that is pure happiness right there
Tags:
#dog #adorable
chead asked: hey what’s up with the “!” in fandoms? i.e. “fat!” just curious thaxxx <3
I have asked this myself in the past and never gotten an answer.
Maybe today will be the day we are both finally enlightened.
woodsgotweird said: man i just jumped on the bandwagon because i am a sheep. i have no idea where it came from and i ask myself this question all the time
Maybe someone made a typo and it just got out of hand?
I kinda feel like panic!at the disco started the whole exclamation point thing and then it caught on around the internet, but maybe they got it from somewhere else, IDK.
The world may never know…
Maybe it’s something mathematical?
I’ve been in fandom since *about* when Panic! formed and the adjective!character thing was already going strong, pretty sure it predates them.
It’s a way of referring to particular variations of (usually) a character — dark!Will, junkie!Sherlock, et cetera. I have suspected for a while that it originated from some archive system that didn’t accommodate spaces in its tags, so to make common interpretations/versions of the characters searchable, people started jamming the words together with an infix.
(Lately I’ve seen people use the ! notation when the suffix isn’t the full name, but is actually the second part of a common fandom portmanteau. This bothers me a lot but it happens, so it’s worth being aware of.)
“Bang paths” (! is called a “bang”when not used for emphasis) were the first addressing scheme for email, before modern automatic routing was set up. If you wanted to write a mail to the Steve here in Engineering, you just wrote “Steve” in the to: field and the computer sent it to the local account named Steve. But if it was Steve over in the physics department you wrote it to phys!Steve; the computer sent it to the “phys” computer, which sent it in turn to the Steve account. To get Steve in the Art department over at NYU, you wrote NYU!art!Steve- your computer sends it to the NYU gateway computer sends it to the “art” computer sends it to the Steve account. Etc. (“Bang”s were just chosen because they were on the keyboard, not too visually noisy, and not used for a huge lot already).
It became pretty standard jargon, as I understand, to disambiguate when writing to other humans. First phys!Steve vs the Steve right next to you, just like you were taking to the machine, then getting looser (as jargon does) to reference, say, bearded!Steve vs bald!Steve.
So I’m guessing alternate character version tags probably came from that.
100% born of bang paths. fandom has be floating around on the internet for six seconds longer than there has been an internet so early users just used the jargon associated with the medium and since it’s a handy shorthand, we keep it.
Because I’m in Bitter Old Fangirl Mode today, the fact that it took seven comments before someone explained bang paths upsets me greatly.
Once you pass 1,000 notes, people start to get really annoyed about the fact that no one mentioned bang paths sooner (the above comment is actually one of the nicer ones).
Tags:
#duuuuude #the more you know #language #bang paths #history #it’s always great when stuff that’s ‘just one of those things’ turns out to have a traceable explanation
Firefly Headcanon
Zoe and Wash, while deeply forever ridiculously in love, are not drift compatible.
Zoe and Mal are drift compatible.
Kaylee and Wash are drift compatible, and they have the best piloted, sweetest running jaeger ever been seen in the ‘verse – the best piloted, sweetest running jaeger ever to run away from a kaiju.
SECONDED
(also, the sudden thought of River Tam in a jaeger is rutting terrifying)
She hung from the ceiling, a perfect, motionless sculpture of a girl in the process of becoming a fruitbat. Simon glanced up at her periodically, both checking that she was still present, and reassuring himself that the grind of the machines overhead would keep her from hearing what he had to say. It wasn’t that he was keeping secrets from her; River knew everything about her condition, sometimes more than he did. It was that she didn’t like being talked about, and he respected that.
“They weren’t trying to unlock psychic powers or anything like that, no matter what the rumors say,” he said, his voice shaking slightly. Kaylee shifted her weight from foot to foot, disturbed by that tremor in his words. Simon Tam was the best K-scientist she’d ever worked with. For him to sound scared…
“Those people, those monsters…” Simon paused to take a deep breath, relaxing a little at the taste of oil on his tongue. Enough time spent with Kaylee had turned grime into perfume. “They were trying to set up a neural bridge inside a single mind. They wanted to do away with the need for drift compatibility, and privatize the Pilots. Imagine being able to market Jaegers for domestic and commercial use, because you only needed one Pilot, and that Pilot was so doped and dependent that they could never leave you.”
“That’s horrific,” whispered Kaylee. “They…they messed up her brain tryin’ to do something as can’t be done?”
“Oh, it can be done,” said Simon grimly. “They succeeded.
“My sister is in constant Drift with herself.”
asdlgkjas;fdjk
YOU GET ME THE BEST PRESENTS <333
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
I hate that moment between “I will write fic to amuse a person” and that person responding because WHAT IF I WROTE IT WRONG.
Tags:
#Firefly #Pacific Rim #crossovers #fanfic #(I’ve never actually seen Pacific Rim) #(and for that matter until last autumn I hadn’t seen Firefly) #(so I know just how far popculture osmosis can get you)
Map of Wikipedia articles by date of creation [1655×808]
CLICK HERE FOR MORE MAPS!
thelandofmaps.tumblr.com
Tags:
#Wikipedia #maps #pretty things
cindersk:
Write this on my gravestone
exactly
Tags:
#I hope I can live up to the first three bits #(I feel confident I can live up to the last) #sexuality and lack thereof
radiantlittlefox:
I love this post so much
my hand slipped
with their new hit song, “Randomly Searching 4 U”
I am re-reblogging just because that was so good
I think this one’s an Always Reblog, because the picture, the illustration, and the song title are just too damn perfect together.
It’s not a racial profile
It’s not the TSA
I’m just lookin’ for your sweet smile
In the most unhelpful way,I am…randomly searching for you
The girl who can make my pre-check dreams come true,
Baby you can shoes on and your laptop in its case,
Just give me that sweet pat-down in our very special place I’m
Randomly searching for youuuuuuuu.
Tags:
#oh look an update #Ahmed Cubed
Tags:
#Fantastic Four #comic #I have no idea who Namor is #and only vague ideas of who the other two are #but I am fond of Old Spice Guy jokes
some of the people on my dash i just assume are their icons bc i’ve never seen their pics so it’s like “oh look gandalf is up late bloggin again”
Tags:
#icon #in which Brin is a patch of forget me nots #(I generally tend to remember the colour schemes of people’s icons more than the things depicted in them)
Last Person That:
Slept in your bed besides you? Nobody else has ever slept in my bed. In October 2007, when I had the mattress but the rest of the loft bed hadn’t arrived yet, our dog slept on the mattress with me (and was very upset when my parents tried to make him stop).
Saw you cry?: Mom
You went to the movies with? Mom (in an unrelated incident)
You went out to dinner with? My parents and brother
You talked on the phone to? Mom
Made you laugh? Some TumblriteWould You Rather:
Pierce your nose or your tongue? Nose, I guess
Be serious or be funny? I dunno
Drink whole or skimmed milk? Whole
Die in a fire or drowning? I suspect drowning would be less painful, but I’d rather not find out.
Spend time with your parent(s) or enemies? ParentsAre You?:
Simple or complicated? Complicated, of course. Isn’t everyone?
Straight, gay or bisexual? A few weeks ago I was taking one of those surveys that pays you pocket change (I’m saving up for a Mass-Effect-capable laptop), and the demographic section had eleven different options for sexual orientation, with “asexual” top of the list (despite not being in alphabetical order). That was nice. Mostly they just give this “straight/gay/bi” crap, and I have to settle for “prefer not to answer”, even though I’m perfectly willing to answer if they’ll let me tell the truth.
Tall or short? Fairly short
Right handed or left handed? Right-handed
A lover of music or a lover of books? Both, but I’m capable of six-hour binges only with books.Do You Prefer?:
Flowers or sweets? Chocolates
Grey or black? Both
Colour photos or black-and-white photos? Colour
Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise, though that might be the rarity value.
M&Ms or Skittles? M&Ms
Staying up late or waking up early? Waking up early, unless I’m expecting a particularly unpleasant schoolday. That’s why I woke up half an hour late today. (Yes, it’s Saturday, but I took Thursday off, so fair’s fair.)
Sun or moon? They’re both pretty awesome, though I do like looking up at the moon and knowing there are people’s footprints on it. Makes me feel proud to be Terran.
Winter or Autumn? Autumn
10 acquaintances or 2 best friends? Best friends sound nice. It’s been ages since I had them.
Rainy or sunny? Probably sunny
Vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream? Chocolate
Vodka or Jack? I’ve never had either of those, so I can’t say.About You:
What time is it? 10:44 AM
Name? Brin
Nicknames? None online
When is your birthday? November 14 (no, I was not conceived on Valentine’s Day)
What do you want? For my computer science class to not have sprung a five-part writing assignment on me. (At least it doesn’t have a deadline beyond “get all of your coursework for the class submitted by the end of November”.)
How many kids do you want? The first three years or so (counting pregnancy) of child-raising sound extremely and near-unrelentingly unpleasant. I could maybe handle an older kid, but I’d really rather not.
What would you name a girl?: Naomi’s a nice name that doesn’t get enough use.
What would you name a boy? I haven’t thought about it.
What kind of music do you like? See this post.Unique:
Nervous habits? I don’t know about nervous. I rub my fingertips together when I’m anticipating something.
Are you double-jointed? Don’t think so
Can you roll your tongue? Hmm…*tries* maybe a little?
Can you raise one eyebrow? Only my left one
Can you cross your eyes? Probably?Random:
Which shoe goes on first? Right
Ever thrown something at someone? Of course
On average, how much money do you carry with you? Somewhere between $3 and $30.
What jewellery do you wear? A steel wristwatch (on my left wrist) and a hematine ace ring (on my right middle finger, of course).
Have you ever eaten Spam? …no.
Favourite ice cream? Thin Mint
How many kinds of cereal are in your cupboard? I’m not sure if we have any Cheerios at the moment. If not that, then nothing.
Can you cook?: A bitLast:
Alcoholic beverage? A sip of grasshopper, New Year’s Eve 2012. I could have had the whole glass if I wanted, but I don’t like eating so close to bedtime, and it felt too much like eating.
Car ride?: Coming back from Buffalo Wednesday evening.
Song played? Um…*checks* “Believe Me” by Fleetwood Mac.
Person you saw? Mom, though she was asleep at the time so it might not count. But the one before that was also Mom, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Tags:
#meme #Brin talks about herself for no particular reason
The guinea pig is not known as a smart or reliable steed, nor even a terribly fast one, although they can put on a good scrambling turn of speed when panicked (often into walls, while uttering a frantic “WHEEP! WHEEP!” as they go.) But they’re cute and good-natured and exceedingly docile, and they utter a charming purr when happy, so people insist on thinking they’re a good mount for the elderly and infirm. This has led to the regrettably common sight in many cities—first the distant piercing “WHEEP! WHEEP!” and the thin screams of the invalid tied to it, then the scrabbling gallop of the frightened saddle guinea, then at last, it comes into view, a panicky cavy charging through the streets, bowling over the populace, flailing senior in the saddle hauling uselessly on the ears (they’re steered by the ears, but not well) causing havoc, knocking over melon carts and market stalls, before at last the whoops of terror fade into the distance, another guinea hit-and-run come and gone. – Ursula Vernon
Tags:
#art #Ursula Vernon
