hey, there's a donkey with some pizzazz

I'm all out of sorts because apparently Jared Padalecki got married yesterday. I mean, I don't really *care*, except for sort of abstractly hoping he's very happy, etc. But cwrps is my "in between fandoms" fandom. I'm not all that invested in any character or pairing, but there's a shitload of fic, and a decent percentage of it is quite good fic. Which makes it a great fandom to dabble in when I don't have anything I am invested in. When I'm in a fic reading mood and I have nothing else to read, I can always find some Jared/Jensen fic to entertain me for a while.

Now, however, I'm going to have to stay away, because I think the fandom's going to EXPLODE, and I don't really care enough to deal with that. And this annoys me.

(Also, if I were going to have an OTP that would get me invested in cwrps? It would be Chad Michael Murray/Jensen Ackles. I could get behind that 1000%.)

Anyway. I'm definitely in a fandom liminal period. I'm not really writing FOB* at all anymore, and I really only read fic by authors I know and like. And I think I'm coming out the other side of the grieving process? For a while, I realized that I was way less invested in bandom, and that fact bothered me when I thought about it. But now I've made my peace. I'm just...hanging out, waiting for the next big fandom to grab me.

I just don't know what that'll be. I keep reading stuff--I dig the hell out of Jane/Cho The Mentalist fic, but I have zero desire to write it. And I lovelovelove Spencer Reid, but I don't have an OTP for CM...and I'm an OTP kind of girl, really. In terms of writing, I get sucked into fandoms by pairings, not characters. I loved Sherlock Holmes, but. I got "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" for my birthday when I was 13, and I've read it through at least twice since then. I have well-ingrained ideas about Holmes and Watson. I *loved* the film--I thought it was brilliant and fun. But. IDK. I'm attached to the books. I'm enjoying some of the fic, but...sometimes it upsets me when it, like, josses my teenage ideas about Sherlock. It's nothing wrong with the fandom, it's just me. :)

*sigh*. I'm feeling that itch, you know? I'm ready to get totally sucked into something. I just need to figure out what--and I'm totally taking suggestions, ps.


*Oh, except that languisity helped me outline the awesomest Teen Angel FOB AU last night. On the off chance you don't remember the sheer television *brilliance* that was Teen Angel, here's the IMDb summary, you know, altered a bit: After eating a six month old hamburger, Pete Wentz dies and God's cousin Rod appoints him as his best friend Patrick's guardian angel.

The show originally aired as part of abc's TGIF lineup, and, as such, it was lighthearted and stupid and aimed at preteens, probably. The characters are high school students. languisity quickly pointed out, though, that Pete Wentz would be the most emo dead best friend/guardian angel ever, so the fic would probably be less stupid slapstick and more angel!Pete stalking his girlfriend Ashlee and his family (who can't see him) and writing emo angel!poetry.

I am totally not putting together a soundtrack for this fic, and the theme song is totally NOT "Invisible" by Ashlee Simpson. I SWEAR.

Giving in, letting go of the world we know
They won't see you
It's so easy to be lost
But maybe you're not lost at all

Ohohohoh
Do you recognize me?
Ohohohoh
Do you know who I am?
Ohohohoh
Do you see me now?
Do you see me now?

I'M JUST SAYING.

I'm in the mood for a music meme, so.

Comment and I'll give you a letter. Then, you post a list of 10 songs beginning with that letter to your journal.

I'm placing an order with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, but I don't know what I want yet. My standby has been Perversion for years and years, but I want to try something new, so I'm ordering some imps...so far I have 4 scents picked out, so I need two more. Anyone on my friends list have any favorites?

I'm not even going to crosspost this to lj, because it's not worth the drama, but.

( seriously, no one should read this, it's about as wanky as I get )

It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.

RIP J.D. Salinger.

Would it really be so terrible if I just ran off and didn't take my one remaining final?

Okay, this is a reaction to...nobody on my friends list, but I'm going to rant here, anyway, even though it's probably preaching to the choir. For the record.

Let's talk about respecting people's right to choose the language that is used to define them. I'm going to quote a bunch of Robin Lakoff at you; this is from a book called The Language War, and hopefully I've patched these bits together in a way that still makes sense.

"If you're a member of the dominant group, your attributes are invisible, as your role in making things the way they are is not noticeable. This process is called 'exnomination' by the French deconstructionist Roland Barthes...Exnominated groups, says Barthes, become 'normalized': they become apolitical and nonideological. They just are. Their rules become the rules...

Communications theorist John Fiske defines the exnomination of whiteness in American culture this way: 'Exnomination is the means by which whiteness avoids being named and thus keeps itself out of the field of interrogation and therefor off the agenda for change'...In other words, by assuming an apolitical status, the exnominated (majority) group achieves its apolitical ends without needing to justify itself, or them...

Tacitly, the exnominated group assumes a set of shared interests that are reflected in decisions about what kinds of discourse will be taken seriously. And because those taken seriously embody the 'neutral' status quo, automatically the [exnominated] side has an edge in any argument: they don't have to make the case that their side is reasonable, or socially responsible, or normal: that's just a given."

The exnominated control language. They control dictionaries (and if you think this doesn't matter, there were lawsuits in the *1990's* about Merriam-Webster's refusal to emphasize that 'nigger' is a slur). They control the narrative of history. They control the terms that are used to describe minority groups, to a disturbing extent.

Every time we (the invisible, exnominated we) refuse to call people by the names they give themselves, every time we sneer about "political correctness" and how it can get "out of hand" because people take it to a "ridiculous extreme"...those reactions are based on the underlying assumption that the ways we've always thought about minorities and the ways we've always spoken about minorities don't need to be questioned and don't need to change. Because they are reasonable and normal; because we are normal. And it's those other people who are being unreasonable, who are extreme.

What I'm saying is: it's important to call people what they want to be called. And when you don't let people name themselves, you are forcibly taking power away from them--you are saying that you have power to name them and they do not. Even if it seems extreme or crazy to you, it's worth recognizing that your idea of "crazy" only has meaning in relation to the status quo. And the status quo is not neutral.

Bronx/Bandit ficlet, written for yourealwaysmine  and reposted for convenience.

( He's kind of like his dad, in some ways, and he thinks that a good offense is the best defense. Or, you know, even when you don't necessarily know if you need a defense. You should still be offensive. It's a Wentz thing. )

Title: In the Hall of the Mountain King
Author: heyginger
Prompt: Pete/Patrick, being spit on
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3500-ish
Summary: Pete never tells anyone, no one, never.



( To be one's self is to slay one's self. )

I just got one of those cooling lapdesks for my laptop, but now my keyboard is higher than I'm used to and it feels all different, so I keep typing Oatrick instead of Patrick.

More from the Google Docs archive! I wrote this back in...May, I think, in response to something azurejay said. I don't remember what I was responding to, but I know it was azurejay.

Title: Do-Si-Do
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~1900
Pairing: Pete/Patrick
Summary: The round, bumpy, perforated oatmeal cookie top and bottom surrounds a peanut butter-flavored layer inside. AKA: Pete and Patrick help their daughter have fun, develop valuable life skills, and make the world a better place.


( on my honor I will try )