Welcome to December!

[heidi]

I almost managed NaPoBloMo - I posted every day until I think the 28th, when I got caught up in SpellCast stuff, and sorta forgot about it until the next day.

But the new episode of SpellCast is now up here - with elanor_isolda's interview with the Phelps brothers, who play the Weasley twins, and what I think is one of the coolest, most fascinating interviews at least of the year - gwendolyngrace attended the MIT Futures of Entertainment conference late last month, and had a chance to interview Diane Nelson, lately the Executive Vice President of global brand management and strategized worldwide distribution for Harry Potter, about her thoughts on fans, fandom and fan "ownership" of movie and book properties. Look for a transcript of the interview sometime this weekend, but of course, you can listen to it now via iTunes or the SpellCast site itself. Special kudos to Josh for an amazing job editing two episodes in one week, and I think we're back on schedule now, squee.

Now that it's finally December, I feel more holiday-like. It's difficult in Miami when it's on the warm side - back in mid-November when it was in the 50s I was really dreaming of a White Christmas, but while it's possible that Orlando may get some flurries this winter, the likelihood of us getting it down here is maybe one in ten thousand. We had snow back in 1977, and none since. But every 29 years would work for me.

So if you want a holiday card, click here and leave your name & addy - it's all screened there so I didn't have to screen comments on this post. If you don't want a snail-mailed card, just leave your email address and I'll send you a virtual card instead.

And I'm going to jump on the Holiday Wishes bandwagon:

STEP ONE
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. [Note: Your home address is not required!]

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals (ETA or the holiday_wishes Community) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1. Regulus/Barty Junior fic! In fact, any Regulus fic, except maybe no Regulus/Hagrid

2. Recs for a region-free DVD player that's under $60 US

3. Tiny-denomination coins from outside the US and Canada - like, the equivalent of a penny. My kids like them but while it's relatively easy to find larger denominations here in Miami, smaller ones are hard to get one or two of.

4. Tickets to this.

5. For more people to submit essays to HPInkPot, no matter when they were written, as you can indicate pre-OotP or pre-HBP-ness.

6. A release date and/or title for Book Seven; if it gets announced on my birthday, like OotP was, so much the better.

7. For you to listen to SpellCast and vote for it on Podcast Alley.

8. A few people to help build stuff in SecondLife

9. Peace on earth and goodwill in fandom, online, and IRL.

10. For you to tell me one thing you wish for in the new year.

Comments

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

10) Two things: Focus, and Patience.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I bet you'd also like a ticket to #4, too. ;)

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Well, YEAH. :)

I can do two of them, I think:

[daintress.livejournal.com]

1) I have a Regulus fic that's not a ship, if you'd like to read that.....maybe you did already, though? Well, if you did, you can ignore the link. Lol!

10) My wishlist.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

3: This I can do. To bad I've already sent your Christmas card, or I could include it there, but I'll find some coins and send you asap.

9: Amen!

10: LESS DRAMA IN MY LIFE!!!! (Yes, that deserved all-caps. Fortunately the last half has been pretty drama-free, but the first half more than made up for it.)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I got your card today! Thanks so much - I loved reading the newsletter. It's kinda like a year of LJ in a pair of pages.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I got your newsletter today! Thanks so much for being my first holiday mail!

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Do they have any from Dubai, yet?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

No, and that would be *so* cool! If it's easier for you to wait til you're back in the states to send it I would totally understand.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Nah, we have to ship out a bunch of boxes anyway. Adding a padded envelope is easy. Now, where do I find your mailing address again?

[likewildfire.livejournal.com]

if you don't have swiss coins yet, I manage a hand with that one :)

[nqdonne.livejournal.com]

I don't have a specific link, but go for a Daewoo. They are almost always, without fail, multi-region (and if they're not when you get them, I would bet you there's a crack to make it so). I had a really great Daewoo multi region I got for about $40 at Sams Club. I had it three years before it died (this summer). Its replacement isn't particularly good (not a Daewoo), so I'm still looking. I'll let you know if I find anything!!! But troll stores like Sams Club, etc. for Daewoo DVD players and you might just get lucky (more or less, anything from China will be or can be made region free).

[wickedelf.livejournal.com]

2) I've got this player - after it was recommended to me by several other people. It's hackable to region-free (when you first get it, you just push a couple buttons on the remote and after that it's not an issue). It's played pretty much everything I've thrown at it so far (including burned discs my other players won't play).

[dragonrider7.livejournal.com]

My wish for the new year is to get married and back to Britain as soon as humanly possible. And for my parents to not hate my fiance, depsite him being super different from everyone around here. And for my brother-in-law to come home and stay home from Afghanistan.

[wednesdayjones.livejournal.com]

You probably have a lot of these, but I can do #3 - Some British, Euro, etc.

Let me know if you'd like them for your kids

[alexandramuses.livejournal.com]

I'll need your addy to send you some 1 and 2 eurocent coins, then. :D

#10

[azriona.livejournal.com]

I wish for next year to be easier.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

2) I've heard that a lot of players have cracks to make them multi-region - my last one did, at any rate. :D

3) What's your address? I'm happy to provide some Australian coins.

10) I'm seconding the wish for an easier year, sigh.

[roguebitch.livejournal.com]

I have a pence and a little Japanese coin (yen?) if you want them -- send an address along and I'll get them there!

One thing I wish for? Financial stability.

[tinnidawg.livejournal.com]

I wish for a year which is boring and routine, especially no ER dramas and also for "the tumor" to die once and for all, like its siblings, instead of being like a personal voldemort that keeps popping up.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Working on the back half of #7! (I forgot my password from voting for The Signal....) Don't have too much free eartime, but I don't need to listen to know it's worth my vote. :)

#9 - [applause]

And #10? Want to un-dig myself financially and get broken things fixed.