Only $30 for my lovely earring?
Only $22.50 for my awesome bracelet?
*sobsobsobsob*
You only have until tomorrow afternoon to stop my heart from breaking.
Category: Elsewhere on the Internets
The Horror, The Horror…
Today I was finally able to put up the review Genevieve did of Aztec Rex, a movie that is exactly as bad as it sounds from the title. Go read.
I Have Not Even Begun To Be Angry
I’m at the airport now and can’t make a proper post about the shenannigans on Something Awful surrounding WisCon but this post may help. I checked out this fucking thread of ignorance and can’t believe some of the bullshit. On about page 2 or 3 they start pulling images from the WisCon Flickr feed and making fun of the people (mostly women) for being fat, ugly, stupid, and more. They even make fun of people’s kids.
Oh, fuck that.
I have a lot of words to say and some actions to do, but I want to say this one thing. I was scrolling through the thread and looking at the pictures and, instead of being ashamed that I associate myself with such people (horrors!), I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful all those images are. They are pictures of beautiful women of all sizes smiling, having fun, loving where they are and what they’re doing. These are the poeple I go to WisCon to be around. And nothing those half-brained monkeys on that forum say can make me feel any different. You wanna call me out as a fat loser? You go right ahead. But it’s plainly evident that I not only have more class than you, I also have a better life and better friends. All the evidence I need to support that statement is my lack of time spent on the internet trolling for pictures of people I don’t know in order to make fun of them for arbitrary reasons.
Get a life, you losers. And coming from a Star Trek fan, that’s fucking sad.
(p.s. Rachel Moss just better be glad I am not still in Madison right now.)
Today @ Fantasy
Jeremy Tolbert Asks: How Has The Internet Changed Fandom?
Today, we see almost weekly flare-ups and controversies in this thing called the blogosphere. New movements among writers appear almost as regularly, sometimes lingering (such as the Mundane SF manifesto). They burn bright, fast, and die down, it seems, just in time for the next major brouhaha. I think that’s the downside to this ease of communication. The Internet makes everything personal. Enemies are made quickly–but friends too. Perhaps not a unique trait of the medium, but a trait nonetheless.
I’d like to invite you to talk about the ways in which the internet has helped you connect with others and what communities you have formed or joined because of it.
Go comment! Win $10.
Busy Day in the Betweenisphere
Lots to do! Firstly, you should travel on over to the IAFAuction site and bid on some stuff. There’s plenty of stuff! Yesterday two new auctions went up, a jewelry set and a necklace. We only had one set sent to us for auction, and it’s really awesome. The earrings are worth the opening bid alone! Like, go grab that and some stuff. The necklace is by Leslie What… yes THE Leslie What. What more reason do you need?
Also, the auctions for Willow Pattern & And Then She Flew end soon. Not to be pushy or anything, but that necklace based on my story is so super awesome that the bidding should go higher. It’s based on my story, how can you not want to pay hundreds for it? And Willow Pattern is an original Elise creation! Even if you were to bid $80 for it you’d still be getting it for significantly less than if she just sold it. So go bid $80!
And after all that hard selling, here’s something fun. The third Interstitial salon started today. We’re talking about jewelry as art and as interstitial art:
We’ll be talking about creating visual art inspired by texts, about the relationships between narrative and wearable art, the cultural history of personal adornment — anything we can think of!
The conversation has already started, so join in!
Science vs. Fantasy – Fight?
Today’s Blog For A Beer is a bit different. I invited Mike Brotherton to expand and repost some commentary from his blog as a jumping off point for this week’s Fantasy Friday. It’s an experiment, we’ll see how it goes. The post is pretty interesting.
A conflict under these situations, pitting a logical scientific type against a wild-eyed believer, reason against belief, is a false conflict. Scientists are not dogmatic and their measurements, experiments, and observations can and do change their minds. Or not, in too many cases. How many times have you seen the skeptical scientist character in a story with fantastic elements mutter something like, “There must be a logical explanation,” and then go on to offer something feeble and likely stupid in face of the reality of the story? Let me illustrate this with some TV series that regularly pitted science against the fantastic.
The only real quibble I have with his thesis is the part about scientists not being dogmatic. hahahahahahaha NO, I say. Sure, Mike probably isn’t, but hoo boy, I have come across many dogmatics in my brief exposure to various types of sciences. I think scientists are like any other group of people. Some are prone to dogmatism and head in the sand behavior and some aren’t. We’re all human (I hope), it comes with the territory. And at least those type of scientists don’t tell me I’m going to hell. That’s a step up!
Anyway, go read and comment, it’s sure to be an interesting discussion today.
I couldn’t have said this better myself
Critcizing “dogpiles” as inherently “moblike,” destructive, negative, and childish without considering the content which has evoked this response has the same in-built political and structural issues as the demand that oppressed, discriminated, or harassed groups moderate their tone before their objections will be considered. Both actions attempt to codify behavior while treating speech content as empty; they ignore power differentials; they treat actions or speech acts as if they take place in a vacuums free of social circumstances, historical knowledge, or political influences, rather than as if they are what constitutes or destroys communities.
[…]
To riff off Stephen Sondheim: polite language is not good, it’s not right, it’s just nice. And when nice is prioritized over right or good, it’s just another form of oppression. It’s just another attempt by those in power to attempt to maintain the status quo.
[…]
What these protests do is establish the limits of community tolerance. You may think whatever you like; what you may not do is take public action in our community space–whether virtual or actual–that perpetuates harm to members of our community.
gives coffeeandink a standing O
What I’m Saying Elsewhere
1. The Fangland contest is over! But you still have a chance to participate (a little). We have more than one copy to award, so we’re going to give one to the entry the readers like the most. Check out the entries here and vote for your favorite in the comments. The entry with the most votes wins Reader’s Choice. We’ll reveal the winners on Tuesday. @ Fantasy
2. PodCastle Has Girl Cooties! I have been poking my head in the forum topic and the post for the third episode, “Run of the Fiery Horse” because Rachel, the editor, asked me to do the intro (because I love, love, love the story). As with most Escape Artist forum discussions, people have wildly varying reactions to and interpretations of the story. But there’s also been some discussion of the “tone” of PodCastle as being too women-centric/feminist. Quotes & Anti-Quotes @ FeministSF The Blog.
3. On Feminism, Part 2. Feminism is made for and by white women. And I really feel like this is one of those areas where the white women need to get enlightened before things can change. But, of course, many of them won’t be because they don’t see racism, which is directed against women of color, as a feminist issue. They’re hard pressed to acknowledge that racism is as great a problem as sexism at all.
No, actually, what I should say is that the white feminists who are seen as leaders, who are given press and attention and cred are in need of enlightenment. Because there are plenty of white feminists who do get it, who are enlightened, who can see the interconnectedness between anti-racist work and anti-sexist work. So what’s really needed is a good purge. Those of you who know what’s up need to weed out or educate those of you who don’t. Because obviously we women of color are too angry or jealous or indelicate to do it. @ ABW
Fantasy Contest
We’re running a fun contest over on Fantasy that involves writing flash fanfiction (essentially) for classic genre tales. We’ve got five books to give away, so I’d like to see ten MILLION entries! ;)