The whys of Blogging

Trying to determine the reasons why I would want to blog and why anyone else would want to read my blog, an ongoing process.

[exorcisingemily]

[teamaffiliatedgeeks]

Item #95 Bring “Hipster Kilroy” into his well-deserved glory as a popular Kilroy Hipster meme.

We Geeks need the help of our tumblr following! Please reblog and like this little Hipster Kilroy and help us get to 100 likes!

[stardustandmelancholy]

This is completely outside my wheelhouse to write about on here, but I’ve seen people complain about Pokemon Go, and people who play it, and it always strikes me as such an odd thing to complain about, when there is so much else that is so awful in the world as it is right now. 

For an all too brief few days, the news wasn’t about terrorism, or Trump, or racial tension, or police brutality, or sexism, or the collapse of the world economy, or the carving up of the European Union.

It was about a game. A game that got people out of the house and made them interact with each other. The news would have us believe that we should distrust our neighbour or the people who live down the street because they look different to us, or think differently, or love differently, or worship a different god than us. But this game said, no, I’m going to give you teams. I’m going to let you work together and explore your community and defend it. I’m going to give you exercise and interaction and a sense of achievement. 

And yes, you can argue cynically that people should have that motivation on their own and not as a result of an app on a phone, but society the way it is now anything that is going to drive anyone to better themselves and interact positively with their community and environment seems worthwhile to me. If you think of our lives as the hours in a day, this was a small fraction of time on a sunny afternoon where suddenly we were all young and we weren’t afraid, we were adventurers. 

And then this morning it’s like the dip when the sun goes down and it’s suddenly the coldest it’s been all day, and you realise life can’t always be like that. But why complain about it when it is? Yes, it’s a silly game. But it was a silly game that made people acknowledge strangers on the street playing the same silly game. We laughed at jokes and memes about it because it was a shared experience. The only shared experiences we have nowadays involve fear, and our way-too-practiced grief responses on twitter when something bad happens. 

[manyafandomhavei]

Those creepy muppets revere E as their Goddess! They are amassing an alphabet army to be led by Queen E to conquer the world....

[kimrhodes4]

Okay. Yes. I’m wearing pants. But come onnnnnn…. that’s a cool fucking shot, right? If you want the shirt, it’s here: http://bit.ly/wd_kr If you want the photographer, he’s married. 

[whereiscasnow]

Sorry, boys, the Wayward Daughters are driving this time… @kimrhodes4 @officialbrianab @waywarddaughtersacademy

[kimrhodes4]

YEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

[samdean-blr]

imagebam.

[manyafandomhavei]

Love me some Mishalecki!!! 

[zatnikatel]

For the record: I have asked this writer to remove my words from the summary at the top of her fic. She has (so far) refused to do so.

Keep reading

[euclase]

Real Monsters, drawn in PS.

[exorcisingemily]

My personal experience with Travis Aaron Wade [Illustrated]

More people are coming forward with their experiences with Travis Aaron Wade. While I’d made some pretty pointed subtweets, or remarked on particular situations, I’ve only recently on Twitter posted a more complete account of events from June 2015 to present. I’ve posted the following on Twitter, and am moving it here by the suggestion of other fans, so that fans can be aware and keep themselves safe within the fandom.  I realize that in this fandom, taking a fan’s word for things (whether you like them or not) can be difficult: we’re a contentious lot, and we do like our drama. I’ve attempted to illustrate some points that would otherwise just be my word below, so you don’t have to take things on faith.   In short (because this gets long): Travis Aaron Wade has stalked me, harassed me, bypassed blocks to continue harassing me, attempted to get me to strong-arm other fans for him, and has crossed all personal boundaries.

I have no problem with fans: if you’re a fan of his, that’s fine! But I ask that you all please be safe, and not be used to report back to him about other fans, enabling his behaviors.

Keep reading

[manyafandomhavei]

Fandom rant

Warning rant ahead.... I don't understand, nor ever will, why it's so important to some people that others think the way they do, enjoy the things they enjoy, see things in the exact same way that they do. Is their enjoyment of a thing so fragile that the mere existence of differing view points enough to destroy it? Perhaps it's an ego thing, maybe the thought is "how can they possibly not think my way, my way is the correct way" I have to admit I've often thought that, but in a not-serious, snarky way. Opinions, especially about art, are neither right or wrong. You could argue certain facts and what they might mean, but that is still just interpretation. Since I'm talking about an art form then there is no 'correct' way to enjoy it. Art in every form is a highly subjective thing and even people who fundamentally agree will probably have certain things they disagree about, but even then neither is right or wrong. It seems it's not enough simply to enjoy a thing any longer, for some they must actively dismiss, negate & demean all those, and/or their viewpoints, who enjoy that same thing in a manner different then theirs. Does that bolster their enjoyment? How can being negative, about something that supposedly brings happiness, enhance that happiness? Maybe it's simply the evolution of social interaction, people have an illusion of power, the power to get their voice heard on a wide platform while also allowing them to hide behind the cloak of anonymity that is social media. It shouldn't matter if no one else in the world enjoys a thing in the same way you do, it shouldn't matter if millions of people enjoy that thing for entirely different reasons then you do, go enjoy your thing and let others do the same. ok, rant over, I obviously have too much time on my hands today.

[tiptoe39]

[tiptoe39]

Say a Prayer and Light a Candle (at AO3)

Say a Prayer and Light a Candle is COMPLETE!

Completed:2016-03-23

Words:56996

Chapters:9/9

Dean comes home with Castiel for the holiday. Only the holiday is Hanukkah, and Dean’s not Jewish. Which presents a problem.

[casstolengraces-deactivated2016]

Oh my god I feel so bad for sending around false information like that! I guess I should’ve listened to my audio recording before I went and made a post about it but I guess I just felt confident enough about what I had thought had happened. I think I was just still overwhelmed with excitement from Misha remembering me from jaxcon and then Jared writing happy birthday on my book he autographed.

I am so so sorry everyone! Please disregard that post I made saying Jensen said it was Misha’s idea because it was actually the opposite he said it was his idea! I’ll make a post about what really happened later and I’ll post the audio clip for you all to hear too once I get home tomorrow afternoon and have wifi!

Again, so sorry!

[thebeckydodd]

I don’t normally post pics of myself and even once I have the jpgs, I’ll probably keep most of my photo ops private but this one of J2M turned out too cute not to share.

I basically said to Jensen (while barely looking up so that I maintained the ability to speak) “You can make whatever kind of face you want to, but I’d like you in the middle while we hug and love on you.”

I was so zoned into the fact I was holding onto Jensen, it didn’t even register to me that Jared had his arm around me!

Best 10-15 seconds I’ve had in a long time, there… 😝

[1940sdeancas]

So. Misha’s M&G. I just…omg. Having done a couple of his now, I can safely say that if I could pick only one reason to come to a con, this would be it. All of the cast is so wonderful, but Misha is just…so incredibly easy to talk to (well, once you get over his staggering beauty). I’ve been indecisive about going to Minncon this year, but honestly this will probably be the one thing that tips me over the edge and even buy just general admission just to get another chance at one of his M&Gs.

Anyway, here’s a few tidbits:

• He talked about the IVR he had put together and how it ended up ticking people off because a lot of tedious detail had gone into it. He was sitting directly across from me at this point, and suddenly he literally just stared at me for like five seconds because I apparently was giving some sort of blank stare that I just couldn’t bring myself to tear away even though I desperately wanted to, especially when he said, “Do you know what that [IVR] is? You’re looking at me like you don’t know what that is.” And I basically was just a deer in the fucking headlights because it’s like he fucking had me locked down with his eyes, so I eventually stammered out, “I…don’t know…I literally don’t know anything right now.” And that is the story of how Misha Collins’ eyes turned my brain to mush.

• On that note, they are very much a gorgeous light blue in person omg.

• And he was also drenched in cologne. I suspect that given he had mentioned in both the M&G and his panel how he was told to change because of his wrinkled shirt and joked about how the blazer he changed into probably hadn’t been laundered in a while that he might’ve been a little self-conscious lol. But good lord he smelled AMAZING. I could still smell him on my shirt afterwards, and I will probably never wash this shirt again haha.

• There was discussion of how much his M&Gs go for, and he put his hands over his ears because he didn’t want to know. He was rather shocked when he did find out and halfway joked about really feeling the pressure to deliver.

• I asked him who came up with the idea for the YANA skits, and he said Jensen. They filmed them all at once; there aren’t plans to make more. He acknowledged the complaints about stalkerism; they were of the mindset that Jensen’s reactions (e.g., eye rolling) in the videos weren’t really indicative of how a person would normally react to being stalked.

• Someone was doing the zipline over our heads and Misha was basically like “fuck that” haha.

• Misha talked a little bit about doing voice work. He said it’s difficult because he doesn’t just want to sound like he’s reading off the words. He’s been approached for voice work for video games in the past but has yet to do anything in that medium. He also talked about voicing the role of something like a megalomaniac/cult leader and how it came easily for him (dripping with that typical Misha sarcasm we all know and love).

• There wasn’t a whole lot of talk about the show. Misha hinted that he thought we’d be pleased with the direction it’s going, but turns out he was alluding to Rob’s return, which he didn’t realize was public knowledge.

• And for those who happened to follow my breakdown over the discovery of Misha’s glorious pectoral mane the other day: when he was talking about changing clothes, he ended up putting on his favorite t-shirt, which evidently has holes in it…he pointed out the one over the side of his chest and let’s just say that I now have been blessed with a first eye witness account of the existence of Misha’s chest hair. :3

[dotthings]

Concerning Anti-Yana posts

After reading this post which yet again passive-aggressively puts down Jensen and Misha’s efforts with the YANA campaign, while there has been a massive amount of overt and aggressive hatred going on, I have this to say:

Here is my “concern.” It’s all the concerning trolling and anti-stirring against YANA, only a small amount of which has even been civil, and at best it manages to be very back-handed. 

It’s the way fans who hate Misha have gone to more than one charity trying to sabotage YANA. It’s the hateful comments Jensen received on his facebook because he teamed up with Misha for YANA. It’s the utterly biased way information is presented or distorted to put this campaign down in order to claim that AKF and Jared are so much better. It’s tweets and comments disparaging Jensen’s sincerity of feeling and ability to connect with and understand fans, in order to elevate Jared. It’s the accusations that Jensen and Misha were making fun of stalking victims with their scripted, humorous videos and how this was used to sabotage the entire campaign and actively trying to discourage fans from participating. It’s the threats made against Misha on tumblr and the threats made against his fans. It’s the hatred aimed at cockles and cockles fans, when cockles is another beloved duo in the fandom, a real friendship, like j2.

Here is a link to the page of all the Supernatural cast’s causes they are supporting via sales on Creation Stands: http://www.creationstands.com/pages/supernatural-causes

Here is a screencap of the index:

J2 support their Pack fund through Creation Stands. Praising Jared for using Represent with the aim of putting down YANA and Jensen and Misha’s efforts is misguided at best, and part of an anti-agenda at worst.

Please leave YANA alone. Please leave Misha alone. Please stop putting down Jensen, Misha, and YANA. If you prefer to support Jared and AKF that’s great. Channel your energies into that. Please do not reblog and spread misleading negativity about YANA that, with a little research, reveals its bias.

What gets me is that it only takes a few minutes of research to see how transparent the accusations against YANA are and put it in a context that debunks it and shows what problem are with this anti-campaign against it.

There may be good reasons to use represent instead, and maybe more of the cast will, but I am calling this what it is: an ongoing anti-campaign against YANA because there are fans upset that Jensen worked with his friend Misha instead of his friend Jared.

Please spare a few minutes of “concern” for the aggressiveness of the hate that has been aimed at the cast and charities and fans over YANA.

Everything I have said concerning the hate has been documented. I also cannot find an equal level of hatred, concern trolling, and aggression aimed at AKF. More than one fan researched it. 

This extreme bias is reflective of a bigger picture that has been an issue in SPN fandom for a long time, the automatic/by default valuing by many of the feelings and pov of j2/bros fans over all else. No matter what. No matter how much hate gets slung by a tiny faction of j2 fans towards others, no matter how over the line the behavior gets, no matter how passive-aggressively hurtful and exclusionary and gatekeeping the rhetoric becomes. Some still default to believing the spin of a toxic group that does not define SPN fandom, does not define Jared fans or Sam fans or j2 fans or Sam & Dean fans, and yet is being supported and enabled still, for reasons I cannot comprehend.

[shiphitsthefan]

There aren’t enough people talking about the use of the word “shim” in 11x15. It’s almost as frustrating and rage-inducing as what happened in the episode, because there are still people out there who don’t understand that it was wrong. Please, please, if you reblog nothing else from my tumblr, share this post.

I’ve already seen someone try and excuse the slur because it came from a demon. “But he’s evil! That makes it okay!” No, that just means the writers were lazy. If you have to use a slur to demonstrate that your character is a villain, you’re doing it wrong.

It doesn’t matter that a demon said it, because it’s more than a line, more than a word–it’s a tool of violence and repression. Hearing that “shim” was used in the episode of a show that literally saved my life sent me in a tailspin. Having your identity invalidated like that hurts, especially after several decades of denying that facet of yourself. There are enough Trumps and Falwells and Putins in the world telling trans folks they’re sick and wrong; we don’t need it from our escape from reality, too.

Somewhere in fandom, there’s a girl struggling to fit in with her jock friends while she grows facial hair she doesn’t want in a body that isn’t hers. There’s a man who doesn’t look like a man, who can’t transition, who still gets mispronouned constantly. There’s an intersex person who uses destructive terminology to berate themselves in their own minds for physical features they had no control over. There’s someone who doesn’t fit neatly into any binary box, who hears slurs and gets sick because they feel as smashed together as those two labels.

There’s me, who heard a loved and trusted grown-up call someone a “shemale” at eight years old, and wasn’t able to confront their own identity for another two decades because of it.

Words can hurt. Slurs can destroy. Language can kill. If we want our fellow fans to always keep fighting, if we want them to know they are not alone, then we can neither support nor justify the use of terminology specifically created to alienate them.

Don’t sweep this under the rug. Stand up. You could save a life.