because these are amazing and i am trying to distract myself from my lack of Advil:

- Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit, by lazulisong: Reboot!gen, utterly glorious. seriously, i have been dying for genfic like this. &hearts

- you must remember this, by seperis: Merlin, NC-17, Arthur-centric mythology fusion. creepy and spectacular in all the best ways.

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+ art!fail: how (NOT) to draw Asian women. lolarious or enormously offensive? well, both, really, but for now i'm gonna go with lolarious. thanks, Disgrasian!

+ ( Lady Gaga: wtf?? )

+ i've never been good at brainstorming for rs_small_gifts- actually, i'm not very good at brainstorming for exchanges, period. i need to let the prompts sit and marinate somewhere inside my head, which is like the slowest. process. EVER. :| blah, maybe i'll catch up with Merls tonight while i'm waiting.

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I am not an American Idol fangirl, neither am I an Adam Lambert fangirl. However! Adam's Out interview (which I am sure many of you have already seen thanks to astolat) is really amazing and happy-making, and since I've been rather grumpy these last couple of weeks, I am feeling the need to put more happy things up here. So, here, have a dose of happy!

Part 1 | Part 2

It's just... really nice to see someone so centered and confident and accepting of himself. :>

In other news, I finally watched Merls 2x06 last night! However, I am putting off all TV commentary until I'm done watching 2x07 and 2x08, and probably until I've written my small gifts fic as well (since that is looking easier to plot, and I'd like to finish something before the next two weekends of crazy).

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( Dear Washington/right-wing nutjobs: )

... Um. I was considering getting my rant on re: Glee 2x09 (the only catch-up watching I have done this weekend, woe!), but I think that was sufficient irritation for today.

In happier/fannish news, such_heights has started an impromptu happy fanathon! Babble about whatever shiny things you like- thus far, there is Merlin (as in lots of Morgana/Gwen!), Narnia, and *cough* my rather slapdash Saving Face picspam. \o/!

ETA: OH AND. AO3: shiny! :D Somebody keep me off it until I manage to finish writing? *g*

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Assignments, yay! *\o/* I am excited, and also paranoid. (Also, now completely distracted from the other exchanges I am supposed to be writing, fail fail fail.)

So anyway, it occurs to me that I should put up a Yuletide beta list! These are ranked by my ability to canon-pick.

( Fandoms I know extremely well: )

( Fandoms I'm familiar with: )

( Fandoms I'm passing familiar with: )

I'm probably forgetting a lot of things, but if you think I might know something you're writing, just ask! &hearts

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Yuletide signups: successfully tweaked! I kept my requests for In the Heights, Saving Face, and Shounen Onmyouji, but I decided to switch out GGK's Ysabel for Ender's Game because I want Alai and Hot Soup! &hearts I trimmed my offers-list a bit, too- took out Swordspoint, Kuroshitsuji, Count Cain/Godchild, and Okane ga Nai, and added Jacqueline Carey's Santa Olivia.

Annnd, before I forget!

Dear Yuletide Writer:

First of all, thank you! You are the bestest: you share at least one of these fandoms, and you are writing for me; QED. :D &hearts

Short version: I AM EASY, ANYTHING GOES. Long version (not very long)-

( Saving Face )

( In the Heights )

( Shounen Onmyouji )

( Ender's Game )

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The 4th edition of the Asian Women Blog Carnival is up! Here. *\o/*

... And now it's time for me to turn my attention to camelotsolstice and rs_small_gifts. Ack!

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-Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin.

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+ The lovely avendya has a wonderful post about disability over at FWD/Forward:

To Whom It May Concern:

My life is not a fucking tragedy.

+ The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' -- for free (pink window in the middle). This does not cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate a mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

+ Via deadbrowalking: Diversity educator and filmmaker Lee Mun Wah is putting together a book called "Let's Get Real: What People of Color Can't Say and Whites Won't Ask."

He's got a series of questions for both POC and white people, and is asking for responses from anyone who cares to answer some or all of them. The deadline for responses is November 15th. Participants whose responses are selected for publication get a free, autographed copy of the book.

+ ALSO, PAGE TURNER: WHO WANTS TO GO? NO, REALLY. :D

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The deadline for submissions for the 4th Asian Women Blog Carnival is today! However, since RL has been pretty crazy for me recently, I'm willing to extend a grace period of ~24 hours. Once again, the theme of this edition is storytelling, or reclaiming our selves through our words. If you are interested in participating, please see this post for guidelines and further details!

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Trimming the flist a little bit. I've been meaning to do this for a while (and it's sort of in the spirit of moving day, which I am putting off for a few minutes longer, so! *g*)- nothing personal, just that we haven't really talked for a long time (or ever), and/or I feel like we've drifted apart. Let me know if you want me to add you back. :)

And on that note, I'll be away for the rest of today. Moving. Until further notice. *headdesk* Going back to packing now, aieee!

1. The submission deadline for the 4th Asian Women Blog Carnival is coming up; NOVEMBER 1st is just around the corner! Once again, the theme for this edition is storytelling, or reclaiming our selves through our words. Women and men of color and allies are welcome to participate so long as the focus of their contributions is Asian women. The definition of Asian, within the scope of this carnival, includes people from East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Asia, Southeast Asia, Far East, Middle East, Near East and people of Asian descent living in non-majority Asian countries. The definition of women, within the scope of this carnival, includes trans women and cisgendered women. More detailed submission guidelines may be found here.

2. ATTENTION YULETIDERS: dhobikikutti has begun a list of chromatic Yuletide fandoms! This post sums up the reasoning behind it quite well:

First and foremost, I am doing this for myself and others like me who don't often get the opportunity to be fannish online about our source cultures, and rarely see good examples of it being talked about. I am also doing it because I want to find more of us, and lure in other international fans who understandably might perhaps have no interest in fanfiction about English, Western sources, but have never had a chance to see fanfiction written about people like them.

This is why I am centring around non-English (or Indian-English/Chinese-English/etc) sources - where the original creators (authors, directors, actors) seem to be doing an adequate job of representing their story. Yuletide is a celebration of source as much as it is about fandom, and I want to emphasise the sources that should be celebrated, in contrast to the ones that often get talked about instead.

It's rather appalling how often a source that exoticises, flattens, or misrepresents a culture gets picked up and praised over and above more accurate work, and that choice, subconcious as it might be, furthers an agenda of cultural imperialism and colonialism (not to mention racism). For a long time, we sourcelanders and diasporians have had to make do with subverting the source - trying to critique C.S. Lewis's portrayal of the Calormenes or Joss Whedon's erasure of Asians in Firefly or Pirates of the Carribbeans' racist and Magical Negro tropes, through fanfiction that challenges and questions and rewrites.

So please, if you adore source materials and/or characters that are non-Western and non-white, do consider writing about them, and do consider how you're going to portray them. Yuletiders on my flist, you can take this as a challenge: I am going to do my level best to enable you into my obscure fandoms. How are you going to enable me into yours? ;)

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- via deepad and various others, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the dangers of a single story [transcript here]:



- for the Remus/Sirius folks: Common Woodbrown, which i encountered via woldy (thank you, sweets! &hearts). this was much more Remus-centric than it was shippy, but it is so utterly, heartbreakingly gorgeous, you guys. definitely give it a read.

- for the orig-fic lovers, Bang*Bang 21 is up! i haven't worked my way through all of the latest stories yet, but i've found that bb_shousetsu generally makes for excellent reading. give it a go, you might find something you like! :)

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Some quick notes, since I'm supposed to be haring off to do things in a bit:

- rs_small_gifts signups are open! :D Yeah, Remus/Sirius folks, I'm looking at you.

- I forgot to say that I'm doing choc_fic's 100 Days of Color! Saving Face (because this is apparently the Year of Pimpage for me), February 8th. \o/

- camelot_fleet party post is open for business!

- The deadline for submissions for the 4th Asian Women Blog Carnival is coming up! NOVEMBER 1st is... next weekend, omg. Where did October go??

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Title: light all around them
Fandom: Guy Gavriel Kay- The Sarantine Mosaic
Rating: G/PG
Summary: Aliana and Crispin, the days after. Written for telesilla's NYR 2009 prompt; posted here because I couldn't for the life of me stretch it to 1,000 words. /o\ I hope you like this!

( Caius Crispus surveys the dome of the modest church with hands on his hips. )

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At long last, Merlin meetup Renfaire picspam! WARNING: supremely image-heavy. ( part 1: here there be dragons )

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- Shakira!fail on DWTS results show last night = ( this is why i'm hot; this is why you're not. )

seriously, lady, you need to NOT take a page out of Gwen Stefani's book, 'kay? i love you and your music and your GQMF dancing lots, but gimmick!Asians are not cool.

- it's Party of Mock time for this latest gem of misogynist SF bitching. how many ways can these entitled white male assholes come up with to be complete fuckmuppets (tm yuki_onna) on the internet? oh, that's right; COUNTLESS. *is utterly UNsurprised*

- and now for the happy; fellow Yuletiders who haven't already seen this, Yuletide nominations are OPEN! :D mine are as follows:

Saving Face (film)
Guy Gavriel Kay- Ysabel
Patricia McKillip- Riddlemaster Trilogy
Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler
Shounen Onmyouji
Cain Saga aka Count Cain aka Godchild

how about you? :)

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+ because i am (already!) bored,

What Merlin character am I most like?
MY THREAD

(no picture because i am at work and i do try to be surreptitious about my LJ/DW stints. :P)

+ i mainlined all three eps of FLASHFORWARD on sunday night, and ( itty-bitty spoilers? ) in conclusion: i cannot put together a coherent sentence about this show, apparently. &hearts &hearts

+ because way back when, i promised SWORDSPOINT flail, i hereby declare today comment-party day! and i include Fall of the Kings & Privilege of the Sword in that statement. have at it, ladies! tell me how much you adore Alec or Richard or the Duchess of Tremontaine or ~convoluted politics~ or what you thought of women's roles in the books. :D

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[Note: Yes, I know this is coming rather belatedly, but it took me a while to get this down in a semi-coherent fashion. Also, GIANT MAJOR THANK-YOUS to the beta-team that got me through this monster; you know who you are, bbs. &hearts Mistakes/wording issues/lacks of clarification/whatnot are all mine.]

In response to the now-deleted Radio Times post, franticsga brings up some interesting points regarding the dynamics between fans and source-creators, and I do think that "why not?" is a valid question to ask. Stories matter- as yuki_onna says, stories, in fact, are life. It's perfectly reasonable and incredibly important to ask for more, better LGBTQ representation in the media. However, I believe that it's equally important to consider all of the ramifications of asking for specific pairings in specific contexts, and in the context of this show, I have serious issues with asking "why not [Merlin/Arthur]?"

As one might expect, many of these issues are bound up with Gwen. More specifically, though, it has to do with the fact that in the Beeb's particular shiny crack-van mixtape, she's ( OMG! A BLACK GIRL. )

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OHAI GUYS. So, um, do you remember that picspam I made a while back? WELL. ( THE RESULTS ARE IN: [20] )

All pictures come from the posts I linked in the original picspam; some crops are... experimental, and it shows, I think. :P ENJOY!

(DO YOU SEE WHY THIS TOOK ME AGES???? YEAH I THOUGHT SO.)

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