Cleolinda everywhere

@LiveJournal: Currently experiencing a DDoS attack for the past two days -- status.livejournal.org

@gildedbat: @LiveJournal pity they're going to have to set that "days without a DDoS attack" sign back to 0. They got all the way over 100.

@LJmysticowl: Russian news confirms, also says that paid accounts will be credited the time they lost due to downtime.

@chez_amanda: There's also this Time article about the attacks that I just read.

ETA: @LiveJournal: Please to say we are up and running again! Thank you, U.S. and Moscow teams, who have worked tirelessly to get things restored! Happy LJing!

So... that's what's up with that, then. I want to stay on LiveJournal, but in order to do that, I'm gonna have to have a LiveJournal to stay on. (This entry is posted on both LJ and DW. As long as I can crosspost, I will.)


As a reminder in case you didn't see it: the Made of Fail podcast with Kevin, sometimes Dayna, Mark, Rinna and me, "Mischief Managed"! If the LJ link doesn't work, this is the direct download (or you can subscribe in iTunes; it's free). You may also want to listen to the first Deathly Hallows review show ("In Conclusion, Alan Rickman" [download] ), which had just Kevin, Mark and me. Or even the Half-Blood Prince show further back that I was on! We have many wizard-based options for your aural entertainment.

Movie links! They are exceptionally organized tonight, in no small part because I have three days' worth, and this isn't even all of them. ( Read more... )

Some very sad real-world news in the previous entry. Thus, I endeavor to bring you escapism and raptors.

( Read more... )

The aftermath of the ~*YA Mafia*~ discussion:

1) Justine Larbalestier's second post on the kerfuffle, "I Love Bad Reviews," in which she notes, "The biggest enemy of our careers is not bad reviews, but obscurity."

2) Made of Fail Episode 40, "Join YA Mafia Wars [Accept/Deny]," on which I am the cohost and say, "the post by Justine--Larbalestier? I guess that's how you say it?" no less than three times, I'm pretty sure, and I feel like an ass now. Please mentally add "because I am pretty sure I know this but I hope I'm not an idiot" every time you hear it. (It was 8 AM on a Saturday morning, what can I say.) Our guests are foresthouseand ceilidh_ann, MOF's Fangirl of the Kind Native to Scotland, who has been close to the center of the discussion with the Sparkle Project. And if you didn't believe in e-cliques before, you will after you hear us say, "I was saying to Cleo on the phone..." or "Kevin and I were talking about how..." multiple times. This was my first time talking to Ceilidh in "person," however, and Kevin and I wanted to make sure we brought up some of the Sparkle Project issues--both pro and con, I hope. My basic position on the situation remains--well, listen to it and you'll hear, but "a little bit of both, and everything in moderation," mostly. Also, "Don't call the FBI on Amazon reviewers like that one writer did," because apparently this is something we have to specify now.

Meanwhile, because I'm curious--this whole thing has introduced unto my awareness, yea, thereunto, tons of writers with books that sound really interesting. And that's in addition to all the other great writers I already know of, whose books are already on my giant mental pile of Books For Which I Would Really Like More Hours in the Day and a Million Dollars with Which to Buy. In fact, that list is so huge that I am seriously considering going to the library, which is an expensive venture because I never get out of the house quite often enough to avoid paying an arm and a leg in late fees. (My current record, paid to a university library, is $163. I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS 25¢ PER BOOK PER DAY, OKAY.) My point is, there are tons of writers whose books I'd like to try, and many of them have not only multiple books, but multiple series. And sometimes the first book they ever wrote isn't the best introduction to their work as a whole. I'm particularly interested in YA at this point, but any author (including yourself) you'd like to suggest One Book for is good. #readthisfirst, if you will. So that's my question: name me writer(s) you would recommend, and tell me the first book someone should pick up. If you are the writer, obviously we will be extra-interested in which book of your own that you think we should read first. Seriously, this is your chance to promote yourself as well, even if you only have one book, it was put out by an indie publisher, and that publisher is called My Lulu Account, Inc.

No, I will not snark any of them afterwards. I might put up a few discussion posts like I have earlier this year, though--I just snagged the Wicked Lovely e-book on Amazon for 99¢ to throw onto the pile.


ETA: I woke up to dozens of new comments, as you would with an entry like this, and several of the comments apparently screened themselves? Which I wasn't even awake to see, much less do it myself? I'm unscreening rogue comments now. WTF.

ETA: @kaycadabra: "Did they have links in them? LJ's started screening links recently, 'anti spam policy' I think." That seems to be what the comments all have in common--links to the books suggested.

Internets, I have many things to tell you:

"THEY WENT TO THE WAR WITHOUT ME!" New Secret Life of Dolls thataway.

made_of_fail_pc's new Doctor Who episode is up.

foresthouse has posted an update on her keratoconus surgeries, and tinyplasticmeatis now auctioning off knitted goods of your choice (I have to say, the various arm warmers look fantastic). Meanwhile, I will be auctioning off a very cute doll (mint, unopened--no one's getting sold, Eowyn) later next month.

Meanwhile-meanwhile, the Write Christmas "imaginary Christmas movie synopsis" contest that I am judging ends this Friday, I think. Open to everyone everywhere!

More importantly, smadroniawrites in that "Aaron, a friend of a guy I went to school with, has terminal cancer. He and his wife have been doing a lot of things to help raise funds for their bills and his cancer treatments. As this point, he only has a few months left to live, and his wife ended up turning down a full time job because it would mean 40 hours away from him, now that his life is coming down to months. He's done some interesting things to raise money, he sold ad space on his urns, and done a comedy fund raiser": ( The first mission is to spread a message of hope )

You can get the Choose Joy bracelets (and t-shirts) or donate money at his blog.


To finish, I would like to bring you pictures of a tiny puppy who got frozen to the train tracks in Bessemer last week when it was 19 degrees and got rescued an hour before the next train came through and a lady adopted him and named him Track and now he is okay, because I think we need puppies right now.

I seem to have come down with a nasty stomach bug--the kind where you have those sporadic clutching pains--and so we're just going to put Secret Life off until Saturday. I'm in pain and surviving on toast and Coke at the moment, and it took me two hours to put this entry together. We'll make it through somehow.

Meanwhile, I don't think I'll be tweeting Varney the Vampire anymore. Some people loved it; others were annoyed. However, when I have more time, I might recap it properly (although quickly, because it gets incredibly paid-by-the-word repetitive).

I don't know when the new Made of Fail will be up, but queenanthai points out that it's nominated at podcastawards.com in the Cultural/Arts section.

Speaking of the new episode, Mark (who is on it) is now watching Firefly, reading The Hunger Games, and rereading Harry Potter.

Speaking of Harry Potter, there's a new Tonner Q&A up in which we are given hope for a Tonks doll. You put some changeable wigs on it, and I'll be all over that. Maybe. In a theoretical world where I have a money tree. Also: we're back to an affirmative on the Eowyn doll, which I at least want to see.

Also, briefly:

Veteran comic actor Leslie Nielsen, 84, has died in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. 

Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner dies in LA at 87. 

James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host Oscars.  

Ian McKellen is back on aboard The Hobbit, thank Eru.

New preview for HBO's "Game of Thrones."

And finally: The Spider-Man musical on Broadway--now in mishap-filled previews--is "one of the most face-meltingly insane live spectacles I've ever witnessed."


Oh, oh! I don't think I mentioned this earlier--Bill Condon decided to troll Twilight fandom with the first image from Breaking Dawn, to the general confusion of mainstream movie news sites. I have a horrible feeling that the bruises have been photoshopped out.

The unifying theme of the day: interviews.

@cleolinda: Talking to a reporter later today about SOMETHING OTHER THAN TWILIGHT. #excite

@cleolinda: If you can't get someone of actual Potter importance, I am available for comments, interviews, birthdays and bar mitzvahs.

( Wait, you mean there are OTHER topics of conversation? )


Speaking of Tonner dolls, I have good and bad news for you guys, or at least bad for the Doctor Who and Firefly fans: Robert Tonner has had a three-part Q&A on Facebook. ( Read more... )

Meanwhile, I'm going to Midnight Harry Potter tonight, so I am trying to get some sleep in, and failing miserably. We'll have a discussion entry this weekend, once people have had a couple of days to see it. That said, counter-programming for Saturday is pretty much ready to go.