ikel89 came up with this meme - it is so fun! I highly recommend doing this even if you don't post it (though maybe not if you have an important paper due sometime in the next 48 hours - TVTropes can literally suck the time out of your life until you are blinking at the sunlight of the morning after next and wondering why you're so thirsty).
0001 - Libya (not cutting. cope.) What's Happening in Libya Explained is a primer on the situation that gives the very basic historical background behind the current conflict.
The Libyan government is reportedly trying its best to prevent information about the uprising from reaching foreign eyes and ears (the Internet's been down for nearly a week) But what leaks there have been are completely horrifying. Al Jazeera has a live blog, and a CNN reporter has apparently sneaked into Libya from Egypt.
I'm not sure how much of what I've heard is true. But I am pretty sure it's true that government forces in Libya have opened fire on unarmed civilian protesters, and they are continuing to do so, despite growing outrage from the international community. That is not okay, culture and ideology be damned to hell. Several sources have it that Libya's dictator's latest move has been to order fighter planes and helicopters to rain fire on the protesters in Tripoli. Hundreds have already died. On 680 News this morning they said that Libyan ambassadors all over the world are defecting en masse. It isn't as bare-bones simple a situation as "people struggling for freedom" -- I read here [Russian note: if you can read it, this is an angry-making article due to lots of the usual dictator-sympathising bullshit; Russian press is keeping it classy as usual] that in the current conflict, three anti-government factions have joined forces to oppose the ruling regime. If that's true, even if the government violence against protesters stops, there is a considerable risk of continued strife, maybe even civil war.
0010 - Christchurch, NZ - A massive (and shallow) earthquake has struck the region, with several dozen people confirmed dead and hundreds missing. scarletscarlet has a link round-up with lots of useful information if you're looking to stay abreast of the situation or trying to contact people you know in the area.
0011 - I made up another music-y meme (or maybe bastardised an existing one; I'm not too sure):
Pick an artist and choose a song by that artist to represent each of the last 10 years in your life (2011 counts!).
I'm not perpetuating the meme because I am the meme killa, but here's another meme I just thought up: comment with a song* that reminds you of me, and I'll reply with a song that reminds me of you! ♥
*Artist and title are enough; youtube link a bonus -- no uploads, please; public post and all that.
Meme stolen from hamsterwoman and lunylucy. (Slightly modified because that is how I roll. I am a modifier. *cymbal crash* Aw shucks. I'll be here all week.)
0001 - Make a list of 15 characters, but don't disclose it (yet).
0010 - Ask people to post questions about the characters (as many as they like) in the comments. The questions can be about one or more characters.
For example: "Does 5 enjoy naked time?"
"4, 6, 12 & 15 are starting a band together; what is their name and what kind of music do they play? Also, who's the lead singer, and what instruments do the others play?"
0011 - Answer the questions using the character list you made. Post both the list and the answers.
I actually made two lists of characters -- book/media and animanga -- and if you have a preference as to which list I should draw from to answer your question[s], just preface them with [book/media] or [animanga]. If you don't indicate a preference, I will pick from whichever list I feel like.
1. Grab a book near you. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions. 5. Don't dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet. Just pick up whatever is closest.
The theme is not always the subject in a sentence. An object, time definition or place definition can be used as the theme of a sentence. Carefully observe the following examples.
Meme stolen from hamsterwoman (and, well, everyone else and their pet spinning leek).
Ask me my Top Five whatevers. Fannish or literary or RL or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what -- fandoms, characters, ice cream flavours, cartoon moments, women/men in my fandoms, OTPs, ideal holiday destinations, goals for the future, celebrity crushes, books I wish would be made into movies, love songs, etc. And I will answer them all in a new entry.
I find it unspeakably ironic that many of the very same people who screamed "it's only fanfic! don't take it so seriously!" in response to backlash against fics that contain privileged fail are now comparing fanfic to classic works of literature -- in order to put forth the asinine argument that pointing out/denouncing privileged fail in fic is equivalent to censorship.
Newsflash, assholes: if it's "only fanfic", you do not fucking get to be comparing yours to historically significant, important works of literary art, not with a straight face, not without destroying any chance of being seen as something other than a pathetic jack-off with more self-importance than substance. And if it's not your own fic you're thus comparing, sorry, readers, but the test of literary greatness and relevance is time, not the reading lenses of the (comparatively) few, so you're just as off-base (but at least you don't look like a douchebag for it).
And if it's not, in fact, "only fanfic", if we dismiss my above statements and allow that fanfic can be great enough to be compared to classics in parallel, you still lose the argument by default, because your life and liberty are in no way endangered by people on the internet telling you that you did a bad thing. Censorship is not a fucking buzzword for you to use whenever you feel a little uncomfortable. In the 70s, my mother and a few mates were threatened by authority figures because they had read and shared a book of poems deemed inappropriate by the Soviet state. That's censorship. A random stranger commenting on your slash porn and telling you you have committed cultural fail is not even remotely similar, you pretentious fucking windbags. D:
Anyway, I am unbelievably pissed off today for reasons other than the above, so I am taking a mental-health break from work and doing some memes that I have been putting off for months. Only I am not continuing them (as I really do not have the time, sorry); I am just going to post my responses to them. /o\
furiosity
jubilant
*BREATHES INTO PAPER BAG*
amused
mellow