It is now less than a week until I leave for Gallifrey One. While the weather looks grim (rain, rain, rain, rain), temperatures in the mid-60s sound pretty great to me. That and In-and-Out Burger. I’m half considering going vegetarian from now until I get there just to counteract the extremely unhealthy habits I tend to have there (the LAX Marriott isn’t really a prime zone for gluten-free food, so I wind up eating a lot of burgers without the bun and potato skins).
I’ve mentioned this on LJ, but on the odd chance anyone is here and not there — you’ll be able to pick up Whedonistas in the dealers room, but if you like to purchase a copy of The Book of Harry Potter Trifles, Trivias and Particularities ($15) or Horror Between the Sheets (the Cthulhu Sex anthology) ($12) let me know and I’ll bring copies with me. I’m not bringing spare copies, because it’s too onerous in the luggage.
Meanwhile, in the realm of people advocating for their own professional creative projects, my buddy John Snead is a designer of role-playing games and is currently running a Kickstarter project to fund the development of Eldritch Skies which is in the genre of Lovecraftian SF. Want to know what John could possibly mean by this or how to get the game yourself? Check out the project.
Back in the tentacle-free world, I was struck by this article regarding a discussion at an exclusive private club in New York that devolved into what sounds like Internet debate at its (articulate) worst over a reciprocal agreement with a British club that only allows women to enter when in the company of a man.
Finally, this CFP for Interfictions 0 regarding interstitial work may be of interest to many of you. I’ve been told by involved parties that work from folks who have interstitial relationships with the Academy (i.e., independent and non-traditional scholars) are most welcome to submit.
And now some follow ups on some previous stories:
Remember A Billion Wicked Thoughts? Well, now there are 50 tags, some of which, like mansplaining, that have been selected over 150 times. Proof fandom has a long, angry memory with a bucketload of social science expertise on the side. People should hire us to righteously fuck shit up; we’re really good at it.
Meanwhile, I was interested to note that Fat, Ugly or Slutty has received more click-thrus, by far, than any other item I’ve ever linked to in this blog. Part of that is that issues of how women get treated online is probably more exciting to most readers than the edible cups (no, I will never, ever stop talking about that). But I think part of it is also the provocative name, and, possibly, that rubbernecking impulse we often have on the Internet. If you clicked, why did you?
I’ve also noticed an interesting trend in the spam comments I get (and trash) here. Mostly they are generic things that are like “wow, this website has special content” but with worse grammar and even less specificity. The whole point is to sound flattering enough to get through and then hope someone will click on the URL of the commenter. But the ones I got on my most recent post about bullying? They were of the same level of grammar and specificity (so generic and clearly not about me) and in a shift, largely of the “wow, you are so stupid and whiny about something you could easily fix” variety. Their URL destination? Crappy on-line b-rate war video games. I guess it pays to know your audience; it pays more to have a good spam filter.
I’ll be speaking with Patty in the morning. I’ll let you all know if there are any more cobra status updates.
Letters from Titan 
I didn’t click on Fat, Ugly, or Slutty, because I had seen it already –I clicked on it originally because I liked the wording of the tweet, something like “hey women gamers, here’s a place for support and mocking of the people who always ask the question: are you ___”
I think I really want a copy of Horror Between the Sheets, but I can’t afford it right now, and I’m not going to be at gally anyways. So…at some point eventually, we should work that out or something.
~Sor
I don’t have a lot of HBtS left (although I think I can get more from the publisher — I should find out), but I’ll hold one for you.
I clicked – and just did again – on “FUS” because I was glad to see a site about this sort of bullying. I then lost the link to a browser crash, or I’d have shared it by now. I hope the project expands; there’s tons of material and the site right now is a little sparse and narrow in its focus. All the more reason to send my more gaming-oriented friends there (I don’t tend to play online games/ play with strangers in this fashion much); I’m sore the WoW crowd alone could fill the blog.
I’m a little grossed out by the jello cup thing personally, since there’s a creepy craze for Jello shots in the frat-boy drinking crowd these days – fifteen years ago I couldn’t have bought all this stuff for anything, and these days I have dozens of different options in terms of just the containers to serve jello shooters from, should I ever wish to serve ’em again. And I mean containers *designed and marketed for alcoholic jello shooters*. And really the whole binge drinking culture creeps me out.
Word Press spam is kind of its own magical creature, isn’t it? Akismet is worth its weight in whatever free plug-ins like. Hell, it’s worth my weight in the stuff.
I didn’t click through to Fat, Ugly or Slutty until today. Part of that was because, through the magic of working on a short story, a novella, an undergraduate thesis, and preparing for a test over John Stuart Mill on top of going “HOSHIT GALLIFREY ONE I AM SO UNDERPREPARED,” some wires got crossed and I thought it was the OPPOSITE of what it actually is. Yeah, overstimulation is bad. I now stand beautifully corrected and pleasantly surprised. So! One of today’s click-throughs is me. Er.
Meanwhile, this NYC vs. London private club thing is going to take longer to parse unless me throwing my hands in the air and exclaiming, “OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE, PEOPLE!” can be considered a measured, thoughtful response.
I clicked it because I like my rubbernecking drama feminist/social-justice flavored, and often such sites have some elegant articulations and perspectives I can add to my mental toolbox.
I think there’s a certain element of practice for me. Having learned as an adult that people can have such astoundingly crappy experiences, I keep studying them so I’ll understand and compartmentalize my reaction if such a thing is directed at me. I have the odd luxury of getting most of the positive attention of “attractive female” without once having been anonymously groped and only rarely slimed. I feel like I need to understand it better, both for others’ sakes and for my potential own.