{look upon my works, ye mighty}

Snagged from yamievandar, who snagged it from misura who got it from alighiera, who nicked it from ariss_tenoh. Some of text has changed, but the basic point remains the same.

Her idea, is a one-sided private Yuletide, i.e. you get a story without having to write one in return. (This is a quote.) The rules are:

1. If you're on my FList, you get to play. If you're not on my FList but are reading this post, you also get to play.

2. You can request up to four different fandoms (or the same fandom four times, or whatever you want including crossovers as long as they are sensible i.e. do not require gigantic leaps of faith and suspension of doubt, reality and canon to work) - but please give me at least a character or pairing to work with and, if you wish, a phrase, setting, theme or whatever you want me to put in the story.

3. If there's something you absolutely want (or don't want) to see in your story, tell me.

4. You don't need to limit your requests to the fandoms I have listed below. Feel free to request any fandom at all, but keep in mind that the odds of me picking up a book are a lot better than the odds of me acquiring six seasons of a TV-show or a complete anime-series.

5. I will earnestly try to write at least one of your requests before the end of 2008.

The deadline for making requests is December 28th. The deadline for me to finish writing at least one of your requests is December 31st next year. My inner procrastinator likes this part quite a lot.

Also, if I owe anyone a GiftFic: I have probably forgotten what it is and lost the bunny for it. You can request it again here and it will be counted as part of the Yuletide thing. You can, of course, request something entirely different if you want. brownie_utonium and ceresi, you are exempted from this since I'm still working on your pieces.

My personal edit: If I can't write something, I'll graphic something up instead. Icons, banner, dolls, whatever. ♥ So you'll get SOMETHING, at least.

( current fandoms! )

My preference tends to be for writing slash, but I'm fine with het and femmeslash too! One caveat: No requests for explicit sex scenes, please. I tend to suck at those, and not in the fun way. ♥ Fade to black is Fickle's friend!

As usual, I am offering Xmas cards to anyone that wants them, though they might take a bit longer to arrive than usual since now I'm living in Europe instead of America.

If you want a card, drop me your address in a comment! Comments are screened, and if you're running a similar holiday card exchange, drop me a link and I'll throw my address your way.

Also, if you've got a card and a stamp to spare, Deviantart volunteers hand-deliver cards sent to dA to people in hospital. Easy way to spread holiday cheer! Or, alternatively, send a postcard to help a little girl with her school project.

Happy Holidays over a month early, everyone! *points at PM* She put her one up early, so I followed suit. It'll stop me from sending them out after Xmas, hopefully.

1) Sarah Palin talks to "Sarkozy". For those of you not in the know, that's the French President. Except it's not -- it's two guys from a Canadian radio show who get Palin to embarrass herself by gushing with fangirl-like enthusiasm over Sarkozy, probably in hopes of getting an endorsement or some overseas support. She hangs up when she realizes she's been tricked, unsurprisingly, but what worries me is that she didn't even realize the voice was wrong! I can recognize his voice and I'm definitely not in the running for Vice President of a major country.

2) Check Your Bias Here. A test from Harvard that identifies if you have an hidden bias where white/black people are concerned and the two American Presidential candidates. My results were a slight automatic preference for Black people over White people and a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama over John McCain.

Amusing, considering that I was taking this test thinking, "Yeah... Black versus White again. No South Asians involved." And slightly pouty over that. The black preference surprises me a lot more than Obama, since that one's obvious. Maybe it's because I live in Austria and I've yet to deal with racism from black people but have had plenty of it from Austrians, argh.

3) There's No One As Irish As Barack O'Bama! It's a song. Be warned, it's catchy. I still have it stuck in my head, days later!

4) I've gotten hooked on YGO: 5D's despite having refused to watch YGO GX. I blame the motorbikes. Ever since I heard that there are duels which take place while people are on MOTORBIKES, I've been itching to watch this series. And yes, this isn't a link, but there's more detail on my latest shameful fandom addiction ( under the cut )

First up is ager_sanguinis, asking when did 'intellectual' become a bad thing? Short, not-so-sweet and very cleverly pointing out that generally speaking, it's a good thing to have someone smarter than you in charge of important things like, say, running a country.

Secondly, read copperwise's run-down of who is Joe Six Pack and Cindy Soccer Mom. Hint: it's probably not who the label makes you think.

Thirdly, women don't vote for Sarah Palin because we're jealous. Really. Possibly, hopefully meant to be tongue-in-cheek but incredibly poorly done, if that's the case.

Balancing that out is Salon's article on the Sarah Palin pity party and why it won't wash with women who have even an ounce of self-respect. We are not IDing with Sarah Palin as she becomes more incompetent. Instead, we're thinking "Oh man, STOP MAKING MY GENDER LOOK BAD." Read this article. I swear, if you only have time to read ONE of my links, read that one. Media meta about how the media treats candidates fascinates me and this article is full of links and smart commentary.

Finally, take a look at exactly how little Palin knows and what her debate strategy is. It has a flowchart! Everyone loves flow charts.

Got anything you think I should be reading? Link me! Just because I'm back in Europe doesn't mean I want to suddenly miss out on all the election drama, especially since I fully intend to vote in the November elections anyway.

YAY ICONS! I woke up one morning with inspiration for an icon set floating about in my head, then spent most of a day working on them. Cue a set of 85 '[name] is my hero' icons. XD The icons are of various characters/groups from DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek and Misc. Characters featured included members of the Batfamily, the Supes, X-Men, Teen Titans, Outsiders, Green Lanterns, Spidey-world and many more.

Samples:

001

002

003

004

Choose your hero/ine here at icon_d! And if you can think of a hero/ine that'd icon well (as in, has a very recognizable symbol), then go ahead and suggest it via comments. I'm thinking of making an Avatar set and maybe a Naruto set, with the village and element signs, though that'd obviously be more for groups than for individual chars, alas.

Governor Palin has a Down's syndrome kid.

I know, I know, that doesn't seem like a reason for me to hate her. After all, I grew up with a handicapped sister, taught special ed kids, and am generally highly in favor of rights for disabled people.

But the thing is, Palin doesn't just have a Down's kid. She chose to have one. Early screening meant that she was warned that her baby had Down's syndrome but due to her stance on abortion, she decided to go ahead and have the child anyway.

STUPID. Stupid, stupid, stupid and selfish. So you're pro-life and refuse to abort this kid on principle? Congratulations, you've doomed him to a lifetime of suffering. A short lifetime, mind you, because most Down's kids have shorter lifespans and are highly susceptible to anything going around, but it's still pretty much a given that they're going to suffer for as long as they live. They won't be able to keep up with the other kids, they'll be developmentally stunted both physically and mentally and it's all your fault for having brought said kid into the world, knowing what he'd have to face.

In the class I taught, one girl called Sandy had Down's syndrome and about a month after I finished with her class, she died of pneumonia. Before that, she had to wear diapers all the time, and the aides had to take her into the bathroom to change her and wipe her ass, because she couldn't even manage that on her own. She couldn't talk normally, she was short and highly obese and even in the classroom full of special needs kids, she stuck out as even more hopeless than most. Sandy was 22 when she died, but she was about at the developmental stage of a 2-year-old, if that.

And this is the sort of child that Governor Palin thinks is a gift from God. This is the sort of life that she's going to cause the boy to lead, because she's too selfish to put aside her own views and think about what's honestly best for the child.

Apart from which, you know what? She has no business running for VP if she has a disabled kid.

Nobody with a disabled kid should be taking on a public office job that has a huge time commitment, because there's no way that they can do that and take care of their child at the same time. My parents both worked full-time, had a live-in nurse, a live-in maid and an older daughter who took care of herself (me), and even they worked themselves to the bone to take care of my sister. I refuse to believe that Palin can juggle four kids, a Down's syndrome kid, and the job of being VP all at once; there's no way she can manage it and still give her kids the attention they need, especially the disabled one.

Obama's choice of VP is 'meh', because for a guy who talks about CHANGE all the time, he went with a really traditional Old White Male choice.

McCain's choice? Thoroughly despicable. Even putting aside the anti-abortion, anti-contraception (wtf, has she never heard of AIDS?) issues, I have no respect for anyone who would deliberately bring a child into the world, knowing that child's life will be filled with nothing but suffering. No respect AT ALL.

Edit: If you want to know more about the political stances that Palin has, check out ilyena_sylph's post here where she lays out on the line all the reasons why no liberal female should think that Palin's likely to be on their side.

It's International Blog Against Racism Week. Exams are killing my free time at the moment, but I wanted to share a quick note from my Harlem Renaissance class.

Toni Morrison, while teaching a class my professor took, pointed out that a white author, when trying write from a PoC's pov, wrote, "My black skin glinted in the sunlight" and that no black person would actually look down at their skin and think that.

It took me a second to figure out what she was saying but you know, she's right. In the mornings, do you think "I have to brush my blonde hair" or "I must rub lotion into my pink skin"? Unless you've been reminded that you're Other because of your skin color, or you're sunburnt, you are very unlikely to use an adjective to describe its color.

Apart from which, black? Really? Who actually has black skin? Brown, yes. Dark, dark brown, yes. Ebony, sure. Actual matte black, to the point that you look at it and think with no irony or cultural labeling, 'black'?

Which of the following two sentences makes more sense to you?

My skin itches.

OR

My black skin itches.

Personally, the first rings a lot more like something I'd actually think and less like clumsy writing.

So! Quick, friendly tip to anyone out there thinking of writing a Character of Color: Don't constantly bring up their skin color for no reason except to prove it's a CoC.

It's great you're writing CoCs. It really is. Just be careful not to over-emphasize the physical differences in case it ends up sounding jarringly wrong.

And on a totally different note, basic accounts are back! The news post actually had some good news for a change.

Contraception defined as abortion?!

What. The. Fuck.

Are they INSANE? What about all those countries all over the world that need American aid money, and women's clinics? What are they supposed to do, just hand out Pap smears and advocate pulling out? The global gag rule is bad enough. This? This is just beyond STUPID.

The world is already suffering from overpopulation. The last thing we need is more unwanted, unplanned-for babies.

Tell that to President Bush, and if you've got the cash to spare, make a donation to help Planned Parenthood fight it.

My 22nd birthday is coming up on the 10th of July, aka Thursday.

However, the 10th July is also going to be the six-month anniversary of my sister's death, so I'd prefer that all well-wishes, gifts, surprise phone calls, etc, are held off until the 11th.

Thanks.

(I know it seems kinda conceited to mention it, as if everyone knows when my birthday is and was planning something for it, but I just got reminded that livejournal sends out automatic notifications of birthdays, and I didn't want well-intentioned well-wishes to go to waste just because I crawl into my shell every 10th of every month.)

On a happier note, if you have absolutely no idea what I'd like, write me slash fic for Neal and Cameron from this episode of Cold Case. They only appear on that one ep, all the backstory of their lives is right there, and if you just watch that ep, you'll know everything about them necessary. Trigger warnings for mall massacre and attempted rape.

And on a non-triggery, very awesome note: TADA!



Most unintentionally gay icon ever. I blame Savior and all his talk of Lafayette slash.

You mentioned you wanted Batman Beyond icons, so here's a bunch of them. Pick and choose whatever you like, credit to icon_d preferably, and keep being your utterly awesome self. And writing that addictive Terry/Ryuuji story because OHMYGOD am I ever in love with it. XD

( Some jobs are just too tough for Batman. That's when Terry McGinnis swings into action! )