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fandom_stocking! \o/ It's the only holiday fandom thing I'm doing this year, but I always look forward to it hugely. I'll link to my stocking when it's up.
If you haven't done Fandom Stocking before, you describe your fandoms and your likes/dislikes in a comment to the signup post, using the given template, and then your "stocking" will be posted by the mods as an individual post to the community, so people can "fill" it with fic, art, holiday wishes, etc. There is no pressure to post fills if you have a stocking, which makes it ideal if you might like to receive a treat, but don't want the pressure of signing up for a holiday exchange (which is very much me this year).
Fannishly relevant for some: Captain America: Civil War trailer vid made by![[personal profile]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/c2fd831f6d7ae65c820f6a4c7f6ef1a78de3eac3/LrwNHl2AsTDqSfdc6HzeGR_B35LbXmxa2hhzTxTZALkuSondd0_ejDEchcElp02NUhpAaWpAs4S_gIPmlxTHph3Tc6t5VQLc4TO5uycZdfs)
gwyn. (I am still avoiding the trailer as best I can, so no vid for me.)
I was thinking today about how the Internet, while it is the world's greatest research tool in many ways, is not a replacement for certain references of a more old-fashioned type. Like an in-depth book on a particular subject, or, as was the case today, a good road atlas. You'd think Google Maps would work just as well, but it actually doesn't for things like trying to figure out the general relationship of one place to another, or looking for the names of towns in [x] vicinity, at least not without a bunch of extremely frustrating zooming in and out.
I should note that this may not be true for everyone. But my way of mentally organizing data tends to take place in a "big picture" holistic kind of way, and the inability to easily view large-scale and small-scale data at once on Google Maps makes it more difficult for me than just looking up the relevant areas on an atlas that doesn't change contextually like that.
Admittedly Google is far superior at figuring the distances and travel times between places, however.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1048454.html with
comments.
If you haven't done Fandom Stocking before, you describe your fandoms and your likes/dislikes in a comment to the signup post, using the given template, and then your "stocking" will be posted by the mods as an individual post to the community, so people can "fill" it with fic, art, holiday wishes, etc. There is no pressure to post fills if you have a stocking, which makes it ideal if you might like to receive a treat, but don't want the pressure of signing up for a holiday exchange (which is very much me this year).
Fannishly relevant for some: Captain America: Civil War trailer vid made by
I was thinking today about how the Internet, while it is the world's greatest research tool in many ways, is not a replacement for certain references of a more old-fashioned type. Like an in-depth book on a particular subject, or, as was the case today, a good road atlas. You'd think Google Maps would work just as well, but it actually doesn't for things like trying to figure out the general relationship of one place to another, or looking for the names of towns in [x] vicinity, at least not without a bunch of extremely frustrating zooming in and out.
I should note that this may not be true for everyone. But my way of mentally organizing data tends to take place in a "big picture" holistic kind of way, and the inability to easily view large-scale and small-scale data at once on Google Maps makes it more difficult for me than just looking up the relevant areas on an atlas that doesn't change contextually like that.
Admittedly Google is far superior at figuring the distances and travel times between places, however.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1048454.html with
you are right about the research
Internet research... it certainly makes things quick and easy, but I always feel like I have to check and recheck for accuracy, so in some ways it's more time consuming (depending on the research). And there's also the fun little paranoia that comes when you're researching something like, oh, biological weapons, for Captain America and wondering how many warning bells you're triggering over at the NSA.....
*puts on tinfoil hat*
*draws shades*
*waits for black helicopters*
... and haha, yeah ... I often feel that way about my own internet searches. I feel like plastering "I'M NOT A TERRORIST, I'M AN AUTHOR" disclaimers all over a lot of the things I look up ...
Google Maps is good for many things (streetview can be very helpful at times, like finding nearby bus stops!), but I find that it doesn't print out at all well, so have to use Streetmaps for that. I have a satnav and it's generally very good, but for distance travelling I also use an actual map, because I don't fully trust satnavs, and I also use print outs for when I reach my desitination, for better detail of the surrounding streets. And I totally agree that there are times when book research (or using maps!) is much better than internet research, though I don't really do a lot of either atm!
And yeah; Google Maps is great for what it does well, but sometimes a map is better.