"Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful." ~ Annette Funicello
Well this one definitely captured the “graphic” part of graphic story.
Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick, written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)
Continue reading “2015 Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story: Reviewing Sex Criminals”
OK, so technically it is “Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form” but let’s just call it TV. As with anything that’s up for a Hugo I feel like I can’t watch a single episode or read the second in a series but rather need to review within context. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull that off with Dr Who but I have watched a number of classic episodes and a few of the new ones and feel sufficiently educated to vote. Meanwhile through Netflix I have watched the first two seasons of Orphan Black which ended with “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried” the season two finale.
Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”, ” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)
Continue reading “2015 Hugo Awards Best TV Show: Reviewing Orphan Black”
I still plan to read books for the 2016 Hugo Awards and submit nominees. My husband (delightful man) has managed to convince me I can read all the nominees for 2015 before the votes are due in July. I’ve taken it as a challenge and plan to try. Here’s the list:
Just a bit ago the internet exploded with the news that some people decided to essentially stuff the ballot boxes of the Hugos. There are lots of articles about the whole affair including posts by Connie Willis, John Scalzi, George RR Martin, and Philip Sandifer (some harsh language).
The kicker is that while I have read and loved Hugo Award winners for most of my life I never realized how the Hugo Award winners were chosen. Short version? I can vote!
I love voting! I’m not going to vote this year, there’s not enough time to catch up on all the nominations, but I could be a small part of choosing next year’s Hugo Award winners.
(We’ll just ignore the fact that it’s possible to game the system and that some people think the Hugos are less meaningful because it’s based on fan vote.) Super excited!
So I’m starting a new little side project that will get me reading more quality works as well as posting more here. I’m going to read a lot of written works that would qualify for the Hugo Awards and review them. Then next year when I vote I can go back through my reviews and choose my favorites.
Five star idea!
For my entire life having pierced ears has been a dream and a challenge. Every three or four years I would get my ears pierced, it wouldn’t “take” and then I would try again in another three or four years. Same spot, new effort. The issue? My ears heal. Always. Constantly. Like if I leave earrings out for an hour I can’t get them back in an hour later. My ears lobes just don’t want to have holes in them. And while normally I listen to my body I must admit that this battle over wearing earrings was one I was not going to lose. Even if I was allergic to most metals and my ears would swell up like tires if I put the wrong earrings in. I was going to wear earrings.
A year ago today I had a middle fossa craniotomy to fix a tiny hole in my head called superior canal dehiscence. It was one of the smartest decisions of my life. After the surgery I wrote a post about the symptoms I had had and the symptoms that still lingered less than a month after surgery. Given the anniversary I thought I’d do another post on symptoms.
This was the original list, now with notes of how I’m doing a year later.
Pulse-synchronous oscillopsia. (The little dot in my eye that goes ping ping ping or ponk ponk ponk.): Gone.
Hyperacusis, over sensitivity to sound: Gone. My husband is shocked at the amount of noise I tolerate now.
Low-frequency conductive hearing loss: Gone.
Headache/migraine: The old headache is gone. Sometimes the bone aches when the weather pressure changes. I have a friend who broke his wrist who has the same problem. Bone heals slowly.
Autophony: Gone. SO weird that my voice only exists outside my head!
Vertigo/Nausea: I still get dizzy if I overdo the walking while moving my head but nausea and falling down and bumping into things all gone.
Ear Fullness: My ear still feels funny like there’s something in it but only when the weather pressure is up and not in that airplane taking off with a headcold way that it did before.
Brain Fog: Still gone!!!!
Happy days and eternal thanks to Dr Wackym in Portland who fixed my head.
My friend John is growing a mustache to help raise funds to better men’s health. Read more at the site. Consider donating.
I just wrote to Intel:
Dear Intel,
At OSCON and through other sources I have heard of Intel’s desire to hire more women in the STEM fields. I believe your engineering department understands the benefits of gender diversity as well as other forms of diversity in programming.
Yet meanwhile your advertising department has pulled advertising from sites like Gamasutra because they allowed a handful of men claim any article discussing the changes in the culture of gaming bullies _them_.
How are female engineers (some of whom have left the game development industry) to trust Intel’s stated desire for diversity in STEM when you’re caving to the influence of the worst parts of sexist geek culture?
I am writing not just as someone who buys Intel products but also as someone who lives in Portland and had considered Intel as an interesting potential employer. Sadly, so long as Intel takes its direction from movements like #Gamergate the idea of Intel as an interesting place for women in computer science to work will have to remain past tense.
Thank you for reading all the way through,
Rebekah Golden
BS Computer Science
Software Engineer – 10 yrs
posted publicly in spite of the fact that it will probably get me doxxed and threats
From a friend:
PSU is trying to get a Critical Disability Studies program going, and they need to show interest in it. Here’s a link to a survey about it. Please distribute widely. They want national response. I’d love to see such a thing happen! https://portlandstate.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_4JkT8XlLZeukXcx
Yesterday I gave my pep talk to a friend. The summary?
The irony? Normally I give this talk to other women in the technology field who work predominantly men. Yesterday I gave my pep talk to a black man who works mostly with white people. It got me thinking. Is there an inherent self confidence issue to having obvious physical differences from everyone around you? Maybe particularly physical differences that have been labeled negative, like being overweight?
If I searched I’m sure I would find other stories, researched I would find data. Meanwhile it’s just a thought. Add to that some articles I’ve read recently about confidence and career advancement and I have some more thoughts to think.
Meanwhile, remember, you don’t have to be a super hero to be good at your job. You don’t have to be Bruce Wayne to have value.
Rebekah Golden 