the flawed logic of democratic peace theory

Pottering about on teh interwebs, as I do when I ought to be working, I have noticed I have an unexpected number of new LJ friends. Um... hi! Nice to meet you! Just so's you know and aren't here under false pretences, or something: this is my geek space, where I tend to write about life, fandom, combinations thereof, er, interesting clouds, books, philosophical lightbulb jokes and whatever else pops into my head. Fandom-wise, I've been around a good long while. I try and stay out of trouble, it doesn't always work. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Which is not to say I'm not a geek in real life, because, alas, I am. I'm a final-year undergraduate, I'm a lifelong insomniac, I'm an NRI, I live in Oxford, I say "omg!" a lot, I'm pretty much terminally uncool. Make yourselves comfortable. There's pie.

Um. Things of interest that I have noticed recently:

A Cambridge ghost story, from mrkgnao.

isiscolo wants to know how fannish people use LJ. I had to admit to being surprised by this one; I think I assume, with everyone else, that every fannish person uses it like I do. Which is obviously not true at all.

abyssinia4077 (whose name I wish I could spell!) on why fannish meet-ups are ftw, which I mention because I then asked the very reasonable question of whether they are transitive. I mean, as in, Fangirl A meets Fangirl B, and they have a great time and neither of them is an axe-murderer, and then Fangirl B meets Fangirl C, and they also have a great time and neither of them is an axe-murderer - you get the picture. How long does the chain have to be before it stops holding?

In some ways this is a sensible enquiry - it is the principle on which communities such as theladiesloos work, for one thing, and also, I get the sense that fandom makes me feel, rightly or wrongly, much safer about the whole meeting-people-on-the-internet thing. I've met a lot of fans, often in places very distant from home - likethesun2 and the_acrobat in Chicago; musesfool in New York; heidi8 in Miami - and nearer than that, hathy_col and I have been friends for years, the first thing I did in Oxford was meet ou3fs collectively for ice-cream, and well, my sample is running to about fifty people and I am yet to meet people I don't like, let alone people who want to kill me with an axe. My friends page is quiet at the moment because a lot of people are getting ready for/on their way to bitchinparty, and I'd love to do something like that someday - without at any point really thinking about the axe-murderer issue. Like I said, I may be right or wrong on this issue.

In other ways, this is not a sensible enquiry at all. When we're talking about people I've known and loved for years, it does seem to stop being relevant.

And, finally, jacinthsong tries to make a reasonable post about gender/race issues in Firefly, I proceed to make terrible puns. Basically, everyone wins.

Um. What else? Um, the lunatunes theme for this week is, and I quote: "Mannnnnn, that song is so epic!" I heartily approve of this. Have five six songs that are epic:

Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla
Snow Patrol - Make This Last Forever
Indigo Girls - Ghost
Something Corporate - Konstantine
Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon
Stars - The Night Starts Here

Um. Okay, now I should go and do some actual work, because that would be good, yes. I meant to buy this yesterday, and forgot, and now it's sold out. Fail, Threadless, fail. Except not, it's actually me who fails in this instance. Anyway. Work, doing thereof!

Edited to add: OTW is open for formal support and membership. Hurrah, is what I say to this.