So, this morning I went through and did a bit of housekeeping on my Friends List. My criterea for taking someone off my friends list was as follows:

I removed:

anybody with whom I haven't spoken or interacted recently, either in comments to each other's LJ's or via some other venue. 
anybody whose LJ name has a line through it.
anybody whose LJ I followed but who hadn't ever friended me back.
anybody whose last entry was more than a year old or longer. 
anybody whose LJ name I couldn't really link up with an identity/person (for whatever reason). 

That being said, I don't want to kick anybody off who wants to be here or to kick anybody off by accident SO if you got kicked and you're wondering why it was either because of one of the above reasons, or by accident. If you want back in, just email me and I'll be happy to re-add you. I just realized that I had a lot of ghost LJ's hanging about and I'm in a cobweb cleaning sort of mood. 

I know a lot of you are writers yourselves, and/or erotica writers and/or fanfic writers and/or consumers of the aforementioned types of writing. 
A lot of you are self publishing authors too. 

So I thought you'd want the heads up that PayPal has determined itself to be the arbiter of What Is Unacceptable To Publish, in it's opinion. And they've decided they're not going to let you get PAID if they think your work is a problem.
Even if it's perfectly legal. Even if it's selling well.  

Read all about it: http://victoriafoxxe.livejournal.com/7120.html

Some of you may have seen this on Friday's Towleroad, but since the 'net in general seems rather underpopulated on Fridays, I thought I'd post it again in the hopes of giving it a signal boost. It's adorable, for starters, but also heart wrenching because in the end, this couple is forcibly separated due to the unfair laws that say that since gay marriage isn't federally recognized -  gay multi-national couples are S.O.L. when it comes to getting immigration visas and etc. 



After I saw his sweet video, I wrote to the American half of this couple to find out if there was anything folks could do to help - it turns out he lives in the Bay area and this is where he's trying to bring his non-American partner to live. He said that he and his partner are looking for a job or an internship which would allow the partner to get a Visa so he could stay in the U.S. with his love. The non-American partner has a Master's degree in Human Resources and is looking for pretty much anything in the Bay area or surrounds which would let him get that Visa.

I know that a lot of your work in the tech fields and there's a lot of "friends of friends work for so and so.." type networking that can help in situations like these. There are many benefits to having connections that come with a Friends list of considerable size - which mine is and which some of yours are as well.
So I'm putting this out there and asking that if you guys know of any sorts of leads, programs or job openings he could apply for which could eventually lead to reuniting this pair -  either email me and have me pass it along or email them at their YouTube presence. 

Yeah, I'm a die hard romantic - but I want them to have the chance to begin their "happily ever after" phase y'know? 

Thank you for the eyes...and happy Monday! 

P.S. - This is going to be a public entry so feel free to pass it around, recirculate it, repost it et cetera. Signal boosting is good. 

Last night I watched NBC nightly news, as I have begun to do every night since the police tear-gassed the "Occupy" encampment in downtown Oakland. On THAT night, I was watching the news and simultaneously watching several live feeds up from different sources associated with the local "Occupy" movement and the official livestream that was up on the Occupy Oakland site itself. I noticed then that - as the old Sesame Street song goes - "One of these things is NOT like the other.." 
The story that the mainstream news was reporting and the story with video evidence I was seeing on the live feeds were very, VERY different. I began to notice things like the fact that right before the police would move in towards the protesters, the live chopper cam on the news would suddenly veer off from the crowd and focus on something weird and counter-intuitive like a completely empty side street or two cops talking next to their car blocks away from where events were unfolding. 
I noticed that right before the tear gas attacks, the news copters all simultaneously went "Ooops, we're sorry, we have to go refuel." And the feeds would go black. 
Then on the livestream all hell would break loose. 

I short, I began to realize that our media had been abrogated to an extent I had previously wildly underestimated. 

I have watched ever since and compared what the media stories were that evening (both local and national) and what was actually going on with the OWS movement. I've noticed that there's a vast blackout going on. 

Last night, on NBC nightly news here's what they reported was going on:

Natalie Wood's death is now being investigated for potential foul play. (4 minutes and some seconds) (Not news. She died in 1981. At best should've gotten a 30 second mention at the end of the broadcast.)
A breast cancer drug recall (around two and a half minutes) (Relevant, should be on public news shows) 
The Penn State coach guy has a highly treatable form of lung cancer (around 30 seconds) (Not news.) 
The weather is really weird out there and hey, I guess we all have to admit global warming might be sorta true, maybe. (Not news or at best, filler story taking up less than a minute) 
There's a museum exhibit out there about the first ladies of the past, complete with their dresses in cases! (WAY not news) 

Meanwhile, here's what was actually going on, just in MY backyard:

According to reports I'm reading, when the college students who were protesting peacefully and nonviolently shielded or closed their eyes and mouths against the pepper spray, police forced some of them to the ground and PRIED OPEN their mouths and noses to spray the pepper spray directly in. This resulted in serious injuries requiring hospitalization for a couple of them. 

Also, this happened: 
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8896362-exclusive-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street-video

In case you don't want to click on that link, let me synopsize for you: A well known Washington lobbyist firm has had a memo leaked where it talks about setting aside $850,000 to find ways to destabilize, delegitimize and destroy the Occupy movement and silence it's message. 

My personal favorite part of the memo? This nugget of "skairt": “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

Ah yes, there's always the potential that the "little people" who are having a really tight and awful hard candy Christmas will blow a frickin' gasket when they find out how much the CEO's gave themselves by way of Christmas bonuses. Can't have that! That might make OUR lives....uncomfortable. 

Needless to say, this wasn't on the mainstream news either. But Natalie Wood? That's NEWS! Big news! Worth a whole chunk of long minutes at the top of the news hour. 
Breaking news! I hear the California governor...some guy named Ronald Reagan might be considering a run for the presidency! 

Really it's getting to the point where they're all but doing that thing I used to do when I wanted to make my little sister lose her temper: "Lalalala! Can't SEE you! Plugging my ears now! Can't HEAR you! You don't exist to me!" 

I'm having to find out what's really going on in my own country  by getting up in the morning and checking Facebook and G+ and handfuls of links and people's YouTube streams, then going off and doing research on it to find out what happened. 
This is why - after a spate of enraged and incoherent screaming at the tv - I am stating that I'm going to have a new "News" tag on here, because I now have to consider myself a booster station for the actual news that the News heads are refusing to talk about. 

Any post I tag with the News tag, you're welcome - nay even encouraged and entreated - to research and repost to your heart's desires. Apparently WE have to get things out and circulating and kind of peer review our own stories as best we can because the corporate owned News shows have had their leashes jerked tight. The news can decide that OWS will just NOT be televised, but that doesn't mean it won't be reported. And video recorded. And listened to. 

( Read more...Collapse )


It's inescapable - this obsessive, masochistic 9/11 "memorial" coverage. I realized that TV watching was going to be tricky this week. I fast forward through commercials. Restrict what I watch to the weather, the traffic reports and shows that I have Tivo'd and even -that- minimal amount of coverage is full to overflowing with promos for 9/11 "memorial" content. I can't even listen to the radio without having my music interrupted by endless promos for "a very special Sunday show"...and this is on XM! Commercial free, theoretically!

"Join us, won't you?"

Um.

NO I won't.

Look, I understand that this event was a big deal in my country, lord knows I do. I get that after big traumatic experiences many people need to have some kind of a memorial to mark the milestone as it passes. That's human nature and if it were being handled respectfully, lovingly and gently, I'd feel differently about it.

The thing is, this is feeling a lot less like a communal moment of thoughtful contemplation and gentle grief and a lot more like emotionally manipulative spectacle-ogling slash disaster porn. It feels patently exploitative, deeply usurious of the strong emotions that are still present when remembering that day and that event. It's amping up the "horrific" and "tragic" and "unimaginable" like a movie trailer - set to an Enya "we're pushing your buttons - cry, damn you, CRY!" soundtrack.

I resent the hell out of that.

I know that I'm not the only one who does NOT want or need to re-live it. In fact, for me it feels distinctly re-traumatizing to be forced to - and that's what it feels like is happening. I am being FORCED to revisit that day. It feels like I am walking through my life and episodically three thugs run out from behind an awning, grab my head and neck and force me to look at a big Time Magazine spread on 9/11.
I don't want to, but SUR-PRISE! It's a 9-11 mugging!

Ok then, I won't leave my house.

SUR-PRISE! They're standing in the bushes with pictures shoved up against my window.

They're there when I go to the grocery store. They're there when I'm watering my yard (and the neighbor's radio was on, and they were yapping about their tribute show). They're there when I step out to get a coffee with my husband.

For the love of....can we please have an OPT OUT option here? No? Why the hell not?

Frankly, I wonder at the motivations here.

Our nation is in a ditch. Our leadership seems largely ineffectual at best, episodically criminal at worst. Our economy is ACTIVELY on fire and the politicians we've elected to help us out in case of emergency are more engaged in a rousing round of "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you! You're a boogerhead! No, YOU are!" with one another than they are in handing us the $#@!ing fire extinguisher. We're overextended in foreign wars that go on and on and on with increasingly nebulous goals. We're fractured and fragmented culturally in ways that seem insurmountable. We're more freaked out that two guys might actually get married than we are at the fact that more and more of our children are going to bed hungry each night. Or alone because Mom and Dad are working double shifts at the only part time jobs they could find.

We have become guilty of the very things we once stood against - torture, extreme rendition, secret tribunals, hidden prisons, dark suited covert operatives snatching people off the streets of Germany and France, jackbooted thugs-for-hire considering groups of citizens "collateral damage" and oh yeah, officials and politicians who are considered above the law even as they do the most unconscionable things and ADMIT to them with no fear of reprisal.
And I won't even go into the surveillance and monitoring of our own people, the "do you have your papers" stance that means you can't go see the Toronto side of Niagara Falls without producing your proof of citizenship, the expansion of police powers and "respect my authoritai" bullying, the sudden appearance of surveillance cameras at every juncture of our public lives, the random pat-downs and strip searches just to fly home to see Grandma in Omaha, the fact that an artist painting a picture of the Bank of America on fire can sign him up for several threatening CIA visits. In. America.

But nevermind any of that - "9/11! 9/11 TEN years later!"

In all of the news shows dissecting "the events of 9/11" and "the aftermath" not a single one (that I've seen or heard of) is asking the questions "Did Bin Laden actually succeed in what he set out to do? Did he do something so awful that he caused us to freak out, overreact and destroy the American way of life as we knew it then? Are we continuing to do that now? What have we become in the interim?"

Oh heck no, that's the third rail of discourse. No, lets go instead to talk to the moist eyed, flag draped "orphans of 9/11" while slow, sad music plays in the background. And let's also amp up the "real and credible new threats" fear too, lest we forget that we need to be afraid. We need to be traumatized. We need to feel that we have to be protected and that we have no choice but to fund things like interminable foreign wars, bands of lawless mercenary troops and strip searches at airports at the expense of schools, libraries....post-hurricane rebuilding. Alternative energy sources. A functional infrastructure. OH HEY, funding for the outrageous health expenses of the 9-11 First Responders! WOW! Good god damn, people! Anybody gonna -mention- that? Anybody? Anybody?

The whole spectacle and the cynical way it's being paraded out, exploited and made into Masochism Theater is making me sick to my stomach. I've spent the entire week in a jaw-clenched borderline ragey mood which is why I haven't posted much of anything.
I just want to punch every news team and segment producer I see right in the eye.

This weekend I plan to stay as far away from any outside input devices as I can. I'm going to re-plant some broccoli in my garden that's been ready to go for a week now. I'm going to weed my tomatoes. I'm going to draw and paint and read some books. In other words, I'm going to be living my damn life. And on Sunday, even as I'm doing these things, I'll be aware of what day it is. I don't need some idiot with a bullhorn bellowing it in my ear.

I'll take some time out to be grateful for the blessings I have in my life and to hope that the people most affected by the events of that day have had some healing and found some peace over the last decade. I'm going to take a moment to pray that my nation can stop being so obsessed with the event and that we move on to start cleaning up the aftermath in a substantive way - not just by rebuilding Ground Zero into a park. I will be praying that this country turns things around so that ten years from NOW we can say with assurance that Osama Bin Laden did NOT win. We ran aground for a bit, foundered a bit and lost our way a little, but then we righted things. We overcame. We stopped bickering and drew together and fixed things. We re-thought our approach, revisited our charter ideals and brought about the next golden era for democracy and sustainable, equitable prosperity and reclaimed our place as the shining light on the hill.

If we can make the world -better- because this awful thing happened, then Bin Laden didn't win. Simple as that. The answer to destruction is CREATION, not more destruction. It's like that old paper, scissors, rock game.

Love cuts up hate. Love wins.
Creation wipes out destruction. Creation wins.
Compassion outweighs cruelty. Compassion wins.

That's the kind of "memorial tribute" I'd like to see, and that's the sort of magical intention I'm going to be crafting this weekend.
I'm going to create things. I'm going to love things. I'm going to be kind to myself and others.

It doesn't make for great soundbytes, but it's the way I believe that we make sure the tide is turning in the -right- direction this time. One conscious, deliberate act of creative, love-filled, intensely personal rebellion at a time. ;)

Ok, Paw-Paw's fixin' to preach...

( Brought to you by the good people of DOW chemical..Collapse )

So, I have a friend and she is made of awesomeness. She works for a Major American Name Brand Company and that company recently received some mail from a high school student in East L.A. In the letter it was mentioned that at her high school, which is WILDLY underfunded (as most California schools are now, but especially in the less wealthy areas), they are having a major shortage of...


you ready for this?


PENCILS.

Imagine trying to teach kids how to do much of anything and having no writing utensils with which to do that. It's mind boggling, but there it is - public education in America people.

I will NOT rant about this right now. I won't. But damn....


Anyhow. They got a grant for -some- pencils earlier in the year, but it's not been enough to get them through the high school and now in addition to the pencil shortage there's an eraser shortage too. You try to learn Algebra without an eraser - I dare you.

Soooo this is where you and I and everyone we know comes in: My dear and wonderful friend has set up an Amazon wishlist wherein you can spend $5 or $10 to buy these kids some pencils and/or erasers. Many hands make light burdens, isn't that the way the saying goes? This used to be the whole POINT of having a civilization and paying taxes and whatnot, but...

I will NOT rant about this.

*grinds teeth*

POINT BEING: Here is the link to the wish list which will let you donate some pencils to this kid's school.

Oh and the underlying point behind the original high school girl's letter to the Major American Corporation? Challenging the cynicism and negativity and bitterness of the kids at this high school and presenting them with a reality in which the people older than they are actually do care and prove that many people are unselfish and good.

I'm thinkin' that a box of pencils paid towards -that- kind of an example set for some high school kids is a small price to pay. I sent a couple boxes, because I'm an artist and we love pencils. :) I'm also kind of a fan of children and education, so it was a no brainer for me. I just wish that I could afford to do more...but you know, it's something.

The recipient for the pencils is BryanMayer, he's the original student's math teacher. If you could, when you send them, mention that Kristen Lee sent you.

PENCILS to the PEOPLE!! *shakes fist in the air*

And please feel free to forward this, repost it, pass it around and get it anywhere and everywhere you think might help get these kids some pencils and erasers.

Rather than re-write what she wrote so perfectly, I'm just gonna lift this directly from kristenred's journal:

Kristen wrote:

I am not sure how many of you are on d2leddy's friends list, or on his partner vbseth's and I am not sure how many of you read David’s post yesterday. If you didn’t, forgive me for the “inside” talk – let me get you up to speed. David and Seth are dear friends who live on a farm they call "Turkey's Rest" in Virginia. You've seen David's comments on my journal. David and Seth are amazing people. The love they have for one another is the most powerful thing I have ever seen, and the life they have built together is one I would like to have for myself one day. I am so grateful to know these men, and to count them as friends.

Seth broke his ankle, and in a series of medical problems, developed pneumonia. He is currently in the ICU of a hospital which is an hour away from their home. David is with him almost around the clock, and is having to make arrangements for the animals at their home, make decisions about Seth’s care, deal with Seth’s mother, worry about their jobs, and deal with the fear that comes with Seth being in the ICU. He's overwhelmed and exhausted, and there is very little any of us can do to alleviate that. We are too far away, and airline tickets and hotels rooms are luxuries we aren't in a position to afford right now.

I don’t know about you, but this helpless feeling is about to choke me. I want so badly to get on a plane – take care of the dogs and the chickens, write the thank-you notes, provide updates, make David sleep, make sure he eats well, and for crying out loud, fix that goddamned floor that started all this mess. And I find myself looking at my bank account and my obligations here and being outraged that I was not born into wealth and a life of leisure.

But there is something I can do. There is something we can ALL do. We can come together on these wires known as the internet and we can MAKE SOME NOISE.

Today is the first day of Team Turkey.

We can’t fly to Virginia, and we can’t magically make Seth well, but we can damned sure throw money at the problem. And we can do it now, before it’s needed.

Here is what I propose: I have set up a separate, interest-bearing savings account with my bank. I have set up a PayPal site called “For David and Seth”. I will collect as much money as we can raise, and we will let it sit until it’s needed.

It may not be needed, in which case we will figure out what to do. Maybe we can pay to have that floor repaired, maybe we can start the LJ Fund we’ve been kicking around. If that's the case, certainly we can arrange to return the money to those who request it.

It doesn't have to be much. $5 from 100 people would buy a lot of gasoline for David to make that hospital trip. Food to be delivered once Seth is home and recovering. Someone to make sure Spike and Kojak are walked and fed. Someone to take care of those chickens.

We have thousands of birds up on these wires. If each of us gives at least $5, we could actually DO something here.

So here’s the button

Here Endeth the Kristen transmission. Now beginneth the Rob part:

Listen y'all, I know money is tight right now. It's so tight up here at Casa Lobo that Abe Lincoln squeals when he leaves our hands. But David and Seth are great guys who're having a helluva run of really bad luck. Nobody should go into the hospital for a broken ankle and then end up in the ICU. It's just KILLING ME that I can't fly out to Virginia to, at very least, take care of all the animals of Turkey's Rest so that David could stay at Seth's bedside. I can only imagine what I'd be like if Soren were in a similar situation.
I can't fly out there, but I can sure beat the drum to raise some money for their sakes. I've seen people on here raising money for other friends who're in trouble and when I can, I donate and I've seen the kind of good that can come from that. So I'm asking, if each of you only donate a dollar, that will raise over $300 for David and Seth. It might not sound like a whole lot, but $300 pays for a whole lot of meals when neither partner is up to cooking or getting groceries. It pays for gas to and from the hospital. It matters.
So. If you have a spare dollar to give and would like to put it in the kitty, please do. If you don't want to send the money through PayPal, you can send it to me directly. Email me and I'll send you my address and then I'll make sure the money finds its way to Turkey's Rest.

Now go have a great weekend will ya? And if you have a significant other, husband, wife, children, pets you cherish? Maybe now is the perfect time to go tell them that. Just because.

I hate April Fools day.

Yes, I know I'm Trickster's child and as such this should be like, my high holy day, but in reality not so much. Let me 'splain, the tricks I play are usually silly and playful. They are done with a light touch and done in such a way that more often than not, I am the butt of my own jokes. Or at least one of the butts. I am very much in league with the teasing I'm doing to someone else. It's all very lighthearted or at least that's what I strive for.

I hate April Fools day for the same reason my Irish family hates St. Patrick's day - because it's amateur hour. Suddenly everybody wants to take their turn at being Tricksy for a day, with varying degrees of finesse. See, the thing is, if someone's running towards the battle of wits unarmed, they drop everyone else to their level. So if their idea of highly funny "tricks" is tripping people, that's where they'll go, regardless of the fact that other people kinda want to stab them in the face when they get tripped.

I find it especially annoying that every ham handed tecchie at "Insert Name Brand Corporation Here" thinks their company should play a joke on users. "Let's manipulate the user's data so they think their account has been hacked!" Only if a user's account in the past has been hacked? That joke is really un-funny. Especially if they use that account for professional purposes and they have a double bill weekend coming up with a big con and a big industry event and they've spent the last week manicuring their virtual lawn because they have a virtual open house coming up. Not so funny to walk out and find a big bag of flaming dog poo on that lawn - even "just as a joke."

Ditto for all variants of "let's play games with the interface" and "let's delete their accounts" and "let's give them a phony error message." All NOT funny, especially for someone whose professional presence on the web is the umbilical cord through which they - y'know - find work, survive, make money.

You can do what you like in the name of humor, but my canine heart will hate you forever if you think moving my food dish is highly humorous.

Can you guess how I've spent my morning, by the way? Yeah. Chasing my moving food dish a couple of times because I have a big convention and an industry specific show coming up at which I am attempting to pass out my contact info and site links. Not so much funny to have those sites go all wonky because it's April 1st and some tecchie on staff got the big pants for playing an "April Fools" joke on their user base.

That shit just ain't funny, Hal.

And for reference's sake, here's a few other things that aren't funny to do to anybody on April Fool's Day:

Fake bugs or virus alerts
Fake "news" items that are deliberately anxiety/panic inducing
Fake obituaries
Fake illness announcements ( "I have cancer" or even "It's gonorrhea." Just...don't.)
Fake "I'm mad as hell and I'm leaving" storm offs
Fake break ups
Fake account deletions on social networking sites
Fake pregnancies or pregnancy losses
Fake pet deaths/lost pets
Fake firings
Fake suicide threats
Faked tragedies of any sort, really

If I have to sit at my desk with my heart in my throat because of something someone else thought was "funny" to do on April Fool's Day...again, that shit is just not funny. It's mean.

I don't wanna rain on anybody's parade and I'm not usually the one to espouse anybody else toning the tricksy side of life down - ask around - but for me the line is always "Is this mean?"
I don't DO mean. Not on purpose. I'm not perfect, sometimes I stumble into the outlying fields of Mean by accident, but when I find out that's where I am I beat a hasty retreat and I apologize for it.

Mean is not ok with me.

You wanna fake me out by telling me you won the lottery to see my reaction? Cool. Not mean. You wanna fake me out by telling me I won the lottery, when I didn't? Mean.
You want to fall in a mud puddle for humor's sake? Great. Could be funny. Go for it.
You wanna push ME into the mud for humor's sake? Mean. You'd better run like hell afterwards too. And stay gone for a few months too, until I forget why there's a red circle around your name. PS - I won't.

There's a clear difference between laughing with someone and laughing while pointing at someone.

The professional tricksters know where this line is and we know that humor is always a delicate balancing act. There's often a fine line between funny and mean, but there's definitely a LINE there and you just don't cross it lest you wander into "jerk" territory. Err on the side of skipping the funny if you think it might be mean. Chances are good that if you're having to ask that question, it probably wasn't even that funny in the first place.

This comes up as a result of a discussion in a friends' LJ re: the relative uselessness of either Billboard's or iTunes' "Top 100" for a lot of us these days. I spend a pretty scary amount of my free time casting around on the web and various non-mainstream music venues looking for music that doesn't suck since so much of what I hear on the radio and via the aforementioned useless places does suck. Hugely.

In the interests of musical exchange of the more obscure artists who may not be so easy to find during these days of ClearChannel hegemony, I thought a list might be in order. Because I wanted to also avoid the "Video Killed the Radio Star" problem, wherever possible I made a point of -not- including the video to these songs. It's by and large just the music.
I hope some of you enjoy it and I -really- hope some others of you follow suit and compile a list of what -you- are listening to so I can gather up the pretty stones from your collections.

( All Rob Radio, All the Time..Collapse )