isapiens, my personal icon community, is now a Dreamwidth comm. (And there was much rejoicing. Yay.) I gave up on waiting for the release of a tool to import a personal graphics comm and did it by hand. I think I've promoted it everywhere that it makes sense.

My apologies to the people watching it who got spammed today as I brought over my icon comm by manually transferring every single icon post I've made for 4 years. Even for a non-prolific maker, that adds up to a lot of posts. The good news is that the spamming is over. :D

You've heard of the kerfuffle, yes? If not, the whole thing is outlined here in news. Why is making it easy for every happy-go-lucky internet commenter to share links to your private entries? Copied from this comment by chiller:

Here's a few examples of comments that could really screw up - and in some cases END - a person's life. Potentially appearing soon on a FB status update near you, following an accidental click!: -

- "If they're threatening you because you're gay, you ought to get some help."
- "Sorry to hear about your miscarriage."
- "Sorry to hear about your husband punching you in the face."
- "Sorry to hear about your cancer." (this one's great! Your boss might fire you before he "officially" finds out you're sick, thus avoiding a lot of annoying sick leave expense!)
- "Way to go, sleeping with all those people!"
- "Hang on - you didn't use protection?"
- "I really enjoyed sex with you, Mike and Bob last night."
- "OMG the priest did what?"
- "Welcome to the sexual abuse survivors' forum!"
- "I heart twincest furry coprophagic fic too!"
- "I'm so glad to hear you've got a safe place to live in [address], where he can't find you."

To which I add the stories of people returning to find their homes burglarized after posting to FB about vacation plans. Not life threatening, but:

- "I can't wait to see you in Seattle on Friday!"
- "Sure, I can pet sit for you this weekend."
- "Bet you'll be happy when your husband returns next week!"

And so on. By all means, be smart about what you post online. This is a bird of slightly different feather. We're talking about what your friends post and say and do...that's a lot harder to "be smart about" except to ban someone AFTER your privacy is violated. :\

FWIW, I haven't linked this account to any other accounts I have. I've turned off pingbacks until LJ fixes the problems with pingbacks violating f-locked privacy. You can safely rant about & link to my personal journal without worrying I'll see it. I can't find a way to turn them off over at my icon comm; you might want to wait to rant & link to those posts if you want to do it behind my back. Once they fix the pingback feature so that only publicly available content is reported to me, I'll probably turn them on here.

Small batch of icons this time as I wanted to get the gag reel icons out there while they're timely.

27 Supernatural
50 Supernatural S5 Gag Reel



Here @ isapiens

Bunch of icons

40 Supernatural
05 Jensen Ackles
18 Misha Collins
07 Misha/Jensen
31 Misha Collins in other roles (Stonehenge Apocalypse, Finding Home, Etc.)
34 Stargate SG-1
13 Star Wars
07 Calvin & Hobbes
21 Fandom/Stock Grab Bag (Psych, Dark Angel, Babylon 5, Being Human, In Plain Sight, Bones, Queer As Folk, Text, Stock)
12 Iconfest Remnants (Rupert Evans, Kate Blanchett/Kevin Spacey, Shoes, Sanctuary/Amelia Earhardt)
==========
188 icons



icons @ isapiens

Can there ever be enough Misha fic? Of course not! Thus, it's time for the Misha Comment Fic Meme!



You know you wanna. Prompt. Commit fic. Anything goes, so long as it's Misha-centric.

Tomorrow is the deadline for entering the SG-1 LIMS that I run with my lovely co-mods:


Sign-up Post || Challenge 1


I'm playing in another LIMS, this one for Supernatural. (Is anyone surprised?) This one is run by obaona, who runs some of the very best comms out there. She runs LIMS on time, gives the caps well ahead of time, and runs a tight ship. Round 6 is now open with icons due this Friday:


Sign-up Post || Challenge 1

Visited the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston today with my mother, who is in town. I had been away from the museum for a long time after I worked there and I hadn't ever fully explored the new building. I'd gone to special exhibits but never taken the time just look at the permanent collection in its new digs. What a doofus.

( Whittering on about art and a couple of photos I scavenged from the internet )

On the downside, the gift shop is still as frustrating as ever. It's light and airy and so much nicer than it used to be but they still carry artsy items that don't really relate to what you've just seen in the galleries. Mom and I were looking, hoping to find something resembling some of the ancient vessels we'd seen upstairs and loved, but there was nothing. But that's a quibble. I have fallen in love with the new building and can't wait to go back.

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Firefly
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: In Plain Sight
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season): {White Collar & The Vampire Diaries are pretty but shallow; Royal Pains is shallow but pretty}
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever: Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1, Firefly, Queer as Folk, and Farscape. Supernatural makes the cut on a technicality (ignoring serious gender issues) for its prescience in employing Misha Collins.
Day 05 - A show you hate: ( FOX 'News' )

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Firefly
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: In Plain Sight
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season): {White Collar & The Vampire Diaries are pretty but shallow; Royal Pains is shallow but pretty}
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever: ( Not possible to pick only 1. Or 2. Or 3. Try 12. )

OMG -- my profile is being taken over by ring-tailed lemurs! This thrills me; prosimians are an especial favorite of mine. Love, love, love lemurs. Y'all don't know it but the primatology side of biological anthropology is what sucked me into archaeology. It's especially appropriate to have lemurs cavorting on my profile. :)

Thank you to colls, casett, and anonymous for the lemurs. A belated thank you to casett, hils, and anonymous for the glitterati sunglasses -- and to ohfreckle, jehnt, and casett for the milk & cookies. Sure would be nice to thank those generous anonymous-es by name. Just sayin'.

While I'm dealing with the "I'm running behind" issues, I still owe some comments on the Days 2 & 3 meme entries. I will try to get to it tomorrow but I'm up against a creativity block and need to spend some time working on entries for starwars_lims and tomorrow is the much anticipated world-premiere of Stonehenge Apcalypse. I suspect I'll be fangirling with hils and harper47 in eager anticipation while waiting for news to trickle out from the Supernatural convention happening in Barcelona.

I expect to be less than useless tomorrow.

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Firefly
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: In Plain Sight
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season): ( Uh... )

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Firefly
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: ( In Plain Sight )

I'm seeing this television meme ALL OVER my f-list. I've been resisting since I have the whole, "how can I only choose one?!?" thing going on. I don't tend to be an -est kind of girl so much as shades of gray kind of girl. But I want to play along, too!

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled:( Firefly )

Yay!! My labor of love, sg1_lims, is now on its fourth round!

I didn't know if we'd get even 15 participants for the first round of a contest for a show that was already off the air. Instead we got 50. In the 2nd round, we had 55. And in the 3rd, we had 60. I appreciate every single person who competes and everyone who votes. You are what makes our LIMS the little community that could.

This is my long-winded way of proclaiming: ROUND 4 IS NOW OPEN!


Sign-Up for Round 4 // Caps for Challenge 1
Caps for the first nine challenges

If you have any interest in SG-1 or LIMS -- or both! -- please join us. We have multiple caps in each challenge and participants have a minimum of two weeks, often more, to work with the caps.

1. Fake Chicken Breakthrough? -- I'm not necessarily a fan of fake meats but I own that they're very handy for a vegetarian who is trying to feed veggie-phobic omnivores. Though how anyone can not love brussels sprouts and eggplant and squash? I don't know because they are all super-delicious.

I tend to stick with crumbles or veggie sausage because they do a good job of approximating ground meats but I'm all for any product that reduces the number of animals killed in our farming industry. Even if it's highly processed. A word of caution, there's some verbiage in the article towards the bottom of the first page that might be upsetting if you're squeamish about meat coming from organic bodies.

2. Ancient cemetery in York could be Roman gladiators -- Sweet! And potentially a treasure trove of information. I hope I'll get to see some articles about this find.

3. Worst kept secret: Apple has a new generation of the iPhone. I stopped listening when they brought up the guy to announce that Farmville will now be an App. *rolls eyes* Steve Jobs is looking mighty thin. I hope he's continuing to do well; pancreatic cancer is a wicked nasty cancer.

4. Look for sign-ups for sg1_lims to open up tomorrow evening!!!!!!

1) Nine more days until Stonehenge Apocalypse!!! It stars Misha Collins, Torri Higginson, Hil Harper, Peter Wingfield, and Brent Stait. That's a lot of something for everyone. Sadly destined to be a horrible Syfy movie of the week crapfest but it's going to be awesome seeing favorite actors trying their best to convince me that Stonehenge is out to END THE WORLD.

*sigh* Once again the archaeologists are cast as the bad guys as they seem to kick off this version of the apocalypse.

2) O HAI Robert Wisdom! Supernatural's Uriel is now Burn Notice's Vaughn. Nice to see him again, this time in suits properly cut for him. He's looking good but I find it hard to trust him.

3) A Quick Guide to Understanding the Channel Mixer by nomadicwriter -- Handy tool, that channel mixer. Extra happy making is the Teal'c icon on the tutorial.

4) Spent today at the Houston Holocaust Museum. The architecture, more than reminiscent of a crematorium, was disturbing. That was the point of course, but the psychology of willingly walking into it was unsettling; just the first of many, many disquieting experiences. The audio tour was narrated by Mandy Patinkin and was one of the better ones I've ever heard. No point in lingering on the bad other than to say that it never fails to horrify and depress me. I'd heard about Denmark's remarkable actions before but now I know more. One of the few moral bright spots in a dozen years of depravity.

Just got back from grocery shopping (trying to beat the Memorial Day rush) and one thing I love about summer? The food! Yellow corn on the cob, green zucchini, red cherries & strawberries, orange carrots, green spinach, pale yellow crookneck squash, peaches, nectarines...it's a rainbow-colored produce stand in my fridge.

I'm rationing the last of my winter navel oranges and I'll still sniffle a bit when they're finally gone because they are my candy but once the grapes come into season for real I'll buy those in large quantity and freeze them. They make really nice snacks for the stinkin' hot weather that is not my favorite part of the season.

1. Iconfest has ended. Final tally was more than 1,000 icons made in two weeks! Here's the Master Post in case you're interested in looking through the final results. All of the icons have been sorted by maker's name. I managed to contribute 36 icons. I'd hoped for more but I think that's a respectable number.

2. True Blood Season 2 has landed in my hands finally. I'm completely unspoiled so keep that in mind when commenting here, please. :) I'm looking forward to some escapism. Which brings me to...

3. Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts for me. ( Boring, emotional, personal crap. tl;dr stuff. )

So, anyway, back to my point. Yesterday was this anniversary for me. I'd looked forward to it for months. Weeks. Days. Hours, even. I wondered many times how I would manage to reach it. And...well, I didn't realize that the day had happened until today. I was so busy talking to new friends, making last-minute icons for Iconfest, feeling guilty that I'm behind in organizing sg1_lims, and generally having a good time that I didn't even realize it had happened.

So, thank you to my friends in my analog life and to my squee buddies in my digital life who have helped me survive with hope for the future and a lot of laughter in the present. Yesterday could have been weepy and maudlin and full of woe is me but it wasn't. ♥

33 years ago today, Star Wars opened!

~~**~~
From casett, slightly altered:

Reply to this post, let me know you want to play, and I will tell you my favorite icon of yours.
Then post this to your own journal (with) your own favorite icon. (if you want :))

I'm totally cheating because I am constitutionally incapable of choosing just one. How can I judge my go-to SG-1 icon vs. my Misha-is-hotter-than-hell icon?!? I can't, so I'm choosing a favorite for each of my fandoms.

( Read more... )

Anyone know of anything vegetarian I could put out to feed woodpeckers?

I know, I know: they're insectivores. But there's a gorgeous woodpecker that's hanging out in my backyard, eying the seed and peanuts I put out for the birds and squirrels. I want to encourage him to hang around but I'm not willing to go the suet or beef tallow route.

Ideas? Obviously, I want something stable in our heat/humidity because I don't want to kill the little guy.