F@#$ing Facebook!

I may be losing my mind.

I got one of those emails from Facebook that says somebody wants to be my friend. (I turned off all other notifications, as I can't be bothered.) The person's name: Stell de Galan. I'm sorry, WHO?!

Figuring this was either some kind of hoax that was going to infect my computer with cyber clap or one of those Facebook mega-users who just spend their day friending thousands of random people, I deleted the email.

And then because it's after one o'clock in the morning and I am insane, I started to THINK (always a bad idea): what if I really do know this person? What if it's an old high school classmate who's now a transvestite and this is their drag name and by ignoring them I am being horribly intolerant and bigoted and sending them into a spiral of depression? So I googled the name, and came up with: you got it, the Facebook entry. I tried to read it (without logging in), because again, CYBER CLAP, but since I am special and somehow managed to change my computer's default language to Spanish (and don't know how to change it back), I only understood about half of what the entry said.

This is the point where I realized I need to go to bed. I will possibly have to delete this entry in the morning, because between this insanity and the epic post of DRUNK, jam, and family drama I am not coming off well this weekend.

Ooh, update! I refreshed the page, and this person is "friends" with a friend of mine from college, so I can ask her what the deal is with this person (and if she has contracted cyber clap).

Good night!

Who wants to fund my research institute?

One of the courses I'm taking this semester is Social Research Methods. I'm a little peeved that I have to take this course, considering I already have lots of experience and have even presented my research at symposia, but whatever, I have to take it, it's fine.

Our major assignment for the semester is a review of literature on a topic of our choosing. I need to choose a topic, do some preliminary research, and write up my proposal by Wednesday. And I still haven't picked a topic.

I can think of plenty topics I'd like to cover, but either they're psychology and not sociology-related, or they're so obscure that it's unlikely I'll be able to find enough research. Some ideas I'm DYING to use: ( Cut for extremely long and boring musings on topics that may or may not be of interest to anyone other than myself. )

Because I Love All of You...

I present you with homework!

Since so many of you expressed interest in researching slash fiction as a sociological phenomenon, I present you here with a reading list of sources I found online. Unfortunately, I can't use any of them for my assignment, because they don't come from academic, peer-reviewed journals, but they all seem very interesting.

I found all of these articles through Google scholar, and I would point anyone interested in researching further in that direction. (You will have to pay for certain articles, but all of those I've listed below are accessible for free.)

I haven't read any of them yet, because I am supposedly working on my actual research assignment.

So, here we go:

Queering cyberspace : fan fiction communities as Ssaces for expressing and exploring sexuality: this is a PDF file of a book chapter.

Inventing a universe: Reading and writing internet fan fiction : a link to a graduate dissertation. On fanfiction. Yep.

Slashing Harry Potter: a special present for all the Potter fans on my flist to make up for me dissing it. Don't let the fact that the abstract is in German dissuade you; once you click on the PDF file, the article is in English.

And finally:
Queering Popular Culture: Female Spectators and the Appeal of Writing Slash Fan Fiction: this one took a bit of sleuthing to track down. I'd seen it cited on several other works, but it took me forever to find it. My gift to you! I can't wait to read it, this is exactly the sort of research I was looking for.

Enjoy, my nerdy little slash friends!