Looks like there's another round of OTW criticism with Rebecca Tushnet's recent interview on NPR, and once again one of the main themes of the criticism I'm seeing is that OTW is taking fandom and fanfic public, making visible a subversive and underground community.

And to that I say, since when have fandom and fanfic been subversive and underground? More and more television shows, more and more media creators are actively engaging fans in a very fannish way, FanLib actively and openly sponsors fanfic contests with prizes awarded, Dragon*Con is getting more massive every year, Comic Con has become a media industry powerhouse, and Harry Potter has pretty much made fanfic a household name.

Here's a good example of just how not underground or subversive fanfic is: Two years ago a candidate for a faculty position where I work said to me, "So, I noticed you write fanfic." He'd googled my name before he came for his campus interview and found my old Trek fanfic. As I tried not to freak out, he went on to tell me, quite casually, "I thought that was cool. My wife reads Gilmore Girls fanfic."

We're not under the radar people, and haven't been for a while.

Google, and more recently, del.icio.us, have done far more damage to making fanfic fandom easily accessible than the OTW will ever manage doing interviews in newspapers or on NPR. Kids today are growing up in a media-saturated environment and with immediate access to anything about that environment just a wireless connection away. It took me all of two minutes to find Iron Man fic when I got home from the movie - a Google search, a del.ici.ous search and an lj interests search. To hijack a piece of synecdochic's discussion on Web 2.0., social networking and advertising for a moment, "'Web 2.0', as an institution, is built on the fundamental notion of user-generated content. A service isn't selling their own content; they're selling you a home for your content, and selling other people the ability to look at your content."

Whether or not it's a tenable economic model, the internet as we know it is designed to get people content that they're interested in, including fandom's content, and it doesn't recognize fandom's claims as a sovereign or subversive nation.

I am trying to talk myself out of buying a pair of awesome strappy shoes I found at an Art Fair sidewalk sale last night. The pros: They are HOT. They are $10 bucks. The cons: I have no where to wear them. Even if I did have somewhere to wear them, I'm not sure I even can - they're a platform three inch heel and I'm pretty sure the bad ankle will take it badly. But dude. Awesome.

I adore abyssinia4077 for many reasons, but at the moment I adore her for writing carbon 14 fic, and how is that not the best thing ever?

I am working on both SG-1 and Iron Man fic concurrently, and bouncing back and forth between Vala and Pepper POV is making my head hurt a smidge.

Happy second birthday to sg1_debrief. And kudos and exclamations of awesomeness and cookies to the Debrief staff, because you guys are THE BEST.

This is just adorable and utterly sweet, and very spot on to the show:

"The Doorknob Revenge Necessity" by tir. Spoilers for The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of OMFG REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY, the Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception. In order to do this, the Department is attempting to redefine many forms of contraception, the birth control 40% of Americans use, as abortion.

Dude. Thank god they are few and far between, because I really can't handle fic that deals with infertility. Not because it hits too close to home, but because after five years of dealing with it myself, and three years of treatment, I know far too much about the process to not read these stories and go, "What? WHAT? NO. That's... NO. OMG. You... It's.... Seriously, you... REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. OMFG. DID YOU HAVE HIM SAY 'WHY DON'T YOU JUST ADOPT?' YOU DID. OMGWTFARGHSMASH."

Seriously, even incorrect use of carbon dating doesn't froth me quite the same way, and that's saying something.

Speaking of frothing, it's Art Fair and its up to 500,000 attendees this week. Which sounds like a fun, four day event, until you have to work right in the middle of it for thirteen years. After that, the only enjoyment you get out of it is the bad food at the food court and Art Fair Bingo.

Email I received earlier:

*****
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008
From: the dwinn
To: Jules
Subject: You need one of these for your garden

http://www.designtoscano.com/product/garden+statues/fantasy+statues/assorted+creatures+outdoors/the+zombie+of+montclaire+moors+sculpture+-+db383020.do

*****

Dude. DUDE. Best garden statue E.V.A.R. I wonder how many neighbors would think it's actually a body in the fading light of dusk and call the cops.

Hey aj! You spontaneously combusted yet? :)

wisteria_ is hosting a Porn Battle (actual porn not required). There's a couple of Iron man Tony/Pepper prompts, and a handful of good SG-1 prompts, AND some Middleman prompts! Go forth!

Remember that deleted scene from SGA's "Trio"? The one that caused all the ruckus? Interested parties might want to glance over here.

Because I need another fandom like I need a hole in the head: where's all The Middleman fic, people? I adore this show in all it's ridiculously nerdy glory. I adore the Middleman (and seriously, there is great need for a Middleman/Due South crossover with dorky MM and Fraser antics. GREAT NEED.). I am TOTALLY IN LOVE with Wendy Watson. It is pretty much all glee.

ETA: Aha! Found middlefic.

[notes]: Iron Man movieverse. Post-movie. Rocky-verse. Gen. Pepper. Tony. Rhodey. Humor. PG-13. 928 words. Posted 7/7/08
[summary]:This week, on a very special episode of "The Continuing Adventures of Rocky: Iron Dog"...
[author note]: Oh dear lord, it's become A Thing. I am so, so sorry. Okay, not really.

"Man's Best Friend(s)"


(The complete list to date of "The Continuing Adventures of Rocky: Iron Dog" can be found here: http://splash-the-cat.livejournal.com/346435.html)

'Star Trek: The Experience' To Close. This makes me sad. My dream of going to Vegas for our tenth anniversary and renewing our wedding vows with a Klingon Elvis impersonator are dashed forever. (the dwinn, no doubt, is thinking "Thank god...")

I had my first idiotic gardening accident of the year tonight. Nothing compared to the great bush incident of '05, but that one didn't really hurt anything but my pride. No, tonight I went out to put a lid on one of the containers we use for brush and the like, and as I am wont to do, got distracted by breaking down a few more of the big branches we have piled up. Which would have been fine had it not been right at dusk, and peak mosquito time. So I've got a big branch in one hand, clippers in the other, and something big bites my shoulder. Hard.

I wisely do not slap at myself with the hand holding the clippers, nor do I drop them. Nor do I smack myself with the branch. Instead, I drop the branch. Which lands, thick pointy end first, right on the top of my foot. My flip-flop clad foot, seeing as I was only going out to put a lid on a can.

I felt the impact right down to my toes. Literally. While I only have a little scrape and the beginnings of a nice, my toes still feel a little tingly and twitchy, and it's not fun having much weight on the ball of my foot. Ow.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go steal the bubblewrap back from nandamai.

Back out in the garden today for the first time in a while. It felt great until I started coughing up a lung. I am totally in denial that the cold/sinus infection I've had since last week has started to move in to my chest and throw loud parties. UGH. I hadn't had an asthma attack since March, and after the last two years of no real breaks from the asthma it was utterly fabulous, and last week I had baby attacks every day and a bigger one yesterday and I feel like I've been hit by a truck, not to mention that the stuff coming out of my sinuses would do Stan Winston proud. Fuck you, immune system, fuck you.

On a less disgusting note, there will be Rocky fic tomorrow. The writer brain is being very cooperative these days. Apparently threats of violence do solve everything.

The very first thing I thought when I saw this artwork for DC Universe Online was, "Huh, Wonder Woman gets a Brazilian." Seriously, could the artist have done more to draw attention right to her scantily clad crotch?

Also, it looks like she's about to garrotte Flash with her lasso while she rides him to the ground.

You know, it's very hard to wash your hair and face without getting soap in your eyes when you have to keep them open to watch the progress of the OMFG GIANT* SPIDER DANGLING FROM THE CEILING OVER THE SHOWER. And of course he vanished when I closed my eyes for five seconds, and the only the only thing worse than the spider you can see dangling over your head? The spider you just saw dangling over your head THAT HAS NOW VANISHED OMFGWHEREISITFLAIL?

* objects in this story may be actually smaller than implied.

Then I slept like shit, worrying through a payroll problem at work that was actually the fault of an idiot student, but I probably could have caught it a while ago, but really, he didn't do what I told him he needed to do (TWICE), he did something he KNEW he shouldn't do, and now is leaving the country next week and needs to be paid right away. Which I might not be able to do, because I don't know if the faculty member paying him has sufficient funds available because our accountant is on vacation. And all this? HIS OWN DAMN FAULT. Because he was an idiot and didn't listen. But he's a really nice guy and I always feel horrible and guilty when it's a student payroll issue, because I remember what it's like to be a student living paycheck to paycheck, but still. IDIOT.

And now I'm really crabby because I only got a few hours sleep and spent all last night wallowing in anxiety on top of the bitch of a sinus headache I also had, and now I don't even know when I can take my breaks because I have to wait around all day for the student to come in so I can sort this out. I'm trying to convince myself that it's not professional to yell at him, no matter how much better it would make me feel.

Anyway. I did salvage the end of retreat and got a smidgen of writing done. Not much, but any was a victory with the way my head's been lately. Pulling teeth would actually feel significantly more pleasant than it feels trying to drag words out of my head these days. Seriously, I'm agonizing over crackfic about a puppy, for pity's sake. Not that this has stopped the writer brain from going, "Oh, hey, while you're at it, here's this other cool idea..." Fucking writer brain.

Lastly, so who all is still planning on going to DragonCon this year?

It would probably be rude of me to start leaving this as feedback on certain stories: "SHE ALREADY CALLS HIM TONY! ALL THE TIME! OMFG. TONYTONYTONYTONYTONYTONYTONYTONYTONY!"

Am at the sekrit Feral Writers lakeside hideout for an impromptu Writer's Retreat with fairmer, daveamongus and pollyc, where I have napped on the couch, napped on the pontoon boat, napped on the couch again, and played mini golf. V. successful retreat on the relaxing front. Alas, not so much on the writing front.

But Mer and and I did more plotting on our sekrit writing-related plot, and there's still tomorrow to try and salvage the intention of the weekend.

But I think I might just take another nap for now.

This is made of all kinds of win and there needs to be more like it. LOTS MORE.

Thick as Thieves. Iron Man movieverse. Tony/Rhodey/Pepper. NC-17. Awesomely hot, utterly fantastic characterization.

It cracks me up that despite being quite settled in fandom for a few years now, the second I step into a new fandom, I still feel just like the dorky freshman at the first school dance of year.

It also cracks me up that I just noticed, after all my ranting about how Pepper really does call Tony by his first name in canon, REALLY, all the time, and OMG fanon, stop it with the only calling him Mr. Stark business, I TOTALLY DID EXACTLY THAT IN MY FIRST IM FIC. Oh fanon, even I am not immune to your seductive siren song.

I plan to atone with Rocky fic tonight, but apparently Tony and Rhodey are so traumatized by the very special neutering episode plot that they're hiding behind the couch. Boys.

Also on the cracking me up list is that even my joints procrastinate. So after my massage last week, my recalcitrant right hip was feeling much better, but still not really fine. Looser, but still a fair amount of pain. Earlier today I got up from my desk, turned, and my hip went POP. Very loudly. But the good pop, as everything suddenly said, "Oh, yeah, right, that's what the whole massage thing was for, my bad!" and realigned itself in its proper place. OMGbliss. I don't know how long this is gonna last, but I am damn sure going to enjoy it.

Some day I will go back to writing actual posts rather than lists. But that day is not today.

Anyway.

Thank you so much to the generous anon who gifted me with paid lj time! That was incredibly sweet of you.

I'm on Twitter over here: http://twitter.com/splashikins.

aj wrote a fabulous new Rocky: Iron Dog story - There Goes Rodeo Drive. Pepper and Rocky get kidnapped by PETA. Hilarity ensues.

AGH! I knew they were upgrading our HR system, but when I logged on to do payroll today, I had no fucking clue where anything was! And it's all very blue. Like the same shade of blue. Contrast, people! Save my elderly eyes!

For the first time in five years my hair is all the same length, and long enough to put into a ponytail. And it is totally staying that way for the rest of the summer.