"All right, priorities. One, defuse the train; two, stop the bomb."
I just realized I haven't posted in a while. I've been having some trouble focusing over the past few weeks, for a variety of reasons, and work has been strange (thanks to some organizational oddities and my uneasy relationship with leadership, I feel like a freaking border collie right now), and fandom has been making me cranky (not the fandom I find on my flist, which is an oasis of sane, but Greater Fandom, which is not), and life has generally been really busy, and LJ's latest behavior is also actively annoying me.
For what it's worth, I am not entirely unsympathetic to LJ's position with respect to the specific content at the center of the latest set of deletions, given the current legal and political climate in the US, for the reasons outlined in synechdochic's widely-linked post. But I also feel like the combination of Some Dude From Abuse making a highly subjective decision about artistic merit + LJ preserving its flexibility by refusing to articulate concrete guidelines + LJ changing its standards without communicating the changes clearly + permanent journal deletion with no warning, no opportunity to take the offending content down, and no opportunity to appeal the decision = inherently problematic, because it's kind of hard to voluntarily comply with TOS when you're not sure what TOS is, and the penalty for guessing wrong is rather stark. And LJ's total inability to communicate clearly with its user base beforehand about what it's doing really bugs me, in the way raving incompetence usually bugs me (especially crap like this).
The alternative to raving incompetence is active malice, and I'm not ready to go there, but I do think LJ is becoming increasingly risk-averse with the kind of content it's willing to host, and since that has a wide variety of implications for fandom, it's something to keep an eye on. After-the-fact clarification is better than no clarification at all, but does not exactly provide reassurance that LJ won't change its standards again and start deleting journals without warning; they've lost credibility on this issue. (Also, according to the clarification, flocked content is also subject to scrutiny, which seems to contradict the TOS, which says in part, "Should any Content that you have authored be reported to LiveJournal as being offensive or inappropriate, LiveJournal might call upon you to retract, modify, or protect (by means of private and friends only settings) the Content in question within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the LiveJournal staff.") It appears that even linking to TOS-violation-worthy content might be enough to get you tossed, though--wait for it--LJ is not articulating a particularly clear standard for that rule either (check out rydra_wong's comments in that entry).
LJ is also deleting the journals of "repeat offenders" of the DMCA, which it defines as any journal that has been the subject of three uncontested take-down notifications; I don't know a lot of people who have the resources to contest a take-down notification from a big media company, should it come to that, which it hopefully will not. I'm not sure the alternatives are that viable, and I am quite sure that they're subject to the same outside/legal pressures that LJ is reacting to right now, but I also think users in fandom have real reasons for feeling insecure about their journals under these circumstances, and some people are shifting to other services, so I've decided to be more active about maintaining multiple presences. So, with apologies to those who have me friended on GreatestJournal, I'm going to spend some time at some point in the next couple of weeks sucking in all my entries over there again to pick up the latest ones, and will be doing a bulk import of all previous entries to my InsaneJournal, and will be actively managing and posting simultaneously to all three journals once that's done.
Some good resources: elke_tanzer's very thorough link round-up and brown_betty's post on backing up your LJ. (Thanks to sdwolfpup for the links.) Also, How to Pack Up and Leave Livejournal has some good tips for backing up memories, icons, and voice posts.
Also, I have been dealing with plumbing issues. Among other things more prosaic, it turns out that when my house was built in 1911, the builders put gas light fixtures in all the ceilings; at some point, electric light fixtures were installed below them, but they were never removed, and they're leaking. Barely leaking, not enough to really put me in harm's way, especially since the house is so drafty that there's no way for gas to build up, but still enough that when I change light bulbs, I'm like, "Hm, smells like gas." And because there are approximately eleventy billion gas lines in my one-foot ceiling-to-roof crawlspace, it's a plumber's nightmare and there might be extensive making of holes in my ceilings. Between that and getting my front rooms painted and possibly all the torn-out ceilings replastered and repainted, Project No More Fiery Death Trap is going to be a lot of work, and I need to try to get it all done before I leave for Dragon*Con. My mom, bless her, is going to fly out to be here during the day while workmen work, but it's still going to be really disruptive. On the upside, no more fiery deathtrap.
* * * * *
due South 2.14 - "All the Queen's Horses"
I'm probably in a serious minority here, especially since Paul Gross wrote this episode, but I didn't think it was that great. I didn't think it was bad either, but the scale--Fraser and Ray stopping a huge terrorist attack, a nuclear bomb, the big Mountie finish--feels wrong for this show, which I think does best when it focuses on the little moments of everyday life and the small crises that can shape entire futures. I was also only on-board with about 50% of the way Thatcher was written; I liked that she comes across as capable overall and sometimes awkwardly unsure when she steps outside her prescribed boundaries and set roles, but I wasn't that thrilled by her meltdown in the middle of the runaway train scenario, and some of the dialogue was kind of painful. And the terrorists never had much motivation beyond "they're crazy terrorists doing crazy terrorist things, because that's what crazy terrorists do!" which also felt off for the show, which often features villains, but tends to highlight people making bad choices under difficult circumstances. That said, I loved that Buck Frobisher was there, and that he could see Bob, and that he and Bob were crusty and wise together, and that all four of them--Buck, Bob, Fraser, and Thatcher--shared that crucial Mountie heritage, even though it means slightly different things to each of them (Buck and Bob the old-timers, the sure ones, unchallenged in their beliefs in their formative years; Fraser the embodiment of the struggle to fit those ideals into modern life; Thatcher swimming upstream, a woman and an administrator in a very male and service-oriented organization).
due South 2.15 - "Body Language"
Of course, Fraser is also talented at drawing, which we can add to the list of things he does perfectly; that's actually good set-up for the next episode. But more than that, he judges people by their hearts, their actions, rather than by what they do for a living, which is why he treats Ida as a person--a person who took a risk to warn about an impending crime--rather than a stripper. Ray's still too wedded to those appearances and what he thinks they say about a person. (What does it say about Ray that he recognizes the way the tip bill was folded as characteristic of strip club tipping?) He and Huey also make a brief foray into wondering whether it wouldn't be better to step back and let the criminals take each other out, before the incredibly clunky reminder that innocent people can get caught in the crossfire. But the person Fraser ends up saving isn't entirely innocent, just at a tipping point, about to take an action he can't undo, and also part of that crossfire.
The look on Welch's face when he saw Ray's expense report for all the strip club visits was priceless, though. Also, I can't believe Ray and Fraser had a huge argument about whether or not to get in the closet. Is that even subtext? Although I think hiding in the closet would be preferable to looking at Ida's wallpaper, which was astoundingly, offensively ugly.
due South 2.16 - "The Duel"
The idea of a former convict getting revenge on Ray for his conviction through the use of clever psychological games involving toy models is a teeny bit overblown, but becomes far more interesting when it starts looking like Ray might have been so gung-ho to convict the guy that he cut some corners. I both hate to think Ray would do something like that and believe he could, because his main commitment is to the ends, not the means; the means part of the equation is Fraser's territory, and I think he starts investigating how Ray handled the case that got the villain convicted not because he wants to get Ray in trouble but because understanding how the guy got to where he is, in Fraser's mind, is they key to understanding what he'll do next. I loved that in the end, Ray turned the guy's weapons, the listening devices and little toy cars and need to make Evil Overlord gestures, against him to catch him; Fraser is more observant and insightful in some ways, but Ray's not dumb, and he's capable of reading people too. But I ended up being a little confused about whether or not the heel was planted; there were some red herrings in that part of the story, including what I interpreted as hints that the former partner might have planted the evidence instead--and all of that seemed to get dropped at the end.
Also, oh Francesca. You try so hard. "So, how about that iditerod?" Diefenbaker seemed genuinely disturbed. You'd think he'd appreciate the cooking, but perhaps it doesn't stack up against twinkies.
due South 2.17 - "Red, White or Blue"
I didn't feel like the crazy terrorist was supplied with proper motivation in "All the Queen's Horses," but I can almost forgive it because of the hilariously insane phone conversation he has with his brother, in which it is revealed that the entire family is about twelve sandwiches and a bag of chips short of a picnic basket. And I loved that while the surface issue was the way the RCMP was selling Fraser to the media and Ray wasn't getting proper credit (and the irony that Ray loves the spotlight and Fraser hates it), the real issue between them is that Fraser's too perfect, and doesn't know how to be anything else than what he is, and is not going to change, and Ray has to accept that; and Ray is never going to fully accept it, is always going to needle, and Fraser has to learn to live with that, with the way his existence can hurt a friend and the dark side of his skills and values and the fact that all of that perfection isn't good enough, isn't truly perfect. (And it's an interesting and rather disorienting scene, with Ray and Fraser each having an argument with the version of the other that lives in their heads, each opening a door and getting decked by the other--right when they'd each worked themselves up into a ranting lather--only to have it turn out to be the terrorists in masks and costumes. Their relationship with each other, that trusting opening of the door, is both a strength and a terrible vulnerability.) The courthouse action was kind of silly (actually many parts of the episode were pretty silly, though I loved the story of how Diefenbaker and Fraser met, even though it kind of frightened me that not only was it a long story, but it was a long story that Fraser didn't really want to tell), and Agent Ford is SUCH AN UNBELIEVABLE ASS, but fortunately, right when I wanted to smack him, Thatcher did it for me. But I definitely agree that Diefenbaker should be the media hero.
In other TV news, Eureka didn't wow me out of the gates this season, and I remain a little uneasy about where they're going with Henry, but it has been building nicely, especially the relationship between Jack and Zoe, which has been a central part of the show from the beginning. Their estrangement and Zoe's rebellion led them to Eureka in the first place; Jack has rearranged his priorities and molded his new life to put her at the center of it, and Zoe has grown more secure (I thought it was telling that, as Jack raced around to deal with the freak weather, Abby was indignant that he was missing some parental commitments while Zoe completely understood). So on top of the general hilarity of the science fair of Doom!, there was the lovely parallel of their struggle to fit into a town where they're outsiders in some ways, not there for their brains, and have to struggle to assert that they belong; of Jack's anxiety over Stark and the fact that he's competing with another insider and Zoe's anxiety over the IQ test and competing with the Heathers; and in the end, Jack has an average IQ, but for all of his dumb-bunniness, he's not stupid (he figured out how to use the magnetic weights in the gym pretty quickly), and Zoe is smarter than she lets on, but not ready to throw over where she comes from and become an insider, still sticking with her dad.
And how creepy is Taggert and his flock of robo-geese? So, so creepy.
* * * * *
Linksssss, precioussssss
Ask a ninja! (Though I could do without the ads.)
rydra_wong demonstrates the awesomeness that is Teal'c.
Peanuts by Charles Bukowski.
And this is by far and away the best take-down of a stupid op-ed piece I've ever read. (Warning: snark, liberal politics, and mild but gratuitous Canada-bashing.) The use of the phrase "collection of vague aphorisms and bong-poster koans" and the conclusion that race car drivers are #1 are both delightful, but I think my favorite part is the paragraph-long parody in the style of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
* * * * *
I hope that everybody going to VVC has a safe and uneventful trip and a lovely time!
For what it's worth, I am not entirely unsympathetic to LJ's position with respect to the specific content at the center of the latest set of deletions, given the current legal and political climate in the US, for the reasons outlined in synechdochic's widely-linked post. But I also feel like the combination of Some Dude From Abuse making a highly subjective decision about artistic merit + LJ preserving its flexibility by refusing to articulate concrete guidelines + LJ changing its standards without communicating the changes clearly + permanent journal deletion with no warning, no opportunity to take the offending content down, and no opportunity to appeal the decision = inherently problematic, because it's kind of hard to voluntarily comply with TOS when you're not sure what TOS is, and the penalty for guessing wrong is rather stark. And LJ's total inability to communicate clearly with its user base beforehand about what it's doing really bugs me, in the way raving incompetence usually bugs me (especially crap like this).
The alternative to raving incompetence is active malice, and I'm not ready to go there, but I do think LJ is becoming increasingly risk-averse with the kind of content it's willing to host, and since that has a wide variety of implications for fandom, it's something to keep an eye on. After-the-fact clarification is better than no clarification at all, but does not exactly provide reassurance that LJ won't change its standards again and start deleting journals without warning; they've lost credibility on this issue. (Also, according to the clarification, flocked content is also subject to scrutiny, which seems to contradict the TOS, which says in part, "Should any Content that you have authored be reported to LiveJournal as being offensive or inappropriate, LiveJournal might call upon you to retract, modify, or protect (by means of private and friends only settings) the Content in question within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the LiveJournal staff.") It appears that even linking to TOS-violation-worthy content might be enough to get you tossed, though--wait for it--LJ is not articulating a particularly clear standard for that rule either (check out rydra_wong's comments in that entry).
LJ is also deleting the journals of "repeat offenders" of the DMCA, which it defines as any journal that has been the subject of three uncontested take-down notifications; I don't know a lot of people who have the resources to contest a take-down notification from a big media company, should it come to that, which it hopefully will not. I'm not sure the alternatives are that viable, and I am quite sure that they're subject to the same outside/legal pressures that LJ is reacting to right now, but I also think users in fandom have real reasons for feeling insecure about their journals under these circumstances, and some people are shifting to other services, so I've decided to be more active about maintaining multiple presences. So, with apologies to those who have me friended on GreatestJournal, I'm going to spend some time at some point in the next couple of weeks sucking in all my entries over there again to pick up the latest ones, and will be doing a bulk import of all previous entries to my InsaneJournal, and will be actively managing and posting simultaneously to all three journals once that's done.
Some good resources: elke_tanzer's very thorough link round-up and brown_betty's post on backing up your LJ. (Thanks to sdwolfpup for the links.) Also, How to Pack Up and Leave Livejournal has some good tips for backing up memories, icons, and voice posts.
Also, I have been dealing with plumbing issues. Among other things more prosaic, it turns out that when my house was built in 1911, the builders put gas light fixtures in all the ceilings; at some point, electric light fixtures were installed below them, but they were never removed, and they're leaking. Barely leaking, not enough to really put me in harm's way, especially since the house is so drafty that there's no way for gas to build up, but still enough that when I change light bulbs, I'm like, "Hm, smells like gas." And because there are approximately eleventy billion gas lines in my one-foot ceiling-to-roof crawlspace, it's a plumber's nightmare and there might be extensive making of holes in my ceilings. Between that and getting my front rooms painted and possibly all the torn-out ceilings replastered and repainted, Project No More Fiery Death Trap is going to be a lot of work, and I need to try to get it all done before I leave for Dragon*Con. My mom, bless her, is going to fly out to be here during the day while workmen work, but it's still going to be really disruptive. On the upside, no more fiery deathtrap.
* * * * *
due South 2.14 - "All the Queen's Horses"
I'm probably in a serious minority here, especially since Paul Gross wrote this episode, but I didn't think it was that great. I didn't think it was bad either, but the scale--Fraser and Ray stopping a huge terrorist attack, a nuclear bomb, the big Mountie finish--feels wrong for this show, which I think does best when it focuses on the little moments of everyday life and the small crises that can shape entire futures. I was also only on-board with about 50% of the way Thatcher was written; I liked that she comes across as capable overall and sometimes awkwardly unsure when she steps outside her prescribed boundaries and set roles, but I wasn't that thrilled by her meltdown in the middle of the runaway train scenario, and some of the dialogue was kind of painful. And the terrorists never had much motivation beyond "they're crazy terrorists doing crazy terrorist things, because that's what crazy terrorists do!" which also felt off for the show, which often features villains, but tends to highlight people making bad choices under difficult circumstances. That said, I loved that Buck Frobisher was there, and that he could see Bob, and that he and Bob were crusty and wise together, and that all four of them--Buck, Bob, Fraser, and Thatcher--shared that crucial Mountie heritage, even though it means slightly different things to each of them (Buck and Bob the old-timers, the sure ones, unchallenged in their beliefs in their formative years; Fraser the embodiment of the struggle to fit those ideals into modern life; Thatcher swimming upstream, a woman and an administrator in a very male and service-oriented organization).
due South 2.15 - "Body Language"
Of course, Fraser is also talented at drawing, which we can add to the list of things he does perfectly; that's actually good set-up for the next episode. But more than that, he judges people by their hearts, their actions, rather than by what they do for a living, which is why he treats Ida as a person--a person who took a risk to warn about an impending crime--rather than a stripper. Ray's still too wedded to those appearances and what he thinks they say about a person. (What does it say about Ray that he recognizes the way the tip bill was folded as characteristic of strip club tipping?) He and Huey also make a brief foray into wondering whether it wouldn't be better to step back and let the criminals take each other out, before the incredibly clunky reminder that innocent people can get caught in the crossfire. But the person Fraser ends up saving isn't entirely innocent, just at a tipping point, about to take an action he can't undo, and also part of that crossfire.
The look on Welch's face when he saw Ray's expense report for all the strip club visits was priceless, though. Also, I can't believe Ray and Fraser had a huge argument about whether or not to get in the closet. Is that even subtext? Although I think hiding in the closet would be preferable to looking at Ida's wallpaper, which was astoundingly, offensively ugly.
due South 2.16 - "The Duel"
The idea of a former convict getting revenge on Ray for his conviction through the use of clever psychological games involving toy models is a teeny bit overblown, but becomes far more interesting when it starts looking like Ray might have been so gung-ho to convict the guy that he cut some corners. I both hate to think Ray would do something like that and believe he could, because his main commitment is to the ends, not the means; the means part of the equation is Fraser's territory, and I think he starts investigating how Ray handled the case that got the villain convicted not because he wants to get Ray in trouble but because understanding how the guy got to where he is, in Fraser's mind, is they key to understanding what he'll do next. I loved that in the end, Ray turned the guy's weapons, the listening devices and little toy cars and need to make Evil Overlord gestures, against him to catch him; Fraser is more observant and insightful in some ways, but Ray's not dumb, and he's capable of reading people too. But I ended up being a little confused about whether or not the heel was planted; there were some red herrings in that part of the story, including what I interpreted as hints that the former partner might have planted the evidence instead--and all of that seemed to get dropped at the end.
Also, oh Francesca. You try so hard. "So, how about that iditerod?" Diefenbaker seemed genuinely disturbed. You'd think he'd appreciate the cooking, but perhaps it doesn't stack up against twinkies.
due South 2.17 - "Red, White or Blue"
I didn't feel like the crazy terrorist was supplied with proper motivation in "All the Queen's Horses," but I can almost forgive it because of the hilariously insane phone conversation he has with his brother, in which it is revealed that the entire family is about twelve sandwiches and a bag of chips short of a picnic basket. And I loved that while the surface issue was the way the RCMP was selling Fraser to the media and Ray wasn't getting proper credit (and the irony that Ray loves the spotlight and Fraser hates it), the real issue between them is that Fraser's too perfect, and doesn't know how to be anything else than what he is, and is not going to change, and Ray has to accept that; and Ray is never going to fully accept it, is always going to needle, and Fraser has to learn to live with that, with the way his existence can hurt a friend and the dark side of his skills and values and the fact that all of that perfection isn't good enough, isn't truly perfect. (And it's an interesting and rather disorienting scene, with Ray and Fraser each having an argument with the version of the other that lives in their heads, each opening a door and getting decked by the other--right when they'd each worked themselves up into a ranting lather--only to have it turn out to be the terrorists in masks and costumes. Their relationship with each other, that trusting opening of the door, is both a strength and a terrible vulnerability.) The courthouse action was kind of silly (actually many parts of the episode were pretty silly, though I loved the story of how Diefenbaker and Fraser met, even though it kind of frightened me that not only was it a long story, but it was a long story that Fraser didn't really want to tell), and Agent Ford is SUCH AN UNBELIEVABLE ASS, but fortunately, right when I wanted to smack him, Thatcher did it for me. But I definitely agree that Diefenbaker should be the media hero.
In other TV news, Eureka didn't wow me out of the gates this season, and I remain a little uneasy about where they're going with Henry, but it has been building nicely, especially the relationship between Jack and Zoe, which has been a central part of the show from the beginning. Their estrangement and Zoe's rebellion led them to Eureka in the first place; Jack has rearranged his priorities and molded his new life to put her at the center of it, and Zoe has grown more secure (I thought it was telling that, as Jack raced around to deal with the freak weather, Abby was indignant that he was missing some parental commitments while Zoe completely understood). So on top of the general hilarity of the science fair of Doom!, there was the lovely parallel of their struggle to fit into a town where they're outsiders in some ways, not there for their brains, and have to struggle to assert that they belong; of Jack's anxiety over Stark and the fact that he's competing with another insider and Zoe's anxiety over the IQ test and competing with the Heathers; and in the end, Jack has an average IQ, but for all of his dumb-bunniness, he's not stupid (he figured out how to use the magnetic weights in the gym pretty quickly), and Zoe is smarter than she lets on, but not ready to throw over where she comes from and become an insider, still sticking with her dad.
And how creepy is Taggert and his flock of robo-geese? So, so creepy.
* * * * *
Linksssss, precioussssss
Ask a ninja! (Though I could do without the ads.)
rydra_wong demonstrates the awesomeness that is Teal'c.
Peanuts by Charles Bukowski.
And this is by far and away the best take-down of a stupid op-ed piece I've ever read. (Warning: snark, liberal politics, and mild but gratuitous Canada-bashing.) The use of the phrase "collection of vague aphorisms and bong-poster koans" and the conclusion that race car drivers are #1 are both delightful, but I think my favorite part is the paragraph-long parody in the style of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
* * * * *
I hope that everybody going to VVC has a safe and uneventful trip and a lovely time!