nonfictional fiction or fictional nonfiction or hey, fun with adjectives

Today was a difficult day. Nothing bad happened, but I started my period and haven't felt great besides and sort of had a delayed emotional reaction to some other stuff and am super tense getting prepped for Dragon*Con and am behind on a lot of stuff, etc. And then I got a small package in the mail from the friend who has somehow convinced me to cosplay Arthur from Inception for a photoshoot at Gallifrey One.

Mainly, I chose Arthur, because, let's face it, I can phone that shit in, and I didn't realize I felt any connection to the character until I received a package from the friend in the mail today. It contained a sealed pack of two dice, never handled, and a note that said, I wanted to gift you with a totem untouched and uniquely yours for Arthur.

I nearly burst into tears. It was exactly what I needed in a week that has seemed unreal often in the worst and yet most mundane possible ways. I haven't opened the dice yet. Won't until I have the Arthur togs on at some point, because the die is his, not mine.

*

In other news of the fictional, I spent most of today, like most of the last several days, banging my head against a proposal that I just couldn't make work. I took parts of old things, new things, LJ posts, and I kept almost finding the point and just not getting there.

And then! While in the shower and singing something of fannish significance so absurd I won't even tell you what it was, it hit me! I have a brilliant proposal, already written, not even remotely about death (I love the mourning work but it is exhausting in a way I cannot accurately convey to you) that was rejected from something else a year ago with high and lengthy praise -- it just didn't fit the thrust of the project.

So hey, why not. I liked the idea then, and I like it even better now. And the death project doesn't need to grow another head. If anything, it needs some air to cure and a more aggressive application of focus (as opposed to energy) from me.

So that's done, and sent, and I feel good about that.

*

Something else. Can't remember what. Oh yeah! White Collar, Covert Affairs. Happy fan is happy. But I'll talk about those tomorrow.

sundries

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: ( Read more... )

Last night on Covert Affairs: ( Read more... )