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Does it have to be capitalism?

Let’s talk about Jupiter Ascending for a sec. Everyone’s all, “oooh, it’s about the evils of capitalism.” Which, yeah, I can see that. And if it were a European movie I’d be 100% in agreement.

But it’s an American movie. And America has some serious generational tension issues from an economic perspective. Social security is running out (elderly vampires!), and current lifespans have completely changed the job market structure for this generation (why hire a millennial to do a baby boomer’s job?).

Let us posit: the underlying socio-econo-political drama in JA doesn’t have to be “boo, capitalism.” It can be “OMG, the generation war is getting worse.” The long lived people in this universe live so long that they actively kill young humans… as opposed to just reducing their chances to thrive.

And that’s much more dynamic. We already have a zillion capitalism movies. But this may be the first shoot-'em-up to look seriously at the generational landscape.

In unrelated news: This sprained wrist is driving me crazy. But it won't hamper my excitement about RedemptionCon later this month.
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I keep forgetting about LJ

So, I probably ought to tell you that I have a new book out. It's pretty ridiculous, as you may guess from the title Cracked! A Magic iPhone Story.

More than that, though, I'm holding a launch party for it next week. And I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never done a book launch party.

Right now, I'm working on my speech (AKA, where I tell everyone about the ridiculous experiences that helped make this book the work it is today). Speechwriting is hard, and not helped by the fact that I'm going for "loose collection of bizarre anecdotes" rather than "purposeful collection of information intended to inform or convince."

In utterly different news, I did my first dealers' room at a convention two weekends ago. And I'm going to be at Redemption (in Coventry, UK) in a few weeks if you wanna hang out. I'm on some serious Blake's 7 panels, and I'm loving doing "research" to prep for them. I'd forgotten which episode you could find "Vila weighs 73 kilos" in.
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Someone Explain Tumblr to Me?

Because THREE people told me in one day to join it.

(I'd written a Teen Wolf / Car Talk crossover episode tag. With no place to post such a ridiculous thing, three people in two hours said, "Put it up on tumblr." So I did. Said fic has languished into obscurity, but the tubmlr remains.)

Now I have this tumblr, but I don't understand it. What do you post there? Why is t better than Twitter + LiveJournal? How do you comment on something without reblogging it?

Eeep. We can mutu-follow each other if you're on it: My Gratuitous Tumblr Page

Or you can just read the TW/CT crossover. Read "You Got a Friend?"
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Geocities/Angelfire

So, when the whole Geocities/Angelfire-deaths thing happened, we all laughed. Most things we cared about had moved to other places. Everything was fine, and there were no more sparkly cursors.

But no. It's not fine.

Because I really want to read some Gundam Wing fic right now.

See, I've been listening to podfic at work again. (Yes, yes. See last update for my new obsession with podfic-while-mindlessly-working.) And I am going through EVERYTHING read by this one podficcer. Who did a GW fic. And I'm remembering why I loved GW fiction in... oh, was it 1998?

Anyway, I still have links to fics and archives I liked in 1998-2000. But they're all defunct. Way out of date. At this point, I only have links to two GW fics that work (which includes my favorite crossover fic of all time, but still: TWO STORIES).

And, it turns out that someone made an American dub after I left the fandom. So most of the stuff I see on AO3 (not that I did a comprehensive search, I admit) is bizarre to me.

So, just thought I'd let you all know. I miss geocities. Sorta. Also, if you can rec any GW fic (gen & 1x2x1 pref, but I'm pretty cool on ANYTHING at this point), please comment.
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Podfic

So, I've been super-busy with
* work (videogame dialogue/lore writing again; so awesome)
* other work (bought a font to lay out the US print edition of Queen & Commander this weekend)
* health stuff (a third PT, Janine?, really?, and how much have your premiums gone up this year?)

Hence, this post is about podfic. Because I've recently become an addict! Yay! And what is this LJ if not an excuse to be fannish when the mood strikes?

Now, I don't usually listen to audio-books of any kind. Not of books I like. Not of books I've wanted to try. Not during long car trips. Not of podfic.

Okay, I think I listened to the first chapter of something on an international flight once... and then turned my player to music while I read a physical book. (It was a long time ago.)

But! The last two weeks at work, I got assigned a task that was time consuming, but didn't require brainpower once I knew what I was doing. So, I started listening to podfic on my headphones. (Headphones are important. That first day, I didn't read the story warnings. This mistake lead to much blushing and nervous tittering when the sex scenes started. Oops.)

Anyway, I've realized that finding good podfic is MUCH harder than finding good fanfic. SO MANY CONSTRAINTS.

1) There's less of it.
2) You have to like the story.
3) You have to like the reader.
4) You may not want to listen to NC-17 stuff at work. (This no longer bothers me.)

I'm thinking of becoming one of those podfic activists who goes around recording old stuff that people have forgotten about. I don't see any point in being "active" by hosting a new archive, because AO3 and that other one that I usually get sent to from AO3 are doing just fine.

Still, there needs to be more stuff out there. In all my spare time (what spare time?, I hear you cry), I think I'll start rounding up some recording permissions.

Or maybe I won't. Because it's a huge time commitment.

Then again, it'd be awesome. And also make me feel useful. And also also be good practice because I think I'm going to make a podiobook of my novel at some point, and should probably know what I'm doing.

If anyone wants to rec some podfic, I'd appreciate it. But I don't know when I'll get to it. (The "no brainpower" assignment finished last Friday. When I was 3 hours into a 20 hour Gundam Wing epic being read by Rhea314...)
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Laptop Drama

The last month+ has been really frustrating in laptop land.

First, my screen started to get this column of fuzz in the middle of it. Like, if you had an old black-and-white TV (or a CRT that you were trying REALLY hard to get Cinemax on in 1992).

Second, I couldn't really run a lot of programs at the same time. Now, my OH makes fun of me for having 20 Firefox tabs open, sure, but this became an actual problem while I was coding My Lady Gambler. I could have the text open in Word, or I could be doing ePub in Sigil, but I couldn't do both...and certainly not if I wanted to test anything in a previewer like, say, Kindle for PC.

Third, that bizarre column of fuzz on the screen turned to a flickering band of black-and-white-and-red chevrons. Like a demented zebra that didn't want me to have any fun or do any work.

So, over the weekend, I picked out a new laptop. Yes, I was on vacation. Heck, the OH and I went on vacation in a foreign country (i.e., Canada). But we spent most of Thanksgiving and Black Friday in wifi cafes, reading up on various laptop models that fit my needs.

Side note: Why does no laptop maker think there might be a market in LIGHTWEIGHT LAPTOPS. It was my #1 constraining condition (because I have back issues that make carrying things hard, but which mean that walking is good -- so I schlep my laptop a mile or so to a cafe on a near-daily basis). But no. Very few laptops weigh in under 3 lbs. Heck, the "ultraportable" category has changed since my previous purchase. In 2008, "ultraportable" meant "under 4lb." In 2012, it means "under 5 lb." Going backwards, laptop-makers.

Anyway, I'm super excited to say that in a week or so, I should be getting a Lenovo Yoga 13. 3.3 lbs of laplet glory. Where "laplet" is the word I made up to be "laptop that functions as a really big tablet".