Belle and Claire review Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at Reading by Moonslight.

Claire: Niki picked the book this time! Isn’t that nice? She said that we should read it because it’s classic.

Belle: But we were clearly correct in avoiding it for so long.

A few days into PPCC, which is great fun--I wish I'd been able to attend every simultaneous session, and I loved the ones I got to. Both the panels I was on--"straddling fields" and "pro panel" (I find it SO damn funny that I was on a pro panel!)--were today, and tomorrow's just Book Festival, so all I really have to do is a bit of publisher rep meeting-with-professors type stuff, which is fairly low key and awfully fun.

Orion is staying with his girlfriend tonight, so I've the apartment to myself and am throwing a wild party procrastinating on the article I'm supposed to have done for Monday and really oughtn't flake on 'cause it's a paying gig, and a fairly easy one at that.

Have I talked much here about how much I adore Orion? He's one of those Internets Friends whom I've met a grand total of twice, and he's one of my favorite people ever, even if the Canadian spell check on his computer (where I'm typing) is confusing the hell out of me. And I've gotten to meet Trina Robbins, and Suzette from Sequential Tart, and all sorts of wonderful Popular Print People, and it really truly feels like a vacation, only with papers on exoticism in American portrayals of Scheherazade, and the evolution of cultural legend from history, and culture heroes in Cuban cartoons!

It does not hurt that I am full of vegetable korma and naan.

Tomorrow, more conference until fourish, and then relaxing and drinks and not really having to be anywhere until sometime Sunday afternoon. And then, because Monday is Labor Day, I have a full day and a couple nights to sleep and unpack and such before I have to be back in the comic-book mines, which are still in that deceptively relaxing post-post-SDCC-panic phase where everything feels awfully sane for a week or two. =D

(But first, look what delights CBC offers me: Starring Jason Priestley and William Shatner, this two-part mini-series is based on the true story of the 1982 Canadian climbing expedition to Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Oh, Canada.)

Today's book discussion topic: bad books that you do like, or books that you feel are wrongly painted as bad, dammit!

No claiming you like them 'ironically' or because they're bad: either defend them, or explain why you like them anyway. No listing titles and then failing to expand.

( me first! )

HEY.

HEY, HOPE.

YOU CAN CROCHET THINGS.

I WANT THE LITTLE GREY GUY ON THE LEFT, AND I WILL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT- ANYTHING - TO GET HIM.

( eldritch horrors await )

Robyn writes poetry, which is but one of the things I admire about her, and tonight she shared a poem written by her thirteen-year-old self - you may read it here, along with my just and cogent criticism PLUS a hilarious and altogether terrifying new poem.

I was moved to share my own thirteen-year-old poem, still engraved upon my memory:

Diaphanous glass
Delicately surrounds me
I'm kept in a fishbowl
Put on display

Kept from excitement
But also in safety
I am fondly protected
From the sins of today

No dying, no pain,
No anger, no hate
A fragile illusion
Like the glass all around me

Glass can be broken
A spell can be shattered
I have all I want
Yet I yearn to be free.

brown_betty: Oh, thirteen-year-old-karen.
karenhealey: I JUST WANTED TO REBEL, Betty
karenhealey: But, politely, without hurting anyone's feelings

I spoke with karenhealey and brown_betty at some length tonight about poetry. At one point, I bravely revealed a love poem that tween me wrote about my first internets crush:

Two hearts reached out
Through their owners' minds
Tried to touch others
Of their own kind
Made tentative connections
Across phone lines
And kissed in cyberspace
Leaving their bodies behind

Touching, isn't it? This is what Karen had to say: "13-year old Robyn! You do not understand the linguistic signification of body-based identities online!"

It's a good thing I wasn't friends with any smartypants PhD candidates like Karen back when I was thirteen, man.

Anyway, Betty said she'd give me a nickel if I worked a certain metaphor into a poem, so here it is. YOU OWE ME A NICKEL, BETTY.
( Longish poem under here! )

You may be aware I have a name-thing. My name thing is this: I don't remember them. Who are you again? I'm generally better with authors, (their names are written down) but the other day I bought a book by S. L. Viehl, because the name sounded familiar. "Hey, I remember something about that name. I think I found her..." ANNOYING AS HELL, TURNS OUT. ( whoops. )

Any zinesters out there got a favorite long-arm or saddler stapler they'd recommend? My cheap-'n-shitty Office Despot model has finally bitten the proverbial dust, and I'm shopping for something with more staying power...

via sharpest_rose.

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said the team of nearly two dozen staffers at the opposition headquarters will be “fact-checking” statements made by the Obama campaign and by speakers during the convention.

“Just consider this the Ministry of Truth,” quipped Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

I already do, Dick. I already do.

Man, we have a lot of books. I'm trying to do shelving by genre, alphabetical by author's last name, anthologies before "a". My mysteries only take up one shelf, mostly because I really only hang onto stuff by Minette Walters for keeps (if you haven't read anything by her, do so. The Shape of Snakes is gorgeous but is chock full of blows to the mental gut, as it were. Fox Evil and Acid Row might be better choices).

The graphic novels and comics are also on one shelf, and my romance keepers are taking up one shelf, too (this is all in different cases, just to keep things interesting). Jameson has a three-shelf bookcase devoted to his Star Wars novelizations. We've got twelve shelves of science fiction and fantasy novels, and more coming out of boxes. I have two shelves of non-genre fiction so far. I haven't even touched nonfiction. And where do I put my books of myths and legends?

Dude. I forgot about the RPG books until just now.

I guess I need to get some more bookcases.

So I'm reading a comic which shall remain nameless, for today I feel uncharacteristically merciful.

It contains a caption that reads: "Mankind was notched down a peg or two on the food chain."

brown_betty: ahahah WOW
brown_betty: Are you sure that wasn't on purpose? I don't think you can mangle metaphor that badly by accident.
karenhealey: The best part? The character narrating is a professional fiction writer.
brown_betty: I think -- okay, I think the BEST part, is how the author uses 'notched down' not knowing EITHER the literal OR the figurative meaning.
karenhealey: I know, it's kind of amazing!
karenhealey: It's a homophone error, a mixed metaphor and a misunderstood meaning ALL IN ONE

This series of videos is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Like most hysterically funny things, it is not work-safe.

Basically: This dude, Neil, is playing Zelda drunk, when he decided that the fairy is kinda hot, whips out his piece, starts jerking off, and then asphyxiates himself with the controller cord. Somehow, these things in combination magically transport him to the game, where he takes Link's role. It is FUCKING AWESOME. And probably not something you should watch if you are easily offended or don't have at least a passing understanding of LoZ.

I am sort of hoping that Zelda will kick Neil's ass in the last episode.

The microwave meals they sell at Patel Bros. Grocery Store are teh awesome. They vary in price from $2-$4. I am eating the divine Kashmiri Dum Aloo, which are potatoes stuffed with lots of goodness in awesomesauce. Somewhere in the dish are apparently cashews.

Highly recommend stocking up on these for those nights you can't be bothered to cook.

Mostly I don't blog a lot about g-w, or when I do it's mostly "rassafrassa where did I leave that goddamn password for that blog I installed last month?" but seriously, you guys, here is why G-W is awesome:

In the space of about forty-eight hours, by our powers combined (Shape of a dreidel! Form of an aardvark!) we put together the Con Anti-Harassment Project (What, we did it in two days, you come up with a better name (it was almost the Con Anti-Harassment Campaign, but CAHC sounds kind of... shitty)) a campaign to encourage conventions to articulate and establish clear and comprehensive anti-harassment policies.

That's not the awesome part, though. The awesome part is that our current example of a well articulated anti-harassment policy (it really is) is AnthroCon, and the first paragraph contains a link to "What is a Furry?" I believe we are the only anti-harassment resource on the internet (which is not already in Furry fandom) to do so.

Yes, thank you.

Today was the first day of tabling at Portland Zine Symposium, followed by hangouts and steampunk porn read-alouds at our place, then karaoke.

Discoveries:

I can rock the FUCK outta "She's Not There."

You don't actually need to know "My Girl" to sing it reasonably well.

Miles has missed his calling in life by virtue of the fact that he has never fronted a metal band. Seriously. Oh, my fucking god. And it makes me MELT in all sorts of...heh. Yeah. Point being, very few people can pull off both Steppenwolf and Metallic at karaoke, and I am married to one of 'em. Rowr.

Also, Jen and I and our table-mate Ainsley have been doing mad awesome comics jam stuff all day, which we will post eventually. Good times.

Good news: My finger is not broken. It seems to have been briefly dislocated, hence all the swelling and hurting, but it's much better now. There isn't even any bruising (though there's a tiny scab right at the top where the ring dragged across my skin briefly before catching on my knuckle), which is a little weird, but whatever. I should've taken a picture while it was still horrible.

Bad news: I spent all day today incapacitated with what may have been a cold of sort, but was probably bad allergies (my eyelids and lips were swollen). I am wondering if I might be allergic to shellfish, as I had a couple of shrimp last night and it seems to me that the last couple of times I've eaten shrimp I've felt yucky shortly thereafter.

Good news: I got a lot of sleep today!

Bad(ish) news: Now that it's actually nighttime, I am totally unable to sleep.

Ah well. I shall get some work done, at least!

I might have broken my finger tonight in class. My rings locked together during a throwing exercise and there was a tearing and popping sound and now my left ring finger is huge and purpling. Not a good sign.

Please, please let September be more awesome than August has been...

Because Girl-Wonder kicks all sorts of ass at mobilizing on a dime, we're proud to announce the Convention Anti-Harassment Project, which grew out of our frustration with our and others' experiences with harassment at conventions and the general dearth of clear policies.

Go! Check it out! Mobilize! Write letters! Read FAQs! Research cons! If you have a story, share it at the (HEAVILY moderated) safe-space forum!

Yay, cons being safe and non-sucky! Yay, awesome feminist organizations!

Also, if you haven't, please go check out The Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project & Gentlemen's Auxiliary, the best direct action response to convention harassment EVER.

Following yet more reports of harassment at geek community conventions, Girl-Wonder.org was moved to action. We are proud to launch the Con Anti-Harassment Project.

(Because conventions should be fun.)

The Con Anti-Harassment Project is a grass-roots campaign designed to help make conventions safer for everyone. Our aims are to encourage fandom, geek community and other non-business conventions to establish, articulate and act upon anti-harassment policies, especially sexual harassment policies, and to encourage mutual respect among con-goers, guests and staff.

We offer a convention database with contact information, template letters for writing to con organizers, policy tips for con organizers who want to establish such a policy, and a moderated safe-space forum available for those who want to discuss their experiences or accounts of harassment.

Conventions can't completely eliminate harassment. They can be prepared to act upon it when it occurs, and send a clear message to harassers that they are not welcome.

(cross-posted to GRC)

If today has taught me anything it's taught me two things.

1) I can indeed pull together a Sekrit Projekt in one day armed only with pluck, grit, and a small army of lovely volunteers.


2) A lot of con websites are total rubbish. If people don't know how to use stylesheets, I would really rather they just install Wordpress. There's no shame in that. I do it all the time*! It's pretty easy, and really pretty.

And put your contact information somewhere visible. PAX I am looking at you! I did not expect to be looking at you!


* Actually, mostly I get Betty to do it for me. But I've done it a couple times when I really, really had to. And she was asleep. And anyway any con that has a webmonkey on hand to put up a site in the first place surely has a webmonkey that can install wordpress.

I was browsing in the book shop and came across an Anne Bishop book titled "The Invisible Ring." Usually when I see a Bishop book, I just snerk to myself and move on, but I couldn't help myself. It is a book named after a cock-ring. I don't see how I was supposed to resist.

(Yes, it is gloriously trashy. I don't know why you had to ask.)

Since becoming a food snob, I have only ever bought fresh pasta, which is kind of *astronomically* expensive. So I am wondering, dear flist, from those of you with experience in the matter:

1) How much does a pasta press cost?

and 2) How much labour/time does it take to use?

and 3) How much effort does it take to wash?

What I am basically asking it, is it a worthwhile investment, and will I use the damn thing or will it sit in the pantry like an ugly and expensive knick-knack?

Yay! I am now, for the fourth time, listening to the Japanese issue of Chemical Chords, Stereolab's new album. I am very much enjoying it. The songs are all really short, such that at 17 songs (this version) it's still under an hour long. Some songs are so good I wish they were longer. That's my only beef really. But at least the songs I am meh about end pretty quickly. It's very interesting and has references to Mars Audiac Quintet era stuff in some of the tunes and also reminds me a bit of Fluorescences and Music From the Amorphous Body Study Center (all past Lab releases). There are some serious bangin' tracks on here. Not by their beat, but rather their just right-ness. They just hit you right there. I liked it on first listen, liked it more on second listen, more more more. One Note Symphony really needs to be longer. Really.

It's well worth the purchase. It's a transitional album. Tim Gane has gotten a new spark of creativity. Things can only get better from here.

The best part is, there was no entry in CDDB for this cd, so I submitted it :). Kick ass!

I'm going to be depositing some checks tomorrow or the next day, and I'll have a teensy bit of money that I can spend on something self-indulgent. BUT WHAT?

Poll #1244372
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should I buy?