Zero tolerance should be ZERO.

Readerconfail is what people are calling it.  I wonder why??


Genevieve Valentine on the verdict. Her friend's report from 2008.  Ekaterina Sedia's thoughts. 


Note that I tagged this under "rape" because sexual predation includes rape, just as sexual harassment is included in sexual predation.  I've had experiences along the whole damned spectrum -- which I'm stating as a fact.

It is not because I wanted any of them. 

This makes me wonder about Readercon.  I've been harassed at local cons.  I wouldn't know as many people if I needed help -- not people I know well, that is, who've known me for years.  So... they're still on my cons I'd like to attend.  But this has raised reservations.  :(

ETA 3.05pm:  Genevieve's other post about this matter.  [Update 18-Feb-2017: CRAP.  She doesn't have that account anymore, so that great post is gone.]

Seriously, for any guy who may think he is "just apologizing" or "she made me do this" or ANY of that unacceptable crapola -- read that post.  If someone's ever done this to you, read it.   If you wonder what we're talking about, read it.  If someone's said to you, "This guy..." then definitely read that post.  It is about boundaries and smashing them and tolerating rapists, predators, and all their ilk.

And as The Gift of Fear would rightly point out, those are indicators.

ETA 31-July-12 12.36am:  Ann Leckie, bless her, also brought up some other important things, like the problem with people who say "Oh no! You will outlaw flirting!" when that is not what this is about.  Do read her post.

Thanks to Aliette de Bodard, who posted this on Twitter.

Variety pack of links.

Nifty links found during research:

Forbes on leadership.  Fascinating.  Do note the bits about hubris!

Two cool links about Bangkok:  24 Hours in Bangkok and, from the Sydney Morning Herald's Traveller section. 

The Online Etymology Dictionary on [executive] washrooms... and tasers.  It was the taser bit that drew me, although I really was looking up "washroom" right then.

How Stuff Works explains biometrics. 

Other links of interest:

Carol Pearson, author of The Hero Within, a favorite nonfiction book of mine, and her website. 

A collection of Firefly links sent to me on Twitter. 

Related to Worldcon, for Chicon 7 is nigh:

Their writing workshop is taking reservations. 

Also, if you need a cheap ride from the airport to the con hotel, the Hyatt, check out Groupon.  Groupon's last deal ended two days ago, but you never know.

Yes, I'm all Worldcon-is-coming now, of course.  Aren't you?  :D

A break for links.

Since I haven't done links in a while... have a short variety pack.  First, a funny from the ever-lovely Cracked.com, who have helped me with work research many times.

Really, they have.  You would be amazed at the serious links inside some of their funny essays.  Particularly for Hollywood physics.  


6 Classic Movies (That Narrowly Avoided Disaster)

Working on the Death Star

Antisocial Networking

Like Charlie, I managed to resist SNS for quite a while.  Then I got on Twitter.  I still complained about Twitter -- until I couldn't Tweet for a time, about a year ago.  And I realized that I missed Tweeting with my friends so much!

Because Twitter had become something that replaced the newsgroups and Mucks and BBSes.  The virtual hangout that filled a need in me.  :)

Friendship: a gift.

I have the coolest friends all over.  I really do.  Twitter friends last night hugged me because I mentioned Arnie's loss...

Arnie himself would be pleased because his line about being a "frail delicate flower" was well received.  That would tickle him, I think.


I know so many awesome people.  Everywhere.  Thank you all.  For being my friends.  I mean that.  When I was a lonely teenager I wanted heaps of friends.  Legions.


And I have them now.  Life is good.  There are tears in it, and laughter, as always.  That's life.  It shapechanges, always. 

But the friendships... those are some of the very best things offered to you by Life.  They're gifts.   

I never imagined then that I would know people all over the world.  I never imagined a lot of things.  Sometimes being open to surprises is the very best thing.  Then along comes another surprise.  <3

Love you.

me*---

Straight from my heart: goodbye, Arnie.

Today I found out a good friend of mine passed away Sunday.

Arnie, you are a brightness, and the world is lesser for losing you. Those words just don't seem enough, but words are all I have. 


In the SCA, you were Arnolde "Slyme" Fredrickson.  I have so many memories of you, my friend.  Little moments.  Life is all those little moments.

Arnie saying, with delight:  "Oh, you're a left-handed fencer!"

Speech tags: volume 2

So why don't action tags replace speech tags?

Because what you do isn't what you say.  Plus, action can happen at the same time as dialog, and frequently does.  Just to make things more exciting.  :)

When I'm working, or even talking about them, I tend to divide books into two categories of What Characters Do.  This might be a holdover from reading lots of dramas, possibly -- but if you think about it, that's how plays are.  Action or dialog.  Doing or speaking.

There's actually more categories, but as I haven't got OSC's writing book handy, you're stuck with my categories today.

Two differences in today's world.

Or, if you like, Things We Really Maybe Didn't Expect.  YMMV, of course.


There's Klout, which I'd heard of, but saw featured on tv yesterday.  Mom opined that I must have ninety-something as my Klout score.  I don't, but it's not bad for someone who mostly Tweets for my SNS.  :)  Rather higher than I should've expected.  


How to Increase Your Klout Score

Active Twitter Users Have Shorter Relationships [STATS]


Then there's Twitter.  Upon which I tend to be, well, very talkative.  Twitter really was made for the chatterbugs, I feel.  ;)

Twitter's well named. 

I'm curious if OkCupid will do -- or has done -- a survey on how many nonsexual relationships Tweeps have and how often those go pear-shaped... 

Wishing tonight without a star.

I just spent my supper watching two baby [teenage?] raccoons. 

They were adorable. 

But they shouldn't have been out then, not underneath the bird feeder so early, far too early in that I could see them easily -- and what if I'd been dangerous to them?  Most humans are.  They're too small to compete with any grown coons.  :(  Probably not more than three months old, easy.  

No pictures, no.  Not my division.

And they were past the deck railings, so what I could see would make a difficult picture, even if I'd been so inclined.



Too oblivious, though, these two; I know something will eat them, probably quite soon.  It wasn't until more people went outdoors that the little coons even noticed a thing, they were too busy eating -- for over a half hour.  They either lost their mother, or she sent them packing.

I wanted very much to feed them.  They were cute, too cute.  I felt for them, little lost things hunting food.  Poor little ones. 

I don't want something to eat them.  Wish I had a choice in that.  Good luck, little darlings.  May the Great Maker watch over you, so I can watch you wrestle in future nights over fallen seeds.  I won't know you then, not when you're grown up.  But I can hope, can't I?  Live, little ones, live and grow up.

Update: Blocking off the Twitter.

This will delight everyone I know who has been watching me on Twitter lately.

Today I installed LeechBlock.  I wanted to have a wall between me and my addiction.  I've been using the 'Net for decades.  I'm fine with identifying this as obsession and addiction, I am. 

Hell, when I bought my first computer, I got a loan to buy the complete system.  I did need it for college, mind you.

But what I didn't tell the nice loan officers who were so impressed with a young woman being fiscally responsible... was that I also meant to check my email regularly on the BBSes.  (This was before 'Net email was common.)  My brother ended up playing more video games on my Amiga 1000 than I did, and I fought my dad off when he wanted to write papers and I needed to.

Still, the twin needs of communication and creation were what I required back then.  That hasn't changed.

So last night when the first program suggested to me still only seemed to exist for Macs, I found Leechblock, an external form of self-control.  :) Yay Firefox!

Another one, Freedom, has also been suggested to me by John Klima if I find LeechBlock insufficient.  We'll see. 

I haven't Tweeted in hours.  No, don't ask if I'm mourning or rejoicing.  It's too soon.  =chuckle=

Pronouncing English... a poem.

One of my friends on Twitter sent me this poem.  It is so neat.  So if you need a moment to just breathe, take a moment and see if you can say all the words correctly... and more, she asked me if I knew all the words.

I guessed one in particular -- and checking it, found I had the who part correct, if not the entire identity.  So I struck out on 3-4 words in total.  :) Try yourself!

Read this book!!

There's a book coming out in early 2013 that I want you to read.

Here's the key words you need to consider:

Blade Runner
Minority Report
Tom Clancy
The White Plague by Frank Herbert
The X Files
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick
Shade's Children by Garth Nix

Think these are spoilers or teasers?  Ideally, they should operate as both.   :)

This is the book:  Nexus by Ramez Naam.  It's brilliant.

You want to read Nexus.  Really you do.  Trust me on this.  It's about today and about tomorrow and about things you hate and about things you love.  About potential and people and who we all are... and who we could be.

Have some Nexus, do. You know you want to, you want it so very much for all sorts of reasons.  Because Homo sapiens is that way.


-- Thanks to NYRSF for the subject line, which I might pinch in future for other book recs.

Three bits of news, including guest blog. :)

Amazon buying Dorchester and A Willingness to Learn from the lovely Inkpunks.

And news: my first guest blog will be posted Monday morning, 2-July-2012, over at Angry Robot!

ETA: Here's the direct link for my guest blog post.  :)