Rose: [goes over to the mailroom, who have a full kitchen, in order to get coffee and hot water for oatmeal] lalala coffee... [walks back towards office with full mugs]

Maintenance guy: [is examining something with a flashlight in the corner. flips something on flashlight and flashlight is now red laser pointer bouncing over the floor and wall]

Rose: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....I did NOT go dashing after the laser pointer. I also did not drop either mug. Because I'm not a cat. Really.

Okay, it was a close thing. Meow!

So, LJ got caught trying to force everyone to specify male or female on their userinfo (suspicions are for advertising demographics), and is backpedaling lots and lots. Details here, including where to go to register your opinion on the matter, from synecdochic.

I've been poking at how to run a ficathon on LJ and Dreamwidth simultaneously for a while now. I might have to start looking into that more. :(

ETA: I have something on the order of a bazillion (yes, that's a technical term) Dreamwidth invites, so if you'd like one, please either comment to tell me what e-mail addy you'd like it sent to, or e-mail me at havocthecat at gmail.com and let me know.

This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth ( comments). Comments are welcome on either post.

I've just made the following as a post in my LJ:
---
LiveJournal is removing the Unspecified option for the gender field. That's right: you get to be male or female. Period. That's it.

Details here: http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html

This journal has been, in my user profile, "Unspecified" gender for a long time, because gender is not binary. If/when I am unable to decline to state my gender, or if/when I am forced to declare my gender along a binary division, here on LJ, I will be deleting this journal.

I have Dreamwidth invite codes for anyone who wants them, just provide me with the email address you want the code sent to. There is also http://dw-codesharing.dreamwidth.org/ as well, which does not require you to provide your email address to anyone.
---

Dreamwidth, I adore you. <3

ETA: And now I've added the following to my LJ post:
---
ETA: The code has now been rolled back and will not be pushed with the next codepush.

After seeing some of the reaction to this entire situation from my LJ friendslist, however, I will be deleting this journal later today. elkes_obsession is already gone. I had been committed to trying to do everything I could to keep unbroken links, to retain memories categories, to not delete entries, even though so many things about LJ's ownership bother me. I'd tried to retain the human connections across the multiple sites. But apparently plenty of the folks I've felt I was making the effort for are sick and tired of this sort of thing. I'm getting a 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out' vibe, and damn, that HURTS. And so now I'm just DONE.
---

So.

elkes_obsession is gone, as it was a navigational tool to organize my views into various LJ communities, and I'd left it up in case others were getting benefit from it.

And elke_tanzer. Created on 2002-04-13 12:36:18 (#527447), watching 515 friends, communities, and feeds. 19,435 comments received, 19,512 comments posted, 2,880 Journal Entries, 204 Tags, 16,918 Memories.

Done.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020320.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: first infuriated, later hurt

hope this fic doesn't suck. three people have offered to look at it.

my brain is... words. lack. thereof. not parsing so much. so you get Radek. because yes. my brain is Radek on TOO MUCH COFFEE. and code. because I restructured my snoozing-in dream this morning in CSS and JavaScript before waking up. I am all over code and not so much words.

drop down image rollover tabs are HAUNTING me, dammit, and i will find a way to do them and do them well without them looking like all fugly and coded.

we will not discuss the tutoring of the webdesign class once again.

[crossbreeds hybrid code like it's a DS farm game]

rose will return to coherency when her brain is less full of li and ul and hover and jquery tags.

hugs an well wishes to those who need them (seems like everyone some days) and joy and holidays if you feel up to it. i'll be back when i've kicked this damned code to the curb and shown it who's boss.

Thank you to wolfshark, ingridmatthews, glimmergirl and a wee quiet anonymouse for the snowflake cookies on my old LJ profile! And thank you to gblvr for the ridiculously-adorable holiday octopus-Cthuluclaus there as well!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1020136.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: touched

I'm not the most knowledgeable person around, about a bunch of stuff, yeah. And I try not to talk about stuff I don't know about... if I haven't earned the right to talk I try to Just Shut Up. I'm privileged in some ways and not so privileged in other ways. I sometimes say stupid shit without realizing it's stupid shit and then I try to learn and apologize and never make the same mistake twice. And a lot of the time, for me, it's easier for me to see how something is stupid hurtful shit when it comes out of someone else's mouth or keyboard, because when it comes out of my mouth or my keyboard it didn't immediately sound stupid or hurtful to me.

Stuff I have learned lately (not just from the latest shitstorm going on, but lately in general)...

1. When someone says they prefer a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, I JUST DO IT. I just need to respect that preference.

1.a. If I screw that up once for someone? Please, anyone, give me a gentle reminder. If I screw that up twice for someone? Please, anyone, KICK ME.

1.b. This is not just related to whether or not I respect the person being referred to, but is also related to whether or not I respect everyone's right to have a personal pronoun preference.

2. If I don't have a clue whether someone prefers a specific gendered or nongendered pronoun, chances are that using 'they' as a singular, or zie and zir, will not piss them off or hurt them.

2.a. (I'm not sure about this, but so far it's holding true...) If I use they, or zie and zir, in reference to someone, and they distinctly do not prefer that, they can easily correct me without too much trauma or drama for either one of us.

2.b. There are folks who prefer they over zie and zir (or sie and hir), and folks who prefer zie and zir (or sie and hir) over they.

2.c. There are folks who do not self-identify as trans* who prefer non-gendered pronouns. There are folks who do not self-identify as cis* who prefer non-gendered pronouns.

3. It is awkward as hell for me to ask if a friend or acquaintance prefers any specific pronoun. That doesn't mean I should ever assume that they prefer she or he or zie. I should NOT ASSUME, even if I know them offline, even if I would probably tend to assume one pronoun is more likely than another based on my own personal history and the name they've chosen to use in any given setting, or any physical characteristic they've presented to me or kept private from me, or any attitude they've said or typed about any topic under the sun.

3.a. Awkward is not necessarily the same as hurtful. And if I can get myself through an awkward situation to prevent myself from hurting someone? If I realize the awkward situation is an option, I'm darned well choosing that rather than knowingly hurting someone.

3.b. It's really easy to be hurtful unintentionally if I don't know what I'm talking about.

So.

All I can do right now? Is offer virtual chocolates, and try not to mess this post up, because I just can't be silent right now. I'm sorry that people suck, and I'm sorry that folks I care about are being hurt, and I'm sorry that I've been unintentionally hurtful in the past.

And I desperately hope that I'm not being unintentionally hurtful now, especially given the current state of the latest shitstorm (which I am trying to avoid, actually).

ETA: And yes, this post is from a me-centric place, because when I tried writing it any other perspective, I came across even to my own eyes as megapreachy and talking about things I haven't earned the right to and ICK ICK ICK. I feel mostly-OK about talking about myself here, so yeah, I did. I wish I could do better, but I feel like this is better than silence, because I can't be silent when something is Not OK By Me.)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019761.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: uncomfortable

so far. i need to do some writing tonight.

I meant to post this during Thanksgiving weekend, but as usual this year, I'm behind. on. everything.

( Guidelines behind a cut, because you've probably seen them lots of times already... )

( Elke's Holiday Wishlist 2009 )

Hey, also, if you've posted your wishlist, can you please link me to it? Thanks!

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019139.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: calm

Happy Hannukah to those who celebrate, and may all of our lights be festive!

My favorite of the recent related uploads at Flickr are First Nights Glow and a Frabel Glass dreidel.

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1019046.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: calm

( spoilers )

current mood: amused

...your workday is going so obnoxiously badly that you console yourself by tackling reading through a tutorial for how to create a Wordpress theme from scratch. Because this is your HAPPY PLACE.

get up off my ass and make some soup and study and clean the cat box. *sigh*

jQuery: The Visual Quickstart Guide = $30

...ow. v_v

I like how my school saw fit to send me a web design textbook for this class (that I haven't bothered to crack open, as it's purely design, not actual coding of any sort) and didn't send me anything for jQuery, despite the fact that two of our five weeks are devoted to doing stuff with jQuery. argh. Argh, I say!

So I was a dutiful pro-active go-getter and went over to Borders on my lunch break and got myself a book. There were only four of them and this was a) the least expensive and b) the most newbie friendly.

I'm kinda liking this jQuery thing. It calls elements from your CSS, so anything you can tag in CSS with an ID, you can make jump through hoops with jQuery. It certainly seems to be the new shiny that everyone's raving over (lots of discussion boards with former straight-up Javascript programmers going !!<3 over jQuery). I never really got the hang of Javascript very well, but jQuery is a) easier to get a foot in the door and b) cross platform compatible so that I don't have to know a workaround for IE when it works perfectly fine in Safari and Firefox, etc.

.....hi. Occasionally my brain goes !!! at shiny logical code. If I start drawing hearts around it later I'll let you know.

Also, we're not going to talk about the $40 they wanted for the Wordpress book (how to design a Wordpress theme from scratch, aka, the printed dictionary of what all the CSS and functions involved in a Wordpress theme are). It's not even that big or that thick of a book! There's no color involved! ARGH, people! (I put it back on the shelf. Yeah, I kinda want it, but I can keep scavenging what I need off of Wordpress' FAQs too.)

Also, the new Sting christmas CD might have assaulted me on the way out the door. As well as YenPlus (aka, the tankoubon currently running Kuroshitsuji.) x_x

Could someone please tell me how it is that where I live (and where I work) can be under a Winter Storm Watch and a Flood Watch at the same time? How are those 2 warnings not mutually exclusive? But sure enough, the NWS (National Weather Service) says the county where I live and work (among many other counties and principalities north and west of DC) are under both for the same timeframe. I can understand if the Flood Watch started after the winter stuff turned to rain, but it's for the time period when they are expecting us to be getting sleet and freezing rain. It seems to me we wouldn't have to worry about flooding until it warmed up and turned to rain...

ETA: It appears the Winter Storm Watch has been lifted, but I'm still under a Flood watch. Normal wet rain (as opposed to freezing rain) I can deal with.

current mood: confused

...is to teach yourself the basic dummy level of jQuery javascript language, by yourself, from internet sources, in less than a week. GO!

Aka, my web design teacher is fairly useless for explaining anything and I'd really like to get more out of this class then "how to steal other people's scripts in a plug and play fashion" which I already know how to do. v_v Also, jQuery seems pretty shiny and useful and does lots of snazzy things. But. I am starting from GROUND ZERO. I know absolute jack about it. I can google-fu with the best of 'em, but really... anybody out there work in jQuery and have any recs for where to start??

gonna make some.

I LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD
BUT THE AO3 CODERS MOST OF ALL
BOOM-DE-YADA, BOOM-DE-YADA...

:-D

In only-minorly-related news, apparently my long-slumbering infatuation with Merlin UK fandom has re-manifested. The trouble with tag-wrangling and thinking about what Freeform tags I might want on my own bookmarks is that I keep finding all kinds of neat new things to read!

Which reminds me... not for official tag-wrangling, but for my own bookmarks... I'm thinking I want to start using nonfandom-specific tags for the following concepts, because when I'm reading in Merlin and Smallville (and other?) fandoms, I find myself seeking these themes out:

Secret Revealed
Secret Revealed To Partner
Secret Revealed To Partner - Unresolved Sexual Tension
Secret Revealed To Partner - Established Relationship
Secret Revealed To Ally (or perhaps To Friend? hmmm.)
Secret Revealed To Nemesis
Secret Revealed Anticlimactic

What do you fine folks use to tag or bookmark such concepts?

ETA: Oh oh oh! I almost forgot! I've stumbled across a couple completely adorable Fred & Ginger fanvids recently! I think I found one of them via veni_vidi_vids and another via... um... hang on, I've got it here in a tab somewhere... aha! stultiloquentia and someone else (sorry, I can't find you!) right around the same time, and the others via google-searching trying to figure out where I'd found the first one, before I remembered!

glvalentine's rec of Love You Madly by roseytrebles

Fanvid: "Happiness" [Astaire/Rogers Films] by icepixie

They Can't Take That Away... by duckmilk productions

Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) by StrictlyTaboo

Support For My Argument by vespersaw

Also Caught by vespersaw, featuring not only Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but also William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn...

*swoon*

(I must interject here that never in a million years did I ever expect to find fanvids including footage of Captain Blood (and Robin Hood OMG) aside from the fantastic One Night Fandoms: A Tribute to Yuletide by eruthros and thingswithwings!)

This entry was originally posted at http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/1018626.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

current mood: busy

More books I finished recently, this time reading for my dissertation.

( George Meredith, One of Our Conquerors )

( Janet Browne, Voyaging and The Power of Place )

( Anna K. Nardo, George Eliot’s Dialogue With John Milton )

current mood: amused

( I might be just a little bit cold... )

Yes, that's a concrete wall beside me. The wall next to me is thin plaster over concrete, too. In fact, it's the concrete wall with all the snow outside immediately on the opposite side of it. I work in a basement. v_v

They promised us heaters, which have physically been installed, but the wiring isn't done yet. DEAR PEOPLE. It SNOWED. PLZ COME BACK AND FINISH WIRING OUR HEAT NAO.