Star Wars Awesomeness (May the 4th Be With You)

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone! To celebrate, I've collected my favorite Star Wars videos for you to enjoy. May the Force be with you!

Star Wars (John Williams is the Man)

a song about Star Wars set to a medley of John Williams songs

Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel

The Piano Guys battle it out while playing a medley of Star Wars songs

The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars Story Ever Told

A humorous summary of the Star Wars original trilogy

Grocery Store Wars

A parody of Star Wars about organic vs processed food

Fandom School (5th period): Cancellation

Everybody dreads hiatus. It's hard enough to wait a week; waiting months (or even years!) is almost impossible. But that's not the worst that can happen to a fandom.

You know how it goes. You get really into a show, watching every episode, until suddenly there are no more. And there will be no more. The show has been cancelled. It's devastating.

So why does it happen? Here are a few possible causes:

• The storyline is finished
• The show's ratings aren't high enough
• Something happened to one of the actors/creators of the show
• It's not making enough money (i.e., it costs more to produce the show than is being earned by people viewing the show)
• It's being removed to make room for another show

There are lots more, of course, but those are the main ones.

What do you do when your favorite show gets cancelled?

• Get together with other fans and petition for it to be renewed
• Write lots of fanfiction (and create other fanworks) to tie up the loose ends
• Try to find a new fandom to join
• Speculate with other fans about what happens (would have happened?) post-canon
• Rewatch every single episode, looking for all the things you missed the first time
• Hope that a spin-off will be created

This, by the way, is why I write so many Merlin fanfics. The show was cancelled after 5 seasons (well, cancelled isn't really the right word because they were always planning to have it last for only 5 seasons), and I'm still upset about it. The most important thing to remember about cancellation is that even though the show may be done, the fandom still lives. And who knows, maybe the cancelled show will come back in one way or another. You never know.

I leave you with this video about cancellation.

Fandom School (4th period): Crossover Fanfiction

Hello and welcome again to Fandom School! We're back to fanfiction again, and now I'd like to talk about crossover fanfics.

First of all, what is a crossover? A crossover is a mash-up of two or more fandoms. You can combine just a few fandoms (Wholock, Superwholock, etc.), or you can go all out (for example, this fanfic). A crossover is not the same thing as an AU. For example, my fic The Once And Future Time Lord is a multi-fandom AU because while there are elements of Doctor Who, they are assumed to have always been there. A crossover takes the characters of one world and inserts them into another, while still retaining the memory of their original story (unless there's a memory loss trope or something). A multi-fandom AU takes one fandom and changes it so that it's part of another fandom. Fanfics where characters from one fandom are students at Hogwarts (like this fanfic) are a good example of this type of AU.

So now that you know what a crossover is, let's get to crossover fanfics. What should you keep in mind when writing them? Well besides the usual fanfiction tips, it's important to think about how your fandoms mesh. Wholock is a common crossover because the two fandoms are similar: eccentric genius outsmarts bad guys with the help of his friends. (They're also both set in the modern world.) However, if you wanted to combine the Avengers and My Little Pony, that would be a bit harder. (A quick google search reveals that fanfiction for this crossover does exist, and here's an example.)

There are a few other things to consider when writing crossover fanfics:

• How many fandoms are you including? Try to keep it to just a few fandoms, else you'll risk complicating your fanfic and seriously limiting your number of readers.
• How many characters are you including? Like fandoms, if you include too many your story will get cluttered.
• How do your characters meet? Are they old friends? Do they randomly happen to run into each other? Is there some sort of crisis that brings them together?
• How do the worlds connect? Have both universes co-exist, do the characters live in the same universe, or does something cause the universes to come together/the characters to be transported to each other?
• Are your characters interacting reasonably? Is any character monopolizing the story, or is any character just sort of... there (invisibility level: Mickey Smith)?
• How is canon affected? Is it canon divergence, or is canon altered to explain how the fandoms are connected?
• Make sure your characters stay in character. OOC characters are a common problem with crossovers. It is justifiable to change a character somewhat to make them fit in with the other fandom(s), but you need to make sure that the essence of his/her personality remains the same. You could intentionally make characters be OOC, but I wouldn't recommend it.

And now that I've given you advice, I'll share my own crossover fanfics:

Wholock (Doctor Who and Sherlock crossover)

• An Interesting Case
• This is my first Wholock story (and my first fanfiction). In this one, Sherlock is asked to interrogate a mysterious witness who proves to be just as interesting as the case itself, and they go on an adventure together.
• The Search For Father
• This is a story for all of you who were frustrated when we saw that Jenny (from "The Doctor's Daughter") was alive, only to never see her again. I mean seriously. She never even gets a spin-off show! So, I wrote a story in which she goes off looking for her dad and enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes.
• Call In The Expert
• "When the police are out of their depth, they consult me," Sherlock had said. But what about when Sherlock was out of his depth? What then? That's when it's time to ask an even greater genius for help. Sherlock must call in the expert.
• When Justice Is Treason
• The Master and Moriarty. A deadly duo. With the help of the Archangel network, they control all of England. So when the few people who know the truth try to stop them, it is treason. Will they succeed? Or will Prime Minister Harold Saxon and King Moriarty continue their reign of terror?
• You Matter
• Sometimes characters have things going pretty rough for them. And sometimes their friends and family can't console them. But what about if somebody totally different were to come in? This is how characters would take care of each other in a Wholock universe.
• On this blog: chapters 1 2 3

Other Crossovers

• Use The Force (or the Mind Palace)
• Remember the first time Luke used the Force? What did he actually see? What if he visited Sherlock's mind palace? Strange concept, I know, but the idea came into my head and wouldn't go away. (It's more of a series than a cohesive story.) Feel free to tell me what character you'd like to see next.
• On this blog: chapters 2 3
• You Are Not Alone: The Search For The Other Time Lords
• The Twelfth Doctor feels as though he is all alone, until his daughter Jenny comes to him, telling him that she has found a way to locate other Time Lords. She tells him that he is not the only one. Together, they go out to find the rest.
• Rating: G
• On this blog: chapters 1 2 3

And a few great crossover fanvids:

Favorite Moments From The SuperBowl

I'm really more of a fangirl than a sports fan, but I did watch the SuperBowl. I mainly just watched it because SuperBowl parties have good food, but I did pay some attention to the game. I also checked my twitter feed to see what other people were saying. These are a few of my favorite moments from twitter, commercials, and the game itself.

Twitter

Referring to this Nissan ad and this Toyota ad

Commercials

Chevy Commercial "Blackout"

Budweiser Commercial "Lost Dog"

Coca Cola: Make It Happy

Middle Seat - Dorito's SuperBowl Commercial

Weight Watchers - All You Can Eat

NO MORE's Official SuperBowl PSA

Kia Sorento: The Perfect Getaway

T-Mobile Wi-Fi Calling

Bud Lite: Real Life Pac-Man

The Game Itself

Actually, there's only one part of the game I found spectacular, and it's Jermaine Kearse's insane catch in the fourth quarter.

70th Anniversary Of D-Day

Hello, dear readers. Today is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. For those of you who didn't pay attention in history class, it's the day the Allied powers stormed the beaches of Normandy. It marked a turning point in World War II. So, to remember D-Day and WWII, I have compiled a list of my favorite WWII movies/TV episodes.

1.  The Great Escape (1963)
This is probably my favorite WWII movie. In this one, the Germans think it would be a good idea to put all the prisoners who like to escape into one prison. Of course, that's a pretty stupid idea, as they soon plan a mass escape. Fun fact- this movie is actually based on a true story.

2.  WarGames
This comes in a close second. In this movie, a simulation machine is made to play out a global war situation, to help the US come up with a good strategy. A kid who is an expert computer hacker breaks into it. He doesn't know what it really is, so when the computer asks if he'd like to play a game, he says yes. The US and the Soviets see the display of this war and think it is real. Chaos ensues. Fun fact- 5 months and 4 days later, the program Able Archer was launched. Coincidence? I think not.

3.  The Book Thief
This is another great movie. A girl who is the daughter of Communists gets adopted by a German family so that she will be safer. Throughout the movie, the theme of books comes up. She is an avid reader and always needs new reading material. At the same time, she has to deal with all the struggles of living through WWII. Fun fact- this is based on a book. I really need to read the book.

4.  Let’s Kill Hitler
Just the title makes this episode of Doctor Who amazing. It comes from a line by Mels: "You've got a TARDIS, I've got a gun. What the hell, let's kill Hitler." While it's more about the Doctor and spoilers (sorry, you'll just have to watch it. I will reveal no more.) than Hitler, it is set in WWII. That's how we get this brilliant line.

Moffat must have had a lot of fun writing this line.

Also, check out this spoof video of Hitler's reaction to the episode.

5. Victory of the Daleks
Yup, another Doctor Who episode. This time, we visit the Allies. Churchill has got some new machines to help him in the war. He calls them ironsides, but the moment the Doctor sees them, he knows what they really are: Daleks. So then the Doctor, helped by Amy, has the rest of the episode to try and defeat the Daleks. Fun fact- Mark Gatiss (cowriter of the episode and cowriter of Sherlock) makes a cameo appearance as the spitfire pilot.

Yup, this one's got good quotes, too.

Gotta love Matt Smith.

So, that's the end of my list. I hope you liked it. Happy D-Day!

My Fan Videos

I've made enough fan videos now to put them together into one post. I'll probably make this into a page, so I can update it as I add more.

My first fan video! Yay! This was made for #Eleverday.


The Doctor and Donna are best friends forever!

I just finished this one. The Doctor's always on the move, so "On the Road Again" seemed like an appropriate song.

Geek Pride Day

Today is Geek Pride Day. No, I didn't know such a thing existed either. I only know this because I randomly happened to find out.

If you're wondering why May 25 is the day that was chosen, it's because it coincides with a few other holidays:

• Towel Day, the day two weeks after Douglas Adams passed in 2001, when hoopy froods keep their towel handy
• The anniversary of the first Star Wars film, Episode IV: A New Hope, released on May 25, 1977
• Glorious 25 May, the day in Terry Pratchett's Discworld when wearing lilac and hard-boiled eggs (and raising awareness around Alzheimer's research) is appropriate

So, today is a day for all things geeky. With that, here's a list of geeky things I like, just for fun.

1. The geek code - apparently such a thing exists. Each letter tells something about your geekiness. For those interested, here is my geek code:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/MU d- s-: a--- C++>$ U? P L E? W++>$ !N o? K- w O? M+>++$ V? PS++ PE-- Y- PGP- t++ 5? X? R tv+ b+>+++ DI+ D? G e- h! r++ x- 
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
[translation: Geek of computer science/music, I'm usually in jeans and a t-shirt, I look up to most people (I'm short) but I'm average weight, I'm age 15-19, Computers are a large part of my existence, and I'd like to make money at a computer related job someday, I don't know much about Unix, I know Perl exists but that's all, I know what Linux is but that's about all, I don't know what Emacs is, I'm pretty good at the world wide web and I'd like to make money at it someday, I don't like USENET News, I don't know what USENET oracle is, I don't know who Kibo is, I use MS Windows but I don't have to like it, I don't know what OS/2 is, a Mac has its uses and I use it quite often but I'd like to get better and make money at it, I don't know what VMS is, my political views are fairly liberal, capitalism is evil and government should provide the services we need and nobody should be rich, the government must be able to protect itself from criminals and the populace from indecent speech, I don't have anything to hide, Star Trek is great, I don't know what Babylon 5 is, I don't know what the X files is, roleplaying is something to do to kill a Saturday afternoon, I watch some TV every day, I enjoy reading but don't get the time very often and I'd like to read a few books a week, I read Dilbert daily and often understand it, I don't know what the game DOOM! is, I know what the geek code is and even did up this code, haven't finished high school, I am stuck living with my parents, I've dated my current significant other for a long time, female and not having sex by choice]

If you'd like to find out what your geek code is, go to http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html

2. Geeky jokes - there are way to many of these to count. This is my favorite one:
Heisenberg gets pulled over for speeding. The officer asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
"No, but I can tell you exactly where I am."
Confused, the officer replies, "You were going 80 miles per hour."
"Great! Now I'm lost!" he shouts. Then Shrodinger gets out of the car, too. This is enough to make the officer suspicious, so he inspects the the car.
"Did you know you have a dead cat in your trunk?"
"Well I do NOW!" Shrodinger replies.
(To see more geeky jokes, go here and here.)

3. Geeks who change the world - this world would be a very sad, boring, place if it weren't for the geeks and nerds who come up with brilliant ideas. Without them, we would probably still be living in caves, ignorant and lacking innovation. Now, for some examples... my stats tell me that 48% of you use Windows, so you should thank the geek Bill Gates. For the 41% of you using Apple products, you should thank Steve Jobs, another awesome geek. Larry Page is the geek the 10% of you who use Android have to thank, but since this is a Google Blog, none of you would be reading this if it weren't for that genius. And just to make sure I include everyone, there's also Dennis Ritche, creator of Unix (which 1% of you are using), and Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux (which another 1% of you are using). Now, this isn't to say that computer geeks are the only kind of geeks that exist, but they are the best example I could think of here.

4. This. Without geeks and nerds, we wouldn't have this awesome video.

Just for fun, I watched this video again and kept a tally of the number of times one of the things the geek or nerd said applied to me (this included accomplishments and insults). The score? 11 points for geek, and 8 points for nerd. It was actually closer than I thought it would be.

5. The obsession to understand the difference between nerds and geeks. There is so much on this discussion/debate. Just out of curiosity, I googled "what makes a geek". I got 129,000,000 results. That's a lot! (In case you were wondering, "what makes a nerd" has only 51,800,000 results, but that's still a lot.) There are also a good number of results for "geek vs nerd": 5,220,000. Interestingly enough, though that last search query is popular, "nerd vs geek" is about twice as popular, with 10,200,000 results. I could point you too some websites/web pages about the issue, but there are so many that I don't know where to start.

So those are a few of my favorite geeky things. Happy Geek Pride Day!

May the 4th Be With You!

Hello, Star Wars fans, and May the 4th be with you! For those of you who don't know, today is Star Wars Day. So, it's time for another Star Wars post!

So, I sat at my computer for a few minutes facing writer's block until I came up with the idea for what to write on this post. I'm going to talk about the Force. It is May the 4th, after all.

What is the Force?
Not know what the Force is, do you? Read carefully and understand, you must. Do or do not. There is no try.
The Force is a mysterious power that moves all things, unifies all things, defines all things, does all things. It's "an energy field created by all living things". Some people believe it is sentient, classifying it as a god. You can do all sorts of useful things with the Force.

What can you do with the Force?
1. Enhance natural, physical, and mental abilities - e.g., doing a "Force jump" to slow what would otherwise be a dangerous fall. This also includes enhanced speed and reflexes.
2. Increase accuracy - How did Luke blow up the Death Star? Yes, he used torpedos, but that's not the answer I'm looking for. How did he get them into such a small space? I mean, that'd have to be a really lucky shot. "Use the Force, Luke." And there's your answer.
3. Telekinesis/levitation - I play French Horn, and I can't even count the number of times I've joked with my friends that I wished I could use the Force to carry my instrument. I'd say telekinesis is the coolest thing you can do with the Force.
4. Telepathy - Okay, actually telepathy might be cooler. Communicating with your mind is just awesome! Too bad it doesn't exist in real life.
5. Hypnosis - "These are not the droids you are looking for."

Yeah, I know, two photos in one post is a lot, but I couldn't resist.

6. Enhance empathy
7. See the future
8. Become a Force Ghost (also called a Force Spirit) - Both Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobi learned this difficult skill to become a ghost through the power of the Force and thus live forever, so they could keep teaching their pupils.
9. Do better in a lightsaber combat
10. Force choke/Force lighting (dark side only) - These are both ways of killing people and thus are limited to the dark side of the Force.

The light side vs the dark side
The light side = good, and the dark side = bad. We all know that. But let's be a little more specific.

The light side
Used by jedis, this is the good side of the Force. It is for peaceful purposes only. The light side of the force is typically associated with kindness, compassion, selflessness, and other good qualities.

The dark side
This is the side used by siths, who are typically just jedis gone bad. This is the evil side of the Force. As might be expected, it is the exact opposite of the light side. It is often associated with anger, fear, lust, jealousy, and hate. You must beware of crossing over to the dark side, as it will corrupt you completely. There are many ways/reasons to go to the dark side. Yoda says that "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side." People who use it claim that the dark side is stronger, insisting that the light side is far too weak and thus they must join the dark side.

Okay, clearly I should have made a slideshow. Oh, well.

A disturbance in the Force

Sometimes, people (most notably, Obi-wan Kenobi) sense a disturbance in the Force. This occurs when there is widespread suffering or death, or when a jedi or sith is near.

How to use the Force

Okay, that's all great. But how do you use the Force? Well, sadly, you probably can't. Even if you existed in the Star Wars universe, you'd have to be born Force-sensitive to be able to use the Force. But that doesn't mean you can't pretend. In the world of roleplaying and fanfiction, anything is possible.

I'm not promoting Volkswagen, I just like this commercial.