Category: Geekitude

Doctor Who Debate: Davies vs. Moffat

By:  TempestGeekitude
Doctor Who Debate: Davies vs. Moffat

At Dragon*Con last weekend I went to a panel called Doctor Who: Davies vs. Moffat in the Brit track so as to cover it for the Daily Dragon. The panel discussion was… less than robust, I would say. But then, this topic could have people going on for hours and we only had one. I wrote it up for the DD here, if you care to read.

Coming away from the panel I felt that I’d like to continue the conversation in a venue better suited to deep conversation. And here we are.

The basic idea behind the panel was to examine Doctor Who and debate which “era” of the show — the one headed by Davies or the current one by Moffat — is better overall. Of course, with both showrunners there’s a lot to pick apart and examine and for some there may not be a better overall choice. It’s completely legitimate to point out the areas where either of them excel or falter. And, of course, there will be some pitting the various Doctors against each other.

To back up your arguments, you may mention any episode that’s been aired but don’t reveal any spoilers from unaired stuff. By aired I mean aired in the UK. If you really, really don’t want spoilers for the most recent stuff, you should probably skip this one.

To start the debate, I’ll ask of folks: who do you think is the better plotter? On an episode by episode basis I would have said Moffat until season 5. On an overall arc basis, I’m saying Davies. So far The Silence just makes me roll my eyes, and I wanted to stab the Pandorica thing from the word go. Season 3’s arc was much more satisfying and well constructed… until the Tinkerbell bit.

What say you?

Dragon*Con 2011: The Late, Late Report

By:  TempestGeekitude

I’m horrible at posting timely con reports, so I’ve given up worrying about it. It’s been a week since Dragon*Con ended, so at least with this one is up faster than my WisCon or ReaderCon reports. No, you didn’t miss them… they aren’t posted yet.

Onward!

This was my first Dragon*Con, and I was slightly worried about feeling overwhelmed. However, I had the chance to work for the at-con newsletter, the Daily Dragon, and that helped me feel less at sea. I had specific things to do and I spent most of my time doing them. Those specific things involved copyediting, being on call in the DD office, covering panels, and interviewing people. Being a journalist is a bunch of fun.

I had a great time talking to Ann and Jeff Vandermeer about steampunk and Alethea Kontis and Leanna Renee Hieber about being pro guests who are also fans. But the absolute highlight of my con was getting to interview Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Janeway. I also got to interview Brent Spiner of The Next Generation.

For Kate Mulgrew, I had to chase down her agent, then come sit at her signings three times before he found time in her schedule. William Shatner had just denied a couple of my colleagues an interview, so I was nervous. But Ms. Mulgrew wasn’t as ALL DONE THIS as Bill (and I don’t blame him, he did three solo panels and signed 4 times) so she granted me five minutes.

I’ve met her just once before, and she was just as warm and funny as before. She has this commanding attitude that I adore. It’s not obnoxious — more like a very forceful matriarch. If she tells you to do something, you do it because obviously she thinks it’s best. Plus, you don’t say no to Captain Janeway. Read the interview (Kate says so.)

Talking to her about how there needs to be more women leaders in the Star Trek franchise, I had this awesome idea for a panel at Dragon*Con about female leadership in SF. My dream panel would be Kate Mulgrew, Nana Visitor, Mary McDonnell, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Gina Torres. I also think that would make an excellent pop essay book, with the volume split between TV/Movie properties and SF novels. As things ramp up for next year’s D*Con, I’ll see if the panel is possible.

I was in the autographing room on Monday waiting for Brent Spiner to have time when I noticed that Robert Duncan McNeil (Tom Paris, Voyager) had a life-size cutout of himself in character sitting on top of his table. Not next to, on top of. I went over and asked, “How much to take a picture with the cutout?” because pictures with him were $10 and that’s just not my thing. Thankfully he has an excellent sense of humor and joked with me about it and, when I came back to actually take a picture with the cutout in my absolute silliness, decided he needed to be in the pic, too. I let him. You know, to make him feel better.

Tempest Bradford and Lt. Paris... and Robert Duncan McNeil

I also had one other mission during the con, which was to sell fans and raise money for Con or Bust when possible. I didn’t sell many fans, but my roommate, Mary Robinette Kowal, sold TONS. She’s a sales machine and earned Con or Bust a lot of money.

In addition to selling fans, I also asked some actors of color to sign one so we can auction them off. When I get home I’ll post pics. Edward James Olmos (BSG) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim, Voyager) both signed readily and were very sweet about it. In fact, Garrett misunderstood my request (I’d asked him the night before in the green room) and had a picture he’d planned to give me of Robert Beltran, Robert Picardo and himself in character, signed by all three. It’s really adorbs. I gave him a fan in exchange for the picture and we’ll auction that off, too.

Sidenote: Garrett Wang is awesome. He runs the Trek Track at D*Con and does a fantastic job, does funny as hell spots for Dragon*Con TV, and spends hours and hours in the autograph room so everyone who wants to see him gets a chance. Plus, he’s super sweet, like I said.

That was pretty much my Dragon*Con. I met many awesome fans, hang out with the fabulous Daily Dragon staff, saw fantastic costumes, got to go to panels, met one of my heroines, and had conversations with a host of fabulous people. I’m looking forward to going back next year.

Intra-Community Behavior – How Do We Address Problems Constructively?

By:  TempestGeekitude

This was a very long comment on the post from yesterday. However, in writing it I realized that this discussion is separate but related, so I broke it out into its own post. This comment addresses some stuff across multiple comments over there plus some things from this discussion on the anon community.

Just to clarify: For me, my worries over the doubts I had about Kynn and the way I pushed them aside isn’t about whether I should have known she would rape someone. It’s totally separate from that. It’s more about how I shouldn’t have accepted that behavior from a person who very clearly wanted to be allied with my community and me personally. I don’t look back and regret my errors because of what happened to jack specifically. Wanted to clear that up.

While on one hand I agree with the anon that points out that within social justice communities if someone doesn’t speak up and say “hey, I don’t agree with the actions this person is taking” then people may assume that we endorse or, at least, don’t find the behavior problematic. And that can be a problem both within and outside of the community.

On the other hand, I very much agree with Cheryl that I don’t then want us to turn the tone argument on each other or start deciding whose anger is more valid. Plus, I get the feeling that what some critics of social justice want in that instance is a public “I DON’T AGREE” in big letters. I’m not always comfortable with that.

Intra-community discussions of appropriate actions and words should stay inside unless the community decides to open it up to wider discussion.

Examples of this include the recent flare-up surrounding Ashley Judd’s condemnation of hip-hop as sexist. Women in the hip-hop and POC community have been dealing with this issue a lot longer, and many did not appreciate someone from outside the community swanning in to give her ill-formed and unwanted opinion on the matter.

Within a feminist context, women outside of mainstream white western culture are forever dealing with well-meaning feminists trying to tell them how their cultures are evil and should be abandoned. Whereas women inside those cultures and communities are constantly saying “Back off, we got this, we’re working on it from our own cultural framework.”

Those are big picture examples. Those are also more straightforward than what we’re dealing with here.

The dilemma I see is this: how does a community or an individual within a community approach another individual to say I/We think you’re crossing a line? That’s a tough conversation to have. I’ve found myself reluctant to have it the few times it’s come up. And, as I said yesterday, I am not the behavior police nor do I feel I have the right to be.

Still, this situation is making me realize how important it is to discuss this and come up with strategies not only to ensure the mental health of the community at large, but also to achieve our common goals.

As before, thoughts are very much appreciated. And to the anonymice out there — I allow anon comments here, but reserve the right to moderate as I see fit. (Generally: deleting abusive ones.)

ETA: Hey anons, want to further clarify something for those of you who seem to be lacking reading skills. This post is not about reactions to what Kynn did to Jack. I’m not saying AT ALL that intra-community issues need to be worked out around people’s reactions to that. I’m talking here about more general issues using Kynn’s behavior before this incident as a touchpoint, but not due to what happened at WisCon. This is about things I observed before that. How people deal with someone in their group who rapes another is a separate conversation and not what I’m addressing here (for that, see the other post). Okay? Okay.

Community, Trust, Responsibility, Consequences

By:  TempestGeekitude

This post may be triggering for some as it contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, and community responses to such.

I promised to write this post last week, but unfortunately preparations for BlogHer took up more spoons than I anticipated. Plus, I’ve been dealing with a lot of intense emotions around the issue and it kept me from posting publicly for a while. But I feel it’s important for several reasons, all of which you will understand by the end of this post. I’m placing the bulk of it under a cut, just in case. Continue reading “Community, Trust, Responsibility, Consequences” →

Tempest in da Bay Area

By:  TempestGeekitude

All right, folks. I will be in San Francisco this afternoon and hanging out in Mountain View until Friday. There are some plans afoot for Friday and Wednesday. Possibly something for tonight. But right now I’m honestly not sure how I’m getting from the airport to my hotel.

At any rate, ping me on Facebook or Twitter (@tinytempest) if you want to meet up for dinner or something!

In San Francisco Next Week

By:  TempestGeekitude

Very quick:

I’m going to be in San Francisco next week for a Google announcement. Work is flying me out there and paying for my hotel on Tuesday night. However, because of the cost, I’m flying back on Friday afternoon.

So I’m looking for a place to stay Wednesday and Thursday night. I have to work remotely on Thursday and on Wednesday I’ll need to get from Mountain View to wherever I’m staying, but that can happen in the evening (I’ll be at Google headquarters for most of the afternoon then in the hotel lobby trying to write everything after that). And I guess I’ll need some help figuring out how to get to the airport on Friday. I’m not afraid to take public transit, I just need explicit directions.

If anyone has room for me and it’s not too much of a burden, let me know. I’ll be entertaining in the evenings, I swear!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It- OW!

By:  TempestGeekitude

Yesterday all of the news sources I knew of predicted that we’d get just 5 – 9 inches of snow overnight. Then  again, those same sources also said it wouldn’t start snowing until the afternoon. Judging by the inch of accumulation before I left the house at 9am, someone was clearly wrong.

I woke up this morning at 5 in order to go to the gym. I turned on WNYC and, lo, the news dude was all: “There’s 15 inches of snow in Central Park.” I looked out of my window at the courtyard of my building and, lo, it seems we got at least that much of here, too. Fabulous.

Thus, the gym was out, because none of the sidewalks had even begun to be shoveled and even walking down the middle of the somewhat plowed street was precarious. How do I know these things? I went out just to assess how bad things were and this is what greeted me at the front door:

Inwood, NYC, 1/27 Snowstorm

Here’s the scene from the bottom of the stairs:

Inwood, NYC, 1/27 Snowstorm

I attempted to make my way down those stairs. But, due to the near foot of snow and the impacted bits from others who were forced to leave their homes, every stair was a death trap. I fell down around the third step. Thankfully, a foot plus of snow is very soft. However, I wrenched my back attempting to not fall. Good times!

Since I was already down, I took a bunch of pictures of my street and the cross street. Note the “plowed” street, which is still unpassable unless you have 4 wheel drive. And the poor people who live up that hill…

Good thing I can work from home.

End of Year Donating

By:  TempestGeekitude

A few years ago I read a post by Jed Hartman wherein he listed all of the various organizations and charities he donates money to, usually at the end of the year. I’ve rarely been in a financial position to be a generous donor — one of the reasons I volunteer my time, instead — but this year I have a small bit of extra money and some worthy entities I want to support. And since I can never keep my mouth shut about the things I’m passionate about, I shall also take this opportunity to encourage you to join me in supporting them. It’s only a slightly evil plan, I know. Next time I will do better.

First up: It’s just been a few weeks since the Carl Brandon eReader Drawing fundraiser ended, so you might be a bit burned on this one. However, the Society is in the midst of another fund drive, this time to benefit their general fund. SF3 — the parent org of WisCon — recently awarded CBS a $2000 challenge grant. That means they will match any donations made in December and January up to $2K. The Drawing didn’t count toward this since all the money we raised in November is earmarked for the Butler Scholarship. Any general fundraising will support other activities of the Society, including the Parallax and Kindred awards. You can make a donation via PayPal here. However, if you send a check to the address on that page, CBS gets to keep more of your donation.

Next: If you’ve used Wikipedia any time in the last few months you probably noticed the banner at the top asking for donations. They are apparently within 1.1 million of reaching their goal, and I intend to donate. I know a lot of people scoff at Wikipedia, but I find it to be an incredibly useful resource for some information. I am on the site at least once a day, usually more. And having written an article about Wikipedia lately, I have an even greater appreciation of how important it’s become and how much work the Wikimedia Foundation puts into the site. Click here to donate.

Finally: As much as NPR sometimes makes me roll my eyes, I have to admit that public radio is a constant part of my life. I wake up to it every morning, I’m always downloading podcasts, and I’ve even been a guest. So I’m going to send a bit of change to WNYC and WBAI (which is Pacifica, not NPR). And, who knows, someday you might hear me on the radio begging you to send us money so we can continue operating. I promise, I will not be as annoying or horrifying as Ira Glass.

Zira’s Heart, Shannon’s Life Force, and Tempest’s Back

By:  TempestMy Fiction

Several bits of fictiony news for you! First, I’m experimenting with self-publishing short stories as eBooks just to see what the process is like and to feel out interest in this arena. I have no plans to completely abandon sending my stories out to magazines and such. But there are a few stories that I love and still believe are good, but I’ve run out of markets for them. One such is Zira’s Heart, which is a bit too long for most markets. So, I decided to submit it to Smashwords and get it listed in most major eBook stores to see how that goes.

Shorts never receive the same kind of attention that books get in these situations, but I still think it could be interesting (and fun). I uploaded it last night and it’s already in the Smashwords catalog. Now I’m waiting to see if they’ll accept it for distribution to Amazon, B&N, iBooks and the like. I put the cover and link up on the sidebar of my site and I’m tracking how many clicks it gets. I’ll report as time goes on.

In other news, I don’t know why but I keep forgetting to blog about my first Escape Pod story! Elan Vital, which first appeared in Sybil’s Garage no 6, was podcasted in Escape Pod and read by Mur Lafferty. I’m completely excited to have cracked that market and really glad Mur is the editor now, as I enjoy her other podcasts quite a bit.

I did not intend to actually listen to the piece since I always get emotional even looking at that story. But as several people had praised Mur’s reading of it, I decided to listen to just a little. I ended up listening to the entire thing (crying almost the whole time, arg). Mur is fantastic, as others have said. She strikes the perfect notes all the way through. I’m so lucky! All of my Escape Artists stories have been read by such excellent and talented people1.

The discussion about my story is filled with people saying they really loved it (squee!) and some who bounced off hard. I am amused, however, by the person who said early on that the story “isn’t science fiction“. Also amused by the person who pointed out that, whatever happens in the future, he is sure companies will always find ways to charge us subscription fees. Too right.

Over at the Biology in Science Fiction blog, the poster asks “What would you be willing to give to keep someone you love alive?” which is more the center of my story than the actual science. I do enjoy some hard SF now and then. But I’m in the camp of people who think that the science or technology in SF is meant to serve the characters and the plot and the idea, not the other way around. Too much Star Trek as a child?

And finally, this weekend I went to Macy’s in my quest to find a new mattress (as described here) on the advice of those who said they had great deals. Those people? Have a weird idea of what constitutes a great deal. Nothing below $1,000 in the quality I need, and salespeople who didn’t even want to admit that they might be able to sell me a mattress without a box spring. They looked horrified that I should want such a thing. My old box spring is clearly inferior to anything they have. Cue eyeroll.

PayPal being under attack by Anonymous affected a couple of family members from donating to my mattress fund last week, but I think that’s over now. Yay? I haven’t even looked at the account yet since a bunch of people sent me a note saying they wouldn’t be able to send money until next week or so, which is fine. I’m going to ask my new roommate to help me flip my current mattress tonight and try to sleep on the less fucked up side so that my back will stop screaming at me in the night.

Here’s what I don’t get: how did we, as humans, survive all this time without natural latex memory foam individually-wrapped coil mattresses? I mean, this is crazy. There must be a solution for sleeping that is not bad for your back and also comfortable. Also one that does not cost $600+. Fie.

Footnotes

  1. Yeah, that’s right, Amal. I am talkin’ about you. Whatcha gunna do about it, huh? [⇧]