Happy Valentine's Day!

I know some people hate this holiday, but I've always loved it. For me, it's about celebrating love in all its forms -- love for your family, friends, and lovers (and yes, those categories often overlap). In school, I loved giving valentines to all my friends. It was a day to say, "I care about you and am happy to have you in my life". Well, that and to give and get lots of chocolate. ;-) I refuse to let it be solely about romantic love, because it's such a great opportunity to express your regard for everyone who makes a difference in your life. So:

♥♥♥ Happy Valentine's Day, Fandom!♥♥♥

Thank you for making me so happy every day.
Thank you for always being there when I need a lift or an escape.
Thanks for all the wonderful fanfic, art, vids, recs, and meta.
Thanks for taking the time to meet up with me when I am alone in your town.
Thanks for reading my fiction, and for letting me know when you enjoy it.
Thanks for letting me see a little of your lives, with all your joys and pains and everything in between.
Thanks for saving me from a lifetime of feeling like a freak because I obsess over and write stories about someone else's fictional characters. ;-)



Pervvy Valentine Series by Laurel_tx

Thanks also to moonflower_rose for the virtual candies and to everyone who gave me a Valentinr greeting! (There were 69 of you. Yes, I smirked.)

ETA: Thanks to dementordelta for the Snarry card, which arrived today!

Awww...

This picture was posted here on HarryLatino.com, and I finally just downloaded it to post here because I was having a hard time getting it to come up. The link kept getting redirected to weird web pages.



It looks a bit like a manip (and some of the commenters on the post seem to think it's fake), but it seems to be from a magazine or something. And hey, it is a canon scene, after all. It looks like the big fan sites are scrambling to find out if it's real and where to get a better version...

Still, it's very sweet!

MLK = gangsta. Asshats, much?

I've heard a bit about one of these stories, but it turns out it didn't happen just once. In at least three separate instances, American college students attended "MLK Day" parties in January, purportedly celebrating black history and culture. And for some reason, these parties attracted white students who dressed up like gangsters -- some in blackface, in one instance as Aunt Jemima, while girls stuffed their pants to make their butts look big, etc. They drank 40s and ate fried chicken, as if this is somehow what represents black America to them.

It sounds too ridiculous to believe, doesn't it? Check out the pictures and tell me this isn't offensive:

Tarleton College pics

Clemson University pics

UConn pics

A BIG WTF to this. Seriously, WTF? What were these people thinking? How can you dress up like a caricature of a black person and go to a party ostensibly celebrating a slain civil rights leader? Of course, these are probably the same asshats who use "gay" as a synonym for "stupid", right?

I weep for the future.

ETA: On a related note:

Watch on YouTube

You might have seen some of that before, but everyone should see it, really. Tell me you can watch those little children pick a doll and not cry. (Thanks to sciencegeek for the link.)