163: A Random Blend of Families and Fashions

[thefourthvine]

Do you ever have one of those Bad Fannish Idea days? Where, like, you think, "I know what'd be cool! A Fullmetal Alchemist x Supernatural crossover. Yes, I want that, despite the fact that I don't know either fandom and it would be so angst-filled that small nations would simply collapse under the weight of the despair and never really know why."

Comments

[misspamela]

I could pimp you into Invisible Man!

[thefourthvine]

Totally possible! Best Beloved has even seen a few of the eps, and expressed interest in seeing more, which is always happy news. (The tried-and-true, fanofall-tested method of pimping me into a new fandom involves getting Best Beloved to watch the canon while supplying me with excellent fan fiction. Last time I tried IM, I had a hard time finding FF, so if you've got links... *makes inviting gesture*)

Although, I'm curious - why IM?

[misspamela]

Ooooh, do you want a treatise? A slideshow? 8x10 color glossies? *bounces* I could go on for HOURS about IMan. Hours! I literally cannot think of one thing anyone would not like about the show. I love it like I love due South. It's funny and sad and moving and so freaking slashy -- SO slashy. Like, Starsky and Hutch slashy. If you read the fic first, (which I don't recommend, because the show is just that good) you might think, "Wow, this is kind of OTT," but NO. It is NOT. There are heartfelt declarations of love! Manly touching! Manly...er...caressing! CARRYING each other! I love them so much it HURTS. Oh, and did I mention the funny? The actors ad-lib most of the first season, and it's hysterical.

All your I-Man needs in one spot: The Invisible Man Primer.

Though I really suggest you start with Kryptonite, the vid that pimped me into the fandom.

If you need the source, I can track it down for you. It's effing hard to get. Oh, and if you need any explanation of the, um, gland, *points to icon* I can help with that, too.

[misspamela]

Oh, oh, and Sisabet's photo essays. These are a MUST.

[odditycollector]

Do you ever have one of those Bad Fannish Idea days?

I'm not sure I have a proper answer to this question.

[thefourthvine]

I'll totally take an improper one.

[odditycollector]

Well, in that case, I *never* have bad idea days. The partially finished Joker/Batman vid? The Superhero tampon ads? NOTHING BUT GENIUS.

[abbylee]

Do you mostly mean you want some help figuring out which built in theme/layout you like and then applying a new set of pretty colours? Or am I being horribly dense?

(Me, I like the really basic ones, although a little less basic than the unfinished one I'm using/writing right now.)

[thefourthvine]

*helpless hand gestures*

Okay, first know this: I can't switch from Flexible Squares; it's the only one that allows me my Sidebar of Extreme Anal-Retentiveness. And I have to use the advanced customization thingy, so part of my problem is that all editing now requires, like, a degree in S2, which I don't have.

But mostly I just - see, I am not a visual person. At all. But I look at other people's LJs, and they are pretty. And mine is not pretty, and also at this point really really boring to me - I mean, I'm the only one who really sees it, but I see it every day, and also it does not look as good, in terms of colors, on my new monitor as it did on my old one, and that is not helping. So mostly I guess I want someone to tell me what to do, how to make it prettier without losing the functionality that I need (Flexible Squares, a layer that I can easily modify every time I add a new tag that I need indexed). And I don't need a big fannish banner or anything, though I like the little non-fannish ones that some people have, but I have

[wistfuljane]

Except: prettiness. Less - boxiness. Possibly a new and more pleasant color scheme. Do you have suggestions for ways that this could happen? I am very open to this! And I would be most grateful!

How do you feel about my layout? Because I'm willing to help you customizing it to your liking if you want.

Or you can choose from these layout @ thefulcrum's. I'm sure I can dig up some more...

And now I'm really tempted to do Sweet Charity even though I feel weird offering my services for auction.

[wistfuljane]

More pre-made layouts - all Flexible Squares:

reversescollide's.
absonant's.
cartonage's.
lim's.

Or you could check out freelayouts.

[ficbyzee]

If you've ever felt the desire to pimp me into something, now would likely be a good time.

How do you feel about RPS?

[thefourthvine]

Well, one answer to that would be, "Fine, provided everyone has been dead for a while, or at least is in no way a celebrity in my own brain." Because, see, I have a squick, but it's not an RPF squick so much as a celebrity squick: celebrities ick me out. (Seriously. Best Beloved works in a very celebrity-infested part of our city, and I have to cover my ears and cower when she mentions encountering them at restaurants or city meetings or whatever. My reaction is basically the same as my reaction to zombies, except celebrities walk among us and are thus much ickier. *shudders*) I just - I guess some sadly twisted part of my brain is deeply uncomfortable with the knowledge that celebrities actually exist. I'm happier when I can pretend they're just fictional creations of entertainment media outlets.

No, I don't understand it either. My brain is weird.

But the short answer is: sadly, you will not be pimping me into Fall Out Boy fandom (oh, like I didn't know exactly what you meant) unless you can first fix my brain. Which - I am

[ficbyzee]

*giggles* Okay! I didn't think there was much of a chance, but hey, you asked. Although, in defense of band boys--none of them seem really celebrity-like to me, except for Pete Wentz (and I mean, he's so gay and so Special (and I do mean that in the Special Ed way) that it kind of makes up for the fact that he's a celebrity). :D

[sheldrake]

I, too, had a childhood briefly blighted by macrame. It was one in a long line of my mother's fads which also included wood-carving, stained glass, and building radios from scratch.

I also have the time travel kink. I wonder if the two things are connected?

I hear he's in charge of a team of (possibly) lovable misfits

Completely right except for the lovable bit. But anyway, my hindbrain says thank you very much for reccing a time travel story! :)

[thefourthvine]

I, too, had a childhood briefly blighted by macrame. It was one in a long line of my mother's fads which also included wood-carving, stained glass, and building radios from scratch.

*bonds*

My mother was not meant for hobbies, and after a while I think she got that, but my youth was greatly marred by her attempts to develop one. Like, she's actually an incredible gardener/plant-grower-person (which I did not inherit from her - I kill plants merely by becoming aware of their existence), but during roughly the same time period as the Unfortunate Macrame Experiment, she started a garden in which she planted twenty-four zucchini plants. There were four of us. I will leave you to imagine the many creative uses we found for zucchini in the months that followed the first zucchini's appearance. (It's a tribute to my love of vegetables that I'm still quite fond of zucchini, although I remain surprised that I have to pay for them, since in my youth everyone was so desperate to give them away

[thefourthvine]

It was very scary. And then my mother put a bunch of the excess ones on the compost heap, and - MORE zucchinis sprouted. Everywhere. (Also pumpkins, which was odd, because she hadn't planted or composted any. And the thing is - we had fewer pumpkins, although still way too many, because there's not much you can do with a pumpkin. We ate a lot of roasted pumpkin seeds, which I think my mother did mostly to make sure the seeds couldn't creep out and start new pumpkins.) I was lucky, because I really liked zucchini and have never required a lot of variety in what I eat, but my sister resents zucchini to this day.

And I keep thinking - maybe I could plant a zucchini plant. Just one. Surely if I can keep any plant alive, it would be a zucchini, and maybe I could build from there to other successes!

...Hmmm. This is the right time of year to plant a zucchini, isn't it? I wonder if one would be happy amongst our roses.