sundries

[rm]

Right about now Patty's beginning her comps. It may be a long week coming up for me, but it's a longer one coming up for her.

The temperature is also rapidly approaching 97 in New York City today. Between that and the impending hurricane business, not a lot of fun. Also, it really has been this bad: 2010 was New York's hottest summer on record.

LJ has implemented a new feature that allows you to cross-post both entries and comments to Facebook and Twitter. Anyone who has this feature enabled may cross-post comments they make to friendslocked entries to these services. While the cross-posted item does not show the original locked post, it does indicate the existence of content some people are not able to see, which is a privacy concern for many in and of itself. Additionally, depending on what someone says in that cross-posted comment there are additional issues.

While I am perfectly aware (so don't start that argument with me) that privacy on the Internet and LJ is largely an illusion, people are entitled to that illusion. They are also entitled to being able to deactivate the use of such a tool that makes privacy violations seem easier and more appropriate in their own spaces.

I made a locked post about this last night for a bunch of people to test the feature. Yes, it really works as I've described. Other than using that post to test this feature, DO NOT cross-post comments you make in my locked entries to other services using this feature (you own your own words, and cutting and pasting from a comment you make to me in a lock post that doesn't reveal the source or information I'm handling delicately is fine, but as I've seen noted elsewhere comments sure can reveal a lot about what someone is saying privately).

If you want to complain to LJ about the lack of opt-out/opt-in in the implementation, use this handy post from news.

I don't, btw, really have the time to go to war with LJ about this this week, but you should be aware.

On a related note, I see a lot of reaction to this situation being framed as "I don't want people in my real life to know about my LJ." I totally get what you are saying; many of us have separate identities on and off-line or multiple different communities. However, LJ isn't fake. These are real interactions with real people that you are having. You may value them less, and that's fine. But we're not constructs for you to bounce your actual existence off of. We're real too. Even here, typing. "Real" is an easy construction, I know, but it's also a sloppy one. Please think twice before using it.

France is having an amazing scandal involving the L'Oreal heiress and shady cash payments to scads of politicians.

The Swedish rape case against the Wikileaks founder is one big mess. I don't know, and have no way of knowing, the merits of the actual case, but the way Sweden is handling it is not helping anyone else figure it out either.

When a promotion seems like a demotion: life in the corps de ballet.

Teens charged with harassment at mosque, specifically they've been accused of "harassing members of a mosque by yelling obscenities and insults during evening prayers for Ramadan, sideswiping a worshiper with a vehicle and firing a shotgun outside."

Last night on White Collar: This show is often best when it's doing the masters of the universe thing. This room, and the boiler room episode, are two of my favorites. Loved seeing Peter go undercover and not being too awkward to handle it. The coffee/espresso thing was hilarious and was sort of "here, Torchwood fans, I made this for you."

The stuff that felt like fan service last week felt organic and weirdly risky this week (Neal helping Peter with his cufflinks), but I'm still not sure what to do with a show that is clearly catering to audiences interested in queer plotlines while not really being willing to go there (yeah, yeah, Diana's a lesbian), because this is not a buddy relationship we're reading with slash goggles. The power differential sexualizes the equation even if these really are two straight guys, because that's the society we live in and sex is often used for dominance. Complex stuff, that frustrates me as a queer person and excites me as a critic and a kinky person.

Loved that Mozz was not over-used or too wacky to be plausible this week. Loved the Peter in peril thing (the look on Neal's face), and loved the ridiculously shouty metaphor with the music box and the key and Peter and Neal being all intense and in each others faces in that moment. Here, again, reading as fan service is just weak and doesn't work. Even taking off the slash goggles, I see two men who know that their interaction is about dominance struggles and therefore, sexuality, even if they are straight. We don't really talk about this in our culture. It's interesting to watch a show that's sort of fumbling around in the dark about, sometimes very, very intelligently.

Oh god, I want to do criticism on White Collar, don't I?

Last night on Covert Affairs: Oh right, it's the Annie show, not the Auggie show. I'm glad we're coming to a head about this Ben crap fast. I didn't want it to be a forever mystery.

I LOVE JOAN SO MUCH. She is so tough, and so ruthless, and wears pretty dresses (that don't contradict her hardness at all) and she an Annie have such a slashy vibe it's hilarious.

This episode had a lot of nice moments. Aside from all the Annie/Joan scenes (which Chris Gorham tweeted about, and I hope he knows what that slash means to fandom), I thought Auggie telling Annie to turn her speakers down was hilarious. Also, there was a gorgeous little moment between Jai and Auggie that I just loved.

Other great things about this episode?
- Annie's sister getting the smackdown re: exoticizing Jai.
- Now, whenever Auggie has an episode where he looks super rumpled, I'm like "Oh my god, you are having so much sex" and I start laughing. He was super rumpled this episode.

Things you should write for me:
- Joan/Annie
- Jai/Annie
- Auggie/Joan
- Annie/Auggie/Jai hate sex that sorta winds up an ongoing thing like that affair Gwen and Owen had, "I'm fucking you because no one else understands."

Yes. Yes please.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

We don't know yet. This is the life of the archaeologist -- much less advance planning than I am used to!

She studies the Indus, but may be traveling through diverse parts of India to see things currently in museum holdings. We're taking another cruise after she gets back, so I may not have the time this time to go over and visit her on this trip, but I'm sure we'll both be over there eventually, as she'll probably be in India for some period of time pretty much every year going forward.

Thank you very much for the offer. You may just be hearing from us about it, once we have a better sense of things.

[billijean.livejournal.com]

Most excellent :)

[moizissimo.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is so cool! One of my friends just got into an Asian Studies program, and will be going to NW India to gather folklore and read things. :) I can hardly wait, because I'll get to go with her!