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Cat'r and I did a Doctor Who Christmas filk song video!

Swiped from MorganaLilith@LJ:

Go to Pop Culture Madness (http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Pop-Modern/2006.html) and select the year you became 18. Snip the top 50 songs (or however many may be there) from the list and paste the list in your journal. Bold the ones you like, strike the ones you dislike, italicize the ones you know but don't care one way or another, and leave the ones you don't know as plain text.

( Apparently I didn't dislike any of them. )

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( holiday cookies )

( gingerbread muffins )

( dill butter bread )

All right kids, as evidenced by the return of the Santa Zero icon, it's that time again! I didn't do holiday cards last year, so that must mean it's time to do them again! If you want a card, comment here with your name and address (comments are screened) or, if I already have it, just let me know you want one.

And I will post that wish list one soon, I swear-- as soon as I figure out what to ask for. :p Feel free to post with a link to your wishlist post, too.

shoo fly pie

beef cake

( cobbler/dump cake thingie )

Today is World AIDs Day and I've been very, very lucky. I don't have AIDs and, partly because I'm so anti-social, only a few people I knew died of it. It has, however, transformed my world. It's changed the world for all of us.

I believe that AIDs and the 'net are the transformative events of my generation. For all Obama is, might have been, could be or was, his effects is minuscule compared to these two transformative events, the same for the Berlin wall, the collapse of Communist Russia, the Middle-East or all the other grand events, with the possible exception of global warming and the mass extinction we're in the middle of.

I believe that AIDs is pretty directly responsible for the current cycle of destabilization of Africa and that the consequences of it will continue to cripple that continent for generations. I also believe that AIDs set back sexual morality and affirmation, and that it has transformed sex and desire and our view of sex in sad and lasting ways. I also believe that AIDs crippled the 'men's movement' – to the point that there really isn't one, anymore.

If I could trade my life for AIDs never having existed, I'd do it without hesitation. I believe it's been one of the most destructive forces in a century.

One of the tragedies that I think is not often discussed, especially so many years after its beginning, is the loss of male mentors for men – particularly gay men. My partner mentions frequently that the men who died first and in largest numbers were the bravest of their time. The ones who were willing to step out of the closet, not ashamed of their sexuality and desires, the ones most willing to touch and be touched. That very courage killed them.

One of those men was Vito Russo . He died when he was forty-four years old, of AIDS.

He wrote the, Celluloid Closet a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in queer history, the presentation of queers in the media (and the way it has shaped public perceptions) and – as so many gay men became because they had no choice, a gay activist during the early, horrible years AIDS in the 80s. He was one of the co-founders of GLADD and active in ACT UP. He was a critical voice for gay men and queers in general.

My partner met Vito Russo and had a chance to speak with him. They ended up talking about classic monster movies (Frankenstein, the old Dracula movies etc) and how – as queer kids – they often identified with the monsters; isolated, outsiders, freaks and 'impure' and how those movies shaped and supported them through their growing up. My partner said, excited, that maybe that could be Vito's next book. The look he got in return was very tired and Vito Russo said: "Perhaps you'll be the one to write it" (paraphrased from memory).

Vito Russo died not long after. He should have had decades of life ahead, to teach, to write, to mentor younger gay men (and women and straight people and everyone), to live in the world and help change it. He didn't and we're all poorer for it.

Tonight I started posting my fics on A03, and I just have to say: SHINY!!!! I'm totally geeking all over the little icons. And the page layout is so sleek and readable! Love it! *pets lots* Tonight I got up all my Alles Was Zählt stories -- and if you guessed that "angst" would be my most popular tag, you would be right!

Only thing that's not so shiny is that although I got my account a week ago, I was waiting to see if they might sort out the umlaut (or lack thereof) problem before I posted. Didn't expect someone to dive in there first and enter things like "Deniz Ozturk" and "Alles Was Zahlt" *winces in pain* I went ahead and entered everything spelled correctly, and I'm hoping the tag wranglers will realise that Ozturk=Oeztuerk and connect them. (Not that it's a big fandom or zillions of people will be confused or anything. Correct spelling is just one of my pet peeves inherited from my grandfather, who always insisted he was "Ó Briain, not O'Brian, for feck's sake!")

Anyway! Tomorrow I'm moving on to Merlin, then Harry Potter -- tonight I entered everything manually, but I think I just might play around with the spiffy importing feature. I have fewer stories in those fandoms, but they're longer/in multiple posts.

Beta means we're supposed to try to break things, right? *g*

Bedtime now. And I've still got the same grin I've been wearing for hours!

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( self-important jerks )

I always lose this website: http://www.imagechef.com

And I always spent at least an hour scrolling through old entries to find where I hid the darn website so I can share it when someone wants it. *pings brain* Remember to search, here brain. I will tag this.

...so I'll borrow someone else's words: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of a large bandwidth must be in want of German pseudo-porn starring a pair of gay ice skaters. And if Internet legend holds, every time a new subscription is added to Eskimo Kiss Project, somewhere in the world a fangirl gets her wings."



This is the most fabulous fandom in the entire world! *loves all of you to bits*

P.S. In other news of sparkly awesomeness, I am figuring out a new vidding program and also just made my first DVD with menus. Technology, ye shall be conquered yet!

It has been a slog. I spent more days behind the quota than ahead of it. The first fifteen thousand words or more could be cut off and nothing of substance would be lost. The story has no end because the plot barely started to congeal before it fell apart. But I'm okay with all that because I kept writing anyway. And I do love Apollonia, Marcus, Abraham, Ersilia, and Muriel and I think they could get together into something with a real plot at some point. Maybe next year even. :D

I'm near 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel. This means I'll have to do a special thank-you video. I was trying to think of a song that would be good, one that I *know*...and all I can think of at the moment is just the chorus of "You Are My Sunshine". I am working on so many other songs and projects for things coming soon, that I don't really have time to work up a new song for this. Oh well!

I just got my Ukulele Underground baby tee shirt in the mail today! I'll wear that in my 100 subscribers video! :-)

Today I got the chords worked out for Cat'r's and my Doctor Who Christmas filk song medley. I'll have to see if the keys I chose will be okay for his voice too. So stuff is still in pencil.

I finished crocheting my red Fun Fur scarf that I'm going to wear in another Christmas video that'll be soonsoonsoon.

So many songs in mind! And then there are the rest of the Christmas decorations to get out and put around the house! Eeeeep!

I hate family holidays. It's not as bad as it used to be. There isn't a mind numbing soul obliterating anxiety about them anymore as there used to be. There's just a dull ache of worry and some slight stomach tremors. Really the worst bit was that I thought I'd probably never have to go to a shin dig like this again. I would go one day, I just would never have to.

I didn't want to talk about where I'd been what I'd been doing and how I was. I'm better but not so well that I can always talk about Zac or Wyoming or what was a fairy tale life that while childish and unsustainable was also beautiful. I just can't talk about it especially with people who don't get it and no one in my family gets it.

Instead I gave short answers and listened to long unending diatribes of how awesome everyone else is. I was glad they were well but I could have done without the jabs at where they were compared to me. I sincerely hope I never did that to them or anyone else, though my successes are so few and far between, I'm sure I've had little opportunity to knock some else further down that way.

In particular my cousin, who works at Fenway went on and on about how boring but glamorous her job was, how much she hated living at home (though she does nothing there but sleep and hang out), and how wonderful her parties and nights out were. I wanted her to be successful. I was prepared to hear about her success and joy so it didn't even sting that much when she kept slighting me and where I was or discarding some of the work I have to do like chores and house upkeep and whatnot.

What did sting was to find out later that her job at Fenway pays $9/hr she works no more than 30hrs a week and she doesn't get benefits. She'd sat there and scorned my retail work as less and demeaning when we make the same hourly rate, I work full time and my job gives me benefits. I don't have an hours commute by public transportation to pay for or anything.

In other more pleasant news my bro got a letter from Mass Maritime and we think it might be his acceptance *hopefully*. I've got to wait for him to come home and open it but I'm super hopeful for him. It's very exciting.

Also, they've finally corrected the comp and literacy portions of the mtels, I should finally have results and hopefully a license on the 9th. Maybe I've be able to pick up some second term work or start vigorously looking for the fall. I'm apprehensive and excited. I don't know what I'll do if this doesn't work and my parents feel strongly I'll need several other back up plans that I'm not sure how to approach but I'll have to figure something out soon I guess.

bridgetmkennitt, you might want to not click the link until after you're done with your fic fest fics. :D

( Random ideas are pretty womancentric, really. )

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Hello, dear neglected f-list. Long time no see.

I'm not having a good weekend at all, and today I am closer than I've ever been to tossing my laptop off the roof and joining a commune that disavows that Demon Electricity.

Gah, it feels like all I ever do these days is bitch about technical stuff, sorry for that, but if it would just throw me a fucking bone I would not have to. Aldi and I have already vowed never to take streaming episodes for granted again; now I long for those blissful days when I could complete the entire conversion-editing-rendering process without wanting to bludgeon something.

In happier news, we did close the gap between our old timeline (the AWZ episodes that aired long before we started EKP) and the current storyline we're covering. It's quite an accomplishment -- we've got nearly 500 videos! Not to mention, tons of love from all the viewers. *cuddles you lot*

And we got this adorable comment from some poor naive soul: I was just wondering about the description for one of the episodes. It said "Marian's totally proud of his lover Etienne evading the police". This made me a little confused... did Marian have a thing with Etienne and Mike? I'm a little confused. I thought he was with Nadja? Could you clear this confusion up for me? Aw, bless. No, Schatz, much as we like to pretend that everybody on this show is gay, that's just in our imaginations. SO FAR.

Well, it's time to get back to work and see if I can't battle this into submission. We've got an episode to get out!