melannen | (no subject)

So, can anyone here guess who it is in my new icon???

(It's cheating if you recognize the book it's from.)

For me, it's a weird sort of illusion- picture: if I look at it from the corner of my eye, or while distracted, I absolutely recognize her; but if I look at it straight on, it doesn't look a thng like her at all.

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I saw that book while at B&N this evening. I also found the current Tokyopop Star Trek manga, which I entirely expected to suck, but they don't suck entirely! They got good established Trek writers, and the art isn't actually trying to be manga-style. I saw two Wil Wheaton stories, and one by Diane Duane (she of Rihannsu-verse) in which the sexy, vulnerable alien queen the Enterprise is escorting gloms onto Dr. McCoy at first site and spends the whole trip completely ignoring Kirk in favor of attempting to seduce the good Doctor.

Also, there is a manga adaptation of David Gerrold's Bandi, which I read in one of the really early Trek short stories collections, and couldn't be better suited for a manga adaptation. Plus in the manga version it's even slashier, K/S wise, than the original. Also, Kirk saves the Enterprise in a page-spread where he radiates sparkles and love-hearts at a sad teddy bear with Bambi eyes.

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Anyway, politics: I have been pretty much ignoring the presidential race since it was decided who I'm going to be voting for, but this Sarah Palin thing is actually catching my interest again. Okay, I do feel bad for the kids, but srsly: Secret babies? Hidden teenage past as a terrorist secessionist? Spunky librarians? Eight hours in labor on a plane? Forced marriages? Russians *right next door*! Bears and wolves and PUMAs, oh my!

Now *that's* the stuff of a proper old-fashioned political scandal.

(And on a serious politics note: give me back my civil liberties, please.)

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I have a fanmix 99% ready to post, but I have *lost* the stylus for my tablet, and if I can't use my John Simm GIMP brush to strew rainbow-colored Master heads over everything, what's the point?

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In the exact same way I mean "secret babies" and "forced marriages": i.e. in the spirit of blatant rumor-mongering, and making things sound even more scandalous than they are, and as a references to certain OOT fictional tropes of my acquaintance.

Although honestly, if she grew up in Dominionist churches, I'm willing to grant her "teenage terrorist" status without even bringing up the outwardly political stuff - while she probably never actually took any violent action, the ideology is there. (Mind you, Christians latching onto terrorist ideology dates all the way back to Simon the Zealot; I don't consider that label to be The Most Horrible Thing like some people do.)

And -- yeah, like I said, I've known who I'm voting for since the Democratic primaries, and it just happens to line up with my community and self-image anyway, so my sole political involvement ATM is basically gleeful rumor-mongering. I feel very sorry for reasonable people who don't feel like they can support Obama/Biden, because the other choices are not looking good.

In the exact same way I mean "secret babies" and "forced marriages": i.e. in the spirit of blatant rumor-mongering, and making things sound even more scandalous than they are, and as a references to certain OOT fictional tropes of my acquaintance.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. I'm just dealing with a couple of friends who are doubters of the Dominionism angle (for no good reason, if you ask me, it's like they've got blinders on), and I'm trying to work really hard to separate truth from hyperbole in the blogosphere coverage about her. Don't blame Dems for being gleeful, though, I guess. I'd probably be enjoying the schadenfreude myself if I were one. It's just a really tough time to be a moderate elephant right now, that's all. Since you're for Obama, you'll probably be happy to know that all the pissed off people in my LJ were all Bush voters last time, and are now fairly deeply disenfranchised from the GOP. You'll pick up some of them, though I think several are going to be like me and write someone in.

Yeah, I'm just mostly enjoying the hyperbole and spectacle, because I don't really thing any of this is going to make much of a difference in the election overall. People who are going to be turned away from the McCain campaign are being sufficiently turned away by her actual political positions and record and by the blatant pandering, rather than by any of the more out-there stuff; people who aren't turned away by that are unlikely to be moved by any of the rest of it anyway.

As long as McCain doesn't win, I'd be just as happy with a low Rep. turn-out / record high write-in votes (and large Congressional turnover) as I would an Obama landslide: we just need a strong message that the stuff the current Republican leaders are trying to pull is NOT OKAY. I like the Obama, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice.

Mind you, my primary vote went to that other batshit Alaskan (http://www.mikegravel.us/issues), so possibly I just have a weakness for rugged frontier individualist types. :D Hmm, Gravel on Palin (http://www.counterpunch.org/gravel09032008.html): "Sarah Has Issues." ...no duh, Mike.