lavvyan

I've been offline for a few days and don't have the time to catch up, so if I missed anything, link me?

Also, I caved. Yes, I'm now on Facebook. Half the company is on there and I'm tired of missing everything because they already shared shit on FB. If you know my name and would like to add me over there, please do! If you don't know my name but would still like to add me (I'm thinking bilingual posts; mrlnpndrgn does them all the time), drop me a (screened) comment and I'll come find you.

I've talked about Kiva before, but I firmly believe that you can't talk about it enough.

In a nutshell, Kiva allows you to lend money to people all over the world who struggle to make a living. I've made nine loans so far, the majority of which have already been paid back in full while one's still running. I got to support a fish selling business in Cambodia, a food market in Uganda, a general store in Iraq, and a pharmacy in Ghana, among others. I won't lie to you: for me, Kiva is as much about the instant gratification of getting my money somewhere it'll actually do some good (something you rarely can be sure of with donations) as it is about the helping people. Helping people to help themselves, that is; it's still a loan, not a donation.

You can lend as little as $25 US, and right now, you don't even have to pay up. Simply click here for a $25 free trial loan, no strings attached. You get to give away money for free. If that's not reason enough to at least try this out, I don't know what might be. (They do say that supplies of free trials are limited, but seeing how Kiva has grown over the years, I really don't know where they draw the line.)

In the interest of full disclosure: if 20 of you make a loan by August 14th, they might give me a sweater for it, though I'm not sure that's valid outside of the US. Even if it is, I hope you believe me when I say that spreading the word isn't about a stupid sweater.

ETA: Apparently, all the free loans have been claimed already. I still say it's worth checking out the site if you have a little to spare, though.

We had Help Haiti, and Help New Zealand, and Help Japan, and Help Brazil, and Help Whatnot. Am I simply not seeing Help Somalia, or what?

Before the FedCon, that is.

So, I'll be there on Friday and Saturday. Anyone who might want to meet up is welcome to ping me. I'll be the one following Berlinghoff wherever she goes. If you want to exchange mobile numbers in advance, PM me.

Anyone who absolutely does not want to meet up is also welcome to ping me and exchange mobile numbers. I'll try to make sure I'm not where you are.

I love how the current DDoS attack on LJ is making some people realise that, actually, LJ isn't all about fandom and hasn't been for quite some time. If this stops only a few of the "LJ isn't Facebook, and damn those ev0l Russians anyway!" comments on every news announcement, the downtimes do have an upside.

Fair warning to everyone who may have subscribed to me on the AO³, though: I'll still be transferring most of the content on LJ to the Archive as soon as I can, so expect spam e-mails. Or maybe you won't get notified if I back-date them? Whatever.

Everyone reading this (eventually) on LJ: are you on DW? If yes, and I haven't added you to my circle yet, will you tell me your name there so I can keep up with you when LJ is down? Or, if you aren't on DW but would like to mirror your content over there for times such as these, I have a handful of invite codes up for grabs. I'm not saying one service is better than the other (both have shiny things the other doesn't), but considering the apparent cause of the DDoS attack, one might reasonably assume that this won't be the last time LJ is down.

sherlock_flashfic, for all your Sherlock Holmes 'verse (any 'verse)-related flashfic needs! ♥

There'll be a new challenge every two weeks, which will take on the form of case files (e.g. The Case of...The Missing Shoes, The Case of... The Broken Clock, The Case Of... The Insistent Aliens). What you make of that challenge is entirely up to you. If you want to write 800 words of fic where John loses his left shoe in the first paragraph and ends up being carried around by Sherlock, that's fine. If you want to write Carl Powers's Trainers: The Missing Years from the perspective of the remaining c. botulinum bacteria in the shoelaces, that's fine too.

To quote our founder cesperanza:

SHORT, IMPROMPTU, LUNCH-HOUR FIC is what we want! Flex those writing muscles! Take the pressure off! Write a little something - short is good, the pleasure is in the variety of response on a theme.

(If you don't have a Dreamwidth account, you can get one this week without needing an invitation here, get one at the community here, or post your stories as comment!fic. We'll be setting up a post for that with each challenge.)

I wish the Sherlock fandom would stop worshipping AVEN as the final authority on asexuality. It's not. Not like that, at least. It's a wonderful resource, especially the forums where you can get an impression of just how many different kinds of asexuality there are, but while having terms to throw around like "nonlibidoist" and "homoromantic" and "grey-a" might make for easier conversations (provided the other person knows what the heck you're talking about), they don't make you an expert on asexuality. Asexuals aren't experts on asexuality - see also "many different kinds" thereof.

Take me: I like to look at pretty people who are dressed in thin garments that trace their bodies intimately; show me those same people naked, and I'm bored. I find guys hot. I find girls hot. I wouldn't want to actually do anything with them. I like to kiss. I like to cuddle. I like orgasms. I don't like porn. I don't like sex. I've had it with a variety of guys. Am I asexual? You'd find people on AVEN who say yes; you'd find people who say no. Who cares? I'm me. Most asexual people have probably never even heard of all the labels they can slap on themselves these days (black ring on the middle finger of the right hand? Bwuh?).

Thing is, whether you chalk it up to hormonal imbalances or think it an awesome new concept, asexuality exists. Asexual people are out there, probably more than you'd expect (don't think for a moment that none of us like to tell jokes that are dirty enough to make you blush). Asexuality is tentatively coming to be accepted as just another orientation that may or may not go different directions. Which leads us straight back to terms like "homoromantic" and "demisexual" and whatnot, and people doing their research on AVEN and maybe not quite getting it, and fannish tropes being celebrated that make me want to puke.

Seriously. If I have to read one more story where Sherlock is magically cured from his asexuality by the awesomeness that is John Watson, I'm going to throw something. Possibly up. It's like an "I've been gay all my life but now that the right woman has come along I can finally enjoy the marvel that is heterosexual sex" scenario. I'm sure people are out there who have had just that kind of experience, but on the whole I find the concept off-putting, demeaning and disrespectful. And I didn't even know we had an ugly flag to celebrate our Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

I can't believe how tired I am. My sleep cycle's all out of whack (oh, the joys of unemployment) and I have a hard time staying awake for any length of time. On Monday I got up at 5 a.m. and was so bored I took out my new (for me, at least) bike for a spin at half past seven. The streets were empty so at least I didn't make a fool of myself with my wobbling about, but it turns out you really don't forget how to ride a bicycle. I took the opportunity to explore a bit and ended up on the panorama trail (oh, the joys of living in a tourist-y region). Saw a fox, a deer and a squirrel and passed by the "road of the dead" (wtf, Oeventrop???) and lots of freshly cut-down trees that smelled of sap and resin. All in all a very nice morning, but I need a softer saddle. Ow!

Back to writing drabbles now.