The Revived 667er - Edition Eighteen
Jul 25, 2016 15:42:05 GMT -5
katekor, Hermes, and 7 more like this
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Jul 25, 2016 15:42:05 GMT -5
Original idea by Akbar Le Grey
Editor - Mister M
Co-Editor - Anka Anwhistle M
Designer - Lemona Snicket
Historian - Linda Rhaldeen
Editor - Mister M
Co-Editor - Anka Anwhistle M
Designer - Lemona Snicket
Historian - Linda Rhaldeen
Thanks This Issue to : Anka Anwhistle M, beatricetriptych, Comet, Akbar Le Grey,
Hermes, Linda Rhaldeen, Lemona Snicket, Zortegus
Hermes, Linda Rhaldeen, Lemona Snicket, Zortegus
Today has been a busy day for me. I was visting my mum and baby M today, and was stuck in traffic for about 3 hours before I could get home and edit the 667er. But now I am home, and now I am editing the 667er, and this is a really, really great issue. I've had to do hardly any editing, which is good as i am tired out, and I start a new job tomorrow and I was fretting about being tired rom editing this. A huge well done to all this month's contributors, as every article arrived on time, and every article is absolutley superb.
Some highlights of this month's issue include; Linda interviewing fellow Big Brother Zortegus, as well an article by him about this years competion; a brand new feature about some of the best fiction 667 has to offer; Anka's take on this month's events in the penthouse; trip covering the events of the month in 'the month'; and a shock announcement.
- Mister M
~//~
This time written by special guest beatricetriptych!
Hey, it's me, trip , dropping in at the eleventh hour to underwhelm y'all with a disappointing and half-hearted highlights reel of a month that I was only kinda here for.
• The most recent Member of the Month is or will eventually be someone. As I write this I have no idea who and they might not have been announced yet, but congratulations, person! You were a member during a month and we all recognize and appreciate that.
• Daniel Handler answered the alleged "21 questions" on July 1, with lengthier and far more direct responses than one can usually wrest from his Snicket persona. Don't miss it if you haven't checked it out yet, and don't forget to thank; B. and associates for the work they put into organizing this.
• The 9th Annual Summer Book Club kicked off earlier this month when the discussion for this summer's book, The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, opened on July 10. Discussion wraps up August 10, so you still have time to jump in there if you want.
• If you care about VFD Big Brother but not enough to actively pay attention, they're moving into Week Eight and are down to the final five: Eponine , katekor , Trip (me), Tryina Denouement , and quade . Go root for your favorite (Katekor) and construct conspiracy theories or something.
• Some cool things happened regarding the Netflix series, particularly a few casting confirmations and the first official images from Netflix’s Snapchat account, which I'm sure you'll read about in the Netflix News segment (which is somewhere either above or below this one and probably has helpful links). Bernadette Peters continues to be listed on the series’s IMDb page and there has been no official denial of her being cast, so I guess stand by to see if Esmé's meme is meh is a prophet.
• VFDoor has been on a Mad Men puzzle for like the entire month. I haven't tried to solve it so I don't know if people have lost interest or it's just a really hard one, but someone please solve it, I am getting so tired of seeing that quote.
• The Guys vs. Girls thread is still going strong. For a second there the guys seemed like they might win for once, but the girls returned with a vengeance and killed their dreams. Katekor is in the game now too and she's basically perfect so the guys might not want to build those dreams back up anytime soon.
• Elsewhere in the forum, people have been talking about taking up poaching recreationally, ghosts were blasphemously declared to be fake and unbustable, and Bandit wants to know your middle names for some mysterious reason (hopefully to make fun of them and not for some weird bear ritual). I'm pretty sure these all happened within the last week but I either got hardcore distracted or fell asleep and it's two in the morning now so I guess you have to actually read threads like a caveman to see other maybe actually interesting stuff.
• Other things happened this month, I am almost certain of it. Hopefully one of those things was you having a good time at some point. One of them was definitely me agreeing to bullsalsa a 667er segment within like 20 hours while operating on four hours of sleep, and that was terrible for all of us, but it's over now, thank God.
#7 - Official Lost Discussion Thread *spoilers galore*
Lost is awesome. So is this thread.
asoue.proboards.com/thread/18986/official-discussion-thread-spoilers-galore
We're finally getting into the last two weeks of VFD Big Brother, and a lot has happened and is still happening. Today, I'll give you some insight in the game so far, focusing on the housemates and on what's left.
THE HOUSEMATES
For the first time, 667's Big Brother became international. We got in touch with the Brazilian community "Desventuras em Série" and the French forum "La Pente Glissante". Initially it was supposed to have 5 members of each community, but because of work, study and life in general a lot of interested people had to give up before it started.
This year's group consists of: 1 housemate from La Pente Glissante, 1 housemate from Desventuras em Série, 3 old school members of 667, 5 long term members of 667, 3 new members of 667 and 1 mysterious housemate that nobody knows for sure who he is. They are:
-Our lovely and unbearable Bandit the bear, whose story of a dream of him sneezing became the favorite moment of many housemates. He got evicted last week while impersonating a turtle, but his strong personality made the game particularly interesting.
-Teleram, bandit's nemesis, was a great plus this year. He became kind of a martyr two weeks ago, when Bandit was supposed to be evicted but saved himself using a twist to lose some votes, eliminating his enemy instead.
-Lenny, one of our new members and former housemate, got evicted because of a creepy message he left once in the pool of the house. Nobody has been the same after that.
-Pandora got the title of most wanted housemate during our Marvelous Marriage task, when most of the housemates wanted to marry her. Trip was the one who got her hand in sacred marriage though.
-Sophie got evicted not once, but twice; last year's winner of Big Brother become famous this year for not posting more than five times during her stay.
-Jacqueline is a weird girl. We didn't get to know much about her, really. She was creepy sometimes.
-Quade went through a dark fase in the second or third week, when he started insulting and treating awfully everyone in the house. We are still not sure why he did that, there are a lot of theories about it.
-Duncan is another former housemate with a lot of theories around him. Nobody knows for sure his true identity, since he promised to tell in exchange of not being evicted that week. Nobody cared and he got evicted anyway.
-Katekor got along greatly with everyone, but some days ago, after Quade decided to impersonate The Silence from Doctor Who to survive a task, it was revealed she had access to his diary room for a while; she got kinda mad and revealed some dark stuff he has been plotting to win. We still don't know for sure if that information is real or not.
-Tryina has been kinda absent. She's been travelling, and while doing so refused to follow Big Brother's instructions to justify her absent, being awfully punished for that.
-Emothy became one of the favorites, though that didn't save her of being evicted some weeks ago. Did you know she got married with a former 667er?
-Trip is one of the most loved people in the house. She's really involved in the game and won most of the tasks, getting a lot of points, a lot of VFD (VFD BB's currency) and items. She also gets along with everyone, though that's not stopping her of being competitive when needed.
-Mildred got sick during her stay, so we put her in quarantine for a couple of days. That didn't stop her though, and she's now one of the strongest members to get to the final four.
THE LAST WEEKS
This week we'll have our last eviction before knowing the last four survivors. The weekly task is not up yet, but we can assure you they'll have to think a lot to get through it. Only the best will survive, and the spectators participation will be more important than never!
The last 5 members are an interesting group: Katekor was part of 667 in the past and now came back for this; Trip and Mildred joined 667 early this year and have been doing incredibly well in the game, getting along with everyone; Quade, a Brazilian guy who just joined 667 too, has caused a lot of controversy and whose strategies have been causing some troubles; Tryina survived a lot longer than last year, even when she's been kind of absent lately.
What about those who could have been in the final four but lost on the way? Bandit had a lot of chances, but he was particularly rebel this year fighting with his housemates and trying to go against the Big Brothers. When he tried to spoil their secret plans, he got punished: for a long time the word "bandit" was censored in VFD BB forum and it was automatically replaced for "wet blanket"; also, some of his messages were edited revealing love confessions and embarrasing statements instead. Emothy was another housemate who had everything to win, but in an unbelievable tie one of the housemates (who still remains secret) decided to vote for her to keep Bandit and Teleram in the game for a little bit longer.
~-//-~
G:
Games: 667 also has a game section. People can make threads there with rules for games, and then everyone can post there and play the games. Most of the time it's just posting something depending on what the person before you posted, like in the "What comes into your mind when I say" game, and sometimes you have to answer something to the post before you and also think of a new thing, which some people forget sometimes. Those games can basically go on forever, but if you look at the games section you can see that most of the threads are locked, because people stopped posting there at some point. Sometimes the games all seem to stop for a while, but every now and then a person(often new people, but not always) realises that they exist, so they make some posts there, and then they get popular for a while again.
There is also a section for role playing games, but nothing has really happened there at least since I joined. I'm not even sure how that would even work.
June and July have seen the patterns we're getting used to hold true to themselves: As usual, tweets and instagram pictures are our main source of new information about the show, and while a couple of new actors have been announced - Joan Cusack, James R. Baylis and Elizabeth Bowen - we still know next to nothing about who will be playing which role.
However, this month, we also have something other than the regular sources. For the first time, the series is being promoted by Netflix itself, rather than by individual members of the cast and crew: A series of unfortunate snaps has been sent out from the company's official Snapchat account, and while the pictures are generally vague and unrevealing in nature, they do show bits of new costume pieces for the Baudelaires, presumably for the shooting of pictures for more promotional material of a more conventional nature.
For those who are intersted in going a little farther behind the scenes, an article has been released about the studio producing the show, focusing mostly on the high profile it gains from working on a Netflix show with Neil Patrick Harris (whose recent Fourth of July greeting, incidentslly, takes place in front of what can only be an array of set decorations from Olaf's house; which I certainly find pleasingly reminiscent of the illustrations of the Penny Dreadful edition of The Bad Beginning).
Yet more set photographs have reached the public by way of Instagram, giving us another taste of what is presumably the Damockles Dock, and some place with a big sign saying 'Smells' (no idea what that could be). The biggest impact, however, has been made by the third picture, depicting the soulful, or possibly just vacant, philosophical middle-distance stare of Sunny Baudelaire. In other news, actor Sara Canning has been listed on IMDb as having a role in two episodes of the series (which is generally assumed to correspond to one book). Actor John DeSantis has also been listed as the bald man, and this was later confirmed on casting firm KC Talent's Facebook page.
That's it for this month's Netflix News! Now, I have a boon to ask of you, for two reasons. Firstly, I'm just about to enter what I expect to be a very hectic time in my personal life, and second, the functionality of my computer has been rapidly deteriorating for the past couple of months, making it notably more difficult to complete each month's article before the machine crashes and all is lost. Therefore, with resignation, I hand in my resignation. I'd like to thank Mister M for coming up with the idea and giving me the chance to write these, which - in spite of any technical difficulties and my general lateness - I've quite enjoyed; as well as all the volunteers who have consistently brought all of these news to 667's attention (Ryantrimble and Zortegus, just to name someone, but really there's a whole bunch of you who've contributed a lot to the cause). And last, but not least, thanks to everyone who's read my articles. I've done my best to inform and entertain, and I hope that, at least to some degree, I've succeeded.
If anyone is considering stepping up to fill my position, provided you have the time, means and energy to do so, I can only recommend it.
Editor's Note : A New Author for Netflix News has now been found.
And now it's time for a new occasional feature by one of 667's most beloved members, Hermes
In the next few months, I will be introducing some of the best of 667’s archive fiction. Fiction at 667 most often takes two forms: fanfiction of the works of Lemony Snicket, and real person fiction about 667ers (though original fiction, and fanfic for other series, is not unknown). In each article, I plan to introduce one Snicketfic and one 667fic.
Snicketfic of the month: The Arcane Academy, by Dante.
We think of Dante mostly as a Snicketologist, but he has many strings to his bow, and his fiction, of which he has a substantial archive, is always worth reading. This story belongs to the subgenre which tells of an unrecorded adventure of the Baudelaires’, in this case set (in a manner of speaking, anyway) between TMM and TAA. It is a crossover with – well, you can probably guess which series – and faces the challenge of combining the world of that series with the very different world of ASOUE. You may think this is impossible, given how sceptical the Baudelaires are about magic in later books, but the problem is confronted and solved very cleverly. The story has all the hallmarks of the earlier ASOUE books, and is the most effective crossover I have read.
667fic of the month: 667 Dark Apocalypse, by Tragedy, Sixteen and Willis, with guest writer Alice.
Do you remember when the world was due to end in 2012? This story, published in 2008-9, was set in that far future year and the following one, predicting not a literal end to the world, but a burst of gamma rays which wiped out 70% of the earth’s population. It then followed the adventures of those 667ers who survived – of whom there were surprisingly many – at first as individuals and pairs, then as a community, since in the final episode they gather in Chicago to celebrate their eleventh anniversary, only to find themselves investigating the murder of Daniel Handler!
I arrived at 667 just as this story was being published, and gained much of my knowledge of the site from it; it was a dominating event at the site for a while, with ‘667 Dark Apocalypse’ even featuring briefly in the masthead. The story helped to unify 667, since the authors made an effort to include every active member, including some who were semi-retired when I arrived, and others who joined after me. But it also reflected, and to some extent (unintentionally) contributed to, the ongoing conflict between the first and second most beautiful girls in the world.
Normally Lemona writes the thing about the penthouse days, but she was away for the last one, so Mister M asked me to write something instead. I'm not a good writer, so I can't actually write an entertaining thing, but I can tell you what happened in the penthouse.
At some point before I entered the penthouse there was already some conversation between Mister M, BSam, Bear and Peppermince about music, because Peppermince was making music. Later there was also Zortegus and Peppermince talking about what time it is and what time they have dinner, which turned into talking about siblings because those are the reason why Peppermince has to have dinner early.
When I came in, there was Peppermince who was back from dinner, and Zortegus who was painting. He said something about going to Europe soon, and I said I found that strange because Europe is so many countries that it doesn't make sense for me to see it as one place where you can go, and I was actually about to explain why but then Peppermince showed everyone some random t-shirt and said we should all meet up wearing it. Zortegus and me both didn't like the t-shirt, but we liked the idea of meeting everyone. Peppermince said he doesn't actually want to meet any 667ers, not even Bandit, because it would be awkward.
Then Peppermince somehow talked about the people in his class that he doesn't like (like he also doesn't like his siblings, does he even like anyone?). He gave understandable reasons though, including youtubers. Then he said he had to leave and left before anyone else was able to say bye. Zortegus and me both had other things to do so we left too at some point.
After some time I came back, and there were Hermes, Comet and Terry Craig who had talked about philosophy and making films and the Netflix series and university before. There was a bit of a mystery because nobody saw that Comet was there but he still kept talking, so he had to be there. Zortegus and Bear also arrived, and a bit later also Mister M. He was still called Mister Anka in the penthouse, from when I was visiting him during the last penthouse day, and it actually confused me sometimes. It made us talk about the other M (not-Mister M), and generally about 667ers who are, have ever been, or could ever be called M.
Mister M asked if there is anyone who could do power rankings for the 667er, and none of us really knew what they were good for or why they were called power rankings. Hermes tried to make some ranking of who actually has the most power on 667, while I actually always believed they were called power rankings because the person making them gets the power to rank people.
Lots of people had to leave then, and then there was only Zortegus and me, and we talked about me finishing university and moving to England.
Then Teleram turned up, and then Mister M (but only for a moment) and Terry, and Zortegus told us about all the different things he does in real life, which is a quite impressive amount. Terry and me and Zortegus talked about things like university and jobs, and I feel a bit sorry for Teleram because nobody was really talking to him.
Mister M was back then, and he wanted to play a game with letters, but nobody else did because we had things to talk about. Zortegus said he was maybe going to translate ASOUE, like officially for a publisher.
There was some conversation about Doctor Who then, of course started by Mister M, but to me it seemed a bit confusing because everyone was talking at the same time. I also wanted to copy the conversation, so I can look at it later to write this thing, and I had to scroll up for that to where I stopped last time, and I spent 15-20 minutes just trying to scroll up, because every time someone said something it went to the bottom of the chat again. At some point I asked everyone to stop talking for a bit, but only Terry actually did. Mister M kept talking about Doctor Who, and Teleram and Zortegus kept telling him to stop.
After the copying worked, I had to go to sleep, so I have no idea what happened in the penthouse after that. In the morning I looked if there was anything more that people had said, and there was actually something, but nothing that made any sense.
The 667er: Welcome to The 667er interview Zortegus!
Zortegus: Hello!
The 667er: First off, we're all dying to know (or at least i am): where did you get the username Zortegus?
Zortegus: I think I explained it a couple of times, once in a Penthouse for sure. Zortegus is an anagram of my name I made when I was like 12: "Tomas L. Rodriguez" becomes "I am Lord Zortegus". It became my username and my pseudonym since then, though I usually don't use the lord thing. Oh and before you ask, I don't have a middle name, I just put an "L" there for my own convenience.
The 667er: Haha, that's awesome.
Zortegus: Yeah I had like two or three other options for names but finally stuck to Zortegus. I'm happy with my decision.
The 667er: You are going to university currently, I know you're doing stuff with literature and also with special effects? What is your emphasis exactly?
Zortegus: I'm studying Linguistics and Literature right now, but the university system is kinda different in Argentina so it takes longer to graduate. I'm hoping to finish it in two more years. I have a LOT of interests so I try to do as many as possible; that's why I started studying special FX makeup last year in Buenos Aires (5 hours away from my city, Mar del Plata). I'm not ACTUALLY studying it, I'm just doing intensive courses and workshops every now and then.
The 667er: What do you want to do when you graduate?
Zortegus: My dream is to be a writer, but I also love teaching and doing research and investigation in literature and linguistics. I'd like to do SFX makeup stuff too, and I'm really interested in translating at some point. I hope to have enough time in my life to have multiple jobs and not only stick to one thing.
The 667er: What is your favorite color? Why?
Zortegus: Orange! I don't know why, it's nice and warm.
The 667er: Let's talk about your family. I remember you mentioning you have several brothers and sisters? Are they older? Younger? Do you live with all of them?
Zortegus: I have 5 siblings! Four older sisters and a younger brother. Right now I'm living with my brother, who's 16, and one of my sisters, who's 28.
The 667er: Also, do you have any pets besides Moxie the cat?
Zortegus: Sadly, Moxie is no longer with me. She never was *mine*, she just liked to hang out outside my window and when I started letting her in and feeding her she seemed to enjoy my company and kept coming. Then suddenly, after a big storm in november last year, she stopped appearing. It was really sad and I miss her a lot, but I can only hope she's okay with a nice family and not to think she had an unfortunate ending. I have two dogs I love immensely, a little stray girl called Colitita (that can be translated to "Little little tail", a name my niece chose because she has, well, a little tail) and a german shepherd called Thrash (my brother was going through his heavy metal music when we got him; it's fun because the dog is the most innocent and nice creature in the world). I also have two big turtles (I love turtles) called Manuel and Ruperta, and a lot of fishes in a pond in my garden.
The 667er: You are doing a really great job as a Big Brother this year; I think this is the first time we've had two consistently active Big Brothers instead of one, and it's allowed us to do much more than one person can do. What made you decide to join? Have you ever watched the tv show Big Brother?
Zortegus: I have never watched the real TV show actually, I don't really like the concept or the people who participate and what it generates in society. But virtually, I love the idea and I think it's a great way to make different people get along in a different way; I did a Big Brother in my old Harry Potter forum around 2008, and it was really fun! It was different to 667/VFD BB though. In forums you don't have much space to freely interact with other users, but VFD BB does. I loved being part of it last year and helped me to get along and know a little bit more everyone when I just joined 667, and this year I wanted to help to make it even better and make other new users or even non-users like Quade or Jacqueline to become friends and have fun together. I think we're doing a great job, Linda! *high five*
The 667er: Speaking of television, what is your favorite television show? Why?
Zortegus: Uhhh I have a lot of favorite shows actually, mainly mainstream shows. I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, and some classic shows I love are Heroes (mainly the concept and first season) and Pushing Daisies. Right now I'm watching Stranger Things, it's amazing!
The 667er: You are about to go on a month long trip to Europe! I think you leave the same day this interview is published, in fact. Have you ever been before? Is this just a trip for fun or do you have another reason for going?
Zortegus: Yes! I'm really excited,il it's a trip I've been wanting to do for twelve years. My best friend is from Spain, we met in a Pokémon forum when we were twelve and have a really unique relationship. This will be the first time we meet in the real world and we'll be together for half a month, so it's going to be great, it has to be! I'm also going to meet five or six other e-friends in Belgium, London and Germany, and I always wanted to visit those countries too.
The 667er: Earlier you had mentioned your Harry Potter forum; it was the largest Spanish-speaking Harry Potter forum if I remember right?
Zortegus: One of the largest, yeah. It was mainly a role-playing forum, kind of absurd kind of role (it reminds me of our Big Brother in that aspect). Everyone had their own character and we made stories together.
The 667er: Do you still admin that forum?
Zortegus: The forum existed between 2006 and 2011. After that we tried to revive it a few times. Last year the forum server closed and now a good friend of mine and I are actually transforming some of those stories in the hopes of editing them.
The 667er: How is it similar to 667 and how is it different?
Zortegus: I don't think it was similar to 667, maybe the people?
The 667er: You are one of a growing number of members who are not native English speakers. In my interacting with you it seems you are quite fluent in English but is it difficult to speak completely in English on 667?
Zortegus:Well, languages are always hard. I think I have a good enough knowledge of English, even when I make a lot of mistakes and sometimes if I don't double-read what I write I can make clumsy things like double negatives or wrong conjugation of irregular verbs, but I think the communicational objective (let's say understanding others and making others understand me) is generally accomplished, so I don't think it's "difficult", at least for me. I'm always trying to improve and to incorporate more vocabulary so the forum totally helps me on that.
The 667er: Can you think of anything we can do to make the forum more accessible to those who speak another language in their home country?
Zortegus: I dunno, maybe a forum or specific threads to speak or practice or learn other languages? I promised Pen I'd teach him spanish an never did so. But I don't know, I think english is the most universal language so pretty much everyone can at least interact a little bit. Something I always ask to my foreign friends to help me is that if you see me making some mistake, even if it's a little one, please don't hesitate in correcting me!
The 667er: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 20?
Zortegus: Hopefully done with university, working hard, travelling a lot, with at least two or three books edited. Maybe with a family? I'm not good imagining the future, it's never the way I think it will be!
The 667er: You joined 667 fairly recently, a little over a year ago. Do you wish you'd joined sooner? Is there anything you have learned that you might not have learned if you had not joined 667?
Zortegus: Yes, not joining before is one of my biggest regrets! Seeing all the people and excitement I missed makes me kinda sad. I'd have really enjoyed being in the forum back then. I learned A LOT thanks to 667, not only about ASOUE and Lemony Snicket's universe, and thanks to the forum I met a lot of great people. I'm really happy to be an active part of it now, especially considering the upcoming Netflix show, and I hope to be around for a long time.
The 667er: What has been your favorite thing that has happened on 667 since you joined? Why?
Zortegus: Well, a lot of exciting stuff happened. I loved the darkies, that was so much fun! And I was honored to be nominated for so many awards and of winning Best New Member with Lorelai. The 667er is one of my favorite things, Mister M does an incredible job at it even when these months I've been really busy and couldn't do my part. I think the best thing was the interview to Daniel Handler, and I'm really looking forward to doing the annual birthday thing!
The 667er: And finally, is there anything we haven't covered yet that you would like to tell the people of 667?
Zortegus: I think we covered pretty much everything! If new members are reading: get involved! Enjoy this wonderful community and make your part. To everyone else, keep up with the hard work, keep doing amazing things for the forum and sharing them with us.
Oh and also, with who I have to talk to to get a change in the forum design? It's been years since ?3 appeared, we should replace the logo at least. We have a lot of amazing designers to probably get something pretty and new to replace it.
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~ If anybody wants to contribute something (whether positive or negative) then feel free to PM me or any other staff members with your ideas ~
~ Don't forget to come to the next penthouse, which is August 14th. Make it interesting so Lemona can write about it ~
~ If you want to be interviewed by Linda then PM her and let her know. There will still be group interview, with the next taking place in Next month's issue. ~
~ The Next Edition of the 667er will be released on August 22nd, and it will be a special edition looking back at the Unfortuante Events movie. See you then! ~