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Because I'm really happy for Federer and his 15 - yadah yadah yadah - but sorry, kiddo, CNN, ESPN, All England's Club, but... Federer is not the top Grand Slam winner/greatest player of all time. He's the top male Grand Slam winner of all time. There are five women who have won more Grand Slam Singles title than him and the only person who has ever won a Golden Slam (all 4 Grand Slams and Olympic Gold in the same year) was a woman, Steffi Graf, with 22 Grand Slam Singles Titles. Just so you know. FYI. You'd think the people who are actually paid to know these things would, you know, know. Those pesky women, getting in the way of the real athletes's men's records. Tags: on current events, tennis Current Mood: tsk tsk
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Thanks to everyone who sent in birthday wishes and made pressies. I had a lovely day, thank you! I had to go to work because it was a Friday and the world has yet to realize the importance of the 26th of June to all of humanity ;), but I got a lot of special treats from family & friends and it more than made up for that. :D As I did last year, I'm offering birthday souvenirs to any one who asks. You know the fandoms in which I operate. So, fics or icons, feel free to ask. :D I finally got round to watching the new Star Trek and Wolverine, and I think my pre-expectations may have effected my appreciation of both. I'll have to do a re-watch before I complete the reviews I've been drafting on Notepad. I've been off-line more often than not of late because work just gets eats into more and more of my life :p, but I still managed to get a Ferret brain account and have some lovely discussions about the new Terminator movie. Which... sucked, btw. But not as much as it could have, as hard as that is to be believed. :) The good thing to come out of all this is that I've rediscovered my old love for the 1st movie, and I've been watching/re-watching it all week. And reading fanfic. And making icons. You know me - I never do things half way. :) Current Mood: happy Current Music: "You got me burning"
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… are still far from coherent. I know I promised a few people that I would write something, preferably articulate and polite, but the moment I start thinking about this topic, I find myself very, very far that articulate and polite frame of mind. And I think this has got to be said right now. Immediately. Irrevocably. For my own sake, if not for any one else’s. So apparently, my tears of joy were taken as tears of rage. Well, clarification: I am very, very, very happy that Madonna got Mercy. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better end to the story if it was a book that I was writing. Whatever crimes Madonna has apparently committed, by being rich and famous and assertive, I’m ready to give her a free pass in Life for giving a damn about a four-year-old orphan* in Malawi. Everybody and their mother has an opinion about what Madonna can be allowed to do or not, about the sacredness of foreign adoption laws, and about how Madonna’s bulldozed the Justice system of Malawi to get what she wants. But no one seems to be in the least bit interested about Mercy and if those foreign adoption laws are really in her best interest. Because the last time I checked, Madonna wasn’t going up against some Perfect Middle-Class Malawian Couple® who would have given Mercy a Better Home™. (And don’t even get me started on Mercy’s father*.) Madonna wasn’t going up against Some Less Than Perfect Single Parent® who would have given Mercy a Sensible Home™ with Cultural Appreciation™. She was going up against Nobody. Na da. Nothing. Nobody gave.a.damn. about a four-year-old little girl in Malawi until Madonna put the country on the map. And you know what? If you’ve started out life with a parent willing to support you, if you take your hundred-year democratic government for granted, if education is something that you regard as a chore and not an impossible dream, if immunization is something that you get for free, and if you’ve never worried for one day where your next meal is going to come from, then you’d better BLOODY SHUT UP about how money does not equal a good life. Because you have NO IDEA what that statement even means and your arrogant ignorance is an insult to the MILLIONS OF CHILDREN that die EVERY DAY in Africa from POVERTY. *And I say orphan even though Mercy’s ‘father’ apparently found out four years after the fact that his dead girlfriend left behind a child. Because even though he might have been in prison, or at sea, or under the impression that it takes close to five years for a woman to give birth to a child, he certainly didn’t keep in touch with his pregnant, teenage girlfriend long enough to know that she was: a, dead; or b, dead; or c, dead. And his sudden re-appearance into Mercy’s life has nothing.at.all.to.do with the fact that a billionaire is ready to move Heaven or Earth to adopt her. And throw away some substantial cash in the process as well. Oh no. Tags: on current events Current Mood: spitting mad
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There I was, minding my own business (which is an occupation not so much outside the law, just a little ahead of it) and suddenly this cop busts me***... ...I run into another anti-Twilight review that talks about squealing teenage girls and their bored, stay-at-home moms and how it’s their fault that the world has been infected with Twilght mania. *takes a deep, deep, breath* Whenever I read something like this, I think, by association of ideas, of the billion-dollar comic book franchise in all its testosterone-powered, misogynistic glory (the creators of Wonder Woman were not thinking of little girls when they were designing that costume); and another successful fanchise based around a boy hero whose author was de-gendered so that little boys won’t be horrified they were reading a woman’s book ( Quelle horreur!). And I feel freaked out, pissed off and sad. But mostly just sad. ***Dani, P.S. I Luv U. Please don't tell me, flist, that I'm the only one who remembers/has ever watched this show.Tags: meta, we've got a long way to go Current Mood: melancholy
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I signed up for the Finish-A-Thon 2009. I’ve always wanted to get involved in this and I was finally able to catch it this year. The Rules are pretty harsh, e.g.: 7.2 I didn't finish. Can I have an extension?
No. If you have a Real Life reason for not being able to finish (like "my computer died" or "my mother broke her hip") then you can have an exemption. After all, it's your story, you will finish it later.
Otherwise: A) post a 1000-word extract from what you've managed to write so far, indicating that it isn't finished. You will then get a week's grace period in which to finish or revise the story. Note that those who do not post anything by the deadline will NOT get a grace period.
OR
B) Write me a nice note saying, "sorry, I couldn't finish". The flimiser the excuse, the more grovelling required. You get a gold star for participating.
OR
C) Drop out without a word or excuse. This will get you banned from participating next time. This will be absolutely perfect! Tags: fanfic: plot bunny, fanfic: sw: mortal instruments, fanfic: thwarted fate, finish-a-thon
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Once upon a time, two friends and I started writing a star wars fanfic called thwarted fate. Then one left to greener pastures and the two of us left took a break from thwarted fate for several reasons - real life, broken mirrors, other playgrounds... But deep down inside, I knew that we hadn't written the last of thwarted fate. There is a time for all seasons and one day, with no forethought, no plan, the time for thwarted fate to be completed was upon me. I just posted up a teaser for the next chapter on the TFN thread - and the next chapter is just hot off the keyboard, waiting for a beta to process it. I feel so strange about this. Like if there's something bigger going on that just picking up an old wip. Like if returning to thwarted fate with the firm mind of completing it this time around is symbolic of certain other things in my life. One thing that surprised me is just how easy it was to go back to that world. It's a complicated plot with carefully placed threads woven into the fabric of the story by three separate minds. But somehow, once I started writing, everything we ever planned or outlined about this story was just stark in my head. If that's not a good sign, I don't know what is. :D Tags: fanfic: thwarted fate Current Mood: strung out from nerves
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First of the four "Stump the Writer" fics I am honour-bound to write. :P Title: The Princess and the Bandit (G) Notes: For knight_ander. Before the events of A New Hope, before the events of Avatar: Book Two, Toph's family is visiting the Organas, and young Princess Leia catches Toph Earth-bending in the mountains near the palace. ( The Princess and the Bandit )So, I was browsing through LJ and I read a post about the Octuplet Mommy. This particular journal was filled with consensus comments about how anti-feminist the Octuplet Mommy’s decision was. Which made me pause. I don’t think that the actions of this woman are a topic for feminism debates or any discussion about political correctness. Technically speaking, the fact that a woman can walk into a fertility clinic without a ring on her finger or a man at her side is a form of female empowerment. Consequently, like any form of power, it comes with responsibility. That is the issue or should be the issue: responsibility – of the individual who undergoes the treatment, the people who dispense the treatment, the technology behind the treatment – and not political correctness. [my two cents] Tags: fanfic: non-sw misc, fanfic: star wars misc Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Good Girl Gone Bad
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I wasn't able to watch any of the movies I had set my heart on last month. I wasn't able to watch any movie at the cinema at all. *sniffs* But there's always the DVD player and cable TV… Talking about the latter, has anyone read Samurai Girl, the YA series of books by Carrie Asai? I first came across it when it aired on TV. Apparently ABC bought the rights to make the book series into a TV series. I thought the concept was interesting if a bit too cliché (Chosen One/Child of Prophecy Story #12899) and Western (evils of arranged marriage, etc) for a show called Samurai Girl. But I was able to enjoy it until I found out that this is one more victim of Hollywood's Delete-Minority-Character-Insert-White-C haracter modus operandi. In the book, Heaven's love interest and trainer is a hot young Japanese ninja called Hiro. In the film, he's been converted to a hot young White American 'ninja' called Jake. As Tintin would put it: !!$#@?!It's almost amusing how I seem to look everywhere these days and find more and more reasons why the outrage over the Avatar casting isn't just a fan thing. Once again, I'm encouraging/imploring anyone who is even the slightest bit bothered by this pattern of behaviour in Hollywood to do something about it. /takes a deep breath Now, for more pleasant matters: the actual movie reviews. Spoiler Alert!( Cut for Spoilers for the Golden Child and Premonition )Tags: aang-aint-white, review: movie, review: tv show, we've got a long way to go Current Mood: blank Current Music: Rihanna's Rehab
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I have heard about the Avatar casting. I find it hard to speak about it with any degree of civility so most of the times, I don't even try. So I decided to do something about it and I'm urging everyone who is as bothered about this as I am to do the same: 1, Letters to Paramount. (Here's a guide on how to do it properly.) Let them know that the institutionalized racism brought about the re-casting of "21" and "EarthSea" is no longer an acceptable way to do business. 2, Letters to the Media. ) Here's a list of email addresses. i09.com has picked up the story so yes, this does work. 3, Most importantly: Keep your money in your pocket. Yes and that means: "no watching it for the lulz." Actions always speak louder than words. Yes, by then it will be too late to change the casting - but hopefully, it will just be in time to stop the sequels. But most importantly, Hollywood might - just might - begin to understand that the commercial "advantage" of casting White people to play Asian roles in an Asian fantasy might just be over-weighed by the fact that no one will come to watch that movie. Tags: aang-aint-white, avatar the last airbender, racists, we've got a long way to go Current Mood: determined
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