Fandom projects galore!

Hey, fandom folks! Check out all this STUFF going on!

1. DOINK! (aka ff_exchange) presents: Chocobo Races! A team-and-points based competition to see who can create the most Chocobo Down. I always write a CD story or two, and this sounds like a fun incentive. Come join me on Team Tonberry! (Or, you know, if you must choose Team Cactaur, I suppose that's okay, too.) Rules are here, sign-ups are here. You don't need to have participated in FFEX in the past.

2. Another round of newgameplus is open for sign-ups through Saturday, and they are looking for more players! I confess, I am waffling a little on this one: partly because I'm a little nervous about offering in Dragon Age when I haven't finished DA2 yet, partly because I'm worried about making a hard commitment that overlaps with the Mega Flare timeframe, partly because I'm having a hard time coming up with request prompts. But I really want to play -- I haven't done one of the regular exchanges in this community yet, and I'd like to. Fortunately I have a few days to decide yet.

3. Speaking of Mega Flare... don't forget that sign-ups for artists are still open! I kind of can't believe that the rough draft deadline is only a few weeks away. Where did August go? My story is progressing, though, and considering that I completely threw out my old idea and started with a new one just two weeks ago, I think I'm doing okay. At some point I may need to ask for some help; none of my usual brainstorming partners have played Dragon Age, and I miss having other minds to bounce ideas around with.

Feminist Responses to ASoIaF

So I've been meaning to write my own big long post on this topic, but I'm holding off until I finish the first season of the HBO series (which, if my current schedule holds, should happen a week from today). Meanwhile, though, I've been busy mulling over Sady Doyle's recent takedown of the series in Tiger Beatdown. It's been frustrating to me, because I'm hard put to actually argue with much that she says there (except for some factual errors regarding who is claiming to be king of what), and yet the whole thing doesn't sit right with me, for reasons that I was unable to fully explain.

Fortunately, Alyssa Rosenberg of Think Progress does a really excellent job of explaining them for me. I don't agree totally with everything in the Think Progress critique, but there is a lot in here that helped me see why I found the Tiger Beatdown piece reductionist and disappointing. Definitely recommended.

As for my own thoughts... I'll come back with them next week. I hope.