Meme in GIF form showing an exuberant Q (John de Lancie) playing the trumpet in a mariachi band and dancing along to the music, in front of an exasperated Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on the bridge of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The text overlaid on Captain Picard (who reacts to the spectacle arms akimbo in frustration) reads:
People who follow me for one topic
The text overlaid on Q and the mariachi band reads (in much larger and thus more visually-arresting font):
The third installment in my @fansplaining tiny zine series! This one was written by @elizabethminkel and was published a year ago for Fansplaining’s patreon backers. Fansplaining is one of my all-time favorite podcasts, I highly recommend the show and also the many great bonus episodes available only to patreon backers :) You can read my previous two Fansplaining zines here and here and you can find all of for sale in my etsy shop.
Thinking of this comic I illustrated, written by @elizabethminkel, about how formative the character of Rupert Giles was to her as teen, in light of Anthony Head’s passing </3
I was going to dig up the link for this, too—thank you!! 😭 (And thank you again for immortalizing my little fandom origin story with such beautiful art. He looks perfect!!)
In This Post, I mentioned how I used to have physical therapy for my cerebral palsy in the form of riding horses
Here's a video with a nondisabled rider and a physical therapist narrator demonstrating, and explaining, how horse riding benefits the body ... there's also a brief allusion to how it can provide good a good stim for some autistic folk.
Watching it, I'm also guessing it would be a good reference for anyone one doing an animation of horse and rider (I'm fairly certain there are a few of those folks around these parts).
This is also a sideways writing reference -- If you pay attention, you'll notice how much physical work is involved in just keeping your balance on the back of a moving horse. It's nothing at all like driving a car.
(And this is just riding around in a nice, flat arena, never mind riding through mountain trails in the forest, ducking branches, and keeping alert for bears while eluding the evil duke's soldiers.)
Please not be making your hero end a day's twenty-mile journey alight from the saddle, ready to dance the night away at the royal ball.
Thanks for sharing this Ann. I volunteer with a hippotherapy program, but I don't have much background knowledge in pt, so it's helpful for me to see why the therapists choose the activities that they do.
*Nod* I was doing the therapy, and other than generally feeling better for the next several days after a ride (and feeling the lack if I miss a riding session), there were things even I didn't know were going on until I saw this explanation.
And kudos to the therapist for pointing out the psychological benefit of getting a chance to look down at other people (When you're a kid in a wheelchair, you're even looking up at ambulatory peers your own age -- unless you're all on the floor together*).
Though the kid's view hippotherapy is still being framed as the 'spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down': "A lot of the kids think they're out here just having a good time. But we're really working them, and getting benefits."
A) Having a good time is a benefit.**
B) If you have to go to therapy, anyway, it's better to do it out in "the real world" of fresh air than under the fluorescent lights of a hospital.
And the biggest benefit of all (IMNSHO):
C) You are developing a relationship with a fellow sapient Earthling Who Does Not Care that you are Disabled.
(Raises an imaginary glass to the memory of all the horses I've known and befriended).
*Floor-Time = Good Time!
**As someone who grew up seeing how my peers with cerebral palsy were treated (I was extremely lucky that I had a mother who questioned authority, and believed in children's rights), and later (through the Internet), reading about others' experiences, very often, when you're a disabled kid, you're not allowed to just play for play's sake -- everything has to be turned into a PT session, and monitored and guided by a grownup.
You have a complex relationship with your body and need to keep some/all of your clothes on during sex?
That's okay, what you're wearing looks good on you.
You need to take a lot of breaks doing anything intimate because you're easily overwhelmed?
I understand, I'm just happy to be here with you.
You're on medication that impacts your libido/makes reaching orgasm really difficult?
No pressure, tell me what feels good for you, and if you get frustrated we can do something else together.
Sex isn't going to look the same for everybody and that's fine, that's normal.
Sometimes you don't orgasm, sometimes you need to stop because your mood changes out of nowhere, sometimes you get really self conscious and need accommodations to take your mind off of it.
People are too complex for everybody to go about it the same, just keep doing what feels best for you, regardless of how different it may seem from other people's experiences.
The release of the 7th book in the Murderbot Diaries series, System Collapse, approaches in November!
I've seen at least one person looking for a summary of past events... So I've made just that! If it's been a while since you read previous books (or you just like hopping into series half-way through), this will get you up to speed!
That said, this absolutely has spoilers, so if that's not your jam, turn away now.
====
Short Story – Compulsory:
A recently-rogue Murderbot decides on a whim to rescue a miner who falls into a ventilation shaft. We see its developing love of Sanctuary Moon and what is implied to be the first time it violated its orders to protect someone.
All Systems Red (ASR):
Murderbot is the contractually-obligated security guard on a survey of "surprisingly nice" scientists. Dr. Mensah particularly impresses Murderbot for her level head and kind nature. It turns out their survey is being sabotaged by the cut-throat corporation GreyCris, who don't want them uncovering alien remnants. Murderbot and the scientists go back-and-forth protecting one another. The survey team discover that it's rogue. After some initial tension, they accept it as a team-member. They escape GreyCris, although Murderbot nearly dies in the process. When it wakes up again, the scientists have bought/freed it. In the name of self-actualization, Murderbot runs away.
Artificial Condition (AC):
Murderbot sets off to investigate Ganaka Pit, the facility where it supposedly killed a large number of its own clients. On the way, it discovers the spaceship it's travelling on actually dangerously hyper-intelligent. After some initial threats/tension, the two bond over TV. The Asshole Research Transport (ART) helps disguise Murderbot as a human. With ART's help, Murderbot uncovers that the mass death was a tragic accident caused by ComfortUnit malware. Posing as a human, the pair help rescue a trio of researchers and their data from their shitty ex-boss, and set a ComfortUnit free.
Rogue Protocol (RP):
On an impromptu quest to get blackmail on GreyCris for Dr. Mensah's ongoing legal battle, Murderbot investigates an abandoned terraforming facility. It meets a cheerful robot named Miki who immediately declares themselves friends. Miki is helping a human assessment team who become imperiled when they're attacked both by CombatBots and their own double-dealing human security. Murderbot reflectively rescues them, posing as a Definitely Normal SecUnit, although the team's leader clearly sees through that claim. Murderbot manages to collect the intel on GrayCris and protect the humans, but not before Miki performs a heroic sacrifice.
Exit Strategy (ES):
After discovering Dr. Mensah has been kidnapped by GreyCris, Murderbot rushes to save her. This forces it to re-unite with the other survey members; Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin. While unsure of each other, the team manage to rescue their friend. Murderbot attempts a self-destructive last-stand against a CombatSecUnit, only for the humans to save its ass. The team escapes on a company gunship, but not before Murderbot melts its brain fighting off killware. When it rebuilds its systems, it decides to stay with its humans in the Preservation Alliance for a while.
Short Story - Home, Range, Niche, Territory:
Shortly after Exit Strategy, Dr. Mensah reflects on her time in captivity and her new friendship with SecUnit. Apparently she's been avoiding getting treatment for her extensive emotional trauma. She has a panic attack when she's cornered by a journalist, who's scared off by Murderbot.
Fugitive Telemetry (FT):
A human is found dead. Murderbot is called in as a consultant on the case, in the hopes of building good will with Preservation Security. Eventually it manages to prove itself, particularly after it succeeds in a daring rescue of kidnapped corporate refugees. One of the refugees realises it's a SecUnit and shoots it. The dead human turns out to have been a liberator of indentured labourers, and the killer was actually the Port Authority robot Balin, who was secretly a disguised CombatBot acting on outside orders. The local bot community intervenes to stop Balin from hurting anyone else.
Network Effect (NE):
Murderbot is providing security for a Preservation Alliance survey which goes south when raiders attack and try to take Dr. Mensah's brother-in-law, Thiago, hostage. It then goes doubly south when, on the way home, the team's ship gets attacked by... ART?
It appears that ART has been deleted and its crew has gone missing, replaced with mysterious grey people. While protecting a team of its humans, including Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena, Murderbot manages to reboot ART. ART kills the grey humans but refuses to let everyone go until and unless they help it retrieve its crew. Everyone reluctantly agrees, but Murderbot is pissed.
Eventually Murderbot and ART make up. Then they create a sort-of-baby in the form of a killware copy of Murderbot who dubs itself Murderbot 2.0. Half of ART's missing crew is found on a local planet's surface, though Murderbot is captured while helping them escape. Murderbot 2.0 manages to rescue the other half from a spaceship with the help of the newly freed SecUnit 3. The local colonists are discovered to have gone a liiiiitttle bit kooky due to infection via an alien fungus. ART threatens to bomb their colony to get Murderbot back. Murderbot gets infected, but Murderbot 2.0 does a self-sacrificial attack to save it and destroy the fungi's primary host. Meanwhile, the humans, ART, and SecUnit 3 work together to rescue Murderbot without any more bloodshed.
Murderbot has a bit of an epiphany that all its various friends do in fact love and care for it. When an understandably pissed and confused Dr. Mensah shows up like a month later, the groups decide on forming a mutual partnership. Murderbot tells Dr. Mensah that it would like to work with ART for a little while.
I'd like to share with y'all a project I've poured my heart and soul into over the last couple of years: a database cataloguing every single older queer science fiction book I've managed to track down, consisting of just over 200 titles with LGBT characters/themes & by LGBT authors, spanning over a century (1880-2000) 🚀
The database can be filtered by representation, subgenre, whether the book is currently in print, and more; additionally, it includes my own ratings & brief thoughts on the ones i have read, if anyone needs a suggestion on places to start! (or feel free to shoot me an ask for a more personalized recommendation)
The lovely DiscordantWords placed a winning bid in this year's @fandomtrumpshate auction, and in thanks I made a cover for their really wonderful fic Unremarkable - which you really should go read.
I actually love hearing about reformed people's stories. I love hearing about people who were in toxic communities or people who used to objectively be dickheads talking about how they got out of that. How they made themselves better.
I hate how most people's initial reaction to stories like that are things like:
"How could you have ever done those things?!"
"Oh my god, you believed those things?!"
"Well it doesn't un-do the harm you did!"
People incessantly advocate for change but then refuse to allow people who have changed the grace of being acknowledged and given opportunities and chances.
I love hearing about ex-antis talking about how they don't spend their days being angry and sending death threats anymore.
I love hearing about ex-homophobes who realized there's no magic law about what is "natural."
I love reformed bullies talking about how they made amends with their victims and spend their days being considerate of others.
You can't scream about wanting people to change but then expect them to spend the rest of their lives stuck in the past and on who they used to be. You can't expect people to spend the entire rest of their lives grovelling and apologizing and demeaning themselves.
Instead of clinging to who they were, latch onto who they are.
Ask how they got out of it. Commend them on changing. Enjoy that there's one less cause of harm in the world.
I also love stuff like that because it's a blueprint for how we can save others. If someone used to be a giant racist and stopped, we can take what convinced them to change and spread that message
I mean, in case anyone who thinks well of me might need an example of how true this is, I used to be kind of a terrible person who believed terrible things that directly contradicted not only the things I now believe but contradicted who and what I now am. I fixed my shit. I'm still not a good person, don't get me started on the difference between what I think and what I do, but I'd rather be a bit terrible and aware of it and trying to do better than horrible and insistent that I was right and content to abuse people or let them be abused. At least I have the potential to become better.
Let people grow. If they change their minds, fucking welcome them to a better place. They have shown their potential. Extend a hand, don't shove them away.
i always like to reblog posts like this because it's so affirming to people who are afraid to start to be told "yeah it's scary and hard but you can do it, i did".
While we are on the road, we must try to make what is before us better than what is past; when we come to the road's end, we feel a smooth contentment.
#48 from The Vatican Sayings of Epicurus (translator not acknowledged): A 14th C. compilation of sayings attributed to Epicurus and his followers, residing in the Vatican library. [Source]
No one is born perfect. No one dies perfect. But we all can strive to do better today than we did yesterday, and do better tomorrow than we did today.
Reblog this if you want readers to come into your ask box and ask for the “director’s commentary” on a particular story, section of a story, or set of lines.
Or, send in a ⭐star⭐ to have the author select a section they’ve been dying to talk about!
So, @PhoenixFalls and I were brainstorming for @pod-together, a challenge where a work is written for podficcing, and then podficced. She pointed out that despite Bujold’s willingness to write marginalized identities (disability, queerness, women), Bujold never writes marginalized communities, and doesn’t that seem a gross oversight? (Yes, I said, and also yes.) Could we do something with that? And what do we think of Cordelia being an inspiration for Barrayar’s queer community?
I gave that a think, and decided that while I see Cordelia as straight-and-cis in her own Betan context, she’s clearly gender-nonconforming in the Barrayaran context – in fact, it’s implied that that’s part of Aral’s attraction to her. I could very well see Cordelia inspiring a Ring of Keys moment for someone. And thus we had our first vignette: an impressionable young thing spotting Cordelia striding through the shuttleport, and suddenly understanding a bunch of things about herself.
Another early vignette was the spacer who had escaped Barrayar when it was more conservative, had a great time kissing and fucking through the spaceways, and came home to discover that queer rights had improved in her absence. And she’s happy about that, she is, but there’s also grief for her own youth and the choices she was forced to make that the young'uns don’t have to make today.
As we continued to brainstorm vignettes, the whole piece became a love letter to queer history as we knew it: gossipy queens, and the mid-century lesbian infiltration of the military, and drag benefit galas… All the vibrant things we knew and loved – and the tragedies we grieved over! – we took as inspiration, asking if/how/when something parallel might have gone down on Barrayar. The big celebrations, and the private feelings. And the messiness of it all, the fits and starts and backlashes and co-opting. Cordelia was the connecting link for every vignette, but we wanted her strictly as an icon and advocate, a Liz Taylor or a Princess Diana: an ally who was genuinely beloved, whose advocacy was real and meaningful, but who was not herself one of the people bleeding and dying on the front lines. We never wanted to imply that Cordelia herself fixed queer rights on Barrayar – that honor very much belongs to queer activists themselves! But that she was visible, and fierce, and reliable, and how that much matters when you spend most of your life with your back to the wall for your own protection.
So yeah, we just dumped a ton of our own love for the queer community and our history in there, and I think that came through. Different readers responded to different things, but most chapters have at least one comment suggesting that particular vignette spoke to someone. (Which makes me all verklempt! <3)
We always planned to end it with her memorial – and through her memorial, a retrospective of how far the community has come, what’s remembered and what isn’t, and who is doing the remembering. And damn it, I’m tearing up as I write this, because it was never about Cordelia, it was about the whole big beautiful struggle, and the elders who remember it all and the youth picking up the torch for the coming generations.
Which, damnit, is what I want for us: the elders who remember it all, and the youth who are picking up the torch, and the stalwart backbone of the people who lie between. And I think we have that, we are that. Even with all the shitfuckery going down, we still have ourselves, and that will always, always, be enough.
And I’ll hand this off to @phoenixfalls, in case she wants to say more. I wrote most of the words, but it was very much a joint project, the two of us bouncing ideas off each other, and then she sitting down with a microphone and giving all these voices life.
@sanguinarysanguinity has expressed my own feelings on what drove us to create this specific project together beautifully above. So I’ll just add a little about the multimedia aspects.
I am not the natural audience for podfic. It is the channel of information transfer that my brain is worst at utilizing, taking the largest share of my concentration and having the least retention.
And yet, ever since my dad was reading me fairy tales and poetry at bedtime, I’ve loved the way that a human voice can bring an added layer of magic to stories.
Additionally, part of my job involves ensuring accessibility of training for my agency, and it’s a frequently frustrating part of my job because most days it feels like I’m the only person pushing for it and there are absolutely no resources being allocated to it - and then someone will complain and suddenly it’s an EMERGENCY OMG HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN DON’T YOU ALL KNOW THAT WE’RE LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO BE 100% ACCESSIBLE AT ALL TIMES!!!
(Yes. I do know that. I was the one reminding everyone of that legal requirement and flagging that yet another thing we’ve made doesn’t meet that requirement just yesterday.)
So. That’s a long way of saying that while I’m not the natural audience for podfic, it matters to me that they exist, and that they be plentiful and diverse and delightful. And I like learning new skills! So every year I try to see if I can fit a @pod-together project in my schedule.
With the Vorkosigan Saga specifically, one of my favorite elements of the series is how lived in the series feels. So many offhand details that, in many series half the length (16 novels plus a handful of short stories) would end up flat-out contradicting each other because they were never intended to hold up to narrative scrutiny over that length of time, *do* hang together. In fact, they may come back to bite you or break your heart five novels later!
And honestly, I don’t think it’s because Bujold has everything mapped out. I think it’s because she just fundamentally gets people, so when she reaches for one of those offhand details to make a particular plot device work, what she comes up with slots seamlessly in with everything else, and the fit is so good that it can become load-bearing if necessary.
Which is why her lack of communities of marginalized people on Barrayar has always been so jarring to me!
So as Sang and I started to toss ideas back and forth for these vignettes, I was very conscious of wanting to ensure that our final project had that same fully-fleshed-out, lived-in feel. Even though it was a podfic project, It didn’t feel like it could be *only* a podfic project - as soon as we hit on the museum exhibit concept, I started turning around ideas for visual components that would add yet more layers to the alternate history we were building.
I also started trying out voices for all the different characters Sang was writing. Sadly, I am nowhere near as skilled at that as my dad is! But I did my best, after Sang talked me down from a ledge or two.
And at the end of the day, I love what our project is about - queer community, queer struggle and queer triumph, queer people in all their glorious people-ness. But it was equally important to me (to both of us, I believe!) that the audience is able to engage with it in many different ways, fully visually, fully aurally, or a mixture.
The experience is different but equally comprehensive (and, I hope, compelling!) no matter the medium you choose. That, to me, honors both the depth of the Vorkosigan Saga’s worldbuilding and the diversity of of our audience.
And like Sang, I have been so, so pleased and overwhelmed at the positive response it has garnered. Thank you to all who have read and/or listened, and taken the time to share your thoughts with us!
And yes, the accessibility component was important to both of us. We both face similar frustrations at work with accessibility, and given that this was meant to be a museum exhibit – which, if designed properly, should be accessible through either sense! – we wanted to make sure that it was a full experience for both readers and listeners.
went to an arcade today and used some of the built up credit to get a 'lucky dip' bag because i thought it would be fun to give to some younger family members over the holidays. so i ask for one and the kid at the desk says "sure. do you want a boy one or a girl one?" and babe i'm usually polite about this but i'd dyked myself up to the max today and had apparently forgotten my mental filter at home so i instinctively burst out "THEY'RE GENDERED?" in the middle of a very busy arcade and the guy starts laughing so hard he has to pull out his inhaler
"The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love – whether we call it friendship or family or romance – is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life- saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another."
Inside a Newer Plastic Castle @jesse-the-k - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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