living out loud, and spelling it out

I make jokes about being an evil villain, like I'm on a power trip.

I'm using that pic for a wallpaper
Here's the wallpaper with Plankton added

Most of you know it's just a joke. Yeah, I'm evil and on a power trip, but it's still just a joke.

One of the perks of people knowing who I am is getting to know a lot of people. One of the drawbacks is standing out and being a beacon that brings problems down on people I care about. It's a double edged sword representing a fandom, because ridiculous things like this happen. It's actually in backward order like this, you can see it correctly if you click it to the source.

This is what started it. I wasn't upset, just joining in a hashtag trend (like a game) with a #Lexxperience link. Fans who follow me on twitter see me do this several times a week to promote Lexx. People who don't use twitter might not understand that hashtagging really is a game that goes on round the clock forever. Really clever people get lots of retweets, but I mostly just retweet other people's wit and plug Lexx into the feed once in awhile.

I'm still not upset. If you click that snip to the source, you can click from there to the post I made, which explains everything very simply. It's nothing to be upset about, because youtube pirate vids disappear all the time. I'm usually pretty careful not to place vids like that on my fan blogs. I don't support video piracy, I don't encourage people to illegally upload hijacked material, and I generally don't link fans who do that. And there are plenty who do illegally upload to share because Lexx is so dang hard to get, as you can see from the Lexx wiki link I linked in that post about who owns what rights to which parts of Lexx. Lexx was marketed very weirdly, had/has multiple content owners, was split up for awhile until Echo Bridge gathered it back together for world distribution, and now it shows up once in awhile in streaming contracts and then goes away again. Thank goodness it's still a retail product, even if it's not the original product with all the tidbits.

What I am is sad. I don't mind taking target hits. I don't mind being watched. I don't mind being snarked behind my back, or discussed in offices, or thoroughly perused and even downloaded, ripped off, and copied by underground fans in remote areas of the world finding ways past heavy national/international internet regulations and restrictions. The corporate suits paid to scour and scrub web content over legal jots and tittles are only doing their jobs. Part of the irony of LEXX is how it manages to keep thriving despite the nearly complete demolition of both the product merch AND the fan base. Some of us keep raggedly gathering and quoting Brigadoom to each other, mostly in private so things won't disappear. Well, lately, it feels like things disappear because I stand out like neon and make them easy to find, which makes me feel sad.

So, right after I point out this week that someone in a country that severely restricts women's rights has discovered something I've written about a female Lexx character being stripped of her rights and made into a slave after she failed the wife bank, and it's gone viral over there, what makes me sad is that over HERE my twitter linking to the fan blog is being watched and used as a tool to find illegal Lexx content. Right now, my fan blog is the only connection some underground people have in a severely restricted country to the ideation that human rights and dignity actually do exist, and we really do create stories about how others suffer. We can empathize. That is something to hang onto when you can legally be beaten to death over something we hardly blink at where I live.

Lexx content is the heart and soul of eloquently addressing human atrocities in a way that doesn't create local political upheaval, because it's not on earth. Except for season four, which is extremely tongue in cheek, there is no mention of any earth governments, no one to blame or point at. Lexx is a story free of moral platitude. With Lexx we can take a hard look at genocide, slavery, population control, social control, perverted justice, you name it, Lexx has it. Lexx is a fantastic vehicle for discussing the natures of Machiavelli and Dante and Hitler without upsetting the delicate stomachs of political activists, because it's not on earth. The only time someone approached me, very publicly I might add, about having a problem with Lexx was about a lack of racial balance during filming. Given the content, several of us around the globe were put off that the content was completely overlooked to haggle about something like that, especially in an international production. Otherwise, most people blow Lexx off as a 'sex in space' show.

Yes, I am sad. Not because the Rated Lexx featurettes got removed, not because right after I tweeted a hashtag joke a certain post on my Pinky blog was checked *again*, but because the people haggling over property rights are completely missing the real people living horrible lives who are actually finding something to express how they feel living hopeless lives.

So a video disappears about how 790's shred of brain really came from a woman who was tortured and killed and repurposed for parts in robotic drones. So what. It's just a video. But some of us still have that on DVD. There are fans out there who will simply just reload it somewhere else and I'll never know about it except by accident, like I did this last round. You see, it's not that the Lexx videos are titillating for fans to drool over (like Ben Cumberbatch vids, amIright?) but a story of how horribly people were abused and still kept finding ways to fight the system that was destroying them.

Lexx fans- let me rephrase that- LOYAL Lexx fans won't let Lexx die. The more Lexx is rooted up from the public, the more underground it will go, because it represents all of humanity under all repressive governments.

I'm proud to be a Lexx fan.

I'd put a Brigadoom vid here, but it would just disappear. I'm no longer linking Lexx vids so they won't disappear. I call myself Arch Heretic in other places, and I'm one of the biggest Thodin and Stanley Tweedle fans on the planet, and it's getting a little obvious that any time I link a Lexx vid it disappears. In lieu of Lexx, I will put a vid here that I hope expresses how I feel about the Lexx fandom, all the Lexx creators, staff, and actors, the opportunities I had to see it and own it, and the people who made such huge impacts on my life because of Lexx.

I'm not his date

I started this post hours ago. My internet today has been stupid.

Can't help noticing as I throw out some old soup that we have a thriving ragweed patch. This particular currently two story high plant is goldenrod, well ahead of its usual growing season with all this rain. Goldenrod pollen is sticky and doesn't float around well like ragweed, so I feel no ill will toward it. Nearly everything beneath and around it is ragweed.

~tech issue, stupid crap phone, when it can push the pic thru I'll put it here, because that is one impressive goldenrod stalk~

Here we go, finally. Seriously, two stories tall. I should be looking down on it from my 2nd story deck, you can see I'm eye to eye with it.

And it looks like we'll be bleaching the deck sometime in future.

I don't care if pollen.com says our pollen count as been super low most of the week, I'm having to get my zyrtec down first crack of dawn before I ever even open doors or windows because pollen is being dragged in from the rain on our shoes, then dries out and puffs back up into the air as we walk around. Pollen is measured in microns, you can't see it coming in wet. Stripping at the door is well and good, but it's not stopping incoming. The thick orchard grass in the field across from my house hasn't been mowed once this year, and every single day almost as soon as the rain stops, a yellowish film shows up on everything outside. I think the overabundance of grass pollen is working its way through the wood siding on our house, into every crack and crevice, and whooshing in our doors with us every time we walk in and out. Even if I hold that down to a minimum, I still have to carry groceries in from the car. I stick to the chat and wooden deck, but the bottoms of my shoes still drag it in because it's just on. everything.

I'm not sure how cloud cover and air saturation slow down radio wireless signals, but between sneezing and waiting for stuff to load, I'm getting a little cranky.


On a side note about something that didn't make me cranky at all because it actually made me laugh, just putting it out there that someone else's entire youtube channel that's been around awhile disappearing in 2 weeks flat after I posted a single vid, and only noticing because someone keeps tracking back to that post, which incidentally very few people have seen because it's such a boring post, kinda hints that things might be getting personal again.

If I knew the person doing this owned Lexx, I would be 100% behind it. I strongly believe in supporting original content sales. I have never hijacked a show, and in fact own two full sets of Lexx from the Salter Street warehouse, plus three original CDs. What I do on the internet helps sell Lexx. People let me know all the time they found Lexx and bought it somewhere. Remember the old days? Used to be virtually impossible to get the full series at a reasonable price, now it's easy.

However, I also strongly believe in supporting fans. Someone's youtube account being ripped down for illegal uploading doesn't hurt me. I'm not the one who loaded those up. I'm used to fanvids disappearing because that happens all the time- youtube safeguards content, fans cry in the night, that happens. That's also why I don't make my own fanvids. There are some big content creators out there who have said they don't mind fans using their content, and in fact say it's flattering that they do. Many big content creators put stuff out for free left and right, because they know it's good for sales. So an entire youtube channel disappearing after I embed a single youtube on a post that has less than 40 hits on it (some of my posts on some blogs have over 10,000), and then watching someone track back to that post from ages ago for no reason whatsoever unless it has something to do with checking on whether that vid stopped working, well, you know, feels kind of personal.

You only hurt the fans doing that. You only hurt Lexx sales. If the Lexx creators were worried about their content, they never would've sold it off. If the owners of distribution rights were worried about it, they'd be patrolling youtube like crazy, and they're NOT. So it's kind of interesting that happened.

A person asked me this week why I don't fill posts up with Lexx cosplay and other cool stuff. I figure if fans want their stuff out there, they'll put it out there. I've seen some awesome Lexx cosplay on the internet from around the world, including South America, which surprises many North Americans when I tell them that. People are still out there whining about Lexx being hard to find, why is there no merch, why don't the actors go to cons, etc. Fans who've been around since the beginning and watched the fandom eat itself whisper that a book about the fandom would be more awesome than a Lexx reboot. (Seriously, a list of fans have privately said this to me, not knowing others have said it, as well.) I agree, but I'm not the one who's going to write it. Y'all hitch up your own socks and go write the drama stuff. I'm busy. Personally, I think it would make for great reality TV, but there's no way I wanna be in the middle of that kind of silliness. Maybe that's exactly why key figures don't run the con routes, who knows.

Fandoms abound. If we want to see more Lexx pride out there, we need to let fans be fans. We need to show fans it's worth buying the complete Lexx series and let go of the raids.

A few years ago I said we're in a golden age of entertainment and fandom that won't last much longer. Copyright issues about cosplaying have come up in very serious discussion, and the only reason it hasn't been pursued is because there is still so much money changing hands on convention floors. Cosplayers are like free advertising, and everyone knows it. Fans love seeing cosplay. But one of these days, that's going to change. One of these days it won't just be illegal uploading and fanvids that get targeted. It'll be entire fandoms. It'll become original content ONLY. And if Lexx fans are taking the time and putting effort into wiping out original Lexx content, without even the distributor being the legalistic antagonist (as far as I can tell), then what we've got is a fandom crippling itself, which is actually pretty ridiculous when that fandom is already so close to nonexistence (compared to some other cult fandoms) that it's like pulling teeth trying to find fans.

There are bigger fish to fry out there.
US: More than 21M people affected by government hack- "The Obama administration said that hackers stole Social Security numbers from more people than previously thought in a recent data breach."

Since I believe our entire grid will probably go down from a hack, a dirty nuke, or a massive X flare from the sun, and since I've already deleted all my own Lexx stuff in the past before I started over, I'm already used to the idea that all my Lexx stuff could disappear, never to be accessed again. Since I pay actual money for my sites out of my own pocket, and since I've had to literally rebuild after server moves, there's just not a lot any more that rattles me. So I disappear, so what. I was only hurting the fandom when I deleted my own content. That's right, I've already done more damage to myself than anyone else could ever do to me, and I hurt other fans doing it. I'm the first one to admit I'll regret that the rest of my life. People trusted me, and I blew it. I deleted content we can never get back. So Lexx disappears somewhere, so what. You're only hurting the fandom.

Come out and be cool with the big kids. And before this blows up into any kind of big deal somewhere, 1- I'm never naming names again because that's childish, 2- so few people will actually read this that makes it even more ridiculous, and 3- a few of the people that do read this actually have some real klout you might not be aware of. If my Lexx stuff ever goes poof and I'm not the one who did it, I won't be able to unripple that pond, and I might hafta hold a few people back who don't realize this is all just part of the fun and games. I'm done brawling like a noob in a Trek forum over tech that doesn't even exist yet.

That being said, I once again encourage Lexx fans to rip off what you can of what I've already got up just in case, because that's what saved some of my content when I Lexxploded. Again, that really touched me to see some of my stuff had been rescued, and what can I say- I love fans.

For all the lurkers who have followed me in the night for so many years. I understand pain and the need for distraction as much as anyone can. There are deeper things for some of us than silly little legal issues.

the new Hogtown order

Today is all about tech hurdles.

1- The only bill I still send in a check for experienced a massive envelope cutting/gluing/slinging into bills fail when 3 envelopes in a row got caught and stuffed into each other before finally being severed from the roll, and my bill doesn't look much different from a crazy nouveau 6 legged frog I saw once which had 3 back legs on one side. Weighing options- is it easier and faster to go dig up a generic envelope and address it myself, or just go ahead and set up auto pay? Turns out it would've been easier and faster going old school, but who knew, so that's that. Since I'm still using up checks I ordered in 2005, looks like I'll never have to order checks again.

2- "Please follow the activation instructions within the next two weeks as all debit cards will be deactivated as of July 15, 2015." Um, got caught a little flatfooted today, thanks guys, by the way, it's still June...

3- I finally made an appointment for new glasses. Guess which account the groceries and other stuff came out of today? Yeah. Tomorrow I get to make a special trip to my bank OR juggle what the other account owes me plus my personal account, which I'm sure the receptionists at the clinic can competently mix up because they've done so well in the past with mine and several other people's payments, files, and prescription lens info.

I thought everything was supposed to be paperless by now. I thought all this digital currency was supposed to make everything easier and faster. Everyone I know who has been freaking out about 666 and scan codes on our necks or in chips in our arms or whatever over the last ten years may as well just relax, because our world could never possibly EVER be that easy.

Lexx always says it best. Season 3, episode 7 "Tunnels", Kai winds up having a claim processed by bureaucracy in hell, called "Hogtown". All the Lexx eps seem to be loaded up on youtube at GoodTimes. Not sure how long it'll last since Lexx is still for sale on Amazon and elsewhere, so go jump on that. :edit: 7-9-15 Well, that didn't take long, did it?

Lurker Games

It's a thing we do. A game.

Three different people have told me they keep dossiers on me. None of them were joking.

Sometimes you accidentally cease and desist an amateur you know in real life and then stuff gets awkward.

And sometimes it gets weird.

I wish we could get together in a lurkers club and swap tech advice, but I know that defeats the whole purpose.

So we just quietly watch each other.

I live for the plot twists, like when an ultra dark lurker pings on top of me and someone else lurking each other. I know you know I know you know I know, but now you know.