sundries

[rm]

Patty has presumably reached Ohio. When I went to bed last night they were in West Virginia, and it's too early to prod at her now after all of that.

I have my period and feel MISERABLE, on the other hand, I'll be functional by the time I leave for the UK.

Facebook Fail: YA author Owl Goingback has been told by Facebook that he can't join until he provides government documentation that his name isn't fake. It's not fake; it's Native American, like him.

astolat has been hosting an unofficial rewrite of the problematic VividCon accessibility policy in her journal. It now continues here. If you are a con organizer or trying to learn more about being inclusive when it comes to people with disabilities, this discussion, especially the comment-heavy first part, is a must-read.

A review of ellen_kushner's "The Man with the Knives" is out that is spoilery for only the barest bones (literally) of the story, but that has me really excited because yes, yes exactly! and now I get to quote it in my Dragon*Con presentation.

Oh, cool Gilded Age place. Patty and I should visit.

Kai Wright has been answering reader's questions about gay youth.

Why is it so hard to apologize well?

Why is it that when my Mac breaks (track pad click death this time) it always starts working again the second I get to the Genius bar allowing some dude to give me the "stupid chick" face? Oh look, it started doing it again. Track pad replaced. So that's win, although I hate handing the thing over what with the "Battle Butler" wallpaper and the scads of porntastic fanfic on it.

Looks like TW S4 is going to start shooting in January.

Comments

[weirdquark]

Facebook Fail: YA author Owl Goingback has been told by Facebook that he can't join until he provides government documentation that his name isn't fake. It's not fake; it's Native American, like him.

Seriously? Because I know several people who are not using their real name on Facebook, and are in fact using obvious pseudonyms. Though I can't be sure that they didn't register with their real names and are displaying the fake ones -- I don't remember how registration worked.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

*raises hand*

I'm one. After LeakyCon 2009*, I was persuaded to set up a FB under my online nick. I was never asked to supply my legal name, and as I mentioned below, the construction is actually quite similar. I have several bellydancer friends who have similarly set up their FB under their dance names, some more obviously pseudonymous than others.

*Date thrown in because Mr. Goingback's case started in 2008, so it's clear that whatever algorithm "caught" his name a) was already online and b) let mine slide right through.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I know a ton of people with FB accounts that display fake names. I know for sure one set hers up under that name and doesn't have her real name affiliated at all, though it's a plausibly real name; however, many of my roller derby friends have theirs under names that are obviously pseudonyms. I'm astonished that they'd pause one bit at "Owl Goingback" considering the names I see every day. Some of which contain vulgarities and cuss words. As is the nature of roller derby.

[eris.livejournal.com]

Also me! My facebook name is the same noun repeated twice, which is nothing like my actual name. Because my facebook account is strictly limited to a small set of family, real life friends, and a few long term online friends. And my name is everywhere else on the internet that I didn't want people to be able to search for me. There was not a problem doing this.

Case in point, observe my livejournal username, which is my first name.

[eris.livejournal.com]

Also my ex girlfriend/close friend's facebook name is Calico Jane, and MY CAT HAS A FACEBOOK, her name is Princess Sydney. WTF facebook.

Accessibility

[affreca.livejournal.com]

As a midlevel staffer for an anime con, I've been trying to follow the discussion with the intention of making my con better. I've linked to a couple of the posts in our staff forums to get others to think about what we can do better.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Facebook Fail: YA author Owl Goingback has been told by Facebook that he can't join until he provides government documentation that his name isn't fake. It's not fake; it's Native American, like him.


WTF?? I mean, they have never yet questioned my fandom-FB name, which started as Dancing Firefly and became Firefly Dancing when I discovered that what was showing up in people's feeds was "Dancing commented on this" or "Dancing liked that." And that name actually is fake, at least in the sense of "not registered legally anywhere," though it follows a similar construction.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

I don't remember what name I originally signed up with, but I remember I used the last name of "Sporkraptor". I changed it to my "real" name when my mother wanted to connect to me, and I figured it was easier to change it than to explain the pseudonym I'd chosen. Oh, by the way, I wasn't required to give any kind of "proof" when I changed my name on Facebook.

I really hate that site. I'd log in and give my support to Owl, but - it would require logging in, and - bleargh.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Happy Fourth of July!

Really? Facebook boggled at "Owl Goingback"? I have a friend who signed up as "Zeitgeist Fallow."

In re: apologies, did you see this article that copperbadge linked to a few days ago? I Hugged a Man in His Underwear. And I am Proud. Short version: a group of Christians attended the Chicago Pride Parade wearing shirts and bearing signs apologizing for their past homophobia. It's a great illustration of some of the points made in the closing lines of the Times article: "Being asked to forgive restores dignity to the injured. Granting forgiveness is a step toward moving on."

[rm.livejournal.com]

I actually linked to that before Sam did.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Ah, cool. I probably missed it there because I was too busy freaking out over the CAH "treatment" story.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Have you read the updates to it? "Speechless" and "Updates: Hugging a Man in His Underwear".

Now I wonder if I should get a blogger account just so I can follow Nathan's blog.

[askeladden.livejournal.com]

I've got a Facebook friend named "Tallulah Elvis Poodle".

i have to wonder...

[amberite2112.livejournal.com]

what *were* that person's parents thinking??

Re: i have to wonder...

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

They were probably wanting to choose a traditional name in their culture, but instead of having it in a Native language they chose to put it in English.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

*eyes the copies of his brand new name change order on his desk, curses missed opportunities*

Of course, I'm really more of an Elvis Tallulah Poodle...

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I did make it to Ohio! Though not until about 2:30.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yay! Although, UGH.

[azurelunatic]

If those techs are not trained to recognize "intermittent problems that stop when a[nother] tech looks at it" as legitimate, there is something severely lacking in their training, and they need to go back to geek school.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

It looks like the con policies regarding triggers and warnings has become something of a muddled mess. I thought the creation of a "I don't use warnings" label/tag was a good solution to the warnings debate but I see in that first discussion that even that solution makes some people unhappy, for reasons I don't really understand as an artist in my own right.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The fandom community is just that -- a community. Unlike many other scenarios in which there is a creator/consumer divide, there is not one in fandom. Due to how the community functions and who participates in the community, how work is distributed and how access to work is obtained many people believe that it is reasonable to provide content labeling for creative works in a way that allows the consumers to avoid work that may be problematic for them either because of things like migraines, epilepsy and PTSD triggers. Some creators feel this impinges on the potential impact of their work, despite the way the Internet allows that information to be available but not visible to those who don't want to know.

I used to be against warnings, then I realized that in this community allowing people to have information that makes them feel safe before viewing my work means more people will see my work.

While I occasionally will "choose not to warn" because I can't think of what specific warning might be appropriate for a story that is rather unremittingly dark, "choose not to warn" while informative can be sort of annoying. It's like if I go into a restaurant and I say "I can't eat wheat, can you tell me if there's any used to thicken this soup" and they say "We won't tell you that" as opposed to "no, but there's a lot of wheat in our kitchen, so it may not be safe for you."

In the the fan community labeling the tin does not impinge on creative freedom (the way it does with the MPAA ratings system which is full of double-standards, misogynistic and biased against entertainment for adult audiences), and being totally against warnings is, in my own opinion, sort of an asshole move.

But, like I said, I didn't get it for a long damn time.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I was unclear, I understand perfectly the need for warnings and that giving people the information they need is really important. I've never had a problem putting warnings or "contains" type info in my fic headers.

What I didn't understand was the perspective I saw that basically said "I don't want to use the 'i don't use warnings' label because it will create SOME sort of expectation, and I want people to watch my vids with NO EXPECTATIONS WHATSOEVER!" as if art is this precious, delicate thing that can only succeed through very strict presentation conditions and must be privileged over all other factors, including the risk for harm to the audience in question. I just wrote an overly-wordy blurb about it in my LJ, in fact LOL

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry for making the assumption that the not getting it came from the other side. My bad!

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

No worries, it did me no harm :)

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Christamighty! Facebook thinks my name is Stardragon T. Canadian!

I remember when MSM people from "Out East" had trouble believing that a then prominent political activist(who was a bit of a lowlife, which is a completely unrelated matter) in Alberta's last name was Born with a tooth. Which it was. At least one such reported it as "known only as."

There are real people with real names like Mistaken Rider, and Starblanket(or Bridgewater and Acorn for that matter.) It's a big world, and what seems peculiar to you is not some sort of universal standard.
*fumes*

Unrelated P.S.:LJ notifications FUBAR.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

There is a FB group for the Born With A Tooth family, but it looks like Milton's not a member.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

The Facebook thing is very weird. Also outrageous, double-standard-a-go-go, but that just makes it weirder.

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

although I hate handing the thing over what with the "Battle Butler" wallpaper and the scads of porntastic fanfic on it.

Given that I had sufficiently current backups of everything important, I was... actually not too bad with the HD being so completely kaput that time it had to be replaced, 'cos at least I didn't have to worry about What They'd SEEN...

Facebook...

[http://users.livejournal.com/lindalee_/]

I have a friend with the last name 'Breast'... and she had to do the same thing!

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

What's the betting that TWS4 shooting is going to play merry havoc with Gally?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Seven very goddamn motherfucking important words: What if they're shooting in Los Angeles?

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

...

Congratulations. All of the gears in my head just seized. Fucking hell.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Look, we know from EM that shooting likely starts in January and not in Wales (which I suspect will be the last shooting location (waiting until they can keep daylight there longer, since it's the darkest location they'll be using)). If they shoot in studio in the US and not just on location, we can assume that work will be in LA or Vancouver. A six week-ish studio stint makes sense. I'm just saying....

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

That makes good sense, yeah. And really, depending on if Torchwood gets a new base, you can build one of those anywhere.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right in one. Also how likely are TP and KO to be needed for scenes shot outside of Wales?

Which is to say, who's playing the role of surprirse Naoko Mori in 2011?

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

The more I look at stuff, the more likely LA and Vancouver are starting to look.

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

Facebook fails on SO many levels. *teeth grind*