• 18:05 RT @rhettaa Check out her book - 'The Origins of Christmas Songs and Traditions' - on #BookBuzzr - bit.ly/30maRK #
• 11:48 Day 2 to vote for my Celtic podcast in the Podcast Awards. Http://podcastawards.com #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter for American Celtic Musician Marc Gunn

Just getting ready to go downstairs. I've had a bad headache all morning, and I just had a burger, which helps. But not as much as the ibuprofen.

The set last night was incredible. If today's 3:00 is anywhere as good, I'll blow out the walls. Eric and Jason of Toyboat did join me on stage for "PQR", and Amy McNally and I got a standing O for "Dervish", and Eric played drums again for "Rocket Ride". Gooooooood noise.

How's your weekend progressing?

The auction for the custom beaded bag goes off tomorrow evening at 11:59pm. I will be contacting the winners on November 16th. Please help Dave!

community.livejournal.com/save_dave/13071.html

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp11122009.shtml

If you're in Dallas, come see me today at Dallas Webcomics Expo - http://dwex.info for info - 11am to 6pm. I'm at table six.

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If there are any problems with the comic or website, or if you have any questions, comments, or complaints you would like to address directly to Randy, please email him at choochoobear@gmail.com.

He's just a cute little pudgeball! And of course that rug was meant for him to play with. Why else is it there?

In May of 2008, my husband knightaudit and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary by taking an Alaskan cruise. Although our anniversary is early in the month, our ship sailed from Anchorage, Alaska on May 28th, and we cruised down the Inner Passage from Whittier to Vancouver, British Columbia, with quite a few stops along the way.

The weather was balmy for the most part - at least for Alaska - with highs in the upper 50's to low 60's, and lows in the 30's and 40's. While I will gladly admit that the Caribbean cruises we'd taken back in 2005 and 2006 had some gorgeous scenery, I'd be hard pressed to say that anything could top the stately magnificence of glaciers, ice floes, and snowy mountains of Alaska. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to share just a few of my favorite photos from our trip. I hope you enjoy the photos (and my descriptions of them) as much as I enjoyed taking them!

This first photo was taken around 7:30 in the morning on May 29th, 2008, as our ship cruised up the Inner Passage to College Fjord. The sun came up around 4:45 AM, but the early morning sky is still a soft twilight blue. I love the way the snowy mountains are reflected in the dark blue water. You can even see a few little ice floes floating by: ( Blue Reflections )


The second photo shows the glittering icy whiteness of Harvard Glacier, with jagged snowcapped mountains in the background. Our ship got to within 1.6 miles of the glacier's edge, which was as close as the captain felt was safe. We were lucky though - the previous ship that sailed this route only got within four miles of the glacier! This photo was taken around 9:30 in the morning, so the sun had risen enough to provide a dazzling white sky and stunning vista: ( Glassy Glacier )


I'm sharing this photo just for fun - it was taken in Juneau on May 31st. One of our chosen shore excursions was the Dog Sled and Musher's Camp tour, where we got to take a ride on a wheeled sled (there wasn't enough snow on the ground to use the runners) that was pulled by about a dozen or so dogs. After the ride, we were given an informational tour of the camp and learned a bit about the sport of dog-sledding. We even got to pet and hold some of the smaller husky pups, so I thought I'd share this photo of me, big grin and pigtails and all, holding a half grown blue-eyed husky pup: ( Cut for teh Cute )


These last two photographs were taken when we toured Skagway on June 1st, 2008. We took the Best of Skagway tour which included a 90 minute bus trip up to Fraser, British Columbia. From there, we got to ride back to Skagway in an antique parlour car on board the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, passing through the Tormented Valley and Pitchfork Falls. The railway was built during the Klondike Goldrush, around 1898-1900. I think this first photo was taken when we were closer to Fraser. It shows a greyish, slightly overcast sky with snowy mountains in the background. The foreground has an S-shaped area covered in snow, surrounded by grey rocks and dotted with small to medium sized evergreen trees and a bit of brownish grass. It is a stunning photo, but not a place I'd want to be stranded: ( Snowy Solitude )


The final photo was also taken on board the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, around White Pass Summit, which has an elevation of just over 2800 feet. This was about 20 miles into our journey back to Skagway. In the background you can see the old Steel Bridge running from left to right. Steel Bridge was constructed in 1901 and at the time it was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world. It was last used in 1969. There is less snow on the mountains here, it is almost 50% snow and 50% bare rock. A small river runs up the center of the photo, which adds to the stunning panorama: ( Steel and Stone )

If you ever get a chance to visit Alaska, "The Last Frontier," I think you will find the trip to be more than worth your while! Keep warm, and be careful out there!

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This entry was written for Week 4 of therealljidol. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed my scenic sojourn, and weren't devastated by all the natural beauty within. Besides, how can you not vote for a post with a cute chick in red-rimmed glasses and an adorable puppy?

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support!

Indian eunuchs given separate IDs

India's Election Commission has given eunuchs an independent identity by letting them choose their gender as "other" on ballot forms.
The commission said it had received representation from various individuals and interest groups on the subject.
So far, eunuchs were forced to put down their gender as either male or female.
There are about 500,000 eunuchs in India. Known as hijras, they comprise the hermaphrodite, transvestite and transsexual communities.
Eunuchs are feared and reviled in many parts of India, where some believe they have supernatural powers.
The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi says the election commission's recognition of eunuchs as an independent group is a first step towards an official recognition of the community which has so far remained on the margins of society.

( Article under cut )

Crossposted to interactiveleaf

• 08:02 The Podcast Awards are open. Vote daily for the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and the Irish Fireside. podcastawards.com/ #
• 08:05 While voting daily for the Celtic Pdcasts & Irish Fireside in Podcast Awards, vote The Signal & Buffy Between the Lines. is.gd/4UdSi #
• 09:59 Tomorrow is weekend 2 of the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. I have shows at 12:30 and 2:30. Come on out. www.la-renfest.com/ #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter for American Celtic Musician Marc Gunn

Definitely some potential.

All weekend. Bunches of nice folks already seen and talked to, including Uncle Vlad, Pat Sayre-McCoy, Cassie, Steven Silver, etc., etc., etc. Spent time talking with Bill Roper, Jodi Lynn Nye, and Phil Foglio. Got hellos from Bill Fawcett and Mike & Carol Resnick (who were also at my Dragon*Con banquet set and told me how good it was, whoo hoo), met Toastmast Christian Ready and the lovely Kaja Foglio. I had the guitar to play in the Con Suite, but the conversations were too varied and enjoyable for me to feel good about interrupting them. 'Salright. I've got all weekend.

• Friday 6:00 Lilac A & C - Technobabble Quiz
• Friday 7:00 Lilac B & D - Opening Ceremonies
• Friday 9:30 Junior Ballroom A - Tom Smith Concert (Very Important! This is listed in the program book as being me and Eric Coleman's band Toyboat. It isn't. We simply didn't have time to get things together. But I very much want to do this next WindyCon, and having a full year of set-up should give us the time to get it right.)
• Saturday 3:00 Junior Ballroom A - Tom Smith Concert (a completely different set)
• Saturday 9:00 Lilac A & C - Masquerade (I'm doing halftime)

I don't think I have anything else, but ya never know. ;) Also, Amy McNally and Luke Ski have concerts, and there are a bunch of other fantastic folks running around, like Author GOH James Blaylock and Fan GOH Chris Garcia and Phyllis Eisenstein and Eric Flint and Bill Higgins and Jim C. Hines and Gene Wolfe and and and and and.

So, who's gonna be here (or is here already)?

I have a soft spot for Fennecs! Cheers...


moar funny pictures


(For the VI: One big-eared Fennec fox is lying curled up on a rock, nose to tail. A second Fennec sits upright behind him, with one paw on the first Fennec's back. The second Fennec asks the first, "Did you use all the Q-Tips again?")

I'm always minorly stressed out when I have a vacation day from work. At least for a little while. It's tied in to feeling like I don't have enough to do and/or don't know how to fix some of the problems that come up. I worry even more that I'll look bad and get in trouble. But I don't let it get to me too much.

Preparations yesterday and last night went well and I'm just about ready to go to Windycon! I'm looking forward a wonderful birthday weekend. akreaveter kindly is watching the animals and the house while we're out, even though I flaked and didn't ask him until yesterday. I bought dog food, cat food, and kitty litter yesterday as soon as work was over. Animals are expensive! And dumb. Sabrina, the perpetually food-neurotic cat, got frustrated after trying to get my attention to put her up on the counter with the cat feeder a couple times. I found her trying to chew into the new cat food bag. Just minutes after getting it into the house. She really has some kind of food neurosis; she seems to always think that, at any moment, it may suddenly not be there.

I helped posicat get his car up on ramps, and he fixed his electrical issue while I was working in the house getting stuff together. Then, he helped me out with jumping the Neon. Except it didn't need a jump; the negative battery cable was just loose. I am officially an idiot. (Posi was kind enough to say that he deals with idiots all day on the phone and that I, by virtue of listening to his suggestions and trying them out, am not an idiot. *grins*)

The golden leaves of the willow outside in the morning are so beautiful. I'm still getting up earlier; it was seven thirty today, so I'll take that as progress in my quest to become a morning person. And you know, I feel really good after going to be around nine o' clock a few nights in a row.

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I'm still getting New York pictures up. Here's one of what may be my favorite building in the city. An Art Deco skyscraper popularly known as the GE Building. (Not the one on Rockefeller Center; this is a different, older one.)




Look at this. The silver fist holding a jagged vertical bolt of power. The arms, over the classic GE symbol clock, reaching out to harness the power of electricity. This was built when technology companies made ostentatious statements, because technology equated to power, mystery, and magic. This is the statement this building makes to me. "We are GE. We own the lightning, and you will use it at our pleasure."

I've been full of thoughts lately, about politics, my role in it, and the divisivness of society. For a long while, I was really enjoying MSNBC, feeling at long last like maybe i was less alone. But more and more they just report on 'the otehr side' rather than news. I want to hear what's going on, and I don't think Glen Becks opinion about it is news. Palin is not news, and never will be again. I do want a more honest refreshing take on teh news, but I'm tired of all the name calling, which sometimes I think is just as bad on the left.
Ok..yes maybe you ahve to correct the lies of the right, but at the same time, the fact that Fox News blatantly lies isn't really news to anyone (of any intellect whatsover)...So what's the answer?
I'm not sure. Even Indy media and internet sources get bogged down, and i've never been that good at that kind of digging anyway. Democracy now is probably still the best source of news out there, so there is something. But that is almost too focused, leaving me with very little hope.
And hope is what it's about. I just have trouble having hope when i realize that nearly 30% of the nation would rather DIE than give us free choice, equal rights, and health care. That doesn't feel like a war that can be won, until those people die. it's depressing and hopeless.

Look what a few nutballs managed to do to our healthcare bill, which couldn't have turend out much better for the health care companies than if they passed it themselves. At this point, I'D vote against it.

So I want to make a commercial, maybe post it on the youtube. I have a great idea. I need a video camera, a fire truck, a burning house, some firefighters uniforms, one police uniform, 7-10 actors, a knife, and a dark alley. Ok the first one might be tricky. The second one will take some meandering (I'd rather find it than through larceny.)

Anyway, pure fantasy there. but not really. Believe it or not, if i had a good digital camera, I thik I could figure the rest out.

I need to do SOMETHING..something big preferrebly.

I'm also still thinking about school applications next year. Hopefully all the tax things will be kosher this year, and I can actually apply.

As I've been watching and paying attention to this community for a while now, and as I've been getting on with my life and finding out that Seattle is remarkably cool when it comes to transgendered individuals coming out, I've decided to celebrate my particular start of full-time girlness (or as close as I can make it) by introducing myself in the seemingly traditional manner:

Bi: Certainly. Attraction may have some appearance basis, but largely what gets my interest in someone is what's going on in their head and how I get along with them. The physical details aren't that important to me, save with regard to how to do things.

Poly: Definitely. Currently sporting a stable relationship with a boyfriend going on four years now (by far the longest for me) and a budding relationship with someone else who is, unfortunately, down in Texas. The pair of us got together with the recognition that monogamy does not work for either of us, so.

Pagan: Sorta-kinda-not-really? The BF's more into paganism than I am, as I tend towards something of a homebrewed blend of philosophy in lieu of other beliefs; somewhere between Zen, Absurdism, and Existentialism. Everything is.

Geek: YES. Probably what I identify most readily with, though most of my geekery is pretty varied, I imagine. On the more prosaic end, tabletop RPGs are my particular crack of choice, DMing a D&D 4e game every other week and playing up to once or twice a week. Currently absorbed in Torchlight- curse them for such an addictive little game! It's worse than WoW! Add into that my enjoyment of painting miniatures (the Retribution in Warmachine has recently caught my eye for asthetics) and my tendency to still play with legos... Of course, this doesn't really touch on what I consider trans/post/yadda/human thoughts and tendencies, with a definite eye towards futuristic fiction- Stross and Scalzi are a pair of my favorites of late.

And that's the rap sheet! Above and beyond that I'm currently back in college (after 12 years out of school, it's novel!) and trying to get an education above and beyond what I have so that I can get out of minimum wage employment, working on an English degree with an eye towards becoming a professional writer. My particular employment fantasy would be working for a company which allows me to detail world settings for RPGs and come up with what the world is and how it works~~~

See? Totally geek. <3