this is not a journal title

2013 is the year I really joined fandom - though I realized later I'd been creating a few isolated fanworks previously, this year I made it a point to become more a part of it all, and I'm glad I did. :)



Found out about this via kass.

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1: The Guardian of the Opera
Fandom: Rise of the Guardians, The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical, 2011 Royal Albert Hall recording)
Medium: Fanfic
Pairing: Jack/Jamie (Christine/Raoul), Jack/Pitch (Christine/Phantom)
Length: 48991 (+1838) words
Summary: When the prima donna principal dancer E. Aster Bunnymund throws a tantrum over a supposed dark “Guardian” of the Ballet Populaire house, soloist Jack Frost steps up. But little does anyone know that the Guardian is real and stepping into the limelight has made Jack the target of his desires. Jack’s childhood friend Jamie Bennett fights to save Jack’s heart, life, and perhaps even soul.
Reflection: This was my first long fic ever, and my first time consciously realizing that I was writing fanfic. It took me months to complete (2013 April-November), and I would never have believed it would be that long, or that I'd stick with it for that long, when I first read the prompt and got inspired. I can't believe how many people read it, though at the time I wished it were more comments, and I especially wish I got more [positive] comments about the ending.

2: Sandy's Fireflies on AO3, on Vimeo
Fandom: Rise of the Guardians
Music: Fireflies by Owl City
Medium: Fanvid
Pairing: None
Length: 3:48
Summary:
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
Reflection: This was my first fanvid ever! :) I grew obsessed with this song soon after I entered fandom, and then realized that I knew enough about video editing in iMovie and could figure out enough else about it to do something about the obsession. Since I was only into RotG at the time, of course that's what I thought of, and Sandy was the obvious choice.

3: Repentance
Fandom: X-Men (movies, especially Last Stand and First Class)
Medium: Fanfic
Pairing: Erik/Charles (as friends)
Length: 4526 words
Summary: Post-Cure Erik Lehnsherr alternates days playing chess in Central Park and doing chores, except for on the Sabbath. When he makes a new friend who reminds him of an old friend, he realizes the meaning of the Ten Days.
Rec: Kass (again) made me aware of this thing called the Days of Awesome, which was a challenge to write about Jewish characters for the High Holy Days. Erik being Erik, he was the obvious choice, and no Erik fic is complete without his foil Charles, even if just in memory. While this one has fewer comments than The Guardian of the Opera, presumably due to being shorter and thus getting less exposure through AO3's assorted reverse chronological list features, the specific comments which I did get were amazing (elegaic! someone called me elegaic!), and I feel really proud of the impact this work made on people.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

Okay, here's the skinny on Kepler-62e and f, the latest potential "Earth-like" planets. I'm numbering my points in case you want to refer to them elsewhere.

( Enough detail for a science fan, more detail than most news sources will have, not enough detail for an astronomer. )

So that's my summary. If you want to read other articles, here's the Nature layperson's article which does a good job of not overhyping things. And here's the peer-reviewed journal article in Science (really prestigious!, though my dept has a running gag that 50% of Science and Nature articles turn out to be wrong). I believe the Science article is behind a paywall if you're not at a university, so if you want to read it and can't access it, let me know and I can email it to you.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

So those of you on Facebook probably saw a long gobledygook email about changes to the Terms of Service. Many people are in an uproar over FB getting the right to use your stuff, but that isn't anything new. What they should be in an uproar over is that right now the TOS gives users veto power over future changes to the TOS. The proposed changes removes that veto power.

As much as FB is continually making shitty changes, this one would be even worse than usual.

• Full text of proposed Statement of Rights and Responsibilities changes
  
  • Note original and unchanged is in black, original and proposed to be removed is in red and struck out, and new proposed to be added is in red and underlined.
    
  • There appear to be no changes to the ways FB can use your information or content - you still own it, they still have a license to use it as they wish without charge. (Art 2, page 1)
    
  • Art 14 (pg 5-6) is where they remove the veto power of the members.
  
  
• Full text of proposed Data Use Policy
  
  • There seem to be some good points where they remind people that "hiding" is not the same as "deleting", and other clarifying language.
    
  • The bad point is on the top of pg 14 where they say (if approved) that they can now share your info with their affiliates. Even credit cards let you opt out of sharing your info w/ affiliates, but apparently FB wouldn't.
  
  
• Here's where you can respond
  
  • Note that many people are going for the following phrase to show a unified front: "I oppose the changes and want a vote about the demands on www.our-policy.org"
    
  • You have until Nov 28 to comment if you wish to do so.
  
  
• CNN article which tipped me off to the changes

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

My father's baffled by the gas shortage in NYC, so I cobbled together my best explanation of why, revised below.

1. Right after the storm, early last week: NY Harbor closed to tankers. Some gas stations had no power so there was less gas to go around. There's a gasoline pipeline into NYC, which may have been barely enough to meet the demand at first. At this time the main demand for gas is to run generators where there's no power.


2. A day or two after the storm, middle of last week: Those gas stations which did have power began running out of gas without sufficient resupply. Businesses reopen, but much of NYC public transit does not, increasing the usage of gas as people drive to work.


3. End of last week: NY Harbor opened around Thursday last week, but it takes time for that gas to work its way into the system. Meanwhile, people driving to work are starting to need to gas up.


4. Last weekend and early this week: More of the same, but panic buying sets in, which more than offsets the reduced need for gasoline for generators.


5. Middle of this week: The gasoline pipeline into NYC suffers some sort of damage, and I think that was the straw that led Gov. Cuomo to ration gas in NYC and Long Island.

The NY Times seems to confirm aspects of my points 1-4.

Does anyone have things I left out, or different explanations?

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

Once in a while the webcomic Sinfest does a really awesome storyline. (FYI it's more typical to have stoners, horndogs, and puppy dogs, though they're usually done in a somewhat self-mocking manner.) Here's one such storyline pasted in its entirety.

( The Sisterhood )

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

q10 and seekingferret, you'll want to read this.

The US State Department is proposing a new Biographical Questionaire for everyone applying for a passport. The form would require all citizens to provide the name and contact info of all previous employers, the address of all previous residences, and addresses of all immediate family members (parents, step parents, siblings) and their citizenship status. In addition, naturalized citizens will need to provide the address of their place of birth, and anyone not born in a medical facility will also need to provide their mother's residence a year before and after your birth (presumably so the government can track those citizen children of fence-hoppers who wish to travel abroad), and contact info for witnesses (presumably so the government can strip your citizenship if you don't provide the info or if they're illegal immigrants who the government can bully into recanting the story of your birth in the US).

A lot more info is available here, including the full form and links to submit comments:
http://papersplease.org/wp/2011/03/18/state-dept-proposes-biographical-questionnaire-for-passport-applicants/

The comment I submitted:
The information requested by this document is ridiculous, and the gathering of the information is prohibitively difficult to obtain.  I am only 33 years old, but I have had six employers in five different states and it would take me around an hour to track down all their contact information. In addition I have lived at somewhere between 10 and 20 different residences and it is not possible for me to find all those addresses.  This high number of jobs and residences is primarily a result of my being in academia, and this form is systematically biased against academics and will stifle international cooperation and research as a result.  In addition, it will seriously hurt naturalized citizens and US-born citizens with foreign parents.  There is no need for this level of detail unless the government is deliberately attempting to prevent the movement of it's citizens, in violation of the UN charter of basic human rights.  

Edit: There is some question about whether this policy might only apply to people unable to provide traditional forms of proof of US citizenship, or whether it would really be all US citizens looking for a passport. There is also some question about the validity of the supposed form hosted at the above link. Unfortunately the .gov website doesn't actually contain any information about what it is we're supposed to be commenting on - what is the form, who would it apply to, etc.

If you can't give big, give small.

• Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
  
• Shop Amazon using this link to donate 4%+ to Mercy Corps. (Mercy Corps gets a referral bonus of at least 4%, depending upon how much you spend.)

If you have other good links for small donations, let me know and I'll add them.

And if you can't give small, pass this information on.

I bought a couple cornish game hens to make a small chicken soup with. They're about the size of, oh, a nanday or mitred conure. Bigger than a cockatiel, smaller than a gray.

I wonder, when the Carolina parakeet was hunted to extinction, I wonder how they tasted? There was no reason at all for their hunters to not eat them.

How sad, Wikipedia says the Carolina parakeets tended to flock around their dead.

Also sad, the binomial name for Carolina parakeets is conuropsis carolinensis, and the genus conuropsis is today called aratinga Kappa is an aratinga weddellii (Dusky conure). Aratinga solstitialii (sun conures) were just proclaimed an endangered species within the last 2 years or so.

η: Link to some up-close photos of a Carolina parakeet and a passenger pigeon in the Duke University collection. Don't click that link if images of dead birds squick you out.

I know there are people on my flist who would watch The Walking Dead, or will watch it in the future. I also know there are people on my flist who would appreciate a warning about triggers.
So below I have listed the type of trigger in two particular episodes, recommendations on how to skip it, and attempt to give a minimum of spoilers in the process.

( Cut for triggers and/or spoilers. )