(no subject)

[gwydion]

* "Spain’s Open Wounds:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/spains-open-wounds

* "Airline sues passenger who skipped his flight:" https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lufthansa-sues-passenger-scli-intl/index.html

* "Australia to revive island detention centre:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47221362

* "Mothers' fury: The cost of challenging Putin:" https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-47217017/mothers-fury-the-cost-of-challenging-putin

* "House Votes to Halt Aid for Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/us/politics/yemen-war-saudi-arabia.html

* "Trump asks Americans to abandon truth with daily, petty lies:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-asks-americans-to-abandon-truth-with-daily-petty-lies-1443038787956

* "McCabe says he quickly opened FBI investigation of Trump for fear of being fired:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mccabe-says-he-quickly-opened-fbi-investigation-of-trump-for-fear-of-being-fired/2019/02/14/262dd7b0-3054-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.67ebc6a25963

* "Senate confirms William Barr as attorney general in 54-to-45 vote:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/william-barr-expected-to-be-confirmed-as-attorney-general-thursday/2019/02/13/f162e514-2f1a-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1a9b5c0083f6

* "'Whistleblower" in White House security office seeks protection:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/whistleblower-seeks-protection-after-sounding-alarm-over-white-house-security-n970586

* This sounds a lot fairer than what the Republicans did last time. "Democrats announce plans for early debates in 2020 campaign:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-announce-plans-for-early-debates-in-2020-campaign-1443000387809

* "Congress approves border deal to avert shutdown; Trump to sign it and seek wall money elsewhere:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mcconnell-predicts-senate-passage-of-border-security-bill-hopes-trump-signs-it/2019/02/14/2f6e2cba-306f-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fef7f29de39a

* "Emergency declaration could backfire, force Republican opposition:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/emergency-declaration-could-backfire-force-republican-opposition-1443038275648

* "Democrats make clear Trump's emergency plan won't come easy:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-make-clear-trump-s-emergency-plan-won-t-come-easy-1443038275728

* "Trump faces steep opposition to border emergency declaration:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-faces-steep-opposition-to-border-emergency-declaration-1443039811628

* "Crossing the desert along New Mexico's remote border:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/crossing-the-desert-along-new-mexico-s-remote-border-1442977859581

* "Beto: The border has never been as safe and secure as it is now:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-border-has-never-been-as-safe-and-secure-as-it-is-now-1442974787669

* "Remembering migrants who perished along the border:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/remembering-migrants-who-perished-along-the-border-1442986563810

* "The Catch-22 for migrants at the border:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-catch-22-for-migrants-at-the-border-1442971715721

* "The 500-Year-Long Science Experiment:" https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/500-year-long-science-experiment/581155/

* "Climate Change’s Giant Impact on the Economy: 4 Key Issues:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/upshot/how-to-think-about-the-costs-of-climate-change.html

* I checked my account today and I have .23. *facepalm* I should not have paid second biggest regular bill, clearly. I need $50ish dollars for insurance autodraw and fees. Car registration reup is $70.00. I need approximately $10.00 for little bill, plus gas money to get me through the rest of February.

I am disabled with three cats and need the car to get around.

Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

UPDATE: A benefactor came through for half, so basically I need the car registration reup $70.00. Fixing plumbing is on hold until next month or later.

* Upset about the abuse of big cats by people who shouldn't be allowed to keep them? Big cat rescue is trying to change laws to protect wild animals. "Cat Laws:" https://bigcatrescue.org/cat-laws/

* I know I've written before about by being the Martyr on HorrorMux. I am having a lot of emotions about it. The current anthology story that's just moved into it's end game takes place in 1989. I am a decade younger than my character, but 1989 was a pretty intense time for me on every level. My character like a majority of the characters in the game went to my second college. This means we do things like reference restaurants we loved but which no longer exist. the way the game uses period music and the way we use period references and the way a lot of the characters have been effected by the Plague and all the other horrible things about being queer in 1989, and all of it makes it incredibly fucking visceral in ways I'm not used to experiencing in role playing.

One top of that, I don't normally play characters that let me be full one as bright as I am with a brain organized fairly similarly to the ways mine is. Sometimes characters I make aren't as bright as I am. When I do make characters who are, they are non-neurotypical, or lack education, or have a learning disability, or something else I filter through. More than a month in, it still feels weird galloping full out at my own speed of thought, rapid processing new information and acting on it in the same pose, instead of running it all through a bunch of filters.

Despite the massive differences, this character is way closer to home than I usually go and has dramatically more of me in it than I like to put there. Add in how intense the story line is and how much loss grieving there is in it, and the whole thing is jagged and raw in ways I'm not used to.

Which doesn't mean I'm going all mazes and monsters or anything, but I do find myself mourning all sorts of odd RL things. A couple of restaurants Skye, who is now ash, and I went to that are long gone. Conversations with the comic book guy I was friends with who died not that long after Skye. Stupid shit like Skye and I playing bridge and trading massages with another couple while we listened to Jagged Little Pill. Me talking late into the night in his smoke saturated room while he blew rings out his window. the rush between classes on a rare snowy day surrounded by other students with no clue how to move on ice. The Pepto Bismo Pink house where I lived twice under very different circumstances. This one particular tree I loved like it was a person. Flirting with the boy who was really to straight to be flirting with me over Italian sodas. watching my friends stealing cheese off each other's burgers when one of them went to the bathroom. Marcy sliding over the counter to unplug the jukebox at the opening cords of "Aichy Breaky heart." The ducks that used to gather in a particular spot in a section of campus I occasionally crossed. That lone piper in the Pioneer Cemetery. Dancing. Wing Chun.

The person I was and the people and things that time has taken one way or another.

My character died tonight and is already growing into someone else, his possibilities unfurling even as he mourns. I wonder who he'll be in a month?

* I've been having a wonderful time watching Ice skating, but I haven't written about it because I've been quietly drowning in other things.

I just wanted to say how much I've been enjoying Jason Brown's transformation. He was a good skater, but not a brilliant one. He wasn't top ranked, but he was very precise and he worked so hard. I always rooted for him, but he wasn't special.

This year? He's special. It's like he went away over the summer and found his voice. Suddenly, he's mesmerizing. There's a fluidity and a personality to his routines that changes everything. I'm just so happy for him because it feels like he's becoming the skater I'd always hoped he could be, and he just seems so much happier, so much freer.

Best of luck, Jason Brown.

* Snerk. "This chap tried to mansplain the difference between vulva and vagina and the takedowns were brutal:" https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/02/11/chap-tried-mansplain-difference-vulva-vagina-takedowns-brutal/

* "Tortall and Other Lands Fills in Gaps, Part 1: Tortall:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/tortall-other-lands-fills-gaps/

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

* Trans Helplines: https://www.translifeline.org/

* Want to complaint about Betsy DeVos's plan to coddle college rapists? https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/29/2018-25314/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-in-education-programs-or-activities-receiving-federal#open-comment

* Donate to HIAS to help refugees: https://act.hias.org/page/6048/donate/1

* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/

* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border

* The Rainbow Road and other ways to help Gay Refugees: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/160470723507/the-rainbow-railroad-is-helping-gay-men-escape

* Upset about the abuse of big cats by people who shouldn't be allowed to keep them? Big cat rescue is trying to change laws to protect wild animals. "Cat Laws:" https://bigcatrescue.org/cat-laws/

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can not protest in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html