I’ve written about the Firefly/Serenity fan phenomeon before. Never having been an official fan of anyone or anything (I was married with a child when the Beatles hit town — although I do still play their music), I’ve never been caught up in the shared excitement of fandom. But I can understand the attraction, the compulsion. I have, after all, been a part of large-scale political protests. The comaraderie, I imagine, is pretty similar.
It can be pretty amazing to be a part of a world-wide bunch of individuals all of whom share an uplifting passion for the same combination of creativity, individualism, anti-establishmentariansm (if that’s even a word), and vicarious adventure (not necessarily in that order).
So, it’s been so very satisfying to watch as a fan convention, organized by supposedly professional organizers, falls through 24 hours before it’s scheduled to begin, and the fans themselves pool their various resources to put together a “backup bash” that has become even better because many of the performers and other creative staff involved in that Firefly/Serenity film phenomenon showed up without being paid for doing so.
The super artists who portrayed the brilliant super characters that did so much to make the tv show and movie so spectaculary original, and who showed up for their fans (although I’m sure they’d have liked some honorarium as well) deserve all the credit they can possibly get. As actors, they are charismatic; as human beings, they are, indeed, super.
And just imagine if those “fan”atic Browncoats, who rescued an event that brought in fellow fans from as far away as Australia and Great Britain, could be motivated to feel that passionately about rescuing an America in dire need of the kinds of passionate yet pragmatic visionaries who are the focus of what the fans call the ‘verse — the universe that gave birth to the crew of the Serenity.
We surely do need some big damned super heroes in this universe as well.
Meanwhile, those who can, at that Serenity fan festival in Burbank, are blogging and posting photos like crazy. Seems to me that this phenomenon is a hell of a lot more interesting “Entertainment” news than the other sappy stuff Keith Olbermann highlights on his Countdown show. What about it, Keith?
ADDENDUM: AND THE BASH GOES ON
Cnet reports: ‘Firefly’ fans resurrect canceled convention
And on Whedonesque.com, where there are 71 comments already:

On the back of the canceled Flanvention, the Browncoats headed to Claire Kramer’s restraunt La Cantina in West Hollywood last night, and were joined by Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Morena Baccarin, Michael Fairman (Niska), Mark Sheppard (Badger), Jonathan Woodward (Tracey), Yan Feldman (Mingo and/or Fanty [Mingo -ed.]), Christina Hendricks (YoSafBridge), Claire (Glory), James Leary (Buffy – Clem), Camden Toy (Buffy – all sorts), Michael Muhney (VM) and Greg Edmonson (Firefly score). This has an awesome scale of 11 out of 10.

A phone report from b!X, who is right there in the middle of things, said:

Now, there’s this actress (Claire Kramer) who played in Buffy who owns a restaurant in Hollywood that wasn’t scheduled to open for another 2 weeks, still under construction work. A “Firefly” actor goes to her and says they have to do something for the flans’ dinner. She goes to the contractor building the deck out back and tells him he’s got to finish it cuz they’re opening that night for a special party. So here’s this brand new restaurant in Hollywood opening, and people wondering what’s going on and not able to get in cuz the only ones who can are the flans with their special id bracelets. For FREE food. Only had to buy drinks.

One of the commenters on the Whedonesque post explains the fans’ passion for the Joss Whedon-created ‘verse very aptly with:

And another commenter quotes another Joss Whedon character:

By now, most of us recognize those “Nigerian” emails offering a quick way to make a buck, as scams. Well, obviously not as many as one would think, since tonight’s 20/20 did a nice job of outing some of those scammers and interviewing some of the scammees, including one congressman and one heart specialist.
So, tonight, when I got the following scam email, I decided to try to figure out from whence it really came. Here’s the email text:

Even with the civil (or not civil) war still going on in the Irag, the dispute among pundits about that issue, and the other inanities and insanities spinning this planet toward even more political disasters, Harper’s Weekly Review managed to ferret out the bits you might have missed.

• a federal judge ruled that American paper currency discriminates against blind people
• Barry Diller, at one time the highest paid CEO in the world, said corporate compensation consultants should be “flushed into the East River”
• a yearlong rash of nut robberies” ended when police recovered 136,000 pounds of stolen nuts with a street value of $400,000 from a warehouse in Sacramento
• the Department of Health and Human Services refused to ensure that its reports on abstinence for young people were factually and scientifically accurate
• the Center for the Digital Future announced that the average Internet user will make 4.6 “virtual pals” this year
• experts warned people with pacemakers that refrigerator magnets “can be a killer”
• a herd of domesticated pigs attacked and ate a three-year-old boy in Delhi, India
• scientists said that humpback whales may be every bit as intelligent as humans, dolphins, and great apes, and that women speak three times as much as men
• Danny Devito called the president a “numbnuts.”

You can read it all, with links, at http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2006-12-05.html

I broke it off. Twice. And I paid for it. Twice. After all, it was my fault. I didn’t pay close enough attention. I caused the damage. I couldn’t blame Netgear. I was insensitively careless.
But those damned wireless cards stick out too far. Yup. I managed to break off the ends of two of them. The upgraded one I bought the second time around got stuck in the slot. My brother had to open the back of my laptop to get it out.
I’m on my third try now. I bought a Netgear wireless USB device that also came with an attachment wire so that I don’t have to have the thing sticking out the other end of the laptop. Only I got it from e-bay and, too late, found out it didn’t come with the installation disk. Four hours later, after finally dowloading the driver software into a Flash Drive, I managed to get the thing to connect.
I’m looking forward to a long happy wifi relationship this time. I’m going to be really careful. Pamper the little guy. I need him.
My next challenging relationship is going to be with getting a Bluetooth wireless headset to work on the Skype I have loaded into the laptop. I’ve already tried three different ways to connect it all on my desktop. Alas! I’m out of my depth on that one. But I will keep trying. Heh. If I every succeed, it will be another affair to remember.

When I drive up the driveway on my way home from grocery shopping, it’s already dark. An almost-full moon beams through the strips of bare tree trunks. I don’t sleep well when the moon is in its full phase.
So I tool around TheGoodBlogs — the ones that come up in the list in my sidebar. See that box if you scroll down, the one called “The Good Blogs”? That list changes every time you come to Kalilily Time. And, if you click on that little curved arrow, you’ll get even more blog post titles. Even mine come up every once in a while.
Tonight I saw one that said “Earth Mother.” So I linked over.
And from there I linked to here and found out that I am the Moon.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery – when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

The first time I saw it over at Jeneane’s, I thought it might be for real. A very big “might.” No one that young and photo-fresh-faced could be that clever. No one, even that clever, could make such a quick mark on the blogosphere.
Between almost-Tornados and internet outages and other such distasteful events, I didn’t have a chance to follow up my investigation until late today. It didn’t take much time to pick up on the clues, especially since I’m well acquainted with the clever minds behind the well-crafted virtual world of Kat Herding media and marketing.
It’s not really satire, despite what some might think.
It’s the ultimate put-on. Realer than real. Layered like Locke. Styled like Sessum.
Nice going, you two. It’s about time.

My first post was on November 29, 2001, and it had a blogspot url. I spent the next month blogging about learning to blog. By the end of my second blogging month, I had discovered zefrank and was exploring the differences among journalism, commentary, and reporting. I became obsessed with linking to other bloggers. In less than six months I started to hit my writing stride.
Between then and now Kalilily Time has accumulated several thousand posts (many of them not worth reading) and half as many comments. I’ve made many blogging friends and lost track of some of them; I’ve had some disagreements and even more laughs. Every once in a while I think about quitting, but here I still am.
I wonder if I can make it to a decade.

The following are excerpted from the current Harper’s Weekly Review.

• in Ramsey, New Jersey, a flock of turkeys was spotted waiting for a New York-bound train.
• a college student in Portland, Oregon, was expelled after questioning a classmate’s belief in leprechauns
• Chinese scientists revealed that showing pornography to pandas has helped increase the captive panda population, and said that they had successfully mated robot fish.
• Israeli military officials decided that Miss Israel, in order to prevent bruises on her legs, should not have to carry a rifle
• police in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa were looking for the owner of an unclaimed penis
• the Yellow River turned red for the second time in a month
• Indian officials announced that they would establish seven vulture havens in order to relieve shortages at the Towers of Silence, where Zoroastrians leave their dead to be eaten.

And then this from Harper’s as well. The very very opposite of whimsy:

Today is my daughter’s birthday, and I am feeling so very grateful for the relationship we have, despite her few tumultuous late teen-age years. She has grown into a strong and creative woman of great compassion and sensitivity. Her home is warm and inviting and relaxing. And I’m not saying this just because I had the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in decades and I didn’t have to lift a finger.
I can’t help but compare our relationship with the one I had/have with my own mother. There is even a bigger difference between my relationship with my grandson and my mother’s with my two kids. When my kids were young, a visit from my folks was not something that they would get terribly excited about. I don’t remember my mother ever playing with them or engaging with them in any meaningful way or bringing them any little fun “surprises.” My father was better at understanding how to play, and he reached out to my kids in ways that were fun. I don’t think my mother, to this day, has any concept of “play.”
On the other hand, my grandson looks forward to my visits. (Of course I always bring him a present, and that certainly adds to his anticipation.) We spend most of my days there playing together, imagining, making up stories, and laughing at silly things. My evenings are spent in conversations with my daughter — the kinds of conversations I never had with my mother. My son-in-law and I usually talk politics; my mother barely even spoke to my husband.
And so today, on my daughter’s birthday, I am feeling so very grateful for my daughter and the peace and joy she brings into my life. And I am so very sad that my mother and I have never been able to come even close to feeling like that about each other.
Happy Birthday, Melissa.