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May 29th, 2012
06:53 am sythyry [Link]	Questions, part 2 Mirrored from Sythyry. Cake or Pie? Certainly! You! Cake or death? Certainly not! Have you let that poor sleeth out of the crown? After Lithia’s farewell party was all cleaned up, we badgered Vae into telling us where the Sleeth was imprisoned. Badgering Vae is not the safest of occupations. Nor is it the easiest: an ounce too much pressure and she starts crying, an ounce too little and she becomes belligerent. Yerenthax and I took a quick trip out there, and confirmed the situation. Yerenthax chopped the crown to bits with a very large and very burny axe. The Sleeth was much happier after that. (Leave a comment)
12:01 am shatterstripes [Link]	bedtime I just sent the near-final files for the FC website off for slicing and styling. There are a couple little tweaks I want to make but they're purely cosmetic and can be done tomorrow. I am pretty surprised at how nice the overall drawing came out. I haven't really done anything full of gradients in a while, and I put a little extra love into this one - it's got this slight taste of airbrush on illustration board to it, which is probably a medium I'd have ended up struggling to master if Illustrator hadn't come along. It feels like a furry version of something out of "Heavy Metal", kinda like if Richard Corben decided he was sick of drawing warts and wrinkles. If all goes well, the site should go live on Friday. Until then all you get is this teaser. I kinda want to do a short comic in full color like this now; it feels like it would be me achieving an apotheosis of everything I thought looked utterly amazing when I was eleven and tracing off of the weird-ass airbrushed art in the manual for the 2600 port of Pac-Man. I thought I'd never be able to do anything that looked that slick, but here I am tossing it off without breaking a sweat. (Leave a comment)
May 28th, 2012
10:13 pm teaotter [Link]	Editing update 28/30. I think there's really only one more change to be made, but it's more significant and might span the last chapter and the epilogue. So I'm counting both of them as still needing work, just to be safe. But I'm closing in! Tags: final edits, n: sosg (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:07 pm paka [Link]	Just one for today! bullywugs by ~Pachycrocuta on deviantART (Leave a comment)
09:27 pm prickvixen [Link]	"It just gave me a lot of terrible dreams." "Like what sort of bad dreams?" "Well, I set a guy on fire..." I have given mushrooms their last chance. I've never had a particularly good experience on them, and last night they made me sullen and withdrawn and uncommunicative. I also felt kind of stupid, more so than usual. "So mushrooms make you bitchy, knifey, fascinated by fire, and make you dream of committing murder." "Yes. This a wonderful drug you've discovered." (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:46 pm walks_far [Link]	Experiment: Final word I needed to make this final report as a method of closure in my attempt to grow Amaryllis from seed. Past photos showed the young plants as they first started. Now I can say something as to their final and possible future. At present the surviving 22 plants are in the greenhouse where they get a lot of warmth and sun along with a daily short spray of water and sometimes a bit of fertilizer to keep them going. Each young plant has reacted to the new environment differently. Besides becoming slug fodder early on until a dose of iron phosphate eliminated the slug problem, temperatures have become the major growth hurdle. Most days the temperatures inside the greenhouse vary from 55 to 105. At night the temperatures are from 42 - 60. Both low and high extremes have stressed the young plants. As a result, three did not make it. Now that the temperatures have stabilized lower, the young plants have grown extended leaves and in about half, there are now two leaves present. A smaller proportion of the plants have put forth a third and fourth leaf. Progress is slow. I expected that. All growth now is underground with the development of larger bulbs to store food and energy. As with an experiment two years before to grow tiger lilies from small bulb-lets that appeared on the base of leaves and stems, I saw little or no growth above ground other than two leaves. The plants grew their bulbs deep and the following year they grew small normal lily stems that produced small tiger lilies. Each year they grow taller and the flowers bigger. I expect the same will happen with the Amaryllis. The only difference in the grown pattern will be that the young Amaryllis plants will come inside the laundry room of the house in fall when they are dormant. Come Spring, I will return them to the greenhouse to continue growth. Current Mood: accomplished (Leave a comment)
07:40 pm firecat [Link]	Wiscon vid party lists Posted for my own reference, but public in case it's useful for anyone else. (not complete yet) http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/5501.html - premieres http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/5696.html - intro set http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/5949.html - abuse of authority set This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/775338.html, where there are comments. (Leave a comment)
08:27 pm find_a_book [open_the_blinds] [Link]	Western Romance Feat. a Magic Mirror Back in my early teens (some 10-12 years ago) I borrowed this book from a friend of mine and recently I've gotten the urge to read it again, but of course, I returned the book and the friend and I kind of drifted apart (as you do with old high school friends). I've been searching, but no dice so far, hopefully some of you folks can help me out. It was a romance, set both in modern day and the old west. This girl goes to her grandmother's (maybe her aunt's?) and discovers this mirror, and through said mirror she meets a boy from 1800s. The grow up knowing each other thanks to this mirror (they hold up messages and what not) and eventually, one day, she ends up going through the mirror and meeting him face to face. I remember she ends up going back and forth a couple times: from present to past to present again and usually while in the present finds out something horrible about her cowboy hubby that she has to try and change. Like one time she finds out that he's supposed to die, another time that she's going to marry his brother.... So... any ideas? fingers crossed ~.~ ETA: Book Found! Current Mood: hopeful Tags: book found! (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
09:48 am slacktivist [Link]	The meaning of Memorial Day http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2012/05/the-meaning-of-memorial-day.html Today (May 28 2012) is Memorial Day in the United States. According to the (American) Department of Veteran Affairs website: Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service. In the Netherlands Dodenherdenking is a day of official remembrance of those that have died in the service of The Netherlands, from the outbreak of World War II and in conflicts since, both civilian and military. On the Australian War Memorial website Remembrance Day is described as follows: marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). Each year Australians observe one minute silence at 11 am on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. Questions: 1) Do you think that we should separately remember/mourn the deaths of civilians in war? 2) How do we honour the service of those who fought for their countries/peoples without mythologizing/demonizing those involved? --mmy The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post. (Leave a comment)
03:59 pm xiphias [Link]	A truly nifty competition A fifteen minute video. Seven people, ranging in age from 10 to 75, go into an MRI, and have five minutes to love as hard as they can. The winner is whomever shows the most activity in the parts of the brain associated with love. Some spoiler-riffic discussion after the cut. Behind the cut, I'll summarize, if you don't want to watch a fifteen-minute video. ( Read more... ) (Leave a comment)
02:21 pm firecat [Link]	Notes for Wiscon panel "Feminist Perspectives on Elder Care" Feminist Perspectives on Elder Care Track: Feminism and Other Social Change Movements Panel description Like child care, the vast majority of elder care is done by women and is frequently unpaid. (When it is paid work, it is often paid extremely poorly.) Many WisCon attendees are dealing with elder care issues, either because they have aging parents, or because they are the aging parent. Are there political solutions we could be working toward? Are there pragmatic solutions we can share with each other? Are there new ideas (for caregiving, accessibility, communities, etc.) that we can offer as a shared vision? twitter hashtag: #ElderCare Panelists: (I did not list most panelists' journal/blog info, for reasons of privacy; if you want your panelist name associated with your blog or journal, leave a comment or send me a private message.) Criss Moody Janice Mynchenberg L J Geoffrion ljgeoff firecat Naomi Kritzer I was a panelist and I was not able to take notes. This is what I remember, and I hope others on the panel and attending the panel —and anyone with questions or information—will contribute comments/resources. During the panel I was wondering if it would be useful to create a DW and/or LJ community and/or mailing list for eldercare resources for people who are fannish and/or alternative in other ways. Thoughts? ( Read more... ) This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/775139.html, where there are comments. (Leave a comment)
01:28 pm firecat [Link]	WisCon panel: Body Acceptance: From All Sides Body Acceptance: From All Sides Track: Feminism and Other Social Change Movements Panel description Body love movements have been gaining momentum recently, but for many people on the margins, the discourse needs to be expanded. The current movement of body love fails to account for persons with disabilities, people of color, trans and gender nonconforming people, pregnant and postpartum people, and fat people, among many others. We aim to discuss how (and in some cases, whether) body love and acceptance apply beyond a purely gendered analysis and expand to nonnormative bodies. Panelists: Julie Hayes s.e. smith Tanya D. E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman Mary Ann Mohanraj Moderator - Annie D Chen Twitter hash tag: #BodyAcceptance I have a paraphrased transcript of this panel, and will post it on request, but that doesn't seem like the most helpful way to present the good stuff about this panel. I also tried to write it up by making a list of all the inappropriate assumptions mentioned that people make about each other's bodies and attitudes, but that just depressed me after I had gotten to 22 items (which wasn't all of them). So here are my general thoughts and notes. ( Read more... ) This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/774717.html, where there are comments. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:28 pm jinian [Link]	my cutie mark is a microscope Me as a pony by Alex Heberling, who draws fantasy comics as well as MORE PONIES and OUTFITS. This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/502714.html. Respond wherever you like. Tags: art, tv, wiscon (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
04:18 pm r_caton [Link]	I want to fake Brie...... I need to mention a discovery I made on Saturday... I had pulled some matured cheese out of the fridge... strangely enough the Stilton and Brie I’d bought for Christmas and never used. Stilton never goes off, at least in any way discernable by the layman... but the rumour was that the Brie would have gone mouldy. No such occurrence! It hadn’t been opened, and despite a date of January 2012 it seemed fine, slightly darkened by the rind but otherwise sweet and clear. I was munching on a crisp beefburger when I thought...What if?..... I can testify to this: matured, well matured Brie is excellent with juicy beefburger. Brie is rather nice with bacon..... The Stilton awaits. Current Mood: cheesy (Leave a comment)
10:02 am firecat [Link]	Great essay about learning, via andrewducker: http://celandine13.livejournal.com/33599.html Errors vs. Bugs and the End of Stupidity This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/774420.html, where there are comments. (Leave a comment)
09:24 am sinboy [Link]	[Reposted from Kyle Cassidy's Journal] War Paint is out today Originally posted by kylecassidy at War Paint is out today Happy Memorial Day. My book, War Paint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces is out today. You can buy it from Amazon (pay no mind to that "4 to 6 weeks" - it's shipping now) or look for it in your local bookstore (special prize to the first person to send me a photo of it "in the wild"). A few years back I found myself looking at one of those ribbons on the back of a car that said "support our troops" and wondered what I could do to actually "support our troops" rather than just putting a magnet on my car. Soon after I met a WWII veteran with a tattoo of a paratrooper on his arm and I asked him about it. For the next two hours he told me about parachuting into France on D-Day, being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, getting tattooed in Scotland while drunk -- I realized that nobody had asked him about it before and that we were losing these stories, so many of which had a significance so personal you may not be able to tell just looking at them, you had to ask. War Paint is a collection of portraits and stories, there are also closeups of tattoos if you're interested in closeups of tattoos. Click to read Nick's story Thanks to everybody in uniform and especially the people overseas away from their families, in harms way, whether in uniform or not. Come home safe. And thanks to my publisher, Schiffer Books who saw something here. Happy Memorial Day. And, in case you missed it, here's the talk I did at Franklin & Marshall college on War Paint. There's a long wonderfully flattering introduction, student Ann Leffel talks briefly about her tattoo photography project and I start about 12 minutes in. And I do answer the question "why should you thank a soldier if you're against the war?" which is something someone brought up here a few weeks ago. Stories in Ink: Capturing the Art of Tattoos from Franklin & Marshall College on Vimeo. I'd love it if you'd share with your friends. Add me: [LiveJournal] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Google+] [Tumblr] (Leave a comment)
06:21 pm dewhitton [Link]	Road Trip I have to go to Sydney tomorrow for the rest of the week. I'll be living in a motel in St Mary's and attending the TAFE to get training in Safety Ofiicering. Not looking forward to this. (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
May 27th, 2012
03:44 pm firecat [Link]	Wiscon panel: From Sherlock to Sheldon: Asexuality and Asexual Characters in SF/F From Sherlock to Sheldon: Asexuality and Asexual Characters in SF/F Track: Feminism and Other Social Change Movements Panel description: We're all familiar by now with the sexual orientations homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Much less discussed are asexuals, persons who do not experience sexual attraction. This panel discusses what asexuality is and is not, and proposes ways for authors to explore this overlooked orientation in their characters. Is it enough that a character has no on-page sex life, or should asexuality be more positively portrayed? Asexuality in real-time fandom and asexual characters in fiction and media may also be discussed as time allows. #AsexualSFF Panelists: Jed Hartman Liz Argall K. Tempest Bradford, moderator Rebecca [I didn't catch her last name], who suggested the panel, but didn't sign up to be on it because she wasn't sure she'd make it to Wiscon. The panelists asked her to be on the panel because two assigned panelists were missing. Tempest said that mostly the panelists would talk and for the last half hour there would be time for audience q's and comments. [My notes aren't a complete transcription and may represent my own language rather than the actual words of the panelists. I welcome corrections. I did not identify most audience commenters by name for privacy reasons. If you said something I paraphrased here and want your name to be used, please comment or send me a private message.] ( Read more... ) (18 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:13 pm siege [Link]	Signal boost: making original comics happen It's a Kickstarter to print books for Decrypting Rita: When the fastest woman ever built gets pulled outside of reality, she must solve herself four times over before everything changes again. (Leave a comment)
07:18 pm r_caton [Link]	Why? I was just looking at a nice photo of Deanna Troi Damn but those uniforms are thin... (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
07:15 pm r_caton [Link]	Mammaries uh, Memories They don't stay, and they aren't where they ought to be.... Yesterday I went to see the bank mamager because he wanted to chat... the gist was borrow now it ain't gonna be so easy much longer... No thanks, I pay back enough .... I had Sis & Co coming over for a barbecue so I got icecream and wafers and Oysters and some coke and walked back from the bank. When I got back I was so cream crackered I lay down on the bed and woke to the mobile because they were outside.... Dug out some chairs and the table... I have a trestle table at this point the web connection went phoo without me knowing so all that good stuff is lost forever Bugrit Sis & Co brought the meat and did the grub which was good Nieces BF came over which was good then I took them to a gig and woke up this morning to a stack of washing up I need to do including the BBQ pan ick It's 78°F on the dial in the bedroom, normally only 60°F and in winter 55°F Hot enough to fry a foxaroo. I need to shower - I've put some paper away, and eaten the meat from yesterday, and a pot of profiteroles, some ice cream and strawberries... and a Pukka Pie...ick But I need to shower and then do that rotten washing up. Current Mood: P.U. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
10:21 am shatterstripes [Link]	kickstarter: almost over Today's the LAST DAY of the Rita Kickstarter. Only 30-50 more pledges for me to be able to print it with spot gloss. If you've already pledged, then thank you! And if don't care to buy a copy, that's cool too - but one last wave of mentions of it should go a long way towards the secondary goal! Either way, thanks for all your support. n.n (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:07 pm jinian [Link]	FEELINGSPOST Well, I feel like I failed right now. I was just on a panel about self-objectification and geek girls, which I am competent to talk about in a cultural way. Unfortunately it was taken in a direction that was All About Cosplay At Cons, which I am not so knowledgeable about, and apparently I am the only one who thinks LESS objectification OVERALL would be better than ONLY having people who aren't thin-white-pretty-abled-etc. claim their ability to feel sexy by wearing revealing stuff in public. I think that can be great! I also think it can be problematic, for cultural reasons that the panel's source material addresses but our discussion kept veering away from. And maybe I should be sorry, but I'm not: I do think individuals have a responsibility for the messages they're sending to others in public, regardless of how they personally feel about the outfit. (See "In Defense of Slave Leia" -- which I like a lot, I just disagree with the conclusion. Not every woman gets empowered.) The personal is political. I didn't expect to be alone in saying that at Wiscon. So (1) the panel went wrong for me to begin with; the mod kept asking questions based solely in cosplay and cons, so we never really got to my material. (While I am annoyed with the result, it was a legitimate interpretation of the panel; I just wish we'd talked in advance so we could have modulated based on everyone's input.) (2) We were missing a panelist due to injury. We got a substitute toward the end, and I really wish she'd been there all along! Up until then we had nobody who cosplays regularly, nobody familiar with the community, which it sounds like can be really great and supportive. (3) I undoubtedly came off more extreme than I felt because it seemed like no one was hearing the cultural stuff I was trying to convey. THERE ARE CULTURAL FORCES, PEOPLE. Sometimes you want to dress up sexy because you're told to want that. No one is immune! Kids and babies are incredibly adept at picking up language and cultural cues, and social animals like us have evolved to be excellent at conforming because conformers don't get killed by their social groups. What I actually think is: when we know what our environmental factors are, we (yay humans!) can consciously choose to conform or not, and there are powerful choices to be made on both sides. I wanted to talk about the Science Cheerleaders, man. And fucking Team Unicorn. Clearly cosplay is a huge topic that everyone wants to discuss, though. We didn't get to a quarter of the audience questions. Maybe I'll attend that panel next year (to hear what a jerk I was?). Hopefully I can be on one eventually that talks about the broader geek culture in a way that's more interesting to me. This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/502385.html. Respond wherever you like. Tags: grr, self-analysis, wiscon (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:19 am kensan_oni [Link]	One in Eight About 900 people showed up to play Magic at the Anaheim Convention Center this weekend. After grueling delays, and about 12 hours later, they had knocked down that 900ish to about 120. For ever 1 that made it to day 2, another 7 to 8 people left home without the prize. I... did not do well. The top players will show that my deck was fine, and that the top tables of the tournament were playing the deck that I ultimately choose to play with, too. I can blame a combination of luck and lack of experience for the straight three loses I had that day, but really, what I blame is not paying attention to my heart. I am not saying I would have faired better at the tournament mind you. The first game I played, I was up against an old timer and Pro Player from Brazil, and it was a honor and a pleasure to play against him. I even won one of the games of the match, so it was still fine. There is the matter of deck choice, however. The first thing I must remember about deck choice is that other people are always, and I mean always wrong. They may be good about choosing the right cards, but never have I played a deck that someone else built and have it come out well. Except for Senor Stompy, but that's neither here or there. I should have played my champion deck. It's a tad modified sure and I would have to get one more paladin, but I knew that deck, as it's very, very close to my regular standard deck. It might even just needed a few card subsitutions, and I could have ran it just like I ran my standard deck. It wouldn't have been favored, I am sure, but I would have felt a lot more comfortable with the deck, and I think that in the end, it would have made a difference emotionally. The Bant deck is effective, mind you. Untargatable creatures, pump, a little bounce (I think I would have liked more by the end of the three rounds I played, mind you). However, I don't think it had enough soul. I played it because I knew it had really good plays, not because I liked the deck emotionally. I was playing what I felt was my best shot, and maybe that was the wrong play to start with. I won't say I didn't enjoy myself, though. I had a really good near mirror match with the Rules Manager for Wizards, with dueling Counter Producing decks. I also played in a Draft after I had lost, and played a neat BR deck that gave me an idea for a new deck to play with. I got some neat card sleeves, and overall, I was glad I got to see some of the people who I've been seeing online in person, even though I was containing my inner fan, so I didn't say hello. Well, I get another chance in about four months, when the GP comes back to San Jose. I'll try to not listen to my brain next time, and listen to my heart. My heart just tends to do better. (Leave a comment)
08:35 am sythyry [Link]	Decoration Mirrored from Sythyry. How are your parlours decorated? Most of my parlors are decorated by the crystallization process. (The first and second times I did the process, I didn’t manage to incorporate furniture, and in Kismirth, I kept both furniture and decoration to a minimum.) On the whole this means carved wooden walls or plain walls behind draperies or tapestries. The furniture is furniture. Sometimes it talks. (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:27 am paka [Link]	Red Tails So, I got the chance to hang out and watch Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airmen. And, wow. I can't really spoiler it because if you've ever watched any war movies you've already seen this one. This is the movie that has it all - the devoutly religious character, the daredevil loose cannon, the relationship with the local girl, the underdog unit nobody believes can do the job, the main characters who manage to not die despite ridiculous odds, the main character who takes five minutes to die, the dueling-scarred German ace antagonist who could make «Entschuldigungen Sie mir bitte, ich müß Pinkelpause haben» sound like some sort of truly dire threat, etc. If this movie were about British pilots, they'd all have pencil mustaches, refer to each other as "old boy" and constantly make cricket references while talking about the incoming archie. If you're okay with every war movie stereotype in the book, this is an okay movie though not a great one. If you aren't then it's kinda bleh. Although I really liked the fight sequences, and the accurate equipment. Uh, but what was up with all the guys trying to take out planes with Kar 98s? That just wasn't gonna happen. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
May 26th, 2012
07:24 pm slacktivist [Link]	This week in The Slacktiverse, May 26/27 2012 http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2012/05/this-week-in-the-slacktiverse-may-2627-2012.html The Blogaround This week, Storiteller contemplated the many ways biking reverberates throughout communities. In National Bike Month, Week 3: Ride of Silence , she describes her participation in a ride meant to honor and remember bicyclists lost to bicycle-car accidents. A few days later, she pedaled her way to work, along with 12,000 other people in the region. Although it was Bike to Work Day, she made an unexpected pit stop on the way home to get a book signed by author John Scalzi. This week Ana Mardoll posted: Twilight: Painted Waitresses (Trigger Warning: Rape, Surgery, Cancer, Choice, reference to BDSM) Bella is sitting in the car with Edward while Edward calms down after rescuing Bella from a situation of possible gang rape. This week Ana Mardoll posted: Hunger Games: A Question of Agency (Trigger Warning: Death, Agency, Reproductive Rights) I've decided to run a Hunger Games deconstruction to post on a non-regular basis. This will not be a line-by-line deconstruction like Twilight and will not precisely be a read-a-long like Narnia; it will be a thematic deconstruction by chapter with the assumption that everyone is already familiar with the books. Spoilers lurk herein. This week Ana Mardoll posted: Narnia: Savior White, Savior Bright (Trigger Warning: Genocide, Othering through Romanticization, Nazis) The Pevensie children have rescued a dwarf. Kit Whitfield continues her analyses of famous first sentences. This week: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. This week Laiima wrote about pattern complexity in plaids and paying heed to me. chris the cynic reports: This week I wrote a post [Noninteracting Magisteria and the Bechdel Test] about the way female characters in The Avengers and Firefly have roles that don't bring them into contact, which also touched on how few female characters there were in The Avengers. I returned to .hack//Sign with a post starting on Episode 3 Folklore. I wrote a silly post about the various versions of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a rambling post about Godzilla versus the Sea Monster. I also made an index of what I posted in the month of March. Nick Kiddle writes: I have a post this week about my return to the joys of blood donation now that a relaxation of rules makes me an eligible donor once more. Michael Mock reports: This week at Mock Ramblings, there's some big-ish news. At least, I think it's big news. Hope so, anyway. Back in December, I wrote a post aimed at Christian Parents of Atheist or Agnostic Children. In the months since, it has received a modest-but-steady stream of page views and fresh comments. This week, by reader request, I joined with Matt Mikalatos, author of My Imaginary Jesus and Night of the Living Dead Christian, to create a Facebook support group for parents whose children had left the faith (or parents who find themselves in comparable situations). The group is here. So far it's still tiny, but if anyone here is interested in joining - or helping out - you'd be very welcome. Other weekly ramblings include an explanation of The Wombat Massage, the first section of a new fantasy writing project called Into The Game, some thoughts on Music Festivals and Ableism, and the second installment of Pimp My Art Friends. yamikuronue reports: Last weekend we saw the first post in a new series called Decon Vs, in which my partner Chaos deconstructs two sports anime, comparing the way they handle characters and plot pacing and so forth. A new post in that series will be queued up for this weekend as well. Monday and Wednesday both saw RSS Quickies posts from Real Simple Magazine's website: one on cleaning and one on children viewing pornography online. There was no TPD this past week, but Easily Amused examined the dark side of Hubert's character.Friday had another Life Lessons, this time on the phrase "everything happens for a reason". Last week Ana Mardoll posted: Twilight: Appropriating Victims' Experiences This is serious priority inversion, and it happens all the time in real life and in literature, and it irks me so very much. I have to assume it's a symptom of Privilege; when everything in your entire life has been framed in terms of how you -- Privileged White Male Vampire -- feel, then of course a traumatic experience that happened to someone else should immediately (and only!) be framed in terms of how the Privileged White Male Vampire in the room feels about things! It's just the natural order of things, right? Privileged White Male Vampire feelings come first. Last week Ana Mardoll posted: Deconstruction: The Patriarchy Hurts Women, Too We live in a harmful Patriarchal society where women are frequently judged, insulted, and slandered not by their words or their positions or by their beliefs, but by their gender and sexuality. The intent is to de-personify women who commit the crime of being public figures, who work publicly for political and social change. In case you missed this Literata announces that she is now a legally ordained High Priestess. Yay! Any Slacktiversians in the area of DC/Northern Virginia are invited to come celebrate with her next weekend. Leum reports: (Trigger Warning: Rape) I've discovered Project Unbreakable. People hold up posters with quotes from their attackers and the people (family members, friends, law enforcement officials) they've told. Very sad, but also very powerful. Things you can do From the World Food Programme: Ongoing drought, combined with rising food prices, is creating an alarming situation in the Sahel region of West Africa. Working together with our partners on the ground, WFP aims to reach more than 9 million people with life-saving food. ... Will you stand between a woman or child and hunger today? $50 helps us provide food for the next 100 critical days. --Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post. (Leave a comment)
11:28 pm firecat [Link]	WisCon I'm having a pretty good time so far. I am behind on posting my panel notes. I am commencing my annual spree of "adding of people associated with WisCon to my reading list/friends list." This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/774114.html, where there are comments. Tags: wiscon (Leave a comment)
07:22 pm jinian [Link]	video manuscript moving forward I continue to be in a constant state of low-grade hilarity over this. Today I got the video protocol script to review. This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/502118.html. Respond wherever you like. Tags: science, stardom (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:21 am jinian [Link]	more Wiscon Vid party: Pretty fun, mostly with a couch to myself, which led to literal curling at times. I did get some company when maevele and friend were around, yay. Vids looked better when F.lux was turned off, despite being projected on a textured tan wall. My amazing swap skirt came from futuransky, who clearly has no shortage of wonderful clothes, as she was wearing a great minidress with silk-screened octopuses. The sing-along had a few too many newer songs I don't know, but the Occupy vid and a truly amazing Clark/Lex were definite highlights of the show overall. (I can find neither right now but will link the playlist when/if it goes up.) Farmer's market: Very depopulated in the rain! You could walk at your normal speed and even go around slow people; this unfortunately meant people felt free to stand around doing nothing in the path, but oh well. Even the booths were thin on the ground. But I got delicious foods and admired impossible things like cooking-only foods (golden oyster mushrooms!) and flowers. Kalamata olive bread Cinnamon roll with frosting (breakfast; too sugary) Sugar snap peas (also breakfast; just sweet enough) "Hull-less" popcorn named "Baby Rice" Pint of strawberries Beautiful rosy-red radishes (if oyceter had been here I might have gotten the black spanish radish to share, but that thing was big) Cheese curds (2 bags for $6 rainy-day special) Chevre with ash Little blueberry bread Raspberry turnover Little rhubarb pie Pesto-and-something croissant So, picnic on more market goodies, then off to the green room to prep for my panel on ~~PONIES~~ Fantastical Girlhood. This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/501987.html. Respond wherever you like. Tags: clothes and such, food, wiscon (Leave a comment)
02:26 am bradhicks [Link]	Yet Another "Why Are You Depressed, Brad?" and "Why Do You Hate America?" Read this. I don't give a fat fuck if you want to or not, read this: Sebastian Rotella, "Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala," Pro Publica, 5/25/12. Oscar Alfredo Ramirez Castaneda was raised to love and honor, as his father and as a beloved role model, the man who did this to his real family: The commandos herded the men into a school and the women and children into a church. The violence began before dawn. One of the soldiers, César Ibañez, heard the screams of girls begging for help. Several soldiers watched as Lt. César Adán Rosales Batres raped a girl in front of her family. Following their superior officer, other commandos started raping girls and women. ... The commandos brought the villagers one by one to the center of the hamlet, near a dry well about 40 feet deep. Favio Pinzón Jerez, the squad's cook, and other soldiers reassured the captives that everything would be all right. They were going to be vaccinated. It was a routine health precaution, nothing to worry about. Commando Gilberto Jordán drew first blood. He carried a baby to the well and hurled it to its death. Jordán wept as he killed the infant. Yet he and another soldier, Manuel Pop Sun, kept throwing children down the well. The commandos blindfolded the adults and made them kneel, one at a time. They interrogated them about the rifles, aliases, guerrilla leaders. When the villagers protested that they knew nothing, soldiers hit them on the head with a metal sledgehammer. Then they threw them into the well. ... By the end of the afternoon, the well overflowed with corpses. As with everyone who actually read multiple news sources at the time, I knew about this while it was going on. I linked, a couple of years ago, to the video for Bruce Cockburn's 1984 song and music video, "If I Had a Rocket Launcher:" this is what that article is about. And I knew it at the time. Bruce Cockburn was only one of hundreds of reporters and aid workers who had, for years by that point, been coming out of Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua and telling us that this, right here, is what Ronald Reagan's direct report subordinates, CIA director Casey and NSC director North, were doing there. More kept doing so, month by month and year after year, until well into the first Bush administration. I was alive at the time. I was working and paying taxes at the time. I was working at a god damned defense contractor at the time, not one that was directly supplying material to the US backed death squads that were raping little girls and murdering nuns and stealing children to raise as pets, but still, I drew my salary at the time from a Reagan-era defense contractor. I paid some of the taxes that paid for this. I did this. It was done in my name, supposedly to keep me safe from Communism. I tried to stop it at the time. God's honest truth, I tried. It wasn't enough. Did I do enough? Do you think I did everything I could have done? Because I never will. I keep saying, not just about this but about a lot of things, that you can't be held morally responsible for something that you were physically incapable of doing. But there were things I thought of trying. And I didn't try them. They would have been risky things. They might well have cost me my life. They probably wouldn't have worked. But I'll never know if I could have stopped the man who murdered his entire village from keeping him as a trophy. All right? I can never know that. But I know this: after the Iran/Contra scandal, when incoming President Bush had to pardon everybody involved for fear of how much more would come out if they were tried? I thought we were at least ashamed enough of what we'd done that we wouldn't do it again. If you think that this shit isn't going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen and god only knows where else that your tax dollars are being used to save you from Islamist terrorism? You're ignorant, at best. Are you doing everything you can to stop it? Are you sure you are? Or are there things you've thought of trying that you don't have the confidence or the bravery to try? Maybe they wouldn't work. But you're not trying them. Which means that when you are confronted, decades from now, with the memories of what you didn't do to stop the War on Terror, after Iraq and Afghanistan veterans came home and told you what was going on? When you remember, then, how powerless you feel now, but also remember that there are things you've thought of trying but don't have the guts or the faith to try right now? Decades from now, you'll understand, then, how I feel now. Current Mood: depressed Tags: history, politics, war on terror (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:15 pm slacktivist [Link]	At Patheos: NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2012/05/at-patheos-nra-switching-horses-mid-apocalypse.html Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse, at Patheos.com. This week Fred writes about pp. 1-4 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist Excerpt: In stories featuring intentionally flawed protagonists, we can read with the hope that these characters will eventually be redeemed. Even when, as in The Sopranos, the repeated rejection of such redemption is the central theme, such deliberately flawed characters help us to explore what the possibility of such redemption or growth might be like. But here in this series, the authors do not allow for the possibility that Rayford and Buck might require any such redemption. In their minds, explicitly, these characters have already experienced all the redemption they will ever require. They’re not going to change. They’re not going to get any more likeable than they already are. And where unlovely characters like Meursault, Raskolnikov, Winston Smith or Tony Soprano are never held up as role models, it seems that here the authors are constantly pointing to Rayford “That Guy” Steele and to the insufferable Buck Williams as ideals whom every reader ought to imitate. [Fred Clark, NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse, May 25, 2012, posted at Patheos.com] Commentators who would like to share their responses to the new post with all of Fred's fans (old and new) can cross-post to both boards. (Leave a comment)
01:45 am schrodi_kitten [Link]	Once again, it's DiS podcast time! ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood: slaphappy and ready for bed (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
May 25th, 2012
09:35 pm teaotter [Link]	Update I am mostly recovered from my recent bout of illness. I'm still coughing a bit, but at least I no longer feel like my throat is going to crawl out of my body. Because I've been terrible at shopping for plane tickets, the three of us are not travelling in early June like we'd hoped. If I don't defeat some airline bureaucracy, we won't be flying at the end of September, either. If neither of those work, we'll be heading east some random time this summer, probably in July. grumblegrumblegrumble I'm doing fanmixes for casestory this year. I've gotten the first one done enough to send the songs and graphics off to the author and see what they think. Now I need to start collecting screencaps and music ideas for the second one. I have 26 of 30 chapters of editing done on my novel (only 4 more to do by the end of the month). Yippee! Tags: update (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:28 pm shatterstripes [Link]	stuff: done! Today I got out of bed, puttered on the net a little bit, then got down to work on the next page of Rita. After about an hour or so, I realized how absolutely gorgeous it was outside. So I threw my computer into its bag and hopped on my bike to go out to Gasworks Park. (Which is, well, a park made of the grounds of an old gasworks. The big rusting industrial fixtures are still there, fenced off. The hills in the park are probably full of toxic runoff, but it's beautiful, with a gorgeous view of the city.) There, I worked for a while longer, and pretty much finished the page. Came home on the bus (my rear tire seems to have a slow leak), finished it and posted it. I'm hopeful that this means I'm starting to remember HOW to get myself to work on stuff again. Which is very good. My right side aches from yesterday's expedition to the Y. But I know that will pass. I'm debating if I want to join for a few months; I gotta check out a couple more of the classes first. Current Music: King Black Acid and the Womb Star Orchestra/Womb Star Orchestra's Womb Star Session : Alone on Mars (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
07:46 pm arethinn [Link]	Erynn Laurie's (erynn999) A Circle of Stones is now back in print from Immanion Press in a somewhat revised second edition: http://searchingforimbas.blogspot.com/2012/05/return-of-circle-of-stones.html; http://www.immanion-press.com/info/book.asp?id=430 This entry was crossposted from http://arethinn.dreamwidth.org/1721775.html, where there are comments. Tags: books, celtic reconstruction, pagan (Leave a comment)
03:00 pm slacktivist [Link]	Completely open thread http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2012/05/completely-open-thread.html Guys, we really do need you to write and submit articles if you want to have anything to read. The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post. (Leave a comment)
06:37 pm paka [Link]	THIS SUMMER "War has started, and therefore Torono is hopelessly outgunned, eh?" "Director Gentry? It's time." "We need you to come in." "What if I say… no?" "I'll persuade you. By asking nicely." "It's called the Flight programs, eh?" "I thought I didn't qualify fer the team, bub? Apparently I'm volatile, drink too much, and spent the last twenty years in Japan and don't remember it. BRAAAAP" "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" "You have made me somewhere between kinda desperate and very desperate. I guess pretty desperate covers it eh?" "We're not a team! We're a time bomb… waiting to go to Timmies." "We have a Sasquatch." (Leave a comment)
05:19 pm zon14 [Link]	One Week Later Yikes. Time for some kind of update. I'm back on the road for two weeks now. We've gone with a bit of a workaround solution for the cell phone. We bought two plugin battery chargers so one can charge while the other's being used at least. I'm pushing to get at least one more battery though, maybe even two since these don't seem to be lasting all that long any more. I don't think they're all that expensive now, maybe $25 or so a pop. Our first load's slow as mole asses. We pick it up tonight, but the first stop of THREE in delivering does so one Tuesday morning, around 1500 miles away. We could do it as early as Monday but that's Memorial Day and they're closed till Tuesday. Se la vie. Our DBL said she'd try and get us to relay it somewhere (Salt Lake City maybe?) but so far no word and she's gone for the weekend now. So who knows. Current Location: Kelso, WA Current Mood: busy Tags: news, truck driving, trucking (Leave a comment)
05:34 pm jinian [Link]	Wiscon Thursday night and Friday Yesterday I ate mac and cheese with salad (at Noodles, since I didn't figure anyone else would want to go there socially). Then there was NAPPING. I had my alarm set for 5:30 so I wouldn't miss the GoH reading, but when my roommates Betsy and Matt arrived five minutes before the alarm I realized that half-price margaritas sounded a lot better than the reading, so I did that with them and Joanna. Regrettably, Frida's where margaritas used to be had has gone, and we went to Moe's, where there are four flavors of margarita and some slightly fancied-up pub fare. Good pulled pork, amazingly boring french fries. Wiscon karaoke was next! I wore too many clothes because I was worried I'd be cold on the way home, which was foolish. Fun as always, with new people and people from last year. I sang "Dress You Up" and "She-Bop" creditably, but got lost during the Prince-freaks-out-and-screeches-a-lot section of "Little Red Corvette". The first part was good! I was tired and drunk enough not to be able to recover from losing my place, though. Annoyingly, I could intermittently hear someone in the audience singing it fine -- come up to the stage and help, then. On my way home: Feral rhubarb next to the sidewalk at Gorham and Broom. Chautara restaurant's traditional chalk drawing for Wiscon being worked on by the artist. Today we had roommate breakfast and then my day was All Clothing Swap. It went great, with huge volumes and lots of volunteers. We have an entire car full of donations that we need to take to Goodwill at some point; the front desk printed us directions to a drive-up donation center. (Previous years have gone to St. Vincent de Paul, but they apparently don't accept underwear, and there are some good bras here.) Currently I am exhausted, with hip, knees, and feet that are being very sad at me. I probably should have eaten lunch. The Gathering cookies disappeared before I got there. I probably should go get dinner now. But I got such the best skirt, and some other good stuff too. I am still not convinced this very 80s top fits me as it should, but it is hot pink zebra print, come on. The octopus T-shirt may be appropriated by hattifattener when I get home, so I'd better wear it before then. And!!! A swap volunteer I met at karaoke last night not only had a Rarity toy as a keychain on his bag (<3 <3 <3) but will give me his extra one. Tonight my plan is to curl up at the vid party for the entire night, which will be (1) awesome and (2) roughly my physical and interaction capacity. This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/501728.html. Respond wherever you like. Tags: clothes and such, music, plants, wiscon (1 comment \| Leave a comment)

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