Update (Mar 19 2015): Access to this repository has been disabled by GitHub staff. Thus, I’ve deleted the dead link in the next paragraph. I was given a link yesterday that included over 120,000 Twitter names of SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) to auto-block. Takes a list of the supposed ringleaders of SJW, looks at their […]
Deirdre’s Wheat Belly Rant
Over the last two months, half a dozen people that I’d spoken with for about fifteen minutes total decided to recommend a book to me: Wheat Belly. They recommended it for two reasons, I’m sure: one, they each knew I was celiac or on a gluten-free diet. Two, they knew I was fat. The first […]
Another PSA About Nude Photos
Chuck Wendig has the first PSA. Note: much swearing. What I think annoys me most of all about this whole debacle is the implication that nude photos are okay to steal. Dude. There are plenty of them that are consensually shared. Letmedothis.com is one of the better tumblrs full. (Since every site has a theme, […]
Hotel Convention Bookings: A Cautionary Tale
tl;dr: Inadvertent double booking due to intermediaries (and missing that there were two bookings) resulted in attempts to overcharge us by £1350 (~$2250) for a five-night stay. On August 30, 2013, I booked a room for Loncon3 through Starwood’s reservation system for the Aloft London Excel (a Starwood hotel) at £279/night (not at the much […]
Problematic Topics and Catharsis
In many ways, I’m a classic liberal: I don’t believe in censorship, even of works I feel are reprehensible. I think fiction, and well-written non-fiction, can be cathartic, and that catharsis is a good thing. Most of us have some sort of negative desire: something that, if fulfilled, would harm us or others. For most […]
The Rage Inducing Problems of Not Requiring Double Opt-In
You’re now connected to Zaid from Amazon.co.uk Me:You don’t have a menu option for “someone was a dumbass and used my email address for their Amazon account and it’s pissing me off that you let them do so without double opt-in.” Zaid:Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk. My name is Zaid. May I know your name, […]
Word for the Day: Wanksplaining
New word? There are no Google hits for it. So last year, SFWA Bulletin put out a set of dialogues by Michael Resnick and Barry Malzberg that contained some wanksplaining about the history of women in professional science fiction circles, to wit: She was competent, unpretentious, and beauty pageant gorgeous … as photographs make quite […]
How The Fuck Are We Supposed To Live in Space When You Lot Won’t Even Fly to Finland?
Okay, I’m being obnoxious with the post title. Granted. And I will concede that there are many good reasons to vote for a particular site over another, one of which is that you think that a given committee will deliver a better convention. I’m not talking about those reasons. I know I’m an experienced traveler […]