Roundup of Subjects
I've been meaning to write a couple different posts, so I figure I'll just combine them into one big post and get the thoughts out there. First up is OTW's new statement about racism in fandom. I'll admit I've only been peripherally aware of the conversation going on about this although I did look into it somewhat and I signed the letter asking for the OTW to do better since, well, I can see how there are some problems, especially as I read the conversations surrounding it in more detail.
At any rate, I was happy to see that they're making an attempt to address fans' concerns, but I can see that the letter is maybe ... not everything one would hope for. I think that the followup will be what really determines whether they "got it" or not.
Either way, the letter is in stark contrast to another Web site handling criticism of late (though for very different reasons) and that site is Ravelry of all places. They recently updated the look of the site and people really hate it. It's not merely for aesthetic reasons (although I'll fully admit to liking the pastel pinks and greens of the old site much more). There are a lot of things about the new design that are difficult for people with disabilities such as the moving graphics, small text, and high contrast. I have to admit, the stark whiteness of the page was hard on my eyes as well and even the old version of the site seems to be suffering from this new problem? It didn't have it previously, so I'm not sure what is going on there.
I feel bad for the site designer to be honest. ^^" It's some pretty serious criticism and she had to do it all by herself. Still, I don't think they're handling the criticism all that well since they've essentially said the site will remain as is. Ahh, I guess we'll see how all that goes down...
And speaking of blinding white sites, both LiveJournal and FanFiction.Net seem to have this going on as well. LiveJournal's new RTE is just a void and FF.Net has never updated its color scheme. Well, it did back in the day. According to the Wayback Machine, FF.Net started out as having some orange in 1999 and some more blue later on before it settled on its very plain look of today.
In other news,
equalityauction has come to an end and it looks like it was an overall success! It was very exciting to see everyone take part and what kinds of things were offered. I offered up some fic and someone bid on it (!!!), so once all the donations are sorted I look forward to starting on that.
Also,
sunshine_challenge will be starting up soon (July) for those of you who are looking for a low maintenance writing challenge. I'm taking part in the challenge itself and I'm also one of the moderators, which is very exciting. ^^ I really do love writing prompts like this.
I checked out several CDs from the library the other day, and one of them is what I'm listening to now: El Dorado by Shakira. I've only ever heard two Shakira albums all the way through before (Magia and Laundry Service), so it's nice to branch out to her latest. ^^ I'm liking how much of the music is in Spanish this time around. There are also a lot of guest singers, but they don't take over the music, so I think it worked well.
As far as progress on fanfics, it's actually going pretty well. When the World Ends has the most progress on account of it being the handwritten one, but I've started a oneshot for Witch Hat Atelier and the next chapter of The Red Streets of Paris is coming along albeit somewhat slowly. Getting the right mood for this next chapter has been a real challenge on account of how fast-paced the chapters have been in general, and now I need to start wrapping up the actual mystery and somehow I need to get all the required info in there, some action so there isn't a random standstill, and all of that has to balance out how powerful the villain is with how poorly our heroes are doing. XD Maybe I made this guy too powerful....
I think that covers it for now. ^^
Edit: I forgot about the Raymond incident in Animal Crossing. XD Well, he showed up to the camp and I thought, "Aha, we can now be the envy of the Internet!" (my sisters and I play together), and so I promptly invited him. Well, the island was already full, but he said he could swap with another villager. "Perfect!" I thought. Not so perfect. The only one he wanted to swap with was Kidd, and I can't part with that wannabe cool kid(d). I also didn't realize that if you restarted the game right then and there you would have a chance of him picking someone else. So, I failed to get Raymond, but I kept Kidd, and sometimes that's how you have to look at things. XD
At any rate, I was happy to see that they're making an attempt to address fans' concerns, but I can see that the letter is maybe ... not everything one would hope for. I think that the followup will be what really determines whether they "got it" or not.
Either way, the letter is in stark contrast to another Web site handling criticism of late (though for very different reasons) and that site is Ravelry of all places. They recently updated the look of the site and people really hate it. It's not merely for aesthetic reasons (although I'll fully admit to liking the pastel pinks and greens of the old site much more). There are a lot of things about the new design that are difficult for people with disabilities such as the moving graphics, small text, and high contrast. I have to admit, the stark whiteness of the page was hard on my eyes as well and even the old version of the site seems to be suffering from this new problem? It didn't have it previously, so I'm not sure what is going on there.
I feel bad for the site designer to be honest. ^^" It's some pretty serious criticism and she had to do it all by herself. Still, I don't think they're handling the criticism all that well since they've essentially said the site will remain as is. Ahh, I guess we'll see how all that goes down...
And speaking of blinding white sites, both LiveJournal and FanFiction.Net seem to have this going on as well. LiveJournal's new RTE is just a void and FF.Net has never updated its color scheme. Well, it did back in the day. According to the Wayback Machine, FF.Net started out as having some orange in 1999 and some more blue later on before it settled on its very plain look of today.
In other news,
equalityauction has come to an end and it looks like it was an overall success! It was very exciting to see everyone take part and what kinds of things were offered. I offered up some fic and someone bid on it (!!!), so once all the donations are sorted I look forward to starting on that.
Also,
sunshine_challenge will be starting up soon (July) for those of you who are looking for a low maintenance writing challenge. I'm taking part in the challenge itself and I'm also one of the moderators, which is very exciting. ^^ I really do love writing prompts like this.
I checked out several CDs from the library the other day, and one of them is what I'm listening to now: El Dorado by Shakira. I've only ever heard two Shakira albums all the way through before (Magia and Laundry Service), so it's nice to branch out to her latest. ^^ I'm liking how much of the music is in Spanish this time around. There are also a lot of guest singers, but they don't take over the music, so I think it worked well.
As far as progress on fanfics, it's actually going pretty well. When the World Ends has the most progress on account of it being the handwritten one, but I've started a oneshot for Witch Hat Atelier and the next chapter of The Red Streets of Paris is coming along albeit somewhat slowly. Getting the right mood for this next chapter has been a real challenge on account of how fast-paced the chapters have been in general, and now I need to start wrapping up the actual mystery and somehow I need to get all the required info in there, some action so there isn't a random standstill, and all of that has to balance out how powerful the villain is with how poorly our heroes are doing. XD Maybe I made this guy too powerful....
I think that covers it for now. ^^
Edit: I forgot about the Raymond incident in Animal Crossing. XD Well, he showed up to the camp and I thought, "Aha, we can now be the envy of the Internet!" (my sisters and I play together), and so I promptly invited him. Well, the island was already full, but he said he could swap with another villager. "Perfect!" I thought. Not so perfect. The only one he wanted to swap with was Kidd, and I can't part with that wannabe cool kid(d). I also didn't realize that if you restarted the game right then and there you would have a chance of him picking someone else. So, I failed to get Raymond, but I kept Kidd, and sometimes that's how you have to look at things. XD