![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
Hi there. "Moonmoth" will work right now for what to call me. It's not the name I'm walking around with right now. What it is, is the handle I use online when I don't have to interact with an entity that knows me by that name. It's not anything like that name, or any other name I answer to. And that's the point, because the person people know by that name, or call by those other names I answer to, isn't really me. It's just a facade I worked up to not have to deal with expectations that never really lined up with who I am. And I'm not interested in having that name associated with this handle.
So the handle is really a cover name. The name that goes with the handle on online accounts is another cover name from the same place. If you're curious, you can find out where I got them from, and why I picked them, in this comment.
I grew up in an environment where gender and sexuality were subject to intensive policing. In my case, not by such blatantly traumatic approaches such as physical violence or being threatened with being thrown out onto the streets for violating cultural norms, but still traumatically by indoctrination into being responsible for understanding those norms and, although not needing to conform to all of them, nevertheless generally not contravening any of them -- bolstered by unfavorable opinions of any who did so. This in the name of facilitating circulation and establishing relationships in the cultural environments favored by my parents and the prevailing culture. It wasn't bad advice for the time, for those environments, but it still didn't align at all well with my developing identity.
The message I was getting was that other people's impression of my identity was driven by my actions, particularly those actions I was observed in, rather than my identity. And that was something that my young self could work with. For cultural norms my behavior was at odds with, I could learn how not to show that problematic behavior, and replace that with the more acceptable not expressing the associated normative behavior. By aligning with enough norms for my presumed gender and sexuality, and suppressing rather than violating norms I had issues with, I was presumed to be normative in those dimensions despite much specific supporting evidence. And the result was close enough to a common stereotype for me to be readily so classified, and my remaining behavioral quirks interpreted in that framework.
That suited me well enough. But I figured out I wasn't a good enough actor to role-play someone I really wasn't without eventually getting caught thinking about it and destroying the role-play illusion, so I wound up burying the problematic behaviors deep behind automatic reactions I didn't have to think about -- and covering them over by incorporating the automatic reaction into my display identity: the facade I mentioned earlier.
My identity went with the behaviors and got buried as well. The cover identity was not so uncomfortable a fit that I couldn't stand it, and served its purpose well enough for a reasonably successful career and life path. But my identity, though buried, was something I understood must be retained, and, in suitable conditions of privacy, would emerge for a while before hiding again. It was like it was taking a look around to see whether conditions were suitable for its re-emergence, and seeing that they weren't.
This state of affairs broke down some years ago, when a career reversal and accompanying emotional effects triggered a period of introspection. Even though my cover identity had been aware of the words describing my identity, and positive examples of people showing those traits, those hadn't opened the way for my identity the way giving myself some time to think about it did. But my identity escaping from its confinement has led to my improving my understanding of who I am, and has set me on the way to showing that to everyone.
There are far too many definitions of terms regarding gender and sexuality out there for me to feel that I can just say that "my gender is x" and have it be interpreted how I intend it. How I use the phrase "gender identity" is as an intensely personal assertion: it denotes who someone believes they are, and how they interpret their behavior as supporting norms for their gender identity. I have regained the awareness that I have a nonbinary gender identity. Some of my behaviors align with norms that are considered culturally "masculine"; others align with norms that are considered culturally "feminine". I do not describe myself in terms of those norms or the gender identities they are culturally associated with, or say that I am whatever percentage "man" or "woman" based on how many of those norms my behavior aligns with. My gender is my own, and the only gender norm I recognize, and which all of my behaviors support, is the one labeled "mine".
As far as I can tell from my current perspective, I have always been nonbinary. When I was young, I learned that there were things labeled "boy things" and "girl things", but it was never clear to me where those categories came from or how it was decided what they contained, let alone why they seemed so important. Even though I buried my identity for a long time, I knew it was still an important part of me that it was important for me to hang on to. And now I am working on returning it to the visibility I would rather it had had all along.
I do not "identify" as nonbinary. People may identify me as nonbinary; some do. Others misidentify me as one of the binary genders. None of that affects my gender identity. Neither does what I am wearing, or doing, or saying. I am still nonbinary.
The only time I have "come out" is to myself, when my identity reasserted itself after many years in seclusion. Rather, when I make a conscious effort to leave my crumbling gender facade at home and be visible in my true identity, I "go out" as myself -- and because I am nonbinary, I go out as nonbinary. Whether people can see it or not.
My pronouns are "xe/xyr/xyrs/xyrself" in those rare occasions when gender matters, and "they/them/theirs/themself" when it is not germane to the situation. Example: "Moonmoth said they were going to dinner with their spouse and a couple of friends" vs. "Moonmoth is uncomfortable enough that there aren't any gender-inclusive restrooms in the function space that xe winds up going back to xyr room every time xe needs to use the toilet."
I do not have "preferred" pronouns. I just have pronouns, and they are mine whether you use them or not. I view pronoun sets as a form of nickname: a short word that is supposed to describe and identify someone in a given context. I cannot control which pronoun set you use to identify me in your conversations, but using "he" or "she" feels to me like using a misdescribing and insulting nickname. Doing so doesn't say anything about me, but it does say something about the person using that pronoun set -- and continuing to use inaccurate pronoun sets after someone has been told to stop doing that gives me a quite unfavorable impression about their willingness to interact with me as myself. If you accidentally use a different neopronoun set for me, I'll probably be OK with that. As for myself, I diligently respect others' pronouns, and for other folks who are comfortable with multiple pronoun sets, default to the one they like best.
This is the space where I go out as nonbinary online. It was created to be such a space. I am trying, to whatever extent I can, to have interactions uncolored by what gender people believe I might once have thought I was, or think I still am because of any aspect of my appearance or behavior. I am doing my best to not let things that are commonly used to infer someone's gender identity or sexuality out of my postings and comments, such as my wallet name, various physical attributes, or any description of my spouse beyond that I have one. Some stuff may leak, regardless; it's amazing how many things influence people's impression of others' gender. Should you spot something like that, please do me the favor of keeping that inference to yourself -- although if you wanted to PM me and mention it, I'd thank you for that.
I have, in the past few years, shared with some people I have met face-to-face that this is my online nonbinary space. If you believe you recognize me from my activity, and wish to confirm this, please do so privately. If you know the email address that goes with my wallet name, you can ask me there. I probably won't mind if you PM me here and ask.
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Sticky: Sticky Post: Gender and Gender Identity
Dec. 15th, 2020 09:51 pmI am not going to do yet another Gender 101 post here. There are already way too many reputable and responsible organizations with excellent pages that talk about gender and define gender-related terms much better and more comprehensively than I could ever do. They're pretty easy to find. If the one you find affirms that everyone's gender identity is valid, you're in a good place. Organizations that provide assistance and support for trans people are usually a good bet, because trans people and the people who want to help them are dealing with gender all the time, and can't help but think about it.
With so many different people presenting gender information, it's completely understandable that the views that are presented come from different places, and turn out to be more supportive of their own ideas on the subject -- often to the point where the definitions appear to be completely different. I'm not linking to any of them because, to me, it's most important that everyone understand gender the way that suits them best, and I don't want to impose my opinions on that process. This is my view of how I understand gender.
My own view of gender aligns well with Julia Serano's: gender identity is an emergent property of the physical, emotional, and cultural effects on a person's life. Which is to say that there is nothing about any of those effects that categorically determines someone's gender identity, but they all contribute to that person's understanding of their gender identity. And every person is their own sole authority on their gender identity: it is what they say it is, and the actions they take that, to them, align with their gender identity, support their assertion.
Here are some conclusions that I believe are important, that follow from my current view of gender.
A gender identity is a property of a person. Although it is frequently a static property, it need not be. And someone's having a dynamic gender identity does not invalidate them or their current gender identity. Someone's gender identity is visible only to the extent they choose to project it, and to the extent that those actions are recognized as affirming their gender identity.
Going along with this, saying someone "identifies as" a gender identity introduces doubt into that being their gender identity. "Identification" is something that is done, not something that just is. I interpret it as indicating that one person, observing someone, constructs a hypothesis that "identifies" the target of their observation "as" having a particular gender identity. The observations may or may not be meaningful, or interpreted correctly, and the hypothesis may not be soundly constructed. To what extent these apply strongly influences the accuracy of the hypothesis. So, for me, someone who says "I identify as a woman" is only saying, "Based on observing these things about myself [which are probably far from comprehensive] and my understanding of how these things relate to gender [which may well be fatally biased by the people they know and the culture they inhabit], I choose to guess that my gender identity is "woman" [perhaps because my gender knowledge declares that "man" and "woman" are the only valid genders]." Part of becoming gender-aware is realizing that one must validate such a hypothesis, for others and for one's own self, instead of just using it.
Similarly, the pronoun sets someone associates with themself are a property of that person, be they ones that were assigned to them that they have decided fit, or ones that they chose for themself because the ones they used previously no longer fit them. The pronouns may be contextual (mine are), or variable (Eddie Izzard was, until recently, a canonical example here), but they are not "preferences". They are as much a property of a person as their name, and deserve the same respect. Denying the validity of someone's name and imposing a different name on them has been used as a tool for personal oppression and cultural suppression. This is why I am very uncomfortable with people who will not use the name or pronouns someone asserts are theirs.
Presentation choices and medical intervention are not essential components of establishing someone's gender identity. Some people find these actions useful in support of their gender identity, while others do not. Deciding to disclose whether someone has received hormonal or surgical treatment in support of their gender identity is private and personal information, and not anyone else's to ask.
By way of wanting to find a way to more clearly identify the source of gender assumptions, I have repurposed a couple of terms that make it easier for me to describe some aspects of gender. Continuing the tradition of appropriating Greek and Latin prefixes in defining medical terms, I will often use the prefix "episio-" (Greek term meaning "loins"; it may be familiar to those who have come across the term "episotomy") to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's crotch, and "morpho-" (Greek term meaning "form"; also seen in the biological term "morphology") to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's body shape. (One could also use the already established "karyo-" to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's chromosomes.) This means I can use "morphogender" to refer to the act of applying stereotypical associations of body shape with gender to guess someone's gender identity (which can then also be called their morphogender), describe the gender identity that is culturally assumed for a particular body shape as "morphonormative", or use "episiology" to refer to the assumptions that the appearance of someone's crotch is predictive of their gender identity. The assumptions of episiology are quite a bit like a now-discredited set that claimed that the shape of one's skull was predictive of their mental inclinations. And I hope that sometime in the future episiology will be discredited then to the same extent that phrenology is now, and am pleased by the congruence in terms.
With so many different people presenting gender information, it's completely understandable that the views that are presented come from different places, and turn out to be more supportive of their own ideas on the subject -- often to the point where the definitions appear to be completely different. I'm not linking to any of them because, to me, it's most important that everyone understand gender the way that suits them best, and I don't want to impose my opinions on that process. This is my view of how I understand gender.
My own view of gender aligns well with Julia Serano's: gender identity is an emergent property of the physical, emotional, and cultural effects on a person's life. Which is to say that there is nothing about any of those effects that categorically determines someone's gender identity, but they all contribute to that person's understanding of their gender identity. And every person is their own sole authority on their gender identity: it is what they say it is, and the actions they take that, to them, align with their gender identity, support their assertion.
Here are some conclusions that I believe are important, that follow from my current view of gender.
A gender identity is a property of a person. Although it is frequently a static property, it need not be. And someone's having a dynamic gender identity does not invalidate them or their current gender identity. Someone's gender identity is visible only to the extent they choose to project it, and to the extent that those actions are recognized as affirming their gender identity.
Going along with this, saying someone "identifies as" a gender identity introduces doubt into that being their gender identity. "Identification" is something that is done, not something that just is. I interpret it as indicating that one person, observing someone, constructs a hypothesis that "identifies" the target of their observation "as" having a particular gender identity. The observations may or may not be meaningful, or interpreted correctly, and the hypothesis may not be soundly constructed. To what extent these apply strongly influences the accuracy of the hypothesis. So, for me, someone who says "I identify as a woman" is only saying, "Based on observing these things about myself [which are probably far from comprehensive] and my understanding of how these things relate to gender [which may well be fatally biased by the people they know and the culture they inhabit], I choose to guess that my gender identity is "woman" [perhaps because my gender knowledge declares that "man" and "woman" are the only valid genders]." Part of becoming gender-aware is realizing that one must validate such a hypothesis, for others and for one's own self, instead of just using it.
Similarly, the pronoun sets someone associates with themself are a property of that person, be they ones that were assigned to them that they have decided fit, or ones that they chose for themself because the ones they used previously no longer fit them. The pronouns may be contextual (mine are), or variable (Eddie Izzard was, until recently, a canonical example here), but they are not "preferences". They are as much a property of a person as their name, and deserve the same respect. Denying the validity of someone's name and imposing a different name on them has been used as a tool for personal oppression and cultural suppression. This is why I am very uncomfortable with people who will not use the name or pronouns someone asserts are theirs.
Presentation choices and medical intervention are not essential components of establishing someone's gender identity. Some people find these actions useful in support of their gender identity, while others do not. Deciding to disclose whether someone has received hormonal or surgical treatment in support of their gender identity is private and personal information, and not anyone else's to ask.
By way of wanting to find a way to more clearly identify the source of gender assumptions, I have repurposed a couple of terms that make it easier for me to describe some aspects of gender. Continuing the tradition of appropriating Greek and Latin prefixes in defining medical terms, I will often use the prefix "episio-" (Greek term meaning "loins"; it may be familiar to those who have come across the term "episotomy") to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's crotch, and "morpho-" (Greek term meaning "form"; also seen in the biological term "morphology") to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's body shape. (One could also use the already established "karyo-" to identify conclusions drawn from observing someone's chromosomes.) This means I can use "morphogender" to refer to the act of applying stereotypical associations of body shape with gender to guess someone's gender identity (which can then also be called their morphogender), describe the gender identity that is culturally assumed for a particular body shape as "morphonormative", or use "episiology" to refer to the assumptions that the appearance of someone's crotch is predictive of their gender identity. The assumptions of episiology are quite a bit like a now-discredited set that claimed that the shape of one's skull was predictive of their mental inclinations. And I hope that sometime in the future episiology will be discredited then to the same extent that phrenology is now, and am pleased by the congruence in terms.
They swim in the pool with the fishes
Jun. 19th, 2023 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith is having another half-price sale of their poetry. (For those of you who have not been on my friends list long enough to see this, they are a crowdfunded author and poet with a large body of work I enjoy. Most of the sale poetry comes from their monthly Poetry Fishbowl.) This half-price sale features works from their Polychrome Heroics storyline.One common feature of the half-price sales is a volume discount: any person or persons who sponsors more than $100 worth of poetry need only pay half the half-price rate. This is a great bargain. Some of us are inclined to offer people who wouldn't otherwise want to spend that much a chance at that bargain by running sponsorship pools, where we designate a list of targets of interest and provide the initial funding. Anyone interested in seeing any of those works sponsored can chip in a bit toward the pool targets, and then use the quarter-price discount for anything else they may want to buy.
This pool, usual suspect
fuzzyred and I are proposing to buy out the Big One and Kraken threads. fuzzyred also wants "A Serious Eater" from the Shiv thread. Together we can already just about cover that. This means that anyone interested in joining the pool is free to specify any new target they would like to help sponsor, and new pool funds will go toward funding it.Looking forward to the action!
Song: Night on the Town
Apr. 10th, 2023 09:00 pmPosting this here as part of participating in a filk song swap.
This post contains a lyric sheet with chords, a studio track of an arrangement I sequenced and a bitmap copy of the sheet music. I will be happy to send PDFs of the sheet music or lyric sheet to anyone who would like them.
( The track )
( Sheet music )
This post contains a lyric sheet with chords, a studio track of an arrangement I sequenced and a bitmap copy of the sheet music. I will be happy to send PDFs of the sheet music or lyric sheet to anyone who would like them.
( The track )
( Lyrics and chords )
( Sheet music )
Five questions meme
Nov. 23rd, 2022 10:05 pmGot this question set from julian . Wanna play? Ask for a set of questions, and I'll see what I can come up with. Or ask me another set here, and I'm likely to answer.
( Questions and answers within )
julian . Wanna play? Ask for a set of questions, and I'll see what I can come up with. Or ask me another set here, and I'm likely to answer.( Questions and answers within )
It's Pool Season
Sep. 20th, 2022 09:47 amAs is often the case, fuzzyred and I are combining forces to offer a quarter-price pool on one of ysabetwordsmith's discount sales of their Poetry Fishbowl output. This round's sale offers poems from a number of threads in their Polychrome Heroics storyline.
The normal discount for poems offered in the sale is half-price. However, large buyers (at least $100) get an additional discount, and can buy anything they wish to sponsor at quarter-price. Because that may be a difficult number for many to offer all by themselves, multiple people can combine money to reach that threshold, and all participants receive the quarter-price discount.
So here's how this pool works:fuzzyred and I came up with a list of poems we wanted to sponsor that added up to enough to trigger the quarter-price discount. Anyone else who would like to sponsor poems at quarter-price instead of half-price may do so by pledging a meaningful amount toward the pool's funding targets, and either fully sponsoring a poem they wanted or asking for sponsoring assistance from other pool members for a poem they can't entirely sponsor themselves. A good guide for "meaningful" would be at least $5, or 10% of one's pledge.
For starters, this pool will be buying out the Aquariana ($117.50 at half-price) and Officer Pink ($131) threads, and "The Glue of LIfe" ($201) from the Shiv thread. This is $224.75 at quarter-price. The pool will also be finishing the microfunded poem "Rainshadow Road" ($23, locked price). So i you are interested in supporting any of this funding activity, simply comment below or PM me with the amount you wish to pledge, and any additional poems you would like to buy at quarter-price, and I will update the pool's buy list.
Funding that comes in for pool poems enables the pool to buy more poetry. This round's stretch goals are the Shiv thread "That Big, Booming Drum" ($132.75 at quarter-price) and "Coyote Never Loses" ($99.50 at quarter-price). If those get funded, more stretch goals may be added.
Settlement is by PayPal by Saturday evening, so I can forward the money then. I will send my PayPal handle to any sponsor who needs it.
Hoping for lots of fun and lots of poetry!
fuzzyred and I are combining forces to offer a quarter-price pool on one of ysabetwordsmith's discount sales of their Poetry Fishbowl output. This round's sale offers poems from a number of threads in their Polychrome Heroics storyline.The normal discount for poems offered in the sale is half-price. However, large buyers (at least $100) get an additional discount, and can buy anything they wish to sponsor at quarter-price. Because that may be a difficult number for many to offer all by themselves, multiple people can combine money to reach that threshold, and all participants receive the quarter-price discount.
So here's how this pool works:
fuzzyred and I came up with a list of poems we wanted to sponsor that added up to enough to trigger the quarter-price discount. Anyone else who would like to sponsor poems at quarter-price instead of half-price may do so by pledging a meaningful amount toward the pool's funding targets, and either fully sponsoring a poem they wanted or asking for sponsoring assistance from other pool members for a poem they can't entirely sponsor themselves. A good guide for "meaningful" would be at least $5, or 10% of one's pledge.For starters, this pool will be buying out the Aquariana ($117.50 at half-price) and Officer Pink ($131) threads, and "The Glue of LIfe" ($201) from the Shiv thread. This is $224.75 at quarter-price. The pool will also be finishing the microfunded poem "Rainshadow Road" ($23, locked price). So i you are interested in supporting any of this funding activity, simply comment below or PM me with the amount you wish to pledge, and any additional poems you would like to buy at quarter-price, and I will update the pool's buy list.
Funding that comes in for pool poems enables the pool to buy more poetry. This round's stretch goals are the Shiv thread "That Big, Booming Drum" ($132.75 at quarter-price) and "Coyote Never Loses" ($99.50 at quarter-price). If those get funded, more stretch goals may be added.
Settlement is by PayPal by Saturday evening, so I can forward the money then. I will send my PayPal handle to any sponsor who needs it.
Hoping for lots of fun and lots of poetry!
My gender counselor let me know at this week's appointment that they will be attending a professional conference in a couple of weeks, focused on nonbinary identities and best practices for interacting with, and providing therapy for, nonbinary patients. As one of their nonbinary patients, they invited me to contribute my insight regarding these topics.
Although I have my own opinions on these matters, which I am busy writing down and passing on, I recognize that the very nature of nonbinary gender identity means that those are merely my own opinions, influenced by how I view my specific gender identity and nonbinary gender identities. I am only the unquestioned authority on my own gender identity, not on anyone else's. So, in the name of improving the counseling experience and results for all nonbinary people, I invite every nonbinary person who reads my blog to provide their viewpoints, to be forwarded on to my gender therapist for use at the conference.
To keep things manageable, I'd like to restrict the range of things being covered to two main points:
1. What do you consider most important for gender therapists to know about nonbinary gender identities?
2. What things are of greatest benefit to you as you interact with a gender therapist?
There are currently two topics on my list. The first one is for there to be guidelines that recognize that "nonbinary" is a category of gender identities. The category is the exact opposite of monolithic: everyone with a nonbinary gender identity has their own unique idea of what that means to them, and what matters to them. (I personally believe that is true for everyone, but that is only how I feel on the matter.) This should be noncontroversial and nonnegotiable.
The second topic concerns representation. Recommendations promulgated entirely by people who lack the experience of being nonbinary in a relentlessly binary culture will inevitably fail to reflect the lived experience of those of us who face that challenge every day. I don't know how likely that is, but I would be especially wary of any recommendation put forth by an entirely cisgender panel.
I will add more to this list as I come up with them.
So, here's your chance to provide input into the process of mental health care for nonbinary people. I will have to summarize and forward the results by Wednesday, August 10, so be sure to comment or DM me in time for me to do that. Yes, you may distribute this to any nonbinary people you know. I am actively seeking as broad a range of experience as I can manage.
I will be screening comments for this post for the sake of privacy. If you would like me to unscreen your comment, please let me know. Forwarded comments will be pseudonymized ("NB1", "NB2", etc. rather than DW handles),
Thank you to all who choose to help me in this matter!
Although I have my own opinions on these matters, which I am busy writing down and passing on, I recognize that the very nature of nonbinary gender identity means that those are merely my own opinions, influenced by how I view my specific gender identity and nonbinary gender identities. I am only the unquestioned authority on my own gender identity, not on anyone else's. So, in the name of improving the counseling experience and results for all nonbinary people, I invite every nonbinary person who reads my blog to provide their viewpoints, to be forwarded on to my gender therapist for use at the conference.
To keep things manageable, I'd like to restrict the range of things being covered to two main points:
1. What do you consider most important for gender therapists to know about nonbinary gender identities?
2. What things are of greatest benefit to you as you interact with a gender therapist?
There are currently two topics on my list. The first one is for there to be guidelines that recognize that "nonbinary" is a category of gender identities. The category is the exact opposite of monolithic: everyone with a nonbinary gender identity has their own unique idea of what that means to them, and what matters to them. (I personally believe that is true for everyone, but that is only how I feel on the matter.) This should be noncontroversial and nonnegotiable.
The second topic concerns representation. Recommendations promulgated entirely by people who lack the experience of being nonbinary in a relentlessly binary culture will inevitably fail to reflect the lived experience of those of us who face that challenge every day. I don't know how likely that is, but I would be especially wary of any recommendation put forth by an entirely cisgender panel.
I will add more to this list as I come up with them.
So, here's your chance to provide input into the process of mental health care for nonbinary people. I will have to summarize and forward the results by Wednesday, August 10, so be sure to comment or DM me in time for me to do that. Yes, you may distribute this to any nonbinary people you know. I am actively seeking as broad a range of experience as I can manage.
I will be screening comments for this post for the sake of privacy. If you would like me to unscreen your comment, please let me know. Forwarded comments will be pseudonymized ("NB1", "NB2", etc. rather than DW handles),
Thank you to all who choose to help me in this matter!
Summertime is Pool Weather
Jun. 22nd, 2022 04:15 pmfuzzyred and I are throwing a Pool Party for this week's Polychrome Heroics sale. This is the way we encourage folks to support ysabetwordsmith's writing by offering a chance to share in the quarter-price discount available for large purchases.Here's how it works: the organizer of the pool (that's me, in this case) proposes a list of target poems worth enough to trigger the quarter-price discount. Per published rules, anyone who contributes to a quarter-price buy gets quarter-price on all poems in that buy. So, if there's something you'd like, and would like to save some money on, or make it inexpensive enough to sponsor, you can join the pool by pledging whatever sum you consider meaningful toward the current target list -- and then add targets of your own. If you contribute enough to purchase your target(s) outright at quarter-price, they will be added to the list. If you can't swing that much, and want to see if other pool members are willing to make up the difference, you need only ask for your target to be included. More often not, someone will be interested, and the answer will again be "yes".
So come one, come all! Here's the target list we're starting with:
| "A Murmuring, Fateful, Giant Voice" | 64.50 |
| "The Ones Who Have Your Back" | 47 |
| "Sung in Hobo Jungles" | 63 |
| "The Sort of Things That Make People Stop" | 35.50 |
| "Public Art as a Team Sport" | 107 |
That's $317 at half-price, or $158.50 at quarter-price.
If one of those is of special interest to you, and you want to designate that poem as the target for your initial contribution, that part will go there. Otherwise, it will go wherever it will do the most good for the pool. As poems on the target list accumulate enough money for sponsorship, more targets will be added; any ideas from pool members are appreciated.
The pool will close sometime Saturday evening when I am online. Contributions via PayPal will be collected and forwarded once they have been received. Let's go sponsor some poetry!
ysabetwordsmith invited readers to share the contents of their (American) Thanksgiving table. When I posted what was served here, they said they would like the recipe for one of the items that was served. Here it is, adjusted to reflect my experiences in preparing a test recipe and making the final version.The original recipe is "Molly's Pumpkin and Sage Lasagna" from The New Thanksgiving Table by Diane Morgan. When we did a test preparation, we found that we had much more pumpkin than would readily fill just two layers; there wasn't enough ricotta; the whole thing was dry; and the top noodles were Extra Crispy. So I doubled the ricotta and the white sauce to compensate. Adjustments are noted by [in practice].
I have also reorganized the recipe to reflect how I put the whole thing together. Starting with all the ingredients in their original state, it took me about 2 hours to assemble the pan. The recipe notes that that can be done the day before and the pan placed in the refrigerator -- which I did.
( The recipe... )
Polychrome Heroics Pool Announcement
Nov. 16th, 2021 01:05 pmTentacles lurk under the surface of this sale's quarter-price pool. I'm starting out targeting all three poems in the Kraken thread (total $125 at quarter-price). Anyone who'd like to sponsor something from the sale at quarter-price is welcome to join by making a small but significant contribution to the pool targets, and then contributing toward the target of their choice. That poem will be added to the pool target list.
Every time pool contributions come in to fund the least expensive pool target, I will add another poem to the target list. If you haven't selected a target for yourself and would like to recommend one, please do, and I will use that one. Otherwise, I will pick one myself.
Hoping for good participation!
ETA: I will stop taking pledges around 6pm PDT (UTC -8), to allow any late joiners to settle accounts in time for a timely forwarding toysabetwordsmith. There's still some time!
Every time pool contributions come in to fund the least expensive pool target, I will add another poem to the target list. If you haven't selected a target for yourself and would like to recommend one, please do, and I will use that one. Otherwise, I will pick one myself.
Hoping for good participation!
ETA: I will stop taking pledges around 6pm PDT (UTC -8), to allow any late joiners to settle accounts in time for a timely forwarding to
ysabetwordsmith. There's still some time!Pool warming up
Mar. 16th, 2021 12:07 amfuzzyred and I are starting a quarter-price pool for this week's Polychrome Heroics half-price sale. We're leading off with the entire Kraken offering ($21) and the entire Shiv offering ($116). If we can get at least $60 from elsewhere, we can add "Better Than Their Neighbors Think" from the Mercedes thread. As usual, contributing any meaningful amount to the pool unlocks the quarter-price capability for anything else you want to buy.
Payment details will be sent to anyone who pledges a contribution. If you are interested in something not yet part of the pool, please mention it in your pledge comment, and we'll see if we can get enough sponsorship to add that as a target. Come join us!
Payment details will be sent to anyone who pledges a contribution. If you are interested in something not yet part of the pool, please mention it in your pledge comment, and we'll see if we can get enough sponsorship to add that as a target. Come join us!
Snowflake Challenge Friending Meme
Feb. 2nd, 2021 10:57 pmSo now I find out there was a friending meme at the end of the Snowflake Challenge. I don't know if anyone will show up, but I will go have a look at the other people who left their info there to see who catches my eye. Meanwhile, here's mine.
Names I go by: I have a wallet name. You won't find it here. Right now, I'm trying on "out" names to see how they sit with me, and how they work.
Other Places I Can Be Found:
Livejournal: the dregs of my previous account are there as ng_moonmoth. I'm not logging on, even to delete what's left, or posting.
LGBT Slack: ngmoonmoth
Discord: #filkhaven, Nonbinary-support, Inclusive Yarn Community. All as ngmoonmoth
The fannish platform(s) I am most active on is/are: DW, Discord.
My main contribution(s) to fandom is/are: My main creative outlet is filk -- words mostly, but also music. I perform my own stuff, and some other people's things, too. I have been known to write things. Not much of that is fic; it's much more likely to be demifiction or meta or background material. Other things that I do because I think they are important to fandom are reading/listening, hosting filk circles at conventions, commenting. Also sponsoring: when I throw money at something, it's only somewhat in recognition of my own reaction. Mainly, I want other people to enjoy it, enough to spend money on doing so. I also view joining a convention as a form of sponsorship. Fans may be the engine of a successful convention, but money is the fuel -- and without fuel, the engine can't run.
Link(s) to my Masterlist(s): Don't have one. But if you want to know more about me, I have an "About Me" post pinned to my journal.
Fandom(s) I enjoy: Beyond what I categorize as comprehensive fandoms -- speculative fiction and filk -- I'm not really into specific things. There are works I enjoy, but my enjoyment does not translate into even being a part of, much less heavily involved with, the fandoms around that work. That's just who I am. And, if one were to get right down to it, apparently always have been. I knew of the fannish activities surrounding my comprehensive fandoms, but didn't care to engage until spouse encouraged me into it as something we could share. And still do.
Favorite people/characters in this/these fandom(s) are: From my dinner party post:
The type(s) of fanwork(s) I consume the most is/are: Words and music. Fic, demifiction, meta, background story, lyrics all count as words to me. They can all be interesting enough to get me engaged with them, and their creators.
Fanwork tropes/clichés I enjoy are: Not sure I have any. If a story gets into a pattern I've seen before, I probably won't enjoy it as much unless it has something new to say about it.
Non-fandom things I enjoy: I read a lot of stuff. Not all of it generates fandoms. I am a techincally capable and enthusiastic cook who will attempt foods from a wide range of cuisines and have a lot of fun. I knit. Especially in those last two categories, I enjoy hacking (in the original sense: taking the instructions as a starting point, and adapting them to suit the constraints of the intended application). I enjoy getting out on my bicycle and riding. I find games with a strategic component that is not readily exhausted always intriguing, and enjoy challenging myself against tough competition there.
I post/want to post mostly about: Occasional observations. Sometimes items that have sprouted from comment threads on other posts. Various one-shot memes. I'm starting to do other memes that might be more personally revealing than I care to leave lying around, or are at odds with the intent of this blog, under an opt-in filter.
One thing I am good at: Working my way out to the big picture. I want to know where I'm aiming to go before setting out, and have some idea of the challenges I might face on my way there, and how I might work out how to cope with the ones that arise.
Other things I want to share about myself: Spaces with "ngmoonmoth" or "ng_moonmoth" as my handle are where I get to work on my nonbinary identity. I am doing what I can to not let gender-marked things into those spaces, by way of strengthening my own identity and trying to explore how people will react to me with few or no cues from which they might presume my gender.
Names I go by: I have a wallet name. You won't find it here. Right now, I'm trying on "out" names to see how they sit with me, and how they work.
Other Places I Can Be Found:
Livejournal: the dregs of my previous account are there as ng_moonmoth. I'm not logging on, even to delete what's left, or posting.
LGBT Slack: ngmoonmoth
Discord: #filkhaven, Nonbinary-support, Inclusive Yarn Community. All as ngmoonmoth
The fannish platform(s) I am most active on is/are: DW, Discord.
My main contribution(s) to fandom is/are: My main creative outlet is filk -- words mostly, but also music. I perform my own stuff, and some other people's things, too. I have been known to write things. Not much of that is fic; it's much more likely to be demifiction or meta or background material. Other things that I do because I think they are important to fandom are reading/listening, hosting filk circles at conventions, commenting. Also sponsoring: when I throw money at something, it's only somewhat in recognition of my own reaction. Mainly, I want other people to enjoy it, enough to spend money on doing so. I also view joining a convention as a form of sponsorship. Fans may be the engine of a successful convention, but money is the fuel -- and without fuel, the engine can't run.
Link(s) to my Masterlist(s): Don't have one. But if you want to know more about me, I have an "About Me" post pinned to my journal.
Fandom(s) I enjoy: Beyond what I categorize as comprehensive fandoms -- speculative fiction and filk -- I'm not really into specific things. There are works I enjoy, but my enjoyment does not translate into even being a part of, much less heavily involved with, the fandoms around that work. That's just who I am. And, if one were to get right down to it, apparently always have been. I knew of the fannish activities surrounding my comprehensive fandoms, but didn't care to engage until spouse encouraged me into it as something we could share. And still do.
Favorite people/characters in this/these fandom(s) are: From my dinner party post:
- Charlie Stross and his Laundry Files creations Bob, Mo, Pinky, Brain, and Persephone.
- ysabetwordsmith and their creations from a number of storylines:
- Astin, Palmer, V, Spalling, and Backup (character descriptions here) from their Army of One storyline;
- Kenzie, Blair, Bobtail, Smoking Breath, and Blazing Grass from their Polychrome Heroics Iron Horses storyline;
- Captain Left and Captain Right from their Polychrome Heroics Kraken storyline;
- Salvo from their Polychrome Heroics Cuoio and Chiara storyline.
- CJ Cherryh and her creations Tully from the Chanur storyline, and Tabini-aiji and extended family plus Bren Cameron to translate, from the Foreigner storyline.
The type(s) of fanwork(s) I consume the most is/are: Words and music. Fic, demifiction, meta, background story, lyrics all count as words to me. They can all be interesting enough to get me engaged with them, and their creators.
Fanwork tropes/clichés I enjoy are: Not sure I have any. If a story gets into a pattern I've seen before, I probably won't enjoy it as much unless it has something new to say about it.
Non-fandom things I enjoy: I read a lot of stuff. Not all of it generates fandoms. I am a techincally capable and enthusiastic cook who will attempt foods from a wide range of cuisines and have a lot of fun. I knit. Especially in those last two categories, I enjoy hacking (in the original sense: taking the instructions as a starting point, and adapting them to suit the constraints of the intended application). I enjoy getting out on my bicycle and riding. I find games with a strategic component that is not readily exhausted always intriguing, and enjoy challenging myself against tough competition there.
I post/want to post mostly about: Occasional observations. Sometimes items that have sprouted from comment threads on other posts. Various one-shot memes. I'm starting to do other memes that might be more personally revealing than I care to leave lying around, or are at odds with the intent of this blog, under an opt-in filter.
One thing I am good at: Working my way out to the big picture. I want to know where I'm aiming to go before setting out, and have some idea of the challenges I might face on my way there, and how I might work out how to cope with the ones that arise.
Other things I want to share about myself: Spaces with "ngmoonmoth" or "ng_moonmoth" as my handle are where I get to work on my nonbinary identity. I am doing what I can to not let gender-marked things into those spaces, by way of strengthening my own identity and trying to explore how people will react to me with few or no cues from which they might presume my gender.
You don't know quite what you'll get! Guess I'll find out.
I've been putting my responses to these questions on a filter, so I don't have to gender- and identity-police myself quite so strictly to maintain the general feel of the blog, but this is a wishlist the doesn't interfere with those things, so I'm putting it out for larger circulation. All I ask is that any work you send me because of this prompt is something you did because you yourself wanted to do it, not because I asked for it.
In your own space, create a wishlist. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Your wishlist can be anything between one and ten wishes as a rough guide.
Have you ever wished for icons for a character(s) or a fandom; art for a story, podfic or fanmix you’ve created; a podfic for a story you’ve written; or a story for some artwork you’ve created? Do you have a plotbunny you’d like someone to adopt?
Maybe you'd like to find more people to squee with over your favourite fandom; or someone to collaborate with over a project? If you are new to a fandom would you like some story recs, or communities to join? Or would you like some recommendations for a new fandom?
Or is there something else you would like? If so, this is your opportunity to ask!
Note: If you would like artwork or podfic, please include a link to your story/podfic/fanmix. If you’ve requested icons or other artwork it’s helpful if you can link to any screencaps or image galleries.
More works that center queer people (pretty much anyone in the QUILTBAG) that don't center the queerness. That is, the story is not about the people being queer; instead, it's a story about something, and there are multiple queer people in it, and they mostly talk about anything other than being queer. If you aren't up to making one yourself, recs are fine and would be appreciated.
Song prompts for me. Anything I can use as inspiration for a song will work. ight write original music, might write parody, but it will be something I wrote. No guarantee of if or when I'll get around to it, but I promise I'll take a look.
Icons of anyone at my Snowflake Challenge dinner party:
Charlie Stross' Laundry Files creations Bob, Mo, Pinky, Brain, and Persephone.
ysabetwordsmith's creations from a number of storylines (see notes):
Astin, Palmer, V, Spalling, and Backup from their Army of One storyline;
Kenzie, Blair, Bobtail, Smoking Breath, and Blazing Grass from their Polychrome Heroics Iron Horses storyline;
Captain Left and Captain Right from their Polychrrome Heroics Kraken storyline;
Salvo from their Polychrome Heroics Cuoio and Chiara storyline.
CJ Cherryh's creations Tully from the Chanur storyline, and Tabini-aiji and extended family plus Bren Cameron to translate, from the Foreigner storyline.
I've been putting my responses to these questions on a filter, so I don't have to gender- and identity-police myself quite so strictly to maintain the general feel of the blog, but this is a wishlist the doesn't interfere with those things, so I'm putting it out for larger circulation. All I ask is that any work you send me because of this prompt is something you did because you yourself wanted to do it, not because I asked for it.
In your own space, create a wishlist. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Your wishlist can be anything between one and ten wishes as a rough guide.
Have you ever wished for icons for a character(s) or a fandom; art for a story, podfic or fanmix you’ve created; a podfic for a story you’ve written; or a story for some artwork you’ve created? Do you have a plotbunny you’d like someone to adopt?
Maybe you'd like to find more people to squee with over your favourite fandom; or someone to collaborate with over a project? If you are new to a fandom would you like some story recs, or communities to join? Or would you like some recommendations for a new fandom?
Or is there something else you would like? If so, this is your opportunity to ask!
Note: If you would like artwork or podfic, please include a link to your story/podfic/fanmix. If you’ve requested icons or other artwork it’s helpful if you can link to any screencaps or image galleries.
More works that center queer people (pretty much anyone in the QUILTBAG) that don't center the queerness. That is, the story is not about the people being queer; instead, it's a story about something, and there are multiple queer people in it, and they mostly talk about anything other than being queer. If you aren't up to making one yourself, recs are fine and would be appreciated.
Song prompts for me. Anything I can use as inspiration for a song will work. ight write original music, might write parody, but it will be something I wrote. No guarantee of if or when I'll get around to it, but I promise I'll take a look.
Icons of anyone at my Snowflake Challenge dinner party:
Charlie Stross' Laundry Files creations Bob, Mo, Pinky, Brain, and Persephone.
ysabetwordsmith's creations from a number of storylines (see notes):
Astin, Palmer, V, Spalling, and Backup from their Army of One storyline;
Kenzie, Blair, Bobtail, Smoking Breath, and Blazing Grass from their Polychrome Heroics Iron Horses storyline;
Captain Left and Captain Right from their Polychrrome Heroics Kraken storyline;
Salvo from their Polychrome Heroics Cuoio and Chiara storyline.
CJ Cherryh's creations Tully from the Chanur storyline, and Tabini-aiji and extended family plus Bren Cameron to translate, from the Foreigner storyline.
fuzzyred and I are joining forces to launch a quarter-price pool in ysabetwordsmith's Holiday Poetry Pool. When we compared lists, we found we had a good deal of overlap -- to the point where our initial targets were pretty much the other's stretch goals.So, to start out, we're going to go after our combined target/stretch goal list:
| Arts and Crafts America | |
| "A Gentle Whisper" | 26.75 |
| Hart's Farm | |
| "Inside, Outside, on the Floor" | 5.00 |
| The Big One | |
| "Constantly Tossed About" | 78.00 |
| "Unfolded by the Water" | 25.25 |
| Iron Horses | |
| "All the Right Spots" | 44.75 |
| "To Prevent Future Tragedies" | 57.00 |
| Kraken | |
| "The Wings of Hope" | 67.75 |
| Shiv | |
| "Pie Day" | 45.50 |
| "Mending the Broken" | 38.50 |
| Total | 388.50 |
First, we're looking for another $100 in pledges to get that amount. After we get that, we're going after one or both of the really long Shiv poems, depending on how much money comes in. If we get more than just a few bucks toward that, we're likely to open one for microfunding.
As usual in these pools, all we ask is that you contribute some sum that is meaningful to you in support of any of these poems. What you get for this contribution is a hand in getting a decent-sized list of poems sponsored for everyone to enjoy, and also the opportunity to sponsor, or propose for sponsorship if you aren't able to cover the entire amount, a target poem of your own, for which you also get the quarter-price rate. So, instead of paying half price for a poem you want, you can pay half that plus some more for the pool to sponsor more stuff you might like.
If that sounds good to you, leave a comment here indicating how much you want to contribute to the pool, and what additional targets you might have. Friday morning, before noon
ysabetwordsmith time (CST=UTC-6), I will send those of you who don't already have it the PayPal handle of my financial representative for Fishbowl matters, where you can send the money before you go to bed Friday. I will forward the amount on Saturday, and, shortly thereafter, poetry will start to appear.Thanks for your help on this. I have a lot of fun running these and seeing the results.-
Signal boost
Dec. 5th, 2020 11:44 pmwe_are_spc is a friend who is currently in a problematic living situation. They have found an alternative, but are faced with a shorter deadline to move out than their financial situation in these uncertain times can handle. They are appealing to the community for help.If you might be able to help out, please take a look and see whether you are minded to contribute to their moving expenses. I have enjoyed the time I have spent with them in person. I would like to see them be in a place where they can manage until they once again can be productive in their career, and am backing this opinion with some money of my own.
Poetry Fishbowl bonus sale pool
Oct. 20th, 2020 05:24 pmysabetwordsmith is running a Polychrome Heroics bonus sale this week, featuring recent work on the China's Mistake thread. As usual, a large enough donation lowers the cost from the standard half-price to quarter-price. fuzzyred and I are both interested in sponsoring some poems, and will be combining forces to get the quarter-price discount.The way this works is that once a sufficiently large sponsorship amount is raised, anyone can contribute an amount that is meaningful to them toward the pool, and get poetry at quarter-price -- not only for the pool targets, but for anything else they wish to buy. So, if someone were to chip in $10 to the pool, and had a poem that would be $50 at half-price, they can indicate that they wish $25 of their contribution to buy that poem -- and that poem would be added to the pool and marked as fully sponsored.
fuzzyred and I have a similar idea of where to start, with poems that are prerequisites for others. Sponsoring all of them would be beyond what we are willing to commit right now, so we're looking for some help in getting everything we'd like out.
There are two sequences of prerequisites right now. If the last poem in the pricier sequence is put in its own category, there are three groups, each of which is manageable for one of us. Here's the list:
| "A Dangerous Thing to Be a Doll" | 89.50 |
| "Subhan'Allah" | 47.50 |
| Total for this sequence | 137.00 |
| "Worth Defending" | 23.00 |
| "Comfort on Difficult Days" | 33.00 |
| "Beyond Any Other Emotional Pain" | 67.50 |
| "Too Angry to Be Safe" | 9.50 |
| Total for this sequence | 133.00 |
| "To Endure Pain with Patience" | 123.25 |
I'm after the Kraken thread: "The Wings of Hope" (67.75) and "The Evolution of Society as a Whole" (130.75), for a total of $198.50.
fuzzyred is after some China's Mistake/Shiv crossover poems: "Their Need for Our Disciplinary Assistance" (68.00), "Created by the Restitution" (34.75), and "The Production of New and Useful Things" (14.50), for a total of $117.25.So here's the current plan: The pool will sponsor the complete two-poem prerequisite sequence and the first four of the five-column prerequisite sequence. If enough additional pool sponsorship comes in, "Their Need for Our Disciplinary Assistance" and "The Wings of Hope" will be sponsored in that order. If we're really lucky, there may be more contributions that could fund any of the four remaining poems; what gets done will depend on how much money is available.'
All right, who wants a piece of the action? The pool will stay open until I go to bed on the last day of the sale. I'm PDT (GMT -7), and will likely be up late this weekend, so at least midnight any time in the Americas will be good enough.
A number of people on my reading list have done this one. The goal is, starting with a list of topics, to find (ideally without searching for) a song with a title matching the topic. Everyone who's put out a list has mined their listening habits for songs. Most of those are filled with artists and groups that are familiar to many people.
There are some outliers, though. One I enjoyed was completely filled with arias from well-known operas. I'm another outlier. The music I'm most familiar with comes from the filk community, in which I am an active participant. (Read about it here, and here. Be aware, though, that the first article is twenty-five years old, and the second article reflects to some extent the biases of its author and does not, at least to me, properly acknowledge that the apparent diminuition of the styles of the community's roots is more that the genre is alive, thriving, and expanding well beyond its origins.) Sticking to filk, I only had to cheat a bit on the last topic; there don't seem to be that many songs in the community with days of the week in them, so I searched the catalogs of a couple of friends to find one I liked.
( My list )
If you like what you heard, the best thing you can do is support the artists who are bringing it to you by buying their music. Nobody makes any money from filk, and many of the artists featured here are doing it for love. But some of them are professional musicians in other genres, and are hurting for bookings in this pandemic era. Links to Bandcamp pages or personal websites offer options to purchase their music.
There are some outliers, though. One I enjoyed was completely filled with arias from well-known operas. I'm another outlier. The music I'm most familiar with comes from the filk community, in which I am an active participant. (Read about it here, and here. Be aware, though, that the first article is twenty-five years old, and the second article reflects to some extent the biases of its author and does not, at least to me, properly acknowledge that the apparent diminuition of the styles of the community's roots is more that the genre is alive, thriving, and expanding well beyond its origins.) Sticking to filk, I only had to cheat a bit on the last topic; there don't seem to be that many songs in the community with days of the week in them, so I searched the catalogs of a couple of friends to find one I liked.
( My list )
If you like what you heard, the best thing you can do is support the artists who are bringing it to you by buying their music. Nobody makes any money from filk, and many of the artists featured here are doing it for love. But some of them are professional musicians in other genres, and are hurting for bookings in this pandemic era. Links to Bandcamp pages or personal websites offer options to purchase their music.
Polychrome Heroics sale pool
Sep. 15th, 2020 10:05 amysabetwordsmith, who writes poetry by request, has occasional half-price sales where poems that have yet to find an interested buyer are offered at half their usual price. This time, the sale focuses on their Polychrome Heroics storyline, containing tales of superheroes and supervillains that go far beyond the usual fare of resolving conflict by fighting and breaking things. Yes, there are fights, and yes, things get broken, but there's so much more in it! Plus, diversity of the sort that is just now barely breaking into the mainstream is all over the place.Another part of their sales is an additional discount for volume buyers. A large enough sponsorship commitment halves the price again, making the purchase price 1/4 of the original. Folks may pool their money to reach this threshold, and anyone who contributes to the pool may use the quarter-price discount on any other purchases they make.
I'm running a pool this week. I'm going to start the way I often do, by designating initial target poems that are prerequisites for other poems. This sale, those are:
| "No Idea What's Going to Happen" | $30.50 |
| "Vulnerable and Bound" | $25.25 |
| "A Fresh Opportunity to Make a Mark" | $69.00 |
| $124.75 |
So, anyone who wants to contribute a meaningful (to them) sum toward this amount can buy anything else in the sale at quarter-price.
As pledges come in, I expand the target list. If someone pledges money and wants to sponsor a poem not on the initial target list, that poem can be added. This time, my personal stretch targets are:
| "From Many Emotional Colors" | $17.25 |
| "The Cardinal Sin of Satanism" | $29.00 |
| "Not So Much in Words" | $89.50 |
The pool closes with the end of the sale, Friday evening.
[EDITED: Given that the sale runs through Sunday, it should be OK to keep the pool open until Saturday night. I will send out reminders to people who have pledged to send money Sunday, and will forward once I have it.]
OK, who's on board with this one?
[EDITED : "Where Change Can Take Place" was sponsored outside the pool by another reader. "No Idea What's Going to Happen" has replaced it in the initial target list.]
