dangerously overeducated

Because I want to sign up for bsg_remix and the mods are SOO DEMANDING. ;)

( All my fic in one handy post )

Headed South for the weekend, hopefully to find some sun. See, you southerners (<-- includes NY, apparently) can say what you want about how bad the heat is; cold and rainy weather with no sunlight in July makes me start to feel like this. ;) Am taking Farscape with me, and some of the remix fics I haven't had a chance to read yet. A couple quick things:

- Does anyone want to do the HB(adass)IC post for Katara for the next round? I've never seen the show, so I'm sure anything I'd come up with would be lacking, though there's always Wikepedia. No pressure; only if it's something you'd enjoy.

- I wanted to put together a recs list for bsg_remix fics, but I've honestly been blown away by the quality of nearly all of the stories. I'd be reccing almost everything I've read! So for now I'll just recommend you head over there and pick anything that looks interesting. Odds are you won't go wrong.

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS YOU GUYS.

Check out karathracelives, a new Kara/Starbuck comm by the lovely and amazing taragel. "But Allie," you say, "there are already three or four Starbuck comms which no one ever uses. In fact, you yourself have noted, to your great dismay, that the frakking Bill Adama comm gets more action than any of the Starbuck comms."

"Yes," I reply. "But this one will be different. For one thing, it's taragel, and for another, it's starting off with not one but TWO gen-fic challenges. See, since the last time we've discussed this, I've had this theory that the reason no one's been able to get a Kara comm going, while Lee, Laura, and frakking Bill Adama comms all seem to thrive, is shipping. Maybe? I mean, afaik, Kara's the only character as to whom there's any real fandom divide as to who you ship her with. There was some interest in Lee/Dee initially before canon sent all but a few die-hards screaming, and ditto with Caprica/Tigh, though maybe with not as much screaming. But while Kara/Lee will always be one of the two ships that ate fandom, there are substantial groups that ship her with both Sam and Leoben. And shipping can be so fractious that all the Kara fans just end up hiding out in their little shipper groups and no one is left to appreciate our girl. So the fact that this comm is gen-focused means it'll be like fannish Switzerland and it'll be awesome. BUT ANYHOW, COMM. You can go here, right here to leave a prompt for the first gen-fic battle. If it's successful there may even be one later for all the female characters. <3

I'm also happy about this because it'll let me practice my Kara gen-writing skills. So far, I've written three totally gen fics and started two others, and all of the ones I've written were almost entirely focused on other female characters, and so is one of my half-finished ones. (The other has Kara, but only as part of the ensemble.) I fail! Maybe because she's such a complex character, and I'm such a snob about her characterization that I don't want to suck at it myself. *g* Easier to write her from Lee or Sam's perspective; I can relate to them as fellow fans. :D But anyway, practice, yaay. Hmm, I should probably close this fake quote, shouldn't I? *does*"

The gods must have heard me gloating about the three whole days of gorgeous summer weather, because now not only is it back to being cold and pouring down rain, but my roof is leaking. All over the sofa. =(

1. I forgot to tag my last HBIC post, after saying I would for the non-flisters playing along. Arrgh. Too bad, because I think letting you subscribe to a tag is one of the cooler things LJ does. [You click the little safety pin at the top of the entry, then deselect "notify me when someone comments" and choose "notify me when Whoever posts an entry tagged..."] and pick the tag you want. I took crack_van off my default filter a while ago, but I get a little email notification every time someone posts a new entry with a BSG tag. Sadly, this doesn't work if you go back to add the tag later.

2. I have to wonder a little bit about all the people who can vote for less than the maximum number of characters. ;p I have a hard enough time restricting my self to seven!! [Beloved female characters; like potato chips, in a way.]

3. In my defense, I was getting ready to go into town to see the fireworks. Had a fabulous time. My brother and his other half were actually just feet away from my group, we later ascertained, but we didn't see each other, it was so crowded. Really beautiful display, impressively synchronized with the music. I... had a far better time than some of my flist, alas. *hugs lyssie*

4. What is a job that people might have had on New Caprica?

5. I kind of want to post about the whole now pretty much defunct yet still unresolved warnings kerfluffle. I just need to figure out what exactly I think. ;) Since as is so often the case, my reaction to all but the wankiest 10% on both sides is pretty much "I agree, but..." I'm also not sure exactly to what extent the whole thing even applies to BSG fandom, for various reasons. One of them being... we're not a very fandomy-fandom, if that makes sense. The major controversies all seem to pass us by unscathed. I'm pretty sure this is mostly a good thing!

6. We FINALLY have summer weather.

7. I've fallen behind in my plans to read and review all the bsg_remix fics. Sometime before the reveal, I want to post (flocked, most likely) my guesses as to who wrote what, just for fun, and see how it matches up. :D

8. We FINALLY have summer weather. :D

First, happy Fourth of July my fellow Americans fellow US flisters! Before I go stake out a space in the mud to see the fireworks, ready for round two? Last weeks's poll was very close, and this week we're celebrating two particular HBIC's. Huge thanks to aphrodite_mine and karat0kat, who helped me (read: did all the work) put together their celebration posts. Please feel free to comment with pictures, squee, recs, links, anything you'd like to share some of the awesomeness of these two characters.

A quick reminder before you vote of the four rules

1. One vote per person. This wasn't such a big deal in the nomination round, since those characters would have made it to the poll anyway, and the enthusiasm was kind of cute. *g* But now that we're actually voting, no socks or RP journals, yeah? Obviously this'll be tough for me to police, but let's all be cool.

2. As I mentioned in my previous entry, please keep in mind that this poll is strictly a popularity contest, not a referendum on which character is really the best. See previous post for my Thoughts On This Subject. *g* And the popularity itself is just a quirk of who happens to be reading my journal on a given day.

3. To that end, no disparaging comments about any of the nominees! No "how can SHE still be on the list if SHE got kicked off," no nothing.

4. Also, no feeling sad if your favorite gets eliminated? Remember, they wouldn't be on here in the first place if multiple people didn't think they were totally kickass.

( HBICs and Round Two Poll )

*unchecks 'notify me when someone votes in a poll' option*

Over 100 votes so far! Awe.Some. Keep 'em coming.

P.S. If you're not on my flist and worried about missing a round, you can click on the little pin at the top of the post that says "track this." Then deselect "notify me when someone comments" and check the middle box, which gives you the option of getting a notification whenever I post an entry with a particular tag. Then choose the ""head badass in charge" tag. I'll try to remember to tag every poll entry "head badass in charge" before I post. Since I do often forget and have to go back and add the tags, I can't guarantee this'll work perfectly, but I will try.

... Did that make sense?

Sorry about that! Let me know if this one's not letting people vote either.

Okay, ready for Round #1 :D?

Below the cut I've listed the 25 nominees with the most votes. I highly encourage everyone to read through the comments of the nomination post. There are lots of kickass female characters from books or tv shows you might not be familiar with, and you can never have too many heroines.

If you want to play in round one, pick your top 8 favorites from the list below. Those with the least votes will be eliminated celebrated each round until we've gone through the entire list. When a character gets eliminated, I may contact the person who nominated her to see if s/he'd like to help put together the celebration post for that character, (especially if it's a character I don't know.) No obligations though! And everyone is more than invited to jump in the comments with pictures/meta/recs/squee for that character. Think of this more as an interactive celebration than a contest. :)

Okay, a few rules:

1. One vote per person. This wasn't such a big deal in the nomination round, since those characters would have made it to the poll anyway, and the enthusiasm was kind of cute. *g* But now that we're actually voting, no socks or RP journals, yeah? Obviously this'll be tough for me to police, but let's all be cool.

2. As I mentioned in my previous entry, please keep in mind that this poll is strictly a popularity contest, not a referendum on which character is really the best. See previous post for my Thoughts On This Subject. *g* And the popularity itself is just a quirk of who happens to be reading my journal on a given day.

3. To that end, no disparaging comments about any of the nominees! No "how can SHE still be on the list if SHE got kicked off," no nothing.

4. Also, no feeling sad if your favorite gets eliminated? Remember, they wouldn't be on here in the first place if multiple people didn't think they were totally kickass.

I know that all sounds very "everybody gets a trophy," but seriously, with this list? Everybody gets a fucking trophy. :D

( Click For Poll! )

( reaction spoilers )

Quick heads-up: I'm going to try to get the first round of HBIC (Head Badass In Charge) up tomorrow morning. All the different threads are highly recommended reading. I just want to let you know that getting to a top 15 that will fit in an LJ poll is going to be VERY CLOSE. There are a lot of ties/characters who just need one or two more votes to get them to safety. *whistles innocently*

omg don't make me pick

So on the one hand, I dislike things like the HBIC poll, or "top 20 female characters" lists, etc. And the reason I dislike them is that they contribute to this fannish mentality that you can only like/love/appreciate ONE female character at a time, and that a good way to show your appreciation is to tear down any other female characters who "threaten" your favorite's popularity.

I mean, it's one thing to have "who's the best Star Trek captain" with the Kirk fans battling it out with the Sisko fans, but to have a contest where the only thing the characters have in common is being female? I have issues with that. Especially since I don't think I've ever seen a discussion of awesome female characters that didn't involve massive, er, bitching about other beloved female characters.

But on the other hand, I love these things because you get to celebrate beloved female characters! So I was a little disappointed by this turn of events. But whatever, the OP s entitled to do her own thing the way she wants. I'm just not that interested in participating.

In any event, would anyone else be interested in doing a mini-version over here? The rules would be:

1. Only fictional characters,
2. Only female fictional characters,
3. [Being wildly optimistic and assuming I get enough comments for a poll:} Unlike voting for Homecoming Queen, keep in mind that this is strictly a popularity contest. Not an actual referendum on who's the "best."

So, if you want to play, leave a comment here with the name of your nominee in the subject line and a little bit about her epic badassery. If you want to second (third, fourth, etc) a nomination, reply to the thread for that character. If I get enough, I'll do a "badass poll," kind of like the "hotness polls," in that I'll try to do a quick picspam/celebration of whichever characters get voted out that week. If not enough people nominate, then oh well, we've still got a thread about female characters we love, yes?

*hopes at least one other person wants to play*

Comment Here!

ETA: First round is here

So, you know that Battlestar/Twilight crossover we've been hankering for ever since we realized the striking similarities between Leoben Connoy and a certain sparkly vampire? Ask, and you shall receive. This whole thing had me giggling hysterically, from the Prologue: Three things I knew for certain. One, Leoben Edward Cylon was a robot. Two, a part of him, and I didn’t know how strong that part was, thirsted to destroy the human race. And three, I was completely in love with him., to the Cullen Tigh-Cylon family and their seven adopted children, to the way that even Bella-fied Kara drives an old beat-up Hummer out to the shooting range when sulking over her distant piano-player father's neglect. Pure gold.

Read it now!

Ever have one of those times when there are a million little things you should be doing, and you don't know where to start, so you don't do any of them? That's my today. It doesn't help that a few of the Things I Must Do are of the anxiety provoking kind. * vague sigh*

Some personal stuff ( under here )

Links!

I found this via metafandom: The Making of a Wank, by alyburns. I'm not involved with the fandom and don't know any of the players, but the situation seems fairly universal. It's so easy and so tempting to jump straight into the outraged dog-pile without knowing all of the facts, or even any of the facts. Incidents like this are a good reminder that sometimes, that's a mistake. The saying "links or it didn't happen" is there for a reason.

Via merrykk: best idea for a Semi-crack Kara vid ever. The pigeon, the frakking pigeon! This needs to exist.

Via taragel and senatorsfan_ink: the realization that Leoben = Edward Cullen. You guys. This crossover needs to happen.

I love my flist. :D

Vidders out there: emmiere and I have a question for you. If someone recs your vid, assuming they don't embed or direct link as either of those would be against the rules, do you have a preference as to where they link? LJ post, Youtube, other external hosting site? Your own website, if you have one? What's the etiquette here? I'm assuming LJ post is best for bsgvidrecs purposes, as most people following the comm probably have LJs, and would be most apt to comment via LJ. (I know I, personally, keep setting up Youtube accounts to comment on vids and forgetting the name/password, I do it so infrequently.)

Remix fic due in two days. AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh, deadlines. Without you, I would hardly ever get anything done. With you, I just hardly ever get anything done when I plan.

On a happier note, a good portion of my flist is going to Dragon Con this year. *glees* For those of you who know you're going, and would like to meet up in person, I thought I'd put together a D*C filter so we can plan stuff, like maybe all getting together for dinner one night. Let me know if you'd like to be on it. I don't bite, I promise. I won't even throw my drink at you if you praise the finale. ;)

Poll #1417683 Dragon Con!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Would you like to be on my D*C filter?

I don't have a lot to say about Cyborgs on the Horizon that hasn't been covered better elsewhere, but I will say this: fandom people are awesome. Especially proggrrl, who actually didn't get to go to the event because she was stuck at work, but still let me crash at her place, and thumb through her copy of the Battlestar Yearbook. (And also introduced me to the strongest iced coffee in the world the following morning; that stuff kept me going all day!) I also loved getting to hang out with nicole_anell <3, and getting to meet vulcanfic (who helped me find my way to Brooklyn, thank you!), nnaylime, and dianora2 (who also let me steal her french fries). I also met other people whose LJ names I didn't get, if they have them, but it was great meeting them too!

What I remember from the panel: ( very tiny spoilers for the Plan trailer they showed )

Short write-up on Cyborgs on the Horizon to come, but for now, emmiere and I bring you: bsgvidrecs, open for business. If interested, you are more than welcome to join/watch/pimp to your flists. Really, I cannot emphasize that enough. [Well, at least, not without coming right out and saying 'zomgpleasejoinourcomm,' which wouldn't be very suave. *g*]

OUR OFFICIAL WRITE-UP:

Once upon a time there was an idea born of the proven fact that BSG vidders create many awesome vids. Tragically, there was no place to gather and celebrate this, and thus bsgvidrecs was born.

This comm works exactly how you'd expect. Love a vid? Want to tell everyone why this vid deserves their admiration and possible sacrificial offerings? Post it here. We may have reached the end of the show, but the party's not over yet. Let's not let it end.

Membership is open and all members can post. If you have a list of favorite vids as long as your arm and don't know where to begin, consider signing up as a guest-reccer. Every Friday we'll throw the doors open for a Fandom-Free-For-All where members can rec vids from any fandom they like.

Please see our profile for community rules and posting guidlines.

So, join, rec, and pimp the comm like crazy. We'd love to have you!"

Hey Flist! Just a quick note to let you know that I'm going to NY to see Mary McDonnell and Michael Hogan and hang out with nicole_anell and proggrrl so you should be so jealous of me I will hopefully get around to answering comments and stuff on Sunday. Not ignoring you! Wish me luck navigating the transit system...

ETA: If anyone else is going to see Cyborgs On The Horizen, let me know! I love meeting fandom friends in real life. ;)

Holy crap, this was just supposed to be two quick, mildly bitchy thoughts and turned into kind of an all-purpose rant about Laura in 4.5, anon memes, animal abuse, The Decline of Our Language, and misuse of the word "triggering." o.0 ... Fair warning?
( Cut for length and bitchiness )

Er, that's all for now! *blush* I'm off to go... pick a flower or something.

So, I am currently in a state of shock and inner turmoil because a friend said to me, as a sidenote to a completely unrelated conversation, that Katee Sackhoff fans make up only a tiny minority of our fandom. Tell me, Flist, IS THIS TRUE? I've always been under the impression that there were a lot of us. I know my flist is not exactly a representative sample of the Fandom At Large, but, I thought she was fairly adored on TWoP?? Of course, so are Mary and Tricia. And she gets her share of hate, but most of it is tinged with a sulky "I don't see why everyone loves her"-ness which makes it seem like the hate is partly a reaction to her popularity.

In a nutshell, my impression has been that KS is quite popular, but that she also tends to attract more fanatical haters than any other cast member. First it was the TOSSers who sent her death threats and flamed her when she posted on the Skiffy boards. Now it's a subset of shippers who are Absolutely Convinced that she brought Michael Trucco onboard (single-handedly!) as a beard to disguise her mad love for Jamie Bamber and that's why Kara and Lee never got together and also why Lee had nothing to do in Season Four. The bitch. ;) But the haters just seem to make the fans that much more ardent.

So TELL ME FLIST, for I must know.

Poll #1413632 A Very Important Question
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

In the context of BSG fandom, Katee Sackhoff fans make up:

KARA THRACE is the ultimate HBIC</texarea>

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FYI, half the women on the series are in there somewhere, but Starbuck will always be the HBIC of my heart. <3 So go vote for her!