Idle thoughts and silly seriousness

Couples in a friend group should include…

+ Bonus:

You mean Chifeng-zun’s saber, Baxia, isn’t here?

I already know how cruel fate is Not looking, not asking, not grieving, not hating Waiting to relive my life just for a single person.

The Untamed🐰Song Ji Yang’s weibo update

From a Q&A at Ineffable Con 2 on 17th October, 2020.

Neil:

There are definitely people out there who seem to think that I accidentally wrote a love story, with all of the beats of a love story, including a break-up halfway through, without somehow noticing that I’d written a love story. And I may not be the brightest candle on the candelabra, but as an author who’s been doing it for a long time, I’m very well aware of when I’m writing a love story, thank you very much. And so, from my perspective, I knew that the love story would be one of the driving things that would get us from the beginning to the end.

And I also made a bunch of decisions about our angels and our demons in terms of casting, in terms of gender, that everybody backed me up on, which I loved. You know, the idea that the archangel Michael is played by Doon is something that is - or Beelzebub is Anna Maxwell Martin, whatever, there’s  - it’s not like we are going these are women, there are men. We are going these are demons, these are angels. They - this is not a thing. And also doing something like Pollution where you go in and go okay, well, if we were doing this in - if 1989 was now, if there were they pronouns, we probably would have done that. We didn’t think of it at the time, but that’s no reason why we can’t do it now. And we did. And I remember having a - not exactly a battle, but a - my - very tiny skirmish with one of our execs who was very nice and very bright and was like “Why are you saying they?” and I’m like (demonstrating a pause) and I - explaining, and he’s like, “Well, I’ve never heard of that before,” and I’m like “Oh, okay, but trust me. Just trust me. It’s all - it’s all fine. Just trust me.”

Douglas:

And you know I have to say, just following on from what Neil’s saying, I’ve been directing for quite a while, and I tend to notice if characters are falling in love. I tend to notice a love story happening in front of me. And I think it’s there. And everything is meant, guys. Everything is meant.

[…]

Neil:

Hello! Your local mod here. A few months ago, I spent a lot of time researching books with asexual main characters and made a list of YA books with explicit rep. While making the list, I found lots of books that didn’t fit my requirements and had lots of requests to know what other books I found. I linked people to sources I used, but none 100% matched and there are at least four books that could be added. So I wanted something that had a wide range, could be updated, and could be shared easily. Hence, even though it doesn’t fully fit this blog, it’s going here!

This is a list of books in all age ranges. Some of the books have explicit representation - using the words or giving the definition without using the word - and some don’t. Some of them could be considered problematic. If you want more details on any of the books, feel free to message me privately. I’ll also be linking to the goodreads page for each book, so you can check reviews for feedback (it can be tricky, but see what shelves people add it too). I’ll also link my sources at the end of this post in case they update with things I don’t catch or they have details I didn’t include. I’ve labeled books where I know the author is openly ace spectrum and put ** next to books that I know use the word in the book. And, as a final note, sometimes the asexual main characters aren’t main characters until later in a book series. In those cases, I’ll link to the first book and leave a note about which book has the main character.

This post is now in a Read More because it’s gotten REALLY LONG.

I came across an article from NPR the other day suggesting that unless something changes, ONE-THIRD of museums in the entire country (a loose term that includes certain places like aquariums as well) could be dead before the end of the year (source). A third! Can you even imagine the incalculable loss? And it goes so far beyond the services museums generally provide to the public, like field trips or a place to go on the weekends – not that those aren’t important. But museums do so much more than that. If these places die, where do their collections go? Often there’s no one else who can take them in, and as someone who has spent a significant amount of time in the bellies of museum collections, most people have no idea how many specimens or artifacts would become homeless and in danger of being lost forever. In the case of zoos and aquariums, what happens to their animals? Another friend of mine mentioned on Facebook the other day that the Aquarium of the Pacific is not only in dire need right now, but that a person they know who works with them has said that if they close, they’ll have to euthanize a significant number of their animals. And for the places that do survive, they won’t be unchanged. The science museum I used to work for isn’t in danger of permanently closing – yet – but still had make the incredibly difficult call to do a 39% reduction in staff positions, meaning that even when they reopen, the jobs that I and over a hundred and fifty people held before the pandemic – educating, running programs, engaging with visitors on an extra personal level – won’t exist anymore. Another friend of mine doing a museum studies degree has said that even the Smithsonian (the SMITHSONIAN) had to make a similar call and many of her friends doing work there are now jobless.

Your local museum isn’t getting help from the government. Museums, zoos, and aquariums have had to beg desperately for stimulus money that hasn’t manifested. These are non-profits, that rely on revenue from visitors and memberships for the most part, and as they are responsibly staying closed for everyone’s safety, they aren’t getting visitors. Without some form of help, they are going to drop off the face of the planet, or appear at the other end of this as gutted shells of their former selves. 

If you want to help, you have two options: get money into the hands of these places directly, or put pressure on your representatives to offer museums and other institutions like them some kind of federal stimulus money. If you can afford it, this is a great time to get a membership to a place you love – many of them are even offering special online programming for members, so it’s more than just a donation. Or you could make a donation, if that’s a more practical amount for you to spend, because at this point anything helps. And if you can’t do that (or even if you can), yell at your senators and representatives to do something. Many places even are offering guidelines for the sorts of things to talk about, like this script from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (although repetitive scripts are less likely to have an impact than individual e-mails, something is still better than nothing, and you could even read over it to figure out how to formulate your own message).

American Natural History Museum had to lay people off as early as MARCH.

I know a medium sized maritime museum on the northeast coast that went from 30+ staff members to SEVEN two weeks ago.

Monterey Bay Aquarium started a second round of layoffs two days ago (July 27 2020).

Museums and cultural institutions are being GROSSLY ignored in aid talks in both the senate and the house right now.

Not only are they harmful for river/stream habits, they can cause hikers to get lost! Cairns are meant to represent the correct path for a trail. We’ve had hikers get lost by following incorrect paths marked by cairns people set up “for fun/art.” Not only do we want hikers to get lost, we want them to stay on the correct path for erosion control and ecosystem protection. Cairn-building “for fun/art” has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, so we keep finding more and more to knock over.

Claire from The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

The first three Graphic Novels. In twenty parts. Coming July 15th 2020. Here’s the cast…

A NON-BINARY PERSON IS PLAYING A NON-BINARY CHARACTER MEANT TO BE THE EPITOME OF SEXY AND ATTRACTIVE

I’M CRYING

We auditioned several fabulous non-binary actors, who were good, but not right, and then we thought to reach out to Mx Bond, and immediately knew that we had found our Desire.

Mostly I couldn’t even give you the month they were published, and I’d be happy if I could name the year and the season.

Except I think that American Gods was published on June 18th or 20th 2001. (Goes and checks in https://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/agblogarchive/2001_06/ because I no longer trust Wikipedia.) Nope, it was June the 19th. I did a signing at the Borders Books in the World Trade Centre.

      * I just googled it and was told “At least 34.” THIS IS NOT HELPFUL.