Every year at the start of December, as predictably as finding pieces of chocolate behind the cardboard windows of an Advent calendar, I dream that my family forgets to celebrate Christmas.
If you’re a writer, you’ve heard it before – and you’ll hear it over, and over, and over again. The Write Life is frustrating, sometimes depressing, and not a career path any sane person would choose. That’s how you know you’re a writer – you don’t choose this life, it chooses you.
Yesterday I was minding my own business, turning twenty-six, when I received a strange email. My parents and I were waiting for a table at Hugo’s, and my phone buzzed for the 97th time that morning. Instead of another notification that someone had posted on my Facebook wall, I got this:
your grandmother beverly was a husband hunting woman. she did not care with whom she carried on. she broke up many homes.
It’s an increasing epidemic in my neighborhood. I don’t live in the middle of nowhere, some farm in the country where the nearest automobile is a tractor. I live in West Hollywood, a dense, urban area where people race SUVs down narrow streets and the pedestrians aren’t much better.
So when I see people walking their dogs without leashes, it makes me furious.
In order to achieve internet domination, I’ve been reliably informed that I should post something every day on this blog, which is a tall order when daily life is dull and I don’t particularly want to blog without something interesting to share.
The end of this momentous week really deserves a thoughtful, well-crafted reflection post, but I spent most of the weekend trying to sew a TARDIS dress that I ended up half-crafting with blue and white duct tape, so I’m not really in the mood. My room is seeking funds from FEMA, I haven’t worked on my book in weeks, and I’m still unemployed – but I’d happily work on Asexual Awareness Week again next year.
The second Ace Answers podcast is now available. This episode tackles the topics of misconceptions, challenges faced by asexuals, and asexual representations in the media. I’m working on finding the best way to upload and share these podcasts, so hopefully they can be streamed at some point. I received a number of great responses, but I would still love to hear from a larger sample of the community.
For Asexual Awareness Week 2011, I joined the planning committee (more on that in an article to be published this week on the blog LGBTPOV.) All the members had their own projects, and I decided that I wanted to give people in the community the chance to answer questions that no one was really asking. Given that we are often overlooked, ignored, or invisible, I wanted to offer the wider world an opportunity to hear from real, live asexuals, in their own voices.
The First Annual Geek Girl Con was a lovely sight to behold, both figuratively and literally (some awesome cosplay!). Totally low-key and mellow, with a wonderful sense of camaraderie and community. Everyone seemed very comfortable with themselves and each other. There was a definite sense of intelligence in the air; great, detailed discussions about representation in television, novels, and comics took place in every room.
Sometimes, the convention scene is stressful. There’s not enough time to do everything, or see everything, or hear everything. As I was considering some of my favorite things about con, the one that went to the top of the list is the opportunity to interact with other people who feel the way I do about geeky things. That got me thinking about ways to make that happen, and I came up with a little scavenger hunt, guaranteed to allow the so-inclined to geek it up.
I posted a tutorial on my blog for creating a miniature of the Great A’Tuin from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld - The Turtle Moves.
