Ana Mardoll's Ramblings: March 2016

Open Thread: Painted Truck

Seen in Portland Maine on Wednesday. I can make out "Love", "Peace", and "Music", not much else.

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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!

And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!

Open Thread: Polluted Art

The hard part isn't getting the picture, it's getting the picture, once on computer, to look the way the thing did in real life. Anyway, the rains have come.

Before summer heat I actually prefer the snow. It's not that I like shoveling, it's just that snow (as opposed to wintery mix and other states of near-snow) is dry. Even the types that cling until your body heat melts them can't soak you as fast as rain. Soaked and cold is very bad.

But on the plus side: no shoveling, watered plants, and snow doesn't do nearly as nice looking things with the fluids of leaky cars.

Narnia: Rearranging the Bookends

[Narnia Content Note: Racism, Violence, Rape]

Narnia Recap: Shasta has been taken in by the Narnians so that we can observe their conversation from the character's POV.

Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 5: Prince Corin

When we last left Chapter 5, Edmund was asserting without any evidence at all that he thinks their host is likely to forcibly marry Susan and/or make her into a slave (which is worse, according to him).

   “But how can he? Does the Tisroc think our brother the High King would suffer such an outrage?”
   “Sire,” said Peridan to the King. “They would not be so mad. Do they think there are no swords and spears in Narnia?”
   “Alas,” said Edmund. “My guess is that the Tisroc has very small fear of Narnia. We are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longs to blot them out, gobble them up. When first he suffered the Prince to come to Cair Paravel as your lover, sister, it may be that he was only seeking an occasion against us. Most likely he hopes to make one mouthful of Narnia and Archenland both.”

I've been staring at this passage for a couple of weeks now with no idea what to do with it because there's just so much to unpack here and I don't know where to start. I'd like to attempt a summary.

SUSAN: But Peter.
PERIDAN: But army.
EDMUND: Have you noticed they both suck?

Disability: Chronic Pain, Disability, and Opioid Access

[Content Note: Pain, Disability, Addiction, Self-Harm]

Storify below the cut.

Open Thread: Nature's Ice Breaker

Not that long ago. Wednesday. I had to drop off primary computer at the Best Buy to have it sent out for repairs. It's a long walk, definitely an hour each way. I think they remodeled the mall a bit.

Coming home the sun decided to race me. It bet that it could set before I could reach Clark's Pond to have an unobstructed view of the sunset. It won. But as I got there I saw geese. There were at least five, maybe more, but at first I saw only two. One was standing on the ice as a goose naturally would. the other was this one.

This goose is not surrounded by water, unless by "water" one means "hydrogen dioxide regardless of physical state." No. It is in ice. But it swims. Because why should the pond being covered in ice stop it from taking a swim? It cuts trails through the ice, leaving water in it's goose-thin wake.

It is nature's ice breaker, and it will not let a little something like the fact the pond is completely frozen over stop it from having a swim.

Disability: Oranges and Disability Accessible Items

[TW: Abuse, Disability]

So, this happened yesterday. My tweets immediately went viral and I've had about 3,000 notifications (give or take) in 24-hours. I figured I'd share it here, though I don't have a lot more to say on the subject.

Storify under the cut.

Open Thread: At the Docks

Something I saw at the docks a while back. For people who aren't fans of wheels.

The Casco Bay Bridge goes over the Fore River Estuary and passes almost directly over the spot where The Scotia Prince used to dock. The Prince was a cruise-ferry, or is that a ferry-cruise? It went from Portland, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. (It also had gambling once you hit international waters.) Over a decade ago it stopped operating; there was a major health problem in the terminal (mold) and in the end they were evicted and the building demolished.

I don't know who owns the docks there now, but they're using them for shipping goods instead of people. Usually you don't see anything but the containers the size of an 18 wheeler trailer which are designed for easy switching from ship's cargo to truck's shipment.

Sometimes there's something different.

Narnia: Wife or Slave

[Narnia Content Note: Racism, Sexual Violence, Orientalism]

Narnia Recap: Shasta has been taken in by the Narnians so that we can observe their conversation from the character's POV.

Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 5: Prince Corin

I can't quite believe we're only in Chapter 5. When we last left Chapter 4, Lewis cut a conversation midway through because I presume he was trying to add suspense. But the short version is: Susan doesn't want to marry Rabadash, she suggested that they leave Tashbaan "this very day" (which would be unreasonable and insulting to her host, but I'm not sure if Lewis didn't know that or if Susan didn't), and Edmund looked very grave and asked that the doors be shut against possible spies.

Incidentally, if you missed it in the comments last time, gehayi reminded me that I wrote this: Loving Her Less. I recommend reading it, because I'm pretty proud of it and we're at that place in the book and now moving forward. Onward and upward.

Open Thread: Super Tuesday

[I'm not posting a gif on the main page, but if I did, it would be that glorious gif where the bald eagle tries to bite Donald Trump.]

Here there be politics. For a non-politics open thread, proceed here without passing Go.

We're tentatively hosting an open thread for processing today. I'm going to repeat some of what I've said on Twitter (here): Please be kind to one another. I'm a Clinton fan. Several of the moderators here are Sanders fans. I'm pretty sure almost all of us are anti-Trump. I would like us to all still be able to get along gently and amicably and kindly after today. I think so far we've done well with this, but I expect today to be an emotional one.

Remember: A person's vote is their own, to use however they feel is most valuable. Whether that means a "strategy vote" or a "protest vote" or just being really damn enthusiastic about their candidate; all of those are valid reasons. Please do not urge people how to vote--we've all had enough of that.

Remember: Please be kind. There are ways to celebrate that aren't gloating; there are ways to mourn that aren't blaming. There are legitimate, valid, real criticisms to be made of both candidates and their supporters that don't dunk everyone in the same tub of ice cream without room for nuance and difference of opinion. Note that I haven't seen anything like that in this space, but I'm nervous and twitchy from The Great Twitter Schism of 2016.

Remember: November isn't tomorrow. If one of the candidates loses today (which I'm not saying will happen, just hedging bets here), please give their supporters time to mourn and grieve without being like okay you have to support our candidate right now because Trump. We have many months to process grief, and it is entirely valid to grieve when a candidate you supported loses. It is legitimately frightening and helpless-feeling to feel like you have no say over an important decision that affects your life. Let people grieve and be kind, I beg.

Remember: If you need to unsubscribe from comments for self-care reasons, that's okay. Love to everyone. <3

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