Nemesis

Two teenagers were murdered by their own mother, supposedly because they were 'mouthy'. I'm sure there are other things going on, but that's really not a reason to murder your children, who seemingly had bright promising lives.

The girl was one of us. I don't know if she was a writer or not, but I know she was one of us.

I have been thinking about how to write this post for a long time, and there is no single reason, but it comes down to this: I need a break from Fandom. I doubt I will be much missed, and all my stories will remain where they are. 

I’ve been involved with one fandom or another for over half my life now, and I have watched fandoms grow, mature, and fade. I’ve watched writers rise and fall, and I’ve seen explosions. But things feel different lately. The whole internet seems… meaner, almost. The demeanour of discussions, not just in fandom but in other places, seem less civil. It’s gotten to the point where reading these posts is triggering anxiety attacks, and that’s just not good for me.

So, yeah, I need a break. This break will involve leaving most of the communities I’m currently involved in, and I will be dropping most personal journals from my reading list. This is necessary because I literally can’t not read something once it’s put in front of me. 

I am a woman who feels that fandom literally saved her life as a teenager, and gave her a welcoming place to be when the real world wasn’t. Yet, I no longer watch TV, except for the occasional episode of anime at my Uncle’s house. I haven’t finished a story in almost two years. 

I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. (I could crack in a week, and come crawling back.) I don’t know what new interests I may develop. Thank you, Fandom, for so many wonderful years, and I hope I can come back some day.

Two years and some change ago, I received a Christmas present. It was a boyfriend. He is, in my opinion, my perfect match. I love him, he loves me. Life may suck otherwise, but we've had each other to keep us going.

What we're not very good at is anniversaries. Customs kept my anniversary gift for three weeks, then the Post Office lost it. But it finally arrived last week.



I'm getting married.

Okay, rather a lot of crafting. I didn't photograph a lot of the Christmas knitting, but I made a promise to myself that 2010 (Twenty ten, please, not Two thousand and ten. I promised Uncle) was going to be a better year. There are a lot of things out of my control right now, but hobbies? Those are still under my power. I've started sewing garb every Tuesday night with aerin888, and part of my tax money is going to a silk screening machine. I will be at Pennsic, and there will be shirts.

I knitted for my Aunt and Uncle, but not my own parents, who don't appreciate my work. Their hats are undocumented, and reside 150 miles away.

I knit for the Boy's parents. A Watchcap (no photo) for his Dad, and Slippers for his Mom.

( Wisconsin KnittingCollapse )

I did a little quilting, as well.

( Puzzle BallCollapse )

( Fic Roundup Beneath TagCollapse )

Shit like this just infuriates me. If you've somehow missed it, Amazon has recently removed rankings from GLBT fiction and nonfiction, marked it as adult content and removed it from their search engine. Unless it's available for the Kindle, of course.

You can still, of course, buy all the bodice rippers and elf porn you want, as long as all the participants are straight.

Information at http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/12203.html

I don't think the petitions circulating are going to do much good, but you never know. I also don't even know if anyone is AT Amazon today, since it's Easter Sunday, so we'll probably hear more tomorrow.

Public scrutiny and fury is key to getting the attention of big companies. I wrote to Dan Savage, (Savage Love columnist, and author of several books) to see if we can get a bit more awareness.

When I was a little girl, I did my grandfather's grocery shopping. And by little, I mean 9. I had my own shoppers club cards, and I could use coupons. I'd like to think I'm good at it. Not as good as that Shopping Game woman, but I do pretty well.

On a sixty dollar grocery trip tonight, I save 22 dollars. Included in that total was a free bag of name brand cat food (Buy Two, Get 1 as well as double coupon for two dollars off), a free bag of cat litter (Buy One, Get 1) and several dollar off coupons, plus regular sale items. I think I did pretty well. Then I got home and saw this headline: Economic shock gives rise to coupon cutting

It talks about how people are *gasp* cutting coupons to save money. Is this that unusual? Admittedly, I am only third generation American and my parents both worked retail jobs. If we bought brand name stuff, it was on sale and if there was a coupon, we used it.

Do you see coupons as low class? Are they a sign of poverty, frugality or merely cheapness?

Anyone remember who wrote that post talking about how Barack Obama could be the next regeneration of the Master, since he rose from obscurity so quickly and is so charismatic? There was an image, but I can't seem to find the original post.

I have friends I need to show it too, and damned if I can find it.

First, you need to go read three articles, one from Huffington Post, one from Rheality Check and one from the NY Times.

I'll summarize for those of you who are busy. The Department of Health and Human Services would like to redefine contraception as abortion.

( Huffington PostCollapse )

( New York TimesCollapse )

I am livid, and while I'm sure you all know why, it's not just the offense to my feminist sensabilities and reproductive rights. ( ramblingCollapse ) I am so angry, and I'm not sure what I can even do to fight this. Any ideas?

I realized that I haven't posted in a long time. This is partly grad school kicking my ass and partially because my creativitity packed it's goodies and went home after I wrote 'Future Imperfect.' I don't count 'Meddling,' that was The Cute Boy Who Shall Remain Nameless's fault.

Yes, we're still together. I haven't run him off yet. He's reletively unflappable. My bizzare family, my crazy friends... dear god, once I explained slash to him he began to take great joy in torturing me with cringeworthy pairings.

So yes, I'm alive, I'm in love and my muses have moved out.