Minion Paul, watching a Pink Floyd concert ad on after Doctor Who: One has to wonder whether One Direction will be up there on stage when they’re all 60 years old.

Solarbird: No, there will be two One Directions, which is, of course, hilarious.

Minion Paul: That’s a really good point.

Solarbird: One with Zayn, one with everybody else.

Minion Paul: So I guess he’s the Roger Waters in this situation?

Solarbird: I guess so?

Anglicon! The first in some time, which is why it’s Anglicon: The Regeneration. They wound down the previous version of Anglicon just in time for Doctor Who to return to the air – thus winning the Best Worst Timing Award for 2006 – and it’s taken ’till now to get it running again. Having contributed to the Kickstarter a couple of years ago, I had a membership!

First: very odd being at the Norwescon hotel for Not Norwescon, like it usually is. Lots of other non-fans around. Anglicon clocked in at around 950 members (would guess something like 2300 gate count, eyeballing it?), and at times a crowd that size in a space that large did feel a bit rattly. But despite that, this first Regeneration Anglicon was in fact larger than all previous editions, so that’s definitely a win out the gate for them.

I did indeed get to play, on Saturday night. The new-to-performance Doctor Who song seemed to go over really well. This also made my first go at performing with the giant cheap tablet I’ve talked about, and out the gate I’m very much in a WHY DIDN’T I DO THIS BEFORE?! mood. Having such a larger selection of material available was unmitigatedly awesome. Out of nowhere, I ran into Fae Wiedenhoeft, a musician I’d met when I was first starting out and hadn’t seen again since, attending her first convention; we ended up throwing selkie songs back and forth at each other, something which absolutely couldn’t’ve happened had I just brought a single gig book, or just my own material.

(Hi Fae! Loved your pieces. <3)

I have to talk about Katy Manning for a minute. She played Jo Grant, companion with the Third Doctor (Fop Doctor). As a result, yes, she’s up there – she’s nearing 70.

But you know how you’ll talk about older people being “spry” when they move around well, particularly for their age?

Katy is not spry. Katy is athletic. Katy moves like a 35 year old. Katy has a grip that will crush iron. I am totally serious here. When I went to get that autograph in the top picture, she ended up looking at that Second Doctor sonic I built, and when she handed it back to me, I grabbed it expecting a weak grip, and dropped it, because no.

She’s also a hugger, and hugged me, and Anna, and pretty much everybody, and I’m just sayin’, that’s not a Grandma Hug. I would not be surprised if she could lift me. It was kind of awesome.

Talking of sonics, I got a chance to analyse a Dalek, and the readings I got will definitely help build out the next model:

That Tickles

Pleasantly, two people recognised it for what it was – once I called it out, anyway – one each day. Everyone was surprised by how many different things it does – two kinds of noises, a blue light, and particularly the tactile feedback. I quickly figured out the trick was to hand it to someone and say “Try it” without warning them about the buzzy bit. You do that and people go, “Oh wow.”

A few people told me I should manufacture them, that I would make boatloads of money, but, yeah, no. I don’t fear much, but the BBC licensing bureau? I know when to pick my fights. (Talking of, I ran into Ernst Blofeld – he’s not Guild, obviously – but we had a short pleasant chat and he has my card. It goes without saying that I have no photograph.)

Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), it turns out, is an absolute hoot.

He’s been doing these for quite a while, of course, so he’s got loads of practice. But he does it well, and has interesting stories, some of which are of course quite recent. He made good fun of David Tennant (“Oooh, I’m young, I’m attractive, I’ve got pointy hair“) and got a lot of questions about his Big Finish Audio Productions work (loves working for them, is now acting across multiple ranges, will take pretty much any part they feel like offering), and the 50th Anniversary Fivish Doctors Reboot special.

I’d had no idea he’d been in their Dorian Grey series, but apparently he’s done a fair bit of work in that line, as well as another which eludes me at the moment. He’s also been keeping his hand in via small English films, and did a guest spot in “The White Iris,” the latest episode of Star Trek Continues, a fan production that’s been making waves lately. So that was all good fun.

For some reason they had a spot on Sophie Aldred while she was on stage:

It makes for a nice dramatic setup, I suppose, but it’s hard to get her face not washed out while keeping the backdrop. Since I failed, here’s the other exposure level for you.

She’s mostly been voice acting since her Ace days, and, like Colin, not just for Doctor Who-related work. But she spoke a good bit about all the problems with just trying to keep the show going in that late era, with BBC management wanting it gone, and the low-even-for-Doctor-Who budgets of the era.

She pretty much stepped away from stage/screen acting to raise her kids, and has only been taking voice-acting work for several years. But she did mention that she recently took on a screen agent again, now that the kids are growing up, so maybe we’ll see something out of her on that front soon.

Cosplay focused on the modern doctors. I did see a very good Rose, and a pretty good Sarah Jane Smith, but wasn’t in a photo-friendly environment at the time. Dalek Clara made an appearance, as did many, many modern Doctors (and two of my Shemp Doctor! I was surprised), and, of course a whole patrol of Daleks.

Plus K-9, who was, as always, a good dog.

Large copies of these photos are at my photostream like usual, of course.

There’s a fair lot of discontent over the most recent series in the modern Capaldi doctor – lots of unhappiness with the scriptwriting, and I’m not the only one who bailed on last year midway through. Thank goodness for Big Finish is all I can say to that. But I hope Peter Capaldi gets some better scripts – I’d like to see his take on things when the writing’s not such rubbish and not have to wait for years like, well, Colin Baker did.

Anna will no doubt write up her own report, and I’ll probably eta this to add a link. And here’s Anna’s report. Were you there? If so, what’d you think?

eta: I wrote up a bit of a build report on the sonic screwdriver, too. Lots of photos.

More insane puppy-related, but not just puppy-related, bullshit is going on this week.

First, let’s co-sign this commentary from Kameron Hurley about Tor Books’s decision to publicly reprimand one of their editors, Irene Gallo, for saying actual true things on her personal Facebook page about the Sad/Rabid puppies debacle. I repeat: true things, on her personal Facebook page.

But I particularly want to call out this quote:

I read once that the real cost of racism was in keeping folks affected by same from doing their work. This works for stuff like feminism and homophobia, too. Instead of doing the work we were meant to do, bigots want to keep people spinning in circles, spending all their time writing endless think pieces that refute their insistence that we can’t and have never done anything. Yes, ::yawn:: we exist, yes we can do these jobs, yes we are human, and yes we matter. It keeps us defending simple bullshit truths that – if some dude said them – would go unchallenged. And those unchallenged dudes get to go off wanking about life, saying whatever fucking thing they want, doing whatever work they want, because they don’t have to sit around defending their right to exist and speak the truth.

But everybody else is constantly challenged and bullied with the threat of erasure, and most of our work is just fucking digging out from under that bullshit.

I have raged about this so many times. When I was a software developer, I literally sidetracked my career so that I could spend quite literally another full-time job’s worth of time fighting against groups trying to make me illegal. And by illegal, I mean fucking illegal, as in direct threat to my life and freedom, by design. That was the intent and goal, so it’s not like I had any sort of goddamn options.

When I talk about spending “blood and treasure” on this, the blood comes from the street assaults, the treasure comes, in part, from this. All that lost time and money, fighting off people who not only enjoyed but actively made a living from trying to make my existence illegal.

And just as much, the people trying to make me and people like me at best into sub-citizens and at worst into dead people? They enjoyed their work, and made money at it.

Just like the Puppies enjoy their bullshit. They’re having a great time.

(See also Angela Highland in this post about “the endless cycle of having to defend oneself over and over and over and over again, to seemingly no avail.”)

Let’s also co-sign this post by Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds:

If you’re an employer faced with a mob of bigots because a female employee said a true thing in public, maybe take a step back and ask how you’d have responded (if at all) if they came after one of your top dudes for saying the exact same thing. You may not even have to think very long because they probably already have.

Then ask yourself how awesome you really are now that you’ve publicly named and shamed her and basically threw her out to the Gamergate/Puppy wolves to be harassed online and in the comment sections of your own post. Ask yourself how awesome and fair-handed you are to do that.

And back to Kameron:

This shit is going to change, but it’s going to hurt.

If you’re an ally, I’d like to remind you it’s not you it’s going to hurt. You’ll come out of it just fine with your fucking career intact.

It’s us. Every time. Always us. It’s us they will come after. We pay the price.

One of the driving points in Jupiter Ascending – a post that I still, yes, intend to make – is that the most fundamental limit on resource is time – how much time you have, or do not have, in your life. The Entitled of that universe steal lives from others to gain more time for themselves. These cretins can’t achieve that, so they steal the time of others to gain enjoyment. For sport.

Sendhil Mullainathan said recently that poverty is a tax on cognition. He’s right, of course, and his assertion comes down, in no small part, to a tax on time. Computational time of the brain, existence time of life, they’re both the same thing. This, too is a tax on time, one assessed by ressentiment-driven self-proclaimed “alpha”-master wannabes, one that’s assessed intentionally, driven mostly by the pleasure of seeing others in oppression, by the love for Orwell’s aphrodisiac of power. And it is contemptible. It is anti-thought, it is anti-achievement, it is anti-creation, it is a vile sadism, and it is no accident that the most fervent supporters of torture drink from this same well.

You want to talk about where the “rage” part comes from in my music? There are a few sources. This is a big one.

eta: See also Jessica Price’s post on Tumblr. It’s worth reading.

eta2: See also Vox Day (the oberpuppyführer that Tom just threw Irene Gallo to, linked via We Hunted the Mammoth), see also Tim Hunt (as a published research scientist, may I just say to blow it out your ass, you fucking douchebag). It’s just a continuous hail of this kind of rampant horseshittery.

eta3: flake_sake’s commentary on Livejournal is of relevant interest, including the first direct appearance of Jim Butcher in this mess.

eta4: Can Tor let Ms. Gallo take back her apology yet? No? How about now?
 
 

This is one of a continuing series of posts on sexism and racism in geek culture.

I haven’t posted about the Sad/Rabid Puppies lately, mostly because I just haven’t had anything to say that I haven’t already said. I’m just not good at re-chewing old material – it’s not like all the previous posts I wrote aren’t still around. (Do remember to vote NO AWARD above any slate candidates, tho’.)

But if you miss that whole mess and want something new, here’s a post from Jim Hines called Puppies in their Own Words. It’s mostly extensive quotes from Sad leadership, and leaves white supremacist Rabid leader Vox Day out. I’m not sure that’s fair, given how much of the the Sad success depended upon Vox’s pack of Rabids – while simultaneously trying to distance themselves from him after he became to embarrassing – but there y’go.

The best thing Jim’s post is for is again detailing how this was in fact a purely political exercise, despite Puppy denials. It’s hard to deny when you’re extensively talking about how you need to show it to those liberals.

eta: Oh, Agrumer has a very good post on Livejournal about notorious homophobic Korrasami-hater and Rabid Puppy John C. Wright and his tired claim that He’s Not Homophobic, He Loves the Queers, He Just Hates “Perversion” – something he attributes to his Catholic faith. But as Agrumer shows, his anti-queer hate predates his Catholicism by some time. Also with original references and links! Apparently, John’s faith-sourced moral beliefs don’t include objections to straight-up lies.

eta2: George R. R. Martin pointed at Eric Flint’s takedown, point by point, of the Puppy arguments, such as they are. It’s quite thorough.

eta3: There’s a follow-up post, here, which is actually quite a bit longer and about Tor Books and Irene Gallo.

Subtle, as intended. I was worried it would be too subtle, but I think this works well. I don’t want it to jump in your face, but I want it to be there.

There’s a duplicate on the other side, in the opposite window. Now if the callsign frame (RAPTOR 312 LIGHT) would just get here…

What with The Thrilling Adventure Hour going away to my great sadness – the Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars theme makes me happy every time I hear it – I want suggestions for anything like it as a replacement podcast. No, not Welcome to Night Vale, I’ve been on that since about six months after it started. Something else.

I mean, I’ve got Big Finish Audio Doctor Who, and I suppose I really could fill in with that, but… it’s just not the same.

Wow, I will miss Thrilling Adventure Hour. Goddamn I am so sad they’re wrapping things up. Ah, well, I can’t blame them, it has been ten years. But still.

Recommendations, anyone?

Oh yeah, and as a reminder, as part of the big NIWA sales event, Bone Walker’s digital download is on 40% Bandcamp discount – enter “NIWA” as your discount code at checkout. It won’t be this cheap again unless somebody pays me, so now’s the time. 😀

From an article in Scientific American on Pluto’s moons:

Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, weighs in at a hefty 11% of the mass of Pluto itself. It may have formed during a cosmic collision early in the Solar System’s history, billions of years ago. Debris from that smash may have coalesced into the much smaller moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.

Pluto’s no longer officially a planet. Fine. Don’t care.

One of the questions about extra-terran biospheres (and regenerating atmospheres) is the importance of meaningful tidal stresses. Those pretty much require moons which are an appreciable percentage of the primary in mass. And as far as I know, we don’t know how likely that is.

But let’s look at the small planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), and the previously-a-planet Pluto, and the would’ve-been-a-planet Eris, which is roughly the same size as Pluto. There are more probable dwarf planets, but they’re all substantially smaller than either – Makemake and Haumea have less than two-thirds the diameters of Eris and Pluto, which is a lot less mass, both all things equal and as measured so far. (About 70% less.)

Two of these six planet- and near-planets have moons big enough for meaningful tides: Earth and Pluto. And both of them have moons thought to have been formed by early collision in solar system formation.

A third is a pretty healthy percentage. Now, I don’t know how critical this is thought to be at this point, because I’m not real current in my solar-system-formation and xenobiology theory. But it used to be thought that tides helped prevent carbon dioxide buildup (see: Venus) and a quick check online seems to imply that’s still the case.

If all these ideas about atmospheric regeneration and the like haven’t been discredited, this is a pretty interesting result. From the data we have, large moons around small planets (and, yes, dwarf planets) are not unlikely things.

And that’s pretty neat.

George has been legit hugging me today. I am trapped by the computer. I will be here forever, send food and cider. Also, he is making little kitty noises and occasionally snoring.

send help

A couple of days ago, John Scalzi signed a 13-book deal worth 3.4 million dollars. That’s pretty good for somebody that the Sad Puppies like to claim nobody really wants to read, and pretty good for someone the puppies like to say writes only the sorts of things that nobody wants to read. Basically, they’ve been accusing “SJW” writers of driving readers out of fandom, and he’s a really poorly-chosen poster boy.

So that’s pretty funny, but not funny enough yet, because you know white supremacist and oberpuppyführer Vox Day would come up with some way to spin this, right? Of course he would. The thing is, there’s no way to do it which is not unintentionally hilarious, and Vox delivers. Seriously, this is some always-at-war-with-Eurasia spinning, wherein the new line is that Real Men Self-Publish, and that’s what’s Real Writing now, not this multi-million-dollar major-publishing-house bullshit. Self-pub is the only true pub.

NO, REALLY, THAT’S THE NEW PARTY LINE. That’s a We Hunted the Mammoth link, because I’m not in the mood to link to Vox under the best of circumstances, which I suppose really, these are. But there are extensive quotes at the link. Go look, it’s a riot.
 

Confused? Lots more on the Hugo Awards/Sad Puppies mess here.

So I bought a Colonial Raptor sticker that I found for sale online, but it wasn’t the adhere-inside kind, it was the adhere-outside kind, and not vinyl, so I don’t trust it in weather. But I found a place that will make inside-window static-clings for you for like $5 from your own art, so I converted it for that. And also changed the text layout. Anyway, it looks like this now:

I’m not sure that the slightly-offset circles thing reads as entirely intentional but I like it, it adds a hint of extra depth for me. The white parts will be transparent, so I hope the design actually shows up well. If not, eh, it wasn’t exactly a lot of money anyway.

I’ve never spent this much attention on a vehicle before, what is wrong with me? ＼☉～⚆ ／