badgerbag

Drove Zond-7 to Milbrae, came home and cleaned up a little and so on. Hung out with Moomin taking photos of spiderwebs and bees.



I was feeling sad and tired but then perked up for our party. Rook's classmates are super nice and fun and I like to be a party host. so that was awesome. We did bbq chicken and sat in the yard, which wasn't too hot but instead was stunningly perfect weather suddenly at 5pm when they started to show up! People in their 20s! a bunch of them ! Lively! I am old... They have all just moved here from other places into dorms and student housing at Staffnord and over the course of the party all sidled up to me to say how nice it was to be in an actual home. I felt the full force of girlycon-esque feelings wash over me. They have now all gone off with Rook (taking Moomin, appallingly past his bedtime) to see fireworks. I love fireworks passionately but am not physically up to a giant trek in crowded and cold and damp conditions (they are over the water out at the port and VERY lot of traffic etc, only worth it if you go hours before hand with blankets and food and establish yourselves). rae_beta went to emperor norton's grave and then likely out somewhere in SF with people. I already miss her and she's only stayed in my house 2 days!

*** a wad of classmates came back ***

The best bit of the party aside from the school folks being nice was Nukie's cousins coming over. His small cousins were afraid to come into the yard full of grown ups. "Don't LOOK at them" Nuku advised. "Just walk by. There are MARSHMALLOWS." We made s'mores. The small cousins got more comfortable and then the big teenage cousins drifted in like big awkward hulking almost-teenagers. I think the biggest one who often ends up here is maybe 12 but he looks almost adult - I feel very happy to give him popsicles and have him run with the little kids. Rook disarmed them with some good questions about the rules of the ball game they play in the street, which is rugby and which is what they play in Tonga. They know a lot and are very willing to explain it, which broke the ice! THEN... I pulled out some snaps (the kind you throw on the ground and they explode) and rolls of red paper caps for cap guns. "The experts should dispense them to the others" ... "I'm an expert! I'm an expert!" but no one had ever done it. The older kids were extremely bold in taking rocks so big they're boulders and dropping them on a whole roll of caps unrolled & then folded over. Anyway, picture us all sticky with marshmallows and it being about 9pm - dusk - and me in my wheelchair in the driveway maniacally snipping off pieces of red gunpowder papers. And let's see, Moomin and Nukie, the two small cousins, and then at least 3 older ones, kind of flipping out with rocks and gunpowder. SO AWESOME!!!!



I felt much better about the day!

I got to feel a bit like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, which I always enjoy (but which I have mixed feelings about sometimes because it's a lot of work and I don't have as much energy as I'd like to spare.)

read a little bit of the "free range kids" book which is not useful for me because I already think that way but which might be a good present for several children I know. Perhaps E. or her friend Octavia.

rae_beta gave us a rubbing of emperor norton's gravestone! it's hanging on the wall! we are sad to see her go!

This morning I gave Moomin two dollars in quarters for folding laundry and helping me sort through a tub of old bits of toys. He sat on his bed holding the quarters and contemplating our cat Rocket who was sprawled in a patch of sun. "Ah... what I wouldn't give to be that cat! Lying in the sun! Happy as can be! No worries about money! Not a care in the world!" Moomin sighed. Luckily he didn't look up to see my face...

You may imagine me giggling afterwards in the kitchen as quietly as I could.

Now his friend T. is over. They're discussing the technicalities of wood elves vs. swamp elves.

I feel lucky to have so many amazing kids in my life!

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Semantics, Gender, and 'Cis' - a very good post!

Fredrick Douglass speech from 1852 4th of July! Great!

The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.

Yesterday hung out all morning wiht rae_beta. We poked around in the garden. I was walking super well and am really, really happy with that. Actually I"m a bit terrified to lose it, because it was convenient and I get to beetle around so much quicker doing things as they occur to me to do instead of planning "getting up now" trips out of bed. I folded a million loads of laundry and fixed the dishwasher and put stuff away and then we made wreaths out of lavender and gossiped. By the time we hit the salvadorean place for late lunch I was back in the wheelchair. Then I had a nap, she took off, Rook came home, Moomin came home, Zond-7 came over, Rook fell asleep.





Zond7 and I went out to see his current favorite comedian (or one of them) Maria Bamford in San Jose. She was even better in person than in video clips! I highly recommend you go and see her or watch a whole DVD length performance ! She was great! David Garcia was very good too. I wasn't too into the other guy Larry something, though he did okay. Z. has spent months looking at comedian clips and so I have benefited from his massive effort of filtering and only have to watch Stew Lee, Maria Bamford, and Tig Nataro. Other good ones will be reported as discovered!

We thought about hanging around San JOse to analyze its weird trying to be cool "scene" but were both too tired to stay out. Came home and I had sort of a fight with Rook. That's all I'm going to say about that I guess. This morning we all went off to the parade which was amazing as always. There are so many different and often slightly pathetic parade participants. Like there'll be two people holding up a banner and then a little knot of other people behind them. Maybe with funny hats on or deelybobbers or riding in a classic car with the name of a local business hung off the back. There were shriners in little cars (and segways) and marching bands and girls with batons, a slightly smaller than usual falun dafa contingent, a lot of small groups of either military branches or odd "Lodge" or veterans groups (my favorite definitely the pearl harbor survivors on top of a huge truck, all very old, happy, and wearing hawaiian shirts) The floats this year weren't as good as some previous years - the theme was Music and somehoe that didn't lend itself to extravagant floats. the best was the one done up like a fake pink cadillac with fins, a jukebox, actual human dancers, giant root beer float, burger, hot dog, and fries. Like, each fry a huge foam thing as big as a person. Hilarious. That was the only float that could rival the best year which was Highway 280 where every one made floats with landmarks from the highway. And isn't that a weird theme for a parade??? The ultimate best thign from this year was "Recology" which was a big shiny red garbage truck and about 12 dudes with metal trash cans who did a sort of dance routine with their trash cans. They ran quick march to the back of the truck, and then up again in front, clashed their cans together in groups of 4, twirled the cans around... Holy crap. It was sexy and hilarious. I was laughing so hard!



The outfits of the Chico Bavarian band were worthy of note. Black suede shorts with tassels and embroidery! Really amazing!



Grupo Folklorico dancers, all ages!



Nothing better than Los Trancos Woods marching band tho, fantastic outfits that filled me with love and awe, all running around and playing kazoos and stuff.



Rook's classmates are coming over for backyard bbq. it's hot out but we both watered the patio and i'm hoping it'll cool off in an hour or so... as long as I don't actually have to cook anything... I'll cut up watermelon or make smoothies maybe.

I'm exhausted too but resting up and can certainly be social for a while longer!

maybe a smoothie now and a chess game with Moomin...

Moomin in "journalist hat", in tie dye waving a flag

This entry was originally posted at http://badgerbag.dreamwidth.org/305898.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Semantics, Gender, and 'Cis' - a very good post!

Yesterday hung out all morning wiht rae_beta. We poked around in the garden. I was walking super well and am really, really happy with that. Actually I"m a bit terrified to lose it, because it was convenient and I get to beetle around so much quicker doing things as they occur to me to do instead of planning "getting up now" trips out of bed. I folded a million loads of laundry and fixed the dishwasher and put stuff away and then we made wreaths out of lavender and gossiped. By the time we hit the salvadorean place for late lunch I was back in the wheelchair. Then I had a nap, she took off, Rook came home, Moomin came home, Zond-7 came over, Rook fell asleep.



Zond7 and I went out to see his current favorite comedian (or one of them) Maria Bamford in San Jose. She was even better in person than in video clips! I highly recommend you go and see her or watch a whole DVD length performance ! She was great! David Garcia was very good too. I wasn't too into the other guy Larry something, though he did okay. Z. has spent months looking at comedian clips and so I have benefited from his massive effort of filtering and only have to watch Stew Lee, Maria Bamford, and Tig Nataro. Other good ones will be reported as discovered!

We thought about hanging around San JOse to analyze its weird trying to be cool "scene" but were both too tired to stay out. Came home and I had sort of a fight with Rook. That's all I'm going to say about that I guess. This morning we all went off to the parade which was amazing as always. There are so many different and often slightly pathetic parade participants. Like there'll be two people holding up a banner and then a little knot of other people behind them. Maybe with funny hats on or deelybobbers or riding in a classic car with the name of a local business hung off the back. There were shriners in little cars (and segways) and marching bands and girls with batons, a slightly smaller than usual falun dafa contingent, a lot of small groups of either military branches or odd "Lodge" or veterans groups (my favorite definitely the pearl harbor survivors on top of a huge truck, all very old, happy, and wearing hawaiian shirts) The floats this year weren't as good as some previous years - the theme was Music and somehoe that didn't lend itself to extravagant floats. the best was the one done up like a fake pink cadillac with fins, a jukebox, actual human dancers, giant root beer float, burger, hot dog, and fries. Like, each fry a huge foam thing as big as a person. Hilarious. That was the only float that could rival the best year which was Highway 280 where every one made floats with landmarks from the highway. And isn't that a weird theme for a parade??? The ultimate best thign from this year was "Recology" which was a big shiny red garbage truck and about 12 dudes with metal trash cans who did a sort of dance routine with their trash cans. They ran quick march to the back of the truck, and then up again in front, clashed their cans together in groups of 4, twirled the cans around... Holy crap. It was sexy and hilarious. I was laughing so hard!



The outfits of the Chico Bavarian band were worthy of note. Black suede shorts with tassels and embroidery! Really amazing!



Nothing better than Los Trancos Woods marching band tho, fantastic outfits that filled me with love and awe, all running around and playing kazoos and stuff.



Rook's classmates are coming over for backyard bbq. it's hot out but we both watered the patio and i'm hoping it'll cool off in an hour or so... as long as I don't actually have to cook anything... I'll cut up watermelon or make smoothies maybe.

I'm exhausted too but resting up and can certainly be social for a while longer!

maybe a smoothie now and a chess game with Moomin...

This entry was originally posted at http://badgerbag.dreamwidth.org/305461.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

This entry was originally posted at http://badgerbag.dreamwidth.org/305172.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

* Hands hurt!
* Moomin counting in binary on fingers: "I try to do '4' REALLY FAST" (because it's rude)
* his marine sci camp goes to farallon nature reserve today. I'm unclear where that actually is. the islands themselves?! wish I was going!
* rae_beta is here!
* hot tub with pomegranate martinis last night. was a bit tipsy!
* read 3 more "saffy's angel" series books which were all fantastic
* baby raccoons (3)
* tomatoes getting ripe, v. exciting
* went to seekrit [this is good] meetup thing
* saw "Moon". Dark side of moon can't see earth, can it? That doesn't make sense somehow. we cant see it! so it can't see us! right???? I otherwise loved it as long as I also edited out the "women as symbolic things" bit. I'd like to see this movie just completely regendered. Also, if *I* were an evil corporation.... Oh, never mind, I'm not going to do spoilers! I was afraid it would be all Solaris-like, but it luckily wasn't. Good movie! Space! Industrial thingies! Fabulous acting!
* plan for today, domestic goddess mucking about in yard and total cleaning of kitchen. keeping mostly off computer! I would like to completely organize the entire kitchen and stock it properly with everything non perishable for the next 3 months.
* I am walking fantastically well. I get tired out quickly though.
* going to see maria bamford tonight with zond-7
* july 4 not sure... z goes back to sf... parade? then just chill out? Then i think maybe rook's classmates from stanford teaching program are coming over for bbq and they go to fireworks (I will not go to fireworks i don't think, though I love them, i'll be too tired nad i'm trying to be prudent)
* july 5 z comes down again? girlycon with rae_beta and oyceter and co. which i think, mostly movies and hanging out to have dinner.
* Monday - to SF w Z i think! must make sure M has carpool in morning!

other things to do
* write self evaluation for work yearly review
* poke at work just a tiny bit at any point over weekend (1-2 hrs)
* buy another pair of jeans?
* go to Savers to cruise the kids' clothes (M: size 7 or 8 or S, A: newly a size 7)
* go through mail and bills !

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Driving Moomin around. Michael Jackson song came on the radio. Moomin went uncontrollably crazy in the back seat hip hop dancing while strapped into his car seat. Entire car shaking. "By the way, Mom, did you know that Michael Jackson was a great, great singer who died, and the news of his death spread around the world like wildfire?" YES I KNEW THAT. Thanks kid. By the way, kid, did you know that a few of your speech patterns are straight out of comic books from 1955? This is a vast improvement from my own childhood where I talked like I was out of a Frances Hodgson Burnett novel. No, no, don't thank me.

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Incoherent and a little freaked out all day. My hands hurt enough that I was terrified. I poked at my work very slowly with my left hand. I can type okay for a bit but not very good mousing/trackpad control - that part hurts. Could not pour gallon of milk, lift my coffee mug with my right hand, pushing my chair hurt like hell. Also, cramps, and started my period. Also exhausted in general (I didn't sleep well b/c of pain.) J. kind of caught me struggling with the heavy office door and i just kind of gaveup and asked her for a push to the bathroom. the carpet reallyk sucks. she was casual about it (since she is often physically messed up herself she is understanding about how it feels on many levels) but when i got back to my desk i just sat there and cried feeling so humiliated. i just worked from home for over 2 weeks because of being sick and now this? Anyway , I asked for help catching up a bit, and just went slower and paused more.

wild irises came over to me being kind of low and spaced out.

good bits, i am walking well, reading lots of fabulous books. Beyond Uhura was great! I recommend it ! the bits about the mob and .. well, no spoilers! but, fantastic!

Read one fo the first sf books i ever read - The Humans of Ziax II and the Drought on Ziax II. I still like them!

Read Saffy's Angel which was so perfect and great! If I start writing about it i won't be able to stop!

Read two Tolliver Family books which were exactly like the Happy Hollisters, except the boys are even nicer to their sisters. Realized that I had never in any girlycon-ish book about children solving mysteries or going on unrealistic camping trips while riding their own ponies and so on, encountered an African American character who wasn't a servant (and wasn't a caricature). Even Cherry Ames manages to have a giant moral about america the melting pot without there ever being a black person in the entire U.S. in any role at all. So it was quite awesome to read about Cleve, Jan, Penny, Gordo, Louella, and their friends and parents, motoring about in their station wagon or messing with shetland ponies, riding their riding mower, drinking wholesome milkshakes and catching thieves. The key bit in my mind that's fun is that everywhere they go everyone's lovely to them. Like, if they knock over an enormous tower of boxes in the store and lose their little sister Lou Baby, everyone comforts them and somebody gives Lou Baby a cookie and they go on their way having made a lot of instant new friends who are ready to help them catch the pet smugglers. And if you go to the TV station to fill out the form for your singing brothers and sisters to all enter the contest, then a friendly news man takes you on his TV show right that minute so you can announce your missing pony. Kind strangers with twinkling eyes joke around and also admire you and give you rides into town. This is true for all imaginary children such as the Bobbsey Twins and the Hollisters but I've never read a little kids' book where kids who weren't white just gallivant around all carefree calling the police to come with fingerprint kits and then they like, get some ice cream and everyone is their friend. Refreshing!!



Gordo was my favorite character for the scenes where he's kind to Lou Baby. He pushes her around in the laundry cart (again, an action that only gains him the love and friendship of every adult for miles around... it's a fantasy novel!) and later bicycles all the way home suddenly on impulse instead of going with his big brothers to the robbers' shack, because he needs to bring her a turtle to be her pet. Jan and Penny stick him with babysitting Lou as often as possible!

Jan had some good moments of bravery, especially in the sea cave!

Noted especially in the one about Pirate Island and Bermuda that there was not only a character named Slippery Dick, there was another named Rod Steele. I think maybe the author of the Hollister and Tolliver books had been watching James Bond movies or reading Ian Fleming.

There could easily be another 50 of these books and I'd read them like candy! Why do they stop after the Mystery of the Old Jalopy?! Dammit!




painkiller kicking in obviously since i'm still typing.

Received the following email from Moomin's friend:

Subject: Pythons awesome! Re_ Python Its awesome!

Thanks for the link it's really great!
Plus when I type it's it automaticicly puts an apostraphe!

Best Regaurds,

Neutrino

Sent from my iPod

(I sent him a list of the commands we did in Unix and Python, plus Snake WRangling for Kids)

ohhh good night!

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As I read down the page of this blog operation beautiful I started crying like crazy. It's a beautiful idea. It's super sappy, but ... it's beautiful.

I like the one on the magazine that says YOU are already HOT!

i got proud of my work all over again. they are joining our network. good! that means I get to support them, and get paid for it!

In other news.


- I got a new MacBook Pro and love it. screen. so. jewel-like. computer. so. fast!
- Weekend hot as hell in my town but especially in our house. Ugh.
- lovely moments as always but also sometimes frazzley ones with M. and A. I love how they play together
- everyone coming over for werewolf rpg planning session
- dancinglaughing visiting too with charming and wildly intelligent 3 yr old daughter
- feeling of awesomeness of house full of people!
- funny visit to the basement used bookstore under the town history museum. who knew!
- to visit e. and her friend J. who are volunteering there now
- and take them out to have a soda and fancy pastries at a cafe where for 2 hours they told me about their teachers and how bad and dumb the writing assignments are and how they manipulate everyone and how the teachers always pick E. to be the pet and no one can figure out why
- weird weekend either dealing with or avoiding: greg H.'s death, and people responding one way or the other to my emails about Rosen
- So I ended up crying like a maniac in front of my lovely house full of people instead of being the slovenly angel/den mother in the house that I would prefer to be. Sobbed on porch, wrote in blog, listened to greg reading poems which I have a lot of on my hard drive.
- I want to run off and write a lot of poetry
- I have to write a complicated "self evaluation" for work
- entertaining conv and links from zond7: organization theory review and two organizations that have the same motto and logo
- am now contacting everyone to try and find G.H.'s poems and works which are widely scattered around and which some people are muttering about collecting. poet's tribute july 19 in san jose. rumor that a month before he died he sent a huge wad of poems to W.M. "just in case he died". then he fucking had to die. FUCK.
- Rook starting student teaching. exciting!
- Moomin's friend in hospital. visited.
- Moomin in marine sc1ence camp this week.
- picking him up early from work tomorrow for hip hop lesson.
- wild irises coming over tomorrow.
- listened to my mom talk about her parents in assisted living and how the horses in her horse barn are mistreated and abused and also the dogs next door. i told her how my ambition is to be the crazy old lady next door who has a lot of books and cats and teaches neighborhood children something magic. she is not that lady. she's a different kind who rescues horses and dogs and has the magic island of horse rescue. My mom is doing such a good job. and she is so full of practical common sense. she doesn't quite seem to realize how resourceful and smart she is. but she so is! she is a classic cutter through of gordian knots! where does she think i learned it from!? i am just a bit more drastic.
- over the weekdn before my mom got back from florida listened to my dad for 2 hours on phone about economics and politics and computers. we agree that everything is horribly broken and corrupt yet our solutions are a bit different... And he might get a mac. i freaking hope so because his 8 yr old windows machine is so toast. also, i might bear visiting them a little better if there was wireless.
- am tempted to buy my mom an ipod touch and load it up with apps and kindle books and Stanza free books off project gutenberg.
- My hands hurt, unusually a lot but i keep typing. should stop. Thus, bullet points. still too long.
- Saffy's Angel. AWESOME BOOK. love!!! The girl in the wheelchair! crashing into Saffy! and then being awesome!
- A Girl Called Boy by Belinda Hurmence. Also awesome! Like Kindred but YA from 1982. Spoiled tween suburban girl rolls eyes at parents talking about heritage of slavery and their brave ancestors who fought to be free. Clearly is about to go back in time. Goes back in time. Stops eye rolling and commences to go into hard core survival mode. Comes back 10 minutes/ 6 months later, sadder, wiser, and now completely understanding importance of appreciating her parents!


- my sinuses still aren't quite better. still on antibiotics. you see though i manage to do a lot of things even so. i scare myself sometimes.

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We just visited Moomin's friend, Neutrino, in the hospital. His appendix burst last week. They played ipod missile command, galcon, strategery, and then I taught Neutrino some very beginning lessons in Python. he's been asking me questions about programming all year and in fact today greeted me with, "If you drive us to camp next week in the car pool, would you teach me C++?" LOLLLLL I said no, but I will teach him Python or php and some Unix which he'll need to know. So, fired up a python interpreter, and he was excited just to type 2+2 into it and see it say 4. awesome! he instantly understood assigning a value to a variable, printing that variable, changing and printing it again. We made some while loops. i saw his head totally explode with happiness as our "countdown" program started at 100 and then *didn't stop at zero*. "We didn't tell it to stop." "I GET IT! WE DIDN'T TELL IT!!!!" he was super excited!

He picked up some unix commands and mastered making a file with pico, saving it, making it executable with chmod (which I didn't explain but will do later) and then running it. What a pleasure to see his face - i swear - especially with the pathos of him being on morphine and kind of skinny and weak and spaced out. so to see him concentrating fiercely and typing everything out - totally not discouraged when the programs didn't work - That was just great. He thought very logically and procedurally. He also approaches a machine or an idea the way he approaches people, which is by badgering it relentlessly with seemingly unconnected questions until it does something --- very annoying to people but exactly the way to learn how to use a computer or a piece of software or in fact, how to write code.

Moomin was only interested when it came time to run the programs and watch numbers or "NEUTRINO RULES!!!!" scroll by. When his mom got back, she told me that Neutrino's dad thought he should learn more math before learning "computer science" and she would be incredibly happy if he actually learned something but how to start? Zond-7 suggests pygame and i bet by the end of the year he'll be ahead of me as a programmer...well, at least before he turns 11.

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A sucky thing to get in my inbox for the last two weeks, Femina Potens' promotional emails for Michael Rosen's photography shows; I wrote to them to ask them to respond to my thoughts and they haven't replied except to send me more generic advertisements for the show.

Total fail there. What the hell are they thinking?

WARNING: TRIGGERY THINGS IN THE LINKS if you hate sexual abuse.

Explanation of Rosen's sexual predation on young women

Even more explanation of Rosen being a jerk-off and I mean that literally

"Thanks", Femina Potens! Nice to have "my community" right behind me!

No, it's more important to suck the cock of this skank ass guy because he has a fancy camera, I guess. Fuck him and fuck you!

Extra warning, don't go to Femina Potens' show.

ETA::

I have emailed a bunch of folks about this with a much calmer and non-ranty letter. I feel that the first few times I dealt with this, I was clearly not loud enough. I have now told everyone I could think of who might care, directly in email cc-ed publicly to everyone else it was sent to.

Here's what I think should happen.

Actually, do go and please support Femina Potens. But, go and politely confront and talk with them, Micheal Rosen, and whatever of his photo models show up. Ask them what they think about this incident and how a person should be held accountable. Ask the models if this happened to them and be supportive of them.

What do you think of that as an activist way to deal with this problem within a community?

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Not a Fragile Little Buttercup

I agree! that commm descrip comes off to me as gross and patronizing. Sure label your stuff, and if you don't, no one has to read it! Jesus H. Christ and a bag of Mary and Joseph cookies! that kind of careful protectionism makes me puke... Seriously people feel the need to tiptoe around asking other people to check to see if their fiction is "safe" or not? Do people want the whole damn internet filtered too? And I do get really weirded out by emotional vampire people who love to be all protective when they sense the drama coming on! It's like people's own little personal hurt/comfort real life scenario!

None of it any of my business but seriously, that's some sanctimonious weirdness.

and yes I am a "survivor" myself with my own triggering etc. etc. and if so then I *stop reading* y'all. And, sometimes I read a book that upsets me. It's my call! I'm a grown up! My kid is like 9 years old and I figure he has a few more years of me making that call for him and then it's up to him what he reads or watches. I am also capable of asking "is this movie full of screaming women who get raped?" and if so, i don't watch it! but some one telling me "this movie, not for you..." would just make me tell them fuck off !

Fine if other people want to give up their own judgment into the hands of other people but I think it's sad. It's like infantilizing yourself! I think that's the part that's pissing me off even though it's in theory none of my business. Because if people act like fragile buttercups who have to be protected then that's how I'm going to get treated too by default and I don't want to be treated like a child by anybody.

I guess this just hit my "no pity" button tonight.

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there are some new spots for BlogHer LobbyCon --

http://www.blogher.com/announcing-blogher-09-lobbycon

The conference itself is full with a huge waiting list, but the lobby bit will be fun too. hang out... can get into the expo hall where the sponsors are (and the swag) plus admission to the cocktail parties, which are a blast.

sign up quick if you want to come, because these spots are going to fill up!

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For Haddayr:



Materials:

* Carbiner clips
* Ring bolt or eye bolt
* Wooden dowel. I'm picturing about 1.5 to 2 feet, and an inch thick. Easily obtainable at hardware store. At Home Depot they will even cut it to length for you.
* Rear bike rack that mounts over the back wheel and ideally that protrudes a bit beyond the back wheel.

Screw an eye bolt into each end of the wooden dowel. (you will likely need to drill a hole for the screw.) This bar will keep the wheelchair from banging into the back of your bike. The eye bolts or ring bolts then clip to one or more carabiners, which attach to the bike rack and the back bar of the wheelchair's frame. I think the wheelchair should be facing backwards because the back wheels will go up bumps easier.







Happy DIY and Hack Ability! Good thing I built all that bondage equipment back in 1991 from bits of junk! ("Spacer bar", anyone?)

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I am looking at Michelle Obama right now!

Despite my basic cynicism I feel SO WARM AND FUZZY AT THE MOMENT!

OMG!!!!

Twittering it from here:

http://www.blogher.com/chatter/people

There's like 5000 crazed Americorps volunteers in here alight with love!

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Man I love the Internet and also YouTube. Just think if I had lived without seeing this magnificence.





OMG y'all I love her hair, her headband, her dress, the guy who's pointing at you and you and you in the audience, the sweaty drummer, Millie's ballet move at the end, and the WHOLE THING.

thanks to kiss my black ads for the link!!

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pecunium is a friend of a friend, is speaking at this conference on torture in Iraq, could use crash space next week/weekend, and needs to be either in Palo Alto or near the train. Anyone?

My house will be somewhat full of rae_beta on Friday and then Eva F. + child on Saturday plus a lot of gamers, or I would volunteer...

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OOOO! good post. I think there could be more of the handwaving outraged detailed descriptions of all that is fucked up in individual episodes, but even if you didn't watch Heroes this is a great description of the ways the subtext of a story can have really horrifying messages...

Heroes vs. Whistle-blowers

All of these are influenced by the X-Men, I think. I can see a chain of influence from the X-Men who hide their identities for fear of anti-mutant discrimination, to Painkiller Jane and Heroes. Some X-Men stories can definitely be read as "The unwashed masses fear and despise we few who are talented." [info]lhn and I discussed a similar message in The Incredibles in the comments of my post on "Films adapted from comics" last fall.

Somewhere along that chain, the message goes from questionable to horrific.

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Hot tub last night w Rook and Zond7 and some drinks. Rook is extremely animated about his critique of Heroes. I expect an epic blog post, but will it be the calm and reasoned take it apart kind or will he go OMGWTFBBQ and wave his hands around? Cause I've been hearing the shrieks of WHAT THE HELL from the other room for a while now as he watches it with headphones on. Last night I enjoyed the WTF-ing! Well, I'll enjoy the logical takedown too!

I feel like it's nearly possible I might become human being again in a few days. Oh my sinuses! On the other hand it's not as better as it should be and I suspect i'm in for one of those 2 week cycles of taking Cipro or some massive kill everthing antibiotic.

For White Women: Your Blues Aint' Like Mine is really great! go read it! It's by Angela Mae Kupenda!

Perhaps, Lily is also in fear of losing whiteness and the white brand of femaleness.112 To align herself with Ida and other black [*PG95]women makes her less white. 113 Lily begins to struggle more rigorously with this fear when she finally leaves her abusive marriage for good,114 which could represent leaving her intimate connection with an abusive supremacist system. Yet she can’t complete the turn at her intersection of the oppressed and the oppressor. The question is, must she? In my view, Lily has not consistently decided which path is more compelling, that of the oppressor or that of an oppressed seeking to eliminate oppression.

When I shared these insights with several young white women, one argued, “Surely, you can’t mean that white women must decide whether to identify as white or as female? Why can’t we acknowledge both aspects of identity simultaneously?”

Such an argument misses my point. Yes, a white woman can appropriately identify both as female and as white, but she cannot liberate herself and other white women, on the one hand, while oppressing black women on the other, without losing an important connection with womanhood and with a humanity-based justice system. Yes, she can be white and female. But, I don’t think she can be whole and simultaneously be both a white oppressor and a white woman oppressed seeking to support only a “white woman” type of womanhood and a “white race” form of humanity. Perhaps, Lily could learn an important lesson from the way in which Ida reconciles her differing parts.

Meanwhile, I did leave my bedroom this morning to go and measure the frame to our old sandbox (which I built about 6 years ago). The frame is now going to be the raised floor of the under-the-tree playhouse. If Rook gets 4 foot long boards, 60 inches worth of them, then I figure between us all we could drill the holes and put in the floor and the kids would find this exciting.

Videoed M. and A. last night reading an Avengers meet Thor meet the Hulk comic out loud; pretty much the cutest thing ever. Moomin had the hiccups, so he'd be in a big dramatic declaration about the lava men and (hic) DOOOOm and and mighty hammering of (hic) THOR and Bruce Banner (hic) THE HULK. He sounded very tiny and grim and drunk.

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Still whiny, still in constant nasty pain from my sinuses. New bits are still draining, or trying to. I can't believe it's not better yet. Something is deeply fucked up. It has now been months of vague weirdness and a week of nasty pain. and I guess 5 days of being unable to function normally. day 3 of antibiotics. I am still getting waves of dizziness and super nasty pain. am thinking to go back to see my regular doctor asap next week. even if i'm getting better i want to be on her radar.

I stayed up late fooling around with the carl brandon wiki and then reading docs about various extensions and how to re-skin a mediawiki (which still sounds like a pain).

Go read aleja's testimony on behalf of Nick and his statement too! Really good! Nick is trying to get the hell out of institutional living! I love his blog... http://www.nickscrusade.org/wordpress/

It is on my mind and I want to do more activism or do something- anything to help the shit happening. I mean fine my kids school isn't going to have a PE teacher or whatever but this is about the medical industrial complex making obscene giant profits off people's lives, off forcing them into jail and stealing their benefits and stealing their independence of life. It's deeply deeply horrible.

Today I worked a bunch, ate soup, read most of book 5 of that vampire finishing school series. It's so awful but also awesome. Can I just say I want to slap the whole lot of them, every single character? OMG! Though I love/hate the books. I do love how the cell phone use and the mall rat middle class brat mentality is so very accurate right down to the brand names. Like, how they have rly rly cute Pottery Barn sheets down the nasty tunnel. Um what. hahahaha!

It is very odd and annoying how the characters are so perfectly non-racist and non-homophobic in theory but instead of calling each other names based on those qualities they are constantly all like "Oh, she's such a stank ho bitch slut" or "oh you're so slow you're like, a fat special services kid on crutches, riding the short bus!" I am NOT MAKING THAT UP either. However it is fairly clear by book 5 that Zoey who keeps criticing the other chick for being a ho, *is making out blood-lustfully with like 5 different boys/men* and then there's a hint that High Priestess vampires (like she is destined to be) get to have more than one mate. So I think she's in the process of having a poly awakening. I'm still enjoying the books but it's SO ANNOYING. Also, how come there is such massive lesbophobia if they're so into their gay boy friends? I'm hoping that Kramisha the undead poet and the other chick who's a graffiti artist will get to do some hot dykey bloodsucking without everyone going "oh, ew! lesbians! gag me with a dental dam!" Seriously PC Cast what is the deal there? I'd be very happy if in book 6 a fat disabled lesbian comes in as a whole new kind of motherfucking vampire and kicks ALL THEIR ASSES and they have yet another awakening.

Oh! Also! the hilarious sudden appearance of cat-loving nuns in book 3. Apparently the anti-Christian sentiment needed fixing. So, fundy protestants BAD... Virgin Mary-worshipping nuns GOOD. They not only save cats, they're really cool with teenagers and know all about cherokee purification rituals and magic and stuff! !? Hilarious. Nuns LOOOOOVE teenage vampire sluts. And cats. What I'm trying to say here is we have vampires and we have pussy-loving nuns. o hai i am so witty!

Anyway these books totally saved my sanity this whole week of lying in bed in pain. I have barely kept up with reading LJ or DW or blogs because i don't have the brainpower or bandwidth to absorb or respond in any depth. So therefore, entitled teenage vampire brats. next up is the shapeshifter condominum book. oh! and i got yatima reading tiger eye! hahaah!

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Hey, if you're in California and you notice sidewalks or curb cuts etc. in bad repair, and they're on roads that are also state highways (Like Woodside Road or El Camino Real, near where I live) then you can join this class action lawsuit:

http://www.dralegal.org/cases/public_entities/CDR_v.Caltrans.php

I just finished giving my deposition on 3 intersections with dangerous curbs and cracked sloping sidewalks near my house on El Camino.

It's hard to determine who is responsible for fixing which intersections around here. When I tried reporting problems and getting them fixed or getting accessibility improved, I called, emailed, then went to at least 6 different departments run by my city, then emailed the mayor and city council, and then got a call back from the right city department, but some of the intersections were "owned" by Caltrans and there was no clear path to reporting the problems.

If you want to join the deposition with a specific intersection in mind please let me know or just contact the organization in the link above!

And, I did eventually find the form to report problems here, but you can't actually tell which bits of road and sidewalk Caltrans is responsible for and which they aren't.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/maintform.html

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We interrupt the non stop whining about my painful sinus cavities for a long boast about how good my chicken soup came out. Batch #1 earlier this week had leftover corn salad or relish and spinach-orzo salad from whole foods. Party leftovers. chicken broth in a box, some chicken, celery, carrots, fresh parseley, oregano, and some cumin. half a can of salsa casera + five red chilis fried in olive oil, all thrown in the crock pot. The only special thing I did was cook the chilis so that the oil would bring out the hotness.

Today's soup is the same but minus leftovers, and plus mushrooms, a red pepper, a lot of small black olives, orzo, some wine, and fresh spinach. It tastes great and it's different than the way my cooking always tastes. Everything I make is either kind-of-Italian flavor or vaguely Southwest/TexMex flavor. Possibly by blending both my cooking end results there has been a transcendent new things created though the cynical might see it as just Italiany with a can of salsa in it.

Yay, I love my crock pot!

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No African-American authors in Penguin Group's new site
Nordette says:

Penguin Group's African-American authors and books receive heavy exposure in the mainstream media. In the most non-confrontational, gracious mode, that is what one must conclude after visiting the publisher's new website, From the Publisher's Office. Penguin says it has launched the site "to give more exposure to underserved books and authors often overlooked by mainstream media."

The striking absence of books by black authors on this new site has to mean that Penguin Group's black authors are doing extremely well, that we see them regularly on CNN, Good Morning America, and prominently in the New York Times book reviews section . Surely that is the only reason Penguin's From the Publisher's Office excludes black authors from its launch in this new day of post-racial America as Penguin strives to help its underserved.

Please read her post, and please re-post the link and the story!

Specially cause I love Nordette but even more than that because it's a great post and just exactly the sort of thing y'all are very good at understanding and critiquing and giving publishers hell for doing.

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I'm still in horrible pain.

BUT THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER: Alice and Kev - a Sims novella.

Read the short intro at the top of the blog and then click the link to start at the beginning! The author, Robin, is brilliant...

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background story

The epic heckling and snark!


GPattillo @petehoekstra Just popped single bubblewrap bubble. Now understand Big Bang. #petehoekstr

benhuh: @petehoekstra I had to sit in the last row of our corporate jet this morning. This is what Rosa Parks must have felt like.

paganmist @petehoekstra Had to move all my stuff to a new office w/o a corner view. Now i know what the Trail of Tears was like

MonetizedSpace: @petehoekstra Booted out of the coffee shop today for loitering. Now i know how the Tibetians feel.

@petehoekstra Just had brain freeze from eating ice cream - similar to suffering through ice age.

AHAHAHA wow

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There isn't enough room on the entire internet for the whining I want to do right now ! My head hurts! This sucks! I thought I was mending quickly! Fuck this! OMG!

I need massive painkillers and took some but not kicking in fast enough. you know when you finally get too messed up to distract yourself with anything, and you just have to lie there?

i need like, speed vicodin that dissolves under the tongue!

it's just exactly like those commercials for sinus things, where the mud flat is cracking open under the hot desert sun, but IN MY NOSE

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After 2 days of calling my doctor's office I got an appointment with one of the totally random other people in the group. I nearly didn't go this morning since I felt just a bit better, my sinuses were starting to really drain, and I hated the thought that some new doctor would poke into why I'm disabled. I also figured there was a good chance of being told I was fat. I walked into the dr. office for the first time in a while. The random doctor was pretty decent, did poke into things in a way that made it clear she wanted to make sure that "side of the head pain, vertigo, plus visible disability" didn't mean some kind of brain tumor or whatever. No... I know an ear and sinus infection at this point in life! Finally she shut up, told me that if I didn't have it clear up they woudl do a CT scan. Uhhh whatever, somehow when I could WALK a routine sinus infection did not make anyone start talking about CT scans!!! HATE.....

Scored Z-pack of antibiotics. Bloody things still draining out of one side of my nose. At least it's draining! My ear still burns but is not in massive pain. I feel like the last 2 days have been a giant hallucination. I just laid in bed, drank endless tea and soup, took decongestants, and worked a bit feverishly and spacily to distract myself from hell and thought, "If I cry then it will stuff up my head even more!"

It was so awesome to wake up feeling normal! Feeling myself again, able to breathe on both sides of head! Feeling like a human! Pain is within tolerable boundaries! Occasional horrid pangs from ear!

The world is beautiful and it was wonderful to leave the house even to hang out in a waiting room and pharmacy. Everyone's gardens are pyschedelic with flowers right now (I think from the rain-in-the-dry-season.)

To the soup & advil! Still not quite ready to face going to the office. I could almost do it. But I think a little attempt at a nap would be smarter. I have to go out again at 4 for Moomin's 4th grade graduation thingie where he will sing in the choir.

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Consider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carte_du_tendre_300dpi.jpg

and

http://www.kk.org/internet-mapping/


What about your allegorical map of your reading ?

Or you and a work you feel passionate about, a work you traverse?

A work you transform?

What does that map look like to you?

What are some of its place names?

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I'm not feeling doomed anymore because E. told me to read P.C. Cast's Marked immediately. Thank you kindle app for the instant gratification! And, OMG, vampire boarding school special tattooed texting goddessmagic cherokee teenagers! O!M!G! Total Crack! coniraya you were completely correct about this series! She hates her parents and has a kitten, and her magic is better than everyone elses, and she has an instant circle of best friends, and a mentor, and a hot poety boyfriend, and an asston of drama, while her VampYre tattoo is like lacy runic sapphires spreading all over her body to mark her as extra special magic even though she's only 16!

I like it that they say things like "gihugic" and that texting each other is not only natural but is crucial to how things happen.

I woke up feeling dazed and husky and coughing but not full on bronchitis. For work, a fun project to write some python to spider everyone's blogs to see who swears and who doesn't. Most of the people who declared themselves cussers actually don't swear. They just want to be able to do it if they feel like it. I like to think somewhere there is an advertiser who demands only the most foul mouthed bloggers. Could be, right? As my script chugs through its spidering it prints out hilarious lines of text and highlights the cuss words.

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From The Outlaw Sea, the chapter on scrapping ships and Baltimore;

This was Washington in action. A problem had been identified and addressed through a demonstrably open and democratic process, and a solution had been found that was affordable and probably about right. Nonetheless, there was something wrong about the process -- an eleusive quality not exactly of corruption, but of a repetitive and transparent dishonesty that seemed to imply either that the public was naïve or that it could not be trusted with straight talk.

Could apply to so many things!

I am sick as hell -- after a weird couple of weeks of occasional ear and sinus being messed up which was really a couple of months of it, but I thought was getting better... Now a cold and definitely a fucked up right side of my entire face. My doctor hasn't called back yet. Sinus / ear infection! Horrors! There will undoubtedly be bronchitis. Totally unfair. I have a horrible sense of doom, thickness and pain in chest like something sitting on me when I breathe. Still vaguely hoping to wake up better in the morning. More likely 3am hawking up snot in the shower and chugging hits of albuterol.

I worked from home today, I think from about 8:30am till 7pm... wtf! Wrote column after 5, reporting on weekend blog party (which was AWESOME.)

Meanwhile...

Topless coffee shop waitresses talk about their lives - Watch all of it!

http://www.thesundaybest.net/2009/06/maine-topless-coffee-photo/

Meanwhile meanwhile,
Skud has totally outdone herself with this post and bingo card for Porny Presentations at conferences.

Rook wrote up his thoughts on the failures of The Thirteenth Child,

and zond-7 has written on twitter and iran and u.s. chilling effects on net access to services in countries under sanctions.

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The other night I had a long lucid dream of being able to jump up in the air and float and go incredibly fast. It was connected to being near redwood trees. I was able to start out near the trees and float up beautifully, zooming all over San Francisco and the Bay Area. The moment of floating up was so peaceful & satisfying. I had moments of enjoying total contentment and thought, ah, this is what I need to keep me going.

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