To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good

Well, actually it's the Anya and Xander way. Scarleteen has an article about things you should consider when deciding to enter a sexual relationship (the site is designed for late teens and college-aged people). Scroll about halfway down the page and they've got a list of fictional couples with interesting relationship issues characterized by the same emotions and problems that arise fairly often in real life. Anya and Zander from BtVS are featured:

Anya and Xander (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer): Xander had an end goal of marriage in the moment, and asked Anya to marry him, who shared that end goal. As his feelings changed, and he discovered he wasn't ready for that after all, he didn't communicate with her in revamping their relationship model. Instead, he left her at the altar, resulting in her not only having her heart broken, but in going back to being a vengeance demon.

( Other fictional examples from Scarleteen's article )

It's kind of amazing how the smallest things can lift your mood. Like having a snow cone truck in courtyard. I'm sucking down cherry-flavored shaved ice and it's heaven. Sometimes it's nice to have a reminder that summer isn't over quite yet :).

Okay, I know it isn't technically until tomorrow, but I'm going to be away from teh internets tomorrow (watching shitloads of anime, actually) and wanted to get this out there before I leave:

Protest Protest the Pill Day!

1. I've come to realize that my first kiss...
was nothing to write home about; seriously, I had to think really hard to remember who it was

2. I am listening to...
Vampire Weekend


Snagged from hell_in_the_end

I can get pretty riled up about things but I rarely feel the need to express this particularly vulgar sentiment. I don't flip off other drivers and I don't really say the word all that often barring the occasional toe stubbing incident or delivery of really crappy news.

Geez. Anyone into feminism/fandom/culture/science/programming has probably caught wind of this by now:

GropeGate at ConFusion

The story exploded like wildfire all over LJ. Even Feministing picked up on it this afternoon. I really hope this turns into a positive dialogue about the treatment of women in the con subculture, but I'm a bit fearful that it will quickly dissolve into a "you just don't understand how we do things" debate. In my personal experience, sci-fi cons are simultaneously excellent places to witness fantastic leaps in breaking gender taboos and  excellent places to observe some really effed up notions of objectified and grossly misunderstood female sexuality. It's hard to argue with something as delightfully indulgent for one's inner geek as a convention where you can dress up like Sailor Moon and nobody will make fun of you. But the same crappy gender issues that characterize our political and social systems exist in our sub-cultural groups; if we want to continue to enjoy such events in future, we must demand that the same standards of basic human respect apply at our gatherings.

Oh, BTW: Happy St. George's Day!

Shatner offers dramatic reading of Exodus

Less than a month after the death of Charlton Heston, another of Hollywood's great over-actors takes center stage in the retelling of the story of Moses.

V. good weekend.

Actually, make that excellent weekend.

High: 63
Low: 46
Chance of precipitation: 80%
Periods of rain with a few thunderstorms likely. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Rainfall near a half an inch.

You know what, Mother Nature? Screw you! We'll have a good time anyway. We will get dressed up, wear our buttons, eat cake, drink wine, and celebrate the marriage of two very awesome people.

There might even be a spot of puddle-jumping.

There's banjo music coming through my window. Our reclusive hippie neighbors suddenly packed up and left last week and the house next door has been taken by a couple of exuberant young guys who favor fashion statements along the lines of courderoy blazers over vintage metal band t-shirts and generous goatees. Apparently, they also enjoy playing bluegrass music on the porch on Friday nights. Hey, that's cool with me--Naughtworth Manor's watchword is nothing if not "bohemian" and they're actually rather nimble with a banjo. Free concert and possibly free beer if I decide to amble over and say hi. Neither is a bad thing in my book :).

In other news, this video is very odd and not a little disturbing.  It's not that Rudy's in drag; it's that Trump is spritzing him with perfume and motorboating his fake boobs:

 

I love Joss Whedon for the same reason I love Russell T. Davies. They both understand that human sexuality is much more varied and complex than we like to admit and they can see a future in which sexuality is not an "orientation" or an "identity," but a natural expression of human affection. As an ardent feminist I totally understand the need for identity politics as a necessary step towards equality for all marginalized groups. But if we can put enough subversive art out there to permeate culture with gender fluidity and a broadened sense of the "Other," then maybe we can eventually live in a world where people like Captain Jack and Buffy are the norm.

( Edited to include a shamelss Jack/Ianto video )

I found a rather fun Phillip Marlowe fic over at rarelitslash posted over the weekend. Seriously, more people should work with pulp novels in general, not just Raymond Chandler's. When you combine the books with the various film versions (especially the Humphrey Bogart stuff), the innuendo and subtext practically leaps out of the screen and off the page. Still not convinced? Two words: Peter Lorre.

In other news, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened this weekend. It was very, very strange, but not without moments of fun. I left C'ville at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning and came back at 9 p.m. Sunday and everything in between is crazy time. I always go to these seemingly normal events and come back with crazy stories that I couldn't make up if I tried. I think it's going to take a couple of days to piece it all together, so that post will have to come later.

In the meantime, I did get to buy a new dress for this shindig!

So I made the mistake of surfing around Cafe Press fairly soon after our Torchwood weekend o' awesome and of course ended up finding all sorts of amusing things to consider. After much deliberation, I finally settled on a fridge magnet and journal with the same design. Here is the notebook I was supposed to receive for the purpose of publically flaunting a very dirty joke with an otherwise innocuous picture ( also for writing random drabbles and other slashy fandom musings without hauling my shoulder bag to Mudhouse every day):



What did I get instead?

Scary, androgynous elf "art."

And I use the word "art" in the loosest possible way. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for androgyny. Seriously, yayz for androgynous everybody (shout out to Tilda Swinton, Sunday's Best Supporting Actress--Woot!). Except when if comes in the form of a creepy elf-child looking thing. Of course, by now you're dying to see this creepy, androgynous elf art. You can't help yourself, right? Well, don't say I didn't warn you:


Thanks to redscharlach for the cute icon.

My roommate, describing her attempt to explain the vampire metaphor to her freshman "Writing in College" students:

"I had trouble getting the point across. I had to restrain myself from blurting out 'Euphemism: It's like porn, for deep people.'"

I kind of almost fell out of my chair from laughing.

Give me a day off from work and what do I do? Something productive, like run errands or clean the kitchen? No. I stay in bed reading Twilight until 1:00 p.m. And then I catch up on e-mails and post random movie memes instead of making dinner. I'm stating this publically so it actually happens: the Christmas tree is coming down. Seriously...it's February-freaking-18th. In the meantime...

 

I  would love to embed this, but I'm not very good at creating homemade embedding codes. So here's the link:

"Beer, Beer, Beer" by Rob Manuel and Joel Veitch

(The original beer song can be found here. It's probably won some sort of award in a category for unbelievably stupid and simple flash animation, and yet it's a surprisingly catchy little song when you've had a few pints)