Yuletide

It's that time of year again! I've signed up, and can't wait to see what I get (both to write and receive). I'm also on the pinch hit list--although there's less chance I'll actually have time to write a pinch-hit this year than last. Still, you never know and it doesn't hurt to go on the list. And there were a lot of fandoms I wanted to request stories in--narrowing it down to the four things to ask for was tough. Waiting is the hard part--Yuletide is so much fun, not just the stories but the whole community and the excitement that you get caught up in.

My one disappointment was the modly ruling to lump all things in the same franchise together for the purposes of eligibility--so, for one not-random-at-all example, since Batman comics are ineligible because it's too big a fandom, the Batman Beyond cartoon (which gets very little fic written for it and only has two characters in common with the Batman comics and is set fifty years in the future so it's pretty distinct) is also ineligible. Rats. I've never been able to sit down and write any Batman Beyond fic myself, even though I have several story ideas I'd love to read if someone else wrote them. (Alas, they are not distinct enough to merit the name "plot bunny.")

Bullseye!

The Hubble took a really cool photograph of two galaxies that have just collided: one went right through the other.

Books For Soldiers--Care Packages for the Mind

Books For Soldiers is really hurting for cash this year--more soldiers are deployed now than at any single time since 9/11, and costs (particularly shipping) have risen. They need all the help we can give them. Lots of people say they support the troops; fewer actually do anything about it. They're far from home, in dangerous places, and this is something we can do to make their stay less onerous.

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An open letter to LJ peeps

46% of the country voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Forty-six percent of the country--that's almost half--thinks that John McCain would have made a better president than Obama will. They voted for him for a wide variety of reasons. If you voted for Obama, celebrate by all means. But please do not assume that a) everyone you know is celebrating or b) that anyone who didn't vote for President-Elect Obama is bigoted, elderly, mean-spirited, stupid, evil, out of touch with reality, etc. etc.