I decided to add “equality” given that I do read a lot of articles with intersectionality that cover stopping a lot of -isms, and they are all equally important. As always, these are links that I found interesting and you might too.
Me
Books Nominated for 2013 Hugo Awards!
Woohoo! Chicks Unravel Time & Chicks Dig Comics were nominated for The Hugo Awards. Big congratulations to the editors, all the other writers, and everyone else involved in the production and love of these books. š
• What Superhero Comics Look Like A great little article breaking down how Osborn #3 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios is scripted and put together art-wise, also how it applies to the very best of current comic books.
3) Everybody wanted Uhura to kick some ass this time around. But they couldn’t figure out how to have her kick ass in a teeny minidress, without needing a lot of strategically placed lens flare. The writers spent two months trying to figure out a plot reason why Uhura might have to put on some pants, or maybe some leggings, for part of the movie. What if they go to a planet of leg-biting monsters, and she has to put some protective leg coverings on? Or maybe Spock shows her a special Vulcan ritual, in which practitioners must wear pants as a sign of devotion to pure logic?
• Why Iām Not Speaking at PAX East 2011. In case you haven’t been reading, Penny Arcade started selling rape joke t-shirts. Pulled the “it’s just a joke” and then took them down when everyone got really mad. Failboat. Especially for a company that runs a con where they try to make it safe for women.
GeekGirlCon
• Auctions!. Check out GeekGirlCon’s geeky auctions. All proceeds go to support GeekGirlCon.
Politics
• Why Female Politicians Are More Effective. Of course, we are. We have to be 2 and 1/2 times better than any man at our “non-traditional” jobs in order to prove ourselves and prove that women can do these things.
• A fizzy ocean on Enceladus. Not only is this ocean underground, it’s also fizzy like soda pop. How awesome is that!
• Scientists working to grow meat in labs. Now this is when science starts to scare me. I saw this episode of Better Off Ted, and the meat tasted like despair.
I am now gleefully happy that āFireflyā got canceled. Not that I wasnāt before, but now? I can almost forgive FOX for canceling all those TV shows if it means that Inara was never raped. Also, TV, can you stop having the women with sexuality be raped or otherwise punished for having it while pretending to be edgy for having women with āunconventionalā sexualities?
From October 2nd to the 10th, I was on vacation. (And sadly, I’ve been sick since my trip ended due to flying in a human petri dish.) I pretty much scheduled everything back to back. Thanks again to Jason’s parents, Jason’s grandma and great-aunt, and my friends Leslie and Katie for hosting us. We appreciate it. Since I’d never been to Washington D.C. before and am a huge politics buff and love museums, I was tourist-tourist all the time. I took almost 500 photos.
I think my favorite museum was the American Indian Museum, which shows both the history and current lives of American Indians. Don’t miss it if you go to D.C. And this is my favorite photo:
Me on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Our schedule:
10/2 — Arrive in Virginia Beach, VA at Jason’s parents’ home
10/3 — Breakfast with Jason’s parents, brother, and godparents at yummy Turkish restaurant. Visit Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA. Doug and Carolyn’s wedding and after-party
10/4 — Rest day
10/5 — Visit Brian’s house, Matt’s work, & travel to DC to Leslie and Katie’s home
10/6 — National Mall: Natural History Museum, National Art Gallery, Capital, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court. Delicious dinner at Lebanese restaurant with Leslie and Katie. See monuments at night and FDR Memorial.
10/7 — National Mall: American Indian Museum, African Art Museum, and Sackler and Freer Asian Art Galleries. Drive to Fredericksburg, VA to Jason’s grandma’s house. Dinner with Jason’s entire paternal family, no joke.
10/8 — Breakfast with Jason’s grandma and great-aunt. Drive to Virginia Beach, VA to Jason’s parents’ home. Rehearsal bbq for John and Christine’s wedding.
• I went to Social Media Breakfast on Tuesday to see Kira Wampler from Ant’s Eye View/Intuit speak. Here were a couple the tips I tweeted:
Find the sexy about your business, which may not be your product itself.
Don’t stop at just listening to your customers. Do something too.
Employees needs guard rails for rules of online engagement. Want to do right by the company.
Fandom
• Runaways Movie Casting Breakdown Racebending brings a summary of the casting for the Runaways movie, and the actor requirements don’t even mention the character being Japanese-America. Instead she’s “Uniquely beautiful, nurturing but guarded.” Worth noting that most casting breakdowns are horribly stereotypical, even if the end result of a film is not. However, after the complete whitewashing of The Last Airbender…
Links that I enjoyed and shared around the web. Take a gander.
Economy
• Times report: The real mortgage deadbeats are the rich. Why does it not surprise me that even in the Great Recession, the rich keep getting richer by hiring their legal team to take advantage of all the loopholes, including ones that are supposed to be helping the middle and working classes.
Tweeting in all-caps, this size-XXXXXXL superhero fights for social justice and breaks down the gender binaryāall the while looking āsmashingā in purple shorts with a big smile on his face.
Me and Winston, my cat, in front of some of my books.I didn’t order an iPad. I don’t have a Kindle or Sony e-Reader. I don’t buy TV or music off iTunes. I still trudge every week to the comic book shop to pick up my weekly stack. I still frequent used book stores to collect whatever trashy vampire book I’m reading next or cookbook I want to pillage for recipes. I still buy CDs and pay for my favorite shows on DVD. I still have freaking vinyl records.
Admittedly, I have a love for books — yes, the physical form in my hand. They never run low on batteries and only cost you page wrinkling or under $20 to replace when you drop them in the bathtub. However, I wouldn’t mind giving up my CDs and DVDs for digital copies. If for no other reason, I’d have more shelf space for books. (Oh, yes, I am that girl, the one you never want to volunteer to help move.) I’ll admit to owning an iPod, and how it’s much more convenient to have 128 GB of music at my fingertips when I need to tune out at work.
I don’t own an iPad or Kindle and I don’t buy from iTunes because of Digital Rights Management (DRM).
I don’t like the idea that Amazon could hit the kill switch on a book I paid money for. Same with iTunes. And how many generally technologically savvy friends have I had who’ve killed all the music on their iPods due to syncing issues related to DRM. I’ve also had several tell me that every CD they buy off iTunes, they immediately burn to a disc, which rather defeats the point of digital copies. The iPad premiered with a Marvel Comic Book app. It looks very slick. Besides some issues I have with pricing, how do I know these comics aren’t going to disappear when Marvel decides I can’t own them anymore?
Amazon tells the consumer how many times s/he can share books to different devices and with other Kindle owners. Marvel doesn’t allow sharing, unless you want someone to borrow your $500 iPad. iPods are set from the factory to wipe their entire harddrives when hooked up to a different computer.
I think I’ll keep my books, my CDs, my DVDs, and yes, my vinyl records until someone sorts out this DRM issue in a way that’s pro-consumer, not pro-corporation. I’m okay with being old fashioned here.
