update and announcement

[lolmac]

Posting here has been a bit hit-and-miss lately; I've been on vacation and also sick, at the same time, which was certainly not a great combination.  This actually has nothing to do with the following Very Important Announcement.

Actually, two announcements!  The first one is that LOLMac is about to hit a multiple milestone.  On Tuesday the 13th, next week, it will have been a whole week without campaign ads LOLMac celebrates its FIFTH BIRTHDAY; and I will be posting LOLMac #1400.  (Although the archive starts on November 10th of 2007, the first few posts were backdated:  I actually started posting on the 13th.)

On the 13th, I'm going to do multiple posts:  I'm going to post a few faves from previous years, and wrap up the day with a particularly shirtless special LOL for #1400.


Second announcement:  after the anniversary, I am going to take a semi-holiday.  Five years is a long time, and 1400 jokes is a lot of time spent:  I posted a new LOL every day for several months starting in 2007, and have posted every weekday since August 2008, with only occasional missed days.  I'm a little tired and I don't want to hit actual burnout.  I still have ideas for new LOLs, and MacGyver episodes I haven't finished capping, and the wonderful pepper_field of rda_daily, Kate Ritter of http://rdanderson.com and the lovely folks of sj_everyday keep coming up with shiny new caps for me to play with.  I haven't run out of material, but I'm low on energy.

However, I'm not going to stop posting LOLs, since that would conflict with my master plan to get everyone on the internet addicted to captioned images of RDA just feel wrong.  Instead, I'm going to take my cue from the halcyon summer days of my youth, and make you sit through a month of re-runs.  I'll pick through and re-post some of the best of the 'Classic' LOLMacs from the first couple of years.  Many of the regular commenters and contributors here, especially the most prolific and creative, weren't around in the very early days (other than lothithil, I believe sidlj, macgyvergal and magnavox_23 hold the title of Longest Non-Lurker Tenure).  So, rather than go away for a month and recharge my batteries, I figured I'd see what fun could be had from the best of the existing material.  Some of my early ideas were, I still feel, some of my best.  I've been reposting the older items on Tumblr, but it's just not the same without the comments and the puns, the interaction and (of course) the crack.

If you have any faves that you'd like to nominate for inclusion, do feel free to mention them! 

And think of the possiblities!  Maybe thothmes will write crackfic!  Maybe katxander will come up with saucy comments that will inspire sidlj and kirsty841 to write porn!  Maybe jackwabbit will write some drabbles and idlewild_ will write a kick-ass action crossover and campylobacter will write more porn, inspiring magnavox_23 to do a sexy manip, and the wave of fannish glee will just expand from there. (Hey, we can hope, right?)

Or, at the very least, there will; be some smiles and bad jokes, and I'll start posting new LOLs in December, hopefully with a fresh reservoir of energy.

Hugs,
Beth

Comments

[archersangel.blogspot.nl (from livejournal.com)]

happy anniversary! i look forward to attempting bad puns about some of the reruns classics.

[lothithil.livejournal.com]

I wholly support this plan! (Especially the afoementioned shirtlessness) :D

[magnavox-23.livejournal.com]

Sexy manips? Do you even have to ask? ;)

Congrats on getting to 5 years! XD

[lolmac]

Ask, maybe not . . . but it never hurts to scatter possibiliies into the wind . . .

[lolmac]

Hurrah!!

[lolmac]

With 1400 LOLs, I suspect there are fewer than 1200 shirts. I certainly hope so.

Porn, or CORN?

[katxander.livejournal.com]

DD says he's not giving back "Dat shoot", so Mac will have to be shirtless at least 3 times. And hey, since when do my saucy comments inspire porn? Who's been holding out on me, 'cause *I* haven't seen any of it! I claim foul...a foul most ...uh...foul!

That and there's no hockey.

On a serious note, I can definitely relate to taking a little hiatus of sorts. Batteries must be recharged, my own included. A HUGE, HUGE hug to you.

Mwa!
Pat

Now...about that porn...

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

...I've been reading LOLMac since right around the time you went to weekdays only.

How am I this old. ;-)

*hugs and happy LJ-birfday*

[pitry.livejournal.com]

w00t w00t! \0/

I shall be looking forwards to new LOLs - but yeah, you definitely deserves a break! And chocolate.

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

Sick on vacation! Oh noes! I'm so sorry your fun is being muted like that, and I hope you feel better soon.

Goes off to tickle Muse's fancy so she will hopefully cooperate and fork with the crackfic.

Muse: [*flounces*]

Thothmes: Pleeeease?!!! It's for lolmac! She's nice! She's punny. She makes us laugh!

Muse: [grudgingly] Well... we'll see. Maybe. If I'm feeling benevolent.

Thothmes: [*toddles off to get sufficient sleep. Muse is very particular about sleep. Not too much, not too little. Never a predictable quantity. Muse values experimentation and experience over rules. Did I mention that she can be a wee bit capricious?* mutters:] I tell Muse to shut up, and I get a flow equal to the Nile River, and me off on a run with no way to write down a thing. I sit down with a nice keyboard and a full battery, a fast internet connection, and Muse suddenly goes all Trappist on me! It's for Beth! She has to cooperate.

Muse: [wanders in the other direction also muttering:] Always with the wanting a story at the drop of a hat! Who does she think I am, Morpheus? I tell you, that guy has some real crack fic! Hmmm... It is for lolmac. Maybe if I go hang out with him for a bit, I could get some ideas, and work them into a decent response. Yes. That could work...

[perkyandproud.livejournal.com]

Woo!

Happy Anniversary!

I did see you in passing at Orycon, but you were busy and I was on my way elsewhere. *sighs*

[zeilfanaat.livejournal.com]

That's just no fun, sick on your holiday.
Hope you're feeling better now!
Wow, five years, that's incredible. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you've put in LOLMac's these past five years!
You take that break and enjoy it! Looking forward to seeing some of the Classics! :)

[rdamel.livejournal.com]

The above comment is exactly what I want to say, too.

Thanks so much for all the fun you've brought to us these past several years. Take all the time off you need--reruns are also plenty of good fun!

Melissa M.

[http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/]

Reposting old lolmacs you say? Hmmmm.... Does this mean I don't need to click on one of those beguiling links you post to complement the current picture? Of course I will anyway. It seems I am doomed to be forever lost in the maze you created!! :) But oh yum!! It IS a wonderful maze!!

Happy anniversary!!!

[thisbluespirit]

Congratulations - and wow! A break seems entirely reasonable.

I also hope you feel much better soon!

[sid]

Yay for anniversaries and well-deserved breaks! Boo to being sick. It took me a couple of days to respond, so I hope you're feeling a bit better by now. :-)

[macsme.livejournal.com]

First of all: Congratuations! Four-teen-hundred jokes! That's just incredible.
I can imagine you need a break. Hope you have a great one!

[lolmac]

*hugs you* It's lovely hearing from you again! I've missed you. I hope life is blooming at your end!

ETA: Actually, counting the mouseover texts, I guess it's 2800 jokes, isn't it? ;)

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Dwabbles, you say? I bet I could do some dwabbles! :D

Now, two things:

1-WOW! Five years?!? It seems like just yesterday... *sniff* Way to go!

*goes to look for giggles and sees that she joined MOL in July 2007 - crazy!

2-Take your break. It's well-derseved, and we'll leave the light on for ya.

Re: Porn, or CORN?

[lolmac]

Well, I haven't seen any actual porn result directly from your comments yet, but we can always hope! Maybe hockey porn?

[lolmac]

Doing a good deal better, in spite of being up foolishly late on Tuesday night. Which was totally worth it.

[lolmac]

It did take me a few months to get into doing the LOLMacs after I got into the fandom . . . and then I hit the point of needing a place to PUT them, and there was Lothi luring me onto LJ like the siren she is . . .

[lolmac]

I saw you briefly in passing also, and I'm sorry we didn't connect! I ended up spending a lot of the con sleeping, or at least resting. (I slept through one of my own panels, to my chagrin.)

[lolmac]

*hugs back*

[lolmac]

Chocolate is good! So is sleep!

[lolmac]

Morpheus crackfic . . . doesn't seem like a natural combination, but you never know . . .

[lolmac]

I'm feeling a good deal better. The election on Tuesday was a great tonic!

[lolmac]

I haven't decided if I'll continue to do backlinks on the 'reruns', but I don't see why I should stop . . . *G*

[lolmac]

Feeling better, although really wishing I was completely well! I have dubbed it the Zombie Cold: every time I think it's dead, it shambles back to life and eats my brain.

[lolmac]

*hugs back*

I just realized -- you were another of the Very Early Adapters! Thank YOU so much for the years of support!

[rdamel.livejournal.com]

I read virtually every day--don't comment as often as I should, but I am reading and enjoying, you may be sure.

Thanks again for all your work, which gives so many fans so much enjoyment!!

Melissa M.

[sid]

My sleep cycle has been majorly out of whack recently, including some > 24 hour periods of being awake, and some < 4 hours sleep at a time. Tuesday night I think I could have gotten to sleep at a decent hour...but I was having way too much fun. :-)

And, speaking of penguins...?

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't look up your MOL origin, but mine. ;)

I bet you beat me by a bit.

And that Lothi...an enabler, she is. She lured me to LJ, too...

I actually remember signing up right around my birthday and then chatting with Lothi via Yahoo Messenger (oh, those were fun nights, weren't they?) and sending her to my LJ with some sort of "I have a surprise for you" message and she was all happy. Good times.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I know the type. They're evil. *shoos zombie cold away from you*

:-)

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

Ummm... That would be Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. I dunno about you, but a great number of my dreams have much more in common with crackfic than they do with waking reality. Well the ones I remember, anyway.

Muse, being straight out of Greek mythology herself, isn't familiar with the guy from The Matrix, especially since she's my muse, and I haven't ever seen the movie.

If we are talking P2P file sharing... Oh, I hope Muse is not planning on actually plagiarizing! Re-casting, building on the work that has gone before, okay, but plagiarizing? Oh, noes!

Nope. I've thought it through. It's gotta be the Greek god of dreams.

[lolmac]

I had thought Morpheus was the god of sleep, not specifically dreams, but you're quite right. I had entirely forgotten that the name had been used for anything else. *g*

Yes, as the god of dreams, crackfic works very well. Tepid objection withdrawn!

[lolmac]

I'm pretty sure you were on MOL ahead of me; I was a LOT more active for longer, also entirely Lothi's fault.

Pedant Alert!

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

Most accounts (remember not all of our knowledge of Greek mythology is from things like inscriptions and pottery and not from more explicit references in literature) make Hypnos the god of sleep, and Morpheus was the chief of the Omoioi, who brought dreams. It's still a debate as to whether Morpheus is the brother or the daughter of Hypnos.

So, as my children would say, doing their best to imitate a reverberative voice, AND NOW YOU KNOW!

precisely the sort of blatant pedantry up with which I will not put

[lolmac]

I blame it on my not having re-read Graves recently enough. *g*

Re: Pedant Alert!

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

NOT DAUGHTER. SON. trying to talk to one of my daughters and type simultaneously, not working so well for me.

-os or -us are clearly masculine endings, and could not work for a daughter's name.

Slap on the wrist for Thothmes. The teachers of Scholia Philtsou would be very disappointed!

Re: precisely the sort of blatant pedantry up with which I will not put

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

In my family Graves was the goal, achieved in high school. We were started in childhood with a series of kids books (The Iliad and the Odyssey, a Big Golden Book and The Big Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends both come to mind) and then we were moved on to Edith Hamilton by the time we were in upper elementary school. Then Graves.

I was issued Edith Hamilton's Greek Mythology three years in a row in high school. They apparently felt Graves was too dense for us to absorb. Probably a correct decision, but I didn't consult it much.

give them a fat book and you shut them up for a day or more

[lolmac]

True facts:

In either third or fourth grade -- probably the latter -- we had our Greek Myths unit. We were issued books with an assortment of myths, re-written for children (although not entirely sanitized: I remember being puzzled as to how Zeus could run off and "marry" all those nymphs, but the Orpheus chapter did describe him getting his head cut off).

We were required to read a specific, modest number of items. I, of course, devoured the book in one sitting and then went home and asked if we had any more.

The only copy in the house was my mother's collection of Graves (both volumes, clothbound, in a handsome box sleeve). So that was what I got. I skipped all the footnotes, which I didn't understand. I also didn't quite understand exactly what Zeus was now doing with all those nymphs, but I did figure out that "forced", "ravished", "violated", etc., must refer to the same thing, and it was that thing that resulted in children, which was enough to make sense of the plot, anyway.

ETA: I now own that copy of Graves myself, having laid claim to it when we were dividing up my parents' goods. It's one of my treasures.

give them a fat book and you shut them up for a childhood

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

You come from my sort of family. My mother is a bit of a family legend, because apparently she learned to read by hiding in a corner of her dad's library with a copy of Carlyle's The French Revolution. She'd look at a word, and go downstairs and ask her mother "Mama? What does g-u-i-l-l-o-t-i-n-e spell?" and armed with that, she would go back up and gather the next word. It took getting to one of the juicier words like "guillotine" before the adults got curious enough to break off what they were doing and investigate. By then she'd decoded the relationships of phonics and the written word, and was reading. So although she didn't read it cover to cover then, Carlyle was her first book.

One of my greatest treasures because of the great childhood memories was William Kelley Simpson's Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt with its black and white photos of the treasures of Egypt. I spent hours pouring over it as a child. To this day, if I want to bring back how it felt to be 5 years old, I go and sniff it. It has a distinctive odor, caused by the kind of paper, inks, and finishes used for all those black and white photos, and it started me on a lifelong habit of sniffing books as I get to know them. I've freaked out more than one used bookstore owner that way, and I've avoided plenty of moldy books for their cleaner editions too!

I found Zeus' legendary infidelity a bit puzzling too, but I asked my mother, and to her credit she explained. It was an eye-opener, and something to puzzle over for quite a while. On the whole, I decided I was more comfortable with the loyal, noble, unwavering, chivalrous knights of my treasured copy of King Arthur for Boys. Imagine my shock and distress when that devolved into Lancelot and Guenevere! Grown-ups were clearly wicked. Right. Back to Tolkien, then.

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I personally have no idea.

That damn Lothi. So much to answer for! (And we love her for it!)

[draco-somnians.livejournal.com]

Wow, quite a milestone! We do appreciate all the work you put into this comm. It always puts a smile on my face even after the crappiest of days. :)

I have a half-written porny ficlet hiding in my laptop that was inspired by a LOL and the comments, but I have no idea which one it was! Something about tequila bodyshots?! :) I should really try to finish that...

[lolmac]

I should really try to finish that...

Yes. YES YOU SHOULD PLS.

Was it a Mac LOL or a Jack LOL? It might have been this one: http://lolmac.livejournal.com/372834.html

[draco-somnians.livejournal.com]

It was definitely a MacLOL, I just can't remember what the actual LOL was and I'm fairly certain the "body shots" thing came up in the comments. It's an episode tag (missing scene of my favourite kind *g*) for The Gauntlet but I have no idea if that's the ep the cap was from. I'm useless, lol.