sundries

Tony Lee, comics writer, Whovian, force of malevolence, and honorary Torchwood Lesbian has a comic in a contest that could win him and the artist, Stefano Martino, a DC Comics contract. The contest ends today, and he needs your vote. The comic involves Nazi vampires and Allied forces led by Jonathan and Mina Harker, among other things. I'm not a huge comics person in general, but it's cool stuff and these folks know how to tell a story. Also? Tony says that if he wins he'll put a sparkly vampire in it for the Twilight fans. _And_ he'll kill the sparkly vampire for the non-Twilight fans. Anyway, you have to register to vote, but it only takes a moment. I would consider it a personal favor.

Most of my friendships are pretty intense one-on-one affairs. I think it's an only child thing. Certainly, I've never much had the group of friends that one just hangs out with and has a good non-deep time with. Not when I was younger and not as an adult. By and large, I don't mind this. I think I'm pretty lucky when it comes to emotional connections and mutual support systems. But the fact remains I have no idea how to create those good yet casual friendships of good times and hilarity. I also tend to not understand or recognize good-natured teasing (although Patty's been helping with that) or the difference between when I'm the life of the party and when I'm telling a story no one fucking cares about anymore.

And then there was last night, where I realized how much some casual friends do really get a kick out of my company and have genuine fondness for me. It was strange to keep winding up a center of attention, despite moving tables twice just to sorta hang out more quietly with my closer tribe. Also, I got nailed with the teasing humour but good, not once, but twice, and rose to the occasion rather magnificently, at least for me, even if today I keep wondering if I should be embarrassed.

Sorry to be all like "I'm kinda awesome," but despite the seeming size of my ego, that's actually not something I feel that often. It's like this whole vista of understanding human interaction that should have opened up to me when I was seventeen finally clicked last night and I blame Doctor Who.

These are strange days.

Tried Red Bridge gluten-free beer last night. Being gluten-free and being brewed by Bud didn't make it sound too promising, but I like it a lot, more than, I think New Grist. It was a bit darker and seemed more like a specific intentional beer than a beer replacement. I was never a big beer drinker, but some occasions just call for a bottle, and that was nice. Christ, I have no tolerance anymore.

Assuming our panel schedules work out accordingly, the Torchwood Lesbians and their invited guests/honorary members will be having a hilarious off-campus excursion at Gally 2010. Planning is already in motion.

For you kids headed to Hurricane Who, word on the street is that you are sharing the hotel with a dog grooming convention. The question is whether it's regular dog grooming or Extreme Dog Grooming (Google it). Have fun with the canine topiary!

OMG, everyone is so excited about the real fandom for the fake TV show in my soon to be real book. I love everyone!

Yet more on the Richmond gang rape. I only wish all those people watching didn't call 911 merely because they "didn't want to get involved." Sadly, the more likely case is that at least some of them were enjoying the show. Discussion in comments below gets heated and triggery. As if you couldn't guess.

In good news, the federal hate crimes law has been passed and signed. As the text message Obama sent Patty at 5am (THIS IS NOT APPROPRIATE) said, the bill will protect people from violence based on "what they look like, who they love, how they pray or why they are." This is the first major federal law protecting LGBT people.

Now what we really need is an includes ENDA (Employee Non-Discrimination Act) that doesn't throw trans folk under the bus (for those of you who don't follow this stuff closely, every time something like the Hate Crimes thing or ENDA comes up and there's resistance to it there's this move to get a compromise that usually involves certain LGBT rights organizations (I'm looking at you HRC; this is why Lambda Legal gets my money instead) leaving out trans folk as part of that compromise.

More news on DADT. Is it just me or is it starting to seem like everyone wants to end DADT but no one has the stones to stand up and be responsible for it so they're all playing chicken with other people's lives and livelihoods as well as our national security?

Last night Patty showed me the AWESOME Yuletide fanvid which I found surprisingly moving because of how many random obscure things that mean a lot lot me are in it. Also, here, have a really fascinating post that includes some pretty interesting and dismaying observations about race and representation in the source materials.

I may be an actor, but I do have my pride: so no, I will not be a brand ambassador for a New Jersey Stop & Shop opening.

egg ban!

The local supermarkets are no longer selling eggs in preparation for Halloween. The sign from the local precinct says this started back on October 26th and eggs won't resume being available until November 2.

I'm really disturbed by this. It certainly never happened in other New York City neighborhoods I've lived in, and let me tell you, there was a lot of egg activity on Avenue C back when. But even so, I mean, yay, not getting egged. But we live in a poor neighborhood and a lot of people who live here mostly don't even leave the neighborhood. And now people aren't allowed to buy eggs for a week because they might throw them at people?

Department of creepy and biased.