Friends

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011933.html

Really, it's the perfect miniature of our corrupt time: the ultra-rich, aided by the cops, unilaterally privatizing what was once public. And calling it "counterterrorism."

Title: A child of Athos
Author: beatrice_otter
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Rating: G
Characters: Teyla
Written for: tielan , to cheer her up
Word Count: 1,204
Summary: These are the stories Teyla tells her son.

( Now listen to this tale of our people, for it is wise and true. ) This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/154484.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

So. I've pre-populated the tags for the named characters from the special now. Including Lumpy and all three of his synonymous names.

So now we're all set to run a Star Wars Holiday Special characters challenge.

;-D

I think my favorite part of this OMGWTF fandom wrangling has to be this:

"Though scenes of Chief Bast conversation with Darth Vader cut from A New Hope were included in The Star Wars Holiday Special, Bast's presence with Tarkin during the final moments of the Death Star shows that this is not the same officer."

"The lookalike officer in the Holiday Special has not yet been identified. His connection with Bast, if any, has not been explained."

I swear, there's a wookieepedia page for each of them... "This article is about the Imperial officer. You may be looking for his look-alike..."

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Moradmin_Bast

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Unidentified_Moradmin_Bast_look-alike

I mean. Really. SRS BZNZ.


And no, I did not pre-populate the unidentified look-alike. X-P

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1017981.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I successfully met the 5_for_five challenge: write at least 500 words at least 5 times out of the week for 12 weeks. Ta-da!

						</div>

Shiny!

The fic o'doom, aka The Fic That Wouldn't Stay Dead, is now over 66,500 words. Meep! But I think it's keeping me relatively sane this semester, and the motivation of this challenge has helped me keep at it. It's rabid enough that it'd probably have kept eating my brain anyway, but there's this thing that happens when you let a rabid story do that without ever writing any of it out. It just sort of spins itself out and dies. Now, that might actually be a good thing in some cases. There are times I think that might be the best fate for this fic. BUT the writing of it continues to take the weight of the semester off my mind at key times, so having the motivation to sit down and churn out at least 500 words (and often as not, it's after passing that point that a scene takes off) has been a very good thing.

Huge thanks to lady_rhian who thought up this challenge in the first place and mega thanks to sshg316 for opening the challenge up to the rest of us and helping keep us motivated to just keep writing!

Also? Tomorrow's the last day of clinical for this semester. Whee!

Here's my first draft of notes on how I've been wrangling, which is being posted in the internal documentation for Tag Wranglers (and will be kept updated there).

OMFG.

( Long long long details... )

I am currently seeking input on how to convey the multifandom concept of "Apprentice (or Student) Dominating Master (or Teacher)" as well as "Master (or Teacher) Dominating Apprentice (or Student)"... because the concept is bigger than Star Wars. :-)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1017706.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Another perspective on the saga of the SSA: http://enderwiggin24.livejournal.com/133864.html

Short version: Yes, the archive contents will be sheltering at AO3 at some point. Now that the archivists-in-absentia problem has been dealt with, that work can begin to proceed.

<3

Also, Minotaurs was the sole-archivist for the WhitFic Archive (also Smallville-related, but separate from the SSA), and I'm connecting his Dad with the AO3 (which I expect to proceed very smoothly), so that archive will be sheltering at AO3 at some point as well.

(Yes, Minotaurs' server is still functional and DNS is still working in the meanwhile, for his fannish and nonfannish customers.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1017422.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011927.html

The first thing I saw when I started up Twitter just now was a message from John Jarrold:

John Jarrold feels numbed by Rob Holdstock's death - one of my oldest friends. Nothing sensible to say, just love sent to Sarah and his family...

I'm stunned. I'd known he was seriously ill with an E. coli infection, but I never thought...

===

His Wikipedia entry.
His own website, Mythago Wood.
His ISFDB entry.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011926.html

Debra Doyle has pointed me at a piece by Mary Beard in her weblog, A Don's Life, at TLS. It's titled Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo: what was Catullus on about?, and as Doyle says, it's

A truly marvelous blog entry and comment thread, in which a discussion of the difficulties of translating certain Latin obscenities in Catullus becomes entangled with a discussion of the relative merits of oldest-first versus newest-first comment posting order.

True.

We do like that sort of thing.

===

In my anything-but-humble opinion, oldest-first is the way to go. It means you have to at least scan past the rest of the thread, and ideally read it, before posting comments of your own.

Can I state that as a general rule? I think I can:

• The natural action after reading an entry should be one that ensnares the reader in the site's ongoing conversation.

• It should always be easier to read the existing comments in a thread before posting comments of one's own.

• Forums should be configured so that it's easier to read and respond to an existing discussion than to start a new one.

• The default organization and presentation of comments should be full text, in chronological order, with as few page breaks as possible, in order to encourage a coherent and integrated general discussion.

• Threaded headers-only comment formats are appropriate for tech support forums devoted to providing specific answers to specific questions; viz., which printer driver is required for your combination of hardware and software. If any point can be said to have been established by last year's appalling unpleasantness in LJ, it's that collapsed threaded paginated comment formats are inimical to large-scale general discussions.

• Reward and encourage commenters who engage with the discussion. The basic unit of engagement is coming back to see what the other commenters said in reply.

• A commenter's name and other information should be given at the beginning of a comment, not the end, to encourage readers to perceive the thread as a discussion taking place among identifiable human beings.

• The most useful and accurate User Profile is an automatically generated list of the complete text of that person's previous comments.

• Give preference to the use of real-world identities.

I'll leave the learned opinions on Latin translation to the real classicists here. I did appreciate one rule of Mary Beard's which strikes me as being applicable under all circumstances:

First rule for undergraduates: always check where the quote actually comes from!

And WTF, fandom? How is it that no one has uploaded a story into the AO3 with the Freeform tag "Topping from the Bottom"???

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1017128.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles was an awesome television show that was cancelled before its time, and ended on one of the most insane cliffhangers ever, second only to Farscape, only TSCC didn't get a miniseries to wrap things up.

Fortunately, we have halcyon_shift, who wrote the magnificent series Out on the Wire. Starting just as the finale ends, These Things My Mother Taught Me (the first story) throws you right into the middle of a tense situation and things never let up. John Connor, in the future, must figure out how to survive in an apocalyptic future where no one knows his name and everyone's suspicious of how he arrived. Sarah Connor, in the past, must keep herself and Savannah alive while Skynet hunts them. Both of them, from opposite ends of the problem and little way of communicating, must work together to save the human race. And I guarantee you, you won't figure out the end until you get there. The writing is tense, surprisingly introspective, and completely in character.

( Snippet of the first story )

This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/154058.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Helluva day to post a rec, at least for folks this side of the pond, but here it is nonetheless.

Title: The Guardian
Author: madambackslash
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack Harkness, John Hart, Gray, Ianto Jones, Rhiannon Davies, Mica Davies, OCs
Spoilers: Through CoE
Summary: The Jones family has lived in Cardiff for a very long time...
Why you should read it: This tale starts in 27 CE with a very young witness to a horrific event, a witness who proceeds to give that event a meaning that grows through time and then persists well beyond. To say more would spoil it, but it's beautiful and sad and touching and I expect it's a story I'll revisit more than once. Have Kleenex handy when you read.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011918.html

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011912.html

Boycott Black Friday in general, for its hype and fraud; but definitely boycott Wal-Mart.

A year ago, on Black Friday 2008, a man named Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death by a crowd at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Long Island. Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters immediately responded by announcing that Damour was a temp worker employed by a subcontractor. They also called it a "tragic situation," but they didn't mean anything by that. "Tragic" is just the word corporate PR people automatically use when someone's been killed.

Xeni Jardin wrote about it in Boing Boing:

Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death on Black Friday; Union Responds
Posted by Xeni Jardin, November 28, 2008 1:19 PM

A worker at a New York Wal-Mart location was crushed to death this morning, "Black Friday," when hordes of shoppers overwhelmed to get inside for bargain-hunting. Snip from AP account:

At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. ... I literally had to fight people off my back."

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, which represented the deceased worker, has called for a investigation by OSHA and the NY State labor department.

Director of Special Projects for Local 1500 Patrick Purcell called Wal-mart's comments in response to the incident both "cold and heartless." "If the safety of their customers and workers was a top priority, then this never would have happened," Purcell stated. "Wal-mart must step up to the plate and ensure that all those injured, as well as the family of the deceased, be financially compensated for their injuries and their losses. Their words are weak. The community demands action," Purcell concluded.

Purcell also suggested that people visit the website walmartcrimereport.com to review other incidents of Wal-mart not providing a safe work and shopping experience.

After the comment thread broke a hundred, I wrote and posted the comment/article that follows. It was motivated by a number of things, one of them being the amount of astroturfing Wal-Mart had thrown at Boing Boing since comments recommenced there. Still, I might very well have written and posted the article if I'd never worked for Boing Boing at all. Wal-Mart is an appalling organization.

Some of the links may be broken. I'm sure there are plenty of others that could take their place.

===

Why Wal-Mart Is to Blame for the Death of Jdimytai Damour
Comment #128, November 30, 2008 11:13 PM

Wal-Mart holds these Black Friday sales every year--and every year, there are reports from all over the country of injuries when customers get trampled in the rush, or when fights break out due to inadequate stocks of merchandise and poor crowd control. There have been some very ugly incidents.

In spite of the obvious danger, Wal-Mart continues to put a lot of effort into creating mobs of shoppers charged with an artificial sense of urgency. Over the years, they've pushed their Black Friday starting times further and further back. They do stunt pricing--advertising a new laptop or Xbox or plasma TV for a fraction of its usual price--then stocking only twenty or thirty of each those items, when they know they can expect a thousand shoppers at their door.

Wal-Mart also appears to have decided not to require crowd-calming measures at their stores, like handing out numbered chits to the people waiting in line to buy big-ticket items, or stationing enough security at the front of the line to force people to enter in a well-regulated stream rather than a mob.

Game behavior is always conditioned by the rules, and the entire emphasis of Wal-Mart's Black Friday game is that the first person with their hands on the package wins. (See above, "creating an artificial sense of urgency.") Where there's no regulation or crowd control, people who are first in line and have been waiting longest will still have to scramble if they're going to get anything, since otherwise they'll be beaten out by more aggressive shoppers.

Therefore, that mob at the door of the Green Acres/Valley Stream Wal-Mart didn't just happen. There's a mob at the door of every Wal-Mart Black Friday sale. It was engineered, and Wal-Mart did the engineering.

Every year, Wal-Mart's had ugly incidents, scuffles, and injuries at Black Friday sales. It was a foregone conclusion that sooner or later, one of these stunt sales would result in serious injury or death. Wal-Mart has known that. They've done nothing to avert it, and much to encourage it. They're responsible for Jdimytai Damour's death.

Why would they set up a system like that? Simple: they're raking it in. People who come to Black Friday sales spend freely once they're inside. (If they've stood in line for that long, they're damned well going to get something.) They tend to have a rough amount in mind they've budgeted for Christmas, and Wal-Mart gets first crack at it.

The mob rush at the Green Acres/Valley Stream store could just as easily have killed customers as Jdimytai Darnour. Crush incidents can form surprisingly quickly and kill a lot of people fast. All it takes is a chokepoint, an approach to the chokepoint that doesn't let the crowd in the back see what's happening in front, and a crowd with a strong motivation to get through that chokepoint. At its simplest, that's a locked door, a dogleg corridor, a crowd of protesters or sports fans, and one tear gas grenade.

The Black Friday opening rush is a natural occasion for such events, but it's not the only point of vulnerability. There've already been a couple of incidents of pepper-spray being used on crowds of Black Friday shoppers. You could readily come up with lots of further scenarios. The death of Jdimytai Darnour was awful, but it was just one death. We may see incidents with more.

Connie H. @82:

Human-chain formation in front of the doors was a supremely dangerous maneuver - it was an incipient stampede at a choke point. People moving from the back of the crowd couldn't see what they were getting into ... There seem to be disparate reports as to what went on with the doors--it's quite possible that the crowd movement pushed people into them, then they gave way.

That is: the surge of the crowd--an annual event which Wal-Mart has engineered--was pushing forward against the doors. If the doors had not given way, there might well have been crush injuries among the customers outside the doors. If the doors did give way, the human chain of Wal-Mart employees were going to be in the direct path of the stampede. One way or another, there were going to be injuries.

Why Wal-Mart knew this was going to happen:

Note: I started researching at 2005, and found far more material than I expected, so 2005 is overrepresented and 2006-2007 are underrepresented. I'm sure you'll still get the picture.

Raking it in:

2003: Bentonville, AK: Wal-Mart reported a single-day sales record for sales of $1.52 billion the Friday after Thanksgiving at its domestic stores. This represented a 6.3 percent gain over last year's single-day sales record, also on Black Friday, of $1.43 billion.

2006: El Cajon CA: Footage taken "about five minutes" after the start of the 2006 Black Friday sale in El Cajon. Note the amount of merchandise already in carts.

ND: Black Friday in a Texas Wal-Mart. The ambient sounds are interesting.

2008: Secaucus, New Jersey.

2005 Incidents - compilations:

Nationwide Black Eye Friday wrap-up. Of 23 news reports about Black Friday violence, 16 involved Wal-Mart stores. Locations included Mountain View CA, Orlando FL, Oak Grove KY, Elkton MD, Cascade Township MI, Grandville MI, Hamilton Township NJ, Mays Landing NJ, Wallkill NY, Atlantic County PA, Warwick R.I., Kingsport TN, Beaumont TX, Lynchburg VA, Renton WA, and Puyallup WA.

ConsumerAffairs.com compiles shopper complaints and reports from all over the country, including inadequate or nonexistent supplies of advertised merchandise; store managers refusing to honor advertised offers of rain checks; customers trampled in the opening rush; and poor organization and crowd control inside stores, leading to shouting matches, pushing and shoving, fights, and a pepper-spray incident. Locations included Tigard OR, Chicago IL, Beaumont TX, Wilton, IA, and Gilroy, CA.

More complaints logged by ConsumerAffairs.com, plus some repeats in more detail. Lots of complaints about inadequate or nonexistent merchandise that had been advertised, and flyers offering rain checks which store managers refused to issue. Locations included Montgomery County MD, Chicago IL, Gulf Shores AL, Lincoln NE, Wilton IA, Memphis TN, Hinesville GA, and Gilroy CA.

A Democratic Underground reader posts a compilation of the full texts of news stories about violent incidents during Black Friday 2005 at Wal-Marts in Orlando FL, Cascade Township MI, Hamilton Township NJ, Puyallup WA, and Oak Grove KY.

The Scotsman on Wal-Mart Black Friday violence in Orlando FL, North East MD, and Cascade Township MI.

BoxTank's compilation of stories.

Luke the Obscure's Wal-Mart Trampling Roundup:

Wal-Mart Black Friday Trampling is here to stay! I was able to track down a Wal-Mart trampling account in nearly every one of the fifty states, and the lack of any class-action lawsuits speaks volumes about the corporate influence of everyones favorite corporation.

Locations included Cascade Township MI, Hamilton Township NJ, Kingsport TN, and Orlando FL. My favorite:

CNN Money - Calls made to several Wal-Marts around the country revealed that one of the hottest items on the holiday sale list, a $378 Hewlett-Packard laptop, sold out within the first hour the stores were open. "They trampled each other for 'em," said one Wal-Mart employee at a Maryland store. "It was great."

2005: single incidents

Footage: Stampede in Cascade Township, Michigan (near Grand Rapids), with shoppers (mostly women and children) falling and getting trampled. There were several injuries.

Orlando FL: shopper gets into fight with plainclothes security officers.

Security guards wrestled a man to the ground and handcuffed him, this morning at an Orlando Wal-Mart. Eyewitnesses told Channel Nine that the man cut in line to get laptop computers that were on sale.

The man started arguing with people inside the store, and then scuffled with plain-clothed security guards.

One man told reporters that the laptops were being thrown into the air and people rushed toward them, collapsing on each other. Another man described the scene as crazy.

"It was absolutely pandemonium in there. They were throwing laptops twenty feet in the air, and people were collapsing on each other to grab them. It was ridiculous," said shopper Brian Horwitz.

"A guy came on top of me and hit my head," said Wal-Mart shopper, Jennifer Harris. "When he did it bounced against the other two people. I got hit on both of my ears."

Some people weren't fazed in the least. Many customers simply carted their stuff out of the store and passed right by the man in handcuffs, without any reaction.

When a Sheriff's deputy arrived, he gave the man a trespassing warning and let him go. It turns out, in the confusion, he fought off the plain-clothes security guards, when they grabbed him, because he thought they were other customers.

Oak Grove, KY: A woman is trampled and hospitalized when a crowd waiting for laptops goes out of control.

Hamilton Township, NJ: a fracas breaks out in a Wal-Mart over inadequate stocks of desirable items. Police have to call for backup.

Lincoln, Nebraska: a scrimmage over laptop computers turns ugly.

Beaumont TX: A security guard pepper-sprays customers waiting in line in the electronics department. Beaumont TX, two years later: Customers who were pepper-sprayed are suing Wal-Mart.

Renton WA: Police have to be called in to deal with a crowd in the electronics department.

2006 Incidents

Footage: Chokepoint stampede at Wal-Mart in South Philadelphia. Two shoppers go down and can't get up. A policeman wades in and rescues them.

Footage: A West Bend, WI store manager makes a crowd of waiting customers race to a row of chairs to determine who gets xbox systems. By report, people in the crowd were begging him to use some other system, like a simple lottery. Many people are hurt in the race. One is seriously hurt, and is hospitalized. See also: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on the West Bend Wal-Mart footrace fiasco.

Another bad system for allocating scarce goods is to let the shoppers in early to take up positions near the items they want, but not allow them to lay claim to those items until the clock strikes. The results are predictable. Footage: A fight breaks out over six computers.

Lewis Center, Ohio:

at the Wal-Mart outside Columbus, customers dashing toward 5 a.m. deals pinned employees against stacks of merchandise.

"Oh, my god, stop pushing me, oh, my god," screamed Linda Tuttle, a 47-year-old employee at the store.

Grace Smith, a 22-year-old customer in the store, was stunned by the scene. "I heard it would be crazy but I never thought I'd see anything like this," she said.

Lafayette LA: Man suffers broken leg in the Black Friday rush.

2007:

Footage: opening rush, Wal-Mart Store 5450, North East Maryland. I suspect this "informal YouTube video" was made by Wal-Mart. All is sweetness and light. You'd never guess that two years earlier, on Black Friday 2005, this same store was the site of a melee that took ten policemen to settle, caused by atrociously bad crowd control measures on the part of the manager.

2008:

Footage: A mad scramble for a small number of 360 XBoxes.

Rapid City, SD: A teenage girl was holding an Xbox 360 was struck in the throat by a man who was yelling and pushing his way through a line of shoppers. He may face assault charges.

Secaucus NJ: a woman's leg was injured in the scrum, and she had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.

The Consumerist bingo card, which predicts everything but the killing.

In summary: Wal-Mart makes Black Friday happen. Wal-Mart knew something like this death-by-trampling would eventually happen. The blood's on Wal-Mart's hands.

Tonight some friends and I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks, a 1971 Disney live-action film starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson.  It was a favorite of mine as a kid, and someone had the Special Extended Anniversary Edition DVD (where they added in a whole bunch of cut scenes and scene bits back in).

It's kind of cheesy, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I still liked it.  Also: it's very feminist.  It's Angela Lansbury as a heroic, dedicated, middle-aged single woman who saves the day and leads the troops into battle to drive the Nazis off, while David Tomlinson is the ditzy, plucky comic relief side-kick.  It's so totally a role-reversal from the stereotypical movie gender roles, and yet there's no snickering about it, no preaching, no false notes.  Both of them come off as real people, understandable people (if slightly exaggerated as befits a Disney movie).  Their roles in the film are natural outgrowths of who they are, and Angela Lansbury is definitely a woman and David Tolinson is a man and he's not threatened by her being a hero, he's inspired by it.  Also, there's a very low-key romance between the two of them, and when he chickens out and leaves, she's definitely disappointed ... but she sings a song about how she's chosen to be single because it means she doesn't have to spend her life worrying about other peoples' problems and gets on with her life.  And it's not false bravado, Lansbury plays it perfectly straight.  Also, the whole "middle aged romance"--they're neither of them spring chickens, they're not Romeo and Juliet, they're two relatively staid middle-aged people falling gently in love.  Not to mention, the special effects (of which there are many, both green-screen and wire work) are extremely good for the era, if occasionally slightly more psychedelic than one expects from Disney.

On the bad side, the shorter version is better.  They cut a lot out, and none of it was necessary to the movie.  The long version really drags.  The only thing I'd keep out of all the scenes and partial scenes that they added back in is the song Miss Price sings after Professor Brown leaves, and it's pretty short.

Also, I'm not quite sure about the exoticism of the Portobello Road dance sequence.  It's a very long dance sequence in the middle of the movie, set in London at a street market, that's mostly a variety of British soldiers and sailors on leave dancing with the locals.  There are different segments in different regional styles.  Most are from the British Isles, but they also have an Indian group and a Black group with steel drums do a segment apiece.  On the one hand, it's lifting up that the whities weren't the only ones fighting that war; on the other it's definitely got a vibe of "watch the exotic colored people dance!"

All in all, worth the rewatch.
This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/153637.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

The spouse and I are almost done getting ready (& packing all my extra meds) for the long drive North to our Thanksgiving gathering. Gluten-free noms here we come! ;)

We'll only have intermittent net access for a week, so a Happy (early) Turkey day to all! *sends warm wishes and blessings to my flist*

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011899.html

I was checking out the stocking-stuffer gadgets the other day at Restoration Hardware and found a nifty little object called a Utili-Key. Unfolded, it's a combination screwdriver (phillips head, micro-flat, eyeglass), knife blade (partly serrated), and bottle opener. Which is useful. Folded, it looks like a key, which means it can lurk like a sleeper agent on your keychain. (There's also an eight-tool version, but it doesn't look as much like a key.)

The whole point of this artifact is that it's invisible to TSA baggage screeners. That's a known genre of objects. You can buy blades disguised as belt buckles, pens, lipsticks, key chains, combs and brushes, pendants (most of which are seriously ugly), and harmless-looking unidentifiable objects. Almost all of them fall prey to the Urge to Look Badass, which impairs their stealthiness. A few don't. (I can vouch for the effectiveness of mild-mannered camouflage. I normally wear a folding Silver Leaf knife, which when closed looks like a leaf-shaped silver pendant. On the few occasions when I've forgotten to put it in my checked luggage, hastily stashing it with my jewelry in my carry-on has been enough to get it past security.*)

Anyway, it wasn't the Utili-Key's existence that surprised me; it was seeing it given prime display space by a mainstream retailer like Restoration Hardware. I expect to find stealthy camouflaged blades at "unleash your inner ninja" websites, not at upscale Midtown stores. I take this as a sign that the general public is getting tired of the TSA's policies concerning dangerous implements, and is equally tired of being unable to cut string, open bottles, or get at the contents of plastic blisterpaks when traveling.

If so, I say yay. TSA policies are stupid beyond words. Here's a demo: go to eBay and type NTSA lot or TSA lot -approved -buddha -buddhist into the general search box. What you'll see is the everyday contraband TSA baggage screeners confiscate when they're not busy removing the tiny files from fingernail clippers.* It includes about a zillion leatherman multi-tools, bitty Victorinox knives, folding corkscrews, carabiner-style Buck 759s, tiny cuticle scissors, and antique embroidery scissors shaped like storks. (Sometimes you also get to see what happened to those TSA-approved locks that were missing when you got your luggage back.)

What doesn't show up in any quantity in TSA/NTSA resale lots: the camouflaged metal blades I mentioned earlier, and the more sophisticated camouflaged blades I assume must exist. TSA employees who spend their time staring at x-ray screens are looking for weapon-shaped weapons. Items traditionally made of metal (like belt buckles) that consist of a sharp metal blade fitted into a snug metal sheath are not going to reveal their inner structure. When they show up on the TSA's screens, they'll be shaped like the sheath--and that can look like anything.

Non-metallic objects are even more problematical, because you can walk them straight through the metal detector. As I've observed before, knapped stone and obsidian blades have been making quite a comeback, and some of those things are sharp enough for surgery. For those with less primal tastes, there are fiberglass-reinforced hard plastic knives, and ceramic blades--in this case, zirconium oxide with an all-rubber handle.

Last week, Bruce Schneier pointed out the exotic weapons issue in Stabbing People with Stuff You Can Get Through Airport Security:

"Use of a pig model to demonstrate vulnerability of major neck vessels to inflicted trauma from common household items," from the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology.

Abstract. Commonly available items including a ball point pen, a plastic knife, a broken wine bottle, and a broken wine glass were used to inflict stab and incised wounds to the necks of 3 previously euthanized Large White pigs. With relative ease, these items could be inserted into the necks of the pigs next to the jugular veins and carotid arteries.

This will come as a blow to KZ, a firm which manufactures a line of specialized (and IMO very silly) self-defense pens.

Despite precautions against the carrying of metal objects such as knives and nail files on board domestic and international flights, objects are still available within aircraft cabins that could be used to inflict serious and potentially life-threatening injuries. If airport and aircraft security measures are to be consistently applied, then consideration should be given to removing items such as glass bottles and glass drinking vessels. However, given the results of a relatively uncomplicated modification of a plastic knife, it may not be possible to remove all dangerous objects from aircraft. Security systems may therefore need to focus on measures such as increased surveillance of passenger behavior, rather than on attempting to eliminate every object that may serve as a potential weapon.*

Great idea! Since they can't very well ship us to our destinations naked and shrink-wrapped, the TSA should focus on real security, run by professionals, instead of a fiasco-prone system that spends an unbelievable amount of time, effort, and money making sure that no one can hijack a plane by threatening the flight attendants with tiny Victorinox folding scissors.

Addenda: I just double-checked my "find the TSA-confiscated resale items on eBay" search strings, and for the first time ever saw listings for wholesale lots of TSA-confiscated sunglasses and reading glasses. I have no idea what that's about.

TChem points out a cognate technology: thread cutter pendants (also yarn cutter pendants and thread cutter rings):

In early '02 when they started confiscating tiny thread scissors, I started seeing these at a lot more craft shops. Like the key, its purpose was pretty obvious.

(Star Wars fandom, don't ever say I don't give you pressies.)

( Blathering about tag wrangling on the AO3 )

ETA: My tag wrangling process has been ficced. OMG. Love.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016724.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

http://twitter.com/otw_news
http://twitter.com/AO3_Status/

http://transformativeworks.org/

And really, the current temporary AO3 glitch is not related to the Star Wars Holiday Special, I swear.

(Don't ask. Tag wrangler humor.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016499.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

*looks @ fic*

*looks @ scratch notes*

It really takes a special kind of geeky OCD to turn "how are we going to transport these aliens" into a convoluted dimensional analysis problem and then try to turn that lovely long string of Imperial-to-metric-and-back conversions into (hopefully) believable dialogue.

Have also finally chiseled out something vaguely resembling an outline. Sort of. Considering the extremely minimal say-so I appear to have in terms of what is actually happening with this damned thing, I'm sort of pleased to have managed to contain it in 13 chunks/eps/chaps/whatever. For now. This is, after all, The Fic That Wouldn't Stay Dead, and "if I can't kill you, I can contain you" turned out to be canonically (and predictably) untrue. *facepalm* Which isn't to say that they're all written, by any means. Very close to crossing the 60K mark though. *boggles*

Finally finished my S2 rewatch Friday night at work. Amazing how differently some bits come across the second time through.

Also periodically listening to audio of GDL's panels from The New England Fan Experience, which I briefly considered running up to Boston for last week (before deciding that was insane, as it would mean leaving directly from work Saturday morning to have even a prayer of catching his panel that day). Dear Gods, this fandom really has kidnapped my brain. *facepalm*

Oh, and I watched "The Rescue" last night. I don't always watch the special features, but I did this time, and it was interesting to learn that those two eps got the highest ratings of any Who story arc until the Baker years. They were all marveling that it was a bigger draw than the Daleks. I'm marveling that "1st introduction of a new companion" was a bigger draw than "1st regeneration." Which reminds me, tangentially, that ubiquirk just drew my attention to the fact the Doctor is apparently supposed to get younger with each regeneration. Huh. Didn't know Gallifreyans had a common ancestry with Orkians. This has slightly tempered my annoyance that Eleven looks like a teenager. (Does that mean Twelve will need to actually be one? LOL)

Ah well, time to do a bit more writing. 76 more words and I'll hit this week's 5_for_five goal. Whee!

Love the new behind-the-scenes HBP pics!

Naturally, ( it's caption time )

Of all of the things I never, ever, ever expected to say in this lifetime...

Because general_jinjur is amazing, and the OTW is amazing, and the AO3 is amazing, and the Wrangulator is amazing, and because everyone who is uploading stories and tagging them is amazing...

Go read:

forma by general_jinjur. It's Tag Wuzzle Wrangler RPF.

I will apparently be cosplaying myself next Escapade, y'all.

(If there is a fanartist in range of my voice who can draw in the style of Nausicaa Valley of the Wind and is willing to do a commission, please let me know.)

(Heck, if any fanartist wants to do something related to this, let general_jinjur know... she says the Wrangulatorverse is open to sharing according to the open-transform statement on her profile, but I'm sure she'd love to hear if you make any derivative work from it!)

And yes, the tag wrangling team is still looking for more volunteers.

*holds out hand*

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016266.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

• Even the weekend before Thanksgiving, there are still tourists in Gettysburg.  You know how I know this?  Because the idiots can't figure out how to drive in a traffic circle.  It's really very simple.  If there's a car coming across the circle, wait your turn.  If there's a break, go.  Don't get half-way out into the circle, then realize there's a car coming, and stop.  If everyone drives responsibly, it's a safe and efficient way of handling an intersection.  If they don't it's a mess.  It was a mess today.
• The Christmas tree was up in the town square already.  And see point #1, it's not even Thanksgiving, yet.
• I hate, hate, hate shopping for any kind of pants, but particularly jeans.  It always ends with me trying on a bazillion pairs to find one that fits.  Apparently, I have a small waist for my size (or I have a big butt for my  waist size, but I much prefer the small waist, you know?).  So if I find a pair of pants (particularly jeans) that are big enough to get over my hips and butt, there's usually a huge gap in the small of my back.  And my torso is long enough that low-rider jeans are too low, so I can't solve the problem that way.  When you've tried on every single pair of jeans in your size in a department store and none of them fit, that's frustrating.  I ended up having to go to the Spawn of Satan (aka Walmart).  But at least I found not one but three pairs of jeans that would work.  Which was good, because I was down to one pair fit to be seen in public.  And the winners are: Signature by Levi Strauss and Co. Totally Slimming at Waist, Riders by Lee Comfort no-gap Waistband and Riders by Lee Slender Stretch Mid-rise boot cut.

On the bright side, only in Gettysburg would you see two ladies in Civil War clothes in the womens' changing rooms at Walmart.  And I now have jeans!
This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/152722.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Speaking just as myself, and not in my role as volunteer tag wuzzle wrangler...

my first fanfic
my first explicit fanfic
embarrassing old fic

you don't have to know the canon

one of my best
if you only read one work by me

I think it would be so nifty to be able to see what others choose of their fics for those tags!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016047.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Get Your Sexy Name

Goodness.

Only just wading through my overflowing friends page. So thank you's to: iibnf, mabiana, ariadneelda, venturous, maddiec24, dacro, r_grayjoy, quiescent

for the well-wishes!

If I missed you, I probably haven't seen your post yet. I might not until much later, either, as I must get ready for a very rare night out with my beautiful spouse, who is going to take me somewhere (I don't know where) for my birthday. :D

*looking forward to it!*

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011902.html

Some PR outfit sent me the following email. As our esteemed readers will no doubt recall, Going Rogue is Sarah Palin's recently released book-like object.

from: Benjamin Kellogg (bkellogg@groupsjr.com)
to: gau@cnavk.pbz*
date: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 3:19 PM
subject: Top "Rogue" movies to watch while waiting in line to hear Sarah Palin speak

Teresa-

Thought this could be a fun list for your readers...

In honor of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" book tour, mobile movie site zFcbg.pbz has put together a list of eight rogue-centric movies to watch while waiting in line to hear her speak.

8 Rogue Movies to Watch While Waiting in Line to Hear Sarah Palin Speak:

Patriot Games
Braveheart
Mission: Impossible
The Hunt for Red October
American Gangster
The Sum of All Fears
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Van Helsing

Benjamin Kellogg | Group SJR | 646 495 9722

I replied:

You put out a list of "Rogue" movies that doesn't include the first X-Men movie? Epic fail.

It'd be a fail under any circumstances to spam the world with a movie list that's less than the sum of its parts; but jeez.