MarsCon 2018 - Day 1

MarsCon 2018 - Day 1

MarsCon is a fan-run science fiction convention for all ages held every March in the Twin Cities area. This year's theme is Robots, Rayguns, & Rockets: The 3 R's of Sci-Fi. Today I was on two panels, "Avoiding the Tokenism in Comics and Sci Fi Cultures," "How to Fail Gracefully," and "Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities." There are audio recordings of all three panels; however, they are still the raw, unedited versions. The normalized, balanced versions will be put up on a later post. I also took some notes for some of the panels - I will include them here so that I can expand on them on a later date. Please feel free to ask questions and post comments about the panels. Enjoy!

41 years ago, I'd be a Traditional Conservative Republican.

41 years ago, I'd be a Traditional Conservative Republican.

The other day, I saw a very fascinating answer on Quora to the question “Why does the NPR station have so much propaganda against Trump?” It was much more elegant and detailed than I have ever been able to be when it comes to explaining that it is not NPR who is generating propaganda against 45 [Note 1], but rather his spinmasters making a non-profit station seem like a tool of propaganda to his loyal adherents.

Before getting into the answer that I first found to be rather fascinating, I would like to highlight a few points that have been put out there in response to this question. A number of people who have answered the question have pointed out that NPR relies on public funding, and that stories about bias by NPR are intended to destroy support for ongoing funding of public radio and television. NPR does have a soft bias, yes, but public media is centrist due to the fact that it is public - to keep its funding, it has to remain centrist.

A Rebuttal to EC Henry's video "How ONE LINE Fixes The Last Jedi"

A Rebuttal to EC Henry's video "How ONE LINE Fixes The Last Jedi"

If you haven’t seen E.C. Henry’s videos, I suggest that you check them out. He makes really great stuff - I’ve been following him for a while. Some of my favorite stuff from him includes Pacific 201 Show-and-Tell, how much tea Captain Picard drinks, and the size of that planet in the opening credits of Star Trek: Voyager.

In his most recent video, "How ONE LINE Fixes The Last Jedi", E.C. Henry argues that the biggest problem around the plot and story-structure was from Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo’s role in the film, saying that her refusal to share her plan with anybody is seemingly irrational. I’ll take the reasons why this is incorrect in the order that he brings them up:

Bilingual Spanish Human Services Representative (HSR) posting is open!

Bilingual Spanish Human Services Representative (HSR) posting is open!

Noemi Alcocer – Community Based Service Development from Hennepin County wants to share this open position with you:).  Hennepin County is working hard to increase the number of HSRs who speak the languages most needed in the community and of them is Spanish, but please note that the posting closes Monday at 5 pm.  
We hope you will think about your networks and how you can share this news!

If you know interested individuals who are NOT bilingual Spanish or Somali speakers, the next general HSR hire will be posted in May.

Rebel Alliance Ranks - Explained

Rebel Alliance Ranks - Explained

In my review of The Last Jedi, I mentioned that the officer [Note 1] rank structure for the Resistance is canonically Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Commander, Colonel, General/Admiral (although Amilyn Holdo is a Vice Admiral and Nien Nunb is a Lieutenant Commander, but that’s not germane to this post). The Resistance is inspired by the Alliance to Restore the Republic (aka the Rebel Alliance), as the New Republic was unwilling to stand up to the threat of the First Order. I believe that the Resistance took its rank structure directly from the Rebel Alliance.

Super Bowl: Not so good for cities.

On Sunday, 04 Feb 2018, Super Bowl LII will be hosted in Minneapolis, Minnesota at US Bank Stadium (also known as that damn Sandcrawler [Note 2]). Up to 1 million visitors [20] [21] [22] are expected, and the NFL is projecting that it will bring $350-407 million [12] [20] [21] to our local economy. Hotels have been booked, tickets are being sold, and plans have been put into place. Areas of Downtown Minneapolis will be cordoned off, security will be enhanced, and Minneapolis will be a hub of activity for a short amount of time.

Dr. King's Final Speech: "I've Been to the Mountaintop"

Dr. King's Final Speech: "I've Been to the Mountaintop"

On April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee, Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his final speech. On the following day, King was assassinated. He was 39 years old.

The speech primarily concerns the Memphis Sanitation Strike. King calls for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live up to its ideals. At the end of the speech, he discusses the possibility of an untimely death.

The GOP is not the Party of Lincoln - A Brief History. Part II: Progressive Boogaloo.

The GOP is not the Party of Lincoln - A Brief History. Part II: Progressive Boogaloo.

Both the Democrats and the Republics had factions to contend with, shaping how the parties attempted to govern and what was considered to be important issues. It is important to remember that not all members of a party have the same beliefs, especially in the 19th century - issues were not nearly as partisan then as they are now [Note 1]. The factions of today (Centerist/Moderate, Conservative, Liberal, Libertarian, Progressive) are not the names of yesteryear - the names that were in use at the time may be a bit confusing. There were also Third and Fourth parties at the time, which also were a factor in the political landscape, but the major players at the time were the Democrats and Republicans.

Somehow, there are those who who are still skeptical about harassment towards women [Content Warning]

Today, a friend of mine posted to her Facebook that there are some guys who she went to high school with who are skeptical that women are harassed or grabbed by strangers, and so she invited people, if they were comfortable, to share their stories. Despite the Yes All Women and Me Too campaigns, it seems that people (and let's be honest here, the hypermajority are men) are either not paying attention or not caring.

Patreon, Why Are You Doing This?

Patreon has announced a new service fee policy.

Supposedly, it is supposed to help Creators keep more money - however, this is at the expense of our Patrons. Right now, Creators pay a 5% fee + whatever fee is charged by our payment processors (in my case, PayPal); on December 18th, that will be changed so that Patrons will be paying 2.9% + 35 cents per pledge. TechCrunch has an article about this, with someone pointing out that "Pledging $100 to 1 creator will now cost $103.25 which is reasonable. Pledging $1 each to 100 creators will now cost $138 which is not reasonable."

This is not good news.

Here is Patreon's blog post about the what's happening and why: https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/?_ga=2.131857487.1915026464.1512801843-1669255679.1501451341
Here is their FAQ: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963

I don't know anybody who is for this. I sure as hell am not. Of the Patreons that I currently follow and/or donate to, here are others who are against this as well:
Seanan McGuire (and another post from them)
Jackie Wohlenhaus (and another post from them)
Amanda Palmer
Laurie Penny
Jeph Jacques

In my honest opinion, this is fucked up.

If you can no longer support me on Patreon, I totally understand. I am going to look into other services to replace Patreon if they do not come to their senses. You all need to do what is best for your situations. It sucks that we are now at this juncture, and I hope that it gets resolved quickly.

I am looking into recurring payment options via PayPal.

I don't know if that is possible or not, but I hear rumor that it is. If you are interested in still supporting me, but not through Patreon, feel free to use PayPal or SquareCash.

Take care, all. Let's hope that this gets resolved soon.

My brain keeps changing "Soccer" to "Football"

For some reason, whenever people here in the United States are talking about soccer, I instinctively call it football. While it is a correct name for it, it is not what the sport is called here in the US.

Because I was curious as to why two different sports are called “football,” I looked it up on Wikipedia: football is a family of team sports where a ball is kicked to score a goal (even though an American football is most certainly not a ball shape [Note 1]). Wikipedia also listed the following sports as football, among others: association football (soccer), gridiron football (American and Canadian football), Australian rules football, rugby, and Gaelic football. Who knew [Note 2]?

However, I’m not a fan of football in all honesty. Any of them. And yet, I don’t call rugby “football” - just association football, against the North American norms. That is an odd situation - considering that I don’t live in an area, nor have I grown up in an area, where it would be considered normal to call association football “football.” That leads me to wonder, does anybody else do that?

Please leave a comment if you do and how people tend to react when you do.

Anyway, all of this comes to mind because the Superbowl is around the corner. And I live in the same metro area that the Superbowl will be in [Note 3].

Note 1: It is more of an egg shape. Some people (including me) call the sport “handegg” as a joke.
Note 2: I’m certain that a lot of people knew. I just happened to not be one of them.
Note 3: Superbowl LII will be held at that fucking Jawa Sandcrawler on February 4th, 2018. Run for the hills.

If you like what you read here, and would like to show your support, please consider donating.

I am on Patreon to help fund the work that goes into maintaining a website and creating researched content. Also, it will give me some financial relief as I am also endeavoring to complete a number of science fiction and fantasy stories, and hopefully compile them into zines or collected works. As a sponsor, you'll get quality blog posts, early access to completed stories, and the knowledge that you are helping me fund the creative process. I will get the benefit of some stress reduction as I won't have to worry about finances as much anymore, and that will help me be free to create more work.

It's not always possible to sponsor on a monthly basis. If you would like to do a one time donation, please feel free to use PayPal or SquareCash. Producing content takes time and effort, and any support would be most appreciated. Your donations help me cover expenses and eventually will let me be able to create quality content full-time.

The Superbowl is Coming

NaNoWriMo 2017 is over - back to regular blog posts!

Good afternoon, everybody!

NaNoWriMo 2017 is over, and though I did not meet the 50,000 word goal, I did beat my previous word record of 5,426. So I'm feeling very stoked about that! 5,500 words! I do plan on working on these stories that I've been writing, however, it is time to get back to my regular posting.

Download this song ► http://hyperurl.co/DouglassJefferson ◄ Watch the Behind the Scenes ►https://goo.gl/KsjYcN◄ New ERB Website & Merch can be found at http://erbofhistory.com/ ▼ CAST ▼ ========= Frederick Douglass: JB Smoove http://www.jbsmoove.com/ http://bit.ly/TweetJBSmoove Thomas Jefferson: Nice Peter http://www.nicepeter.com http://www.youtube.com/NicePeter ▼ CREW ▼ ========= Executive Producers: Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist Directed

In 3 days is 13th Amendment Day. Ratified on December 6th, 1865, the 13th Amendment slavery and involuntary servitude - however, Black Codes, white supremacist violence, red lining, and other factors have worked to prevent persons of color from having equal status in the United States. The 13th Amendment, though, was the first of the Reconstruction Amendments that began to transform the United States from "half slave and half free" (as Abraham Lincoln put it) to one where constitutional guarantees would apply to all citizens. 
The amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Read more about the history here: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment

I have a number of blog posts that are being worked on. Though my list of posts that are being worked on is available to Patreon Subscribers, I can say that I am still working on follow-ups posts to The GOP is not the Party of Lincoln - A Brief History. Part I: Whigged Beginnings and Sex and Gender Part I: The Structure of Sex. Plus, as MarsCon is coming up in March, and a number of friends and I are preparing panels for the convention, and I will be writing about them as I did for CONvergence 2017 (read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and Two Weeks Later). 

And that's some of what is coming up. There is more coming up in the next several days. Stay subscribed for more updates!

If you like what you read here, and would like to show your support, please consider donating.

I am on Patreon to help fund the work that goes into maintaining a website and creating researched content. Also, it will give me some financial relief as I am also endeavoring to complete a number of science fiction and fantasy stories, and hopefully compile them into zines or collected works. As a sponsor, you'll get quality blog posts, early access to completed stories, and the knowledge that you are helping me fund the creative process. I will get the benefit of some stress reduction as I won't have to worry about finances as much anymore, and that will help me be free to create more work.

It's not always possible to sponsor on a monthly basis. If you would like to do a one time donation, please feel free to use PayPal or SquareCash. Producing content takes time and effort, and any support would be most appreciated. Your donations help me cover expenses and eventually will let me be able to create quality content full-time.

A lighter post - my top 10 favorite Science Fiction uniforms, ranked

2017 has been a difficult time for many people, including yours truly, and so I figured that it was time to have a lighter post. Also, as I have said before, I've been focused on NaNoWriMo this month and have not completed any of the posts that I have been working on. 

Sometime earlier in the week, I had the idea to rank my favorite science fiction uniforms from television and movies, and on Wednesday when I was laid-up with a migraine and unable to be creative, I jotted down the uniforms while I was no longer in pain. I decided to go ahead and talk a little about my top 10, and then list more uniforms that I like at the end. I will be getting back into more informational posts soon!

Please feel free to list your favorites in the comments! I would love to hear from you.