(no subject)
Nov. 6th, 2012 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Yes, I'm aware of the ongoing humanitarian crisis on Staten Island and also the asshole who is trying to justify refusing to let the lady and her two small children in, thus allowing the children to be swept away to die.
* Looking at the New York City subway devastation, I keep wondering what happened to the underground homeless. Just generally, I am wondering what happened to all the homeless in the hard hit areas. The news isn't telling me.
* It is nice to see that CNN is starting to talk about long term planning in New York to deal with global warming's effects on the city. Too bad you can still get fired at the big four for mentioning it in any realistic way.
* I am haunted by that thing John Stewart said last week. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, "I just watched everything I loved as a child being destroyed." I feel that way about what happened to the Jersey shore. I keep thinking of my parents, My Aunt and Uncle, My grandparents, all dead now at beaches and boardwalks that no longer exist in any recognizable form. I think of my cousins and I playing at boardwalks where they would have Summer jobs as teams. We stayed at or visited various beaches over the years. My parents favoured Brigantine to stay, but would day trip up and down the coast. Grammy liked Ocean City particularly to visit. Grandmom Hazel was big on Wildwood as there was a hotel right on the boardwalk and she could let Heidi wander out and about as the people in the concessions tended to look out for her. I look at the alien landscape the storm has left and think of salt water taffy, kites, and "fudgey wudgy ice cream." I think of ice cream waffle sandwiches and miniature golf and the smell of tar, ocean, and sun on the boards. I think of sea air, the cries of gulls, and acceleration, of my whole family strung out in a ragged line for body surfing, of little shops, skeeball, and my favorite rides. I have all these images from eighteen years worth of summers floating in my head.
The Jersey shore was a little like fairyland, a place outside and divorced from the real world, all the more sharply beautiful and poignant because time was so limited. The image I keep coming back to is the last day. It must have been '77 or '78. Grammy'd already gone home, but we did a last day trip to Ocean City, my parents, my sister, and I. It finally was time to leave. We'd bought molasses paddles at the store with the anamatronic characters making taffy and fudge, and we had taffy to take home. there was some sort of live performance going on, so our patch of board walk is crowded. My Father has my sister in his hip and my Mother is holding my hand to keep us from getting seperated in the crowd. It's late afternoon and and the sun and all the colors are so bright. We reach the ramp back to the real world and I look back over my shoulder, longing to be in the crowd instead of moving off towards the car and home.
I may have watched from further away, but it still felt and feels like watching everything I loved as a child being destroyed.
* Big Wired put up some videos here relating to racism: http://big-wired.livejournal.com/308659.html?view=522163&style=mine#
* So Orycon:
The train down was an adventure with multiple issues with coal trains, one of which haf broken a coupling, cutting the train in half. They had to replace them. We were more thanan hour late in to Portland. I managed to yet again identify the folks ahead of me in line as Con goers, so we split the fair. (Last year, I recognized the lady. This year, I noticed they had brought the same Con food in their baggage.) I checked in, had a shower, checked messages, ate, discovered they weren't doing advance registration for pre-reg folks, and went up to my room for meds and sleep. Muscle relaxants and a decadent amount of sleep made a huge difference, and while I had some rough spots physically this Con, I didn't even need to break out the serious meds.
When I got back from food and check in Friday, I saw signs of Ninjakitten, so I went back down, made sure her badge stuff would be personalized for her, then went to a panel. (At some point in here I hit the dealer room and found some folks I could commission some clothes from who's work I like. I had budgetted in some clothing as I really need some new wardrobe. I knew better than to expect off the wrack and I was right. It turns out that my torso is short for my leg length and shoulder width, which explains everything. As a kid most of my clothes were either home made or tailored from hand me downs by my mom. Nothing I ever bought after I left home fit properly. I think we know why now). I spotted ninjakitten in the lobby after, so that worked out. Except, when I got back to the room after my evening panels, Ninjakitten's pain was scary worse. This lead to use checking ops to see if they had an on duty nurse or something. They did not, but consensus was Hospital and a nice lady drove us there. There followed 10-12 hours in the ER. It was surprisingly quiet when we arrived, but it being Friday, it got busy and we could hear the screams and moans from our room, so the slow was no surprise. It did indeed sound potentially dangerous to ER staff and many tests were run. They decided emergency surgery wasn't necessary, and by the time they let us go, things were much better for no obvious reason. We came back to the room for a nap, then headed out for more Con stuff. Who's Line was Incredibly good this year despite David Levine not being in it. After we met up with Alex and Derek for hot chocolate and conversation. I had never seen Rasputine, which was... wow. After, Derek showed us his wonderful firefly and lovely wedding pictures. I talked myself horse by the time I went to bed. Sunday after panel, we had lunch with a friend of Alex's who looked vaguely familiar, so I assumed I knew him from the Con, but it turned out we also were at my second college at the same time, so likely he's also familiar from there.
The train trip back started out well, but 200+ mostly drunk football fans staggered out of the Stadium and onto the train at Seattle. The disabled people carriage was right between the club car and a drunk car, so they would careen through out cabin, banging into us, our chairs, and the wheelchair of one of the gentleman. One of them fell over the back of the chair ahead of me, but luckily, the nice old lady wasn't in it. By some miracle, he didn't spill his beer on me. There was screaming and yelling and off key drunken singing. They had and extra conductor, but there is only so much you can do with that many rowdy drunks. Every time the doors open a gust of beer fumes would roll over us like a wave. It was merely annoying to me and the guy who was in our compartment because he was 6'5" and this is where he fit and the two teens there so conductors could keep an eye on them, but it was very rough on the guy in the wheelchair and on the fragile elderly ladies, one of whom was clearly terrified by all the loud, beefy drunks lurching at her. I really liked the big guy. He was an ex-felon, sober several years, who had just finished his associate's in Spring and was working towards his four year degree with some financial help from his tribe. He was very sweet and clearly trying so hard to make the rest of his life work out and to be a better man. That is some pretty hard shit to overcome given the prison industrial complex and all the hurdles we put in the way of ex-felons trying to get straight jobs and keep their acts together. I could not do other than express my respect and my best wishes for his prospects on parting at the platform.
For the record, all my sympathy was with the train staff. I've worked fast food on Football nights and it's hell during, but the clean up's worse. Also for the record, if you are so drunk that you are bouncing like a pinball off other people's seats when the train is not even moving, you do not need another fucking beer. You need to sit the fuck down and try to sleep it off instead of another round. Just saying.
* The panels were over all decent this Con, but there was a serious problem, that seemed to be a continuation of last year. For some time, the Con has been super friendly to LGBT folk and as a result, there are a large number of us at the Con. There was also decent representation on panels, sometimes with multiple trans folk on things like gender panels, and for as long as I can remember lots of LGB folk on the sexuality panels. It felt really safe and welcoming. Similarly, there were real attempts at racial diversity at panels on racial issues. Last year though, there was that MLK Jr. Panel with one gay African American man, three straight white cis women, and a straight white cis man. The white guy was the moderator and talked over the others and then started to speak for the panel as a whole, issuing opinions on their behalf without bothering to, you know, ask them if they agreed. I was furious. Also, the trans panelists had mostly disappeared. This year, I didn't see any trans panelists and the LGB panelist contingent was much smaller. Now, it was completely reasonable to have people who wrote other races, genders, and orientations on the "Writing the Other Panel" and the "Writing Characters with Disabilities" panel had actual disabled people on it. The gender panel however.... For the record, the white straight cis lady representing trans people did a very nice job of is and included the non-binary folk, but why couldn't we have a trans person or trans people representing trans folk? Similarly, they had a very nice straight white man representing lesbians, but I know there are lesbian and bi female writers in our region, why not have one of them on the panel? Looking around the audience, I could see people I knew from past Cons to be gender variant and/or not straight. Hell, I bet half the audience was QUILTBAG. It just seemed weird that none of us were on the panel. And were were the POC? Again, the two nice white women and the white man were perfectly nice human beings, but there are serious issues in our culture with the way Women of Colour are portrayed in books and other media. There was no mention of the different sorts of words that get used and the stereotypes that make a huge fucking difference. It seems to me this panel really needed some intersectionality, especially given what an audience member in the sex and Death panel had to say as a woman of colour newly arrived in our region about how scary the subtle racism in our area can get particularly for her as a woman. She may not be famous, but she sure could have added some important incites and perspectives to that panel. And that's the problem. I'm not saying we should kick all the straight, white, cis, people off the -ism panels. I'm just saying that we ought to have a variety of voices and perspectives on the panels and that if the panel is about a minority issue, someone in that minority ought to be moderating and that ideally a majority of the people on the panel should be in the minority/ies being discussed. Because frankly? This is bullshit. I also saw some blood pressure raising sexism going on in some of the panels. Most notably in the "Sex and Death Panel" where there were three men and one woman up there. When one of the men talked, they all listened politely and took turns. When the woman talked, the men giggled and chattered and passed notes and made distracting faces. They also periodically interrupted her. All four of them were meant to be professionals, yet the three men could not extend her the professional courtesy they could extend each other. Remember that white guy running the MLK panel? Guess who was amoung the three disrespecting the female panelist? Yeah....For the record, the Graphic Novel panel was excellent, and I got my diversity in comics question in, and a guy I knew from BPAL asked exactly the right follow up to get the answers I was interested in.
For the record, Hypgnosis said he was going to Onions and Orchids and would take this up with Staff, along with the scary ass racist incident that Derek encountered. This is not okay and I'm hoping that Staff will take this stuff seriously and make an effort to make our con more safe and welcoming again.
* Also for the record, I've never been hassled over bathrooms at the Con when the handicapped single seaters were full and I had to use the gendered ones. Not once have people turned to stare when I gimped in and the one place where I was actually challenged over where I belonged in there was in an entirely different state. The hotel staff are invariably courteous and both Amtrac and hotel staff were clearly well trained in how to best serve customers with disabilities. Special props to Amtrac, who always offer but never force, ask if you need transport to or from the train, and who were textbook as far as helping the folks on their way to the conference for the blind. "Now we are going three step to the left. Your seat is behind you." They remembered to make sure everyone could find toilets and the club car and made sure the less mobile folks knew how to summon the conductor for help if they needed anything. Not intrusive, but consistently helpful and conscience of the dignity of passengers. Contrast this with Greyhound with no handicapped seating or chair lifts where it's not physically safe for me to try to maneuver the long narrow aisle to the toilet, and I can't go at stops lest they strand me with no luggage for being disabled and therefore too slow. Contrast also with Greyhound drivers who are allowed to subject passengers to religious or political rants, and berate them publicly and strand them in the middle of nowhere if they object or do or say anything the driver doesn't like the looks of. They cost half as much as Amtrac and are faster, but Amtrac only kicks you off if you really, really deserve it. (Fighting, persistent yelling, indecent behavior, harassing other passengers, illegal behavior, etc.. Not because the driver finds your piercing offensive or if you aren't a tea party member or something arbitrary like that). Just saying.
* I went to bed way early and got lots of sleep, most of it with Hector sleeping on my head, poor little guy. The cats are still rather mood swinging and overwrought, so are getting lots of extra attention. I went out to do some necessary errands. I only managed five out of eight as I discovered 1. where they moved Micheal's and pulled over for their post Halloween sale for a super cheap funkin to experiment with. 2. They opened a cupcake restaurant, and I decided to check it out. 3. The specific blend I wanted at the tea shop was almost out of stock, plus there was a line, all of which led to rather more time than I wanted to spend, though I did get the fast clerk this time. (It's generally one random clerk in the evenings. The blond is sweet, but inefficient and slow. The brunette is efficient and much faster, but there are limits to how fast things can get done there. Both are about equally flirty, the brunette is really good at saleswoman ship. Again, they are both vary pleasant to deal with, but last time I got the blond it took over an hour, whereas the brunette had more customers and still got me out in half an hour. There was sorting the shopping, taking down Halloween decorations, animal maintenance, cleaning up various messes that accrued in my absence, catching up on various things, and the last third of the unpacking. I am tempted to leave up the door decorations.
* My voicemail was full of robo calls when I got home, including Jane Lynch and an asshole from HRC. (The HRC is by definition assholes, being transphobic). I wish there were some way to signal I already voted.
* Is it wrong that I wish I could play this? http://metaquotes.livejournal.com/7580743.html
* Looking at the New York City subway devastation, I keep wondering what happened to the underground homeless. Just generally, I am wondering what happened to all the homeless in the hard hit areas. The news isn't telling me.
* It is nice to see that CNN is starting to talk about long term planning in New York to deal with global warming's effects on the city. Too bad you can still get fired at the big four for mentioning it in any realistic way.
* I am haunted by that thing John Stewart said last week. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, "I just watched everything I loved as a child being destroyed." I feel that way about what happened to the Jersey shore. I keep thinking of my parents, My Aunt and Uncle, My grandparents, all dead now at beaches and boardwalks that no longer exist in any recognizable form. I think of my cousins and I playing at boardwalks where they would have Summer jobs as teams. We stayed at or visited various beaches over the years. My parents favoured Brigantine to stay, but would day trip up and down the coast. Grammy liked Ocean City particularly to visit. Grandmom Hazel was big on Wildwood as there was a hotel right on the boardwalk and she could let Heidi wander out and about as the people in the concessions tended to look out for her. I look at the alien landscape the storm has left and think of salt water taffy, kites, and "fudgey wudgy ice cream." I think of ice cream waffle sandwiches and miniature golf and the smell of tar, ocean, and sun on the boards. I think of sea air, the cries of gulls, and acceleration, of my whole family strung out in a ragged line for body surfing, of little shops, skeeball, and my favorite rides. I have all these images from eighteen years worth of summers floating in my head.
The Jersey shore was a little like fairyland, a place outside and divorced from the real world, all the more sharply beautiful and poignant because time was so limited. The image I keep coming back to is the last day. It must have been '77 or '78. Grammy'd already gone home, but we did a last day trip to Ocean City, my parents, my sister, and I. It finally was time to leave. We'd bought molasses paddles at the store with the anamatronic characters making taffy and fudge, and we had taffy to take home. there was some sort of live performance going on, so our patch of board walk is crowded. My Father has my sister in his hip and my Mother is holding my hand to keep us from getting seperated in the crowd. It's late afternoon and and the sun and all the colors are so bright. We reach the ramp back to the real world and I look back over my shoulder, longing to be in the crowd instead of moving off towards the car and home.
I may have watched from further away, but it still felt and feels like watching everything I loved as a child being destroyed.
* Big Wired put up some videos here relating to racism: http://big-wired.livejournal.com/308659.html?view=522163&style=mine#
* So Orycon:
The train down was an adventure with multiple issues with coal trains, one of which haf broken a coupling, cutting the train in half. They had to replace them. We were more thanan hour late in to Portland. I managed to yet again identify the folks ahead of me in line as Con goers, so we split the fair. (Last year, I recognized the lady. This year, I noticed they had brought the same Con food in their baggage.) I checked in, had a shower, checked messages, ate, discovered they weren't doing advance registration for pre-reg folks, and went up to my room for meds and sleep. Muscle relaxants and a decadent amount of sleep made a huge difference, and while I had some rough spots physically this Con, I didn't even need to break out the serious meds.
When I got back from food and check in Friday, I saw signs of Ninjakitten, so I went back down, made sure her badge stuff would be personalized for her, then went to a panel. (At some point in here I hit the dealer room and found some folks I could commission some clothes from who's work I like. I had budgetted in some clothing as I really need some new wardrobe. I knew better than to expect off the wrack and I was right. It turns out that my torso is short for my leg length and shoulder width, which explains everything. As a kid most of my clothes were either home made or tailored from hand me downs by my mom. Nothing I ever bought after I left home fit properly. I think we know why now). I spotted ninjakitten in the lobby after, so that worked out. Except, when I got back to the room after my evening panels, Ninjakitten's pain was scary worse. This lead to use checking ops to see if they had an on duty nurse or something. They did not, but consensus was Hospital and a nice lady drove us there. There followed 10-12 hours in the ER. It was surprisingly quiet when we arrived, but it being Friday, it got busy and we could hear the screams and moans from our room, so the slow was no surprise. It did indeed sound potentially dangerous to ER staff and many tests were run. They decided emergency surgery wasn't necessary, and by the time they let us go, things were much better for no obvious reason. We came back to the room for a nap, then headed out for more Con stuff. Who's Line was Incredibly good this year despite David Levine not being in it. After we met up with Alex and Derek for hot chocolate and conversation. I had never seen Rasputine, which was... wow. After, Derek showed us his wonderful firefly and lovely wedding pictures. I talked myself horse by the time I went to bed. Sunday after panel, we had lunch with a friend of Alex's who looked vaguely familiar, so I assumed I knew him from the Con, but it turned out we also were at my second college at the same time, so likely he's also familiar from there.
The train trip back started out well, but 200+ mostly drunk football fans staggered out of the Stadium and onto the train at Seattle. The disabled people carriage was right between the club car and a drunk car, so they would careen through out cabin, banging into us, our chairs, and the wheelchair of one of the gentleman. One of them fell over the back of the chair ahead of me, but luckily, the nice old lady wasn't in it. By some miracle, he didn't spill his beer on me. There was screaming and yelling and off key drunken singing. They had and extra conductor, but there is only so much you can do with that many rowdy drunks. Every time the doors open a gust of beer fumes would roll over us like a wave. It was merely annoying to me and the guy who was in our compartment because he was 6'5" and this is where he fit and the two teens there so conductors could keep an eye on them, but it was very rough on the guy in the wheelchair and on the fragile elderly ladies, one of whom was clearly terrified by all the loud, beefy drunks lurching at her. I really liked the big guy. He was an ex-felon, sober several years, who had just finished his associate's in Spring and was working towards his four year degree with some financial help from his tribe. He was very sweet and clearly trying so hard to make the rest of his life work out and to be a better man. That is some pretty hard shit to overcome given the prison industrial complex and all the hurdles we put in the way of ex-felons trying to get straight jobs and keep their acts together. I could not do other than express my respect and my best wishes for his prospects on parting at the platform.
For the record, all my sympathy was with the train staff. I've worked fast food on Football nights and it's hell during, but the clean up's worse. Also for the record, if you are so drunk that you are bouncing like a pinball off other people's seats when the train is not even moving, you do not need another fucking beer. You need to sit the fuck down and try to sleep it off instead of another round. Just saying.
* The panels were over all decent this Con, but there was a serious problem, that seemed to be a continuation of last year. For some time, the Con has been super friendly to LGBT folk and as a result, there are a large number of us at the Con. There was also decent representation on panels, sometimes with multiple trans folk on things like gender panels, and for as long as I can remember lots of LGB folk on the sexuality panels. It felt really safe and welcoming. Similarly, there were real attempts at racial diversity at panels on racial issues. Last year though, there was that MLK Jr. Panel with one gay African American man, three straight white cis women, and a straight white cis man. The white guy was the moderator and talked over the others and then started to speak for the panel as a whole, issuing opinions on their behalf without bothering to, you know, ask them if they agreed. I was furious. Also, the trans panelists had mostly disappeared. This year, I didn't see any trans panelists and the LGB panelist contingent was much smaller. Now, it was completely reasonable to have people who wrote other races, genders, and orientations on the "Writing the Other Panel" and the "Writing Characters with Disabilities" panel had actual disabled people on it. The gender panel however.... For the record, the white straight cis lady representing trans people did a very nice job of is and included the non-binary folk, but why couldn't we have a trans person or trans people representing trans folk? Similarly, they had a very nice straight white man representing lesbians, but I know there are lesbian and bi female writers in our region, why not have one of them on the panel? Looking around the audience, I could see people I knew from past Cons to be gender variant and/or not straight. Hell, I bet half the audience was QUILTBAG. It just seemed weird that none of us were on the panel. And were were the POC? Again, the two nice white women and the white man were perfectly nice human beings, but there are serious issues in our culture with the way Women of Colour are portrayed in books and other media. There was no mention of the different sorts of words that get used and the stereotypes that make a huge fucking difference. It seems to me this panel really needed some intersectionality, especially given what an audience member in the sex and Death panel had to say as a woman of colour newly arrived in our region about how scary the subtle racism in our area can get particularly for her as a woman. She may not be famous, but she sure could have added some important incites and perspectives to that panel. And that's the problem. I'm not saying we should kick all the straight, white, cis, people off the -ism panels. I'm just saying that we ought to have a variety of voices and perspectives on the panels and that if the panel is about a minority issue, someone in that minority ought to be moderating and that ideally a majority of the people on the panel should be in the minority/ies being discussed. Because frankly? This is bullshit. I also saw some blood pressure raising sexism going on in some of the panels. Most notably in the "Sex and Death Panel" where there were three men and one woman up there. When one of the men talked, they all listened politely and took turns. When the woman talked, the men giggled and chattered and passed notes and made distracting faces. They also periodically interrupted her. All four of them were meant to be professionals, yet the three men could not extend her the professional courtesy they could extend each other. Remember that white guy running the MLK panel? Guess who was amoung the three disrespecting the female panelist? Yeah....For the record, the Graphic Novel panel was excellent, and I got my diversity in comics question in, and a guy I knew from BPAL asked exactly the right follow up to get the answers I was interested in.
For the record, Hypgnosis said he was going to Onions and Orchids and would take this up with Staff, along with the scary ass racist incident that Derek encountered. This is not okay and I'm hoping that Staff will take this stuff seriously and make an effort to make our con more safe and welcoming again.
* Also for the record, I've never been hassled over bathrooms at the Con when the handicapped single seaters were full and I had to use the gendered ones. Not once have people turned to stare when I gimped in and the one place where I was actually challenged over where I belonged in there was in an entirely different state. The hotel staff are invariably courteous and both Amtrac and hotel staff were clearly well trained in how to best serve customers with disabilities. Special props to Amtrac, who always offer but never force, ask if you need transport to or from the train, and who were textbook as far as helping the folks on their way to the conference for the blind. "Now we are going three step to the left. Your seat is behind you." They remembered to make sure everyone could find toilets and the club car and made sure the less mobile folks knew how to summon the conductor for help if they needed anything. Not intrusive, but consistently helpful and conscience of the dignity of passengers. Contrast this with Greyhound with no handicapped seating or chair lifts where it's not physically safe for me to try to maneuver the long narrow aisle to the toilet, and I can't go at stops lest they strand me with no luggage for being disabled and therefore too slow. Contrast also with Greyhound drivers who are allowed to subject passengers to religious or political rants, and berate them publicly and strand them in the middle of nowhere if they object or do or say anything the driver doesn't like the looks of. They cost half as much as Amtrac and are faster, but Amtrac only kicks you off if you really, really deserve it. (Fighting, persistent yelling, indecent behavior, harassing other passengers, illegal behavior, etc.. Not because the driver finds your piercing offensive or if you aren't a tea party member or something arbitrary like that). Just saying.
* I went to bed way early and got lots of sleep, most of it with Hector sleeping on my head, poor little guy. The cats are still rather mood swinging and overwrought, so are getting lots of extra attention. I went out to do some necessary errands. I only managed five out of eight as I discovered 1. where they moved Micheal's and pulled over for their post Halloween sale for a super cheap funkin to experiment with. 2. They opened a cupcake restaurant, and I decided to check it out. 3. The specific blend I wanted at the tea shop was almost out of stock, plus there was a line, all of which led to rather more time than I wanted to spend, though I did get the fast clerk this time. (It's generally one random clerk in the evenings. The blond is sweet, but inefficient and slow. The brunette is efficient and much faster, but there are limits to how fast things can get done there. Both are about equally flirty, the brunette is really good at saleswoman ship. Again, they are both vary pleasant to deal with, but last time I got the blond it took over an hour, whereas the brunette had more customers and still got me out in half an hour. There was sorting the shopping, taking down Halloween decorations, animal maintenance, cleaning up various messes that accrued in my absence, catching up on various things, and the last third of the unpacking. I am tempted to leave up the door decorations.
* My voicemail was full of robo calls when I got home, including Jane Lynch and an asshole from HRC. (The HRC is by definition assholes, being transphobic). I wish there were some way to signal I already voted.
* Is it wrong that I wish I could play this? http://metaquotes.livejournal.com/7580743.html