Slashy Awards 144: Strephon's a Member of Parliament!

[thefourthvine]

I've been trying del.icio.us for a while, and I've come to the conclusion - well, it's nice to have all my bookmarks resident on the web. And it's nice to be able to put everything up there. But - well, okay. It makes me not want to do actual recommendations sets, and that's kind of why I have this journal, and it's the thing I love most. So that doesn't seem like such a great idea, basically.

And then I got to thinking - maybe there's a different bookmark system, probably not a social one, that's web-resident. Maybe someone out there knows about it! So, hey, if you do - tell me, okay? Actually, there's a few other things I'd like you to recommend to me.



You people were right about the iPod. You were right about the computer chair. I'm hoping you can be right about these things, too. My friends list thinks so that I don't have to!

1. A (probably not social) web-based bookmarking system. Where I can store my bookmarks. And access them anywhere. But that won't give me Recommending Ennui or Need for Shyness (because you can't put spoilers in the description, and you can't really put your honest reaction sometimes, and I'm generally not ready to give an opinion when I bookmark something).
   
   
2. A firewall. One you like, I mean. I hate my current one. I liked my old one, but it conflicted with nearly every piece of software ever coded. I want something that is highly configurable, something that has a lot of flexibility and allows me a lot of control, something that does not declare war on every other program on my system the second I install it. I am willing to pay for this. I mean, I paid for the piece of crap I have now, so.
   
   
3. A spam filter. Here, my requirements are a little less stringent; I just really want a spam filter that filters out spam. Norton, my current filter, has not yet implemented this little piece of functionality - instead, it filters out stuff kind of at random. And it occasionally decides that one of the women I work with is a spammer, even though I've put her on the allowed list maybe eight times, and that's not good. Tell me about a spam filter that actually does its job, if you will; I'm tired of the lazy bitch I have going through my inbox right now. The thing acts like it smoked way too much pot before it came to work, and it's all, "What? Big pupils? No way, man. My eyes are just naturally blackballed." And I'm all, "Yeah. And those 18 emails from Sleepwalk X. Baghdad and Crushing J. Pendleton that you let into my inbox? Are those just natural, too?" And the spam filter's like, "Whoa. Chill, dude." And then I resort to threats. It isn't pretty.
   
   
4. Your favorite fandom newsletters. sga_newsletter has totally spoiled me; I look at newsletterless fandoms and get all whiny: "I don't waaaaaaant to have to find links all by myself! I want them handed to me on a plaaaaaatter!" As a result, my reading is really heavily biased in favor of SGA right now, and not just 'cause I love the fandom (though god knows I do). It's also 'cause it's easy. (Yes, I'll cop to being lazy. This is why I want a spam filter that isn't. And also why I want someone else to do the work of, you know, finding stories for me. I just want to lie back and let the FF roll over me. Maybe you could recommend someone to print it out and hold it up in front of my eyes, too, while you're at it.)
   
   
5. The best fan fiction you've read lately that wasn't SGA, Supernatural, or RPS. I need to broaden my reading horizons. (See also: newsletters, dependence on.) So now is the chance to tell me about that great Doctor Who x Pride and Prejudice story you read last week, or about this fantastic new fandom you're a part of. (One Tree Hill does not count, estrella30. Or, okay, it only counts if you can find someone totally sane to pimp it to me.)
   
   
6. The best non-fiction book you've read lately. I'm big on travel essays, myself, but I'm pretty omnivorous when it comes to reading. Like, once Best Beloved was trying to come up with a book that I wouldn't read no matter how well it was written, and we had the following conversation:
   
   BB: A natural history of water?
   Me: Oooo! I'd definitely read that.
   BB, sighing: How 'bout floods? A history of floods?
   Me: Potentially depressing but very gripping. I would totally read that.
   BB, in slightly desperate tones: A history of flood insurance, then.
   Me: OMG SO FASCINATING.
   BB: You would not read that. You wouldn't. No one in her right mind would.
   Me: I -
   BB: Oh, right. We're talking about you.
   BB: *hand wavy gestures*
   Me, looking offended: I-
   BB, crossing arms and looking menacing and dangerous: Okay. Fine. What about actuarial tables for flood insurance? Big ol' book of nothing but actuarial tables.
   Me, in a very small voice: Actually, actuarial tables are quite interesting.
   BB, staring: Remind me. What do you call your home planet?
   
   My point is, if you think it's good, I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm not picky, here. Non-fiction! You! Me! It's a date!
   
   Hmmm. Got derailed somewhere in there. But my point is: tell me what you're reading, folks.
   
   
7. Something Best Beloved should watch. Bonus points if it's anime!

Anyway. My point is, for those of you who have just read through the cut tag and have thus forgotten what the hell this post is about, even, is: del.icio.us is sapping my will to rec. So I says to myself, says I, "Return to the classics. Crossovers will bring meaning back to your journal!" And then, just to throw in even greater incentive, I lifted my usual stricture on crossovers. I mean, normally I get all on my high horse and say, "There shall be no repeats in any of the crossed over fandoms in a given crossover set." But life is too short, people.

The One That Is a Delightful Blend of Two Tasty Flavors of John. Plus Added Hotness in the Form of Claudia Black, Which Is Just Never a Bad Thing. Flying Low at Night, by cofax7. Farscape x Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Aeryn Sun. Have you ever found yourself standing in a TV on DVD aisle saying, "Sci Fi channel series about guys named John with special Ancient mojo who are stranded in distant universes. I wonder what the difference is?" Well, okay, first: if you have, don't admit it. You will bring shame on all of fandom. Just read this story and you'll be able to tell real, real well. A quick cheat sheet, though: Farscape has the John whose life kind of defines "out of the frying pan, into the fire." (And almost no one writes stories about his hair.) Whereas Stargate has the John whose life kind of defines "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." (And his hair has about the same number of fans as he does.)

So what I love about this story is that it - no, okay. I need to be honest. I love a lot about this story. I mean, I adore that it starts after the crossover - way after, in fact. We don't worry about how John (Hair-John, as I will be calling him for the rest of this summary, so as to avoid confusion) got to the Farscape end of the universe. He's there, and it's pretty consistent with the way his life has gone thus far, so that's fine. We pick up with him after years in Farscape, in fact, and we get to see what it's done to him. (Basically, it's turned him back into the guy in Antarctica. With about four hundred years' worth of added world weariness.) And then we get to see him cope with the other John's (Can I just call him Crichton? I'm getting kind of lost amongst all the Johns, here.) situation. It's just...wow. But what I was going to say (just re-read the beginning of this paragraph; if I go into it again we'll never get out of here) is that most of all I love the ending. It's hopeful and it's - it's just - god. I want a million more stories telling what happens after this, because I think that part of the universe is in for some very interesting times.

The One in Which Charles Gunn Is Confused about Why Everyone in Pegasus Speaks English. Right There with You, Gunn. Outward Bound, by Hth, aka hth_the_first. Stargate: Atlantis x Angel the Series, Charles Gunn/Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Charles Gunn/Ronon Dex. Before, we had a character from SGA sucked into another universe. Now we have a character from another universe sucked into SGA. And this...okay. First, let me just admit that I couldn't face watching any of Angel after season one - frankly, I think it was very brave of me to keep watching after Doyle did his Flying Wallenda - and so I never really got to know Gunn that well. I didn't ever meet Fred, or follow the whole Arc of Incredibly Complex Complexity that characterized Wesley's, um, last few seasons. But I love this story anyway.

Hth makes an excellent point, here - the Angel crew and the SGA crew aren't that different. They're both operating without much of a plan, and sometimes they both fuck up royally. And all the characters in both have kind of grown accustomed to living in greater danger - a higher state of alert, if you will - than most humans even know is possible, from creatures that aren't supposed to exist. So, you know, I wasn't too sure about this concept at first, but then I realized it is perfect. Plus, Gunn and Ronon get it on. Pretty much your ideal universe, right there. Well. If you discount the very high probability of death, and I totally couldn't, but I think Gunn and Ronon have both reached the point where "constant threat of death" equals "situation normal" in their minds.

The One That Explores Humanity's Basic Inability to Follow the Rules. And Isn't That What Makes People Great? The Sound of One Hand Clapping, by Gale, aka iphignia939. Firefly x Stargate: SG-1, gen. (Ha! I bet you totally thought this would be another SGA crossover. But once again, the hand was quicker than the eye!) Um. I am unfamiliar with Firefly, but I think this story is about a Major Spoiler. Yes. And I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing that everyone in all of fandom knows, or if it's more of a new thing. So I'm going to slip this summary behind a cut, just in case, and can someone please tell me if it's necessary or not?

It's also about a Major Spoiler from SG1, but I think everyone knows that one by now. Basically, what we have here is the two Major Spoilers interacting with each other. Oh. Right. I'm allowed to go into detail about the spoilers now. So. A dead guy named Wash walks into a bar. And there's a dead guy named Daniel there. And Daniel proves that "non-interference" is not a term in your average earth human's vocabulary - not the average earth human who gets to ascend, anyway - and then Wash backs him up. (And incidentally probably provides the impetus for yet another defection from Team Glowy Squid. If the Ancients keep beaming up modern humans, it's eventually going to start raining naked amnesiacs, I'm thinking.) And then there is a reunion scene. I found it touching even though I know absolutely nothing about any of the characters reuniting. That is pretty much the definition of a happy ending, no?

The One That Gives a Lot of Depth to a Certain Hair-Bedecked Guy Named John. And, Hey - This Totally Explains That, Too, Come to Think of It. Just As Required, Without Excess, by liviapenn. Stargate: Atlantis x DCU, gen. (Yep, it's the all Stargate crossover set. If you wish this trend not to continue, check under the first cut tag.) Okay. This story made me swoon with joy. When I tried to write up a description in del.icio.us, I ended up with a lot of exclamation points and random squealing. (Of course you can squeal in print. I'm not saying it's pretty, but it can be done.) I'm not sure if it'll be quite the same orgasmic experience if you don't know the DCU, but if you don't recognize the crossover character, Livia provides a helpful link at the end. And I'm pretty sure it will still work. Just - it's worth learning a bit about the DCU just so you can wave your hands about incoherently right along with me, okay?

You know, we all read (and sometimes write) a lot of stories trying to explain John's weirdness. (No, I can't describe it better than that. If I could, I'd write my own damn story, 'kay?) And this one did it so well. I don't really want to spoil it, and I really don't want to add another damn cut tag to this entry, but - look. This story provides a back story for John that I can absolutely and totally buy into. After you read it, I invite you to reflect upon what it says about the character (and the actor and the writers, maybe) that this had me nodding and saying, "Yeah! Oh my god YES! That so totally works! And also, RODNEY IS TIM AND TEYLA IS BATGIRL." (Lately I've discovered that all my fandoms can be translated into the Batverse. Like, Fraser is Tim and Ray K. is Nightwing and Stella is Oracle and Frannie is Steph and Ray Vecchio is Jason Todd. Um. Not that I've put a lot of thought into this or anything. Really. And I haven't even considered writing a paper about how Batman is the only character that doesn't usually have an analog, possibly because he's too fucked up for there to be more than one of him in the multiverse.)

Comments

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I loved Both Alike in Dignity. What's icky about the pairing? Kon! Barbara! There's no bad there. (And there's *really* no bad in a sweet happy Kon story, what with, uh, recent events. Now I just need a hit of Classic Tim and my happiness will be complete.)

And I also loved Off Page Six and Squandered My Resistance (OMG EEEE about sums up my reaction there). And of course I've read c_elisa's Kingdom of Heaven, and it SO GOOD. It was a tossup between two sets tonight, and I went with crossovers, but if I'd done the other Kingdom of Heaven would've been on it.

*happy sigh*

And speaking of all things comics-y, do you happen to know if there's a DCU (or Marvel, for that matter) newsletter? I remember, um, was it Minisoo? Maybe? Except probably it was really someone else? talking about starting one, but I never heard if it got going. Because there are so many great stories in those fandoms. A newsletter would be excellent.

(Of course I knew about your pervy little World's Finest collection. Wonderful idea. Super-anything plus Bat-anything does in fact equal joy.)

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

Kon! Barbara! There's no bad there

See, that's what *I* think, but people kept giving me horrified looks when I said that. (Yes, I know it's the internet. I can just tell they're giving me horrified looks.)

There is no comics newsletter that I know of, which is too bad. There's dcfic_index and marvelfic_index, of course, but--well, DC as a fandom is kinf of... irregular? I mean, from *my* point of view in the fandom, it seems like we get a few days of tons of great fic being posted, and then dry spells. So having a newsletter published every day--well, it might be incredibly depressing, or at least weird. Heh.

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

Also:

And I haven't even considered writing a paper about how Batman is the only character that doesn't usually have an analog, possibly because he's too fucked up for there to be more than one of him in the multiverse.

Angel, man! If only because they are both such assholes, and because their lady friends seem to find refrigerators at about equal rates.