A Nothing Trail of Silences

A question to my sensitive-skinned sisters out there: what product(s) do you use? Every since Oil of Olay randomly discontinued their sensitive-skin soaps, I've been trying to find a good alternative.

"Use Dove," is generally the advice I receive. However, despite their Real Beauty campaign, they (Unilever) also sell skin bleaching creams overseas. That's just not something I'm willing to support, even by proxy, so Dove is out. Avene makes a non-soap cold cream bar that I really like, but it's a little pricey, and bar soap just isn't ideal for the showers at the gym.

Anyone have any suggestions, store bought, homemade, or otherwise?


In other news: I have a passport and a plane ticket! I now have the legal ability and practical means to leave the country. Also, perhaps more importantly, to reenter it.

I am finally caught up on my email! However, I have become aware that it is acting a tad glitchy. As such:

If you have sent me an email within the last month (or two, or three) that I have not responded to, I did not receive it. Please feel free to poke me with a stick.

In other news, there was that meme going around about how we don't know each other, and we should ask each other questions. I didn't participate, as one of my favourite past-times is disappearing for long periods of time for no externally penetrable reason.

For the record, it's always pretty much open season for questions for me. Life, vidding, writing, favourite tea, school, work, the last thing I took pictures of. After all -- when people interact with me, it makes me feel like I have friends!

I was still holding out some hope that my inability to view embedded streaming video from iMeem was a glitch.

However, via dreamrequiem

"This week, we’re making some changes to imeem’s video embed and video upload policies. Starting today, only videos from official artist profiles and the imeem jukebox can be embedded and played beyond imeem. This means you’re no longer able to take videos that you or other users have uploaded and embed them for playback on widgets outside imeem.com. We have also limited the length of video uploads to eight minutes each."

This is exceedingly unfortunate. Does anyone have a different service that they use? Preferably with a higher-quality image than YouTube, and one not prone to pulling vids/deleting accounts.

Bueller? Bueller?

So: Anyone still looking for a roommate for VividCon?

Oh my goodness, I was offered a scholarship to VVC. This is absolutely, fantastically amazing -- not to mention entirely unexpected and completely confounding. I'm so tickled that I think my purple prose is about to go ultraviolet.

This is a) exciting, b) exciting, because vidding and meeting people and c) frightening (because these are Real Vidders we are talking about here). It might be a situation where my natural extroversion has to battle it out with my neurotic insecurities. It'll be a caged death match, and hopefully my gregariousness will wipe my insecurities' smug little faces all over the floor. I could sell tickets.

In all seriousness though: thank you to whomever nominated me. You're amazing.

If anyone knows someone who might still be looking for a roommate, I'd greatly appreciate a heads-up. Right now, I'm looking at coming in on the Friday (EDIT: Thursday), and leaving on the Monday. The Monday bit is negotiable, though. If I leave on Sunday, I'd have to take off before the shows were over to make it through the international terminal. That, and this way I can go to a museum on Monday!

It would be such a shame to be in Chicago for the first time (and my second time in the states) and not spend a bit of time out and about. I mean -- the Shedd Aquarium! The Field Museum of Natural History! Tell me I'm not the only one interested? We don't have these things hereabouts.

Oh my goodness: VVC YAY.

Also: Anyone want to meet up with me at some point, if they're not all ready booked up? Or do people run on a more zen sort of philosophy?

I finally saw this new-fangled Star Trek movie everyone else already appears to have watched.

( Star Trek #? )

Does anyone know what's happening with iMeem? I was attempting to watch an embedded vid, and instead of playing it when I pressed said 'play' button, it popped up with a screen that says "This video is not available for viewing in an embedded player. Please click here to view it at www.imeem.com."

I checked my videos, and they're all showing the same message. I double checked a vid I had no problem watching the other day, and it showed with the same message. When I went back to iMeem to see if the code had changed, it no longer offered me the option to embed the video. I haven't been able to find any news on the main site, so I was wondering if anyone has an inkling of what's going on.

I see a couple of possibilities: 1) this is a glitch; 2) I've missed something glaringly obvious; 3) iMeem has disabled embedded streaming, possibly to decrease loads and save money.

I'm hoping it's 1) or 2), but I was wondering if anyone else was having similar problems.

Hi guys!

So: in case this is news to anyone, sometimes I fail at the internet. Or at least at updating the internet.

I am on DreamWidth as Cherry. I know how most people feel about people changing pseudonyms midstream (I share your pain, because keeping it all straight can be far more complex than one might expect of internet anonymity), but the opportunity to ditch the 'Ice' was just too tempting.

Seriously, if anyone you ever know decides it's a good idea to get into fandom at 15, please, for the love of all that's good, make sure they don't end up as a fruit-flavoured snow cone.*

There is nothing up there yet, at least not until I run over and cross post this entry, due to my aforementioned 'failing at the internet.' If however, you find my intermittent failures to fail amusing, you know where I am at over there. If you've been looking for a way to avoid me entirely -- at least you know where to avoid me twice?

In conclusion: I have five invite codes if anyone still needs them. I think my attempt to buy friends may be somewhat belated, but they are available to those who may still desire them.



* This was of course not the intent -- the point is that there was very, very little in the way of intent involved.</i>

Have you ever had one of those nights when you suddenly, surprisingly realize that it's 5:30 in the morning, and you just spent the last 7 hours on YouTube, watching a sub-titled German soap opera about cute boys in love?

Yeah, no, me either.

Amazon Rank

For those such as myself just finding out about this: Amazon has begun stripping the sales rankings and figures from books that include a) erotica, or b) LGBTQ content. While they will still show up on directed searches, this means they are very unlikely to turn up in content searches, through general browsing, or in any best-seller lists they have earned their way onto.

Under the argument that they are removing 'adult content' from general perusal they have stripped the rankings from works including young adult novels, general fiction, non-fiction, self-help books, and autobiographies that contain gay/lesbian content. There's a separate argument to be made regarding the censoring of adult content; of particular concern, however, is the clear extension of this policy to non-explicit, non-erotic works.

There's a list of growing scope here, Dear Author covers the story here, and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books discusses the Google Bombing here.

So, a majority of people appear to be migrating to DreamWidth. I, however, am not cool enough to do so. (Is anyone else having flashbacks to when LJ was invite-only?)

I have recently (re)rediscovered that I have Twitter -- the second last entry was from last summer, lamenting my early-onset senility for forgetting it the first time. Note: I am neither witty nor erudite at the best of times, and apparently brevity is not the soul of my personal wit.



In other news, I am staring blankly at Final Cut Pro. I would dearly like to actually vid something, however, I appear to be at this strange crossroads of over-inspiration. I have so many ideas that none of them are actually speaking to me, or inspiring me, severely curtailing my ability to actually work on them.

Slow Down Gandhi by obsessive24, BSG.

BSG is a show that lends itself to brilliant vids, and this one clearly stands out, even amongst them. It's obsessive24, so you know that it's smart and gorgeous. The vid is an alternate reading of the show: it's the working poor and the emerging aristocracy, it's those outside the chain of command, it's those on the fringes of Adama and Roslin's circle of family. It's Gaeta and Zarek's coupe, and why the unrest won't just go away.

It's an insightful, blistering commentary, and while you may not agree, it will certainly make you think..

Full disclosure: I was lucky enough to be one of her betas for this, but I'm fairly certain I'm not biased. She's really just that awesome.

A lot of you may remember the the Avatar casting debacle, in which the entire cast of a show inspired by, designed around, and in homage to various Asian and Inuit cultures, was whitewashed. Initial announcement includes: some random white kid from Texas they found at a martial arts contest as Aang, and Jesse McCartney as Zuko.

This was followed by Hai guyz, calm down, we found this, like, Sokka-looking fellow to play Zuko.

Now they've announced Fire Nation casting. On the one had: at least they're not all white. On the other, it appears that it's the 'bad guys,' the antagonists, the (arguably) whitest-looking nation, that gets to avoid the whitewashing.

Are there words for this, to sum up the massive fail? Because I am sure as hell having hard time finding any.

For those who haven't seen the series, there's a gorgeous pictoral overview at aang_aint_white illustrating show's visual dynamic.

It has been almost two whole years since I posted my first vid! As such, I have decided that this is going to be the year I stop being afraid of Real Vidders. Real Vidders are scarily talented and intelligent, and I sometimes feel awkward even leaving feedback for them. Even as a relative newbie, I fully realize that this is patently ridiculous; hence my decision to attempt to amend my awkward ways.

As part of this, I closed my eyes and made a thread at this year's Great Vidding Truth meme.

I didn't do a year end vidding meme because when I took a close look, my three vids totaled up to less than 8 minutes. I am, however, going to blather on a bit about ( my vidding over the last two years, which is of interest only to me, but may be helpful for me to articulate. )

Title: Unsteady Ground
Fandom: Merlin
Music: Unsteady Ground - Catherine Feeny
Summary: Morgana can see the shape of things to come. (Morgana, Ensemble)

Links: Download (42 MB, DIVX, zipped) | Stream (BAM) | Stream (Blip)

( Streaming Embedded )

( Lyrics )

( Notes )

Dear Final Cut Pro,

Why did you decide to crash as I was making final changes to my Merlin vid? And why did you, in doing so, decide to corrupt my project file? If I did not have an duplicated version of the last draft, you and I would be throwing down.

Please keep this in mind for our future encounters.

No love,
Cherry

Title: Life in a Glass House
Fandom: Entourage
Warnings: R for language.
Notes: Written for black_eyedgirl in Yuletide 2008. It was my first attempt at this fandom as well, but it's a bit farther outside my usual, irregular fannish circles. It has been fun, if rather nerve-wracking.

Eric is too young to be having a midlife crisis.

It's the same fucking thing every time.
Read at the Yuletide archive or here: ( Life in a Glass House )

Title: A Mirror of the Trackless Sky
Fandom: Watchmen
Notes: Written for Essie in Yuletide 2008. lyssie provided a fantastic beta for me, despite lack of familiarity with the fandom.


They are a reflection of Veidt's brave new world.

Read at the Yuletide archive, or here: ( A Mirror of the Trackless Sky )

I had the chance to write two pieces this year, both in fandoms I'd never gotten a crack at before. Those two posts are to follow.

I'm afraid I failed to compile a recs list before author names went live, but I really want to take a chance to mention the absolutely amazing stories I received.


This year, my request was in the 'Three remaining unfilled requests' list up until the last minute. I think this means I was somewhat troublesome for the fantastic organizers, for which I am sorry. On a selfish level, however, I have no problem with this whatsoever: it means I got four absolutely amazing stories. Three were Chronicles of the Kencyrath: That Which Preserves, a lush piece with gorgeous undertones, in which Kindrie contemplates the mercy of murder; the warm A Quiet Place, in which Kindrie finally gets a much-deserved moment of peace (<33); and Sins of the Fathers, a short, sharp, and chilling bit of reflection. I also received a Mambo Italiano piece, You Mixed Up Siciliano, which is a fabulous post-movie piece with a Nino who's finally come to terms with himself reaching out to the one friend who'd understand.

Hurrah for Yuletide!

A Yuletide recs post is still in the works. The crop of stories this year was amazing.

Oh mightly FList, you were indeed right about Merlin. I watched the first half of the season and I'm afraid I was amused without being overly impressed. I heard it took a while to find its footing, however, and I gave the back half of the season a shot.

This was indeed where things got awesome. Motivations! More Morgana! Joyously bad CGI! No pretense of mythological accuracy! (Although, I think the lack of concern for mythology/historical accuracy was firmly established in the first episode with the presence of strawberries and sandwiches.)

If anyone has any Merlin-related recommendations, they would be greatly appreciated. From my initial perusal, the fandom appears to be heavily Merlin/Arthur. This is acceptable, but I'm also quite interested in Morgana, gen, het, etc., etc.

In no way did I just download The Mists of Avalon for more source footage of, well, the mists of Avalon.

Holy crap, my stove just caught fire.

I turned on a burner, looked down at the pan, and observed a bit more of the red spectrum of light than I was expecting. "This is odd," I thought to myself, and removed the pan from the burner.

It appears that said pan was disrupting the flow of oxygen, as this caused flames to come shooting out from beneath the burner. After turning off the burner, frantic blowing was eventually enough to extinguish the fire.

Now, the thing that is throwing me is that there was no visible fuel source. The flames appeared to be originating along the side of the clean burner lining. There was no build up of oils, nor were cleaning products present.

I suppose a magical stove fire is as good a way to start the holidays as any?