x-posted, sort of.

As should be obvious to everyone, this journal is approaching dead. I'm officially calling it 'dormant', as in the unlikely event I ever produce anything again that the fannish/OS community may find interesting, I'll post it here. It's not all that likely though.

My intermittent journalling has moved on since I last posted here. Those who wish to can find me at the journals below, but don't expect the sort of stuff I used to post here. Sorry, all.

Personal #1 (new chatty (read: dull waffle), largely public blog on Vox): Pareidolia. LJ feed.
Personal #2 (creative and/or intimate, largely friended LJ blog): omphalos.
Audioblog: Portobello. LJ feed.

Thanks for reading Mogi while it lasted. :)

I like this map, which resizes the world by size of population. Asia is, of course, ginormous, but look how big Britain is. We rule Europe! *grin*

I'm a bit worried about Canada though. Australia too, for that matter.

Link via Boing Boing

For what it's worth, the wank-related icon I posted yesterday should look like this:



and not like this:



It looks like the former to me, but apparently several people are seeing the latter, which belongs to someone else. Why anyone would want the latter as an icon, I've no idea. I wonder if mine was used on their journal in return... Good job it wasn't too rude. ;)

Thank you, LJ for messing up my not particularly brilliant, but not *that* bloody obscure joke with move-related user-pic fun. :p

This is a very cute news story... unless you're not a rodent fan anyway.

This study on (effectively) how the brain can cause pain in the body and how that can be fixed is very interesting, if far from conclusive yet.

Tags: social:links

So I was reading this article about the wording suggestions for the new civil partnership (gay marriage effectively) ceremonies, and I was amused to read this bit:

The ceremony also includes the sharing of rings, the singing of the register and the presentation of the formal certificate of registration.

I probably shouldn't laugh at typos, considering the number I make myself, should I?

Tags: social:links, social:silly

In the apparent spirit of this week, I have to post these now. I've been fiddling with them for weeks. I'm never going to be completely happy with them, but I need an excuse to stop working on this project and get on with what I should be doing.

So I offered meko00 a tree icon, and because I am both obsessive and compulsive, this meant that I had to make 100 tree-based icons. Yes, I *had* to. Don't ask. I grew up with ancient trees; they were my friends and carers. When I was younger, I had a total wordgasm upon discovering 'dendriform' and crammed it repeatedly into bad poetry, using it to describe anything from veins to thought processes. I'm a sad git, but trees are not. Trees are life.

There are 75 text-'enhanced' icons and 28 trimmed blanks.

Usual rules -- please comment if you take any, especially the texty ones, and please give me credit on your icon page (I don't mind where) if you use any.

An offer to those on my friendslist -- I still have all the blanks. If there is any image you like that you would prefer with different words, just let me know and I'll make it for you. This especially applies to Meko -- would you like something Swedish on yours, hon?

Note: You need to be logged into LJ to see these pictures.

( 103 tree icons... oh God, let the coding be good )

Tags: creativity:icons

I just finished reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

It was, without question, one of the most enjoyable books I've read in many years. While I often rather cynically find myself believing that 'big literary prize' equates with 'a chore to read', that certainly wasn't the case with Middlesex. Eugenides is exactly the sort of storyteller I like best.

He uses first person in a wonderful, intimate way that frequently seems to touch on magic realism even as he is describing historical fact. The narrator himself (I use the male pronoun after consideration) at one point contemplates the modern belief that males have linear thought patterns and females circular, holistic ones, and yet this novel is a glorious interweaving of multiple threads, motifs and themes in a complex four-dimensional story of a family of Greek immigrants in America.

( I'll cautiously cut the next paragraphs, but they contain less in the way of spoilers than even the basic reviews at the Amazon link above )

Tags: media:books

Also, Googlemail sucks. I want Gmail back. Stupid trademark disputes. Why does everything in the UK have to be longer?

Tags: personal:gripe

I think I'm feeling a bit better! I'm certainly feeling a load happier, and that's the most important thing. :)

Thank you everyone for your hugs and commiserations yesterday. I appreciate them a lot and will reply individually too.

In the meantime, if everyone isn't too fed up with this meme yet...

Take a peep at my icons. Comment on...

1. One that makes you automatically think of me.
2. One that you think I should use more often.
3. One that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why the hell I have it.
4. Comment using an icon of your own that you love, and tell me why you picked it.

Tags: personal:memes

For X-comics fans, this major press conference with Joe Quesada and various creators is interesting reading, and I'd love to discuss it with someone in depth. However it is far from spoiler-free, especially if you haven't yet read House of M #7. Repeat: Spoilers at the link.

Tags: fandom:x-men

Author: Magpie
Fandom: X-Men movieverse
Pairing: Charles/Erik
Rating: PG
Words: 5,700
Author's Notes:
This is an introspective piece set five years after X2. It introduces a well known element of comicsverse canon. The title is taken from the following quote by Ernie Pyle: "War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth."
I am British, and as both these characters were played by British character actors who made no attempt to disguise their accents in the roles, I feel justified in maintaining certain non-invasive British style conventions when writing them.
Grateful beta thanks to wesleysgirl, wolfling and rikhei. Any mistakes that remain are undoubtedly my fault as I have an annoying habit of adding great swathes of text *after* declaring a story finished and sending it to be betaed.

( Read more... )

Tags: fandom:fanfic

After a shamefully long time, I have updated Polarity (Professor X/Magneto archive) with ten new stories, all of which I enjoyed a lot, otherwise I wouldn't have asked for archival permission. So if you haven't read them already, go and do so now and don't forget to send the authors feedback.

There are new (to the archive) stories from: bagheera_san, girlfromsouth, ion_bond, lonelywalker, musamea, penknife, bessiemaemucho (Renata) and sionnain. There may be a couple of other fics added later as well; I'm waiting on permission/edits.

I've also -- and I'm very sorry -- moved the archive. So please note the new URL.

Finally, this is the last call for volunteers with available webspace to take over my Giles/Ethan archive, Ripped Off. It's a great little archive, but for various reasons, I'm unable to keep it up to date. (In truth, this is mainly because I have quite embarrassing woobie issues over Ethan these days and simply can't make myself read G/E fic any more. *blush*)

If no one can or wants to take it on, I'll be taking it off line within a couple of weeks, so if you've always intended to browse the fic there but haven't got round to it yet, now would be the time.

Tags: fandom:archives

This news of jab to strongly protect against cervical cancer is wonderful. I'm not a fan of too many inoculations, especially because of the heavy metals involved in most vaccines, but this is certainly one I'd want my daughter to have.

I'm disturbed however at the fact that some unnamed idiots are apparently objecting to the idea of the vaccine being administered at the most effective time because it will 'encourage under-age sex'. That's a ridiculous idea. Most teenagers know next to nothing about cervical cancer, and they are certainly not avoiding having sex due to a fear of contracting HPV. AIDS and pregnancy, perhaps, but not HPV. Morons.

Tags: social:links

I know I haven't posted for well over two weeks, and I'm working on that, honest guv. But in the meantime, I have to share this for any who haven't already seen:

Xena and Gabrielle within our solar system. What will this mean for astrology? Something exciting, surely. ;)

Tags: social:links

As a small diversion on a depressing weekend afternoon, here's that 'caps from favourite films' meme. Identify or guess the film they come from. :)

These are just a selection of my favourite films and certainly not all of them. I don't have quite a few of my favourites on DVD to cap, apart from anything else. I tried to take caps that were neither too blatantly obvious nor too obscure.

ETA: all guessed now!

( Caps this way )

Tags: media:dvds, personal:memes, social:pics