Doing strange things in the name of art

On a calmer note, I'm on diigo and pinboard. I am so glad I've been backing up my bookmarks every few days since the original shutdown scare.

Unfortunately, the thing where Diggo private-locks sex related bookmarks means that it's probably not going to work as a substitute for fannish purposes. Their algorithm is really haphazard, too. Bondage and sex are both disallowed, but bdsm, kink, non-con:porn, explicit, NSFW and tags that include sex aren't automatically locked down. Even so, it's annoying enough that I doubt I'll be using diigo as anything but an emergency backup.

In less irritating news, I'm off to Maker Fair today.

I have a couple of AO3 invites up for grabs. Comments are screened.

I finally got around to watching the new Clash of the Titans, and all I've got to say is that it's kind of pathetic that the Percy Jackson movie does Greek mythology that much better.

It must be a slow day at work. A couple of the techs went past my office earlier, carrying a vacationing co-worker's desk.

ETA: And now they are putting up caution tape and warning lights where the desk was.

So, the Archive of Our Own starts open beta tomorrow. If anyone wants an account without waiting in the signup queue, I have an invite code up for grabs. Just leave me an email address, comments are screened.

This is the sort of thing I have to deal with at family gatherings.

Warped Uncle: "You can't tell that it is the end times until you have been kissed by a South American camel."

Everyone else (with pained expressions): "Why?"


Warped Uncle: "Because it's the alpaca-lypse."

They are making a John Carter of Mars movie. \o/ I loved the Barsoom books when I was a kid. They are the exactly the sort of thing which I’ve always thought would be ideal for movie adaptations. It’s got airships and cool aliens and multi-limbed riding beasts, and most of the plot is action. And filming is in Utah, too, which is a great place to go for Martian-like landscapes full of twisty red rocks.

I generally try not to have high expectations for movie adaptations of books, but as long as they manage decent special effects and watch the skeevy race and gender stuff in the source material, they hopefully won’t screw it up too badly. That should be managable even for Hollywood, surely? The books are very much a product of their times, the problematic stereotypes are not subtle.

Admittedly, it’s being made by Disny/Pixar, which is a little unexpected. I’m curious what they are going to do on the costuming end. It’s a safe bet that they won’t be following the costumes as described in the book (i.e. jewelry and weapons holsters and not much else). Even the Frazetta illustrations tend toward the skimpy chainmail bikini look.

So, I had an exciting evening on Friday. First, the power went out, which is annoying enough at the best of times, and worse when you are house sitting for friends and don’t know where the flashlights are. So I went outside to try and figure out if it was just the house or a general blackout, and it immediately became obvious why the power was out, because the power pole across the street was on fire.

A couple of clumps of grass around the base were lit up and the flames were starting to creep up the pole. Keep in mind that this is in New Mexico, far enough out on the edge of town that the neighborhood is technically part of the county, which means the climate is dry and there are large stretches of land with just enough plant life for grass fires to get going.

So I dashed inside to get my cell phone and called the fire department. The couple across the street (who could tell there was smoke, but hadn’t seen the fire since it was just past the edge of their property and on the other side of a wall) had a fire extinguisher and managed to put it out before it spread much. The firetruck showed up pretty quickly and made sure it was out, and the power guys turned up pretty quickly after that and got the power back on, too. So it turned out okay, but I think I’ll wait ‘till they get back to tell my friends about it. I don’t think that a “Don’t worry, your house didn’t burn down” email would be the most reassuring thing in the world.

I’m totally making sure I know where the fire extinguisher is the next time I house-sit, though.