I Hope They're Not Your Neighbours.

We've all heard of people who take their fandoms too far. But there's obsessive, and then there's out and out nutbar. And unfortunately the Internet allows such people to get together, such as the people described in this Fandom Wank entry. These very delusional women think they're "astrally married" to Severus Snape, a character from the Harry Potter series. You know, someone who never actually existed. And now they've had a falling out. How they've avoided a visit from the local boys in the nice white outfits is beyond me, especially since at least one of them apparently is married and her spouse knows about her Snape obsession. Hopefully when these ladies have a complete mental collapse they won't harm themselves and/or others in the process.

The Harry Potter series is one I haven't gotten into, and have no intention of getting into. I'm just not interested in it. But I'm still being entertained by it second hand, namely through some of the totally wacked out behaviour of some of its fans. If you ever needed to be reminded that fan is derived from fanatic just check out this petition, started by folks who are all upset that JK Rowling isn't going to write their prefered romantic pairing, or ship, to use fanspeak, in the series. Its possible this is intended as a joke, but even if it is it certainly mirrors a lot of the craziness currently running around in the Potter fandom. If there's something that could piss off a Potter fan you can be sure someone is ranting online about it, like those who are upset that Rowling hasn't put any same sex relationships in the books. Some of this stuff is almost as bad as the anti Potter kooks who think the series is a gateway to children becoming witches, or Satanists, or some other boogieman.

I was just reading some stuff about a Harry Potter fanfic writer who had her apartment broken into and her and roomies computers stolen. Now folks, including many she doesn't actually know, are actually making donations to replace their stuff.

Someohw I doubt complete strangers will be donating me any money anytime soon.

If you're into Undergrads this section at Nitcentral might be of interest to you. Hopefully this link will work.

Nitcentral in general is a cool site. It was developed by Phil Farrand, author of the Star Trek nitpicking books. The discussions can evolve in all sorts of interesting directions beside just merely noting all those funky errors that inevitably creep into things.