I had hoped to finish this beast before the next movie, but obviously that's not going to happen. For those not in the know I got into a really demanding masters program and had to move to California. And that is, in truth, the reason I made the thing friends only. I really didn't want to be that person, and it isn't as a result of Internet drama, but simply the fact that I haven't covered my tracks from the real world as well as I should have.

So, for other wayfaring strangers into here, this journal is now friends only. sorry!

From seryan

Name a character and I'll tell you three (or more) facts about them from my own personal pseudocanon.

Wherever that might lead!

whatEVER.

Singin' weee will weeee will Rowsdower!



Watch the whole episode if you find the time (and like Mystery Science Theater). It's called "The Final Sacrifice".

STOP PMING ME YOU MOUTHBREATHING BASEMENT DWELLER I WILL UPDATE THAT STORY WHEN I GODDAMN WELL FEEL LIKE IT.

GO OUTSIDE YOU MIGHT LIKE IT

Here's a general statement I think few would contest; fandom, by and large, is very liberal. Transformers fandom, however, is not.

I get the occasional person who outright tells me they really don't like where I go with my ideologies in my fan writing. I find this a bit odd as most of the ideas I push would be pretty hard to argue with by thinking people, but a lot of them seem to be ideas that make people uncomfortable nonetheless. Simple ideas even, like in Naturalized the idea that the government may be less than trustworthy. Certainly nothing new, but perhaps something new in this fandom, as as it happens, no one had seen anything like it made use by the source material. This seemed all terribly obvious to me, as we're writing off a movie that's practically a spooge pastiche of everything gratuitous and gloriously American. I simply took that and subverted it. Some people liked it, some people didn't, but the main reason people didn't like it (aside from the fact that I'm fucking long-winded) was based in ideologies.

I can't say that this wouldn't be the case in other fandoms, where because of the often sexual nature of fanfiction, "gen" fiction gets thrown to the side as almost a subcategory. This seems to be less of an issue in TF, as the most popular ones, Juxtaposition, Not Alone and mine come immediately to mine (though mine not as popular as those two) are genfics. But when one sees anything remotely "political" in nature in other fandoms, it's more likely to be of a social sexual nature, i.e. pertaining to gay rights, womens rights, or less likely still some other underrepresented group (almost never minorities. As I've brought up before, people think they're haaaard).

Almost never the case with Transformers. I wouldn't call the fandom overwhelmingly conservative; most of my friends that I talk to on a regular basis that I met through TF are quite liberal (with the exception of one Bull Moose Republican, which, I'm sorry to say, are quite extinct. Now we have straight up Moose.) But I would say there's an unusually high incidence of conservatism in TF. I recall someone posting in tf2007fun a while ago a challenge regarding the incumbent president finding out there are fucking alien robots he has to deal with, and the only response being about President McCain's gosh darn if there's not a big goddamn robot on the White House lawn moment! I didn't immediately know how to respond, as aside from the fact that this is RPF about John fucking McCain (DAH), it was, at the time, way beyond my comprehension that someone in fandom would write about McCain's president in a hopeful manner.

But more recently, what inspired this little introspection was this deviation, which has no fandom leanings, but the first two people who responded had Transformers icons, and both came out in favor of McCain. Once again, my socialist little brain twinges, how strange! Is this not fandom, overwhelmingly female progressive fandom?

But moreover, the thing that fascinates me in this instance, is why? What makes one fandom have a higher incidence of conservatism than others?

I think the answer to my question should be obvious in a way, which is a bit sad. The very thing that drew me to the film by way of perverse fascination draws others in by way of straight up sincerity; aside perhaps from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Transformers may be the most strangely, perversely, unwaveringly American concept in the history of concepts. Giant. Fucking. Robots That Turn into Fucking Cars and Fucking Fight. FOR PEACE. Like He-Man, we've got the fighting for peace concept, more on the idea that peace is awesome, and these other fuckers aren't going to let us have it so we've got to kick their asses in order to get it. What's more (conservative) American than that? It's that very mindset that got us into this war we seem to have gotten ourselves into in the first place.

But more than that, I look at Optimus Prime, who, silly though he may be in his almost hyperbolic sincerity regarding ideas like freedom and peace (and remember kids, fighting for peace is like fucking for... go on, guess!) puts the serious face on the franchises ideals more directly reflected in conservative America. From a liberal point of view, conservatives are belligerent and pig-headed, being pro-war and anti-gay rights because they're too insular and stupid to know any better. From a conservative point of view, conservatives are protectors, guards of morality, and they are moral vanguards protecting our ideals and culture from the evil-doers, whoever they might be this week. Optimus is fascinating in his way because he never states any specific political leaning, so either side can really look at him and identify with his lone-soldier self sacrificing leader and apply it to any galvanizing historical figure with whom they consider to share those values. Optimus can be the peace loving liberal, the hippie who abhors war, the socialist who wants to see an even playing field. He can also be the conservative, the fighter for freedom because it's the only way, the believer in freedoms of the individual, the state, and especially the market. It is, after all, the right of all sentient beings. Especially those making six figure.

For what it's worth, I think he'd vote Obama, because you know what? War is bad. (A.N. In my franchise, he didn't vote, because he's a bit of an insular fuck. OH YES I USED AN A.N.)

I think, though, if you already have liberal leanings, like the movie sincerely and aren't trying to subvert its hyper-American ideologies like I am, it's not inconceivable to see some of your own values in the way the franchise is presented. The word "freedom" in America is a very, very relative term. The market should be "free"- in America, this is a conservative concept. Women should be "free" to choose- in America, this is a liberal concept.

However, I think most would agree that the franchise, the film especially, more readily agrees with more conservative ideologies. "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." Freedom. America. Apple Pie. Moose hunting. Things things are somehow, when taken in their sincere form, innately conservative. That is partially why I think a lot of conservatives feel especially threatened these days by liberals, going so far as even calling some Democrats "anti-American" because they don't espouse their pride of their own country constantly. Non-Americans, yes; American conservatives criticize their countrymen for not loving their country enough constantly. Because, you know, being inclusive and respectful of other cultures viewpoints means you hate America. In the next two weeks, this bullshit is only going to get worse. We've already defined "Real America" as towns with 50,000 or less.

Love or "hate" America, however, it's hard to refute how very insular American the film is, and, obviously, that's what fascinated me with it in the first place, because truly, insular American ideals and a story about goddamn aliens really are mutually exclusive, yet somehow they manage to do it! With a story like that, I go so far as to say with a story that clumsy and shallow as an overlaborate metallic puddle, clearly there's a lot for people to latch onto! After all, I'm still here.

Okay, so, contesty thing!

Contesty Thing! Sandbox 2008!

Here's what my plan is. Basically after my last I had a few people voice interest in having a bit of a fic jamming/contest type thing, and almost immediately got one entry to my very great surprise, so now I pretty much have to do it. People seemed to prefer the idea of prompts, so I'm going to use prompts, but on the advice/request of witchtree I think I'm going to try something different in regard to how I run the thing.

A) Basically her idea was more in the way of a roundtable for people to read what other people write and give constructive criticism based on that. Based on that, I'm going to post all entries I get here, and do so anonymously. That way, if you're self-conscious about your writing, or just want pure, objective criticism from honest people (and I've amassed a pretty good swell of such folk on this journal) your name won't be attached to the initial posting. It only will be at the end, if you want it to.

B) Prizes? Sure! Why not? Prizes will basically be that which the winner(s) choose, and will probably be from a selection of either a fic of your choice written by me catering to your specific gratuity (given that I'm familiar with the fandom of course) or your selection of gourmet artisan chocolates. Yes, I'll ship them as long as your on planet Earf. And they are really, really good. I had like five of them today.

C) Judging? My basic plan as of right now is not to go necessarily on technical skill or knowhow or if I know you, but on the type of feedback people get, creativity, etc. As far as I'm concerned going way out into left field and doing something I would have never thought of isn't a bad thing at all. The idea here is to see what you'd do, not what you think I'd do. I like using bold today. Ideally this will be interactive, which I feel that fanfic all too often is not, and that has always bugged the shit out of me. If fandom is a community, let's make it a bit more communal!

But odds are you'll get some chocolate just for participating. I really am a whore for Knipschildt. And if you don't like chocolate, you're weird.

D) Length? Have a party! I'm not going to put length restrictions on it, whether it's a "drabble" (though that I'd advise against, 100 words is... really not a lot) or a novella I and others will read it. Usually my short stories are 2000-6000 words (though I have written ones that were almost 10,000, though I am incredibly long-winded). That area feels like a good solid length.

E) Restrictions? Songfic. Don't do it. (Unless you're doing so ironically, that could actually be really funny). Or anything using the word "sparkling" or "youngling". Just one of my thangs, ya know?

....that's about it.

E) Posting? I suppose I'll do them as I get them, though I may change that policy, in which case I'll update.

I figure this will be more or less the home base thread. You don't have to commit now, but it would be nice for people to comment telling me whether they're considering entering.

E.5) Limit? No! Do as many as you like!

F) Deadline? I think three weeks from today seems doable for just about anyone. Will give people time to think it over, and will give us Americans time to recover from election celebrations/drinking selves into depressed oblivion (but probably the former- yay!) So at present (though it is subject to change) let's set it at Wednesday, November 12th.

And, I think that's it for now! Theme for this doohammer is: Bridges ( On to the prompts! )

I thought this might be kind of fun, although easily construed as narcissistic so I'm a bit reticent to do it, but I've seen some people write short stories or do fanart/comics in my continuity, so I'm wondering if we had a little contest type thing that was basically short stories based in this continuity, would people finish it? And how should I do it, should I assign individual challenges or be like "Okay, everybody, the challenge is autistic puppies and socialized healthcare in the US. And robots. GO!"

Thoughts? Would people go for it?

I'm unpacking the huge gob of shit my former roommates packed of my worldly belongings, and I kept finding little slabs of interfacing.  For you non-sewing types out there, interfacing is basically the less sightly fabric that goes under the more sightly fabric whenever you want to give it some stiffness or something. I, for instance, use a lot of canvas interfacing in corset making.  So now I keep finding little wads of interfacing and think, "Ooh, yay, interfacing!"

Then I feel a little dirty.

I blame you people.

Damned if this one isn't starting to look long, too.  Long!

( Nanu, Nanu )

So I'm coming up for the alts and characters for the Dinobots, and I've hit a bit of a snag. Or, Slag, if you will. Here's the thing; the Dinobots, with the exception of Grimlock, have really, really crappy names. I can handle the idea of a Prowl or a Perceptor or a Bluestreak or a Wheeljack and justify how and why aliens might come by those names, but Sludge? Umm... Snarl? Geez... Slag? Uhh...

So, with that in mind I feel like most of them are going to go besides Grimlock (as only the one got a cool name), and I'm kind of reticent on "Swoop" while I'm there. Right now I've got a some of tentative characters, all of which probably being considered OCs, given species and name and whatnot, so before I go forward with this I'm curious on public opinion.

Edit: Jessica just came up with a Carnotaur named "Gastrofire".

....


....... SOMEONE TALK ME OUT OF IT QUICK


Poll #1250750 Dinos...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

Changing names/creating dinoOCs: sacreligious?

If you had a Dinobot, what "species" would it be and what would you name it?

calger459 did a rather nifty version of Wheeljack's new 'red' form, and if you were wondering, yes, he is the Tesla. TESLA!

Also updated the chronology. Now includes (some) humans! Feel free to correct me on any continuity weird. Main reason I started keeping this thing was for keeping continuity reasons.

And obviously the term "Predacon" in this context isn't the more conventionally used one. It just made sense ;)

May be a bit early for posting bits about Tricolora 3 which is... nameless again! Ignore the bit on the profile. But I had a few tablet minutes between stuff and... LOOK WHO IT IS!



Grimlock gon' fuck yo' shit up.

I'll go ahead and put it under a cut if someone tells me to. til then BED

But yes, hiatus, sorry! I'm currently in the midwest right now with calger459 and her cuddly parents working on my USC application, and then off to Minnesota to be brief roommates with witchtree where there's not much in the way of teh Internets (plus application application) so hiatus til the end of the month. So... sorry!

In the interest of expediting the process, I'm always open to advice on personal statements to creative arts programs!

Yeah, I know, I need to get off it.



But you can't tell me where the term "jump the shark" was coined isn't funny as hell.

Go Fonzie!

Poll #1237843 Shark week
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Has Lindsay jumped any sharks?

If you'd like to be honest but still got the niceness thing going, feel free to leave an anonymous comment. This isn't quite the end-fic massive response poll (which there will be, and how!), but I am curious about the people who seemed to have dropped off, where it stopped being interesting and why. That sort of thing. Like a pre-customer satisfaction survey.

Edit: To jump the shark.

caelum has pronounced it Plot Bunnies That Need to be Euthanized Day. Seems to be the case! So, in a fit of self-indulgence and boredom I went ahead and wrote out some of the plot bunnies, points and story turns I have mercy killed over the... months. These are just the ones I could remember off the top of my head, I know there were a bunch more.

Granted, there are a lot that made it in that I wish I could mercy kill in retrospect but now have to work with. Setting it outside Vegas, what was I thinking? Damnit!

---

· Started a whole short story about Sam coming to terms with his alien car, and said alien car helping him actually seal the deal (relationship wise) with Mikaela. Killed it because it was boring and had no point and I was just trying to pander to what I figured fandom wanted.

· Choosing Perceptor was actually completely arbitrary; I picked his name from a list and ran with it because he was more of a civilian-bot. Therefore, originally, he was almost identical to his G1 personality. This changed with his physical make-up, when I decided he should resemble the bastard child of the alien Xenomorph and WALL·E.

· Starscream wasn't originally in Naturalized.

· Once I decided he was, he wasn't originally related to Percy.

· He wasn't in Revelation for the majority of its development.

· The rumors about Wheeljack being an infamous killer were originally just that- rumors. He was for a long time just happy-go-lucky Wheeljack. Towards the end of Naturalized I decided it was more interesting if the rumors were true, and he did have an inordinate amount of blood (or... energon) on his hands.

· Percy was indeed at one point destined to become a Vespa.

· Ruby was originally younger, and had a husband.

· Minstrel Show was originally much, much more offensive (on my part). Here's some choice selections from that one in its original form:

“Yo, what you fools starin’ at? We got to get to work, they a battle up in here, fo shizzle!”

“You best stay in rank, son! This a war!”

“What, were you the only one that decided to stop at ghetto-talk.com?”
“Why ya gotta hate, yo?”

“Yo, he ain’t playin’! Y’all better getcho asses off this turf befo’ Decepticons bust loose another cap! Sheeeyit.”

· Big Bad in Naturalized was originally Shockwave, not Soundwave, though he never made it to Earth.

· There was indeed a bunny I was toying with where an errant Wheeljack (in android form), utterly fascinated with this whole 'sex' concept, tries to seduce Sam. What can I say? I like Shia's pain.

· Mikaela originally bonded with Percy, not Miles. This changed when I decided that Miles was going to get taken by Starscream, and he needed to establish something more substantial before that happened.

· Simmons wasn't even originally in Naturalized. I was still mad at John Turturro.

· O’Raghailligh was going to be a pretty big character, but served mostly anthropological purposes, and since the story ended up being so much about trauma, was cut.

· Dóchas/Starscream originally killed Bedford quite gruesomely after he finds Wheeljack.

· Main antagonist in Revelation was originally Bedford's overzealous son.

· After Percy got juice'd, there was a scene were the very upset Miles and Dinah very nearly had sex.

· Yes, Skyfire is dead. This wasn't the original case, as I had intended him to come in later.

· Prowl and Bluestreak were originally going to come in at the end of Revelation.

· Perceptor originally found a way during Revelation to induce a trance-like state in both him and Miles to simulate "merging". Dumped because it made things too easy.

· Ada at one point was set to die, and then set to be mortally wounded in order to get her out of the third act. Opted for her just voluntarily leaving because I hadn't built up a relationship between her and anyone else that would have given any weight to her going down.

· There was at one point more involvement in interactions with the Church of Scientology in the beginning of Revelation. Cut for time/tact/not naming religious names.

· A main character in the third one was at point point Sari Sumdac, and was the daughter of a shady CEO of a robotics corporation. Her parents were then moved to a peripheral view and turned into Bengali politicians, the robotics corporation was removed entirely and Sari morphed into Sarita Chatterjee, and bears almost no resemblance to her original namesake (aside from being kinda brown).

· There was at one point in Naturalized a rather long, intricate scene where the humans explained the concept of slavery to Perceptor. Cut for time.

· Ada's backstory was cut for time.

· As was Russell's.

· Russell was originally a much more violent and one-dimensional "baddie". Then I realized... I don't like characters like that!

· Miles does, at long last, teach Percy how to do shadow puppets in a vignette. Cut because Percy just wouldn't humor something so silly, unless Miles was dying.

· Starscream's "former life" name was first Etude, which is a French word meaning "study" and also the name for a very difficult type of musical piece, then Mansavin, which is a Sanskrit word meaning "clever", before settling on Idioma, which is the name of my evil, evil media monitoring software at my former place of work.

Aaaand... that's all I can remember at the moment!

Seriously, there's this evil, evil voice in my head telling me to ship Ceres/Simmons. Someone talk me out of it.

*cringe*

BABE·E. Featuring a damagingly sociopathic female robot with a strangely insatiable desire to reproduce. And oh man is this one some kinda special. (May not want to read if you haven't yet seen WALL·E.)

People... really... what is it with the robots? And the babies? And the robots having babies? And the robots wanting to have babies? Really?

Updating fic in about an hour... maybe. Stay tuned.

LEAVE ME ALONE YOU FUCK I WILL UPDATE WHEN I GODDAMN WELL PLEASE.