My people, y'all rocked More Joy Day today! A big thank you to every single person who participated in any way. :)

I have some thoughts banging around about MJ Day, but I want to sit on them for a bit before I type them out. For now, here are links to just ten of the things you might have missed! (I once again tried to memory all the stuff I came across, so check there for even more.)

- fan_eunice is hosting a Hug-A-Thon that might have been the best part of my day

- simplystars made some beautiful joy icons

- belmanoir is offering surprise mail!

- dessert_first has some fantastic vid recs

- sageness is hosting a super-awesome multifandom kissing fest

- kuwdora has a smattering of excellent linkage

- life_on_queen has posted a Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles snippet

- daybreak777 has an extremely comprehensive list of Gaeta-related links

- primroseburrows provides lovely, lovely picspam

- And heresluck is offering music!

Thank you to the person who left the adorable little polar bear in my profile!

I ♥ you all. :)

The Daily Puppy is something that brings a little bit of joy into my life every day, and the Internet is really good at cat pictures, so I went back through June (and a smidge into May) to find my 10 favorite puppy pictures of the last month or so. You're encouraged to share photos of your own pets in the comments!

( Puppies this way! )

I was originally going to just post some joy-related quotes I'd found on the Internet and then thought about how they reminded me of certain fannish things, and so I came up with these. I don't know what they can be used for - headers, maybe, or friends-only banners, or just things to look at once and smile about. Any of those are ok. :)

The fandoms are Firefly, Farscape, The Office, Due South, and a general LJ one. I used the same quote for the two Firefly pictures, because one of the FF pictures is spoilery for Serenity, the movie. I've put it first so you can skip to the next LJ cut if you want. :) The other pictures aren't spoilery.


( Spoilery Serenity picture first for skipping purposes )





I'll give you some safe space for scrolling!





( The rest: Firefly (non-spoilery), Farscape, The Office, Due South, and Livejournal )

ETA: asta77 suggested making the LJ one smaller in case someone wants to post it in their userinfo (like so, as an example). So here are a couple of takes on that.

( Read more... )

Welcome to our second-ever More Joy Day! The goal of today is for us to seek out and give joy to others, in the hopes that it will expand outward into the world. We're giving ourselves a booster shot of joy to make it through the rest of the year with a little bit of our sanity intact. :)

The ultimate goal is to do just one joy-filled thing for someone(s) today; either something small, like letting someone in front of you in line or in traffic, or something big, like writing a fic or making a vid for someone. The smallest amount of joy helps, and is a kindness that wasn't there when you started. You're further encouraged to then post about it and comment here with your link for further joy-sharing. I'll be posting my own fannish things separately, and commenting here with the links as well.

So! Comment away - and I'll post again later with my own contribution. And you're welcome to link to this or the original post.

First a few links:

tzikeh would like you to take her poll about usage of 'netspeak in your spoken language.

elynross reminded me I wanted to pimp the livelongnmarry auction, which, in her words, is: a fandom auction to benefit marriage equality. Proceeds are going towards the fight against the California initiative which will legally destroy existing same-sex marriages and ban any further ones. Check out the comm profile for more info.

Vidders, have y'all heard of epic_clipage? I like having the whole episodes in front of me, but that might be useful for some folks.

Here is a really neat vid-meme started by daybreak777: Ever have a moment in a vid that just gets you? Whether it’s the opening chord of the song or the last frame, it’s the cut that you think about while driving, while randomly washing dishes, the cut that makes you think, I have to watch that vid again. Here are some of mine!

Holy cow this was hard. I had to limit myself to the first five that came immediately to mind. Heh. Spoilers for the vids in question, of course, and possibly the fandoms. :) Also, assume that all of these vids are fantastic all the way through, because they are. These are just the bits I always think of.

Hello by merryish (Stargate: Atlantis) - My favorite moment is at 1:42 (I downloaded the vid and re-watched it so I could tell you this) where the music drops back out and when Teyla and John are stick-fighting and I really cannot explain why I love it so much, but the way it's timed and how hot she makes it seem with a simple fade to black at the end just thrills me. I LOVE that moment.

Writing Notes by heresluck (Buffy) - Totally the part where she intercuts from the herb Willow used to wipe Tara's brain to her hugging Tara after she's got her brain back from Glory. Wow. WOW. Such a great moment. I get chills! (Especially with the lyric - "I'd never do anything to hurt you.")

Prophecy by sockkpuppett (Angel) - Angel and Connor with their backs to the door, near the end of the vid. Just thinking about it makes my heart hurt.

Cuz I Can by dualbunny (BSG) - It seems impossible I could pick one moment out of a vid filled with awesome moments, but the bit I always think of that makes me want to watch it again is right at the beginning, the movement of the person bending down at the boxing match to Kara's mug coming down during her drinking session with Lee. Pulls me in every single time. (And also, because I downloaded it to get the timestamp, Kara's smile at 00:44 after she's wrapped her wrists. Katee Sackoff = how so beautiful?)

Hold Me Now by alkampfer81 (Princess Tutu) - First, if you haven't seen this vid because it's anime, don't let that stop you. Please. I linked to the strangefandom post because it tells you how to download it; I can also attest - though I don't approve of people doing this with other fan's vids - that it's up on Youtube. You should download the official vid, though, because it's amazing. The moment I always think of for this vid is when the prince goes spinning and then slams his sword out and then the ravens turn into blades. The music there is incredible and the vidder handles it beautifully.

Wait, wait, I have to do Swing Down Chariot by fan_eunice, too! Because it's a Dogma vid and that bit where everybody starts dancing and then Matt Damon does the little hands-in-the-air dance is for the win.

There are too many excellent vids to list!

Tomorrow is More Joy Day! I am really excited! Which is nice, because I haven't been excited about it until yesterday, so I'm enjoying it. It helps I got most of my MJDay items done yesterday. Heh.

I cannot stop listening to this song. Gorgeous.

I have missed more birthdays. I'm sure you're shocked.

Happy belated birthday wishes to catatonic1242 and arrow00. Cat, it amuses me still to think you're the person who gave me my initial LJ code. And who took me under her wing when I started vidding! Thank you. :) Arrow, it was wonderful to meet you at bitchinparty, and I am forever in your debt for all of your help and humor then. I hope this year is super-fantastic and full of fun and wonderful times for both of you.

More Dr. Horrible news!

Via molly_may, a great, slightly spoilery interview with Joss about it. (I wasn't sure Nathan Fillion was gonna sing - and he IS. omg.)

And here's another short article about it via SFX.

Two more days till More Joy Day! I have almost all of my preparations done. :)

Thank you, weather, for not being stupid hot today when I had to walk home from the post office thanks to a broken car. I am so very grateful.

Via bailrunui, Discovery Channel has hired an excellent ad agency recently. This new commercial is pretty much a fanvid. It's really fun!

( Embedded video under the cut )

This weekend I have been both very productive and very lazy, which is exactly what I wanted (and needed) after this, well, whole month. MAN am I glad June is over. It's been really hot here in Seattle, though - hello, summer!

AHH and I also consumed a fair amount of media this weekend, including Wall-E (loved it!) and When We Left Earth (really loved it; I want to vid it, actually, if I can find the right song). I also did a couple of More Joy Day prep things, including updating the banner. And now thanks to brynnmck, I'm watching scenes from Step Up 2: THE STREETS on Youtube.

And please note that it's apparently limited, so don't miss it. :)

A message from Joss about the dates. Here's the most important part of that:

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part’s not true), FREE (sadly, that part is) right on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)

And also this, again quoted from Joss' post:

Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs… let people know who wouldn’t ordinarily know. It wouldn’t hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community – communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It’s time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen.

There's more at the link, including why it's such a limited free run.

Doctor Who fans - you guys are adorable with your posts right now. It's like y'all simultaneously exploded.

I am putting this out in a public LJ post:

I am going deadline-free the rest of the year, or until I finish the eight items below, whichever comes first. I feel like I haven't allowed myself much fannish creative time for my own projects. It's mostly my own fault, and partially Just Life, but I can control at least my hand in it. I'm telling you guys now - until these things get done, I'm not going to sign up or willingly take on any other fannish volunteer opportunities. Not that I'm not excited about these things, or the things I have done already this year, or other upcoming possibilities, like DS Match, but I want to viiiiiid. Heh.

This is my resolve face!

( For Reals Things To Finish )

Tomorrow, though, I plan to sleep all day.

greensilver reminded me that it's time to do the annual What Are You Making for Vividcon Premieres poll! Especially now that there are only 2 days left for submitting said vids. This year new and improved with extra show options. Please feel free to pimp to your VVC-going flists.

ETA: Also please answer if you're sending for the Non-Attending Premieres show. I forgot to specify that as an option on the poll.

( Cut for length! )

Whew.

I'm way behind on LJ, so I assume everybody's seen this already, but just in case, the teaser for Joss' Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is up and it looks awesome. (And in case you haven't seen the Official Site recently (I hadn't), here it is: http://doctorhorrible.com/ ; just the picture for now, it seems. Here's the fansite: http://doctorhorrible.net/ .)

I'm also throwing out a reminder that More Joy Day is next Thursday, July 3rd!

A couple of weeks ago I told belmanoir that I have kind of my ultimate Fraser/Vecchio song for season 3&4/Post-CotW F/V and then forgot to send it to her and I thought it would be fun for the F/V fans on my flist (the rest of you can scroll by *g*) to share it here so we can all swoon together.

( In your arms, Where all my journeys end )

Oh, boys.

I really do not want to go back to work tomorrow.

Ack, family's awake, must be off - thank you guys for all of your congratulations on the last post! I will try to respond tomorrow, if getting caught up at work isn't too crazy. :)

I shouldn't be here, since we still have people staying with us through the end of the week and I should be socializing, but I want to take this opportunity, for my own benefit, to mark this day. AHH graduated today and is now Dr. AHH, ND, and I am so. fucking. proud of him. He's worked his butt off over the last six years, and now he's being set loose on the world with all the best intentions and carefully learned tools to heal and help others. The ceremony was beautiful, full of hope and laughter and a genuinely caring spirit that I never saw at my own graduation years ago, and wonder if there is the same at other institutions. There are marvelous people still in our world, and I am lucky to love just one of them.

I missed a bunch of birthdays while I was gone last week! Belated happy birthday wishes to theamyrlin, movies_michelle, destina, and neroli66! I hope you ladies all had a wonderful day.

And today is the birthday of the ever-lovely fenchurche AND minim_calibre! I hope you both also have fantastic days and that the weather holds as it says it is supposed to. :D

Holy cow, I love my current Current Obsessions playlist. The first three songs it randomly played today are just way too much awesome in that short a time:

1. Kathleen Edwards, "Independent Thief"
2. Matt Pond PA, "Taught to Look Away" (I think this is via vonnie_k? Whoever it was: THANK YOU. I LOVE it.)
3. Colin Meloy, "Blues Run the Game"

I mean, the playlist is (obviously) made up of songs I'm in love with right now, but these are my three favorites. I could listen to them over and over and never get tired. And I think I shall. Hee.

I'm really glad (and relieved, admittedly!) that other people are excited about More Joy Day. I realized this morning as I was taking a shower and trying to think of things to do, that this part, where I start putting my plans into motion, is one of my favorite things about More Joy Day.

I have missed deadlines for both hard_core_hero and the Ray's Fingerprints challenge over at ds_closet, but as both of them have very fluid definitions of "deadlines," I'm hoping to still write something for them, um, sometime. Lately I find myself consumed with the desire to vid, and a hundred vid ideas banging at my mental doors, demanding to be let in and crowd out all of the Adult Responsibilities I'm hosting. I wish I had the summer off. Why couldn't I have found vidding when I was in high school? (Oh yeah, because we were still using BBS' then. THAT'S the reason. Also, I would've flunked with that sort of distraction available to me. It's for the best, really.)

I also have missed vidding deadlines, which I feel like I have WOE'd about to everyone around me, but possibly that was all in my head and I spared you. ANYHOW. Vidding = sometime in the near future, I very much HOPE. (Sweet Charity vid in particular, which at this point, greensilver should receive a medal for her patience. Except, omg, I cannot get this Office ensemble vid idea out of my head and it might have to get made first, especially since I've intimidated myself with the SC vid.) Writing = Sometime after that. *nods firmly to self and tries to ignore all of the physical-space stuff I should do instead*

Can we talk about So You Think You Can Dance? I frigging LOVE this show. I look forward to it every week, and usually spend Tuesdays watching my favorite dance routines from previous seasons to tide me over until Wednesday's show. So far I've only seen the first hour of last night's show, but can I just say that as much as I typically don't like Mia, last night she was giving (mostly) decent critiques and I want to use the word "banoodles" for all time. ALSO, ( sort of spoilery talk about the first half dances )

I was gonna talk about the BSG finale a little more, but this is long enough and I'm starving. I need breakfast.

People! boofadil reminded me that I needed to make a post about More Joy Day! It is a GO for two weeks from tomorrow, July 3rd!

In case you aren't sure what More Joy Day is, or have forgotten, here's the skinny from the original post (updated with new dates):

Awhile back, I was reading the American Idol recaps over on Televisionwithoutpity.com and I came to this paragraph, written by the recapper Jacob:

Some dick cuts you off on the highway, and you give yourself the pass to be a dick to the next five customers, and your bad mood fades by lunchtime, and you forget the dick on the highway, you forget the color of his car, you forget how he was on the phone with his ex-wife, yelling about custody of their kids, and how he never meant to cut you off in the first place, he was just distracted. Your day continues as planned, and at lunch you check your websites and read a funny recap, and you maybe laugh out loud, and you go home and watch TV. But those five guys give themselves the pass to be dicks to the next five -- they're having a bad day, so it's okay just this once, and they're happy again by lunch -- and those twenty-five become six hundred twenty-five, and those six twenty-five become a million, and you've added to the sum total of anger in the world. But it works with love, too, and kindness. ... Your donation is something tangible, but what it means is something altogether more powerful, and it's that you continue to stand, and you continue to remember that you're not alone, and with reverence for this fact, you can't help but add to joy. Which is your entire job, from the day you're born until the day you die: more joy.

And I could not get over the sentiment of that last line, because it’s something I’ve believed for a very long time. 2007 was tough for many people on my flist, which was so difficult to see. A lot of bad things happened to a lot of people, and I thought starting 2008 with a day dedicated to More Joy would be a good way to get a jumpstart on a better year.

So here’s my idea:

In the interest of spreading more joy, I’m proposing that two weeks from tomorrow, Thursday, July 3rd, we each engage in one act, either here on or outside of LJ, which brings joy to another person, in the hopes that that person will spread that joy further, and exponentially onward.

Some ideas I had of things we could do:

Write a fic, make an icon, make a vid, or make a fanart for someone. Buy someone paid time or userpics. Leave someone a nice comment. Say something nice about something fannish someone else loves. Say something nice about something fannish you love and encourage squee (and squee on someone else’s post if they make one!). Offer to beta for someone. Offer to donate five dollars to the charity of someone's choice. Send flowers to an online friend in a different city. Buy someone you know online a present. Or a virtual present. Plant a tree or a flower in someone's honor and take a picture of it and post it to your LJ. When somebody cuts you off at work, wish them well and hope they get where they’re going safely. Make somebody a friendship bracelet. Or a construction paper heart. Call someone you love and tell them so. Or anything else you can think of!

Then on that Thursday, make a post saying what you've done (or a note that it's More Joy day), and that will hopefully help spread things further.

2008 has had its share of ups and downs for folks so far, and I figure we could use a booster shot of Joy to get us through the end of the year, so we're doing this again, if you're in with me. The reason More Joy Day worked the first time was because of you all, and I hope you'll join me again on July 3rd! And if you need some ideas check my memories for all of the amazing stuff that people did last time. But remember that even a single, small act can have an amazing ripple. :)

I've had three awesome weekends in a row but have failed to talk about any of them. The first two were filled with excellent fangirl shenanigans and this last one, AHH and I went to Vegas. We didn't win anything, but we did see the Blue Man Group - which was AWESOME and I whole-heartedly recommend - and stayed in a great room and had amazingly delicious food. It was fun, but I'm exhausted today because Vegas' hours are very different from mine.

We also watched the BSG "mid-season finale" (SciFi, I turn my angry eyes to you) this weekend, which I really liked and I have some thoughts I'd actually like to put down. BUT, I honestly don't have time right now for that kind of in-depth thinking, so what I want to say is: ( Read more... )

Trufax.

This is a really accurate personality test, at least for me.



Also, the hard_core_hero challenge has been extended until June 16th! \o/

pellucid has an interesting discussion about how old people are and how they feel about space travel in her LJ.

We finished The Office. I really enjoyed the finale, with one concern. ( Spoilers through the end of season 4 )

Happy Monday!

counteragent's little sister-in-law, Jenny, is very sick. It would be so wonderful if you could take a quick moment (just like 3 minutes) to check out her family's blog (http://jenjensfamily.blogspot.com/) and see if you think you might know anyone like Jenny. They are looking for "comparables" (people who have similar symptoms) that may have had success with treatments Jenny's docs haven't yet tried.

They would also really appreciate it if you post about this on your blog and thus help them spread the word.

In addition, counteragent has made a really beautiful video in tribute to her sister and their current struggles. It really speaks to the power of hope and the comfort of family. I recommend downloading the high-quality version; it's worth it.

This is a new vid, but publishing it is really superfluous at this point, since the intended audience for this vid has already seen it. :) I made it for brynnmck for her birthday. And when I say I made it for brynn, I mean it was made specifically for the things she loves. In the case that you love these things too, I'm posting it. As such - and this is a first for me, because I am all about being open to concrit normally - while feedback is always welcomed, please no critique for just this vid in particular. Thank you.

Title: Six Angels
Song: Headstones, "Three Angels"
Fandoms: Hard Core Logo, Supernatural, Due South, Alias, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape
Spoilers: Nothing too shocking, but assume early season spoilers for everything, and later season spoilers for Farscape
Summary: That's the thing about living

Download: QuickTime (51 MB) (right click, save target as to download)


( Lyrics )

Many thanks to zabira for her beta efforts! Especially since I had an unfortunate time crunch for beta'ing. I appreciate it, Z. :)

I was watching a Tivo'd show the other day and I was fast-forwarding through commercials (as you do), when this commercial caught my eye. I actually stopped the Tivo, rewound, and watched it, and it made me really happy, so I hope you enjoy it, too.

Here on Youtube.

( I'm going to try this embedding thing )

First, and most importantly, this quick poll. I'd talked about doing More Joy Day on June 19, but I know people are graduating/school is ending/LJ seems dead and/or busy in general, so I'm wondering if July 3rd might not be a better day for it. Give us more time to do stuff (me, especially, I'll be honest) and some space from all of the June activities. But people seem to be in need of some cheering up lately, too. And then there's the consideration of maybe it should just "officially" (and I use that term SO LOOSELY, honest) be once a year. So I bring the question to you, flist.

Poll #1200487 MJ Day!
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

We should do More Joy Day on

In that zombie meme going around, I have no idea for which weapon I'd use (I like scarlettgirl's answer of an AK47) or which song (like I could cut it down to one? Have you guys MET me? I do offer Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" as an option though), but my partner-in-zombie-fighting would have to be Charles Gunn (funny, hot, and very experienced!).

And since I don't think anybody's going to get the other answers for yesterday's lyrics meme, here they are. Let me know if you want any of these songs.

( Read more... )

We've now seen through "Branch Wars" for The Office. I am still madly in love with the show, and Pam in particular. Though I must say that I do prefer the half-hour episodes. The one-hour episodes just aren't holding together as well for me, but these last two half-hour ones were spectacular. I really could not love Pam more, you guys.

Now I am off to watch last night's So You Think You Can Dance. I LOVE THIS SHOW.