Thorns

So Cam has the full ten seasons of Stargate SG1, and I decided I felt like watching some of it. Since the episodes tend to be fairly stand alone and of variable quality I looked up the best 50 episodes and sorted them (see below poll) and then thought it would be nice to use this as an opportunity to see people, since it wouldn't involve me having to go out or talk much and thus is less prone to the "me getting sick and canceling" effect (of course, since it's at my house, me canceling is a bigger deal)

Edit: I live in Bayswater, walking distance from the Bayswater trainstation (though it's not a very short walk)

I was thinking three-four episodes, probably starting at about 6:30 on every second Wednesday night, people provide their own dinner with the possibility of arriving earlier and making a combined order of something. Episodes divided up so that people can miss a night and not miss the end of a cliffhanger. Anyone got any suggestions along those lines?
( details and a poll )

Reading TV Tropes to fill in the time until Cam comes home and we can go shopping, I came across this:

Australians as a nation are, for the most part, utterly mad about almost all forms of sports (but especially the ones they're really good at, such as cricket and Australian Rules Football). Here's a fun exercise; watch any Australian commercial TV news broadcast and make note of how many of the stories relate to sport in some way. Bet it's over half. Of course, if you happen to live in Australia and aren't particularly interested in sport, it makes an otherwise wonderful country somewhat less wonderful to live in. It doesn't help that when they lose something that they normally win (as happened a couple of years ago, when England unexpectedly won the Cricket Test Series), they can be pretty bad losers.

That doesn't happen in other countries? You guys's news is actually mostly news? You don't have national holidays based around horse races? o.O

A panel idea I've been batting around for next years Swancon is "Anime for people who don't like Anime" (and even if it doesn't become a panel, I think it would make for an interesting post and discussion). But in order to do it, I need to know what it is people don't like about anime, in order to find anime which avoid those things.

The first part of the poll is divided into two, one for anime fans and one for non-anime fans. If you're on the borderline, feel free to do both.
The second part is a few films I've seen suggested around the place or think people might like, but are not unqualified recommendations.

Note: disliking over the top violence etc is different to not minding it but not liking it enough for it to make up for an otherwise crappy show. Also, you can see the results of the polls you didn't take by clicking on the "Poll number blah" link.
( For non-anime Fans )( For anime fans )( For everyone )

This was very checked together: I see no point trying to craft the perfect poll without more data to get the questions right. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments.

I should mention that I'm mainly aimed at people who don't mind anime in principle but have high standards and tend to dislike a lot of the stuff they get recommended, or don't know where to start. People who hate all of it are probably better off as they are!

Also, in the poll I only mentioned a few films each from Hiyao Miyazaki and Satoishi Kon, but they're both totally awesome and worth a look. In my opinion, as an anime fan :)

I'm on a webcomics discussion community snarkoleptics. Every now and then you get someone posting about how much the latest storyline of PvP totally pissed them off, and they just can't stand it any more, and there'll be a chorus of people going "God, me too" and "I gave it up years ago"... but also "I know, I don't know why I keep reading it but I Just Can't Stop!" (plus of course people who think PvP is awesome and everyone else should shut up about it). I was in the "Why can't I stop reading this?" camp myself for ages, I only managed to stop reading it a few days ago.

So I was wondering: what are the continuing series (whether books/comics/shows etc) that you just can't let go? Not the ones you know are bad but enjoy anyway, or mostly enjoy but are occasionally pissed off at. I mean the ones that you don't enjoy, that pretty much always make you wish you hadn't read/watched it, but somehow make you come back for more. (I realise the line between "Mostly good but sometimes really annoying" and "Mostly annoying but sometimes really good" is pretty blurry)

And: what is it that draws you back? With PvP I think it's the fact that while I find the characters and plots really annoying, and am not generally that amused by the humour, Scott Kurtz has honed his craft to such a degree that everything else (the flow, the expressions etc) is just really well done and draws you in. Also webcomics are so convenient and free it's easy to stick to them out of inertia.

Would people agree that people often get disproportionately angry at the authors of these sorts of irresistibly-crap works, since they cause more extended pain than repulsively-crap stuff? In my experience you get a lot of fannish entitlement: "You are a bad person for not writing the sort of story I would enjoy more".

One of my achilles heels is hating not knowing how something ends. I've gotten pretty ruthless about just skipping to the ends of annoying books, and am refusing to even look at the new Obernewtyn book, but it still pains me.

And then of course there's movie adaptations of beloved books/comics. I tend to refuse to watch them unless I've heard they're good, but I know a lot of people are drawn like a moth to a flame and then are inevitably, painfully burned.

Important note: I realise that by it's nature this sort of question calls for a lot of negativity, but please try to avoid any "This sucks and so does the author and everyone who likes it" "No, it's awesome, and YOU suck!" "No, YOU SUCK" etc. Enjoyability is not an objective measure that makes any sense to argue about.

EDIT: Also, this is what you hate to love, try to avoid assigning motives to other people you've seen criticising something you like, since from the outside it's hard to tell the difference between genuine hate and "I criticise because I love". That said, I am reminded of Star Wars Fans Hate Star Wars :)

(n.b. This is the only post I wrote while sick which I think is up to being posted without serious revision, so I'm posting it to make myself feel better about not posting the others)

So, I don't drink, never really got into it, and it's been nearly ten years since I was a teenager.

But while adding a tax to pre mixed drinks may cut down on teens drinking, wouldn't the logical solution just be for them to...mix their own drinks?

If I was a bottleshop owner I'd start selling value packs of fanta and vodka.

EDIT: Cam has pointed out that if any of you were dumb enough to go "Oh well, guess I'll have to stop drinking" I've just set you back on the path to drunkenness and ruin. Eh, I don't think any of you are teenagers anyway :)

EDIT 2: So apparently they're just making the tax more consistent, since it used to be cheaper to buy premixed drinks than the raw ingredients. That makes sense then, but the article is still dumb.

I am feeling rather under the weather so am going to have to skip the Pines this Sunday. Anyone want my ticket? It's $25. You'll have to organise it with Margaret Dunlop, who I was going to go with and has the ticket.

So...it turns out I'm running the Harry Potter Panel at Swancon. By myself. (No fault to Dave, apparently everyone else said no. Bah to them!)

Which is somewhat problematic given that while I have a LOT of opinions (that's why I volunteered) they're mostly negative and uninformed, and thus likely to get me lynched :) So anyone who actually thinks the books are good (and doesn't mind sharing a panel with someone who thinks they're enjoyable but flawed) want to do it with me? Otherwise I'll just coopt the first friendly face to turn up to the panel :D

It's at 2pm on Monday.

Anyone who has ideas on stuff to talk about/useful facts/links etc please pipe up!

( Panel synopsis and some ideas I had )

So, I've been looking into printing Chapter One of ACOS as a 24 page A5 minicomic, and I'm curious to know roughly what sort of interest there'd be. Note that I'm not polling on whether you think it's nice idea, but whether you, personally, would pay money for it. I totally understand if you wouldn't.

[Poll #1145129]

This is totally as a not-for-profit vanity press thing, since I can't see me selling many especially since lets face it it's not the worlds most professional looking comic. It looks like the absolute minimum cost is $7 each for 50 and $15 each for 20 but I haven't looked into it very hard. I'm not sure how much it would cost to print individual issues (20 has been the minimum number I've seen so far), but if there's VERY little interest I'll just run off like one for my parents etc :)

So, I'm on the "Science of Science Fiction" panel at Gengiscon weekend after next, and it turns out that while I thought I was simply on the panel I'm actually running the panel, and thus have no other panelists unless I organise them.

Which is ok, Cam's agreed to be on it with me, but I thought I'd put the word out and see if anyone else who's going (or might consider going, it's 7pm on Saturday which looks like a fun day and it's only $10 for the day(*)) is interested in going on it with us. Or even just has suggestions. I was thinking only one or two people (I say on the very off chance I get 3+ volunteers)

I've done a first draft of an outline here. I was thinking of having as much audience involvement as possible anyway. Another section I just thought of to add is the stuff that everyone always gets wrong.

(*)It's possible that you get free day membership for being on the panel, but I haven't checked so wouldn't count on it :)

So...I'm one of those people who is occasionally inspired to do crazy huge projects. These generally fall flat quite quickly when I run out of interest (ACOS being a rare exception) I have been seized by the inspiration for another project recently, and would like you all to tell me why it's a bad idea, since if I start it'll be hard to extricate myself.

Basically I'd like to start an lj community fan_comics for people to post fancomics in, like a more broad hpcomics. Afaict there's currently nowhere on the internet like that, apart from a few scattered and sparse archives and webrings.

The problem is that once I started it I'd have to stick with it and moderate it. Now I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be all that popular, so that wouldn't be all that onerous but still. Moderating an internet forum is craziness on a stick. And oh god the badly drawn porn I will have to at least skim over :(

I first got hit with this idea like six months ago but managed to fob myself off with "If you have that much free time why don't you do all the other stuff you should be doing", but it hit me again last night with even more force. Help! Tell me why this is baaad! Though just saying that fancomics are bad is unlikely to sway me much, because I like 'em :P