From *grumble* to *squee*
Mar. 17th, 2011 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasarielMy iPhone 3G, Skippyjon Jones Jr., is a trusty little piece of equipment. It doesn't glitch two often, and I've dropped it a couple of times without shattering it into a million pieces. But planned obsolescence marches on, and it was obviously not made to last. Back in the good ol' days of rampant racism and WWII, when you bought a gadget, the idea was that you would be using that gadget for a few decades. If you bought a telephone or refrigerator, then that was going to be your telephone or refrigerator for the foreseeable future. But then came the '50s, and with that era came the idea of planned obsolescence. So you would buy, say, a car or television, but you knew that in a few years, that model would be out of date and you would need to buy a new one, since the parent company would stop servicing the old model, which would be designed to fall apart anyway. With that in mind, companies started producing stuff that they knew wouldn't last, because it didn't have to. Why make a few sturdy, costly cars that would run without trouble for years and years, while you could churn out cheaper ones much faster, which would wear down quickly and force people to buy another one? A grand moneymaking scheme, I'll grant, but a bit hard on the average consumer, like yours truly.
So back to Skippy. He's been showing his age lately: I'm noticing more bugs and glitches as support for the iPhone 3G is phased out and people are not-so-subtly nudged towards the shiny new iPhone 4, the battery drains at an annoyingly fast rate as repeated chargings wear down its efficiency, and finally, the headphone jack is bent and nigh-unusable. So I decided to bow to societal pressure (do manufacturers count as "society"?) and upgrade. Fine and dandy. My as-of-yet unnamed iPhone 4 arrived with commendable speed, and I do have to admit that it looks pretty slick. So after getting it all charged up and backing up all the data on my iPhone 3G in order to avoid it getting lost in the transfer, I plugged the soon-to-be newest incarnation of my iBrain into my trusty old laptop, a 2005 (if memory serves) MacBook. You know, the clunky white plastic ones that they don't make anymore. But Lila has served me well and loyally, and I've never seen the need to plunk down a few hundred bucks for a shiny metal casing and a few ounces less of weight.
But when I go to bring my iPhone 4 online, it tells me that I can't, because my version of iTunes is too old. OK, I think to myself, progress marches on. It'll be no trouble to go to the Apple site and download the latest iTunes, especially since they've been touting it like nobody's business and there are links to it all over the place. But when I go to do *that*, iTunes tells me that the latest version can't be installed because my OS is too old! I freely admit that I'm not the most computer-savvy person on the planet, but I usually manage to get by (and make my brother fix whatever the problem is when I can't). As far as I can recall, OS (operating system) is the brains of the computer, to put it simply. The OS is what turns a hunk of plastic and circuits into Facebook or LiveJournal or whatever. So in order to install a new OS, wouldn't I basically need to get a new computer?
I'll be making a call to AppleCare a bit later today, and I hope that they can at least point me in the right direction. Of course, this just has to be a hassle too: when I go onto the Apple site to look up the contact number (I've had bad luck with online support), they make such a big deal about graciously offering "complimentary phone support, one support incident per iPod and unlimited incidents per Mac, iPhone, and iPad" within 90 days of purchase. Umm... I thought it was standard practice to offer unlimited support for your products whenever it's needed. So if your iPod starts randomly interposing beeping noises over the music, your laptop refuses to connect to wireless networks, or it starts eating your files 91 days after you bought it, you're SOL? I know that it's in the spirit of capitalism and all to try to bilk the customer for as much money as possible, especially when they have no alternatives, but you've already got a *very* conservative estimate of $500 from me for the laptop, iPhone, and all the upkeep they've needed since purchase (I'm not even counting my phone plan), so don't you think it's time you cut me some slack? Of course not, because they're a giant omnipotent company, and they know full well that I'll pay what it takes to make my technological life run smoothly. Capitalism can be kind of a bitch sometimes.
Now that I've talked about something that makes me angry, I'll talk about something that makes me happy: books! More specifically, A Song of Ice and Fire.
In my previous entry, I mentioned that I'd like to see more of Renly and Loras then them having sex and angsting (only rarely at the same time). They're both fascinating characters (I've come to expect nothing less from GRRM), and it's unfair (albeit an attractive notion) to just write about pretty people being pretty. I want to see some good old action/adventure from them, not the romance/dramedy that seems to be the mainstay of those who write this pairing. Don't get me wrong, I love a good snuggly scene as well as the next fangirl, but when that's all there is, it's kind of like subsisting on a diet of marshmallows: tasty at first, but gets sickeningly sweet over time. I want to see Bitchface!Cersei try to expose their relationship to Oblivious!Robert. I want to see Gregor Clegane try to exact vengeance for Loras' little trick at the tourney of the Hand. I want to see Machiavelli!Olenna maneuvering everything into position. I want to see the flight from King's Landing. I want to see skirmishes as Renly's army proceeds along the roseroad and is harried by everything from bandits to false lords to Lannisters. I want to see Loras defending Renly's honor against any and all comers. I want to see Renly being crowned, creating the Rainbow Guard, and appointing Loras its Lord Commander.
Of course, even the most pulse-pounding Renly/Loras tale of excitement and derring-do wouldn't be complete without its share of lovin'. When the Rainbow Guard is created, I want to see parallels being drawn between a Guard's oath of loyalty and wedding vows, and between the rainbow cloaks of the Kingsguard and wedding cloaks (OK, maybe I want to see this so much because I find the idea of Renly wearing nothing buy a Tyrell wedding cloak to be an attractive one ;) ). I want to see someone else hit on Loras and Renly getting all territorial, or vice versa. I want to see Renly getting hurt, and Loras guarding him and/or taking care of him, or vice versa. I want to see Renly being challenged by some gigantic thug of a knight and declaring Loras his champion, and then worrying that he'll get hurt. I want them to subtly (or maybe not-so-subtly) flirt with each other when there are others around. I want one of them to get captured by the bad guys du jour and the other to go charging off to rescue him. I want Loras to give Renly golden roses after dispensing white and red ones to various girls. I want some besotted maiden to set her sights on Prince!Renly or Knight!Loras, and have the other find it hilarious and/or get jealous that she can hang all over him in public. I want Renly to ruminate on what a smokin' hot piece of ass Loras is. I want them to call each other pet names and declare their undying devotion to each other and make passionate love as many times as is physically possible; I just want them to do so in the context of a more plot-heavy story.
I would also like to see a broader focus within the context of this pairing. How did/does Margaery feel about her husband and her brother as a couple? How did/do Willas and Garlan feel about their little brother's relationship with his one-time knight master, and later king? Was Olenna okay with the idea that two out of her four grandkids were out of the running in terms of producing heirs? Did any of them even know that Renly and Loras were more than just friends?
But what really interests me is where Brienne fits into all of this. She's in a very awkward position, any way you look at it: she's a large, strong, ugly woman in a world where a woman's value to society lies (partially) in her grace, beauty, and all-around "womanly virtues." She does a man's job, and does it better than most men, but doesn't do it well enough for it to earn her acceptance in the warriors' world she so obviously longs to be a part of. She asked for (and, to Renly's credit, was given) a place reserved for a much older and more famous knight than her. And to top it off, she's fallen hard for a man who is A) of a vastly higher social class than her, B) clearly not attracted to her, C) not even attracted to her gender, D) married to someone else, and E) passionately in love with someone else still.
So the cards are kind of stacked against her. I'd like to see a fic or two dealing with her time when she was actually in the Rainbow Guard, before Renly's death. She doesn't seem like a person who holds a lot of illusions, either about herself or the world around her. She might have seen that Renly and Loras were an item, which might or might not have caused her to grow jealous of Loras. She might have developed a rivalry with him anyway, since they're both the cream of the crop, and Loras is not used to losing, especially not to a girl. Of course, Brienne is also a romantic at heart, so when rumors start circulating that Renly is a little too interested in the well-being of his Rainbow Guard, that might be construed (by her and/or others) to mean that he's interested in Brienne. Would Renly find out about this misperception? How? How would he deal with it? Would he deal with it at all? See, these are the kind of questions that I want answered.
On a more serious note, another thing that I'm less than thrilled about is the age differences in relationships. Understand, I'm not railing against pairings like Jaimie/Brienne or Jon Arryn/Lysa Tully, where both characters are both physically and sexually mature, even though there is indeed a significant gap in their ages. They're both consenting adults; they both know (or at least, should know) what they're getting into. But when people start describing Littlefinger/Sansa or Sandor/Sansa as "hot" or "sexy," then I admit I get more than a little bit squicked. I realize that this is a very personal thing for me: I have a 13-year-old sister, and her middle school is literally half a block away from out house, so I'm in contact with this age group pretty often. She, along with half of her friends, still describes boys as "gross" and "smelly." I am so very, very not okay with portraying underage characters in sexual relationships, especially with adults, and *especially* with adults who are supposed to be parent or protector figures, like Littlefinger or Sandor. I can't describe how disturbing it is to me that a powerful older man would feel, and even express, an interest in a barely-pubescent girl, and worse, that people in this day and age, people in my fandom, people who I want to like, condone it. My sister and her friends are still at the stage where they get all giggly every time they watch Naruto and Sasuke comes onscreen, for Dog's sake! I know that life expectancies are shorter in Westeros, so people are expected to reach sexual maturity earlier, but when I think of kids in that age group, I think of Hannah Montana and Dragon Ball Z, not of getting it on with an authority figure. This is one of the reasons I think (or at least, I hope) that Renly and Loras didn't being their sexual and/or romantic relationship until after Loras was knighted, because otherwise that brings up all sorts of unfortunate questions of consent and abuse of power.
I know it sounds like I'm being very critical of this fandom, but on the whole, I really do love it. I've found a sense of community here, a sense of inclusiveness that I haven't found in a long, long time. The fandom is just the right size: not big enough to disintegrate into a million different warring camps, but not so small that I can get through every single piece of fanfic, fanart, and fan-discussion in one afternoon. The people also seem to be a nice mix of erudite and silly. I feel like I can mess around when I feel like it and be a little more serious when I feel like it, and nobody will blast me for it. It's a comparatively old fandom, so all the fireworks that I associate with new fandoms that are not yet well-established are over, and people seem to feel pretty comfortable in voicing their opinions, no matter what they may be. Disagreements are generally friendly and well-reasoned, more like a spirited debate among friends than the more antagonistic shouting matches that I've seen elsewhere. People here understand that I may disagree with your views, but that doesn't mean that I hate you personally and won't rest until the stain of your existence is wiped off the face of teh Interwebz. Also, there seems to be a good amount of inter-fandom similarities: in my application to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
westerosorting , I mentioned that I'm a fan of Tolkien and Terry Pratchett, which elicited similar declarations from a host of other fans. One even browsed my interests and declared herself (or possibly himself) a fellow Dresden Files fan! So all in all, I think I'm going to like it here. ^.^
So back to Skippy. He's been showing his age lately: I'm noticing more bugs and glitches as support for the iPhone 3G is phased out and people are not-so-subtly nudged towards the shiny new iPhone 4, the battery drains at an annoyingly fast rate as repeated chargings wear down its efficiency, and finally, the headphone jack is bent and nigh-unusable. So I decided to bow to societal pressure (do manufacturers count as "society"?) and upgrade. Fine and dandy. My as-of-yet unnamed iPhone 4 arrived with commendable speed, and I do have to admit that it looks pretty slick. So after getting it all charged up and backing up all the data on my iPhone 3G in order to avoid it getting lost in the transfer, I plugged the soon-to-be newest incarnation of my iBrain into my trusty old laptop, a 2005 (if memory serves) MacBook. You know, the clunky white plastic ones that they don't make anymore. But Lila has served me well and loyally, and I've never seen the need to plunk down a few hundred bucks for a shiny metal casing and a few ounces less of weight.
But when I go to bring my iPhone 4 online, it tells me that I can't, because my version of iTunes is too old. OK, I think to myself, progress marches on. It'll be no trouble to go to the Apple site and download the latest iTunes, especially since they've been touting it like nobody's business and there are links to it all over the place. But when I go to do *that*, iTunes tells me that the latest version can't be installed because my OS is too old! I freely admit that I'm not the most computer-savvy person on the planet, but I usually manage to get by (and make my brother fix whatever the problem is when I can't). As far as I can recall, OS (operating system) is the brains of the computer, to put it simply. The OS is what turns a hunk of plastic and circuits into Facebook or LiveJournal or whatever. So in order to install a new OS, wouldn't I basically need to get a new computer?
I'll be making a call to AppleCare a bit later today, and I hope that they can at least point me in the right direction. Of course, this just has to be a hassle too: when I go onto the Apple site to look up the contact number (I've had bad luck with online support), they make such a big deal about graciously offering "complimentary phone support, one support incident per iPod and unlimited incidents per Mac, iPhone, and iPad" within 90 days of purchase. Umm... I thought it was standard practice to offer unlimited support for your products whenever it's needed. So if your iPod starts randomly interposing beeping noises over the music, your laptop refuses to connect to wireless networks, or it starts eating your files 91 days after you bought it, you're SOL? I know that it's in the spirit of capitalism and all to try to bilk the customer for as much money as possible, especially when they have no alternatives, but you've already got a *very* conservative estimate of $500 from me for the laptop, iPhone, and all the upkeep they've needed since purchase (I'm not even counting my phone plan), so don't you think it's time you cut me some slack? Of course not, because they're a giant omnipotent company, and they know full well that I'll pay what it takes to make my technological life run smoothly. Capitalism can be kind of a bitch sometimes.
Now that I've talked about something that makes me angry, I'll talk about something that makes me happy: books! More specifically, A Song of Ice and Fire.
In my previous entry, I mentioned that I'd like to see more of Renly and Loras then them having sex and angsting (only rarely at the same time). They're both fascinating characters (I've come to expect nothing less from GRRM), and it's unfair (albeit an attractive notion) to just write about pretty people being pretty. I want to see some good old action/adventure from them, not the romance/dramedy that seems to be the mainstay of those who write this pairing. Don't get me wrong, I love a good snuggly scene as well as the next fangirl, but when that's all there is, it's kind of like subsisting on a diet of marshmallows: tasty at first, but gets sickeningly sweet over time. I want to see Bitchface!Cersei try to expose their relationship to Oblivious!Robert. I want to see Gregor Clegane try to exact vengeance for Loras' little trick at the tourney of the Hand. I want to see Machiavelli!Olenna maneuvering everything into position. I want to see the flight from King's Landing. I want to see skirmishes as Renly's army proceeds along the roseroad and is harried by everything from bandits to false lords to Lannisters. I want to see Loras defending Renly's honor against any and all comers. I want to see Renly being crowned, creating the Rainbow Guard, and appointing Loras its Lord Commander.
Of course, even the most pulse-pounding Renly/Loras tale of excitement and derring-do wouldn't be complete without its share of lovin'. When the Rainbow Guard is created, I want to see parallels being drawn between a Guard's oath of loyalty and wedding vows, and between the rainbow cloaks of the Kingsguard and wedding cloaks (OK, maybe I want to see this so much because I find the idea of Renly wearing nothing buy a Tyrell wedding cloak to be an attractive one ;) ). I want to see someone else hit on Loras and Renly getting all territorial, or vice versa. I want to see Renly getting hurt, and Loras guarding him and/or taking care of him, or vice versa. I want to see Renly being challenged by some gigantic thug of a knight and declaring Loras his champion, and then worrying that he'll get hurt. I want them to subtly (or maybe not-so-subtly) flirt with each other when there are others around. I want one of them to get captured by the bad guys du jour and the other to go charging off to rescue him. I want Loras to give Renly golden roses after dispensing white and red ones to various girls. I want some besotted maiden to set her sights on Prince!Renly or Knight!Loras, and have the other find it hilarious and/or get jealous that she can hang all over him in public. I want Renly to ruminate on what a smokin' hot piece of ass Loras is. I want them to call each other pet names and declare their undying devotion to each other and make passionate love as many times as is physically possible; I just want them to do so in the context of a more plot-heavy story.
I would also like to see a broader focus within the context of this pairing. How did/does Margaery feel about her husband and her brother as a couple? How did/do Willas and Garlan feel about their little brother's relationship with his one-time knight master, and later king? Was Olenna okay with the idea that two out of her four grandkids were out of the running in terms of producing heirs? Did any of them even know that Renly and Loras were more than just friends?
But what really interests me is where Brienne fits into all of this. She's in a very awkward position, any way you look at it: she's a large, strong, ugly woman in a world where a woman's value to society lies (partially) in her grace, beauty, and all-around "womanly virtues." She does a man's job, and does it better than most men, but doesn't do it well enough for it to earn her acceptance in the warriors' world she so obviously longs to be a part of. She asked for (and, to Renly's credit, was given) a place reserved for a much older and more famous knight than her. And to top it off, she's fallen hard for a man who is A) of a vastly higher social class than her, B) clearly not attracted to her, C) not even attracted to her gender, D) married to someone else, and E) passionately in love with someone else still.
So the cards are kind of stacked against her. I'd like to see a fic or two dealing with her time when she was actually in the Rainbow Guard, before Renly's death. She doesn't seem like a person who holds a lot of illusions, either about herself or the world around her. She might have seen that Renly and Loras were an item, which might or might not have caused her to grow jealous of Loras. She might have developed a rivalry with him anyway, since they're both the cream of the crop, and Loras is not used to losing, especially not to a girl. Of course, Brienne is also a romantic at heart, so when rumors start circulating that Renly is a little too interested in the well-being of his Rainbow Guard, that might be construed (by her and/or others) to mean that he's interested in Brienne. Would Renly find out about this misperception? How? How would he deal with it? Would he deal with it at all? See, these are the kind of questions that I want answered.
On a more serious note, another thing that I'm less than thrilled about is the age differences in relationships. Understand, I'm not railing against pairings like Jaimie/Brienne or Jon Arryn/Lysa Tully, where both characters are both physically and sexually mature, even though there is indeed a significant gap in their ages. They're both consenting adults; they both know (or at least, should know) what they're getting into. But when people start describing Littlefinger/Sansa or Sandor/Sansa as "hot" or "sexy," then I admit I get more than a little bit squicked. I realize that this is a very personal thing for me: I have a 13-year-old sister, and her middle school is literally half a block away from out house, so I'm in contact with this age group pretty often. She, along with half of her friends, still describes boys as "gross" and "smelly." I am so very, very not okay with portraying underage characters in sexual relationships, especially with adults, and *especially* with adults who are supposed to be parent or protector figures, like Littlefinger or Sandor. I can't describe how disturbing it is to me that a powerful older man would feel, and even express, an interest in a barely-pubescent girl, and worse, that people in this day and age, people in my fandom, people who I want to like, condone it. My sister and her friends are still at the stage where they get all giggly every time they watch Naruto and Sasuke comes onscreen, for Dog's sake! I know that life expectancies are shorter in Westeros, so people are expected to reach sexual maturity earlier, but when I think of kids in that age group, I think of Hannah Montana and Dragon Ball Z, not of getting it on with an authority figure. This is one of the reasons I think (or at least, I hope) that Renly and Loras didn't being their sexual and/or romantic relationship until after Loras was knighted, because otherwise that brings up all sorts of unfortunate questions of consent and abuse of power.
I know it sounds like I'm being very critical of this fandom, but on the whole, I really do love it. I've found a sense of community here, a sense of inclusiveness that I haven't found in a long, long time. The fandom is just the right size: not big enough to disintegrate into a million different warring camps, but not so small that I can get through every single piece of fanfic, fanart, and fan-discussion in one afternoon. The people also seem to be a nice mix of erudite and silly. I feel like I can mess around when I feel like it and be a little more serious when I feel like it, and nobody will blast me for it. It's a comparatively old fandom, so all the fireworks that I associate with new fandoms that are not yet well-established are over, and people seem to feel pretty comfortable in voicing their opinions, no matter what they may be. Disagreements are generally friendly and well-reasoned, more like a spirited debate among friends than the more antagonistic shouting matches that I've seen elsewhere. People here understand that I may disagree with your views, but that doesn't mean that I hate you personally and won't rest until the stain of your existence is wiped off the face of teh Interwebz. Also, there seems to be a good amount of inter-fandom similarities: in my application to
westerosorting , I mentioned that I'm a fan of Tolkien and Terry Pratchett, which elicited similar declarations from a host of other fans. One even browsed my interests and declared herself (or possibly himself) a fellow Dresden Files fan! So all in all, I think I'm going to like it here. ^.^
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:00 am (UTC)Herself :) as you can see, I'm continuing to stalk your LJ :P
I have found quite a bit of overlap between a number of fandoms I'm into and ASOIAF. Somehwere in
There is a fair bit of Renly/Loras fanfic on
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading your views on the series in your
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 01:18 am (UTC)A LOTR/Sil sorter? I can't wait to see that! Lol, Fëanor and his descendants are definitely Targaryens.
There are really other Dresden fans here?! I'll admit, that wasn't something I'd expected when I was getting to know the ASOIAF fandom, but now it makes a lot of sense. A gritty combination of magic and good ol' fisticuffs narrated by a snarky badass or two (among others)? Sounds familiar, methinks.
Oh, don't mind my fanfic grousing. I constantly aspire to live in some sort of fantasy world where all fanfic writers are geniuses who can read my mind, and I have a tendency to get bent out of shape when I remember that I live in the real world. I've found some damn decent ones, so the pairing as a whole isn't that badly off. I'll admit that the main reason I joined westerosorting is so that I could have access to valyrian_forged. (BTW, sorry about the lack of html and Dresden Files iconage, of which I do have several. I'm on vacation, and typing this on my phone, which is exactly as and primitive as it sounds).
Friend away! It seems like you and I share quite a few interests (OMG you like Holly Black and dislike Stephanie Meyer!), so I hope you don't mind if I friend you back?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:41 am (UTC)A gritty combination of magic and good ol' fisticuffs narrated by a snarky badass or two (among others)?
Yep, that and a large cast of interesting and variously badass characters is a large part of the crossover appeal, I think, despite the difference in subgenres.
And, yes, I'm definitely a fan of Holly Black (though I haven't gotten around to reading White Cat yet, alas). Also, Lynn Flewelling, although I've only read the Tamir books, and only 2/3 of those. I don't feel it's fair of me to say that I dislike SMeyer/Twilight since I've never actually attempted to read the books... but what I've absorbed by osmosis from various parodies and reviews and other mocking certainly suggests strongly that I would dislike it very much if I did attempt to read it. :P
Sorting silliness:
Silmarillion sorting (I actually insisted Feanor was a Martell, but Targaryen was the consensus, IIRC)
P.S. Icons from said silliness here
And the Discworld sorting (we never did reach consensus on Vetinari, but it was sure a fun discussion!)
Bonus:
Dresden Files
Tortall
Firefly
Harry Potter
And there are more you may find fun under the "sorting" tag in
And Renly/Loras from
Renly's Little Rose (linking to part 3, because it has links to the first two)
Drabble re: Loras's feelings on Brienne
Garlan POV drabble set after Renly's death
Olenna and Loras drabble re: Renly/Loras
Bonus:
That ASOIAF/Sil crossover I mentioned: first and second (just character interaction vignettes, pretty much, but quite neat, I thought!)
Not that you should feel at all obliged to read or look at any of this stuff -- just in case you're interested. I went looking for the Silmarillion sorting and found all sorts of other stuff meanwhile. But if you do look/read, hope you enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 10:10 pm (UTC)Whee! Recs! Thank you soooo much; now I'll have something to tide me over in the barren wasteland that is northern Los Angeles. XD
no subject
Date: 2011-04-09 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 09:48 pm (UTC)