Tablesaw!

First of all, let me show off my shiny new icon. Just one of the perks of being on the most awesome team at whedonland.

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The Smallville RPG continues to be awesome and lots of fun. It's really well made for episodic drama involving people with super or supernatural powers. Since that describes a lot of the TV shows I watch, I think it's fantastic. As a result of this, as I watch some of my regular TV shows, I keep flashing on the Smallville RPG structure as underlying the structure of the episodes.

And this is how I know the game is well made: watching unrelated TV shows is helping me to understand strategies involved in the RPG. Supernatural and Vampire Diaries both illuminated tactics and styles of play that I hadn't considered.

I shudder to think of what will happen if I rewatch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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Speaking of RPGs, talking with a new friend today, it became very clear that I need to get a new game of In a Wicked Age going. Describing it to her got me excited about the game all over again, and had her drooling over the prospect. Rereading the PDF now . . .

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And now, some animated icons:

http://i40.tinypic.com/6rlxs8.gif
Alt="The Joker (Cesar Romero) rises up from the bottom of the icon: WTF!"
Title="Holy WTF, Batman!"

In honor of César Chávez Day on March 31, I was inspired to make an icon of César Romero, because you don't know what César Chávez looks like.

Also, pixel art and animation recreated from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Game:


http://i42.tinypic.com/2hmzfvs.gif
Title="Bad Horse (8-Bit)"
Alt="The Bad Horse Chorus surronds Dr. Horrible in the 8-bit, pixelated 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game.'"


http://i39.tinypic.com/epkw7l.gif
Title="I Like the Air (8-Bit)"
Alt="'I like your hair.' 'What?' 'I mean . . . I like the air.' Penny and Billy in the 8-bit, pixelated 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game.'"

They stepped out of the lift. "You make a terrific mother, Uhura," Kirk said.

She turned with a lift of eyebrow that was almost Vulcan. "Indeed? Thank you, Captain. But then, I always am. The ship is just full of little boys."

Kirk did a small double-take as she vanished through the door of her quarters, a "Good night, gentlemen" floating sweetly after her. Spock was not quite sure whether he heard correctly, "Sleep tight." It did not seem quite logical, nor, if the Captain's expression was any indication, quite safe.

"When is her birthday?" Kirk muttered. "I think the traditional spanking might be in order."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating custom, Captain. Do you really want to inaugurate it among the command crew of the Enterprise.

Kirk shot him a look of mischief, with just a touch of speculation on whether the Vulcan implied that someone might try to inaugurate it on the Captain of the Enterprise.

"No," Kirk said firmly, in answer, or in rejection of the speculation. "But—" he looked back at Uhura's door, "there's no law against being sorely tempted."

"Indeed," Spock said blandly, and collected a double-take himself.

That's an excerpt from "Surprise!" a short story in the officially licensed Star Trek: The New Voyages 2. It was written by Nichelle Nichols, Sondra Marshak, and Myrna Culbreath.

By Nichelle Nichols.

This story goes on to have a confrontation between Uhura, Kirk, and Spock in the corridor that connects Kirk and Spock's adjoining bathrooms. Also, Kirk is naked.

By Nichelle Nichols.

I love this story. The book suggests that Nichelle Nichols was also in the process of coauthoring a licensed novel titled Uhura, but I guess that never happens. Which is a shame

(Crossposted (mostly) to starry_sea.)

Dear Authors:

I'd like to talk to you about making money now that traditional publishing is dead. First, here's John Scalzi on the subject:

Book publishing is a sinking ship. The former passengers on the ship have given in to their feral instincts and are dismantling the ship board by board. The remaining crew are being wedged further and further back into what little of the ship remains above the waterline. Eventually the whole ship will disappear beneath the waves and all the crew will drown. The thought of possibly jumping off the ship apparently doesn’t occur to the crew; rather, their ambition is simply to be the last person to drown.

Screw ‘em. Let them drown. . . . .

Listen to me now: Writers are not in the publishing industry. The publishing industry exists to handle the output of writers and distribute it in an effective and hopefully profitable way; however it does not necessarily follow that writer’s only option is the publishing industry, especially not now. Congruent to this: Books aren’t the only option. I write books, but you know what? I’m not a book writer, any more than a musician is an LP musician or an MP3 musician. The book is the container. It’s not destiny.

Wait a second. That's Scalzi writing five years ago about Writing in the Age of Piracy.

And, okay, I'll confess, that first paragraph is out of context. The article only supposes the total annihilation of traditional publishing (via piracy, not e-books) as a way to talk about alternate revenue steams. Specifically, he talks about how Penny Arcade has built a media empire by creating things that they gave away totally for free. The big takeaway is:

Multiple revenue streams are a writer’s friend.

That's what's getting to me about the whole Amazon/MacMillan/e-book/print/online/offline mishigoss. Print may not be dead, but there are a lot of other rings, and there's no reason to tie all your hopes onto just one.

Authors, let me tell you, when I buy a traditionally published book, I do not feel like I am supporting you as the author. I am supporting the publisher, and I am supporting the bookseller, but I am not supporting you. There's just too much in between. So when Scalzi calls for readers to support authors, I'm constantly surprised when he suggests that we find a book published and distributed elsewhere. I mean, if you want to support Macmillan, then, yeah buy Macmillan's books. But, I want to support you, not the corporation who licensed your work with a cash consideration and then rebranded it and distributed it nationally.

I think it's even worse when it's badness. When Bloomsbury whitewashed a cover again, there were very appropriate calls for a boycott. Bloomsbury thinks that they can portray non-white characters in their novels as white characters on their covers as a way to increase sales. A boycott will divorce them of this belief.

But authors balked because of the damage it would do to the author. To pull support from the publisher is to pull support from the author, and so we shouldn't boycott.

Authors, are you really that close to your publisher? Perhaps you are, or perhaps you aren't. But why can't I support you, the author, the one I'm a fan of, when I disagree with the company that paid to license your work?

What's more, I don't have a very large budget for buying stories anyway. My reading pace is slower, and I've got bookcases and second-hand shops and libraries all around me. So I've stopped myself from buying most books to keep my finances under control. So if I spring for a new book, it's probably only because I have a gift card. But I do still read. And I read stories online. I read author blogs online. And I listen to Escape Artists podcasts at work. I have a number of authors of whom I am fans.

Authors, I am your fan, but I am not buying books, print or otherwise. How do I give you money outside of using your Amazon link to buy the book that somebody else published?

The traditional publishing model is what it is, and it's clear from that it's still really, really good at taking a novel and sending out to a wide audience. And really, that an end of itself. Those novels get you fans. But you might not have gotten money from the person who read the novel and became a fan. You may never get that money by publishing novels (on your own, or through a corporate publisher). But we're still here, and we still want to support you. Whether we have the money or not, we feel that tug, and how able we are to resist that pull varies with what you're using to tempt us.

Honestly, I think I spend more money on T-shirts than new books now, because the LA library does not allow me to borrow T-shirts. And a number of those shirts refer to movies, TV shows, and videogames. And I don't have a lot of wiggle room in my budget for Paypal tipjars, but I still contribute more to them than to my out-of-pocket print fiction budget.

Authors, why can't I buy a shirt, a shirt with a jaunty quote of your devising?

Publishing may be in trouble. It's not just that there are all those middlepeople, but those middlepeople may also be turn out to be idiots, and then your link to the Amazon page of your book isn't going to be a great option. You don't have to switch everything. You don't need too many Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Makings, because you'll always have that one there, waiting for fans.

Authors, listen to time-delay Scalzi. You are not in the publishing industry. You can escape the not really sinking ship and also still probably leave all your stuff on the ship, 'cause it's not really sinking, and then you've got like a resort vacation on the island without having to move all your stuff and still getting access to the nice galley (which may now have fresher fruit from the shore anyway). There's no reason to only stay on the ship. There are other places to meet your fans (and get our money into your pocket). Use all of them.

Edited to Add: As often happens when I write a post from three different locations (go cloud computing), I deleted a chunk and forgot to compensate it. It's created some confusion, so let me just put back in the chunk I forgot to deal with, which is a portion of text from the Scalzi quote:

Because here’s the thing about that “sinking ship:” Even if we grant it is sinking (which we should not), and that the passengers are scurvy pirates (which we ought not), this ship is sinking in about five feet of water and the shore is fifty yards away. And if you haven’t the wit to make it to shore, then by God, you deserve to die.

To see how much I thought I'd addressed that, look at how I referenced it in the last paragraph.

Anyway, what's "dying" about the publishing industry isn't the industry itself, it's the author's ability to make money from it, which has generally been decreasing as the money for buying books has been diverted elsewhere. Hypothetically and hyperbolically, it could get to the point where an author might be able to get a novel prepared for print and distributed, but not be able to make any money from it (which is the point at which we join Scalzi's hypotehtical and hyperbolic essay).

What then? Do you take out the middlepeople and publsh the novel by yourself so that you can get the money that results from selling directly to a smaller audience? Or do you have the publisher prepare, print, and sell the novel; draw a wider audience; and earn money by encouraging the audience to do things other than buying the books?

Most likely, it'll be a combination. But you can still make money licensing novels to be printed traditionally, you can still make additional money right now.

So, again, sell me a T-shirt.

Another whedonland challenge. This time, it's a fanmix. Which, for me, became two fanmixes:



I had an idea to create a set of list of songs that not only related to Dollhouse, but sounded like something that would be played in the Dollhouse. So I started coming through my mellow, relaxing, sleepy music to create ( Actives Inactive: Songs for the Tabula Rasa )

But while I was setting it up, I found a number of songs that had the same kind of sound and related to Dollhouse, but in a way that probably would get them banned from the Dollhouse. Songs that suggest that forgetting might not be a good thing and that, perhaps, a person should do something to fight it. The kind of music that post-composite Echo plays to herself when she's pretending to be in the Tabula Rasa. And that turned into ( Actives Reactive: Songs for Rejecting the Tabula Rasa )

Did I miss it when people were talking about this year being the 50th anniversary of The Twilight Zone? Maybe I heard it earlier this year? Regardless, I was working on the "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" icon for tvpassiton when I noticed it was true. In thirteen days, it'll be fifty years since "Time Enough at Last" premiered.

(Of course, now that I see the icon on a different monitor, though, I can see that I screwed up the coloring a bit, so I'll redo it tomorrow.)

The first three seasons are available for streaming at CBS. I think I'm going to put it on my list of old shows to watch; I'm still working my way through The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It might even be appropriate for a Rewatch project, like the various Farscape rewatches.

It's the first Wednesday of November, the day on which delux_vivens demands picspams. Her own postings of men and women of color (mostly men) were another inspiration for this week's Buffy picspam.

Anyway, I updated that picspam with an actor I forgot, David Zepeda. I was also going to add some other pictures of him out of character, but I started to suspect that the hot model Zepeda who was the first runner up of Manhunt International and who has gone on to star in several telenovelas. I started to suspect this after finding lots and lots of pictures with his shirt off.

They no longer belonged in the Buffy picspam, but it's still Wednesday, so have fun. All are safe for work.

( Topless Mexican Below )

All pics from the Official David Zepeda Photo Gallery at the Univision forums.

Work: We are understaffed; I've been dealing with lots of stress.

RPG: Unknown Armies is fun. Look at my map. Cthulhu next.

Videogames: I just keep playing Mr. Driller; need to restart DDR.

Wedding: June 19; looking at Marrakesh House; working on guest list.

TV: Lots of fun stuff, Mercy's a surprise winner for me.

Fandom: Joined whedonland on Team Angel. Having lots of fun playing.

Books: Reading LA history slowly, catching up on Escape Artist podcasts.

Weather: Rained two days, then back to heat. I miss the rain.

Clothes: Bought new shoes and pants; sitting between 36" and 38" waist.

The other day, I got an e-mail from my friend at Wolfram & Hart that read

It's Not Monty Python.

I have two extra tickets for tomorrow. You and ojouchan are going. End of discussion.

It took a little while to figure out what she was talking about, but eventually I learned that she was talking about "An Evening Without Monty Python," which is playing at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre around the corner from us.

Ojou was lukewarm about the event, "It's not actually Monty Python. It's just some nobodies doing Monty Python skits." My ardor was dampened as well, until I checked the website and asked her, "Hey, did you know that Wash is in it?" To which she replied, "Wwwwhaaaaaaaat?"

So yes, the show is Monty Python sketches performed by people who aren't Monty Python, but it is direct by Eric Idle and performed by some people you may know, like Alan Tudyk, Jane Leeves (Daphne from Frasier), and other people who don't have name recognition, but do have a HITG! factor. And we headed down the block to the Montalbán to see it.

Overall, I wasn't as impressed with the show as my companions. It often felt rushed to me. It was also very often overly faithful, so that the show felt less like a reimagining (or even an homage) and more like a shallow imitation. It was a bit on and off. Some sketches, like "Argument" or "Albatross" seem to having the comedic timing written into the script, so there wasn't much room (or need) to do anything different. But then came a bit like "Nudge Nudge" where it seemed like it was just an impression of Idle's original performance. That kind of thing can fly in a dorm common room, but not on the stage.

Tudyk had some of the best moments. He took the confectioner's role in "Crunchy Frog" to hilarious, disturbing places, and was hilarious in Jones's role in "History of the Joke," which closed out the show. But probably the most memorable appearance was right at the beginning, when he was one of the Poofy Judges, in a PVC corset, purple plaid miniskirt, and fishnets.

Seriously, the man has legs.

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Afterward, we tried to scramble for a restaurant. The Velvet Margarita was full up on a Friday, but when we looked across the street, we saw a place that none of us had ever noticed before. Was it Brigadoon? Diagon Alley? Diagadoon Brill? No, it was just a brand-new fancy-pants sports bar called Capitol City. It was pretty nice; the food was much better than we'd expected (my grilled cheese was pretty bland, but the soup it was served with was nice, and everybody else had some really nice stuff), and there was less douchebaggery than we'd predicted on our walk across the street. (No guarantees about the douchebag levels remaining low as the place becomes known.)

I went home with enough booze in me to make me happy, but also to keep me tossing and turning late into the night. Thankfully, I haven't felt any ill effects (hangover or plain drowsiness) for the rest of the day.

And also, I bought a picture of Khan Noonien Singh signed by Ricardo Montalbán from Montalbán's son in law, who apparently runs the merch table. Got to find a frame for that one.

It's Eid al-Fitr, and a day of feasting! If you like fanfiction, then you should check out eid_ka_chand's ficathon of stories featuring Muslim characters, which is going on today through to tomorrow (so there's still time to take part).

On my way to work, I took ojouchan to the Eid services at the LA Convention Center. Last year, we got lost for a while because we weren't sure where in the convention center Ojou needed to be. This year, we'd done our research, and expected the drop off to be quick and painless.

When we got there, though, there were streets blocked off all over the place. "Is that for you?" I asked, worried that there might have been some sort of threat that required far more extensive security than last year. But at some point while I maneuvered the streets, we realized that the roads weren't blocked for Eid, they were blocked for the Emmy Awards, which are to be held at the nearby Nokia Theatre later tonight.

I'm sure Ojou will be regaling us all with her wacky stories of production assistants failing to deal with Muslims near their precious red carpet.

The links keep on coming. For those confused by my recent failk, here's an executive survey of "PervySurveyFail" (so dubbed by someone ithiliana can't remember).

Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam have landed a lucrative book contract (publishing grapevine says US$250,000); as part of that project, they designed a survey to find out more about slash and fandom. The survey, their handling of it, their interaction with fans and critics has been both stupid and offensive in multiple ways.

There are, essentially, two lines of outrage in this whole thing. There's the political outrage at the horribly sexist, heteronormative, transphobic attitudes of Ogas and Gaddam in their survey and their interactions. And there's the outrage about the horribly bad science—the lack of clear methodology, patently biased questions, an ignorance of previous research in the area, etc.

The political outrage has played out in form much like other BlankFails. Which is not to say, again, that it is unimportant or uninteresting. rm has pointed out some very good threads about the harmful assumptions Ogas and Gaddam have been making about transsexuals and people who otherwise fall outside of the male/female sex/gender binary. Earlier today, Ogas and Gaddam (apparently in response to objections to their construction of "transsexual" in their work and the use of the word "tranny" in discussions) "corrected" their FAQ to replace "transsexual" with "shemale."

As rm said, "You have not yet begun to see wrath, although the cat macros are now out to play." And in apparent response to the escalation of failout, Ogas has now locked all of the posts that were originally intended for feedback and discussion of the project (thus rendering over a thousand comments invisible).

But because of the ostensibly scientific and academic roots of the survey and the project, many fans who are also academics soon began taking issue with the incredibly shoddy "research" being conducted. Objections were raised that there was no control preventing minors from participating, there did not seem to be adequate safeguards protecting respondents, that questions were being changed while the survey was still continuing. (Sadly, most of these discussions that I know about them are currently unavailable, because they were made in Ogas's journal.)

Eventually, the Institutional Review Board of Boston University was reached. (Ogas identified himself as "a cognitive neuroscientist at Boston University" in his initial approach to eruthros.) The IRB is responsible for maintaining ethical standards when researching human subjects (including when that research involves social, not medical, science). In the words of deadlychameleon, they responded that Ogas "is no longer in any way affiliated with Boston University, except as a recent graduate. They have asked him to stop using his official Boston University email address in connection with this project, or his website. He is officially on his own, and this project is NOT IRB APPROVED."

Deadly Chameleon continues:

The problem with this is threefold:

1. The researcher has no expertise in the area he is researching, nor has he recruited anyone to give him guidance.

2. The researcher has substantial profit motivation to produce work in this area (book contract with Penguin) which may lead to unethical conduct/a tendency to misrepresent his results.

3. The research is in no way overseen by any external body which can examine it for potential unethical conduct.

In addition to all of these, the researchers have now alienated their participant population, who are now very likely to become unreliable participants.

This explains much. Many people, myself included, wondered how two scientists or academics could behave so unprofessionally. Our error was in assuming that "scientist" or "academic" was their actual profession. It is clear that they are not. But if their profession is "hucksters peddling junk science for profit," it really would be unprofessional of them not to act the way they have.

Finally, this has been a surprisingly creative -fail. In addition to my own offering, there have been macros, parody surveys, Ogi Ogas/Sai Gaddam slash fic.

Other key posts:

• "please don't take the fanfiction survey," eruthros. This is the post that brought the issue to most people's attention.
• "don't take the fanfiction survey," thingswithwings. Shorter Ogas (sadly the links do not currently lead to actual discussion).
• "Ten Steps to a Perfect Fanstorm," Hoyden about Town. An early summary of the Fail, and one of the first mentions outside of LJ/DW.
• Screencaps of ogi_ogas. This includes some screenshots of the threads on individual questions of the original survey. The original posts on Ogas's journal received over a thousand comments before he locked down the entries, removing the criticism from public discourse.
• "Wearing the Juice: A Case Study in Research Implosion," N Pepperell. Asks whether Ogas and Gaddam are simply too incompetent to realize how badly they're doing.
• "Why Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam Are Phrenologists," neededalj. Examining the fine line between good and bad science in the field of neuroscience, and how Ogas and Gaddam are far, far away from the line where you can even see the line between good and bad science.
• "Fandom to researchers: We are not your lab rats," FeministSF, The Blog. Summarizes Ogas and Gaddam's interactions with fan academics in the month before the survey was posted.