I love being me

Take a look at this charming news from synecdochic about LJ's decision to make Gender a mandatory field and only allow the options “Male” or “Female.”

Even if I didn't have friends who identify as transgender or genderqueer, I'd still be disgusted by LJ's shortsighted and, quite frankly, hateful decision, because...what will our next mandatory binary choice be? “Black or White?” “Christian or Atheist?” How many ways can you imagine you being written out of the equation?

Read the relevant linked posts, consider changing your gender listing to unspecified' while you still can (if you haven't already done it), and consider – one more time – whether it might not be smarter to leave LJ once and for all.

This entry was originally posted at http://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/520163.html. | read comments at Dreamwidth. | How to use OpenID

Who: Alyssa Higurashi and Karl Whedon
What: Backdated - Alyssa goes Hospital AWOL and Karl's not happy about it.
Where: Dallas Hospital
When: November 16th, late evening; after this phone call
Warnings: Possible language

( Read more... )

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1514171.html

Title: Best Part of Believe is the Lie
Author: alifeofourown
Pairings: Kyle/Caleb (Forever the Sickest Kids), Alex/Jack (All Time Low), Gabe/William (Cobra Starship/The Academy Is...), possible other
Rating: Teen
Summary: Kyle was never going to get better and he knew that. That's why he did this. That's why he had to lie.
Warnings: Postcards, Confusion, Gabilliam love
Disclaimer: If you found this thanks to Googling yourself or someone Googling you for you, turn the fuck back around. Thanks. :D
Beta: havah24601
Dedication: Any Kyleb, Jalex or Gabilliam lovers who dare to read my insanity.
Author Note: It's a Monday! Tomorrow I'm spending my entire day Christmas shopping for the three (or more) people in my life who mean the absolute most to me. For those who I'm not allowed to ship presents to, fics are delivered. Anyone want a Xmas Fic? Poke me in a comment or ask for one in a message! I'll write you a Christmas fic!
Title credit to Fall Out Boy, cut credit to DHT

Master Post

Listen to your heart

Some of the guys either next door or across the courtyard are yelling excitedly every once in a while. Based on the timing, it sorta sounds more like a football thing than a basketball thing.

In other news, I have a headache and I hate hate hate social anxiety. The amount of time I had to spend talking myself into making a simple phone call is ridiculous and absurd. On the good side, I made it and have an appointment with an optometrist on Saturday, the day before we leave.

Who: Dave Henderson and Dylan Hayes.
What: One last bit o' fluff.
Where: Dylan's apartment.
When: Tuesday night.
Warnings: Possible drug use, language, sexuality. Lots of cuteness.

( Dave wanted it to last forever. )

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1513898.html

Title: Perfect
Author: randomepiphany
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Brendon/Jon (secondary Spencer/Ryan)
POV: Brendon (third)
Summary: It's Christmas, and everything is perfect.
Disclaimer: The worlds I build exist entirely inside my head, and any similarity to real life is wholly a figment of your fevered imagination.
Beta: xbeax, the_randomist, sharpisignature
Author Notes: This is sheer, unadulterated fluff. Sweet like candy-floss, with twoo wuv and boy-cuddles for all. Consider yourself warned.

Click for fic.

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1513594.html

Title: How to survive a zombie apocalypse
Author: alles_luege
Pairing: Jon/Disashi
Rating: PG -13
Summary: Maybe it was because Jon was stoned at the time, or maybe it was because zombies don't fucking exist that he didn't believe Disashi a single word.
“Chapter one: Find out if it's the slow kind or those that can also run,” he reads out loud.
“I think we can skip that one,” Jon says, inhaling deeply.
Warning(s): zombies, mentions of sex, apocalypse
Author’s Notes: Sorry for posting so late! Inspired by Game One's 'How do I survive a zombie apocalypse'. Also; Jon might be for some of you totally out of character, but this is zombie-apocalypse-fic; everyone would be a bit stressed. *laughs * Part of the Advent-calendar (Day 14).
Word Count: 1.984
Beta: figilio_vampiri
Disclaimer: Don’t know, don’t own, not real.

How to survive a zombie apocalypse

After dealing with an unpleasant and hurtful situation, I'm feeling rather "bah, humbug" about fandom holiday festivities right now (nothing to do with Snupin Santa, btw), and I don't know how to rekindle my enthusiasm. I think what I need to do is take a few days off from HP, focus on my Yuletide story, knit up a storm, watch holiday movies, and bake cookies.

The good news is that I've almost wrapped up the semester. It's only "almost" because of course someone forgot to attach their exam material to the email they sent me and is now pitching a fit because they're getting a late penalty despite the fact that I sent them two emails since Friday prodding them to get the material to me asap so they wouldn't get a zero.

This really hasn't been my month. If things don't turn around, I'm going to be a full-fledged Grinch by Christmas Eve.

This entry was originally posted at http://scribbulus-ink.dreamwidth.org/520817.html. It's cross-posted to LJ and IJ, and comments are enabled at all three journals.

Okay, so I know everyone else is squeeing over Gabe and Adam hanging out and how there is ONE FANDOM, but I'm all about this picture:



Heehee, awwwwww! *pets him*

......(I want his coat! And his hat!)

Thank you to wolfshark, ingridmatthews, glimmergirl and a wee quiet anonymouse for the snowflake cookies on my old LJ profile! And thank you to gblvr for the ridiculously-adorable holiday octopus-Cthuluclaus there as well!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020136.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Fiction:
elistaire (IJ): It's a Dead Man's Party (Gen)

Crossovers:
aeron_lanart: Black Celebration (Ianto, Methos; G); Brothers in Arms (HL/Merlin; G); If Only and Sometimes (HL/Merlin; G); They Shine so Hard (HL/Torchwood; Methos/Jack/Ianto; PG)
idontlikegravy:  Some Things Remain (HL/Torchwood; Darius, Ianto; G) 
mark_clark: What If Spider-Man Were an Immortal, Part 1/5 (PG-13); Part 2

Drabbles:
cerridwyno9 in highlander_fic: (untitled) [almost a drabble]
holde_maid in highlander100: Parched

Recent fiction posts to AO3

Vids:
valoise: PWFC vid contest -- no slash allowed

Art:
kathyh: Highlander icons

Contests and Challenges:
hl_stills:  Challenge 3 Methos (deadline today, December 14)

Note:
As always, please let me know of any additions or mistakes in comments, with links.
Please remember to archive your stories at Highlander Fiction archive.

Getting ready to head out to do some errands before work and I just saw that Amazon has The Nutcracker: Complete Ballet on sale for 1.99USD today! woot!

And, OMG! I don't know how i missed this but Hulu as S1&2 of The Greatest American Hero AND WISEGUY S1!!!!!!! SONNY!!! VINNY!!!!

Could someone read over a short piece of meta for SPAG/clarity?

Who: Heroin [addictedness] & Morphine [painbreak]
What: Partial Log, to be (possibly) completed via thread.
When: Wednesday afternoon/early evening, following this.
Where: Phaedra's office ---> the Highway
Warnings: Mild drug references

( ...let that rush burn away so many other things as he enjoyed the particular feeling of being pinned by those bright eyes. )

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1513322.html

Title: Why'd you cut holes in the face of the moon base?
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Title and Cut-text from Of Moons, Birds & Monsters by MGMT.

Let's see if this works, sorry about the mistake mods!

If the ship will never come you've got to move along

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1513050.html

battles
ryan ross/brendon urie | 14a | 3,564 words
they don't look back.

i wrote this probably about two years ago, where it then continued to collect dust on my computer. i only finally posted this cause panic_smile forced me to. this would explain why it's so old school slash that it's not even funny. if you want to travel back to '06, read on.

title taken by the spill canvas.

warning: major angst.


you're an angel disguised

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1512861.html

Teasers:

more @ my journal

http://community.livejournal.com/bandslashmania/1512425.html

Title: Waking Life
Rating: Gen, R
Warning: Off-screen violence; aftermath of torture
Notes: AU; MCR "Ghost of You"/Doctor Who fusion; ~14,400 words

Summary: Gerard and Mikey walked away from plenty of wars and friends over the years. The one time they didn't it nearly ended in disaster.

Link: the tigers have found me / and I do not care

Who: Lust (redhots), Gluttony (needsmoar) and OPEN to Desmond.
What: Gluttony pays Lust a surprise visit, and is utterly enraptured with a babeh.
When: December 11th, 2009
Where: Lust and Desmond's abode, in LA.
Warnings: Fluff. AND BABIES.

( If nothing else, he had chocolate on hand as a peace offering. )

I'm not the most knowledgeable person around, about a bunch of stuff, yeah. And I try not to talk about stuff I don't know about... if I haven't earned the right to talk I try to Just Shut Up. I'm privileged in some ways and not so privileged in other ways. I sometimes say stupid shit without realizing it's stupid shit and then I try to learn and apologize and never make the same mistake twice. And a lot of the time, for me, it's easier for me to see how something is stupid hurtful shit when it comes out of someone else's mouth or keyboard, because when it comes out of my mouth or my keyboard it didn't immediately sound stupid or hurtful to me.

Stuff I have learned lately (not just from the latest shitstorm going on, but lately in general)...

1. When someone says they prefer a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, I JUST DO IT. I just need to respect that preference.

1.a. If I screw that up once for someone? Please, anyone, give me a gentle reminder. If I screw that up twice for someone? Please, anyone, KICK ME.

1.b. This is not just related to whether or not I respect the person being referred to, but is also related to whether or not I respect everyone's right to have a personal pronoun preference.

2. If I don't have a clue whether someone prefers a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, chances are that using 'they' as a singular, or zie and zir, will not piss them off or hurt them.

2.a. (I'm not sure about this, but so far it's holding true...) If I use they, or zie and zir, in reference to someone, and they distinctly do not prefer that, they can easily correct me without too much trauma or drama for either one of us.

2.b. There are folks who prefer they over zie and zir (or sie and hir), and folks who prefer zie and zir (or sie and hir) over they.

2.c. There are folks who do not self-identify as trans* who prefer non-gendered pronouns. There are folks who do not self-identify as cis* who prefer non-gendered pronouns.

3. It is awkward as hell for me to ask if a friend or acquaintance prefers any specific pronoun. That doesn't mean I should ever assume that they prefer she or he or zie. I should NOT ASSUME, even if I know them offline, even if I would probably tend to assume one pronoun is more likely than another based on my own personal history and the name they've chosen to use in any given setting, or any physical characteristic they've presented to me or kept private from me, or any attitude they've said or typed about any topic under the sun.

3.a. Awkward is not necessarily the same as hurtful. And if I can get myself through an awkward situation to prevent myself from hurting someone? If I realize the awkward situation is an option, I'm darned well choosing that rather than knowingly hurting someone.

3.b. It's really easy to be hurtful unintentionally if I don't know what I'm talking about.

So.

All I can do right now? Is offer virtual chocolates, and try not to mess this post up, because I just can't be silent right now. I'm sorry that people suck, and I'm sorry that folks I care about are being hurt, and I'm sorry that I've been unintentionally hurtful in the past.

And I desperately hope that I'm not being unintentionally hurtful now, especially given the current state of the latest shitstorm (which I am trying to avoid, actually).

ETA: And yes, this post is from a me-centric place, because when I tried writing it any other perspective, I came across even to my own eyes as megapreachy and talking about things I haven't earned the right to and ICK ICK ICK. I feel mostly-OK about talking about myself here, so yeah, I did. I wish I could do better, but I feel like this is better than silence, because I can't be silent when something is Not OK By Me.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019761.html. Please comment there using OpenID.