Firesongs (Echo)

Doctor, Heal Thyself

2021-05-03T18:33:34Z

This is from j-t's housemate:

Ah, well if it's non-profit names you need, you have indeed come to the right place! The director of the organization I work for is from India and has most of his family still there - he shared these names of organizations, along with the specific initiatives they're running for oxygen, PPE, food, etc, with our org's staff to help guide our donations:

SEWA International - Medical Oxygen
American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin - Medical Oxygen
Khalsa Aid - Medical Oxygen
CARE India - Mainly PPE Kits
Akshaya Patra Foundation - Food Relief
Project Mumbai - Health Infrastructure and supplies

I really look forward to our storytelling, and, I'm so sorry to hear about your partner, my friend. What a full universe of lives you lived together.

With love,
Shea Skywalker :)

comments

The Chariot

2020-07-12T04:16:33Z

ProCreate, Photoshop, iPad and Apple Pencil

Ua'lin... being Ua'lin. How seriously you take her is up to you.

This is actually taken from one of the first pictures I ever drew of her. ( Read more... )

comments

More Water Song art

2014-07-26T03:26:44Z

( The main cast of characters, in graphic novel style )

comments

History of community

2014-06-18T03:35:46Z

I want to spread this long but incredibly important Tumblr post about the history of the autism and multiplicity communities everywhere I can.

We weren't a part of all of the groups and initiatives described there, but we know some of the people involved. Our place was on the forums, the rise and fall of various forums between 2004 and the present.

I want to talk about one thing. The importance of freedom of speech and an uncensored space in the development of a community. Everything Amorpha/S. says about the Dark Personalities mailing list has been mirrored in Daria's and my own experiences of the unmoderated autism forum we have been a part of. It is imperative to have a space for people who have been cast out of other communities for being too controversial, for saying critical things, for breaking social rules, for pissing off the wrong person. When there is social upheaval because huge new ideas have come to light, there is an urgent need for space where they can be spoken about freely, hashed out, argued about, screamed about. In the brouhaha over demanding trigger warnings that has even spread to mainstream media in the past year, I want people to understand why it is important to keep places where trigger warnings and other kinds of content policing are not required.

It's still difficult to write about this because I am an intensely private person and used to keeping up mental boundaries.

Thanks Kerry for the link on your journal. (This one.)

comments

Incidentally, they've chosen the Treyvon Martin jury

2013-06-23T17:35:07Z

And it's all women.

( No one's correlating, Mike. )

comments

Socialism, communism, fascism, nazism... and cows

2013-03-25T04:33:13Z

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk

( FASCISM... )

Bonus: Got this off a traditional capitalism message board. (Written by eskslo.) Anyone care to correct the bias?

comments

The anatomy of corporate bullying

2013-02-08T04:18:30Z

Last December, the self-published author M.C.A. Hogarth (haikujaguar) received a notice from Amazon that her e-book Spots the Space Marine was being taken down due to trademark infringement.

It turns out Games Workshop, also known as the UK company that created Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, own the trademark to the term "space marine".

How is this possible, when space marines are a science fiction trope that have appeared in stories, comics and movies at least since Bob Olsen wrote "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" in 1934?

That's where the corporate bullying comes in.

Games Workshop, apparently, have a horrid reputation for being lawyer-happy. They've filed suit against one of the largest Warhammer fansites, against Chapterhouse Studios who make conversion parts for miniatures, and they reputedly hit independent toy and game retailers with clauses that they cannot stock any other gaming system if they want to stock GW miniatures.

For the past couple months, haikujaguar has been quietly contacting five separate IP lawyers and finding that the cost of fighting GW's claim would start at $2000 US and quickly climb into the $50,000 range when the lawsuit began. It wouldn't make business sense to protect the book. Independent authors don't make that kind of money.

If Amazon had investigated GW's claim, they might have discovered it stood on shaky legal ground (per legal publishing blog Scrivener's Error). But they didn't. They just pulled the book, and are refusing to reinstate it without GW's okay.

So essentially we have a situation where a dubious legal challenge from a corporation in another country has censored an independent author's work with no recourse. This is not a system which can claim to protect individuals' rights. It is a system where money can buy the best-equipped mercenaries, and those without it knuckle under in fear of having their livelihood crushed in the modern arena called a courtroom.

The only hope of the individual is enough publicity to embarrass their opponent into withdrawing their claims. This will be difficult against a company of lawyers, MBA's, and wargame designers which has pursued aggressive litigation since the early 1980's. A few days ago, it looked near impossible. Then haikujaguar made a clear, calm and concise call for help. Her relatively small group of friends and fans stepped up to the plate.

The internet rage machine is powerful once the ball gets rolling. 24 hours brought the attention of Elizabeth Moon, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorov and Neil Gaiman. 48 hours brought the Electronic Frontier Foundation and articles in The Guardian, The Register, and a host of other news sources. (Full list of media coverage here.) The Games Workshop lawyers probably thought a self-published author of e-books was easy pickings. Only time will tell just how wrong they were.

comments

How have I never stumbled on this before?

2012-11-20T01:06:24Z

P!nk's live performance of "Try" at the American Music Awards 2012.

( The choreographed and filmed version is pretty incredible too. )

There are very many things I want to say to people and very little space right now to say them. But I'm still here.

comments

We'll kill the big red rooster

2012-06-21T17:35:30Z

(Never thought I'd like Neil Young....)

This world is full of so many strange and wonderful things.

I stumbled on this article this morning. (source)

( Full text )

comments

NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-10-26T06:31:43Z

For Nano this year, I am going to be working with Studio Pyraxis to edit my part of the Water Song trilogy. This is the project we drafted and finished for Nano 2009, so we'll be breaking with protocol to revise it instead and get it to the point of being ready for publication.

We're looking for feedback....

The book, which doesn't yet have a title, is ~~one side~~ three sides of the ~~coin~~ octahedron in the story of my homeworld Ua. The water had already drained from the oceans when I was born, and all the magic in the world couldn't tell where it was going. All we had were fragments of a prophecy, our will for a better life, and all the ingenuity we could muster. It is the story of my people, some of whom disagreed with my extreme methods of conservation of natural resources. It is my story, and the stories of my anza Uz'qi and the rogue priest Ua'vic (shashigai/Javik). It's a story about ambition, desperation and the currency of power.

If all goes well, we'll be posting about 2300 words/day. You'd be welcome to read as much or as little as you like. Any response would be much appreciated, from rough first impressions, to detailed writing critique, to anything that will help keep our spirits up. (You may also be as insulting as you like; I don't stand on protocol when I can avoid it, and I've heard much worse in my twenty-odd years as Raba Ua.)

I'm opening up a friendslist. Please let me know if you would like in. :)

- Ua'lin, the fourth Raba Ua

comments