MILES to GO || before I sleep

Okay, so I've finished reading "Twilight," the first book in Stephenie Meyer's series of the same name, which includes "New Moon," "Eclipse," and the soon-to-be-released "Breaking Dawn." It's also going to be featured in a movie of the same name, coming out December 12th.

I've heard a lot about the series, from my FL and off, from fans and wankers alike. My impression started out fairly negative: that it was poorly written, and should only be read for the LULz, that the main character was as close to a "canon Sue" as has ever been written, and the fans are even more delusional than the women that think they're married to Snape or Scott Summers.

Some reactions from outside:
-makani on DeviantART seemed to hate it (or just went along with the wank reports), and she got a torrent of commenters from all ages claiming they like/love the story, and just as many, if not more, that hate it.
-My roommate says she likes it because it's an easy read. She reads it in the 15 minute breaks she gets between shifts, but I've also seen her curled up with it on the couch when I get home. She got into it because of her 14-year-old sister, and disagrees with the opinion that it's meant for older readers than "Harry Potter" (even though Meyer herself said in a USA Today interview that the fourth and final book, "Breaking Dawn" is meant for ages 15+). She said it was more for 9-year-olds, but I think the language and tone is a bit more than that-- though I'm basing it off of things that were suggested to me when *I* was 9. The world's a different place, and I never read on my age level anyway-- I usually skipped a few grades in terms of booklists.

I actually had made another post a while ago, which included my reactions as I read the book in 20-30 page chunks. But it was lost, so here's my reaction to the first book as a whole, after I finished reading it earlier tonight.

( Vampire Love Story? )

ceruleansan, I'm sorry I didn't come back online tonight. I walked home in 3" high heels (over crappy sidewalk) and wanted to take a nap when I got home... said nap turned into a 6 hour affair, during which I was incapacitated by my rebellious stomach. :( Please tell me more about Veer-Zaara the next time I see you online!

That said... this is (I hope) my last post on ST07. But because it's such a... well, proliferative topic these past few days, I'll honor those who Really Don't Give Two Shakes or Simply Aren't Involved and ( toss it behind a cut here )

If you have anything to do with fandom (and a majority of my FList does in some size, shape, or form), head on over to fandom_counts and join so your journal can be counted as one of the many -MORE THAN A DOZEN- journals that represent fandom and its voice.

The community has no posts and no posting access; it exists as a "body count" for any and all fandom journals. Unfortunately, there is no way for fandom-related communities to be added, but all other fandom journals (including icon journals, fiction journals, layout journals, and roleplaying journals) can and should join.

LiveJournal's released a statement of sorts to CNet. Still nothing official in the news community, though. And traffic to fandom_wank's post on the subject has overloaded JournalFen's servers FOUR times in the past day and a half. While JF may not be as robust as LJ, that should be enough of a wake-up call to realize that fandom has a strong voice. LJ's own servers have been going off and on intermittently, especially the one where the the original news post is located. If you get the chance, read some of the comments. Add your own. Realize why this is important not just to ordinary LJ users who SHOULD NOT be afraid of censorship, but fandom journals of all flavors, because this affects us more directly than anything ever has before.

We are NOT pedophiles or monsters -we are people creatively trying to express our interests. I may not use rape in my fics, talk about shota in discussion comms, or like Loli very much, but that doesn't mean that those that do discuss those things intelligently should be persecuted for no reason. For the journals that were unfairly deleted WITHOUT TRUE CAUSE and INVESTIGATION, I'm standing up and letting MY voice be heard.

I do not think that WFI was genuinely seeking out real pedophile's blogs and reporting them the way I would report something that I was positive broke the law or a site's TOS. They have a clear political agenda, and plenty of communities and users that were not approving, endorsing, or at all encouraging the things that have become so hot-button to WFI. That said, just because I'm fighting for the suspended journals doesn't mean I don't believe we should protect our children. If I had a child, I would be monitoring their Internet usage, using filters and blockers whenever and wherever I could. While I don't think a parent or a child can take all of the blame for what they see on the Internet, trying to expunge journals for mere mentions of things that might raise questions is going FAR OVER THE LINE.

There is a modicum of responsibility that EVERY party must bear, and when it comes to journal content, it is the journal owner's responsibility. Thus, said journal owner should be contacted if there is anything questionable or illegal ABOUT that content. But so many journals were suspended WITHOUT prior notice, which goes against LJ's own policies, from what I've heard. And when it comes to determining who is a pedophile and who's not, LJ should not rely on the word of WFI or its bloggers; they should see for themselves, on a CASE-BY-CASE basis (because you CANNOT lump individuals together, and I thought LJ was about expressing one's individuality, if nothing else!). I don't care if they don't have the staff or manpower for it-- if they can reject other abuse reports about this same subject on the basis of "lack of evidence that is contributory to an actual crime," then this should sure as hell fall within those same boundaries. At least looking at a HANDFUL of the journals thoroughly before deletion might have prevented this in the first place. But it doesn't sound like they were.

Mass-deletion of anything never SOLVED anything-- this whole incident proves that even if some things were deleted in error, it's getting a lot of people riled up. It's a big deal, and it SHOULD be. LJ should take the people that are so upset seriously, and give ALL LJ users an open, honest, and thorough explanation beyond "we thought what WFI said was right, and we wanted to establish community rules" or whatever. Talking about Nabokov's "Lolita" isn't trying to inspire child molestation. Cosplayers wanting to dress up like Lolis aren't trying to appeal to pedophiles.

I'll be going to San Francisco on June 4th as planned; if this hasn't somehow been resolved or otherwise discussed WITH USERS by then, I plan on seeing if I can stop by SixApart's offices. I encourage all my San Francisco friends and fellow LJ-users to come with me. At the very least, I'll get an interview with someone, since I'll be working for the Sundial in the fall and can squeeze a story out of that. Otherwise, it's good practice. At the most, we can just stage a rally of Bay Area LJ users-- and I know there are a hell of a lot of us. I don't have a set date or time for going; you'll hear from me again as we get closer to the date; I'll be posting updates that are relevant here.

For more information on this, I highly recommend checking out Fandom Wank's entry on it, which includes extensive links to resources, discussions, and analyses of the TOS and "mission statements" involved.

If you're feeling dangerous (and have good spyware/malware protection on your computer), check out the site that seems to have started this all: WarriorsForInnocence.Org. Be warned; they track IP referrals, so you might want to make use of an anonymizer, such as NoRefer.

I think innocence_jihad might be a bit much (declaring "war" on WFI), but the community is actually quite informative, with links to sites that are blogging about Strikethrough '07, news articles on it, and more.

If you want some banners, check out this post on I_J with some nice ones.

Also, this is something particularly interesting I found from F_W: WFI is not what it seems. As usual, politics play a large role in this. "Sue" the woman who emailed LJ about all the "bad" people's journals, has a blog which is connected to a number of neo-Confederate, militia-sympathizing, super-far-right-wing dominionists. I didn't even know what a "dominionist" was until this wank broke out. It's really shocking. Read the post there for yourself. It's enough to warrant the use of a new mood: gobsmacked, just like the OP did on F_W.

If LJ becomes so censored that my Mokuba "The Internet is for Porn" joke icon becomes "illegal," my $150 can burn; I'll go back to hosting my own private LJ if it comes to that. In the meantime, even if you don't think your journal may be at risk, BACK IT UP.

Well I like to keep up on wank, especially since it seems to inspire discussions with my old friends back at the smrff. So now I check on fandom_wank (over at journalfen.net-- I want an account, but I need a code! *wails*) every so often, but of course, some people manage to bring the wank to LJ-- like blackjackrocket did for us starving folks over at playthedamncard. Me loves the wank.

But cosplay wank is a touchy subject with me. I'm not a diehard cosplayer or anything, but I have my squicks.
(1) Man-Faye. He also did Man-Yuna. Frankly, as fun as crossplay can be, the guy just seems to love pushing the limits and other people's buttons. It almost seems insulting to the original character to do what he does. But if that's what he likes (squicking people, getting them uncomfortable), he's damn good at it.

(2) Pathetic cosplayers. These are the people that slap on (whatever color) hairspray and a headband and call themselves Naruto cosplayers. I don't expect everyone to spend $500+ on cosplay; I myself have felt the pain of doing on-the-budget, last-minute cosplay. I didn't win any awards or get loads of pictures of me taken, but that's not the point. You cosplay to express yourself, to have fun, to meet people. But you can do it just as well without a tacky costume on. I think effort is required in all things: either make do with what you have, or don't do it at all. It doesn't always come out the same, looking A+ gold star happy face perfect for everyone, but trust me: effort DOES show.

(3) Wrong size. This kind of fits in with the Man-Faye thing. It's not just a MAN crossplaying characters like Faye Valentine and Yuna, both ladies known for their rather skimpy clothes (at least Faye; Yuna didn't get her hot pants on until X-2) and sexy bodies. Man-Faye is hairy. But he's also BIG. Even costumes made for him don't seem to cover up near enough... and frankly, why cosplay something that makes you look worse? I had this same gripe with many Yu-Gi-Oh cosplayers. Go ahead and cosplay Otogi, Malik, Yuugi, whoever... but at least make sure the costume FITS you.

It's this last one that makes me wonder about the cosplay wank going on over at f_w. I don't care about the size of the cosplayers, or the fact that two seemingly-lesbian girls find yaoi hot (I come from San Francisco; this is not NEW to me). Matter of fact, both of their costumes (and their hair!! ZOMG!) are really, very good. And crossplay, as I said, doesn't bother me if it suits someone's body. These girls aren't exactly hairy or gangrenous or whatever. People are railing on them because they're a little overweight-- but it's not like you can see plumber butt or anything. *shrugs* Yeah, it's a bit weird to imagine Malik as a bigger than me, female, and white (rather than similar in stature to me, male, and Egyptian), but... that's cosplay for you.

Still, I think if people truly like anime enough to cosplay, they should discover options more suited to them. I like cosplaying people who have my hair style or color, so I don't have to go to excessive lengths to dye or cut my hair for cosplay. Yes, wigs are an option-- but they're damn expensive and hard to maintain. So are those REALLY nice costumes. And I can't sew worth shit.

Actually, a great example of a cosplay I admired was zigx's one of that kid (whose name I cannot remember) from Guilty Gear XX. He used a yo-yo, and looked like a nun. Joe did a COLOR EDIT. How many people honestly think of that? And you know what? Costumes often change from season to season (*cough cough* Seto Kaiba!) or from anime to manga (see: Rena Lanford/Star Ocean 2). So the possibilities really ARE limitless. I wish more people would realize that, and not force people who cosplay into this stereotype that zOMG your outfit/hair/eyes/weapon/size are totally NOT like the character you think you're cosplaying as!!

Who the hell cares? Anyone that gets THAT damn dedicated into cosplay should make it their job, not their hobby. And even then, they can take their criticism to the playground and leave it out of the cons.

(by the way, there are some really homophobic and racist people on cosplayfucks. I mean geez. They scare me. --You probably know who I mean.)

I'd like to add that I don't see communities as ygo_badfic, fanficrants, or even cosplayfucks as cowardly. People are allowed to criticize whatever they find on the web, and they're under no obligation to tell the original author they're doing so. Cosplayfucks I think is a BIT different though, because essentially they are making fun of real people for pretty stupid reasons (superficial reasons)-- and in the case of the Malik cosplayers in question, they provided their emails for feedback, but instead someone made a cosplayfucks post about them railing about how they were pretend-lesbians trying to act like teh-hawt-boy-seks when Malik is really a disassociative-personality-syndrome case profile... o_O Trust me, it could get MORE complex.

I'm not like some unfortunate girls who are so unhappy in their skin. I wish all people could be satisfied with themselves, but even I'm not one of those types. I think I've got a bit of pudge on my belly, and people never seem to hesitate to point out that I have a rather large caboose for a white girl. As the girls at work said, "You got some junk in your trunk!" o_O I don't care, I laugh it off, but part of me does hurt because of it. How long is this "nice" or "wicked" figure of mine (other people's words, not mine) going to last? That's why I try to take care of it.

It's wonderful to be happy in your skin, but not that far of a stretch to want more happiness and health for yourself by bettering your diet and exercise habits. Obesity is clearly a problem in the USA, and encouraging it doesn't help matters. I'd like to believe that people cosplay characters because they love them so much, but also because part of them wishes they DID look like that all the time. Maybe not necessarily the psychotic personality or the deeply-engraved tattoos, but maybe the cool hair, the lavender eyes, and so forth. Oh, and Malik's hot bawd. You gotta admit, he's got a nice figure. And even if he is male, the concept applies to everyone: all those girls that cosplay Yuna/Lulu/whoever-- don't you wish you had her eyes/hair/nails/boobs? I know I do. I don't starve myself to look like them, or blow my money to buy color contacts-- but I keep myself happy and healthy, and from there, everything else follows.

I gave P my 2 week notice today, even though I didn't plan to. But K was being such a condescending bitch (she even elbowed me -hard!- and didn't apologize or say excuse me!) I just can't take it anymore. I will try my damnedest to get that job at Red Robin; I only hope the GM Francis stays true to his word and remembers me. He said I had a great attitude and was very upbeat, and by mentioning the training schedule, he seemed to imply the interview went well and he would want to see me again when the store finally opened. *crosses fingers* Please god, let it work!

...I'm messing around with the eFiction drfa again. It's just being a bitch because on my local computer, I had the eFiction stuff in a folder WITHIN the drfa holder, but on the webserver, they're in two different folders. Blah. I need sleep.