sundries

[rm]

We had a very nice weekend that mostly involved hiding in places with airconditioning and Patty singing the Batman theme to the cats a lot ("CAAAAAAAAATCAT!" instead of "BAAAAAAAAAAAATMAN!"). It was awesome.

This is the final week to bid on things at graduate_maria. I'll be putting up some new items tonight. For those that missed it Maria (theotoky is a long-time friend that I helped get out of an abusive relationship many, many, many moons ago and is now trying to finish her last semester of college but has run out of funds, (this after supporting her abuser through school when they were together). Maria has just, on top of everything else, lost her job and so needs our help more than ever. Projected fundraising total is currently at about $1,200, which means we've $3,800 to go to get her tuition bill paid. Can we do it Internet?

lucylooo died over the weekend. Her work was familiar to many in fandom, and while I knew her stuff but not her, I get the impression she was pretty awesome. Fuck cancer. Do what you can to fight it. This snuck up on her fast and took her quick. My condolences to those who knew her. I saw this multiple times on my friendslist yesterday, so my impression is that there are a lot of you out there hurting.

While there aren't plane tickets or anything involved yet, yeah, it looks like I am heading back to Switzerland in October, which I pretty much already knew but it just got more official.

At least a partial Dragon*Con schedule this week, I'm guessing, since one of the tracks that has the biggest impact on my schedule has promised me "before the end of the month." And hey, tsarina will be attending too!

30x30: dance in the streets of New York.

Scuzzi the cat.

I got this from eumelia who is in Israel about something going on in the UK: but "Brokeback Coalition" what? I assume this is the further, and increasingly less amusing, outgrowth of the whole "let's write slashy RPF about our incredibly disatisying coalition government"? Anyone who can fill me in here?

Peripherally on point, I suppose: xtricks's hilarious guide to teh buttsex! which was linked yesterday is now, among other things, serving as a listing of the worst things we've ever read used as lube in fanfiction and pro erotica. Current entrants (ha!) include chocolate, peanut butter, alcohols and guacamole. Can you add to the horror? I bet you can.

Where are all the lesbians in UK TV?¹ The article asks (I'm over-simplifying their oversimplifying) if we are invisible because we're not about men the way UK TV is. I ask how slash does or does not factor into an attempt at visibiity by queer women in fandom by making it about the dudes, since femmeslash remains fandom's arguably least visibile component. via andrewducker.

A letter to patients with chronic disease has been making the rounds, largely to very positive reviews. I've had a profound problem with it, however, as, despite containing useful, pragmatic and even illuminating information, read as one long, condescending tone argument to me (and I may be the most allergic to the tone argument of everything, because I'm loud, and I don't strive to take up as little room as possible, so I get it a lot).

firecat has a good, brief critique that hits at that sideways by talking about the inherent doctor/patient imbalance in the system and the implications of what that means when a patient has to expend lots of energy reassuring the doctor that he's still the most powerful guy in the room just to get their condition dealt with.

Have not seen Sherlock yet. Will get on that ASAP, which probably means like next week, schedule being what it is.

For those of you who don't read the Internet on the weekends, I wrote a looooong thing about marketing online. Stil owe you a post about Inception, though, that's other than "Suits, pretty."

Okay, I'm only like 20% through the Jack/Auggie story, but it's finally working.

---

¹ Maybe Buffy stole them?

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, saw it. It is politely and perhaps even generously defensive. I stopped myself from engaging directly. The fact that it helps people if they can treat their doctors as human and recognize their insecurities is indisputable, but why the burden of bedside manner should be on a patient frequently in too much pain to be at their best as well as the gendered tone of the initial piece ("I, male doctor, talk down to you, chronically afflicted women") are not addressed. I will accept this as beyond the range of what the doctor was choosing to address, but that only serves to underline the ways in which the medical system is stacked against patients with chronic or complex issues who are female and/or non-normatively gendered and/or (over)educated about their condition and/or self-advocates no matter how polite.

It's depressing stuff.

[n-decisive.livejournal.com]

I will make a point of reading it today, but I feel certain I will agree with your assessment.

Yes, it is depressing.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

I am extremely lucky with my current GP even though he can sometimes be slightly made of fail (says things without thinking how they might sound to an over-educated Aspie, although to give him his due he does tend to notice when he's done that and apologise).

If I report that X drug had bad effects, he doesn't even contemplate putting me on it.

He is a little upset that I find going to the doctor to be an inherently stressful exercise, but there's nothing he can do about it TBPH. These are powerful fight-or-flight reactions triggered by some really truly appalling doctors I encountered through my childhood (from the practice that got my dad sectioned for three months for appearing confused when he simply couldn't hear what they were saying because his hearing aids were inadequate) and early adulthood (a consultant who performed a colposcopy on me without my consent when I was pregnant, and left me in danger of miscarrying).

He really truly can't see how bad doctors can be because his own ethical code wouldn't let him behave even 1% as badly as that.