elisem

A fifteen minute video. Seven people, ranging in age from 10 to 75, go into an MRI, and have five minutes to love as hard as they can. The winner is whomever shows the most activity in the parts of the brain associated with love.



Some spoiler-riffic discussion after the cut. Behind the cut, I'll summarize, if you don't want to watch a fifteen-minute video.
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Notes for Wiscon panel "Feminist Perspectives on Elder Care"

http://firecat.livejournal.com/766202.html

Feminist Perspectives on Elder Care
Track: Feminism and Other Social Change Movements

Panel description
Like child care, the vast majority of elder care is done by women and is frequently unpaid. (When it is paid work, it is often paid extremely poorly.) Many WisCon attendees are dealing with elder care issues, either because they have aging parents, or because they are the aging parent. Are there political solutions we could be working toward? Are there pragmatic solutions we can share with each other? Are there new ideas (for caregiving, accessibility, communities, etc.) that we can offer as a shared vision?

twitter hashtag: #ElderCare

Panelists:
(I did not list most panelists' journal/blog info, for reasons of privacy; if you want your panelist name associated with your blog or journal, leave a comment or send me a private message.)
Criss Moody 
Janice Mynchenberg
L J Geoffrion ljgeoff
firecat
Naomi Kritzer 

I was a panelist and I was not able to take notes. This is what I remember, and I hope others on the panel and attending the panel —and anyone with questions or information—will contribute comments/resources.

During the panel I was wondering if it would be useful to create a DW and/or LJ community and/or mailing list for eldercare resources for people who are fannish and/or alternative in other ways. Thoughts?
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/775139.html, where there are comments.

I hope to talk about some of the rants I delivered out loud in front of other people, but this one only happened in my shower:

Here's the description of the Choice Feminism panel:

Many people say that feminism is about providing more choices for people. There are people who, faced with this variety of choices, choose the same thing that the kyriarchy would have chosen for them. Is this problematic, or is this variety a strength of feminism?

I commented, "I'm a stay-at-home mom.[*] I have a lot of shame about that. The shaming doesn't come from feminism, and it doesn't come from women with jobs. It comes from people with jobs. It's how people with jobs feel about unemployed people. I want to ask you whether there is any admixture of contempt in how you feel about women who choose that."

Two of the panelists are my friends, and I trusted the other three not to be unkind. They weren't. An audience member, talking about her choices as a single mom, made eye contact with me to say, "I wish I had your choices." With a tiny chin-toss on the "wish".

Here's the rant:

That is one of the things that I meant when I said "contempt". You had it easy. Money for nothing. I wish I had your choices.

Which is true as far as it goes. But. I gave up things in exchange for getting a man's support during my childrearing years, things that Single Mom chose not to give up, and I'm not just talking about my sexual autonomy or my freedom to live where things would work out best for me. Our degrees of freedom of choice were different, but you don't get to say that mine were greater unless you're willing to look at the whole picture.


So, yeah, rantiest Wiscon ever. But I hope to change that.


[*]Not my preferred term but the one that the panel was using.

This entry was originally posted at http://boxofdelights.dreamwidth.org/192698.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

General notes on
WisCon panel: Body Acceptance: From All Sides

http://firecat.livejournal.com/765679.html

Body Acceptance: From All Sides
Track: Feminism and Other Social Change Movements

Panel description
Body love movements have been gaining momentum recently, but for many people on the margins, the discourse needs to be expanded. The current movement of body love fails to account for persons with disabilities, people of color, trans and gender nonconforming people, pregnant and postpartum people, and fat people, among many others. We aim to discuss how (and in some cases, whether) body love and acceptance apply beyond a purely gendered analysis and expand to nonnormative bodies.

Panelists:
Julie Hayes
s.e. smith
Tanya D.
E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman
Mary Ann Mohanraj
Moderator - Annie D Chen

Twitter hash tag: #BodyAcceptance

I have a paraphrased transcript of this panel, and will post it on request, but that doesn't seem like the most helpful way to present the good stuff about this panel. 

I also tried to write it up by making a list of all the inappropriate assumptions mentioned that people make about each other's bodies and attitudes, but that just depressed me after I had gotten to 22 items (which wasn't all of them). 

So here are my general thoughts and notes.
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This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/774717.html, where there are comments.

For most of this year, April has been my picky eater. She has been hesitant to try new foods. Her favorite, most requested foods have been brown rice, saltines, and noodles (pref. spaghetti) with no sauce (or butter, or oil) and just a bit of "sprinkle cheese" on top. Also, she has a tendency to cut out of dinner early after taking only a bite or two of food.

I know it's a stage. I know that in part my seasonal eating style exacerbates my perception of the problem, because the truth is she's quite fond of many summer fruits and vegetables, but she dislikes "leaves." And this year she had some chapped lip problems that made her previous fondness for oranges problematic.

I regularly remind myself that she's hardly lethargic (!) and shows no signs of nutritional deficiency, so it's not a big deal. I manage to be pretty relaxed about it all in her presence, I think. But I'm a parent and thus I fret quietly behind the scenes.

This weekend I finally figured out how we're going to fatten April up. We just need to feed her hot dogs, macaroni and cheese (but only from Homeroom!), and french fries. Plus cherries and tomatoes. She will eat multiple servings of all of these things. She is on her second bowl of cherries right now. And yesterday she had three hot dogs (sans bun). Three. Problem solved!

Now I'll just worry about choking hazards.

Me as a pony by Alex Heberling, who draws fantasy comics as well as MORE PONIES and OUTFITS.

This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/502714.html. Respond wherever you like.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

Great essay about learning, via andrewducker:

http://celandine13.livejournal.com/33599.html
Errors vs. Bugs and the End of Stupidity

This entry was originally posted at http://firecat.dreamwidth.org/774420.html, where there are comments.

Um.

Wow.

Let's see...

I cracked myself out of bed around 8 am yesterday, did my usual morning routine, before discovering that the reading I thought I had at 1 pm was actually at 10 am. Oops. Still, I made it there in good order, and had a pleasing turnout given that [a] it was the first hour of programming on day three of a Con and [b] this isn't a book-focused Con. I read "The Lollygang Save the World on Accident" and did Q&A for a while. It was fun and worthwhile.

Afterwards I diddled around with some folks, before hitting the League of S.T.E.A.M.'s parlor show. Twice. Basically, they were working in character, demo'ing some of their props and gadgets and whatnot. Hilarious fun, though my favorite hands down was the net cannon, a/k/a the H.U.G. gun.

After that I started to wander about, when Lady Ameliorette Potts texted me to come back if I wanted to get shot with the H.U.G. gun my own self. Hijinks ensued.



(The Facebook comment thread on that image is hilarious, by the way.)

Then it was time to go off to the author panel, where I shared stage space with Gail Carriger, G.D. Falksen, Michael Lee and John White. That was a good hour of moderated Q&A with a pretty full house.

Evening devolved an impromptu birthday party in the Green Room for Captain Robert of Abney Park. After that, the evening unfolded. I caught part of League of S.T.E.A.M.'s review of their Web series, and about half the set of Steam Powered Giraffe. I finally decided their music was a fusion of high lonesome, three part harmony and stage comedy. Pretty wild stuff.

Further screwing around ensued, culminating in the League of S.T.E.A.M. conducting an impromptu stage raid on Abney Park during their encore of their concert set. Captain Roberts was H.U.G.ed, then spanked with the punchy fist for his birthday. I went along on this raid as the blogger embed, and it was one of the funniest things I have been part of in a very long time.

Afterward, more partying and dancing and whatnot until after 2 am.

Today is a slow, short day. I'm off to the airport at 3 pm to fly home, arriving about midnight. I do have some serious thoughts about my World Steam Expo experience, specifically about working a Con cold, and about being a very minor sideshow in someone else's world, but for now I'll just say this has been the most fun I've had in a very, very long time. My thanks to the World Steam Expo con com and volunteers, to old friends like @howardtayler and Evelyn Kreite, and to new friends very much including League of S.T.E.A.M..

What a weekend. Now I need a vacation to get over my vacation.

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Photo © 2012 Ellie Copperbottom, used with permission.

Your Monday moment of zen.



Rock balanced by the_child in the garden at Viejo Rancho Lake, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

The Fake Magazines Used in Blade Runner Are Still Futuristic, Awesome

The moon: look but don't touch, says Nasa — "He stuck a sign on every tree, saying this is private property…"

It Took Earth Ten Million Years to Recover from Greatest Mass Extinction — Warning, facts not valid for Young Earth Creationists and likely Republican voters.

Glenn Beck in Exile — Don’t cry for the former Fox star—he’s building a 24/7 media empire in his loopy image. I'm pretty sure most conservative media and political figures are cynical opportunists who really do know better and really just don't care. Rush Limbaugh, for example. Beck, though, he strikes me as a true believer with a fervor and distorted internal reality bordering on mental illness.

GOP blames Obama for student debt in swing-state NH, ignores origins of problem — Really, that headline could just be "GOP blames Obama, ignores origins of problem" and it would pretty much cover the past four years.

?otd: Huh? What?

---

5/28/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Con time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate; Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht

The other day I was talking to the neighbor across the street about his electric car, specifically the way it handles, and he made a slighting comment about the way the old people drive here, then he caught himself and blushed and mumbled, "I don't mean--" then he realized he'd really stepped in it, and I had to laugh as I told him it was okay, that old people always think someone else is meant, because we aren't old inside.

But I am! 61 is not middle aged, it's old. But my mental me is still pretty much like the me in the icon, at the left, in my mid-twenties.

That aside, I am hoping that anyone who has read this far and might have an extra minute would help me celebrate by linking a beautiful image, or a poem, or song, or sharing anything that gives you joy, because it will give me joy, too. (I do this every year, and all year long, whenever I am a bit blue, I come back to this day and revisit the comments.)

This line from William Blake seems to sum up my work at the academy this spring, though the results aren't actually Hellish, because the two switch before either gets unendurable.

Because of the tooth pain and root-canal surgery, I hadn't been in to the academy for almost two weeks, and going back to teaching on Friday was actually a positive joy. Once again, I realize how lucky I am to really both like and love my work. Over the weekend, I saw two new students, and I like both of them; and apparently one of them said I'm "the best" SAT teacher she's had.

Because today's a holiday, I teach all day, starting at 9:30 a.m. Which meant awakening at 6:30 a.m. I could have turned it down, but I was ready to go to bed early yesterday anyway, and it makes the shape of the rest of the day better.

And speaking of Hell, one of my students is reading Dante's Inferno for a heavy-duty h.s. lit class, and I'll be Skyping with him for two hours (he lives in Connecticut) just to improve his understanding of it. (Extra help he does need, although I think his regular teacher is very good.)

I think I mentioned that more of my work has been about literature, a change I was disturbingly poopfaced about (but I know SAT prep so well! And I never have to prepare anything new anymore!) but now am really happy about. Being paid just to discuss great literature. In fact, being paid the same amount of money for 2 hours of just discussing literature as our housekeeper earns for five hours of hard, sweaty work! In some ways it is fair, including all the unpaid or minimally-paid hours I spent learning the info and skills involved, but I will always feel very lucky and blessed.

Also, I'm enjoying rereading the Inferno, Ciardi's translation, which I might not have reread since I read it when I was a freshman in high school. Some of Ciardi's rhymes seem kind-of forced to me, or I wonder if the sense was radically changed to allow the rhyme, and then some will just *click* and I almost get a shiver from how well they work. I'm also interested in the mixture of showing vs. explaining the tortures. And I've long been fascinated by the idea that fraud is overall a much worse sin than violence. The student's class is using Ciardi, but I've been interested in the Dorothy Sayers translation ever since I heard about it, and if I have more time but his class has not finished the poem, I may read a canto in Ciardi's translation and then the same one in Sayers'.

Status: not yet behind schedule but must go

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dorktower/comic/~3/zSDXuVNdhQQ/

http://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=7210