Noticed in passing
We went to Trader Joe's tonight, and I realized that the songs being played over the PA system will be old enough to be elected President of the United States next time.

Vote "Whip It"/"Life During Wartime" 2016!

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Happy 2014!
I wish you all a happy year, however you define that.

For myself, my goals are to finish my novel, continue working to improve my health insofar as that's possible, and to laugh more.

Thanks to everyone on LJ who helps with the third!

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Ave atque vale
The world is lesser for Nelson Mandela's death, but immensely greater for his life.

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Notary Sojac!
I never post here anymore. Mostly, it's because I have very little to say, and also because I'm having a hard time typing (better every week, thanks to my wonderful hand therapist). But just to say I aten't dead, and I'm still reading.

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For Your Doxxing Convenience
( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Happiest of New Years
A very happy 2013 to all of you. No resolutions for me! No hangover, either, so I've got that going on. I did, however, fall asleep with several Spongebob Squarepants stickers on different parts of my body, courtesy of the Youngest Goddaughter. I don't know what that augurs for the coming months.

My "best books of 2012" post is up at my Booktweeting blog. Couldn't resist adding to the year-end barrage of retrospectives.

I wish you all bright days ahead.

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Apocalypse Not
Still here! Hurrah and all that.

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Homage to Peaches and Herb
I have just returned home from my 30th (!!) high school reunion. Apparently I have not changed, except that I have. Who knew?

There was a game where one classmate read out people's quotations and goals from the yearbook. I apparently had no goals; upon hearing this, I said "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED" because whatever it is I am supposed to be doing, I guess I am already doing it. Or so my 17-year-old self predicted.

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Hershele Ostropoler Explains It All For You
In a comment at John Scalzi's "Whatever" blog, on sexual harassment at public gatherings:

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An Internet Thing I Am Sick Of
Gentlemen, whenever a person of the female gender is depicted or discussed, do not feel the need to issue an official Boner Report as to whether you would or would not hypothetically have sex with that lady. Nobody cares. You will not receive valuable prizes for assigning every woman who ever lived into the "I'd hit it"/"I wouldn't hit it" category. Unless you think of my contempt and derision as a valuable prize, in which case YOU MAY ALREADY BE A WINNER.

(This brought to you by several dudes who felt the need to tell the Internet that the young Lillian Gish gave them a boner. Apparently, their plan is to build a time machine and go back to 1923 to woo Ms. Gish? They should at least stop to kill you-know-who on the way.)

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Yay!
One of my favorite SF books of 2011, Andrea Hairston's Redwood and Wildfire, won the Tiptree Award. Yay! My Twitter review for it was "BREATHTAKING HISTORICAL FANTASY: glorious take on the power of magic AND sharp commentary on race in the US."

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In the Bleak Midwinter
I am going to join the great carol (Harold Darke's setting is the best, no matter how much I love Holst otherwise) in inaccuracy. Because it feels like the middle of a tough patch, not the beginning of one.

Wishing everyone in the Northern Hemisphere light and hope and unfreezing. Some year I am going to be in the Southern Hemisphere and see how folks there transform the "light in the darkest time" ceremonies like Christmas and Hanukkah and Diwali and Jul into something that works better for the summer solstice!

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Singularity Achieved
So I get The New Yorker, as it was a gift from my dad (before his death, obvs!) In this week's issue, author John McPhee, fabled for his long and incredibly detailed stories about people and things (which I think is a bug, but many people think is a feature) writes a long and detailed story about how he writes his long and incredibly detailed stories.

I am not making this up!

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Mississippi Personhood Amendment
So, yes, this is a real thing, and I support the people who are opposing it!

I'm a little troubled by the way some people have seized on the "will criminalize miscarriage" not just as an example of the absurdity of the bill, but with an implication that criminalizing miscarriage is somehow worse than criminalizing abortion. Criminalizing medical procedures seems to me just as morally bad as criminalizing natural body processes, though obviously for women who have lost wanted pregnancies the added emotional cruelty of a criminal case would be horrific.

28% of women in the US are estimated to have had abortions (including me). 25% to 35% of women in the US are estimated to have had miscarriages (including me). Of course, since my miscarriage was of a pregnancy I already had an appointment to terminate, I guess I'm Mississippi Public Enemy #1.

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National Coming Out Day
So I can't decide what to say, because, yeah, I'm bisexual, but as it happened I married a man a bazillion years ago and we chose to be monogamous, and so my current relationship is unfairly privileged by homophobic asshats and that's shitty. And can't decide whether "I haven't been queerbashed in more than a decade so I should just shut up" or "Shutting up contributes to bi invisibility."

But I do want to say to everyone who feels or knows that it would be unsafe for them to come out: you are fighting homophobia every day just by existing and staying safe, and you don't owe the rest of us anything more than that.

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Ada Lovelace Day!
One of the best science books I read last year was Rebecca Jordan-Young's Brainstorm, a critique of the received wisdom on neurological gender differences (SPOILER: NO ACTUAL DATA SUGGESTS THERE ARE ANY SIGNIFICANT ONES).

I am not a neurologist, nor do I play one on TV, so I'm going to let Jordan-Young and her ideas speak for themselves in video form.

(Ada Lovelace Day is a day to celebrate women's achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, named in honor of the 19th century mathematician who was the patron and collaborator of Charles Babbage.)

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This Should Go Without Saying
A young woman received an inappropriate and unwanted sexual image from a Congressional Representative with whom she was communicating via a social media account he used to converse with constituents and others about issues of public interest, while she was communicating with him in his role as a Representative in Congress.

Anyone who doesn't get why this is a big deal needs to think about it more. When an active citizen writes to an elected official about politics, it is a breach of public trust for the official to respond with an unwanted and unsolicited picture of their genitalia.

I could care less about Representative Weiner's private life, and how many photos of his dong he sends to his various sweethearts and online flirting buddies. Sending unsolicited photos of his dong to random citizens who are just trying to engage with the public work of the Congress? Not OK.

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The Last Words of Bat Masterson
"There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose that these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in winter things are breaking even for both."

William Barclay Masterson, 1853-1921

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Postcards from the reality-based community
People who "choose to disagree" with facts are impressive.

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SPOILERS INSIDE
So, it's already past 6 p.m. local time in parts of Kiribati, and guess what? No Rapture!

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