This blog is:

- a personal space used for contemplation and creative writing
- feminist
- sex positive
- philosophical
- pro-sex worker rights
- anti-racist
- LGBTQ-friendly
- pro-choice
- anti-misogynist
- pro-full disclosure, comprehensive sex education
- anti-gender constructs
- pro-equal party/community parenting
- anti-troll

I am now in Madison! Just chilling at a local Super 8 right now. Tomorrow Wilma and I will go wandering around Madison a bit more checking out shops and the Capitol, as well as looking for the Forevertron and the military surplus store. I just bought a new skirt /o\ itwasprettywithpleatsandthenicestprinticouldnotresist I will not be buying anything else as humanly possible for the next few days. And I will be living off instant noodles.

ANYWAY! I will be checking into the Concourse on Thursday! Hopefully after I get back from taking pictures at the Forevertron. I will be rooming with two lovely Asian women, one of whom I know from Tumblr, for the next few nights, and on Monday night, about three other people will be joining me instead.

I will be on two panels this WisCon:

Asian Ancestresses Sat, 2:30–3:45 pm Assembly
From Mulan, to Begum Nur Jahan, to Princess Shirin, to the Lady of Mount Ledang, the mythologies and histories of Asia are filled with women who tower large, rivaling the men of their times despite the unequal footing. How were their stories told to us when we were children? How did we find out more about them? What lessons can we take from their stories? How do we re-tell them? And how do we protect and partake in their legacies today?

The Many Meta Elements of Avatar: The Last Airbender Sat, 4:00–5:15 pm Capitol A
Avatar: The Last Airbender is popular in part due to the research that has gone into the Asian-inspired setting, which pays deep respect to the source material without seeming appropriative. Yet it remains at heart an American show, complete with certain troubling tropes. What do we love about its homage to Asia? What are the problems in its construction? What implications does this have for its young audiences?

I don't expect to be checking out many other panels unless they are peopled by mostly POC. The rest of the time, I expect to be in the POC Safer Space. I'm trying to coordinate something with Tempest so we can have some informal discussions in the room going, and will just generally be around for people to talk to if they need a friendly ear. Feel free to come in after a panel to continue a conversation away from whiteness. If you REALLY need to get something off your chest in the Safer Space immediately, feel free to hunt me down and demand my attention. Unless I'm in a panel, or napping, I'll do my best to make time for you immediately.

Yes, I do take time out to nap. :P

See ya'll there!

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So I think I was in NYC the last time I wrote? Anyway, SPWF came and went. It was somewhat drama-filled, but I got to see a lot of musical acts, and unlike last year, got to hang out more with people. I hung out with SO MANY PEOPLE! Somehow or another I tailed along with the Japanese steampunk band Strange Artifact a couple of times. And I got to hang with Allison Curval and Genevieve Yang, Asian musicians. I got to talk to more POC this year, which is always awesome. And got laid, which was nice. (Not a random guy.)

I'm on the road with Wilma now to Wisconsin. We've passed through all of Pennsylvania already, and will hit Madison by tomorrow. We're hoping to have a full day at the Forevertron to take some steampunk pictures. And then WisCon!

OK. Am still not quite recovered from SPWF (and got my period today, boo).

Now I'm in NYC, staying in a radical anarchist's house (another one!), after 4 hours driving out from Baltimore. I didn't get to see Allison; we woke up too late, but we went to cemeteries instead, looking for the graveyard of John Wilkes Booth, and the guy who patented the ouija board. (I saw the tombstone of a woman called "ABIGAL ARMITAGE" and I decided immediately that it had to be a goth band name.) Then we went to Edgar Allen Poe's tomb and wandered around the church's graveyard.

Magpie had to go see a friend, and give his condolences to another friend whose partner recently committed suicide, so the rest of us went to a bookstore/cafe called Red Emma's, anarchist-run with a lot of events happening. It's really tiny, but pretty chill.

The ride in was uneventful, no rain or whatever, and we got into NYC by 11pm. We're probably leaving for Waltham tomorrow after brunch. There's no programming tomorrow, so it'll just be me settling in, and doing some fucking laundry.

We stopped after a very long day driving to North Carolina, and stayed the night in the house of some of Magpie's friends. Then this morning we were off again, to Charlottesville, Virginia, where Magpie had another reading, and we picked up his partner, Michelle and we're not at her place in Baltimore.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have lunch with my friend Allison Curval of the Clockwork Dolls, before we head off to NYC. I'm still not sure where I'm staying yet but probably with Diana, and then it's off to Boston.

I stayed with Erica "Unwoman" Mulkey last night, and this morning, I hit the road, hitching on my friend Magpie Killjoy's van up to Waltham, Mass. Tomorrow we'll be on the road for 12 hours, Magpie and Pablo will alternate driving.

Right now we're all chilling in the hotel room on our respective machines (Magpie and Pablo made a bit of fun of Ceightie, Magpie's friend, another crusty punk, because Ceightie wasn't joining the electronics party, haha).

We have to get to Virginia by Wednesday, and after that, it can be pretty chill as we make our way up, and we have to stop in Baltimore. After this it gets a bit dicey, since Pablo has to be at Watch City by Friday and we COULD stop in Waltham by then, but we don't have places to stay. I've changed my reservation for the hotel that night too. I guess I could try to change it again? Anyway, we'll probably play it by ear.

( Snip snip! )

Heading to Texas now, but of course my flight's delayed, bleh. See ya'll in another week.

Also, re: Korra, I haven't seen the fourth episode yet, but I like Asamako and I will go down with THAT ship.

Gee, when I think of all this, I feel really exhausted.

Just finished re-watching ATLA for my paper. This weekend, paper writing will happen. I am armed with cue cards, laptop and notes!

The Omnibus of Doctor Bill Shakes And the Magnificent Ionic Pentatetrameter: A Steampunk's Shakespeare Anthology is gonna have a book launch! It'll be part of International Steampunk City / Watch City Festival's events at Back Pages, in Waltham, MA. Ours will be Sunday May 13, 1pm, right after Magpie Killjoy's reading of What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower.

I've also invited Magpie up to Hamilton to do a reading of Clock Tower as well. It'll probably be mid-June ^^ May is going to be such a great trip.... I'll only have to fly twice! Once to Halifax, and then down to Texas. After that, Magpie has agreed to give me a ride up to Waltham, and Pablo and Cameron will probably join us on the ride up. Steampunk radicals on the road, woohoo! After that Wilma meets me in Waltham, drives me, Pablo, Cameron and Ay-Leen to NYC, where we'll bum around before we go to SPWF in Piscataway. After that, Wilma and I carry on to Madison. So much driving around! I'm thinking of taking my big red bag so I can pack in my sleeping bag. *bounces happily* I CANNOT WAIT.

This entry was originally posted at http://jhameia.dreamwidth.org/57614.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Am on Orbit's front page currently, in gailcarriger's teapot competition.

for some reason my wireless refuses to acknowledge the password, so I had to plugin my new comp. It's A Compaq TC 4200 and I have to get used to writing with the tablet pen, but aside fun minor quirks, so far so good. The regular is at the shop getting the fan cleaned so I'll get it back tomorrow. But pretty much all my work is in that one so yeah. Oops. Major problem so far is rotating the screen-the display goes upside-down but since there are scrolling buttons which are closer, maybe that's better? Wonder what programs I could use to annotate and edit, toe. But reading PDFs will be easier!
(Note: language recognition function doesn't do words like "heckuva". Have to switch to another input field that we have to plug in letter by letter rather than scribbling free-form. Very interesting problem. I bet Dad would get a huge kick out of this. Maybe.)

Really old-school laptop though. Not sure it even recognizes the power supply half the time. And with 2GB RAM it sure complains when I tweet and do mail.Very much a miner job laptop. Wonder how it'll holdup when I deliver presentations with it. Hopefully it deesit die unexpectedly... that would be embarrassing! Will try tomorrow.