zvi likes tv

Pre-con Planning

2016-10-03T02:48:28Z

I'm going to New York Comic Con with latxcvi and nursebrak. I'm leaving Wednesday evening to arrive Wednesday night. I have packed. I plan to bring back:

1 Jen Bartel Girl Gang pin, because I bought six at SPX but I misplaced one before I could distribute it
Possibly 1 Jen Bartel Girl Gang snapback, because cool
One Josie & The Pussycats t-shirt
One other t-shirt (I only packed 3, and I need to dress Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for travel. Although, worst to worst, I can rewear a t-shirt on Monday, no one on the bus will know.)
One NYCC exclusive Moleskine
Comixology creator trading cards
possibly an issue of something signed by Marguerite Bennett
the memory of eating a slice of Junior's Cheesecake and a French 75

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zvi @ 2016-09-30T21:48:00

2016-10-01T01:48:07Z

I made it back to the gym this morning! 30 minutes on the bike. I didn't push very hard, but I went and I didn't die from not being able to breathe, so I'm counting it as a win.

I'm not starting Luke Cage tonight. I was supposed to watch with someone and she was napping when I called. Tomorrow night, she'll call me. Then Sunday, I'm going to see Queen of Katwe with my aunt.

Tomorrow I pack for Comic Con, and I have to decide if I'm going to ditch some of the t-shirts I already own so I can buy t-shirts there or not. I've already spotted one that I want and I'm not even there yet!

( large image cut to save your reading page )

Also, Jen Bartel is selling a Girl Gang snapback that I kind of covet.

Today was my old boss's last day full-time. :/

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Vertigo Comics Sale & Workplace Shenanigans

2016-09-29T02:04:43Z

Comixology is having a big sale on Vertigo through Monday, use the code Vertigo.

I recommend Y The Last Man, Clean Room, The Kitchen, and Effigy. (Poor Effigy was cut down before its time, and the Clean Room is ongoing. The other two are complete.)

I'm trying to decide if I want to buy Fables. I read the first 40-50 issues maybe 8 years ago? In hard cover trades from the library. And I stopped because Bill Willingham said something assholish about women or media fandom, I don't remember.

But I could now buy the complete Fables (by which I mean the main series, not all of the spinoffs) for ~$100, which is less than half of their usual bundle. (It's vols 1-10, 18-22, and deluxe editions 9-12, if you want to buy Fables.)

It's a really good deal, but what if it's a really good deal for something I end up hating? That's not a deal!

P.S. Lookit! I finally got a comics icon!

My office had a cocktail hour this afternoon, for morale raising purposes or something, I don't know. I went and talked to four people who aren't in my department (that is A Lot for me, I usually stick to my office and talk to no one, if I can help it.) I didn't drink alcohol, just orange juice, apple cider, and tonic water. No one was weird to me about it, but one of my co-workers did say that she doesn't drink and someone was weird at her. I tried to be helpful about her being a grown woman who is allowed to know that she doesn't like alcoholic beverages, but I'm not sure I did it as strongly as I could or should have.

Most of it was that co-worker B didn't seem really bothered by being chided to try something, she seemed like she was used to it and pretty much had a spiel going. The other part of it was that co-worker S was clearly trying to be friendly, just, she was doing it by being an asshole. Also, B and S work together in a different department from me, and I don't really know what their dynamic is like.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think B was upset, I think she knew that I was not joining S in pressuring her to drink, but I don't know that I was my strongest ally self tonight. [thinker emoji]

All I can do is better next time, at this point.

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relevant to some of your interests

2012-07-24T19:01:51Z

ETA: There's been a report that the coupon didn't work. I don't have time to troubleshoot right now, so use caution.
COUPON OF THE MONTH

To celebrate both The Drag Queen of Elfland and Chocolatiers of the High Winds getting reviews, AND the Prince's Boy Volume 2 paperbacks finally being available, we're offering 50% off on ALL our gay male books. That's right: every last one of our gay books is a full 50% off for the next 30 days! You have until August 24 to use this coupon.

The coupon code is JULY2012. Just use that at checkout to get your discount.

To see a collection of our gay stories, go here: http://www.circlet.com/?page_id=1376#gay

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Inexpensive e-book of interest to some of our regular viewers

2011-10-15T12:34:24Z

Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book ($2.00 B&N), by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael, is the Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
Based on interviews with Stan Lee and dozens of his colleagues and contemporaries, as well as extensive archival research, this book provides a professional history, an appreciation, and a critical exploration of the face of Marvel Comics. Recognized as a dazzling writer, a skilled editor, a relentless self-promoter, a credit hog, and a huckster, Stan Lee rose from his humble beginnings to ride the wave of the 1940s comic books boom and witness the current motion picture madness and comic industry woes. Included is a complete examination of the rise of Marvel Comics, Lee’s work in the years of postwar prosperity, and his efforts in the 1960s to revitalize the medium after it had grown stale.

source booksontheknob_feed

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Gaaah! Monitors

2011-05-28T16:42:52Z

Here's the thing. My laptop monitor is making me crazy. It is great for watching TV, but the 1366x768 resolution is making me cranky when it comes to reading documents; I have to scroll too often.

So, since this laptop is functioning as a desktop, the reasonable solution is to buy a monitor.

However, because I don't actually care about monitors, except that this one is "too short", I can't make myself sit down long enough to read enough documentation to figure out how to buy one that is taller. (All of the information about monitors keeps being about light. I DON'T CARE ABOUT LIGHT.)

My mom bought a computer a couple of years ago that came with a monitor (Dell ST2010) that is "tall enough". I thought I would just buy that one, but Dell doesn't sell it, nor does Best Buy. (People are selling them through ebay, but I am wary of getting delicate electronics packed by amateurs sent through the US mail.)

Can someone tell me what monitor, preferably for $100 but no more than $150, that I should buy? Or, if not a specific monitor, can someone tell me the monitor spec information that I actually care about when purchasing a monitor, so I can compare just that, instead of, like, blackness levels, about which I cannot be arsed to care.

Also, also, does anyone know what the difference is between a 16:9 and a 4:3 ratio? They should be the same, and yet people list them as different, so I am confused.

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19. Any questions from the audience? (27 DW ?)

2011-05-13T15:32:29Z

19var What are you most interested in reading?

Shockingly, I'm most interested in speculative fiction and queer romances.

What you may not have known is that I like vulgar science (vulgar in the sense of for the general public, not as in gross), language history and description, a little bit of law, and mysteries also.

But mostly queer speculative fiction, and speculative fiction, and queer romances.

If anyone has questions they want to ask me, please do so. I will do my best to answer, or to say something amusing about why I won't answer.

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(27 DW ?) catching up

2011-05-13T00:28:25Z

12. What do you consider the five most "telling" interests from the list on your profile? Why?/What do you consider the 10 most "telling" interests from the list on your profile? Why?( Read more... )

13) Do you have any unique interests on your user profile? What are they? How'd they get there?

dykiosity: because I made the word up, to mean the state of being a dyke. I prefer dyke to lesbian because it's more aggressive. And shorter. I reject gay woman entirely, because I feel like it's only useful in subsuming my identity into that of gay men.

president way saves lives: I read an awesome story that was a West Wing fusion w/ Bandom characters. It felt good, the way the West Wing served as a sort of liberal fantasy of which I actually saw very few episodes, but I read this whole story.

14) Did you have a gateway fandom? Still in it? Why or why not? Is there a community for it on DW?

( The X Files )

14alt) What is your favourite subject to discuss on Dreamwidth?

It vacillates between technology, television, and fandom. I like discussing those things because they're fun, and people talk back and have opinions. Also, I like them as subjects.

15) What's your current obsession? What about it captures your imagination? / 15alt) What 5 things are you obsessed with currently?

I'm currently obsessed with my Evo and other Android phones. I'm obsessed because it's terrifically useful, because it lets me interact with the internet a lot more than I could when I was just floating from desktop to desktop, because there's a lot of things I can fiddle with to make it more useful/fun/convenient/pretty, because the Android community is active and interesting and thinking of new things all the time.

Other things that I'm interested in currently: Unitarian Universalism and religious concerns, sleeeeeeep, foooooooood, sex.

( 16 through 18, if you're still interested. )

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11. What features do you think Dreamwidth should have that it doesn't currently? (27 DW ?)

2011-05-05T20:07:47Z

I think better multimedia integration and the bookmarks retool are the most essential ones. But basically, I agree with helens78 and facetofcathy.

I feel like I should be able to think of some other really, really awesome thing, but other than, "What if I could put money where my mouth was for development of features I want? Like, how much would it cost to pay for a week of work on bookmarks, really?" and "Wouldn't it be great if Dreamwidth could make me a sandwich? And a chocolate shake?" everything I want is here or on the radar.

OKAY, wait! I have thought of one. Better twitter integration, so people stop posting their summaries of their twitter postings to the reading page. :(

Also, someone else asked for better sharing. I think that would be good. I don't want reblogging, but it would be nice to be able to easily point people at someone else's dreamwidth entry, either in a DW post or in twitter or tumblr.

( Journal Layouts )

( Variants )

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Are there two people on your reading list that you think should meet?

2011-05-02T18:33:07Z

Uh, no? I am terrible at that sort of matching people up. Even with TV character friendshipping, I don't usually think, "Wouldn't it be awesome if this crossover friendship started up?" unless there's some outside force compelling characters to meet. (All TV coroners/medical examiners meet at conventions and make tasteless jokes at the expense of funeral techs, for instance.)

I do think everyone should come to DC and eat from our food trucks. I've been working on a post about how awesome they are for months.

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Again with the skin care products

2011-04-24T05:17:34Z

Yes, more health and beauty! I…don't really understand how I've become that girl, but it would seem to be so.

( my little list )

Time to go splash on some Tea Tree Water and go to bed.

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Five Things

2011-04-04T04:38:27Z

I'm zvi. You can subscribe to me if you're logged in. Nothing definite is in the pipe -- still reading through my choices for Remix -- but probably Star Trek: AOS, Leverage, White Collar, Lost Girl, NCIS: Los Angeles are in the future.

There was a lot that was awesome about Momentum Con, but sex positive education, activism, and sex work are not actually my interests. Also, I'm not kinky. So, it was a pretty decent con, but I was not really the intended audience. Did see some amazing vendors:

Sugar, local -- Baltimore -- feminist sex shop.
Crystal Delights beautiful glass and ceramic toys. These are lovely, handblown art pieces, although I find the large Swarovski pieces in the base are actually a bit cheap looking.
njoy toys which are stainless steel and non-vibratory, in non-traditional shapes. Several people reported that the Pure Wand had changed their lives, so I'll try one.
JimmyJane, which makes beautiful vibrators

I saw a sqweel and demo'ed it on my hand; it doesn't have the power I would like. D:

My new Kobo e-reader got broken this weekend. I'm not sure how, as it was fine when it went in my backpack, but when I pulled it out the next day, part of the display was busted. :(

You know how, two years ago, I only belatedly and embarrassingly figured out about Server Side Includes? Yesterday, I read about including javascript by referring to a file, instead of putting it between two script tags. (I knew about javascript, but I had somehow not processed that I could put a piece of javascript in my own personal webspace and call it, even though I have done that to other people's javascript for years.)

While I know that my website will be better for my new, more complete understanding of the way the web works, I still feel like a dumbass.

Watched The Killing tonight. That is a television show I can wholeheartedly recommend, but not unreservedly. It's going to be a hard TV show to watch, because it is a procedural, but the family of the victim, the family's loss and pain are going to be powerful, viscerally real.

I love it already, but I kind of think that AMC made a mistake premiering with two episodes at once. That is just on the edge of too much.

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Health & Beauty Aisle

2011-02-21T05:16:55Z

I have lately decided that I would really like for my hair and skin to be soft and inviting, so I've been doing that thing where you flip through bunches of websites with delicious looking products and try to imagine what would be awesome before you screw up the nerve to order any samples. And then I ordered some samples.

Latest acquisitions:( mini reviews of some toiletries what I have used lately )

So, I'm still looking for a body wash but I have high hopes for Trichomania as a shampoo. I may have found a conditioner, and I've definitely found the skin moisturizer of my heart.

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Picked the wrong time to pass this along, but

2011-02-17T04:59:38Z

Hey!
I just bought today's LivingSocial deal for Atlas Performing Arts Center, and thought you may be interested in it too!

$40 to Spend on Tickets to INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival: https://livingsocial.com/deals/24171?ref=conf-jp&rpi=6118846

The deal is only available for 5 more hours, so if you're interested, scoop it up soon.

P.S. Even if you don't do LivingSocial, Intersections Festival looks cool, and I'd love to go to a dance performance or something with someone.

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If you care you probably already know

2010-11-23T00:06:50Z

Amazon has the Mp3 albums of the latest MCR and the latest Kanye West to 3.99

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Massive e-book sale

2010-11-21T02:01:41Z

Kobobooks has a great coupon, valid thru midnight tonight that is good for $3 off any book that is not an Agency book (you'll get an error message that the code has expired or isn't valid if you try it on one of these, such as anything from the publisher Penguin). So far, I've seen that nov18ww3, nov18us3 and nov18ca3 can be used interchangeably for this discount.

more deets from books on the knob.

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I love living in the future!

2010-10-13T13:34:45Z

This morning I was reading on my phone on the bus, an extremely hot short story that was a prequel to a novel. The prequel was a free download that I picked up last night, and it was really hot and pretty good, so I went ahead and turned on 4g and bought the novel on the bus.

Yes, I realize all of you Kindle owners are laughing at me for being so 2007, but it was my first time.

P.S. The book was Two Men and a Lady by Brit M. I got the prequel at AllRomance Ebooks

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Help me resist, Dear Circle

2010-10-06T14:27:57Z

Today's woot.com special is $50 stereo noisecanceling bluetooth headphones. Explain to me how much I don't actually need these.

(To put it in perspective, I'm 90% sure I'm going to have to buy a $100 extended battery pack/desktop charger for my new phone already, so my $200 phone has already become $350 (if we include the screen protector and covers already.))

View Poll: #4672

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The weekend to do list

2010-09-20T00:23:58Z

How do you post a to-do list and then fail to accomplish any of the things on it? I mean, I didn't even sleep for a very long time, as I wanted to, I only managed about 14 hours (Friday and Saturday together.)

What I did do this weekend

(1) Establish that I am really, really, really am allergic to wool. (Stopped working on wool hat project.)

(2) Washed pillows and sheets and mattress cover. (Have not yet remade bed.)

(3) Attended All's Well That Ends Well. (Didn't like it. Second part of first half slow unto molasses. Director directed happy ending without doing proper stage insertion to make it seem probable.)

(4) Went to Looped Yarn Works. I like the shop better than StitchDC (by a lot) but So Much Wool. Started working on a LocSoc, but I think I'm going to frog what I've got so far; the tension is terrible. I am apparently not yet very good at half-double crochet, and my chain was uneven also.

(5) Finished God is Not One, which is a great introductory text, but is terrible in telling you where to go to get more learnings about any of the eight faiths it discusses. I will try to go through the endnotes before it goes back to the library and pick out the endnotes of books the Prosthero quotes approvingly (and which are actually religious, and not just random literary texts with pity turns of phrase he wanted to quote.)

I have no clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow, so I should probably go do something about that, at a minimum.

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♥ fannish t-shirts

2010-08-17T19:22:04Z

Team Bella shirts for sale: sales support riotnrrdcomics_feed.

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Spreading the word: The Wire special

2010-06-03T14:48:59Z

Amazon has The Wire complete series for 89.99 today. (They usually sell it for, like, $125.)

hat tip to monkeysee_feed.

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Yes, I am out to get you

2010-04-21T18:51:19Z

I am totally looking to ruin all of your fandom fun by writing negative meta about fandom behaving badly, mocking you when you post 100% squee reactions to anything faily on television (only the shows that me and my clique/cabal of haters like are not full of fail), friending you without warning, and refusing to answer your comments.

Also, you look funny, you speak with a fake French accent, and your mother smells of elderberries.

Ni!

In less "the nice girls are the ones who make me want to leave fandom" news, stepps made an amazing compilation of Dreamwidth tutorials and info.

synecdochic offers a recipe for safe raw cookie dough.

The Sauça truck is an awesome DC thing.

My eroscillator came in the mail yesterday, and I like it. (I do not know if I love it. It's first use didn't strike me as generally too different from my Wahl, but my replacement Wahl comes tomorrow, and I shall totally let you know how the comparison comes out.)

The Shakespeare Theatre production of an adaptive translation of Corneille's The Liar is seriously fucking hilarious. I think that, as an adaptive translation, it is possibly a little too rooted in here and now (not only were their references to contemporary national/global phenomena, e.g. iPods, but also a couple of nods to past Shakespeare Theatre seasons.) But, it is funny, as the adaptor/translator describes the changes he made, they were essentially roles to either make the plot more complex, or funnier, or give bigger roles to women.

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Originally titled "Rlistwankenobi, you're my only hope" but then I did a smidgen of research myself.

2010-04-18T03:37:50Z

So, a while ago, someone (several someones?) posted about a guy writing a retelling of the Arthurian legend, but with an Arthur-reborn who was black and urban. The reason it got mentioned was because book two had just been released. (This was, I think, within the last six months.)

Can anyone remind me of author/series/title info? Original posting found at dbw. Maurice Broadus' Kingmaker (PDF sample chapter) which doesn't get released in NA until September. sigh. I'm getting an order from Amazon (yes, I know they're bullies; no, I can't make myself buy a Wahl at the inflated rates charged by most sextoy stores; yes, even your precious Blowfish charges above list; by the way, did you know that Wahl sells a wand?) and I want to push the order into super-saving territory. (And, yes, I put the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in my cart; it was not quite enough to put me in shipping super saver territory.) I suppose now I shall order Mercy Thompson 5. Oh, the humanity.

I'm going to buy the eroscillator from edenfantasys. I've decided that fantasys is a retro futuristic neologism about a system of sexual pleasure, instead of a bizarre misspelling of fantasies. It helps me to sleep at night. Now I just have to decide if a SOFT FINGERTIP ATTACHMENT is worth thirty bucks. I mean, my new, favorite sex toy reviewer, prettypowertools_feed/Kristy* got off just fine with only the standard attachments. Why is hardware so confusing?

Oh! In AMAAAAAAAZING sex toy developments that I will now pine for for several years, the Lovehoney Sqweel Oral Sex Simulator! Watch the videos and be amazed! (No, the videos are not of people using using the sqweel in the manner intended: all clothes on.) It's only real fault is that it is battery operated.

Many, many people recommended the Lelo products, which are v. beautiful and receive rave reviews. Perhaps the next time I am feeling adventurous! (These are rechargeable, fyi, not plugins.)

Also, also, dear readers! I went out today to spend time with a woman with whom I experience mutual attraction! (You might call this a date. I choose to disclaim the fraught romantic conventions of our contemporary society, except in the meta way I just didn't.) I think it went well, right up until the point where I flubbed the dismount with poor pre-planning. I am fairly certain this was not fatal in our nascent relationshippiness, because she asked to see me again in a genuinely interested manner! (Yes, I am totally being more vague than you might expect, given my general let-it-all-hangoutness, because this woman sometimes reads my journal. 5 Dreamwidth points to the person who comes up with an awesome sobriquet for me to use with her in my journal.)

On the other hand, the National Aquarium in DC. *sigh* It means well, and is only the cost of a movie ticket, is about the best that can be said of it. However, the National Building Museum is free and cooler, jsyk.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore, otoh, is almost thirty bucks, but is probably five times as awesome as the National Aquarium in DC. (Pro-tip: buy your ticket online from the aquarium website. Do not buy at the gate, which means a long line and slow entry; do not buy from Ticketmaster, which charges six bucks for the privilege of buying a ticket.)

P.S. LiveJournal has re-implemented affiliate link javascript. 59 invite codes.

P.P.S. I have one best friend position available for the first person to point me at a glass, faience, or porcelain exhibit in the D.C. area. (No, ceramics don't count!)

*Yes, she does make me think a little of Kristy Thomas.

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Where do you get yours?

2009-10-16T05:31:51Z

Computer, that is. My mom is ready to kick our painfully slow XP box to the curb, and buy a new Windows 7 machine. I've bought an entire computer exactly once, it was an XO laptop, and OLPC is not the place to turn to for this.

Where do you recommend buying your Windows boxes? I want some place with cheap prices but which will not be stroppy about replacing borked hardware. (I trust to my google-fu to keep the software going all right.) We also need to buy Microsoft Office, run a few programs that were originally designed for XP (my dad wants to use his Bible software, if he can unearth it), and run the latest TurboTax.

Thanks for your recommendations.

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Five Things Make a Post

2009-08-01T05:56:55Z

1) Dude, you should always read the release notes. I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.04LTS (i.e. released the 4th month of 2008, with Long Term Support of 18 months [as opposed to the standard 6 months.]) TODAY I found out that my media player (Totem) has a plugin for surfing Youtube and viewing the videos in itself. This is, frankly, a goddamn huge boon, as Youtube crashes firefox not infrequently (although much less than all other videosharing technology.)

2) (re: dw_suggestions) How do the people who vote "should be implemented with changes" but who don't comment about the changes they'd like to see expect anyone else to intuit their desired changes? I mean, it's one thing if there's a pre-existing comment thread showing lots of desired suggestions, but if there's just votes, what are you thinking?

3) General Jinjur suggests putting a permission statement for fanwork-squared where people are likely to find it. I resisted doing this for a long time because I think fannish culture should have that assumption built in, that people shouldn't have to ask about remixing or dvd commentary or sequels or artwork. (Podfic is something of a grey area, I suppose, since it does constitute a complete copy.) But, jinjur points out that part of the reason the people who have many of their works podfic'd have them fic'd is that they've given blanket permission. So, I've added a statement to that effect to my userinfo, my fanlore entry, and my AO³ entry. Hey, podfficcers! Come read my stuff! Some people like it, I promise!

4) I got some feedback to my remix along the lines of (1) I don't like how unsympathetic Uhura was and (b) Uhura/Gaila, what? that wasn't in the original.

And this startled me ( Read more... )

5) I want to buy Jay-Z's D.O.A. Death of Autotune. That is hot. But I can't use iTunes (Linux user, I refuse to install Wine for 1 program), and I haven't bought from Amazon since the gay thing. I usually buy mp3s from 7digital, but they don't have it. And I tried to buy it from Myspace Music, but they said I had to upgrade Flash. The last time I upgraded Flash, it crashed my browser a whole bunch, which is why I downgraded. :(

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