Cleolinda everywhere

I have a ton of catching up to do, but I slipped into a research/rewrite/productivity rabbit hole and didn't want to come out for a few days. So, here is several days' worth of linkspam, although I tried to stick to the essentials: ( Read more... )


I cut several news items for time (space?), but I'll see if I can't work them into the next spam, assuming one happens in a timely fashion.

Remember the Wicked Pretty Things debacle? Of course you do. Jessica Verday has now decided what to do with the story she refused to straightwash: "I'm extremely grateful to be able to say that my short story 'Flesh Which Is Not Flesh' (Cameron and Wesley's story) is now available as an eBook on Amazon, and from now through August 31, 50% of the proceeds from this story will go to the Living Beyond Tolerance scholarship. I'm hoping we can meet that $200 goal. Exceed it even. Perhaps $500? $1,000?" She also says that the scholarship is "for someone who is LGBT or an Ally and is doing something to make sure everyone is accepted, not just tolerated."

Meanwhile: linkspam! Also: cupcakes. ( Read more... )


I don't really have anything for The Slot, so instead I will show you cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes. ( Read more... )

A linkspam that has been THREE DAYS IN THE MAKING.


@bathbomb: Also, today I did a little sketch of @cleolinda. This is what she looks like in my head.

@cleolinda: @bathbomb Other than the fact that I'm about twice as wide, it's actually pretty good.

@foresthouse: @cleolinda You look like that in my head too. Except there is a Pallas cat grumping over your shoulder.

@cleolinda: @foresthouse Considering that you've seen me in person, the likeness must be impressive.

@foresthouse: @cleolinda Well, okay, actually I confess that in my head you have purple hair, and no amount of seeing you IRL can change that. :P


Linkspam! ( Read more... )

Before we get to movie news: a few updates on the Norway situation.

@BreakingNews: Norwegian police revise death toll in Utoya youth camp massacre down to 68 from 86; @REUTERSFLASH: Norwegian police say at least 100,000 people take part in Oslo march in support of attack victims; Norway killer claims he had help; manifesto outlined plans to attack writers & lit professors; @krazycat/krazycat: New blog post: Oslo - reflection and tears. And from gryster:

Just a small message from Norway:

There was a march of roses in Oslo today. It is the most beautiful reaction I have ever seen. The actual marching bit was cancelled because there was SO MANY PEOPLE. People were asked to leave their roses all over the city, and they really did. All of downtown Oslo was just covered with roses.

There's a link here. There's a slideslow at the top, with pictures from all over the country. I just wanted to show you this, (and ask you to share it) because I'm guessing it won't necessarily be shown on American TV. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

Movie news. ( Read more... )

Okay, more housekeeping.

The new layout: For those of you just joining us, the goal was to make the layout, particularly the comment posting boxes, more accessible to anyone with visual impairment. I threw "November Day" up here just to have something clean and legible for the Oscar liveblog, but... now I actually like it. I went through every single other layout LJ offers, tested more than a dozen of them full-size, and kept coming back to this one. In fact, I don't even think I want to go back to Component now; it looks cluttered and small in comparison. Problem: This layout does not have an option to change any of the colors. So we're staying with it in teal for this week, and then foresthouse and I are going to work on the CSS code over the weekend and shift all the hex codes to purple hues. I had a few people who said they liked the teal better (if it weren't an issue of persona, I'd actually be perfectly happy with it myself), but I also had people who were touchingly distraught at my non-purple existence. So we'll at least see what it looks like changed, live, so we can tweak it. Here's what a screencap of the current layout looks like with the hue shifted in Photoshop and lightened/desaturated a bit, both a warm purple and a cool purple:

( POLL TIME )


On the upside, my parents are both down for the count with a third iteration of Death Blarg, but somehow, I have managed to dodge it this time. I am hoping that better health and weather will lead to an improved awesomosity forecast.

That said, we had a freak hailstorm yesterday:



A quick linkspam: ( Read more... )

In case you missed it: The Secret Life of Dolls (the Dire Capybara seems to have been a big hit).

I'm still mulling over That Which We Do Not Speak Of, which we might as well Speak Of because we all know I'm doing it. There's basically two movie franchises that I'm locked into until the bitter end, and Harry Potter is one of them. The problem is that the first Deathly Hallows movie is pretty serious without being mock-worthily srs bsns, so I'm having trouble with it. However, I think I have found--not a gimmick, exactly, but an angle to approach it from.

Meanwhile, we had a lot of fun recording the podcast on Saturday. Since he mentioned it too, I'll go ahead and say that Mark (who is now Reading The Hunger Games) was our guest. I was the Temporary Guest Hosting for Dayna, which was a lot of fun, but I don't think there's any danger of anyone wanting me as a permanent replacement; it's like having two kinds of salt on the table instead of salt and pepper. ANYWAY MY POINT IS not to make you think it'll be a boring show, my point is GET EXCITE.

The title of this entry, by the way, refers to this:

It's really happening: Warner Brothers reboots Buffy The Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon [Please God No]. "Details of the film are being kept under wraps, but I can say while this is not your high school Buffy, she'll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be." Have the riots started yet?

The rest of the linkspam? Is all Grade A.

( Read more... )

New Secret Life of Dolls thataway. And when you're done, here is the back story on [spoiler].

Meanwhile, I didn't quite grasp this fact the last time I mentioned it, but foresthouse is having her keratoconus eye surgery on Thursday, not some vague indefinite "soon." If you've ever wanted to send me money for writing about movies or dolls or linkspam or what have you--please think about sending it to her instead; her PayPal address is emilyesse @gmail .com (take out the spaces). I mean, there are so many of you here that five dollars would help, if you could. If you'd rather send me money, I'm dailydigest @yahoo .com (and I will turn around and give it to her). And foresthouse herself writesask_deadpool, she co-founded and works on the North American Discworld Convention (NADWCON), and she's my agent and she needs to be able to see to do these things and I don't know what else to do. Except "write faster," maybe.

... I've just now found out that my other grandmother is in the hospital after having been in a car accident. It sounds like she's going to be okay, but she did break some ribs, and they've put her in ICU because of her age.

What's that, Tiny Tim? You need a new crutch? I'm sorry, all I have tonight is linkspam. It's a lot of good stuff, but pretty much without commentary because I'm a little wrung out at the moment.

( Read more... )

Many things! So many that I only culled the very best links for the spam, and it's still hugelong. Well, it's not that bad. JUST READ IT.

To begin: the new Made of Fail, "Self-Esteem is for Everybody," is up. I'm not on it (Scarlett is of Scarlettopia and the Spoony Experiment is, much to Dayna's twitterpation), but Dayna and I were talking a few days before, and she had me write down what I was saying so she could read it on air (about 28 minutes in), and it was: my advice to geek boys. My sad, hard-won, somewhat embittered advice. Alas, earwax.

Also, the Christopher Pike thing just got better. (Scroll down to "ETA again.") Not only is he now accusing caligirl_08 of being the one with an army of Amazon review sockpuppets, he's claiming that bookfails is "a livejournal community sponsored by someone of Turkish background who has taken things much too far and is trying to rob fiction authors of their artistic license." Such artistic license includes claiming that the Aryans of India are the same as the "Nordic ideal" Aryans.

However: sad news as well.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis dies at 85. 

Bonnie and Clyde Director Arthur Penn Dies at 88.

'Marty,' 'Chinatown' actor Joe Mantell dies at 94.

More linkspam: ( Read more... )

So I had to go to the DMV to renew my driver's license today, except that it's not a driver's license, it's a driver's permit (it looks exactly the same, except there are two "exception" codes on the back. A: Corrective lenses and Y: Not a license. Oh. You know. That), because I can't drive, because I get panic attacks, because I'm a neurotic loser, so on and so forth. For the last fifteen years, the Alabama Department of Motor Vehicles has peaceably taken my money and renewed it without question. Except... this time. And somehow, going in, I knew they wouldn't renew it. Somehow, I knew.

And it was, in fact, exactly as humiliating as I expected. ( Read more... )

Later this week: bloodwork. I'm afraid of what's going to show up in it, although it's on the order of my psych doctor, basically to rule out a few things, not omg you have all the cancers. I'm still afraid of what might turn up. Like, you know, full-blown diabetes, which runs in the family and I'm at risk for. I mean, obviously, whatever turns up is something I already have, not something the bloodwork bestows upon me, so just refusing to find out isn't going to help. However, I also have a deep fear of needles--( this may squick you out, depending on your own issues )

So. Bloodwork. Later this week.

P.S. No one can ever find my veins.

But so help me God, I have a state ID, which is good because I need a drink.


Meanwhile: The weekend's discussion of character deaths and your feelings thereunto was very good, and our querent wishes me to pass on to y'all that it helped a lot. Also, my inbox is on fire.

Linkspam! ( In which I get... a little riled up ) 

Re: Friday's Secret Life: People do this every time one of the characters refers to "Miss Cleo," so--I just want you to know that I'm not trying to hint that you have to call me that. I'm not a TV hotline psychic or the little old lady down the street or anything. Plain "Cleo" is just fine.

Also, if you feel creative in the comments or something, this is precisely what folks created slodfans for. I mean, fanfic of fanfic will probably destroy the universe, but that's what it's there for. (Newest post: Icons!)

(This afternoon: more guerilla photography, lest I get busted taking pictures of vintage toys again. "Is that--" "NO!" "--one of my forks?" "... Maybe." I did discover that the NECA action figures do have a bit more bendability than I had originally thought. I also put two characters close together in the same shot for the first time and it is TERRIFYING. Like something out of Gulliver's Travels, for real. Anyway. That'll probably go up tomorrow.)

I've rambled on too long already, so: remind me to tell you what I ended up doing to rescue my hair for the next chatty/linky post.

Meanwhile, I totally, deplorably forgot to link the big first-anniversary Made of Fail episode when it came out; there's also a poll up for you to weigh in as to whether you like the new intro better than the old one. (I'll be guesting on the next epsiode, which will be Harry Potter-themed.)

Also-also, from lightlack: "I was wondering if in one of your future linkspam posts, you might be able to post something about this story in the LA Times about a very young girl with severe schizophrenia. I don't know this family personally, but they're friends of a friend, and after I read the article I wanted to help spread the story, in case somebody out there with connections might know of some resources that could help this little girl out."

( Linkspam of major WTF )