In which I see all, and then regret it somewhat

[bodlon]

About a week ago I installed a more comprehensive site stats plug-in. This is a mixed blessing.

It’s generally satisfying knowing readers come from, or how they find me. It helps me know what brings people here, what they’re looking for. I’m curious about which posts get read more often, or what’s being linked to most. The Internet is very big, after all. This is interesting and useful information.

Every so often, though, my surname and my candor collide, and the result kind of makes me want to break out the shotguns and steel wool.

All of which goes to show I probably should have changed my name to Count Von Groovy or MC Sodium Benzoate or Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern…of Ulm when I had the chance.

~*~

- I don’t write or even read much romance, but I really love Smart Bitches. In particular, they’re funny, smart, and pretty good at noticing and reporting on it when weirdness goes down in the publishing industry. Case in point, Publishers wanting to limit ebook lending through libraries. It’s sort of a magical clusterfuck of privacy issues colliding with a paranoia that takes works out of the hands of readers. Memo to publishing industry: I’m pretty sure your authors want people to read them. Libraries are not the enemy. Get off my lawn. (Pleasant side-effect of this idiocy: an amusing captioning contest.)

- Okay, fine. You don’t want to read about Harper Collins capping ebook check-outs at a place called “Smart Bitches”? Fine. Read about it at the NYT. Are you happy now? (The correct answer is, “No, because HC capped e-books at 26 check-outs.”)

- Via Jim C. Hines, Introduction: So You Want To Make an eBook. I am excited about this series. I know people who do this work, but don’t understand it well. A series like this can only be a good thing, both in terms of people making better stuff for themselves and non-producers having a better understanding of how labor-intensive digital media can be. (Note, incidentally, that you can tip the author as well…)

- Via Slashdot, the Tolkien estate is getting weirdly proprietary. Or would that be the Tolk_en estate? I kind of want to buy one of the censored buttons/stickers. Hm.

- Two planets sharing one orbit. And yes, I am already trying to shoehorn this into a story. Why do you ask?

- Pagan news resource The Wild Hunt has officially had to bump up its hosting plan. If you’ve got a few bucks and think they do good work, I’m sure they’d appreciate your support.

- While I am in no way prepared to explain to my mother why I know who Buck Angel is (and yes, she reads this), I found out this week that he’s the guy who plays the PoV character in the video for Porno for Pyros’ song “Cursed Female.” I’m still processing the ways in which this makes me feel more like I exist, but suffice to say it’s kind of a thing in my head and heart right now.

- The Pew Forum has done some interesting data analysis about the Tea Party and how the movement intersects with religion. It’s worth checking out.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com

Comments

[contrarywise]

Yowsa, baby Buck Angel! He looks so young in that video. Dang.

Speaking of The Wild Hunt, did you see its coverage of the trans exclusion issue at PantheaCon? Part of me is seriously frustrated and angry that this shit is still happening in the Pagan community, and part of me is thrilled that people on various sides are having serious and reasonable dialog on the subject that is mostly respectful. Part of me also wants to weigh in on the subject big-time, but I am not at all sure I have the time, energy, or mental/emotional bandwidth to leap into the fray to the extent that I'd really like to devote to it. It's a big subject that gets me both very thinky and very feely, and that makes it difficult for me to write about it succinctly. But if I can manage to get some thoughts together, I might at least leave a comment somewhere, if not generate something about it for my own blog should commenting get to be too tl;dr for someone else's online discussion.

[bodlon]

I did, and also Phillipus' take on it, since he was there and on the big gay pagan thing. I've been trying to parse out my feelings beyond "ugh" and "same shit, different day."

I mean, if I object to exclusion on the basis of religion with Christians, I should rationally object to it within the pagan community, but I think there's both a complexity and a tendency for that not to mean Total Cultural Exclusion within the pagan community because it's got more going on, and I can kind of go, "FINE. If your Diana/Goddess says I can't hang out with you, there are all these other sects to play with."

It's a work in progress. We should totally get thoughts together. Let me know if you do post somewhere, because I'd like to see what you come up with, what with having different experiences and all.