Don't leave a voicemail, seriously.

Ok, I got this off of someone/place on my fl, downloaded it and closed the tab. If it came from you, please tell me and I will credit.

Viking lectures If this is jacked, let me know, it seemed to be on Warp Ridiculous upload speed, so it might be.

I WONDER WHY I DOWNLOADED THAT!

I really don't know that much about vikings, frankly. I know about the formation of Normandy and the Norman contribution to the Crusades and about the Kingdom of Rus being viking as well (yeah, as in RUSSIA), but nothing too in depth. That stuff never held much interest to me because I've always been vaguely creeped out by the elevation of Norse culture thing...can you blame me? But I decided to get over myself and do some research here. Like you do.

Guess who got this really wrong...yeah, you guessed it, our girl Charlaine. AMAZING.

Pro tip: you don't even have to pick up a book or go to the library anymore, through google you can get etexts of scholarly works. You don't have to have a phd to write a novel about a time and a place not your own, but at least wikipedia it?

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Anyway.

Let's make some distinctions:

Mocking people for shit they do online is completely under the heading: if you don't want to be quoted/become infamous/get wanked don't say the shit. That means people do see what you do. Sometimes that gets blown out of proportion, sometimes people make things up about you, sometimes you have to take it on the nose for shit you did a long time ago. Alright, fine. Maybe not fair, but we know this is how it goes.

You're crossing a line when you bring up what people do off the internet. I don't care if that's talking about their kids, what kind of car they drive, if they went to college or not, and you damn sure better not touch who you think they may or may not have slept with.

I am the first person to mock starfuckers (trust me on this one, kids), but it's actually none of your damned business unless someone says to you "hey, I'm banging Misha Collins." Then, yes, you are free to laugh. You are not free to stalk the person and start a jihad against them. How do you know, maybe she is? I think people are getting confused: just because you've heard of the person X person is rumored to have done Y with doesn't mean it's ok to harass them about it. Would it be ok to harass them about it in RL if the person that you'd heard of was your neighbor? Imagine walking up to someone you know casually at work and saying "hey, I hear you're fucking the boss." ??? Would you do this? Would you think it was ok for someone else to?

Gossip online doesn't function like it does in the real world, because everyone can come behind you and read what people are saying about them. However, how harming is this kind of sexual politics gossip in real life, pretty damned damaging, right? Surely you've seen it ruin someone. Why participate in this?

So, to sum up: mocking someone for typos and writing the same story over and over is acceptable according to our standards (if not ideal or best practices), harassing someone about their real or fictitious sex life is not. Ever. What is wrong with you? I wish I could call your mama.

I spent this afternoon on and off researching viking stuff. As you do. Look, if you weren't obsessive, you wouldn't even be here your our damned self.

Viking gene This is interesting because of the displacement of the original population of Scandinavia by the proto-Norse speakers. I know you don't care, but I do. On this podcast I was listening to today, the lecturer cavalierly discussed the etymological mystery of the origin of the word "dog" like it was a given fact that it is a mystery, too, which made me laugh. Oh, historian, you're so cute!

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Amber's tired of my writing shit that's not ST, so I half jokingly said I would write a vampire AU. Guess what, now I'm signed up for startrekbigbang and I have an honest to god PLOT already. I hate her so hard, you don't even know.

Maybe *this* will be the end of the vampire thing? I hear the crickets chirping and the sound of distant laughter from the PacWest.

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Some advice for making your fannish experience more pleasant (and mine, too).
Kiss and make up. Now, let's segregate ourselves for the betterment of all. People who disagree with her, you take journalfen and AIM, the rest of us will stay here and ignore you.

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One last thing for tonight. There are like ten people in TB fandom, so here is a fic I demanded and received, post episode coda! Unauthorized Expenses Go love her, we'll get more!