scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2020-11-25 11:41 pm
Entry tags:

Circling Back, or, The Social Shuffle

"He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said."

(If I don't have you on Access and you would like me to, ping.)
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2017-01-04 12:59 pm

Welp, That Tears It, or Death, Live

The recent revelation that LiveJournal has disabled HTTPS is the last nail in the coffin.

I will be deleting my LiveJournal account in a couple of days.

I barely use journaling services anyway, but I'm done with LJ. I'll keep my DW mostly for archival, and I'll spend a couple of days sorting through my lists, and then I'm done.

Farewell, all.
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2012-01-31 06:35 pm
Entry tags:

Administrivia, or Making Sync

So, a few weeks back, [livejournal.com profile] ravenpan mentioned that she can't comment here. This is odd, because I do have her on my openID list...so R, I think that you just need to be logged in properly, or some such.

But that reminded me that this might have value: this entry is unlocked, so if you're having commenting trouble, or anything else, now's your chance.
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2012-01-11 06:49 pm
Entry tags:

Complete Book-Up, or "This Tastes Terrible! Try It!"

I'm pretty sure I've just read the second-worst story David Weber has ever written.

It's called "Out of the Dark," it's a novella-length contribution to George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois's Warriors anthology from a few years ago, and consists entirely of 4.5 tropes I don't like.

There are spoilers behind the cut, but since I'm actively telling you not to read it, I imagine nobody cares...

Let's Round 'Em Up! )
scifantasy: (Space Cowboy)
2011-10-28 04:14 pm
Entry tags:

The [livejournal.com profile] badmagic One-Liner Roundup, or Who Said That?

[livejournal.com profile] badmagic just posted to his journal a poll about recognizing quotations--a list of quotations asking "how many do you recognize," and a second list asking how many most people (in general) would recognize. Myself, I answered yes to most of them, even ones I couldn't get specifically with source and author, as long as I could recognize it/complete it if it was quoted at me/what have you.

Below the cut are identifiers for all of them.

Who Said... )
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2011-10-22 04:40 pm
Entry tags:

"Father's Words," or With Apologies to My Father and Three Weird Sisters

Brenda Sutton, of the filk group "Three Weird Sisters," wrote a song called "Mama's Hands." It's a pretty song about a woman who realizes that as she grows up, she starts to sound a lot like her mother--and maybe her mom was wiser than she thought as a teenager.

I was thinking one day about whether that song could be gender-swapped...and realized that it could, and what it would be. This came out.

I just now performed it on the main stage at OVFF, with Brenda and her husband Bill in the audience. They (along with most of the room) were in stitches.

“Father’s Words”
by Will “scifantasy” Frank
ttto: “Mama’s Hands” by Brenda Sutton

Today while commuting some moron cut me off... )
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2011-08-24 03:25 am
Entry tags:

Spring Cleaning, A Bit Late, or Trivia

Administrative note: I just did a cleanup of my LJ and DW lists. A lot of it was deletion/defriending (of people who have clearly left journals for good, mostly; also, people I'm just not in touch with anymore). In addition, if you crosspost, I removed you from my Default View list in LJ--though not my Friends list, because there may be value in that still. If you have your DW account for reading/commenting purposes alone, and don't post content there (or only post some content, crossposted from LJ), I simply removed you from my DW "Subscribe" list but kept you in "Give Access To," so that should be no different.

I've put this up unlocked so that people I may have missed, or miscategorized, can say "dude, you done screwed up."
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2011-08-04 06:39 pm
Entry tags:

Living the Dream, or Width My Regards

As of...well, right now, actually (assuming that the new footer I set up works properly, of course), I'm making Dreamwidth (same username) my default journal. The extent of which is, all comments go there, please.

(Sure enough, I fumbled that the first time. In the words of that paragon, Bullwinkle J. Moose, "this time for sure!")

What does this mean in terms of my LJ readership? Well, nothing. If I've set everything up correctly, those of you with DW accounts, I've already friended (if I know they exist). Those of you without, I should have LJ openID access granted, so you can both see my (usually locked) entries and comment on them as long as you're logged in to LJ.

This entry is posted unlocked, so that anybody who wants to tell me "hey, moron, you screwed up!" or inform me of their DW identities if I don't know them already can do so. (So, don't assume that because you can see this one everything's fine--look for older entries on DW.)
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2011-04-13 08:14 pm
Entry tags:

Gaimaning Ground, or Shadow's Over New York

The last time something like this happened, I ended up on national TV. Wouldn't it be cool if this time I ended up in the American Gods audiobook?

(This is thanks to two law school friends, who pestered me to enter. Standard "not going to happen, you know" disclaimer.)

Vote for me--you can vote once per day--and spread the word!
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2011-02-28 09:55 pm
Entry tags:

A Filktron Bomb, or Filkaboom

I came up with this a few weeks ago, and demonstrated it at yesterday's Jersey City housefilk...

I have developed what can only be described as the Neutron Bomb of Filk: it gets rid of all the people but leaves the building standing.

I would ask for forgiveness, but Leslie Fish is on record never forgiving, and Richard O'Brien probably doesn't care.

And if you know who both of those are, you'll get the joke... )
scifantasy: (MC Geeky)
2011-01-24 09:55 am
Entry tags:

"Celiac," or A Song for 'Song

I didn't spend all that much time at Arisia with [personal profile] shadesong this year; she was busy, I was busy, and that's the way things go. I'm given to understand that she continued the spread of the Gospel of the Y.T., though.

In one of the few times I did see her, Sunday or Monday, this popped into my head. I came up with the first verse, and she asked me (and [livejournal.com profile] slipjig, but I don't know if he did) to run with it.

This is dedicated to everybody who has to ask, "is there gluten in this?"

"Celiac"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel

Celiac... )
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2010-09-02 04:53 pm
Entry tags:

The Old Walls, or If You Thought NPR Was Weird...

Don't ask me why I wrote this. I don't quite know. It was the result of several ideas about the Vorkosigan universe banging around in the back of my head for a while. It's the first bit of fanfic I've written--or at least completed--in a while, especially if you discount the Mina de Malfois stuff (which you could, as they became more like meta-canon by the end).

Some blame does get pinned on [livejournal.com profile] caprine, [livejournal.com profile] whswhs, and the rest of that gaming group. Also, probably to [livejournal.com profile] bujold_fic, who just ran a ficathon.

The Old Walls is a production of Barrayar Public Radio and Vorbarr Sultana Broadcasting, sponsored by the Naismith Educational Foundation and the Vorgustafson Fund for the Arts... )
scifantasy: (Objection)
2010-07-13 12:28 pm

Testing Your Constitution, or Check Your Facts

This started in [livejournal.com profile] james_nicoll's post here, but I like the idea, so I'm going to run with it. This is primarily for Americans (as defined broadly--citizens, naturalized aliens, illegal immigrants...anybody who would have a reason to particularly care)...

From memory, without references, how many Amendments to the United States Constitution can you identify/explain?

There are 27. It's enough to give what the Amendment is commonly referred to as. (Except that you can't say the First Amendment is "the First Amendment" or the like, of course.)

Bonus points for identifying/explaining Articles of the Constitution itself. There are 7 of those. There are also some particularly important Sections of those Articles, and indeed some pretty major Clauses--just knowing what they are and what they do, no need to number them.

Here's my list:

Amendments )

I have some idea on 24 of 27, I'm unsure on 7, and I probably missed details of a few more. Not bad, but not great. Then again, I'm in law, we live and die by citation and reference material.

Articles, Sections, Clauses )

So. Seven Articles, I know three pretty well, one I know the most important part of, two I'm much more shaky on, one barely courts. I know some a couple of significant Sections and Clauses, too. Again, not great--I bet that I could memorize the whole thing with a bit of work, but haven't done so--but not awful, I think.

Oh, and I can recite the Preamble, but that's a cheat--see music line.
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2009-11-30 09:56 pm
Entry tags:

Case Closed, or A Cycle Has No End

[livejournal.com profile] mina_de_malfois has posted the end to her stories, and so with it comes the finale of Case's.

Which isn't to say that I'll never return; Mina has left the possibility of side stories or alternate-universes open, and so shall I. But for the foreseeable future, we leave our observation of the fictional Case here.

I've been writing Case, off and on, since August 2007. A lot's changed for me in those two years. Maybe, if Mina writes that detective alternate-universe story she suggested was a possibility, maybe I'll do a Case-as-lawyer story to match...

But in the meantime, enjoy the finale. And remember what Case said--everything is circular.

Case Study, Part 15 )
scifantasy: (MC Geeky)
2009-11-27 12:28 am
Entry tags:

"ADV (Now Funimation)," or In Lieu of Content...

...a new filk. This one came to me recently.

Quick backstory: in the last few years, the waning economy has caused some upheaval in the anime licensing and distribution industry, especially here in the US. A year or two back, Geneon Entertainment shut down its US operations entirely. They're still a major force in Japan, mind. Then, last month or so, A.D. Vision Entertainment, one of the first and biggest US operations for importing, licensing, and distributing anime, sold its assets to five other companies in a complicated deal that sounded like a switcheroo on its creditors (since the five buying companies were ones in which ADV's owners had stakes).

Most of the anime properties licensed by those two companies have seen their licenses bought by another company, Funimation Entertainment. If anybody can be said to be the big winner here, it's Funimation.

Hence, the song. "NGE," for the record, refers to the infamous anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was one of ADV's first and biggest titles...but whose "rebuild" series has been licensed by, who else, Funimation.

"ADV (Now Funimation)"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by Nat Simon (original words by Jimmy Kennedy)

NGE is now Funimation's... )

In the coming days, expect more actual content (behind the normal friends lock, of course), including an expansion of something I said on Twitter:

"Perfect 10 Magazine is the zombie mine canary of copyright law. When it comes alive (files suit--it's sued Google and Visa), the law is bad."
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2009-09-24 03:09 pm
Entry tags:

Economies of Scale, or Hirings and Firings

At long last, my companion piece to [livejournal.com profile] mina_de_malfois story 3.11, "...and the Class War." With this, I'm back up to date with Mina (since I only post to full stories, not parts such as "End of Summer" part 1). Which is good.

This one, I have to admit, is weak. I couldn't figure out exactly what to do with the May 1 story. Finally, I fell back on an old trope--"Case weighs in." I also threw in a bit of what was happening to other characters, as best I could. (It doesn't help that right now, I'm in the middle of a job search...)

I have to be honest...right now, pleasure writing is not exactly high on my priorities.

But anyway. Maybe by the time 3.12 finishes, some creative juices will be flowing again.

Case Study, Part 14 )
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2009-09-05 05:50 pm
Entry tags:

Tomato Surprise, or Tornado of Change

I almost feel too embarrassed to post this. (Almost) It's literally been over four months since the corresponding [livejournal.com profile] mina_de_malfois story went live. All I can say is, the end of April wasn't a great time for me for obvious reasons, and then I was caught up in other things. But with Mina returning this week, it's only appropriate I try to play catch-up.

So, this story and one more are due (this one corresponding to 3.10, and the next to 3.11), and then I'll try to get something going for when Mina finishes 3.12.

Amusingly, the first line of this was the same one I'd thought up back when I first read 3.10, freshly thought up this time around.

Case Study, Part 13 )
scifantasy: (MC Geeky)
2009-08-30 11:01 pm

"Sixteen Hours," or Legal Filk #3...and Counting

I didn't post my first two legal filks, because they're frankly not very good, and were written more specifically for the NYU Law Revue, and didn't get used anyway.

But this one was written for me and the filkers. I realized last night that I didn't have anything recent for the housefilk today--and that the most recent thing I had, three months old, didn't work well for me to sing. So I dusted off an idea I'd been thinking about, started trying to write it...and it flowed very easily indeed.

"Sixteen Hours"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis (or George S. Davis)

Some people say a lawyer is a dirty snake... )

This went over pretty well at the housefilk, I must say.
scifantasy: Me. With an owl. (Default)
2009-07-26 12:52 am
Entry tags:

The Nightengale, or Tweeting Aloud

(OK, I stole that from T Campbell, who titled a Twitter story--that is, a story posted to Twitter, written by a character posting to Twitter--as "Tweets of the Nightengale.")

I am now on Twitter. It should come as no surprise that my username there is scifantasy.

I'm already searching out and finding friends who use Twitter. But that flows both ways.