Laura Anne Gilman's Blog

I went to post this morning, and got hit with the new ToS from Livejournal's Russian Overlords. 

I find that I cannot in clear conscience agree to them.  For one, a quick read of the translated terms tells me that Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and privacy as (still) practiced in the USA.  For those of us who occasionally have Opinions of the political (or gender/sex-related) nature, those protections were what made such posts possible.  Under Putin's Russia's laws, those posts would risk more than trolls and flamewars.  And there is no guarantee that 'locking' a post would protect it.

Also worrying is the notice that the available (and kinda shitty)  translation of the User Agreement" is not a legally binding document." The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml - and is entirely in Russian. It might be exactly the same context as the translation - and it might not. We're not working on a standard of mutual trust to begin with...

This is the point at which I generally say "get in the damn car and drive in the direction of Away Very Fast." 


Nearly fifteen years of my life's on LJ, and it hurts, but this is one of those "it's not me, it's you" situations.

So if you're reading this at LJ, come join me on Dreamwidth, or at my main blog, or hell, even on Fb, for now.  Because the suricattus account is probably going to go away RSN.

2 parts vanilla almond milk to 1 part coconut milk, brought to just-under-hot temperatures, and blended with 2 teaspoons Dutch-processed cocoa and 1 teaspoon sugar.
Creamy, nutty bittersweet-cocoa goodness with no upset stomach.


I should add, since I've discovered that some people don't know this, that when you make hot cocoa, you don't just pour the liquid into the cocoa (or stir the cocoa into the liquid). That gives you a lumpy mess.

Take a spoonful or three of the liquid, and mix it with the cocoa in your mug or pot until you get a thick paste. THEN you add the rest of the liquid!

Just remember, folk: it may be the first day of spring, but outdoor snogging does not begin until May 1st!

#frostbitealert

I woke up this morning with two things burning like coal-embers in my brain.
1. a political filk to the tune of Tears for Fears' "Shout."2. April's Patreon rant, which is about the myth of writer neurosis.
No wonder I'm so often tired when I wake up. My fucking brain doesn't know how to turn off without chemical aids.

What frustrates me about too much of the world (and specifically the American populace, since that's what I'm dealing with) is that there are SO MANY ways to get involved in the world, to try and change things for the better, and yet people are still "well, I'm upset, but I'll post about it, or make a comment somewhere else, and that's enough."

No, it really isn't.Change isn't a passive event.

"Oh, but doing X would cause problems, it's difficult, it's inconvenient."

Dog knows, I've been guilty of that myself, more than once.

Yeah, shit's annoying, it's inconvenient, it's scheduled at a bad time, or it causes traffic jams. 
Protest is supposed to be disruptive, and upsetting. It's meant to force everyone out of passive acceptance and drive us to ask "what is this anger about? How can we fix it, so there's less anger "- and so they will stop being inconvenient, yes.

And yes that means forcing ourselves to act, not just the people who haven't thought about it before, or were standing in opposition.  Good intentions and righteous anger don't do shit on their own.


/vent
And I was originally going to make this a private post, but you know what?  No.  I feel like yelling this from my porch.

Heading out for a day in the mines, er, wines, but I just got a heads-up that Amazon is running a deep discount on SILVER ON THE ROAD - the hardcover is under $15 and the trade paperback is under $7. So if you've been holding off on a paper copy for price reasons, now's the time...
(if you want a signed copy, then it's time to call Borderlands, Mysterious Galaxy, or Third Place books, and they can help you out)
I have no idea how long this price cut will last.

I tried to manage three different cats (anthology edits, winery job, writing) within the same half hour period, and my head may have imploded.

I need to not do that again.  Fortunately, the manic phase of the anthology is starting to come to a close (these stories are SO GOOD, you guys),  Unfortunately, I'm expecting revisions notes for Book 3 Any Minute Now, so that's going to take up the slack...

Compartmentalizing and time management.  Those are my new BFFs.

One of the interesting/infuriating/exhausting things about working in a tasting room is that you rarely have any sense of how any particular day may go.  There may be a slam of people early, and then nothing all day.  You may be slow all day, or slammed from the moment you open your doors.  You may think the day's going to be a total loss, and then in the last half hour things get really busy.   There's no way to predict: even if you have a group reserved, they may come in late, or not show up at all (or, come in 45 minutes early, but let's not talk about that one...)

I think we had nearly all of those iterations, this past weekend, ending with someone squeaking in 5 minutes before we closed (I'd gotten inventory done already, so I said 'what the hell.').  And he was a delightful guest, so I'm glad I did.

I am thinking, though, that I should do a "how to visit a tasting room" primer....?

Anyway, and now it's Monday and it's snowing (surprise!  Pretty sure this was not in the forecast), and I intend to sit at my desk with a cat on my lap and a laptop on the desk and wear my writer/editor hat ALL DAY.  Well, most of the day....

I think I have to accept the fact that from Saturday to Sunday, any writing or editing that gets done is purely happenchance, and all the planning or good intentions in the world won't change that...
(I put in 7+ hours at the tasting room on Saturdays, from open to close, so my brain's down for the count by the time I get home, and then there's another 6+ on Sunday, so....)
Yeah. Saturday night is for doing things that don't require braining.

reposting this from my Tumblr account

 

Since there seems to be some outraged confusion among Anons and Nonnys, let me clarify.

If you support the Trump/Pence/Bannon regime’s attempts to isolate, persecute, and otherwise remove basic civil and citizen’s rights from entire groups within our society, based on who they are rather than dealing with individual behavior on a case by case basis, yes I do think you’re behaving in a shitty and morally bankrupt manner, I find you personally distasteful, and I consider preventing you from carrying out your agenda(s) to be a moral obligation of a civilized nation.

And history’s got my back, on this one.