time and relative dimension in space

Massively annoyed at Apple right now. I tried to sync my iPod last night and it kept aborting the sync. Finally managed to finish, turned it on, and discovered that it had not actually finished, it had just decided to erase all of my music, photos, and books and give up. Several attempts to reinstall the deleted media failed. Did a factory reset and tried to reinstall everything from scratch. Managed to get a most of my apps and all my presaved pictures put back on, but still no go on the music or books.

Googling turned up a few people on Apple's forums having the same problem, so I'm guessing it's a software problem of some kind? This does not make me feel better, particularly since the only official word from Apple so far is "um, try this maybe?" and it's all stuff I've already tried. No one seems to have found a solution that works.

I finally managed to reinstall all my apps (via the App Store on my iPod rather than via iTunes) and am currently streaming my music via wi-fi from my laptop. Neither of these are permanent fixes, and this is incredibly frustrating. I just want my iPod to work for what it's designed to do is that so much to ask.

At least now I'm pretty sure it's not my fault?

I've ... come out of the first season of SMASH hating Karen Cartwright.

I don't think this was the intended outcome.

( ramblings, with spoilers )

Tom and Sam are still great, though. And IDGAF, I love Ivy regardless of what she does and does not do.

Here is one of my pet peeves: "This show [or book, or whatever] isn't sci-fi [or whatever genre] because [reason that essentially boils down to "I like it and I don't like sci-fi [or whatever genre]"]"

...clearly brackets are not one of my pet peeves.

This is an attitude, unfortunately, that I have encountered quite a lot. Sometimes it is dressed up in other reasons. "Firefly isn't sci-fi! There's no aliens!" ...aliens are not the defining quality of sci-fi. "Well, it's not sci-fi!" Why do you say that? "Because I like it! And I don't like sci-fi shows!"

That is not a reason.

It's still sci-fi.

I have heard this argument in other contexts than sci-fi, obviously. "It's not a kids' show, because I like it, and I'm not a kid." "It's not romance, I hate romance." "I hate musicals! ...that doesn't count, that's not really a musical."

How much would you laugh if someone told you, "Ugh, I hate baseball. The Red Sox don't play baseball! Because I hate baseball but I love the Sox so obviously they are not playing baseball." It's the same dumb justification. It's still baseball.

It's still science fiction, even if there's no aliens. It's still fantasy even if there aren't wizards swinging swords at dragons. It's still children's fiction even if there's not a tidy moral at the end. It's still Genre A even if it overlaps with Genre B, even if it doesn't have all of the trappings general-you associates with Genre A, even if you don't generally like Genre A but like this one particular example.

And in response to the most recent argument I have encountered: YES. IT IS STILL SCI-FI EVEN IF IT'S MORE FOCUSED ON THE CHARACTERS THAN THE TECH. THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE IT PARTICULARLY UNUSUAL SCI-FI.

I really don't know if this springs from genre snobbery (Genre A is inferior to this high-brow stuff that I like so this one thing I like that might be considered Genre A clearly isn't) or absolutism (I don't like Genre A! Ever! None of it! Therefore this one thing I like that might be considered Genre A clearly isn't) or just a misunderstanding of how genres work (This one thing doesn't have every last trope that I associate with Genre A so clearly it isn't!)

There was probably a more coherent ending to this rant, but I forgot what it is and I'm done ranting now, so...[/end]

The unfunnybusiness writeup of the fail

An affected writer explains the fail, and communications from Amazon

A handy links roundup

A list of the affected books

Amazon Rank

Another writeup, with contact information for Amazon

I'm really, really mad right now. Mostly because this is an incredible level of fail. Partly because I have a minor Amazon addiction and now I have to find another online retailer to replace that. Suggestions welcome. Also, spread the word of Amazon's incredible level of FAIL.

The front page of the Misc. Musicals/Plays category on FFN is entirely bandom shit.

Oh, Pit of Voles. Never change. Change soon. Please? At least start policing your existing rules. Or change 'em and give the bandom kids their own section. I don't much care which.


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fandomsecrets is pissing me off tonight. :/ There was a RENT secret, and it inspired a host of annoying-to-me comments from people who've never seen the show or movie, people who've seen the show or movie once and apparently didn't absorb anything beyond the music, and people who claim to be RENT fans but still get basic facts wrong, and I just kind of want to yell at them all that, no, none of the characters claim that it's a Moral Outrage to ask artists to pay their rent, and, oh yes, most of the main characters have jobs. 'Real' jobs, even.

Also, I want to know where this perception that RENT is about a bunch of whiny artists who think they should be exempt from paying rent or working real jobs comes from. Because it's so obviously not.


There's no real reason this should be irritating me so much. :( In related but cheerier news, today I listened to an audio of Robin de Jesus playing Angel, the first time I had heard such a thing, and I'm so in love with him it's ridiculous. <3

Also, here, have a meme snagged from brandy_took:

In an effort to get to know people better...tell me something random about yourself. Anything. Just whatever you fancy.

Repost if you want to know random things about your flist.

Bah. This post popped up on my flist via metaquotes. The metaquotes post was cool. But now I'm driving myself crazy by reading the sf_drama post and all its comments.

That said, alexandraerin is endearing themselves to me muchly. ♥

Serious question for you: cui bono? Who benefits from this bit of exclusivity? As a BT who has varyingly identified as both a G and an L in my life, I'd say we get a boost from including asexuals. They are closer to mainstream, but further below the radar. Increasing awareness of them increases awareness of the spectrum of human sexuality, it inculcates in people the knowledge that variety in human sexuality is natural and normal. I can't see a downside to including them.

You say they have no business in the tent; I say, their goals and our goals are taking us in the same direction and I don't see any downside to hitching their horse to our cart. They've got less baggage? Great. We'll get further, faster together.

To the extent that gender is a binary, you could express it in binary. We have 10, 01, 00, and 11. 10 have proclaimed themselves to be King Shit of the World. 01, 00, and 11 can all play in 10's court, to the extent that they're able to pretend they're like 10. So, 01 and 11 have teamed up to say, "Enough of this, we're as good as you."

Why leave 00 out in the cold? 00 has as much a claim. 00 fits into the same grid. 00 is an ally.

Or, on a lighter note, beoweasel's attempt at an asexual rallying cry:

WE'RE HERE! WE'RE...NOT REALLY BOTHERING ANYONE, SO, JUST MOVE ALONG.

Things To Do To Piss Off Your Tech Crew:

- Flagrant misuse of microphones. This includes: standing two feet away from the mic, practically whispering, and then getting annoyed when the sound crew tells you, no, they can't make the mic any hotter; coughing or clearing your throat into the mic; covering the mic with your hand; noticing that the mic is far too short/tall for you to use comfortably, and rather than adjusting the height for your own use, talking above and/or below the microphone and expecting the sound tech to compensate for you; not using a microphone at all and then sending someone up to ask the sound tech why you couldn't be heard easily.
- Lining up for your entrance and then waiting half an hour for incomprehensible reasons while the entire crew goes crazy because they've already held the house way too long and really want to get things finished with on something approaching schedule.
- Leaving your things around the stage after a show, wandering off while the crew starts striking, and then bitching when you discover that the crew moved your things so that they could finish their job.
- Loitering in the hallways to talk to your friends/family/coworkers, thus blocking the crew from easily moving things off the stage and into storage.
- Apologizing for all of the above while the crew is still striking, and doing it by standing in the middle of the stage, blocking the crew from quick or easy movement.

Bleh.

On the other hand, it's SNOWING! It started while we were in the midst of strike -- or maybe it started during the concert, who knows -- and is still snowing now and I love it so, so much. Is not a hardcore snowfall, just a nice light drift, and...Ashley and Melissa and I sang "Let It Snow!" at the top of our lungs on the walk back from the FAC, and got all covered in flakes, and were just generally gleeful, ys.

Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone starts a post with "I don't think anyone's noticed that..." it's almost always something that's been discussed almost to death and is nearly regarded as common knowledge?

That's happened twice to me today, browsing my flist. Yes, we all know Eve Myles was on DW before she was on Torchwood. Yes, we all know the sound of drums bears a remarkable resemblance to the Doctor Who theme.


I put together a Ten&Martha vid last night on impulse. I just uploaded it and posted to dwfanvids and lifeonmartha. And am instantly regretting it, in the same way that I instantly regret uploading and sharing nearly every vid that I've ever done. As soon as it's out there, I start thinking "Oh noes, I hate that transition, such-and-such clip would look better there, why didn't I hang onto it for another couple days to fix all these problems???" And then almost nobody notices the problems that drive me crazy, which I think stands to prove that I'm mentally unstable.

I reallllly need to stop reading the DW comms. Every time I stumble upon a comment from a Martha-basher, I want to bang my head against a wall and ask if we've been watching the same show.

(Emotionally selfish? Srsly, W.T.F.?)

On a brighter note, though, Doctor Who Character Love Meme! Let's see more Old Skool love over there, eh?