Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Posting this here, copied from Twitter, so I can save it. I had a lot of fun with these prompts (suggest more if you'd like). Twitter is nice for this kind of thing because it encourages just writing what comes to mind rather than over-thinking things.

The original meme was "give me a fictional character and I'll tell you why I would not date them." This seemed too negative to me and besides I don't really date anyway, so I changed it to "I'll tell you where I'd take them on a date."

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Mostly off the top of my head. Some of these I had to think about for a while! Hardest one: profession.

Something to wear: New Shoes by Paolo Nutini (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaecIn0iLfU)
Something to drink: Cherry Wine by Hozier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtRIz7VocNs)
Place: The Little Old Lady from Pasadena by Jan and Dean (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7f9hsFrKUY)
Food: Grits ain't Groceries, by Little Milton, and others (I have it on the Commitments soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpt2mSwXe0)
Animal: Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmDUEv939A)
Color: Golden Brown by the Stranglers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-GUjA67mdc)
Girl's Name: Cleopatra by the Lumineers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN5s9N_pTUs)
Boy's Name: Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXV_QjenbDw)
Profession: The Scientist by Coldplay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-RcX5DS5A)
Day of the Week: Monday, Monday by the Mommas and the Poppas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY)
Vehicle: Little Deuce Coupe by the Beach Boys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH2MXxoQTLY)

1. What do you enjoy most about Wiscon?

These days, it's seeing some of my best friends from all over the country and world. Some of these people are family to me, and I see them only at WisCon. I like feeling like I am among my people. I also like feeling intellectually and emotionally challenged, while having this feeling of being supported and valued for who I am.

2. What do you enjoy least about Wiscon?

I usually get a migraine every time. I push hard and run out of energy, and have to intensively rest for the following week or more. This is obviously not WisCon's fault. I would like it if there were more wiscon-like spaces in the world. LGBT books to prisoners is a bit like it, in that it's a very politcally progressive space, with people who are interested in books and in making the world better.

3. Tell me about a memory from your childhood.

I have a lot of very nice memories from childhood. The first bike I remember riding was this purple bike with a banana seat: https://flic.kr/p/8VhqFY
My brothers and I rode our bikes a lot, sometimes a mile up the gravel road to the neighbor's. (We lived in the country).

With my mom's help, I sewed that outfit as a 4-H project. It's shorts with an elastic waistband, and a matching kerchief with blue and silver beads. This picture was probably taken as part of that 4-H project. Sewing is a skill that I did not keep up but probably could do if I had to, thanks to my mom's teaching.

4. You wrote, "I think calling each other on things is something we should do for each other out of respect." I like that. It reminded me of "In fandom, people will correct you just to be polite," which I asked jesse_the_k to comment on.

I think when you're on the receiving end of criticism, it can be hard to tell the difference between the criticism that comes from respect, and trust, and affection, and the one that comes from "I want to make myself feel superior by making you feel inferior." Do you have any advice on how to distinguish between the two, either as the giver or as the receiver?

This is a good and hard question that I will have to think more about. I have a lot of good friends around me that I would trust to give me feedback and hold me accountable, and I trust that this would come from a place of respect and trust, because we are friends and have know each other a long time, and have similar values. I like the idea of "calling in," though I don't think it's bad to call people out, either.

I do well giving or receiving such feedback in text form, because then I can think it over without immediately reacting, and I can run it by other people to ask for help in how to react. This might not work for other people, though; not everyone is so comfortable with text as I am.

This is obviously very complex and difficult. So many of us are used to feeling unsafe, that hearing criticism can feel like an attack, rather than useful information that we can use to grow.

Mia Mingus has this idea about "pods". A pod is a group of people you can call on, that you trust, when something harmful happens. You might have one pod that you call on when you've done something wrong, and another pod you can call on when you have been wronged.
https://batjc.wordpress.com/pods-and-pod-mapping-worksheet/

5. Would you rather cook or be cooked for?

Absolutely "be cooked for". I would rather do the dishes, put the leftovers away, and other such tasks. I'm not very confident while cooking, and often it just takes too much energy. I do enjoy baking from time to time, because it seems easier to me. This is a bit wild; my mom is a great cook, but it somehow didn't pass down to me. Both my brothers cook, perhaps out of necessity as they each have a large family. Left to my own devices, I eat cereal, sandwiches, frozen pizza, etc.

This was very interesting, thank you for the questions! If anyone wants questions, leave a comment saying so, and i will try to think some up. :)

Personal bingo meme that people are playing on Twitter and elsewhere!

You can google "bingo card generator" and fill one out with your interests. Then you can use a photo editor to check off interests that you have too.

My card is also at Flickr:
https://flic.kr/p/VL1xcd



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Oct 10 2005
I had a lovely weekend at home. It involved a night-time chicken-catching expedition: picture Sasha crawling around on a haystack, wearing an odd assortment of warmish clothes, clutching a flashlight in one hand and prowling for sleepy chickens. We gave a few hens away to a kid who wanted some (for his birthday) to round out his flock. My weekend also involved fun digital photography, banana bread, fudge, chinese take-out, clothes-shopping with mom, and general recovery and escape. Ack, I want to move back home.

Oct 11 2006
Some of my favorite science fiction and fantasy stories deal with connections between humans and animals, notably David Brin's Uplift series, Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic, and the books I am reading right now, Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy.

Oct 12 2007
I am writing a lot today-- it is going well. I'm having fun with my story, and I think I might be able to actually finish it at some point, maybe even this weekend.

Today's word count so far is: 1,933
Total word count for story: 5,036 (10 pages in Word) [this is before I gave up writing fiction]
Things I'm learning:

--Some days it just goes better than others, but there is no way to predict which days these will be, which is like a lot of other stuff in life.
--It's easy for me to write about horses. The visual and sensory details are all right there in my mind, they are inherently interesting to me, and it puts me in a good mood.
--I lack practice in writing. This is what I need to work on: just building up some experience and confidence. This is also very similar to a lot of other stuff in life.

Oct 10 2008, writing a long entry about my abusive job:
Still. I'm coughing now, the mouth sores came back, and I'm punchy with exhaustion. I want out. Now.

Oct 10 2009
Maybe last week? I finally changed my OK Cupid profile to say "bisexual". [I now prefer "queer"]

About 2 or 3 months ago I changed my facebook profile to say "Looking for: Friendship" only and eliminated the "interested in" portion. (This also has the nice side effect of reducing dating ads in the sidebar.)

Oct 10 2010
--I really do have a lot on my plate. I am responsible for 3 studies and helping out with a 4th. I also write and edit papers (which I enjoy). The hardest, most exhausting part is talking to people I don't know, which I have to do a lot of lately, and that will get easier with practice. I am learning new software, learning to read medical charts, asking questions constantly.
--I am very sensitive to criticism
--I was very burned by my last job
--It's still a new job. I do really enjoy it! But I'm currently putting most of my energy into the job and need to rest and do self-care a lot. I'm pretty good about leaving on time and not going in on my day off. I don't make enough money for that.

Oct 12 2011, writing about a performance
Mostly what I got out of this show came during the panel and Q and A at the end: the panelists talked about how people of color don't have the luxury of leaving behind their families or their faith when they come out, because those institutions are so necessary when navigating a white supremacist society. Communities of faith, nor queer communities, aren't going away, and interstitial, compromise spaces are needed.

Oct 9 2012
I was super anxious at work today. Sometimes I get this fear/feeling that I am bad at my job, and I am going to get reprimanded or fired or something, and it makes me not want to go to work at all--self-destructive tendencies, etc.

I guess it's a good thing I have therapy this week.

Oct 8 2013
I am happy to be working again. So far work is not very social, and I stare at a computer too much. I will have to look around for people to talk to and places to walk. I don't know why sitting at a desk is so hard on my body.

Oct 9 2014
I met a very lovely Greyhound today that I will hopefully get to adopt. She is an almost-3-year-old girl, black, a bit timid. She has a playful side that I think will come out once she settles in. were_duck came along to meet her.

Oct 11 2015

Today is unseasonably warm. I'm farm sitting. It's quiet and peaceful, perhaps a bit lonely but at least there are plenty of animals around, and also the internet.

I don't want to schedule posts, but if you want to leave me prompts for the December posting meme, please do! I will do my best to answer them in what is left of December!

meganbmoore asked about my favorite Studio Ghibli movies.

The first one I saw in the theater is my favorite: Ponyo.

I'd seen maybe 1 or 2 Ghibli movies before, but this one really made an impression on me. It is so beautiful and magical, and watching it (similar to other Ghibli movies) feels like dreaming. After seeing this one I watched a bunch of others, but sometimes I get Ghibli movies confused in my head and can't remember which title goes with which plot. Well, the plot is not the most important thing anyway. I should rewatch some of them.

These movies tend to have themes I enjoy: a focus on women and children, relationships, beautiful animation, domestic scenes, and a respect for the land and environment.

Ponyo herself charms me greatly. She is a little girl, born in the sea, who wants to join humans on the land. She finds a family and has a sibling-like friendship with a little boy. I read a review of this movie that posits Ponyo herself a metaphor for a kid with autism-- she doesn't quite get the social rules, and looking after her is a lot of responsibility (so says her new brother). Anyway you choose to look at it, it is a great movie!

Ponyo loves food, especially ham. "HAAAAAM!"



I just don't remember the other films as well, but I would say My neighbor Totoro is my next favorite!

sophinisba asked: What do you like about the place where you live? Do you ever think or daydream about moving somewhere else?

What I love about the place I live is that I have a lot of great friends here! We have a nice fan contingent going, and some of my friends here I've known for years now, and it took a while to create those relationships. It's a medium-sized city, which means I don't have to drive very far to get to the edge and see fields and woods, and I don't feel overwhelmed or trapped by the city, and traffic isn't too bad. (I'm not really a city person). But I am close to people and things that I like, and I am close to work. There are lots of nice parks and green spaces. In my neighborhood, I am close to a library, a grocery store, and "my" dog park. Also, Madison is known for being accepting of people who are queer; although on the negative side we have problems with racial segregation and school achievement.

When I day dream, I fantasize about living on a space station or space ship. Why not go for broke, eh? In the hospital and clinics where I've worked, this feels easy to imagine since they are big sprawling complexes with skyways, sky lights, internal shops and cafeterias, etc-- like cities unto themselves.

If I lived in a space station, I would probably still do scientific or medical research like I do now. The research questions that interest me are how living in a closed environment affect people's health and well being. Controlling infectious diseases would be pretty important since they would spread easily, much like they can do on a cruise ship. It would also be interesting to work in the green house or botany labs. A space station would be a small town, but it would be a port town, with people constantly coming and going. The challenge for me on a space station would be the separation from nature, but as with anywhere, perhaps there would be ways to incorporate nature into the built environment. Another area for study and work! :D

This comes from watching a whole lot of Deep Space Nine at a formative age. :D

Recently Finished

James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips

This took me weeks to read, but I enjoyed it a lot. I especially enjoyed the correspondence between Tip/Alli and Joanna Russ, Ursula LeGuin, and her other pen pals. The way they responded to her revealing her identity as a woman was GREAT. I would have liked more of this and perhaps less of Sheldon's earlier life, but that's my own preference. The book is remarkably well researched. I want to go back and read or re-read some of Tiptree's stories now.

I read this book with my girlfriend (on some of your recs-- thank you!) and she enjoyed it a lot even though she's not into SF. It's interesting to me that Sheldon tried a bunch of different things in her life and didn't go back to school until she was 41. I also really enjoyed reading about the WAAC.

Letting It Go by Miriam Kitin. Graphic Memoir.

This is obviously the 2nd book and I haven't read the 1st, so I felt a little bit of a gap in my knowledge but not too bad. The author is a Holocaust survivor and artist living in New York with her husband. Her adult son tells her that he's decided to live in Berlin with his girlfriend. Miriam has terrible associations and does not take this well, but decides to visit Berlin anyway. It is drawn in beautiful colored pencil. I could especially relate to the author's physical reactions to her distress. I am astounded my memoirists-- how brutally honest they are in laying everything out on the page. This was great and makes me want to read her first book.

Now Reading

I just barely started The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I mean that I'm still in the introduction and haven't really decided if I'm reading it yet.

Recently acquired

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, which I picked up from the library today.

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker. Lent from a friend.

I seem to be in a non-fiction mood.

Reading

I'm between things right now. I started an XMFC fanfic but it's not really working for me so I don't think I'll continue with it. Some of the AUs I read just feel so... paint-by-numbers.

Just finished

This is a good reminder to leave feedback on fic I read on my Kobo!

Friend Request, by rumpleghost. A Yuletide story based on the movie Weekend, Glen/Russell.

I quite liked this; the character depictions were spot-on and it gave them further adventures together in a mostly realistic way. Well written and the tension between the characters really came through. Recommended.

Lust Over Pendle by AJ Hall. Harry Potter fandom, Neville/Draco, Hermione, Narcissa, Emily Longbottom, others.

I loved this! A comedy of manners and an adventure, the characters really sing. Today I was thinking about how utterly awesome Draco is in one scene opposite an original character. It also centers some female characters such as Narcissa DeVries (nee Malfoy), Emily Longbottom, and Hermione, who are each powerful witches and people, and who all deserve such attention. I will read more of this author. Highly recommended.

Planning on reading

More fanfic. :)