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| 2011-09-24 17:25 |
| OTW Board Elections! |
| Public |
| glee, otw |
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Elections season is starting at the OTW and the OTW Board Candidates have been announced! All of them are lovely! One of them is me! (Many of you will be able to guess which one, but please don't connect my real name and my fannish one publicly.)
I'm very excited! When I wandered into the OTW in 2008 I had no idea that I would ever want to run for Board. However, three and a bit years later I'm still around, have been a coder, support team member, communications staffer, and AD&T chair, and generally feel like I have something to offer the org in terms of the big picture. Time for the next big adventure!
I'll be posting more thinky thoughts at some point, and there'll also be some formal opportunities to talk with all the candidates - keep an eye on the OTW blog for more details. In the meantime, now is a very good time to join or renew your membership of the OTW (this will let you vote!). If you're interested in my prior ramblings on the OTW and what it means to me, check out my OTW tag.
Hurray! \0/
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| 2011-07-07 22:39 |
| Fannishness, (non)profit, and the OTW |
| Public |
| ao3, joy, otw |
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In amidst all the commentary on Keith Mander and his ill-advised attempt to profit by fandom, ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) facetofcathy wrote a great post in which she commented 'I think the OTW would be thrilled to know the AO3 let someone read fic by the pool'. My immediate response was 'YES OMG!', and it started a train of thought in me on what being in the OTW means to me. As I get more and more embroiled in career things, I have less and less time to spend on OTW work, and I know that a lot of my non-fannish friends and family wonder why the hell I use my leisure hours to do things which sometimes look an awful lot like a job. From the outside, it probably looks crazy, especially when I'm excusing myself from scial events to attend meetings, or sitting up till 2 in the morning on Christmas Eve doing Support requests, or stressing about things that aren't running smoothly. But the thing is, for all it's hard work and sometimes infuriating, it's also so gratifying. Cathy is totally right that hearing that we made a fan happy - because they can read fic by the pool, or they love the kudos feature on the AO3, or whatever - makes me happy. More than that, it's a huge pleasure to be part of a group of amazing, dedicated people who devote their time and enthusiasm to something that they're so passionate about. All the things which make being part of fandom at large awesome are also a part of beng involved in the OTW. When I tweeted the progress of the transition to the new servers earlier this year and saw people on Twitter enjoying my commentary, it gave me the same kick as when I get a comment on a fic I've written. When I've worked hard to write the release notes for new code, or I have spent an hour answering Support requests, I feel a warm glow of achievement and pride at having helped keep this awesome project on the road. Even when I'm not working on OTW stuff, I know I can hang out in Coders' and chat with like-minded people, and watch cool stuff going down. I've met OTW folk in real life and squeed over the awesome things we've done, and when life was going horribly awry for me, the OTW was a big part of my support. Essentially, for me the OTW isn't just a way to give back to fandom, it is one of my fandoms.
The OTW isn't unique in providing this sort of experience. On the contrary, this is the magic that keeps people modding LJ communities, or compiling fannish newsletters, or organising cons. The Keith Manders of this world will forever stumble into the same traps because they're simply incapable of understanding that the hard work and the giving back is integral to the joy of fandom. I feel super-privileged to be able to be part of a project and a community which is so awesome.
<3s OTW peoples and all the people who enjoy the fruits of our labour.
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| 2011-06-21 11:47 |
| You can't hide behind social graces |
| Public |
| supernatural, woe |
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After lagging behind the whole of the season and basically slipping off LJ because I was so habituated to avoiding spoilers, I finally got caught up with the whole of Supernatural Season 6.
( Not squeeful. )
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Various things in my work recently have made me aware that while I'm on board in theory with the aim of having a more representative children's literature, in practice a lot of my knowledge (and thus my work) is centred around a canon which is still predominantly white and also surprisingly male (relative to the gender balance in cl as a whole).
For 2011, I'd like to broaden my own personal reading of children's and YA books, partly for my own pleasure and partly so my knowledge base starts to skew towards something more representative. I know lots of my flist read a lot of cl and/or care about issues of diversity in literature, so I'm looking for book suggestions.
Rec me!:
- Writers of colour (I already have a ton of Jacqueline Woodson and Virgina Hamilton)
- Books with significant characters of colour (regardless of the ethnicity of the author)
- Books which otherwise reflect 'minority' communities or viewpoints (e.g. white communities who are often excluded from 'mainstream' literature)
- The very best in books with LGBT themes (a few years ago I stocked a library with LGBT books and did a fair bit of digging about then, so I have read a lot of the 'usual suspects', but would like to update myself a bit, especially with books that represent the B & T experience, which I don't think I found any of at the time).
- Books which this post made you think 'well, it's not in any of those categories, but...' about
- Also theory stuff you think I might enjoy and find relevant, but nothing too heavy going, because this is currently something for my free time, not formal academic work.
Since these will form my pleasure reading for the year, I'm most likely to read YA books rather than books for younger children, but rec me any children's lit (just give me an idea of the age range). I may or may not blog about my reading of these as I go along (I'd like to, but I usually fail at posting). CAVEAT: I am a white, cis-gendered, straight woman. I haven't made a sustained effort to address issues of diversity and representation before, so I am probably going to tread very well-trodden ground. If I wind up blogging about this reading project, I'm probably going to show my ass in various ways (very likely I already have). Please feel free to call me on it if I do. (This is always true in this journal.) Tell me your good things to read! This entry was originally posted at http://zooey-glass.dreamwidth.org/108144.html. You can comment there using OpenID.  comments so far.
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| 2011-01-15 09:36 |
| PSA: Flist tidying |
| Public |
| psa |
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I've been failing to keep up with my Livejournal flist pretty much forever - avoiding SPN spoilers and massive business meant I got behind, and then it was all just too much to keep up with. So, sorry if I've missed stuff. I still love my LJ flisties!
In an attempt to get back on the horse, I've just done a massive tidyup of my flist, mostly cutting feeds and communities, but also a few people who I didn't recognise / never speak to anymore / have on DW. If I cut you and you're surprised, it's probably because you changed your name and I don't recognise it, or because I have you on DW (or think I do!). Just give me a shout and I'll fix it!
It has to be said that my primary home is on DW these days, so if you're on DW come find me there! (zooey_glass)
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Belatedly, a very happy Christmas (or winter holiday of your choice) to all my lovely flist! My life continues Very Busy, so I have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth, but I still love you all. <3
I had a lovely Christmas and was thoroughly spoiled! And I got to spend it with people I love. I hope all of you had such good fortune.
My Christmas has also been made VERY awesome by our wonderful, wonderful team in the OTW. Our coders, testers and systems folk have been working like crazy to keep the AO3 running smoothly while it was being hammered by the massive demand caused by Yuletide, and OMG, they have done a fantastic job. Our poor servers are really overstretched dealing with ordinary usage now (we're buying new ones!) and I was fatalistically convinced we were going to crash and crash hard. But we have stayed up! Our new cute 502 page has been showing its face a bit more than we'd like, but mostly the Archive has been usable. It's totally inspirational seeing people rally together and work like crazy to tackle problems as they arise - believe me, while the problems we have had have been frustrating, it would have been INFINITELY worse if not for this group of dedicated and awesome people. They really pulled out all the stops to make this work (as they do on a regular basis). It gives me warm fuzzies just being around them. I love you guys! <3
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| 2010-10-24 14:50 |
| Ugh |
| Public |
| woe |
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I went to bed early last night so I could wake up early and pwn loads of work. Cue lying awake half the night and then falling asleep at seven and not waking again till nearly twelve. :( I feel like someone's been punching me.
I have a lecture to write and a book chapter. And prep for next week's lecture, about which I know NOTHING. And we deployed new code to the Test Archive today and are running up to a giant deploy.
Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.
We're three weeks into this semester and I can't wait for it to be over.
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| 2010-10-22 21:24 |
| OMG OTW YEAY! |
| Public |
| glee, otw |
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I've talked quite a lot here about how awesome the OTW is from my POV as a volunteer and staffer. On a personal level, I've gotten so much out of volunteering for the org over the last two years - I've met awesome people, learnt amazing new skills, and challenged myself in a million different ways. But today I want to talk about how kickass the OTW is for me as a fan, because OMG, it is seriously awesome. There are two projects in particular that just make my life better on a daily basis:
Archive of Our Own: Well, okay, this is a given. But seriously, you guys, the AO3 kicks ASS. When people first starting talking about a fan-created archive, I vaguely thought it would be cool but wasn't that fired up about it - my fannish activity was mostly LJ-based and I didn't have a strong vision of what a really cool archive would be like. But now it EXISTS and I get to USE IT and it is BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE the Archive! I love how whenever I fancy reading fic in a particular fandom I can check the AO3 and usually there it is! (Which will only get MORE true as time goes on.) It keeps track of what I have read so my abysmal bookmarking of fics does not result in my being totally unable to ever find stuff again. It lets me download stuff to read later (I am so jazzed that the introduction of this feature coincided with me starting a regular commute)! I really can't believe how much the AO3 actually improves my fannish experience - I started out thinking that the owning of the servers was the main point (and it is a CORE point) but it does so much more! I love it! (Also, btw, I have a bunch of invitations going begging, so if anyone else wants to love it more intimately and needs an account, let me know and I will send you one!)
Transformative Works and Cultures: As an academic and a fan (and to some degree an aca-fan) TWC is the other OTW project that just brings me masses of joy! In so many ways, it brings the fannish chocolate to my academic peanut butter. Most obviously, it is a fabulous venue for academic work relating to fannish things, and there have already been some amazing articles published in the issues so far. I value it as a resource for myself, and I also love that when my students say 'I want to write about fannish things, where should I start' I can point and say 'here is a great jounral with strong credentials'. What's also special to be is the way that it brings fandom and fannish values into the journal, both by having a venue for fannish meta as well as formal academic pieces, and because it is Open Access. As an academic, as a fan and as part of the libraries and archives contingent I am so firmly in support of Open Access journals. I believe they are the only fair and sustainable way of continuing to support journals as a major academic venue: Open Access e-journals relieve universities of crippling subscription fees and make scholarly knowledge available to everyone, not just the people inside a handful of institutions. I am proud to be part of an org which is helping to support this new convention (still controversial, in academia) and I think it's a great illustration of how fannish values enrich other areas.
These amazing projects and all of the other fantastic things the OTW are supported by the hard work of a lot of volunteers. They are also supported by fannish donations! It's only through the incredible generosity of fandom that we've been able to create the infrastructure that supports these endeavours. Fandoms money bought our servers and fandom owns them and runs them!
SO, there are many excellent reasons to donate in the current membership drive! Just $10 is enough to make you a member and give you voting rights so you can influence the direction of the org by voting in Board elections. Which, oh hey, there is a contested election RIGHT NOW, you should totally check out the awesome candidates and then donate so you can vote for your favourite!
If all this isn't enough incentive, there are awesome premiums to be had in return for your donation! And for the first time, cumulative donations count, so if you are like me and cannot afford to stump up $75 in one go, but REALLY want an OTW mug, you can donate a little bit each month and when you hit the $75 you'll get your prize!
GO GIVE US MONEY TO DO MORE AWESOME THINGS!
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Help me, o flist.
A couple of years ago, at the ChLA conference, someone gave a paper on various new media type books, and talked about one book which sort of shared the storytelling between the actual printed book and various YouTube clips, etc. It was some kind of mystery where they had discovered some film which was then being deleted from under them. I thought I had remembered the title of the book, and I know I write it down at the time, but neither memory nor notes are easily to hand.
It's the concept of the book (cross-media storytelling) rather than the specific title that I was really interested in, so if anyone knows of any other children's / ya titles that take this kind of approach lemme know. <3
<3
ETA becka wins the internet! It's Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman.
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Help me, oh dear flist!
I am becoming increasingly aware that I desperately need a decent diary/calendar. As of next week, I'll be juggling three jobs, one of which is an admin post for a research project which will involve organising conferences. So, I really really need to keep all my commitments and deadlines straight. Ideally I want an electronic calendar which will sync to a mobile device.
So! Any suggestions for good calendars? I've been using Google calendar, but while it has some quite nifty features it also has some incredibly annoying ones. I like the fact that I can access it from anywhere, I can have multiple calendars for different commitments, I can get a list of stuff on my agenda, and I can easily get reminders for stuff I have to do. I hate the fact that there is no way to copy and paste an event into multiple timeslots, or even copy a whole week of events, and the fact that the interface is fiddly and annoying. If it's the best option out there then fine, but if anyone knows of an awesome alternative that would be neat.
Regarding mobile devices - I have an iPod touch to try out, and if I like it I might buy an iPhone, but am not wedded to this idea at all. The idea of having just the one device to carry around (instead of a phone and a PDA) appeals to me, and being able to get internet is a big bonus, but the expense of the iPhone not so much. I also have a long-standing and passionate hate for iTunes - I currently use Floola to manage all the music on my iPod, which saves me many hours of rage. I could get a Blackberry, which would be a lot cheaper, but am not sure. I know some of my flist use other devices, so would like to hear what works for you, especially if you use them for calendar purposes.
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| 2010-09-13 12:16 |
| Happy birthday Archive servers! |
| Public |
| ao3, joy, otw |
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The Archive of Our Own is having a birthday! Our shiny, shiny servers are one year old!
We are having a PARTY! With presents and cake and party games! Come and see!
We're also aiming to hit 105k works on the Archive by the ed of the party at midnight UTC! At the time of writing, 560 works to go. Come and help us SMASH the record! If you need an invitation for the Archive, just comment and let me know - I have shinies to give away!
Fandom owns the goddamn servers, people! And with the power of our combined awesome are already close to filling them up! If you want to help us keep expanding and keep making fabulous new features we are always happy to have volunteers and donations!
Happy birthday YEAY.
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| 2010-09-08 11:25 |
| Happy birthday general_jinjur! |
| Public |
| birthday, joy |
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Happy birthday to the fabulous general_jinjur! Today is the day for big party tiemz, because she is AWESOME OH YES.
Jinjur, I have only had the privilege of knowing you for a couple of your forty years of win, but I am looking forward to knowing you for many more! You are multi-talented, dedicated, supportive, hilarious, and all-round a good egg. I would love to be you when I grow up!
*throws sparkles*
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So, thanks to lim and her awesome vid 'This Is How It Works', I read Synecdochic's Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose (which I am sure EVERYONE in SGA fandom has read, but if not then go and read it NOW!) And then I read her other fics. And then I kind of fell into astolat's SGA fic. OOPS.
These are beautiful fics, but I have never seen a single episode of SGA. Having said that, I get the impression that SGA pretty much ripped out its fans' hearts, stamped on them, and spat on the remains. So, gentle readers, my question is this: Should I go and watch SGA, or should I just enjoy the fic and accept that there will be stuff that flies over my head because of my canon ignorance?
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Just watched the new BBC Sherlock! ( Spoilers know about your last family row )
If you like Sherlock Holmes and/or New Who, you should definitely watch this!
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| 2010-07-07 20:56 |
| Cephalopods |
| Public |
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Dear Harry Potter fandom: YOU WERE RIGHT.
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| 2010-05-20 13:06 |
| Burn your life down (Part two of four) |
| Public |
| testing |
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Title: Burn your life down (Part two of four)
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: R
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Characters: Dean, Sam, Mary, OFC
Disclaimer: Fun, not profit
Wordcount: 9600 words this part; 32500 for the fic as a whole
Notes: The fic is complete. My adoration goes to [livejournal.com profile] parenthetical for betaing and [livejournal.com profile] aynslee for Ameripicking - they're both amazing ladies <3.
Warnings: Character death. Depictions of sexual abuse and past child abuse in this chapter: nothing extremely explicit, but potentially triggery.
Summary: AU from 4.03 'In the Beginning'. The choices not made.
This is my story text oh yes it is this is the text we all like to read it.
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| 2010-05-07 08:27 |
| Hung Parliament? |
| Public |
| election |
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As of now, no party has an outright majority. That could change - there are still 46 seats to declare - but it's looking like we're going to get a hung Parliament with the Conservatives holding a larger share of the seats. This is not a great thing for political stability, but it's quite fascinating given that hung Parliaments are so rare.
It's looking likely that Labour will try to form a coalition with the Lib Dems, which I would personally be quite in favour of, but if they succeed in that I suspect it won't last long. So, a Conservative government is looking more and more likely one way or another. I hope I'm wrong!
ETA They've just confirmed it is a hung Parliament. Now we'll see if the Lib Dems will get into bed with Labour or not.
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| 2010-05-07 00:02 |
| Election day |
| Public |
| election |
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Watching the election coverage and feeling apprehensive. ( Rambling about my political feelings )
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