Most of the hoo-ha about the ERA occurred just as we moved from New Zealand to Blanding, Utah. I remember the hysteria over protests at Temple Square, and something on Donahue with one of the leading protestors that my librarian taped. She wasn't Mormon, so I think she was being slightly subversive, letting me and my group of friends watch it.
Here, it was mostly about the gay thing, it was the whole "foot in the door - once women are equal, gays will be equal, and where will it end?" Which, as we all probably know, is simply code for "women and gays=not equal."
Anyway, sorry for the bit of thread-jacking. I just find the subject interesting. ;-D
To answer your question, Deborah, I don't think it's quite hard sci-fi, although I am trying to keep all my science pretty much as honest as possible. Brushing up on quantum theory, looking at information on dark matter, that kind of thing. I'm also trying to make it as amusing as possible, although apparently most of the funny is quite accidental. Which is good, because me and trying to be funny is just wrong.
Thus far, I am about two chapters in, and have been on it for two weeks, officially, tomorrow. Heh. Someone on another board goaded me (in the nicest possible way) into writing a piece of fan-fic, and I figured that while I was at it, trying to prove that I could, I might as well get off my ass, metaphorically speaking, and start one of the books I've wanted to write since I was about ten or eleven and discovered science fiction. The further I get into it, the easier it is, although it has been hard to sit and type the amounts I want to. I've been working around that by keeping a notebook (actually the Notebook of Doom), and writing longhand whenever something hits me. That has also helped me work out some of the beats, although I don't have an outline yet, to my shame.
So, in first stages still, but I'm still interested and working on it, which is more than I've managed before.
"God Squad" is not a phrase that says anything other than "religious" to me.
Your definitions may - and apparently do - vary. I heard the phrase first from my buddy in London, who was a Jesuit, and rather fierce about it (damn, I miss Tom. Best debater I ever knew). When I say God Squad, it has a particular meaning, and it differentiates significantly between "human being of any given faith practising said faith" and "fanatic lunatic determined to plough across the face of the planet on a Holy Mission". The original usage of the phrase came to me with far stronger connotations toward the latter than the former.
Brushing up on quantum theory
I can't tell you how amazing I find that sentence, and how happy it makes me.
Can you talk about the Notebook of Doom?
But that line about screw the movement? Was said to me in all seriousness by far too many "post-feminist" women. I hear it a LOT, mostly by twenty and thirty-somethings.
That was pure piss. I am not post feminist, though. I am solidly feminist. Someone--Sars maybe--wrote a great (well, I thought it was great) essay along the lines of, "No, you *are* a feminist." I'll have to see if I can dig it up.
Actually, really I think of these guys from Good Morning America: [link] Anyway. Off to write another apartment drabble.
Dayum, Cindy, you're quick. I was about to ask to see it. Excellent!
Now I'm wondering if Jesse's apartment is yellow...
YELLOW
I’m not entirely sold on the apartment, but it’s big enough, and convenient enough, and I can afford it, so I move in. Each morning, I am awoken by the sun streaming in my east-facing bedroom windows, and I love it. I decide to paint, something I’ve never done before. I think I’m still trying to talk myself into this place, make it mine. The paint company calls the color dandelion, but truly, it’s the color of sunshine, of happiness. My mother asks how I can sleep in such a bright room. I tell her I just close my eyes.
But that line about screw the movement? Was said to me in all seriousness by far too many "post-feminist" women. I hear it a LOT, mostly by twenty and thirty-somethings.
Interesting. I think I've heard that much more often from people in my parents' generation, most often accompanied by a, "Oh, you're a feminist? Isn't that cute! I used to be one -- you'll grow out of it."
t /off topic
Hmm. Yellow. I think I've got an idea for something, but need to figure out how to get it from a bunch of images into words.
I can't tell you how amazing I find that sentence, and how happy it makes me.
Is it still happy-making if I admit it's to use as a mere plot device? ;-D I was just trying to ensure that I knew what I thought I knew. Which, it turns out, not quite. There is some amazing stuff out there, and the ramifications just make my little sci-fi heart go ka-thomp.
Can you talk about the Notebook of Doom?
Of course! It's just a spiral-bound wide-ruled school notebook my kids didn't need (although, I do tend to swipe a few, whether they need them or not), that I've found handy to have with me, wherever, in case something pops into my brain that I want to catch.
It's really a hybrid of the fiction I'm working on, ranty-rants, top ten lists of why I don't want to be a security guard (for example), stupid things people do, which then all gets rewritten as I type it up either on my LiveJournal or wherever.
And, naturally, I wrote "Notebook of Doom" on the cover. I'm very literal-minded.
Cindy, I liked that article a lot. Breaks it down to the basics and makes you take a really close look at the word and what it means. It covers a lot more ground than the way many people use it. Thanks for the link!
