queenlyzard

Syrian carrying $880,000, Hezbollah ring, 9/11 videos, stopped at Canadian border. He's also a qualified flight instructor.

From kishnevi: Sotheby's is auctioning off a 13th century Spanish Torah.

Nearly 900 9West items are on sale for $14.95 at 6pm.com. (link via FashionHippo and tzikeh) This sale runs 11/15 through 11/22. Shipping is free on orders over $100. You will have to pay shipping for returns.

Also from tzikeh: Frugal - Bon Vivant

Condé Nast Traveler: Etiquette 101: Smart Talk, "First Do No Harm...Every country has its subtle taboos and unspoken codes, but when you get down to it, it's what you say, not how you say it, that really gets you in the door (or kicked out). Our guide to the most dangerous topics around the world rates them according to our own alert system, from highest to lowest risk, followed by a few safe subjects that might put you back on solid ground." Other "Etiquette 101" guides can be found in a sidebar at the link.

Nature: Swine flu: One killer virus, three key questions

From liz_marcs: DeepDiscount DVD is selling the entire series of Farscape for $74.38.

The Watcher checks out Caprica.

The Atlantic: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

The Block: The complete history of Eldridge Street between Stanton and Rivington, in Manhattan. Clicking on any building will give you more details about its history. From the site designer: "The tenement that sparked this interest, #218, is a good place to start. My great-great-grandfather lived there in 1860. Keep an eye on it in 1922. Enjoy!"

A Survivor's Compass: Rules to keep in mind when dealing with cancer

Alton Brown makes better bacon in a waffle iron (YT video)

The Economist: Lagrangian coherent structures / The skeleton of water

Wired reviews The Prisoner reboot.

Acrophobics beware: On top of the Burj Dubai's spire. (YT Video) The Burj Dubai is the world's tallest skyscraper. Also see: the tower's window cleaners. (YT Video)

Photo Gallery: Victoria's Secret Casting Call

"If you're the type of person who has trouble throwing anything out, then the job of collections reviewer at the University College London's museums might not be for you. The college is embarking upon a purge of its assorted collections, some 250,000 items in total, only 2% of which are currently on display. A gargantuan task, surely, but the college is not doing it on its own — officials have taken the unusual step of opening the process up to the public. They're asking visitors what they should keep, what they should give away to other museums — one institution's trash is another's treasure — or, as a last resort, what they should just throw away."

"One of the best kept literary secrets of the decade was revealed last night when 34-year-old scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti announced she was the writer masquerading as call girl Belle de Jour."

From chiutoy, The Guild's "Do You Want To Date My Avatar" (YT music video)

*snort*

Hi guys - I just put up a bunch of songs for a kind of ridiculously long Dalemark Quartet playlist over at my journal.

WARNING: I have a tendency to babble about all my song choices, and the playlist therefore contains MASSIVE SERIES SPOILERS, so do not click if you haven't yet read them, because they're definitely worth reading unspoiled!

I was trying to check the water level in the crockpot and contemplating when I should add the potatoes I'd just brought back, and lifted the lid straight up, rather than tilted away from me, and managed to give myself a steam burn bad enough to blister on about half of my right forearm (diagonally right across the middle, if that makes sense). The dangers of a domestic lifestyle!


(Yes, I've treated it with copious amounts of cold water and burn gel to stop the burn from progressing. And the blisters are no larger than big goosebumps, so I'll be fine. It's also on my right arm, not left, so thankfully I've not blistered up my tattoo or anything.)

Dammmit, I thought I was over this injury. Apparently not sufficiently over it that my cramps this month don't bring it roaring back.

I don't have time to be injured right now. Unfortunately, my body doesn't listen to me.

It's that time of year, when red velvet and white fluff are in season, when pine and mistletoe scent the air, when sleighbells jangle in the distance...and Nebula nominations open.

Now, I've never been nominated for a Nebula. I've rarely even been suggested for one. But I thought I'd list the things I've written this year that are eligible, just in case any of you are SFWA members and want to vote for them. (Plus some little announcements toward the end!

Palimpsest
Obviously, this would mean the most to me--Palimpsest was in many ways an orphaned novel, surrounded by lay-offs and championed not by its publisher but by its readers. I still can't believe Amazon ranked it #1 on its SFF of 2009 list.

Under In the Mere
Sadly, I think this is a hair too long to qualify in the novella category, and is a long shot given how weird it is--but hey.

The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew
I love this story with a great love, and I think some of you did too. If you haven't read it yet, please do! I think I am probably turning this into a novel.

Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy
Yay, first SF story ever!

The Anachronist's Cookbook
This got zero attention, mostly because it was only available on an app for the iPhone for a long time. But finally, I have gotten permission to post the story for free on my website! All my issues with steampunk in fiction form!

Proverbs of Hell
This story about love between a monk and a demon just came out in The Stories Between, an anthology to benefit and celebrate the awesome indie bookstore Between Books. It's basically filled with storied by authors who have read at the store over the years, and is GORGEOUS besides. Check it out!

A Delicate Architecture
This was the first YA piece I ever wrote--a Hansel and Gretel story, following the witch's childhood and the root of her obsession with candy.

Thank you to everyone who votes! If you are a voting member of SFWA, I will provide free e-copies of any of these that are not available online on request. Just email me.

Hat tip to ievil_spock_47i for posting this amazing Evolutionary Psychology Bingo Card.

This post is dedicated to the guy who told me it is his unavoidable essential nature as a man to sexually harass younger women, and thinks I just ought to understand that and not sweat it. This is one of the things that women and social scientists laugh at because it's the only way not to cry.



If it wouldn't be needlessly antagonistic, I would print a copy of this and bring it with me next time I had to talk to that person. (Actually, that probably wouldn't stop me. The likelihood of me remembering in time to do this hilarious and awesome thing is low enough that it'd get in the way far more often than my essential grace and gentleness would.)

Yesterday, I finally gave up and shelved "The Wolves, The Witch, and the Weald," which is the short story that I've been trying to write since the end of October. I never even made it through the first paragraph. I have managed to write nothing of consequence since I finished "The Dissevered Heart" on October 23rd. That's 23 days, not counting today. Yes, I did write a proposal for the next novel, but synopses, proposals, and outlines do not count as actual writing. And I have no idea what's going on. I'm not even particularly exhausted. I've been productive when I was far more weary than I've been this month. But it has to end now. I spent all day yesterday, as I have spent most days this month, staring at the blank "page" in MS Word, trying to get started. There are deadlines, and there are editors, and there are publishers, and there are bills to be paid, and none of these things are interested in excuses, no matter how valid they may be.

I finally let myself step away from the iMac about 4 p.m., and read William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All It's Devices." I'd not encountered this short story since its original publication in Borderlands 4, way back in 1994. It's still one of my favorite "Lovecraftian" stories (not to be confused with "Mythos" tales), and was pleased to see it reprinted in the Subterranean Press collection of the same title.

Last night, after dinner, Spooky and I watched the second episode of the remake of V, which was, if anything, even duller and possessed of less promise than the premiere. I've been told that only three episodes have been filmed, which I suspect means that only three will be filmed. We also watched Caprica, which I liked, though I'd sort of expected not to (though I'm not sure why). The series begins January 22nd, and it will be interesting to see if it is as strong as the pilot.

It's been strangely warm here in Providence. Mid sixties yesterday.

Saturday night, readingthedark dropped by, and we were up until after four a.m. talking about...well, lots of things. I feel as though I have been eerily social of late, but I think it's something I'm going to need, if I'm to make it through the coming winter.

Spooky has begun a series of Cthulhu-themed Cephalopodmas ornaments, and the first three went up yesterday on her Etsy shop, Dreaming Squid Dollworks. One has already sold.

Also, we have a single copy of the trade edition of The Dry Salvages, long sold out and out of print, now up on eBay.

Spooky and I are making our way through House of Leaves again (sixth time?), and late last night I noted this bit, from a Truant footnote on pg. 31 of the "Remastered Full-Color Edition":

The way I figure it, if there's something you find irksome—go ahead and skip it. I couldn't care less how you read any of this. His wandering passages are staying, along with all his oddly canted phrases and even some warped bits in the plot. There's just too much at stake. It may be the wrong decision, but fuck it, it's mine.

Now, I think I may have a short walk before I try, again, to write.

We had a busy, but mostly restful day yesterday.

I put on Up for forestcats while I lazed my way through morning ablutions, and found that the film still hits me in a blubbery spot, so good for them. Then, I put on Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron which was pretty good.

Zak came by and helped us repair the back door's handle, which now works much better, and it's keyed to the same as the front door, which simplifies one manuever. He's also helped out with drywalling a couple of holes from plumbing repairs and brushette depredations, so that's another relief.

We moved a chest of drawers that wasn't getting used into the master bedroom, and I'm expecting good things from its use.

As the evening wore on, we hightailed it to the Los Feliz district, and back to Tropicale, a Brazilian place that we've really enjoyed, and they didn't disappoint us. Among other dishes, we had chicken vegetable soup, Brazilian-style, and it hit the spot for us, being that we're both still recovering from colds.

We then hurried to Dungeonmaster, where the cast was truncated by illness; still, it went well, and seemed to be enjoyed by the audience. There weren't all that many "regulars" in attendance, which is both nice and sad at the same time. Next Sunday is going to be the Guardian of the Flame adventure, and the folks who were chosen for that have already been notified, so it looks to be fun!

Home, I watched the first episode of the new The Prisoner off AMC, and there's a lot of buzz of it being boring. Unfortunately, one episode under my belt, and I'd have to agree. We'll see if I have to give up on it.

Zombie!Move is trying to eat my brain again. Why can't things ever just work like they are supposed to?

Off to Fayetteville and a cheaper place to stay. Driving to ATL to pick up Guinness tomorrowaj still not sure where we're staying tomorrow night. I've been told I'm worrying too much.

Lillian Kane Moskowitz Munster Cavanaugh-Sawyer McGuire, my classic bluepoint Siamese, is five years old today. Five. That means five years of her gnawing on my fingers, licking my nose, breaking my things, helping me type, bringing me dead stuff, sticking her stubby little tail in my mouth, and driving me insane.

I love my kitty so much it hurts.

Happy birthday, Lilly. Now please have fifty more.

Administration
Happy birthday to the most excellent maxymyllyn!

Hello to new reader yud!

Medical
I am cautiously optimistic about skin stuff.

Nebulas
Um. Because I got nudged about this.

The Nebula nomination period is open. My eligible stories:

* "The Angel of Fremont Street"
* "Fortune"
* "Valentines"

Everything else that got published this year was poetry or flash.

Another Auction!


This is [redacted] by Kristin Ross - the third artist so far who doesn't know me, just connected with the story. I get so bouncy at that. :) Her statement, which I find totally awesome:

"I’ve been working with a lot of collage art lately, but Shira Lipkin’s story “Valentines” inspired these four pieces with all original components. The series of four bookmarks is called [redacted]. Lipkin’s story features a narrator desperately trying to catalogue information and my art centers around that idea, as well. I really connected with this theme; in our modern existence, we’re overwhelmed with information every waking moment and we’re constantly logging and processing it. In the bookmarks, the writing comes straight from my journal the day I put myself into the character’s shoes. The finished product represents the problems with memory Lipkin’s narrator struggles with and how both data and recollection can have a shattering effect on one’s identity."

Click here to bid!

Link Soup
* Get a free copy of Interfictions 2 by talking up the auctions!
* Meep!
* Robot paintings.

Daily Science
* Six months after the Mars rover Spirit became trapped in a patch of soft soil, its controllers are preparing to send a set of commands that they hope will free the robotic explorer, NASA announced Thursday.
* "Significant amount" of water found on the moon.
* Mandelbrot in 3-D!

Plans
Must schedule appointment for bloodwork for Elayna - celiac runs in families. The rest of my day is given over to assigning panelists to Arisia lit panels! If I have time after, hopefully writing. And I was up in the middle of the night again, so a nap needs to happen, too.

Foundling

It was a surprise:
finding a tiny cherub,
sucking its small thumb,

out on our doorstep
in a white wicker basket.
It was a puzzle.

How do you do it?
How do you raise a cherub?
Do you tie it down?

What do you feed it?
Can it fly now, right away,
or does it first crawl

and then walk, then fly?
Is it a boy, or a girl,
or something other?

Can it learn English?
Is it hard-wired for language?
How do we begin?

Do we report it?
And if so, who do we call --
a social worker,

or perhaps a priest?
Can humans keep a cherub
left on their doorstep?

We don't even know
if it would ever grow up
into an angel.

I have some posts going up round the nets today.

First one is already up at FWD/Forward: "That's why we call it dismissing legitimate concerns instead of acting", in which I get angry and tell people off. Yes, it's about Glee.

All of this, of course, is an awesome way of dismissing some very serious and real concerns about the way the show has chosen to portray disability. If you make the entire discussion about how those uppity people with disabilities should just shut up and stop complaining because their ideas are stupid and they should feel stupid, then of course it’s easy to dismiss them out of hand. And who needs to discuss nuances in the presentation of disability, anyway? Everyone knows that there’s no connection between how identifiable groups are portrayed on t.v. and how other people react to them, right?

And there will be a post going up at Bitch Magazine's blog later today about making your blog more accessible to certain types of disabilities. (If you're bored right now, go check out their blog. It's pretty much accessibility-fail. I know that people with screen readers all personalize their settings, and are, of course, very familiar with how their reader works and would likely have fewer problems than I did. However, I tried to navigate the site with WebAnywhere, an online screen reader, and wanted to cry.) I have a French test this morning, so I need to run, or I'd be putting it up right now.

Originally posted at http://trouble.dreamwidth.org/535377.html. You can comment here or there using OpenID. Comments at Dreamwidth: .

Too long it has been since I have last posted and for that I apologize.

Between coming home from Europe, heading to Chicago for a whirlwind of wedding planning, and then heading to Singapore for the Cirque on Ice show things have been absolutely out of control. However, after nearly thirty hours in transit Nikki and I have arrived in the city state of Singapore. It's hot, humid, tropical and exactly as I remember it. While I do have a couple posts that are coming and need to be edited, I thought I would write down a couple of more informal thoughts before addressing the rest later this week.

It was a day of many firsts, as almost exactly six years ago I was nineteen years old, nervously boarding my first plane to Chicago to perform at my first large buskers festival. The second place I took was later that day to Tokyo, and the third was the next day to Singapore. I had driven everywhere previously as none of my contracts had taken me off the continent, and I was the recipient of a crash course in air travel.

It was really something, and not only in the sense of the distance travelled but in the different cultures I experienced nearly immediately after stepping off the plane, and the vast experience of the colleagues around me who could all seem to say "Oh yes... I've been here and there and there too before...".

And now that I'm the one with over three hundred boarding cards in a little folder, and probably six hundred or more hotel keycards from provinces, states, countries, I find that the awe of being in a new place never really gets old. It's always inspiring, exciting and wonderful to see how other countries, people and societies function as well as what is important to them.

And also while coming to a new place never gets old, something that gets more and more exciting every time it happens is stepping off the plane onto Canadian soil. I've been known to even look forward going through customs knowing that the people I will be talking to are "mine own". Sometimes, I hate the idea of nationalism, especially when it prevents me from working freely where I desire, but it's strange how patriotism seems so much less tacky when it's your own.

New places really are fun and exciting, but everytime I come back I find a new reason to love Canada more. I was at a sporting event in America recently and it seemed strange how as soon as the Star Spangled Banner played to start the game that everyone instantly stared at the flag. And yet, I remember every morning in school hearing our national anthem play over the crackly intercom system and having a teacher explain that the reason we heard it every morning was so that we could remember how lucky we were that just by chance we weren't born into a country where child poverty, war and famine were the norm.

My country is wonderful and I love when there is pride in ones homeland without being pompous. Where you were born is a sheer crap-shoot and even though Singapore is a wonderful place, I wouldn't have lasted the two years of mandatory military service. I'm a lover, not a fighter, as they say.

So thanks Canada, for the perspective you give me not only every time I leave, but also every time I return. I'll see you soon.

ps) I promise to be more vigilant about being more frequent with my posts now that I'll be in Singapore for several weeks. Again, my apologies..!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/spider-silk/

Yeah, the title pretty much sums up this article.

So. Raske Menn! I need people who understand Norwegian so that I can forward them six or seven videos that I only partially understand. :D And I've just realised that I actually don't know if I know ANYONE else who speaks Norwegian. Hm. Det er en problem.

What doesn't need translation: their FACES. So I made icons. Up there's Anders, making my favourite face ever. Seriously, I make that face at least fifteen times a day at work when something has happened that I know I'm not, strictly speaking, SUPPOSED to laugh at.


Anders. Where his brain should be, there's... resonance!

( more under here )

If anyone's curious, I'm happy to dig up some Youtube links to the good stuff, but most of it doesn't have subtitles, so it is only for the brave.

Pip

Twilight panties. I know I'm wrong for sharing the idea of idea RPattz staring at people from your crotch, but I really want to know why anyone would think this was anything but the scariest kind of joke. Plus, I'm kind of boggling that no one has come out with Twilight themed pads or tampons. Just think about it, Edward's mouth could soak up the heavy days while the soft furry cover would remind fangirls of Jacob's comforting fur. Go ahead and throw things.

Tweets from @Rob_Thurman (probably of a useless and irrelevant nature. Beware.)

13:37 returned River to Vegas, where free-range Elvi roam and are more tasty than their unfortunate caged brethren. #

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This community is pretty much dead now, isn't it? Livejournal communities in general seem to have been on the down-wind for a while now.

Anyhow, before I peace out, I just wanted to throw out my goodreads account for those who are interested in being friends there:

http://goodreads.com/angabel

Goodreads, in my experience, has really been the best book-related site out there. You don't have to pay to add more than 200 books (LibraryThing) and it's not just a visual bookshelf sort of deal; it's really a social-networking site for us bibliophiles, in addition to the bookshelf/review aspect of the site.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Windy, rainy. The radiators in our apartment don't seem to be working, yet, save for the one in the bedroom, so my feet are cold and the drafts through the permanently-installed window units are exceedingly unwelcome.

Ten-thirty. I should be getting ready for bed, but there is reading I'd like to do. I've begun working through a pair of companion volumes written and edited by Schneewind, called The Invention of Autonomy and Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant. (The first is a history, the second an anthology.) I'd like to put away another twenty pages or so of the former, tonight.

I'm also reading fiction again. Amazing! 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Ryan pitched Bolaño to me by describing his work as "magical realism," and so I was expecting something like Marquez, but really he reminds me more of Borges, though only a little bit—mysterious volumes and indices hover on the periphery of the narratives. It has been a really, really long time since I've devoted myself to fiction, so the imaginative play of fiction-reading is strikingly novel. I'm enjoying it.

Ryan's winding down his autumn quarter. He'll be going home again for the winter break, this year a little longer than last (from before Thanksgiving until after the new year). It will be a long several weeks without him. Though I'm not sure what to expect of it, really. All that I really remember about his absence last year is the hellish series of nights as I pulled all-nighters preparing for my autumn finals. I spent them in the bedroom, my laptop on my lap and papers strewn about the bed, I remember. Secured Transactions. Jurisprudence. European Legal History. Federal Jurisprudence. All-nighters and take-homes in bed. Miserable, miserable light.

But this year—nothing. Not a damn thing to keep me up but my own sense of edification. Since moving to the new place, I've pulled only one all-nighter, a few days ago. I spent it with Bolaño, Schneewind, one of my ethics anthologies (I'm working through two now, one focusing on meta-ethics, the other more on normative ethics), and Beethoven's piano sonatas, sitting in Ryan's old chair under a drafty window.

So who knows. Without Ryan here to guilt-trip me, I may succomb to the napping demons more often, or my sleep may become more erratic, or perhaps I will go to the gym twice daily. It will be, I suppose, a last, deep breath before I begin work in January, so that I might be prepared to blow with all of my might and to let it consume me.

I have officially gone over to the dark side.

I have in fact just written, and posted, Transformers slash. Over at my DW.

Title: Silence
Characters/Pairing: Megatron and Starscream
Wordcount: 1,800+
Warnings: It's MxSS slash, which means BDSM, violence, extremely steamy Haterade, and (spark-)sex. (For those who don't know, the method of sex in this is one of several common fanon conventions for describing it.)

( follow the fake cut )

Please comment if you read. Here or there.

Solved! It's "The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt. Thanks!

I just saw this book yesterday at the local library's book sale, and I really liked the blurb I read on the back, and for the life of me, I can't figure out what it was called, and why I didn't just buy it.

For most of her life, she's been over-shadowed by her younger brother. When he was a baby, he was found hanging from a tree outside, dead/murdered. The girl tries to solve the mystery with the help of her friend, and uncovers something very huge.

I know it's not a lot to go on, but I didn't actually read the book, so that's all I've got. Thanks in advance!

Found! "Mind-Call" by Wilanne Schneider Belden

I'm looking for a YA book with a female protagonist. At the beginning, she has a migraine headache, and when she wakes up from the drugs she's been given for it, there has been a big earthquake (?) and everything is flooded. She packs up her family's sailboat and takes off. She finds a young boy in a flooded apartment building, and I want to say she knew he was there through some kind of telepathic link. Eventually they wind up at a complex with a number of other children who have survived the disaster -- I think they have to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get in. I remember one more scene, where the protagonist is talking to a guy at this complex and he gives her a book to read (I want to say it's a quantum physics text?) and she reads something like a hundred pages in ten minutes, and he tells her that she and the other kids there are "matrix thinkers", and that rather than going from point A through B and C, to point D she just skips straight from A to D. This might also be the reason they have psychic powers, or something?

This is all I can remember, and I've been looking for this book for years, it's got to date to the mid-nineties at least. Thanks very much!

I see every moment, every instant, every stumble and stammer and delight and laugh, and I take them all and weave them into a pattern I can understand. We are here to learn. We are the universe discovering itself. We forget who we are to ourselves and to each other. Every time we hate, or wound, or condemn, we bleed a little more until we forget what we were supposed to be doing in the first place. Sometimes we need that.
I still don't understand the point of You versus Me or Us versus Them.

Pain flaring everywhere, but it's all right. Took a photo of my scarred face with no concealer, but it's all right. Alone for the night, but it's all right. It is wonderful.

Full stop.

I read this small children's book of scary stories when i was a kid. i don't remember the name, obviously, and i don't remember specific stories. I do remember that the stories were really twisted and dark, and their were vampires, witches, werewolves, i believe, and zombies. It had a black cover with a frame around the edges of the cover cut into squares of all sizes with pictures of the creatures. I don't remember a lot of humor, but i loved it. I looked it up online and I don't think it's scary stories to tell in the dark by Alvin Schwartz, unless those books had a previous cover. I looked up Very scary stories online and nothing popped up either. Please help, if you need more info i can try to dig some up.

Okay, dudes, I need a bit of help here for a round of Just How Clueless Is This Author? Today’s contestant is a book I found in the library, but to tell you what it’s about may contaminate this tremendously scientific experiment. And by god we are going to do it scientifically, by which I mean we are going to poll whoever happens to be reading this blog. After I tabulate results, I will let y’all know just how clueless that author was—and, of course, what the hell I’m talking about.

But first:

Poll #1486028
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

What is a "geek"?

And we will be doing a family roundtable review tomorrow night. I wanted to do it now! But Adam and Elayna are still processing. They're getting all academic up on this in the other room. Analysis is happening.

Spoiler-free version: whoa that was dark. And the ending had us going "oh craaaaap....", and we can't wait for Christmas Day and "The End of Time".

I've had a headache all day. I'm really ready for it to go away now. I think the only thing that will work at this point is going to bed, but seriously? at 9 pm? Definitely entering old lady territory here.

When I was cleaning up the bedroom from its state of utter chaos, I found some stuff I wrote ... at least 6 and possibly 7 years ago. Yes, I threw most of out. It was crap. Or, I didn't want to hold onto those moments I was writing about. That is probably closer to the truth.

This one is ... different. It feels like a fragment of something that wants to start something else.
***

When you clenched
your fist
it left a wrinkle
in the sheet
that can't be ironed out.


***
I want to poke at it. But I'm not going to for now. It should just sit there and stare back at me for a while.

Twenty minutes on the beach, and I'm sunburnt. I guess there's a reason the MTX bottle says to avoid sunlight. I'm already not allowed to have garlic in my diet. When do I develop porphyria?

Know that we love you. And appreciate all that you'll be doing over the next four days to keep our electricity on. Stay warm.

- - -

Yes, another storm is coming in to Forks, Washington. With high winds and flooding. It's already blowing, but the main system will hit tonight, with predicted winds up to 50mph, gusts to 75. And Monday brings in an even stronger storm. (sighs) But hey, it's winter. We're prepared.

snow tree


it was cold this morning

I noticed that my nieces' library had a serious lack of biographies, so I decided to remedy that situation, and I started, actually, with Amelia Earhart.

Actually, that was a little disappointing. What I found on her looked very... done. Like everybody expected children to read biographies on famous Americans, and she's a famous American (and a woman, so double points there!) and they just churned out the same old stuff, year after year.

Not very inspiring, but I figured I'd grit my teeth and look harder... and I found a few books on Bessie Coleman instead!

Who's Bessie Coleman?

Well, let's put it this way. She was the first African-American period to have a pilot's license, and the first American of any race or gender to have an international pilot's license. She had to go to Paris to learn to fly because over in the US the flight schools wouldn't take black women as students and the black aviators wouldn't train women at all.

And she did this two years before Earhart started flying, too. (Died sooner as well, but at least everybody knew how she died.)

So I decided to get one of two books about Bessie Coleman. I could get one that appears to be based upon eulogies, or I could get one that more specifically focuses on her life, Nobody Owns the Sky.

And I did. GOD, what a mistake that turned out to be! Being the daughter of a famous aviator apparently does not make you qualified to write about... well, anything.

Here's a sample page:

Bessie's life was not long, but she flew far and wide
In Chicago she showed off a Richthofen Glide
Her air shows in Boston left crowds starry-eyed;
But in Jacksonville, Florida, everyone cried
Because Bessie's plane failed, and she fell, and she died
"Farewell to Brave Bessie", they sighed

It goes on like that for the entire book... though it also has a random little poem-let (in the same style) that just generally talks about how Flying is Great, sorta at the start and sorta at the end of the book.

I don't know if I'm keeping this one. Bessie Coleman. Great woman. Deserves to be better known, and really deserves to be one of the standards of the Woman's History Month and the Black History Month line-up. (Admittedly, teaching history properly instead of resorting to themed months would be better still, but let's not talk crazy talk now.)

She really didn't deserve to have a book written so badly.

So I'm post hamthrax, car crash, and pre-poking for cyst. Can I go back to working out yet? Because it's been forever and I would like to get back on the road to being able to say "I only trust so and so as far as I can throw them" and mean it. I'm planning to propose a "Colorism in SF/F" panel for Wiscon and I figure if I start lifting now I'll be all set by May.

From TPM.


Credo Action Pro-Choice Petition Website

This isn't for the squeamish. It's about as hardball and brutal as it gets.

The liberal group CREDO Action will soon ask over 1,000,000 members to sign a petition condemning the Stupak amendment...and with each signature, CREDO will send a coat hanger to the 20 supposedly pro-choice members of Congress who voted for it.

"We know what happens when women are denied access to reproductive health care including abortion," the petition reads. "And we can't go back to an era of coat hangers and back alley abortions. Reconsider your vote on the Stupak Amendment. Tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the final health care bill that emerges from the conference committee can't turn the clock back on women's rights."

The email hasn't been sent yet, but you can read the language below the fold.
( Read more... )

An Adventist friend asked me at work last week how I was going to teach my kids any morals when I was an atheist. So I asked him if he believed in the Aztec, Roman, Nordic, Egyptian or any other gods and he said of course not. Then I asked him why he didn't believe in them, and he replied because they just didn't make sense and went on to explain why. I told him I agreed totally with his logic, but I applied it to all religions consistently. I said we were both Atheists, the only difference was that I was a consistent atheists, and he is an inconsistent one.