Personal

The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.

Change is Good

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Thanks to the latest horrible thing to fall out of Bill Maher’s mouth, I’ve just added a disclaimer to my On This Day page and to the top of every post that is more than two years old noting that the post may not reflect my current beliefs.

I sincerely believe that learning, growing, examining, and often changing beliefs is an integral part of being a responsible human being. My personal journey socially and politically has been ever leftwards, and there are many posts in the archives that I would not write the same way today, if at all.

Things I know exist in my archives that I would not write today:

  • General mockery of Britney Spears for no real reason other than being a pop queen. (Which, honestly, she’s very good at.)
  • Very suburban-white-background “I listen to all kinds of music except country and rap” sentiments. Lots of at-the-time unexamined racism and classism in those statements, plus they were never really all that true (classic country and “acceptable” rap were always part of my listening habits).
  • Probably a fair amount of other statements with then-unexamined ableism, classism, racism, sexism, homophobic, or transphobic aspects or roots.

I’m sure there is a lot more; those are just the ones that pop into my head because I’ve come across them at one point or another recently while digging into my archives.

I’ve always considered myself to be open-minded and politically liberal, and while that’s true, the older I get, the more I have realized how many ingrained societal biases still exist within that basic framework. Working through those biases, recognizing them, and endeavoring to change them is an ongoing process, and one I hope I never give up on. It’s not always comfortable; it is always necessary.

📚 Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success by Susan Albertine, Michelle Asha Cooper, Tia Brown McNair, Nicole McDonald, and Thomas Major, Jr.

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16/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The basic concept and ideas are good (flipping “college-ready students” to “student-ready colleges”), but at times really needed a stricter editorial eye (the point where a sentence begins “In short…”, but then goes on for nine lines, and is already three sentences into a page-and-a-half paragraph being a prime example).

Michael holding Becoming a Student-Ready College

Happy Plagueiversary II

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Today marks the end of our second year of the Covid pandemic (counting from my own personal starting point, the last in-person Norwescon ConCom meeting, in March of 2020).

Last year on this day I posted a rundown of the last times I’d done something before going into lockdown.

Today, we’re not quite as much in lockdown as we were then, but we’re by no means back to a pre-pandemic concept of normal. Since this time last year:

We still haven’t gone out to any indoor performances. We went to a couple outdoor performances in parks last summer, but we weren’t yet entirely comfortable with that, and it didn’t last long.

We’ve had one brief trip to Portland to visit my mom, during the time when Delta was decreasing and Omicron hadn’t hit yet, a brief unplanned stopover with Prairie’s family in Olympia on the way back from that, and we’ve had one big family gathering for Prairie’s side of the family in Olympia. Other than that, still no travel or family visits.

I still haven’t been back to the Mercury, though it’s been open for a couple months now.

We did one weekend travel of “cabin camping” over the summer.

Neither of us has been in a big crowd.

I went to a small weekend gathering with the Norwescon Executive Team for our annual retreat to plan this year’s convention, but that’s been the extent of my external socializing.

We’re still staying home most of the time. All of our groceries are delivered or curbside pickup. We don’t go to restaurants; any food not cooked here is either drive-through or Door Dash.

Two years down. Mask and vaccine check requirements are being dropped, but it’s not at all clear that we’re “safe” yet, and we’re all still figuring out what the new normal is going to be.

I just hope the more optimistic assessments of where we’re heading are correct. I’m generally a pretty naturally optimistic person, and two years of the pessimists being proved correct at nearly every turn has been rather difficult. We’ll see what happens from here….

📚 Gateway by Frederik Pohl

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15/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1978 Hugo Best Novel

The main character’s something of an ass (admittedly, this is part of the story, so at least he’s not an ass for no reason), but the general conceit and worldbuilding is fascinating. Humanity has found the remnants of an alien race, including a fleet of FTL ships…but nobody really knows how to work them. Take one out and you might come back with treasures worth millions, you might come back with nothing, you might come back dead, you might not come back at all…and the odds aren’t in your favor.

Michael holding Gateway

Hey, friends? I love you!

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Trans/enby/genderqueer/gender non-comforming friends (and parents/guardians/loved ones thereof): I love you. The news out of Texas is horrible, and I’m sorry. I’m glad that most of you live here in Washington, where things are, if imperfect, at least better than Texas and many other places. Those of you who don’t live here, I hope you live in communities where you feel safe more often than not; if you don’t feel comfortable where you live, I hope that you have connections with people who can help and that you can find that comfortable space, whether that’s in a new place or where you are now (because let’s face it, “just move” isn’t a realistic solution for many people).

Furry friends: I love you. The news out of Portland is horrible, and I’m sorry. I’m well aware that violent murderous right-wing extremists aren’t representative of the wider Furry community, and I’m sorry your community is having to deal with a known troublemaker following through on his threats. It’s horrible that many news stories and the Portland police are yet again vilifying a community that is largely peaceful because its enjoyment of an activity that many people see as unusual allows for an easy “hey, look at those weirdos” angle.

Friends with or who have family, friends, or loved ones with health issues: I love you. I’m sorry that the world at large seems to have decided that you are expendable, and that your illness or death is an acceptable consequence of deciding that we’re simply tired of dealing with COVID, and our prime concern as a society should be ensuring that the top 1% continue to hoard as much wealth as possible. I hope your immediate circles are as safe as can be arranged, and that you are able to maintain both your physical and mental health in a time that makes doing that even more difficult than it was before.

BIPOC friends: I love you. I’m sorry that we’re still in a place where the hate crime convictions of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers are news in large part because it’s the first time such a conviction happened on a federal level, and that the result wasn’t something that could be counted on. It’s horrible that Black Lives Matter is still a controversial statement, and that there is so much proof every day that for so many, it’s still an untrue statement. That you still have to have “the talk” with your children; a talk that I never had to have as a child. I hope your communities give you peace, power, and comfort when necessary.

Women and AFAB friends: I love you. I’m sorry that things like pay equity, access to basic health and reproductive care, and many other basic aspects of equality are still controversial and currently under attack. I hope you have and continue to have access to all the resources and support you need. Too many things that should be settled are still threatened, and I hope we see that change sooner than it seems we will.

Disabled friends: I love you. I’m sorry you are so often secondary considerations. Your essential personhood is just as valid and valuable as anyone else’s, and accessibility and consideration should be a given, not something that you have to fight for at every turn.

To the rest of my friends, whether in marginalized groups I haven’t specifically mentioned, or as privileged as I know myself to be: I love you, too. I hope you are doing well, and for those of you who have the privilege, time, energy, and ability, that you do what you can to give your friends and loved ones the support they need — and to extend that support to those who have the same needs, even if they’re not in your immediate circles.

📚 Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

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12/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee

A locked-room murder mystery in space, with mysterious AIs, interstellar politics, and somewhat mystic aliens. I really enjoyed Thompson’s earlier Wormwood trilogy, and this absolutely holds up. His characters are fascinating and very real (even when artificial), and motivations are not always as clear cut as they might seem.

Michael holding Far From the Light of Heaven

📚 Dead Space by Kali Wallace

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11/2022 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Philip K. Dick Award Nominee

A murder mystery on an asteroid mining colony, under investigation by an AI-expert-turned-indentured-security-officer after a catastrophic disaster on their scientific expedition ship. I had fairly good guesses at several of the final reveals, but enjoyed the journey even if it never really caught me off guard.