(no subject)

* Just a reminder: Folks are welcome to disagree with me and each other on the topics we're discussing in this journal. I do ask, we try to keep things civil and not personal. It's fair to call me or anyone else out on facts or bias. It's certainly okay to disagree all y'all want with my politics, taste, etc.. There are a wide variety of things upon which reasonable people can disagree. Please do call me out if you catch me in the midst of Fail. I don't expect everyone to like each other. Again, all I ask is that it stay at a reasonable level of polite and people take disputes not directly related to the topics under discussion to other spaces.

* Speaking of messing up the facts. In the last couple days, I seem to have written trillionaire when I meant billionare. Apologies for this Jon Kyleque idiocy. My only excuse is that I'm struggling with dizziness, blinding headaches, sneezing, and sleep disruption, which is not ideal for accuracy. Again, I apologize for being a muppet.

* Hand update: They took the stitches out and I'm using steri-strips for the weekend. It still looks alarmingly deep, but is healing well and the lump was not cancerous. Yay, no cancer! Poor Squirrel is still having to do dishes and litters, as I'm not allowed to soak the hand and am to avoid covering it with dangerous bacteria.

* I'm trying to figure out if I'm really sick, or if it's just allergies + chronic pain flaire + sleep disruption. Either way, I'm not functioning very well. Apologies if I'm below average coherent.

* Squirrel found a cord to make the DvD player work in my bedroom. Progress! Thanks again to Deusabscondum for the VCR and DvD player.

* I let the black cats out to frolic in the yard. They had a good supervised ramble, before shrieking kids from the next development up the hill alarmed them with sporadic high pitched screams and riding up and down the hill on a metal scooter. The black cats like adults, and the ordinary neighbor sounds, but are not used to loud and rowdy children, poor things. This is not a complaint about the children, who have every right to be playing outdoors, just an observation that our little beasties are not used to them, and new sounds are scary if you are small.

This was the first real walk of spring.

* I've been reading Zombies vs. Unicorns. Most of the stories are surprisingly hardcore (Yes, I'm including the unicorns here). So far there have been two LGB love stories tucked among the occasional het ones in matter of fact fashion. I'm team zombie, of course, so I may be biased, but i think the zombie stories are stronger as a group, but so far most of the unicorn stories were readable and a couple were really good. The zombie side... oh wow! It's an embarrassment of riches really. These are not stories for the faint of heart, and i include the unicorns here, as they are pretty intense and tackle a variety of serious subjects, though a number of them have humorous and amusing narrative tones.

If you are picking this anthology up, do not be put off by the weakness of the first story. I'm nearly finished the book, and the first story is by far the weakest link and not indicative of the overall quality or tone of the rest of the pieces. Also, they have helpfully clearly designated which stories are zombie and which unicorn, if you want to avoid one or the other.

* I've been following this weeks events in Syria, but frankly, can't say anything intelligent about it tonight.

* neo_prodigy found: McDonalds employees watch a trans woman brutally beaten and film it on their phones instead of, you know, helping: http://www.bilerico.com/2011/04/transwoman_severely_beaten_at_baltimore_mcdonalds.php

It's not as if they could use their phones to call the cops, what with the need to film with them for youtube, right? There are no words for how fucked up this is.

To be clear, I see why one person filming the assault would be of use to police and prosecutors. I honestly don't see why it was necessary for every one to film this as if it were entertainment instead of calling for help and rendering assistance.

* One of the really big issues trans folk face is finding a safe place to pee. Think about that next time you use a public restroom. For trans folk, every trip to the restroom is a spin of the roulette wheel of potential humiliation, official harassment, and random violence. The odds of the worst happening is much higher for trans women, but the threat is there for every trans person or person perceived to be trans.

* The Clutch:

* Rachel Maddow on the death threats against the woman trying to take up Dr. Tiller's practice in Wichita, connections in among the violent anti-choice3 folks, and the miscarriage of justice going on right now: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42713095

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(no subject)

* Just a reminder: Folks are welcome to disagree with me and each other on the topics we're discussing in this journal. I do ask, we try to keep things civil and not personal. It's fair to call me or anyone else out on facts or bias. It's certainly okay to disagree all y'all want with my politics, taste, etc.. There are a wide variety of things upon which reasonable people can disagree. Please do call me out if you catch me in the midst of Fail. I don't expect everyone to like each other. Again, all I ask is that it stay at a reasonable level of polite and people take disputes not directly related to the topics under discussion to other spaces.

* Speaking of messing up the facts. In the last couple days, I seem to have written trillionaire when I meant billionare. Apologies for this Jon Kyleque idiocy. My only excuse is that I'm struggling with dizziness, blinding headaches, sneezing, and sleep disruption, which is not ideal for accuracy. Again, I apologize for being a muppet.

* Hand update: They took the stitches out and I'm using steri-strips for the weekend. It still looks alarmingly deep, but is healing well and the lump was not cancerous. Yay, no cancer! Poor Squirrel is still having to do dishes and litters, as I'm not allowed to soak the hand and am to avoid covering it with dangerous bacteria.

* I'm trying to figure out if I'm really sick, or if it's just allergies + chronic pain flaire + sleep disruption. Either way, I'm not functioning very well. Apologies if I'm below average coherent.

* Squirrel found a cord to make the DvD player work in my bedroom. Progress! Thanks again to Deusabscondum for the VCR and DvD player.

* I let the black cats out to frolic in the yard. They had a good supervised ramble, before shrieking kids from the next development up the hill alarmed them with sporadic high pitched screams and riding up and down the hill on a metal scooter. The black cats like adults, and the ordinary neighbor sounds, but are not used to loud and rowdy children, poor things. This is not a complaint about the children, who have every right to be playing outdoors, just an observation that our little beasties are not used to them, and new sounds are scary if you are small.

This was the first real walk of spring.

* I've been reading Zombies vs. Unicorns. Most of the stories are surprisingly hardcore (Yes, I'm including the unicorns here). So far there have been two LGB love stories tucked among the occasional het ones in matter of fact fashion. I'm team zombie, of course, so I may be biased, but i think the zombie stories are stronger as a group, but so far most of the unicorn stories were readable and a couple were really good. The zombie side... oh wow! It's an embarrassment of riches really. These are not stories for the faint of heart, and i include the unicorns here, as they are pretty intense and tackle a variety of serious subjects, though a number of them have humorous and amusing narrative tones.

If you are picking this anthology up, do not be put off by the weakness of the first story. I'm nearly finished the book, and the first story is by far the weakest link and not indicative of the overall quality or tone of the rest of the pieces. Also, they have helpfully clearly designated which stories are zombie and which unicorn, if you want to avoid one or the other.

* I've been following this weeks events in Syria, but frankly, can't say anything intelligent about it tonight.

* neo_prodigy found: McDonalds employees watch a trans woman brutally beaten and film it on their phones instead of, you know, helping: http://www.bilerico.com/2011/04/transwoman_severely_beaten_at_baltimore_mcdonalds.php

It's not as if they could use their phones to call the cops, what with the need to film with them for youtube, right? There are no words for how fucked up this is.

To be clear, I see why one person filming the assault would be of use to police and prosecutors. I honestly don't see why it was necessary for every one to film this as if it were entertainment instead of calling for help and rendering assistance.

* One of the really big issues trans folk face is finding a safe place to pee. Think about that next time you use a public restroom. For trans folk, every trip to the restroom is a spin of the roulette wheel of potential humiliation, official harassment, and random violence. The odds of the worst happening is much higher for trans women, but the threat is there for every trans person or person perceived to be trans.

* The Clutch:

* Rachel Maddow on the death threats against the woman trying to take up Dr. Tiller's practice in Wichita, connections in among the violent anti-choice3 folks, and the miscarriage of justice going on right now: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42713095

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy