End with a bang. But not literally.

[kageotogi]

Yes, yes, Dumbledore is all about the gay. I'm actually a little annoyed with J.K. Rowling for making that announcement (not because I have anything against homosexuality. Quite the contrary, as most of you can attest, but because I really hate how people are using this as a reason to be for or against certain sexual tendencies).

Now that I've alienated all of you, I'm going to go ahead and prove that there are other things in the world aside from Dumbledore and his sexual preferences. For instance, researchers have finally made a hit against the HIV! This is a huge breakthrough for the scientific and medical community, and I'm celebrating it heartily.

Also, did you know that there's a bacon-ator alarm clock? Essentially, the clock cooks bacon. While you sleep. And then it wakes you up with a smell (which I'm not sure would really do it for me) and a freshly cooked piece of bacon. Mmm, pig meat.

I'd probably get rather nauseous. But I think it's a fun idea. And the pig-clock is sort of cute.

Stephen Colbert is running for president in 2008! I'm not sure whether I'm horrified or thrilled, but I guess that depends on what happens. I'm getting Man of the Year flashbacks, though. Celebrities (who propagate fake news) running for office? Poorly calibrated voting machines? Corrupt business? Oh noes!

Hell, at least the movie had a happy ending. And if I remember correctly, drugs and pie. But not together, I don't think.

And this? I just found it interesting. Steve Martin wrote an alphabet book and it's rather adorable. I was less thrilled to learn about his Pink Panther sequel, but the remark about the French child made me laugh, so kudos to that.

Jim Watson, who won the Nobel prize for biology, apologized for making reportedly racist remarks. But who cares about that? The guy looks like a frickin' zombie. He should apologize for his face scaring the ever living crap out of me, and then we'll talk.

And... Um...

Have you heard? Dumbledore is gay.

Comments

[grandsummoner.livejournal.com]

...I love you for making this post.
You have no idea.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed the post, although I have a feeling it's entirely because of the Wake'n'Bacon. The bacon-ator is the reason behind the entire post. Honest.

Mmm, bacon.

[flamemetal89.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the Dumbledore thing - on the one hand I think its cool because its awesome to have something like that is such a popular series but on the other - so much b.s. :\

STEPHEN COLBERT! XD I can't really figure out if this is really a joke or not, because of the way he acts, you know? but I hope he really is going to run, he should just do it as an independent - I'd totally vote for him XD

WTF CREEPY! o.O

OMG Dumbledore is gay?! No way xD

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Too bad the independent vote rarely -- if ever -- really makes much of a difference. If he is serious about it, I hope he does it for the right reasons... and that people vote for him not because he's a celebrity, but because they agree with his platform overrall. I'm afraid his celebrity status will have too great an influence on the vote.

On the other hand, it worked for Reagan.

[noueux.livejournal.com]

It's a bad idea. It has to be a joke. I'm surprised one of his bumper sticker ideas wasn't "Colbert - Nader".

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I ♥ Nader. His political stance is a joke, but I ♥ him nonetheless.

[noueux.livejournal.com]

I'm very much in the camp that if someone "makes their voice heard" by voting for a third party candidate, no, they aren't "voting for someone who can't win", or something stupid like that. They're simply failing to work with the rest of America. It's not, that every year, we all just do our own thing, and then we make a decision from that. We need to work together to choose our best compromise. I have a long list of people I'd rather see as president than the candidates. But I'm not going to vote for them, because that would be selfish, on my part.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I don't vote for third party candidates because, quite frankly, I know it would be a farce. As much as I might prefer the third party, it's ridiculous to think that there's any conceivable reason why the candidate might garner enough votes to even be a contender. I'm not sure it's selfish so much as it's purposeless... but I see your point.

[noueux.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, I know a lot of people who claim that its purpose is to promote a more complex and more well distributed political system, instead of this dichotomy we have today. I like the idea of hearing a lot of different points of view, but I also see that it's a good thing that usually our choices come down to one of two. That means that we're capable of compromise and dialogue, and for the most part, we can agree. Except for the whole viciousness of the two-party system.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I could see the benefits of a three-party system, but the two-party seems to work all right. Mostly. If we could somehow screen the crap candidates before the vote (oh, hey, wait! That's what's supposed to happen -- whoops) we might yield better results.

Or perhaps if there was a way to better distinguish between party lines and ideals and perhaps find a real compromise, that could work. I don't know; it's all very convoluted.

[punctuates.livejournal.com]

The fact that Stephen Colbert is running for president makes me want to move somewhere far away.

Also, Dumbledore is gay? You can't just make up shit after your books are written. You have to include that subtext in your fucking subtext.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha. I'm thinking that might be a good idea no matter who runs for president, really.

I KNOW. WHAT THE FRICKING FRICK? (Though I really don't know. I guess I could see it, maybe? That she was trying to hint at it in the books, perhaps. In the last one especially. It just seems really... contrived. Like "Hey, I realize I had a huge plothole, what with Dumblidoor not getting his shit together in time to save the day and his hesitation in killing what's-his-face, so let's make it that he was secretly in love with what's-his-face. That'll do it. And hey, the fangirls will be thrilled!" A good part of my brain is screaming "PLOT DEVICE!", and the other is trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Sigh.)

[punctuates.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It must be something about Stephen Colbert particularly. Every time I hear him say something, I feel like I've just been ushered into the Blue Reading Room as punishment for something I've done.

Don't over think it. It seems contrived because it is contrived.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I love your Robin Hood icons. I feel I should say that first off.

I don't really have a problem with Stephen Colbert. I've watched his show and enjoyed it, though I'll admit to preferring Jon Stewart.

Still. I really, really, really want to give her the benefit of the doubt. But then the rest of me kicks in and goes "Honey, honey, look. This... What is this? It's just not working", and that's the side that I think I have to go with.

[noueux.livejournal.com]

My two thoughts on gay!Dumbledore:

1) Clearly JKR don't know what she talkin' bout. Has anyone brought up Aberforth in the anti-gay argument yet? What a sad family of sexual deviants they were. See how it lead to their demise?

2) I'm currently reading Duras. I'm currently in love with this whole nouveau roman idea of "I'll just tell you the bare minimum, what is being said and who is doing what. I won't disrespect your intelligence by making it some trashy heroic story of epic proportions, or by telling you what's going on inside everyone's head. You do the work." On that note, an author CLARIFYING SOMETHING that WASN'T IN HER BOOK TO BEGIN WITH... Right now, it's just striking me as JKR slapping me in the face and telling me I'm not allowed to have an imagination. I didn't read the 7th book. I never got around to it, but after I heard the first utterance of an "epilogue", I no longer had any desire to read it. I was appalled by her writing style in the 6th book, so I figure I got just about as much out of it,listening to my friend Liz's descriptions, as I would have reading it.

Secret number 3) Rotting hand is clearly a symptom of AIDS.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

1) With his goat? Ha. Aberforth + goat. Scandal!

2) I second your second argument. She's clearly hip to the "show, don't tell" writing rule, and really really shouldn't be adding in these details after the books were published. Everything she says post-publication is either just poor taste on her part or her digging for praise/media attention/wtf-ever, and it's sad.

3) *SNERK* But that's okay. Researchers have made a breakthrough regarding the HIV, and curing Rotting Hand is clearly the next step! (Too bad Dumbledore died. He could have been a spokesperson for the cause, Jerry Lewis style.)

[noueux.livejournal.com]

Duras, bless her snooty heart, didn't even show that much. Her novel (Moderato Cantabile) was pretty much devoid of descriptions and symbols. Basically, the novel was completely objective, and Duras left everything of subjectivity to her readers. We can discuss things all we want, but it isn't necessarily right or wrong. Why are Anne Desbaresdes' hands trembling? Because she's nervous? Because she's an alcoholic? Because she's sick? Because she has Parkinson's disease? We don't know, and that's the beauty of it.

My professor told us about this time he saw Duras presenting an award. Someone asked her what she was doing, now, and she took her time to think about it, then answered, slowly, "Marguerite Duras? Elle écrit. Elle écrit, Marguerite Duras."

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

That is the best response ever. I think I need to read me some Duras.

[fan-of-miggie.livejournal.com]

So there's going to be a sequel to "Pink Panther"? Okay, so I wouldn't mind ignoring Steve Martin, but Kevin Kline I can definitely handle...;-).

~*Kelsey*~

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Apparently; Steve Martin talked briefly about it at the end of the article.

Well. Kevin Kline. Who can say no to Kevin Kline?

[zxora.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay.

No one...:-D.

~*Kelsey*~

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

For serious. ^_~

Lol!

[hpwitch.livejournal.com]

Awsome icon. Very funny.
(*runs to read weird Dumbledor news*)

Re: Lol!

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

The icon is courtesy of mortenavida~

You hadn't heard about Dumbledore?

Re: Lol!

[hpwitch.livejournal.com]

Nope. My computer fritzed and I haven't been online for a while. I'm not an avid news veiwer either. How sad is that. Lol! How long ago did it come out?

Re: Lol!

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Ah. Sorry to hear about your computer! ^_^

A few days ago, I think? It's been all over my f-list. Really, I just posted about it because I was kind of tired of everyone else assuming I hadn't already heard. ^_~

Re: Lol!

[hpwitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I'll be fixing it or getting a new one soon. It kinda sucks trying to fight people at school for a computer. Lol!

Aw, I'm sorry 'bout that. It was really shocking and I wrote a little blerb about it. I'm so out of the loop! Ha ha ha. :)

Re: Lol!

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good. ^_^ The possible repairs or replacement, I mean. The fighting people isn't good. Well. It could be. But, yeah.

No worries~! The livejournal stuff doesn't bother me (I can skip over anything I want!), but some people were following up via AIM and that was starting to get to me.

Re: Lol!

[hpwitch.livejournal.com]

Oy vey! FIghting can be very fun...I prefer physically. Wait, did that sound bad?! Lol! J/k

Ah, you are zen and rise above the annoyances. (*hovers in air humming*) :)

Re: Lol!

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

*lol* It did, but I'll go with it. ^_~

[tabbyphobos.livejournal.com]

I had read about Rowling's distinct lack of putting information in the books on Saturday, but then my MOTHER called me in the middle of dinner with my boyfriend to inform me of it again. The series is over; it doesn't matter anymore. There are other books out there.

Also, I'm loving the news about HIV. I don't know anyone with it, but I think an essay I wrote during my Bio AP test in high school about it got me my fancy free college biology credit. <3 Anything that helps to get rid of that which logically would be impossible to get rid of it just great.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Or at least whatever helps stabilize it, yeah? ^_^ I did a project on HIV back in elementary school (with Cheerios, because I was adorable and liked cereal!) and never really stopped researching it, so when I got the HIV-link from phoenixchilde I about squee-ed my pants.

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, stating Dumbledore was gay after the fact was sheer tokenism.

Stephen Colbert is only running for president in one state. I assure you it is a joke.

Huzzah! for a leap in getting rid of the AIDS virus!

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I thought so, too. Thank you. (Then again, Neil Gaiman made an excellent point (http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2007/10/flowers-of-romance.html) regarding the matter. If it were me, I'd probably be equally willing to divulge information regarding my characters -- though I'd like to think I'd leave it all up to the reader in the end.)

Good to know. ^_^

Hurrah for stabilization, at least! Perhaps a cure isn't too far behind. ^_^

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read Neil Gaiman's response and I have to give it some credence. There are plenty of things about my characters that don't "make it to print" so to speak. >_> I don't really credit JKR with the depth to have all that detail planned out ahead of time, though. Neil, certainly, but not JKR. I would also like to think the reader would see some clues and decide for himself.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

For the most part, I agree. I'd like to think JKR knew what she was doing -- and knew beforehand how much flack she would get for revealing more about Dumbledore post-publication, then put a great deal of thought into the positive and negative of it all -- but I sort of doubt it.

[moonlightwish.livejournal.com]

This post brought win to my day. So much of it.

I love Colbert. But I don't know if he's running as himself or as his satire.

And Steve Martin's books are always win. And...yeah.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad~ I love to put win in your day.

I actually prefer Stewart, I have to admit, but Colbert is equally delicious. ^_^

Did you read about his [Martin's] alphabet book? I love some of the excerpts!

[tir-synni.livejournal.com]

Well. Dumbledore is gay. ...does his socks count as subtext?

And I hit the Jim Watson link. My first reaction--honest to god--was "Jesus fucking Christ!" Fortunately I was able to muffle that. I'm not sure if anyone else would have wanted to ehar it. XD

*cheers about HIV hit*

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

How how how how how would you make that connection? And how would it work? Do I want to know?

...whoa. I wonder if that has anything to do with what Dumbledore saw in that mirror in the first book. The one that showed your deepest desire? Um. >_> Saaaaaaaam? I think I need to request something from you. <3

I KNOW. JIM WATSON IS A ZOMBIE WITH A PULSE AND IT'S CREEPY AS ANYTHING JEBUS CHRISTY.

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

Jim Watson reminded me of the creepy dead preacher guy from the Poltergeist movie.

[kageotogi.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have no basis of comparison.