I'm starting a post here so that people who are interested in nominating Forever Knight as one of their fandoms for Yuletide, can get together on what characters they're going to nominate. As we only get four characters each (per fandom), it's important that we don't duplicate names.

I want to ask for Amanda Cohen and Feliks Twist. However, I haven't yet decided on my other two characters.

Once again, I'm posting icon designs at the larger (350px) size. There are ten of them this time, in alphabetical order. Most of them are for "real" factions, albeit mostly rather small ones.

( You can find the icon designs here.... )

When I started this project, I did not plan to do icons for all the many tiny factions in Forever Knight fandom. Indeed, even as things progressed and the number of icons grew, there still were factions that I intended to omit. They were too small, too little known, or too similar to other affiliations.

For example, the Caddy-Whackers are better known than the NickKnack CaddyWhacks; and the Woof Pack are more inclusive than the PerryHounds. I have, by now, though, done so many icons for so many factions that it seems wrong to leave them out. Indeed, the third icon here, is for a subfaction so minor that even its creator said not to bother!

( Nevertheless, in the spirit of completism.... )

So today LiveJournal's been playing me up. This is not the first time, of course. Nor, I suspect, will it be the last. I do hope they get whatever-it-is debugged soon, though.

All day, when I've tried to access a page on LiveJournal, such as my blog or my friends page, I've been getting a pop-up from Internet Explorer saying that it cannot open it. This doesn't happen every time; but it does occur about eighty percent of the time. (You understand, of course, that I am actually seeing the page perfectly well behind the pop-up!) Anyway, when I click off the pop-up, it all goes blank. However, when I hit the BACK button, I go "back" to the page I've been trying to reach. So this is an infernal nuisance, but not terminally so.

More of a problem, though, is the fact that there are some communities that I truly am not accessing. Oh, not all. Some simply have the "pop-up problem" with access. That's true of fkcommentfic (which is currently of interest), and also of Yuletide Admin and FK Fic Fest (for I've been clicking around a bit to check). But maryrenaultfics is being tiresome. I can get the page all right; but all I see is the header. No posts. And yes, I am logged in; so the fact that the comm is closed shouldn't make a difference. I'm not seeing any posts, not even the old ones.

Of course, I contacted the LJ troubleshooters, who promptly suggested that I upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. Which I have done. (And I don't like it. But that's for later.) The point here, though, is that the upgrade hasn't done any good. So I can only keep my fingers crossed that they think of something that does work.

I suspect that they've been doing some silly little upgrade tweak, and it's fouling up on Internet Explorer. Again. (It always seems to be Internet Explorer that gets a bad reaction when they upgrade.) And yes, I know, someone is going to suggest I switch to Firefox or Chrome, right? Only I don't want to. I've got used to Internet Explorer.

Which brings me to this IE8. Now, I've fixed some things. I googled up a way to get rid of the extra nonsense listed on a toolbar I don't need, and then I got rid of that as well: that returned the browser's general appearance to something resembling normal. However, they've added a so-called "security feature"—to wit, greying very pale almost all of the URL of the webpage you're looking at—and you CAN'T TURN IT OFF!!!! It's like looking at your wristwatch: you don't realize how often you do it until you take it in to be cleaned; and then you keep glancing down at a bare wrist, and getting a shock. I keep glancing up at the address bar, only most of the address is nearly invisible. I want to know what page I'm on, darn it; and I don't want to have to keep shifting the cursor up (which turns it dark and legible).

Also, when I do VIEW and SOURCE, I don't get Notepad any more. I get some fancy page with the code in colours. It used to be that I could hit SOURCE and do my editing straight off. Now I have to work around everything in a silly, complicated way.

Edited at 2:04 a.m. I did a bit more googling, and found out how to fix this at least. SOURCE now gives me Notepad again. That's one small mercy!

And, to top it off, I've just discovered that some of the pages on my website don't read properly in IE8. This means, of course, that anyone using it hasn't been able to read some of my stories—or at least not easily. Whether the problem exists with other recent browsers, I don't know. Fortunately, it only seems to apply to pages I've done in the last month. It also looks as though all I have to do is change p to div, and add a few line-breaks. So it's a nuisance, but a petty one. (I know what this is, though. It's the upgrade from HTML4 to HTML5. They're phasing out some of the old mark-up.)

Basically, this is all a right royal pain in the neck. I hate change. And, right at the moment, I'm more than a little browned off with LiveJournal. I really do hope they get this all fixed. And soon!

Here are three more Natalie-related faction icons. In fact, I think this finishes all the Nat-factions—though I can't actually be sure. As the Knaughtie Knighties have proved, there may well be (or once have been) subfactions out there which no one has mentioned before. At any rate, this post contains what I think are the last three Nat-faction icons.

You may have been getting the impression that I'm trying for a comprehensive collection.   :)   To achieve this, I have asked people on FORKNI-L for information; but I have also perused every faction list I know about. Although I was not initially planning to bother with the small fry, I've clearly changed my mind.

That meant that I needed to look into the "Dark Natties", "MadNatters", and "NatVampCamp". At least one faction list treats these as more or less synonymous; but it turns out that's a misunderstanding. My research, such as it is, suggests that each term does, in fact, have a distinct meaning.

"Dark Natties" seems to be an early name for the Dark NatPack. At any rate, I've found no instance where the two names appear together; and it is "Dark Natties" that appears on the earliest faction list we have, Meredith's Affiliation FAQ from 1996, which does not mention the Dark NatPack. I can see how the latter might have seemed a more formal choice for their faction name, especially if they wanted to parallel the NatPack. Of course, I've already made an icon for the Dark NatPack, which can be found here.

The NatVampCamp have a Yahoo! Group named "Forever Nat"; and, at one time, they also had a website of the same name, with a gorgeous picture on the main page of Nick with a vamped-out Natalie. Whereas the Dark NatPack are attracted to the "dark" side of Natalie, which may mean writing her as a vampire, the NatVampCamp prefer her that way.

Then, we have the MadNatters. I'm not sure, but I think the "Mad" in their name is actually directed towards the members of the NatPack. You see, during the first flurry of factioneering, people basically declared their affiliation with one, and only one, of the small number of available factions. (Or to none at all, whence the Die-Hards.) However, as the number of factions increased, people often wanted to declare multiple affiliations—especially as things like chat rooms and e-groups began to proliferate, so that they needed to join multiple lists in order to engage in all the various discussions that interested them. Indeed, most factions were quite easy about multiple memberships.

Not so the NatPack. Somewhere, I came across something that indicated that, in order to join, one had to not belong to any other faction. I don't know whether they forbade NatPackers joining such groups as the Knights of the Cross or the Cross-Stitchers; but they certainly didn't allow them to belong to other character-based factions. That did not, though, stop fans from liking Natalie as well as other people. So these rejected prospective NatPackers decided to form their own faction so that they could discuss her among themselves. They called it the MadNatters; and there is at least one person still on list who puts it in her sig.

So that's two icons: for the NatVampCamp and the MadNatters. What's the third?

Well, okay: you probably don't remember the Morgue Maniacs. Unless, that is, you're also on FORKNI-L, because I posted about it recently. ( However, behind this cut you can find out the details I gleaned from the FORKNI-L archive. ) It's one of those suggested factions that never actually got organized.

However, that doesn't mean that there's no place for it! The truth is that, however much the old couple factions may have claimed to cover each of their relationships "in all its aspects", they were really factions for "couples" in a romantic sense. Even the obvious exception, the Cousins of the Knight, was formed less out of the wish to start gen factions than from the wish to counter a sense of creeping UFfishness.

Nevertheless, the Crew is also a faction of fairly long standing, albeit small and not at all well known. And, more recently, we've created the PotM (Nick & Schanke), and three family factions (Brabantines, LambKins, and Vetterans). So a Grace & Natalie faction seems well in order.

( You can find the three faction icons here.... )

Last week, I provided the members of maryrenaultfics with a prompt; so I have, of course, been working on my own story. However, the "apple"-fic has not yet been finished, because I had a Forever Knight story that I was also working on. (What with spending a fair amount of time with my mother because of the holiday, I think it's fair to say that I've had a busy weekend!)

"Let's Go to the Ex" was sent to FKFIC-L on September 3rd, and just posted to my website. It had to be finished first, you see, because it had a "due date". It references the Canadian National Exhibition, which runs for the last two weeks of the summer, ending on Labour Day. So the story simply had to be posted on or by the holiday. (Now, though, I can get back to working on my "apple" story with a clear conscience.)

For the webpage for "Let's Go to the Ex", I wanted to give the impression of the carnival side of the Ex. At the same time, since the climax of the story is after dark, I wanted that as well. So, for the background, I worked on one of the many starbackings that I have collected. First, I tinted it to a rusty off-black: the CNE is, after all, held in a city; and city skies are never that pitch black you get in graphics. I also did a version with a yellowish tint, from which I trimmed out the stars to paste over the now-pink ones on the first version. Then, having tried out the result, I decided to blank out a fair number of the stars themselves. Let's face it, lights downtown wash out most of the sky in any big city.

To represent the carnival aspect of the setting, I selected graphics in red and gold for the borders to the story panel. However, I also went through the animated tiles that I'd collected from Light Speed Web Graphics, years ago when I started to make webpages. As far as I can tell, they don't exist any more; but that doesn't mean I can't use their animations. Too many, of course, would induce a migraine! Judiciously applied, though, they simulate the flashing lights that decorate the attractions on the midway.

Another day, another dollar (or so they say). In this case, of course, we are talking about icons—four of them, to be precise. One has been in the works for ages, since I had to redo it almost entirely. Another has simply been waiting its turn for a while. The remaining two are very newly completed indeed.

( Another mixed bag, in other words.... )

Here are another dozen icon designs at the larger 350px size. I've simply put them in alphabetical order.

Most of these designs are for actual (not newly created) factions. However, most of them are pretty small; and I think quite a number are no longer active.

( Read more... )

Here we have another mixed bag of icons.

The first, at least, is easy to characterize. The Vachonettas are, I think, the last of the couple factions to have their icon done. As they involve the pairing of Janette with Vachon, they must have few members. Offhand, I can't think of any stories involving those particular characters as a couple. Indeed, they never actually meet in canon!

Like the Early Birds (whose icon is posted here), the Third Shift was a faction by courtesy, being primarily a chat room for people whose schedules made it hard for them to join in the regular group. Whereas the Early Birds rose early, the Third Shift worked late. They therefore held their chat in the late morning, around brunch time.

As their name suggests, the Nitpickers revelled in closely examining the aired episodes in order to uncover mistakes. It didn't matter whether these lay in the script itself; the various stages of filming each episode; the backstory to the characters, flashbacks, and plots; or continuity throughout the series. They also tossed in trivia and gripes. Sadly, the Nitpickers never got through analysing all the episodes. It's a serious business, after all, and needs time to do thoroughly. Still, the results of their endeavours can be found on their website.

And finally, there are the Pinheads. No, they don't appear in any faction list I've seen; but they had a nice little webpage honouring the object of their adoration.

( The icons for these obviously major factions can be found behind the cut. )

Of the stories that I've written lately, there is one that will be new to anyone who isn't on the FKFIC-L mailing list: "Unattainable". Sadly, as it doesn't fit any of the prompts posted to fkcommentfic, I couldn't include it in that collection. Still, ideas come as they will, don't they?

Once "Phases of the Moon" was safely uploaded to AO3, I happily returned to making more faction icons—in between reading fkficfest stories on AO3, that is. Among the icons I had already made were pretty well all those for character-based factions, including quite a number invented for the occasion. So my focus was on completing the rest of the icons for couple factions.

( Mind you, from a logical perspective, there are quite a few couple factions that are missing. ) However, although I recently tried to interest people in a little "couple factioneering", no enthusiasm could be whipped up. Janette/Miklos? Miklos/Urs? Schanke/Myra? No takers. Nor did anyone want to suggest a name for the trio of Nick/LaCroix/Vachon. (I have seen a few names factioneered for that trio in old FORKNI-L digests; but none of them particularly appeals to me. Nor to others, clearly).

I kept returning to Janette/Schanke, though. To me, there was an obvious name—and an obvious scenario. The bunny seemed easy to catch, but then slipped out of my grasp for a while. Eventually, though, I did get the story revised to my satisfaction, and posted it to FKFIC-L on the 16th of August. ( Of course, I also put it up on my website.... )