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suricattus

It's not about winning or losing, its how you play the game

May. 16th, 2012 | 07:34 pm
posted by: [info]suricattus

I am sharing this because I think it's important, and because I think Maria breaks it down better than I could, on a wee travel keyboard. And I like the card analogy - I have a card for being raised American white collar middle-class, and I'm always aware that education dealt me an invaluable card that cannot be underestimated (and why I think a well-rounded education is still the best gift we can give the next generation). It's not "discrimination" or "blaming" to ask us to be aware of those benefits and mindful of them.
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Originally posted by [info]marialima at It’s not about winning or losing, it’s how you play the game

John Scalzi wrote an awesome post entitled: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.


I highly recommend you read it – including the 800 comments.


Scalzi’s post struck a strong chord in me (who, according to his game metaphor got the hardcore setting, thanks to being female, Latina, queer).


I find it fascinating and not a little disheartening to see the same old “stop blaming me”, “what am I supposed to do about it” comments from so many straight white males. As an adjunct to that, a lot of “but my life was anything but easy because [insert reason(s) here].


Dudes: you are missing the point by miles. I don’t know if my analogy will help, but here’s an attempt: (and all my points are based on US/Western Culture)


playing cardsImagine there’s a pile of cards in play for the game called Life.


The objective is how you play during your journey, not some vague “winning” of the game, since the final outcome is the same for everybody.


Each card represents points a person can play throughout their personal journey. Points can be translated into real world advantages (jobs, money, opportunities, etc.)


At birth, each person gets 1 card to play based on the fact that s/he lives.


If you’re white, you get a second card, if male, yet another. If you are heterosexual, you get another.


Based ONLY on these criteria, at the start of the game, straight white males already have the advantage in having more cards.


No, this doesn’t mean that their entire journey through Life will be easy, simple and without roadblocks, only that they get more cards to start with. Some folks will get extra cards along the way (for money, education, other aspects of Life that affect their journey). That’s a given.


What Scalzi was pointing out that, at the start, straight, white males have more cards to play. What they do with those cards and how many other cards they get are variable.


So, we’re not blaming you for this, it’s just a statement of fact. You (the straight white male) have more cards at the beginning. You can choose to use those cards to lord it over others, or you can choose to stop, think and be inclusive.


It’s up to you.


For those of you who asked “what do you want me to do?” – I will repeat Scalzi’s answer (from the comments) – What do you want to do? It’s not my call. I am not the captain of your underpants.


If you want to sincerely know what you can do to level the playing field, I suggest you start by increasing your awareness–of your surroundings, of the language you and your friends use (do you laugh at homophobic, racist jokes or do you stop them?), of anytime you can reach out a helping hand to someone who is not a straight white male.  Small steps lead to bigger ones.


Some other thoughtful posts on the same topic:


Karen Healy


Steven Brust



(Please note, discuss as you wish, however, like Scalzi, I have the Crossbow of Courtesy primed & loaded…aka, don’t be a dick or I shall have to shoot down your comment.)



Originally posted at Maria Lima. You can comment here or there.

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martyoutloud

calls for submission... ladies/place and tattoos

May. 15th, 2012 | 05:13 pm
posted by: [info]martyoutloud

Call for Submissions: Women & Place Anthology 

We are currently looking for submissions from women for a multi-genre anthology (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction) centered on the idea of "place" to be published in October 2013. All (re)interpretations welcome, including -- but not limited to -- the following: 

home * region * neighborhood * niche * background responsibility * community 
vacancy * property space * venue * profession * establish * distinguish


Please limit submissions to no more than five (5) poems or 5,000 words. Previously published works accepted though please let us know where the piece first appeared. 

We will accept submissions on a rolling basis throughout 2012. 

All questions and submissions may be sent to sundresspublications@gmail.com

***

Call for Submissions:  Sins & Needles: Writers and Tattoos

Tattoos have been in existence for centuries, from the indigenous people of Japan to tribal people of Polynesia, Philippines, and Borneo. They are markers of time, rites of passage, symbols, remembrances, and sometimes, stupid decisions made on a drunken nights. They are everywhere—under the white sleeve of a co-worker, sneakily peaking out of a shirt collar, up and down muscled legs and arms of athletes.  There has been proliferation of reality shows centered set in tattoo parlors. What once was a subculture has now emerged as mainstream.

Yet, in the literary landscape, there has been a conspicuous absence of writing about tattoos. The editors of the tentatively titled anthology, Sins & Needles—Ira Sukrungruang and Jim Miller—are looking for personal nonfiction narratives about the meaning behind the tattoo. Please send 500-3000 word essays in a PDF or Word document file via our submission manager.http://sinsandneedles.submishmash.com/

The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. If you have any questions about the anthology, please don’t hesitate to contact, editors (at) sweetlit.com.

http://sinsandneedles.submishmash.com/submit

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suricattus

(no subject)

May. 15th, 2012 | 10:52 pm
posted by: [info]suricattus

Checking in briefly to say that Kari [info]la_marquise_de_ and I and the rest of our crew have arrived safely in Spain and are having a lovely (if rather hot) time.

And yes, Chaz, I am taking my responsibilities as Replacement Chaz quite seriously. Well, except when I'm not.
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matociquala

our prayers are always answered. that miracles can happen.

May. 15th, 2012 | 04:54 pm
mood: ecstatici'm a fucking genius
music: All Things Considered
posted by: [info]matociquala

I just had one of those labor-saving strokes of genius that I need to share with the world. Which is to say, the easiest method ever in the history of popovers.

Here is my basic popover recipe:

2 tablespoons solid fat (butter or animal fat (duck fat, mmm) or solid shortening)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup (140 g) all purpose or white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

This tactic assumes you own a wand blender and a wide-mouthed quart Mason jar and a microwave. If not, just make the popovers the way you normally would--or if you are missing the wand blender but have a normal blender, you can melt the butter in a different container and use the normal blender.

About an hour or two before dinner, take your Mason jar. Put the butter/whatever in it. Put it in the microwave and melt it. (If you are making Yorkshire pud and are waiting for the roast to be finished before you add the fat, skip this step for now, and stir the fat in before you bake the popovers.)

Add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar to the butter in the Mason jar (or blender)(or just put them in the blender if you are adding the fat later). Do not put the eggs directly into the hot butter before diluting it with the milk. Otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, which are nice, but not popovers.

Whiz them all up with the wand blender.

Add the flour and the wheat gluten.

Whiz that too, until you have a nice smooth batter.

Let the batter sit on the counter until dinner is nearly ready. If you are roasting something at 400 degrees, you're good; otherwise preheat your oven to 400 (F). (200 C) 

Liberally grease 9 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin, or if you are making Yorkshire pud, drizzle a little of the fat from the roast into the bottom of the cups. If you have one of the giant-sized six muffin muffin tins, then you will have bigger popovers and they need to bake a little longer.

Using silicon cups for this results in popovers without stumps or a lot of loft, as they just levitate themselves out of the super-slick cups entirely. They still taste good!

If you are using fat from the roast you're making, add it now and stir it in.

Divide the popover batter between the nine greased cups. You can just pour it from the blender or the Mason Jar.

Stick in oven. Do not peek! If you open the door before they are set, they won't rise properly.

Bake for 35 minutes or until deep mahogany brown.

Pull pan from oven. Tilt popovers in cups, or remove them to a rack or basket. Pierce each one with a bamboo skewer. (careful of the steam!) The purpose of these two procedures is to (a) prevent them from getting soggy and (b) prevent them from collapsing.

Eat.

However you meant to eat them. Do not plan on leftovers.

Wash your one. dirty. dish. Oh, and the wand blender, sure. And the muffin tin. But that was inevitable.



ETA: Nota Bene

For even more loft in your popovers, preheat the muffin tin with the grease in it in the 400-degree oven for a few minutes before pouring the batter in. This is a bit tricky, though, and can be skipped.

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dkolodji

2012 Tokutomi Haiku Contest - deadline May 31st

May. 15th, 2012 | 01:03 pm
posted by: [info]dkolodji

For the second year in a row, I am coordinating the Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest for the Yuki Teikei Society.

The Tokutomis founded the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society in San Jose, California, in 1975. Their vision was to nourish and foster the art of writing haiku in English using the traditional guidelines developed by haiku poets in Japan. As explained by Mrs. Tokutomi, in Japanese "Yu" means "having", "Ki" means "season", "Tei" means formal", and "Kei" means "pattern".

Therefore in the founders' view, "yuki teikei" haiku contains a season word and utilizes a three-line 5-7-5 pattern of syllables. In today's world, literary English language haiku is rarely written in 5-7-5 syllable patterns, even by members of the Yuki Teikei Society, however this contest continues to honor the vision of the founders of the society.

So, even though I generally encourage friends to forget about syllables when writing haiku, please think about writing a few 5-7-5 haiku with the following kigo in honor of the Tokutomis. You could win $100!

New Year: first reading, year of the dragon
Spring: swallows return, lengthening days
Summer: ants, summer’s end
Autumn: harvest moon, autumn sea
Winter: frost, bean soup

Contest haiku should be 5-7-5, containing one, and only one, kigo from the above contest kigo list. Prizes are $100 for First Place, $50 for Second Place, and $25 for Third Place.

The entry fee is $7 for three haiku. If you are submitting your haiku via us mail, put three haiku on a page. If you are submitting your haiku via e-mail to dkolodji@aol.com, your entire submission may be placed in the body of the e-mail.

Entry payment (checks made out to "Yuki Teikei Haiku Society") may be mailed to the contest chair, Deborah P Kolodji, 10529 Olive Street, Temple City, CA 91780 along with your paper submission, or can be made directly to the Yuki Teikei paypal account: yukiteikei(at)msn.com.

The deadline is May 31st. This is a postmark deadline, as well as an e-mail deadline.

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matociquala

life used to be so hard

May. 14th, 2012 | 10:52 am
mood: curiouscurious
music: Morning Edition
posted by: [info]matociquala

[info]invaderxan offers a beautiful artist's impression of sunset on Venus. With bonus rising evening star--Earth and its Moon, in this case.
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matociquala

but now there's evidence she's alive.

May. 13th, 2012 | 08:57 pm
mood: pleasedpleased
posted by: [info]matociquala

So I'm finally catching up on the last three episodes of Criminal Minds. And damn, I really like "The Company."

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martyoutloud

calls for submission...

May. 10th, 2012 | 11:13 am
posted by: [info]martyoutloud

Body Electric

In the spirit of Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric,” this new anthology celebrates the human body in all of its diversity. We are currently seeking submissions from writers, artists, and photographers whose work is inspired by themes in "The Body Electric" and that captures the energy of the poem, its passions, and its exultation of the body.

Publication Date: January 2013
Deadline for Submissions: June 2012

http://and-or.org/body_electric.html

***

Submission Deadline: June 1st, 2012

Expected Publication Date: July, 2012

Genre: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Photography 

Guest Editors:

  • Athena Dixon
  • Brett Elizabeth Jenkins
  • Diana Salier
  • Ashley Bethard

We're pleased to announce Specter's second Special Issue--simply called "Women." We've chosen four guest editors to select work for, about and/or by women of all races, sexuality (Trans writers are welcome), etc. The guest editors have both similar and different backgrounds, creative styles and tastes--what we hope to acheive is create a publication that covers as broad of the spectrum as possible.

http://spectermagazine.submishmash.com/submit

***


http://www.superficialflesh.com/index.php

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matociquala

the trigger that almost nobody wants to pull

May. 10th, 2012 | 10:26 am
mood: ecstaticecstatic
music: morning edition
posted by: [info]matociquala

 For centuries, the wampyr has drifted from one place to another. From one life to another. It's 1962, and he's returned to New Amsterdam for the first time since he fled it on pain of death some sixty years before. On the eve of social revolution, on the cusp of a new way of life, he's nevertheless surrounded by inescapable reminders of who he used to be.

For a thousand years, he's chosen to change rather than to die. Now, at last, he faces a different future....

The capstone novella to the New Amsterdam sequence, ad eternum* will be shipping soon. It can be preordered here!

The limited edition comes with a 9,000 words chapbook, "Underground," which concerns the adventures of Mary in Paris between New Amsterdam and "Twilight."

Sf Signal has a review up. It's spoilery, and there's one factual error, which is probably my fault for being insufficiently clear for new readers. But:

"...top notch: stylish without being hard to consume, descriptive without being padded, and conducive to engrossing the reader into this world."

WIKTORY!!!



*or Ad Aeternum, if you prefer. In retrospect, the lowercase/bad-Mediaeval-Latin thing doesn't work as well as I'd hoped. Oh well. I'll just leave this here as an apology for anybody who is irritated.

Makes it easier to google....

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matociquala

no sleep til brooklyn

May. 10th, 2012 | 12:59 am
mood: tiredtired
music: fake rain
posted by: [info]matociquala

3000 words today to finally put this damned overdue novelette to bed. Tomorrow, I give "Terrestrial Radio" a final revision pass and start my heavy research reading on "The Deeps of the Sky," which is a narrative in search of a conflict currently.

There's a lot of ground to cover before I head out to WisCon. 

State of the Honeydew:

2012:

"The Death of Terrestrial Radio:" April 30, 2012</strike>
"The Body of the Nation:" May 09, 2012
Weird West story: June 1, 2012
OWW EC Review: May 15, 2012

"The Deeps of the Sky" (Hard SF adventure story): June 1, 2012
OWW EC Review: June 15, 2012
OWW EC Review: July 15, 2012
First draft EII story: July 15, 2012
"The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward" (Collaborative short with [info]truepenny): July 31, 2012
Fireside story: August 15, 2012
Final draft EII story: September 1, 2012
"Underworld": September 15, 2012
An Apprentice to Elves: 2012 with [info]truepenny



travel:
CAPA University: May 12, Hartford CT
WisCon: May 25-28, Madison WI
4th Street Fantasy Conversation: June 21-24, Minneapolis MN
ConVergence: July 5-8, Minneapolis MN
Readercon: July 12-15, Burlington MA
Armadillocon: July 26-29, Austin TX
Pi-Con: August 17-19, Enfield CT
ChiCon: August 30-Sept 3, Chicago IL
Viable Paradise: October 5-14, Oak Bluffs MA
World Fantasy Convention: November 1-4, 2012, Toronto ON Canada


2013:
Sword and sorcery story: January 2013
Modern fantasy story: January 2013
Steles of the Sky: January 2013
"Dark Leader": March 2013
"Something's Gotta Eat T. rexes": September 2013


travel:
World Fantasy Convention: October 31-November 3, 2013, Brighton England UK


No fixed deadline:

Karen Memory
Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz

Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
"Form & Void"
"Untitled Space Opera Thingy" aka "Periastron"
"Posthumous Jonson"
"Steel"
"On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera"
"This Chance Planet"
"Flush"

 

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