http://www.supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1366#4527

We're having a home-cooked pre-thanksgiving meal in Williamsburg today. It is mostly vegan, completely vegetarian, and okay for the gluten-free...

[Read Where to Eat Vegan for Thanksgiving 2009 in New York City]

Transferring Heroes stories to the AO3 was upsetting. I did some choosing and picking, as I didn't want to transfer all, but this meant rereading, which meant remembering, which meant me going "Damn it, Heroes, damn it!".

You know, I've been wondering retrospectively what could have saved the show because it did have such a lot of potential. Realistically saved, which means wishing a completely different mindset on Tim Kring & Co. or completely different writers is out. And my conclusion is that the only plausible option I can see would have been if Kring had stuck to his original idea of introducing a new ensemble cast each season. This would have meant his weaknesses - good long term character development, plausible long term arcs - would not have been exposed, his strengths - origin stories, setting up interesting relationships - would have been played to, and while one season long arcs still could have included problematic choices re: storylines for pocs and/or women, the odds of this being balanced by successful storylines for same would have been higher.

On to more joyful fannish nostalgia, this one concerning Star Trek: yesterday I had tea with an actor who does a lot of dubbing work and was friends with the late G.G. Hoffman, who used to dub both Sean Connery and William Shatner. Hoffmann also supervised a lot of the dubbing for TOS back in the day. And my new accquaintance (who dubbed the occasional Klingon and other guest characters) had an anecdote about visiting Hoffmann once in the studio, finding several female visitors who were ST fangirls (well, -women, that was what struck him, as he had the usual preconceptions about who likes Sci-Fi) who while being intrigued and impressed by the whole dubbing process immediately switched to stern and merciless once the work started whenever Hoffmann made a continuity mistake. They were his continuity advisors, and the actors were all amazed by all the details the fan women knew by their hearts. And took every suggestion...

http://supervegan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=901#901

Click here to read Re: Shelter Animals

[View Post | View Entire Topic | More from JeanAyala6]

R came over this evening. I give you your nightly quote:

R: Oh, so, you gotta see these shoes I bought from this guy.
Sam: Fancy shoes?
R: So fancy.
Sam: Wait, who is 'this guy'? Like, a guy at a department store? Or, ahahaha, some guy on the street?
R: YOU LAUGH BUT HE SOLD ME SOME GREAT SHOES.
Sam: You bought shoes from a random dude on the street?
R: And they are the finest footwear I have ever acquired. So, it was two in the morning, right --
Sam: You bought shoes from a random dude on a street at two in the morning.
R: HE WAS A SHOE-SHINE!

Apparently they're really nice shoes.

Of all of the things I never, ever, ever expected to say in this lifetime...

Because general_jinjur is amazing, and the OTW is amazing, and the AO3 is amazing, and the Wrangulator is amazing, and because everyone who is uploading stories and tagging them is amazing...

Go read:

forma by general_jinjur. It's Tag Wuzzle Wrangler RPF.

I will apparently be cosplaying myself next Escapade, y'all.

(If there is a fanartist in range of my voice who can draw in the style of Nausicaa Valley of the Wind and is willing to do a commission, please let me know.)

(Heck, if any fanartist wants to do something related to this, let general_jinjur know... she says the Wrangulatorverse is open to sharing according to the open-transform statement on her profile, but I'm sure she'd love to hear if you make any derivative work from it!)

And yes, the tag wrangling team is still looking for more volunteers.

*holds out hand*

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016266.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Sigh. My cake didn't rise, and worse, it tastes like failure.

*crosses that recipe off the list*

On the upside, there was reviewing of yuletide source. Now I just have to figure out what I'm writing.

***

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/5MSga-iK_K8/entry.php

The November 19th installment of Vegan Drinks featured a solid lineup. Fresh faces mixed with the very familiar ones. DJ Lil Ray kept the crowd in steady beats. Angels & Kings bartender Jesse replenished drinks effortlessly. And, David from Farm Sanctuary helped us all to adopt turkeys, pigs and cows just in time for the start of the winter holiday season. We owe a special thanks to our friends who donated Farm Sanctuary memberships and adoptions for us to give away to three lucky folks in the crowd.

The people lined up to spread their messages during "Shout Outs." David announced a plethora of upcoming Farm Sanctuary events. Joyce introduced us to Pets for Life NYC. Kneel revealed that Vegetable Slut has a new Web site and vegan-friendly designs for sale. Abby made an appeal for one of the dogs on Friday's euthanasia list at Animal Care & Control and offered her assistance to anyone who could foster the dog. We plugged Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which will get the book release party treatment at MooShoes this Tuesday, November 24th, at 7pm. (Free cookies and sandwiches, y'all!) And, the über talented Mascha returned to Vegan Drinks with her completed photo project, VEGAN NY, which was projected on one of the bar's walls.

If you would like to get in touch with any of the folks mentioned above, please email info@vegandrinks.org.

The next Vegan Drinks NYC is Thursday, December 17th, at Angels & Kings Bar from 7pm to 9pm. (Note: This isn't the last Thursday of the month.) We'll have many more items to give away and DJ Lil Ray will be back! We can't wait to see you again! Get on our mailing list!

[Comments (0) | Add Your Comment]

Either my flex spending account thinks I'm trying to rip them off, or they're trying to rip me off.

Maybe they think no one person can sustain this much injury in a year. It's baffling sometimes, truly.

For those of you outside the States -- health insurance, which I pay for every month, pays 80% of all my doctor bills. I have to pay the other 20%. To make up the difference, my company offers a "flex card" which is a credit card where a fixed amount is taken out of your paycheck pre-taxes and put on the card to pay for medical expenses. You tell them yearly how much money you want on the card, and they take a little each month to make up that amount, even though you get all that money on the card immediately.

Yes. Welcome to the reason we long for socialised medicine.

Anyway, I carry $600 on my flex spending account, which I've been using to pay for medical treatment for a broken leg, chiropractic adjustments, a sinus infection, and various over-the-counter painkillers and band-aids and such.

Every month, now, my flex card kicks a letter out to me saying JUSTIFY YOUR EXPENDITURES, SEND US RECIEPTS. It's not supposed to do this; the only time this is supposed to happen is if it's something hinkey, like you bought a Nintendo on your flex account or something.

Instead, my letter has WHAT ABOUT THIS BILL FROM NORTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER printed on the request. What the fuck do they think I'm buying at a MEDICAL CENTER if not MEDICAL TREATMENT? Prostitutes? Can I get those at a hospital? Maybe they think my theraputic massages for the left arm I CAN'T MOVE have a happy ending or something.

Relatedly, I decided to go for a walk today and now I can't put any weight on my left leg. I've had it elevated and I'm applying ice on and off, but if it's still nonfunctional tomorrow it's back to the Immediate Care centre for me tomorrow.

Argh.

Okay, this is the plan for hiatus:

1. yuletide
2. Broken Toys
3. the 5.10 story I'm working on right now (I keep having to stop because it's making me cry! That never happens to me when I write!)
4. The Dean-Michael dream story
5. Drought Conditions (casefile)
6. Nothing but Winter in my Cup (casefile)
7. the Dean/Sam/Pam story

That's quite a lot, considering November and December are usually the time of my fannish malaise.

This song is not helping with the crying, iTunes!

Now, though, I think I am going to bake a cake.

***

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http://www.supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1366#4526

I've had excellent Thanksgiving meals at Candle Cafe (twice), Candle 79, and Angelica Kitchen. Last year was Angelica, and it was so amazing! This year we're cooking for the first time, but there is definitely something to be said for having a multicourse meal prepared for you and served to you, and not having to do any dishes! And no worries about not having leftovers - all four years I had more food than I could finish that became amazing leftover sandwiches the next day. :D

[Read Where to Eat Vegan for Thanksgiving 2009 in New York City| More from Melissa Bastian]

http://www.supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1360#4525

I have read the entire book, and I'm posting dissections of each chapter on the Vegan Etsy blog as well as on my own blogs, one per week. I don't think it's a perfect book, but I think it's a good book. More importantly, I think it will be very influential.

Here we have a popular young author publishing book-length nonfiction for the first time on a topic that many are already interested in. He's been on Ellen, he's been on Martha. Moms may start to think, hey, maybe I should read that book. Maybe I should think about a vegetarian dinner or two. Or at the very least, maybe I should pay more attention to where these animal products are coming from. It's impossible to say what kinds of seeds this book could plant, but all of them are for our cause.

I have read this book carefully and closely. There is absolutely nothing in it that contradicts vegan ethics. Nowhere does it promote eating milk, eggs, or cheese; actually it even points out the factory farm origins of the vast majority of eggs. It is simply a book that focuses on flesh eating. There's plenty of well-researched information about the environmental impacts of factory farming, as well as how the animals and workers are treated.

It's a book well worth reading, and I wholeheartedly believe that both the book and the author should be supported by the vegan community.

[Read Does it matter that Jonathan Safran Foer isn't vegan?| More from Melissa Bastian]

In today's "Activism: Ur Doin It Wrong" department, we have accusations that slurs against pagan rituals are racist. Set aside, for the moment, that said slurs don't actually exist. That... give some insight into the mind of the commenter, but isn't, in fact, relevant.

What's relevant is that she thinks Wicca's being insulted, and she's "calling" the supposed insulter on her "racism." (In a community about public transportation. So, um, more than rather severely off-topic all around.)

I don't have an icon that's halfway between "facepalm" and "headdesk." (And I don't want one; that would mean I expect to find *more* stuff like this to post about. Which I'd really rather not.)

Oh, and the comment threads hit Godwin's law, ablism, classism and childfreekiness. And NEVAR AGAIN TEH BURNING TIEMS! A glory of fucktupitude all around.

(I got this from dot_pagan_snark, and it's been on stupid_free, so apologies to people who already know about it. Sharin' the pain, folks; sharin' the pain.)

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/283818.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

Hi, my name's elf, and I have a reading problem.

When most people say "reading problem," they mean "the letters look blurry to me" or "I've been assigned more pages than human eyeballs can absorb this weekend" or "ack, my comprehension of Russian is too low for me to get the right concepts out of this physics paper." It almost never means "I think I've been neglecting other parts of my life for reading."

Because reading isn't considered a dangerous addiction. It has no physical side-effects. It doesn't make the mind slow or incompetent. At no point, in the throes of reading, is one incapable of driving or performing surgery, should one's skills go in those directions. (Well, save for the "must put book down" part. However, after that immediate shift in awareness, one's reflexes and attention are both available to whatever tasks might be at hand.)

And it's not expensive. Nobody sells off his car and formal clothes to get books. Nobody hocks her wedding jewelry. Books--really good books--are available everywhere at prices ranging from "cheap" to "free." And the internet hasn't made that any less true. Entertaining content, informative & educational content, useful, delightful, important content, is free by the terabyte.

And oooh, I want to read it ALL.

( I read a lot. I could read a lot more. )

We are starting this years InsaneJournal holiday sale. From now until the end of the day Friday, November 27 we are going to be holding a sale on Self-Committed[paid] accounts and Extra Userpics.

The prices are be as follows

Self-Committed[paid]
1 Month -> $5
6 Month -> $15 $10
12 Month -> $25 $18

Extra Userpicx
6 Month -> $10 $5
12 Month -> $20 $15

Then on Friday November 27th from 8am until 4pm (Eastern US time) we will be running a very special sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

Speaking just as myself, and not in my role as volunteer tag wuzzle wrangler...

my first fanfic
my first explicit fanfic
embarrassing old fic

you don't have to know the canon

one of my best
if you only read one work by me

I think it would be so nifty to be able to see what others choose of their fics for those tags!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1016047.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

You know, I wasn't that crazy about The Claws of Axos the first time around, when it came without farting jokes and with Delgado!Master. This finale didn't live up to the two previous SJA finales; it was okay but not splendid, especially compared with Enemy of the Bane last season. (Same goes for s3 in general - it was pleasant enough but there was just one outstanding story, The Wedding of Sarah Jane, whereas season 2 had several great stories, notably Mark of the Beserker and Enemy of the Bane.) This being said, there was enough in The Gift to make me feel fuzzy about the entire gang to keep me a generally happy viewer, with only the slight disappointment this didn't live up to previous show efforts.

( Who wants to know about the life cycle of a plant? )

Oy, this day. Or, well, yesterday, at this point. The less said, the better. And did I mention I got my period this morning? oy.

I left work late - I think I was the only person left in the office - and all I wanted was to come home and watch this week's Friday Night Lights. But the file I dl'd wouldn't play on WMP or QT or even VLC. I updated DivX and it wouldn't play on that either. So I deleted it, rebooted, and redownloaded, and it worked.

I thought I might actually get through the episode without crying. I don't know why I thought that. I don't think it's ever happened, and it certainly did not happen tonight.

Friday Night Lights: A Sort of Homecoming

( spoilers )

***

Okay, I just asked this in meret's comments, but ( spoilers for SPN s5 that's aired so far )

***

*yawn*

Man, I totally need to sleep.

***

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http://www.supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1366#4524

timely-thx!

[Read Where to Eat Vegan for Thanksgiving 2009 in New York City| More from sriram]

• albumsontheside: I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me. - what makes certain fics popular? - why are some fics so unbelievably popular in certain fandoms, and why do the fans often react so personally to any criticism levied against said fics? -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom criticism)


• thefrogg: Muses and Fic Nicknames - Am I the only writer who happens to actually...give a personality/name/body/whatever to their muse? -
  
  (tags: writing)

Still taking Eight Crazy Nights prompts; Thuvia, I’ll hold a space for you unless you tell me otherwise.

Week-old TV thoughts (boy am I behind: this is not a good semester for fannish activities for me!):

( SPN, The Real Ghostbusters )

( Last week's Fringe ) comments on DW

Spam! Wrote this not long after TDK came out but never posted it. Since the evil twin just wrote Joker/Scarecrow with similar elements, I knew I had to post it as the same time as hers or I'd never do it. Team Porn does Arkham. Arharhrh.


The Frayed Ends
Batman. Batman/Joker. R. ~1000 words. Nolanverse. Violence.
Darkness gathers into a swarm around them and Bruce doesn’t want to let the bastard take one more goddamn breath.


( Read Me. )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SuperVegan/~3/PYxx47kFj9M/entry.php

[SuperVegan's Patrick Kwan is a Tofurky fan.]

Thanksgiving is a devastating time of year for vegans, when we cry into our bland veggie soup while meat eaters feast around us, knowing deep down in our souls that we're missing out on one of life's great pleasures...

Oh, wait, no. That's just the lie that meat eaters tell themselves to justify their refusal to take responsibility for their own destructive choices.

In fact, with its wide array of freshly harvested delights, Thanksgiving is a cornucopia for vegans. Even the New York Times is getting in on the act, blogging about Going Vegetarian for Thanksgiving and posting recipes (I'm making the Fiery Sweet Potatoes).

As usual, many of New York City's best vegan restaurants have risen to the occasion. Here's SuperVegan's round-up of where to eat vegan in NYC for Thanksgiving; make your restaurant reservations asap!

Angelica Kitchen</a> is offering a five course prix fixe menu for $50; BYOB to save money. Thanksgiving is the only night Angelica takes reservations, so folks won't have to queue up in the cold like usual. The dinner will also be available for take out from the juice bar. Say hi to SuperVegan's own Olivia Lane, who will be hostessing in the afternoon.

Blossom and Blossom Uptown (the former Cafe Blossom) are offering the same three-course menu for $68, with reservations available between 3-9pm.

Candle 79's four course prix fixe is $70, while sister restaurant Candle Cafe gives you four courses for $52, plus a la carte options.

Caravan of Dreams will have Thanksgiving options in addition to their regular menu.

Counter's got seatings from 12pm-9pm for their $50 four course prix fixe, plus an optional $25 wine pairing.

Curly's will be serving a four or five ("depending on how you count them") course prix fixe menu for $26.95.

Hang out with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Peter Max, and Ally Sheedy at Farm Sanctuary's Celebration FOR the Turkeys this Sunday at Tavern on the Green. You can even get the latest word on author Jonathan Safran Foer's not-quite-veganism from the man himself. The event is currently sold out, but you can call to get on the waiting list.

NYC's all-vegetarian grocery store, Integral Yoga Natural Foods, has many prepared vegan Thanksgiving foods. It's currently offering a 10% discount on holiday desserts, pies, cakes and brownies (most are vegan; they've got a list with ingredients on their website).

Organic Grill will have a special Thanksgiving menu in addition to their regular menu.

Chef Ouiya has both prix fixe and a la carte options for delivery or pick up. Check out the menu here and make sure to get your order in by Saturday the 21st.

Perelandra Natural Food Center has a selection of prepared vegan Thanksgiving foods.

Pure Food and Wine will once again be serving the most expensive vegan Thanksgiving meal in NYC. Their four course prix fixe is $72; select items from their regular menu will also be available.

Red Bamboo will be serving their regular menu and a $21.95 Thanksgiving prix fixe menu. Red Bamboo Brooklyn will offer a three course prix fixe after 4pm at an as-yet-undecided price. (Jeez, people, Thanksgiving is less than a week away!)

'sNice and 'sNice Brooklyn are both closed Thanksgiving day, but we recommend you stop by in the days before or after to try their awesome Thanksgiving Leftovers sandwich.

WholeFoods has their same old Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner for one. At $19.99, it includes curried apple pumpkin soup, a stuffed holiday roast, green beans with almonds, and mushroom gravy. Dessert is now sold separately, packaged with bread.

You already missed the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's 2009 Thanksliving, but you can sign up for their mailing list to make sure you don't miss out next year.

If you love to cook, want to save money, or just want to skip the formality of dining out, host a potluck! Here's a "Gentle Thanksgiving" recipe guide, complete with menu suggested by Alicia Silverstone. Hit your local farmers' market for ingredients, or check out one of NYC's vegan-friendly grocery stores.

If we're missing anything good, please let us know!

[Comments (3) | Read Comments and Add Your Own ]

Just a little something to get me in the groove for doing homework. Done without access to my usual brushes so there are several big things that make me go DDDD:, but I didn't want to spend more than an hour on this. Warmup means warmup, Pondy.

Avengers. Steve/Tony. G.



( Steve & Tony Warmup Drawing )

!!!EIREE si tihs isht esuaceB ?SIHT gniod si ertupmoc ym yhw nialpxe ydobyna naC

You stay classy Harlequin! You stay classy!

What gets me, is that they've the nerve to be upset that the RWA's taken away thier princess points for that stunt. Did they somehow think that authors would APPROVE of Harlequin pimping (and yes, I mean that 'pimping' in the most denigrating way possible, by the way,) a brand new vanity press at its slushpile? Of COURSE the RWA's disgusted!

Harlequin's spin doctoring attemtp is even worse, given that it's more or less like Huggy Bear trying to deny the existence of his stable of whores to his wife when she busts him at work. It's a plain sign of disrespect, and I look forward with schadenfreude to Harlequin's authors jumping ship in hordes over it. (Not that that'll actually happen, of course. Authors are too desperate, generally, to continue seeing their works in print once they've got a taste of it. Still, chance would be a fine thing.)

In other news.

I lost yesterday to being eaten by a grue. I lost today to a migraine. I got more or less nothing done on either, and am therefore a Very Bad Girl. Now who's going to write my spanking? (Leers at Certain Demographic of my Flist.)

This weekend will involve a drive to Boston, during which I expect I shall write some. We're going to see Enter the Haggis, and that'll be a good pick up to wash the dirt off the shovel with which I'm burying the dismembered corpse of this past week. (And how's THAT for a metaphor? Cause I mean every word, thanks.)

With the usual caveat that one woman's source of fannish annoyance may be another sentient being's source of fannish pleasure, etc.

1.) Chakotay from Star Trek: Voyager.
Why is he annoying? ( Spoilers for ST: Voyager ensue. )

2.) Lorien from Babylon 5.
Why is he annoying? ( Spoilers for Babylon 5 ensue. )

3.) William "Bill" Adama from Battlestar Galactica.
Why is he annoying? ( Spoilers for Battlestar Galactica ensue. )

4.) Galen from Crusade.
Why is he annoying? ( Spoilers for Crusade ensue. )

5.) Lila from Dexter.
Why is she annoying? ( Spoilers for Dexter ensue. )

The Companion Chronicles is a series by Big Finish in which various of the former companions get to narrate an adventure from their time with their respective Doctors, centered on them. I've previously reviewed Old Soldiers, in which the narrator is the Brigadier. This time, the Companions are Jo Grant and Sara Kingdom, from the Third and First Doctor's era respectively.

( Marc Platt: The Doll of Death )

( Simon Courier: Home Truths )

My mother has a theory, which is genius I think, that the worse the economy is at Christmas, the more lights and decorations people put up. My own anecdotal evidence gathered since the age of ten suggests this is mainly correct. It's some kind of reaction formation thing. "We have no money, so this is going to be the BEST, BRIGHTEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"

Seriously, look around yourselves on December 18th. You'll see what I mean.

I have a new theory that is related to this: when the economy tanks, television writers start KILLING EVERYONE. I suspect it has something to do with desperation to retain viewers as the ad money dries up and things get more competitive, making use of the link between profundity and death. Which does exist, but not nearly as intensely as most professional writers think it does (see: modernist theatre's relationship to the end-of-show suicide. Just because it worked for Chekhov* doesn't mean it works for everyone).

At the end of the day, if one is searching for meaning in modern life -- meaning and ratings -- then death's not a bad way to go. That's crass to say aloud, but it's also true. And there's nothing inherently wrong with an examination of death, self-sacrifice, and our place in the world.

But seriously now.

The debate goes back and forth endlessly about the meaning or lack thereof in a given death on a given show, and if someone does find beauty and meaning in death, that's okay. I understand, better than I used to, why people do; if not emotionally, then at least intellectually. My theory isn't about whether a given character's death is profound or stupid.

It's just that there's been so much death on so many of my shows that I'm afraid to turn on the television. Meaningful or not, I'm tired of it. I'm scared next Tuesday Abby's going to get shot. I feel like I can't watch TV until unemployment drops back below 8%.

So until then I'll just be over here with my Stranger Than Fiction DVD.

* At the end of The Sea Gull, which culminates in an offstage suicide, the audience in Moscow was silent for a full minute. Chekhov thought he was ruined; he thought the play had tanked. It turned out, nobody could gather their wits enough to applaud, at first. This is an epic legend, in theatrical circles.

http://www.supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1365#4523

Hair is on its way to being its proper color again. Just have to sleep on it and rinse it out in the morning. (Brr. We often don't have hot water in the morning; our unit shares a hot water heater with two others.)

Windows Vista apparently doesn't come with an unzip program. I can't unlock ZIP or RAR files. (Somewhere in my portable apps collection is a nice unlock-anything program; I've forgotten the name of it and can't be arsed to figure it out right now, since I can unzip the comics tomorrow.)

We got Dish network. 250 channels, although I gather that some of those might be music channels, and too many of them are sports. Still, lots more than we've had. I watch DishEarth a lot, which is a satellite feed of the earth, with classical music. I like it, but I miss the snow channel.

It's been cold enough recently that both Rob & I wake up with our shoulders tense and knotted in pain. It doesn't go away. I'm taking drugs for pain (erm, Advil; I'm a drug wimp) and it bothers me--I hate taking drugs to alleviate symptoms instead of doing something about the base cause.

Phoenix's school counselors suggest we should get her some philosophy to read. (Her reading skills are off the charts, which I find entirely unsurprising. Also, she's prone to getting randomly existential at her teachers, which disconcerts them.) Any suggestions on good philosophy texts for a 14-year-old who loves Pokemon fanfic and the Poltergeist movies?

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