Goodbye My Old Friends

I've been throwing books out today. And it's hard to describe just how hard that is for me.

You see, the ones that are going in the trash are ones that are old enough to have cracked spines that are causing the pages to come loose and fall out. And that means that most of them are MY BOOKS from when I was little.

Pippi Longstocking.
Where the Red Fern Grows.
A Little Princess.
The Sign of the Twisted Staircase.

It feels like I'm turning my back on an old friend. The very reason these books are no longer readable is because I've read and re-read and re-RE-read them so many times before. The words, the tone, the smell of the ink and the paper and the glue... it's all so familiar. I can pick up any one of them and open to any spot and immediately be drawn in and just lose myself in the story.

Even though I know how silly it is to feel such guilt, I can't seem to help it. And it is silly. The ones that are going into the trash are ones I've gotten newer copies of. There are others, like Magic Elizabeth, that I haven't replaced, and those are staying with me.

Aren't the words the important part? Why do I have such difficulty letting go of these old books?

Image Credit: Shelf Life

RE the "Fake Geek Girl" meme

So I've been surfing around The Mary Sue - I think somebody linked to a post about Xena - and ended up reading several articles about this meme, and their comment threads. It got repetitive very quickly.

The remarks that kept returning over and over and over were the following:

• the "fake geek girl" meme isn't intended to apply to all girls who are geeks, just those who are posers
• some girls dress hot at cons without knowing a lot of facts about the character/series/other characters/other media
• "fake geek girls" give "true fans" a bad rep
• some girls pretend to be into geekish works so that they can get attention from guys
• people shouldn't have to "prove" their status as a fan

But what I didn't see much of was pushback on how one proves one's status as a "real fan" - apparently, by knowing a lot of stuff about the work in question, from the characters to the plot events to the in-work shoutouts to other works, to even knowing details about the creators and the other works they've been involved with. It's apparently a big deal among nerds if you can name all of the [insert character title here]. 

For all that science fiction is considered a geeky medium, knowing a bunch of facts seems an awfully old-fashioned kind of cred. I mean, with a wealth of information literally at most people's fingertips, how is keeping that same information in your head a mark of status anymore? It seems like an awful waste of time, to be honest. And it's not like it makes the world a better place. Fact-spewers haven't added anything to the continuum of human creation, nor does their memorization lend itself to shared experience. Instead of conversation that fosters a deeper relationship with others, these infodumps lend themselves more to competition, isolating each lonely nerd even further as he attempts to prove that he knows more, can recite more.

Yeegh.

Why isn't there the assumption that real fans - hardcore fans - are fans who create? Roleplays, character memes, art of every nature and description, fanfic, playlists... COSPLAY. Dear lord, the cosplay. These are things that can be shared with others, that add to the collective experience of the fandom. The value of a bunch of memorized facts shrivels in comparison.

So the next time some dudebro asks me if I actually know who the original X-Men were, instead of either blowing him off or trying to prove I'm a fan by letting him interrogate me, I'll redirect and ask him what fanart he's drawn lately. Or what costume he's planning to wear later on. No? Well, fanfic, then. What's your handle on AO3? dA? FFN? ... what do you mean, you don't know what those are? Jeez, next you're gonna tell me you don't even have a tumblr!

I'll try to resist the temptation to accuse him of being a "fake geek guy," though it might be difficult. But if he's not a complete loser, hopefully he'll be able to recognize that there are many more ways of being a fan than he'd originally thought.

I Take It All Back

I think it still applies in a general sense, but as my smuggler moved forward, she seems to be getting PLENTY of opportunities to flirt. Woot!

Also, I'm putting in an app for a guild on my very first PVP (RP-PVP, but still) server.

She actually started out as a character in my smuggler's fanfic, which has just gushed out of me like some kind of spurting artery. I've written almost ten thousand words in about 48 hours. I've never written that much that fast.

I do need to do a little more planning before I go any further; Arri threw a wrench in the works. She started out as a bit part - someone to flirt with Corso for humor and maybe a bit of jealousy from Vacy. But then it turned out she was Vacy's buddy and they were working together to make sure Vacy could seem drunk without BEING drunk, and THEN somehow it turned out she was an undercover Jedi knight investigating a slave ring at the club, which is what leads to the fight where poor Vacy tries her hand at healing, WHICH is the point of the story.

WHEW.

I've also never had interconnected story threads that gelled as well as these are seeming to. The pacing is shyte, but for a zero draft, I'm just ridiculously pleased. Additionally, this is one of a few fics where I don't have a frame story already there to follow, unlike with "Anniversary" or "Broken." Nor is it a character drabble like "Stormy Blue" or "World's Finest," which I need to find and post.

It's Okay If Men Are Players, But You're Not That Kind of Girl

So this is something that has bothered me for quite a long time, but over the past few days/weeks I've noticed it more. I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic pretty regularly since it came out. I've got several characters - most are female, but one is male.

Guess who gets the [Flirt] options?

Despite the fact that apparently the entire galaxy is heterosexual, and a significant majority of the NPCs are male, it's the dude PC, NOT the chicks. And while theoretically it's possible that the difference is based on the PC's occupation, something tells me it goes a bit deeper.

Because it's not the first time I've experienced this in stories. It's particularly frustrating in interactive stories, because it feels much more personal. There are always plenty of barmaids for the male characters to schmooze, but the soldiers on leave? They're not interested in having fun for some reason. :P

Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that because I really don't feel like thinking about it anymore. :P

Mih.

So it's now 8 PM and I've been at an event that I have PAID to go to for several hours, and I've spent the time not at the event but in my room, surfing the web (thank God I have internet access). I just haven't felt the least bit interested in what I've seen listed to do.

Maybe I'm just a snob, but things feel ... poorly designed. I mean, I would think that a "Literary" series would be about, you know, READING. But it isn't! Those are the writing panels. There kind of aren't any book-focused panels.

And it strikes me as just a little unfair that the Disney trivia contest was put in the Kids category, while Star Wars and Doctor Who get to be General. I would've thought NERDS would be the sort to understand that grown-ups geek out over Disney details as much as children do. :P

I've heard nothing about a drum circle, either. Serious bummer, that.

Speaking of bummers, one of my online buddies recently went silent. SAD FACE, CHEV. I'll miss ya. If you're ever heading East, lemme know. :)

Nothing More Than Feelings

I've got bunches to do today, so this will probably just be a stub for now. Anyway.

Whoever wrote the Jedi Code was an idiot.

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

In fairness, this isn't the only version of the code, but it's the only one (that I've heard) in the new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. And one of the elements of the original stories - and the later ones - that I miss in the game is the exploration of philosophy. While I've enjoyed learning to use interrupt actions and finding out how the gathering/crafting system works in this game, the story options are heavy-handed and clunky. More than once I've found myself wishing I had a good tabletop group instead.

However, in the absence of that, SW:TOR will have to do. :P

Fluff

Your results:
You are Esmeralda

Esmeralda 87% Princess Aurora 82% Timothy Mouse 80% Belle 76% Baloo 73% Aladdin 70% Tramp 69% Pocahontas 69% Donald Duck 68% Winnie The Pooh 67%

You are not afraid to speak up for the outcasts when nobody else will. You have a fiery independent disposition but you are always ready to help the poor and downtrodden.

Click here to take the Disney Personality Test
(This is the top 10 matches out of a possible 62 Disney characters)