sundries

[rm]

Announcing The Society of Friends of the Text. This is an outgrowth of what we did in Bristol and while there isn't a lot of content there yet, there will be soon. I'm hoping to finish my conference report tonight to post there and will post my response to the paired paper there eventually as well.

usullusa recently came out to her (I actually don't know your pronoun preference, let me know if I should change this) parents as queer. Their response has been to bar her from their house (when they are not trying to confine her to it), threaten her physically, use dehumanizing language towards her, demand she beg their forgiveness, harass her when she has been outside the home and engage in gender-policing towards her.

They have also agreed to continue paying for her education, although no one is sure how long that will last and the situation is largely set up to prove that usullusa can't survive without their approval. It is less the one note of generosity in a terrible situation than it is part of their plan to control her and isolate her.

Still, usullusa is no fool, and is absolutely going to finish her education while she can. But she needs work. In the long term, something in the New York City area that will be flexible around her class schedule. In the short term, work she can do remotely as she is trapped with her family in CT without a car.

If you can assist her in this NYC-area hunt for long-term or odd job employment, please let her know. She has posted a remarkably sanitized run-down of her situation here. She is someone Patty & I both know in the face-to-face world, and we are frustrated not to be able to offer the types of resources needed here. I can, however, be loud.

The auction to help theotoky graduate college is also ongoing. You can find it at graduate_maria. The fundraising goal is $5,000. Right now, including donations, buy-it-now items, and bids for items that haven't yet closed, we're just past the $1,000 mark. Please consider bidding, offering an item or boosting the signal. Why we're holding this fundraiser is explained in the community profile information.

Heaven help us: newyorkers is a spotlight community on LJ currently. Meanwhile, I may strangle someone. Look at the tags. Be specific in your queries. And don't tell us about how you love New York City but have never been here but really miss it. Or post your crappy photo essay about it from three years ago. Or otherwise get in the way of what the community is for: practical help on specific issues for people living here, people visiting, and people thinking about coming here. Arrrrrrrgh!

Problems with early breast cancer detection.

Constance McMillan has won: Her school will update its anti-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation (a first for Mississippi) and pay her $35,000.

Gay marriage and the Indian diaspora in California. via redstapler.

Essentially teen-retailer (okay, Patty and I both totally shop there) Forever 21 is now marketing maternity wear in, coincidentally, states with higher than average rates of teen pregnancy. They deny the marketing strategy (try harder, folks), and soon enough, you'll hear various squeals of outraged horror that someone is suggesting that young pregnant people be allowed to wear something other than sackcloth, ashes and a wooden sign that says "whore" around their necks. This one isn't going to be fun. via redstapler.

bitsyrant talks about a relatively innocuous-seeming (if catty) tweet from Steven Moffat and why it can/will/may actually create a big mess by implication and, as such, was a pretty ill-advised moment.

I hate this Auggie/Jack story. I've written it three different ways three different times and it's STILL NOT WORKING. I'm hoping watching Covert Affairs tonight will help me solidify Auggie's voice better (which oddly, doesn't seem to be the problem, but would make me feel more confident). And certainly these three versions of the story that will never see the light of day have revealed various interesting things to me, even if I'm still boggling about how he and Jack got talking about amphetamines. No, I don't know what this story is doing, all I know is it's not doing it effectively yet.

I haven't looked at this in a while, but moving into SDCC and with the not-unsurprising aftermath of Infinitus at hand and a current Twitter kerfluffle or two (not directly related to Moffat), it seems a good time to relink patronage, transactional relationships and fandom. Maybe if I have time later (and let's be frank, I probably won't), I'll write a bit about for-profit and non-profit cons and why neither should suck, but sometimes both do for totally different reasons. Of course, both versions can also bring the awesome.

Last night Patty and I returned to Angel. Wesley's found that shaman guy to take Angel's soul and we had that half-episode fake-out about vanquishing the demon that, of course, wasn't vanquished. So that hilarious ex-boyfriend apology reunion conversation (through which I shouted continuously "RTD IS SUCH A WESLEY/ANGEL SHIPPER, OMG!") wasn't real, nor was the resolution of the completely fucktacular triangle between Connor, Cordelia and Angel. This episode more than any other made me think of the warnings I've been given about Angel, especially by Kali (which was basically "people think I don't like it because it's dark; I don't like it because it's structurally crap"). It can still redeem itself for me, and I'm very invested in some of the characters, but OMG, what is happening there?

Meanwhile, who wants an "Angel vs. Torchwood: Cracky Spinoff Deathmatch" panel at Gallifrey? I don't really know what it would be about, but I think it would be AWESOME.