Blood will Flow

Excuse my French.

Posting here because - well, just because really.  I haven't felt this dispirited and despairing since Thatcher got in for her third term in '87. Even more so after sitting there all day in the Polling Station, seeing people come in to vote who'd never bothered to get off their arses to vote in their tiny-brained lives before because, to quote one woman, "I love my country" and "for freedom". Right. They say they are incensed at being told what to do by unelected people and they want our independence back. Re: unelected people making decisions that affect their lives, are they going to finally get rid of the House of Lords then? I doubt it. And I wonder what percentage of these people will turn out to vote in our next local or national elections? Ooh let me think. None? Maybe 0.01% of them? Yeah, that sounds about right.

The caiblre of the Leave voters shows in the fact that they were the ones who came in hot from social media, complaining loudly about ballot papers being filled in in pencil. Because THEY (who the fuck are THEY?) can just rub it out, you know. So these people demanded pens (why didn't they bring their own if they were that bothered?) because of course if it's filled in with pen then THEY can't alter the vote. Right. So if this conspiracy theory is correct and all voting in this country is rigged, which is what these feckers seemed to think, all THEY need to do is either spoil the inked ballot paper or hey, shred the fucker - or better yet, not bother counting the paper slips at all and totally make up the desired result.

So here we have it, a victory for the small-minded, bigotted, nationalistic, borderline racists and fascists, who tell themselves (and anyone else who's ears aren't bleeding) they did it for democracy.

Gah! Words fail me.

I'm actually pretty hopping mad today. I thought after hearing on the news about Govt plans to introduce vaccination for over 70s against shingles, I'd do some checking up on whether it would be worth enquiring about getting vaccinated myself - if it would help with this constant flaring up I get in my eye.
First site I find says the vaccine's been available for years and yes, it would probably really help. Well fuckity fuck, 'scuse my French. So I've had over 2 years of painful flare ups, my cornea is permanently damaged and I've not been able to give blood because I've been nearly permanently on anti virals when a jab would probably have been much more effective. I've lost count of how many doctors I've seen over there, and they were all telling me the anti viral tablets (probably for LIFE!) were the only things that had a chance of preventing the shingles becoming active.

Bollocks to the supposed experts in the hospital's Eye Clinic. Clearly they know nothing about shingles - which is exactly what I thought when I first went there - useless bastards.

Rant over. It's safe to come out now, I'm done.

Update on the Critics United saga and FF.net

I just got an automated notification from FF.net admin saying our triabble has been removed.
I may have got a bit carried away in my response to FF.net support.  Ahem.

Dear Fanfic.net
I emailed you about this innocuous little story and its rating several days ago, asking for your advice on its rating so that I could take action to change it should you think that the current rating was incorrect. You haven't had the courtesy to reply. Instead I get this notification of removal - which I find extremely rude and discourteous.  This is not a reasoned, well thought out response to my query, this is a weak knee'd, over reaction to a small group of vocal and nasty members of Fanfic.net that you, as moderators and administrators of this community should be taking action to curb the excesses of.

Amberdreams,

Title: "Man with the Golden Balls"
Summary: "E/O WOW: balcony. Our word was athlete in honour of the London 2012
Olympics. A 3 x100 word triabble by Amberdreams, Dizzo and Edina Clouds  not
necessarily in that order .  No spoilers, just nakedness and we don't own
anything, not even the Olympics."
Rating: "Rated: K+"
Storyid: 8396970

Main reason for removal: "Rating: explicit content or adult content above
current rating"

The above story has been removed because it violated the guideline detailed on
the upload page.

http://www.fanfiction.net/guidelines/

FanFiction.Net has a set of guidelines for the uploading of stories and
chapters.

I have to say this really harshes my melon.  I recently discovered a community of self appointed censors on Fanfic.net when one of their community 'reviewed' a triple drabble written by Edinaclouds, dizzojay and myself.  It's full of innuendo and general sillyness so we rated it a K+.  This so called review said:

( Read more... )

I have to say this really harshes my melon.  I recently discovered a community of self appointed censors on Fanfic.net when one of their community 'reviewed' a triple drabble written by Edinaclouds, dizzojay and myself.  It's full of innuendo and general sillyness so we rated it a K+.  This so called review said:

( Read more... )

Apparently. Mashable report that the guy who's bright idea this was is withdrawing the bill.  BUt he is then quoted as saying "The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.”

Right - firstly - prove it.  He also told us how much profit is being made in spite of piracy (A humungous amount) and I bet the amount stolen is balanced by people like me who actually buy more music and more DVDs because of people sharing their illegal downloads. Who is making that calculation to offset the supposed losses?

Second - key words in that statement - American IP.  Not IP from anywhere else in the world, outside your jurisdiction, oh Uncle Sam.  So hands off Stravinsky, thanks very much.  How dare you adjudicate against the free distribution of IP that has been in the public domain for years and never belonged to you in the first place?  How f**king DARE you.

And that was done without any new SOPA or PIPA legislation - so none of this makes me feel any better.

Diane Gabaldon has really stirred up a storm with her illconsidered bashing of all things fan fiction.  I see she is rapidly backtracking but the damage is done as far as I am concerned.  Her books are off my To-Read list.  I understand the problem of ownership of intellectual property, and the very real threat posed by open access to information, but fan fiction is not the area to attack here, fan fiction is not a threat to good published  writers.  It is actually a compliment to those writers if a FF community springs up around their books, because it means that their story-telling and ideas has inspired others to explore themes and characters created by them in ways that perhaps they had never considered.  (And yes, some of those ways might include sex!!).
I find it hard to understand how any author can not realise that there are very few original stories out there - to come up with something that is truly new, has never been told before is virtually impossible.  Most stories that are told share the same basic roots, and all that is happening is that we are putting a new slant, a fresh viewpoint on something that humans have been experiencing from the dawn of time.
And humans have always told stories, and enjoyed listening to stories being told...
So a big big thank you to Pandarus and Bookshop for spelling this out to Ms Gabaldon with such eloquence and equanimity.  Guys, you put this so much better than I ever could - kudos to you!

http://bookshop.livejournal.com/1044495.html
http://pandarus.livejournal.com/336009.html

And there are authors who 'get it' - http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2007/05/cory-doctorow-in-praise-of-fanfic.html

Diane Gabaldon has really stirred up a storm with her illconsidered bashing of all things fan fiction.  I see she is rapidly backtracking but the damage is done as far as I am concerned.  Her books are off my To-Read list.  I understand the problem of ownership of intellectual property, and the very real threat posed by open access to information, but fan fiction is not the area to attack here, fan fiction is not a threat to good published  writers.  It is actually a compliment to those writers if a FF community springs up around their books, because it means that their story-telling and ideas has inspired others to explore themes and characters created by them in ways that perhaps they had never considered.  (And yes, some of those ways might include sex!!).
I find it hard to understand how any author can not realise that there are very few original stories out there - to come up with something that is truly new, has never been told before is virtually impossible.  Most stories that are told share the same basic roots, and all that is happening is that we are putting a new slant, a fresh viewpoint on something that humans have been experiencing from the dawn of time.
And humans have always told stories, and enjoyed listening to stories being told...
So a big big thank you to Pandarus and Bookshop for spelling this out to Ms Gabaldon with such eloquence and equanimity.  Guys, you put this so much better than I ever could - kudos to you!

http://bookshop.livejournal.com/1044495.html
http://pandarus.livejournal.com/336009.html

And there are authors who 'get it' - http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2007/05/cory-doctorow-in-praise-of-fanfic.html