Foiled by a warped mind

"I love this rug."

Meeting of the (ex-)Presidents

George Jr.: I want to thank the president-elect, for, uh, joining the, uh, ex-presidents...For lunch. And by declaring myself as one of the ex-es, whatever happens next is none of my business. Tee-hee.

Bill: (amused and tries not to laugh) 

Jimmy: Everyone's ignoring me, so I guess I'll just stand off to the side and look like I enjoy myself  D:

Why does Barack looks like he's just pretending to take our current president (Remember: still a president until the 20th) in utmost seriousness? Too many nods and uncommittal "yes, yes, of course" noises, perhaps?

[George Jr. finishes speech]

Barack: The, uh...

[Lights go off] (Alright! Let's go get lunch, people!)

Barack: B..but wait! I haven't gotten my screentime yet! D:

George Jr.: (nudge) Lol. Decorum, sweetie. 

Barack: (CAMERAWHORES)

Bill: (Still amused and trying to not laugh) This is better than TV. 

George Jr.: Lol. How cute.

George Sr.: (impatient) C'mon...I need to go to the bathroom...

The awkwardness is wonderful. The pictures are better. But Bill small-talking George Jr. about the Oval Office Rug is the best bit. Oh, and the George Jr. *shrug tee-hee* bit at the end. 

Personally, this new presidency is getting off to a bad start—I'm purely following them for entertainment, as of a week ago. You see, The Flist That I Do Not Follow are quite a bit more worldly than I. So when I decide to check out whatever they have to offer, quite a bit comes through. 

Most of which then proceeds to drag me in with their absolute craziness. Last time I lasted a couple of hours. This time it was two days. It's like tentacle monsters and sailors. 

A depiction of Rahm, his BlackBerry, and his family did it for me this time. I guess my intellect is really free-falling off a cliff—at least my last phase as jumpstarted by sexy, witty mafia banter (which is still growing strong, by the way. Need more people in the bookverse, though D:)

ArtRec: LOOKLOOKLOOOOOOKIT'SMYGIFTARTANDIT'SAWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Strongest Wind
Gift for: pcby
Artist:
Rating:: G
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts 2
Characters: Sora
Warnings: None n_n
Artist notes: Brush and pattern are from 77words
Summary:There were a few fandoms I was familiar with, but Kingdom Hearts just stuck out the most. ^^ I tried to sneak around and find out just what PcBY liked as far as KH2 goes, but I fail at ninja-secret santa research. Still, I wanted to make something calming and cheerful! Something that says, "Be strong! Good luck with this coming New Year!". Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I barely squeezed out a couple comments of thank you in the eminent urge to just go ash;fawnmwa,s hawfh wl and explode into a pile of gibbering parts.

I think I feel a little bad for not putting more requests in fear of lack of compatibility...seems like my santa was also a little lost as to how to draw something suitable...oops.

I feel all bubbly inside now. Can't wait until the reveals so I can go stalk my ninja secret santa ♥

Doctor Five and Ten, a squrriel, and cockroaches.

There's something about Ten telling Five regarding the Master, saying, "No, no beard. Well, a wife" that created outbursts of joy here and here. What's the great revelation? What has been turned from sub-text to text, fanon to canon? I can guess, but I want get the jooooooke....Alas, I am just a "regular viewer" who won't get it. `0`;;;

Doctor Who 4x00 Time Crash here.

In other news, a squirrel has done what even I cannot do and robots proved to be a key to cockroach sociology.

Dan Abrams: "At least they won't have to have abortions now, right?"

This is both funny and sad. But the bigotry and sideways logics is not so shocking as some found it. (Jaded, much?)

I've also heard much about fandom sniping about this...but honestly, this is JKR's book. I dislike the 7th book and almost loathe the epilogue, but that is how Harry & Co. went on being. I still read pre-DH stories and is being dragged on to the epilogue ships, but either way, that is what JK wants Dumbly to be. I can see where she comes from, actually, since I had thought, "wow, Dumbledore is pretty enthralled with Grindlewald back then" as I was reading.

Perhaps it is shocking because Dumbledore is a mentor figure, and generally no one wants to know who grandpas have the hots for, but is revealing so in the book going to make DH a better book? Would putting the Dumbledore/Grindlewald in there help the plot along, or would it be just another useless fact? I am of the latter opinion. It makes sense if he is gay, but it's not necessary in terms of the main plot, like the whole [spoiler]"OMG he helped keeping his squib sister locked up"[/spoiler] stuff. But all that only focuses on why JKR decides to not put it in the book.

As to her decision to reveal this fact at all...well, she was being honest to her fans—that was what she thought of Dumbledore. Perhaps she has an agenda, and perhaps she was trying to make a statement. It doesn't matter much to me, and I don't find searching for a conspiracy theory all that productive. Fans asked for the information; is it so wrong for her to answer to the fans' requests?

Perhaps I have too little of imagination to feel restricted by the abundance of detail JKR threw out since the last chapter of the book; while I have not much love for the epilogue, it is a detail that I like to see the fandom to work around. Certainly I gripe about Draco's receding hairline and the lack of substance of said chapter of Harry's life, but thats more the challenge. If the characters only has a bit of background and minimal personality, thrown into a vaguely described world (all of which the series is skimming the borders of, IMO), without certain cemented blocks, then wouldn't it feel similar to reading an original fiction?

Yes, it does restrict the creative space that "canon-whores" have. But it gives interesting insight on the subtext. Yes, it will stick the writers towards a certain road to make their ship work (coughH/Dcough), but to me, it's more of a thrill to read about how the writer wiggles their versions of the characters out from such a tight spot. Since there is more "history" (canon) to work with, the characters can have more conflict and background to make the story more interesting, as each writer creates their own solutions to the same problem. (I was going to say with more history, the characters would have been developed more and be more solid to write about...but then realized there hasn't been much chara development at all.)

As for Ginny being a JKR self-insert? I don't have evidence to argue against that :)

ArtRec: Five Books H. James Potter Never Wrote or Published [HP/SS]

■ Five Books H. James Potter Never Wrote or Published

Well, this is more like a "haha, gotta save this" rather than a true rec, really. It's HP/SS, for one. But that last bit's got me grinning, so I shall keep this in my archives.

Fangirling: Happy Birthday, Tom Felton!

Happy Birthday, Tom Felton!

:O He's 20 now...and soon, so will I ;__;

Fanlib.com and issues around legality of fanfiction, etc.

■ Transforming Fan Culture into User-Generated Content: The Case of FanLib
Henry Jenkins analyzes Fanlib.com and the impact of profit-driven websites that advertises fandom works.

I was linked to this through Pir8fancier's post regarding the cooperative overtake of fandom and while I think she is being a little paranoid and sensitive about its affect on the slash fandom, her fears or nor completely unfounded.

<rant>

Well, plenty of people can make a point much better than I, considering I did not even know of this until now. However, I do see Fanlib as a threat to the current fandom environment because of exactly what they see their goal as: "...[to] create a platform that will harness the energy in a way that can be controlled and moderated by the creators and distributors of that existing property."

I feel that not only are their websites (prototypes and betas and their main site, Fanlib.com are below par, and its page design seem to suspiciously cater towards young teens or children (while extending the legal limits to other audiences). Even without the comments and issues surrounding Fanlib, I feel immediate dislike towards the site. It reminds me of young teen websites.

The Fanlib ads are pretty repulsive, especially to a predominantly female population. The more I read into this Fanlib thing, the more I grow to dislike them, and the more it seems like they are just trying to take advantage of the creative process as a whole. As a reader, I revere the author's creativity and sometimes love the world they create more than the original. The thought of this freedom being harnessed and controlled, culled of all things "not normal" and "obscene" frightens me. I adore the fandom because of the potential it gives the universe (of the original story), because the twists and new things that develop from one common stem.

</rant>

I will be watching LJ community Life Without Fanlib and Henry Jenkin's weblog to see how things proceed. And also, still reading on links and sources.

cross-posted to LJ