brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
A new story in Clarkesworld's December edition: "The Cold Calculations" by Aimee Ogden, an extremely political and full-throated response to "The Cold Equations". I'd say a point Ogden is making is: the laws of physics aren't what kills that stowaway, it's socially constructed austerity that does that, and we can change social constructions, together.

I particularly noticed it because of an Omelas-related conversation on MetaFilter recently that also included discussion of "The Cold Equations". I talked about the Ogden story with my spouse today and he put together something that I hadn't -- that "The Cold Equations" is a bit like ticking-time-bomb scenarios (as in the TV series 24, etc.) that authors and policymakers use to justify torture. We make up these stories and then use them to justify awful systemic harms, as though the stories are models of reality, but those stories are made-up!
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
Over at my other blog I posted a bunch of links to interesting stuff discussed at [community profile] con_txt this past weekend, including vids, interesting bits of law, taxes and finance, tools, a primer on The Untamed, and an unofficial Google Document listing fandom-themed conventions that have gone virtual for 2020-2021.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
New blog post at my other blog with some Yuletide 2016 recommendations.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
Several things I recommended during Worldcon just now:

I had a very good time at Worldcon and am recovering now.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
I participated in Yuletide last year and really enjoyed it, so I'll probably participate again this year. Nominations: Friday 9 September to Friday 16 September. Thinking about what to nominate...

* I am about 3/4 of the way through Neal Stephenson's Seveneves -- I see one work about it on AO3 and I'll probably read that and more after I finish the novel.
* "As Good As New" by Charlie Jane Anders
* Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
* the miniseries Tanner '88

with more ideas to come, for sure.

Plot bunny

Jul. 18th, 2016 12:57 pm
brainwane: several colorful scribbles in the vague shape of a jellyfish (jellyfish)
The Ghostbusters crew gets called in to visit the main New York Public Library building (the Schwarzman Building, with the stone lion statues out front) ... because weird happenings are afoot at the new Hamilton exhibit.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
I received a sweet Babysitters' Club fic, "(Not) Like Uber but for Babysitting", by cbomb, which took my prompt and ran with it. It made me cheer (as in, cheer out loud) when I found out that BSC is deliberately setting itself against the "sharing economy" trends of Uber, Airbnb, et alia by making its babysitters' treatment a first-class priority. Awesome, and in keeping with the values we've always seen in BSC!

Thanks to cbomb, and thank you to everyone who makes Yuletide happen.

brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
I wrote fic about two songs by the Mountain Goats!

Pops Real Nice (2194 words) by brainwane
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton - The Mountain Goats (song), Beat the Champ - The Mountain Goats (Album)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Animal Mask, Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Cyrus (The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton), Jeff (The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton)
Additional Tags: Wrestling, Zines, Psychologists & Psychiatrists, Divorce, Texas, Utah - Freeform, Transcribed, Inspired by Music, Friendship, The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle - Freeform, All Hail West Texas
Summary:

After the events of "Animal Mask." Before, during, and after the events of "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton".



Enjoy "Pops Real Nice" and the making-of endnotes (including thank-yous to my beta readers) at Archive Of Our Own, brought to you by the Organization for Transformative Works.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
Dear Yuletide author: thank you for offering to write a story for me! I hope you enjoy writing it, and I hope these facts and ideas help you do so. (This is my first year as a Yuletide signer-upper so forgive inadvertent omissions or high-handedness in this letter.)

About me )

General likes and dislikes )


Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) )

Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho )

Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin )

Thanks and best wishes.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
Swine's Arrow (591 words) by circumvention
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Geordi La Forge, Data (Star Trek), David Cameron (Politician)
Additional Tags: hameron - Freeform, Pigs, baeofpigs, piggate, snoutrage, pigsociety, aporkalypsenow, Time Travel
Summary:

"Ideally, we would cause a minuscule perturbation in the space-time continuum: create a change historically significant enough that it would rapidly propagate into our records, but which would not materially affect the underlying foundation of our current timeline."



With apologies to the dead pig, to the writers of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Time's Arrow", and to everyone who actually lives in the United Kingdom.
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
Spangled (142 words) by brainwane
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Steve Rogers
Additional Tags: Astronomy, Wistful, Sonnets
Summary:

In the 1940s, if you looked up from Brooklyn at night, you could see the stars.



I was showing my friend Elisa the "something doesn't smell right" thread and [community profile] cap_chronism, and she reminded me that also Steve Rogers would be surprised that he can't see the stars at night. So I wrote this sonnet.
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