Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
A couple of articles and thoughts and ohay, Round Two has begun!
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 10:47 am1. The Invisible War apparently comes out on June 22 (same day as Brave). Unlike Brave, The Invisible War is a documentary about rape in the military so, I'm gonna guess not family-friendly fun.
( Thoughts. )
2. So What If I'm A Woman: Let Me Play the Damn Game is still depressing, though thankfully the article is just covering sexism in the workplace / video games industry and not anything to do with rape particularly.
As someone who: a) found, downloaded, played and beat Eversion on a whim this weekend before recommending it to Danny; b) is handling the design and story for a video game project (while Danny handles the programming); c) hates modern shooters because of vertical access but loves Wolfenstein 3D era shooters just fine, I really sympathize with the author of the article. I can't stand the fact that people would ever treat me this way, but they do.
Happens in D&D sometimes; the guys will all argue that it's because I'm relatively new, but relatively new here now means about six or seven years of playing experience. At what point does one stop being "relatively new"? I won't let it pass if I can pinpoint it in social interactions. Sometimes it'll be something as simple as interrupting a guy who interrupts me while I'm asking a question about the specific requirements of a game campaign and explaining right back at them: "NO. I understand just fine that these feats do this, and this number will be affected. I am asking you whether, for this specific game, X feat will be permitted or required. Yes, or no?"
It doesn't always work, but does more often than not. I consider myself lucky for that.
3. And here's a positive article to soothe the ache of the previous two. This kind of attitude makes me hopeful that I won't be the ignored minority in a crowd.
Supporting women's rights to choose to do whatever they want for their health is extremely important to me. It's as important as a woman's right to feel. I can't tell you how many times a guy has said to me-- probably innocently, trying to share a sweet sentiment or something-- one of the following:
"You should smile more!"
"I think you're even prettier when you smile."
"I like to hear girls laughing."
"It makes me happy to see you happy."
"I just want you to be able to be happy."
"I just don't like to see you all stressed out."
This is one of those really awkward ones because it's meant as a compliment, but can feel like a sanction, a lot of the time. The first is most obvious, but basically, when someone says something like this, they're conveying a subtle sentiment that you shouldn't ever be anything but happy; and further, that if you made it clear you were happy by smiling all the time, that'd make it easier to see that you were happy, so they'd like that.
Obviously, I don't feel threatened by these sentiments, and I understand the well-meaning behind them. It's pretty wonderful to have friends who genuinely want to see to their friends' happiness; but when that happiness becomes a condition of continued friendship, it can get a little awkward. You mean if I'm human and have a bad day, you're going to disapprove and be annoyed about it? You mean if I don't smile and laugh all the time, and maintain a normal expression instead, you're going to feel like I'm not happy enough? That I'm not enjoying myself enough? Sure, smiling takes fewer muscles than frowning, but the natural state of the face is what we call a 'blank' expression. Smiling still takes effort!
Little choices matter, like being able to go around not-smiling and not be called names and badgered and bothered for it (though people of any gender are certainly capable of such antics and neither men nor women should be singled out as being more prone to it-- it's a type of personality, and it's pervasive). So if it can sometimes-- not always, but sometimes get to me when people don't offer support of my right to just sit around without smiling purposefully and forcedly to show that I Really Am Having A Most Lovely Time, Mister Darcy!, I think it's totally crappy that ladies who make the choice to get an abortion have to put up with active shunning and the like for making that choice. If it's not your body, what right have you to make the final decision about what's done with it? We grant people the right to decide how you dispose of their body in their will regardless of gender, why should we deny those rights to women until they're dead? That's just bogus.
I think treating abortion like a big scary thing is detrimental to everyone. I've had friends who've had abortions and you know what? I'm proud of them. It was the smart thing to do for the SAKE of that child. If a parent, or if parents, hopefully, are not ready for children yet, they are not ready. Only THEY can make that decision. And making someone a parent who doesn't want to be? That's just unwise and unfair. It's like an active effort to keep the poor poorer.
4. Thoughts on Sleeping Beauty. I watched a documentary about it yesterday that had been linked on Kate Beaton's tumblr. I enjoy watching the documentaries for animated films, but I've admittedly seen more about Disney's Sleeping Beauty than most films. That particular one's on my mind because I've undertaken a writing project to do a story about Maleficent as a fully-developed character with a desire to pursue a romantic relationship with Aurora.
( Seriously, just rambling about the movie and Disney in general. )
5. Round Two of the RangersUnited contest has begun! We're getting slightly more time this round, so I've started planning. Once I know for sure about a couple of details I'm going to give myself a schedule and try to keep it less grueling so I can get a greater amount of work done with less creative exhaustion than last time, haha! But I'm excited.
( Thoughts. )
2. So What If I'm A Woman: Let Me Play the Damn Game is still depressing, though thankfully the article is just covering sexism in the workplace / video games industry and not anything to do with rape particularly.
As someone who: a) found, downloaded, played and beat Eversion on a whim this weekend before recommending it to Danny; b) is handling the design and story for a video game project (while Danny handles the programming); c) hates modern shooters because of vertical access but loves Wolfenstein 3D era shooters just fine, I really sympathize with the author of the article. I can't stand the fact that people would ever treat me this way, but they do.
Happens in D&D sometimes; the guys will all argue that it's because I'm relatively new, but relatively new here now means about six or seven years of playing experience. At what point does one stop being "relatively new"? I won't let it pass if I can pinpoint it in social interactions. Sometimes it'll be something as simple as interrupting a guy who interrupts me while I'm asking a question about the specific requirements of a game campaign and explaining right back at them: "NO. I understand just fine that these feats do this, and this number will be affected. I am asking you whether, for this specific game, X feat will be permitted or required. Yes, or no?"
It doesn't always work, but does more often than not. I consider myself lucky for that.
3. And here's a positive article to soothe the ache of the previous two. This kind of attitude makes me hopeful that I won't be the ignored minority in a crowd.
Supporting women's rights to choose to do whatever they want for their health is extremely important to me. It's as important as a woman's right to feel. I can't tell you how many times a guy has said to me-- probably innocently, trying to share a sweet sentiment or something-- one of the following:
"You should smile more!"
"I think you're even prettier when you smile."
"I like to hear girls laughing."
"It makes me happy to see you happy."
"I just want you to be able to be happy."
"I just don't like to see you all stressed out."
This is one of those really awkward ones because it's meant as a compliment, but can feel like a sanction, a lot of the time. The first is most obvious, but basically, when someone says something like this, they're conveying a subtle sentiment that you shouldn't ever be anything but happy; and further, that if you made it clear you were happy by smiling all the time, that'd make it easier to see that you were happy, so they'd like that.
Obviously, I don't feel threatened by these sentiments, and I understand the well-meaning behind them. It's pretty wonderful to have friends who genuinely want to see to their friends' happiness; but when that happiness becomes a condition of continued friendship, it can get a little awkward. You mean if I'm human and have a bad day, you're going to disapprove and be annoyed about it? You mean if I don't smile and laugh all the time, and maintain a normal expression instead, you're going to feel like I'm not happy enough? That I'm not enjoying myself enough? Sure, smiling takes fewer muscles than frowning, but the natural state of the face is what we call a 'blank' expression. Smiling still takes effort!
Little choices matter, like being able to go around not-smiling and not be called names and badgered and bothered for it (though people of any gender are certainly capable of such antics and neither men nor women should be singled out as being more prone to it-- it's a type of personality, and it's pervasive). So if it can sometimes-- not always, but sometimes get to me when people don't offer support of my right to just sit around without smiling purposefully and forcedly to show that I Really Am Having A Most Lovely Time, Mister Darcy!, I think it's totally crappy that ladies who make the choice to get an abortion have to put up with active shunning and the like for making that choice. If it's not your body, what right have you to make the final decision about what's done with it? We grant people the right to decide how you dispose of their body in their will regardless of gender, why should we deny those rights to women until they're dead? That's just bogus.
I think treating abortion like a big scary thing is detrimental to everyone. I've had friends who've had abortions and you know what? I'm proud of them. It was the smart thing to do for the SAKE of that child. If a parent, or if parents, hopefully, are not ready for children yet, they are not ready. Only THEY can make that decision. And making someone a parent who doesn't want to be? That's just unwise and unfair. It's like an active effort to keep the poor poorer.
4. Thoughts on Sleeping Beauty. I watched a documentary about it yesterday that had been linked on Kate Beaton's tumblr. I enjoy watching the documentaries for animated films, but I've admittedly seen more about Disney's Sleeping Beauty than most films. That particular one's on my mind because I've undertaken a writing project to do a story about Maleficent as a fully-developed character with a desire to pursue a romantic relationship with Aurora.
( Seriously, just rambling about the movie and Disney in general. )
5. Round Two of the RangersUnited contest has begun! We're getting slightly more time this round, so I've started planning. Once I know for sure about a couple of details I'm going to give myself a schedule and try to keep it less grueling so I can get a greater amount of work done with less creative exhaustion than last time, haha! But I'm excited.
Straight up cool stuff
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 10:28 pmProjects on Kickstarter that you should totally back because you'll get cool stuff:
Chicano Batman's new CD: they want to make it a vinyl record too. They're halfway there, but you know...you could get a neato t-shirt and some sweet music if you donate.
Renaissance Toys - Want a pre-painted, easy to assemble renaissance-style castle with a secret passage and trap doors leading up to the parapets? Or just a functional toy siege weapon? (Comes in three tasty flavors: trebuchet, ballista and catapult) She's also got a little church if you don't want castles, siege weapons or little toy stocks to put your GI Joes in when they steal bread all Aladdin-like from their liege lord.
I just felt like I should post some uplifting and cool stuff to balance out my largely feels-heavy post from earlier, since I felt like THAT practically nulled the excitement I feel about the new job. I'm really, really looking forward to it.
Eesh, I need to start actively saving up to upgrade my computer, though. Figured out today that my problem with running things was being caused by my lack of harddrive space. This keeps happening, and I keep not doing anything about it, but the sad fact is that my hard drive is hilariously small by modern standards at 200Gb, and my motherboard and processor combo are the oldest thing in the machine. If I want to get a new, bigger hard drive, I'm probably gonna need to upgrade most of the computer. And, you know, for the full story...work problems with money? They apparently gave us bad checks again, so I'm going to have to document a THIRD BOUNCED CHECK to get them to pay me back the fee the bank charges for my employer being Not So Hot With Money. (Another reason to be relieved to go to the new job, I suppose.)
Really, though, today was pretty good. We even got the pesticide guy to spray the apartment indoors to make sure the roaches go away. Did I mention the roaches? Oh, well. There have been roaches in numbers enough, regularly enough, that we know someone's got an infestation. And it's not us-- we keep finding them clearly just inside the front door, trying to investigate-- but we're not going to let that change. So PESTICIDE FOR YOU, ROACHFIENDS. Get out. Get out of our precious sanctum! It's ours!
Edit: A note I really should add about Kickstarter: I thought 'man, this is a neat place where neat ideas are happening!' and then I saw my 'types of projects you care about' pie chart, based on what I'd backed. I made a point of investigating the categories that I might be interested in, but hadn't checked out before, finishing with a bemused 'hah! food'.
Then I discovered that food category is my true weakness. Holy wowza. Delicious neato foods! Do want! and immediately backed three separate food projects because yes, I want them.
No regrets, but I think I'd better stay out of that category for the forseeable future, lest I never stop.
Chicano Batman's new CD: they want to make it a vinyl record too. They're halfway there, but you know...you could get a neato t-shirt and some sweet music if you donate.
Renaissance Toys - Want a pre-painted, easy to assemble renaissance-style castle with a secret passage and trap doors leading up to the parapets? Or just a functional toy siege weapon? (Comes in three tasty flavors: trebuchet, ballista and catapult) She's also got a little church if you don't want castles, siege weapons or little toy stocks to put your GI Joes in when they steal bread all Aladdin-like from their liege lord.
I just felt like I should post some uplifting and cool stuff to balance out my largely feels-heavy post from earlier, since I felt like THAT practically nulled the excitement I feel about the new job. I'm really, really looking forward to it.
Eesh, I need to start actively saving up to upgrade my computer, though. Figured out today that my problem with running things was being caused by my lack of harddrive space. This keeps happening, and I keep not doing anything about it, but the sad fact is that my hard drive is hilariously small by modern standards at 200Gb, and my motherboard and processor combo are the oldest thing in the machine. If I want to get a new, bigger hard drive, I'm probably gonna need to upgrade most of the computer. And, you know, for the full story...work problems with money? They apparently gave us bad checks again, so I'm going to have to document a THIRD BOUNCED CHECK to get them to pay me back the fee the bank charges for my employer being Not So Hot With Money. (Another reason to be relieved to go to the new job, I suppose.)
Really, though, today was pretty good. We even got the pesticide guy to spray the apartment indoors to make sure the roaches go away. Did I mention the roaches? Oh, well. There have been roaches in numbers enough, regularly enough, that we know someone's got an infestation. And it's not us-- we keep finding them clearly just inside the front door, trying to investigate-- but we're not going to let that change. So PESTICIDE FOR YOU, ROACHFIENDS. Get out. Get out of our precious sanctum! It's ours!
Edit: A note I really should add about Kickstarter: I thought 'man, this is a neat place where neat ideas are happening!' and then I saw my 'types of projects you care about' pie chart, based on what I'd backed. I made a point of investigating the categories that I might be interested in, but hadn't checked out before, finishing with a bemused 'hah! food'.
Then I discovered that food category is my true weakness. Holy wowza. Delicious neato foods! Do want! and immediately backed three separate food projects because yes, I want them.
No regrets, but I think I'd better stay out of that category for the forseeable future, lest I never stop.
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