sundries

[rm]

Signups have begun for therealljidol. I will not be competing. To be frank, I feel a little pissy that it's such a no-go situation for me. But, eh. I hope the people who play have fun.

The New York Times asserts that in the workplace women are doing better, because men are doing worse. The assertion is unsettling, especially if you read the article, which is more about the fact that women are more likely to be maintaining a financial status-quo in the downturn because they are less expensive hires (still earning $.77 on the dollar) and perceived as being non-assertive and "willing to settle." Those are the disturbing conclusions of the piece, so why they front-and-center this sinister idea of women capitalizing on the failures of men instead, I am not sure.

Donor's Choose has always been one of my favorite charities, and in mentioning it to Patty, she mentioned to me a fundraising initiative related to it sponsored by one of her favorite blogs.

So I'm going to do NaNo this year, just to try to bang out a draft of the chick-lit novel. It needs a title and a summary which I should sit down and come up with at some point. I'm terrible at titles, but the thing I call it in my head (since it's a chick-lit novel set in the world of SF/media conventions) is ConSweet. I know, awful! Apologies in advance to anyone I have ever spent time with at a con, the city of Chicago (where I am setting this thing), and the entire public relations profession (you can't write chick-lit without a character who works in PR. You just can't!). Anyway, I'm full of shame, but this should be a funny lark and a good exorcism, since it's been kicking around my head for over a year.

France is considering requiring warning labels on photoshopped images.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I look at LJ Idol, but last year, there was something in the way people told their stories that got to me. Not everyone, but a number of popular writers had what I think of as a Reader's Digest, pseudo-inspirational style of writing that got up my nose in abundance. (One or two such articles don't bother me; when it seems to be 80% of the pieces I'm reading, that's too much.) And the politicking was just... dumb.


All I can say is yes. Although last year was better than the year before I thought. The fact that I was willing to mention the Reader's Digest factor (Although you are more succint, that's so EXACTLY it, I nattered for a while) did not endear me to people either.

We'll see if I actually manage Nano, but if nothing else, it made me write a damn chick-lit novel summary.

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

I'm not doing it this year either - grad school aps are probably the only writing I'll have time for.

Definitely going to miss you in the competition though - you're one of the people I vote for most consistently. Your writing style is so much more sophisticated than most of the rest of the competition.