Just FYI, this LJ is mostly friends-only, just now. (Watch, I say that, and I'll start posting in the clear again soon.)

I do add people some. But mostly on my own volition. But feel free to say hi.

Edit, 9/16/11 -- As predicted, I'm now posting mostly in the clear. Well, anyway, hi.

I cannot even begin to iterate the problems with the new comment style, though a Becky over here does a pretty good job. (Honestly, it's not that ugly, overall, I just am tired of their using scripts for everything and its brother, which will gum up slower computers and so on and so forth. The icon thing in particular (where you have to see/load them all in order to choose one) is just silly. My computer at work won't be able to cope with that at /all/.)

In any case, if you still want to see comments in your own style (and have, say, subject lines for your comments), there is a solution.

See, they globally un-set a tiny little setting. To fix it, go to http://www.livejournal.com/customize/options.bml and set "Disable customized comment pages for your journal" back to "No".

(This seems a fairly important thing to globally un-set, but hey.)

Thanks to Rosefox.

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I keep having thots and not writing them down, but whatever.

Holly Fair went well. We had way fewer books but a little bit more Other Stuff, and I had fun organizing. I may be attempting to become communications czar for next year.

Two things of a charitable nature:

a) Red and Scoot the cats need homes. They're very nice cats, but their current person is allergic and the situation is getting unpleasant.

The current person ended up with them because their former person didn't neuter them, they sprayed in the house, and therefore a) the person kicked them out of the house, and then b) abandoned them when the humans moved. So, Red and Scoot need homes. This is in the Phoenix area, though they're willing to drive awhile for a forever home. More info here. (Red had an eye thing which has since been fixed, via donations.)

b) Terri Windling, editor extraordinaire, has some health issues. Therefore, her friends and relations, skilled folk all, some of them SF/fantasy writers, are getting together an auction for her. Most of the bidding ends on December 15.

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I forget if I have posted about this before. Ah, well, no matter.

Diane Duane has written 3 books of a proposed 4 book series, the official name of which is the Tale of the Five and/or the Middle Kingdoms books, but which I call "The Door Into..." books. They are nifty keen, with good magic system, interesting divinity, and both queer characters and non-traditional numbers of people getting married and/or shacking up together on a regular basis.

The 4th book was promised years ago from Maisha Merlin publishers, but then they died. And then, no news.

So! Now she is basically going, "If enough people say they want it, I'll write it." And the way people can say they want it, aside from emailing her piteously, is to comment (or +1) on Wordpress, RT on Twitter, +1 on Google, or what have you. This link tells you more.

ALSO at this link is a code that'll get you 60% off your order at her ebook store.

Frankly, the "if you say you want it, I'll write it" mode of publishing, in this case, is kind of torking me off, but I /really want the damn book/, so, I post. (That mode, in Kickstarter campaigns, for example, doesn't tork me off. I could explain the difference, but it would be mean to Duane, who I like, so I won't.)

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So Anne McCaffrey has, apparently, died. I figured that’d happen sooner rather than later, given her heart issues.

Damn good lady, her.

Not, truthfully, all that good a writer -- looking back at early Pern books is kind of painful, for example, in an ‘all sex is rape, and also, here, have some more wish fulfillment!’ kind of way. (And man, the less said about the writing in the Ship Who Sang book, the better.)

But she was a woman writing SF/fantasy (and getting it published) when fewer women were getting it published, and that mattered. (Plus, she was the first woman to win a Hugo -- in 1968, for the first Pern short story -- and the first woman to win a Nebula -- in 1969, for the second Pern short-work.) And as evidenced by the massive amounts of stuffed fire lizards still extant in the wild (and/or at cons and in people's bedrooms), her work really captured the imagination. And /that/ mattered, too.

And I really did like Menolly, and also The White Dragon. But I'm not going back to re-read them; my last time reading The White Dragon was my last re-visiting of those books.

This is, apparently, a remembrance, but either their servers are slammed or my computer is failing to load it. In any case. Tor.com! Saying stuff! Also, one I can get to, MediaBistro. Scalzi's commentariat remembers her. Locus, boringly.

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There's two memes going around, one of which tells you to post 20 first lines from your iTunes/random mp3 player, and have people guess them. ("Skip instrumentals, but don't skip the embarrassing ones," it says.) The other just says to put your mp3 player on random and paste 20 songs in.

I'm doing the latter, but people who wish to have a game show in their LJ/DW might take notice of the first version. Also, I have no embarrassment over my music, as witnessed in the first selection. Also, as per usual, I talk a bunch.

Title, then artist. Obviously.

Thundercats; Various Artists -- It was very exciting when I found a motherlode of themesongs somewhere or other. This is very silly, but it is Of My Childhood.

Organ Medley: Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah / Eternal Father Strong To Save / God Our Help In Ages Past; Dorothy Wingfield -- This is off some album I picked up at Boomerangs. It's not actually very /good/ organ music, sadly, but I do like Eternal Father (due to playing it in Noye's Fludde, once), so it's OK.

The Night Is Still Young; Billy Joel -- Off his Greatest Hits album. This is not my favorite thing of his.

Country Blues; Dock Boggs - Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 3B: Songs -- This album enabled me to explore country & western and discover that it is not just nasal people singing Sad Songs. Unfortunately, this song in particular is a nasally person singing a sad song. /However/, it has very good instrumental work, banjo in particular. (Boggs is a classic and spent more of his life coal mining than singing.)

Very Last Day; Peter, Paul & Mary -- From 'In The Wind'. I don't know this one as well as others, but I love PP&'s harmonies, so there is no bad here.

Bach: Orchestral Suite #3 In D, BWV 1068 - 2. Air "On The G String"; Helmut Winschermann: German Bach Soloists -- This is for some reason on a CD that says it's Pachebel's Canon. Clearly, it lies. But I do love this one, and I think my weirdo recorder teacher, way back when, had me play it some. (I mean, it's a good melody.)

Everlasting Love; Robert Knight -- Actually, this sucks. In any case, I went on a bit of a 60s exploration a bit ago, and this was one of the random songs I found. It is bombastic. (And from an album called 'One hit wonders of the 60s', so no wonder.)

People; Chocolate Milk -- Funk from Action Speaks Louder Than Words. Yay! Funk! (This has apparently been sampled a lot in music I'm less familiar with.)

Party Life; The Jimmy Castor Bunch -- More funk. I don't like it as much as Chocolate Milk, though.

Rondo for piano :Gambold; Boston Baroque -- From an album of Moravian music. It is Perfectly Nice Piano. Inoffensive, even.

Honky Tonk Woman; The Rolling Stones -- From a Best of the 60s album. Pardon me while I rock out. *rocks out*

I've Got The World On A String; Ivie Anderson -- This is from a jazz download I did, unless it's from archive.org instead. In any case! I love the sax. This was recorded in 1933 and it shows, but it's marvelous and Anderson is very good. Song's by Harold Arlen, of Wizard of Oz fame.

The Show Must Go On; Queen -- This is absurdly over the top, which is fine, since it's Queen and what do you expect?

Deus Enim Rorem; Emily Van Evera, Germaine Fritz, Richard Souther -- From 'Vision - The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen', which is labeled as New Age in my iTunes. Hrmph. (Though it is rather a new agey interpretation, I admit.)

Sipan; Al Tiplano -- From their Tamia Usia album. These guys are Andean something something. Native Americans playing wonderful, wonderful woodwinds. I heard them in some church in Brattleboro, Vermont, and bought the album right there. I love 'em. Aha, they're from Chili and have five zillion albums. Voila.

Lily Of The Valley; Wayne Newton -- From '50 Songs of Faith'. Hiss, Wayne Newton. Wait, why did I keep this? *deletes*

Salt and Pepper; Sammy Davis Jr. -- Of the Davis/Sinatra/Dean Martin trio, Davis is the one with the best chops. OK, yes, Sinatra in the early years is very /very/ good, but his later years piss me off and downgrade the rest of him. And Martin is just a slick useless person who coasted on his talent. Davis can sing, can dance, can't much act but is fun, and man, his live shows are a treat.

This Hard Land; Bruce Springsteen -- From his Greatest Hits album. Which I have yet to listen to. Whatever, I accumulate things that come in handy later. I am mostly Springsteen ignorant so thought this would be a good way to start, though I have since realized Springsteen is very album-as-complete-piece-of-music focused, so, anyway.

Give Me A Sign; Breaking Benjamin -- I wanted some metal, so I got some metal. It is metal. It does what it says on the tin.

Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 - Sinfonia; Alexander Titov: St. Petersburg Conservatory -- This is some Messiah version I got at Boomerangs. Because I wanted a Messiah. So there you go. (It is not the charmingly insane funk Messiah I found once and have now lost.)

One Song; Harry Stockwell -- From the Disney Collection that I got at the Holly Fair. This is from Snow White, and I don't like it at all. It is sort of operatic, only not very good.

I Feel The Earth Move; Martika -- Because I was in an 80s mood at one point and said to myself, "Self, find as much cheesy 80s as possible," and I did, and lo, it was good. This is a cover of Carol King's thing. (Wiki for some reason calls it a remake. Whur? Is this just different vocabulary, or is the meaning different?)

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Barbara Grier, co-founder of Naiad Press, died. I never actually much /liked/ most Naiad books, but the idea of Books About Lesbians was important.

("I have always believed that the best thing I might leave behind is a world in which any woman, anywhere, might say to herself 'I am a lesbian' and be able to go to a nearby store or library and find a book that will say to her, 'Yes, you are a lesbian, and you are wonderful,' " she told gay historian Jim Kepner some years ago.)

If I were paying attention, I would have known about this days ago, but it is what it is.

(Meanwhile, Frank Kameny (gay rights pioneer from a similar era) just two days ago had a memorial service on Capitol Hill. (In the same room in which HUAC targeted gays, says the Post.)

*wrestles html into submission*

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a) Turns out, some of the OWS books were saved. (Some weren't.)

b) I was posting from work and was in a hurry, in my last post, but you can contribute specific books if you want.

(They say, "To Donate, please bring books, plastic bins, and other supplies to Liberty Plaza, at the corner of Liberty and Broadway in New York City or mail them to:

The UPS Store
Re: Occupy Wall Street
Attn: The People’s Library
118A Fulton St. #205
New York, NY 10038")

c) Occupy Boston has a way less specific library, or anyway, way less documented. But it exists! I'm not going "Donate!" only because they haven't been evicted and had their stuff thrown in dumpsters. (Lately.)

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OK, so. Last night, Occupy Wall Street got shoved out of Zucotti/Liberty Park.

Among other things simply trashed by the police (grr) was their over-5,000 book library. (They have it listed on LibraryThing.) Some of these were not easily found books.

I would THINK that if people wanted to re-donate books, that would not be taken amiss. Per the OWS library blog, folks (authors and others) will be gathering to do so tonight. (At 6p.m.)

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a) As it turns out, I vaguely internet-know Itai's person. (Itai the cat, who needs a new California-area home.)

b) Itai was an even cuter kitten than he was a cat. (This is unsurprising.)

c) You can email Itai's person directly if you can give him a new home. newhomeforitai at the gmail thingummer.

d) Itai probably should go to a home without kids. Which... is a /useful thing to know/.

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HeavensCalyx sends word of a friend who needs to give a cat a new home.

In the friend's words: Does anyone within reasonable driving distance [Ed: she said this was, to her, within about 12 hours' drive] of Southern California want Itai? I am serious. I will drive him to you. I will pay for a year's worth of food. You need to not have kids or other cats or small dogs. He is a huge cat: 20 lbs is a guess but he will not get on a scale. He hates the vet and will not go (draws blood from the vet, not worth it), but luckily he is very healthy. He has his claws. He loves to snuggle in bed. He loves to be on your lap most of the time. He is very active and loves to play. He hides from guests. He is very soft. He needs to be brushed frequently. He loves to eat. He is very funny. He lets you pick him up and carry him like a baby when he's in a good mood, and you can use him for a pillow. When he plays, he gets so worked up that he leaps into the air and grabs the door frame with all four legs. He is very vain and clean and loves to have his picture taken. And I know he doesn't have fleas or worms because we just rid him of both.

He is such a great cat and I love him so much and I know that one of you would love him too.

(She's willing, per HC, to drive as far as Seattle or Porland to rehome him.)


Pictures. That second one slays me. Slays!

If you can take him, email dziwozony AT gmail DOT com (that's HC's address), and HC'll put you in touch.

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A) Per my mom, her father in fact served in France in WWI, but unlike many, "never fired a shot in anger," and apparently lived on a farm, where his worst job was making sure the guys in his unit didn't drink the well water, which had giardia or some such. (He was in some organizational unit.)

B) As one may or may not know, Penn State Football is undergoing a spasm of problems, as a long-running and actually kind of impressively organized pedophile has been discovered; he's the former defensive coordinator and was intensely involved in Penn State, and (in part of the impressive organization) founded and ran a program for troubled boys, most of whom didn't have fathers present. (I'm not linking to the PDF of the grand jury testimony, but, here's a handy timeline. The thing many people are focusing on is the 2002 problem, wherein a grad student discovered the defensive coordinator (who was no longer coordinator at that point) raping a kid in the showers, freaked out, retreated, called his dad, and the next day went to the head coach, who then reported the issue up the line of command.)

Being as I listen to sports radio, I am listening to a lot of people reacting to this who are completely unfamiliar with pedophiles, the way that people tend to fail to follow up on these kinds of things (though this is, from everything I can tell, pretty egregious even for this sort of thing), and the effects of cults on how people approach authority.

Because, really, the way that Penn State Football, and the head coach (Joe Paterno) is treated in western Pennsylvania /isn't/ all that much unlike the Catholic Church is treated in many locales, and the Catholic Church had/is having an abuse scandal not unlike this, except way more pervasive. So think about how lay people deal with the church hierarchy. It's not quite the same at this kind of football institution, but it's not /that/ dissimilar. And a hell of a lot of people have just had a loss of faith, of one kind or another. And they need to mourn that.

So the actual reason I'm posting this is twofold. For one thing, many (many) many people keep on going, basically, "That grad student is a Bad Person. If I'd been there instead of the grad student, I'd have slugged that asshole!" Well, no, actually, first of all, probably not, because you really /really/ have no bloody idea how you would react until you are in the actual situation, and the actual situation causes /many/ people to react differently than they would like, and second of all, garner some imagination. You are a grad student, witnessing a universally beloved and respected authority figure doing something horrible. This authority figure is/was involved in this institution that is incredibly important to Penn State. It is /not actually that simple/.

Second of all, people are also fulminating about, among other things, Paterno never doing anything like firing the defensive coordinator. On the one hand, yes, I do agree, that is A Problem, and had he been more assertive about the situation in 1998, more could have been done. And from what it sounds like, the defensive coordinator wasn't very /subtle/.

But I mean -- my neighborhood, when I was a kid, had a guy who was rumored to have Certain Problems. He lived there for... I think about five years. He hung out on his porch, gave kids geodes, blunt hard dark rocks that, when broken, had crystalline gorgeous centers. The adults knew he was potentially an issue. But he lived there, and we lived there. Our families told us to be careful with him, and most of us were. But come to find out, years later, a good many of the boys hadn't been careful /enough/. (Because it's impossible to be careful enough.) Us girls were fine.

(He later committed suicide.)

We were obviously a much smaller group of people than Penn State. But there were similar kinds of communication failures, on that smaller scale. I don't know if there were similar kinds of protecting the aggressor; I doubt it, but I /don't know/, and it's certainly possible.

What I'm saying is, even when you /know/ that there are problems, it's never simple, and it's never easy, and people get hurt even when they try to do the right things.

So.

Basically, I just wish that some of the people fulminating would shut the hell up and let the people who need to mourn, mourn. And that others could at least recognize that there is complexity to the problem, and not try and make it into an issue with easy solutions. Because clearly, it wasn't. And to try and force it into a black and white one dimensional cut out of what it actually /is/ does a disservice to those living with the pain of what happened to them.

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Scotty and my mom and I got In Flanders Fields in the paper today, so I'm happy.

Meanwhile:

( The aforementioned In Flanders Fields )

( Elegy in a Country Churchyard )

( Dulce et Decorum Est )

In memory of those who served, and those who, out of principle, chose not to. (And in memory of my mother's father, who served in WWII, and my mother's great-uncle, who served in the late 1800s.)

Also: Care packages for current soldiers.

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