Politics to me is just a more legitimate form of the paparazzi: it's the only time when we have a somewhat legitimate reason to mudsling and expect people to listen. I only made a short bullet about the LJ Elections yesterday and was going to leave it at that. Then this happened, and I'm enraged.

Maybe 'enraged' isn't the right word. Of course I'm angry that someone can make such racist & arrogant comments and call that an endorsement. Angrier still that other people will agree with said endorsement. But mostly, I'm disappointed. A big argument right now is over whether or not jameth supporters bashing fandom equals jameth bashing fandom. It becomes a question of whether or not a candidate is responsible for their supporter's actions.

That's not an easy question. You only have to look as far as the presidential election going on right now to see how convoluted the question of endorsement is, the most visible of these being Obama's controversial relationship with pastor Jeremiah Wright. I don't believe this relationship makes Obama a bad person or even un-American, but I do object to his early justification:

I can no more disown him [Reverend Wright] than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

To me, the difference between Obama's grandmother and the Reverend Wright is that the grandmother is family and the Reverend is not. Obama did not choose his grandmother, but he chose Wright. And that option of choice is the heart of the endorsement debate.

Each candidate caters to a certain demographic. Especially in an election with as wide a base as the entire LJ community, you can't expect to have the fans and the fan-haters at the same time. You have to pick a side. Ideally, the candidate should be able to say to his more rabid supporters: "hey, I really appreciate your support, but some of the things you're saying are losing me votes. If you really want me to win, please help me by toning it down a bit" and those who truly support him will while he distances himself from those who don't. Then, the candidate can start to narrow the chasm. I won't deny that jameth has tried to reach out to fandom, but until his proof becomes more concrete, I don't know if I can trust him.

It won't come as any surprise, then, that I'm pro-fandom and would be ecstatic if any of the pro-fandom candidates won. My personal vote goes to legomymalfoy whose endorsements come from people I trust in fandom. To make your own informed choice, there are many resources, both fan-friendly and not. The entire point is this:

In the end, it is all about you. Please VOTE.

[!!] Estelle's American Boy loops on my playlist because of her high yet somehow soulful voice and easy but danceable beat. I adore the way she looks--half pin-up, half life-sized doll and her eye make-up is perfect for winking.
[&] Sooner or later, we're going to have to discard the notion that every election contains a perfect candidate who backs ( every bullet point on our agenda. )
[?] I mentioned to bookshop that for the longest time, my parents had me convinced that the only reason I was conflicted over whether or not to pursue medicine was because I was ( spoilt and untried. )
[#] GQ ran an article in January 2008 entitled "All My Children" that literally made me ( fall in love with the magazine. ) The same issue included an amusing article about NFL cheerleaders. Also, James Marsden in beautiful clothing and prep school poses. It doesn't get any better than that, amirite?

That said, GQ and Esquire now rank among my favourite magazines. Apparently, old-boy attitude, pretentious snark and a wittyhigher quality of writing completely floor me. I even find the womanizing amusing from time to time. But really, why can't women's magazines cover as much ground?
[?] For general audiences: how do you stay organized on LJ? I am so close to imploding.

The Bible Belt is baffling to me, but then again, so is the South in a nutshell. Is it because I'm from the Midwest, where it's acceptable to go shopping in your sweats? From California, where same-sex marriage has just been legalized? Either way, I don't think I've ever got the South outside movies like Sweet Home Alabama and Gone With The Wind.

Which makes it particularly Ironic that I'm going to be in Nashville for the next two weeks. Life's different down here: case in point, the oncologist who I came to shadow. She practiced for a while in LA before coming here. By her account, she goes to work at 9am in both cities, gets off work at 5pm in both. Except she saw thirty patients a day in LA and only about ten here. It took her the longest time to figure out why, but in the end, it's all in the efficiency. In LA, the visits went like this:

Patient: I am experiencing pain.
Doctor: Here's your Vicodin, next.

In Nashville, however:

Patient: Let me tell you about my sick donkey.
Doctor: OKAY.

My oncologist is a rather impatient, ambitious woman, so suffice it to say it took her a while to adjust. I think it's rather charming that she talks about tomato crops now. I'm liking the relaxed atmosphere, since it's summer and it should be like this everywhere: 80+ °F weather, rolling hills, swimming pools and tastefully parceled groves of trees. Does anyone know what the deal with flying the Confederate flag is now?

Some bites:
[!!] the ONION has funny but useless campaign coverage. Obama, of course has the best media coverage, but I have to admit, desperate Hillary is beginning to yank on my heartstrings.
[&] Following up on California and same-sex marriage, is anyone else happy that Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are making a run for it? Along with pretty much every other gay celebrity couple that I didn't know were dating. The party's definitely on the West Coast this time, baby.
[#] What a crappy year for China. First with the snowstorms around Chinese New Year, then cyclones, Tibetan uprising, hoof-and-mouth jumping from animals to humans, and now the earthquake. I can't decide whether or not I want the Olympics to be cancelled.
[$] I spend upwards of a hundred dollars on magazine subscriptions yearly, so it's pretty amazing that something of mediocre fashion caliber is being published online. Free era? Yes, please!

Before I get started on honest-to-goodness writing, I want to organize and close up my (LJ-)past a bit. In the next week or so, I'll be organizing my memories and getting a new profile, etc. up. I might also purge some old journals. Anyway, today's entry is a look back at my writing: how it's grown up, or in many cases, not.

I've gone through my old writing journal and picked out what I feel to be pieces worth holding on to. They're works I can truly say I'm proud of because they represent the best of what I could give at that time. Of course, everything is nicely cut for convenience.

In other vaguely related news, I have a new layout thanks to gossymer! Working out a few kinks, but otherwise pleased. The header is my lame attempt at Photoshop--I'd pull something awesome-looking off the net, but crediting is complicated. Fitting in with the theme of this post, Slate.com is running a three-day coverage of procrastination, which definitely delivered as advertised.


:title Ordinary
:fandom Tenipuri: Gen, light Sengoku/Muromachi
:note I think this has always been one of my favourites because every time I wrote the word "Touji", I really meant me. Even today, it still reflects a lot of my fears; it's the most honest thing I've written.

( Twenty Things Touji Will Always Deny )




:title red white&
:fandom Tenipuri: Atobe/Fuji
:note This piece was Lewis Carroll-inspired, and for anyone familiar with my style, his is almost as different as you can get. I'm verbose, he's sparse; I dance around the point, he guts it. This was my attempt to be more direct.

( In which Fuji is exceedingly passive: )




:title Anagram
:fandom Tenipuri: Power Triangle
:note I will probably always consider this the coolest thing I've ever written, just because it's incredibly nerdy. All I did was anagram the word desire (or anagram multiple words to form "desire"), but for some reason it has always makes me giddy.

( 'Desire:' )




:title Love, Actually
:fandom Harry Potter: Lily/James
:note I rarely write het and I rarely write fluff. This bit had both, so I guess that made it doubly-rare.

( Rare like the polar bear: )

:title Hermitage
:fandom Harry Potter: Gen
:note This probably qualifies as the most emotional piece I've written: it came from Sirius's death and kept going. It's not very coherent, as a result, but it's a powerful enough memory that it still stirs up emotion when I re-read it today.

( hermitage \HUHR-muh-tij\ noun: )




:title Hurting, And The Ramifications of Lying
:fandom Tenipuri: Ryoma/Dan, one-sided Momo/Ryoma
:note I realise now that the whole "avant-garde lower-case" typing style is actually really annoying to read. Also, second person is easy to mess up. Add to that run-on sentences? Not cool. This piece has all three.

( you've always thought you were straight; surprise, surprise. )




:title Possibilities
:fandom Samurai Champloo: Gen
:note Again, a piece I appreciate more for the concept than the writing. I'd re-watch the series, but then I'd have to agonize over the non-existent fandom again.

( One point five weeks after the attack, Mugen and Fuu (and Jin) head home. )




:title Countenance
:fandom Samurai Champloo: Jin/Mugen
:note No note, just fun.

( countenance \KOWN-tuh-nuhn(t)s\ noun: )




:title Anvil
:fandom Tenipuri: D1
:note Writing this fic broke my heart: Niou's such a reckless character that, in all honesty, my mind draws parallel to an out-of-control dog that eventually just gets put down. Unlike Mugen, whose affections reign him in, Niou is a character who's beholden to nobody. In the end, I think that's what undoes him.

( Niou killed a man. )




:title Egao
:fandom Tenipuri: D1
:note This is the short sequel to Anvil. Because I can't get enough of the sappy angst, obviously.

( Niou killed a man, V2! )




:title Six Months's Rent
:fandom Tenipuri: Sengoku/Muromachi
:note For some reason, this foray into the second person has always been one of my favourites, despite also being one of the earliest.

( It's been a bad day--not at all what you expected end of the quarter to go like, because, for one, you didn't get that much-deserved raise and, for another, you lost your job. )


Whew, that was long. And then we move on.