cesperanza: (Default)
I am still here! <3. I'm just so seriously middle-aged, I've got everything on the boil rn. But I'm here if anyone needs me and still contributing to fandom in all the ways I can. You can also reach me at all the places you've always reached me--or other me, or any of the mes you may need.

Things I have enjoyed/am enjoying lately include:

* Killing Eve - I know, I'm super late to Killing Eve, but my sister loves loves loves it and so she asked me to watch it and so I'm watching. First two seasons obviously the best IMO, but she's asked me to see it through so I'm seeing it through.

* Strange New Worlds - its like 100% actual Star Trek! Also it's so fannish - like, look, there are episodes where I can tell the entire reason for the plot is to make sense of one weird moment in ST; TOS and you know what: I RESPECT YOU!! I SALUTE YOU!! YES, GO AHEAD AND FIX THAT ONE MINOR PLOT POINT in TOS, I AM YOUR AUDIENCE, I TOTALLY SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, GET DOWN WITH YOUR BAD SELF. Also, honestly, I will never be tired of Pike cooking, which is a bizarre characterization that I didn't see coming and which nobody I'm trying to pimp to this show ever believes until they see it. Also I would die for Number 1 and La'an. Also Pike cooks with cast iron and open flame in a spaceship. Really: I salute you, show. I am glad you are back! (Especially since no more Disco.)

* Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte - late to QC also, after watching Bridgerton, and thought it was actually really a notch above Bridgerton. (Which I did enjoy - I mean, I respect their commitment to the pleasure principle.) Glad to be caught up there.

* House - yes, yes, I know, I'm really kicking it like it's 2004 around here, but Tiberius, now a teen, had seen bits of it on the interwebs and was like, "Mom, do you know anything about this show House?" and I was like YESSSSS. YESSS I DOOOOO, and your aunt made a great vid of it! Whereupon I showed him astolat's "Bukowski" and we settled in for a watch/rewatch: we like to have a show we're watching together. He's into Trek also so we watched Discovery and Lower Decks and we'll watch SNW as a family now its back, but there's a lot of House to go through and that's a nice option too.

(Side note to those of you who don't have teens: what I did not expect is that Gen Z basically is getting culture in bursts of 10 seconds or less. He's seen literally BITS of House. He will tell me "I know that song--or well, I know 7 seconds of that song." Remember how there would be kids who wouldn't read a novel, they'd just watch the movie? My students now are like--THAT MOVIE IS TWO WHOLE HOURS? I seriously fear for the future, it makes previous claims of attention span deterioriation look PREPOSTEROUS. Holy shit. I swear, I spend so much energy trying not to be too judgy! But I am very judgy! Then again: this moment, this decade, really provokes judginess!! )

(Additional side note: Tiberius is super eye rolly because since middle school all the girls he knows are like "Wow, your mom is SO COOL," --because of course I am! I am really fucking cool, plus I helped to found the AO3 and all of that, so I am a high school rock star, and Tiberius is like, "please God save me from this hell" lol. Cause honestly there really is nothing worse than having a cool mom, I do get that, but I tell him he'll appreciate it later, when I'm dead.)
cesperanza: (Default)
Was here checking up on some folks and realized that I myself might seem to be MIA - I'm not, I'm here, I'm in fandom, just mostly Tumblr-adjacent these days! (https://www.tumblr.com/cesperanza) In my life I'm just in full-swing sandwich generation mode--career on the boil, elder care, teen (TEEN!) kid--and that's not leaving me a lot of time for much else. But I'm here, and if anybody wants me you can find me where you always found me and reach me where you've always reached me! :D

I've also been in input mode, and so here's a random list of things that I've enjoyed lately!

* Shrinking! (I knew Harrison Ford was funny from the Frisco kid, nice to see him be funny again!)

* Poker Face (because yes, I loved Knives Out and Glass Onion, but honestly, they had me from the Columbo font - Columbo is right up there with early Star Trek and MASH as a forever fandom.)

* The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt (https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-english-understand-wool/) So this isn't a novel--its a short novella, you can read it over a single cup of coffee. I took it out of the library on my phone and read it in 15 minutes, but I'm kind of obsessed with it now and have been reccing it to my people like good fic. I might offer it for Yuletide, in fact.

* Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson--I guess there's this whole world of Aussie mystery novels that I didn't really know about? but I enjoyed this very much. The audiobook is particularly charming, IMO.

* Lum's new Due South vid - "Love Don't Die" - https://archiveofourown.org/works/45865429. Honestly, a good DS vid just sends me raging back into Due South like a fever. And this is a very good vid, it really gets the frission and chemistry of these characters!

waves

Jan. 1st, 2022 11:22 pm
cesperanza: (Default)
If any fans do end up coming from Tumblr, I'm waving--I'm here! I'm alive!
cesperanza: (Default)
I've been sort of only one-eye on fandom this year and I'm behind on a lot, so haven't gotten these up on the trickster site either, but just for completeness, and as I head into holiday season, here are the last two 4MW that I never cross-posted here. (Stucky, MCU, if you aren't reading this series, don't start here, it will make fuck-all sense.)

9 Lives (8331 words) by Speranza
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Pepper Potts, Thor (Marvel), Sarah Rogers (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: outsider pov, just living life in NYC, pandemic what pandemic, was supposed to be a Valentine's Day fic but oops?, also thank you to all the doctors nurses medical workers essential workers, also the irony of this fic being called 9 Lives hasnt escaped me
Series: Part 17 of 4 Minute Window
Summary:

"We live pretty simply, Buck and me, but we'll do our best to be good hosts to you."



Ten Kinds of Grateful (3376 words) by Speranza
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Thanksgiving, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Pandemic - Freeform, Post-Pandemic, fuck the pandemic, NYC is back bitches!
Series: Part 18 of 4 Minute Window
Summary:

"No, but seriously—wait. Hear me out."

cesperanza: (Default)
Just updating here so that people know I'm still around. Its been more than a year since I posted here, and you know, there's been this pandemic? and such? so Tiberius is doing remote learning and I'm doing remote teaching and all things considered, I haven't exactly had a big writing year, but I have written SOME things since last I posted, so maybe these are new to YOU, anyway, dear DW reader.

Scenes From A Marriage: Captain America At Home (19239 words) by lim, Speranza, Lunate8, RevolutionaryJo, alby_mangroves
Chapters: 18/18
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Additional Tags: Advent Calendar
Series: Part 16 of 4 Minute Window
Summary: Welcome to the 4 Minute Window Advent calendar for 2019! As always, my goal is to tell a little bit of story in this universe each day (knock wood) between the Immaculate Conception and Christmas. Explicit eventually, the rest as it comes. This year there's loads of multimedia, as you might glean from the list of contributors. Some of the embedded pieces are hosted at trickster.org, which I know from past experience can be blocked at some workplaces. So just FYI!

Mr. Carter and Mr. Potts (22386 words) by Speranza
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Endgame fixit, Steve has a time machine, Tony has the Infinity Gauntlet, shake and stir!, also 2020 totally blows
Series: Part 1 of Mr Carter & Mr Potts
Summary: Hi, honey: I'm bringing company home: Howard's son from the future!


The Messrs. Carter and Potts Expansion Pack (14692 words) by Speranza, alby_mangroves
Chapters: 17/17
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Steve has a time machine, Tony has the Infinity Gauntlet, shake and stir!
Series: Part 2 of Mr Carter & Mr Potts
Summary: A 17-day Advent Calendar further expanding the already enormous world of Messrs. Carter and Potts.
Lets hope that between the vaccine and Biden we all have a happier and more productive 2021! <3.

Also--I'm totes going to Virtual Escapade, I hope I'll see some of you there! (Yes, I am Ben Franklin of Escapade, i.e. most famous U.S. President who was never President. < / Firesign Theatre > In this case, I'm the most famous Escapade attendee who never goes to Escapade! People are sure they saw me at Escapade when I wasn't at Escapade! But I am so going to Escapade now!)
cesperanza: (Default)
Hi, I'm not dead! In fact, I can still be found, doggedly reblogging and occasionally posting on Tumblr despite it's incipient demise, but I know I haven't sent a signal up over here in a while. I am fine but mostly in peak sandwich/midlife crisis mode: child, career on full boil, sick parents.

But you know, I've been doing this holiday story thing with one of my MCU Steve/Bucky stories for like, five years now, and it turns out that this is not the year I'm gonna stop, anyway.

The holiday thing starts with a Thanksgiving story, so here it is, written by men and with art by Alby and Revolutionary Jo: (if you've never read this story, you don't want to start here! Well--or there's near-naked Bucky in here, so who knows: maybe. Follow your bliss.)

Title: Eight Invitations (3345 words)
Author: Speranza, RevolutionaryJo, alby_mangroves
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Tony Stark, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Clint Barton
Additional Tags: Thanksgiving, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Tony Stark has a way of becoming the center of attention, Tony Stark is a Daddy now, not in that way you fiends
Series: Part 15 of 4 Minute Window

Anyway, after this there will be an Advent Calendar for the story that will run Dec 8 - Dec 25. And I tell you guys, I bless fandom every year this time of year, because I hate this time of year, lol, and fandom and gift exchanges and new fic and fests and such is really most of what helps me get through it! Which I suppose is what religions are for, really.

(And now I realize I've got to get my Santa!icon out lol.)
cesperanza: (Default)
I'm posting this article, Goodbye for now here so that I can find it again but also to remind myself that I didn't fail at getting vidding done for the OTW, which I still think about like every other day - it just really wasn't possible and apparently still really isn't. This article is about why the site VidMe closed, but provides fascinating insights into the state of things; particularly hilarious TO ME are the "Insights for Newcomers," i.e. what they learned for people who want to try to do this:


If you’re considering building your own video platform, here are a few suggestions:

* Monetization — Plan to operate at a loss for an indefinite period of time, and/or be operated by a deep-pocketed business with multiple revenue streams and touchpoints with consumers. Give users of your existing products incentives to engage with your video platform, and be wary of monetizing with advertisements prior to achieving massive scale. (Speranza: "Uh-huh. No ads or monetization, keep talking...")

* Infrastructure costs — Explore emerging technologies, such as peer-to-peer storage and delivery to further reduce infrastructure overhead. Consider restrictive storage policies, and own as much of the physical infrastructure as possible. (Speranza : "Owning the servers, eh? What a great idea! Who'd ever have thought of that?! And peer to peer technology, yes, I'll have to look look into that...*goes off mumbling*)

Audience building — Leverage an existing audience, and/or incentivize all platform participants by issuing a native currency (e.g. blockchain) to equitably reward contributors. (Speranza: "Invent fandom, check!)



In a dark way, this was cheering. And I do think that peer to peer has great possibilities for fandom, where we have such a large community and network. I dream of hooking a peer to peer video piece up to AO3 but I guess we'll see!...maybe I'll have the energy for it next year, when I get a couple more things off my plate.
cesperanza: (Default)
Random list of I loved (most things) and some things I didn’t love as much:

Spoilers below the cut! )
cesperanza: (Default)
The truest thing you will read today.


[personal profile] alisx posted: Modern right.

The problem is now that Americans don’t enjoy anything remotely close to the same rights as the rest of the rich world does. That is why their lives are so much more impoverished — not just financially poorer, but genuinely more deprived, whether of healthcare, happiness, savings, trust, or mobility. In that sense, American society is failing because its social operating system — its constitution — is badly obsolete. In the 21st century, people need healthcare and education to be rights a lot more than they need to be able to wield guns against bears and wolves .


umair haque on constitutional priorities.

cesperanza: (Default)
Sorry I'm not aroundish! I owe people feedback, I owe people responses to feedback, I need to get cracking on my CapRevBB, and the rest of Ghost Story, and I'm so sad that fucking Endgame is coming out because I haven't even finished writing my Infinity War stuff, and I could write ten stories based on the Endgame trailers alone, except the movies will - sigh- ruin the infinite wonderful possibilities of the trailers. I'm tempted actually to not even watch the damn movie and just write the trailer, because trailers, like vids, are more like poems, and god knows most of the MCU films are sadly prosaic. Midochlorians all the way down. Gimme a little poetry, is all I ask.

(And more Peggy! I was so happy to hear Peggy's voice. It brought me right back: best thing.)

Anyway: behind on everything because I had to do a bunch of things for sick family, and then got sick myself, and have finally caved and got antibiotics and now the semester is hitting high gear just as I'm behind on four - count 'em, four! - RL writing deadlines, which--hey! new personal best!

So yeah, waving and drowning both, but honestly if I live to mid-April things should be on the upswing? maybe? I hope?
cesperanza: (Default)

[syndicated profile] eff_feed posted: Don’t Sacrifice Fair Use to the Bots

Three years ago, we warned of a string of dangerous new policy proposals on the horizon. Under these proposals, platforms would be forced to implement copyright bots that sniffed all of the media that users uploaded to them, deleting your uploads with no human review.


It’s happening.

cesperanza: (snark)
Runs around with hair on fire

Lum made a due South vid!

BE STILL MY HEART!!!!

I am buying a lottery ticket today, just in case!
cesperanza: (bucky and old steve)
Yay, the Chocolate Box reveals happened! I got a gorgeous little Steve/Peggy snapshot that really sells the sexiness of skinny!Steve and the marvelousness of her:


I feel it in my bones (755 words) by ljparis
Summary: "He said her name, quietly so as not to startle her, letting the word slip past his tongue as his hand came up to cup her elbow."

and I wrote two Stucky ficlets:

No Kind of Life[ (1995 words) by Speranza
Summary: "You know I have to do everything the hard way, Buck. It’s the fundamental fact of my nature.”

and

Seashore (505 words) by Speranza
Summary: "Who is that, screaming like a girl?"
cesperanza: (Default)
Rank Name
1 Friends to Lovers
2 Magical Connection (Telepathy, etc)
3 Snowed-In Cabin/Isolated Together For Extended Period of Time
4 Found Families
5 And They Were Roommates!
5 Amnesia Fic
5 Hurt/Comfort
8 'Groundhog Day'/Karmic Time Loop
8 Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU
10 Loyalty Kink

Read more... )
cesperanza: (Default)

[personal profile] hafital posted: New Story: Rusted Gate (Steve/Bucky, adult, MCU)


Rusted Gate (19574 words) by hafital
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

cesperanza: (Default)

[community profile] thisweekmeta posted: TWiM, Issue 10: February 6, 2019

[profile] tobermoriansas posted obligatory fic comments discourse: "I’ll be honest, one very specific and slightly weird (intensely personal) reason why I hate the whole “if you read a fic you like you must leave a comment” is the way it means people have started to talk about this social activity that is really, truly a hobby space, in terms of payment and investment and labour and what is deserved and undeserved."



Interesting essay looking at the more general use of marketing/selling/branding language in fandom--

And actually, as as today's Fansplaining discusses in their new up User Generated Content - which I will also signalboost! - this is a bigger problem with social media space, and maybe with social space, full stop.

(I mean, FWIW, my controversial post of a few weeks ago was partially provoked by the discovery that people were charging for vidding help, which made me super sad; I didn't even know that there were professional cosplayers. I was also vaguely irritated about emails like:

"We want to let you know about our new Amazon Influencer Program. This program is built specifically for social media influencers. You'll get a unique storefront on Amazon that you can curate with product recommendations to share with your followers as an additional way to earn. To qualify for the Amazon Influencer Program, we take into various criteria such as: audience size, engagement metrics, relevancy of content and topics. Connect with Youtube! Real time approval!"


I am not your user-generated content! I am not your Amazon influencer! I don't need your real time approval! I am not writing fanfic to build an audience to sell them pop tarts or car wax or whatever the fuck the product is. I am desperately trying to be done with the commercialized interweb, people. I have the AO3 *hugs the AO3* and I am going to figure out out something else, something ad free, for social media*: and yes, btw, Hubzilla is coming along NICELY, but we have to figure out how to make it nice(r) for artists and vidders, because the OTW doesn't do that part well enough** , so we have to make this next thing do arts and vids well. But I am done done done done done*** with this sort of thing.

Oh, and while I'm signalboosting, I leave this here without comment:
Patreon CEO says the company's generous business model is not sustainable as it sees rapid growth.

* to replace twitter and tumblr and stuff--I'm posting this on DW not because I'm complaining about DW but because DW is one of my long term homes!

** but also DW doesn't do the arts and vids all that well either, which I don't mean as a slam; DW does what it does like AO3 does what it does, as best it can. But it's why I'm going to have to xpost this to tumblr etc to find the artists, vidders etc.

*** done! seriously!
cesperanza: (Default)

[community profile] otw_news posted: The OTW is Recruiting Translators, Policy & Abuse Staff, and Fanhackers Staff

The OTW is recruiting Fanhackers staff, Policy & Abuse staff, and translators. Signal boost this to your friends and follow the link to learn more: https://goo.gl/onkcyR

cesperanza: (Default)

[personal profile] muccamukk posted: Questions About Federation



Many good questions and answers about how federation might work for fandom at the above link!

Also - because it is worth saying--there is no rush, so if you're not an early adopterish person, don't worry! Moreover, there is no need to namesquat--it doesn't work like that! The few instances that are up aren't even in beta, they're in pre-beta, and the fun--if you call it fun, which I personally do--is banging on the buttons and trying to figure out how to make the thing do what you want and look as you want and what all the controls mean.

Eventually the software will be more customizable and there will be directions for setting up more instances and joining more instances--all of which will be as good as these instances, because they will INTEROPERATE, that is the whole point. We can keep adding servers, and I imagine them organizing by fandom, by pairing, by philosophy (antis, have fun! trash party, have fun!) or by art (vidding, podfic) or in any other number of ways--and THAT will only be "home rules" because you yourself can friend people who are housed in different places, or you can pick up and move to a host more congenial.

It's a long term game, this!
cesperanza: (Default)

[personal profile] absolutedestiny posted: Cheap Big Media Hosting - A Guide

So morgandawn  asked me to write up this guide as it may be helpful to people who:
Create fan art that needs hosting before being able to post on ao3 or other places (images, videos, audio files etc)



Once more, with feeling!
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