sundries

Patty left yesterday for an archaeology conference in Atlanta. She'll be back Sunday. Text messages indicate things are going well.

While she's gone it's work as much as possible time. Except for last night's writing meeting with Kali that went horribly wrong when our bar of choice was invaded by some horrible Columbia university undergraduate reading which featured a terrible non-fiction essay in which the author linked her cat's intestinal blockage with the Enron crisis and then complained about her inability to understand the futures market. People listened with rapt attention, applauded with enthusiasm and then fawned over the follow-up which was some blond, patrician boy who had someone read a Nigerian scam letter as his intro (which I found jaw-droppingly offensive for a long list of reasons) and then read from his I'm Losing You/Wild Palms/lost in the wilderness of Los Angeles wanky bullshit novel. At that point, we ran like fucking hell and wound up in an Irish pub with karaoke.

I thought the one thing I could expect from an Obama presidency was an end to outrage fatigue. Not so much. Our government tortured in our names. This did not make us safer. This did not garner us information. It merely made us lower than animals. The more I read, the more it seems like a series of acts committed as nothing more than an exercise of vindictive, spiteful power authorized by those too self-loathing and cowardly to even see what they were doing or why they felt compelled to do it. It's why people rape, codified into memos. We must prosecute.

shadesong is having a series of fundraising events so that she can send her daughter to a fantastic academic summer program. Check out her journal and help her out.

I hate when people write truly mediocre fic about critical subjects. It makes me sad.

In the realm of WTF: the latest fundraising letter from HRC offers a tote-bag like premium for donations of $48 or more and notes that the bag is modeled on those carried by soldiers in WWII. Um, other than amusing Torchwood fandom, why?, HRC, WHY? I sorta want one.

and then CNN weighs in with help from Oprah

Women! Leaving men! For women! *gasp*

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/04/23/o.women.leave.menfor.women/index.html

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200904-omag-women-leaving-men/4?cnn=yes

gender identity and fandom

shadowravyn is doing a survey for a school project.

http://shadowravyn.livejournal.com/402296.html

Go forth and provide data!