~Soak Up The Sun~

Suddenly... The Manga MAKE SENSE!!! 0_0!!!

2008-03-27T05:22:11Z

So supacat posted this very awesome essay on her experiences with flirting and sex in Japan.

Every manga I've ever read makes So. Much. More. Sense. Now. OMG. The showers!! The TUNA!! XDDD

Read it. It will open your eyes to all the things that never seemed kinky in manga before, and had you wondering what the hell the uke's problem was.

http://supacat.livejournal.com/111072.html

ETA: The entry in question has now been f-locked, but because I am sneaky and have Google-fu...

supacat's Sex and Flirting in Japan

"homasse asked about the differences in flirting styles in the different countries I've been in, and Meg asked the same question only about sex (-_-);;; um, I don't travel the world treating it like a smorgasbord of guys, sampling various ones from each country (tragically). But I can talk about Japan, and it's pretty different. So..."

Flirting in Japan

Flirting seems like a misnomer. It's more like an absense of flirting. If you like someone in Japan, there are a couple of different ways of showing it and/or approaching them, none of which really resemble flirting in the west.

1. Nanpa (the "pickup")

First off, only guys do nanpa; in the rare case that girls do it, it's called gyaku-nan ("reverse nanpa"), but I never heard of gyaku-nan actually happening, it always seemed like it was more of an amusing theoretical idea, rather than something girls really did.

Nanpa only refers to the case when you don't know the other person at all, and you want to pick them up. Nanpa is direct. "You're cute. What's your name? Do you have time? Let's go somewhere." That is the classic script of nanpa. It can be shortened to just: "Kawaii yo. Jikan aru?" If you hear that, you're being nanpa-ed. Of course, if you are a non-Asian foreigner, you will probably never hear that, because Japanese guys are too shy to try and nanpa a white or black woman. Most Japanese guys are too shy to nanpa at all. If you ask a Japanese if he has ever done nanpa, he'll probably say, "ZOMG! No way! I'm too embarrassed!" since nanpa is direct, and mostly, if you are Japanese and you like someone, you embark on a series of subtle, indirect stealth manoeuvres, because liking prohibits action, especially for women, but also for men.

Why is this the case? Japanese social interaction is all about intuiting the other person's wishes without discussing them openly, at the same time that they are intuiting your wishes without discussing them openly, so that although nothing is ever verbalised, the two of you will always exist in a compromise position of equilibrium. If you like someone, that intuitive part goes into overdrive, because you should be able to understand everything about that person without them ever telling you, and you should be able to please them without ever asking how, even more than you would with a normal person. So it's more important than ever to be indirect. Which leads me to:

2. Negotiating through a third party

Again, it's not really flirting, but since flirting is showing your feelings openly--that is, pushing your feelings onto another person, which is direct and rude--it's better to show no sign to the other person and meanwhile exploit the back channels. Sort of like in high school. So that convoluted human chain whereby: you like Hiro and you tell Junko that you think Hiro has a nice smile knowing that Junko will intuit that you want to know if Hiro likes you back, since Junko is friends with Goro who is friends with Hiro and Junko will talk to Goro and Goro will bring it up with Hiro etc etc etc etc etc etc. Once everything is confirmed, Hiro will ask you out. (The girl ask the guy out? Ahahahaha. Be serious.)

If you don't have a third party to negotiate for you, you may be forced to use other methods, all of them so subtle that a westerner may not even notice them at all.

3. Subtle signals

- Shyness. Pronounced shyness is form of flirting, since it's a sign of liking, especially from girls, but also from guys. She interacts with everyone else more than him, she doesn't sit next to him, she doesn't talk much to him, she doesn't initiate anything with him.
- Attentiveness. You make life easier for the other person without being asked to. For example, when you got to a restaurant in Japan it's normal to share food, so flirting means not ordering what you like, but ordering what s/he likes, which you already know without asking, because you're observant. Stuff like that.
- Eye contact. It's the opposite to the west, where you gaze deeply into someone's eyes if you like them. Direct eye contact is a bit rude in Japan at the best of times. If you're flirting you look down and away a lot.
- Indirect compliments. I can't think of a good example. It's pretty rare to give direct compliments and even more rare to compliment someone's looks. (It's especially rare for guys to compliment girls directly.) I wish I could think of a good example! I'll come back to this one.

Sex in Japan

It's really different. It's just so completely different. The first time I had sex with a Japanese guy was easily the most bamboozling experience of my entire life.

Before I launch into anything, I should say that while I lived in Japan for five years, I have had sex with only a select few people, and that was within long term relationships, so it's not as if I have personally taken a wide sample. But I had a network of Japanese friends (mostly female) and every time I encountered a cultural difference I immediately pumped them all for information, asking my millions of questions. I make generalized statements only when something that I personally experienced was confirmed as The Norm.

The biggest difference is that sex in Japan is not a mutual sharing experience with both partners spontaneously doing whatever they feel like or enjoy whenever they feel like doing it. Sex has rules and sex has roles just as every social interaction in Japan has rules and roles. There is an active partner and a passive partner. Active means moving; passive means unmoving. In heterosexual sex, the active partner is always male, and the passive partner is always female. In gay sex you work out your roles beforehand: the seme is active, the uke is passive (for gay guys); the tachi is active, the neko is passive (for gay women). If you are familiar with seme/uke conventions from yaoi manga, you can use them as a way of relating to what I'm talking about, because those conventions are not a fictional construct, randomly decided upon by a group of yaoi mangaka. Straight people have sex like that too, in reality.

So there is an active partner and a passive partner, which causes various flow on effects. You can't have "Whoo-hoo! Go for it!" sex because both partners are constrained by their roles. The passive partner (obviously) because she can't move, and the active partner because he has to take care of the passive partner, instructing her on what to do and exerting himself so that she has a good time.

Japanese guys are generally more stressed out by sex than western guys and that is because they are responsible for the sex; as the active male, the sex is their burden, they have to do everything, it's all up to them. Sex equates not only (sometimes not even primarily) with 'fun' or 'pleasure', it also equates with 'work' and 'obligation'.

I also can't emphasise enough just how passive the passive partner is. The way a woman kisses is by submissively opening her mouth, not moving her tongue unless she is cued to do so; if she's really feminine she won't open her mouth at all, until she's told to. Sometimes women will move around a (very) little during sex, but mostly not at all. The slang term for a woman who lies completely still in bed is maguro (tuna). For me, with my western sensibilities and preconceptions, calling someone a 'tuna' in bed sounds like an insult, conjuring up images of cold dead fish, but in Japan that word has a very positive connotation. Tuna's an expensive delicacy.

Part of what was so bamboozling the first time I had sex in Japan was that I didn't know there was a Way of Sex, with strict gendered roles, and I just was happily doing my own thing, throwing my partner into total confusion. Seiji told me much later that dating me made him feel like he was gay, because I was active in bed, and he couldn't connect that with anything except masculinity.

When it came to the guys I dated, even though it was completely outside their experience, they sort of (kind of) eventually adjusted their thinking and accepted the fact that I was active (because I was Foreign and Foreign Women Are Different) but the thing I could never completely change was the fixed idea they had that someone must be passive. Yes, I could be active in bed, but they had no template for how to react to that other than the female/passive/uke template. So at best we could alternate "active periods", and though the lines between active and passive blurred a little over time, they never blurred completely. And total shutdowns still happened: thirty seconds tick past and my partner hasn't moved at all . . . oh, okay, I get what's happened.

If I'm making cross-cultural sex sound like a bit of a nightmare: yeah, it was. In this case, once I worked out what was going on, I thought all my problems could be solved by a simple conversation or two, explaining the more free-form nature of western sex, and encouraging my partner along the lines of, "You don't have to act a certain way, you can act however you like! You can relax! Enjoy yourself! Doesn't that sound great?" but that was also a failure to understand the Japanese psyche. It's not liberating for a Japanese person to be told there are no rules, it's frightening. I was inadvertently terrorizing my partner by dropping them into the middle of a scary foreign wilderness and telling them to make do without a map.

Sex and hygiene

Sex in the west can be spontaneous, but sex in Japan isn't, or at least, not in the same way. In Japan, you can't get in the front door and immediately start stripping each other's clothes off in the hallway. Well, you can, and your Japanese partner will probably acquiesce because they are Japanese, but deep down they will be hideously uncomfortable and thinking, "Sex? But I'm not mentally prepared! I haven't done my kokoro no junbi! And she hasn't had a shower! And I haven't had a shower! This is kind of gross!"

Shower is important. You should shower directly before and after you have sex. Before is more important than after. This makes me sound like I only ever dated people with OCD, but it's the norm. The way I first found out about this was in conversation with my friend Natsue.

Me: I was at Seiji's place hanging out and he randomly told me that I could use his shower if I felt like it. Don't you think that's weird?
Natsue: *cracks up laughing* Cat, that means he wants to have sex with you! If a guy mentions having a shower, he is saying that he wants to have sex.
Me: But isn't it kind of rude to imply I needed to shower first? Like, it was a date, obviously I had showered before going over to his apartment!
Natsue: Well, I suppose so. . . *sounding unconvinced* . . . but didn't you say he lives in Yokohama?
Me: What does Yokohama have to do with it?
Natsue: Well, you went on the train to get there . . . it's better to have another shower. If a guy had sex with me without showering first, it would make me really uncomfortable.

Sensing yet another cross-cultural disaster in the making, I began the investigation, hitting up all the usual suspects for information, including my friend Tomoko, who was dating a western guy called Andy.

Me: Sorry to bring this up suddenly, but does it weird you out that Andy sometimes initiates sex without showering first?
Tomoko: YES! I'm so glad I finally have someone to talk to about this! Cat, are all westerners like this? It's so dirty and I can't relax! It makes me feel like we are just animals!

After I heard basically the same story from all my Japanese girlfriends, I went back to Seiji.

Me: First of all, westerners don't always shower or have a bath before sex. However, I will try to accommodate you on this because the idea of sex without showering seemed to horrify everyone I talked to right down to their very bones. Secondly, when you suggested that I shower the other day, and I said no, I was not rejecting you. I didn't understand that it was your Japanese signal that you wanted to have sex. If I had understood that, I would definitely have said yes.
Seiji: *spits tea all over the table*
Me: …this is one of those deeply unspoken Japanese things that I'm not supposed to talk about directly, isn't it.
Seiji: Yes.

Another thing that is considered rather icky and unhygienic is ejaculate. Guys are really embarrassed by it. They will be desperately scrabbling for a tissue almost before you realise they've come at all, since it is really bad form to get ejaculate anywhere, without cleaning it up immediately afterwards (and immediately means immediately). This is yet one more thing that men are responsible for as the 'active' partner. The more of a nice, polite guy they are, the more stressed out they will be about it. It's also yet one more way that the sex is prescribed and controlled; the guy can never really let go, because even at the moment of climax, he's already worrying about cleaning up, or trying not to make a mess in the first place.

. . . okay, wow, I have been writing and thinking about this entry for more than an hour, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, so I'm just going to stop here. Flirting in other countries I've been to should be easier to write about, I might come back to that in a separate post. Meanwhile, if there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask.

Many thanks to blakeley for being smart enough to copypasta instead of linking! *blows kisses*

Also, I realize that supacat has her reasons for wanting this post f-locked, and I understand those reasons. But as a person who is an anime fan and an anime fic writer, as well as someone with an interest in Japanese culture as it really is, I think her essay is a truly valuable resource and that the information contained in it is important in that context.

Not the Post You Were Expecting

2008-03-16T05:08:45Z

So I don't really give a fuck about the No More Basic Accounts thing, since my primary accounts have been paid for a while now, and anyway they were all created before the deadline so it doesn't matter for them. I was planning to post about the awesome time I had hanging out with mayatawi and how much I'm enjoying Season 3 of House. Unfortunately, I can't do that. I was going to ignore your idiocy, SUP. I could ignore the Basic Accounts fiasco.

But this? THIS pisses me off.

http://stewardess.livejournal.com/287615.html

SUP is now systematically erasing the evidence of our existence. (Though, LOLZ over the one word they forgot. XDDD ) THIS pisses me off. Fuck you too, SUP. Fuck you too.

(((I'm leaving this post public, because I feel it should be. But keep that in mind when commenting. And, as stewardess requests in the linked post - DO NOT MENTION "THE WORD". The less we can do to help SUP in their evil quest for LJ domination, the better.)))

The Ethics of RPS in Real-Time

2008-02-14T05:47:41Z

Okay, I don't do meta very often, but this is something that ... hmm. Hit me, I guess, tonight, as I was watching the previews for tomorrow night's episode of Bravo TV's "Make Me a Supermodel".

For those of you who may be unaware, "Make Me a Supermodel" is a reality TV show where a group of hopefuls compete week-to-week to become ... well, supermodels. Normally, this would be extremely uninteresting to me. BUT. This show has something special. Namely, it has Ben and Ronnie. And this is where my mixed feelings begin.

Ronnie is a 24 year-old student from Chicago. Ben is a 22 year-old prison guard from Nashville. Ronnie is gay. Ben is married (he and his wife have been together since they were 16). Ronnie has a massive crush - which appears to be getting more and more serious - on Ben. Ben is aware of this crush, and so far as been quite okay with it; to the point that he even flirts back. The two share a room, help each other out (walking tips, etc.), and are all-around good friends.

Needless to say, they are the newest RPS craze on the block.

As I said in an earlier post, and will repeat here, compartmentalization is a very important factor in the ability to enjoy, or even deal with, RPS. In a nutshell, it’s the ability to keep two distinct ideas of the same person in your head at the same time. fairestcat wrote a great bit of meta on this (see here ), which I think does a good job of explaining this – at the very least, it’s much better than I can do. Previously, I haven’t really had a problem with compartmentalization. This is probably because my primary RPS experience has been with The Daily Show fandom’s Jon/Stephen slash contingent. The ease here comes from the fact that there really are two distinct characterizations – Stephen Colbert the person and Stephen Colbert the character are definitely different people, and it’s the character we work with much of the time. With Make Me a Supermodel, though, it’s a whole other kettle of fish. A kettle I want to deal with in this post.

The major ethical issue that comes up with the Ben/Ronnie (or “Bronnie”) pairing is the existence of Ben’s real-life wife, April. From all accounts, she’s a very sweet, kind person, and she and Ben are very much in love. Obviously, this presents a conundrum for Bronnie shippers. Now, as I’ve said, compartmentalization plays a big role in this. It’s fairly easy for the fic writer, for example, to simply ignore April’s existence. It’s a conscious creation of an AU to facilitate the fantasy. It’s possible to work around the real lives of the real people we’re writing about, because we’re not writing about them, we’re writing about the representation of them; the character we see each week on TV, not the actual person behind that public front.

So normally, this wouldn’t present any sort of ethical dilemma for me. But MMSM is a fandom that is very, very present, and very, very participatory. By present, I mean that the show is taking place in real-time. Right now, as I am writing this, the models on the show are in New York City, competing (well, as it’s after midnight, it’s likely they’re sleeping, but you know what I mean). It’s going on now. There is no time lag, we’re not watching events that took place six months ago and are only now being aired. These events take place, at most, six days before we see them. When I say “participatory”, I’m talking about the relation of the fans to the show, and to the “characters” themselves.

It’s quite fascinating to me, from a purely amateur anthropological standpoint, to look at this fandom. The models keep up weekly blogs on the Bravo TV site (it’s unknown whether they have internet access outside of that), but outside the confines of the show, these are real people. Fans have been finding – and friending – them on Facebook and MySpace. Further, they’ve gone so far as to find and friend April, Ben’s wife. And this is where my uneasiness begins. It is pretty much assumed that she is keeping up with the show; she, like the rest of us, will be watching with bated breath to find out if Ben is in the bottom three each week or not. The question this brings up for me, though, is whether she knows about the RPS activity, and what she thinks about it. I honestly don’t know if I can imagine what it would be like to be in her place. How would I feel, if I were looking up the fan communities about the show to see what people are talking about, and stumbled upon a 2,000 word story about my husband having a homosexual affair? The fact that I don’t have a husband and happen to think that m/m sex is pretty hot probably means that I’m not qualified to answer the question. I really can’t imagine what that would be like. But here’s the thing – I can’t imagine that she doesn’t know about it.

The thing about all this fan participation is that it means the fandom isn’t quiet. While the people who would consider themselves part of a Bronnie “fandom” are only a small percentage of the viewers of the show, there are an awful lot of people who are fans of the relationship as it’s being portrayed on the show, and they’re very up-front about their opinions. A quick look through the comments on Ben or Ronnie’s blog will turn up several dozen mentions of the other’s name. bravosupermodel is the primary fan community here on LJ, and has thus far been very welcoming toward the Bronnie stuff – fics, icons, discussion. Aside from a few Perry/Casey pieces, all of the fic posted to the community has been of the Ben/Ronnie variety, and anyone looking through the site couldn’t fail to notice that it’s being discussed all over the place. So my issue is, where is the line? We’re writing the boys’ “character” selves, but a person who’s personally invested – a wife, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a parent, sibling or other family member, even a friend of a contestant - doesn’t know that. I guess my thought is that what April sees, if she’s seeing all of this, is a vast contingent of people who want her husband to cheat on her with another man.

Now, I don’t know any of these people in real life. I have no idea what April’s opinions are, I have no idea whether Ben is 100% straight or whether he reciprocates any of Ronnie’s feelings. All I know is what I see, and what they tell us. But I can’t help but wonder if, in this case, the fandom has some moral obligation to … keep it down? I mean, I love the pairing - I think they’re adorable, and I will continue to read the fic and squee over the icons and have moments of utter fangirlish glee when they act all cute together on the show. But the interactivity of it, the level of closeness to the “characters” we’re writing about… I’ll admit, I’m not sure that I’m totally comfortable with it. I would really feel better, I think, if I had much less connection to these people.

Bravo is very into this interaction thing, which is great, and I think it’s really done a lot to increase interest in their programming. It’s a good business decision. But it also breaks down that compartmentalization that’s so important to RPS fandoms. The closer we get to the “characters”, the harder it is to keep “character” Ben and the real Ben separate and distinct. It eventually gets to the point where “harmless fantasy” becomes “creepy tinhat perving”, and that’s worrisome to me. I feel like a line needs to be drawn somewhere to keep that from happening, but I’m at a loss as to where or how to draw it.

So there it is. I feel like I've drawn no conclusions at all, only asked questions, but I feel better for having asked them. RPS has always raised ethical issues, I suppose, but MMSM fandom feels so... unique, to me, just because of the way it's set up and the level of real-time interaction between the models and the fen. Well. At the very least, it gives me interesting things to think about, even if I never resolve the issues. ^^

(NOTE: I'm leaving this post public, so feel free to link it to anyone you think may be interested.)

Sales Post: Pinky:ST Parts

2007-09-27T23:56:16Z

The following is a photograph of all the Pinky:ST parts I have for sale. When stuff gets sold, I'll probably just scribble over it in photoshop and repost the picture.

Pricing is as follows:

Heads: $4
Hair (front & back): $2 (if you're interested in only half of a set of hair parts, lemme know and we'll work it out)
Shirt pieces: $2
Leg pieces: $2 these can include a skirt if required for the piece - skirts are mix & match for the most part, so choose the one you want
Accesories: 50 cents ea.
Hat: $1

EXCEPTIONS:
The cheerleader outfit is priced at $4, and includes the top, skirt, and two pom-poms. Legs are not included, but if you like the ones I've got her on, I'll throw them in for another dollar ($5 total).

The school outfit -- (row 4, far right) -- is $5, and includes everything in the picture (top, bottom and bookbag).

Sales Post: Doujinshi

2007-09-27T01:37:00Z

~* Doujinshi for Sale! *~
All doujinshi are yaoi/slash. Approximate ratings are given for each, but these are my own opinion. Buy at your own risk! Pairings given do not necessarily reflect seme/uke roles

Death Note
All Light x L pairing.

Say My Name (Komeya & MicroMacro) - 68pgs, NC-17 -- $25

*???* (DELIC) - 20pgs, PG -- $10

Sentence (NAGISAKU) - 28pgs, NC-17 -- $15

Honesty (ATTIC) - 40pgs, FRAO -- $20

Automatic Break (Ayame Hijiri) - 36pgs, PG-15 -- $20

*???* (Balgus R.E.C.) - 48pgs, FRAO -- $20

Prince of Tennis
All Tezuka x Fuji pairing.

Slide vol. 2 (Jekyll/Akira Hodo) - 40pgs, PG-15/R -- $20

Berry Cube (W-Grip) - 38pgs, 15pgs of comic; NC-17 -- $10

Kimi wa Petto (VanillaBlue) - 76pgs, R -- $25

Yu-Gi-Oh!
See individual pairings

*???* (First Aid *?*) - 36pgs, FRAO, Seto/Yugi -- $15

Ririkaru (77x1) - 38pgs, NC-17, Yugi/YamiYugi & Seto/YamiYugi -- $15

*???* (M/KCULB) - 32pgs, FRAO, Seto/YamiYugi -- $10

Deep Deep (Ryo Izumi/Carmine) - 44pgs, NC-17, Jounouchi/YamiYugi -- $15

Fullmetal Alchemist
All are Roy/Ed pairing

Calling (BloodType-B) - 40pgs, 28pgs of comic; R -- $15

*???* (Takeru Misaki) - 32pgs, NC-17 -- $15

Saiyuki

Konjiki Yasha 2 *?* (Tukigami *?*) - 70pgs, R, Sanzo/Goku-ish, but dark. -- $20

Final Fantasy VII

Anatomy Physiology (Kiserado *?*) - 100pgs, NC-17, Sephiroth/Cloud -- $25

Sales Post: BJD Stuff: Clothes

2007-09-26T21:49:49Z

SD Size Items

Pink fleece pullover - $7
The sleeves on this are a tad short for an SD, but if you push them up a little bit, they look just fine. Very soft and fuzzy!

Black Sweater from WickedStitchery - $10
I have two of these available!

Fuzzy Blue Sweater from WickedStitchery - SOLD

Green Chinese-style top w/ Purple Trim from WickedStitchery - SOLD

Purple Board Shorts from WickedStitchery - $6
These look kind of blue in the picture (I don't know why), but don't believe it. They are most definitely purple.

MSD Size Items

Coming Soon

Sales Post: BJD Stuff: Shoes

2007-09-26T21:46:17Z

SD Items

Luts "DBS-12 Trigonal Boots for Boy (Br)" - SOLD

MSD Items

Ajumapama "MS-007 Black Leather Tie Shoes" - $25

Sales Post: BJD Stuff: Eyes

2007-09-26T21:43:33Z

14mm

SOOM N07 "Nighthag" eyes - $22

16mm

Luts "G-Green" German Glass eyes - $25

Souldoll Cobalt Blue Acrylic eyes - $18
I can't manage to locate these on the Souldoll site, but they came default with my Lune. There is a small spot on one of them - it's not very noticeable, but it's there. I'm not precisely sure what it is, but I do know that it's not a scratch, nor gouged into the eye itself in any way.

Closeup of the Damage

Bright blue acrylic eyes - $10
I have no idea who made these or where I got them. But they're pretty, and they're yours for ten bucks.

18mm

Luts "G-Black" German Glass eyes - ~~$25~~
SOLD

Sales Post: BJD Stuff: Wigs

2007-09-26T21:41:41Z

SD Items

KStarr style #13.036, color #M 144/1001b - SOLD

LeekeWorld L-001 in Natural Black (2B) - SOLD

LeekeWorld L-058 in Brown/Caramel (12/144) - SOLD

SOOM Kanoa Default Wig - SOLD

KStarr Style #13.017-R1 Wigs, colors #TT 66/1001a and #TT 66/1 - $20 each
I also got these in the KStarr order, but the dolls that they were intended for aren't going to appear for a long time, so they are being sacrificed. These were meant to shade from silver to white and black, respectively. However, I think KStarr made a mistake on one of them - the one that shades to white seems less "silvery" than the other. The color shade is very similar, but the white wig is much more matte when compared to the black one. Both of these are brand new, sealed as they were sent from KStarr. They haven't even been tried on.

"Peppermint Twist" fur wig from WickedWigs - SOLD

"Fall Foliage" fur wig from WickedWigs - SOLD

MSD Items

Brown wig (unknown maker) - $7
This wig is a little thin in the front, so the headcap can show through. A little creative brushing will hide it, though. ^^

Blue fur wig from WickedWigs - $5

Strikethrough '07

2007-05-30T18:29:25Z

So, apparently that other post really wasn't a hoax at all. It was a bit misinformed about some things (like the causes of the Strikethrough), but I'm glad I locked down the ~~one~~ offensive posts in my fic journal. Eesh.

Anyway, the Fandom Legions have mobilized in response to the mass deletions. There are a bunch of resources and people posting about this, but here's some good links: (NOTE: I'm kinda continuously updating this)

IMPORTANT: Be careful if you go to the "Warriors for Innocence" site. Apparently it's hitting everyone with a shit-ton of adware and spyware. There's a post here:
http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/
along with a bunch of other good stuff. Join the Jihad Against "Innocence"!

http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_counts/profile
Stand Up and Be Counted! This is a non-posting community which was created solely to count the number of fannish journals on LJ. So go join, and add your journals to the count! (the whole point is to show exactly how much of LJ's population is, well, us)

READ THIS POST. bookshop speaks great wisdom:
http://bookshop.livejournal.com/823879.html

http://del.icio.us/imaginarycircus/lj?setcount=100
this person has been bookmarking all the LJ posts and such about this whole thing, as well as backup tools, etc. No repeat links.

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/
Fandom Wank. You had to know they'd be talking about it.

http://fandomtossed.greatestjournal.com/
this was set up on greatestjournal to discuss the issues going on here on LJ. Go get your icons, people! (And of course, discuss)

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/
liz_marcs has become something of a General to the massed Armies of Fandom.

http://catrinella.livejournal.com/151812.html
a pretty complete list of all the banned/"permanently suspended" LJ accounts and communities, with additional debunked rumors and things.

http://roaring.livejournal.com/70304.html
a log of the Strikethrough, good links

http://femmequixotic.livejournal.com/292480.html
what happened to pornish_pixies

So yeah. I'm not going to attempt to explain the situation, since they all do a much better job of it than I ever could.

This will be my last public post for a while. I'll probably make some lovely little "friends only" banner and put a header post up later. Anyway, I'm retroactively friends-locking my journal. The fic journal will remain open, but I'm not risking this one.

Friends are always welcome!!! Go ahead and friend me if you want to, I have no objections to anyone doing so. There really isn't anything hugely impressive on this journal anyway, but it's sort of been the diary of "crap that was important to me", and I don't want to risk it being deleted for any reason. So, I'm taking it non-public. I hope everyone can understand my decision. As I've said, you don't really need to ask permission to friend me. Go for it. But you may want to comment so I notice, and can add you back. ^_^

~*Soak Up The Sun*~