Gratitude

1. diagnoses as tools, and as reminders that I'm pretty damn good at self-diagnosis and self-management
   
2. my e-motion power-assist wheels (particularly because an inner tube exploded so I was back on fully manual today)
   
3. my people various & my lovely [gender]things
   
4. Virginia Jetzt! & all the people responsible for pointing me in their direction <3
   
5. salted caramel chocolate, with vitreous caramel and beautiful fracture lines where I've broken grains
   
6. creativity: in my science and in my leisure time
   
7. my mother: for making time for me and taking me seriously and for being kind to me and for helping me look after my friends
   
8. the discovery that knitting quietly (or otherwise using my hands) makes it much easier for me to concentrate on and enjoy listening to music-without-words
   
9. ... people who will hang out on my sofa browsing Guardian Soulmates and attempt to set me up with them ("... 'words and literature are my porn.' He's got an unspeakable little moustache." "And a dreadful goatee. 'Since becoming a teacher I've developed mild OCD--'" "INSTABLOCK.")
   
10. my e-reader and the ability to actually read books without pain, and on that topic PAINKILLERS.
    

Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill

Following a conversation with auntysarah about the same-sex marriage bill last week, I'm drafting a letter to the House of Lords asking them to consider extending the rights it offers to historically marginalised groups within the LGBT+ community.

If you'd be interested in joining in the drafting process - this will involve looking over a complete first draft and providing feedback/engaging in collaborative editing - please yell & I'll drop you an e-mail.

If you'd be interested in having me work out a way to make it easy for members of the public to sign the letter (in addition to existing lobbying/etc groups), let me know.

My current list of organisations/groups to contact about official support is below the cut: if you can think of anyone else I should be approaching about getting signatures, again - please let me know!

( Draft list of people to approach... )

[anti-rec] ...

Dear everyone who has ever recommended Sheri S Tepper to me: please don't ever do so again.

I have been pointed at a pretty damning review [SO MANY TRIGGER WARNING, see below], of which the best part is:

On top of all this, the sea level is rising rapidly - oh , not because of the icecaps melting for anthropogenic reasons, that happened already and wasn't so serious. This time, it's because ice comets which were trapped deep inside the Earth when it was still forming are melting and the water is seeping upwards, raising the sea levels to a point where only tall mountains will survive.

When I say "the best part", I mean the rest of it discusses paedophilia, cultural appropriation, ~fantasy-Asia~ and talking. rapist. horses. If you can face wading through that, though, then the (well-written!) review is very much worth a read if only for the squawks of horror you will undoubtedly emit. Seriously, people, we are talking OH JOHN RINGO NO levels of dire, here.

... as someone who's been repeatedly recced stuff by Tepper on the grounds of "trans* stuff" and "queer stuff", er. Well. Yeah. Put it this way, the only book of hers I've read was kind of gross about genderfluidity and three quarters of the queer characters died, never mind the fact that it was the kind of fantasy novel that The Colour Of Magic was written to spork, in which EVERYONE IS ALREADY CARRYING EVERYONE ELSE'S QUEST ITEMS.

edit: holy shit someone in comments at that posting points out that this person seriously advocates sterilising mentally ill people and sending them to concentration camps walled cities. WOW.