Hey all

So, this was somewhat of an interim journal for me while I got my shit together over the past year, and since I really haven't been using it much (and have been using my other journal quite a bit), I've decided to let this journal go the route of kitsune_den, as a marker of a particular time in my life.

If you're still interested in memes, memories, maunderings, magic, metaphysics, and anything else I might write about, I'll be posting regularly at kitsunealyc, which more and more has become my daily journal. Friend me there and I will be happy to friend you back.

Alyc

These are my thoughts on Stardust. They're not really all that spoilery, but cut anyways, because it is not a gushing review:

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I'm hosting the Harry Potter salon this week. Thursday evening we'll be meeting at 7:00pm at The Copper Cup north of the square to discuss Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Let me know if you'll be there, so I don't sit all alone and sing sad songs.

Your tax dollars at work:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/05/07/canadian.coin.ap/index.html

But y'know what? I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free (to make a complete ass out of myself, apparently)

Okay, so I'm gearing up to have a Very Harry Summer, between Book 7, Film 5 (Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book!), and translating the Welsh edition of Book 1 for my final Welsh project. Also, finishing _The Devil's Due_ before Book 7 comes out so that for at least a few weeks it won't be AU. And finally, doing preliminary reading/research/rumination on my possible ICFA paper for next year, which may be an examination of Queer vs. Buggered fanfic writing practices, probably in HP fandom.

In keeping with that, I'm interested in hosting a reading (or rather, re-reading) salon for the first six Harry Potter books. My initial thought would be to read one book every two weeks, and then meet for tea at the Copper Cup north of the square (they have some great couch areas) to chat through things we think might be important, things we're looking forward to, how awesome we all think Severus Snape is, etc. Arbitrarily, I'd suggest doing this on Thursday evening around 6/7-ish, but if interested people want another night or time then I'm good with negotiating that. Assuming Thursday was the agreed upon day, the schedule would look like this:

May 10th -- Meet to discuss Philosopher's Stone.
May 24th -- Meet to discuss Chamber of Secrets.
June 7th -- Meet to discuss Prisoner of Azkaban.
June 21st -- Meet to discuss Goblet of Fire.
July 5th -- Meet to discuss Order of the Phoenix.
July 12th -- Go see midnight opening of Order of the Phoenix.
July 19th -- Meet to discuss Half-Blood Prince.
July 21st -- Deathly Hollows comes out.
August 2nd -- Meet to discuss Deathly Hollows, maybe go see OotP again

Anyone interested in joining me in my geekery?

See _Primer_. No, seriously, especially for you Doctor Who fans out there. It's the best time-travel story I've ever seen, although I had to pause it and rewatch several bits just to follow what was going on, and doubtlessly it only really unfolds with multiple viewings. I am in awe. I am inspired. It's just wow.

See it. Really. Now.

BT's studio was robbed and a bunch of his gear was stolen, but he uses this as an opportunity to prove what an awesome human being he is.

http://www.btmusic.com/

I want to have this man's metaphysical music babies.

Spreading the meme, post "top five" or "top ten" here if you want me to give you a list.

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Beware the thieving of foxes!

http://velcrometer.blogspot.com/2007/01/swiperphobia-trouble-with-being.html

It's not quite Order of the Stick (although in some ways it's more painfully funny), but gamers and especially GM's should read this. Every comic made me go "Yeah...I've been in that game"...and not in a good way.

Damn hilarious:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14

Sam's a whiny bitch, but wow is Dean yumtastic. Thanks to gollum for the indoctrination reacharound. Now I see why the crossovers with Buffy work so well too.

But Nine is still my banana-boy.

Hey all! Just a reminder that I'm hosting the Doctor Who, Pt.II -athon tomorrow, New Years Day. Gollum, bneuensc and toothandclaw, let me know when you might be up for starting (would 2:00-ish be good?). We're doing Father's Day through The Parting of Ways, with possible Christmas Invasion to follow...

Who: uh...do I need to dignify this?
What: New Season 1 Who-athon, Rose through The Doctor Dances
When: Saturday, 11:00-7:00-ish
Where: The Foxpad


I will be hosting a new Season 1 Whoathon on December 30th at the Foxpad. We'll start at 11:00 and go to about 7:00pm, which means we'll probably stop after The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. If people want I may hold a pick-up session on January 1st to finish off the season and to watch the new S3 Christmas special.

Sonic Screwdrivers will be served before people depart for either Tea or Milk and Cookies.

The update is this:

I will be hosting a new Season 1 Whoathon on December 30th at the Foxpad. We'll start at 11:00 and go to about 7:00pm, which means we'll probably stop after The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. I may hold a pick-up session on January 1st to finish off the season and to watch the new S3 Christmas special (assuming my hook-up can, y'know...hook me up!)

This way people can go to their evening committments of tea, milk, cookies, etc. Before I go to Milk and Cookies, I will be mixing up some Sonic Screwdrivers, because moonandserpent and I came up with a nifty recipe and I want to try it out.

RSVP if you'd like, but please understand that this is first and foremost a viewing party, with socialization on the side. If you talk, you will be exterminated. Or deleted. Or maybe I'll just show you how sonic my screwdriver is ;>

Because no-one seems to have posted it yet.

Book 7 title announced: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

My prediction: Harry's totally going to eat it. On Halloween. In Godric's Hollow. Probably by taking Voldemort's new core-less wand to the spleen.

Hey all,

So, I know that several folks have been just dying to be exposed to the new Doctor Who, and I'm going to be rattling around alone in the Foxpad after Christmas, so I thought I might host a Who-a-thon for anyone who wants to experience the wonder.

I'm considering either Saturday, Dec. 30, or Monday, Jan. 1, starting at about noon and going until we're done, with dinner, drinks, companionship and all around good times to be had. I'm particularly weighing the preferences of toothandclaw and gollumgollum, but I'd love input from anyone else who might be interested in coming. This'll be very casual, and do let me know if I'm trying to organize over someone else's gig.

Further details forthcoming!!

Because this was a recent topic of conversation at an Aberlude (or is that Gurpsaberlude at this point?), I thought people would be pleased about this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/dvd/13746071/ref=pd_nr_d_nav/104-4597488-4337537

Boo-yah, grandma!

Warning: Spoilers for Deja-Vu (the new Denzel Washington flick), Doctor Who, etc.

I've been reminded recently how much I love really well-done time travel narratives.

Anyone following this journal knows that I've been obsessing over Doctor Who recently, but for the most part I wouldn't qualify the Doctor Who stuff as a "good" time travel narrative. Sure, they travel all over time and space, but the nature of the show (long-running, multiple mediums, multiple writers with no Grant Morrison/Gail Simone/Etc. to act as a board of continuity editors, etc.) precludes the possibility of keeping a consistent time-travel paradigm. The fox and I agreed last night that "good" (by which I mean "internally consistent") time-travel narratives have a much better chance of being created in a controlled environment.

Last night I saw a "good" time-travel story. It made me think about the two styles out there, which I've mentally labeled closed-system and open-system (based on a quote from Ken Keysey's "Demon Box", where the main character is told something to the effect of "Entropy is only a problem in a closed system".) Closed-system time travel stories are the stories in which pre-determinism reigns, where what happens does happen because it did happen. They are closed time-loops. The time-travel story in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an extremely well-executed example of this. I have to admit that I tend to prefer these types of time-travel narratives.

Deja-Vu was an example of the other type. It was an open-system time-travel story, where an alternate universe/time-line is created due to the actions of the character in the 'original' timeline. Most of the time, I find stories like these to be very sloppily executed, but Deja Vu was abolutely brilliant!! I'm actually going to avoid describing in detail how they pull it off, but the internal consistency is amazing (as is the spiritual message). Go see it.

So, yeah. Mostly just a rambly post about how much I love time-travel stories. I got lasik just in case I might one day travel through time. All of this makes me hunger to play Rodomer Brambleshank again in some kind of venue. Best character I hardly ever got to play.

If anyone has any recommendations for "good" time-travel movies/books/whatever, post them for me. No need to post Niffenegger's "The Time-Traveller's Wife", it's already at the top of my list.

Yoinked from prosewitch. This is where I live right now.

XYZZY

1) Random up your music and get 17 tracks with lyrics.
2) Post the first line of each song.
3) Allow people to procrastinate by trying to identify the song and artist from those first lines. They'll post comments and then you cross out songs when people get them right. The ones who are wrong will be pleasantly mocked.
4) Smite all cheaters who go to search engines for their answers.


( A lot of these are probably pretty easy )