Remember all those rounds of Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) racist and sexist pratfail in 2013?

Well, now that SFWA is trying to clean up its act, here comes the pushback, with a petition against “political correctness” and violations of the First Amendment by… applying editorial control to its own publication.

A publication which is, by the way, supposed to be the official house organ of this supposedly professional writer’s organisation, and not the fanzine of a moderately horrible Old Phart Phan.

These things are inevitable, but man, is it still embarrassing. Not because it’s happening – that’s inevitable; old-school holders of racial and gender entitlement will generally push back at any perceived loss of that entitlement. It’s a turf war. That’s only to be expected.

No, it’s embarrassing because of some of the signatories. Many of them are the sorts you’d expect, but some of them aren’t, and in them, I am disappointed, for multiple reasons.

First, the idea. The confusion of “what we want in our trade publication” and the mere idea of editing with censorship, in people who are old enough to know better.

Second, the damn thing leads off with “political correctness.” Anybody who starts with this line has no goddamn facts. To steal a line, “political correctness” is a dog-whistle for resentment about feeling pressured to treat people decently.

Finally, look at this thing. Content aside, this came from a professional writer? This sprawling slurry of rambling resentment apparently formatted by a hyperkinetic hamster who has no comprehension of punctuation and an unsettling attraction to the spacebar?

As someone who has pulled $1.50 a word writing, albeit technical writing, I am appalled on that basis alone.

Honestly, how many faces can one hand palm, anyway?

Followup posts:
A Horrible Group of People (Tuesday, 11 February 2014)
A Friday of Followups (Friday, 14 February 2014)
What is Being Lost (Monday, 17 February 2014)

Okay! I am now officially off “positioning.” I still have a variety of restrictions (no facing up except briefly, no heavy lifting, can’t cut back eye steroid drops yet, no contacts yet, etc) but, still, this will be far more normal.

Also, my vision is still a mess, but that’ll improve over time – there’ll be a big jump when the last of the bubble clears out of my right eye. Looking at it, as I can’t avoid, I’d say Monday for that, probably. Possibly Tuesday.

Hopefully this time it will stick. Literally, as I told Anna.

As a long-time Great Big Sea fangirl, I’ve watched all the talk and drama about Séan’s departure from the band over the last few months with particular interest. Anna and I both kind of see the changes in the band as being akin to a Doctor Who regeneration; my Great Big Sea had Darrell Power in it. That doesn’t mean a third incarnation would be a bad thing, but it’d certainly be different.

Séan has finally given an interview about his departure, and several people have reacted with variations on the phrase “see?! It’s just artistic differences!” – as opposed to, I don’t know, homicide. Or some other source of dissent, more conventional, more recognisable to most.

But that bothers me, because… because it’s wrong.

Because carried in all of that is the idea that “artistic differences” are not such a big deal, not really. There’s the idea that there’s nothing much personal about it. Like it’s some sort of career choice.

To be fair, there’s a bit of the latter in that if you’ve been so lucky as to make your art your primary career. But at the core, that is so wrong. At least, it’s so wrong in music.

Music, in my way of thinking about it, is transcription of emotion. Notes and phrases are the letters with which you write out your feels.

And if your music has been pushed to the side in your band, if it’s being stifled, or even, if it just doesn’t feel like your music is part of your group’s music… well, there are things more personal than that, I’m sure. But not many.

I’ve listened to Séan’s new album, Help Your Self. It’s little like my Great Big Sea, and even less like the second incarnation he just left. I’m reminded more of David Gilmour’s solo work than anything else – particularly the slower songs of About Face.

Some have called it bitter – I can hear that, and I hear it in the interview with the Telegram, linked above. But if he’s been holding his music in for as long as he says he has, then he’s going to need recovery time. He’ll need to clear all this out. Albums may and may not make for good therapy, but, in a very real way, that’s what this album is – it’s a concept album, and it’s about him feeling his way back to life.

Which brings us back to how big “artistic differences” really are.

A more successful musician than I once told me, “People don’t know what they like; they like what they know.” Great Big Sea fans may not know this Séan, and may, simply from that, decide they do not like him. I hope he’s ready for that. Putting everything out there as he’s done may not be the wisest of business moves.

But given the well-established economic downsides, it’s certainly brave. I’ll give all the credit in the world for that. And the fact that he feels he has to do this, as he obviously does, and that it’s worth walking away from what is – let’s face it – a cash-cow supergroup with one of Canada’s largest fan bases…

…that’s how big “artistic differences” are.

They aren’t a small thing. They’re the biggest thing there is.

Eye doctor says everything’s fine, but he wants me positioning the rest of the week. Yay, another lost week, another week on the couch. Well, until Friday, anyway.

god dammit.

At least nothing’s actually wrong. It’s all because of my history, not because of anything else – this is actually the fastest recovery I’ve had yet. Vision in the operated eye is already up to 20/100 range – 20/50 with the pinhole aid – and he thinks he’s being light on me.

But I’m still going a little bit extra crazy.

Next week. I hope.

Follow-up today with the eye surgeon at 2pm; since I’m pretty familiar with the progression of recovery on this kind of eye surgery now, and know where I am, I should come back with good news.

My vision will still be a mess for weeks, though. Aside from the three-month recovery time for focus, the remaining eye bubble is intensely distracting, even with an opaque eye patch.

Still, it’ll be nice to have the motion-restrictions at least eased. And it’s not that bad looking, is it?

Stickmaker: I’m a little worried. There’s a patch of ice at the far end of my front walk which I can’t scrape off and which isn’t melting. (In fact, as the temps drop it’s growing.) I piled snow at the end of the walk and then went though the yard to where the walk is safe. Hope that’s warning enough.
Anna: Dump some kitty litter out there if you have to.
Anna: Do you not have any rock salt?
Stickmaker: Kitty litter is all in use by the kitties. No rock salt.
Anna: Well I got nothin’, then.
Solarbird: you have gasoline, you have matches, i don’t see the problem here
Anna: I might suggest that when you go out again, get some rock salt. 😉
Anna: Or something otherwise appropriate for dealing with ice on your walk
Solarbird: like gasoline
Solarbird . o O ( foomp )
Solarbird: ok maybe charcoal?
Stickmaker: …That’s what I’m afraid of. 🙂
Solarbird: you’re afraid of charcoal?
Solarbird: that’s just weird.
Solarbird: what did charcoal do to you?
Solarbird: or do you fear its revenge?
Solarbird: for all the things you’ve done to it?
Solarbird . o O ( so much burning )
Stickmaker: No, the ‘Fwoomph!’
Solarbird: wait so no you fear sound effects.
Solarbird: FOOMOHPH
Solarbird: scary!

Back from hospital, visiting Feetsylvania again (positioned facing down) and sipping hot tea through a straw. Unsure of advisability of this. Advise at your leasure.

Should get to spend the rest of positioning on side. Will be better then.

I’d just drilled some probably-entirely-unnecessary vent holes in the two tighter-sealing mic cases, and finally got around to packing up the spare ribbon material for the ribbon microphone I’d built after the second eye surgery, and as I was walking upstairs to do some more comping…

…something darted down the centre of my vision.

But only in one eye. And it was repeatable.

Kill. Everything.

So I poked at it a bit, and yep, I have newly asymmetrical peripheral vision. I schedule an emergency doctor’s appointment, who confirms what I already know, and I’m scheduled for emergency surgery on Saturday morning, kill everything.

Anyway. I don’t know how much you’ll see me for the next few days. I’ll be “positioned” for another week, then limited in motion again after that. I won’t be at Conflikt, the songwriting workshop is cancelled, I’ve delayed a bunch of recording sessions indefinitely until we can reschedule, everything’s delayed another two weeks, fuck everything.

See, when this first happened, last October, there were three areas: one where the retina had torn, and two others which showed extremely old physical trauma damage. Dr. Saperstein fixed the tear in surgery, and tried to do some pre-emptive work on the other two areas, as they would fail sooner or later.

This completely failed. A few weeks later, I was back in for round two. I thought I was safe at this point from a round three, and that the pre-emptive work had done some good on the third area, but FUCK ME NO, it tore today, so I’m back in again.

So that’s what happened, and that’s where I am, and where I’m not. I’ll try to set something up so I can blog some and chat while I’m recovering – again – from this. But it resets the clock on vision recovery, I won’t be able to drive for two months – my vision had just got back to 20/20 with correction in the pinhole test, and 20/30 in open field – and… yeah.

I am so pissed off about all this, I don’t even have words. We’ll be shooting through our out-of-pocket for insurance again. What a way to start a year.

I won’t even be able to make a cake for Anna’s birthday on the 23rd. At least there will be presents.

Many of these deserve their entire own long rants. I don’t have time, as much as I want to. So I’m posting them in a list, and letting you pick. A few are just funny, for leavening, because that’s important too.

I’m leading with the most important, and finishing with the most important, even though they’re different – they’re both really important. First, something I don’t understand why doesn’t get more net traction:

Why Marketers Fear the Female Geek.

It’s because marketing to increase sexism is strategy, not accident. Basically, in a nutshell, it’s this: marketing strategy isn’t to market broadly, it’s to market to market segments, or subsets. Your first round of ads hits with a segment; if that segment is large enough to meet your sales goals, you then market to that segment that the ‘others’ not in that segment are lesser, because that increases buy-in within the targeted segment.

Tell Seahawks fans that 49er fans are weak, and more Seahawks fans buy your merch than if you don’t.

And in way too many geek subjects, that “other” means women.

Weak. Lesser. Not Really Gamers. Not Really People.

It’s intentional, and the targeted segment eats it up every time.

There’s more at the link, go chase it. Not all marketers use this strategy, but it’s common. The more people are aware that they’re being manipulated, they more they’ll resist it, because they resent it.

Surviving the post-employment economy. Wonder why there’s this sudden growing urge for a guaranteed basic minimum income? This is why.

Bad British NFL Commentary, by which one means comedic, but I’m not sure the one who posted this gets that. Their “bad baseball commentary” example (“No! Caught by the chap in the pajamas with the glove that makes everything easier. And they all scuttle off for a nap.”) is perfect baseball commentary.

It Is Easier Now That I Look Like a Guy – same person, femme to butch casually passing with male; suddenly their career is better and they get dramatically more respect from everyone. Go fig.

Federal Court Strikes Down Net Neutrality. This is very bad for the internet, and particularly bad for independent artists, because it means you want your traffic moved? Pay us, too. This has to be overturned, somehow. Common Carrier status is the most obvious way to get there; will it happen? Depends upon who throws the most money at whom, of course. But if it’s close – and there’s money on both sides of this – you might be able to shove it a bit one way or the other.

…eyes all dilated:

Solarbird sings: I can’t focus, I can’t focus, I can’t focus…
Minion Paul sings: It’s time to throw the knives!