LJ Idol Presents:

My abusive parents are the cause of all my problems, including and especially the ones that are my fault. *whistles cheerfully*

Just walked out of my microbio finals. I love easy finals. It's like a victory lap.

I try to do something nice for my professors at the end of the semester, because otherwise I'd feel ungrateful, so I baked the professor some cookies and wrote him a card - I also gave him my plague pamphlet from my Y. pestis presentation cause I figured it would amuse him - but he wasn't there, only a TA I'd never seen before. He said I could leave it with him, though. I hope he gets it.

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roina-arwen.livejournal.com

What kind of cookies did you bake?

That was a sweet idea - I hope your prof gets them!

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Chocolate chip. I'm no baker. Just followed the instructions on the Nestle bag.

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fodschwazzle.livejournal.com

This person will get letters of recommendation. Cookies are the key.

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This is what stood out to me this week.

I just really like the way

bleodswean writes men. (http://bleodswean.livejournal.com/197231.html)

crisp_sobriety is note-perfect this week (http://crisp-sobriety.livejournal.com/3326.html) and manages to draw in a story a bit like a cameo, where you learn more by what's missing.

watching_ships is haunting and vivid. (http://watching-ships.livejournal.com/467289.html)

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Thank you!!! So much! And really, that's something that means a lot to me...because men....and writing men....yes.

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Men.

Mm.

Mmhm.

Yeah...

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crisp-sobriety.livejournal.com

:3 Thanks for the rec!

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I'm most definitely guilty. I dunnit. I don't know what I dun, but I dunnit, I'm sure.

I had a really good weekend (so good that I spent all of yesterday frantically writing and trying to catch up with stuff I was behind on), and a really nice birthday. I only wish the weekend had been longer (I need a time machine. Stat).

I've voted! I... am kind of stunned by how small that poll is. There aren't very many of us left. Yipe! Also, I continue to be impressed by the variety, quality, and creativity of stuff produced week after week. :)

Today: catching up on Night Vale, reading slush, writing, writing, writing

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halfshellvenus.livejournal.com

MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmNight Vale!

Glad the birthday was a good one, and I hope there was cake!

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There totally was cake! Also mint chocolate chip ice cream, and board games, and good company. :)

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I... am kind of stunned by how small that poll is. There aren't very many of us left.

I know it! It's really stunning. Seems like we just had this GINORMOUS amount of writers...like yesterday.

I haven't had time to read everything and vote yet. Christmas is such a busy time of the year for me. I will do my reading/voting tonight or tomorrow morning.

So much of my flist is about the Night Vale and I just cannot figure out what that is.

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I'm glad that I'm not the only one.

I've been hearing about it for quite some time.

Then again - the first part of this post was a reference to SERIAL, so I'm used to not being on the same page as everyone else!

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kehlen-crow.livejournal.com

That's because it was so. Something like 20 got booted in the last 2 weeks.

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" Seems like we just had this GINORMOUS amount of writers...like yesterday"

The eliminations have been fast and furious lately!

"Christmas is such a busy time of the year for me."

I hear you. I've been feeling incredibly swamped, myself. The next little while should be interesting... Gary said this was the last vote of the year, so one wonders what the next few weeks will look like.

"So much of my flist is about the Night Vale and I just cannot figure out what that is."

It's a surreal, weird, wonderful podcast, done in the format of a community radio broadcast for a fictional town. There's a lot to love about it, but it's definitely not for everyone. If you're interested to try it, all the episodes are free through itunes and other such places. I was never into podcasts (and I'm still not, really), but Nightvale does WONDERFUL things with story, character, and setting, and it's a really high quality and wonderful diversion.

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anyonesghost.livejournal.com

Night Vale -- imagine NPR's "The News from Lake Wobegon" as narrated by Rod Serling. :-)

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swirlsofblue.livejournal.com

Welcome to Night Vale is AWESOME. I think you would like it.

It's a radio show set in the fictional town of Night Vale, a town with so many bizarre happenings they're now considered ordinary.

They had me at this paragraph in the first ep:

"The City Council announces the opening of a new dog park at the corner of Earl and Sommerset, near the Ralph’s. They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible that you will see hooded figures in the dog park. DO NOT APPROACH THEM. DO NOT APPROACH THE DOG PARK. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the dog park, and, especially, do not look for any period of time at the hooded figures. The dog park will not harm you."

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"I... am kind of stunned by how small that poll is. There aren't very many of us left. Yipe! Also, I continue to be impressed by the variety, quality, and creativity of stuff produced week after week. :)"

It's an impressive group of writers.

This season has been "weird" for me on a lot of levels and full of starts and stops. It's almost like a couple mini seasons that just ran into each other. :)

But I can't argue about the quality of the writers standing at the end of it.

Like I always say, that has a way of working itself out.

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"It's an impressive group of writers."

Absolutely!

"This season has been "weird" for me on a lot of levels and full of starts and stops. It's almost like a couple mini seasons that just ran into each other. :) "

Yeah, I hear you. It does sort of feel like it's been many separate things mashed together. I'm not quite sure why. Sort of like a bunch of frantically scrambling muppets trying to put together an eclectic variety show. :P (And just in case it's not clear, I think muppets scrambling to put on a variety show is a wonderful thing.)

I think this season, maybe more than others, has a lot of Identity stuff going on. What is LJ Idol when LJ is allegedly "dying"? What does it mean for LJI to be cross-platform, on twitter, facebook, and ello and all that? Who is it "for"? What comes next, for any of us, including you? These are all things we've been asking - quietly or loudly or muttering continually under our collective breaths - all season, trying to figure it out. And as we're all part of this collective community, that also means figuring ourselves out, and this space out. There's always been some element of that. "It's about the writing" or "it's a popularity contest" is stuff I've heard since way back when. But it's pretty front and center, and more centered even on livejournal itself as a platform these days. Especially as the year winds down and we're looking back and looking forward, I think it's easy to get reflective, and think a lot about what was and how things have changed.

Then again, that might just be my inclinations. Heh. ;) But... yeah. I think this season is a reflective, quiet one for the most part. If I had to characterize it up to this point. We're all thinking our thinky thoughts. Thanks for giving us a venue to do that together. <3

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It's true.

Leave it to Idol to have a meta-moment of self-discovery during a season!

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This is really gorgeously said. (Do you write much in the way of non-fiction essaying? You have a superb command of the language, but more...an impressive way of stringing many thoughts/sentences together to create nice and meaty paragraphs which then provoke thinking....)

It is my first Idol-ing and I am busy writing....but reflective thought and speculation is always a good thing. I wish there was a way for this to make Gary money because he really is what makes Idol such an amazing and unique experience. I'm certain getting writers to sign up would never really be an issue, regardless of dying platform.

I've taken and taught several year-long transformative courses. (Jungian in nature and sculpting/doll-making in particular, but with a lot of emphasis on journaling.) The Warrior of Light who led those courses was able to create a living out of doing so....but that's such a multi-faceted goal.

I've got a few writers on my flist who aren't here....I'm ready to pimp Idol HARD in the New Year.

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"I wish there was a way for this to make Gary money"

There are, and I'm using what I can. :)

It's not "much" money (in the bigger scheme of things) but every bit is helpful and most definitely appreciated.

You are always going to have people who (1) are not able to do anything financial. Most days I'm like that myself. So definitely understandable. I listen to a podcast several times I week that I wish I could give to... one day I will... (2) People who are opposed to any sort of exchange of money whatsoever for something that they have received for free (3) Some combination of those two with variations. ;)

You are also going to have people in a position to give, who do so.

All of those are people are welcome in Idol. The money aspect is just one way to "give back".

" because he really is what makes Idol such an amazing and unique experience."

I really am!

Oh wait, was I supposed to be modest? ;)

"I'm certain getting writers to sign up would never really be an issue, regardless of dying platform."

The Exhibits had a $5 donation and still had just under 100 people sign up. So there is definitely interest out there.

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"This is really gorgeously said. (Do you write much in the way of non-fiction essaying? You have a superb command of the language, but more...an impressive way of stringing many thoughts/sentences together to create nice and meaty paragraphs which then provoke thinking....)"

Thank you! And thank you again! I don't really do a lot of non-fiction essaying - I do some noodling over in my personal journal (http://cislyn.livejournal.com), and I played with doing non-fiction for Idol in exhibit B with

mythingperson (I caught myself saying "I can't do non-fiction" and when I notice a "can't" I get riled up and try to prove myself wrong). The noodlings are sometimes ok, and the stuff I produced for Idol I'm fond of, but mostly I stick to made-up stories and worlds that don't exist. It's more comfortable for me.

I agree that it would be great if Gary could make a living off of Idol - I don't know if that's going to happen, but it's an admirable goal, anyway. It's just such a hard thing, dealing with money. Emotions get all tied up in it and people have a pretty astounding capacity for getting weird about it (including me. Someone offers me a book as a gift and I'm like "ooo thank you!", but offer me the price of the book as a monetary gift just straight up? I feel weird about that).

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anyonesghost.livejournal.com

...... slow Green Room today: no one's made That Requisite Joke About The Size of Polls.

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*sets up a picnic lunch in the middle of the Green Room* This looks like a nice quiet spot.

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(http://www.glitter-graphics.com)

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