I just live here

Ganked from brithistorian:

You are 47% Minnesotan

You're probably not from urban Minnesota, but you still know a bit about the area. Come and visit sometime!

How Minnesotan are you?
Make Your Own Quiz

I just live here

Ganked from brithistorian:

You are 47% Minnesotan

You're probably not from urban Minnesota, but you still know a bit about the area. Come and visit sometime!

How Minnesotan are you?
Make Your Own Quiz

I am fanboy, hear me baaa...

Ganked from thaadd:

1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

"According to TJ, they didn't hold an annual meeting this year and technically have no officers, but we'll talk with last year's club leaders and see if we can work something out."

Original post here, FWIW.

I am fanboy, hear me baaa...

Ganked from thaadd:

1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

"According to TJ, they didn't hold an annual meeting this year and technically have no officers, but we'll talk with last year's club leaders and see if we can work something out."

Original post here, FWIW.

Snarkalicious, he is

Quite aside from the torrent of interesting links, this kind of terse commentary is why I like Glenn Reynolds, a/k/a Instapundit:

MEARSHEIMER AND WALT: Idiots, or anti-semites?

Do I have to choose?

Heh.

Snarkalicious, he is

Quite aside from the torrent of interesting links, this kind of terse commentary is why I like Glenn Reynolds, a/k/a Instapundit:

MEARSHEIMER AND WALT: Idiots, or anti-semites?

Do I have to choose?

Heh.

Not this week, I guess

I guess I didn't do nearly enough lifting and hauling on Sunday. Come to think of it, I did overindulge on Friday and Monday as well. So it wasn't too surprising that when I stepped on the scale this morning at Weight Watchers I'd popped back up to 416. Still, that's seven pounds less than I was carrying at the beginning of this session, and that's a good thing. The next session runs through Halloween, and there's no big pigouts in the offing; I'm planning on taking it easy over Labor Day weekend; not planning on doing much aside from swimming and imposing a little more order on the apartment by way of getting that second bookshelf assembled. I figure I can probably get under 410 by the end of next cycle, maybe even down to 400 if things go really well. We'll see.

The attempt to sell the CPAP machine on eBay was a failure; turns out since you need a prescription for one, you can't dispose of surplus gear there or on Craigslist. This probably means you can't sell one in the classifieds either, but I'm going to look into that.

Not this week, I guess

I guess I didn't do nearly enough lifting and hauling on Sunday. Come to think of it, I did overindulge on Friday and Monday as well. So it wasn't too surprising that when I stepped on the scale this morning at Weight Watchers I'd popped back up to 416. Still, that's seven pounds less than I was carrying at the beginning of this session, and that's a good thing. The next session runs through Halloween, and there's no big pigouts in the offing; I'm planning on taking it easy over Labor Day weekend; not planning on doing much aside from swimming and imposing a little more order on the apartment by way of getting that second bookshelf assembled. I figure I can probably get under 410 by the end of next cycle, maybe even down to 400 if things go really well. We'll see.

The attempt to sell the CPAP machine on eBay was a failure; turns out since you need a prescription for one, you can't dispose of surplus gear there or on Craigslist. This probably means you can't sell one in the classifieds either, but I'm going to look into that.

Conduct unbecoming

I've been stewing over what Harlan Ellison pulled at the Worldcon since reading divalea's LJ entry declaring war on the gropers last night. This is 2006. WTF makes Ellison think this is acceptable behavior?* I don't care how many Hugo and Nebula Awards you have sitting on your shelves at home, this shit is still way out of bounds. I gather from what others say that he's done attending conventions, which is just as well for him since there are a fair number of female fans out there with blood in their eyes just waiting for him to screw up so they can beat the holy hell out of him. Or any other guy who thinks groping is okay.

I don't think you have to be a feminist to say Ellison is acting like a jackass. I don't think it's being overly protective of women to call a fatwa on his ass. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that we need to make an example out of Harlan Ellison so that from now on, fans and pros alike will keep their God-damned hands to themselves in public. After seventy years, fandom finally has a sizable number of women interested in the field, but we now have immature "enfants terrible" pissing in the ice cream. It's got to stop. If people like Harlan Ellison can't behave like civilized human beings, then they should just stay home and stay the hell out of fandom. If Harlan has some kind of problem with alcohol, drugs, or some chemical imbalance in his head, I don't care. It's on him to deal with it and quit being an internationally infamous pain in the ass instead of yukking it up and going out of his way to build on his already shitty reputation. He can behave when he wants to (see con reports from this year's Minicon), so I don't think it's a matter of can't behave, it's a matter of won't behave, and it's long past time to call him on it.

So what is to be done? Harassing him at panels would be great if he hadn't preempted that by announcing that LACon was going to be his last convention. Boycott his books? Too little and too late, though every little bit helps. Most of the other suggestions I've seen are cute, but either ineffective or illegal. About the only option left is to hit him where he really lives: in his enormously overinflated ego. There's no question that the man is an outstanding writer. He's won buttloads of awards for it. Odds are good that none of those will be revoked, since the awards are for the work. However, he has been named a Grand Master by the SF Writers of America.

Has it occurred to the SFWA membership that Ellison's conduct - and their silence about it - makes them look like a bunch of misogynistic fucktards? (Yes, I'm well aware that SFWA has female members. Duh.) It seems the least they could do is censure him for this kind of behavior, if not actually revoke the award. The least we can do as fans is lobby them to get it done. Here's hoping SFWA can take a hint.

UPDATE: Maybe this is the reason he's not going to conventions any more. Must really suck to have The Fastest Tongue In Fandom for all those years and then get pwnz3d by a cartoonist who has no idea who you are and could care less because the first impression you made was: "Hi! I'm an Enormous Gaping Asshole and Bully!" (Scroll down to the 8:46 PM post by Gabe or ^F for "The story".)


*I'm not sure I want to know what Ms. Willis meant by "He's done worse." The LAPD might, but I don't work for them.

Conduct unbecoming

I've been stewing over what Harlan Ellison pulled at the Worldcon since reading divalea's LJ entry declaring war on the gropers last night. This is 2006. WTF makes Ellison think this is acceptable behavior?* I don't care how many Hugo and Nebula Awards you have sitting on your shelves at home, this shit is still way out of bounds. I gather from what others say that he's done attending conventions, which is just as well for him since there are a fair number of female fans out there with blood in their eyes just waiting for him to screw up so they can beat the holy hell out of him. Or any other guy who thinks groping is okay.

I don't think you have to be a feminist to say Ellison is acting like a jackass. I don't think it's being overly protective of women to call a fatwa on his ass. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that we need to make an example out of Harlan Ellison so that from now on, fans and pros alike will keep their God-damned hands to themselves in public. After seventy years, fandom finally has a sizable number of women interested in the field, but we now have immature "enfants terrible" pissing in the ice cream. It's got to stop. If people like Harlan Ellison can't behave like civilized human beings, then they should just stay home and stay the hell out of fandom. If Harlan has some kind of problem with alcohol, drugs, or some chemical imbalance in his head, I don't care. It's on him to deal with it and quit being an internationally infamous pain in the ass instead of yukking it up and going out of his way to build on his already shitty reputation. He can behave when he wants to (see con reports from this year's Minicon), so I don't think it's a matter of can't behave, it's a matter of won't behave, and it's long past time to call him on it.

So what is to be done? Harassing him at panels would be great if he hadn't preempted that by announcing that LACon was going to be his last convention. Boycott his books? Too little and too late, though every little bit helps. Most of the other suggestions I've seen are cute, but either ineffective or illegal. About the only option left is to hit him where he really lives: in his enormously overinflated ego. There's no question that the man is an outstanding writer. He's won buttloads of awards for it. Odds are good that none of those will be revoked, since the awards are for the work. However, he has been named a Grand Master by the SF Writers of America.

Has it occurred to the SFWA membership that Ellison's conduct - and their silence about it - makes them look like a bunch of misogynistic fucktards? (Yes, I'm well aware that SFWA has female members. Duh.) It seems the least they could do is censure him for this kind of behavior, if not actually revoke the award. The least we can do as fans is lobby them to get it done. Here's hoping SFWA can take a hint.

UPDATE: Maybe this is the reason he's not going to conventions any more. Must really suck to have The Fastest Tongue In Fandom for all those years and then get pwnz3d by a cartoonist who has no idea who you are and could care less because the first impression you made was: "Hi! I'm an Enormous Gaping Asshole and Bully!" (Scroll down to the 8:46 PM post by Gabe or ^F for "The story".)


*I'm not sure I want to know what Ms. Willis meant by "He's done worse." The LAPD might, but I don't work for them.