Things that have irritated me of late.

[splash_the_cat]

The panic over LJ's new sponsored content thing (context here and here). The issues of miscommunication among the Six Apart staff and the way things are being communicated to users are valid points of concern, but why are people expecting Six Apart to protect fandom from big media? Other than respecting users as paying customers, Six Apart is not required to base its business practices on protecting its users from the consequences of their content. Fandom has certainly enjoyed the benefits of LJ as a community tool, but LJ does not belong to fandom and as such it is not required to help hide fandom.

As much as we may or may not like it, the very online technologies which fandom has used to its benefit in the last ten years are now making it accessible to the mainstream, including source content providers, and there's no going back. Fandom is going to have to figure out how to work with that, rather than actively marginalizing itself to retain the insular autonomy it's used to.

The gay rights meme. The language is self-defeating, and a backhanded slap at anyone who does support the position yet doesn't wish to participate in the meme. It might was well just a say "you're not a true supporter of gay rights unless you cut and paste this stock phrase!"

The weather. Fuck you, autumn, and the cold front you rode in on.

My lunch. Not the food itself (TastyBite Bombay Potatoes, which is very yummy), but I'd have enjoyed it more had I not spent ten minutes cleaning the bits of it that had exploded all over the microwave before sitting down to eat.