(no subject)
* I know Yeman and Jordon aren't getting much coverage, but let us take a moment to remember the dead in those attacks too.
* Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the assassination in Ankara is unlikely to be Daesh. A lot of coverage assumes otherwise, but I'm seeing several experts also citing the assassin's speech, target, various other details as reason for skepticism. i do not know for sure obviously and I do try to keep speculation to a minimum in these situations.
I have been asked about global political implications, but I'm still mulling and not ready to word things yet. My apologies.
* "Terror experts eye pattern after Berlin Christmas market attack:"
* "Assassination a painful call to Turkey's past:"
* "Sen. Murphy: Flynn is a 'dangerous character in the White House':"
* "The farce of GOP austerity politics:"
* "Two emergency managers charged in Flint toxic water crisis:"
* Rep Steve Israel suggests a plan to resist: https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/154743068873/micdotcom-heres-advice-from-a-congressman-on
* Why the BAFTAs are better than the Oscars. "British Oscars took a bold step toward ensuring diversity in film - take note, Hollywood:" https://mic.com/articles/162815/british-oscars-took-a-bold-step-toward-ensuring-diversity-in-film-take-note-hollywood?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=movement&utm_campaign=social#.yUcBdwkqI
* "A Very Special Legislative Session:"
* "Liam Neeson Auditions For Mall Santa Claus:"
* "Five Weeks From Today, Donald Trump Will Be Our President:"
* "Strange Bedfellows:"
* "Those Are Real People: Veterans & Refugees Edition :"
* Almost immediately after I moved away, my dream map started showing my old school as post apocalyptic about half the time. The track and field area became a pond, but the waters would rise to swallow most of the low ground on campus, including the bottom floor of the library on a high water day. Different scenarios would play out, plague, flood, various horror scenarios, survivors huddling in the ruins fighting wars for space and resources with other groups in other higher ground buildings. In other dreams, the water would recede and it was a school of one type or another again. I dreamed one last month where they'd completely renovated and the top floor was so different that there were math classrooms where the language faculty offices were and they had made the ugly hated architecture into something almost beautiful and there was actual learning going on.
In the real world, the literal school moved physically elsewhere, taking faculty and fixtures with, ages ago. I have wondered off and on rather absently what happened to the buildings and the land, the bushes where I could consistently hide, the geography of buildings and landscape I used to escape the inherent violence of the place, all the hidey holes and safe zones and danger spots, the corners and corridors and stairwells I used to break eyelines when I was being followed. I wondered, where they ruins or had they been leveled, or had they been sold and re-purposed?
I was watching Vice's Abandoned, the St. Louis edition where they take alums back to these ruined and abandoned schools. I poked at google street view, even though my experience is, the geography of my childhood isn't on there. To my surprise it was. I wasn't quite sure at first, not being clear on how I was oriented or what I was looking at, but a turn of attitude had me staring at familiar trees. I know, I know, generic Autumn foliage with random trees in brush, but I ran that way five days a week in season except for vacations and meets. you run as much cross country and track for as many years as I did in that same damned neighborhood, you know every inch of it. I did find my school, well populated. A University bought it.
They'd torn out so much of the trees and foliage on their side of the street, it was no wonder I didn't recognize it at first, but the bones were there, the buildings were there. The playground where I learned that people like me weren't allowed to be superheroes is mostly lawn and landscaping, but the building with the shaky grand staircase that haunts my dreams was still there. The really good hiding bushes in front of a different building were gone, along with the other playground and most of the trees and brush between, but there was the building where my childhood ended and the music building. I could not see well enough through the parking lot to tell if they'd kept the purgatorial tennis courts where the Summer heat used to burn up through my keds while I wished it was archery day instead. I could even catch a glimpse of the incredibly ugly building they put up when I was a toddler to replace the moldering upper school one that I can only just remember (mostly I remember the basement corridors and toilets. I can't tell you a damned thing about the rest of the building first hand). It looks like the college swallowed some of the mysterious to me buildings on the Other Side of the fence. The homes of the snooty neighbors who hated us on the Other Side of the Street look pretty much as I remember them. Slightly different landscaping, the occasional change in the paint scheme, but it's the same. as a college campus it looks so cheerful and useful and not prison like at all.
* The Antler Guy Story keeps getting better: http://slavetomyheadcanon.tumblr.com/post/154711970877/bibliotecaria-d-ebonykain-karacat
* I want to thank the people who warned me off Passengers. Normally, I hate being spoiled for anything, but D: DO NOT WANT. I'm crossing that right off my watch when it gets to the library list.
*****
* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list
* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate
* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/
* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463
* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming
* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change
* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#
* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal
* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted
* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/658036.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
* Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the assassination in Ankara is unlikely to be Daesh. A lot of coverage assumes otherwise, but I'm seeing several experts also citing the assassin's speech, target, various other details as reason for skepticism. i do not know for sure obviously and I do try to keep speculation to a minimum in these situations.
I have been asked about global political implications, but I'm still mulling and not ready to word things yet. My apologies.
* "Terror experts eye pattern after Berlin Christmas market attack:"
* "Assassination a painful call to Turkey's past:"
* "Sen. Murphy: Flynn is a 'dangerous character in the White House':"
* "The farce of GOP austerity politics:"
* "Two emergency managers charged in Flint toxic water crisis:"
* Rep Steve Israel suggests a plan to resist: https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/154743068873/micdotcom-heres-advice-from-a-congressman-on
* Why the BAFTAs are better than the Oscars. "British Oscars took a bold step toward ensuring diversity in film - take note, Hollywood:" https://mic.com/articles/162815/british-oscars-took-a-bold-step-toward-ensuring-diversity-in-film-take-note-hollywood?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=movement&utm_campaign=social#.yUcBdwkqI
* "A Very Special Legislative Session:"
Click to view* "Liam Neeson Auditions For Mall Santa Claus:"
* "Five Weeks From Today, Donald Trump Will Be Our President:"
* "Strange Bedfellows:"
* "Those Are Real People: Veterans & Refugees Edition :"
* Almost immediately after I moved away, my dream map started showing my old school as post apocalyptic about half the time. The track and field area became a pond, but the waters would rise to swallow most of the low ground on campus, including the bottom floor of the library on a high water day. Different scenarios would play out, plague, flood, various horror scenarios, survivors huddling in the ruins fighting wars for space and resources with other groups in other higher ground buildings. In other dreams, the water would recede and it was a school of one type or another again. I dreamed one last month where they'd completely renovated and the top floor was so different that there were math classrooms where the language faculty offices were and they had made the ugly hated architecture into something almost beautiful and there was actual learning going on.
In the real world, the literal school moved physically elsewhere, taking faculty and fixtures with, ages ago. I have wondered off and on rather absently what happened to the buildings and the land, the bushes where I could consistently hide, the geography of buildings and landscape I used to escape the inherent violence of the place, all the hidey holes and safe zones and danger spots, the corners and corridors and stairwells I used to break eyelines when I was being followed. I wondered, where they ruins or had they been leveled, or had they been sold and re-purposed?
I was watching Vice's Abandoned, the St. Louis edition where they take alums back to these ruined and abandoned schools. I poked at google street view, even though my experience is, the geography of my childhood isn't on there. To my surprise it was. I wasn't quite sure at first, not being clear on how I was oriented or what I was looking at, but a turn of attitude had me staring at familiar trees. I know, I know, generic Autumn foliage with random trees in brush, but I ran that way five days a week in season except for vacations and meets. you run as much cross country and track for as many years as I did in that same damned neighborhood, you know every inch of it. I did find my school, well populated. A University bought it.
They'd torn out so much of the trees and foliage on their side of the street, it was no wonder I didn't recognize it at first, but the bones were there, the buildings were there. The playground where I learned that people like me weren't allowed to be superheroes is mostly lawn and landscaping, but the building with the shaky grand staircase that haunts my dreams was still there. The really good hiding bushes in front of a different building were gone, along with the other playground and most of the trees and brush between, but there was the building where my childhood ended and the music building. I could not see well enough through the parking lot to tell if they'd kept the purgatorial tennis courts where the Summer heat used to burn up through my keds while I wished it was archery day instead. I could even catch a glimpse of the incredibly ugly building they put up when I was a toddler to replace the moldering upper school one that I can only just remember (mostly I remember the basement corridors and toilets. I can't tell you a damned thing about the rest of the building first hand). It looks like the college swallowed some of the mysterious to me buildings on the Other Side of the fence. The homes of the snooty neighbors who hated us on the Other Side of the Street look pretty much as I remember them. Slightly different landscaping, the occasional change in the paint scheme, but it's the same. as a college campus it looks so cheerful and useful and not prison like at all.
* The Antler Guy Story keeps getting better: http://slavetomyheadcanon.tumblr.com/post/154711970877/bibliotecaria-d-ebonykain-karacat
* I want to thank the people who warned me off Passengers. Normally, I hate being spoiled for anything, but D: DO NOT WANT. I'm crossing that right off my watch when it gets to the library list.
*****
* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list
* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate
* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/
* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463
* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming
* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change
* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#
* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal
* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted
* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/658036.html. Please comment there using OpenID.