Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* Male Mediocrity and Harassment: http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/164943683000/lindentreeisle-akamine-chan

* "‘This is crazy,’ sobs Utah hospital nurse as cop roughs her up, arrests her for doing her job:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/01/this-is-crazy-sobs-utah-hospital-nurse-as-cop-roughs-her-up-arrests-her-for-doing-her-job/?utm_term=.eff64a32fda6

* "What does it mean to be a billionaire?" http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/164897425945/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-billionaire#notes

* "New Mycenaean tombs discovered during latest excavations in Nemea, Greece:" http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/culture/26893-new-mycenaean-tombs-discovered-during-recent-nemea-excavations-in-greece.html

* "Archaeology: Ancient tavern, shops found under Sofia’s Sveta Nedelya Square:" http://sofiaglobe.com/2017/08/25/archaeology-ancient-tavern-shops2-found-under-sofias-sveta-nedelya-square/

* Today we had a proper September rain and reasonable early September weather. Heaven. I went out to pick up my Winter food flats. I still have one out standing that I don't expect for a while as there is a delay at manufacturer, but I knew that when I ordered it.

What is the deal with Winter food flats? Over the years, various safe for me to eat, easy to make, shelf stable emergency foods have quietly disappeared from the local shelves. If you are as sick as I often am, things like nutritious, good tasting, easy on the stomach, low sodium, things I can prepare in five minutes or less are magic. Unfortunately, if one is ordering food, it comes in a minimum quantity. On the upside, if I do it this way, I get a quantity discount on top of my coop member discount. It represents a large outlay at once, but is long run cheaper. Usually I space this stuff out, but I waited too late in season last March or April, and stuff was out for the summer. I was worried if I didn't order now, summer seasonal would be gone or I might miss Autumn in the press of Autumnal foods tempting me not to plan ahead.

I am not going to starve whatever, as I possess a ridiculous amount of rice and pasta. For me the issue is balancing nutrition around my SPD, medical, and chronic illness stuff. I discovered I alarmed some people about the food supply here, so I want to reassure people that I'll be okay. Squirrel teases me about my Zombie Apocolypse food horde of pasta and the like. I just... feel so much better with winter emergency supplies safely tucked up.

* I was meant to be doing the stack of bureaucracy came in this week or do an ebay auction, but instead, my body threw a tantrum so that's eating my night. Damnit.

* "A Guide to Making Up Diseases (as Explained by a Biologist):" http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/164827227260/a-guide-to-making-up-diseases-as-explained-by-a

* Impressively Creepy Apocolyptic Dream: http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/164831047320/rcmclachlan-i-just-woke-up-from-the-craziest#notes

* "Janet has no chill at all, no chill at all has she:" http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/164839967295/ive-always-been-madly-in-love-with-the-story-of

* Want to donate to the windshield wiper fund? (32$ Needed). Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

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

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

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

* Authorities in Antigua & Barbuda want people to go through the Red Cross right now, as what is needed is centralized relief through a legitimate charity. https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-irma-donations?scode=RSG00000E017&utm_campaign=irma&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwZr44KqX1gIVCIR-Ch0EXQQ0EAAYASAAEgJnBPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJqzzvKql9YCFY2Tfgods-gBXQ

* "How to Help Hurricane Harvey Victims:" http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/08/27/how_to_help_hurricane_harvey_victims.html

* "Disaster Relief and Support for Libraries:" http://www.txla.org/news/2017/08/disaster-relief-and-support-for-libraries

* How to help the protesters and ordinary people in Venezuela: https://thewynne.tumblr.com/post/163738805241/softestjohn-fiftyeightminutes-softestjohn

* "Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide:" https://www.splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide

* A list of links to Charlottesville charities if you want to give the NAZIs a financial fuck you: https://twitter.com/SaraJBenincasa/status/896260623905861633

* How white Protesters can weaponize their whiteness: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/164390645622/alvaroarbeloa-vaspider-okay-friends-lets

* List of places to donate to help trans service members and fight the planned attack on active duty trans soldiers: https://vaspider.tumblr.com/post/163475550346/moonbian-hey-i-know-reblogging-posts-about-how

* Red Cross is taking donations for Western Wildfire Relief: http://www.redcross.org/local/oregon/ways-to-donate/wildfires

* (This is here as a reminder to me for later). "Can you recommend me some good books, essays, etc. about witches, witchcraft, witch trials in England?:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/164664427028/dear-pauline-can-you-recommend-me-some-good

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* "Manchester Arena blast: 19 dead and more than 50 hurt:" http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-40007886

* "Yemen war: Major cholera epidemic feared, says charity:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39996900

* TW: Rape, Pedophila "South African men march against abuse of women and children:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39988267

* "Trump does not say ‘radical Islamic terrorism’:"

( Embed: )

* "Sheriff Clarke: A ‘fraud’ with fake medals?:"

( Embed: )

* "Barber reignites King’s ‘Poor People's Campaign’:"

( Embed: )

* "Texas GOP Messes With Texas Trans Kids:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2017/05/texas-gop-messes-with-texas-trans-kids.html

* "African Pantheons and the Orishas: Crash Course Mythology #11:"

( Embed: )

* "This powerful Twitter account is sharing the names of Jewish refugees the US turned away in 1939:" https://mic.com/articles/166948/this-powerful-twitter-account-is-sharing-the-names-of-jewish-refugees-the-us-turned-away-in-1939?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=main&utm_source=policymicTBLR#.BJDKmJTlK

* To Tavy's great delight, the garden was full of butterflies to watch through the window today.

* The If Women Wrote Men post keeps getting better: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/160953941842/if-women-wrote-men-the-way-men-write-women

* Star Trek Economics and Basic Income: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/160953464237/mrbumblepants-actuallykylekallgren


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

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

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

Want to fight Climate Change? "Ready to Mobilize? Start Here!:" http://www.theclimatemobilization.org/start_here

* Distressed by the anti-gay genocide in Chechnya and the anti-gay laws in Russia? Donate here: https://lgbtnet.org/en

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

* This is a Real Life friend of mine. They do very much need the money and a number of people and beasts depend on him and his husband. They have been incredibly helpful and supportive of me. If you can kick in, it is a kindness.: https://www.youcaring.com/tod-788345

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

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* "Montenegro: Russia involved in attempted coup:" http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/21/europe/montenegro-attempted-coup-accusation/

* Daesh burnt the museum in Mosul including the rare books room. "Rubble and ash in Mosul museum retaken from Islamic State:" http://www.ocregister.com/articles/islamic-746015-state-mosul.html

* "Revised executive order bans travelers from six Muslim-majority countries from getting new visas:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-executive-order-bans-travelers-from-six-muslim-majority-countries-applying-for-visas/2017/03/06/3012a42a-0277-11e7-ad5b-d22680e18d10_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_trumpban-1017a-tabphonenews%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.bd6249b4a0ac

* "Businessman with links to Russia and Donald Trump dies in unexplained circumstances:" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ukranian-businesman-russia-and-donald-trump-dies-michael-cohen-michael-flynn-donald-trump-vladimir-a7612866.html

* "Pence story on Flynn impossible to believe:"

( Embed: )

* "50 days of 'facts':"

( Embed: )

* "Abrupt Trump purge of US attorneys raises questions:"

( Embed: )

* "Former Reagan Aide: “Trump is decimating State Dept…to force military solutions”:" http://shareblue.com/former-reagan-aide-trump-is-decimating-state-dept-to-force-military-solutions/#.WL3B8OmNUtY.twitter

* "Donald Trump’s Worst Deal:" http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal

* Someone really ought to read 45 "The Boy who Cried Wolf."

* Looks like the targeted reprisals are starting. "Khizr Khan cancels Toronto trip after being told his travel privileges are being ‘reviewed’: reports:" http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/khizr-khan-forced-to-cancel-toronto-trip-after-being-told-his-travel-privileges-are-being-reviewed/

* "In Trump’s ‘Maternity Leave’ Plan, The Devil — and the Stereotypes — Are In the Details:" https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/trumps-maternity-leave-plan-devil-and-stereotypes-are-details

* "Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More:" https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/politics/trump-deregulation-guns-wall-st-climate.html?_r=0&referer

* "Privately run immigration detention is so violent that prisoners beg to be kept in solitary:" https://boingboing.net/2017/03/11/captive-audience.html

* "‘Economic terrorism’ bill would toughen penalties on protesters who block roads, damage property:" http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article136241788.html

* "After Decades In The U.S., NY Immigrant With Years-Old Pot Conviction Faces Deportation:" http://gothamist.com/2017/03/03/trump_deportation_ice.php

* "The Creators Of TrumpCare On TrumpCare: 'Don't Call It TrumpCare':"

( Embed: )

* "Maz Jobrani Has Been Directly Impacted By Trump's Travel Ban:"

( Embed: )

* "China's Trump-Branded Massage Parlours Rub Stephen The Wrong Way:"

( Embed: )

* "ASoIaF Re-Read: The Princess in the Tower, AFFC:" http://turtle-paced.tumblr.com/post/157527809417/asoiaf-re-read-the-princess-in-the-tower-affc

* "The Expanse Escalates Even Further:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/the-expanse-s02-e07/

* "Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 4: A Blade of Grass:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2016/05/penny-dreadful-season-3-episode-4-blade.html

* "Themes Urban Fantasy Needs to Explore:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2017/03/themes-urban-fantasy-needs-to-explore.html

* "Storytelling Through Costume: The Badass Black Tank Top Walks the Line:" http://www.tor.com/2017/03/08/storytelling-through-costume-the-badass-black-tank-top-walks-the-line/

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

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* I don't blame him at all. "Exclusive: Trump presser convinced NSC candidate Harward to...:"

( Embed: )

* "JFK on the importance of the press to a free society:"

( Embed: )

* "Trump hits new low as war with press moves beyond just talk:"

( Embed: )

* Donald Trump has declared the free press as "the enemy of the American People."

* "Trump's 3 trips to Mar-A-Lago as president cost an estimated $10 million in federal funds:" https://mic.com/articles/168954/trump-s-3-trips-to-mar-a-lago-as-president-cost-an-estimated-10-million-in-federal-funds?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.X0V8HxIol

* "Trump is already detaining and trying to deport the "Dreamers" Obama said could stay in the country:" https://mic.com/articles/168727/trump-detaining-deport-dreamers-daca-not-criminals?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.7erezL136

* "Rep. Castro: Trump admin. coming for undocumented immigrants:"

( Embed: )

* Scott Pruitt is in as head of EPA, even though he's opposed to everything they stand for and has repeatedly sued them in favor of polluters, and has spent years illegally withholding FOIA documents.

* "Judge's e-mail order could move Pruitt from frying pan to fire:"

( Embed: )

* "The Most Quoted B.S. Myth Inside The Right's Media Bubble:" http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-sadly-necessary-primer-constitutional-rights/

* "Fracking And What New EPA Means For Your Health:" http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2017/02/17/fracking-and-what-new-epa-means-for-your-health/#3c6d5fb01258

* "Barney Frank: Here's how to successfully lobby your congressperson:" https://mic.com/articles/167878/barney-frank-heres-how-to-not-waste-your-time-pressuring-lawmakers#.3s5dwWzMa

* "Trump At The Westminster Dog Show: Grab 'Em By The Puppy:"

( Embed: )

* I dreamed I'd ordered a Head Full of Bees from Think Geek. No really. It was an artificial hive in the shape of an oversized roman portrait bust. You pulled the trays in and out at the back.

* In other news, I woke in noticeably less terrible shape. I have hopes that antibiotic two will pull me out. I'm still crap, but it's a more functional variety of crap. I promptly burned most of the spoons changing the sheets and pillow cases.

* "Friday Discussion: Isolated Tokens: Being the Only One:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2017/02/friday-discussion-isolated-tokens-being.html

* I wish I could afford to have this done. "Crispin Young Wilson is a server hardware repairer from Hood River, Oregon, who also does some painting on the side. On Sunday, Crispin was getting ready for her latest project.:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/look-up-kiddo?utm_term=.kyEE1dQaY#.ktWndj3WZ

* "Six Swans:" https://mtfhod.tumblr.com/post/157390907770/the-six-swans

* "The Frustratingly Harmful LGBT+ Representation in Weiseroff's Westeros:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/frustratingly-harmful-lgbt-representation-weiseroffs-westeros/

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

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* "A Runaway Child Bride Forges Her Own Path:" http://www.takepart.com/feature/2016/10/24/selvi-child-bride-turned-taxi-driver?cmpid=tp-fb

* Is anyone really surprised that the Muscovite Candidate is out making enemies in Western Europe and threatening to pull out of NATO? "Trump worries Nato with 'obsolete':" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38635181

* "Trump vs. the media:"

( Embed: )

* Republicans want to remind you that a loss of three million jobs, 3-4 million working people losing their health care, the cost of an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars, and all the people who will die because they will lose their insulin, chemotherapy for their cancer, etc., is a small price to pay for a tax cut for the richest 2%. After all who cares how expensive it is or how many people will literally die as long as they can pass a law that only helps the incredibly rich.

* "Protests off to early start ahead of Trump inauguration:"

( Embed: )

* The Real Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: http://satyrday.tumblr.com/post/155975190751/neurodiversitysci-alwaysbewoke-edwinizm

* "Donald Trump's Eventful Martin Luther King Day Weekend:"

( Embed: )

* "John Scalzi's 10-point plan for getting creative work done in the age of Trump:" http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-hollywood-values-updates-john-scalzi-s-10-point-plan-for-getting-1483653314-htmlstory.html

*****

* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list

* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate

* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/

* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463

* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming

* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change

* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#

* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal

* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted

* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* This is the patreon of an RL friend with etsy link: https://www.patreon.com/karjack

* Current lilies: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/147170466247/current-lilies

* I was watching a foreign language film and there was this extremely fat character, and what fascinated me about him was that the movie treated this as unmarked. The point of the character was his expertise and empathy, not his weight. There were no crass fat jokes. It was not an "issues" roll. There was no intervention. There were no physical comedy beats focued on his weight. No one referenced hi body at all. The character could have been any weight at all and just happened to be very, very fat. I was beautiful.

I thought, when was the last time I saw any media made in America with a fat character where the point of the character implicitly or explicitly had nothing to do with the character's weight? I'm not thinking of any off the top of my head. In American movies and television weight is always a problem. It is the subject of shaming news reports. It is subject to ugly fatphobic jokes. It is used in dehumanizing ways, like the murrder victim in Seven. Fat bodies are often depicted as disgusting or shut ins or villians. It is used to mark a character as sexually undesirable or as a particular often racialized stereotype. It can occasionally be used well in a feminist sense to call out fatphobia as it was used in Spy, but it is never ever an unmarked trait as it was in this film.

That strikes me as pretty fucked up, given the givens. Why can't we have fat people just being people with character traits and narrative purpose that has nothing to do with our fucked up body shaming? Why can't fat people just be people in our media?

* "Three things being a (failed) beauty queen taught me about being a writer:" https://avian30.com/2016/03/25/three-things-being-a-failed-beauty-queen-taught-me-about-being-a-writer/

* Last weekend, Squirrel wandered through on the way to the kitchen and was shocked to hear me screaming in frustration, "Outlaw them! Outlaw them all! Send everyone of them to Norway and let the Norwegians sort them out!" at the Saga of the People of Reykjadal and Killer-Skuta. I never said I was easy to live with.

* Proof I'm not a proper adult #11: I still think of St. Sebastian as the Patron Saint of Bondage and Kink in general.

* So I'm rewatching TNG. You would think, I'd have been all over Star Trek: The Next Generation, seeing as how I was raised on ToS. (My dad and I watched the reruns over and over through my growing up. I watched the animated series when it was new. I had a Kirk and spock action figures. I had the damned colourforms.) The thing is, the first season was a very complicated year for me involving nearly dying three times amoung other things and I saw only the finale. The next two seasons of TNG coincided with me being a Philosophy Monk with little access to television and I missed the first half of the fourth season because I had no television at all.

My friends in Corvallis were very into it. My Lover was very into it. I ended up watching the back half of the forth season in real time while catching up on the older seasons as I could find them. The result was, that Tasha Yar was a sort of legend, much talked about and debated by my friends, who spent a lot of time just generally on analysis. The Tasha I imagined was amazing. When syndication finally brought her around to me, I was less impressed. The version I'd built in my head was so much better than the one on the screen.

This is emblematic of the my experience in general. I know it's get better. I remember the dramatic improvement in the final season. There are a lot of characters in the show, I liked, but my opinion of the hot mess the writers made of the first season and the sexism in general and occasional cringe worthy racism in the portion of the first season I have seen thus far validate my anger and disappointment in these things back when the show was new.

The writing of the women is just terrible. I may try to write another time about just why Tasha is a disappointment to me and always has been, but I haven't the heart for it just now. My original complaints about Deanna Troi stand. She and her power are written incredibly inconsistently. You can see the poor actress trying to work with what she's given and carry with dignity the outfits they put her in. I do not blame her, nor do I blame the woman playing Tasha. It's outright the fault of the writers who never bothered to sit down and conceive of either of the characters as whole human beings the way they did with the male characters. I knew this going in, though the pervasiveness of the problem startled me rather. The writers decided to make both of them some degree of incompetent, unlike all the male core crew who are all depicted a good at their jobs. This is particularly the case with Deanna, who I know will turn out to be the world's worst shrink, though I haven't gotten to the parts that show that yet.

It's a problem. So is first season Beverly Crusher, though not as obvious a problem as with the other two. This was a surprise to me as I missed it 20+ years ago, maybe because of my youth at the time and maybe because I saw her first in a much more developed form, midway through TNG's total run. By then she was more fleshed out. Back here in firt season, she is allowed to be competent at her job, but outside of the job, her characterization revolves around being Wesley's mother, her dead husband, and her possible relationship with Picard. She's not quite a whole person yet, but it's easy not to notice.

Then there are so many problems with the plots. So. Many. Problems. Them not having any kind of hazmat type suits when they go to investigate what might be a deadly biological or chemical hazard and not even bothering with gloves when handling bodies. The over use of Q in the first half of first season. I think, like the Borg, a little Q goes a long way. Use him to often and he is annoying and he loses his punch. So many of the plots fall apart like tissue paper. I can see the bones of what the show can be in some of the characters and plots, but season on is a mess.

There were surprises. Beta version Ferengi are embarrassing, especially as I'd just been watching the first half of DS9 where they are people with a culture instead of bouncing around hissing and... hard to believe they could run, let alone build star ships. I... like Wesley a bit better than I did back in the day. I had always been of the opinion that the problems with Wesley Crusher, like the problems with Ms. Troi could be traced to the writing. I always said the acting was excellent and that may actually have been part o the problem. Wil Wheaton was clearly taking the part as written and playing Wesley as a coherent person, made as believable as he could manage given the writing. I think a worse actor might have protected himself more obnoxious elements in the character as written. Instead, Wil Wheaton takes it all the way. I could actually spot the individual episodes that made my friends so angry at the character. I can see exactly why the character was so hated by that first audience. This time, I notice the nuance that is there whenever the script lets Mr. Wheaton display it. It is, in it's way as admirable as poor Sir Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula trying valiantly to play the part as Mr. stoker actually wrote it in his book and make occasionally complete nonsense lines sound not only like sense, but things Book Von Helsing would have said even as the rest of the actors appear to be playing space aliens with no familiarity with the book or human behavior. I know liking Wil Wheaton is cool now, but back then I was often the lone voice in the room standing up for his acting and vilifying the writers (which I also did for Marina Sirtis, who I felt was unfairly blamed for the craptastic writing she was given to work with). Anyway, I see whole episodes now I'm in the back half of Season One, where I do like Wesley, which is a real surprise, since the ones I remember liking him in were later in the character run. (I still stand by the opinion my lover and I at the time had, which was they should have evolved Wesley in a completely different direction than they ended up doing, but that's another story). Anyway, another surprise is how violent and impulsive season One Picard is. I suspect they were trying to make him more like Kirk, though by the time I started watching it, Riker bore Kirk's mantle and Picard had grown into the Picard I remember. It's a subtle thing I missed first time around from not watching them in the right order.

This time, I am also really seeing the seams: the places they are trying to do the Original Series vs. the bits where you can see the characteristic TNG showing through. The result is a weird patchwork. I think I'd be having more fun picking it a part if the pervasive sexism weren't so exhausting.

* "Lord of the Rings Re-Read: A Knife in the Dark:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/lord-rings-re-read-knife-dark/

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees: http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* NWS. "NZ minister gets dildo in face after TPP signing (VIDEO):" https://www.rt.com/news/331376-tpp-joyce-protest-dildo/

* "Australia's offshore asylum policy ruled legal by High Court:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35479173

* So now it's looking like the Ted Cruz campaign robo-called Iowa voters telling them the lie that Ben Carson has dropped out. That looks really unequivocal on the scale of deliberate and that plus the email makes it hard to believe that this was not coordinated and targeted from very high up. I just don't see how you record and send out a robo call by accident.

* "Why We Need To Keep Using "White", "Male" and "Straight" as Labels:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/labels-of-white-straight-cis-and-male-and-why-we-need-to-keep-them-around/

* "Black Girls Breaking Silence on School Push-Out :"

( Embed: )

* "Puerto Rico releases a new gender change form for driver’s licenses!" http://www.transequality.org/blog/puerto-rico-releases-a-new-gender-change-form-for-driver-s-licenses?utm_content=bufferb0fe7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

* "Quiet Portrayals of Minorities:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2016/01/quiet-portrayals-of-minorities.html

* "It's A Sweet Day For A Winter Wedding:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/1/24/its-a-sweet-day-for-a-winter-wedding.html

* "Sunday Sweets Inspired By The Red Carpet!:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/1/31/sunday-sweets-inspired-by-the-red-carpet.html

* No PBS, small children are not "literally sponges." For example, children have a centralized nervous system, complete with a brain capable of learning new things, whereas sponges have no nervous system at all (or a digestive or circulatory system). Children can not live under water; sponges require submersion to live. Do not put babies in the ocean! It is very bad for them! Indeed, it's hard to imagine a multicelluar organism less like a human baby. Can you please fix this commercial? It's been a year.

* "American Horror Story, Season 5 (Hotel), Episode 11: Battle Royal:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2016/01/american-horror-story-season-5-hotel.html

* "American Horror Story, Season 5 (Hotel), Episode 12: Be Our Guest:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2016/01/american-horror-story-season-5-hotel_15.html

* "My fave is problematic: Harry Potter:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/my-fave-is-problematic-harry-potter/

* Due to scheduling conflicts, it wasn't possible for me to watch the US Nationals or the Europeans live. I am instead catching them piecemeal as I can. Adam Rippon and Max Aaaron gave lovely mature skates, but as beautiful as they are to watch neither is on the level of the young men coming up in Asia. Nathan Chen skates like the future though, and I expect him to be giving Jin Boyang a run for his money soon, even though he does need to work on his artistic and performance aspects. The Ladies? The ladies broke my heart. There were some lovely passages, but all I kept thinking while watching them is how far they are behind the Russian women. I am old enough to remember when we were producing some of the best women skaters in the world, I'd like to see us do it again.

* Zimbabwe has joined Ethiopia in disaster level drought People and animals are dying. Want to help? https://www.wfp.org/help

* Help the poisoned children of Flint Michigan. "Water Crisis:" https://www.cfgf.org/cfgf/GoodWork/FlintArea/WaterCrisis/tabid/855/Default.aspx

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* "Texas' state run psychiatric hospitals are now gun friendly:" http://boingboing.net/2016/01/08/texas-state-run-psychiatric.html

* "88 Detroit Public Schools Closed After Teachers Protest Conditions in 'Sickout':" http://mic.com/articles/133026/88-detroit-public-schools-closed-after-teachers-protest-conditions-in-sickout?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.rAtpAzx9D

* Re: the Bernie Sanders establishment thing. I do think it was ambiguous in its context and he did walk it back, but I think it was absolutely the wrong thing to say about NARAL in particular. My theory is he meant they are a well established group that's been working for a long time, it could easily mean what it sounds like in sound bite. Either way, it was the wrong thing to say and I'm not convinced his voting record or his apologies will fix it. They are already so under attack, that the last thing they need is someone on the left appearing to go after them whatever his intentions were.

I also think even in the worst construction he wasn't even a little wrong about the HRC and I was sad to see him walking that back. They are very much establishment. They deliberately only represent the interests of wealthy white gays and lesbians and ignore the needs of anyone else. For the most part they only want white gays and lesbians in leadership roles and the rare people ho are anything else don't last long. Oh, they are happy to ask the rest of us for money, but gleefully throw us under the bus, not even for concrete gains, but at the drop of the hat to show willing to rich white straight people. They care far more about cosying up to Congress critters than actually advocating for basic rights for the rest of us. The HRC is as establishment as a group that pretends to advocate for a minority can get.

* "What Sarah Palin gets wrong about PTSD:"

( Embed: )

* "White Debt:" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/magazine/white-debt.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1

* "There's a Big Issue Missing From How We Talk About Race — One New Study Proves It:" http://mic.com/articles/111578/there-s-a-big-issue-missing-from-how-we-talk-about-race-one-new-study-proves-it?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.1iy3luKEw

* "Snyder e-mails missing key year in Flint toxic water disaster:"

( Embed: )

* "Flint water tie eyed in outbreak of deadly Legionnaires' disease:"

( Embed: )

* "This 1,600-Year-Old Goblet Shows that the Romans Were Nanotechnology Pioneers:" http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-1600-year-old-goblet-shows-that-the-romans-were-nanotechnology-pioneers-787224/?no-ist=

* I love Baron Von Steuban: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/137805814037/please-do-make-a-real-post-about-how-much-you-love

* "Keeping Up with Iran:"

( Embed: )

* "Wrestling with History in Upstate New York:"

( Embed: )

* "Sarah Palin Endorses Donald Trump:"

( Embed: )

* "The Legend of Sarah Palin:"

( Embed: )

* "The Larry People vs. Flint - Fallout From Toxic Tap Water in Michigan:"

( Embed: )

* I've been feeling above average crap for over a week, plus my lung machine started to die last Friday and the saga to get it sorted ate a ridiculous about of sleep and wasn't solved until Tuesday. Luckily, i only lost about twelve hours of coverage and my lungs have been doing comparatively well so it was the lost and disrupted sleep that was the more serious issue. I'm suspecting I've picked up a pathogen but my immune system being more focused on self destruction than repelling invaders, it's a slow symptom build up often. We'll see.

Wednesday was a terrible mobility day and forage wore me out well above average. I ended up going to bed ridiculously early. I woke up still tired which had the upside of me reading significantly more of the Night Vale book, which had to go back today. I still haven't finished, but I actually made it through the slow first 2/3rds and was actually starting to enjoy it. (I have a hard time processing poetry, and Night Vale is poetry. It's the same brain wiring glitch that makes my relationship to music complicated. I generally have to listen to night Vale episodes two or three times, and I'm better at processing poetry out loud than silently). There were days I was hard put to make two pages total. So add that nothing much happens for the first half to a third of the book and my struggling with the language, and you can see the problem right there. There were bits and bobs I liked in the slow bits, but I honestly came close to giving up in frustration, but once we ht the absolutely lovely Library section I was fine. I have hopes of finishing next iteration, whenever that is given the line length.

Anyway, the rest of the day was like being eaten very slowly by a python. I did many time consuming things that likely are unnoticeable to anyone else while feeling dizzy, achy and sluggish. So physically a vast improvement over yesterday, but still wildly unpleasant. The cats have already half undone the cleaning of my room. Of course they have. We didn't really have a winter, so half the garden never slept and the bulbs in one of the long tubs are well up, and ones in other containers starting, which meant moving everything around to get better sun for all the things growing. I really wanted the damaged tub to sleep so I could transfer the contents, but we've had lettuce trying to grow in there since about when the last tomato plant went and when I went to try to move the lettuce, there were a bunch of bulbs coming up, so I duct taped things back together as best I could to try to last another year. I sweep and sweep and still keep stepping on glass in unlikely places after Hector's glass breaking tantrums earlier in the week.

* Today I achieved next to nothing and didn't even make it to GoB due to a physical inconvenience that comes with my chronic illness and has nothing to do with pathogens.

* "Thoughts on Writing #49: Leave Reviewers Alone.:" http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/662129.html

* "Frozen: The Economics and Politics of Arendelle :" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/frozen-the-economics-and-politics-of-arendelle/

* "A Tale of Two Discworlds, Or, How I Expected Way Too Much From Obscure Animated Films :" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/a-tale-of-two-discs-or-how-i-expected-way-too-much-from-obscure-animated-films/

* NWS. I want that planter. *hangs head* http://oglaf.com/upcycling/

* Ebays:

( Embed: )

* Help the poisoned children of Flint Michigan. "Water Crisis:" https://www.cfgf.org/cfgf/GoodWork/FlintArea/WaterCrisis/tabid/855/Default.aspx

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* It's looking like Putin's forces have killed a couple hundred people while bombing civilian targets in Syria.

* Someone actually wished me Happy Festivus yesterday! In related news, I have taken to responding to people saying Merry Christmas with Merry Gothmas. (Having never actually seen an episode of Seinfeld, I would feel weird adopting it as a greeting, though I'm considering it.

* My body vetoed the Post Office and bureaucracy. I did have to get hector food and had a dinner engagement with friends. It turns out that the game of what's that smell one of the cats challenged me to last night right before bed was a rather more involved version than previously thought, so instead of doing my lungs I got to play round two and clean up the results. I still ended up arriving late, and I'll be working on fixing it off and on all the rest of this evening. Dinner was fun tough and there was tofurkey, excellent potatoes, gravy, pie, etc.. There were also bourbon balls which I have been longing for 3-4 years now. I have a ball in my mouth right now.
Omnomnom.

* "American Exceptionalism in Speculative Fiction:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/12/american-exceptionalism-in-speculative.html

* "Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Fifteen: All Good Things Must Come to an End:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/12/z-nation-season-two-episode-fifteen-all.html

* "Into the Badlands Season One, Episode Six: Hand of Five Poisons:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/12/into-badlands-season-one-episode-six.html

* "Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 3: The Nightcomers:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/05/penny-dreadful-season-2-episode-3.html

* "Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 4: Evil Spirits in Heavenly Places:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/05/penny-dreadful-season-2-episode-4-evil.html

* This really captures why I'm so angry about Angelique's fridging. "Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 8 Momento Mori:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/06/penny-dreadful-season-2-episode-8.html

* This does a good job of explaining why I’m so angry about Sembene. The thing is, I knew damned well they were going to do the boring, tropey, racist thing, and in something like a minute, I thought of something more interesting they could do instead. But they went for the fridge. Of course they did. "Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 9: And Hell Itself My Only Foe:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/06/penny-dreadful-season-2-episode-9-and.html

* This, this, so much this! "Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 10: And They Were Enemies:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/07/penny-dreadful-season-2-episode-10-and.html

* "The Librarians, Season Two, Episode Eight: And the Point of Salvation:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/12/the-librarians-season-two-episode-eight.html

* Something Positive is doing something beautiful. This child just came out as bisexual to an adult friend.: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp12172015.shtml

* "A First Reaction to The Force Awakens, from a Life Long Star Wars Fan:" http://bb8s.tumblr.com/post/135431272454/a-first-reaction-to-the-force-awakens-from-a-life

* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* "Colombia President Santos offers truce with Farc:" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34661146

* "Bob Dole buries big, old hatchet with Bush endorsement:"

( Embed: )

* "Politicians' 'Secret information' a factual red flag:"

( Embed: )

* "Worlds collide: Reading poetry at a Donald Trump rally:"

( Embed: )

* "Why is Trump hailing 'Operation Wetback?':"

( Embed: )

* "Shocking video of police encounter:"

( Embed: )

* "What the Mizzou protests are really about:"

( Embed: )

* "Cop Handcuffed 7-Year-Old Boy for No Reason and then He Lost the Key:" http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-handcuffed-7-year-old-boy-misplaced-key/

* There is zero reason to hand cuff a seven year old. Seriously. Yes, some of them can be pretty violent, though this child wasn’t. Look at the size differential between even a large seven year old and the average adult. It’s not that hard to restrain an unarmed seven year old gently until the child calms down, which usually isn’t long because nearly all of them have tiny attention spans.

And can we just stop arresting children for things that aren’t actual crimes?

I am tempted to paste one of my other rants on over policing children and proper classroom discipline, like the one I did a few weeks ago after that police thug brutalized a bereaved child who just lost her mother and just landed in foster care for using a phone, breaking her arm and giving her a concussion, traumatizing a room full of other children in the process.

As someone who taught for a living and loved it and only gave it up because my body couldn’t do it anymore, I am furious. Job one for a teacher is to keep the children safe. You never bring in an outside authority to hurt children. Arresting and humiliating a seven year old for having a disability is not protecting the children; it is deliberately harming them. calling in a violent thug to brutally beat a child in mourning is not protecting the children. It is cruelty that oes permanent damage not only to that child, but every child in the room. It breaks the relationship between teacher and students that makes learning possible and traumatized children have trouble learning. We are getting ionto human rights abuse areas for no good reason at all except naked racism.

I am honestly shaking I am so angry and I’m struggling for words that are not obscene, though I know no words as obscene as an act of cruelty like this perpetrated on a child so young.

* "Cop accused of raping black women gets all white jury:" http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-accused-raping-black-women-white-jury-article-1.2423160

* "New Spike Lee film spotlights Chicago gang violence:" http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/12/chicago-violence-spike-lee-movie-cooper-dnt-ac.cnn

* "It's NOT about the Bathrooms:"

( Embed: )

* "Autogynophilia pathologizes normal female behavior:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/133050624532/autogynophilia-pathologizes-normal-female-behavior

* "Upcoming 20th Anniversary Of Chanelle Pickett's Murder:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2015/11/upcoming-20th-anniversary-of-chanelle.html

* "Happy Veterans Day 2015, Trans Vets!:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2015/11/happy-veterans-day-2015-trans-vets.html

* "Oldest evidence of breast cancer found in Egyptian skeleton:" http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/24/us-egypt-antiquities-cancer-idUSKBN0MK20620150324#pVKlpobSTdvMGOoG.97

* "Economic Schools of Thought: Crash Course Economics #14 :"

( Embed: )

* "Wrecked oil train had passed nuclear missile silos:"

( Embed: )

* "What the Actual Fact? - Truth and Fiction in the GOP Debate:"

( Embed: )

* "Blacklash 2016: The Unblackening - Dumbing It Down at the GOP Debate:"

( Embed: )

* "Blacklash 2016: The Unblackening - Donald Trump Is Stupid:"

( Embed: )

* "American Heroes: Campaign Donors Go Big:"

( Embed: )

* "The Federal Election Commission: As Useful as Men's Nipples:"

( Embed: )

* "The Myanmar Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "The Fight Before Christmas - Bloomingdale's Eggnog Ad & Starbucks Cup Controversy:"

( Embed: )

* I actually did get my notes ready in time and was prepared to go, but the boys turned up soaked and frozen out of the storm, just as I was waiting for the oven to get hot enough for the biscuits. I made hot chocolate and we ate and chatted instead as after their trek through win and rain warm and cheerful was what was called for.

It's fine. I woke up feverish again anyway. I've had this pathogen since April and the fever rises and falls like a tide.

* "The linguistics of horror:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/133126946962/the-linguistics-of-horror

* "Fangs For The Fantasy: The Librarians, Season Two, Episode Three:And What Lies Beneath the Stones:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/11/the-librarians-season-two-episode.html

* "Sunday Sweets Gets OVER DRAMATIC:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2015/11/8/sunday-sweets-gets-over-dramatic.html

* "The Great Fucks Famine of 2015:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/133055264912/uglyfun-just-read-it-source-behind-closed

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com