Friday grab bag

[bironic]

5. I have been sleeping so well the last couple of days; I am suffused with peace and tranquility good will. Last night brought a handful of interesting dreams. One of them involved the SGA crew being made to drink draughts of something like vodka because they'd investigated a gold beacon in a city like Atlantis, and after, Sheppard was nauseous, living/reliving painful memories, while everyone else had come out fine because the drink's effects were supposed to be temporary.

4. Last month's news, but oh my God, what a train wreck. Hey, did you know that a population with 55% women is equivalent to "Girlington"? NY Times fails again. One sane response here.

4a. Have this pre-Oscars Meta Awards list and Existential Olympics report to recover. Titles are funnier than the descriptions in the latter.

3. Today in a meeting, one of my colleagues in introducing me to a group of contractors said that I went to MIT and was therefore the smartest person in the room. That sort of comment makes me really uncomfortable. Because part of me says, Yeah, I might be. (Ten years ago, I would have thought, Yeah, I am.) And another part says, The school doesn't make the person; and school-smart doesn't mean everything-smart. And another part quails because I'm not always confident in myself. Ugh. I remember once, in my first year at my old job, everyone comparing what their SAT scores had been in high school, and me dreading the inevitable. After the guy who'd started the conversation pushed me to say mine, they were all whistle-y and wondering what I was doing working there and saying I must spend all day thinking about how stupid their conversations were. And what are you supposed to say to that? That in your own group of friends, you're ordinary? That kind of teasing or big-deal-making makes intelligence something to be embarrassed about, and when you try to disclaim the magical brilliance they pin upon you, you risk being accused of excessive or false humility.

2. The Plagiarist's Dirty Dozen Excuses. This came up on Slate the other day and made me think of those semi-annual fannish plagiarism scandals. The article is about a reporter, so some of the details don't apply, but the themes of deflection, self-contradiction, and calls for pity certainly sound familiar. Fandom could add an item or ten to the list. Or Bingo card.

1. If you really love me, you'll post prompts for tentacle_fest. I just left ten over there and feel embarrassed for my enthusiasm. Or prompt me here. Whichever. (Have I mentioned lately that I'm absurdly glad for fandom, because it taught me that it's okay to like what I like? Even when things turn around so that it's many people in fandom who don't share this particular taste, I've got the confidence to own it.)

0. Congratulations to pynelyf on clearing a huge hurdle toward her doctorate! And all my love and best wishes to S. and L., who could use something nice right now.

Comments

[synn.livejournal.com]

1)hurray for good sleep! (and tentacle fest, again)

2)I couldn't make it to part 2 of that article, too offensive.

3) I don't think I ever told any of the h.s crowd my sat scores, for the opposite reason you had -- in our group, I had the lowest. Most of my interests (art, crafts,writing) and 'tests' have been like that over the years: I'm just enough above average that lots of people ooh and ahh, but within my own group I'm below average. awkward.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

You've probably seen it, but conversations like that inevitably remind me of this Larson cartoon. Because... it's so distressingly true XD



LOL, TENTACLES.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

2. My, those excuses sound familiar.

Perhaps the journalist in question should have taken a page from Helene Hegemann's book and claimed that his appropriations were, in fact, deliberate and artful (see article here (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/weekinreview/28kennedy.html?scp=2&sq=fiction+plagiarism&st=nyt)).

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I actually think that plagiarism by a reporter or scholar can honestly happen accidentally just from sloppy note-taking and forgetfulness. And sometimes people get stressed out and cavalier. But within that context, you're supposed to be information-gathering. Researching. Building on other ideas that are already out there. So if you get sloppy and don't keep track of what came from where and what you actually "just knew" to begin with and what your opinion was before research.... You may end up plagiarizing. I just think it's probably not that hard to fuck up and do. Not that there aren't more clear-cut cases of blatant, intentional plagiarism where the person just figured they wouldn't get caught. But sometimes, I think, it probably is just a fuck up.

Plagiarizing fiction is something else entirely to me. I'm completely baffled by it. I don't see how it can happen without someone reading one fic and then saying, "What if I just... edited this a lot and then put my name on it??"

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

Yay for tentacles! And I know what you mean about fandom. I'm still learning that it's okay to like what I like - and to like things to the degree that I like them (to enjoy obsessing over things, and things that aren't, say, opera or another "high" art form that somehow gets a pass in my mind). Knowing smart, articulate people in fandom who are unabashedly enthusiastic about passions I share - especially ones that always embarrassed me a bit - is liberating.

Which is to say that I still blame you and your SGA fic for giving me a thing for tentacles. ;) (Seriously, though, what's not to like? They're like bondage that's alive!) I particularly like your prompt about consensual tentacle encounters. I'll be very intrigued to see any fics that come out of that.

And yes, I saw the NYT article about the new "gender imbalance" at universities. Gnah. Most of the responses I read - apart from mentioning that, as you said, 55% female is HARDLY "Girlington" - pointed out that now, women have some idea of what men suffered, back in the early 20th century when the vast majority of universities were male-dominated. The poor things were forced to cater constantly to women, and their own success made them miserable and anxious as they fretted about being too smart and ambitious for any woman to want to marry. Oh, wait. :)