Being Amber Rhea

First posted on Twitter, and now posted here for wider reach…

Phones: Nokia 6126 vs. Sony Ericsson W810i - which one wins?

Too tired to write a full post (I went upside down again in pole dancing class tonight!), so I’m just going to quote myself, from comments on the previous thread:

What I’d like to to write about in my next post is the cry of “censorship!!” and “free speech!!” that, predictably, always goes up whenever these assholes are called on their behavior. It amazes me that so many people are, apparently, ignorant of the fact (or, more probably, just don’t care) that ‘free speech’ refers ONLY to government. As in, the government cannot persecute you for expressing your views. Free speech does NOT mean you’re allowed to have verbal diarrhea anywhere, any time, with no consequences whatsoever.

WRT blogs? The ‘delete’ and ‘ban’ commands are there for a reason. I use this analogy often, but it remains accurate: if someone comes over to my house and shits on the living room floor, they will be unceremoniously kicked out, and don’t let the door hit ‘em on the way out. They can stand in the yard screaming their head off, but nobody’s going to believe they’re being persecuted. In fact, the cops will be called and they’ll be escorted away and charged w/ trespassing.

Instead of writing more on that specific topic later, I might leave it at that. Brevity can be a good thing!

I have a big long blog post on the way, which I thought I was going to have time to work on today, but alas, that’s not how the day worked out! Busy, busy, busy. So for now I’ll just quote ellenbrenna, via Belledame:

Here is a chart for you it is simple and easy to remember:

Stop being such an asshole.

Making the same jokes you made in the 7th Grade, when you are an adult interacting with other adults, generally makes you an asshole. So just stop it. If you don’t we are well within our rights to call you an asshole.

Contrary to what this adolescent “politically incorrect” popular culture might have told you that is not a worthy thing to be.

Oh! And, also, Bitch Ph.D.:

The voices of vulnerable people matter too. Maybe even more than the voices of those of us who aren’t easily intimidated. And let’s get something straight: what needs to happen isn’t that the recipients of death threats need to shrug them off. What needs to happen is that those of us who have a fairly weighty online presence need to say, in no uncertain terms, that threats and harassment and sexism and racism and homophobia and all that other offensive shit is flat-out unacceptable, both in real life and online.

Ah, crap, one more… from the always-quotable Belledame:

Hey, y’know what, sunshine, “free speech” does not mean “can say anything you damn please with no consequences or even disapproving response whatsoever.” I know that’s a really fucking difficult concept, but TRY to process it. ALL “free speech” means is, you cannot be prosecuted or persecuted by the State for speech, in word, print or (we interpret) any other media.

Yay for smart friends.

Alrighty. Gotta run. Might be out and about blogging/Twittering(!) tonight… then, back home, unpacking, for god’s sake.

Rusty already wrote about this on his blog, but there are a few things I’d like to say on the topic, as well. Not sure how long this post will be, because a lot of what I want to say, I’m not sure how to translate from the gobbledy-gook in my head to the written word.

I’m no stranger to anti-South bias, especially given the fact that when you spend a lot of your time online, you naturally encounter people from all over. Offline too, there’s plenty of it… I vividly reminder one time, sophomore year of college at NYU, a friend of mine launched into this diatribe that started with, “What I don’t like about the South is…” and he started rattling off a bunch of stereotypes. I stopped him and asked if he’d ever been to the South. He hadn’t. I tore him a bit of a new asshole, he admitted he was behaving like a presumptuous jerk, and we went to dinner.

So anyway, I know that stuff is out there. It bugs me, but not on a daily basis. But in recent months/weeks/days, it’s become a bit more pronounced in my vicinity.

Take PodCamp NYC, for example. I detected a fair amount of anti-South bias - the most egregious example, of course, being the guy who came up to Rusty and me and started a sentence with, “I don’t want to pre-judge, BUT…” - at which time, he proceeded to pre-judge like a mofo. He asked if since we were in Georgia, most of our podcasts were about personal stories and stuff (from “military spouses,” among others), not world events. He didn’t seem to think there was anything fucked-up about that question, and even seemed to be a bit amused with himself. There we were, real live dumb Georgia hicks for him to talk at!! Maw, get the skillet!

Then there was the cab driver who took us to the airport Sunday morning, who said “I don’t care about the South” and “I don’t like the South because it’s too slow.” Okay, first of all, the South is a pretty big region - even if you’ve never been here, wouldn’t you venture a guess that it’s not all completely the same? Secondly, just who the fuck does this guy think he is?

So those are two very in-your-face examples. But there was also plenty of it running just beneath the surface. That, of course, is the type that’s the most insidious, because you can’t point your finger at one specific thing and say, “See?? Bias!!”

I’ve had the feeling, for a while now, that PodCamp Atlanta wasn’t taken as seriously among the PodCamp elite (whatever that means, but bear with me) because it was, well, in Atlanta. My intuition is rarely wrong on perceptions like these, so I think it’s worth mentioning, at least. Never mind what a completely kick-ass event we had, full of energy and passion, with overwhelmingly positive reviews, not to mention making national news. It’s the South; so, obviously, not quite as good. (Or, I imagine, something along those lines.)

I want to be clear: this isn’t an accusation. It’s a statement of how I’ve felt, of perceptions I’ve had, and things I’ve picked up on; little things, here and there. Not that it’ll stop me/us from making my/our voice(s) heard. But it is… annoying, nonetheless.

Now, as for anti-South bias on a broader (ie, not just PodCamp-related) scale?

It’s possible to make observations about certain institutions of the South without reducing individuals to stereotypes. This is exactly the kind of thing we’ve talked about on some of the feminist blogs lately: critique and analyze the structure/issue; don’t make presumptions about individuals, sight unseen.

And, it’s very telling to me when self-identified progressives get squirrely about this WRT the South. I’ve seen some people practically fall over themselves to defend their prejudice. Because apparently this kind of prejudice is okay. (Reminds me of how quickly the mask comes off with some self-identified progressives when they’re called on racist or sexist behavior.)

No - it’s not okay.

And I/we/you should not have to put up with it as some kind of nebulous atonement, which is what the justification typically is.

… More to come, when Rusty and I record our next “talkie” podcast. For some reason, this is one of those issues that I can talk about more effectively when speaking rather than writing.

More to come, but first…

1. I’ll probably end up getting a camera phone fairly soon. I don’t need something super snazzy (read: expensive) but I don’t want a piece of crap either. Any recommendations?
2. My blog’s fifth birthday is fast approaching. April 17 is the big day. It’s kind of painful, but I’m thinking that I may have finally outgrown - though I hesitate to use that word, but I can’t think of a better one - my homegrown blogging system. In commemoration of five years of blogging, should I move to WordPress? What do you think?

I need to blog about PodCamp NYC and general New York stuff, but that’ll have to come later. In the meantime read Rusty’s posts: PodCamp New York liveblogging and My renewed appreciation for the South. I have more to say on the anti-South bias topic. Suffice it to say for now, that shit pisses me off. No, it is not okay to stereotype Southerners, especially if you consider yourself “enlightened” or “progressive.”

Still waffling over whether to write a post about why I have heretofore not worked in the sex industry, and why I may yet need to do so, in some capacity. On a related note, I said somewhat smart stuff at Sherry’s MySpace blog.

And get a load of this, I am now using Twitter. You knew the day would come. We’ll see how long this fascination (of a sort) endures. Oh, and also? (Last thing, I swear). LibraryThing. Thanks, Dacia, for pointing me to a Web 2.0 thingy that appeals to both my J-preference and my literary nerdiness. YASP… that’s all I need.

podcampnyc

A few points, via Yolanda at The Primary Contradiction:

• You can be a hard-working, dedicated, self-sacrificing person and still have unearned privilege.
• White male supremacy is a system of power, not a moral failing or an individual flaw.
• Critique of privileged and/or oppressive behavior is not a personal attack.
• Resistance to oppressive bevavior is not a personal attack.

Thanks, Yolanda, for spelling it out so clearly. In the future, when dealing with asshats, I will refer them to your list (but maybe not your actual post, because it would suck for a bunch of asshats to get comment diarrhea all over your blog).

Read the full post, people.

Here’s a bunch of stuff I’ve saved in del.icio.us and/or Bloglines, with the hopes of offering further commentary later (which might not actually happen). Money quotes included for your skimming pleasure.

• Briarpatch Magazine: Test your F.Q.: A sexism self-exam for men. “Men enjoy countless benefits from living in a patriarchal society. But we also suffer from the social and emotional constraints that masculinity places on us.”
• Sexerati: Degree Fetishism: The ‘Times’ Does College Sex Magazines. “We want to believe that there’s more to sex media than pornography, even if we can’t agree what pornography is. What is clear is that when sex media erupts that deals smartly with sex, old media doesn’t really know what to call it.”
• Figleaf’s Real Adult Sex: Baby, baby, sweep me off my feet? Maybe not. “He folds laundry! He cooks! He gets up in the middle of the night with children. He deals with stinky diapers. Big deal. Babysitters deal with stuff like that beginning as early as age twelve. So what should we make of an adult man who can do the same thing?”
• Feminist Allies: How Have You Spoken Up? “What have You done to speak out against sexism? This is addressed to people of all genders out there, but as I think that it’s important for men to address other men in this regard, this is especially for the men–when have you spoken out to other men against sexism toward women?”
• Astarte’s Circus: Madonna Whore Syndrome: Do Women Believe This, Too? “The message I picked up on was — it’s OK for women, in a passive way, to accept a pleasant benefactor who makes decisions about our worth and treats us like fragile, undemanding flowers. But it’s somehow trashy for us to own this as a BUSINESS, target a motivated and high-paying client pool, and control the billing for our services.”
• Ilyka Damen: Looking Beyond Myself, Without Fear. “As a white woman in upper middle class America, I can barely conceive of a life so desperate that my birth plan involves walking across a river and risking arrest.”
• PunkAssBlog: On Trolling and Punkassblog. “If a commenter treats the most basic elements of the shared worldview of a blog community with obvious disdain, s/he lacks respect for the site and its community.”
• Sexerati: I Heart Sex; Am I The Only One? “Why in every other aspect of our lives do we value the accumulation of experience, but decry sexual experience as evidence of being no more than some kind of sex object, or shameless exhibitionist?”
• Renegade Evolution: She’s Baaaack… Ren’s post about how porn is not the root problem wrt sexism, misogyny, and violent men. No money quote from this one because the whole damn thing is the money quote. Read it.

Okay, off to tie up a few loose ends before heading out to the TAG panel!

Thought-provoking post from Queer Dewd, who is (yay!) blogging again. I tend to agree with Belledame (comment #2), but this doesn’t negate QD’s points about race, privilege, and the difference between structure and individuals.

Anyway, I like what Fire Fly said (comment #1), because I feel like it nicely sums up something I’ve been struggling to put into words. Here ya go:

Whiteness trades on masking structural privilege behind individuality, so when white people are challenged on their privilege, therea??s an automatic sense that ita??s about them-as-a-person, their identity rather than their social position. Other types of privilege (middle-class and male privilege, mostly, but other types perform this ideological trick too) work by rendering their corresponding oppressions invisible too, as well as mystifying the conditions enabling that privilege.

Or, even shorter, if you want just the nut:

Whiteness trades on masking structural privilege behind individuality

Back to packing now. My apartment is in an upheaval. But soon it won’t be my apartment anymore!

We’re moving this week, so blogging might be a bit light. There’s the general hecticness (is that a word? Firefox’s spell check doesn’t like it) that comes with moving, plus our internet access might not be set up at our new place right away. So consider this your warning. I wouldn’t want anyone to pine for my blog posts. </sarcasm>

Anyway, real quick… it appears I was tagged by Grayson. This meme is so open-ended that the only rule is “pick seven songs you like,” and that frustrates me. How to pick?? I decided just to put my aging iPod on shuffle. So here you go:

1. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry (I know, this is everyone’s favorite song right now. Oh well. It’s mine too.)
2. Exhuming McCarthy - R.E.M.
3. Tired of Sex - Weezer
4. Horizons - Vicki Blankenship
5. Evil Eye - Elf Power
6. Show Me - Bree Sharp
7. Disconnect the Dots - Of Montreal

So there’s that.

Now. Seriously - do you guys think I should do this 365 Days thing? It seems cool but self-indulgent. Or, excuse me - cool AND self-indulgent! Look how awesome Lux Nightmare’s photos are. Ah, fuck, I think I’ll just give it a whirl. I’ll start on April 1… the official first day of living in our new apartment.

Tonight in pole dancing class, we’re going UPSIDE DOWN. I’m going to wear my kick-ass new stripper boots.

Also, go tell the guys and gals at The Loaf what’s up.

That’s all for now…

Just some thoughts that’ve been going through my head today…

• I am giddy with excitement about moving in with Rusty, in our awesome new apartment. He and some other strapping young men will be transporting heavy furniture this weekend, and I won’t even be around to get in the way. (More on that in a minute.) Shame, I know.
  
  
• As of yesterday, I had 1,500 photos on Flickr. (Now that I’ve posted this screenshot, I have 1,501.) Funny to think that less than a year ago I was totally opposed to using Flickr.

  
  
  I plan to post many more photos, especially my backlog of older photos, to Flickr when I get the time. I might even post some today.

• For a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this 365 Days thing. On the one hand, it seems like a really cool idea, and I like the idea of documenting things in general - especially the personal. But I don’t know if I could really commit to taking a photo of myself every day for a year. What do you think? Would it be worthwhile?
• Tomorrow I will be flying up to Ithaca, NY (well, flying into Syracuse to be exact) to visit Niki and Jenny. The last time I was in Ithaca was SIX YEARS AGO (almost to the date!) during spring break; here’s what it looked like at that time:

  
  
  Six years ago. I feel old.

• Speaking of feeling old, yesterday Dacia posted a photo of herself that was taken when she visited me SEVEN YEARS AGO during her spring break. The accompanying post was very thought-provoking, and has inspired me to write something about my own struggles with body image… eventually.
• Thinking Girl has a good post about the conundrum of educating the privileged. There’s a difference between legitimate questions from people who genuinely want to learn (or are at least willing to listen), and a person with privilege refusing to recognize that their demands for information are a perfect example of what it means to have privilege.
  

  An example of male privilege: showing up at a feminist blog, a space of solidarity for those who support the idea that patriarchy oppresses women and that isn’t fair and want to see this end, not bothering to do any preliminary work to understand the theories and language that is used by the feminist movement, and demand that the blog host (or someone else within the community of feminists and feminist allies) do your work for you, spoonfeed you the theories, point you in the right direction, and otherwise educate you.

  I am feeling good today, so for now I’m going to be optimistic that things can change for the better!

• Also on the topic of privilege… check out how Sara has chosen to deal with her ignorant roommate: Fridge Against Privilege. Ha!! I love it.
• There’s a post I’ve been wanting to write about why I never did sex work, but honestly I feel too apprehensive about people’s reactions. Sometimes I feel like I’m not very good at conveying what I mean, so it might be taken the wrong way. And even if I take great care to choose my every word with precision, with a topic as loaded as this one, lots of people are bound to see it through the lens of their own opinions, experiences, and/or pre-conceived notions. Not sure I’m ready for that shitstorm on my blog. But perhaps eventually! (And perhaps it won’t even be a shitstorm!) We are focusing on the positive here, people.
• Finally, here’s another quote of the day, from Audre Lorde…
  

  Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world. Of course, women so empowered are dangerous. So we are taught to separate the erotic from the most vital areas of our lives other than sex.

This weekend, there might be airport blogging… unless I decide it’s silly to take my iBook with me on a day-and-a-half trip. And don’t worry, I’m not taking any liquid products in my carry-on bag!

Wow, just when I needed a pick-me-up… I happened to click over to RenEv’s blog, even though there are 20 unread items from her RSS feed languishing in my BlogLines account. And what did I find? Well, this:

Amber for her exceptional work, pole and otherwise

It’s the “Piss off, I will be and defend seexxay if I want to, so there!” award! :D

Thank you thank you thank you, Ren! You have lifted my spirits today.

As previously alluded to, here are some good links…

• Sexerati: HOW TO: Remain Private in Public. Great post from Lux Nightmare about what it means to “live your life in public,” as pundits are so fond of remarking about Web 2.0 et al.
  

  Random strangers may know what I look like naked, may know about my feelings on various sexual acts, may be aware of the details of my personal traumas. But on their own, these things are no more than free-floating bits of information: knowing information about my life is not the same as knowing me.

  I think too many people make the mistake of assuming that if you reveal things that conventional (oppressive) rules of decorum say you shouldn’t, then you have no boundaries. I also think definitions of privacy vary from person to person, and that there are different kinds of privacy. Lux’s post made me think of a couple weeks ago when Rusty and I were out with some other bloggers and one of them said, “I feel like I know more about you than most people do about their best friends!” That struck me as a ridiculous statement, and I thought, “Wow, you must not know your best friend very well.”

• Real Adult Sex: How purity balls and homophobia connect. How is it that figleaf can so consistently kick ass with everything he writes? In this post, he talks about yet another of the countless fucked-up things about purity balls’ male-oriented couterparts, “integrity balls.” I love that figleaf writes often and in detail about the ways in which the current cultural stereotype of men as unrestrained slaves to their cocks harms men.
• The F Word: Suffering in Silence. This is the article I was talking about yesterday - a male feminist explains why he didn’t identify as a feminist until the good reasons for doing so smacked him in the face and he realized, huh, maybe he didn’t even know what feminism was really about at all. He talks about how, as a man, he was ignorant of many manifestations of sexism that women face today, and erroneously assumed that feminism wasn’t necessary anymore because women can vote and get jobs and stuff. This ignorance is part and parcel of privilege, of course, and it’s interesting to read how he handled the realization of his male privilege.
• Salty Femme: Sexuality and social change movements (part 1). This post is along similar lines as Lux Nightmare’s post above, but placed in the context of social change movements (hence the title!).
  

  The issue at hand is incredibly complex and fraught and yet so basic to organizing and movement building. How do we integrate parts of our lives that are so fragmented? More specifically, why is sexuality (especially queer sexuality) such an untouchable and detached issue in our social change movements?

  The reason I say this post touches on similar themes as Lux’s is that in both of them, there’s a struggle of how to integrate sexuality with the rest of our lives, in a culture that tells us our sexuality must remain separate, other.

• Radical Georgia Moderate: Glaring omission: transportation sales tax bill. Shifting gears (no pun intended!)… the GDBF has an excellent post about the transportation sales tax bill threatening to make the rounds of the legislature. The “all roads, all the time” folks piss me off; but Rusty takes them to task! (Not that I expect them to answer. That would make too much sense.)

Okay, that’s all for now! The blogosphere has been producing a lot of kick-ass writing lately, and so I will continue passing the awesomeness along!

First of all, the Billy Joel concert was a damn good time. I’m sure Alyssa will have a much more thorough and eloquent review to offer, so I’ll leave it to her. I would like to say, though, that there few things more hilarious than a bunch of people my parents’ age - and who are dressed like my parents - dancing their asses off to the roadie singing “Highway to Hell.” And then leaving the show and riding MARTA back to Dunwoody. Ha!! (For what it’s worth, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were people of all ages at the show.)

Moving on to the required reading…

• Stealth Badger: A Dudely Introduction to Feminism. YES. I wish more feminist men would write about feminism, and talk about it with other men… this guy’s example would be a good one to follow. Watching him call out Top ‘Conservative’ Windbag Rush Limbaugh is a truly beautiful thing to behold. (Naturally, some mouth breather shows up in the comments to pontificate about “female supremacists,” but you should save those 10 minutes of your life for something more interesting. Such as reading the next blog post in this list!)
• Casandra Says: The elephant in the room, or, what’s missing from the feminist conversation about porn and sex work. A good post about class and sex work… think of it as a better, more sober version of some of what I was trying to say with my drunkblog post a couple months ago.
• International Ballistic Cuntensquirten: Damn the Black Jewish Female Hispanics who wadded up my silken panties! Holy fuck, R. Mildred cracks my shit up. She deftly takes down some idiot whining about “political correctness,” AND explains why so-called PC speech actually is racist (hint: not because of the reasons the idiot cites); and is hilariously entertaining and ruthlessly unforgiving all the way through. As Cassandra of the previously-linked blog says: “You win at life.” (Via Belledame, btw.)
• Shifting gears completely to… Blog for Democracy: Shocked to Find Gambling Going On Here. Did you know that raffles are considered gambling in Georgia, and require a permit and other assorted hoop-jumping? Educate yourself!

And, as a postscript, let’s shift gears again… one day, when I get married (second time’s a charm!) this shall be the wedding cake:

I’ll be in Augusta this weekend. Might blog from there, might not.

From commenter Eli at Fetch Me My Axe:

Anyone who thinks men or white people somehow need their rights & privileges protected needs their fucking head examined. And I am one, so if there were any oppression of white males going on, I think I would have noticed it by now.

…on a post Belledame wrote referencing a post at yellowhammer about a “liberal” guy who’s convinced there’s a conspiracy against him orchestrated by women and non-white people. And, that led me to this other quote at yellowhammer on Emily’s Beliefs page:

I do think that porn made by feminists (male and female) can be a powerful act of resistance and I would love to see mainstream porn that promoted love of self, equality, and the ability to be unashamed about getting off on whatever gets you off for both men and women. However, until that glorious day arrives, if feminist women get off on some porn, please, don’t give them shit about it. Your time will be better spent giving shit to the frat boy who is pissed that all women don’t look like Pamela Anderson.

And, here are some links to good stuff you should read:

• At Sexerati, Lux Nightmare writes about becoming an altporn star (before Suicide Girls and all that).
• Violet Blue writes about the myth of unbiased reporting in mainstream media, and calls SFGate on their bullshit.
• Speaking of myths… RenEv writes about the myth of sex workers “having it easy” in our society.
• Interesting concept: Bum Rush the Charts. Podcasters trying to get more respect from traditional media.

Also I know RootieToot’s man, SD, extended an olive branch to Belledame and me re: some harsh words said over the subject of capitalism. I appreciate the gesture, it’s more than most people would do. I don’t have enough time at the moment to give it the attention it warrants, but just wanted to publicly state that I noticed, and I haven’t overlooked or ignored it. I have many thoughts on the matter… just need to find time and, yeah, energy.

In other news, I am feeling weirdly hyper-sensitive and unsure of myself today. Can’t put my finger on why. Another random thought: I need to call Jenny and Niki. Yes, on the phone! Stranger things have happened.

Back to work now.

In lieu of a substantive post, here are a few photos I took on our road trip:

Close-up of berries and Spanish moss on a tree in Savannah (best viewed large; click through to Flickr to do that)

Expensive sweet tea

Old depot in Fort Valley, GA

Rusty live-blogging at BlogSavannah

Also, here’s some stuff I’ve bookmarked in del.icio.us and tagged “toread” -

• Unhappy Meals - New York Times article about the (common sense) problems with the Western diet
• “City” means city - Bloglanta has some questions for wannabe Milton County
• Book Distribution in America: A legacy of corruption with incalculable costs - Violet Blue shares her thoughts on “book culture”
• “Blogging for Choice Day” - Belledame’s wrap-up of stuff from all around the blogosphere
• Podcast about SoCon07 - Interview with organizer Sherry Heyl. SoCon07 is coming up in less than two weeks!

I’ll be back with the postin’ and the commentin’ soon. And I still have to catch up on reading other people’s blogs!

Well, after putting 700 miles on my car this weekend, we’re back home! This is just a quick update to say yes, I’m here, and it was an amazing weekend. Will write a proper recap later. Must go to the grocery store, and then SLEEP. Thanks to Thomas, Nikki, et al for bouncing the shiny around with my latest troll this weekend. Y’all rock (well, not the troll; but the rest of you). Note to other, somewhat quieter troll: I bought more sexy outfits today, so there will be more photos eventually. This is just to give you a headstart on the eye-covering and tearful masturbating.

Okay, I must go to the store now, for real. Tomorrow I’ll be playing catch-up with blogs and email, and will hopefully write more about our road trip.

Well, it’s taking a lot of guts for me to post this photo, but here it is. I will post more on Flickr, maybe, if I remain sufficiently gutsy. This is a big step for me and anyone who doesn’t understand or wants to come around here with some trivializing bullshit can, as RenEv is wont to say, suck my strap-on in hell.

But let’s keep things positive! So, yes, here it is. This is me, Monday night. I had just returned from pole dancing class and changed into a slightly modified version of the outfit I’d worn. (That is, got rid of the gym shorts that were under the skirt, added the stockings and garter belt.) And, yes, I recently dyed my hair red. I had missed being a redhead!

On another note, everyone should go immediately to Andrea’s blog and read this post. Seriously, do it. You know when you read something where you’re nodding the whole time and thinking, “GodDAMN, this is EVERYTHING I’ve been wanting to say for I don’t know how long, and… it’s all RIGHT HERE, and perfect!” Well, that’s what she’s got over there.

PodCamp Atlanta finally has a Paypal account, so anyone can donate as little or as much as they’d like. Obviously the Paypal button graces the main PodCamp Atlanta page, but I’m putting it here, too. Click away!

As for what’s up with me… well, same old story: I’m busy. That explains the lack of blogging. Anyway, here’s some stuff I’ve been reading and enjoying as I wait for our software to chug along and do its thing:

• Griftdrift writes about his experience at the Forsyth County civil rights marches 20 years ago.
• The R-Word Part I & Part II, by Kim. Fascinating stuff. Part III is coming soon.
• RenEv tears down the “fun feminist” epithet.
• In that same vein, Faith adds her thoughts on shaming, name-calling, and “advanced” feminism.

I never realize how many Blogspot blogs I read until a day like today, when Blogger is fucking up all over the place.

Anyway, today I’m busy. What else is new. While I’m doing my thing, here’s some stuff for you to read:

• Awesome: Article at the f-word about Abby Lee’s book Girl With a One Track Mind (via Laura)
• Scary: Bernita is liveblogging the HB-1 hearings at the Georgia capitol. What a trooper she is. I wonder what it’s like on these people’s planet?

I had my first level 2 pole dancing class last night. It kicked my ass. I have a bruise on my left tit. Fucking OUCH. Oh and there was another short-haired girl with glasses there! She was an awesome dancer, too, rocking her Wal-Mart underwear. (She said she shops at Wal-Mart because “they don’t have it where [she] come[s] from” - that place being New York City.) One girl got a pole for Christmas. In a few months when Rusty and I move, I’ll have one, but for now I’m very jealous. Angela overheard me saying I want to go to amateur night, and she was all, “Be careful! It’s different performing for men!” And then this other girl started talking about how when she was doing a lap dance for her boyfriend, he got all weird and was like, “Wait a minute, are you sure you haven’t done this before? We need to talk!” And Angela said, “Is he religious? What’s wrong with him?”

Anyway, I have to run to a meeting now.

Jenny - did you get your iBook working last night?

I agree with Kim. “Retarded” shouldn’t be used as an insult. It’s childish and offensive. I recall having used it as an insult in the past, but I shouldn’t have done so. I haven’t used it in that way in a while, and I don’t intend to do so ever again. When I hear people use “retarded” as an insult it discredits whatever argument they’re making a little bit, to me.

The fact that there are such awesome, amazing people out there gives me hope, even when I read about horrible, shitty people at other blogs. But I choose at this time to link to the good; the ones that inspire me!

• Wonderful analogy
• Beautiful reflections
• Fascinating conversation
• Hilarious satire

Ah yes, feeling inspired is much nicer than feeling discouraged.

Goddammit someone peed all over the toilet seat, so then I had no choice but to do the same. Argh.

I should mention some stuff about who’s here and whatnot. Well, first of all, we have been sitting here for over 4 hours. It has flown by. “We” was me, Rusty, Griftdrift, and Sara for the first hour or so. Then Shelby showed up. And about 20 minutes ago, Doug Monroe showed up. So that’s who “we” are now. (Rusty is ranting about Web 2.0 and doing his podcast spiel. He just used the word “widgetize.” He cracks me the fuck up. And he’s a hand-talker.)

Not sure how much longer we’ll be here. I’m getting tired. We might go to the Clermont Lounge after this, but I’m starting to wonder if i’ll be able to stay awake for it.