Reprise post: The Girls Who Lived

A few years back I typed up some of my thoughts on slasher films and feminism.

The Girls Who Lived

I don’t have much more to say than that, except maybe to add Beverly Marsh and Charlie McGee from Stephen King’s ouvre, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan and Ekaterine Vorsoisson from Bujold’s work, Toby Daye and Georgia Mason from McGuire’s, Olivia Dunham from Fringe, and various women from X-Men and Avengers comics.

I’m forgetting some, of course.

Okay, wait, I do have something to say. I love these girls. In the face of terror and pain, they don’t give up. They don’t give in, they don’t lay down and die. They do absolutely everything in their power to survive, to win through. On those days when I find myself filled with pessimism, fear, or doubt, these are my girls.

Peabody Test 2011

The state of Minnesota requires that parents assess their kids’ performance each year using a standardized measure such as the Peabody. We do not, however, have to report the results to anyone. We simply have to provide evidence that we have done so, if requested by the state. We are supposed to use the information to help us provide education for our kids.

The Peabody Test, for those of you who are interested, is a standardized knowledge assessment. A licensed tester comes to our home and asks the kids questions out of flipbooks. The kids choose from multiple choice answers on most sections of the test. The exceptions are Word Recognition (simply reading words aloud) and General Knowledge. It take about an hour per kid, or a little bit less, and is easy and non-stressful to take.

We have really smart kids.

Really, really damn smart kids.

We learned a few things. K could use a little more guidance in how words are pronounced. M is reaching the end of how far intuitive math will take him, and he needs to buckle down and do the work, however tedious he finds it. K is a ROUSING endorsement for the Singapore Math curriculum, as her math scores rocketed up since last year. If you’ve ever spoken to M it will come as no surprise to you that his General Knowledge (science, history, geography, art, what-have-you) score is quite high. But overall, J and I resolved to keep on as we’ve been doing, since it seems to be working out just fine.

I’m very proud of both of my kids. Not so much for how they scored, but for how they performed. M was attentive and on-task, and K didn’t freeze up at Money or Fractions. And she knows what the radius of a circle is! Who knew? I don’t think we taught her that …

They have worked hard, and they did well. Good for you, kiddos. I am proud of you.

No, seriously, I Cooked ALL the Things

A few people I follow on Twitter will post what they are cooking with the hashtag, #foodisgood. I’m starting to come around to this way of thinking.

As long-time readers of this blog may know, I am trying to eat food that is better for me. I want the food I eat to be, well, like good writing in a story. I want each food (or each line or scene in fiction) to do more than one thing for me, or if it only does one thing, do it exquisitely well. Lots of veggies, lots of flavor, low salt, lots of vegetarian proteins. I’ve become acquainted in the last month with greek yogurt, and quinoa, and I am trying to make tofu TASTE like something.

Over yesterday and today I made the following food items, hidden below a cut-tag for length.

National Coming Out Day

October 11th is National Coming Out Day in the U.S.

So.

I’m out.

I am a lesbian. (Probably, for some minor minor value, I might be considered bisexual. In that I find men perfectly attractive, I just can’t see why one would date them.) I came out in college, probably four years after I ought to have twigged to it. I came out because I had gotten a crush on a woman I spent some time with. Every time I was near her I stammered and trembled and all I could think in the world was please, please god I want to touch her. I didn’t come out to my family for another year or so, a blurted rush of words greeted with perfect equanimity by my mother.

Thank you, mom.

I am polyamorous. Since I started dating, I have never quite managed to understand monogamy. I date more than one person at a time, inclination and time permitting. My partners and dates are all poly themselves. My very smart friend once said that he didn’t think poly made relationships worse or harder, but that poly highlights and exacerbates any existing problems a relationship has. I largely agree with that. Poly is hard work, but so is monogamy. Of the sets of problems they each have, I’ll take the ones associated with poly!

I am pro-sex and pro-porn. I think people’s fantasies are theirs, and there is nothing wrong with the dirtiest, raunchiest, kinkiest fantasies — nothing wrong with writing them down or drawing them, either. I think drawing or writing a Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin bdsm three-way is your prerogative, and you are welcome to do so. Just, you know, use decent grammar and punctuation.

I am an agnostic — possibly an atheist, but likely not. I don’t believe there is a god. Moreover, I think belief in gods is frequently damaging to people and cultures.

I am a homeschooling parent. I think my partner and I can do a better job of teaching our kids than the school can. Moreover, I believe that age-grouped public education teaches kids the law of the jungle, to get away with anything they can, and that difference is weakness and evil. I don’t want my kids to learn that those things are normal and good, so I homeschool them.

I am a writer and an editor. I have gotten two pieces, one fiction and one non-fiction, accepted for publication. I write comics and have produced six short works in collaboration with artists. I used to write fanfiction, and have nothing but respect for fic writers.

Happy National Coming Out Day, everyone.

GeekGirlCon, Wiscon 36, and Chicks Dig Comics

GeekGirlCon is this weekend in Seattle, and I am sad I am not going. (I’m not going because I work weekends, and when I had to pick out all of my leave for 2011 GeekGirlCon was not yet a Thing.) But it sounds like an absolutely great convention is going to happen, starting tomorrow. Various guests and attendees are chatting about it, and their plans, on Twitter, and I am envious of their glee. Have fun, y’all!

That said, I’d like to remind you all about Wiscon 36. Wiscon is, as the website says, “the world’s leading feminist science fiction convention. WisCon encourages discussion and debate of ideas relating to feminism, gender, race and class. WisCon welcomes writers, editors and artists whose work explores these themes as well as their many fans. We have panel discussions, academic presentations, and readings as well as many other uncategorizable events. WisCon is primarily a book-oriented convention… with an irrepressible sense of humor.”

This is the convention of my heart, folks. It’s the one that sustains me the rest of the year. It’s a very thinky convention, full of challenging ideas and conversations that will make your head hurt. But it’s the good kind of hurt, mostly.

I particularly invite you all to come to this coming Wiscon, Wiscon 36, because we are hoping to plan a Chicks Dig Comics launch party there. Feminism and comics; it’ll be a darn good time.

Things, in a list

One reason I like Twitter is that it lets me spill out the things I think That I Meant To Tell Someone. Yet some things are not suitable for Twitter. They are too long (which goes here) or they are personal, intended for an audience of one (which go to email). If I type “Thin” into my Gmail subject line, it auto-populates “Things, in a list”. Which tells you something.

1. M bought himself a pair of stilts with his birthday money. J and I told him that stilts have a learning curve, and that he might not find that they lived up to his fantasy. Lo and behold, we were wrong. M has mastered these stilts. He can spin, and hop, and do kicks. I am suitably impressed. He’s also figured out how to use the pogo stick we have. Go, M!

2. Circus classes five days a week are working out well for K. Prep Team is grueling, but she’s managing just fine.She also is developing Circus Build, the body type the other, older, girls have. Shoulders and arms and thighs.

3. My wrist-elbow problems have faded into the background again. I expect they will flare up in the future. I do too many things with my hands, it’s a problem!

4. The manuscript of Chicks Dig Comics is -thisclose- to being out of my hands and over to the publisher. I’m making a book. I really like this.

5. I re-watched the movie Hanna last night and noted two things. First, the character of Marissa Voegler is written very atypically. She’s not a truly sympathetic antagonist, but she’s very human. Her humanity might make her more villainous, I’m not sure. Thoughts? Second, Hanna’s break-out from the secure facility is one of my favorite female action scenes in movies. What are some of yours — favorite female action hero scenes, that is?

That week got away from me

My goodness. Things have been busy.

All is more or less well. It’s October, which means the weather is both gorgeous and rapidly cycling between summer and fall. The kids are well, circus is going smoothly, and I have been incredibly busy.

Still am, really.

Time to get back to it!