I honestly never expected reposting entries back dated to last year would show up in friends lists. I sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this, I hope I fall off your lists soon.

• I actually host all content at my own site: inkernet.com and I’ve just updated said site to the newest Wordpress, and with that, changed to a new LiveJournal crossposting thingie, that also supports…
• Another mirror I’ve created at dreamwidth.org.  It’s a spinoff of LiveJournal, to which some of my friends are already moving.  So, I have a foot in both doors, so to speak.

So….after much loss of brain matter, I’ve merged old comments from LJ over to the “core” website, inkernet.com.  And, I’ve now set it where thats the only place to leave comments.  I hope this doesn’t scare away any LJ or DW people, there’s no registration needed!  Just click the link at the bottom of each post, and you’ll be at my site.  A name, e-mail (which stays hidden), and your comments are all you need. This is all to protect my sanity in the long run, but it may kill comments entirely…I tried this in the past, but had actual user registration running over at inkernet.com and no one posted.  I think it was just too much for anyone to take.  So, I turned that off and I’m relying on akismet to keep the spam off me. I will just have to try and post such witty, such incredible, such wonderful content you won’t have any choice but to come tell me how spiffy I am. Failing that, cute kittens:

Let’s face it.  When you’re writing about elves, you’re usually not expecting them to actually READ your books.

So, this author took a stab at trying to encourage other authors not to shy away from such characters (as often we do, for fear of looking foolish), and even offered some tips to keep foot from mouth.  Much discussion ensued, particularly from the sort of people that fit into the  “Other” category in relation to the author.  It began well enough, with constructive criticism that explored the topic more deeply.  Then it began to segue into comparisons to the author’s own works, including one book which began with kind of a classic example of “How Not To Do It” (on purpose, being something of a theme in that book).  Which is where, from what I can tell, things began to get out of hand.

Some folks who hadn’t read the books being discussed all the way through had ill-informed opinions, some friends of the author began to intervene on her behalf, and conversation became even more heated.  You might be tempted to say, “well, that’s how this sort of thing goes.”  However, looking from the outside, I think the biggest derailment was caused more by preexisting personality conflicts – that is, friction between some people in the overall discussion that exisited well before this drama erupted.  Be aware, that’s my opinion and may or may not reflect reality.  I found the whole thing disappointing, and stayed far out of it.  If you truly wish to try and sort out the real story for yourself, there’s a chronicle of links here, or a more concise summary here.

The overall drama has been dubbed Race Fail ‘09.  Don’t let the name fool you, as acutally more useful conversation about race and understanding was had than not.  The “fail” part, as I said, seemed more about personality conflicts and errors in communication that led to battle lines being drawn, livejournals being deleted, and people being hurt.  The thing to remember, is there really aren’t any battle lines; there’s no “sides” in this.  There’s people.  People trying to understand one another.

So, I recommend to you the following discussions.  They’re closed now, but they happened over on John Scalzi’s blog: Whatever.  Scalzi had remained out of the drama until it was unceremoniously dumped on his porch step.  His initial reaction was to fire the shotgun in the air, and demand everyone off his lawn.  He was harshly criticised for this, for being dismissive of the overall topic.  After some time to calm down, and some thoughtful voices reaching out to him, Scalzi apologized and reopened discussion on his own site by inviting a few guest speakers over.

I learned a lot from these threads, and it’s given me much to think about.  I hope it will do the same for you.  I don’t ask anyone to go in there thinking, “this is the correct and only way to think about this.”  I do want you to realize this is some very well reasoned, thoughtful insights on a topic area that, frankly, I’ve never had to think about before.  But some people have….some people have no choice.  So listen to their words, their thoughts.  And consider yourself, and where you’re at in your life.

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part I

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part II

Taking One for the Team: K. Tempest Bradford

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics, and this isn’t really just about Prop-8. And I don’t have a personal investment in this: I’m not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics.

This is about the… human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not… understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don’t want to deny you yours. They don’t want to take anything away from you. They want what you want — a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them — no. You can’t have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don’t cause too much trouble. You’ll even give them all the same legal rights — even as you’re taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can’t marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn’t marry?

I keep hearing this term “re-defining” marriage.

If this country hadn’t re-defined marriage, black people still couldn’t marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal… in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn’t have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it’s worse than that. If this country had not “re-defined” marriage, some black people still couldn’t marry…black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not “Until Death, Do You Part,” but “Until Death or Distance, Do You Part.” Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are… gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing — centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children… All because we said a man couldn’t marry another man, or a woman couldn’t marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage. How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the “sanctity” of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don’t you, as human beings, have to embrace… that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate… this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness — this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness — share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

—

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of…love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don’t have to help it, you don’t have it applaud it, you don’t have to fight for it. Just don’t put it out. Just don’t extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don’t know and you don’t understand and maybe you don’t even want to know…It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow **person…

Just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

“I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam,” he told the judge.

“It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all:

“So I be written in the Book of Love;

“I do not care about that Book above.

“Erase my name, or write it as you will,

“So I be written in the Book of Love.”

—

Good night, and good luck.

(Transcript taken from The Huffington post)

Terry Pratchett recently donated $1 million (£500,000) himself, with the comments, “I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along. Say it will be soon – there’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation. In most cases, alongside the sufferer you will find a spouse suffering as much. It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”
If, like me, someone in your family suffers from Alzheimer’s…or even if you don’t know anyone who suffers this horrible disease now, I encourage you strongly to take action.  The Alzheimer’s research trust is in the UK.  Here in the US you can also check our the Alzheimer’s Association. Whether you realize it now or not, you’ll be helping someone you love.