sundries

[rm]

It's cooler today, but about a 100 times more humid. It's truly, truly disgusting and like living on a planet with unscented pea soup for atmosphere.

Today's goal: Letting a bunch of anger go because it doesn't matter if it's right or justified or if I'm entitled to my emotions. It's not solving anything, it's not going to solve anything, and it's just distracting from pretty much everything else in my life. Ah, parents.

Another hard day of work today, but then things ease up and Patty and I have dance tickets tomorrow and there's a vintage beach thing we're going to on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Last night Patty and I had a hilarious and sort of bizarre conversation about how Cardiff will be good for her career as a pirate.

In the UK does anyone have a feeling about Easy Hotel vs. Travelodge?

Having done a bit of reading on Tomorrow's Joe yesterday, I think I'll be able to manage writing my proposal for the D*C academic conference today.

Also, this just crossed my radar. There's adapting the death stuff (current paper isn't just about Ianto at all, but there's plenty of room to do something on death and mourning across DW properties, because yo, regeneration), and there's the deromanticization of immortality across Jack's arc thing I've been screwing with. I'll come up with something.

I'm also being a responsible person and joining The Popular Culture Association (today) and The Science Fiction Research Association (actually in 2011, since they run their membership by calendar years and it's stupid to join now, grrr). 'Cause like I should, or something.

A non-scientific poll on body image and geek events. One thing that popped out at me: over 40% of respondents (who are overwhelmingly female) report having experienced unwanted touching at cons. Check it out.

Anti-Muslim hate on NYC buses. via redstapler.

A man who sleeps with a prostitute is not allowed to donate blood for one year. A gay man may not donate blood ever. Debate on blood donation rules heats up.

Lt. Dan Choi is starting a hunger strike in response to DADT.

Apple surpasses Microsoft in tech. The dreams of my 80s childhood, vindicated!

A horse is not a car: tales of the mounted police.

Last night on Buffy: I'm so glad that Dawn shoplifting thing is finally out. Because that was so awkward and looming. Not sure how I feel about Willow refusing to do magic when it was a pragmatic solution to a potentially life and death problem. And then fucking Riley comes back! Like the wife. Riley's still boring. Spike is "the Doctor?!?" I like Buffy's acceptance that dumb-ass schemes are just part of who Spike is. Love her calling him William. Don't necessarily believe she was just using him or that I would have written her walking away there and in that way. Was grateful for the break from Evil Nerd Conglomerate.

Comments

[elisi]

And then fucking Riley comes back!
Yeah. That's one of the most hated episodes ever - S6 sure has its low points.

As for Spike being 'the Doctor' then the best way of viewing that is to figure that Riley is just lying a little bit, being jealous and all. 'Cause it doesn't make sense otherwise.

(I am generally not a fan of re-writes, but this ep. is an exception. I once added Angel to the mix, as you can see in my icon. It was fun!)

Also thanks for all the links btw. Will try to check them out later.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

the deromanticization of immortality across Jack's arc thing

Yanno, I'd attend that panel at Dragon*Con. Not just Jack, but Spike and Angel, too...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not what I'm pitching for D*C and I can't include Spike and Angel for the DW book, but yeah, I'm doing something with this at some point, because I sort of keep coming back to it over and over and over again.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that immortality is often sort of a curse in sci-fi (Jack, Fellig - a one-shot X-Files character)when sci-fi fans are sort who would like to live to see something like routine space travel or communion with aliens.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's also sort of Twilight/Anne Rice vamps vs. this.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly -- to me, that's romanticized. You can create other vampires to live forever with you! Eternal romance of the ages!

Which is why the vamp!Ianto fic happens. It's more romantic than: "OOPS. An industrial accident made me immortal!"

[rm.livejournal.com]

RADIOACTIVE SPIDERS.

Er, sorry. Just... geek moment.

Also, the Whoniverse argues that heroism is sacrificing your life for a cause. But because of regeneration and Jack's immortality, two of the biggest heroes in the (new) Whoniverse, don't actually get to be, unless you buy, in Jack's case, Face of Boe.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I was totally thinking of radioactive spiders when I replied. GEEKISH!

True, and I think that's why Jack's "deaths" are painful and disturbing, because he does sacrifice himself (and most of the time when he dies, there's someone around who doesn't know he can come back, to display the appropriate amount of "OMG HE'S DIED TO SAVE X!" reaction -- or fool the nemesis).

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

I stayed at Easy Hotel and really liked it. Not fancy, but really clean.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Re: Blood Donations.
We have the same clause, that gays can't donate blood ever and someone who sleeps with a sex-worker can after a year.

I'm a regular blood donor, I'm disturbingly healthy, my blood type is common and I don't have any weird side effects after I give my pint. The thing is, here, because we have a national health care system by donating a pint you're insured in case of an emergency and you need a blood transfusion. That is, if you donate once a year, you're insured for 12 months, once you've given 10, you're insured for life.

Last week I donated and as I was filling in the info on the form I crossed out (like I always do) the "gay clause" and got into a heated argument with the paramedic, how it's a denial of access to medicine and that's it just simply unethical.

She said it was like choosing not to be an organ donor. I was like, "huh, no! You're creating a double standard in medical treatment!"

*sigh*

[rm.livejournal.com]

I assume the gay thing does not apply to women there? It's men who have sex with men here only. I can't donate blood for other reasons (including my weight and that celiac is classified as an auto-immune disorder despite being non-contagious).

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

It's men who have sex with men here only.

Really? This may have changed since I last attempted to give blood (my hematocrit has always been too low to donate), but the way the question was phrased at the time (~15 years ago?), I assumed that if one had ever had sex with a man who had had sex with a man, one was out.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's no mentioning of women who have sex with women. It's only men who have sex with men all over the West as far as I'm aware. The thing is that I tried to explain that the unsafe sex clause was applicable to everyone because no one is immune to AIDS and other STI's and she was like, well what can I do, we go according to the European Model.
Gah, like blocks of wood.

There's hardly any knowledge in my parts regarding women who have sex with women. I had to explain to my GYN that yes I am sexually active, no not with a man, yeah that really is sex!
Jesus.
And she's got a good reputation to boot.

[rm.livejournal.com]

That may be true, I can't recall (since, again with the, I can't give blood for like 800 other reasons). What I meant was it does not explicitly exclude gay women for being gay, and I got the impression from what eumelia said that in Israel is excludes gay women as well.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

And then fucking Riley comes back!

We've restarted Buffy from Season 1, and I'm already dreading getting to Riley. He's so. very. annoying. I noticed that he returns in Season 6 and I was surprised that he hadn't been ushered out death's door the way most people exit that series.

[graene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was noticing from the comments on the link, that there's this implicit assumption that women don't do anal and that gay men (high risk!) never sleep with a women 'just once'.

Perhaps they need to re-phrase entirely: have you had any sexual contact other than with an exclusive, established monogamous partner in the last month?

Or more simply even: Have you had sex in the last two weeks?

And they are still happy to take my blood even though the alopecia is auto-immune. Huh.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Aha, I understand.

Including gay women in a ban doesn't make any sense to me. But I suppose that the medical establishment just doesn't always make sense.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I don't give blood, but having slept with a man who has slept with men, is that really another reason I can't? Seriously?

What shit.

[rm.livejournal.com]

And it turns out I misread eumelia, so it's moot. But yeah, it wouldn't make sense at all. Israel is, as far as I can tell from my discussions with her, very "what the hell is a lesbian?"

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Huh? Nope, there's no exclusion of gay women for being gay. Was I vague?

There's barely acknowledgement that gay women have sex (with each other, without a man somewhere to watch).

[rm.livejournal.com]

You were slightly vague. But now everyone clarified to everyone at the same time which has actually made this more confusion, but we all understand what's going on now!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

HAHA! That's a great summery of Lesbian/Bisexual Women' visibility in Israel!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It's a messy thread!

Sorry for the confuzzling.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Well, on top of that, the whole donation ban thing was supposed to scrub the blood pool of HIV and Hep C, and women tend not to transmit either of those to other women. (And now, of course, there's all the complicated "if you lived in these places where variant CJD has been found for X period of time, you can't give blood" stuff.)

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Bleah.

At least when doctors here in Massachusetts ask me what form of birth control I use, and I say, "Lesbianism," they don't do more than pause to let the little wheels turn a few rotations before writing a note on the form.