow & Mrs King (guessed by mistraltoes)
14. She saved his life, but their relationship gives timesharing a whole new meaning. Jacob/Selmak (guessed by izhilzha)
15. He thinks she wants someone to save, but that isn't it at all.