It must be the recent heat wave here where I live.  I’ve been feeling extra grumpy since getting back from my trip to China.  I really don’t want my blog to turn into nothing but bitch sessions but bleh - sometimes it’s all that seems interesting to write about.  I’m sure none of you want to read about my boring day of cleaning the house lol.

Anyway… I’ve been in the fansite world since 2000.  When I started, it was such a wonderful little community.  People helped each other and shared photos and information.  Now it seems to be more about the competition than the supporting of the celeb.  Things have gotten totally out of hand.  I’ve heard stories of fansite owners turning in competing sites to agencies, spreading malicious lies, and more.  And I seriously want to find the person who started the photo tagging trend and slap them.

I collect celebrity photos.  I don’t sell them, or post them on my sites without credit - I just collect them.  I sometimes use them to make graphics, but mostly I just like looking at the pretty pictures.  TAGS RUIN THE PHOTOS!  Small ones, I can deal with.  My friend Mycah tags photos at her site but they’re small and unobtrusive.  I can totally work around them if I want to use the photo for a graphic.  But take this photo for an example:

Is a tag that large necessary?  Really?  Tagging has just gotten ridiculous.  Especially since the photos people are tagging don’t even belong to them in the first place.  They were stolen from an agency or grabbed from a forum who stole them from an agency.  Most people just use the excuse that they’re not claiming the photos are theirs, they just want people to know where it came from.  If that was really the case, a small tag in the corner would be just fine.  It really boils down to people saying “nyah nyah, look what I have and you can’t have it.”  Bugs the fuck out of me.

Another recent trend I’ve noticed is sites claiming to be stalkerazzi free.  I completely get where they’re coming from - I’m on the fence about paparazzi photos myself.  I do my best to not post any where the celeb looks unhappy or angry about having their photo taken.  What bugs me about the sites that claim to be “100% stalkerazzi free” is that 90% of the time, you will still find candids in their gallery.  Not of the celeb getting coffee or having lunch or anything - but of them on the set of whatever project they’re working on.  Now I understand that the celeb is technically at work and expecting to have their pictures taken but these are still candids.  They are still taken by the stalkerazzi that the sites claim they don’t want to support.  What I’m trying to say is… don’t claim to be 100% free of something when you’re not.

Today’s rant over.  I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.

If you couldn’t already tell, this post is going to be filled with words that may not be appropriate for all ages.  You have been warned.

Unless you’ve been living in a box this week you will have heard that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died from a cardiac arrest.  Now, I wasn’t his biggest fan.  I’ll be upfront and admit it right out.  I loved the album Thriller and it was one of the very first records I ever bought myself.  His subsequent work was very good but overall it just wasn’t my style.  In later years of course, any musical genius he had was overshadowed by his increasingly bizarre behavior and child molestation accusations.  Only Michael, those children, and whatever god or gods might be out there know for certain what happened.  All I know is that I felt sorry for Michael.  He was obviously mentally unstable and I sincerely hope that he has at last found peace.

But this blog post isn’t really about that.  It’s about that piece of shit trash Perez Hilton and what he posted when the first announcements of Michael being rushed to the hospital.  Here is the original post:

“We knew something like this would happen!!
Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance from his Holmby Hills home to a nearby Los Angeles hospital on Thursday afternoon!!
Supposedly, the singer went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics had to administer CPR!!!
His mother is even on the way to visit him!!!
We are dubious!!
Jacko pulled a similar stunt when he was getting ready for his big HBO special in ‘95 when he “collapsed” at rehearsal!
He was dragging his heels on that just like his upcoming 50 date London residency at the 02 Arena, of which he already postponed the first few dates!!!
Either he’s lying or making himself sick, but we’re curious to see if he’s able to go on!!!
Get your money back, ticket holders!!!!”

Extremely poor taste - but really, what else does one expect from that overexposed asshole?  The thing that pisses me off about this is that when it was announced that Michael had died and wasn’t “faking it”, Perez did something morally repugnant imo - he changed his original post.  The post now reads:

Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance from his Holmby Hills home to a nearby Los Angeles hospital on Thursday afternoon!!

The singer went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics had to administer CPR!!!

His mother is even on the way to visit him!!!

No apologies, no anything.  Just him trying to cover his ass as quickly as possible and pretend like he never said what he said.  I’m a firm believer in the first amendment.  People have the right to say (or blog) what they want.  If you don’t like what they have to say, don’t listen. But using the first amendment and then chickening out is just bullshit.

So my message to Perez and anyone else who makes jokes and blogs in poor taste - if you’re going to say something, say it.  Have the balls to keep it on your site and don’t hide behind the ‘edit post’ button.  And if you are going to edit your post, explain why and don’t just try to pretend it never happened.

And one last thought to Perez - FUCK YOU! I hope this ends your 15 minutes you worthless piece of shit.

A few days ago, I joined the Twitter revolution.  I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to like it.  But I find it strangely soothing and addictive.  Most of the people I’ve followed are fellow fan-sites.org hostees but I am following some celebs too.  I’ve gotten replies back from a couple of them too and I admit it, I squealed like a little fangirl when Milo responded to me.  Shameless, I know.

Another celeb I’m following is Nathan Fillion.  I love love LOVE him.  I know I’m beating a dead horse here but Firefly should have NEVER been canceled.  Some of the best television ever and FOX never gave it a chance.  Fuck you FOX.  Fuck you again.  Keeping Dollhouse on the air does not make up for the shitty way you handled Firefly.  Firefly was an infinitely better show.  ……  ok, I’m done ranting.  Back to what I was going to talk about - Nathan.  He’s so good and so underrated.  He is in desperate need of a good fansite too.  I am so tempted to create one but I’m not sure if I could handle it on my own.  *sad face*

I just received something very exciting in today’s mail.  The International Scholar Laureate Program has invited me to be a part of this year’s delegation group.  I will have the choice of going to China, Australia, or Eastern Europe for two weeks to participate in lectures and presentations given by various companies.  The problem is that in order to go, I will need to raise at least $6000.  The packages range from $5200-$5400 plus I would need a little spending money and the funds to get a passport.

If you can donate anything - even a little - it will help me out a lot.  I will keep careful track of all donations so in the event that I am unable to raise enough money, any donations I’ve received will be refunded.

My paypal information is xfiled97[@]comcast.net (remove the brackets)

Or you can email me for other donation options.  The best email to reach me at is fansites[@]hotmail.com