There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Friday, August 3, 2012

Linkee-poo had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

Mur Lafferty got a letter from the Ethan Ellenberg Agency asking for submissions. I would, but they've already passed on Bladesman. It looks like they accept electronic submissions now (I was probably in the last group to submit before they opened that avenue up). EE is an excellent agency and were in the top level of my agent search. They rep John Scalzi and he seems to have had an okay career so far. As Mur says, "follow the guidelines."

The agent submission process from the other side. (Grokked from Absolute Write)

Writing from being uncomfortable. Another look at fear in writing, but from the opposite end of the lollipop stick; of not being too comfortable.

Labs. (Grokked from Xeni)

I've been reading a lot of the Readercon brouhaha (Grokked from John Scalzi). Besides Genevieve Valentine's own blog, this is the most cogent post yet. Look, dudes, can we talk? If, during social events, you suddenly find yourself being accused of social inappropriate behavior (or are self actualized that you realize you're doing it without being told) there are a few options. Take a mental time out. Think about what you're doing and how you can correct your behavior. Apologize for being an ass (if you're still engaging with that person). And move on. The person you were being an ass to does not need to forgive you for you to move on. Or you can remove yourself from the situation. Go somewhere else, talk to other people, go back to your room. Whatever. If someone tells you to your face that you are not to do something to them (like touch them, talk to them, interact with them, buy them a drink, whatever), apologize with all honesty (if they're still in front of you, if they've walked away apologize to the group) and then don't do what they told you to do. In fact you might just want to stay away from them. And if someone else is shown to be an ass by public vote, official recognition, and their own admission, don't defend their actions and call the victim names. Because that doesn't make you an ass of the same proportion, it makes you an ass of at least double size. (Grokked from Chang Terhune)

Adam Savage ups his geek cred by being obsessed with the LAPD pistol in Blade Runner. (Grokked from Tor.com)

"Right now the only thing (Chik-Fil-A is) guilty of is Level 10 Douchebaggery…" What Janiece said.

And along the lines of the Chik-Fil-A thing, look, don't be a dick. You want to punish the company that sends their money to hate groups (as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center), I'm all for ya. I probably won't eat a Chick-Fil-A ever again (and in the past I think I've had a total of 4 sandwiches from them - they bothered me a lot before this). But the person behind the counter, and probably even the store/shift managers don't have a lot to do with corporate governance. Look, one, they probably make minimum wage or slightly above, you may have missed it but there's this job shortage going on, so even if a cashier might think, "Oh, crap, how could I work for this company when they do this?" they're not going to leave the job. Because, as we say, happy campers, be glad you've got a job. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Athletic body diversity. Oh look, all shapes and sizes. And what you won't see there is Twiggy. (Grokked from Teresa Nielsen Hayden)

Remember when we talked about the assault on your rights a a worker? "Remember, Walmart pays so little because We The People subsidize them. They don't offer affordable benefits, so their workers qualify for Medicaid. They pay so little that full-time workers are eligible for food stamps and even welfare. And they call them job creators?" Good thing the Republicans and conservatives want to continue to give them the tax breaks so they can continue to do what they're doing. Which is starving the American economy. Don't forget these are the same people who want to eliminate the minimum wage. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Mike Kelly would like to conflate Wednesday's enactment of Obamacare's mandate for coverage of contraceptive services with Pearl Harbor and 9-11. Really? Now you're just grasping at straws.

You know, I've read a lot of whacky apocalyptic stuff for the WIP, I can tell you pretty confidently that Obama really isn't written about in the Bible. (Pointed to by Dan)

But we don't need no damn government bureaucrats telling us what we can and can't eat. "Escolar is also known as butterfish…, Hawaiian butterfish, walu/waloo, ono or super white tuna." Make sure you just say no. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Senator Sessions is "offended" to know that 98-99% of climate scientists know that 1) global climate change is happening and 2) it's human caused. Yes, it's certainly sucks when your worldview is dashed against the rocky shores of reality. But it's not you who should be offended, it's the reality based world that should be offended by the ignorance displayed in public office. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Tweet of relevence: @phiala: More things wrong with science: US educational system not producing quantitatively-savvy PhDs. 7 of 8 applicants are not from US.

Dog whistling our way to the general election. (Grokked from the Slactivist) And then there's ol' Crazy Eyes Bachmann going on about the "mooslims in da guberment" (sorry, I can't even pretend to take her seriously anymore, why is this person still in Congress?).

Good thing the conservatives squashed and trashed that report out of the DHS about conservative white males being more likely to joint groups committed to enacting acts of terror. 'Cause you know they were so wrong about that.

Alligator Quotient: They're surfacing in strange ways today.

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