Goren and Eames

I love Law and Order Criminal Intent. It is a fantastic show and the truth of the matter is that I started to watch it because of Vincent D'Onofrio. I believe it to be one of the more original shows that has been on TV in the last 10 years. Bobby Goren is a truly interesting and unique character. And the interaction between Goren and everyone else is part of the reason that I maintained this fandom.

Like many, I was upset when they announced that Vincent D'Onofrio was leaving and that Kathyrn Erbe was going to be phased out along with Eric Bogosian. In all honesty I probably won't continue to watch the show without these two main characters/actors. But I won't be boycotting the show or the network for that matter. In most of the interviews I've read D'Onofrio has said that he's decided to leave because they've done all that they can with his character. And I can see the reasoning behind that logic. He has given a lot to this show and this character. Anyone else remember why they brought the second team in? Because VDO collapsed on set a couple of times, he's given his all to this franchise and has decided to move on from it.

Kathyrn Erbe has also been with the show all along. Most shows don't last this long and if they do the cast usually switches out much earlier. Am I bummed out about the direction the show will probably end up taking? Of course. Am I angry? No. I like USA Network. They allowed CI to go somewhere that it never would've been able to as a lead in for SVU. We got some REALLY GREAT development with Bobby's character and Alex for that matter.

As a fan of both of these actors I'm hoping that this will give them both the opportunity to do more work. VDO has mostly done smaller roles during his years on CI and hopefully this'll mean I have to clear out some space on my D'Onofrio DVD shelf for new movies.

Plus. There's always fanfiction. Goodness knows that's what I've been using during the season break.

But again, I certainly won't be boycotting USA. Hello, Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Psych, they do have good shows.

New Years Eve and Other Misc

Taking a break from staring blankly at the script I'm working on for my application to the film program. Also waiting for a guy to call, which is a new experience for me. A guy calling me in general is rather astounding to me, waiting for it to happen is rather tedious. It reminds me why I've gotten to the age of 19 without too much of my time being spent like this. 

So Christmas was rather nice. Got Guitar Hero III for Wii. Incredibly awesome. I spent most of Christmas day playing and was able to beat the easy level. Also Christmas brought something that I've wanted for a long time. My first turn table. It's a portable one. Numark, which means nothing to me but it works well.

Found this the other day: http://swiftywriting.blogspot.com/2005/11/in-defense-of-fanfiction-guestblogger.html 

Interesting to say the least. The guy responding to the original attacks is brilliant. I think the most ridiculous claim is that writing fanfiction is damaging to someone who aspires to being a professional writer. That's crap, to put it simply. If anything fanfiction encourages writing. The claim that it's unoriginal and insulting to the fandom is unfounded. One thing that fanfic does is help the fanbase grow. Somebody likes the original work enough to want to expand on it, to want to spend their free time thinking about it and striving to create something that does it justice. How is that a bad thing? 

Alright, back to script writing and Law & Order Criminal Intent watching (gotta love USA Network for the all day marathon.)

Oh and good news for any late night fans. January 2nd marks the return of the late night shows. Conan O'Brien will be back on! Yowzer.

Unleash Your Imagination... kinda

The tag line for Fanfiction.net is "Unleash your imagination" however it seems that a more appropriate comment would be "Unleash your imagination, but read this list of what you can and cannot write first." When I got into fanfiction there were still NC-17 stories on fanfic.net, I've been a member since December 2003 (although I have been reading longer then that). However, currently if you so much as imply that two characters are looking at each other in a suggestive manner someone sends an alert and your account is deleted. While I've yet to run into this problem, being a stickler for proper rating, I fear that anything rated higher then a K+ will be removed in an attempt to appease those easily offended.

Now they have added a feature so that the author can filter profanity in the reviews they recieve. That's right, authors have been given the power to decide which reviews they do or do not want. I find that to be ridiculous. If you put your story out there for people to read then you put it out there to be reviewed as well. It's one thing if you get a burn review and delete that but to have so much controll might go to a writer's head. Almost six year, 22 posted stories, 54,987 hits, and 425 reviews later only once did I deem worthy to remove one of the reviews I recieved. Somebody has to say something pretty damn offensive for me to delete it.

It has gotten to the point where people who want to read something other than your typical K-rated fluff stories go else where. Livejournal communities have sprung up all over for topics that have been unaccepted on the more "mainstream" type sites. Authors also tend to put their watered down versions of a story on fanfic.net and then go else where to post the actual version. That or they add an "email me for the other version" note after the disclaimer. Gee I wonder how many readers fanfic.net lost after that decision went into play.

Some stories do deserve harsh reviews and some reviews deserve to be removed. People can be mean and people can write stories that make you go "What the fuck did I just read?" (BTW thanks to the new filter, the thought I just put down can be censored) People really need to learn to use their own judgement. If you know that you don't like higher rated subject matter then don't read it and be surprised that you don't like it. I don't like slash stories so I make a point of not reading them. I have a friend who doesn't enjoy reading het, so she doesn't. See how easy that was?

Something else that I've noticed lately in the fanfic relem is people getting very uppity about AU stories and OOC situations. Lets break down the word FANFICTION. FAN being someone who enjoys a fandom FICTION being NOT REAL. Meaning that what we're writing here is not going to happen on the TV show (With the odd exception of Gilmore Girls, that entire April story line was like a bad fanfic story). If you like the characters to remain canon then write and read those ones. There are great search engines and search filters on most sites, use them.

So many readers and writers go to fanfiction because they want something different. Something that they weren't finding or getting enough of from their fandom. But we've managed to end up with readers who delight in getting accounts deleted, the power to controll what we want to be told about our stories, and general censorship. Writers who dare to unleash their imaginations, with their only concern being "Is this something that people will enjoy", end up with their account deleted because somebody didn't approve.

I love fanfiction. I remain loyal to fanfiction.net despite the changes, but I long for the days when fanfiction was still "new" and we foolishly made the assumption that everyone had the common sense. Silly us.

The First One and Fanfic

Well this is the first post on this blog. At last I've given in and got one of my own. I don't know if anyone has noticed but there aren't really that many blogs out there focused towards geeks. All of them are about fashion or cooking. And the ones that are out there for geeks are all about one thing specifically. Well geeks have a broad spectrum. At least I do and my friends do.

That being said I would like to tackle my first issue. Fanfiction. I love it. I have since 7th grade when I first stumbled across fanfiction.net, this was back when they still has nc-17 rated fanfics and they still had a normal rating system. What I want to know is: What happened to fanfic? Am I the only one who remembers back when people wrote stories that were worth reading. Apparently there is a total disregard for the English language, spell check, and maybe even some sort of style. I know that I make the occassionaly grammatical error, it happens. However there are stories out there that use just the letter "u" instead of typing out "you" why is that a difficult task? Do people actually think that they are producing something that people will want to read? More then that are they proud of it? When I post a story I make sure that it is work that I can be proud of. Work that I wouldn't be ashamed to hand into to a professor. It's just mind boggling to me that people seriously post this stuff then wonder why the good reviews aren't pooring in.

Well that's just one geeks opinion. BTW, I'm watching TV with my sister and she put Wedding Wars on and guess who is playing John Stamos' gay lover? The guy who played Simon on Firefly and Sernity! LMAO. Uncle Jesse and Simon are shacking up? Who saw that one coming?

--Moony--