May. 30th, 2007

bladespark: (Default)
So I stumbled upon a site that has an apparently complete collection of H. P. Lovecraft's writing. Given how much his stuff turns up in modern internet culture, as well as in various other horror, sci-fi and fantasy settings, I figured I should read some of it. It... varies greatly, it seems. The Call of Cthulhu sucked. Just plain and simple. Badly written in every way. Individual bits were dull and uninteresting, the overall plot lurched, and despite being very short, it nearly lost my attention anyhow. The only good bits are, as one might expect, the descriptions of Cthulhu himself. And that's not much, really, to carry a whole story. The Color Out of Space was okay. Not actually horrifying to the modern reader, but one can see how it could have been scary back in the day, and the period chemistry bits actually interested me quite a bit. The Cats of Ulthar was good just because cats! And it's short enough to not lose the attention. But The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath was spiffy! (Though my grammar nazi-ism wants to say it should be The Dream Quest for Unknown Kadath, as Kadath is the object of the quest, not the one doing the questing. Anyhow, it was fairly long, but I didn't mind a word of it, except perhaps for the overly lengthy exposition by Nyarlathotep at the end. You wouldn't think the crawling chaos would ramble on at length, admiring his own cleverness as he goes, but apparently he does. (And it is strange that I'm having more troble figuring out how the heck you pronounce Nyarlathotep than I ever did with Cthulhu?) But anyhow, rambling aside it was really good. More cats, ghouls that go "meep" (I giggled every time the word "meep" came up. Ghouls! That meep!) and lots of just plain weird and interesting stuff. And I understand better why Nyarlathotep was portrayed the way he was in the Call of Whatever comic.

Now, what to read next?

O.o

May. 30th, 2007 02:35 am
bladespark: (Default)
Apparently they still make Boost bars! (And apparently also call them Moro bars.) I had been told that they no longer exist. Wikipedia says they still do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_%28candy%29 The blue-wrapper biscuit variety is the sort I like. I got thorougly addicted to them while in Ireland, I had several dozen in my suitcase when I flew back, but of course even several dozen couldn't last me more than a few months, and that was in 2001. I haven't had one since. If anybody reading this can find a way to convey one to me from the UK and/or New Zealand (should the New Zealand version of them prove to involve biscuit) I would love you forever!
bladespark: (Advisory - twitchy)
So a while back livejournal sold out and started running advertisements.

I objected rather strongly to this, although I was told I was foolish for doing so, as it wouldn't affect my lj experience at all, and nobody was going to force me to get the add-enhanced journal or visit the ljs full of adds. I continued to object on the grounds that if they sold out on this, what was next?

Well, it turns out I may haven been more sadly right than I knew.

Because once you're taking money from somebody, whoever's giving you that money has leverage over you. And somebody had taken advantage of that leverage to force lj to delete hundreds of journals, mostly fandom writing journals, that had "pedophile" content, even though that content was fictional.

Yup, if you write about Harry Potter banging somebody, anybody, because good ol' Harry is under age, you can get your journal deleted.

Now me, I am not really a fan of slashfic. I roll my eyes a lot at it, I think it's silly. I've written no slash of my own unless you count joke slash written to horrify those portrayed therein. (The Bob/JJ fic I wrote back when I was fairly new to FLEET comes to mind...) And I'm even less of a fan of slashfic that's about the really icky stuff. But if censors and lawyers and crusaders against smut stop distinguishing between fiction and reality, we're in some deep trouble here. And while I am HUGELY in favor of going after actul pedophiles, people who write Harry Potter slashfic are not the ones I think we should be targeting. And honestly, even though I find those who enjoy stuff like cub and shota to be... squick-worthy, if they're only fantasizing, If they express those urges through fiction and art instead of doing something about it, then that's probably a good thing. And I really don't want to live in a world where the thought, rather than the deed, becomes the crime.

And to add to the fun, they were using interest keywords as the guide to what to delete. And weren't being very discriminating in what they took down. So even people with no actual objectionable content had their journals removed, including at least one case I've heard of where an incest rape survivor got her journal deleted, because of the keywords she had listed.

If you want more info about what's going on with this, you can find good coverage of it here and in a number of previous entries by that author, who's been talking directly with the crazy crusading group that's responsible for the whole mess.

Publicity

May. 30th, 2007 01:50 pm
bladespark: (censorship)
It has been suggested on several fronts, that as lj caved in and deleted journals because of threats of negative publicity that would drive away their corporate sponsors, that the best response is to publicise the whole thing. Caving in to a sort of financial terrorism isn't exactly the best way to avoid negative publicity.

Thus, I spread the word. Go digg it and pass it on if you care about free speech for fandom.

Because while I'm all for going after criminals, I really don't like going after people who are guilty only of "though crime."

Woot!

May. 30th, 2007 02:18 pm
bladespark: (Default)
Just got back from the clinic. Bless whatever bit of government or private charity that funds that place. I was able to see the doctor, get the results from my blood test last time, and get a perscription, all without having to pay a cent. They did ask for a donation if I could afford one, and I intend to manage to afford at least a little, because all that out of my own pocket would cost more than I'd like to think about.

Anyhow, it is my thyroid, which on the one hand, ugh. I get to take medication for the rest of my life, basically, just to feel "normal." But on the other hand, many of the other options were worse, and at least this is treatable and I can feel normal. Yay! I've got the pills for it already, I'll start taking them tomorrow. (Must be taken at the same time every day, on an empty stomach, so first thing in the morning is the best time.)

I'm told that I may be a little "jittery" at first, as my system gets used to having a normal amount of whatever it is that I'm low on. (Must look up what exactly it is at some point.) But that's fine by me, I could use a few hyper days. Just being able to not feel exhausted all the time is going to be wonderful! *dances.*
bladespark: (censorship)
Oh look! We have solid confirmation that LJ has changed their policy because of pressure put on them by advertisers.

http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/23599.html

To sum up: Prior to all this mess, somebody had reported a comment about intent to rape an underage girl. LJ's reponse was "We understand and agree that this is very disturbing, we cannot take action against a user for admitting that they have committed illegal activities or are thinking about committing illegal activities. It is not illegal to discuss illegal actions.We can only take action if the user is actively encouraging others to commit such actions, or if they are soliciting or providing information on how to do so. Because this is not the case here, we regret that we cannot take action."

The message sent to the recently suspended fandom journals? "Your journal and/or its associated profile or interests has been reported to us as containing material which expresses interest in, solicits, or encourages illegal activity. As this is a violation of both LiveJournal's Terms of Service and United States law, we have permanently suspended the journal."

Bravo, lj.
bladespark: (Default)
So the storm of angry comments continues, while the folks running things here in livejournal land have still yet to address the issue directly, though they did comment to Cnet, and it wasn't a very hopeful comment, as it's more or less "we did it, we're not going to undo it, we have every legal right to do it." Which they do. But man, pissing off fandom is really stupid. I mean... it's not like this has annoyed Anime, or Star Wars, or Harry Potter fans, any of those alone would have raised a storm, but this! This is fandom as a whole. Various TV fans and LoTR shippers and, and just the whole shmoo!

Anhhow, more info, more links:
http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/31786.html WFI is actually associated with Joel's Army, the folks you may be familar with as being behind "Jesus Camp." Yeah, them.
http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html?tag=nefd.lede Cnet gets in on the story. And lj further annoyed users by coming up with a statement for Cnet, when they won't respond to their own user base.
http://warren-ellis.livejournal.com/103884.html Warren Ellis has boycotted lj.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/30/lj_purges_incest_sla.html BoingBoing gets in on the story too.
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Livejournal_suspends_hundreds_of_accounts And the Digg story has been dug enough to show up now, though it's not on the front page yet. Some fun argument and commentary on there, which I stuck my big fat nose in, and am now happy to report that the guy who was arguing against me has seen the error of his ways! *grin*

Now, let's hope that lj can be brought to their senses as well.

ETA: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2835992 Farked. And Fark users show the wit and sensitivity for which they are famed, of course.

And Something Awful is chiming in, but I maintain my boycott of them, so you'll have to find the thread on your own.

And one more thing - if you are a member of a fandom, any fandom, and you care about censorship, please join fandom_counts. Nobody can post to the community, so it will not spam your friends list, it's just that, a count. LJ has pissed off fandom, now fandom wants to tell lj just exactly how many of their users are part of fandom. It's already passed 20k members, and it's been up for not even a full day yet.
bladespark: (Default)
I just have to say this.

I am awed. I am very nearly overwhelmed. I am in shock, even. You've all seen fandom drama. You've all seen the arguments, the accusations, the petty childishness. But you're seeing very little of it now. Oh sure, there have been a few "F-u whoever" posts about this, and a lot of gnashing of teeth and such, but... it's all been pretty much sensible. It's been reasonable. It's been well thought out. There have been really tricky, sensitive issues discussed, and people have said good things about them, and not flown off the handle throwing around accusations. People have corrected misinformation gently. People have taken corrections well. People have disagreed agreeably, because in the end we all agree about one thing. We don't like censorship, and we don't like to see the people who own our community at the top bow to the pressure of money. And we have said this in all kinds of ways, through all kinds of formats, and nobody has done anything outrageous or over the top about it that I'm aware of.

Fandom, you are far more mature than we sometimes give you credit for. Bravo. *applauds*

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Aidan Rhiannon

February 2025

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