Quotidiana and Marginalia

Help & writing resources

In an untitled post, bridgetmkennit explains the tags system and the four different types of warnings at the Archive Of Our Own, and how to use them.

lore: BloMo18: Tis the season of saving stories....: tips on saving fanfic stories "in a format that can be easily transferred to most reading devices without losing the author's intended passages of emphasis".

There have been a few posts on BDSM, community rules and terminology, intended as resources for writers and to clear up some common misunderstandings. In Hi! My name is Minxie…, the_minx_17 talks about general rules and some stereotypes. irana wrote On BDSM, Part I to explain the abbreviations SCC and RACK, and to talk about consent. On BDSM, Part II covers negotiation (both Scene and Relationship negotiation).

InsaneJournal

An InsaneJournal Holiday Sale just started. Self-Committed (i.e. paid) accounts and Extra Userpics will be available at reduced prices until November 27th. Friday the 27th will also have a short sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

das_dingsi: Updating habits: "The interesting part is how it made me view the update page more closely than usual and I consciously noticed all the things I don't use [on InsaneJournal]."

Other

bitterfig: where do they make subtext?: "I always wonder where stuff like (i.e. homoerotic and/or incestuous subtext) this comes from, is it intentional or just a quirk of chemistry?"

lilithilien: Why do we do it?, a short commentary on an AfterElton.com article titled "Why are Women Interested in Gay Men? It's Not Because They Want to Sleep With Them!", with discussion in comments.

novembermond: has a question about friending meme[s]: "[W]hat are the dos and don'ts ... ?"

[Supernatural] ep. 5x10 meta-ish reaction posts - SPOILERS galore!
the_shoshanna: Supernatural 5.10, "Abandon All Hope...": "Thanks SO MUCH for making women just the underbrush to be cleared away before the real stuff happens."
musesfool: lacrimae volvuntur inanes: "I would like to be able to talk about the episode on its own merits, because I thought it was a fantastic episode emotionally and a great way to go into hiatus, but I am SO FUCKING SICK of the way this show treats female characters."
yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): SPN 5.10 - A sign of hope: "There's nothing there right now for an audience to cling to, any more than a clear plot direction for Sam and Dean."

Title: At Once Our Time Devour
Characters: Reborn, Colonnello
Summary: When you don't have a lot of time left, it's funny what matters and what doesn't anymore.
Notes: Adult! Set pre-curse, I guess. I'm a manga-only girl, so this isn't going to square with the Arcobaleno stuff that's coming down the anime pipeline. Smut, swearing, Colonnello and Reborn being asses to each other, 1706 words. Dedicated to wolfy_chan, whose smoking hot Reborn and Colonnello art that inspired this.

( Colonnello blinked once at the news, and then said, 'Bet you're going to miss fucking, huh?' It was a refreshing change from the wide-eyed looks of sympathy mingled with relief at not being the one chosen, so when he pulled his gun on Colonnello, Reborn didn't bother shooting to kill. )

We are starting this years InsaneJournal holiday sale. From now until the end of the day Friday, November 27 we are going to be holding a sale on Self-Committed[paid] accounts and Extra Userpics.

The prices are be as follows

Self-Committed[paid]
1 Month -> $5
6 Month -> $15 $10
12 Month -> $25 $18

Extra Userpicx
6 Month -> $10 $5
12 Month -> $20 $15

Then on Friday November 27th from 8am until 4pm (Eastern US time) we will be running a very special sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

• albumsontheside: I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me. - what makes certain fics popular? - why are some fics so unbelievably popular in certain fandoms, and why do the fans often react so personally to any criticism levied against said fics? -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom criticism)


• thefrogg: Muses and Fic Nicknames - Am I the only writer who happens to actually...give a personality/name/body/whatever to their muse? -
  
  (tags: writing)

This was the most popular choice in the poll, and funny enough, I haven't encountered yet a person who didn't like it, even when initially sceptical towards oatmeal or apples. (Well, unless they have allergies, of course.) I'm going to use °C and metric measurements for the recipe, but converters are easy to find online and also it's not one of those where you have to be super accurate, so that shouldn't be a problem.

What you need:

- oatmeal (I buy the 1 kg package which lasts for several meals)
- 2 to 3 apples
- sugar
- cinnamon
- a bar of butter (I use the 250 g bars -- you'll definitely need less than a pound)
- vanilla ice cream

and a greased baking pan, casserole dish, or similar (if it's fireproof and somewhat flat it'll work).

( Read more... )

Serve fresh out of the oven, in small bowls, with some ice cream on top. Makes for a nice hot-cold contrast. Oh, and you eat the cake with spoons.

Additional info:

- Makes you feel full extremely quickly. I've had huge people who are big eaters laugh in my face when I served them the "tiny" dish, only to see them declare defeat after their second bowl.
- The dough can be kept in the fridge to use it up later, and also works great as a muesli breakfast substitute.

You can't really mess up this one. Trust me.

• trobadora: All-Human AUs? - Someone explain this trope to me. You have characters who aren't human: aliens, vampires, demons, angels, gods. What they are is an important part of their character, and writing them as ordinary humans takes away something essential to that character, and I just don't get it. Why is this so popular? -
  
  (tags: fanfic writing au)

• alixtii: AoOO Thoughs - I'm very uncomfortable with the implication, given by the existence of the primary warning tag "noncon/rape" that dubcon isn't rape. -
  
  (tags: warnings archiving ao3)


• smallbeer: my random morning thought processes - So, tell me how you would define "manpain" in a fannish context? -
  
  (tags: question terminology)

• just_katarin: But Katarin, you just posted! - I distinctly remember, when Heroes fandom started talking about the problematic aspects of the show, the racism, the sexism, how uneven storylines and deaths were, all of it, we all maintained it was unintentional....We thought they meant well but now I see that that was a lie. That was... they never intended good things for the People of Color on Heroes or the Women on Heroes. -
  
  (tags: sexism racism heroes)


• hradzka: Donny Osmond RPF. By pros. - Mike Sterling has an interesting post that touches on on for-pay RPF from the 1970s. He points out that teen magazines included fictional stories about celebrities, mysteries and adventures and romances and -- yes, *exactly,* it was totally RPF. -
  
  (tags: prowriting rpf history)


• melannen: Statistics! - But when I was going through all the Dear Writer posts being linked in the yuletide community over at lj, I kept noticing that there were actually quite a *lot* of people who were linking their letters from their DW accounts instead of their LJs, and I was wondering if there really were a lot, or if it was an illusion based around what I wanted, and was expecting, to see. And then it occurred to me that this might actually be a pretty good metric of how fandom actually *is* moving: yuletide participation is probably as close as we can get to a real cross-section of people who are active in the sort of fandom that is on journal sites, and it seems like the site people link in their letters would be the site they consider their primary home, regardless of whether they crosspost and how. -
  
  (tags: migration lj accessibility dreamwidth statistics)

Do you know of any video games ("with nice graphics" would be a bonus) where there's a transformation sequence of a MALE character where the camera pans lovingly and repeatedly over the guy's ass and bare chest for what feels like ten minutes? And he wears, I dunno, a thong and a few strings of strategically placed floss to cover his nipples.

You don't have to guess why I'm asking.

• facetofcathy: AO3 Tags and Warnings - Under the cut is a screen shot of the tag fields at the AO3, and my thoughts on using them. -
  
  (tags: ao3 tags warnings)

• rheasilvia: Posting a Fanfic Novel: The "How To"-Poll - In your opinion, what is the best way of posting a very long piece of fanfiction (think novel, 150.000 words or more)? [POLL] -
  
  (tags: poll fanfic reading)


• zvi: Podfic grumblings - Okay, I think we have established that I actually hate it when people put music as an intro or outro of their podfic. -
  
  (tags: podfic music)

You know, my attention has been drawn to the fact that I just don't seem to have much in the way of muse activity anymore, I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me. I've probably becoming a boring individual where headspace is much more interesting for them then anything outside that happens to me. It's fine really, but still a bit wierd.

A discussion on Dreamwidth asked for the steps you take when updating -- what you use / pick / do, and in what order. The interesting part is how it made me view the update page more closely than usual and I consciously noticed all the things I don't use. On InsaneJournal, these are:

( Cut for those not interested )

As for updating, I more or less follow the modules in the way they are ordered from top to bottom, i.e. first the subject line and icon, then the entry text, checking it in the preview window, then adding tags, and posting it.

What annoys me a little is that I often have to look up my tags in a new tab, because there's neither an auto-complete feature nor a direct link (to the tags page) on the update page. It would save me some hassle.

What about you?

♣ I might participate in this Sunday's fandom chat again. I had issues with the first one, simply because chats in groups tend to make me feel overwhelmed and my energy drains quickly. But I like the idea in itself and I think I'm ready for a new try. The chat is being held via AIM and open for all, so if some of you would join me (us), that'd be nice.

♣ I feel tired. I have a light cold -- definitely not swine flu, as I don't have any other symptoms. I'm just sniffling and feeling a bit murky. Fighting it with lots of rest and cream cake. (^^) But it's making it hard to cook. I wanted to make noodles with a mushroom-broccoli cream sauce, actually, but instead I just fried the mushrooms together with some cheese. Definitely beats having no breakfast. Will buy new food later.
Other recipes I already tried in the last two weeks or so were the ones mentioned in my cooking poll -- nut-honey waffles with fried apples, noodles with meat-tomato sauce, baked bread with cheese cream... plus butter-vanilla cookies and a Moussaka. A Moussaka is basically a casserole with fried eggplants, minced meat with onions, a cheese-tomato sauce, and extra cheese on top. The recipe mentioned "skim[ming] the fat before serving", so I was, like, oh this is possibly going to be oily and stuff. I definitely wasn't prepared for skimming off a small dessert bowl of pure fat. And it was still really oily. It tasted fine, but the texture made me feel slightly sick. I think the problem was caused by a) the sauce and fried meat, b) the eggplants because these had to be fried in oil as well and they soaked it up like nobody's business. Next time I'm going to do it differently somehow.

♣ Upcoming: the recipe that won the poll (Apple-Oatmeal Cake With Vanilla Ice Cream) and another two issues of Nachbarschaftsschau (I'll start with a German edition first).

♣ I also might try to answer a number of old comments this weekend. Here's the explanatory post, just as a reminder (if needed).

I'm so tired and I don't know why it is caused. Like drop dead tired, I stumbled out of the bathtub and I went right back to sleep for ten minutes and still wanted to sleep some more. It's like something is just trying to eat away my energy and won't even let go. Perhaps it's just the fact that I took valerian root in combination with nyquil which is never a GOOD THING.

I'm a bit depressed because I realized I can try to have all kinds of conversations with Jennie however Todd is always going to move into the conversation with something that is relevant to him. Damn, I never interrupt his and Jennie's conversations they have of the past that was Before Me. I don't see why I cannot have the same courtesy. It's part and partial of why I left this morning from the hospital room to go back home.

And honestly I don't mind if Jennie talks to me about things, but honestly.. my patience with Todd is a lot lower then Jennie's patience with him and he does one thing and I am seeing red for miles upon miles afterwards.

This is a bit complicated to explain.

My process of transitioning to my real gender has reached an important point -- now it's not just about gender presentation, therapy, or a bit of paperwork anymore, now it's also biological.

I've had times when I felt depressed, jealous, or oversensitive when I read about other people's transition process -- not because I disliked them or thought they didn't deserve it, let's be clear on that! -- it was because I couldn't move forward on my own journey and was powerless to do anything about it (laws, medical requirements, etc.), so I didn't feel like I could deal with the topic. Therefore I retreated (up to a certain point).

Now my position has changed, and I could make others feel just as bad as I did back then; a role reversal of sorts.

Fact is, I feel the need to write about my transitioning, and of course I have that right (it's my journal, after all). Additionally, it could be of interest to others, although not all of my situation here in Germany will be comparable to other countries and regions. So this journal will include more content that is not just about trans issues in general, but my personal changes, problems, and successes during transition. (Not sure yet whether I'm gonna file it under the "transgender" or "life / meatspace / socialising" tags, or create a new one.)

I'm going to use cuts and try to give at least vague hints about what's underneath, so people can decide for themselves if they want to read it. (Eta: I'm not going to create an extra filter for these posts, as I don't like extra anything, actually -- I'm very much a WYSIWYG journaler.)

If you are in a difficult situation yourself where you feel you have to defriend me or filter me off your reading list for a while to take care of yourself, I understand. I really do. All I'd like (if it's not too much of a bother) is a short message or comment -- private message, email, reply to this entry [comments are screened]--, so that I am informed. Don't feel bad about it. You can always come back later and I'll welcome you with open arms like no time had passed.

That's it, I think.

5x09 "The Real Ghostbusters" - A fan tricks Dean and Sam into attending a "Supernatural" fan convention.

After seeing what else they did re: integrating "funny" stabs at/parodies of fans and fandom into the show, I'm not going to watch this. Never mind that I fucking hate the fact they created that meta level on the show in the first place. It's giving me similar feelings like when Stephen King wrote himself into the Dark Tower series. Only with the added nauseous feeling that "uh-oh, these people think this is YOU".

Dammit, SPN.

(No, this is not a proper meta entry.)

We ended up with a grand total of 57 fics across 41 fandoms (five of which were crossovers). Thank you so much to everyone involved for participating in this round's Porn Battle!

( The fics! )

Round Nine of Porn Battle is now closed! Thank you all for participating.

The list of stories will be collected and posted in the morning.

Okay, I love love love love love Mio.

Episode 6 was especially cute.. because no anime is complete without one flash of panties. But oh Mio is just too adorable for words. <3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Ok, I must send this question out to all my Ipod enabled friends, because I'm honestly not sure what I should do. Bonus points if you own an ipod Touch/Iphone!

So on my commute to work this morning, my venerable fourth-generation Ipod (black and white screen, even, whoo!) seized up and started giving me the blinky Apple icon of death. The usual reset options don't seem to help, and while the final verdict won't be in until I get it home to plug into the computer, it's looking like my Idlet has gone to the great Apple orchard in the sky. (I don't begrudge it this fate, mind you--it was a faithful guardian of my music for over five years. You can't ask much more out of a MP3 player than that, I figure.)

So--I need a replacement. The two contenders? A 120 GB Classic Ipod for $189, or a 64 GB Ipod Touch for $399.

Needless to say there's quite a price jump there. Getting a smaller Ipod Touch isn't an option, not if I want to carry around all my music *and* videos. And honestly--I'm not all that sure that I would use all the other little apps/thingies you can do with a Touch. Enough to make it worth that extra $200 or so. Except for one thing--

Reading fanfic.

Yes, I am a total geek girl. But if I could read fanfic whenever/wherever I liked, that would so totally be worth the extra expense, at least for me. -__-;; (Tis sad, I know.) So my question is for my fellow fangirls:

Can you/do you read ebooks/fanfiction on an ipod touch or iphone? Is it reasonably easy/workable to do so? In most cases I would want to be able to read without a wifi connection, so is downloading fanfic (via Stanza or some other app) onto the device itself doable?

If none of this is possible/easy, I might as well go with the Classic ... So please, please give me your insights, because I honestly cannot decide!

... for all the well-wishes re: doctor's appointment. I survived.

Still wishing the doc wouldn't make me feel either stupid or like I'm wasting her time. ( Cut for trans-related stuff that ties into cis privilege )

Dept. DW: I still feel honored when someone gives me access. Hello! *waves*