So, if you are like me and totally fail at following current events, Pakistan is kind of underwater at this point and definitely needs everyone's help. You can text FLOOD to 27722 to donate $10; the Department of State's website has more info ( Read more... )

In case you haven't heard, there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti. Donate to the Red Cross by text message.

My parents flew out this morning to Hawaii (incidentally hiding my car keys before they went). Bitter? A tad.

Anyways, I started rereading the Earthsea books!

( Come and listen to a story about a man named Ged /
A powerful mage, who went and tried to raise the dead, /
A pissing contest to soothe his wounded pride, /
But out through the veil, something from the other side. /

Gebbeth, that is! Black wraith, shadow of death. )

Click to view

So I seriously spent an embarrassingly long time seeing all these posts mentioning ibarw and thinking "Cool, I wonder if that's Welsh for something ( Read more... )

So, some serious linkage on rape culture! An extremely fun subject, I know, but being as this is kind of an important problem, worth sharing.

The Problem:
On Rape and Men by cereta

How To Be Part of the Solution:
Thoughts on Men and Rape by jimhines

You know what sucks? Finding out that an author that you like has jumped headlong into writing race FAIL. It's bad enough READING it, but at least in some cases you can MAYBE attribute it to carelessness or ignorance (HAI THAR TOLKIEN) as opposed to active malicious intent. Whereas this is just so shockingly insensitive, if not purposefully ( Read more... )

So, if you haven't encountered RaceFail '09 yet, you should probably go check it out (ETA: here is a good and concise summary of events)-- not because it's particularly fun to watch various pro SFF authors make bigger and bigger racist and/or white-privileged assholes of themselves and the world a more exclusive and difficult place for persons of ( Read more... )