I'm enjoying everyone's fannish glee very much! Sherlock on US TV, Hobbit news, ongoing XMFC lurve, and the new Avengers, it's like a contact high :-D

alittledizzy has an Avengers prize giveaway going through May 12, with buttons and glasses and stuff, enjoy!

The community no_lj_ads has info on LiveJournal's plans for some kind of advertising I don't understand, involving self-promotion that earns tokens, paying for reposts, and entries floating to the top of your friends page, apparently visible even to paid and permanent accounts… There's more at ruljautonews and manonon.

And the current scrapbook (pics.livejournal.com) is being replaced by a new one. They're changing all flavors of friends group locking to "private", and the redirects are supposed to be automatic and invisible, but at least one of my friends has lost links to half of her thousands of images, so keep an eye on your old entries.

I keep seeing fannish things and meaning to share, so here:

Billy's new Beecake songs are lovely and I have preordered the EP, cos I'm a fan. Please Stay on grammys.com and The Clown on Jim Gellatly's New Music Podcast (starts around 15:00) (link via basicallybillyboyd.com).

Dom has finally discovered Twitter, and is using it as a way to plug his upcoming nature show but also being very entertaining at @DomsWildThings. He's apparently learned how to type since the infamous hobbit chat of 2002, but punctuation on the iphone eludes him. And there's the odd back-and-forth with Billy on the @OfficialBeecake account that's delightful!

And finally, Martin Freeman's reaction to the hedgehog thing as reported by his wife on twitter, via tvillingar / tvillingar ( cracks me up )

I'm still around, still reading but don't have the umph to post.

Lotrips fandom has lost one of our own when ismenin died early this morning. She was a great Elijah fan, a wonderful writer of over-the-top romances, and a gracious and generous person. I only got to know her in the last few years, but will always miss her.

Watching Fellowship of the Ring with girlchild and my guy, the bluray (extended of course) really is gorgeous and crisp, and the scene where Aragorn turns down the Ring is one of my favorite not-in-the-books parts.

slashababy stories are up! It was pretty easy this year, I only made three mistakes and people let me know so I could fix them.

My guy talked me into getting a MacBook Air (he tried a Kindle but that just doesn't do it for me), and it is astonishingly light and fast and lovely. I screwed up some of my transferring of data though, and have to fix a bunch of stuff.

This cold has really knocked me on my ass, I couldn't sleep on Thursday night because I was couldn't breathe, but I'm recovering.

Happy New Year, may 2012 be kind and good to us all!

So. In trying to fix some code, LJ screwed up their most basic functionality. People report they can't load pages, can't view comments, can't reply, can't preview comments (particularly bad for kinkmeme anon posting), can't find their icons, and have bad physical responses to the awful new colors.

Worse, some people are reporting that their automatic payments have been turned on for them without their consent. check your account status and make sure it doesn't say it's automatic!

There are some workarounds: if you type ?style=mine at the end of an LJ URL, it will show in your custom layout (the one you see when you go to your own journal). If your layout uses the S2 style system (almost all new ones do), you can avoid the ugly and disturbing new interface, get a text dropdown icon menu, see comment subject lines and even preview your comments (for the moment).

How to do this automatically: ( paid and plus [extra advertising] accounts )( basic accounts )

Here is some more info: : Workarounds for LJ users, how to make the LJ style Minimalism look like the old comment style, even fail_fandomanon has a custom style to make long threads work properly,

( Community Moderators: how to enable custom comment styles for your users - plus avoid spam sequestration )

( Some thoughts about how LJ screwed this up so very badly )

( 85 fic ) Remember, links since May 2011 are also at delicious.com/lotrips_list!

slashababy signups are open, I hope everyone considers joining in! The deadline is October 31, stories are due December 26, great way to see in the new year :-D

And for inspiration, checkout amygirl's latest Lotrips+ picspam, EyeCandy #226!

In other news, I'm three days into a four day workshop of all day meetings and I'm so freaking tired of being around people all the freaking time. I come home and zone out all by myself.

Delicious has admitted that the new version is no more than beta quality, and they now have a beta info blog.

There are excellent posts on these issues at deliciouslymad, especially this one by catechism.

The old Delicious was built on old (2000s) technology held together with spit and duct tape. The new owners had to start over, and that's difficult, so features that most people didn't use were undoubtedly too expensive to include, at least in the first release.

I miss the features too (like bundles and 100 bookmarks per page), but remember, it's the first release, and it's a free service.

It's also sad that all those people didn't opt in to transfer their accounts, so their bookmarks disappeared. Not AVOS's fault though: the old TOS was written such that users could control our own data, which is generally a good thing. But here it bit us in the ass. Sigh.

ETA: via cleolinda and brewsternorth Apparently any tag w / in it parses out and is no longer seen. Which means D/s overnight falls from fannish use. *sigh*

ETA2: as of September 28, delicious fixed the slash problem and some of the others

Dom and Elijah did bits as trash-talking fighters for the Fantastic Film festival in Austin hobbit vs. hobbit fight ( embedded video )

The first video of the actual debate, with Dom on the virtues of the game World of Warcraft as escapism ( embedded video )

So far, there's no video of the boxing part, but one picture from @heuge and one after (apparently Dom won) from @jenyamato


And a lagniappe: Dom rapping karaoke:( embedded video )

Just quoting anatsuno here:

Tomorrow Friday, September 23, is the day your Delicious bookmarks will disappear if you don't log in to the site and allow them to transfer your bookmarks.

If you've ever used Delicious to look for fic / meta / fanart / fanvids to peruse, you know how precious the network of bookmarks that's there now is precious. Please, do what you can to preserve it?

Click, log in, accept the new ToS: http://www.delicious.com/

Fandom will thank you! -- M

Viggo's at the Venice Film Festival for "A Dangerous Method" with a San Lorenzo doll, with Vincent Cassel, with fans, in black tie:


And a photoshoot from the cover story in the September issue of L'Uomo Vogue. Viggo is wearing what seems to be a couture version of his green and white plaid shirt! (more gorgeous scans at Viggo-Works).

(cross-posting this a bit)

All my lovely friends who have been fighting with LJ when posting: it's not you, it's them.

I either use the HTML editor or the slightly elderly Mac client xjournal and I know ljwin32_sema works on Linux and Windows: you may want to try those out.

the current list of fixed and broken things from LJ - they have not fixed the bug with cut tags yet :-(

kiltsandlollies has done a fantastic picspam for Billy's 43rd birthday [when everything is out, you gotta take it in] with a perfect soundtrack: The Good Life by One Republic (also on youtube)

( and here, have three pictures of Billy from 2010 )

(cross-posted lots to share the fannish love)

I worry about friends and everyone else. Please post every so often, let us know you're OK?

When girlchild and I went to see the LOTR films on the big screen this summer, we agreed that Sam is a true hero, so I wanted an icon, and fileg just posted some beautiful ones. I highly recommend her icons, they're a treat for the eyes!

fileg's LJ LOTR movie and actor icons and fileg's icon site

The Delicious bookmarking site has been bought by avos.com, but the transfer has a catch: all accounts not specifically opting in will be deleted and all their bookmarks will disappear. Some time in July, all that lovely fandom linkage will die and I will be very sad.

If you have not opted in to the transfer of your fandom accounts, please do it! https://secure.delicious.com/settings/optin (or go to the Settings page / Data Opt In link).

if you aren't sure about yourself or anyone else, there are instructions for checking the opt in status. If you know anyone who has not opted in, please ask them to do it! murklins is also saving public bookmarks from fandom sites that have not opted in, you can add to the list for archiving.

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A couple of new Billy photos for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, changing its name to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (why I dunno, the historical Scottish/French connection? But everyone including me will murder the pronunciation). Anyway, photos via kiltsandlollies and bboyd:

Orlando, Elijah and Liv as if in Classical European Paintings Includes Orlando in Renaissance garb, Elijah as a Regency gent (he should do more costume dramas!) and Liv in something very frothy that might be Georgian but maybe I'm dreaming and it's Victorian.

Elijah's doing a ton of PR for his new series, Wilfred (starts on the 23rd on FX TV US) Tons of good links on Always & Forever // Elijah Wood, but my fave, for Ces and ana: Elijah and Zooey Deschanel at the Critics' Choice TV Awards from eyeprime.net

Sean Bean also around doing Game of Thrones PR lots of links on The Mighty Bean, the skype interviews are particularly fun to watch.

And I'm willing to give Peter Jackson, Fran, Philippa, et al., the benefit of the doubt on Hobbit movie casting. I didn't think I'd like the Haldir changes in LOTR, or Arwen, and I now love them both. Making The Hobbit a little bit less of a Boy's Own Story is fine by me.

WH Auden seems to have written a really explicit poem, The Platonic Blow. It reminds me of excellent slash fic, in quatrain rhymes.

ETA to fix mighty bean link, thanks splix!

Some days I feel weird about fandom, wish I could be as excited and squeeful as before, and as my friends discovering new fandoms. I feel bad about not commenting on more fic, writing, linking more. And then I remember, yeah, I'm still doing my links, lotrips on delicious most days / lotrips on LiveJournal. / lotrips_de_list - feed on LiveJournal / lotrips_list_feed - feed on Dreamwidth. Also, the odd fic rec, when there's something that catches my fancy. Something, at least.

Please see the final lotrips listing for September in the lotrips community, which has my other listings too.

It's been 10 years since the FOTR publicity push at the Cannes film festival. kiltsandlollies has a sweet hobbit-heavy picspam, not_alone's Cannes section from her delightful fannish narrative, A Journey with Frodo, and nzstories has another picspam

All that inspired me to organize my various images, and I found some additional ones: Hobbits and PJ doing a kickline, Viggo in a green shirt, Liv in a black dress, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, John Rhys Davis, Ian McKellen, Sean Bean with Orcs, Dom with Orcs, Orlando in a buzzcut and suit, and Orlando kissing Viggo's cheek, and Orlando kissing Viggo's cheek. ( so young! )

as per my conversation with lobelia321

We just started AV, and the Mayor of Oakland (across the Bay from San Francisco) was elected with second-choice votes: she was not the first past the post but she was less hated than the other candidate. I think it's a fine result, the first Asian-American and the first woman mayor, without the expense and low turn-out of a runoff election.

( local news coverage )

Also, via everyone on my reading lists, Reform Cat explains AV voting

A partial list of Al Qaeda attacks since 1993: Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, USA, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bali, Morocco, Turkey, Madrid, Iraq, UK, Somalia, Yemen (source: BBC timeline). I'm glad he's dead, so he can't do any more damage.

Monaboyd Month! monaboyd_month is a celebration of the fictional slash relationship and real life friendship of the actors Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan. Please sign up. They start making the posting schedule next week, so the deadline for claiming your date is April 15.

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The Hobbit has started filming! And Peter Jackson made a video about it!

It looks really gorgeous: Bag End and Gollum's caverns and parts of Rivendell that we never saw before, Dwarves doing fight training, Jed Brophy!, and Martin Freeman wearing an abominable suit but (or maybe therefore) looking very Hobbity! I wasn't around during the original LotR filming, so intend to enjoy this a whole bunch.

on the dreaded Facebook (I have a fake account there, they're relatively easy to make) / on YouTube / ( embedded here just because I can )

I am feeling better, thank you for the hugs.

ETA: old youtube link was pulled, so I put in a new one. Hrmph, facebook, hrmph

but just in case,

Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa said: "We really felt there was an opportunity for a bigger British action film. The ambition is to make a powerful commercial movie with the best of British talent."

Production on the remake, which has yet to find a director, is set to begin this autumn.

The Professionals film, produced by Callum McDougall (Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace) and Richard Whelan (Captain America), will show how British military-trained mercenary Bodie and former detective Doyle unite to work for covert security unit CI5.

Casting speculation fever is wild for this one, names mentioned include Liam Neeson, Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, and Jason Statham.

Belfast Telegraph article (and casting speculation)

IrishCentral.com article (mostly casting speculation)

What's up with LiveJournal

BEST POST: caras_galadhon: Things You Should Know When LJ Goes Down--

also, from killabeez: If you love us, you'll archive your fic

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Background info on the DDOS
(DDOS = Distributed denial of service, get a bunch of bots (computers under hacker control) to all send a bunch of requests to a domain at the same time, it gets overloaded and can't answer anyone)

Agence France Press service: Russian bloggers accuse authorities of cyberwar

Global Voices Online: DDoS Attack on LiveJournal has Russians Debating Internet Politics

Securelist: LiveJournal under attack

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Lovely Hobbit Movie News!
Andy will be The Hobbit's second unit director - best info from Kristin Thompson Frodo Franchise blog

Figwit will be in The Hobbit

Orlando got the script for The Hobbit and is making jokes about growing his hair long and blond.

There's a chance of snow tonight or tomorrow night in the central Bay Area at sea level. The last time was 1974, and before that 1962!

( breathless details of snow!!! from the local paper )

Billy and Dom are in LA, and there are fun new pictures of them together, warming a fangirl's heart :-D



Other sources: kiltsandlollies picspam, dom_media, Dominic Monaghan Resource

Orlando and wife Miranda had their baby on January 7 (I think). She posted a note that he's named Flynn (for Errol I wonder?), and a lovely photo of her and the baby on her blog, (which is now overloaded, story at news.com.au).

I hope the photo gets young moms considering breastfeeding, which is usually healthier for everyone. Also she is very pretty. Also the baby looks like both of mine, who were of course, gorgeous :-D

Slashababy 2010 fics are up! 30 gift fics, authors not yet revealed, please read and comment on all of them!

This year, I revamped the slashababy.lotrips.org web site: it's not spiffy but it's clean. It's nice not to be entirely dependent on LJ. I'll be poking at it, filling in the missing years, but it's a nice feeling to have it finally working.

WHEW!

ETA: feelforfaith did at least half the work and deserves at least as much credit!

ETA: more at Zimbio!



fandom squeeeeeeee!!!!!!



I mostly hate the sun newspaper but they have the wedding article & pictures. Maybe to make up for that horrid headline a couple of months ago.

Once upon a time I read a kids book, probably by Joan Aiken, where there was a running joke about the confusion between the letter f and the letter "long s": ſ or possibly ∫

I have looked all over, including the whatwasthatbook comm, and I cannot find it, does anyone remember this?

Yay! Even the conservative part of the US has realized that not letting people fight and die in the military because of their sexual orientation is stupid and wrong. DADT is dead, finally!

In more fannish news, lobelia321 posted her help_haiti, Beer, Sweat and Tears (Orlando/Dom), it's an angst fest, satisfyingly unromantic, and wonderfully written.

I posted the May 2010 Lotrips listing, and am very slowly catching up. We still have a hell of a lot of fics, hidden in pairing communities and personal journals.

( random other stuff )

So the "sunset" of delicious shows that our fannish community homes are more fragile than we thought. People are starting to address this with technology, planning to make fandom-oriented social bookmarking services. But there's a way we can make our bookmarks themselves do half the work.

My suggestion: Fandom Tags! If we can all use the a few standard labels, we can find each other on other systems.

I propose Fandom for pretty much everything fannish, then get more specific: LotRiPS, Star Trek TOS, The Last Airbender, Girl Genius, Merlin x HP crossovers, Wrestling, Bandom... . There's another facet, which is the kind of fanwork, so adding tags like fanfiction, fanart, fanvid, fan-music, fandom meta, even something like fan-larps...

Adding a couple of tags to every fannish post or bookmark is a bit annoying, but it will be worth it!

BTW I'm slightly obsessed with a tetris-clone called torus, and play it waaay too much. Sorry for so much radio silence. And now to bed.

I've been shy lately, reading but not posting. But here I go.

Anyone want to talk about Connie Willis's All Clear? I read the first half and I'm a bit weirded out by the constant refrain of Polly's time-travel paradox stress, and her lying. And because it's Willis, and she is rigorous, there might not be a happy ending. Anyone have Thoughts?