false promises & outright lies

So, things. I'm not doing very well off-line, which you may or may not have noticed, and I've been fairly unresponsive on-line, which you've probably noticed. What it comes down to is this: I'm tired. I'm doing what I can to manage things off-line and now I'm doing what I need to do on-line.

As of today, memlu should be considered either a temporary or a permanent archive. I may very well return to this journal one day and I'd certainly like to, but right now I can't handle it. It's ridiculous, but there you go.

I'm making another go of things at mekosuchinae, so I won't be leaving livejournal. I just want to, you know. Start over. I said it was ridiculous, okay! This post here has some more information about it, though not much. It'll have to do.

Please know that I will not be adding back everyone who friends mekosuchinae and that does include people on this journal's f-list. If you wish to add mekosuchinae, then you should certainly feel free to do so! But understand I may not add you back. Most if not all fannish posts will be public and only the very boring stuff (job, home, angst) will be under f-lock. I like all of you and I enjoy reading your posts, but I cannot keep up with a large f-list and I am no longer comfortable making my f-locked posts available to so many people. I'm sorry.

(Conversely, if you've been waiting for an opportunity to dump my ass on the curb, THIS IS IT. Don't waste the moment! You may only have this one chance! Go, go, go!)

Regular posting will begin at mekosuchinae in the next few days.

Comments on this post are disabled on account of how I'm a coward.

This is so much more important than any stupid hiatus:

4Chan has declared war on the Church of Scientology. (Warning for Encyclopedia Dramatica.)

Guys.

Guys.

They Rickrolled the Scientologists.

ON THE PHONE.

Hiatus until I can write a post that sounds like me; that is, ridiculous, immature and unintentionally rude. If I write one more serious sentence I will throw myself out a window, and then you'll be like, oh, what did you do that for, and I'll be like, don't ask me, I'm dead / in a coma / otherwise incapacitated.

BE AWESOME.

Provide a fandom and I will Sort each character (or as many of the characters as I care to Sort) into the appropriate Hogwarts House. Because I'm a nerd, I will also detail their adventures at Hogwarts. The excitement! The danger! The romance. It may take me some time to respond to your comment, as this is the sort of thing that requires very serious and very intense deliberation, but I shall do my best to respond quickly, honestly, and with the gravity the subject matter requires.

Furious debates re: the Sorting of a character are not only acceptable, but encouraged. Bonus points for snobbery! You know: "As for the matter of the Sorting, I can scarcely believe one such as yourself is at all qualified for the position; a hat could do no worse." And then we can duke it out like nerds. Awesome!

Play with meeeee.

( spoilers for sga 04x13: quarantine. )

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Bookstores are my greatest weakness! I don't -- I don't know what happens. I think what happens is this: I walk in to the store. Overexcited by the selection of books present before me, I black out in the store. An indeterminate amount of time later I wake outside the store, my wallet empty and a totebag filled with books cutting off the circulation to my arm. On the plus side: hey! Books! It's not like I needed that money for anything important, anyway. You know. Like food.

:|

And now, of course, I will list the books I purchased in a thinly veiled attempt to trick well-read members of my f-list into sharing their general and non-spoilery opinions, ha ha! ( witness-- )

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Why am I so boring these days? I hereby resolve to be more awesome, starting tomorrow or possibly Sunday. Maybe Monday. I'm thinking, first I sleep for three days, then I start working on upgrading to a more awesome Mem. Game plan! All right!

Holy crap, it's snowing! And it's snowing hard, too. Half the parking lot's covered and I swear to God it wasn't snowing five minutes ago. I AM SO EXCITED. And so upset! Why is it snowing when I'm at work? Stupid snow. Stupid, awesome, delightful snow. Whiting out the windows, covering up the streets. Filling me with sorrow.

12:46PM: It stopped. *sadface*

01:22PM: And now the sun is shining! I'M CALLING FOUL.

Do you have any or know where I might find recipes for nutritious dishes that could be prepared at home in -- hum, thirty minutes to an hour? I'm trying to incorporate healther and more filling meals into my daily routine by, uh, preparing healthy, filling lunches to bring to work the night before I go to work. Any help would be wonderful and totally welcome!

(I am 87% certain I will kill myself if I eat another meal consisting of one or more of the following: easy mac, instant ramen, powdered potatoes, chocolate glazed donuts, foodstuffs purchased at 7-Eleven, foodstuffs purchased at McDonald's, pizza. Woman cannot live off grease alone! Or, you know, at all. SAVE ME FROM MYSELF.)

D'you know what you need to read but likely haven't? The Alchemists' Revenge. It's the (gorgeous, hilarious, positively amazing and entirely perfect, and I am neither exaggerating nor lying as it is everything and more) story I received for Yuletide and it is far and away one of the best Christmas presents I've ever received. If you've read the first two installments of Mr Philip Reeve's Larklight trilogy and enjoyed them, you need to read this story IMMEDIATELY. Right now. I am fully prepared to glare at you until you do so.

All you need to know is this: it is hilarious and delightful, and long and plotty, and absolutely perfect in every possible way. I can't even -- there are so many things I love! All of the things! Everything! And I don't want to spoil anything, so you really need to read it right now, for my sake if not your own.

(Speaking of spoilers! The Alchemists' Revenge is set not long after Starcross, so if you haven't read the second book yet, you really ought to steer clear of this story. For the time being, I mean. What you really ought to do is read Starcross, then read this fic, but for now you might want to step carefully.)

In conclusion, oh, gosh, I love this story so much I can't stand it. I printed it out on Christmas Day and now all the pages are wrinkly from me hugging it to my chest and heaving huge, girlish sighs over each page, and if you do not do the same after reading it, then I just do not know if we should ever speak again. Just -- oh! I love it and it is my professional opinion that you should read it and love it as well.

*glares*

meyerlemon just linked to this:

Pretty Bird Woman House has raised the $70K needed to purchase and fix up a new home and then some. They think all the donations made might even add up to a whopping eighty thousand dollars.

Guys! This is wonderful! They can buy the house and set up a security system and a fence, and they can buy furniture and clothing and -- guys, they did it! You did it.

I just. This is wonderful.

Wikipedia did indeed correct Anonymous Fan No. 1's contribution to Joe Quesada's wikipage, but never fear! Another nameless fan has made his or her contribution in the name of petty vandalism for justice and personal satisfaction. Behold!

Joseph "Joe" Quesada, colloquially known as The Idiot Who Ruined Spider-Man.

Oh, fandom. You make me feel so squishy.

Hahaha omg. Sometimes, comics fandom is pretty okay. WITNESS. (In the likely event that Wikipedia corrects this, I've uploaded a screencap.)

Here are some things you ought to know:

1) Joe Quesada is the current editor-in-chief at Marvel comics. He is a douchebag. This is a fact.

2) Joe Quesada loathes Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson. He believes it is inherently unbelievable and detrimental to Spider-Man, both the title and the character himself. He has, in fact, very explicitly blamed their marriage (and by extension Mary Jane) for any shortcomings in the Spider-Man comics over the last God knows how many years. Shoddy writing? Inconsistent characterization? Editorially mandated plot twists that were ill received by fans and quickly retconned or reversed? It's all Mary Jane's fault. That old ball and chain just wrecks the hell out of Marvel's writing staff.

3) He has threatened to dissolve the Parker/Watson marriage for years now, and has provided a number of contradictory reasons for doing so (in addition to the "reasons" given above). Evidently marriage prevents Peter Parker from doing what bachelors do, that is, have sex and download porn. Joe Quesada has also stated he believes a single Peter "Hot Bachelor On the Prowl" Parker will be an excellent role model for young children, one they can more easily relate to.

I know when I was eight years old and reading the newspaper strips, I was like, If only this superhero was cruising bars for a casual hook-up, then retiring to his swinging bachelor pad to partake of some hot lesbian porn! I could seriously relate to that. This stuff about marriage and crimefighting, man, I don't know what that's about.

4) Fans have frequently, loudly, and publically denounced his intentions to strike their marriage from the record all across fandom, on messageboards, at Q&As, at a convention, where a participant claims a full twenty minutes were taken up by a number of fans demanding rational and intelligent explanations for a possible dissolution of Peter and Mary Jane's marriage.¹

In a surprise move that, well, isn't very surprising, Quesada has ignored these fans (read: his customers) and gone ahead with a story arc in Amazing Spider-Man entitled One More Day, in which Peter Parker literally makes a deal with the devil, the cost of which is the negation of his marriage to Mary Jane and his memory of it. And it isn't just his marriage, either: it's his entire relationship with Mary Jane. The past twenty-some years canon have been retconned to excise Mary Jane from Peter Parker's life.

And you know what? I am pissed. Mary Jane isn't some albatross around Peter Parker's neck. Mary Jane shouldn't be the scapegoat for every idiotic editorial decision made over the last twenty years and she shouldn't be wiped aside so quickly and so casually, like her life and her marriage and her struggles and her happiness are nothing more than a handful of sand, easily scattered and easily forgotten.

¹ It isn't just fans who're upset by Joe Quesada's decision. J. Michael Straczynski, longtime writer of Amazing Spider-Man and co-writer of One More Day (alongside, you guessed it, Joe Quesada), very seriously considered requesting his name be taken off the final issues of his run.

Dear Yuletide writer:

Thank you! That is the first thing I should say; certainly it's the most important. So: thank you. Anything you write, I will love, and any prompts I provided were merely suggestions. I am very easy to please!

But if you'd like more details, I am happy to provide them, and you can find 'em beneath this cut, along with links to the source material for Storm Hawks and ReBoot. ( just in case! )

I'm sticking this post at the very top of my LJ and that's where I'll keep it until December 19, so it should be easy to come back to if you need to come back to it.

Again, because I can never say so often enough, thank you. I'm very excited and cannot wait to read what you'll write! ♥

1. Christmas songs! Classics, hymns, new pop songs and novelty recordings -- do you have any? Would you, um, mind sharing them with me? This is my Christmas wish!

I've felt very weepy and stupid and disconnected from my favorite seasonal and religious celebration of my year, and I've only just realized this is 'cause I'm riding the bus regularly and thus do not have the opportunity to listen to the local radio station's annual holiday music bonanza, like, at all.

So ... I guess what I'm trying to say is, I am a ridiculous person and you should ignore me.

(GIVE ME YOUR MUSIC.)

(Please?)

2. Holiday love meme! I ain't ashamed.

3. Okay, I'm ashamed.

4. Finals. :(

Panic re: Yuletide: RESOLVED.

And now, a meme, as stolen from, uh, everyone, pretty much:

Comment here and ask me anything about any fandom I'm involved in/have been involved in. Controversial or innocent, silly or serious, ask and you'll get my honest opinion on the subject (to the best of my knowledge and ability).

General fandom questions are also allowed, but nothing about actual people in fandom, please.

When I was seven years old, I took a marker to my bedroom wall and wrote [MY NAME] + SPEED RACER beside my pillow, then drew a giant heart around our names. He was the first man I ever loved and no other man can ever truly compete with him. Who could? He has the most awesome ride in the history of the universe. He attended his own funeral, then sought justice on those who had tried to kill him. He can and he will slug it out with sleazeballs, cheats, thugs, thieves, and mad scientists, and oh, oh my gosh, YOU GUYS, there was this one time when he crashed in the jungle and he lost his shirt, and you have no idea how big a deal this was to Memlu, Age Eight. Speed Racer! In the jungle! Thrashing dinosaurs and battling madmen!

SHIRTLESS.

This is an awful introduction.

Anyway, what you need to know is this: I have loved Speed Racer for thirteen years of my life, I have been skeptical of the upcoming movie for months and months and months, and I am now officially recanting everything I have ever thought or ever said in criticism of the film.

This shit is real:



brb, guys, I need to go scribble Speed Racer's name all over my binder.

Via meyerlemon: LJ bans some interests by removing their searchability. You may also find the original post by elfwreck useful as it details a number of interests which are and are not searchable.

LJ has made no announcements regarding this decision.

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Remember Pretty Bird Woman House? It's a women's shelter located on the South Dakota side of Standing Rock Reservation. Arsonists destroyed the shelter earlier this year, leaving the battered women and children of Standing Rock Reservation nowhere to go when other shelters hours away have no space for them. Pretty Bird Woman House also risks losing sorely needed funding: a number of the grants they are dependent upon stipulate that PBWH must provide shelter for these women and their children. If they cannot provide this shelter, the grants will be withdrawn and they will receive no money.

Pretty Bird Woman House has raised 56% of the $70K needed to purchase a new shelter, install a security system, and refurbish the house. And that's wonderful; that's amazing. In the span of a month and a half, enough people have donated enough money for Pretty Bird Woman House to put in a bid for a new home.

But there's still more that needs to be done. The bid they've made isn't much, and they still need the money to make the house safe. If you can donate, please do so. You can donate money on-line here. If you cannot donate money, please consider donating material goods such as clothing, toiletries, furniture, and toys. The new house will be completely unfurbished, and a number of thefts prior to the fire left Pretty Bird Woman House with very little. Good and personal checks can be mailed to either of the following addresses:

USPS ships to:

Pretty Bird Woman House
P.O. Box 596
McLaughlin, SD 57642

FedEx, UPS and DHL ship to:

Pretty Bird Woman House
302 Sale Barn Rd.
McLaughlin SD 57642

Please spread the word!

(FIFTY-SIX PERCENT, YOU GUYS.)

*
And on a personal, stupid note, I am crazy addicted to Phase. CRAZY ADDICTED. It's like Guitar Hero, only I'm good at it! ALSO: I, I can play Solitaire ... on my iPod?

Anyway, it's a good thing I don't have a social life, 'cause that shit would seriously be cramping my game time.

An emergency hiatus has been declared for this livejournal and all outlying regions. An announcement will be made when the hiatus is lifted. Until such time, please remain calm. Stay indoors. Do not agitate the wildlife.

This is not a drill.

1. What is up, family crisis! It's good to see you again, old friend. Please feel free to exit the premises immediately.

2. Pretty Bird Woman House has raised 50% of the funds needed to establish a new shelter. Fifty percent! And it gets better, too: the Board of Directors for Pretty Bird Woman House has decided it's enough to start the process to purchase the desired house. Guys! This is fantastic news. (FIFTY PERCENT.)

If you're at all capable of donating something to PBWH, please consider doing so! They've another two months to reach the $70K needed and every little bit counts. (I know. I know. I couldn't think of a sharper way to phrase that sentiment and it's true, anyway, that every little bit counts. So. So there!)

3. Each time I pick my duck up he squawks and hunches his shoulders, and in my head I hear Daffy Duck hissing, "Sabotage!"

I felt this needed to be shared.

4. My Christmas wishlist is as follows:

• Snow.
  
• Snow!
  
• SNOW.

Don't you hold out on me, winter! *stern glare*

(PS Anybody complaining about snowfall can feel free to send every snowflake in my direction. I would be more than happy to take the ice and the slush and the beautiful, wonderful, TOTALLY AWESOME snow off your hands.)

5. Weekend, weekend, yay yay yay!

Well, now I'm just grossed out.

VoicePost 1017K 5:06

“Voice posts are fun, right? You get to hear funny accents if your friends are from far, far away. All we really want is to hear your voice, we don't care what you're saying. So here's a list of typical meme questions that would otherwise be boring, but when communicated aloud - well, it's entertaining. Answer these questions in your post, and encourage others with voice-posting abilities to do the same. 1) What's your name? 2) How old are you? 3) Where are you from? Are you living there right now? 4) Is it cold where you are? 5) What's the time? 6) What are you wearing? 7) What was the last thing you listened to? 8) What was the last thing you ate? 9) What was the last thing you watched on tv? 10) What's your favorite tv show? Why? 11) Quick! Find a book, or something with text on it! Flip to a random page and read some of it! GO! 12) What was the last movie you saw? How was it? 13) Do YOU think you have an accent? Talk about that.” Transcribed by: memlu

I am so ashamed.

Also: wow, my phone sucks so hard. I'm ... actually kind of amazed by how hard it sucks.