Why can't I stay on one topic any more?

[ciroccoj]

• What's the last thing that goes through a mosquito's head as you squish it against your monitor?
  
  Its asshole.
  
  
• Guess what I just scraped off my monitor?
  
  
• Six year olds are adorable. Justin just finished telling his Grandpa Rob all about how snorkels work. Because it's REALLY cool, and they SUCK air down INTO your mouth when you're UNDERWATER!
  
  'Cause what with Grandpa Rob being an engineer, he wouldn't know these things.
  
  
• Not a great day today. The boys are so deep in the doghouse they're dining on Kibbles 'n Bits. Let's just say that when you sneak out of bed at 2:45AM to play on the laptop, Mom & Dad are less than impressed. The laptop has been removed indefinitely.
  
  
• Not a great day for me & Chris either.
  
  
• Because I live under a rock, I only recently even heard about what appears to be one of the most well-known stories of internet plagiarism/not-plagiarism ever, that of Cassandra Claire, whom I only knew as the author of the absolutely hysterical Lord of the Rings "Very Secret Diary" fics.
  
  It's a fascinating tale starring a staggering number of players, spanning almost seven years and involving fan fiction, intellectual property, the struggle to define the terms "tribute", "homage", "pastiche", "quoting", "paraphrasing", and "outright shameless theft", and the struggle to define e-morality in a rapidly changing e-world. It's a tale of friendship, admiration, loyalty, misunderstanding, gossip, shifting alliances and betrayals in the ether, scams, banning, shunning and blacklisting, stalking, threatened lawsuits, and targetting a possible cancer patient with death threats.
  
  If you made this stuff up, people would think you made this stuff up.
  
  No, seriously. I spent about an hour last night reading about this stuff, marveling at the glory and the idiocy of people. Wow. Just... wow.
  
  
• Also saw Rent, finally, because I think there were only like three of us in all of lj-land who hadn't seen, and now there are only two :)
  
  I'd heard the soundtrack before, so I had a rough idea of what it was about, but... well, people who have seen it on stage might have a different opinion, but I thought it was wonderful. The songs are quite beautiful, but the visuals add so much more. I'm a sucker for tangos, and Tango Maureen was incredibly yummy. Not quite up there with Le Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge, but close. Out Tonight actually made me uncomfortable, it was so... um... Mimi. Cat scratch indeed.
  
  Santa Fe? DAMN. jenniferjames, I get your Jesselove. I'm used to seeing Jesse L. Martin as the button-down dude on L&O who only occasionally gets to put on a leather coat and look yummy undercover but is otherwise pretty.. contained. I knew the man could sing, but I didn't know he could twirl around and look so... 'loose' is the only word that comes to mind, but that's really not what I mean.
  
  La Vie Boheme was cute, pretty much what I'd pictured from the soundtrack. Was it wrong that I chuckled and remembered the Harry Potter Vie Boheme fanvid while the Rent version was playing? The "Blow off Auntie Em" and "To marijuana!" lines are just too funny.
  
  Take Me or Leave Me, I want to own. It's a chick song, and only really makes sense if you know the plot, so I hadn't paid it much attention on the soundtrack. The movie made it just breathtaking, especially when Joanne finally lets loose, and when they face each other across the pool table and belt out the words one last time. Gah.
  
  Yeah, OK, enough fangirly for now.

Comments

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

Because I live under a rock, I only recently even heard about what appears to be one of the most well-known stories of internet plagiarism/not-plagiarism ever, that of Cassandra Claire,

I guess that means i live even farther under that rock. News to me, too. However, I never was even peripherally involved in HP fandom, so that might explain it. Still, there seems to be a similar discussion going on in Pirates at the moment, so your link is quite timely re: the plagiarism issues of quoting others' fanfic in one's own. It never occurred to me that putting silly one-off Lord of the Rings references in my pirate fic could be counted as plagiarism! I mean, beyond the obvious "fanfic is plagiarism to begin with" aspect.

The snorkel description gave me a big belly laugh. Thanks.

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Well, the Cassie Claire thing isn't about one-off lines, so much as about her taking passages word-for-word from various published authors, and dozens of one-liners and exchanges from various sources, and stealing wholesale large portions of her plot. Oh, and lying about it for five years, to include driving people out of fandom and threatening people with legal action for libel. Nutty stuff all in all.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Oh, and lying about it for five years,
Well... to be scrupulously fair, for some of it she had actually said she'd quoted. There were passages in there that had apparently been discussed on groups she was involved in, where it had been kind of like a game of "So is that paragraph from Friends ep #452, scene 3?"

"Nope, getting close though, same topic, you're almost there!"

"Ep #458, scene 12?"

"Bingo!"

...however there were a lot of other bits that were notsomuch with the Full Disclosure Thing.

and threatening people with legal action for libel.
Did she threaten, or did other people threaten on her behalf? I must admit my popcorn ran out about 3/4 of the way through the story ;)

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Heidi threatening on her behalf, to be fair. Though when your friends are acting like pit bulls who haven't been fed in weeks, it's generally considered classy to try to restrain them a bit. *shrug* I'm not exactly impartial.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Though when your friends are acting like pit bulls who haven't been fed in weeks, it's generally considered classy to try to restrain them a bit.
LOL!!!

Oh, shit, I literally just sprayed white wine onto my monitor :D :D :D :D

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Sorry! *^^* I'm sure it'll clean up well...

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Still, there seems to be a similar discussion going on in Pirates at the moment, so your link is quite timely re: the plagiarism issues of quoting others' fanfic in one's own. It never occurred to me that putting silly one-off Lord of the Rings references in my pirate fic could be counted as plagiarism!
Yeah, me too! I was reading through parts of it thinking, damn, I do that. And I'm pretty sure of done some of that other thing too, even if I don't do it consciously.

But then there were the entire paragraphs and... yeah, notsomuch with that part of it ;)

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Did you see the bad_penny posting? It's more comprehensive than the fanhistory one you linked.

What a clusterfsck.

[shiningmoon.livejournal.com]

As this just appeared in another post on my friendslist, I will post the bad_penny link for perusal here (http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html). I have yet to actually read it myself.

Re: What a clusterfsck.

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Bring popcorn. It's hard to tear yourself away once you start reading.

Re: What a clusterfsck.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's everywhere. Wow. This just HAD to come out the same week I have a final and an eight-page paper to write.

[bast2.livejournal.com]

Ummm....there are still three people in lj land who haven't seen Rent.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Sooorreee ;)

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

Plus me!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

LOL OK, so I wasn't quite the only person who'd never seen it. Thought I was. Fellow non-Rentheads are so quiet.

And happy birthday, by the way :)

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

The boys are so deep in the doghouse they're dining on Kibbles 'n Bits

Okay, nice, new flat monitors that belong to The Boss and Diet Pepsi are not a good thing together.

Thanks for a much-needed laugh today.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Okay, nice, new flat monitors that belong to The Boss and Diet Pepsi are not a good thing together.
Hee - I did that with white wine yesterday :D :D

Thanks for a much-needed laugh today.
Always glad to be of assistance ;)