when pictures like these keep getting posted on the internet?





FFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffff

( MOAR OF MY FAVORITES )

yes I'm naughty and hotlinked these because I can't be bovvered right now

So I'm over at The Pit (aka fanfiction.net), and once again I'm reminded of how much I can't stand how that site has become littered with ads. They're so obnoxious and distracting while trying to read. The design of the site is still vintage 1994, and I like it that way, and it wasn't so bad when they just had text ads. Text ads don't stick out on a site like FF.N. But I guess that was the problem. So now I've got to deal with blinking flash shit all up in my eyeballs while I'm trying to get my nightly fix of Spock/Uhura smut and it's really harshing my squee. God bless Adblock, but seriously? I shouldn't need it over there.

I don't know what a better alternative would be though; obviously they could start charging people, but it would take a lot to get anyone to pay to access the Pit. Paid accounts would have to give you special benefits...like maybe give you personalized fic recs Amazon-style, or allow you to personalize your reading window (OMG COLORZ!), or give you permission to put hyperlinks in your fics, or give you a magical search function that weeds out all the shitty fics. (I think that last one alone would be enough of an incentive.) Or, they could charge you every time you post a fic to the site. Which actually does not sound like a bad idea, if it would mean that every time ~*EdWaRdLuVvEr123*~ wanted to post her Mary Sue fic, she'd have to get Mummy's credit card permission. But I guess that goes against the whole free creative spirit of the site.

Shame.

I don't even know what FF.N needs ad dollars for, except to pay for server costs I assume. But they got away without ads for so long. Craigslist, which is also stuck in the early 90s, still manages to operate ad-free and they get waaay more traffic than FF.N. (Okay, CL basically IS one giant ad, but that's not the point. And they only charge for a few things...I think to post job ads and certain real estate ads? Otherwise it's free to use.) How the hell Craigslist makes all their money I don't know, but it makes tons, and without annoying flashing shit in the way.

Now I admit, at least they have the decency to try to tailor the FF.N ads so they're relevant to your interests, so for example whilst perusing said Star Trek smuttage I often see ads for the Illustrious 22k Gold Captain Kirk Card or Netflix and movie channels, stuff that someone on a fanfic site might actually be interested in. Those are mixed in with the usual crappy insurance/weightloss/WHITEN YOUR TEETH IN 3 DAYS!!! ads.

And yet I find it a tad ironic that there's also advertising from Comedy Central, Paramount, NBC, ABC...yeah, more than relevant, but these are channels owned by companies that at the same time have no problem yanking vids off YouTube, sending cease-and-desist letters, and generally condemn and fear derivative fan works. (And let's not even get started on their thoughts on slash.) It's like missionaries walking in on a brothel and being like, "We look down on you and think you should change your heathen ways, but would you mind giving us a blowjob or two? :D?" It really goes to show how greedy they are the internal conflict media companies seem to be having between desperately clinging to their copyrights for dear life, and the knowledge that there is lots of money to be made off fandom. (Note that we can't make any money off of fanfic, but they can.)

But then last night this ad showed up on FF.N:



and I kind of forgot what I was so cranky about. In fact I forgot again just now.

O HAI THAR.

Advertising I can finally get behind. Or on top of. Or any way he wants me, really. That face could sell me anything.

Yeah.

mmmmm Sylar. What was I talking about again? I forgot. Did you know you can watch full episodes of Heroes on NBC.com for free?

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE.



ETA: PARAMOUNT TOOK IT DOWN ALREADY. ROODITY!

OMIGOD

OMIGOD



FASCINAAAAAAAATING


O ZACHARY. :')

spinawebofsound: "SOMEONE DECODE THE NOISES JJ WAS MAKING WITH HIS MICROPHONE YOU KNOW ITS THE SECRET TO HOW LOST ENDS"

I'm here with pippie_poppins for our Monday TV Night and we are DYYYYIIIIIING. Our mutual favorite part is when Bruce Greenwood zips up his fly. (WHY WAS IT DOWN? I CAN ONLY COME UP WITH DIRTY EXPLANATIONS) Also we are plotting how to find Chris Pine in NYC, now that his secret hiding place has been exposed by ontd_startrek's mad detective skillz. IT'S NOT STALKING IF IT'S LOVE



I would just like to add that today has been an awesome day, starting with being up at 4:30 am making my first walking post on ontd_st because I couldn't sleep, to kicking ass and taking names at my interview, to epic lolz with Pip tonight. Every day should be Monday. My face has been on COLON CAPITAL D mode all day.

ALSO! TOMORROW IS THE SACRED HOLIDAY KNOWN AS 10/13. X-FILES MARATHON Y/Y??

edited 50 times because I was mad trigger happy with the post button for this

So...much like with IOAS, this idea came to me a while ago and would not leave my brain in peace. So I stayed up last night and made my very first fanvid derivative audiovisual masterpiece.

In which Star Trek meets Avenue Q. YOU'RE WELCOME.



(The fact that one of the characters is named Trekkie Monster makes this only 1000x more necessary/awesome.)

I haven't edited video since college and all I have is Windows Movie Maker so apologies if the sloppy editing makes you cry. But NGL, this was way too much fun to make.

Thoughts? I want to know what you guys think before I harrass any communities with it >:)

NPH singing:



Dr. Horrible takeover:



THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
THE OSCARS WINNING AN EMMY FOR DANCING HUGH JACKMAN



AND MAD MEN PWNING LOST

( NPH INVITES YOU TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME )

*it's actually Outstanding... but that's too long to type every time lol

to be updated throughout the evening. or follow @sparklystuff


SO, IN A NUTSHELL: Most of the awards were disappointing, but NPH was the BEST. EMMY. HOST. EVER. <333333

Also, John Hodgman's fake commentaries were A+

1. CHRIS PINE IS IN NYC FILMING HIS MOVIE. You can rest assured I am going to find a way to use this information to our advantage. 8D

2. IT'S MY FAVORITE NIGHT OF THE YEAR!



I've given up on winning one of my own, but it's still my favorite award show to watch. I don't care if it's all politics and Hollywood kissing its own ass, I love seeing my favorite TV stars on the red carpet and cheering for my favorites to win. It's like my Super Bowl. I should go paint my face and get one of those big foam fingers. GO TEAM!



I think this time instead of liveblogging (cause it's a PITA), I'm going to do all my commentary on Twitter and then post the tweets here. Feel free to follow (or unfollow lol)

O AND Here's my list of what shows I'm watching this fall:

( MONDAYS ARE EXCITING AGAIN )

It's 4:30 am. I'm eating cookies. I just finished doing my first epic friends cut. Okay, maybe not that epic, but I've cut 13% of you. (Yes, I did the math.) That might not sound like a lot, but it is to me. This summer I was blessed with an explosion of new friends, which is fantastic, but it got to be too much to scroll through on /friends/. So basically, I went through everyone and if I looked at your username/profile and my reaction was, "WHO?!?" then I'm sorry, but you got cut. Also, there are people that I know very well who you are, but we haven't had anything in common for a long time, and we don't comment on each other's stuff and it just makes sense to let you go. As hard as it is for a loyal little Hufflepuff like me, I had to break down and do it. I left/unwatched a bunch of communities as well.

And now I have pretty numbers like this:



(Not on purpose, it just happened that way :3)

FTR, this journal has never been friends-only nor do I ever see it being so. Anyone is welcome to follow sparkly_stuff and read/comment on public posts (and most of my posts are public). So if you've been defriended or if I've never friended you in the first place, you are still welcome here. It's just about me not being a friend whore, and needing to keep my sanity as I read my friends page. Again, it's not you, it's me.

In the whole housekeeping process, I got so nostalgic. I remember starting this LJ four years ago with only a few friends (all peeps from FAP), making really ugly icons and posting fanfic. I miss heartsncraftslb and gunderpants like burning. (One at least I see on Facebook, the other vanished into the abyss.) kileaiya and daylightsparks passed away. (Can I just say it's a really strange feeling defriending someone's journal because they're dead? I mean, it's not like they're going to update...*uncomfortable cough*).

rt_moonlighting and rt_challenge have been on permanent hiatus.

And now even hogwarts_elite is closing. (If you've ever wanted to apply, DO IT DO IT NOW NOW NOW) Times, they are a-changing. With the exception of the yearly film and theme park news, HP fandom is stagnating. Only four years ago, I'd never have believed it possible.

OK NOW I NEED TO GO LISTEN TO CELINE DION AND CRY EAT MOAR COOKIES READ SOME PORN TO BED.

Hooray?

Hooray!

I guess it was more magical at 09:09 AM, but my ass was asleep at that time. So I'm fashionably late as always.

FUN FACT: My first date was on 9/9/99 :3


We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

....Probably many things. But only two are relevant to my interests:

1. Star Trek.
Today was the 43rd anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek. It aired September 8, 1966 at 8:30 EST on NBC. Like all great sci-fi, it had a shitty budget and barely lasted 3 seasons before being canceled by the network, despite 14 total Emmy nominations. It wasn't until years later when it hit syndication that it reached cult status, and the rest is history.



( SOME OF MY FAVORITE TOS FACTS )

2. Mad Men.



Meanwhile, in the fictional '60s, we have the staff of Sterling Cooper and their loved ones continuing with their usual shenanigans. Sort of.

( MY THOUGHTS ON THE NEW SEASON SO FAR )

Who's ready for Season 3 of Mad Men to finally start?



SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR AWAY D: Luckily I came across a couple gems to help pass the time:

+ If you go to the iTunes store you can download a video of the "10 Most Shocking Moments on Mad Men". It's a juicy 20 minutes featuring commentary from the cast and Matt Weiner, and they even talk a little about what's to come on Season 3. And it's FREE! (Shocking, I know. Kind of annoyed though because I spent half an hour downloading the HD version just to find out my Touch can't play it? WTF?)

+ www.madmenyourself.com I have spent wayyyyy too much time playing on this site!! It's one of those doll dress up games, and so in this one you get to put together your Mad Men-inspired outfit, complete with pearls and/or Scotch and cigarette XD I highly suspect the graphics were done by Dyna Moe, whose Mad Men art is fucking badass and I've been meaning to save up to buy one of her prints for my living room.

( Here's yours truly )

So then I'm playing around with this thing all night and get to thinking about the 60s and---you know what, I don't even need to justify this. It's a fandom explosion of awesome.

I SHOOPED TOGETHER A MAD MEN/STAR TREK CROSSOVER. IT WAS BEGGING TO BE DONE.


( DAMMIT JIM, I'M A DOCTOR, NOT AN AD EXECUTIVE! )

So glad I'm finding such constructive uses for the knowledge I just got from my Continuing Education photoshop class.

GOD I NEED A JOB D': No seriously, I only have a couple months of unemployment pay left *cries*

I WANT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY NEW DEFAULT ICON. IT'S MOTHERFUCKING SPOCK WEARING MOTHERFUCKING SPECTRESPECS. I CALL IT "SPOCKTRESPECS". OR MAYBE "SPECTRESPOCKS". IDK I CAN'T DECIDE BUT THE POINT IS YOU KNOW EVEN SPOCK DOESN'T WANT NARGLES ALL UP IN HIS SHIT. IT'S JUST LOGICAL. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT STAR TREK

THIS IS MY HBP POST.


( SO, DID YOU AND GINNY DO IT? )

As for the actual experience of going to the midnight premiere, the moviewatching gods must have smiled upon me, Vanessa and so_severus because not only did we get there early enough to snag prime seating, but the audience was perfect! Usually we get stuck sitting next to non-fans who ask inane questions throughout ("WHICH ONE IS SNAKE AGAIN??") or, like last time, teenagers who make out through half of it (seriously why are you spending $24 to make out), and psycho 12 year olds who forgot to take their ADD meds. But this time our audience was mostly filled with college kids, and then people a bit younger and older (like us) on the ends of the bell curve. Everyone was into the movie, no talking, and the theater was dead silent after Dumbledore died. It was really great. A lot of people dressed up too; I remember seeing a Lucius with a pimp cane and a girl dressed as Bellatrix, crazy hair and all. Jenn and Vanessa wore their Harry and the Potters T-shirts, and I would have worn mine but I was coming straight from class where I dress like a grownup, so I wore grey slacks and a white blouse and then threw on my Slytherin tie at the theater ;D (I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING HUFFLEPUFF DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT ROTAE.) And then I ran into the lovely ihateclooney who said, "I know you! You're a Star Trek person!" LOLZ yay for being a fandom whore!

ETA: LOOK HOW GORGEOUS THESE TWO ARE. I CAN'T EVEN. BRB GIRLCRUSHING

LAZY THURSDAY, WOKE UP IN THE LATE AFTERNOON
CALLED so_severus JUST TO SEE HOW SHE'S DOIN
"HELLO, WHAT UP JENN"
"YO SYLVIA, WHAT'S CRACKIN?"
YOU THINKIN WHAT I'M THINKIN?
HARRY POTTER
MAN IT'S HAPPENIN

BUT FIRST MY HUNGER PANGS ARE STICKIN LIKE SPELLOTAPE
WISH WE COULD AFFORD MAGNOLIA TO MACK ON SOME CUPCAKES
OR SOME CHINESE FOOD CAUSE I'M CRAVIN SOME WONTONS
MAN I WANT SOME FOOD LIKE LAVENDER WANTS WON-WON

IT'S THE HARRY POT (what?)
-TER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
YES THE HARRY POT (what?)
-TER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
WE LOVE THE HARRY POT (what?)
-TER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
PASS THE HARRY POT (what?)
-TER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE

Our day really did start like that (and we eventually did eat some McDonalds dollar menu, but that doesn't rhyme with "tape"). Unfortunately our celeb red carpet stalkage turned out far less exciting. We had an awesome spot at first, but then they made all the fans stand ACROSS THE STREET from the red carpet. They also didn't stop traffic so half the time there were cars blocking the view, and the way they set it up the stars' backs were to us the entire time they made their way down the carpet. Between me and Jenn we must have taken over 100 pictures, and out of that I've weeded out a sorry dozen that are decent enough to post. :/



THE REAL LIFE LENS FLARES INVITE YOU TO THE VICINITY OF THE RED CARPET TO SEE SOME MOSTLY BLURRY PICS OF ACTORS' BACKS ( ENTER )

I do have my ticket for the midnight premiere next week, although this did little to get me excited for it sorry to say. Today was however, exactly one month to the day I get to meet La Quinto, and that does get me excited. He can show up in his fug hat and pornstache and it will be better than this.

I'm on the computer of so_severus, who chastises me for having been in the Star Trek "abyss" the last month, so allow me to prove that things having nothing to do with certain recent sci-fi reboot film by JJ Abrams are still capable of coming across my radar:

+ ( Grey's casting spoiler )

+ SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!! Who else is watching? I LOVE this season so far, this is the best group of dancers they've had yet. The only one I don't like is the skanky asian bitch, she doesn't impress me in the slightest. And that one girl, Kayla(?) she looks like a Russian hooker, but she can dance like a boss so she gets a pass. And I'm glad Tony was the first guy to be cut; I'm 99% positive he got into the top 20 on looks alone, which makes me ~disappoint. He was a cutie with some fierce GQ eyebrows, but his dancing was nowhere near the caliber of the rest. The judges said they liked his "potential" and "personality." TRANSLATION: HE'S HOT & OUR DEMOGRAPHIC OF 80% FEMALE 20% GAY GUYS WILL APPROVE. Lame. Otherwise, I can't decide on a favorite yet, I love too many. The interaction between the judges is ace! Lil C and his vocabulary words. Horseyface Mary Murphy has actually toned down a bit (although it's early, I'm sure there's much screaming to come) and her banter with Nigel is A+++++. And if you're not already, follow Nigel on Twitter! @dizzyfeet.

+ Saw "The Proposal" today, highly recommend! The plot itself is cliche and predictable, but the writing was surprisingly good and hilarious, and Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds play off each other really well and have great chemistry. And Betty White is loltastic, I'm so happy to see her in a movie! It's perfect as a light summer rom-com. A+ would lol again.

+ LAST BUT NOT LEAST, need to be buying tix for midnight premiere of Half-Blood Prince soon! I want to find out when the NYC red carpet premiere is too and get my stalk on, although the thought of having to camp out with a thousand fangirls does not dazzle my sparkles. I'm only going if at least one of you comes with me :/

+ My lappy is still out for repairs D': I'm trying to keep up with LJ, facebook, twitter etc. on my phone but it's a pain, esp since for some reason my otherwise awesome browser on my otherwise awesome new phone does not let me post to LJ properly. FAIL. I have so many things on hold until I get the damn thing fixed. UGHHHHHHH!

Okay, back to the abyss XD xoxo

The backlight on my laptop has given out for good this time, and I am now stuck with a computer that I can do nothing with because I can't see anything on the fucking screen. I took it to Geek Squad today where the girl patiently and kindly informed my shaking self that there's nothing they can do, I have to ship it to Dell. GODDOMOT. I don't even know if I have an extended warranty or not. And that's gonna take what, a month at least? WITH NO COMPUTER? AND I'M STARTING SUMMER CLASSES IN A COUPLE WEEKS? OH NO FUCK NO. Actually just the thought of going like, a few days without it is enough for me to start hyperventilating. My laptop is like, my life, man.

I'd been planning on finally getting my dream computer this year anyway (Lappy technically isn't even mine, I bought it for my mom so it's like, bare bones, cheap POS that is enough for her but doesn't suit my needs...I wound up taking it because I don't have space for my old HP desktop in my current apt) cause it's about fucking time I got a new, serious computer that will actually be useful in my new web career plans, or at least doesn't freeze every time I dare to run Photoshop, Firefox, and iTunes simultaneously. Except I'd been planning to get it once I actually, you know, had money or something. :I The Apple Store has financing, right?

Oy. Well, regardless, my LJ presence is going to be sporadic for a while...luckily I still get email, twitter, web etc. on my crackberry and touch, but ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NOT THE SAME D': HEAR MY NERDY CRIES OF TECHNOLOGICAL ANGUISH.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of you watching this, but you know I'm a sucker for this shit. Those of you on Twitter, I'm twatting with updates too XD OK I will stop and just post here to spare your twitter feed.

ETA: THESE AWARDS ARE TURNING OUT HIGHLY RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS. WIN!!!!

9:05 OMG naked Andy Samberg just beamed onto the enterprise. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE NOW!!!!!!!!

9:07 IF YOU PLAY EDWARD CULLEN THROW YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR omgggg lol

9:09 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand C-Fine is now presenting award. UNF UNF UNF NICE SWEATER.

ILU calumfan:



( MOAR INCLUDING HARRY POTTER PREVIEW AND BEING ON A BOAT )


* ZQ 360! amazing.

ENJOY. ♥

I'm happy to take requests too.

ETA: Added Uhura and her ~dangly earrings.