I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

Reposting from julet316:

Somebody with this website is reposting several authors/fanartists fics on there without listing the name of the authors/fanartists on there and apparently in most cases, without permission. I've seen a good number of stories/fanart I'm familar with on the site (all of them most likely swiped from LJ and LJ comms as several LJ links to the original authors LJs are still attached), so if your fic/art is there I'd definitely tell this person to take it down immediately.

They're apparently justifying their wholesale reposts by saying that the Creative Commons Licence applies to everything on the internet, and it would be "too hard" to ask permission of 1000 authors.

*headdesk*

Awesome post: You can check my credentials if I can check yours.

I just realized that my attitude towards geekishness is the same as my attitude towards Christians: if someone identifies as one, they ARE one. They may not be the same flavour of geek or Christian as I am, but if they wear the (metaphorical) badge, then I will treat them as a brother/sister in that circle. Mind you, that includes calling them out on bad behaviour, but if you wear the badge, you have a responsibility towards that badge, too.

This whole "fake geek girl" thing - the "testing" especially - reminds me of the attitude in certain conservative Christian circles: that if one does not give the "correct" (i.e. approved) answer to some given question about Doctrine (i.e. dogma) then one is deemed to be "unsound". My father got that more than once in his early career (being an Old Testament scholar). He tended to be too conservative for the liberals and too liberal for the conservatives.

This sour exclusivity is an attitude I simply cannot comprehend.

I've never been subjected to a "fake geek girl" test, probably because I'm not in comics fandom, where this particular form of misogyny runs rampant. If anyone ever did try to do that, I'd give them a piece of my mind. I am very confident in my geek cred. If Saint Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, I'm a geek of geeks.

Let me turn a geekish spin onto Philippians 3:2-7 here...

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evildoers, beware of the fake geeks; for we are the true geeks, who are enthusiastic and welcoming, and rejoice in the things we love, and put no confidence in geek tests, although I myself might have confidence even in geek tests. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in geek tests, I far more: I listened to The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia stories before I could read, and can quote whole swathes of them; as to technical prowess, a professional programmer for more than twenty years(*); as to fannishness, a convention goer, a convention panellist, a costume maker, a fan writer, a reviewer, a fan artist, a fanzine editor, an owner of mailing lists, an organizer of ficathons. But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of being welcoming to newbies and making fandom a fun place to be.

So there.

(*) A line I would love to use: "I've been programming since BEFORE YOU WERE BORN!"

If you've read enough Severus Snape/Hermione Granger fanfic(*), I'm sure you've seen it. That moment when Hermione suddenly becomes aware of Severus as A MAN. He's standing near her, and she notices for the first time, his scent: sandalwood. Some stories add the scent of "herbs" and/or "potion ingredients". Some stories even add an undertone of something which is "purely masculine".

( I even have examples )
( Sandalwood. Really? )

fancake is a multi-fandom themed rec comm.
The way this works is that every month (from the 15th of the month to the 15th of the next month) there is a theme, such as "crossovers", "female characters", "complete AU" etc. This month it is "minor characters".
People then post recs from any fandom, of any rating or type, so long as it fits the theme.
And all recs are tagged. And an even more complete set of tagging is done on the comm's pinboard account. So it makes it easy to look for fic of the kind you like.

Kind of like having a multi-fandom SSHG Quiz. Only it's monthly instead of weekly, there's more than ten recs per theme, and there isn't any quiz.

For someone like me who is very eclectic in her fandoms... yes, I like.
Check it out. And if you wish, join and make some recs.

P.S. For this month's theme, Snape counts as a "minor character". (hint hint) Though Hermione doesn't.

P.P.S. wneleh you have been recced. And not even by me!

Last Worldcon I went to, I saw a number of people wearing lovely steampunk costumes. Every now and then I contemplate putting together a steampunk costume of my own. Probably not as Period or conformist as most - I can't really see myself making a Victorian Ladies' walking dress, though I could probably rustle up a skirt, blouse and vest of some sort.

But the fun and interesting part would be the accoutrements. I have already taken the first step on this journey by purchasing for myself a fully working clockwork fob-watch. And I've ordered some faux-metal goggles, as one does. At some point, I will probably get myself a top hat, and decorate it.

Looking around on places like Etsy, it seems as if the standard things are:
- fob watch
- goggles
- hat decorated with brass cogs etc.
- pendant/brooch made of clock innards (I'm not interested in this, as I have a fob watch I can wear as a pendant if I want)
- steampunkish ray guns

Now... I don't want a ray gun, because conventions nowadays don't let you wear weapons, even fake weapons. But I would like to have or make a gizmo that is as impressive as a ray gun, but which isn't a weapon. But what?

Ideas, ideas please!

Signs in fanfic that mean I should stop reading the story, because it won't be worth finishing it. I don't always listen to myself, though.
( here are the signs )

Had a lovely afternoon with reynardo, whom I met face-to-face for the first time (only a few days after we realized we lived in the same city). We ate gelato, and talked about everything from SSHG (OF COURSE) to tech support to craft to private schools, to Linus Torvaldis's first encounter with penguins, to Macquarie University (and whether my father had taught anyone she knew) and, well, lots of stuff. Then she drove me home because she was concerned that I'd be caught in the Big Thunderstorm that was coming, and I invited her in for a cuppa, and we talked some more. She smiled at the Avon picture in the hallway, and pounced on my Tomorrow People DVDs.

Hopefully we will do something similar again soon.

Now that I've been reading through the fandom_wank info on Mr. Mander, I've been inspired to write a limerick.

There once was a fellow called Mander
Whose dealings were lacking in candour
He made secret plans
To monetize fans
But they saw through his cheap propaganda.

There's been a lot of fail and outrage in fandom recently.

1. There is FAIL.
2. OUTRAGE ensues.
3. Failer becomes defensive and perpetrates more FAIL.
4. OUTRAGE doubles.
5. Failer's friends protest and perpetrate additional FAIL.
6. OUTRAGE triples.
7. Optimistic fools wonder aloud why we can't all just be friends.
8. OUTRAGE quadruples, this time directed at those who are outrageous enough not to join in the OUTRAGE.
( Read more... )
ETA: Due to this post being linked to by metafandom and becoming a classic example of Step 8 of the above cycle, this post has been f-locked.

ETA 2: I've changed my mind after calming down and some positive advice. This entry is no longer f-locked, but comments are frozen, and new comments are screened.

Thanks to musesfool for the link to this amusing post about (lack of) feedback.