gwydion | (no subject)

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* "Shot to Prevent H.I.V. Works Better Than Daily Pill in Women:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/health/HIV-shot-prep-women.html

* "OCD Tropes on Screen:"

Watch on YouTube

* "The Earth Is Pulsating Every 26 Seconds, and Seismologists Don't Agree Why:" https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/the-earth-is-pulsating-every-26-seconds-and-seismologists-dont-agree-why

* CW: Child Death "Ancient DNA reveals monozygotic newborn twins from the Upper Palaeolithic:" https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01372-8

* "16 Lesbian Power Couples From History Who Got Shit Done, Together:" https://www.autostraddle.com/16-lesbian-power-couples-from-history-who-changed-the-world-together-372223/

* "The Progressive Era: Crash Course US History #27:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Mumbai’s Iconic Art Deco Buildings Were Made to Conquer Disease:" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-30/how-india-s-bombay-deco-buildings-battle-disease

* "Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US History #39:"

Watch on YouTube

* "The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching:"

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* "Savannah, GA & Ghost Tours | Deathstination:"

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* "Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So Long, Donald!:"

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* "Stephen Is Ecstatic About The Biden-Harris Win, But Says We Can Not Be Complacent:"

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* "Biden Won The Election! Now The Fight Against Trumpism Begins. Pt. 1:"

Watch on YouTube

* Friday: It was like today was a conspiracy to steal all the sleep.

Food box delivery has crept from just before bed to just when I reach REM cycle. Which I have to dress and retrieve from the porch and at least half unpack (perishables). I had just managed to drift off when Amazon called telling me I needed to open the door for a delivery. Our building intercom phones my land line, so this was reasonable. We can't buzz people in, so I needed to dress, mask up, go get the package, which I assumed Squirrel ordered. No lady. No package. I open the front door and call out in case they are waiting out of sight somewhere. No lady, no package, no truck. I go back in, and do a call back on a hunch. I get a generic check the amazon website message, not the buzzer. She called from a company phone, not the call box. Was she standing in front of the wrong building? IDK. Then it clicked. That was a Birmingham accent. I bet she was standing in front of my Aunt's door in Alabama waiting for her

So I finally managed to drift off to sleep again, and keep in mind, at best I would have had five hours of sleep today, when the phone rings. It's physio. Me, confused: I thought my appointment check in wasn't until 2:45? Her: Let me explain. It turns out some people cancelled and a bunch of slots were empty and they were hoping I might be willing to move my appointment earlier so the nice physio therapist could go home instead of sitting around with nothing to do for a few hours, only the receptionist was sort of hinting instead of asking right out. Me: a person who used to work for a living and knows the value of an afternoon off: I can't get there immediately, because lunch time traffic might be a little heavy. It'd be 15-30 minutes depending on commute speed. Her, wildly relieved I'd taken the hint and could accommodate: Wonderful

I fed and hung out with the cat's I'm house siting after, so I got that out of the way at least, plus some day gardening I needed to do and the non-perishable unpacking. The teenaged cat had only seen me twice at most before the pandemic, but was right there with Godrick who knows me fairly well, sniffing the fingers and cadging pettins.

I'm basically only up until I'm ready to try sleep again. Expect very little posting tonight.

* Saturday: I was good and did the new extremely painful physio things. I went over for the morning cat feeding and social time a bit later than intended, but still within spec. Yesterday, I forgot to check the mint bed for weeds. (Technically ground cover, but it's super aggressive and out competes things I grow on purpose. Now is a perfect time to hunt it as things are dying back for the winter.) Today, I remembered. I think their may be time for the last batch of tomatoes to ripen, but for most of them it's a race. Most of them are on one of the plants a friend sent from Oregon and they look delicious. At least two are old enough to window ripen if I have to. I have a lot of volunteers that grew too late. I am tempted to try to bring them in and grow them in the window, but it's going to be rough, this being Goth tchotchke season and that being the sitting window for the cats. It's getting chilly at night, so I'll need to decide soon.

I am weepy from the pain, but can't take anything for it as I need to go over for second feeding. Sigh.

* Sunday: Okay, this is a non-viable level of pain. I was going to try to remember to call the physio place Monday anyway. Basically, I use up all the arm specific spoons on the arm doing physio and there's nothing left for things like fixing the sofa covers, basic house hold tasks, dealing with pain, etc.. Oh god, this is nightmarish and I can't take anything until after evening cat sit visit.

* "Sunday Sweets: Light & Airy Wedding Cakes:" https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2020/11/15/sunday-sweets-light-amp-airy-wedding-cakes

* And now your moment of zen. https://twitter.com/SofieHagen/status/1327652781075869698

* On Queer Erasure: https://twitter.com/Sotherans/status/1327574832008015872

* ToS: Season 2 Rewatch:

- 2.21: Patterns of Force. This is the same basic premise as the annoying gangster one, only, you know, NAZIs. Sigh.

They go looking for a missing historian on a less advanced planet. The planet has much better technology than expected, including nuclear weapons. They have transponders implanted and Kirk and Spock beam down to discover literal NAZis persecuting members of the local other culture. They are dong large scale genocide in the name of the fuhrer, who is the missing historian. Sigh. Kirk and Spock dress up as NAZIs to infiltrate. As Spock predicted Kirk makes a convincing NAZI; Spock is caught right away, exposing them both. Homoerotic whipping follows.

Another prisoner questions their capture as they aren't Zeons. He explains scapegoating to the audience at home. They had come to "civilize" the locals, being from a more civilized peaceful race. The NAZI thing is new, and coincides with the historian arriving here. The Zeon says they will come and conquer the Zeon home world once they finish the genocide here.

Kirk and Spock cut out their transponders and use them to laser open the door of the cell. Kirk screams for help, and Spock neck pinches the NAZI guard. They let the Zeon out and go look for their equipment. Kirk pickpockets a guard for keys. The communicators have been taken apart. They steal the uniform from the guy they pickpocketted and try to leave the city.

The Zeon takes them to his resistance cell, who are sensibly suspicious. The Zeon Prisoner's fiance has been murdered. "If we adopt the ways of the NAZIs, we're as bad as the NAZIs." Spock fixes a communicator. A woman NAZI they saw decorated earlier, catches the cell; they overpower her. It turns out it was a test and the woman is secretly working with the resistance. Kirk explains that he's come for John Gill, who is an alien too. They insist he was supposed to observe, not interfere. She's going to sneak them in.

They pretend to be the media. Something's wrong with the historian, so they summon McCoy. The NAZIs search for the secret transmitter and they pretend McCoy is drunk. The speech is random sentences. They knock out the guards. The historian is drugged; McCoy treats him, but it doesn't really work. They are going to invade the Zeon home world. Spock mind melds with the Fuehrer and they discover the second in command is really in charge and has been for a couple years. Kirk is understandably WTF!?! Why did you do this at all? He says he was trying to help them. I think it's gross that they had Nimoy, a Jewish actor, take the efficiency side of the argument. Eeew.

The Fuehrer keels over, and can't have more meds. They get caught, but pretend they caught Spock, a spy. They take him too their leader. Kirk doses the Fuhrer. The real leader describes Spock in antisemitic ways. The Fuehrer denounces the attack and his puppet master, ordering all the units to return. The Second shoots the Fuhrer; the guards arrest the second. The NAZIs reform. Kirk denounces the "leader principle." Spock and McCoy bicker. It is weirdly jocular and all this is fixed now. I don't think you can undo fascism so cleanly and quickly.

It's more nuanced than the gangster one, but also... very ill advised on a bunch of levels. I wish they never did it, but here we are.

* TNG: Season 7 Rewatch:

- 7.23 Emergence. Picard is helping data with data's acting of the Tempest on the holodeck. I have... historical concerns with Picard's interpretation, but that's beside the point. A train comes and they can't turn it off. It wandered in from Dr. Crusher's program about the Orient Express program. They turned off the holodeck and are looking into the glitch.

The Enterprise goes into warp without a command. The computer has locked them out of the controls. They are gong to shut down the engine, but they cut out on their own. It turns out this saved them from a "data flux distortion" that would have exploded the ship.

They are inexplicably struggling to connect these two events. Data and Geordi find new connections growing like neurons connecting ships systems. The nodes can protect themselves. The more their are the harder to control the ship. The holodeck that malfunctioned is the focal point.

They go into the holodeck, which is running a bunch of programs at the same time. I feel like the crew is slower than zombies playing monopoly as they still haven't worked it out. They go to open the hatch they need to depolarize the nodes and the conductor challenges them to produce tickets. Riker pretends theirs are in their compartment. The Engineer defends them. A gangster shoots the engineer and the ship is back in warp. The controls are burnt out. The safeties are disengaged because of course they are, so they leave.

The nodes keep spreading. Data finally works out that the Enterprise is growing a brain. Consciousness is more than the um of it's parts. Basically an artificial intelligence is emerging. The holodeck functions as imagination. Picard orders them not to harm the nodes. Deanna tries to analyze it. The gangster need the brick to get to "Keystone city." There are lots of little clues involving things being constructed. Data tries to get control back; Deanna follows the Gangster, who is "laying the foundation." The cargo bay is now depressurized. Data gets ready to depolarize the power grid. The ship is building something in the cargo bay. Depolarizing the node nearly destroys the ship, so they stop doing that. slower than zombies playing monopoly.

They compare notes. Deanna works out that the major characters constitute aspects of the personality/ship's systems. Picard: Maybe we should cooperate with it. Me: Ya think? They bring tickets this time. The engine is running out of steam. Worf goes to help in the engine room. Deanna reassures people and asks them about the place they are going. Worf feeds the engine. The ship uses a modified tractor beam to harvest particles it needs from a dwarf star. Picard puts it together. Zombies. Monopoly. The object in the cargo bay is failing because not enough particles. Train derailment; ship wide shutdown. It was trying to make an artificial life form in the cargo bay, but it will die if they don't find more particles.

The crew have less than two hours of oxygen with all power to propulsion. They are trying to divert the ship to a closer source. Deanna and Data try to convince them to let Data help them. It works. The new lifeform leaves; the nodes deactivate. Data invite Picard to the "Brave New World" scene from the Tempest and asks about the gamble of letting the intelligence form. Picard says he trusted the thing because it was made from the crew's experiences.

I liked this a lot better when it was new, I think.

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* The Flooding in Vietnam and Cambodia is devastating. Want to help? https://linktr.ee/lvndhy

* "Protect the Results - Organizing to Protect the Results of the 2020 Election:" https://protecttheresults.com/

* Want to try to beat the odds and flip the Senate?

Donate to Jon Ossoff: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ossoffrunoff
Donate to Raphael Warnock: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/warnockrunoff

"The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund!:" https://secure.actblue.com/donate/midwestibf

* The Blackfeet are under Covid lockdown and need food pantry donations: https://www.fastblackfeet.org/campaigns/fast-blackfeet/

* What to help fight for queer people in Africa? Try the Initiative Sankofa D’Afrique de l’Ouest www.ISDAO.org

* Things you can do to help save the post office: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/626472377433358336

* "When and how to vote in all 50 states:" https://www.axios.com/how-to-vote-by-state-2020-307c3d17-ee57-4a1b-8bad-182ca1cdb752.html

* Want to help people in Beirut? https://karolinadeaen.tumblr.com/post/625576504313741312

* Organizations to help trans folk: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620857152453640195/about-us

* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

* Master Post for how to help organizations fighting Police violence: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620861026680881152/oberynmartell-list-of-black-lives-matter-and

* How to donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm?source=ADD200U0U00&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=googlepaid&utm_content=brand&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8D9kYu46QIVqh6tBh2WogxQEAAYASAAEgK4FfD_BwE

* "Covid 19 Support for Indigenous Communities:" https://bibliomancer7.tumblr.com/post/616704253038395392/covid-19-support-for-indigenous-communities

* "Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund:" http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

* "SUPPORT WORKERS IN CRISIS:" https://ofwemergencyfund.org/

* "Help the California food industry survive this crisis:" https://www.change.org/p/governor-gavin-newsom-support-the-california-food-industries-most-vulnerable-workers

* "Support Artists Impacted By the Covid-19 Pandemic:" https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser

* Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

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

* The Indivisble guide exists to help you organize effective resistance: https://indivisible.org/

* 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/

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

* If you are interested in helping, right now the Cat thing we need most is:
https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-signature-selects/dp/147047

The dry food I was going to try is this one: https://www.chewy.com/blue-buffalo-wilderness-flatland/dp/176663

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/2108835.html

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Touched By a Zombie

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March 2026

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