neotoma

sams_cafe @ 2:06pm: So I was all:

"Dear Coworker E, You have a package holding for pickup at the front desk! Thanks, Sam."

And then she was all:

"By you?"

And so I was like,

"Yes. Bring small unmarked bills. Come alone."

Because I didn't realise she was speaking geographically and not in terms of hostage package situations.

She looked very confused when she showed up.

rivkat @ 12:02pm: Brief fic update
Next story delayed due to tragic glass of water-meets-keyboard incident. However, I hope to have a draft soon.

In the meantime, this is how I’ve been putting my older stories up on the Archive of Our Own:

RT: [copies and pastes url of LJ post; hits enter]
AOOO: [slurp]
RT: [goes to type in story name] … Oh, you figured that out. Excellent!
RT: [puts in rating, warning, tags] Now to copy the summary and notes. … Hey, wait. You—you automatically detected the summary and notes and put them in the proper places.
AOOO: [smug silence]
RT: How did you do that?
AOOO: [smugger silence]
RT: Are you—are you watching me?
[pause]
RT: Well, great! I don't suppose you can, like, just take the top-level URL of my site and suck all the stories in at once?
AOOO: I'm sorry, Rivka, I’m afraid I can't do that right now. But I'm working on it!
RT: [wonders about Turing tests]

Also, a brief, broken-Sam drabble in response to aerye’s prompt (Dean, blood, rosary, broken promises) is here.

And finally: am I crazy to think that the lyrics to “Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is in Another Castle” are perfect for SPN?

brownbetty @ 10:01am: Hey, Canada!
I know the American elections are a fascinating trainwreck, but don't forget to vote today!¹

1. Obviously your vote is between you and your conscience, but remember that Steven Harper is a robot powered by the death-cries of kittens.

sams_cafe @ 9:50am: Our HR guy is a genius. These are lines from the letter he sent out this morning. It drips with sarcastic tact:

Students are back at college this fall and that means interns! While we are always happy to see their eager and inquisitive faces brightening our workplace, the human resources team asks that you provide a minimum of 3 days notice before bringing them into the fold.

We have encountered a few cases recently where we have received less than 24 hours' notice about their welcome presence. While we certainly appreciate the challenge, it is essential that the team has sufficient notice in order to provide optimal service. When we don’t receive timely notice it requires us to reorganize our priorities and potentially sacrifice vital services to your department as we process our incoming interns.

Translation: If you don't tell us you're hiring fifteen interns, we might "accidentally" lose your paycheck this week.

Subtext: Oh god, interns, oh god interns, OH GOD INTERNS.

sams_cafe @ 9:19am: Lord, what a miserable night. I'm exhausted today but at least the headache is gone. Fortunately all's quiet around here, given that most of the creative staff is at some conference or other.

Actually, we're about half empty, BossBoss is at a retreat, NewBoss is training with another office, Coworker J's still not back and Bulletproof Temp is off for the week.

*looks around nervously*

If the aliens invade today, I'm fucking screwed.

ausmac @ 9:39pm: What the ferk!
Can anyone tell me what the fuck is going on with IJ? I am getting constant error messages and weird goings on whenever I am trying to load a page with IJ. Its pissing me off!

darkrose @ 12:47am: FIC: A Question of Compromise (4/?) [SGA RPF, Jason/David/Joe, Adult]
Title: A Question of Compromise (4/?)
Author: darkrosetiger
Fandom: SGA RPF (AU)
Pairings/Characters: David Hewlett/Jason Momoa/Joe Flanigan
Length: ~3,000 words
Rating: Adult
Summary: Joe meets the rest of Lightwave Gameworks and decides that someone needs to take charge of his masters, so it might as well be him.
Disclaimer: Not RL; didn't happen. If you think this has anything to do with the real actors involved, then you really need to put down the crack pipe. Seriously.
Warnings: Slavefic (inherent non-con), BDSM

Notes: I totally and completely blame poisontaster and her CWRPS series A Kept Boy, which made me want to write about the SGA actors in her universe. This is all her fault. Thanks also to telesilla for the beta.

Previous parts can be found here. A who's who with pictures can be found here, updated to include everyone who appears in this chapter.

The title is from the Duran Duran song, "Skin Trade"

( Joe's wondered more than once how these two have managed to make as much money as they have while still being utterly clueless. )

poisontaster @ 11:35pm: The Plot Thickens...or Sickens
So. After an delightful dinner with fangirls and fangirlery (and xlorp, who's only an honorary fangirl) at morgandawn's house, I return home to find that The Fiance's computer has died an ignoble death while I was away.

(I told him downloading porn from the internet was bad)

(I'm kidding. I kid. *I* am far more likely to be the one downloading porn)

They think his motherboard is fried. :( And that means that the only computer available to both of us is my little Asus Eee, which is...problematic for extended use. So it looks like there DEFINITELY won't be any more AKB until after Wincon. I also probably won't be answering too many comments until the computer's fixed--not that I'm terribly known for that anyway. :)

At least I left you in a good place, right?

And without_me? Allow me to show you a world with therapy AND JDM/Jensen sexxing.

Well. Eventually. *g*

darkrose @ 10:29pm: Keptverse Thinky Thoughts
Just posted some thinky-type thoughts about Jensen, Joe (and from telesilla, Kyle) and how their training has made them who they are, here.

padmekenobi, posting in dailysnitch @ 11:36pm: The Daily Snitch: Monday, October 13, 2008

• Actors and Movies: Videos: Katie Leung in Poirot
  
  New Half-Blood Prince Noble Collection merchandise
  
  Celebrity shoes sold in auction
  
  Dan Radcliffe's heartbreaking decision
  
  Rob Pattinson says music is his backup plan
  
  New hi-res Half-Blood Prince Hermione promos
  
  
• Communities: snarry_games has Snarry Summer Games are up and running
  
  
• General Interest: Visualising a Quidditch team
  
  
• News: Harry Potter disappearing permanently from British libraries
  
  
• Searches: daily_snitch is looking for fanart, fanfiction, communities and resources featuring Cho Chang

Send your fandom news to Daily Snitch!

treewishes @ 10:05pm: Home again
We're back home after a long weekend up in the land of dead foliage. Family interactions were... good? Not bad? There's no telling, really, but we both survived.

Vermont was very... granola. "I'm from Vermont and I'll do what I want," isn't that right? We flew up with no drama, had lunch, did some shopping, and then took a "little walk" that ended up being OVER 4 MILES because it was pretty (lake, leaves, sun, you know) and then there was no way back except scrambling up a really steep hill and TRESPASSING through POISON IVY.

Ahem.

Then we drove through the back roads up to Montreal. A great city, lots of interesting people watching to do, and we happened to be downtown for this 100-years of Canadiens hockey street festival thing, which was fun. And then I was snookered into climbing this MOUNTAIN the next morning -- yes, the mountain the city is named for -- it was an innocuous "walk" again, and then suddenly it was really REALLY steep. Are you sensing a trend? But the views were spectacular, so I forgave R. Eventually.

And then lunch and shopping and coffee and photo-gazing with R.'s sister and significant other, and then later dinner with them and R.'s brother and significant other, and you know, if you're going to do this sort of thing, really, do it in a fabulous restaurant and it's far less painful.

And then back across the border to Vermont this morning, lunch in a really quaint little Vermont town (which is an oxymoron, no?) And then flying home, again with no drama, for which I am insanely thankful.

Hi, flist! Been busy?

ausmac @ 10:37am: Layout
I have created a new layout for anyone who might like to take a look. If you like it, I can provide instruction details.

It's S2 Bloggish.

http://asylums.insanejournal.com/mylayouts4/

poisontaster @ 3:45pm: Fic: A Kept Boy 28/?
Fandom: CWRPS
Pairing: Jeff/Jensen, Jared/Jensen
Rating: Adult
Warnings: Slavefic AU. Language. Dark themes.
Disclaimer: This is in no way a true story.
Word Count: 1,778
AN: Previous parts found here. Banner by the lovely and generous bloodquartz. Community at whatwekeep.

---

( Sleep with him. )

sams_cafe @ 5:17pm: I was going to get a lot done today and then instead I got a headache.

*curls up in bed*

Play quiet, kids, dad's on the heavy drugs.

painless_j @ 2:16am: Yaoi reading diary, vol. 25: FMA DJ, part 8
This is the last of the FMA DJ that I've downloaded and I think the last for the time being. The total is 80 DJ. Gah. I don't do things by halves, do I? Has been fun but I believe I'm more than ready for non-FMA eye candy.

( 10 DJ today. Didn't like any but disliked a few strongly instead )

poisontaster @ 1:40pm: AKB and stuff
So, I'll have the next piece of AKB up later today. (You're very lucky; I've had this part done...oh, almost since I started the story, gods help me) However, before y'all get used to this kind of output, I AM going to Wincon at the end of the week. And I don't write well while traveling. So. Nothing from Thursday through Monday at the VERY least. Barring miracles or unprecedented creativity. *petpet* I'm sure that darkrosetiger, telesilla, inlovewithnight, kellifer_fic and epeeblade (and maybe others! *bounce*) will keep you occupied while I'm gone.

I'm probably not going to keep announcing new AKB spin-offs here; if you want to keep up with it, I really recommend watching or joining whatwekeep. People have been really excellent linking through it and there's already so much stuff that I'm amazed. However. kellifer_fic has been delightfully susceptible to my whispers in her ear and wrote And Paid For, which features Jeff, Jensen, Jared and Chad...but a wonderfully evil Milo Ventimiglia and a sinister behind-the-scenes Adrian Pasdar. I am not so secretly hoping for more.

telesilla has posted more of her awesome Under Lock and Key (Dylan Neal/Kyle Schmid) here and darkrosetiger wrote the Joe Flanigan POV of telesilla's As Near to Love (As Love Will Ever Be) here: Are You On Fire (From the Years)? (Joe Flanigan/Dylan Neal).

epeeblade posted a really intriguing gen piece here regarding the (or maybe 'a') Catholic stance on the 'verse.

Good stuff.

Now here's the part where I come begging. Below the cut is a list of music that I'd like/am looking for. If you have (and would be willing to upload for me) any of the music listed, I'd be ever so appreciative. I have a long plane ride ahead of.

( Help me, Flisty-Wan-Kenobi...you're my only hope. )

cluegirl @ 1:52pm: Veterans of the Mortgage Wars -- aren't we all?
Attack of Banktron! Tatsuya's got a point there, y'know.

And on that note, so does my friend whyy:
814,000,000,000,000 = 814 trillion payout to the businesses /  303,824,640 = 303 million July 2008 population Estimate per cia.gov / 2,679,177.04 = Per person in the USA. Trickle-UP would have worked better.

And from another friend, jim000037,
For in a republic, who is "the Country"? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is "the Country"? Is it the newspaper? is it the pulpit? Is it the school superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in a thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn't.
Who are the thousand--that is to say, who are "the Country"? In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide on way, and that way be the right way accordng to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
- "Papers of the Adam Family", Mark Twain

And more Food For Thought on the Finance Meltdown, from indigotea.

I'm not wordspinning on this topic myself, because it makes me froth at the mouth, and go all capslocky, and then the cats start hiding under the furniture. It's bad for me, that kind of constant infuriation, so composing my own prose on it is something I avoid, on the sure knowledge that, as with my outrage over the criminal bungling of the disaster relief after Katrina, if I begin to talk about it, I'll never quite be able to stop ranting. I am just as outraged here -- moreso, seeing as how I'm one of the millions who, despite GOOD credit, and the ability to pay what I borrow, still can't get a loan to stop my house falling down before the winter hits. If they'd fucking given ME two million dollars, I'd have turned right back around and sunk that straight into the construction and mortgage industries, stat.

See? That's what I mean. Best not to get me started.

I'm gonna go listen to some smashy-screamy-stompy music now.
Y'all have fun, and don't get none on ya.

cluegirl @ 1:34pm: In Just Seven Days, I Can Make You a Man...
Since several folks have asked about it, I'm posting pictures of our Wicker Man, along with a treatise on the symbolism that went into him, under the cut.

For those who have no interest, or no patience with Teh Witchy stuff, ( Just keep scrolling... )

sams_cafe @ 12:21pm: NEWS

OF

FANDOM!

*deet deet dee dee deet deet dee de dee*

flourish wants to know what you'd say to the folks who produce canon:

So what would you like to say to the corporations? What would you tell them about how they can work with fans? What would you explain to them that they don’t understand? How would you suggest that they balance their interests and yours? I want to know. And if you tell me, I might be able to pass them on.

Go help her out!

Also, my SGA fanfic has been converted to e-book format for Kindle readers and the like -- you can find them here.

sams_cafe @ 10:14am: Out there on the interwebz there is a fanfic which begins:

The Torchwood showers are somewhat notorious among those who have to use them. Strange rules govern those pipes. For example, only one person may have hot water at a time, but they may only have hot water. Two people may have have reasonable water pressure, but the third will be pounded into mush while the fourth would do better standing in the rain. The water will inexplicably vary between hard and soft, so however much shampoo you use, it is never the right amount. Only Jack suits the acoustics, so only Jack may sing.

I totally understand this, finally, because I've been getting up later and later, testing how late I can leave and still get to work on time, and I've encountered my next-door neighbour's ironclad schedule. It's amazing how fast my shower went icy when she turned on her hot water.

I can't fucking wait for Fall Back. I'll beat her to the hot water AND I might actually have time for breakfast in the morning. (Oh, stop fretting, I eat a Clif bar when I get to work).

auctasinistra @ 7:54am: I like doing certain memes...
...mostly to show what crap certain generalizations are:

RULES:
• Pick your birth month.
• Strike out anything that doesn't apply to you.
• Bold (or italicize) the five-ten that best apply to you.


( So )

poisontaster @ 12:18am: Fic: A Kept Boy 27
Fandom: CWRPS
Pairing: Jeff/Jensen, Jared/Jensen
Rating: Adult
Warnings: Slavefic AU. Language. Dark themes.
Disclaimer: This is in no way a true story.
Word Count: 1,637
AN: Previous parts found here. Banner by the lovely and generous bloodquartz.

---

( Did you know what it meant? )

sams_cafe @ 10:29pm: Ten years ago today Matthew Shepard died.

If he hadn't died, he would be thirty-two.

I don't have any new words, but I did find some old ones.

venivincere @ 8:53pm: You want to know what's wrong with the United States? Let me deconstruct it for you, line by line.
 
First,( read this article from 'The Weekly Standard )

Then read what I have to say about it:

Having strong, articulate opinions isn't necessarily the best indicator of leadership potential. A true leader will be able to see the merits of many different viewpoints, weigh accordingly, then make a decision. A thoughtful leader will leave room to admit mistakes and try to fix them.

Republicans across this country will tell you George Bush is a great leader because he sticks to his guns. And he has, to the detriment of all of us. He stuck to his guns about economic reform in the way of deregulating the banking and insurance industries, and look where we are now. He stepped into the Presidency in one of the healthiest economies we've ever had. It's now in the worst shape it's been since the Great Depression.

He also stepped into the presidency of a country which was decently respected and could hold it's head up with pride, with respect to its foreign policy. He's left us a laughingstock.

And yet, having strong, articulate opinions, while not necessarily the best indicator of leadership potential, still does one important thing: it lets the voters know where the candidates stand and what they plan to do.

So far, during this campaign:

John McCain has articulated no details at all about how he would fix the economy or the war situation. He's made grand, sweeping statements, but hasn't given one bit of detail. When pressed about it, he gets tetchy and impatient. Great leadership qualities, there? I don't think so.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, has laid out plans with ample details explaining what he would do as President to alleviate the financial crisis and bring this horrific waste of a war to an end. When it counts, he can be far more articulate than John McCain.

With this article, Bill Kristol engages in a pernicious appeal to undecided voters by first stating an opinion that many might agree with (it's a dopey campaign), then presenting readers with accurate historic detail about other elections (thus establishing his legitimacy to be talking about these issues at all). Then he asks the reader to judge who's going to be a better leader by something far more trivial than debating a nonexistent missile gap or the importance of remaining neutral in a European war: what their favorite movie is. The setup creates in the unwary or complacent reader the belief that this small, trivial example that has nothing at all to do with presidential decision-making is actually going to be a predictor of just that.

It's a blatant example of the false logic embraced by conservatives and the Republican party to persuade voters and the populace since before the presidency of Bush began: establish legitimacy then persuade with an argument that has an emotional instead of rational appeal. It's time Americans are exposed to clear thinking and decisions made with non-fallacious logic. It's time for Americans to learn to think properly again and not be bamboozled by subtle, snake-oil salesman like Bill Kristol and just about everyone who can grab a microphone in the Republican party.

If you need to have the article debunked line by line, if you've been steeped in the bullshit too long to be able to see where the logic falls down, please let me show you the false assumptions Bill Kristol was trying to get you to assume:

Election campaigns--like intellectual debates--tend to be past- and present-oriented. But sometimes the past and present are of limited use as guides to the future.

There are two purposes to this line and the arguments in the following paragraph (which check out OK): 1) it's there to persuade you that Bill Kristol is speaking with some kind of authority. Never forget that anyone can Google facts. Just because someone can spout off facts to you doesn't mean you should lend authority over anything other than those facts. 2) to distract you. This statement redirects by laying blame, not solving a problem. It may or may not be true that the past and present are of limited use as guides to the future, but one thing is absolutely true: they are the only guides we have. Saying "there's something wrong" doesn't do anything but perpetuate panic. Solving the problem by scrutinizing the past and present to the best of our abilities and applying it to possible problems in the future is the best we can do, and makes logical sense.

One is an orthodox and timid liberal, personally ambitious but intellectually conventional.

He's been speaking with authority up until now. If you're an unwary reader, you might take this for fact or be willing to believe his opinion, but it's strictly his own opinion and means absolutely nothing as a logical persuader.

For all his talk of hope and change, when has Barack Obama ever shown a willingness to break with liberal orthodoxy or Democratic dogma? What bold decision has he taken, what unpopular idea has he embraced?

This statement has a nice, ringing tone to it, but don't forget this guy's a snake-oil salesman. He's trying to persuade you with logic, but it's fallacious. Let's bust open the logic of this statement. It's a "walk the talk" statement. A statement with true logic would look like this: "For all his talk of hope and change, when has Barack Obama [insert any statement that implies he's done something to instilled hope and created change]. Now, let's take a look at how the statement really ends, what's actually in the brackets: [ever shown a willingness to break with liberal orthodoxy or Democratic dogma, taken a bold decision, embraced an unpopular idea]. Here's how to judge if the argument is based on false logic: do the statements in the brackets imply each other? If they do, the statement is true. If they don't, the statement is false. The truth of the matter is that liberal orthodoxy or Democratic dogma isn't antithetical to hope and change. Embracing an unpopular idea isn't a legitimate barometer of any leader's ability to foment necessary change. (This article is full of logically fallacious arguments like this.) If you want to find out how Barack Obama might go about giving us hope and bringing about change, the closest you'll get to the truth would be to do what we talked about before: scrutinize his record as a public servant and make an educated guess. The worst thing you could do is fall for the arguments of a swindler.

The other candidate, John McCain, has been all over the map in terms of domestic policies, and has shown a management style during the campaign that makes one worry about the coherence and purposefulness of his administration.

As much as I, as a liberal, agree with this statement, it's still an opinion. And this is how Kristol is hooking the undecideds, trying to get them to change. He's stating an opinion that most of us think is true. He's lulling us into believing what he says next, which is:

But he's shown strong character in his life, and he's done serious things.

Opinion, but very persuasive and containing some essential truth to it. By making a statement like this, Kristol builds up his legitimacy so he can say the next thing and hope we'll buy that, too:

His general views are centrist, but he's willing to be bold when necessary. He won't be passive as president, and he'll think anew and act anew as he adjusts to the challenges we face, in the spirit of doing what's necessary to preserve and strengthen the underlying principles of American life.

Pure opinion. Very reasonable sounding, very easy to fall for, but still, opinion. If you want the truth about his view, look at how he's voted. That's his view up until now. Everything else Kristol says here is proselytizing and means exactly nothing.

The next part of the article deals with the movie thing, which I talked about in my initial response to the article. Let's move on to Kristol's summation of the article:

Which one of these two men do you want to be president in a time of crisis and difficulty? Viva McCain!

This is a succinct summation that tries to be persuasive, and if you've bought into everything he's said in the article, if you let yourself be falsely persuaded, then you probably are having a positive emotional response to reading this summation. Just like he wanted you to have. After taking a look at this article rationally, however, even though he has doled out (sparingly) some actual facts, notice that Kristol has given us absolutely no facts whatsoever that we can use to actually answer the question he poses: which one do you want to be president of the US? If you feel you actually can make a decision after reading this article, then you're making a decision based on your emotional response to his words, not from any factual, non-fallacious logical arguments.

As for me, the only answer I'm left with after reading it is, "the candidate who doesn't rely on swindlers to promote him."

painless_j @ 4:10am: Yaoi reading diary, vol. 24: FMA DJ, part 7
Ten more FMA DJ to go and then I think I'll be done with them for the time being.

( 11 DJ today. Liked one, nearly liked two more )