Things that make me happy

Pretty simple premise... been feeling bummed, but these are things that make me smile. A random collection.

Video Interpretation: Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man




Natalie Portman raps on SNL




Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day




Goldigger + Beethoven's 5th Mashup




Stop Playing Homework and Do Your Video Games




Amazing bass player - Gustavo Dal Farra




Jammed out Legend of Zelda Music Medley




And lastly, this is my happy dance whenever I see certain updates in my box



Enjoy!

Check out the pretteh!

catonspeed made us killer graphics for the contest...

...celebrating Twific by fanfic'ing it!

Write a pasttake, futuretake, missing moment,

or alternate ending for one of these fics:

Tropic of Virgo - Scotch, Gin & the New Girl

Paper Heart - Hide and Drink - Wide Awake

Check out the contest site for details. We're accepting entries through Feb 24th.

Things to Think About When You're Flouncing

In this Twific community, we all seem to get caught up in addiction.

Addiction to reading stories. Addiction to twitter. Addiction to the everyday interaction with amazingly fun and supportive women from all over the world.

Sometimes this addiction takes over and you feel like you are a slave to it. You take on too many responsibilities in the fandom that pull you away from Real Life priorities. You fight to strike a balance. This is a challenge that each of us deals with.

For some, the temptation is to sometimes just cut all ties to the online world we've created for ourselves, and focus on Real Life responsibilities and people. The term we use for this is flouncing.

I hate to see people leave my little online world! Authors, people in my social circles, but especially ones that are close to me. The thing is that of the people I interact with, I have come to love many of them, but I would want them to go, if this is what they feel they need to do for themselves. If someone feels like flouncing is the only way they can cope and do what they need to do to feel good about themselves as a wife and/or mother and/or whatever, then I totally support that decision. It makes me sad, and I would miss them, but I would eventually get over it and invest in new projects and new people in this fandom. I would move on.

It is OK to flounce the fandom. It is not, however, OK to flounce your friends and "colleagues" with no notice, and leave them holding the bag.

I think it's important to make this distinction. If you have developed strong friendships, or if you have partnerships in projects like blogs or contests or whatever, the people who have teamed with you rely on you. It doesn't matter that we are "online" friends, or if the work we do is just "for fun" because "it's just fanfic." These are real time commitments and relationships in which everyone involved has invested.

My reason for writing this post is to put forth the following:

Things to Think About When You're Flouncing

If you give 2 weeks notice (or even 1 week), the people who depend on you to get shit done can prepare for your departure. Things can be put into place, Transitions can be made.

• They can find volunteers to take on some of your duties temporarily, so they don't fall into the lap of already overworked and over-committed people who are in the same boat of struggling to find a balance of fandom in their life.
• So instead of these people having to spend their time putting out fires that you left behind, perhaps they could focus on regrouping, moving on, and investing in future projects.

If you train people to replace you, the projects in which you and your friends invested so much time, passion, and energy, can continue on, unhurt by your absence.


Something important that you might not know: when you delete a gmail account, ALL gdoc documents, spreadsheets, forms, etc. that were "owned" by that account are deleted, whether or not others use them too. (if this happens to you, there is a way to recover a gmail account that's been deleted, but that has to be done by the person that did the deleting.)


And the #1 thing to think about when you're flouncing...
The people who love you would bend over backwards to help you do whatever you needed to do, even if what you need to do is leave. It's up to you to choose how you decide to leave, but there are choices you can make that prevent your departure from ruining the Twific experience for the people around you.

When you dump all of your responsibilities onto someone else with no notice, it makes the work we do become stressful work. It takes away the joy... and any time that might have been available to actually read Twific. That's not fair. And if you truly do care about the people you've met while on this journey, you don't have to handle it that way.

This has been a PSA, and is not meant to attack anyone. It is meant to serve as helpful for people who are thinking of flouncing. If I were flouncing, I would want to know if there were steps I could take to avoid hurting the people around me. And that is why it's important to me to get that information out there.

Announcing... Fanfic My Fanfic Contest!

soundtrack for announcement:



The Twific Pimps are kicking off a brand new contest...

Fanfic My Fanfic

...celebrating Twific by fanfic'ing it!

Haven’t you ever read a fic and wanted the characters to live beyond the walls of the story? Now’s your chance to see it happen.

We’re celebrating Twific by revisiting the worlds of some of the most beloved fic in the fandom. For this new contest, we’re asking YOU to come up with

• - missing moments
• - pasttakes/futuretakes
• - or alternative endings

We’re thrilled to announce the fics we are offering for this first round of our new contest:

• Paper Heart by Hezpixie
• Wide Awake by AngstGoddess003
• Hide & Drink by Savage
• Tropic of Virgo by in.a.blue.bathrobe
• Scotch, Gin and the New Girl by jandco and wtvoc

Come check out the contest blog where you can find all kinds of information, including how to submit a fic for this contest, and how you can apply to be a judge.

http://fanficmyfanfic.blogspot.com/

Arrested Development, for my reference

I'm fairly certain that I am infinitely amused by Arrested Development.

In fact, I imagine that any moment could be made into a gif and it would crack me up.

Any GOB-ism as a jpeg = WIN!

My avi on ADF.

not to be confused with...

 

NOT FAMILIAR?
Meet the Bluths...

.

. . . Looking back on December

Hollerrrr! Yup, it's my monthly look back on what I read, what I wrote, and what went down in the previous month.

Some delightful soundtrack-age for this journey through December.

5-4-3-2-1

WHAT I READ

This isn't necessarily everything I read. 

These are just the bad boys I'd highly rec.

Please tell me I DID NOT just fall in love with yet another slow-updating WIP.

What Matters by Strae


Official Description: After one horny night alone with a webcam, Edward enters a surprisingly intimate friendship with a stranger online. He someday plans to meet this 'Jazz' girl he's become so oddly enraptured with; too bad Jazz isn't exactly a 'girl'.

I saw this rec'd on an ADF campfire about people's favorite WIPs. I wanted to read this but it appeared to not update in awhile. I just saw it on the Fictionators' What's Pwning You, and it seemed to have updated at last. So I tried it, and of course love it! An Edward getting off in front of a web cam? An Edward who is now questioning his sexuality? Um yeah, obvs.

Their mega hot playing in the rain leads to fun times in Edward's room in chapter 5 - loved!

After holding hands at the mall, it just ended on chapter 7 with the greatest confrontation at Jasper's door, promising a chapter 8 that will be mindblowing :)

~*~

This next one was so quirky and fun that I pimped the hell out of it in our 2010 Year in Review as both an innovative use of audio to enhance the storytelling, AND as the weirdest little fic that I can't stop reading :)

In the Deepest Space by loss4words
(link to audio version)

Official Description: What will happen to the astronaut, Bella Swan, when she is unable to make it back to her ship on Mars and close to death? Who will come to her rescue and what will she learn about what else is "out there?" Rated Mature for language and lemons.

I saw a review of this fic on Fictionators, where it had a link to where you could LISTEN to the author's audio version of the story. I just had to check that out. And I'm SO glad I did. I am having so much fun listening to Anna narrate as I read. She does an excellent job - especially since everyone but Bella speaks with a very distinct alien accent!

~*~

I'm swept up in the almost daily updates and narrative flow of...
Young Pilgrims by ineedyoursway

Official Description: Bella lives a life without passion. Passion is the only thing Edward has.

Someone on ADF had just discovered this fic and mentioned it is a quick read. Someone else commented that it's amazing how much she says with so few words. I was intrigued.

The style is interesting in that it captures the minimal investment Bella has in her own day-to-day life, with a narrative that is essentially a stripped down stream of consciousness, mainly observations of the world around her, which consists of the coffeehouse and its inhabitants, and her apartment and its inhabitants of Alice and Brosper.

I'm super annoyed by spoilers of any kind so look away for the next few paragraphs if you are too. Just jump to the next fic on my "What I Read" list.

Edward is a beautiful, ballet dancer who is at school on scholarship. After leaving a ballet shoe behind, he goes in the back with Bella to claim it and things get passionate, clothes start coming off, and then Edward calls out "Rose!" And who should start working there now -- a young former ballet dancer, Rose, who Bella wants to hate but who is actually too cool to hate. We learn a bit more about Edward - that he tried so hard to be in love with Rose because he wanted so much to be in love.

Bella hangs out with he and Carlisle at the soup kitchen, confirming that Edward is indeed lacking in a permanent residence. It just left off as Bella has gone to see him dance and afterwards, invited him over to her place.

I hope it works out for these crazy kids, And by that I mean I hope he accepts her invitation and they go back to Bella's and bone and relaysh and set up camp for him to stay there, where they can continue to bone and relaysh.

~*~

Along with everyone else, I got caught up in the fandom-wide phenomenon known as The Plan!

The Plan by QuantumFizzx

Official Description: Obsessed but unnoticed for over a year, she puts a plan in motion to catch the eye of corner-office Cullen. That's her plan. Fate has another plan entirely. B/E Rated M for a reason. DAILY UPDATES until complete - often more than 1 a day

I found out about this fic thru a post on ADF which explained that it's being told IN REAL TIME! And I am such a geek about innovative methods of storytelling. For example, I practically wet myself over MrsTheKing's Crushed Seraphim, which used the review mechanism the elicit reader involvement in the direction of the story.

So when I found out that The Plan was being told via multiple posts a day, where the time in the story is the same as the real world time it's posted, I knew I had to get in on it and experience it with everyone. And everyone's response is so much fun -- they are all over twitter, just as addicted as I am :)

What's so cool about this format is that Bella's obsession becomes our obsession, because we're revisiting it multiple times a day. It's in this that a cool storytelling gimmick actually becomes quite a brilliant mechanism for pulling the reader into the story.

Kari and I jacked Twific Pimps to give an Emergency Mid-Week Rec of The Plan :)

~*~

The 2 biggest developments in my fic life in December have got to be my discovery of

La Canzone della Bella Cigna by Philadelphic

Official Description: A famous voice teacher. A mysterious piano prodigy. Backstabbing classmates. Music school is competitive, and aspiring singer Bella Swan is determined to succeed. Hard work she can handle, but who expected music school to be dangerous? A story in 3 acts


HERE is the review I wrote for this amazing VampAU fic.

and

Branching Inward by LifeintheSnow

Official Description: He's a brilliant, sensual, tactile artist with a huge personality and love for life...at least, he used to be. She's a shrewd historian, content to observe from a distance...until now. At Newcoven College in Clearwater, OH, no secret is safe. All Human.


The review for this fic is in the works and will be pasted in here as soon as it's live. But in summary: GO READ THIS FIC IMMEDIATELY. My love for it is HUGE.

WHAT I WROTE

The latest installment of the HOTNESS Hall of Fame was all about a particular type of lemon - hotness that occurs between strangers. I call it the "Hey there, sailor!" Lemon. I feature the incredible hotness of Last Tango in Forks, Reality Minus Expectations, and Breaking Trinity.

Lost in Translation
In the realm of hot fandom topics, I wrote about the oddity of authors being almost universally anti-translation of their fics... which I don't understand at all. My thinking is that by saying "no" to people who want to share your fic in good faith and give you credit, you are essentially encouraging them to plagiarize you, cuz they're gonna do it anyway.

I wrote a review of La Canzone della Bella Cigna by Phildelphic

My 2010 Year in Review - a rundown of my favorite fics from the past year. 

WHAT I PIMPED

December with the Twific Pimps

After weeks of interviews and editing, we put out Episode 11: The One with All the Rec Blogs. The episode itself includes clips from interviews with a bunch of different kinds of resources for great fic recs. The full-length interviews are also available on the site (or for download on iTunes). My 60 Second Pimpdown on this episode was Branching Inward by LifeintheSnow.

For Episode 12: 2010 Year in Review, the Pimps broke down our favorite fics of 2010, as well as the trends in the Twific fandom.

Finally, Kari and I jacked the Twific Pimps site and busted out a Mid-week Emergency Rec of The Plan by QuantumFizzx.

SR, A Dick in the Fandom

How to Pull Out Without Being a Dick, cont.

So it's official, University of Edward Masen is being offered by omnific. SR, or Sylvain Rwhatever, who promised he would never pull his fic to publish, has done the inevitable. He pulled to publish.

Pulling to publish -- it is what it is. I don't think the concept is altogether inherently bad, but I think there is a way to do it which shows respect to this community of readers. [SEE MY INITIAL RANT for InstntKarmaGirl as example of How to Pull Out Without Being a Dick] 

And then there are moves, such as SR's, which reek of douchebaggery. Let's itemize...

1. SR made a thing all along about not being one of those authors who pulls to publish. So hypocrisy isn't too hot of a trait.

2. Pulling the story before it was complete - manipulative. A ploy to get readers to buy your book in order to get the ending.

3. Annoying for all of the people waiting for story to be complete in order to finish it. A slap in the face for those who supported the story all along.

4. When he pulled, he blamed it on plagiarists, getting his supporters all upset and frothy on his behalf - contributing to the plagiarism hysteria that became huge at the time. And now to find out that it's actually what we suspected all along - that he actually pulled for his own purposes and used "plagiarism" as an excuse. Fuck you, SR, for riling people and spreading totally unfounded outrage, you emotionally manipulative prick. 

He also dropped off the face of the earth, abandoning even his most loyal fans, without any word of explanation. NOT A SIGN OF AN AUTHOR WHO APPRECIATES HIS READERSHIP.

 

And he has been lucky enough to cultivate quite the devoted following.

To be clear: I support the authors of our fandom using their writing experience and reader support to leverage their work as fic authors into projects that make them money. Original work, or even Twific that has been heavily reworked to be appropriate for audiences that don't read fic, and that covers our fandom's ass as far as any legal connection to Twilight -- if it's done well, and if our fandom's readership is shown respect, than count me as one of your cheerleaders.

But fuck around with the ladies of my fandom, and I have beef with you. SR, the balls you demonstrated in this dickish behavior are not appreciated. And because your fic was so high profile, the echoes of your actions reverb wide and high. That's why I'm singling you and your ego out.

Bottom line... buy his book, don't buy his book, I don't care. But let's all be real about the assholery behind it.

For those, like me who didn't catch the end of the fic because it was so rudely pulled before the epilogue was posted, you can find the free Twific version in several places around the fandom, including HERE.