Pretty Poison

The new Poets of the Fall album was released yesterday. It's called Twilight Theatre and I already love it.

I'm not a huge music fan, but there's something about this band. Ever since I first heard their music I've been addicted. Their lyrics are intense and occasionally heartbreaking. Their style of music runs from hard rock to gorgeous acoustic - this new album tends more toward the acoustic than the older ones but it's still recognisably their sound.

Anyhow, the album is available to stream for free, this week only -

http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/poets_of_the_fall/twilight_theater/#

So don't take my word for it. Check them out!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the movie I saw last weekend; I was really keen to see it as I've recently read the book. Since the film was not made by Hollywood I thought it might be a reasonable adaption. The book has a lot going for it. It's one of those novels that is trying really hard to be feminist while failing to understand women even a little. The chapters are separated by stats about violence toward women in Sweden...and they manage to make the opposite point from that intended 'cause I'm pretty sure the stats for the UK or USA are much, much worse. This impression is not helped by the way the book was marketed in the English-speaking world: in the original Swedish, the novel is titled Men Who Hate Women. Renaming it and putting a naked girl on the cover...way to miss the point, boys. And yet there's good stuff going for it, too.

But here I'm talking about the movie. So let's begin with the story. ( Cut for spoilers )

Overall...I recommend the film, but with caveats. First, if you have issues with onscreen violence, you don't want to see this film. Second, it's longer than it needs to be, so some will be better off waiting for a DVD release. And third, I do recommend familiarity with the book first, although that would spoil the whodunnit aspect...so that's a judgement call. But within those limits, I really enjoyed the film. 8/10.

liv is hosting a non-fandom friending meme over on Dreamwidth. I'm a little friending-meme shy, but in the spirit of trying to give myself more reasons to be on Dreamwidth, I signed up.

My friending-policy on DW is currently to give access to anyone who adds me, as long as you appear to be an actual person. If I've failed to give you access, it's either because I didn't get 'round to it yet (give me a day or so) or because I've mistaken you for fictional. Please feel free to correct that impression with a comment.

My friending policy on LJ is somewhat different. Anyone can add me, but I don't automatically friend back unless we've met in the flesh or exchanged comments at some time. LJ being bigger and less friendly, I'm a bit paranoid about being friended by strangers.

The Organisation for Transformative Works are having their membership drive this week.

I know OTW is somewhat controversial in fandom, which kinda baffles me because they are awesome. So this is why I believe they deserve our support.

First, because they're building the archive of our own aka AO3. Nearly all of my stories are there, but that's not why I think it's an awesome project. It's awesome because it's so completely inclusive. And it's tailored to fanfic needs. And the folks creating the code actually listen to feedback. And it keeps getting more and more awesome with each update. And because OTW owns the goddamn servers.

Don't underestimate that last. No matter how fan-friendly the site, we all post fanfic knowing that if some lawyer is having a stupid day, we could find a nasty letter in the mailbox. Or have it vanish without warning because someone's filed a DMCA notice with the web host. Or the archive could suddenly change its policy and force you to take down your fic. Or, if you post on LJ, you can get publically accused of being a child molester just for posting a little harmless fan art.

OTW will fight our corner if that happens. They aren't saying they'll win, and they're not looking for that fight. But they're prepared. This isn't some fuzzy policy, either: they already have supported and advised fans when copyright holders have gotten a little too draconian.

My second reason for supporting them is more personal. It's the Open Doors Project. A gazillion or so years ago (fandom-time), I was a huge fan of a particular writer of Xena fanfic. She wrote as Mil Toro or "Lucyfer". She wrote mostly on a BSDM theme, and her stories were seriously hot. But she also had a quirky sense of humour I really loved. Anyhow, like many lesbian fen at the time, Mil became very disillusioned with the show around the fourth and fifth seasons and announced she was leaving fandom and would be taking her site down. I had printouts of all my favourites of her stories but still, I thought it was a real shame. I wrote to her and asked if she'd be willing to let me take over her archive, so fandom wouldn't lose her works. She agreed to this and I hosted her fic in a corner of my own website for many years.

Last year I started having problems with my site. Like, it disappeared. I still haven't got it all sorted. While my own stories were all someplace else on the web, that Xena archive wasn't. When it became clear I couldn't quickly resolve my site issues, I contacted Open Doors for assistance. Within days I had transferred all of Mil Toro's Xena stories to AO3, with everything set up so it didn't look like it was me trying to take credit for someone else's work. This not only let me preserve those stories, but took the pressure off so I could sort out my website woes in my own time.

Open Doors offered help preserving old fansites when Geocities was taken down, too and have saved 40 or more sites that would otherwise have vanished. Not to mention many other preservation projects they have under their umbrella.

So there you go. That's my pitch for OTW. Joining OTW isn't about getting benefits or kudos: it's about supporting a bunch of truly awesome people who are all about supporting us in turn. So please, check them out and at least think about it.

Title: Negotiation (1,300 words)
Fandom: Supernatural/True Blood
Rating: All Ages (Gen)
Characters: John Winchester, Eric Northman
Warnings: Eric fans may not like this one much. See notes under the first cut-tag if you care why.
Summary: When John Winchester walked into Fangtasia, it wasn't to hunt vampires.

Notes: Written for a ficathon walks into a bar... run by sabinetzin. ( When I put down True Blood as one of my fandoms I just knew... ) So here's John Winchester, baddass demon hunter, as he might be in the world of True Blood.

( A Ficathon walks into a bar...Negotiation )

Good news - the essay assignment from Hell is finished and sent. It's probably crap, since I maintain the assignment question did not make any sense, but I managed to make a decent argument that (I hope) is relevant to the question, and force it into language that'll make it seem like I give a crap about the subject matter.

*shrug* I can afford to fail this one, anyway. It'll average out, as long as I do well on the next (and last) one.

( Not-so-good news about the dogs )

Mel - are you up for sushi on Monday?

Still using my Amber icon 'cause I don't have one of Poppy.

Poppy is doing well. Mum keeps finding creative ways to play ball without actually playing ball. Stuff like she'll throw the ball onto the furniture so Poppy will jump up to find it. This doesn't break the vet's injunction as that had to do with her rapid changes of direction when chasing a thrown ball. As a result, she's not too miserable, but she's definitely feeling deprived. Amber is, too, since she's not getting walkies either.

But Rocky is doing badly. He's seventeen years old, and he's been in decline for a long time now. Frankly, I think he's suffering - he's deaf, almost blind, terribly arthritic, can barely bend down enough to reach his bowl even now it's on a stand, and he seems to have doggy-dementia. But he's sis's dog and she can't let him go. She keeps saying he's not really in pain, because he's still taking pain medication, but she doesn't understand that suffering doesn't always mean pain. If I were as sick as Rocky is, I hope someone would have the guts to show me a little mercy.

But sis is so anti-euthanasia it makes me sick. At least she's consistent, but she's being cruel. And if I try to talk some sense into her she tells me I just want to be rid of him (which is hard to deny, since I never wanted him to live with us in the first place).

So I don't know what's going to happen there. It's pretty much out of my hands.

Valentine's day snuck by me and I completely missed it. Since I'm single (and not at all unhappy about being so) this would normally be meaningless.

But I had a Sentinel story I meant to post for Valentine's Day. Now I can't do that, darn it.

This is a story someone on my flist asked me to write a long time ago; at the time I said no, I couldn't do it. But things change and I thought of a way I could fulfil the request. But this story requires a particular holiday or something you'd buy a gift for; my original plan was to post it for Christmas, but what with Yuletide and the other two Christmas fics I did manage to post, one more was just too much. So I thought Valentines...and now I've missed it!

Not sure what to do now. I guess I can hang onto it until next Christmas...

I got through the week. I really did.

I taught eight classes this week, each about three hours long. Most of it was me talking and demonstrating. At the beginning of the week I had a mild sore throat. Today, I can barely talk. But I got through it. It was a good experience overall, though I have a bit more sympathy with some of the more irritating policies other trainers have now I've been on their side of the table. The point of all this was to share my knowledge of a particular specialised piece of software we use, and to get people thinking about how much this program can help with analysis. I think I acheived that, although it's irritating that the two people who most needed it pulled out of the class because their manager can't time-manage for shit. I think she's expecting me to provide this training on a one-to-one basis when it suits her...I didn't give up this much of my time only to go back to one-to-ones. She can train her own sodding staff. Oh, wait. She can't, because I'm the so-called expert.

The bright side of all that training is I'm now more than 12 hours in credit on the clock - that's two days, near enough.

*

I have stuff to say about the last two eps of SPN but that'll have to wait. On my to-do list for this weekend is finish up prep for the Sentinel big bang, so I can kick that off, and then I really need to make a start on my next OU essay.

I've been on a roll with my sncross_bigbang story and it's hard to tear myself away from that. But I must. Anyhow, I've reached a good place to take a breather from that story - I finally wrote the ending! No, it's not finished, but I like to get my final scene written as early in the writing process as possible. It helps me stay on track. And this is a good final scene. When I come to rewrite, I can add just a little more to make it a positive ending, or I can go with what I have now and end on a nicely ambiguous note. The ambiguity at present is mostly because the canon is still open...hopefully by the time I'm on my final re-write I'll have a better idea about certain things.

But enough with the fic. I have to start on that essay, darn it.

Cinema and sushi tomorrow! Can't decide - cheesy horror or serious drama? Must check out the Kermode podast, see what he thinks :)

Poppy had her visit to the vet this evening.

The news is not good.

The vet confirmed that the problem is her kneecap. It keeps popping out, which naturally causes her pain. It pops back in on its own, but if it goes on like this eventually it's not going to, just as it would for a person. The really bad news is that her other back leg is showing signs of the same problem. The vet thinks it's a congenital defect, and she's lucky it hasn't been a problem before now.

It is likely she will need surgery. In an attempt to avoid this, because it's dangerous for such a small dog, we've been ordered to make her rest for a full month. No walkies. No ball. As little running around as possible. Poppy's an excitable little thing - we'll never get her to sit still! But we have to try.

She goes back to the vet in a month, and if there's no improvement we'll have to talk about surgery for her.

The news could definitely be worse, but this is not good :(