dw_suggestions | Member Posts

( Spoiler Endgame 'analysis' )

I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF "NO IT WASN'T X IT WAS Y AND THEREFORE IT WAS GOOD." ESPECIALLY AFTER THE MAGICIANS.

Current Mood: aggravated

swaldman

I finished watching Season 5 on the plane over here (yes, I'm slow. I waited for it to appear on UK Netflix).

I enjoyed it; it was fun. But.... not as good as it used to be.

The first four seasons were still paying lip service to it being a cop show. Yes, a stylised and camp one, but still. In S5... well, no actual crimes are being solved. It's more of a comedy soap opera that happens to be set in a police station.

And I feel that some of their set-piece episodes have kinda played out, at this point... there are going to be two episodes at the start getting out of whatever dire situation ended the previous season. There's going to be a Doug Judy episode. There's going to be a Halloween Heist episode (although that was nicely subverted this time around). It all feels a bit much like fan service.

I don't hate it; I still enjoyed it, and I'll carry on watching to see what the next season (with new funders, I think?) is like. But it's not like it was.

kore

( MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS )

After this and the Magicians finale it's going to be a cold day in hell before I throw my heart into another canon run mainly by white males, I can tell you that.

Current Mood: angry

umadoshi

...or at least it was when I got home after supper tonight. I've managed to shift it around at least somewhat, so it's not all on the floor ("all" meaning "all the manga that actually lives in my office", since there's another bookcase in the spare room).

After our first scheduled appointment to have heat pumps installed was canceled due to rain, it was rescheduled to today, and for some reason it actually happened even though it rained like hell today. (

scruloose theorizes that it's because the first day's rain included a lot of wind and some thunder and lightning, and today's didn't, and ladders were involved.)

I wasn't home for the work being done (thankfully), and the good news is that a) AFAIK it's all looking good (one small component is still on order), b) the overall upheaval was relatively minimal given how much this is going to theoretically change the place (overhaul of the heating system, plus the addition of A/C and dehumidifying), and c) the cats seem to have made it through their day confined to the spare room with minimal upset, although they're clearly not pleased.

But what we had not really expected--because

scruloose tried to find out in advance, and it sounded like it ~probably~ wouldn't be a problem--was that my office bookcases would need to be completely unloaded, unbolted from the wall, and moved. (The theory had been that there was enough room above the bookcases for the installers to work.) And thus the manga wound up covering an alarming amount of the floor (under dropcloths).

It...it looks like less manga when it's all semi-tidily shelved. On the floor, it appears infinite. And now it's pretty badly out of order (not as badly as it could've been!

scruloose took a decent stab at keeping series together despite having several contractors waiting on the shelves being emptied), and there was no good way to preserve the "system" I had going where the volumes lying flat in stacks were the ones I hadn't read. And I've been slowly pruning the collection back further, which I would've sped up had I known I would have to reorganize it all.

I guess now is really the time to decide whether I'm going to shake up my system and separate out all the series I've worked on into their own section of the shelves, rather than keeping them interspersed with everything else.

The day also involved the aforementioned (kinda chilly) rain, my work computer taking an hour to update before I could do anything at the office, and going with

scruloose to get our taxes done. (We really like our accountant. We really like the things that result from paying taxes, like roads and education and basically everything. But the actual moment of "we owe HOW much???" [because of how I manage my freelance stuff] is still very, very painful.)

BUT after all that, we went out for ramen and things with Ginny, Kas, and Sea, and getting to hang out and have tasty food was lovely, and it was excellent weather for having ramen in.

kore

and WOW fandom is going to continue to explode. There is something to make nearly everyone ticked off!

Man I feel tired. I miss just enjoying these movies. I think I will go back to my Black Widow comics.

( Vague spoiler )

fueschgast

I'm currently back to enjoying making icons, which is probably the reason why a few days ago I got the idée fixe for a certain creative endeavor (because I'm silly and don't want to jinx the project, I'm not saying what it's about). So I collected material and ended up with a lot. Now that I've started editing the pictures, I've finally realized what a fuckload of work this is going to be and I hate myself. Maybe I'll manage to negotiate myself out of using every image I found. Maybe I can split the project up into smaller ones.

ariestess

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Current Mood: cold

ellie_nors

cleolinda posted: The Magicians S4 Finale Aired Five Days Ago And I'm Still Mad As Hell <-- CONTAINS SPOILERS

I didn't have the reaction to the finale that

cleolinda did, but I agree 1000% with what she writes here. It felt empty, without resolution. And I am indeed mad as hell about the effects that she outlines.

Current Mood: aggravated

erik

The kitchen drain is more clogged than I can deal with this morning. Not as easy as last time. Will have to think harder and come up with a different approach.

Hand's all scraped up. Water all over the basement floor. Giant blister on my index finger; no idea how that happened while feeding a smooth plastic tube around a corner.

Current Mood: aggravated

fred_mouse

Of the first set of tasks set, I think I did quite well -- all the dry washing was taken off the lines and sorted, although at least some of mine hasn't actually made it all the way away. Most of the clothes around the house have been sorted and either taken to the laundry or put closer to away (if not all the way). And not one but two loads of wash happened!

I didn't get back to the computer and set another set of. three smallish tasks, mostly because I was busy working on things, and so wasn't too fussed about the idea of setting tasks. I've sorted things that came home from the con, I've done a bit of cataloguing, I've ironed handkerchiefs.

Of the larger goals:

The washing is not yet under control. However, it is well on the way. If the two loads done today are dry and brought in, then there should be enough line space for the rest. There is a third load in the machine, but its start was delayed by the fact that we had somehow run out of laundry soap, even though I was sure that there was another bottle.

Getting the kitchen functional - well. The entire island counter was cleared and cleaned, but the spaces beside the stove and the sink and surrounds were not. Said island counter is now my staging place for items coming in from outside, and thus is half covered again.

getting the patio cleaned and sorted -- initially, this was just the back patio. However, I got Eldest to sweep the side patio (under the wash line) while there wasn't any wash out, so that one is much better than it was. The back patio is a work in progress. Eldest has cleared the top of the BBQ of Stuff!, most of which needed significant washing. I've thrown some things out as too damaged (which is why they were out there in the first place). Some of the rest I've found homes for, and some I've no sodding idea what to do with at all.

As for tomorrow - I'm sticking with the three goals. Washing under control, functional kitchen, patio cleared to the point that we can actually take the pergola down so that it can be replaced. Possible, but not probable that all three will be done. Highly likely that one will happen (probably the washing), and I'm optimistic that with both Eldest and Middlest working on the patio tomorrow that we might get a long way through that.

fred_mouse

In one of the boxes that was sorted through today, a small bag of snippets out of magazines was found. Each snippet contains a single piece of advice that at some point in my life I thought worth remembering. Before I throw them out, I'm going to semi-immortalise them here. Note that at best these are 20 years old; most will have been cut out at least a decade before, and the magazines then would have been second hand....

An ordinary ballpoint makes a good marking pen for clothes and linen. Write on the article, allow ink to dry, then press with an iron as hot as the fabric can stand. The marking will be permanent.
Take a cut lunch if taking a small child with you while you do your Christmas shopping. Put in stroller; it saves stopping
Decorating a large number of cakes is much quicker when you use a clean, plastic squeeze bottle to dispense the icing or cream. Use only bottles which once contained food products, such as sauce. So much cleaner and easier than using a piping bag.
An old skirt with a towel underneath makes a good cape when you cut someone's hair
When painting downpipes, place a piece of cardboard between the pipe and the wall to prevent paint getting on the wall. You'll do the job much faster.
deodorise jars and bottles by pouring in a solution of water and dry mustard and allow to stand for several hours
line the pockets of children's hand-knitted cardigans and sweaters with cotton fabric of the same colour as the garment. The fabric will save the pockets from stretching and from general wear and tear
Use your microwave for preparation of vegetables before freezing. Blanch in the microwave for one minutes, cool, then seal in freezer bags before storing
When measuring golden syrup, heat the measuring cup or spoon with hot water first. The syrup will slide easily off the heated surface giving accurate measurement with little waste
help children to avoid pulling out drawers too far and spilling the contents over the floor. Glue a bright warning spot on the upper side edges of each drawer. The warning spots should indicate how far each drawer can safely be pulled out
When washing dusting cloths, add a third of a cup of turpentine to warm soapy water and don't rinse. The turpentine softens the cloth and allows it to pick up dust easily
clean a badly burned saucepan with olive oil. Cover the burned areas well with the oil and gently heat for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to stand for a few hours, pour off the oil and clean in the usual way. It makes the job much easier.
For some relief on a hot night, fill a hot water bottle with iced water

Looking at those, there are some that I can see as more generally useful, and some that I don't think I'm ever going to think on again!

(I also found several other interesting bits and bobs, most of which I'm deciding aren't worth keeping. Including someone's hotmail email address...)

tima

А что вы думаете про идею заполнения ваших налогов самим государством и выдачи вам взад информации о том сколько вы еще должны или сколько вам должны? Вы вполне сможете просмотреть и даже оспорить эти данные и заполнить свою декларацию, если вы несогласны. Ведь сколько времени и денег (уже молчу про нервы) тратится в эту неделю по всей стране (да и в мире наверняка). А могло бы протекать почти незаметно. Вот, скажем, в Англии удержания из зарплат и дивидендов проводятся с такой точностью, что в конце года подавляющее большинство жителей королевства просто ничего не заполняет и не платит. А в тех же Швеции, Испании, Чили и еще куче стран за вас это делает государство.

Что думаете, а?

tima

В Бостоне ищут нового суперинтенданта школьной системы или, говоря русским языком, главу гороно.

После нескольких туров отбора тройка финалистов звучит так: Брэнда Касселиус, Мария Изкуердо и Оскар Сантос. И никаких тебе Джонсонов, Вилсонов, О'Нилов и Вэлшей. А если честно, то для меня странно, что в финальной тройке нету кого-то по имени Фан Мин.

jb_slasher

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azurelunatic

Last week they drained the swamp on our lawn.

Today I got out the weed whacker and saw if I remembered how to use it. I did.

Results: an arc of lawn in the approximate radius of an extension cord whacked down to a semi-standard length.

Belovedest found the nice long cord in the garage when they got home.

fred_mouse

For any number of reasons, my entire home is chaos. I'm on leave today, don't work Wednesdays, and Thursday is a public holiday. So, I can afford to go all out today and tomorrow, and see what I can achieve, and still have a day to rest.

The first three things I want to achieve today

bring in and sort whatever wash is on the line (this includes inside lines). Say 30 minutes
sort out all the clothes that aren't clean that are all over the place; determine what needs washing -- this probably includes sheets, Say 45 minutes
put a load of wash on. 5 minutes, if I've done the previous task correctly.

The three major goals for today (and maybe tomorrow)

Get the washing under control
get the kitchen functional
get the patio clean and sorted

And now for breakfast!

morgandawn

Meta

Seeking Vid Recs.

This year I decided to make a vidshow about how much I hate capitalism. (I’m not kidding.) The working, and probably actual, title is “Be Gay, Do Crimes”. It will be vid show on queers and marginalized folk doing what they gotta to survive under capitalism/the patriarchy/etc.

http://silly-cleo.tumblr.com/post/184109805310/seeking-vid-recs

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Proposal to download YouTube fanvids before Europe's Article 13 takes them down
"I was thinking about each of us downloading videos, and marking them as "Safe/Downloaded" in the comments, until we find another place to put them / way to share them."

https://meeedeee.tumblr.com/post/184099896331/hi-i-was-wondering-if-you-knew-about-the-european

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What's a good vidding song for Thor/Heimdall?

http://mithborien.tumblr.com/post/183987036406/whats-a-good-vidding-song-for-thorheimdall

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PLEASE don’t steal work from vidders.
Whether it is reuploading a video, or taking clips from their edit and passing the editing off as your own, PLEASE DON’T.

http://gemxstone.tumblr.com/post/183422022587/i-cant-believe-im-having-to-say-this-but

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Make things that are bad, silly, self indulgent.
Making that silly middle school-esque fanvid was the most fun I had video editing in a while. I went to uni for media, I got graded on my editing. It can kill the fun. Make things that are bad, silly, self indulgent. Just make things because you want to. Don’t let perfectionism kill ideas.

http://strivia.tumblr.com/post/183296958875/i-know-there-are-posts-with-a-similar-sentiment

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seekingferret: Wiscon Vids/Database Vids

But it strikes me that vids like "Transmission" and eruthros's "Straightening Up the House", which got its own 7.5K creation essay, are vids that in an essential way may reflect an emerging Wiscon aesthetic that is meaningfully different from VVC-style vids. These are vids that are created by vidders fluent in the VVC house style, but they have the DNA of academic research projects in them as well. Vids are always attractive to me because of the information density they're capable of conveying, but "Transmission" and "Straightening Up the House" intentionally throw more information at you than you can absorb, while making you aware that they are doing this. The kiloword creation essay is an essential part of the art. You can simply sit back and watch "Transmission" and enjoy it, but you do so with the full awareness that you are not seeing everything the vidder has to say. I feel like that stands in confrontational opposition to the idea of Vid as Essay, which is so often essential to understanding VVC vids.

https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/298378.html

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elfwreck: Vidding 101 Begins
I picked up Sony Vegas 14 at HumbleBundle a while back, and finally got around to installing it.
I want to make a vid. I want to make a vid I know damn well nobody else will make, so I guess I gotta learn vidding.
However, the vid I want to make is complicated and involves several sources from different eras, which I know is a pain. So first, I gotta make an easy-for-beginners vid to get used to the software.

https://elf.dreamwidth.org/803716.html

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Anonymous Musings on Making Fanvids

All this Endgame excitement is really overflowing my brain with ideas for vids. But my only experience with making fanvids goes back more than a decade with a borrowed copy of DVD Shrink and Window Movie Maker on a computer that wasn't really equipped to handle either, and I always wanted something that would let me layer video in more ways that WMM would allow.

https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/364661.html?thread=2127359093#cmt2127359093

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argh! (Indexing vids)

On the plus side, this little exercise in frustration made me finally fully update my index of Vids by Song (I have 3 indexes: by Song, by Vidder, & by Fandom; the other 2 are complete, but I started the Song database later on, so I never got it fully done). Next time I get convinced I have a vid set to a certain song, I want to be able to go directly to the song itself & see! Not combing through every single vid.

https://istia.dreamwidth.org/499505.html

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Resources

Vid songs database?
Is there somewhere an index or rec list or database or website or something where you can search for vids by song choice rather than (in addition to) fandom or ship or vidder?

https://meeedeee.tumblr.com/post/184113257521/vid-songs-database

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How to make the perfect fanvid rec list - using vids from multiple streaming platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Internet Archive, Daily Motion etc).

https://morgandawn.dreamwidth.org/1646310.html

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Looking For Free or nearly free software for clipping large/ 1080p mkv files on mac

"Any recommendations for for newer software that might deal with files better? (I'm using Lightworks for the actual vidding)"

https://vidding.dreamwidth.org/389542.html
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Challenges/Contests

Spring Equinox 2019: Sources from the 1990s is live!

All 37 vids made for Spring Equinox are now live on the AO3 collection!
https://equinox-exchange.dreamwidth.org/25769.html ______________________________________________________________

cupidsbow Equinox Vid Recs - Sources from the 1990s

https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/451765.html

Crossposts: https://morgandawn.livejournal.com/1688181.html

erik

When I'm scooping up ice cream to give to people to eat, I serve it up in these little wooden boats. The place I had gotten them from in the past had an unreasonable minimum order dollar amount; so I'd had to order an unreasonable number of them. So it'd been several years since I'd ordered any, and now they don't carry them any more.

So I was looking around for new little wooden ice cream boats. I found one product that seemed like it would fit my requirements. But everyone wanted to sell me 4000 of them at a time. 600 of them lasted me 5 years. 4000 is a lot. And no way I wanted to order 4000 of them without seeing/touching/trying them.

But eventually I found one vendor that would sell me 100 of them for a reasonable price plus an unreasonable amount in shipping. I figured I'd order the 100 and get to see them before ordering the 4000 which will be a lifetime supply and I'll never have to worry about it again.

So I ordered the 100. The web page said orders placed M-F would ship next day. I ordered Sunday evening. By Friday the order was still marked "pending shipment." So I called them. They said they'd look into it and someone would get back to be within an hour. At the end of the day (several hours later) no one had called me, and no one was answering the phone. I sent a message via their web page. No response. I called again the next morning and they said it had shipped yesterday, sorry on one called you, no idea why it took a week.

Two days later, on a Wednesday, UPS said it was delivered, but I did not have the package. I called UPS, and sent another message via the vendor's web page. The next day I called the vendor and they said they'd look into it and call me back. They never did call me back. But Friday morning my neighbor said a package for me had been misdelivered to him, and here it is...

So I sent a message via the vendor's web page about the neighbors, the package, and everything's fine. You can close the investigation. They did not respond. I suspect the messages left on the web page do not in fact go anywhere.

Yesterday I got email from UPS about a package coming today from the same vendor. It arrived today. It's a replacement sleeve of 100 boats.

...and I do not feel bad for the vendor at all. The shipping charge on the original order was too high, and they sat on my order for a week. They can absorb the cost of a second sleeve. The product itself is acceptable, and I will probably order the case of 4000 (from another vendor) and never have to worry about it again.

Current Mood: annoyed

musyc

The shiny new shoes of my last post got their first Work Trial. Six hours before my feet started to hurt and I switched to rubber not!crocs for the last two. Excellent day, I have to say. Usually I can't go more than three or four hours before the pain gets limp-inducing. Currently my feet hurt, but it's posture/stance shift hurt, not knives-in-feet hurt.

Work was by and large a great deal of fun today. Had a whole passel of people out in the green playing with the atlatls, including one little girl who couldn't have been more than three. She managed to "throw" (with my hand on the thrower XD ) about four feet and was Very Excited. Even managed to sell one thrower and several darts to a gentleman who thinks his Boy Scouts will have a grand time with them. I love getting people to play with those. Easy to learn, hard to master, but even highly unathletic people (IT ME.) can get the basics of it quickly.

Lots of families out, way more than I expected. Had to blow the whistle and gesture two little kids off the burial mound late in the afternoon, but they went quick as soon as they realized I was pointing at them. (I've got one of those "OUT OF THE POOL" lifeguard-style whistles. Niiiiiiiiiiiice and loud.)

Lovely German family visited today, who thought it was either very amusing or very endearing that I knew a whole seven or eight words/phrases in German. XD (Although I don't know "I don't speak German, I'm sorry", so I should probably learn that.) They did appreciate me doing a quick google to convert feet to meters for them. A quarter-mile meant nothing, but 410 meters was impressive. XD

On the other hand, had a group of three women I just had this feeling about once they left the gift shop. So I took a walk out there and yep, caught them starting to pray inside the effigy mound boundaries. The way they bolted up and jumped out of the boundaries when I shouted to them just proved that they knew they were doing something wrong.

No, I don't care how spiritual a place you feel it is, rules are DO NOT WALK ON THE MOUNDS. Whatever goddess you're wanting to invoke will understand, believe me. Pray near the mounds, beside the mounds, around the mounds, whatever! But DO NOT WALK ON THE MOUNDS.

alyndra

I’ve been pondering the AO3 discourse pretty seriously today. Antis and purity culture don’t think offensive material should exist, or at least not where its easy for kids to stumble over. And I have no time for that argument. But I do think as AO3 continues to get bigger and more publicly known, there are a few things that would make a huge difference to 13yos signing up for their first account, or people of any age trying to avoid being grossed out or triggered while searching for fics.

The single biggest problem, the thing that’s going to create antis out of people just stumbling in, is that there isn’t any rating or content guideline for summaries and tags. You can easily see XXX material on an AO3 search without clicking on a single fic. It’s the situation in place and it’s not going to change, even if people agreed it should, because it would be nearly impossible to make any changes retroactive. But it does mean that AO3 is not 13yo-friendly, even though 13yos can sign up for accounts.

What would make a huge difference to users who aren’t looking for porn, or who are looking for porn but maybe not at full-force-of-AO3 levels, would be to have account settings for Please Don’t Ever Show Me Fics Rated Higher Than _ _ _. The option to never see whichever of the four Archive Warnings are particular Do Not Wants would be a close second in terms of usefulness, and maybe even, if this is a wishlist unconstrained by server practicalities, the ability to blacklist other common tags. This would solve the fundamental problem that as wonderful as the new “Exclude” function is, it’s still very much a two-step process: enter a term in the search bar, then filter, or click on a tag, then filter. Casual users are inevitably going to try scrolling down the results before deciding to filter, so an option which would actually keep adult content summaries from those who don’t want to see them seems like it should be right in line with AO3‘s philosophy.

I don’t know if there’s any ongoing discussion about this or not, but it does seem like one worth having. How much work, technically, would it be to implement? How much would it increase server load? I don’t have any idea! Where would I even suggest it to AO3? A support ticket? I don’t know that either! I just know that it’s going to get to a point in the not-too-distant future where it has to decide if it’s a website by and for adults, or if it’s going to genuinely be welcoming to non-pornseekers who currently inhabit FanFiction.Net and Wattpad: not, I suspect, because their interfaces are better, but because they don’t want to deal with or see all the porn on AO3. AO3, Wattpad, and FF.net all say users can sign up if they are 13 or older, but in practice, the differences are enormous.

Dreamwidth Suggestions

(no subject)

An unpopular opinion re Brooklyn 99

THANKS, I HATE IT

My office floor is covered in manga O_O

I read the Endgame spoilers

Oh, hi.

Today's DailyOM Offerings...

Signal Boost: The Magicians S4 Finale Aired Five Days Ago And I'm Still Mad As Hell

Botheration.

Chaos taming - a qualified yes

Advice tidbits

"Заплати налоги и спи спокойно". Российская налоговая инспекция.

Эмигранты-эмигранты...

I am going to fucking cry at work.

Lawn fun

Taming Chaos

Vidding Linkspam April 22, 2019

...I don't feel bad at all.

Busy busy busy!

AO3 and teenagers

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