Today's post brought to you by the need to throw SOMETHING on this journal no matter how silly...

[red_satin_doll]

And also, to remind everyone to vote in the otherworldlyric icon challenge contest #162.
ETA: dragonydreams just let me know that voting is closed and winners have been announced. Congratulations to winners spikesredqueen and chic_c !
(While I'm here I might as well send more kudos to wickedbish for being such an awesome icon beta.)



Now go get some sleep - tomorrow's a long day, sweetie.

Comments

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

They probably were 19th century - it is a couple of decades ago. Durn I must be mature. Lol.

oh I don't care if I win in this challenge I just want to share

I know such noble intentions. But of course we are only human so can't help but seek a little more.

Yes I did post the icons to my journal here: http://comlodge.livejournal.com/145910.html

Well I did guffaw when the chimpanzee fooled the experts all those years ago. But perhaps the lesson there is that all primates enjoy a sense of balance and color?

We most of us if not all, can only learn by seeing. I frequently see someone else's piece and think wow how'd they do that. I must have a go. I have though stopped berating myself for not making stuff that looks like others. I realise I have my own voice and I need to listen to it. That's the thing. We might be retouching others photos, but what comes out is something of our own. There are little bits of me in what I produce. Little bits of what I've experienced in life, what I've felt and tasted and suffered and loved. That's teh best part of growing older - so much to put into what we do.

Post your stuff, tell yourself why you did it and how. Someone else is waiting to read that story with you.

[kikimay]

There are symbolic mother figures (Buffy, Tara) but every mother figure in the verse that I know of except Buffy and Drusilla are dead by the end of btvs or ats.

Interesting. So do you at Drusilla as mother figure? I've never seen her like that. (To me she's a daughter figure and a very disturbing one.)

Buffy is a mother figure herself, true, and Joyce dies (and she doesn't seem really connected in the first seasons, when she doesn't know about the slayer-thingy) But I really think it's more about age than gender - in this case, because in general movies it's also about gender - because all the father figures in BtVS pretty much ... suck. Xander's father is terrible, Hank's absent and Willow's dad doesn't seem to exist. Plus we get Angelus and the Master who are, at least to me, the creepiest father figures EVER. Even Giles makes some serious mistakes and he's the father figure for Buffy but not much for Xander or Dawn. I really think it's a general bad view of parental figures. (But I TOTALLY agree with the issue about race. Seriously: Kendra, Jenny, Nikki ... all the people who aren't white are also disposable)

Gingerbread makes me think also about politics. Not only the persecution against homosexual which - in my country - is still a huge problem, but also the politics against immigrants and other parts of the country and different people in general. If you happen to read or see something about the latest developments in Italian politics you could see ... a disturbing analogy?
So, yes, it feels so real.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Yes I did post the icons to my journal here: http://comlodge.livejournal.com/145910.html

And I was the first person in the thread to congratulate you! This no longer surprises me. That's the upside of ADD - everything old is new again. (My age - and the volume of information thrown at us on the internet, and that we're expected to know - make things worse but I've always been forgetful. My mom called me "absent-minded professor" when I was five years old!)

But perhaps the lesson there is that all primates enjoy a sense of balance and color?

I remember seeing a video years ago about Ruby, an elephant at the Phoenix zoo who liked to paint - and did some marvelous abstract paintings. As in genuinely good work - color and composition and everything. We had to get the need to create art from somewhere within ourselves, something genetic; and I don't pretend that humans have the patent on everything y'know?

I have though stopped berating myself for not making stuff that looks like others. I realise I have my own voice and I need to listen to it. That's the thing.

YES! This is very wise, and good for you for getting to that point. I do the same thing all the time with my writing - "Oh someone wrote a fantastic story, I can't match that, etc" It becomes an excuse for not trying. So what if it's "not as good"?

I think the thing I like about icons and images is that I don't feel the same thing? I have an "excuse" - I don't have photoshop so there are things I know I cannot do. That frees me to do what I can. I just did a bunch of Faith,Buffy and Who Are You icons today and I'm really pleased with them because I'm expressing my view of the show through them.

And thank you ever so much for all the encouragement, sweetie!

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

That's the upside of ADD - everything old is new again

Isn't that true. Soon I will have no need to buy new books. I'll be able to read the same one over and over again. :D

So what if it's "not as good"? No. It's good. It's not the same. (Though I do wish I could write like lizzerbeathan. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

No. It's good. It's not the same.

OH VERY TRUE! (intellectually I know that anyway. Maybe I need to post it somewhere. Like a bumper sticker?)

I could write like lizzerbeathan

My if only list includes snowpuppies, kwritten, clockwork_hart, quinara, beer_good_foamy (esp for his wit)....et cetera and so forth.

My friend Kendra Saunders has published several novels and she cites Neil gaiman as an influence. We learn to write by reading so might as well learn from the best, right?

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

We learn to write by reading so might as well learn from the best, right?

Reading crap can be a good lesson too. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Reading crap can be a good lesson too. :D

Touche!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Darth Vader did a phone commercial? *LMAO* I shall have to check this out on youtube (what phone company?)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Clem the cook? THIS MUST HAPPEN!

OMG, I started visualizing Clem in this role and - I don't think he has to wear a hairnet but long sleeves, definitely (or maybe he would wear a hairnet - to keep the ears back?)

And then I started visualizing Bottie peppering him with questions and comments like the ultra-rational super-cheerful five year child that she pretty much is *hugs Bottie tight* and Clem just rolling with it all in his laid-back way and I just DIED laughing. THIS FIC MUST BE WRITTEN.

James Earl Jones commercial

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/75am/sprint-lizzy-and-kims-call

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/inside-james-earl-jones-and-malcolm-mcdowells-dramatic-readings-sprint-154554

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Yes, Bottie's so awesome! I had a heck of a time figuring out the best way to bring her back to life in a way that more or less fit the Bufftyverse. (Although it was even harder with Tara.)

It's a great idea for a fic! He's only popped up a little in my stories so far, and as far as I can remember he and Bottie haven't interacted ... I'll have to keep that in mind. I actually do have a crossover fic half completed in which he has a larger role, but my original fic writing started picking up and I haven't had time to finish it.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

(Although it was even harder with Tara.)

Most fics I've seen that bring her back in some fashion use a variation on the idea Joss supposedly had in mind - that Buffy would be granted a wish in S7, and would choose to bring Tara back for Willow's sake. Which really doesn't make any sense to me: 1) Buffy knows damn well the danger of "wishes" by that point in the series and 2) having been resurrected without "permission aforehand" herself, I have a hard time seeing Buffy doing that without an iron-clad 100% guarantee that that was what Tara wanted.

It's a great idea for a fic!

And now I'm wondering why no one's thought of it before (heck, why didn't I?) Because it seems like the perfect odd couple pairing: hyper-rational, hyper-cheerful& childlike Bottie and laid-back "stoner" or slacker/hippie Clem? COMEDY GOLD, BROTHER. (I always see him as a kind of stoner - not that he smokes or uses recreational drugs but it's just his nature. So says I.)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I agree, that's a great description of Clem ... I wonder if his race is that way in general, or if it's just his own personality? In either case, if I ever get to it I'll have as much fun with Clem as I have with Bottie.

I brought Tara back in the traditional way: As a ghost. I'd never intended to write a second fanfic after "Where Do We Go From Here?", but as time went by and I wrote more stories I had her and Bottie change some, in ways I hope to expand on at some point in the future. I've had a lot of fun keeping most of my fanfics in one continuity.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I wonder if his race is that way in general, or if it's just his own personality?

Good question, and that's entirely up in the air isn't it? He's basically thrown into S6 as a two-plot device 1) as a friend/ confidant for Spike (Tara functions similarly for Buffy in DT & OAFA so it makes sense that the two of them meet in that latter episode); and the whole "shades of grey" thing going on in the later seasons (demons can love, heroes can do awful things, humans can be monstrous, etc.)

I've had a lot of fun keeping most of my fanfics in one continuity.

I like the developments because it's allowed you to have some real fun with the characters. I have a fondness for the idea of continuous verses anyway and some of my favorite fanfic works are "verses". If I like the characters, I want to spend time with them.

the story in your verse where everyone pulls the wool over Riley's eyes and Bottie is JUST SO THRILLED to have finally passed as Buffy? Love that. Especially since it was my intro story to Four Friends so I was just as confused as Riley and had no idea what was going on and you pulled the wool over my eyes as well, and, 2) I'm not fond of Riley in general (I've already written about this).

Re: James Earl Jones commercial

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

OMG, Malcolm McDowell AND James Earl Jones? OFF THE CHARTS!

Re: James Earl Jones commercial

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Isn't it, though?

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I vote all of Clem's people are nice: He's like a big, cheerful, overgrown puppy.

I don't dislike Riley -- but I'm easy to entertain -- but I'm well aware that he's one of the more disliked characters on the show, so I had some fun with that. I can only imagine how confusing it was for you, coming in to the Four Friends stories at that point! And of course, that's one problem with an ongoing continuity.

At the moment I'm working on a series of short stories introducing the main character from a novel that's coming out in October, "The Notorious Ian Grant". Since I'm not selling the stories, I decided to work some crossovers into them, and the Four Friends will appear in one.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I vote all of Clem's people are nice: He's like a big, cheerful, overgrown puppy.

And now I'm really laughing hard at the image of Bottie and her very own (overgrown) shar-pei. Every girl/robot/Slayer needs a puppy! http://www.123rf.com/photo_4643761_three-shar-pei-baby-dogs-almost-one-month-old.html

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Baby Clems!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

OMG! YOU ARE TORTURING ME!

Because now I've got a headpicture of Bottie with a lapful of Clem-puppies and imagine her brain (neural net) thinking several distinct things:

1) reeling off encyclopedic facts about what newborn specimens of this species eat and sleeping habits and the gestation cycle.

2) "He licked my face! (I know he's a he because I carefully examined his undersides first.) That feels good! It makes me giggle!"

3) "Wow, his mouth leaks a lot of fluid! I wonder if I it needs to be fixed - maybe I should take him to Willow. I hope it doesn't short my circuits because he's doing it again."

4) "My programming tells me that infants don't like to be separated from their families. Therefore I think I should keep all of them. I would be a very good caretaker because I have a lot of information in my neural net about newborn demons."

Dare I ask who the parents are? (For about two seconds I had a weird Clem/Bottie brainflash...and best not go THERE.)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should be the one to write this fanfic -- you sure know Buffybot!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Oh god how the heck did I know that you were going to say that? ("But I'm not a fic writer!" she cried. - which actually may lead to me writing a fic. Kind of the opposite of how it works with those "say it and manifest it" positivity folks.)

Actually I'm fascinated by the darker implications of Buffybot's in canon but your 'verse lets me focus on the fun side!

*ponders*

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Well, the fun side is where I go (usually).

I suppose fanfic writing is like any other kind of writing, with the obvious exception that you can't profit from it. I've found it to be just as hard as original fic in its own way, but generally more fun.