Summer is finally here. *sweats* *perspires*

Apologies for another one so soon (I know, I know, that's all I post anymore) but momogermany did hers so I just had to follow! And I find the result uncannily accurate.

Ganked from antiteb

( In Which Game of Thrones House Do I Belong? )

It's with not a little bit of shame that I have to introduce the Show That Ate My Life. If I tell you it's an Australian soap that isn't Neighbours will you think less of me? (But but but… there are kangaroos! And they say "mate" a lot! A lot!) What if I tell you it's a teen drama? (Less in the Saved By the Bell more in the My So-Called Life vein, but still "teen drama".) And what if I admit it's about students at an elite dance school practicing ballet all day long?

INORITE? How could such a thing be watchable?

Had to finish my marathon (7 seasons in 21 days) before I could do it, but here it is:

With just a little bit of trepidation, I think I'm going to be posting on LJ again, just because I really want to participate in the 100 Things Challenge:




{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

Doesn't that sound cool?

I'm going to write on the topic of "100 Things I'm Doing To Live Cheaply Without Feeling Poor". I've always perused "frugal living" sites, but while I'm getting my company off the ground and business is slow, I've had time to go after them with more gusto. As always, I'm bewildered by some people's ideas of what "frugal living" is, like this guy who recommends I get rid of my second car, downsize my house, and cancel the cable and cell. Since I don't own a car, or a house, or a cellphone, or a television, and buy everything second-hand already, his suggestions are pretty useless -- and I'm not about to cut my own hair!

So I've decided to try to write about how someone who already lives like a pauper (at least by this guy's definition) can still take steps to live more simply... without sacrificing my quality of life. I'm not going to go all Earth Mother and grow all my own food -- been there, done that, never again -- but hopefully I can test out and share some things that might be useful to others, while documenting my own experience.

So that's the goal. We shall see how it goes.

It's springtime (despite the snow today, thanks for the April Fool's joke, Mother Nature!) and time to throw off my winter lethargy. Tomorrow I'll be starting the Couch-to-5K program along with a few other determined souls. Anyone interested in joining us? If so, please join c25k where we can post our progress, bitch about our achey feet, and toast each other when we hit our goals.

(Note: If you can't start tomorrow, but are interested in jumping in later, that's fine. Progress is tallied on a weekly basis, so it's very flexible to your schedule.)

After seeing the flawless job the casting director did with The Hunger Games, I'm sure I won't be disappointed with whomever they select for the sequel. But just for fun, because we've been tweeting lots about who we'd like to see, here are my picks. (All character descriptions were snurched from the wonderful Hunger Games Wikia.)

I wish I could Apparate just long enough to get down to Fort Worth and Joe T. Garcia's. I'm having a craving BAD.

Title: the thing with feathers that perches in the soul
Author: lilithilien
Fandom/Characters: The Hunger Games, Haymitch and other District 12 tributes
Word Count: 1200 words
Rating: Gen
Summary: Haymitch Abernathy thought winning the 50th Hunger Games was the hardest thing he would ever have to do. He was wrong.
Disclaimer: The Hunger Games do not belong to me. If they did, my cats would be eating the fancy catfood.
A/N: Endless thanks to my beta, amo_amas_amat, for holding my hand as I dip my toes in this new fandom and making the ending a thousand times better. (And whose Seneca Crane you absolutely must read because it's so amazing. In fact, go read hers first!) The title is from Emily Dickinson: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.

the thing with feathers that perches in the soul

New default icon and journal title?

Nearly broke my posting streak, but slipping in just under the wire with the tip of what's turning out to be an impressively creative fan-iceberg surrounding The Hunger Games.

It’s funny how life happens. A year ago, I had just packed up my stuff and was merrily inserting myself into aldiara’s home in New Zealand. It was the start of an incredible year that took me around the world – and although it turned out way differently than I’d expected, the unplanned things more than made up for it!

Now I'm back in the same neighbourhood in Canada - in the same building even - and hoping the magic holds. I’m launching my own business (which is a bit terrifying), floundering a bit without a fandom (being between fandoms is teh suck), and trying to find my place here again. To help me in this, I have two little assistants. So I’d like to introduce you to Sir Alfred and Lord Oliver…

Hello everyone! I know it's been eons since I posted anything. Moving continents, starting a business, and figuring out what to do with an elderly parent is very distracting.

So I finally finished my annual Year In Review.

I'll be offline for the next few weeks and I'm going to miss you all! I hope each and every one of you have a warm, safe, chocolate-filled holiday, and a very happy new year. See you in 2012!!

I've known for a very long time that the Youtube fandom, of which EskimoKissProject was necessarily a part, was plagued with a complete lack of etiquette. With EKP and also with the AWZ communities on IJ, we tried to bring what all three of us had been taught was normal fandom interaction to that world. I'm talking about the very basic niceties of fandom here - you know, the "credit others for their contributions" and "comment when you like something" and "for the love of god, don't steal other people's shit." I'm not saying we did a perfect job, but at least we tried. For Pete's sake, I even gave Dennis Grabosch an earful when he took somebody's fanvid and put his own music to it because he hates "My Immortal". I do too, btw, but that shit is just not on.

As we expected, the fandom really went rogue after we quit our regular posting last year. It's turned to ugly consumerism, where people just grab what they want without any concern for the time or effort that others took to make it. And I'm not even talking about EKP's subtitled videos, which people are uploading at will, without asking, saying thanks, or anything. That's kinda crappy, but we did tell people they could download our stuff. I'm talking about fanvids that have been archived without the creators' knowledge or permission - just because apparently anything on YT is fair game.

Seriously, people! Archiving stuff that is not your own without permission!!! WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!?!!!!

So if you've created any AWZ vids in the past few years, you might want to check here* and see if your stuff has been pillaged. I recognise quite a few of them myself. Some of the original vids are still on Youtube, where viewers could leave a comment if they were so inclined. And I know that others were taken down for a reason by the creator. I think it's really shitty that their wishes are not respected - hell, not even considered.

WTF is wrong with this fandom?


* Update: She's now made the folder private (and I was asked to remove the link to my vids in her post. Um, no.). If you've created vids that you don't want archived, you might want to write to her anyway. (amilee123 and redcouchaddict, I know she had included some of yours.)

Tonight, in about five hours actually, we put EskimoKissProject to rest. I have been grasping for my feelings about this, and had hoped to put them into words, because it seems like this occasion should be marked in some Significant Way. But that didn’t feel right at all – I can’t explain how I’m going from relief to ecstasy to bereavement in the blink of an eye, and when I try to write anything Significant it just sounds false.

Gacked from everybody.

Because spaghettitoes declared it Snack Drawer Appreciation Day and because this day has been made up of that certain degree of suckage that forces one to stop by Poundland after work, here is my little drawer of heaven.