The Look and Sound of Perfect

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Pictures of the Airbender cast, in character. Oh, dear. And this is a great side-by-side comparison, courtesy of some link off of Unfunny Business. (Does anyone else think the actor playing Sokka looks oddly like Emilio Estevez?)

Dinosaur fiction! T-Rex must be so happy!

Quote of the day, courtesy of a coworker: Sometimes carrots are just sticks painted orange. (Yeah, morale is a little low here right now.)

Okay, this is totally awesome. Hah! Although the Boing Boing commenters seem to think it's staged. Bah.

This may be the best Fandom Wank in a long time: fake brain cancer scammer is donated thousands of dollars by other furries to take a farewell trip. Of course he's eventually found out, and now he's on FW! Excellent. Except, of course, for the people whom he conned. Jackass.

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A US Army Major refuses to go to Afghanistan because Obama isn't an American citizen. 0.o

... yeah, I got nothing.

And OH NOES! Hilzoy is retiring from blogging! The most sensible (wise, compassionate, ethical) voice in the political blogosphere is going away! NOOOOOOOO! ('Ware PNH being a jackass in the comments, though.)

Speaking of blogs, I'm finding Threadbared a fascinating read: it's a blog about fashion and culture (and race and gender) by two academics who study "the politics of fashion and beauty". Recommended reading.

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SPN folks: You ever get the feeling you inhabit an entirely different fandom than the rest of the people watching your show? I don't even know most of the people named here, or referenced elsewhere in this anonymous comm. Of course, I don't read Wincest/J2, and thus apparently none of the writers I do read exist.

::temples fingers:: Fascinating. I feel like an anthropologist from a foreign country.

Hey, Leverage comes back tomorrow, yay! And I managed to pimp a coworker into it, using the argument that it is frothy fun without icky race and gender issues. Go me! (I assume everyone else is using the "It's like Ocean's 11 but without Brad Pitt, and with more women!" argument, right?)

Recs
The old XF gang might appreciate this: Fathoms Five, by Penumbra. Yes, that's correct: Penumbra of Parabiosis fame. It's a future!fic, rather domestic, warm and reassuring and yet really damned unsettling at the same time. I liked it a great deal. Please note, that's just the first page: scroll down for links to the rest. (XF, het, R)

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This just came through on one of my academic lists -- thought it might be of interest to folks out here. Feel free to circulate widely, it's not restricted to academics.


Call for Chapters: The Black Imagination, Science Fiction and Futurism

The Black Imagination, Science Fiction and Futurism We announce a call
for papers for a book in development that explores the Black
imagination, science fiction and futurism in literature, film and the
visual arts. Works included will explore speculative, fantasy as well
as hybrid genres – of black writers, film-makers and visual artists --
their visions of the future, alternative pasts, critiques of the
present as well as other possibilities.

( more information )

If anyone does submit, let me know so I can hold my thumbs for you!

Since my birthday, mostly I've been making decisions by virtue of impulse and ignorance. Which means that I:

a) Let my paid account expire. I'm not fannish, don't plan to be in the future. I won't say never, I'm not an idiot, but it seemed like it was time. However, I deeply regret being too dumb to back up all of my gorgeous icons, which felt more like gifts and friends.

b) Taken and passed a Motorcycle Safety Foundation beginning rider's course. Which means I am now capable of and qualified to ride a small motorcycle around an empty parking lot while supervised. It was terrifying, ultimately exhilirating, and so far beyond my comfort level that I'd recommend it to anyone just to get them to look at the world of driving, transportation and physical skill in a new way.

c) Gone out with a variety of boys. Many far too young for me.

d) Decided I should stop dating boys too young for me because they're adorable in theory but I don't want to use them for the purpose they are volunteering for. I want a grownup.

e) Gone home to visit my family, was a not terrible daughter. Was a not wonderful daughter but spoiled my father to make up for it with cheese souffle, lime basil sorbet and slightly disastrous red-velvet sombreros which were to be cupcakes until I forgot to adjust for the altitutde and the spread out all over the pan instead.

f) Started a Certified Emergency Responder Training Course to be more useful than you are. And also so that, along with riding a motorcycle, I will be prepared for the apocalypse.

g) moved floors at work, going from the smallest office on the floor to a former execs office. Which is what happens when the people planning the move look at the floor plan but not the actual offices 6 floors down and assume the layout is the same as the original layout on the floor we were in. I would feel guilty, except for how I had the smallest office with a utility column in the middle. Now I have a loungey chair and a coffee nook, which seems to attract editors to sit down in it even when I'm not there. It is a... mixed blessing.

h) seen both Up and Milk and was inspired by both in radically different ways.

i) missed all of you, but since the advent of "Websense" at work, will probably only be vising you during the day via my iPhone at lunch. Turns out, I don't care if they see my going to the Fug Girls, or Lolcats or e-mail or even occasionally Facebook or Twitter, but LJ is still my private space where I don't have to watch myself as closely and I'm loathe to offer them any glimpse of that.

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jonquil dissects chapter 2 of Cory Doctorow's new novel. Go, Jonquil.

I suspect vaznetti might get a kick out of this review of the new Kim Stanley Robinson novel. Heh.

Niall Harrison has reviewed Torchwood's "Children of Earth" mini-series. He's got a bunch of links to other reviews, as well.

SF Signal has some links to SF-tv news, including a trailer for the new ABC summer series Defying Gravity. Which... doesn't look very good, I have to admit.

ComicCon scheduling runs afoul of the crazed obsessive focused interest in the Twilight franchise. Me, I want reports on the Avatar panel, myself.

Oh, coolness! The Cartoon Art Museum in SF is doing a webcomics thing, including Kate Beaton. Must make time to go!

Huh. Eliza Dushku is signed for a Ghostbusters movie? Huh.

musesfool has some SPN season 5 casting news, which makes me both mildly hopeful and deeply worried. Par for the course, really.


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In the aftermath of "Children of Earth", I really want to see a Torchwood/Spooks crossover. I do think Harry or Roz would have an opinion on events. Ahem. Oh, infinitemonkeys...


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Calorie Lab is starting a series about cheap pantry staples. I rather like the Trader Joe's boxed soups, myself, and their boxed Indian food as well. Yummy over brown rice!

Threadbared has links to a ton of commentary about the French government's attempt to ban the hijab. Good stuff here.

Bitch has a nice piece here about women scientists and the press they don't get. My favorite woman scientist, is of course, denyeverything1. *grins* ... unless it's kroki_refur or minxy or ignipes or marinarusalka... See? Plenty of women scientists around these parts!

Photographs of this year's Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, on the Big Picture.

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Baby okapis! Look at those stripey legs, so cute!

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Finally, recent reading:

Yxta Maya Murray's The Conquest could have been written to appeal specifically to a certain subset of the media fan community, I think. Because it is a highly erotic novel about the love of books and storytelling; a post-colonial narrative overthrowing male European primacy; and a lesbian love story with cross-dressing, pirates, and juggling magic. No, seriously. It's quite awesome.

( The Conquest, by Yxta Maya Murray )

This is really quite a remarkable book, and I highly recommend it to--well, anyone for whom this sort of thing is the sort of thing you like. If you know what I mean.

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there's a small, smoothed, stone that sits on my nightstand; black and gray, mottled with bits of mineral, shiny and silver. i found it one day on the sand along a river in the desert. the day was clear and the heat was heavy, the sound of gently lapping water soothing to the soul. laughter caressed the senses. the superstitious would call the fragment a lodestone; a touchstone, or perhaps a talisman, for to touch it takes the bearer back to the time of its finding. i just call it peace.

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Hmm. Well, now I understand why so many people are gnashing their teeth at RTD.

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infinitemonkeys told me to watch the Torchwood "Children of Earth" mini, earlier in the week when there were only a couple of episodes up. And now it's finished and I'm seeing a lot of people who are apparently upset or angry about whatever happened in the finale.

Given what you know about me and my preferences, should I stay unspoiled and watch the disks that laurashapiro so generously burned for me? Or say "fuck it" and get spoiled silly, and go back to my default of Not Watching Torchwood?

I'm not attached to any of these characters, but I do like stories to make sense and not be gratuitously offensive or violent or stupid.

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