sundries

[rm]

It is snowing.

I am still in the whole don't know what day it is, sleeping weird hours, not really well place.

Patty is home in 8 days. 8! And India seems to be about to sort itself out. We also need to sort out Ohio (it's partially sorted, but I need to get a flight and all), and for me, Gally.

Too much work, and a writing meeting tonight, but hoping to take an hour out of my day to go to All Saints Spitalfields about a coat.

Have come through the "Sherlock's brain upsets me" and out the other side thing. Have also discovered the crap in the fandom. Oh, fandom.

Despite not wanting to and having no time, I did bang out a short screenplay for that competition. I like it less, but think it's probably better than the first one. I didn't try to write it as a shooting script and I didn't try to be artsy. Simple, simple, simple. Whatever, it was a matter of pride that I get it done, and so I did.

Wikileaks: as someone on Twitter said, "I'm not sure that I'm pro-Wikileaks, but I know I'm anti anti-Wikileaks." As far as I can tell: much of this information deserves to be made public, but much of it is unnecessary, boring, or creating absurd problems without solving any; Assange's an asshole who likes the power of this whole thing; the rape allegations are creepy whichever way that plays out; the US government is ridiculous for telling students interested in working in the foreign service not to post about or link to Wikileaks (because now that it's out there, we probably shouldn't acknowledge that it's actually happening? More on that, that also clarifies some misinformation going around is in a helpful link in comments); and the media is pissed that someone else is doing their job. What a car crash. As a character in a narrative, Assange's riveting and makes a good visual story. And he knows it. I can't tear myself away from the whole mess, although if I hear one more USian say that we should try Assange for treason, I'm going to scream. He's not a US national; he can't be tried for treason. Other stuff, sure, but do people even know what treason means anymore?

Hey, I went off on slacktivism on Facebook yesterday, and now I'm going to do it here, because I have more room to do it here.

Changing your Facebook or Twitter icon or participating in a meme is not activism. It can, however, a way to draw attention to an issue. But if you do nothing with that attention, it's wasted. Changing your icon and then posting a status message saying "I changed my icon to support children who are abused" doesn't tell me anything. Include a link to an organization that I can give me time or dollars to. Don't know one? That's okay! Ask people for one in that status message update. All it takes is an extra three seconds to make a potentially meaningless gesture into a potentially meaningful one, just by asking for people who may be more up on the issue to tell you about resources they know about.

Also "repost this if you support gay rights" stuff? Especially stuff that's sort of bullying and implies if you don't repost it you don't support gay rights or whatever the issue is? Fucking obnoxious. My journal, my words, my life. Those memes are honestly upsetting.

And then there are the innuendo-y memes (there's been a few of these to raise breast cancer lately) about "where do you like it," are also annoying. Because they don't connect to the issue, and if the only way we care about women's health is by making innuendos about fucking, we have a problem.

I am not saying don't do memes. Sometimes I change my Twitter icon for stuff too! I am not saying symbolism isn't important -- see: the AIDS ribbon. I am not saying my issues have to be your issues -- we all have different priorities and that's okay too. But I am saying that these gestures without context are the waste of a good opportunity; that only clicking the "like" button doesn't doesn't save lives; that the Internet is a powerful tool for high-impact activism through the accumulation of relatively low-impact gestures in you add a little bit of strategy to the mix.

$$, time, personal testimony, outreach to those in need, political contact are how change happens. Visibility is a tool that makes those things happen. But people aren't mind readers, and if they aren't already energized about your issue, they aren't going to go seeking shit out on their own. They need to be activated, and your innuendo, your snazzy new icon, your "say this or you suck" isn't going to do the job without just a little bit more.

Today is the 21st anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre in which to "fight feminism" a gunman killed 14 women, wounded 10 others, and also wounded four men before turning the gun on himself.

In the US, queer teens are more likely to be punished harshly by schools, cops, and courts than their straight peers. In fact, a study shows that while teens who self-identify as queer are less likely to be involved in violent crime, they are more likely to be expelled, stopped by the police, arrested, or convicted of a crime. Those at the highest risk for punishment? Girls who label themselves as lesbian or bisexual.

Courtroom makeover: "We mostly do weddings."

I think most New Yorker's know this, but before St. Patrick's, there was another St. Patrick's, which still stands in the edge of Soho in what was once Five Points. Among other things, it is the burial place of Pierre Toussaint, and it has just been made a basilica. It's also one of my favorite things in New York.

Peep-o-rama reopens, sort of. Safe for work.

Stuff to sell for the holiday gift-giving season? Need to go shopping? Check this post. Thanks.

Comments

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Sorry.

You're quite right, that is Muraki. But for reasons that aren't worth going into, it's my 'Anything is fixable/don't tell me what's realistic' icon. I often forget that people who recognize Muraki but don't know me at all are going to see psycho killer guy. So no, if it helps, I didn't intend to associate Assange with Dr. Fine, if Surgery Doesn't Work I'll Try Magic. And Murder. And Drinking Your Life Force.

Even if Assange's project is hosted on servers in a place any white-haired supervillain would be proud of.

[akycha.livejournal.com]

So no, if it helps, I didn't intend to associate Assange with Dr. Fine, if Surgery Doesn't Work I'll Try Magic. And Murder. And Drinking Your Life Force. And gaslighting!

It was oddly appropriate, yet over the top. :)

To tell you the truth, I wouldn't say no to the mountaintop lair if someone offered it to me, and I have no current plans to take over the world, and utterly no use for servers like that. Those were some impressive photos in the article.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Would anyone say no to it? Anyone with taste??

I'm actually still sort of stunned by the sheer beauty of the place. The way the levels work, and the glass, and the interior gardens -- I wish to God I could think of some skill I have that the company might need and be unable to find in the European workforce. I'd apply in a heartbeat, just to be able to go to work in those spaces every day.

It was oddly appropriate, yet over the top. :)

Well, but wrong in at least one strangely prominent detail. Muraki never gets charged with rape, no matter what he actually does.

[akycha.livejournal.com]

Well, Muraki rapes people and then kills them so that they can't accuse him (documented/shown case) or rapes dead people (er, that came out wrong -- "people with no access to the living justice system," or perhaps we should just borrow Pratchett's "differently alive" and leave it at that, in the implied case) so perhaps being a sociopath works for a while, for some definitions of "work" which include "not being accused of rape because one is not afraid to murder every which way as well."

Sadly, this method is often tried by non-fictional sociopaths, and seems to work pretty well, as long as it targets "disposable" people.

I admit that I wondered where Assange/Wikileaks & Co. got the money to furnish such a lovely place.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Hey, given that memory-suppression thing he could be raping live people too, with no interference at all from the living justice system. If you don't remember anything, you're unlikely to bring it to the attention of law enforcement, right? It's tidier than relying on fear, and it would work better than murder -- after all, with murder there's likely to be a corpse, and no way of stopping an investigation before any physical evidence is found.

Although I suppose it's also possible that somewhere in the files of the law enforcement authorities in the YnM universe, there's a note attached to an eyes-only file that reads, "Do Not Investigate Further. We Mean It. Don't Go There." And where if you have sufficient authorization, you can follow the records to one or two incident reports that involve arrest attempts and/or other criminal justice proceedings that were abruptly and showily terminated when the defendant summoned up a giant winged dragon and incinerated everyone in the vicinity. Somewhere in the annotations to these files you may find one from a very senior official, handwritten in the margins, that reads, 'Demonstrated ability to vanish from one spot and reappear in another. Even if we can convict him we can't hold him, so let's not waste any more resources.'

-- Right. Sorry, it's the worldbuilding instinct leading me astray. What I meant to say was, the mountainside lair doesn't belong to Assange or Wikileaks, but rather to the company that provides their hosting. In a way it's a shame -- it would be so much more colorful if the place were actually entirely theirs -- but at least we don't have to wonder whether they really are a giant profit-making Evil Conspiracy.

[akycha.livejournal.com]

The company that provides their hosting is POSH. Someday in the Land of Infinite Money, I will get them to furnish a nice little castle in Spain for me.

RE: Muraki. You just made my brain do a Yami no Matsuei and X-Files crossover, which was Not a Good Thing.