boxofdelights

Remember this project? It might be slow going, but I have not given up on it! Book 2 on the revolution syllabus I have set myself is Ten Days That Shook the World, John Reed's half-accurate account of the Bolshevik takeover in Petrograd in 1917.

Please note: I have no better idea about any of the actual politics involved than I did before I read this book. This is because there are approximately five million political parties involved, most of them claiming to be Socialist and all of them in a constant process of sitting in on meetings and then storming out on each other in a huff.

(Half the time the storming out in a huff is followed by someone else shouting "YOU ALREADY STORMED OUT LAST NIGHT! WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?")

Anyway, John Reed's version is pretty partisan and only sort of accurate, so everything he says about actual facts has to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt anyway.

What his account does do is give a very good idea of the inevitable confusion that occurs when a country tries to remake all of its social and political structures overnight. Nobody has any idea what's going on in the rest of the country; social structures are in a constant state of flux; half the time half of the national infrastructure is on strike in protest against the other half; people are constantly putting up posters all around the city saying "WORKERS! DON'T LISTEN TO [OTHER POLITICAL PARTY]! WE HATE THEM AND THEIR STUPID FACES." One entire major party decides to boycott all the meetings because they're annoyed that the Bolsheviks have stolen their land reform program and THEY THOUGHT OF IT FIRST, JEEZ. John Reed, the American Socialist journalist who is narrating the whole story, almost gets accidentally executed at least three times by the Bolshevik party, which he supports and has a safe-conduct from; another three times he is blithely able to wander into government areas where he really should not have been without anybody stopping him.

History is chaos, man. Any time, any place -- it's basically amazing that anything ever gets done.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/336761.html

staranise

Today I have an awful nauseous drug-resistant headache. Aaaagh.

Anyway, over at Scalzi's people are talking about Amazon's new attempt to monetize fanfic, and one of the things I want to bring up is how fanfic, actually, is not canon's tame dog. I don't think original publishers would WANT to try to market a lot of fic. Either the fic is flipping canon the bird, or it's using the world to explore something different (Omegaverse, BDSMverse, boypussy).

But I'm in pain and I've forgotten the examples of fics that backhand canon something fierce in a really brilliant way. Recs pls?

Crossposts: http://goldjadeocean.livejournal.com/1260882.html

rachelmanija

I completely got my money's worth of enjoyment out of this series. By the time I was approaching book nine, I didn't want it to end. But the ending was very satisfying.

There was one event in particular which was completely surprising, yet meticulously set up over ten books. There was another, also surprising yet completely set up, which caused me to email Buymeaclue a message whose non-spoilery text consisted of "OH MY GOD!!!!! Also, just opened the part where it shifts POVs and OH MY GOD I KNOW WHERE HE IS."

Now I want to read the whole thing over from the beginning. Due to the unusual structure, it will probably feel like an entirely new experience.

You can buy the whole shebang on e-book at a discount ($30 for the equivalent of four books), or in paper. However, the paper editions are in four volumes, and only two are out. You will probably end up with a mutant half-paper, half-e-book set if you attempt the latter.

http://www.blindeyebooks.com/rifter/

I mentioned before that the series reminded me of P. C. Hodgell. By the end, it also reminded me of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime (first series.) In both, nearly all the seemingly unrelated side stories and apparently unimportant minor characters turn out to be integral to the story as a whole. Also the unusual mix of a dark world with a magic system involving some major body horror, with funny moments and a lot of very likable and even idealistic characters who don’t (necessarily) get crushed under the author’s boot.

( Read more... )

These books just kept getting better and better, from an intrigueing but somewhat rough start. I’m sure they will reward re-reading.

Crossposts: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/1107627.html

oyceter

I am really not prepared, due to the events of the past few weeks.

Must remember to pack HDMI cable.

Anyway, I will be arriving Friday afternoon and leaving Monday night. Anyone still around for an early Monday dinner? I have made vague flailing attempts at meal planning.

I like texts MUCH more than phone calls (and for some reason, my phone doesn't always ring when people call), and I should have my iPhone with me most of the time, so I'll have access to email and Twitter messages and etc. PM me if you want my number!

Mostly hoping I will appear semi-intelligent on my panels and that there will be no flight delays. *knock on wood*

Crossposts: http://oyceter.livejournal.com/1015619.html

wired

I am having one of those weeks, where I would love to do [thing], but I have my country's anniversary to plan, and a wedding, and a murder, and a frame job. Or something.

And it's not going to get any better, and I did it to myself, and ouch, I found my growing edge.

Anyway, this time tomorrow I hope to be in Wisconsin, on the way to Wiscon, the con of my heart. Before then, I hope to:
* Hem and pocket a skirt
* Format and upload an ebook
* Pack for four days of various Con needs
* Make sure I have some minimal notes on each of the panels I am running.
* Make sure I leave all my jobsearch stuff in a good state.
* Sleep

It can be done. But then I look down the barrel of my summer, and oh, boisies.
* I am speaking at OS Bridge in exactly one month. Talk -- not done. Hotel not booked.
* I have just tentatively accepted a moonlighting gig at [large computer company doing cloud stuff]. 20-30 hours a week, which is intimidating, but it's a diagonal move up on my career path. How many 50 year old techncial writers can you think of? Yeah. So I need to diversify my talents. So taking this content manager position is going to advance my career maybe as much as grad school, except with the money flowing in instead of out. So good for my career, good for the bank account, possibly bad for book reviewing. And sleep. Good for my time management skills?
* Convergence is going to be huge, and my spouse is going to be super busy, and I'm going to be supporting him.
* I plan to train for a century in August. I have to spend time on my bike to do that.
* I have two children who need my attention.
* I have an extremely hot job offer bubbling away, and it would be great to work for [another large computer company, doing a different kind of cloud thing]. I am excited, did I mention that?
* In the meantime, the pace of flailing at current workplace is accelerating. It's in the right direction, but too late for me, I think.
* Starting new jobs is a huge mental tax for me. Doing two at once will not kill me, but I don't know if it will make me stronger or reduce me to living under my bed.

But, in the meantime, my next emergencies are Publish Book, Pack, and Go To Wiscon. Those are pretty good emergencies to have.

wired

So, how a person flirts. I have been thinking about this for years, and I am pretty sure that the key is plausible deniability. For this to make sense, here are my premises:

1) Indicating sexual/personal interest in someone creates a power imbalance. The wanter feels vulnerable, the wantee is, in some sense, responsible for responding to their feelings.
2) Power imbalances, in the absence of an external power structure, are uncomfortable and seek to resolve themselves.
3) When people are uncomfortable, they seek power.
4) The default method of seeking power is frequently different between male-socialized and female socialized people. Male-socialized people think of power as determining the conversation direction, avoiding shame, initiating action. Female-socialized people think of it as avoiding danger, putting ideas up as test balloons, and provoking action.

So with those premises in mind, it makes sense when you think about everyone trying to save face and power and discomfort. That's why it's so often hard to tell if someone is flirting with you. They genuinely don't want you to be able to tell for sure, until they have a fair idea whether you want them to be flirting. It's like Schroedinger's Uncertainty Pussy.

Scenario 1: Flirtee is not into flirter.
Flirter: If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me? (It's cheesy, it provokes a laugh, and it still manages to be a compliment and not horrifyingly scary. But it could also just be a big joke, hahah.)
Flirtee: Haha no. I only hold my body against my existing sweetie/gym machine/cat. (UM, NO, But let's save some face here.)
Flirter: Haha, of course you do. Lucky cat! (slinks off to drown sorrows in a grape knee-hi)

Scenario 2: Flirtee is not averse to flirter.
Flirter: I'm really interested in hearing more about your book. Would you like to go somewhere quieter to talk about it?
Flirtee: (evaluates rape and murder potential, decides it's ok, touches hair or Flirter's hand) Sure, that sounds good. (At this point, both of them are feeling hopeful that it is a flirtation, but the verbal content is still plausibly deniable)
Flirter: (stops talking about the book, starts disclosing personal information)
Flirtee: (discloses matching personal information, possibly touches casually)
Flirter: (is pretty confident they are not getting the wave-off)
Flirtee: (is pretty sure they are not imagining things)
Flirter: Would you like to come back to my room and make out? You are intoxicating.
Flirtee: Yes

So that's like, an idea scenario that involves face-saving, deniability, danger evaluation, and eventual clear request and consent. But of course, the path of true flirting, like everything else in life, does not always run true.

Scenario 3: The missed connection. Flirtee is not sure whether they are reading the signals right.
Flirter: You're very attractive.
Flirtee: Thank you?
Flirter: (talks about self, uses a lot of I statements)
Flirtee: That's cool.
Flirter: (I'm really selling me!)
Flirtee: (Are they interested in me? Are they vulnerable enough for me to be vulnerable?)
Flirter: My last ex-girlfriend said....
Flirtee: Perhaps I have just been cornered by someone boring. Or maybe I was imagining the eye contact? Abort! Abort!

Scenario 4: Inconclusive. Neither party is vulnerable enough to progress to the next level.
Flirter: I really liked that thing you said.
Flirtee: Thanks! Your insight is really cool.
.....continues until late into the night....
Flirter: I can't tell -- are they into the idea or me?
Flirtee: Is this flirting or intellectual jousting?
Flirter: Maybe I'll get a hint in a bit.
Flirtee: Maybe I'll get a hint in a bit.
.......sun rises, no one gets smooches, everyone is confused......

mslorelei

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

james_davis_nicoll

Just for my own curiosity

Is this right?

        Total  Fail  Success Success Rate
1960s    19     14     5         26%
1970s    11      3*    8         73%
1980s     8      .33   7.67      96%
1990s    --      --    --        -- 
2000s     3            3        100% 
2010s     1       1**              0%

* Counting partial failures as 1/2
** Second try coming up in 2016.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4370160.html

centuryplant

onyxlynx

11. What features do you think Dreamwidth should have that it doesn't currently?

Well, I'd still like a blockquote button, and perhaps someday I will be able to just think at the keyboard and it will transcribe all those nebulous half-chewed thoughts and correct the typoes and post for me.

Current Mood: silly

copperbadge

You guys, I keep meaning to make some kind of post so you know I'm still alive, but all I do is work, sleep, and watch trashy documentaries. It's like the adult version of Sesame Street, I'm reverting to age five or something, and it's not very interesting.

And sometimes I write really stupid fanfic.

Title: At Tilde
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: Matilda turns hacker, impresses Tony Stark, and fails to be swayed by Charles Xavier.
Notes: Arose out of a chat about what Matilda would think of the internet. Went somewhere terrifying. No regrets.

At AO3 | At Dreamwidth

james_davis_nicoll

Giveaway Contest at the other end of the link (click on the picture). Four copies to the people who can answer "What’s so great about Vampire Hunter D?" in the most interesting way.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4369818.html

james_davis_nicoll

Saturn's moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan's northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon's hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4369470.html

otw_news_feed

Posted by Claudia Rebaza

http://transformativeworks.org/news/otw-fannews-collective-action

Fans and the general public are becoming less tolerant of corporate overreaches in copyright claims. A crackdown on Etsy vendors marketing Firefly-related hats caused sufficient outrage that one outlet selling the licensed hats decided to donate its profits to a Firefly charity. Yet as The Mary Sue pointed out, at least part of the anger was because now that "Fox has actually decided to license merchandise based on the ten year old television series" they're "taking shots at the smaller, unlicensed retailers that have been serving the market niche they’ve been ignoring."
Other overreaches garnered an even larger response, prompting the enforcement-happy Disney company to change an upcoming film title. "[T]he Internet flipped out in response to the news that Disney had filed several applications to trademark the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, which is the subject of an upcoming Pixar film. The freak out-age is completely justified: Trademarking Día de los Muertos would be exploitative, appropriative, and disrespectful of Mexican culture, plus it’s just downright insane (owning trademark to a holiday? C’mon, Disney). Luckily the massive amount of criticism got Disney to back off."
Collective action seems key. Research fellow Nicholas Theisen wrote about copyright in relation to manga and scanlations as well as examining issues surrounding fair use. "[M]edia companies quite often bully individuals and smaller companies into abdicating fair use rights simply by virtue of being able to spend more money on lawyers and on legal means of protecting one’s IP." This doesn't affect just fans but also scholars. "[I]t has become standard practice for publishers of comics scholarship to demand that authors get express written permission for each and every image to be reproduced, even though a work of scholarship is an obvious example of fair use." The problem is one that doesn't even reach litigation. "Scholars regularly lament this state of affairs, yet there is little pushback, because, at the end of the day, if you don’t get the permissions, your book doesn’t get published, and if your book doesn’t get published, the likelihood of your getting tenure plummets. The practice of publishers is likely never to change unless people at some point say “no,” at very real risk to themselves and their careers."
The new U.S. H.R. 1892 bill would amend the DMCA to require that circumvention be in aid of copyright infringement to be unlawful. This would fix a number of issues, including the OTW's need to get an exemption for vidders every three years. U.S. fans to whom these exemptions are important might want to contact their representatives in support of the bill.

What collective action have you seen bring about a success for fans? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

News topic tags:

Academia

Entertainment Industries

Intellectual Property

Message:

http://transformativeworks.org/news/otw-fannews-collective-action

thingswithwings

This seems like a rather gratifying and self-soothing meme!

I currently have 171 works archived at the AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 171 (the first thing I posted there), and I’ll tell you three things I currently like about it.

aria

Okay, I'm going to be at WisCon for the next five days (!!!) which means if I don't make this television post now, it's never going to get made. And so! TV I have watched & have feelings about!

( Community, spoilers through the finale, shruggy but positive )

( Doctor Who, spoilers through the finale, kind of ambivalent )

( Elementary!! spoilers through the finale, unmitigated joy )

In addition to these, Polaris and I have also been watching Person of Interest, Polaris because a friend highly recommended it, me because now that astolat has moved on from Thor/Loki porn to Finch/Reese porn my life has been a barren wasteland and I wanted to be able to read her porn again. (I do things for good serious intellectual reasons.) We love it a whole lot?? We're only at the beginning of season two, and the beginning of season two hit me in the face with MACHINE FEELS, which will now live with my Fiiinch feels, and my John-Reese's-stupid-face feels, and my Caaaarter feels, and my ongoing dedication to Amy Acker and Enrico Colantoni. So uh that's been great? And I'd totally write the dystopia-with-robots AU, or the Batman AU, except I don't even need to.

All of this actually fails to be a rundown about what I'll be yelling about at WisCon, because what I'll be yelling about at WisCon is Avengers, as always. I don't think I need to do a Care & Feeding post, if only because I haven't done one in years past but have managed just fine, but: Amiel and I will be arriving tomorrow noon! If any of y'all are already in the area, hit us up and we'd be happy to do pre-con hangouts. :DDD

liv

Coming bank holiday weekend. I'm planning to be in Cambridge and specifically at the last day of the Beer Festival on Saturday. Who else is going to be there? I may be free Sunday evening or Monday, if anyone wants to get together?
14^th-16^th June: I'm returning from travels with jack late on Thursday evening 13^th. Would anyone like to see us either in London or Cambridge on the Friday or, more likely, during the weekend? If people can offer crash space in London Thursday night and hang out on Friday that would be perfect, but most likely we'll end up heading back to Cambridge to recover from travelling.
The first crop of doctorlings whom I've personally taught are graduating in July. This is slightly terrifying, knowing that kids I remember as callow second years are going to be actual doctors in just a few weeks! Anyway, the Medical School have very kindly invited me to represent the school in the formal academic procession. This is the first opportunity I've had to wear my PhD gown in a professional capacity (first academic dress occasion since my own graduation).

Although they've changed this now, when I graduated Scottish universities mostly didn't have caps, so I have to process bare-headed. pseudomonas came up with the brilliant suggestion that I could make up for this by getting hair-falls. Dundee colours are black and something called "Stewart blue" which is basically as near to royal / liturgical blue as they could get away with without actually being royalty or the Virgin Mary. I am really struggling to translate the official British Colour Council code (BCC149) into a modern digital code, but it's something close to #002266. And a secondary colour of eggshell blue which is approx #0088ff. Does anyone who knows heraldry or any relevant aspect of formal colour stuff know how to get a more precise identification? And does anyone have any recs for where I might order hair-falls in my academic colours?

( tech )

Current Mood: acquisitive
Current Location: ST4 6QR
Current Music: Soundgarden: Limo Wreck

petra

( You're about to view content which the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: ogling
Current Music: What does "ward" mean anyway?

musesfool

Ugh, in an attempt to work out my stress and frustration over the Rangers, I made the dough for these brown butter salted chocolate chip cookies. My apartment smelled like brown butter last night, which was very comforting after that terrible loss. Ugh. And I shall have cookies tonight, which is never bad.

Unfortunately, I overslept this morning and I hate how that makes me feel like I'm just spending the rest of the day trying to catch up. Also, I wore my black sandals yesterday for the first time and even though I put preventative band-aids over the spots where I know they rub, I still managed to somehow get a blister. Sigh.

My life is the hardest.

Anyway! Wednesday! Reading meme!

What did I just finish?

Nothing got finished because...

What am I reading now?

I am still slogging through The Terror, though I have to tell you, I am about 450 pages into this book and that is just shy of half-finished (!!!) according to my kindle, but I think I might just be done. I feel like ( spoilers? ) What else can possibly happen for another 500 pages? If I owned the book, I wouldn't care, but it's a library book, and three of my other holds became available in the past couple of days, so I would prefer to read them first and maybe come back to this at another time, if I shouldn't just skip to the end and read the last hundred pages. I don't really care about any of the characters but Crozier, and I know how the story ends (at least, historically), so those of you who've read it, what is your advice?

I also started The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters, and I'm enjoying it so far. Henry Palace is a newly minted police detective in Concord, NH in the months leading up to what is expected to be the end of the world. He still cares about doing his job even when most other people are either killing themselves or trying to check items off their bucket lists. I'm not far into it yet, but it's been interesting so far.

What I'm reading next

I have Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway and The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson from the library, and apparently R.A. Dickey's memoir is now available for download, so those will probably be next. I honestly did not expect all these books to be available at once, but it would be fine except for how ridiculously huge The Terror is. At least I'm not closer than 20th on the list for the next thing to become available.

***

Lastly, I already did this on tumblr, but why not do it here too?

I currently have 474 works archived at AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 474 (the first thing I posted there), and I’ll tell you three things I currently like about it.

(it says 479 on my dashboard, but that's because there are 5 podfics in the listing, and I'm not the creator of those.)

***

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Too Darn Hot - Ella Fitzgerald (heh)
Crossposts: http://musesfool.livejournal.com/2282653.html

james_davis_nicoll

As reported at the Planetary Society Blog:

A couple of articles on India's Mars Orbiter Mission were published on the news website The Week yesterday, and they're much more in-depth and insightful than the norm.

Mars is an oddly difficult target, with about two-thirds of Mars probes failing before planned mission end, some before observations began. Break a leg, India.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4369246.html

(no subject)

(no subject)

The Rifter, by Ginn Hale. Conclusion (v. 9-10)

Wiscon!

And Guilder to frame for it

Flirting on eggshells

spanked2tears: Heaven is a soft lap and a hard paddle. (Or is...

Venus Probe Success/Fail

My buds: Eyestalks

2 Questions

(no subject)

Noble V: Greylancer Giveaway Contest

Hurricane season for Titan's northern hemisphere?

OTW Fannews: Collective action

meme

tv!

Misc social

A very short photoessay

but when the thermometer goes way up and the weather is sizzling hot

India Mars Probe articles

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