There were a lot of hitches last night with the scanlating. They didn't get me the scans until 1am (they usually want me started by 5 or 6pm), and then there were some mix ups with missing pages and pages out of order, and gah. I actually ended up doing two of the four chapters today (no Hunter x Hunter this week, which I'm fine with as I do not like that manga at all). But it meant I actually had time to watch Ugly Betty!

( Spoilers )

In other news, I have been chugging along with Reborn! I think I read up through vol. 8 and then took a break to read the final two vols. of Bond, which is an adorable shonen manga by Azuma Yoshio about a family with a pet penguin. There's only nine volumes total and I was sad to see it end, because it's always cute. Very silly, too. Everyone in the manga has fish-related names. Either they're homonyms for various fish, or they're normal-sounding names, but spelt with fish-related kanji. Seriously, every single person. Here's the author's website, so you can see the cute.

Right now I'm reading Bleach 30, and I have 31 and 32 that I picked up at Book Off a couple weeks ago. My "to read" pile is actually quite high. In addition to those, I've got D.Gray-man 12 and 13, Yamato Nadeshiko no Shichi Henge 7, and Tegamibachi 3. (Also Reborn! 9-12 on the computer, and an actual copy of 13.) And of course that's not counting the hundred or so volumes on my shelf here. *headdesk*

In other other news, I am apparently made of fail when it comes to writing this month. I had to push back my Sweet Charity fic (it was due at the end of April) and also asked for an extension on lgbtfest. Now I'm aiming to have them both done by the end of this month, though I hope to get lgbtfest done first (even though I can't post til the 31st), because after scrapping several false starts, I finally have one that feels "right", and I know how it mostly goes, so hopefully the rest will come easily. I also have another paintedspires thing due on the 16th, which is coming up faster than I wish it were. But hopefully that shouldn't be too hard (there should be fic and art for that one).

I also have my mcshep_match fic in...not that long. Five weeks, maybe? Ugh. And my ideas are both longish and I still don't know which I want to do (I was leaning towards one, but the other seems more fleshed out in my head, and thus perhaps easier to write). Bah.

Going out to breakfast with my mom in the morning as she needs to go to Coco's to get pie for Sunday (going over to my grandparents' for Mother's Day) and figured if she had to go buy pies, we might as well go to breakfast. So yay free breakfast. And free pie on Sunday! :)

We're sorry, Mario, but our princess is a dude!

You know why I love Ugly Betty? Well, there are many, many reasons, but tonight's number one? Because Betty is not a damsel in distress and she will save her own damn self.

( Spoilers )

This show has so much awesome in it.

What Is Essential by layangabi 2/5
Superman Returns. 2500 words. Lois and Richard want Clark to move in with them, but he's worried about what people will say.
( Enjoyable, but needs editing. )

Teaching It to Dance by wolfshark 2/5
Stargate: Atlantis. 3400 words. John is surprised that Rodney is even further in the closet than he is.
( Lots of unnatural-sounding dialogue and over-telling. )

Plain Sight by cho_malfoy 2/5
Supernatural. 3200 words. Ellen enlists Sam and Dean's help on a job and fails to mention where the job takes place.
( Should've tried to do the prompt without a case. )

Don't Do as You Wish, Do as I Ask by liseuse 3/5
Harry Potter. 3100 words. Pansy struggles to balance her mother's desires with her own.
( Enjoyable. )

Kind Words by molly_commas 2/5
Harry Potter. 1600 words. Regulus doesn't want to be gay.
( Overly tell-y and has some POV glitches. )

The Simpsons was pretty funny tonight. I have a feeling we're going to be going around saying "Chalmskin" in that weird whispery voice for a while. Only two more episodes this season, though. :(

We went to Book Off (both of them, actually) this morning. I got Tegamibachi 3, a couple vols. of Yamato Nadeshiko no Shichi Henge for $1 each (including the next one I need to read), Clover 19 (though I still need vol. 18), and Meitantei Conan 50 (also $1, no idea why a volume that recent was on the $1 shelf, but who am I to complain?).

But most excitingly! I got four Ishida Ira novels for $1 each. I have been wanting to read more of his stuff for a long time, but the Book Off we usually go to only has them in hardcover, which are usually $7-10, and the other Book Off usually has paperbacks, but only for $4-5. But today they had a handful on the dollar shelf, so I grabbed whatever they had. I got Shonen, 4 Teen, Utsukushii Kodomo, and Nami no Ue no Majutsushi.

Also, I had no idea he wrote Akihabara@Deep! I have seen people talk about the drama (and apparently there's also a film and a manga), but paid it no attention. Now I'm going to have to check it out*. I actually quite liked the drama version of Ikebukuro West Gate Park, although it needed MOAR Kubozuka Yosuke.







*Where "check it out" means download some episodes and never get around to watching them.

Yes, it's time for another alphabetical favorites post. Only 9 letters (495 songs!!) left after this! (Feel free to suggest which I should do next. I've got H, I, K, L, O, P, R, S, and T left.)

But before that, I have to rave about this album that I've had on repeat all day (well, up until when I started listening to the Fs to write up the commentary on them). The album is called Pau-Latina and it's by a Mexican singer called Paulina Rubio. Bruce managed to find one other album by her, which I haven't listened to yet, but this is seriously awesome. Favorites are bolded, and because that ended up being like, half the album, I italicised and bolded the ones I am super-duper in love with.

Paulina Rubio - Pau-Latina
01 Algo Tienes
02 My Friend, Mi Amigo
03 Te Quise Tanto
04 Baila Que Baila
05 Ojalá
06 Perros
07 Quiero Cambiarme
08 Mía
09 Alma en Libertad
10 Adiosito Corazón
11 Amor Secreto
12 Volverás
13 Dame Otro Tequila

I've also got a few leftovers that I uploaded by request.

W - Second W
The best Hello! Project group, hands down. And of course they had to break up. Bah. Stupid Japanese idol rules that mean you're blacklisted forever if you dare to smoke or have a boyfriend. Anyway, unlike their first album, this is not all covers. I really love Robo Kiss.

Fujii Fumiya - Go the Distance
This is a Japanese version of the theme for the Disney movie Hercules.

( And now, 45 songs beginning with F! )

Because I filed our taxes and they were processed before April 15th, and because I used direct deposit for our refund, and because the last two numbers of my social security number are between 00 and 20, we were one of the first to get our "stimulus payment". I checked the bank yesterday and it was deposited. :D We got the minimum of $600 ($300 each), because we didn't make much money last year, but hey, free (and tax-free) money is free money.

Although so much for stimulating the economy. I used it (already!) to pay one bill and to pay off a credit card with a small balance. Although we did celebrate last night with Chinese food.

Speaking of Chinese, we have recently started going back to this place we hadn't been in years (and Bruce claims he's never been, but I know we went once with my mom right after he moved out here). It's called Canton Kitchen and it's on Venice, one block west of Centinela. It's family-owned and has been there over forty years. It's just a tiny hole-in-the-wall with a kitchen and a waiting room, take-out only (no delivery). Everything looks and tastes homemade, and omg, it's so good, especially their pork fried rice, which is made with char siu.

The other day I was contacted by someone at HearJapan about being part of the translation contest they're running. Full rules and details are available on my website, but basically, by translating the song they provide, you can have a chance to win up to 5000 yen in credit on their site.

I'm really excited about what this site is trying to do in getting Japanese labels to realise how much interest there is in Japanese music outside of Japan, so even if you're not interested in the contest, check out the site.

Closet (Looking Through You Remix) by helens78 4/5 Recommended
1900 words. Ronon and Teyla are beautiful together, and still Rodney doesn't want to be here.
( Very cool. )

Got It by wojelah 3/5
700 words. The deeper Rodney gets into the subject, the more he realizes that Sheppard isn't so much a spoken language as it is a completely nonverbal subset of communicative behaviors whose nonspeaker is likely to flee when faced with the prospect of actual conversation about certain topics.
( Enjoyable. )

The Companion's Guide to Translation (The Extended Subtitles Remix) by krabapple 2/5
3400 words. How John Sheppard comes to speak his own language and how Rodney McKay comes to understand it.
( Very tell-y. )

Letter S by kassrachel 3/5
900 words. John never expected this for Christmas.
( Cute. )

Some Mother's Son by krabapple 4/5 Recommended
1700 words. John was like the incarnation of Anne's internal whirling.
( Good use of a remix to bring a jossed fic more in line with canon. )

Reality Organization (Chuang Chou's Dream Remix) 2/5
3100 words. John won't leave Rodney behind.
( First person was a bad choice... )

So, this is the first of my paintedspires prompts. The prompt was "Rock Music AU - one as a rock star, or more as a band" and I had this whole idea about the team as a band called Sunken City, with John as the vocalist, Rodney on keyboards, Ronon on drums, and Teyla on bass. I'd originally planned to draw the band, but I couldn't settle on a style I liked and was just feeling blah about it. So then I decided to do an album cover for their first album, Puddlejumpers. I toyed with drawing all of them as kids on the cover, but I really liked the simple style of just one, so it's just wee!John. I'm pretty pleased with it, though, even if it's not quite what the prompt was going for. ^_^;;

( Debut Album )

My stupid sunburnt face has stopped hurting, but is now covered in peeling skin. Lovely.

I went over to my mom's this morning. She was planning on going to Costco and we needed some stuff, so I went with her (we let our membership lapse last year after Bruce lost his job; we don't go that often, so it's easy enough to ask my mom to buy stuff or to go when she's going). I also had promised to make her some shipping labels for their ministry (among other things, they send Bibles and Bible studies to prisoners, which means they do a lot of shipping), so the plan was to go over there at eight, go to breakfast, then do the labels in the time between breakfast and when Costco opens at ten.

Somehow I did not get home until 1.30. And only half an hour of that was spent at Costco. >_<

But the good news is, for all my troubles, I got paid in money off the rent, as usual, and now I am paid up through April, with the promise that I will actually give them money for the entire May rent, since they have...property taxes or something due on this house this month, so will need the extra money, rather than just having me do work for them and call it even.

Bruce went in to work at his old office yesterday and today, and will be going in tomorrow, as well. This is related to the files he's supposed to be sorting on Monday, I think. But yay, work. It would be awesome if they would just hire him back for good. He also still may be doing the thing with helping out Tom's dad a few days a week, though my mom said Tom's dad is getting worse and worse. He has fallen again several times, and broke his collarbone the other day in one of them. He is also being incredibly stubborn about things like using a walker or whatever, and seems to be mentally feebler since the first fall, too. So it may be the beginning of the end for him, but if he does die, there's work for Bruce there, too, as they will need to clean out his house. So either way.

Did I mention that I would be doing some videos for the hentai video game guy? Well, he got back to me and they'll pay $400 per half-hour video, and have over fifty videos they need done, so I could be making some major money (bad thing is, of course, they won't take taxes out, so I'll be hit with that). They want at least ten a month, which should be manageable. The videos seem easy and the sound quality is good, which is the major thing I'm always looking for (somehow I always translate really low-budget crap where the background music/noises are the same level as the dialogue), so I'm excited. I do have to do timing in and out (that's noting where they start speaking and where they stop for each line of dialogue), which is a pain, but eh. Money.

Chemistry, Romance, and the Alchemy Thereof by neotoma 2/5
X-Men. 6300 words. Hank McCoy has two problems - everyone knows, and yet everyone doesn't.
( Couldn't get behind the plotline. )

The Only Option by aworldinside 2/5
Stargate: Atlantis. 1100 words. John knew Lorne understood.
( Bad. )

This is a Public Announcement (And You're the Only One Who Knows) by jjtaylor 3/5
Panic at the Disco. 4800 words. Brendon thinks coming out doesn't make any sense, because you can't just do it once.
( Doesn't fit the prompt at all, but a good story. )

After the Flood, All the Colors Came Out by minkhollow 2/5
Discworld. 6200 words. In the present (just post-Going Postal), Imp returns to Llamedos to catch up with a childhood friend; in the past (ending up a few months post-Hogfather), he comes to terms with certain personal inclinations he couldn't have dealt with if he hadn't left in the first place.
( Cute, but really not Pratchetty. )

I have been listening to recently downloaded albums to see if I want to save them or what, and have found a bunch that were really good! So I decided to upload and share.

Ashlee Simpson - Bittersweet World
I have an older album of hers that I've never listened to, and have heard a song or two that I liked okay, but wasn't totally wowed by, but I really loved this new album. It has a very Britney-circa-In the Zone feel to it. My favorite is Ragdoll.

Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You
This is an older Robbie Williams album that I only recently downloaded (or rather, I think Bruce downloaded it for me). I liked it more than any other of his albums that I've listened to (though Intensive Care has several songs I really love). I especially love No Regrets.

Kara's Flower's - Fourth World
This is the band that became Maroon 5. The style is really not the same at all, but I really like it. And Adam Levine's voice still has that intense whine that I love about Maroon 5. XD I really, really love Soap Disco, and nothing else quite comes close, but I liked the rest of the album quite a lot as well.



One of the awesome albums I listened to was Utada Hikaru's Heart Station. I wasn't that thrilled with Ultra Blue, so this was a nice surprise. There were a lot of songs I really liked on it. It also got me into the mood to listen to more of her stuff, and while I thought about doing a post with just my favorite songs, I decided to just upload all her albums and list my favorites that way, rather than trying to come up with commentary for each song (which would mean I'd put it off for ages). Anyway, I picked five favorites each from the three albums I really like, as many as I could from Ultra Blue (which turned out to be two), and er...most of First Love, because listening through, I still love that album so, so much. (Albums are listed in order of most recent to oldest.)

Heart Station
Favorites are Fight the Blues, Heart Station, Stay Gold, Take 5, Niji Iro Bus

Ultra Blue
Favorites are Blue and Colors.

Deep River
Favorites are Shiawase ni Narou, Letters, Play Ball, Uso Mitai na I Love You, and Hikari.

Distance
Favorites are Wait & See~Risk~, Can You Keep a Secret?, For You, Kettobase!, and Parody.

First Love
Favorites are Automatic, Movin' on Without You, In My Room, First Love, Amai Wana~Paint It Black~, Time Will Tell, and B&C.

I also have a bunch of non-album tracks. Simple and Clean and Sanctuary are the English versions of Hikari and Passion, respectively (and were the themes for Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II). Then there are a bunch of live covers: Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day), I Love You* (Ozaki Yutaka), I Won't Last a Day Without You (with Shiina Ringo) (The Carpenters), Konya wa Boogie Back* (Ozawa Kenji), Living on My Own* (Freddie Mercury), Take on Me (A-ha), and With or Without You (U2). Those with asterisks are favorites.



I also have some requests I filled for people. I haven't really listened to Tategami, so I can't say much about it. There are some really good songs on Faces Places, though, especially the title track, and also Face and So Far Away from Home (Beautiful Journey).

Go! Go! 7188 - Tategami
Globe - Faces Places

And a couple of individual tracks as well, both of which I love.

Go! Go! 7188 - Jet Ninjin
Hana Hana - Sayonara Daisuki na Hito

Today I had lunch and wandered around scenic downtown Santa Monica with nixwilliams. We mainly wandered around the pier and the promenade, as I am not much of a tourist guide and couldn't really think of anything else interesting down there. XD But! We had fun, and we ate lunch at a crepe place whose name I can't remember (but it had crepe in the name somewhere).

But now I am exhausted from tramping around in the hot sun (it was in the mid '80s and very sunny) and...I'm all sunburnt. :( I was wearing jeans and long sleeves, so it's only my head, but pretty much all of my face is burnt, my ears, the back of my neck, and even my scalp a bit. Waaah. It's not the worst burn I've had by a long shot, but it hurts and I'm kicking myself that I didn't think about putting on sunblock when I knew we'd be walking around for a couple hours.

Today is a good day. Not only did I have a fun afternoon, but Bruce has two money-making things coming up. One of the lawyers he used to work for (not the one he did the filing for the other day, but a different one formerly in the same firm) wants him to help with some files next Monday. And my mom's 96-year-old father-in-law fell a few weeks ago, and though he didn't break anything, he is pretty beat up and since the fall as been much more frail and such, so he needs someone over at the house with him sometimes. So Bruce is going to get paid to go over a few hours a day, a few days a week and help him out.

I also got an email yesterday from the hentai game guy, who now has some videos for me to translate. I haven't heard back yet about how much payment will be, and haven't gotten the videos from him, but that should be some more money coming in for me, too, yay.

So, excellent day all around.

Also, I uploaded a bunch of music yesterday and will be posting with that later on.

( Shifting Reality (Best Imitation of Myself Remix) )

Shifting Reality (Best Imitation of Myself Remix)
~1200 words :: adult :: Stargate: Atlantis :: John/Rodney :: 4/28/08
That's what he decided the universe is like, folded up like a fan, and you can spread it out or close it up, and when it's closed that's when you can shift.

( It probably isn't the first time. After all, the first memory you have of someone doesn't mean they didn't exist before. But the first time John remembers it happening is when he was six. )

Notes: Thanks to telesilla, zillah975, and helens78 for the last-minute betaing. This is a remix of [shift] Reality by gblvr, written for remixredux08. Commentary can be found here.

Turning Pirate by p0wdermonkey 3/5
Pirates of the Caribbean. 6700 words. Bill Turner had no luck with women, or perhaps it was that women had no luck with Bill Turner.
( Enjoyable. )

Being Liquid by rotaryphones 5/5 Recommended
Harry Potter. 7900 words. When Teddy discovers a new way to be liquid, Victoire helps him to find stability.
( Complicated and interesting and just really well done. )

The Rumour Mill by such_heights 3/5
Harry Potter. 3000 words. Luna thinks people really do focus on the strangest things.
( Cute. )

Something New by lovetheboys 2/5
Supernatural. 800 words. Sam learns something new about his brother.
( Pretty bad. )

Apparently Facebook has added a new spam feature, whereby they send you an email to notify you of someone you might know. How do they determine this? By what school you went to. Now, if there was a way to limit it, say, to my high school, which has had about 100 students each year in its 25 year history, that wouldn't be so bad. Chances are good I might actually know the person. But the chances of me knowing someone from UCFUCKINGLA are pretty slim. Not only that, but I imagine people who went to UCLA are joining Facebook every day. No way do I want to get a flood of emails.

I did finally find out where to turn it off, but they didn't make it easy. There is a list of options for email announcements, and then there's a little "click here for more" where they hid that one. I was about two seconds from deleting my account altogether rather than be flooded with spam.

Ugh.

Anyway, in completely unrelated news, I just realised my "newly downloaded albums that need sorting" playlist has nearly two days' worth of music on it. I...should probably listen to those and see what I do and don't want to keep.

Also, yesterday was the Remix reveal. I've already posted my main story with commentary, and I'll probably post my pinch hit either tonight or tomorrow. I want to get commentary written on it, too, before I post.

( Rest Stop (I Knew You When Remix) )

Rest Stop (I Knew You When Remix)
~1200 words :: Supernatural :: Sam, Dean :: 4/26/08
Maybe it's not fair to have this conversation now when Dean can't even get up by himself, but Sam doesn't care.

( It's the easiest job they've had in months, right up until a little girl comes flying out of the kitchen, knife in hand, and practically guts Dean before Sam can pull her off him. )

Notes: Thanks to helens78 and telesilla for the extremely last-minute betaing. This is a remix of merryish's Rest Stop - Near Leland, Mississippi, written for remixredux08. Commentary for the story can be found here.

( Spoilers )

Oh my God, you guys. I did five Jump chapters again this week (Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, D.Gray-man, and Reborn), but instead of doing it on Thursday and Friday night, I did it all in one night. Ten hours of pretty much non-stop translating. I took a couple of pee breaks, ate a couple candy bars and some carrot sticks while I was working, and peeked at LJ a couple times, and that's really about it. Maybe half an hour to forty-five minutes of breaks total within the ten hours. Whew.

But I feel good! Getting it all done in ten hours means I earned $15/hour, plus it means I feel like I've been super productive and I still have plenty of time now to get other stuff done.

Also, another nice thing? Aside from Hunter x Hunter, these are actually manga I read, so translating them is fun and interesting. (And wow, this week's Naruto...damn! Seriously, I was like "oh shit, that is an awesome twist".) Of course, I'm not caught up to them all (even the ones I'm nearly caught up on as tankobon still have ten or twent chapters that haven't been tankobonised yet) so it means I've had to spoil myself, but whatever. I can spoil myself for money. Half the time I do it accidentally on Wikipedia anyway.

I'm also feeling good about work, because I translated two video clips earlier this week, a doujinshi, finished up the current batch of pages for a BL novel I'm translating, and Bruce got a check for the filing he did last week ($10 an hour + mileage = $60-some for an afternoon of work - now if they'd just call him again).

1. Today's Penny Arcade is hilarious.

2. Dinosaur Comics has also been very funny lately.

3. I loved the most recent Softer World (be sure to hover over the image to get the full effect).

4. Recently I have heard (or seen, rather) people saying OH JOHN RINGO NO when especially appalled by something, but I had no idea who John Ringo was (at first I was imagining they meant John and Ringo and that they were swearing to Beatles like gods) or what he had done. Then last night I saw this. He wrote badfic. It was published. It was really, really bad. So that's where OH JOHN RINGO NO comes from.

The best part, though, is that he left a comment on the post and later linked to it from his website, saying he agreed with it. So at least he has a sense of humor about it.

Be sure to check out the icon in comments. I think there needs to be a rash of OH JOHN RINGO NO icons now.

5. I have no links, but I just want to say I am still totally amused by Katekyo Hitman Reborn! It is made of awesome. In the volume I'm reading, Reborn has disguised himself as a sphinx, Tsuna's homeroom teacher, a girl, a painting, a Greek statue (naked but for a well-placed leaf), and probably other things I'm forgetting.

My new favorite character is Longchamp, a rival mafia boss who is in Tsuna's class (why are there all these mafia folks in Japan? It's a mystery) and who wants to be Tsuna's best friend. He has a string of girlfriends, each of whom is weirder than the last. They are really undescribable without pictures, but I will tell you that the most normal of them has been a middle-aged lady who works at the school. And I don't mean some hot older woman, either.

1. I got my money for the manga I translated Thursday and Friday, yay. Though I will say, western union is a pain in the ass. I wish they were paying by paypal, even if that meant a fee would get taken out on my side.

I went to the store this morning. The first store had something wrong with their machine and it wouldn't print the money order thingy. The second store said they can't do western union until after nine. It was 8.30. (That might have actually been the problem at the first store, too, and the guy just didn't know what was going on.) I didn't want to hang around the store for half an hour, so I went home and came back a couple hours later.

This is after the fact that when they first brought up the idea of western union payments, I was unable to find where there is western union whatsit nearby because western union's website is shit. You go to the location finder thingy and fill in your country and address and then press next to see where the nearest locations are...and it gets you a 404.

I have never had anything to do with western union before, so I had no idea what sort of places I could go, except for the money changer down by the promenade, which I sure as hell don't want to have to go to every week. But Bruce said maybe the grocery store, so we went and yeah, obviously they do it. But seriously. Huge pain in the ass all around.

But at least I have my money! And I'm doing at least five chapters again this week.

2. Check out Painted Spires. Posting started yesterday and there have been some really awesome entries. I'm thrilled that finally here's a fest I can actually follow and not fall behind on! Yay for fanart. My first one is due on the 1st. Eep.

3. My whole evening has been sucked up by boob wank. I read the original post (OP) and one or two responses this morning before going to bed, but it had exploded over my flist by the time I woke up. Basically, it's gross. Reading the OP, my first reaction was "ew, wtf?" and that has not changed despite the OP's clarifications and apologies. It's skeevy, plain and simple. It's a bunch of guys who were desperate to touch some tits and tried to make it into some grand enlightened thing. And of course if you don't want to particpate, you're a prude, you're anti-sex, you're not enlightened or cool and you just Don't Get It.

The post and comments are dripping in privilege. Their mindset is that a woman owes it to them to let them touch her, and sadly there are lots of women who buy into that.

By the end of the evening, women were coming up to us. "My breasts," they asked shyly, having heard about the project. "Are they... are they good enough to be touched?" And lo, we showed them how beautiful their bodies were without turning it into something tawdry.

Whether that's how the girl(s) really acted or it's just his perception, either way it's GROSS GROSS GROSS. The patronising tone just makes me want to punch someone.

And I don't know who John Scalzi is, except that people in fandom are always linking to him, but he has spoken on this, too:

I think it’s reasonable for folks to get used to breasts being a component of a whole human, not these strange, mystical entities there to entice and distract one, and if there’s any place where there are people who could benefit from this lesson, it’s a convention full of computer, science fiction and anime geeks, many of whom are very young men (temporally and/or socially). Hopefully some of them benefited from the experience, and not just because they got to touch a girl’s breasts.

So basically, it's a woman's job to offer up her body to educate men, to prove to them that she's actually a fucking human being. Jesus Christ, this whole mess is made of more fail than I thought possible.

I liked this post and the comments in this post best of the reactions, I think, though there have been a lot of good ones. (I haven't seen a full links roundup anywhere, but esorlehcar and delle have quite a few links in theirs.)

It's interesting to me reading the comments in cereta's post and elsewhere, because I'm aware that my experience is atypical*. It's only in the past few years, reading stuff on the internet, that I've realised that.

I have not been harrassed or assaulted. I have not been ogled (or if I have, I was unaware of it, which means the end results for me are the same). I don't feel unsafe. I don't worry about being raped. It never crossed my mind not to go out alone at night, either walking or driving. I don't lock the door when I'm in the house, and often just have the screen door open, even at night. In the past, I have ridden in the car with perfect strangers and not worried. I have given my address to people (including men) on the internet. I have met up with guys I met online (one came to live with me and never left!) and I went to Japan and stayed with a person I'd been penpals with for less than six months, who could have been a man or a serial killer for all I knew, but it never occurred to me to doubt who she was or to be afraid.

And the thing is? Even without all that fear and prior experience that many women are drawing on in response to this, I still think it's skeevy and would be weirded out if a stranger (male or female) asked to touch me. I think it's generally gross and weird that a stranger would want to touch me. How much worse must it be for those who are actually afraid of such advances, because of past experience where no was not taken kindly?



*Why is anyone's guess, but I would venture lack of a sense of myself as female + obliviousness (to those around me and to indirect socialisation in general).

Lavender Suited Him by thalialunacy 3/5
Harry Potter. 1300 words. George thought he knew everything about Fred, until one day a Wizard hit on him, thinking he was Fred.
( Cute. )

Monday Kind of Guy by whatifisaidno 2/5
Harry Potter. 7700 words. In which Ron redefines, Charlie comes out, Hermione keeps her head, Neville's got it all together, George is the responsible one, Harry's a total mess and Dean's a dick.
( Er...okay. So not what I expected to read for this fest. )

I'll Find What I've Been Seeking by pforte 2/5
Harry Potter. 2100 words. Remus tries to make it work, to live his dream. But some things are just not meant to be.
( Good premise, not so good writing. )

Just the Normal Way Things Go by guad 2/5
Harry Potter. 1400 words. Harry and Hermione discover the wizarding world is even less tolerant than the Muggle world.
( Some good bits, but overall heavy-handed and OTT. )

Less Like Freedom Than You Might Assume by bluflamingo 4/5 Recommended
Stargate: Atlantis. 7400 words. Lorne gen. You don't always get to decide for yourself.
( Really good. )