Happy Holidays

Yeah, I know, I’m a slacker. Just wanted to give everyone a Happy Fall shout-out. Halloween is coming (yay!), and so is Thanksgiving (yaaaay!). Then after that, I get a couple of weeks of for winter break (YAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!) It always makes me a little sad when summer is over, but this year has been a bit hard on me emotionally (which is why the posts have been so few and far between as of late), so I’m not terribly sad to see most of it behind me. Fret not, however, because I see good things in my future, and I hope the same for y’all. Besides, I just had some random library patron ask me for help, and when I did help him find what he was looking for, he repaid me by laying a hand on my head and healing me in the name of Jesus, as I’ve been fighting a seasonal something-or-other that’s giving me something of an annoying cough. No, really, I shit you not. Straight up laying-of-the-hands straight onto my noggin, and a full-on prayer. Gotta say, it was a smidge creepy. But the power of Christ compells me now, and I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. Gotta love living in the South, yeah? Most places get random muggings, here in Charlotte, you get a random blessing and a hallelujah. HA.

So now that Jesus is my homeboy, I’m sure he won’t mind me giving a nod to all of my other friends out there in cyber-world whose holidays I have missed. Happy Rosh Hashanah to my Jewish friends, Eid Mubarak to my Muslim friends, and I hope my Wiccan folk have a kick ass Mabon. Be excellent to one another, y’all.

AIDS Walk 2009 – Spooky Kids Support

Posted on behalf of my friend, Elizabeth McCoy. Please show your support if you can.

Dearest Friends,

You all know me, as a friend, a club kid, an English Beat Street Teamer, a photographer, and now, a crusader. I set a goal at the beginning of the year to take on the AIDS WALK in October, and now, after getting in shape and registering, I am walking with Team Spooky Kids on October 18th to raise money for an issue that is very close to my heart.

After growing up during a time when the AIDS scare was so horrific that every baby born in the hospital I was brought into this world in received an AIDS test every year for five years because they had no idea if we’d come into contact with a batch of tainted blood discovered that month in the neonatal unit, and after a small playmate of mine in Elementary School died at age 12 after being born with the disease into a family that could not afford the extremely expensive medical care for her, I believe it is in me to take up this cause and, at the very least, WALK towards a cure.

Team Spooky has a goal of 1000.00 to raise towards this cause. I have set a personal goal to raise 2000.00 or more over this goal our team has set. I believe some of you feel as strongly as I do, and will help me make this a reality. Please, if you can (I know most of us are broke as broke can be), donate even ten dollars towards this cause. Just because AIDS does not receive the attention it once did in the media does not mean it is gone. Rather, it’s just as bad as ever. Make a difference in someone’s life. Help me put a little good back into the world.

What can you do? I know what I can do. I can join the AIDS WALK and walk for something greater than myself. For me, this is an act of love that I have been training over eight months for. Help me make my goals a reality. Let’s put some good out there together. Donate, sponsor, walk with us.

Team Spooky Kids Donation Page:
Team Spooky Kids

Sincerely,
Elizabeth McCoy
Pictor Photography
Team Spooky Kids, AIDS WALK 2009
2009 AIDS Walk Los Angeles – Team Statistics

Geek Chicks, D*C, Zombies

I’m not exactly back from the dead…yet. Still, I make for a lively coma patient. I’ll be back on UR screen, killing UR boredumz on a regular basis very soon, I hope. Things have been much with the crazy here.

To keep you company in the meantime, I highly recommend you check out Geektress.com, for all of your geek girl needs. I discovered Geektress through Gail Simone’s forum, YABS, which is where I’ve been getting a lot of my geek news lately, I’m sad to say. The thing about work is that it gets in the way of stuff that I’d rather be doing, like catching up on news. Real news, not whether or not some back asswards housewife in Buttlick, Alabama is pissed off because the president is trying to encourage people to be all smart and stuff.) *sigh*.

So once again, I get my news from a geeky comic book forum.  I smell nice for a basement dweller, don't I?  No really, go on, put your nose to the screen.  That's Bath & Body Works, baby.  Mmmm.  Warm vanilla goodness.  I smell like cookies.  It's true.

Anyway, thanks to YABS once again for my latest pop culture goodness.  Gail's been plugging the podcasts hard lately, and it seems one of her faves is Geektress.  Geektress also has a website, which is awesome as well, so go over there right now and check it out.  They are snarky and funny and all things geek girl.  

As for all things Trickster, I will try to make a zombie-esque return from the dead very soon, so if you’re still reading this after…uh…*checks last date of post and screams in her head* …a long time, fear not my happy minions. Your undead Mistress of Mischief will return soon.

Oh, and as for all of you going to Dragon*Con this weekend [POUT] screw you! I never liked you anyway! Waaaaaaah!!! [/POUT] Your Weekend > Mine. Jealous = Me. Please be sure to stay safe, have fun, and wear protection while you’re there. Yes, I’m talking to you. You know who you are. And if you’re not fall-down drunk by then, please see Abney Park for me. Take pictures. I believe they have moved their venue, so keep your bleary eyes open. I’ll be working in the front yard all weekend, which can be fun too, I guess.

Yeah, I know. Try not to gloat too much, and have fun, y’all.

Equality Now Update

It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone thinks this is okay. Here’s a little update from Equality Now I got in my email inbox today. The ick factor is so unbelievably high on this one.

_____________________________________________________

EQUALITY NOW
NEWS ALERT: SAUDI ARABIA
JUNE 2009

Urgent call for annulment of marriage of 10 year old girl

Amneh Mohmad Sharahili, a 10 year old Saudi schoolgirl, has been married off by her father to a 25 year old Saudi man. Although Amneh’s marriage contract was executed in mid-February 2009, she has not yet been handed over to her husband and continues to live with her parents. Her father intends to hand her over in July 2009. Amneh, who is eager to continue school and eventually become a teacher, does not quite comprehend what it means to be married. However, she now feels different from her classmates saying “while they will become teachers and doctors, I do not know what my fate and future will be other than being married since I was 10 years old.” The marriage will, among other things, deprive Amneh of an education and severely jeopardize her right to mental and physical well-being.

Amneh’s case is one of many such early marriages of girls in Saudi Arabia highlighted by Saudi human rights activists. Another recent highly publicized case was that of an eight year old girl from Onaiza who had been married by her father to a middle aged man to settle a debt. The mother of the girl went to court to petition for a divorce but was told that she had no legal standing. The case went through the Saudi courts, but the Saudi legal system, which does not have codified law but rather is based on individual judges applying their interpretations of shariah, failed to produce a just outcome and ultimately the husband had to be prevailed upon to grant the eight year old a divorce. While the Saudi Minister of Justice has condemned early marriages, the only effective solution to this issue would be an edict from the Saudi King prohibiting such marriages.

Studies conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Population Council show that early marriage has physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual and sexual implications on children. Child marriage violates the human rights of girls by excluding them from decisions regarding the timing of marriage and choice of spouse. It may mark an abrupt initiation into sexual relations, often with a husband who is considerably older and a relative stranger. Premature pregnancy carries significant health risks and pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 years. Early marriage also jeopardizes girls’ right to education. In addition, married girls have few social connections, restricted mobility, limited control over resources, and little power in their new households, and studies by UNICEF have found domestic violence to be common in child marriages.

Saudi Arabia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Article 1 of the CRC defines the child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years.” Article 16(2) of CEDAW states that the “betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.” Article 16(1)(b) of CEDAW also stipulates that women shall have the same right as men “freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent.” However, Saudi Arabia has neither defined a minimum age of marriage nor taken other steps to eliminate early and/or forced marriages. On the contrary, Saudi Arabia’s commonly accepted practice of male guardianship over women is directly contradictory to international human rights standards. In Saudi Arabia, a woman is considered to be under the guardianship of her father or closest blood-related male all her life. This severely limits her ability to make decisions relating to issues of personal status, including marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, property ownership and decision-making in the family, and the choice of residency, education and employment.

Recommended actions

Please write to the King of Saudi Arabia asking him to issue an edict establishing a minimum age of marriage and banning all child marriages. Call upon him to take urgent action to annul the marriage of Amneh and all other child brides whose marriage contracts have been executed, but who have yet to be handed over to their husbands. Also ask him to ensure that child brides already living with their husbands are given a real choice to annul their marriages and, if they opt for annulment, to ensure that this happens swiftly without negative repercussions on the girls. Please also urge the King to support the establishment of a codified personal status law to guarantee the rights of women in marriage and divorce, ensuring that such law is based upon principles of equality and non-discrimination. Please send a similar letter to the Minister of Justice. Letters should go to:

His Majesty, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 491 2726
His Excellency Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul El Karim Abdul Azziz El Issa
Minister of Justice
University Street, Riyadh 11137
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 401 1741

With a copy to: The Human Rights Commission, P.O. Box 58889 Riyadh 11515, King Fahed Street, Building 373, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Email: hrc@haq-ksa.org

Sample letter

[His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 491 2726]

[His Excellency Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Elkarim Abdul Azziz El Issa
Minister of Justice
University Street, Riyadh 11137
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966-1-401-1741]
[Date]

[Your Highness] [Dear Minister],

I am writing to express my deep concern about the marriage of Amneh Mohamed Sharahili, a 10 year old schoolgirl whose marriage contract to a 25 year old man was executed in February 2009 with the consent of her father and who will be handed over to her husband in July 2009. It is commonly accepted that early marriage has physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual and sexual implications on children and violates their human rights. Amneh’s marriage will, among other things, deprive her of an education and severely jeopardize her right to mental, emotional and physical well-being.

I urge you to take urgent action to annul the marriage of Amneh and all other child brides whose marriage contracts have been executed but who have yet to be handed over to their husbands. I also ask you to ensure that child brides already living with their husbands are given a real choice to annul their marriages and, if they opt for annulment, to ensure that this happens swiftly without negative repercussions on the girls. I urge you to support the establishment of a codified personal status law to guarantee the rights of women in marriage and divorce, ensuring that such law is based upon principles of equality and non-discrimination.

I thank you for your attention.

Sincerely yours,

Cc: The Human Rights Commission (email: hrc@haq-ksa.org)

Abney Park

I love them. You should love them too. If you don’t love them, little clockwork street urchins with crappy English accents (like Chris Claremont bad, and that’s bad) should have every right to throw things at you and taunt you and generally point out how much you suck, because if you don’t like Abney Park, you probably do. Well, at least a little bit. I point at you and mock you in your inferiority. I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with you? They write songs about drunk airship pirates and Hamlet and mythology, and all things totally geeky and awesome. The lead singer (“Captain Robert!” Like a pirate!) has a voice I totally crush on, and there is belly dancing goodness and adorable steampunkiness, so you tell me, what’s wrong with any of those things? Nothing, that’s what. If you’d like to kill some time and sample their sound (and look), go to:

www.abneypark.com

Go and check them out. Go NOW. I have spoken.

I have a soft spot for Steampunk. I’m not sure why, but I do. And since we are talking about steampunk, I would like to point out once again some freelit downloads on Steampunk Magazine (www.steampunkmagazine.com.) One of their early issues has an interview with the band.

You’re welcome.

Más Bonita

Now, I know I haven’t been keeping up with the blog as much as I used to, and I’m sorry for that because I know if you’re desperate enough to read the thing, you must really be bored at work, but sometimes I hear something so absolutely fucktarded that I can’t keep it to myself, so I must share it with the intervoid.

It’s official. Joe Quesada really just needs to keep his mouth shut. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, and despite what comes out of his mouth, I’m sure he has enough brainpower is his head to run a major company, but sweet merciful Minerva, somebody shut him up already.

Marvel Divas: Not Sexist, Just Loud

He just came off as clueless before, which was almost cute in a dumb kind of way, but now he just sounds like a moronic douche.

My parents have a funny saying for times like this when someone says something really stupid: Calladita te ves más bonita. Let someone else do the heavy thinking for you, Joe. Why don’t you run off and buy something pretty for yourself in the meantime, ‘kay? I mean, since all of us fangirls are going to be throwing you our hard earned cash instead of buying cute shoes and frilly pink bits now that Divas is out, I’m sure you have enough cash for something absolutely precious.

Run along now, the big girls need to talk.

Stop Marketing to Me

Oh for crying out loud. Just stop it already. I’m so sick of companies trying to market to women, as if we’re some kind of seperate alien community. As if we haven’t been shopping for shit since there were places to shop. Blah blah blah the power of the female dollar, I get it. Stop it already. Just stop, please. Instead of marketing to me, how about making your shit work right, or look better, or, hey Marvel and DC, how about just writing decent stories that don’t suck? You know one of the things that makes stories not suck for women? Having well-rounded characters of both sexes. And for the love of god, if I see one more commercial where the women are talking about shoes just because women are supposed to like shoes, I think I’ll lose my freakin’ mind.

This rant brought to you, btw, by the idiots who are marketing Marvel Divas. You know, the story could be great, but I’m so turned off my the hype surrounding it, that I really can’t see myself buying the book. It’s not that I’m against Marvel trying to court the female audience, it’s just that they suck at it. I mean, come on guys, really?

Really? And I’d say the same for DC with their Gotham City Sirens schtick, but I’m sure there is no way DC believes they are marketing to women with this title, because it seems like one giant catfight, and I have yet to read Didio saying anything too stupid about how they are marketing this to those damn comic chicks. I mean, hell, the girl geeks got Spoiler back, what the hell else do they want? I hope I’m right, but I really don’t think Didio expects this to scream “this will get more female readers!”

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m mad because the Marvel Diva girls all look so porntastic. Actually, that’s not it at all. It’s not just the art, although I really wish comic artists would learn how to draw a decent pair of tits and a costume that may look like it would actually be a costume and not body art. It’s the crap logic behind this. Supposedly Marvel is trying to court a female audience, maybe even an audience new to comics. Girls who read comics already read comics. We don’t need a special pink “girl comics” line. Girls who don’t read comics, whom you would like to read comics, probably won’t be terribly impressed when they see that bit of art, whether or not it’s the actual cover to anything. That’s the art you chose to promote it, and it stinks.

Allow me to try explaining it another way. It would be as if I were the head of Oxygen, a TV channel supposedly geared more for women, and I said to the TV watching world at large “hey, I want to broaden the appeal of this channel by making it more guy friendly.” Then I turned around and started marketing “guy friendly TV” with ads like this:

and this:

Instead of this:

And this:

Yes, there are plenty of guys out there who prefer the first two images, but if we are making a broad, sweeping generalization about an entire gender the way Marvel Divas is supposed to be making a broad sweeping generalization about an entire gender, wouldn’t it make more sense to go with what the broad sweeping generalization generally tends to be? It’s like that old sitcom joke where the clueless husband buys his wife a power tool for her birthday, when it’s pretty obvious he’s buying it for himself. Then the clueless husband turns around and says “what do you mean I never give you anything? I bought you that expensive drill!” Because that’s what comic book chicks want–another power drill.

Gee, thanks, Marvel. You shouldn’t have.

Falling to Pieces

I know this is going to date me terribly, but I don’t care. Have you ever stumbled upon a song you haven’t heard in yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaars, only to discover that it’s still awesome and you must have it RIGHT NOW! Yeah, it just happened to me. Remember Faith No More? Oh come on, I know you do. They were big in the 90’s. Anyway, I, like many of my high school compatriots, still have my copy of Angel Dust, and probably play it more than is healthy even today. I never did pick up The Real Thing though, which was the other required Faith No More CD of my generation. So I’m playing around on iTunes today, trying to recapture some songs I lost when my PC died a year ago (yeah, I’m still trying to rebuild my music library. Curse you PC!!), when I come across an ad for the video for “Falling to Pieces.” Huh. Wait, do I remember that song? Sounds familiar. Then I play the preview, and OMG! YES YES YES! I remember that song! How could I possibly forget that amazing, kick ass bass? I absolutely remember dancing around my bedroom during my teen years, banging my head like an idiot to this song. So of course, I have to download it.

This goes along with my last post, btw, since I have been trying to explain to my students just how lucky they have it with iPods. The spoiled little turds will never know what it’s like to have a fat leather notebook of CDs riding shotgun in their car, and trying to find exactly the song you want to hear right then while speeding down I77 at 75 miles per hour. Once again, I have to confess that I am Apple’s bitch.

Faith No mOre – falling to pieces

Perspective

As I passed by some of our older equipment here in the library a little while ago, I was reminded of yesterday’s Mellon class. (If you remember, I teach a 10 week class centered around librarianship and library recruitment.) We were discussing an article they were required to read as homework, and the article was written in 1994, when the Internet was just starting to become a cultural phenomenon. The article made some interesting predictions as to what the future would possibly hold in librarianship, and I was struck by a paragraph pointing out that, once libraries became fully wired, there would be a desperate need to figure out what to keep and store, and what to completely discard as useless. When I pointed this out, I used our own library’s microfiche and microform readers as an example.

Then I got blank stares. One of the students piped up and asked me what microfiche was. I felt very old, just then! Still, I know an educational opportunity when I see one. We happened to have some old microfiche that was never discarded lying around in one of the drawers that a co-worker handed to me to pass around as an example. Man, you should have seen their faces! They couldn’t believe anything like that was ever used.

Anyway, I bring this up in order to make a point. For those of you out there who are teachers, professors, librarians, or hell, even parents, stop and think about just how rapidly our technology changes over the years. I graduated from college about 10 years ago, and we were still using print indexes at the time. I remember the college switching from card catalogs to computer catalogs while I was there. Some of my students don’t even know what a card catalog looks like. It may not seem that long ago for you, but it may as well have been the Stone Age for them.

Now, pardon me while I go shine my walker and drink some prune juice. I better not catch you kids on my lawn! :b

Cutbacks

Oh yeah, we’re all feeling the pinch. The economy blows, and thanks to NPR and some personal research, I learned that NC is now ranked number 48 out of 51 (don’t forget DC!) on the list of places you don’t want to try finding a new job. The honey and I are on a pretty tight budget, which is why I’ve moved the blog from Typepad to WordPress. Understand, I’ve had a good run on Typepad, and I do enjoy it. But let’s face it, unless you’re running a blog for commercial purposes, and I’m obviously not, there’s really no need for all that blog. Plus, I’m not spewing my babble into the inter-void as much as I used to because life has gotten a little crazy lately, so I couldn’t really justify paying even a small charge every month for something I can very well do for free elsewhere. Simple economics, really.

So welcome to my new and maybe-not-necessarily-improved blog. Sadly, when I did the export/import thing from Typepad to WordPress, my blogrolls and lists didn’t transfer. I have to re-add everything manually, and I’m kind of lazy, so if you would like me to re-add you to the list, or if, for some reason, I missed you last time around, please leave me a little comment. Also, even though I managed to do the dreaded transfer with only a few minor injuries, the older posts may look a little weird. Some pictures and links and such got lost in the translation. It happens. I’m not geeky and OCD enough to comb through every single one of my old posts and fix them, so if they look funky, just chalk it up to the move and assume it wasn’t me being technologically inept (although, that might actually be the case in some of them.)