Random notes

[mamadeb]

The cleaning person was late. She's currently coating my kitchen in bleach.

My husband was sewing a button on to his pants. I asked him why he didn't ask me. "Because I can do it myself." The pants are khaki. The button is khaki. The thread he's using? Green. Why? "There is no khaki thread, so I thought I'd use a random color, and you have a lot of green. No one's going to see it, anyway."

This, folks, is why I love him. It's just the way his mind works.

That "do you read me thread" produced a couple of interesting results.

My friending policy, see, goes like this. I friend people for a variety of reasons. RL friends and acquaintances. People I know from other parts of fandom (IRC and mailing lists). People I've seen on friend's comments, or in LJ communities, or from journals like daily_snitch - if I find myself looking for a reference to a post by someone, or always clicking on links to their journal, and especially if I'm always commenting, I will friend them. Finally, if someone friends me, I'll probably friend them back, unless it's a quiz/meme only journal.

I rarely defriend - partially, I think it's that loaded term. Partially it's that I like having lots to read.

If I am not friended back -shrug. Just because I want to read somone doesn't mean they want to read me. And I have friended people with HUGE friendsof lists - I expect them to be picky. If I am defriended, it might bother me for a moment, but it's their friendspage, and I get over it. I may or may not defriend them - it's not automatic. If I friended them because they were interesting and I still find them so, nothing has changed.

The point of friending, to me, is to read good stuff. If this includes actual friends, or creates actual friends, that's a major, major bonus. I really think a change in terminology would be a good thing.

So, I was amazed, and yes, delighted, when I found that some folks I didn't suspect (not because of lack of comments but because of size of flists) read me did. Thank you.

I was looking at the ithurtsmybrain list, and realized I just don't watch enough tv/anime/movies. I can't write 90% of the stories. But they'll be fun to read.

(Um. It's August, so it's a ways away. Would it be totally hypocritical if I said that, despite earlier protests, I'm thinking about doing the Yuletide thing? I still *hate* the name, mind you, but it always looks like such fun.)

Comments

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i don't think it's hypocritical, no. :-) i mean. the end of december is a number of things, one of which happens to be christmastime -- there's no denying that, whether one celebrates christmas or not. right?

(keep in mind that, although it's ages away, if you want to do That Exchange this winter, you'll have to have done a New Year's Resolution before that -- as i assume you didn't do Yuletide this past year or the year before.)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, well.

So much for that.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

no, but you can do it any time! they're all there waiting to be done! i just mean, something to make sure to have done before like november rolls around.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh...

Link, then? So I have the choice?

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

all the fun is at http://www.yuletidetreasure.org (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/). winter festival-ness huzzah!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's like a smorgesbord...

Wow.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Oops. Missed the "do you read me" thread (we were out yesterday at Tar-jay and BJ's, and it was HOT and I went floomp in the A/C and that's still no excuse :-) Yes, I read you, 5x5 :-)

As to the sewing, if the button is going to be under a belt, I can understand it. Even if not, as long as the color goes, it can be gotten away with, though the identical color is, of course, best.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

This is true, and it's not terribly noticieable anyway.

I know you read me. Just as I read you.

Will you be able to come to the housefilk?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Will you be able to come to the housefilk?

When is it, again? I have no brain (although I keep an eye on Craigslist for one at a good price :-) and have misplaced the time. (If it's on a weekend, it's unlikely, with a work schedule of Friday and Saturday, 9p-9a, and Sunday, 7p-7a. As much as I want to, I can't do much on the weekend. :-(

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Aug 21.

So...I'm guessing not. It was the best time. I'm sorry.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I don't see any hypocrisy in you opting to do the yuletide thing. You dislike the name, and you've made your objections clear, but I don't see any disjunction between that and participating. It's a fun story exchange in the depths of winter, and you can enjoy that while still taking issue with the name of it. IMO, anyway. :-)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

That's the thing. It looks like so much fun.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

It is! And the number of people participating who don't actually, you know, celebrate Yuletide (like me) is huge, so you'll be in good not-hypocritical company.

(hmm...how did the Santa hat get onto this icon? *g*)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's cute, though.

[vass]

I missed your do-you-read-me thread, but you know I do.

I'm a bit frustrated with the threesomes on the ithurtsmybrain list. I can see why, with 750 items already, but it does mean the author has to know three fandoms, not two, which multiplies the chances of a potential writer not knowing it.

I think it'd be sensible of you to do the Yuletide thing if you want to - in the spirit of not letting people's shortsightedness get in the way of your having a good time.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm trying to not let my own problems get in the way of a good time.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I hate the do-you-read me thing.

I feel bad for not responding to the eleventy-million people I read who posted it, but if they don't know by now that I don't answer those things, eh. Their problem.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I kinda realized twenty posts in that it was a mistake, but by then...well.

It was 4PM at work, and our website was down...

[deviantauthor.livejournal.com]

Okay, now that thread thing is just too cute! *g*

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I friended them because they were interesting and I still find them so, nothing has changed

I do that a lot as well. Which is also why I unfriend people whom I'm not really friend with a bit easily as well when my interest in something has run out.

Would it be totally hypocritical if I said that, despite earlier protests, I'm thinking about doing the Yuletide thing? I still *hate* the name, mind you, but it always looks like such fun.)

At least they didn't call it christmas something *grumpy*

I can dislike Yuletide though, there's so many good fics written for very small fandoms I've only been able to find there. Like Swordpoints, or Coldfire trilogy fics.

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I read you, but I don't think I saw that post!!!

(I have had to cut back on my LJ time. Gah. Work issues. Will post about it soon.)

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

I pretty much only defriend someone if they actively hurt me in some way. However, as you know, it takes a lot to get me to that point.

[kid-lit-fan.livejournal.com]

You probably knew I read you, I comment. (Not usually on the slash I read, because one more "That was sooooo good!" seems silly.)

I am technically Catholic, and I love a good Victorian-style Christmas, but I consider the story of the risen Christ another pretty myth, like Persephone or Harry Potter.

A mid-winter story exchange sounds as pagan as all get-out. The stupid people who give Christianity a bad name forget it, but Christmas is just a way of saying "Yay, we made it past the longest night of the year, there's only gonna be more sun!"

I've always liked the speech Dickens gave to Scrooge's nephew Fred:
"I have always thought of Christmas, when it has come round, as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable pleasant time, the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Christianity. Paganism. Still not kosher. :)

Judaism's minor midwinter festival isn't related to midwinter as such - we'd be lighting those candles in June if that were the original date - and there's no record of one existing to be supplanted (and we have good records.) The only other thing we have that time of year is a minor fast - and couple of years ago, it happened to fall on the 25th!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'm writing the Blanche/Voldemort "The kindness of Dark Lords" for ithurtsmybrain

If you weant to do the fic exchange, don't let the name get you down.