jlh | Meta, or, how Clio does ADD

God, so much stuff is happening on LJ that I'll have to put my thoughts in a vague listish format:

I find the whole LJ flagging controversy to be ridiculous because once again TPTB are putting the responsibility for enacting their not-thought-through policy on the already heavily-burdened shoulders of the Abuse Team. I'm not specifically aware of anyone younger than 18 reading this journal—everyone seems to have graduated—and I'm undecided on self-indicating the adult content, though I might. I mean, logging out and clicking through, or lying about your age to begin with, are such easy work-arounds that it sort of doesn't matter.
What I find most interesting about the SUP purchase of LJ from 6A is not the rampant paranoia, or the usual freakouts about freedom of speech or the government listening in (dude, they can do that NOW—it's on the internet) but that no one has mentioned what struck me in the news reports of the original SUP-6A agreement and the Russian bloggers' reactions, some of which centered around anti-Semetism and Jewish ownership of SUP. But I suppose noting the rampant anti-Semetism in Russia doesn't help anyone's argument about Putin et al.
That said, heidi8 made what I felt was the most sensible post, about that and the fan culture article that was in the New York Times this week. We do live in a capitalist society, friends. It's nice to think that we can do as we please and neither have to pay or have our eyeballs sold, but someone has to pay that server bill.
Blake Lewis's CD is out today and the Cake fandom is, predictably, spinning itself into butter. I saw it on sale myself at Borders this afternoon, next to a large poster of Jordin, but at least it was prominently displayed right at the entrance to the music section and hey, who goes to Borders for pop CDs anyway? I still hate the cover. If the video ever plays on Logo, though, that will never stop being funny.
Speaking of RPF, and something that was mentioned in Heidi's post, the bandom debate is never-ending and I find myself perplexed at the activities of those who want to put hard-and-fast labels and categories on current activities for the sake of academic study. Maybe it's the historian in me, but I just don't know how that is going to work. Categories of human activity are always messy and can only really be used as a rough guide. They mutate and merge and separate. I'm also not sure why the need to do this still drives us after the narrative turn—aren't we supposed to understand our own biases and how messy all of this really is? Never mind that being told by some acafen run amok that you're not a real slasher, or a real bandomer, or a real whatever seems akin to the forces that kept the HP fandom so wanky: who is a good fan and who is a bad fan? Who is doing it "right" and who is a "feral fan"? Seriously, is there any way to put that that isn't insulting? Did we all have to arrive at the "I'm interested in X, and it inspires me to creativity in Y way" through the geek track? Couldn't we have arrived through teengirl music/tv/movie fannishness, which is as old if not older? Can't we think of that other track, or any of the multiple tracks that have brought all these people to this place as a wonderful diversity and find that the community is stronger because of that and stop playing "those people are not my people"?
In other news, yesterday I made two kinds of baked goods for a care package, three main dishes to eat off of this week, and a pot of oatmeal, and even cleaned the kitchen as I went, so now I feel quite virtuous. And then I got another chapter of this story I'm beta'ing and it's like a present in your mailbox, isn't it?