With the end of my time on this coast approaching with a steady pace (one day per twenty-four hours, in fact), I've started considering what I need to do to wrap up my affairs here. Thankfully there isn't much. I've done pretty much everything I wanted to do while I was out here, so really the job now is to be ready to leave...pack up, make sure I have whatever I'm bringing back, and leave the room orderly when I depart.

It's making sure I have whatever I'm bringing back that brought me into the familiar arms of techno-animism. In this case, it was Aphrodite. Aphrodite[1] is the Mac laptop that Creative Commons issued me, and that I have been using for the last two months. As is good and proper for techno-animism, I believe that my usage invested the computer with some fraction of my own soul[2]. I've changed settings, installed applications, downloaded files, and generally used this laptop as my own for two months now.

Now, though, I'm reversing what I did. I'm copying over to Luna[3] any data on this computer that I want to keep, I'm uninstalling programs, and I'm undoing settings. In general I am removing the aspects of this computer that mark it as mine.

Therefore, by techno-animism, I must be extracting my fragment of soul as well.

This, of course, has its own set of interesting metaphysical implications. For example, while a computer can reasonably simply be brought back to a soulless state (rm -rf /, or better yet fdisk), is the inherent soul lost unless already reclaimed? What about cars, which are clearly animistic, but which can rarely if ever be completely desouled? Do you lose parts of your own soul if you don't reclaim them, or do souls regrow lost fragments?

...This is what happens when work is slow. And when the idea of opening grapeshotcanon.com hasn't diminished with sleep. I'm not ready yet, though, and not quite liquid enough. Maybe in another six months, especially if this web design job goes well, and assuming I can find a solid premise to work from.

[1] I'm keeping the name, by the way, for whatever other Mac I get--if ever. Female, in keeping with the "Greek names for planets" theme, and I get to work in a nice "apple" reference.

[2] There is a spoiler-based joke for Harry Potter begging to be made here. Insert your own.

[3] My iPod, in case you haven't been keeping track.

I blame filkertom and dragonscholar for this one. Which is ironic, because dragonscholar blames me for filkertom's latest work, a charge I will deny to the end. filkertom is too experienced at this to blame me or dragonscholar for anything[1].

Anyway...filkertom posted a filk ( Slight spoiler ) In comments, dragonscholar suggested a different tune. When I heard it...well, let's just say that I got kicked in the head. There's a reason the difference between "muse" and "mule" is only one letter. dragonscholar and I hashed out the lyrics over the following day, and there you have it.

Before we get to the work, though, there is a bit of disclaiming we need to do. First, SPOILER WARNING for Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince. Second, neither dragonscholar nor I am declaring allegiance to the "Pumpkin Pie" or any other ship. However, when we came up with the idea, we decided to explore how people may feel, even if in a somewhat humorous manner.

Pumpkin Pie
by DragonScholar and Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "American Pie" by Don McLean

( A long, long time ago... )

And, just because I'm truly insane...
http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~wmfrank/music/pumpkin.mp3

In addition to the caveat of the last song, I think this one suffers by my not having a guitar, electric piano, drum set, backup singers, or for that matter Don McLean's talent. *grin*

Now hopefully, for a while at least, my muses will shut up and let me get some work done...

[1] Except for the ideas we gave him for the 24-Hour Projects, but that's OK, because we claim responsibility freely.

http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~wmfrank/music/Wank.mp3

I'd like to start out by saying that I have no voice training to speak of (I was in chorus in elementary school, but that's about it). But since so many people were asking...

(Yes, that's me.)

And, as soon as the next book comes out, the wank begins. This is my tribute:

The Wank Of The Fleet Harry Potter
by scifantasy
ttto: "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot

( The legend lives on from Livejournal on down... )

Ship names from http://www.fictionalley.org/fictionalleypark/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4591

I now have a recording of this song, sung by...me. See my post here to get it.

With the flood of people discussing possible spoilers for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, I started thinking about spoilers in general.

First, some ground comments. The Darkfriends of my acquaintance have a rule about spoilers: Once you get past maybe a year or two tops, it's no longer feasible to protect against them. Certainly not for old material like Citizen Kane. The rule is summed up best by prince_corwin: "Caesar dies. Frodo lives. Christ does both."

Spoilers are often not the whole story anyway...as in the case of Citizen Kane, the spoiler doesn't destroy the movie, because it's often just as much about the process. Babylon 5 mastered this.

That said, there are some movies (or books, or possibly even video games) that have spoilers, now long since past expiration of course, that qualify as Big Deals, or would have when they came out, or are just ones that people pretty much know or know about. Revelations that really change the equation, or are historically significant. I'm curious what some of you think they are. I'll seed the pot with a few of my own; feel free to leave a comment with more.

Ground rule: If it's still spoiler-protected (read "less than a year or two old," unless you'd have to be living under a rock not to know it), don't post it. This is about more "classic" spoilers. If you complain about spoilers, don't do it here, because you're given plenty of warning. Don't piss me off about that either...you will get no sympathy.

The Current List Of Big Spoilers (last updated Saturday July 16 0215 PDT):
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Star Wars
The Usual Suspects
Soylent Green
The Sixth Sense
War Of The Worlds
The Crying Game
Final Fantasy VII
Fight Club
Psycho
Harry Potter
Memento
Vertigo
Babylon 5
Spartacus
Escaflowne
The Third Man
Watchmen
Old Yeller
Planet Of The Apes
Primal Fear
Chinatown

(Those are the ones I really consider spoilers, or recognize. There are some that really don't count in my mind [such as, I kid you not, Kefka being crazy in Final Fantasy VI] or whose source material I am completely unfamiliar with that I've not listed here.)

( Abandon all spoiler-protection, ye who enter here! )

Any more from the peanut gallery? What spoilers are (or were) big?

http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~wmfrank/declare.html

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to repudiate the actions of their government, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the actions which have led to their disavowal..."