mapsandlegends

I'm sad that David Nykl is appearing on Thursday, I wanted to see him but no way can we make it by then. If anybody's going, I'll be there Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. We're going with general admission day tickets because I've already had my front row experience and I'm set for a while. I don't really need more autographs or photo ops. They're cool, but eh, I've already got a wall full of photos. Plus, I don't feel like giving Creation any more money than I have to, heh.

See everybody there!

If anybody is interested, LivingSocial has a 50% off deal for a $20 Amazon giftcard.

http://bit.ly/eyjGgt

(Even though it's at the Portland subsite, you don't have to live in Portland. :D)

J has to work and since I won 2 tickets to see the Crowded House mini-concert at Kink tomorrow, I thought I'd give the extra to someone who really wants it. Does anybody want my extra ticket or know of someone who'd want to take my extra ticket? I don't want anything for it, since I didn't pay anything for it.

The concert's at noon and you have to show up at 11:30am, which is why J can't go. Let me know - if I don't hear anything by tomorrow early morning, I'll work something else out.

I think somebody's getting frisky in his dotage.



Me and Ken @tkl7 from costumes on 'The Other Side'. He's starting to look good after 2 weeks in the woods.
posted by @JoeFlanigan

Here, Joe, I fixed this for ya:

Stay up-to-date:
Facebook: Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics
Twitter: #BoycottTarget // #TargetBoycott // #TargetFail

Target and Best Buy have given political contributions to Minnesota Forward, a political action committe (PAC) in Minnesota, which in turn used that money to fund campaign commercials for anti-LGBTQI gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward. Best Buy gave $100,000 to MN Forward. Tom Emmer is currently the only candidate MN Forward is supporting.

This is problematic because Tom Emmer is virulently anti-LGBTQI. He's the only anti-gay marriage candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial race. He authored legislastion that would affect LGBTQI parenthood and adoption (defining parents only as the binary "mother and father"). From Abe Sauer of The Awl: "He has also fought "partner" language in wrongful death legislation. Also, Tom Emmer donated to, and posed with, a Christian rock band that supported the practice of executing gays in some foreign countries. Emmer's campaign actually gave the band OVER the legal limit."

I used to work at Target. It's a soulless bureaucracy that gives lip service to equality and then does bullshit like this. The only reason Target has ever cared about LGBTQI people is for the power of the queer dollar. They want our money. Just remember, Target's keyword is "diversity", not "equality". They are not the same thing.

Target is, and has been for the last 10 years at least, as bad as Wal-Mart. They do all the same things Wal-Mart does. They've been sued (and lost) for ableism, sexism and racism. They've slashed hours, staff, benefits and bonuses for low-level employees, they've ratcheted down the raise process so that they don't have to give more than 15-25 cent annual raises, even for high performers, and they engage in union-busting. Their merchandise is made in the same kinds of sweatshops and with the same slave labor, it just looks nicer. Target is not the magical unicorn of big box retailers, they're the little brother who always gets away with everything.

Do not accept Target's excuse about serving business interests, they're trying to confuse the issue. The issue is that through their actions they've given legitimacy and funding to a man who doesn't care if LGBTQI people live or die. To a man who has already made a concerted effort to strip away LGBTQI rights. No politician is truly against business, it's political suicide. The bottom line is that if they help Tom Emmer get elected, they have done a disservice to ALL LGBTQI people in America, and especially to their employees.

You cannot be for LGBTQI rights and support people who are anti-LGBTQI because those two things cancel each other out. If anti-LGBTQI politicians get elected, they take away LGBTQI rights.

Read more about Target, Best Buy and Tom Emmer at The Awl.

Oh, and check this:

Target's CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife each made maximum level contributions of $5000 to "one of the most anti-gay politicians in the entire United States — Rep. Michele Bachmann". Normally, I wouldn't be all that interested in where Gregg Steinhafel makes his personal political contributions, other than to consider him a douchebag and move on, but I bring it up for a reason.

From the article at Change.org:

It also begs the question how a CEO can say that his company's "support for the GLBT community is unwavering," when he himself gives money to a politician who would write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution if she could, and who believes that gays and lesbians are a threat to children.

I also made this interesting discovery in my research: Target just appointed a new VP of Government Affairs, Matt Zabel, who was Chief of Staff to anti-gay U.S. Senator John Thune. So Target just appointed this guy 6 days ago on July 23rd, and they made a $150,000 donation at almost exactly the same time where the money ended up supporting an anti-LGBTQI candidate. Coincidence?

It should also be noted that the people on Target's Board of Directors include the CEO of Wells Fargo, EVP of McDonald's, CEO of Xerox, CFO of Eli Lilly, to name a few. Most of the people on Target's board of directors are also directors on other high profile boards, and many of them are on the boards of companies that the individual Target board members directly work for. It's all very, very, very incestuous. So you can see how a move like this by Target will be watched and studied by people who can influence not only our civil rights, but the entire world's economy. Target's and Best Buy's PAC contributions help to set a precedent. This is more important than just political contributions, it has the power to affect all of our lives.

Target and its spokespeople continue to defend their PAC contributions. Along with Best Buy, they refuse to apologize for the outcome of their actions, or repudiate Tom Emmer. They keep repeating themselves about this contribution being just for the sake of their business interests and they won't admit that there's more here at stake than just tax cuts.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Don't spend your money at Target (or Best Buy).
  I know some people won't be able to or want to avoid Target. In that case, do something to offset funding their careless, damaging behavior.
  
  
• Boost the signal.
  Write about this in your own journal or blog. Text it, Tweet it, put it on Facebook and MySpace. Tell people about it, talk about, let people know that Target and Best Buy are working against LGBTQI rights and are trying spin this story like it's no fault of their own. Feel free to copy and paste everything I wrote in this post. I abdicate copyright on this post. Take all of the phone numbers and email addresses and mail addresses. Use them.
  
  
• Sign the Change.org petition.
  
  
• Send the HRC letter.
  
  
• Contact Target:
  
  
  
  • Target.com contact form.
    
  • Guest Relations: (800) 440-0680 (7am to 6pm CT, Monday through Friday)
    This one costs them money, use it.
    
  • Main Switchboard: (612)304-6073 (8am to 5pm CT, Monday through Friday)
    
  • Community Relations and Grants Information Hotline: (612) 696-6098
    
  
  
• Contact the Executives at Target:
  
  
  • Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel
    gregg.steinhafel@target.com
    Phone: (612) 696-6234
    Fax: (612) 696-6325
    
    Assistant:
    Denise May
    denise.may@target.com
    612-696-6243
    
    
  • Matt Zabel, VP Govt Affairs
    matthew.zabel@target.com (I'm not sure if his email is working, I got a bounce back.)
    
    
  • Susan Kahn, VP Communications (PR)
    susan.kahn@target.com
    
    
  • Media Relations
    Eric Hausman
    612-761-2054
    
    
  • Communications
    Target
    1000 Nicollet Mall
    Minneapolis, MN 55403
    (612) 696-3400
  
  
  ( Gregg Steinhafel's direct reports: )
  
  
  And because Target has partnerships with numerous celebrities and designers, why not contact them as well to let them know you won't be buying their brands?
  
  ( Just a few names: )
  
  
  Contact other departments, vendors, purveyors, buyers, etc.
  Feel free to contact these people and let them know that you won't be buying any of the products they represent because of Gregg Steinhafel's and Target's monetary contributions to anti-LGBTQI politicians.
  ( The list: )

Now that the masterlist has been posted at sgareversebang, I'm free to repost my art. I know some of you have already seen it, back when I linked to the post at sgareversebang, but I wanted to post it in my journal as well. The small version definitely loses something in the ensmallening, so be sure to check out the full version after the cut tag.

I intend to do a dvd-commentary at some point, which seems like it'll be a lot of work, but fun. Also, I don't tyipcally name my art, unless it goes with a story and then it usually gets the story name attached. This challenge was unique in that the artists created their art and then stories were written based on the artwork. Part of the process in submitting the art was naming it, so I chose the title from the Vangelis song. (Because I love Blade Runner and there's a lot of green in it, people. Yes, I'm lame. :D)



Title: Memories of Green
Medium: Photoshop collage
Notes: Beta: gblvr. The colors and themes for this picture were inspired by the covers of old sci-fi novels. This is probably the single most labor-intensive art project I've ever worked on, with the most layers (over 100), changes (basic composition changed at least 5 times), tweaks (eww, how did I not notice that before?) and mutations (unexpected but happy surprises). But in the end, it's my favorite project as well.

( Full image after the cut. ~400kb )

Ha, I love how I keep forgetting to post these, so it's technically become the every other day music meme. At this rate it'll take 60 days to get through the meme, lols.

Day 03- A song that makes me laugh
Momus - Coming In A Girl's Mouth
I love this song, though Momus gets a little too clever for himself at times and should just keep his creepy, priveleged mouth shut.

( All the rest of my days... )

I wrote these two teensy fics for the stargateland challenge. Sadly, nobody voted for them, but I still think they're pretty good.

---

Title: Waiting Around to Die
Rating: PG-13/Teen for violent intentions
Author's Note: Title from the Townes Van Zandt song.
Prompt: pain


Months of careful planning have led you here, to this same-seeming world like so many others but still different from your own homeworld. There is no dark above, save night, but you know how to craft dusk from dirt and metal. You know how to bury.

Long corridors will keep you safe, keep your prize hidden. No one will unearth your pretty gem. No Lantean will take back that which you've rightfully stolen. Sheppard is yours to break, yours to school. You will teach him the meaning of each deep, keening note of Vir's Keerteza as you first learned it, waiting in hungry, lonely exile for your chance to reclaim your galaxy.

If it takes a year, a decade, you won't stop until nothing is left of Sheppard but his shell. Keeping a Wraith fed and leashed as if it were a tevarina is no small feat, and sometimes you laugh with the same child's delight at having such a pet at your beck and call. And how the luck of Vrivik must have kissed you to encounter Sheppard at just the right time, and how doubly blessed must be the souls of your ancestors to have found all that you need on this world so unlike your own.

Pain is a tool. It tears you down, time after time, making you an alloy of yourself, old and new hardened into new form. But pain has more uses than building strength of character. Pain can be employed to achieve so much more when wielded by a skilled practitioner. Sometimes you poke at a sore tooth with your tongue just to relish the sweet frisson of pain that radiates outward from jaw to joints; you shudder at the sensation, nervous system flaring bright and hot with pleasure-pain. You will savor these next hours.

---

Title: Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: G/All Ages
Author's Note: Title from the Carbon Leaf song.
Prompt: hope


Hope is a new bloom in John's chest, buried under dark layers of weed and thorn. It is red and sweet, deep in his heart, unfurling over long months and years of knowing and loving. Love is a mathematical formula for John, and it goes something like this: the square root of a lifetime x (proximity + intimacy + friendship) = love.

sqr(Lf · (Pr+In+Fr))=Lv

His lips and tongue are unfamilar with the shape of these words, but they exist inside him, burned into his bones.He sees his own care returned in Ronon's stride as they move through the corridors of Atlantis in the early hours, feels it in the cool touch of Teyla's forehead to his, hears it in the fond cadence of Rodney's voice.

Each night that he falls asleep in his own bed, or Rodney's, each night that ends with him in his city, that seed of hope cracks open just a little wider. In his dreams, John arches up to face the sun of New Lantea and lets hope grow.

My SGA Reverse Big Bang artwork has been posted, yay! You can see my art here, along with its companion story. I ended up naming it Memories of Green after the Vangelis song from Blade Runner. Mostly because I'm lame and there's a lot of green in it. I'll post the full art here once the master list has gone up at the SGA Reverse Bang community. If you like SGA, go check out all the amazing art and stories and tell everybody what a great job they did.