Recommendations for fanfics

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 09:33 pm
fayanora: Fay doll icon by me, original pic by Lady Dark (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
If anyone has some recommendations for fanfic for me in any of the following fandoms, let me know. Especially novel length fics.

Fandoms:

* Harry Potter
* LazyTown
* Supernatural
* Buffyverse
* Addams Family
* Firefly
I especially like:

* incest pairings
* lesbian pairings
* crossovers
* transgender pairings
* well done original characters/plots (like the Alexandra Quick series of HP fanfic novels)
* I especially like non-porn fanfics.

(no subject)

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 05:22 pm
3rdofjune: (fiyah)
[personal profile] 3rdofjune
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/16510-the-green-shadow-cabinet-and-a-mental-health-declaration-of-independence

Krishnamurti famously said "it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society". I'd agree with that, and at the same time, go one further: one's degree of adjustment to any society, healthy or sick, cannot be used as a reliable measure of health.

(Basically, the same argument Thomas Szasz had been making. I don't agree with a lot of Szasz' conclusions, but I think he points out the necessity of looking at cultural bias in our ideas of health and sickness)

The turn away from the DSM (see: this article) is encouraging. My problem with the psychiatric model of depression is threefold: one, it hypothesises depression as a brain disorder, and I suspect that it's (or often is) a reaction to overall physical health; two, it individualizes the sufferer, ignoring the role of society and relationships; and three, it prescribes treatments that can be highly addictive and that treat surface symptoms, not necessarily the underlying cause.

And, following Szasz' comment that depression and ADHD are the new masturbation and homosexuality, I would like to see a movement in mental health more akin to the gay lib movement: one that calls for less pathologization and more inclusion, open-mindedness, and tolerance.

For every door that closes...

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 05:31 pm
fayanora: Fay doll icon by me, original pic by Lady Dark (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
Well, I was a bit worried, because the rent is going up again in July, to more than I can afford. But two things may take care of that for a bit longer. First, I may be getting my Medicare premium paid for me, I forget whether by the state or at the federal level. That means an extra $100 a month for me, once it kicks in. This also means I will be able to get Medicare part D as well, get my prescriptions paid for.

Secondly, I met someone who needs a place to stay and can pay $300 or more to stay with me. I've scanned her with my Mutant Power, and she's a good person. Homeless currently, but with a steady income. After explaining what happened the last time I let a homeless person stay at my place, she even offered to pay the $25 for a background check, which I didn't know was something I, as an individual, could have done. (Hell, if I find that the remainder after expenses is enough, I could even possibly get Internet at home again.)

Anyway, neither of these things is for certain yet, but it's looking hopeful. I think my prayers to Shao'Kehn and Kusahnjijahn are finally paying off. An extra $300 to $400 a month income would give me plenty for both rent and utilities, with extra remaining. Which is good, because looking for a new place and moving are even more difficult for me than looking for a job used to be, and I currently can barely afford toilet paper.

The next step on from ebook readers

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 10:15 pm
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker
I said a while ago that I really wanted a tablet for reading comics on. And one finally came out that fulfilled my specifications: 13" diagonally, widescreen, and reasonably priced. The Archos FamilyPad 2 cost me £250 and runs ComicRack very happily. As well as Angry Birds and World Of Goo, of course.

The screen is not amazing - the viewing angle is less than I'd like, and the resolution is only 1280x800. But that's high enough that I can't see pixels when it's sitting in my lap, and will happily do for the moment - when retina-quality displays are uniquitous in a few years I'll upgrade.

The important thing is that it allowed me to go to Cerebus Downloads, pay $25, and legally obtain the first 25 issues in electronic format, nicely scanned and cleaned up:

You'll note that the image on the tablet is pretty-much identical in size to the actual TPB. _That_ is why I wanted a 13" tablet.

And also to be able to read something that's not quite so legally available:

(Yes, I'll be paying for the oversized hardbacks of that as soon as they sort out the sodding legal rights. And yes, both of those look a lot better in real life than they do from a camera.)

I just got rid of a load of books

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 05:17 pm
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker
I never actually wanted to own anything. I don't desire to actually have anything that _belongs_ to me. What I want is access to things. So once movies are available on demand, music is streamable, and books are electronic, I can get rid of all of the actual physical objects and reclaim a bunch of wall/shelf space for decorative purposes.

And so this lot were picked up today and taken to Shelter:


Leaving my shelves looking like this:


Still remaining: Graphic novels, reference books, and some things I couldn't quite bear to get rid of (like the Narnia books).

Interesting Links for 23-05-2013

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 12:00 pm
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker

(no subject)

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 04:29 pm
3rdofjune: (ryujin)
[personal profile] 3rdofjune
One of my biggest pet peeves is associating X action, opinion, or line of thought, with Y personality type or social group. "If you do this/believe that, you're this kind of person".

One example would be how those who identify themselves with "modernity", "rationality", and "progress" tend to hold knee-jerk opinions in favor of things commonly associated with those terms. And associate the opposite set of opinions with an outside, undesirable group. Example: "If I think that Monsanto doesn't have my best interests at heart, that would make me a hippie/conspiracy theorist".

I don't mean to stereotype rationalists; no group is a monolith. Nonetheless, because of these common biases, I find it hard to talk to a lot of self-identified rationalists. The dogma of their subculture precludes entertaining certain opinions (which is a problem of subcultural dogma in general; I'm using rationalists here as one example). For GMOs/nuclear power/free-market capitalism? Then you're for progress. Against any of those things? Then you must be against progress. The actual merits of the argument, when they're considered at all, take a back seat to a kind of tribal identity.

Another common mistake is made by those who seek a "middle ground", without realizing that the definition of the middle is context-dependent. For example, what is politically moderate in the US may be ultra-right in, say, Iceland. So those who associate a moderate position with being "sensible", and an immoderate position with being "crazy" or "fringe", face a conundrum. It's not that Americans are crazy, or that Icelanders are crazy. It's that the rules of the game are made-up. The Golden Mean doesn't actually exist, and even if it did, it would be a mistake to confuse it with majority opinion, or what the "average person" is thought to believe; as though that granted one immunity from irrational views.

Those who pursue iconoclasm face a similar problem; that it's very easy to become the kind of "free thinker" for whom the lines of thought have already been laid down by powerful economic and social interests.

I think part of the blame has to go to modern identity-based marketing. Whatever your issue, there's an app for that, a product to buy, a cultural and economic niche for a person of "your type". Stereotypes in the media reinforce these assumptions. This creates a kind of imagined baseline of normality, a "mainstream", which we then cut ourselves to fit (or, cut ourselves not to fit).

Ideas don't come as a boxed set. You can be pro-nuke, shop in farmer's markets, and use fluoride-free toothpaste. Or be anti-nuke, shop in Safeway, and not care about fluoride. Or any combination you can think of, for just about any reason or combination of reasons you can think of. What needs to be realized is that the world isn't made up of simple categories; of homogeneous, identically thinking and acting groups who exist in isolation to each other. Groups are often ill-defined, the lines between them constantly blur, multiple identities overlap, and even within a single group there's all kinds of differences and contentions. You absolutely have to look at issues in a case-by-case manner, instead of relying on past associations and using category-based intellectual shortcuts for everything.

Nor is it reasonable to say "I can't take this seriously, because the wrong sort of people believe in it". It's your basic ad hominem fallacy. That it's so common is a result of our imagined group identities.

Put aside identities, as best as you can, and try to see where you're flexible and where you're inflexible; then, try to figure out /why/ that is. If you limit yourself to what you feel you should think, or how you feel you should act, based on the type of person you imagine yourself to be, then you will indeed be a type of person: those unaware of their social context.


Footnote:

I wrote this because the backlash against the environmental movement by young, educated liberals is one of the most frustrating things I've had to witness in my life. Even when it raises valid issues, it's being gone about in all the wrong ways, IMHO. I'm deeply concerned about where it's coming from, and what sort of psychological needs are being exploited by it. If my fumbling can suggest another way to proceed, I'll feel vindicated.

Interesting Links for 22-05-2013

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 12:00 pm

Zines

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 01:25 am
fayanora: Fay doll icon by me, original pic by Lady Dark (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
With the impending arrival of my Nook, I'm curious about online zines. Especially zines about the following topics:

* Paganism/occult
* Alternative spirituality
* Otherkin
* Science fiction/fantasy
* Scrabble

So if you know any that you think I might like, please let me know. Thanks!

Also, any links to searchable lists of zines would be greatly appreciated as well.

Nook question

Monday, May 20th, 2013 05:03 pm
fayanora: Fay doll icon by me, original pic by Lady Dark (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
I tried Google, but I didn't get an answer to the right question. I found that it is possible to password lock your Nook to prevent unwanted purchases. But this is my real question: is there a way to lock files or the whole Nook so that the files cannot be read without the password?

(Nook first edition)

Edit: Answered. Answer is yes. Thanks!
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker
It was exactly what I was expecting, only better.

I was expecting lens flare, a lack of character stuff, lots of big explosions in spaaaaace, a bad guy I didn't care about, and to thoroughly enjoy myself - that being what I got in the first one.

What I got was that, only with more character stuff than I was expecting, a bad guy I felt at least some empathy for, and enjoying myself more than thoroughly!
Let the spoilerification commence! )

NOOK!

Saturday, May 18th, 2013 07:39 pm
fayanora: Fay doll icon by me, original pic by Lady Dark (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
So Brooke found a cheap Nook on eBay and bought it for me. I don't know when it will get here, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm already in the process of converting some of the stuff I want to read, into PDF format for the Nook. And I'm looking for interesting free sample books.

Also, I'm planning on finding out, when it gets here, if it can read ebooks from the local public library. We shall see.

Oooh, according to the user guide, it does ePub and PDB formats, too.

Looking through the user guide, the Nook is basically a mini computer, complete with wifi capability. So some things I could read online. :-)

With this Nook, I will be able to get a lot of online stories read, that I haven't had time to read yet.

Edited to add: Also, I found out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote science fiction. So I'm downloading as much of his scifi as I can.

Downtime this morning

Saturday, May 18th, 2013 07:51 am
mark: Photo of Mark's face, taken in standard office fluorescent. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

(For some California local definition of 'morning'!)

About 30 minutes ago one of our databases (sb-db03) locked up and stopped serving traffic. This was an active database, so the site quickly stopped when it could no longer serve requests. Alas.

I have failed us over to a backup database and now everything should be working again.

I'm not sure yet what happened to db03, but am currently investigating and will update this post if I come up with a root cause for the problem. Edit: It's back up and doesn't have any visible problems. Disks are fine, data's intact, etc. The graphs and logs show nothing. We'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it manifests further issues.

Sorry for the trouble, please let me know if you still see any problems!

Interesting Links for 17-05-2013

Friday, May 17th, 2013 12:00 pm