Somehow I'm not in my usual holiday mood this year. December is zooming by at a truly ridiculously fast pace, and I haven't had time to do most of my usual things beforehand. Also I am physically ill and feel like crap. Bleh.

Two things I found myself reading this morning, both resulting from zvi's signal boost:

marina about Russophobia and who is Russian. And branchandroot While we're at it...

thete1 "I know it's racist, Te, but the special effects look awesome!"

(Full disclosure: I was trying to learn how to date again around the time of the Transformers film this past summer. That's how I ended up seeing it, along with Wolverine and a couple other films. I'm not proud of this fact, but there it is. And only one of the many reasons that one particular guy from last summer and I are not seeing each other any more is that I tried talking about why the Transformers films were problematic... I'll leave it to your imagination as to how spectacularly well that went. *eyeroll*)

Short summary of something that could turn into a huge tl;dr post, because holy crap this year has sucked: If I wasn't angry, I wasn't paying attention.

Here, have more links:
http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/
http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-film-cast-in-60-seconds/
http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/do-children-see-race/
http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/yellow-face-a-documentary-on-the-last-airbender-film/
http://www.racebending.com/v3/interviews/sdcc/

I'm thinking I may need to get my hands on DVDs of the Avatar: The Last Airbender tv series, because I haven't seen it. I will not be seeing the Avatar movie. ETA: To clarify, I will not be seeing EITHER of the movies; see comments below.

In completely, completely unrelated news, I've now got a draft of my Yuletide story that doesn't make me cringe, so at least I'm on the ball about something.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020844.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: groggy

By way of temve and jamie:

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/the-new-facebook-privacy-settings-a-how-to/?em
http://gawker.com/5427077/the-valleywag-guide-to-restoring-your-privacy-on-facebook
http://dotrights.org/what-does-facebooks-privacy-transition-mean-you

For the record? I really, really, really, really, really, really, really dislike Facebook. But I'm there with my RL identity helping family members stay in touch with each other, and attempting to teach them about online privacy and security issues. The whole site leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I feel like I'm being online-stalked by most of my high school graduating class most of whom apparently couldn't be bothered to Google for me for nearly twenty years. Ugh. The things I do for my extended family...

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020419.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: frustrated

I've just made the following as a post in my LJ:
---
LiveJournal is removing the Unspecified option for the gender field. That's right: you get to be male or female. Period. That's it.

Details here: http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html

This journal has been, in my user profile, "Unspecified" gender for a long time, because gender is not binary. If/when I am unable to decline to state my gender, or if/when I am forced to declare my gender along a binary division, here on LJ, I will be deleting this journal.

I have Dreamwidth invite codes for anyone who wants them, just provide me with the email address you want the code sent to. There is also http://dw-codesharing.dreamwidth.org/ as well, which does not require you to provide your email address to anyone.
---

Dreamwidth, I adore you. <3

ETA: And now I've added the following to my LJ post:
---
ETA: The code has now been rolled back and will not be pushed with the next codepush.

After seeing some of the reaction to this entire situation from my LJ friendslist, however, I will be deleting this journal later today. elkes_obsession is already gone. I had been committed to trying to do everything I could to keep unbroken links, to retain memories categories, to not delete entries, even though so many things about LJ's ownership bother me. I'd tried to retain the human connections across the multiple sites. But apparently plenty of the folks I've felt I was making the effort for are sick and tired of this sort of thing. I'm getting a 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out' vibe, and damn, that HURTS. And so now I'm just DONE.
---

So.

elkes_obsession is gone, as it was a navigational tool to organize my views into various LJ communities, and I'd left it up in case others were getting benefit from it.

And elke_tanzer. Created on 2002-04-13 12:36:18 (#527447), watching 515 friends, communities, and feeds. 19,435 comments received, 19,512 comments posted, 2,880 Journal Entries, 204 Tags, 16,918 Memories.

Done.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020320.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: first infuriated, later hurt

Thank you to wolfshark, ingridmatthews, glimmergirl and a wee quiet anonymouse for the snowflake cookies on my old LJ profile! And thank you to gblvr for the ridiculously-adorable holiday octopus-Cthuluclaus there as well!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020136.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: touched

I'm not the most knowledgeable person around, about a bunch of stuff, yeah. And I try not to talk about stuff I don't know about... if I haven't earned the right to talk I try to Just Shut Up. I'm privileged in some ways and not so privileged in other ways. I sometimes say stupid shit without realizing it's stupid shit and then I try to learn and apologize and never make the same mistake twice. And a lot of the time, for me, it's easier for me to see how something is stupid hurtful shit when it comes out of someone else's mouth or keyboard, because when it comes out of my mouth or my keyboard it didn't immediately sound stupid or hurtful to me.

Stuff I have learned lately (not just from the latest shitstorm going on, but lately in general)...

1. When someone says they prefer a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, I JUST DO IT. I just need to respect that preference.

1.a. If I screw that up once for someone? Please, anyone, give me a gentle reminder. If I screw that up twice for someone? Please, anyone, KICK ME.

1.b. This is not just related to whether or not I respect the person being referred to, but is also related to whether or not I respect everyone's right to have a personal pronoun preference.

2. If I don't have a clue whether someone prefers a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, chances are that using 'they' as a singular, or zie and zir, will not piss them off or hurt them.

2.a. (I'm not sure about this, but so far it's holding true...) If I use they, or zie and zir, in reference to someone, and they distinctly do not prefer that, they can easily correct me without too much trauma or drama for either one of us.

2.b. There are folks who prefer they over zie and zir (or sie and hir), and folks who prefer zie and zir (or sie and hir) over they.

2.c. There are folks who do not self-identify as trans* who prefer non-gendered pronouns. There are folks who do not self-identify as cis* who prefer non-gendered pronouns.

3. It is awkward as hell for me to ask if a friend or acquaintance prefers any specific pronoun. That doesn't mean I should ever assume that they prefer she or he or zie. I should NOT ASSUME, even if I know them offline, even if I would probably tend to assume one pronoun is more likely than another based on my own personal history and the name they've chosen to use in any given setting, or any physical characteristic they've presented to me or kept private from me, or any attitude they've said or typed about any topic under the sun.

3.a. Awkward is not necessarily the same as hurtful. And if I can get myself through an awkward situation to prevent myself from hurting someone? If I realize the awkward situation is an option, I'm darned well choosing that rather than knowingly hurting someone.

3.b. It's really easy to be hurtful unintentionally if I don't know what I'm talking about.

So.

All I can do right now? Is offer virtual chocolates, and try not to mess this post up, because I just can't be silent right now. I'm sorry that people suck, and I'm sorry that folks I care about are being hurt, and I'm sorry that I've been unintentionally hurtful in the past.

And I desperately hope that I'm not being unintentionally hurtful now, especially given the current state of the latest shitstorm (which I am trying to avoid, actually).

ETA: And yes, this post is from a me-centric place, because when I tried writing it any other perspective, I came across even to my own eyes as megapreachy and talking about things I haven't earned the right to and ICK ICK ICK. I feel mostly-OK about talking about myself here, so yeah, I did. I wish I could do better, but I feel like this is better than silence, because I can't be silent when something is Not OK By Me.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019761.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

Title: It's a Dead Man's Party
Fandom: Highlander
Length: approx. 6,150 words
Characters: Duncan, Methos, Det. Bennett (from Season 1), Joe (just for a moment at the end), OCs
Warnings: a little violence, some bad language
Rating: this is a gen story, but it does not preclude that slash is going on outside the perspective of Det. Bennett!
Notes: thank you to sidhe_woman who beta'd this, and who had to do double-hard duty to fix all my odd uses of the present tense, if any present tense remains (or any other mistakes) that's all my fault
This story came about as a reaction to hearing the song (of the same name as the title) on the radio and thinking it just *had* to have something to do with the Highlander universe, and also because I'd always wanted to write a story with Detective Bennett in it. I had to give the poor guy a first name, as he didn't even seem to get one during the series. If he did have a first name, please let me know. And thirdly, and most importantly, because I could not resist throwing in the "I don't know what you are...." line that seemed so popular in Season 1. It cracks me up something fierce; it just *had* to get used in a story.

~~~
( Detective Sergeant Braxton Bennett (retired) knocked on the door and waited. )

Current Mood: thinky

I meant to post this during Thanksgiving weekend, but as usual this year, I'm behind. on. everything.

( Guidelines behind a cut, because you've probably seen them lots of times already... )

( Elke's Holiday Wishlist 2009 )

Hey, also, if you've posted your wishlist, can you please link me to it? Thanks!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019139.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: calm

Happy Hannukah to those who celebrate, and may all of our lights be festive!

My favorite of the recent related uploads at Flickr are First Nights Glow and a Frabel Glass dreidel.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019046.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: calm

I LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD
BUT THE AO3 CODERS MOST OF ALL
BOOM-DE-YADA, BOOM-DE-YADA...

:-D

In only-minorly-related news, apparently my long-slumbering infatuation with Merlin UK fandom has re-manifested. The trouble with tag-wrangling and thinking about what Freeform tags I might want on my own bookmarks is that I keep finding all kinds of neat new things to read!

Which reminds me... not for official tag-wrangling, but for my own bookmarks... I'm thinking I want to start using nonfandom-specific tags for the following concepts, because when I'm reading in Merlin and Smallville (and other?) fandoms, I find myself seeking these themes out:

Secret Revealed
Secret Revealed To Partner
Secret Revealed To Partner - Unresolved Sexual Tension
Secret Revealed To Partner - Established Relationship
Secret Revealed To Ally (or perhaps To Friend? hmmm.)
Secret Revealed To Nemesis
Secret Revealed Anticlimactic

What do you fine folks use to tag or bookmark such concepts?

ETA: Oh oh oh! I almost forgot! I've stumbled across a couple completely adorable Fred & Ginger fanvids recently! I think I found one of them via veni_vidi_vids and another via... um... hang on, I've got it here in a tab somewhere... aha! stultiloquentia and someone else (sorry, I can't find you!) right around the same time, and the others via google-searching trying to figure out where I'd found the first one, before I remembered!

glvalentine's rec of Love You Madly by roseytrebles

Fanvid: "Happiness" [Astaire/Rogers Films] by icepixie

They Can't Take That Away... by duckmilk productions

Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) by StrictlyTaboo

Support For My Argument by vespersaw

Also Caught by vespersaw, featuring not only Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but also William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn...

*swoon*

(I must interject here that never in a million years did I ever expect to find fanvids including footage of Captain Blood (and Robin Hood OMG) aside from the fantastic One Night Fandoms: A Tribute to Yuletide by eruthros and thingswithwings!)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1018626.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Current Mood: busy

( PLAGUED RPG - What would you do if you lost your magic? )

Title: A Week and a Day

Fandom: Highlander
Characters: Methos, Duncan, Joe, a few OCs
Pairing: Methos/Duncan (already formed relationship)
Length: approx. 2375 words
Warnings: a little bad language, Methos in a caustic mood
Summary: There's a week and a day to go before Christmas, and Duncan has a very full schedule. There are parties to attend, and things to do. Methos is less than gracious about all these functions.
Notes: Written for Eva, who always seems to want me to write Christmas stories! I am sorry that this year I didn't manage to do Deep Nostalgia, but I hope this is a second best substitute. A very large thank you to sidhe_woman for the beta, she's a jewel among fen, and a seriously wonderful writing friend; any remaining mistakes are entirely mine.

~~~

( There was one week and one day until Christmas. It was a cold, blowsy Friday night, not quite eight o’clock, and as dark as Methos expected the deepest confines of Hell to be.  )

Current Mood: awesome

Blimey LJ is being wonky tonight. Guess that means I ought to go to bed...

(Also the title of this journal is proving very apt at the moment! *g*)

Current Mood: sleepy

I won't be giving Motorola any of my money anytime soon. Sexist advertising pisses me off. Pheh. Need to cleanse my brain a bit after that...

By way of swanswan, footage from myriad BBC costume dramas set to 'It's Raining Men.' (Clearly, I am not watching enough BBC costume dramas.)

I will probably need this when I am home again for Christmas... Lifehacker's How To Fix Your Relatives' Terrible Computer. Also, wintery desktop backgrounds.

Bleh, winter. In hotter news...

asdf;lkjasd;flkj;alskdfj j_crew_guy why oh why do you share these tantalizing links? If you’re a fan of Christian and Oliver, Deniz and Roman, Dante’s Cove, Queer as Folk, One Life to Live, Verbotene Liebe, Alles Was Zählt, GREEK, and Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten... http://gaysofourlives.org/ March 26-28th 2010 in New York.

*bouncebouncehappybounce* The Lair - The Complete 3rd Season on DVD this coming March 23rd

(And yes, I am severely behind on my drunkened liveblogging of this season's eps. I will catch up, I swear. Because The Lair is made of awesome silliness with a side of hot steam and a massive helping of CHEEZE.



ALSO? ALSO ALSO ALSO???? OMG TEASER TRAILER. BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY TEASER TRAILER.



Yes, this official online series thing is really happening: http://buckrogersbegins.com/

If the above link or embed on youtube doesn't work, here's an alternate link to the teaser trailer on scifiupdates.com.

(And no, prior to this new web series, I was not terribly much a Buck Rogers fan. But now I am, and it's all Bobby Quinn Rice's fault. Thppppt!)

Further details and geekyblogs' reactions to the trailer:
http://trekmovie.com/2009/11/30/new-teaser-for-cawleys-buck-rogers-web-series/
http://scifiwire.com/2009/12/teaser-trailer-for-new-bu.php
http://gilgerard.tripod.com/ (scroll down to September on Gil's blog...)
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/12/so_theres_a_buck_rogers_web_series_or_something.php
YouTube playlist of the DragonCon Buck Rogers panel (includes spoilers!)...

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