Being Amber Rhea

Today at work, we’re having a “cookout” (read: catered barbecue) at lunchtime, and the office closes at 2:00. I am so looking forward to the long weekend. -Not because work is stressful or I don’t like being here or anything like that. Actually, I quite enjoy being at work. But Rusty and I are going to take a road trip of some sort, and I feel like I really need it right now.

There’s been IRL stuff on my mind that hasn’t made it to the blog. Mostly, I’m worried about my parents. Without going into detail, I’ll just say I want them to be okay - better than okay, in fact; I want them to be well - but I feel powerless. I hate that feeling. And in general, this and other, smaller things have been leading to a subtle feeling of unrest.

So a day on the open road, with the sun shining down, in rural Georgia, is, I think, exactly what I need for some rejuvenation.

Rusty and I had been contemplating going to the 13th annual Redneck Games. I mean come on, how awesome does that sound? But we’ve decided it might be more awesome in theory than in reality. In reality, it’ll probably just be a hot, crowded gathering where I’ll get annoyed because I don’t like to be in large crowds in the heat. So we’ll go somewhere else instead. We just have to figure out where. When we get home this afternoon, we’ll study the big map and decide on a route.

Hopefully wherever we go, we’ll find some stuff like this to photograph:

Two years ago, Rusty and I took our first road trip together, and it remains one of my favorite memories.

That reminds me, I need to write a post about my affinity for old stuff, weird stuff, and especially old, weird stuff. I wonder how much of it has to do with scarcity? But, I must work now, so I’ll write that post later.

I can hardly believe it, but it was ten years ago today that I graduated from high school.

A lot has happened in those ten years, but in some ways it still feels like yesterday. (And in other ways it feels like several lifetimes ago.)

I was going to scan and post some more photos from graduation, but the photo album they’re in is packed away in a box in one of our closets, and I didn’t feel like digging it out.

Via Miss Syl.

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name?

I also took the extra-geeky step of restricting my search to Creative Commons licensed images.

I don’t know why one of them didn’t come through in the mosaic, but I wasn’t going to go back through and find all the URLs again and try to recreate it. And in fact, it’s actually a nice coincidence that the one that didn’t come through was my answer for celebrity crush - I typed in “no one” and picked and artsy photo, but this works too.

Geez, that Balticon/Baltimore post is never going to be finished, is it? I should just admit it. It’s been over a week now FFS.

Anyway, here are some photos instead:

The Baltimore light rail uses the same system as the MARTA Breeze machines.

Showing off my Balticon program participant badge.

Rusty and me at the 80s party. Photo by Regina Lynn. We didn’t look nearly as bitchin’ as she did. In fact, we didn’t dress up at all, but at the last minute Regina encouraged us to make do with popped collars and tight-rolled jeans.

Downtown Baltimore. One day, I will go back, so that I can visit all the museums I didn’t get a chance to visit this time around: Public Works (we got there at 3:45 but they closed at 4:00!), Dentistry, Urology, and Historical Electronics.

Jenny demonstrates the shortness of doorways in Little Italy.

Public Comfort Station. This is my new favorite euphemism. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was when I first saw it.

No idea what this was, but we stumbled upon it and obviously had to take a picture.

The audio from three of the panels I was on at Balticon is now up, as well:

• Erotic Podcasts and Sexy New Media
• Don’t Be That Guy - Advice From the Women of New Media
• So You Want to be a Sex Podcaster?

Of course, this weekend we were in Columbus and other small Georgia towns. Video forthcoming… Rusty is quite the video artist!

Me, I’m feeling sick and hoping I’ll feel well enough to make it to pole dancing class tonight. :\

Insert sophomoric joke here about “commentary on briefs.” Hey, I can’t help it; Dacia’s excellent Naked City interview with Sadie Lune reminded me that I once had my photo taken on Ho Plaza:

Anyway, somehow I’ve ended up with 7 items pinned in Bloglines again. Oh, bother. So here’s some stuff I wanted to talk about at greater length:

• porn law follies (from Open Source Sex)

  Violet Blue explains some of the profuse idiocy that is Section 2257. If you don’t know much about 2257, don’t care, or (especially) if you think it’s a good idea because who would want to repeal it except sickos who dig child porn, you should definitely read this post. Money quote, emphasis original:

  You know, I’m really in favor of laws that make sense when it comes to kids, adults and porn. Too bad we don’t have any.

• Oh, the irony (from Mistress Maeve)

  I could really relate to Maeve here. I’ve experienced that feeling of revealing something to a sex partner (a fantasy, desire, preference, etc.) and having them not respond positively, and feeling utterly crushed and embarrassed - and of course, with my annoying idiosyncrasy of crying at inopportune times, having the tears sting my eyes. And I don’t think there’s any shame in that - it shows that we’re human, and when we open ourselves up and make ourselves vulnerable, as you have to do with sex (even casual, no-strings-attached hook-ups require a certain level of vulnerability; all sex does), deeply-felt emotions are on the line. Especially living as we do in a sex-negative society that has told us all along that our desires are wrong and bad and shouldn’t be discussed in “polite company.”

  So, really I think it’s good for those of us who advocate for sex-positivity and open, healthy communication in relationships to have experienced that kind of thing, because it helps us remember that this stuff is hard - but so worthwhile.

• Previous Posts Revisited (from $pread Blog)

  An excerpt will speak for itself for this one:

  For instance, when Lyderson claims “the vast majority of young women in prostitution are controlled by pimps and suffer worse conditions in terms of violence, number of clients and lack of autonomy the longer they stay in the trade”, what is actually meant is that the vast majority of prostitutes in the DePaul study fit that description, and this is a study of only 100 women. Similarly, when she goes on to talk about percentages (”58 percent of women were transported to different locations for prostitution”) it would be equally true to say simply “58 of the respondents were transported”….but “percentage” sounds more dramatic and substantial than providing the actual number.

• Booty 911: Butt Pimples B-Gone! (from Naked City)

  I pinned this post as a reminder to myself. I am so ordering this product.

…okay, there are others I want to mention, but I’m too damn sleepy to write anymore. Bed beckons.

Via Ren, I see there’s a new meme in town!

It’s Jack’s brainchild (although one could argue Kim’s been doing it for months).

I’m on a mission. People have to do this. There is no escape. LolBaby. For realsies. The meme is you find an embarrassing baby picture of you, and you caption it! On Icanhascheezburger.com.

So here’s mine:

Now you go!

Update: Okay so I forgot that in lolspeak, “Iz” often translates as “I’s” - as in, “I’s in your [blank], [blank]ing your [blank].” But in my photo, I meant it as “is.” “Is not cheeseburger.” Get it? ‘Cause I’m eating a washcloth? I thought it was obvious… but just in case, there you go. Never mind. I updated it.

…that Ren gave me an awesome shirt at Sex 2.0?

Some of you may even recognize the graphic from your own sidebars!

…and it’s on clearance!

(Texted to me from Miss Debris Blanche.)

Opal ring,
originally uploaded by Amber Rhea.

This weekend when I was in Augusta, my grandmother gave me this ring. It belonged to Helen Woodrow Bones, a.k.a. "Cousin Helen" in my family. She was the personal secretary of Ellen Axson Wilson (Woodrow Wilson’s first wife). After Ellen’s death, Helen continued to live at the White House for some time as a secretary to Woodrow Wilson.

The ring is an opal and two diamonds. Opal is the birthstone of October. Both Helen and I were born in October.

I took this photo with my camera phone this morning; I’ll take a better photo soon.

Read more about the Bones family here. If (when) Rusty and I ever take a trip to Rome, we definitely need to stay at the Bones House Inn!

A collection of photos documenting internet meme-age slowly infiltrating meatspace:*

* I can’t read that term without thinking of porn.

Ahem. I had every intention of writing a WAM wrap-up post while it was still fresh in my mind, but then I had a little, er, fender-bender, and subsequently freaked out.

But as you’ve probably gathered by now, WAM was awesome. I had a blast, and it was energizing, inspiring, and fun (except for the Saturday night party, which brought back lots of bad middle school memories; but, I also met the super-cool Lisa Jervis and Debbie Rasmussen that night, so there was some good to the night).

I’ve been to a lot of conferences, but I can say with confidence that this was the best conference I’ve been to yet. Helen Thomas was introduced (appropriately) as “the patron saint of not shutting up,” and her keynote was wonderful. The sessions I went to were great. They were chock full of good, thoughtful discussion and useful, practical information. (True, I didn’t find the talking to editors session particularly useful, but hopefully there are people who did.)

Dacia’s session in particular was amazing. An entire hour and a half of conversation about sex work and the media, without devolving into the same old pro/anti bullshit. It was a smart move on Dacia’s part to lay out some ground rules at the beginning of the session; I think that’s a big part of what made the session actually productive. And, a cool new project that’s already got a lot of interest came out of it: Sex Work 101 (as mentioned here).

I am in awe of Jaclyn Friedman for making such an awesome event happen (and I told her so, in very effusive terms). I’m looking forward to next year!

All my live-blogging can be found here. Did I mention that Cover It Live rocks?

People I met:

• Joanne McNeil
• Sarah Jenny Bleviss
• Axon Damien Luxe
• Octogalore
• Apostate
• Hugo Schwyzer
• Debbie Rasmussen from Bitch Magazine
• Lisa Jervis from Bitch Magazine
• Jill from Feministe - I got the impression that Jill didn’t want to talk to me… we met at the Sunday brunch buffet and it seemed like she was faking a smile… but I could be wrong (stranger things have happened). Anyway, I was happy to meet her, and hopefully the feeling was mutual!
• Roy MacKenzie
• Tough Like a Creampuff
• Jaclyn Friedman

And, of course, a few photos:

More here.

See ya next year, WAM!

A coworker sent me this a few weeks ago. Since then, it’s been all over the internet, including on I Can Has Cheezburger. Some things become passé once they’ve acquired internet meme status, but I still find the “peepshow” hilarious.

We saw this sign in downtown Decatur yesterday:

(The other side of the sign was correct.)

And of course, no holiday would be complete without a little cheer from someecards.com.

Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts before the tornado:
(taken April 17, 2005, by me)

After the tornado:
(taken March 18, 2008, by Flickr user elemess)

Many more post-tornado photos are available on Flickr. (Find photos specifically of the Cotton Mill Lofts here.) And I do mean many. It’s probably into the thousands at this point.

Many thanks to the fabulous Condomania for giving us a discount on these *official* Sex 2.0 condoms. We appreciate the support!

Rusty says I should make a video demonstrating how to turn a Sex 2.0 condom into a Sex 2.0 dental dam. I agree, because the last thing I would want is for Sex 2.0 to be perceived as phallocentric or heteronormative. So tomorrow maybe we’ll fire up the video camera.

Local folks, if you want some condoms to distribute around town, just let me know. We have a limited supply, and I definitely want to take some to Aphrodite’s Toybox and have plenty left over for the day of the conference; but if there’s a club or something that you think would be appropriate for promotion via condom, just let me know!

PodCamp Atlanta was one year ago. It was a rollicking good time, and a hell of a lot has happened since then! At the moment, it doesn’t look like there will be a 2008 installation of PodCamp Atlanta, because no one has stepped up to organize it yet. So if you think there should be one, don’t just sit there and complain… organize one!

Some photos from last year:

Many more here.

We’re back from our weekend jaunt around various parts of Georgia. We hit more small towns this weekend than I think we ever had prior, in one trip. Only about a third of my photos are on Flickr at the moment, but I’ll post the rest of ‘em soon.

Look at this crazy old jail we saw in Greensboro:

Is it a rule that every state must have a town named Greensboro? Like Springfield?

This weekend, Rusty got his truck washed for the first time in years:

Shiny!

Also, we went down to the bird fair in Forest Park and got two new zebra finches. They are named Puff and Stuff. The girl is Puff, because she’s bigger.

I’ll post more (and closer-up) photos soon. I didn’t want to disturb them too much while they’re still getting adjusted to their new home, so I haven’t been hovering around their cage with the camera just yet.

I’m in a photo mood lately. Here are some more photos of good times, this time all featuring people (instead of just a shadow). My mom always admonishes me by saying, “Now don’t forget to get pictures of yourself!”
Read the full post »

Sometimes I like to just go back through my Flickr photostream and remember fun and interesting times past. And since I’m nearing 5,000 photos (I’ll never catch up with Josh!) it seems like as good a time as any to post some of my favorites.

So have a look! You can click on each one to go to the Flickr page with more info, because I don’t feel like writing captions for them.
Read the full post »

I bet you thought I’d forgotten about this! But I didn’t, and now it’s time for the dramatic conclusion of the full-page story about Gin-Gin’s 100th birthday in 1967.

(If you’re wondering what this is all about, start from the beginning: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.)

—

Vivid Memories

From her vantage point of years, Mrs. Foard looks back to a Columbia when “the simplicity of entertainment for youth was perfectly remarkable”—with music and singing around the piano, especially on Sunday nights when girls and beaux would gather. “It was desired that entertainment should be at home.”

Then there was the famous Christmas night “open house” at the McMaster home—”customary for over 50 years, omitting one year for death in the neighborhood.”

And the regular family prayers each morning: “Whenever Father was away, Grandma would take his place in leading the prayers.

“She would always pray, ‘O Lord, keep me from vanity and lies,’ and I would think to myself, ‘I’m not vain and I don’t tell stories’ but, my dear, that has been the greatest prayer of my life—for vanity can be anything, and lies can be everything.”

Thoughts on Today

Miss Ginny Lee also judges that “there will always be different classes into which people fall—Christianity, education, culture, experience—make differences that can’t be changed to save your life.”

And when asked for her thoughts on the 20th century, she said, “The devil is let loose in the world today—it goes right back to the Christian home, or the lack of one. But on the other hand, there has never been a time in the history of the world that so much has been given and done and planned for the elevation of mankind.”

Through her own “giving” and “doing,” the spirit of this courageous, indomitable—yet charmingly gracious—South Carolina lady has brightened the world and added to mankind’s elevation.

Cause, indeed, for rejoicing and thanksgiving that the century of her living has come full circle, and that God’s gift of life to his child Virginia Lee has been a long one, blessed with beauty.

—

This isn’t the end of my reporting of the McMaster family story, though. Much to my excitement, I recently received a letter from Jay McKay (to whom I had written in January) and he provided a lot of other interesting tidbits about the family. I’ll scan his letter and the additional info he enclosed and post it soon; there are some really interesting, funny McMaster anecdotes. I’m also going to write him back; isn’t it scandalous, the thought of having an actual pen-pal, with whom I exchange letters via snail mail, in the 21st century. ;)

We’re back from our weekend getaway. Actually, we got back last night. We had the foresight to take today off work to recuperate, and I’ve spent most of the day alternately uploading photos from the weekend and dealing with Sex 2.0-related business (and attending a fairly strenuous pole dancing class).

Rusty spent most of the day working on a video about PodCamp Nashville. He’s going to post it tomorrow.

I’ll write more later, but it’s been a busy day and at the moment I’d rather let these photos speak for themselves. So here’s some visual documentation of our weekend…

Our first stop was Adairsville, Georgia. It’s a tiny little town with a very well-maintained and (relatively) active town square. It’s important to say relatively active because this was the middle of the day on a weekday and there was hardly anyone around - and the Chamber of Commerce is right there.

Up on a hill we spotted the Gaines House, which has got to be haunted. (If only we had known about Barnsley Gardens ahead of time, we would’ve gone there, too!)

On Saturday, we went to PodCamp Nashville. My tweets from it pretty much sum up what I thought, and Rusty’s going to post a video. So instead, here’s a photo of downtown Nashville at night:

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, and I spotted these two bookstores across the street:

Back on the road for more visits to small Georgia towns, our first stop Sunday morning was Ringgold. There wasn’t much going on in Ringgold, but they do have a wedding chapel where walk-ins are welcome:

Dalton, on the other hand, was bigger than we’d expected. The highlight was definitely the Wink Theatre. Later, at a Starbucks, we saw the people who run the Rock Bridge Community Church that meets there. They were dressed in all camouflage. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching with your venti latte!

Our last stop was Chatsworth, where there wasn’t much of anything in the downtown area, but on the way out of town, we happened upon this fabulous abandoned motel:

Even though I’m sad about missing SoCon08, overall it was a good weekend and I was happy to add more pins and highlighting to our big Georgia map! Road trips with Rusty are some of my favorite things in the world.

As we were leaving this morning, we saw this note on the door to the parking garage. Rusty is sending it to passiveaggressivenotes.com.