quick sundries

The last two Art of Manliness newsletters have been about how to make the perfect cup of coffee (Monday) and loss, grief and manliness (today). I am not even kidding. Hopefully bodlon is laughing as hard as I am.

Preliminary Dragon*Con schedule with no way of knowing if I am scheduled against everything I care about. It's causing me HUGE angst. Which is really dumb and irrational, especially since everything I care about -- totally people I've seen at cons eight-billion times before, and the ones I haven't are totally the ones I'm not going to wind up scheduled against. Blargh blargh blargh.

Patty heads out to family stuff tomorrow. I'm pouty because I'm sooooooooo enjoying being home with her.

Woah has there been a spate of great Torchwood fic posted in the last 48 hours. Good times.

Oh hey, Gary Russell will be at the next DWNY thing.

my Dragon*Con programming

I don't think any of this is going to get moved around or that I'm going to add/drop anything, although there's a possibility of changes, because a) it's a con and b) because of one particularly strange ball I have in the air still on this.

Women Warriors in YA
The field of battle is forbidden ground in most historical novels. Come explore the art of war where women fight as well as rule, and strong female role models are truly strong.
Time: Fri 08:30 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

Alternative Sexualities in YA: Not Your Mother's YA Book!
Explore the full spectrum of human emotion and love in this panel covering GLBT characters in literature. Bring your recs and a pad of paper as we discuss this growing field.
Time: Sat 10:00 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

Identity in SF & Fantasy -- this is the Snape and gender paper!
How do portrayals of villains, monsters, and aliens reflect conceptions of human identity? Our panel examines this in different ways.
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Greenbriar - Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

This is only relevant if you're in the contest, you can't like, come see me at this really.
Yule Ball Costume Contest Judging
Contestants wishing to participate in the Young Adult Lit costume contest will please come to the track room (Marriott A707) for pre-judging. Winners will be announced at the Yule Ball.
Time: Sun 05:30 pm Location: A707 - Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Judge for panel

RFR: Rapid Fire Readings
Want a variety pack of SF/F voices? The broads at Broad Universe bring you a buffet of snack readings!
Time: Sun 07:00 pm Location: Fairlie - Hyatt (Length: 2.5 Hours)
(I won't be there for all of it in all probability... I'll give you a better sense of when I'm on when I've got a plan for this and see the rest of the schedule -- probably reading part of my gay airship pirate/minor prince story that, you know, maybe I'll finally finish)

Also, people, look at my Sunday schedule! I want a drink waiting for me when I'm done! Alert DrinkBot2000, or the pirates, or something!

Also, if I do the thing (*cough*, cosplay, *cough*) I'm not supposed to do, that will be happening on Friday or Saturday. Waiting to hear about other things/meetings in part, but a lot of it will just depend on the state of my brain.

on the Internet and betrayal

I want to be writing about how awesome WriterCon was.
I want to be writing one of a billion Torchwood fics I should be working on, or any of a couple of essays I've been asked to do for anthologies.
I want to be writing responses to the slash panel talking points I found so problematic from that one session at WriterCon.

But I don't get to talk about that today.

Instead, I have to talk about trust and about what it means to err on the side of kindness.

Despite the fact that I am often harsh, that I call it like I see it, if I can help you, I often will. If that means money, professional advice, listening to the grief of stories, I give it if I've got it -- because people being generous with me, often more generous that I deserved at the time, is how I'm able to have the life I have. It's how I'm able to have any life at all.

But my trust and the trust of people I adore has been abused epically of late, in a number of ways, by a number of people. These include people misrepresenting their identity to cause rupture in a community that matters to me, people lying about death and disease in their lives to get money and attention and people exaggerating for the purpose of social manipulation and attention situations in which I would have no problem with them legitimately asking for help and my providing it in return.

And now I'm pissed. Because when you do that, you hurt people who do need help, and lord knows there are plenty of them.

I could do wrath and rage. I want to do wrath and rage. But I know whatever anger and eloquence I can muster will do nothing more than make these petty, craven, bored and broken sorts snigger or perhaps work harder to cover their tracks. So it doesn't matter.

Do good because you can do it. Do good because of what it says about you. Do good because it is there to be done.

The five minutes of my time, the five dollars donated, whatever -- all perfectly worth it so I don't have to feel I did less than I could have, just so I could have the privilege of never being embarrassed on the Internet.

You didn't get away with anything; you merely received compassion.