Port of Call

IT ARRIVED. MY GDAWESOME SUPERNATURAL T-SHIRT THAT I ORDERED FROM RIPT, LIKE THREE WEEKS AGO, FINALLY ARRIVED.

Capslocks cannot properly express my utter glee at how amazing this t-shirt is.

Here- have a picture:

( COWER AND DESPAIR AT HOW MUCH MORE AWESOME I AM IN THIS T-SHIRT )

This whole last half of the week has been one big egotrip for me. This is just the icing (the good kind made from buttermilk cream or in the form of a delicious liquor - not the gross kind) on top of the cake.

If you're following me on twitter, you already know that I have obtained a Thor standee from my place of employment (lovingly called Job #1). We were supposed to put it on the floor for advertizement, but - despite the impressions that corporate seems to be under - our store is not a Tardis, Hammerspace, or any other pocket dimension with nearly endless space. So Thor was kept in the box.

I came across him when I was putting together the X-Men First Class display, and decided that, yes, I truly need this even though I don't really have the space for it. My manager made a deal with me: make a goal of getting four memberships and its mine. Three seems to be my limit, though, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a forth. Manager, being pretty awesome, revised it to something a little easier: get a combination of four memberships and promos, and it's mine. Normally, this goal would be EASY to make, but I think he jinxed me, because that week was the worst week for getting anything.

Yesterday, the Senior Assistant Manager cut me a new deal: get just ONE membership or promo (because it was a good day for sales but a horrible day for numbers) and she'd let me take it home.

Well, guess who came home with me yesterday!

( Things you can do with a cardboard Thor )

There are still a few things I need to check out, but there's a very VERY good possibility that the copy of Doctor Who S5 we got in shipment today was signed by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill in silver Sharpie. All three signatures match up with images of the actors' autographs that I've found, and they're not replicated signatures that production companies will sometimes reprint in mass quantity; you can actually see how the Sharpie ink flaked off on one of the loops of Matt Smith's signature. I can't find any information anywhere that says that whether a limited number of signed box sets were released into the US retail wilderness. The box itself is kind of beaten up around the edges and the holographic outer cover-thing is missing.

I'm trying to find a convention last year or early this year (as early as October 2010) that all three actors attended, where they could have signed this box set. The only explanation I can think of is that our parent company took a few copies to a con and had them signed.

(Okay - there IS another explanation, but it's disturbing: somebody's signed copy was sold (whether by them or some bastard who stole it from them) to one of our stores, which sent it to the warehouse, who messed up and labeled it "new" instead of "used" (which explains it's state), and sent to us recently. Not knowing how our warehouse operates, I'm not sure if this is wildly fantastic or incredibly accurate)

Warning: A few comics might be - okay are - triggery. And NSFW. If you go to the archive, the artist is awesome enough to sort of vaguely give warnings on level of work-safeness. (Triggers, however...The worst is dub con that straddles the border of non-con and rides it like a rodeo cowboy)

Oh, Oglaf, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1) The art is so amazing and well-drawn that it makes me weep with joy and jealousy.

2) It's a sexy fantasy comedy/parody. Originally, it was an exercise in pornography for the artist, but it became a sex comedy, in which the women are FIERCE and the men are, well, dippy. (the Mistress - ZOMG I love her the best!)

3) How the artist is a woman, because until I hunted down an interview, I thought that the artist was male, based on the types of jokes and the type of women being drawn. That a woman is drawing/writing this fills me with glee, because it means that there really are more women out there who enjoy this level of raunchiness.

4) Cumsprites.

5) The Epilogues, which are sort of hard to miss in the sidebar, because there's not many, and it's a lighter font than other text.

6) The 404 page. It's too frickin' adorable.

ETA: I forgot! Xoan Ambassador/Ivan? I totally ship it now ;A;

I bought Batman: Under the Red Hood on a horrible, awesome whim. For the few people who follow me on Twitter, I'm sorry for the minor Lizfu explosion on your feeds during my viewing. I think my reaction can be best be summarized in two different ways:

1) :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

2) ( WARNING SPOILERS....POSSIBLY )

I've signed up for deancasbigbang as an artist AND I've offered my services as an illustrator for the next issue of SSBB.

Okay, so I can't really complain or chastise myself, because there's a reasonable time frame for both and enough time between the two of them that I can realistically do them both without feeling too rushed or frustrated. I've never participated in a BigBang before, so I'm a bit unsure how to do things, even with the wonderful FAQ the mods provide. I'll figure it out as I go along, though.

I finished Dresden Files: Changes about two hours ago.

What the fuck, Jim Butcher?!

(that's all I'm going to say for now, but if anybody else has read it and wants to join in the angstfest that's currently going on - party of one, as of now - please feel free to throw comments around. Out of consideration to people who haven't read it, please mark spoilers)

I'm hoping that Supernatural will make things better, but judging from everysecondtuesday reaction when I called her earlier today, it sounds like I'll be trading one bad thing for another.

I need an injection of joy and happiness.

I forgot to mention that I finished all of Turn Coat on the bus ride to Grand Forks. My reaction: Yeah, it was cool, but why was there no Marcone?

I swear, this is a series that I read partly for the awesomely stupid things that Harry does ( Spoiler ) and the awesome characters who can easily put Harry in his place with a sexy smirk and a purring voice that makes you want to believe that if Harry wasn't a bucket of angst over women and Jim Butcher wasn't writing your typical male-oriented urban fantasy, Harry would totally be having mindblowingly awesome and shameful sex with Marcone. I'm just saying....

Okay, I can accept that there really was no place for Marcone in this book (though if Harry had dropped a call to him reluctantly, I'm sure he totally would have been ( SPOILER ) I look forward to the next book, which is supposed to be coming out this year (if it hasn't already). Hopefully we'll get Marcone??

I blame you, everysecondtuesday.

Note: Posting this here on my unlocked journal, since my LJ is locked. I'm not posting this in the particular comm that I'm addressing because I feel that posting it there would generate unnecessary drama (not my intention). However, I plan on posting a link to this open letter in the comments of a post on there before I leave the comm.

* * *

Dear RBR,

I would like to think that I was there at the beginning (or at least soon after it), posting crack art from time to time and contributing to crack discussion. Over the last few months, my interests in politifandom and RPF dwindled as the last half of Battlestar Galactica's final season, my own creative endeavors, and real life drew me away. I would drop in from time to time, but I found myself lagging behind and clueless most of the time. It's the nature of the landscape of fandom to be everchanging, so I bear no bitterness. I was content as an occasional lurker; after all, it's my nature to maintain a level of detachment.

My decision shouldn't have been easy, but in light of recent events, I feel that this is necessary: RBR, I'm leaving you.

Here's the breakdown of what happened (including my role in it):

- everysecondtuesday posted an open letter in her Dreamwidth journal addressing what she and another fan saw as problematic with the fandom response to a 1920s and 30s AU labeled as "Noirverse". She posted several valid points on a public forum.

- I agreed with her (still do) and had additional reservations concerning the classification of anything ranging from the 20s to 30s as "noir", feeling that it was a misunderstanding of the genre/style. I also wrote that I realized that it was simply a convenient label, and even offered links to help writers (present and future) who may not understand what exactly noir is. I offered (in a later comment) to find and post articles about the problematic elements of noir once I understood that the writers wanted to attempt a series of noir stories.

- Comments to the open letter itself were at first receptive of Tuesday's points, but some of them became hostile in their own criticism of Tuesday's choice of forum.

---

Here's the thing, RBR: the hostility generated by these comments, as well as the glibness of other comments by the same people, admitting that they are going to "gloss over some things" (I'm assuming that "some things" refers to some of the problematic elements Tuesday brought up) - these attitudes have created what I feel is an unsafe environment to discuss the historical and cultural interactions of society with race, gender, and homosexuality (and vice versa). While these people have the right to object to Tuesday's public forum approach, I feel that their outrage overshadows the original intent of the open letter.

Fandom is supposed to be a safe place for all fans, no matter their race, gender, and sexuality. RaceFail '09 proved that while writers can hide behind the excuse of "creative liberties" and "alternate and/or imagined future realities" to excuse their inaccuracies and failures, they have to be aware that what they write is going to be interpreted under different lenses and has the effect of creating a hostile environment for fans of color. The same applies to fanfiction and fandom; the writers there may not be professionally published, but their works are widely read within the fan community.

As both an ally to people of color and a critic, I feel that the atmosphere and attitude created by a select few of RBR fandom in the face of the hard facts about harsh realities of the lives of the racial, gendered, and queer minorities in the 20s and 30s is detrimental to any future discussion I would have engaged in if I had chosen to stay and become more active in the community. I also feel that some of these fans demonstrated that in the face of their own bruised prides, a discussion of race, gender, and homosexuality doesn't matter; many of these particular fans were quick to shrug off what Tuesday was saying and to point out that her open letter outside of the community was "wrong." My own attempts to be helpful were likewise shrugged off by one of these fans, and ultimately, in her/his eyes, I was the one who was mistaken when it simply was a mutual misunderstanding. These behaviors deeply disturb and discourage me.

So, I'm leaving, RBR. Don't worry; you can keep the fanart. I made it for you anyway, and depriving community members of it would be childish and shallow of me. I only ask that you please respect my wishes as an artist and ask first if you want to use it for merchandise in the store or if you want to use my art for icons, banners, and other media (I doubt anybody would want to, but you never know).

Goodbye, RBR. I really did have fun while I was an active member. I sincerely hope that the community does well.

- Lizfu

PS: Please note that I have disabled comments as I do not want sympathy, apologies, attempts at explaining one's own behavior, or flames. I simply do not wish to linger on this. These are my reasons for leaving. Out of consideration for certain parties involved, I refrained from posting usernames and links to comments. If you feel uncomfortable with what I've written, then I encourage you to examine your privilege and behavior instead of taking it out on me.