were_gopher | Reading

Ok, we are doing this thing in a slightly different way. Because kickstarter has limitations on how they fundraise, we are doing this thru GoFundMe. HOWEVER, much like a kickstarter, there will be tiers for donations to the convention that get you different things. Badge level, Supporting Membership level, and Glad to help level. Come see!
https://gofund.me/70d28e045

I spent yesterday volunteering at the local Repair Cafe. It was quite fun, everyone was welcoming, and I even got some sewing work in, which I almost finished. Next month I will remember to bring some sewing needles. I took my sewing machine, but it wouldn’t cope with sewing the fur side of the fur layer.

Thinking about it, I should have sewed the the other side, but that never occurred to me at the time. I just hope no-one ever turns up wanting something lined. That would take too long.

But I will go along next month.

Current Location: Bangor
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/328483.html

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volunteering

Six works new to me: four fantasy, one mystery, one non-fiction (from an unexpected source)... unless you count the fantasy-mystery as mystery, in which case it's three fantasy and two mysteries. At least two are series. I don't know why publishers are so averse to labelling series.

Books Received, September 20 — September 26

Poll #33662 Books Received, September 20 — September 26

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
10 (28.6%)

Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (July 2026)
9 (25.7%)

Following My Nose by Alexei Panshin (December 2024)
10 (28.6%)

The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch (May 2026)
5 (14.3%)

The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow (February 2026)
5 (14.3%)

Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson (September 2025)
15 (42.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.9%)

Cats!
26 (74.3%)

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books received

We are looking for an experienced Con Suite person. It is the one part that neither of us have ever worked on.

Email me at ericcoleman at gmail

Anyone want to bet against the possibility that the software needed to make this work will require really recent versions of the OS etc, thus forcing internet users to buy new phones etc.?

"Brit card" will likely cost you your seat

Dear Mr Zeichner,

A compulsory ID card, digital or otherwise, is a catastrophically bad idea for Labour. The British public have accepted such ID systems in time of war, but the illegal immigration and working problems are not a crisis on that scale, no matter how much the right-wing press tries to make it seem so.

By over-reacting in this way, Labour are handing the entire civil liberties agenda to the Tories and Reform (Reform? Civil liberties? What have we come to?). They are not really in favour of civil liberties, but they have a better idea of what the public will put up with than Labour is displaying.

In Cambridge, the Tories and Reform have no real hope of unseating you, but the Liberal Democrats and the Greens do, especially if they were to form an electoral pact against you. As a strongly Remain former Labour MP, finding another seat would be challenging, at best.

I urge you to oppose any form of compulsory ID in all ways possible. It makes Labour look even more authoritarian than the Tories and Reform.

I would also suggest that Labour needs to be far more sceptical about policy suggestions from the Tony Blair Institute. It isn't 1997 any more. but the TBI doesn't seem to have noticed and carries on campaigning for things Blair was unable to push through, because they were bad ideas for both New Labour and the United Kingdom.

Yours, sincerely,

John Dallman

Current Mood: angry
Current Location: Mum's flat
Current Music: Radio 3

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politics

A grieving mother and her best friend break into a ghost museum to conduct illicit but surely harmless Ghost Day celebrations. Revelations await.

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

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Our wonderful Prime Minister is pushing a bill to make online digital ID compulsory for Britons. Apart from the sheer impossibility of making it work without crippling the internet, and the huge costs of making it work even it it were possible, especially with multiple countries involved with differing interests and competing schemes, it would massively invade everyone's privacy.

There's a petition against it here if anyone is interested...

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/reject-plans-for-a-mandatory-britcard-digital-id

Incidentally, I would strongly recommend treating any attempt to make this work as phishing and attempted identity theft, because a lot of the emails sent out about it definitely will be be bogus. Including most that purport to come from the government.

Tomorrow, the UK government will announce plants for mandatory digital ID. This is an act of the most profound stupidity on their part, making it trivial for the Conservatives and Reform (Even Reform!) to outflank Labour on civil liberties. It won't work, it will be hacked and abused, and people without a smartphone will be even more marginalised.

Please sign this petition against it, contact your MP, and resist in all practical ways.

Parliamentary petition here has over a million signatures, Let's try for ten million.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Mum's flat
Current Music: Radio 3

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politics

More stories should dig into the chemistry, biology, and physics of falling in love.

On Writing Romance as Hard Science Fiction

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The Morris Federation have been producing a series of short videos for many of their members. The aim is to get as many shares as possible, in order to boost the number of people reached.

So, here's the short video for Southern Star Longsword. We're a small, friendly team, who welcome men, women and children. We meet in Corfe Mullen on Monday evening. We're especially keen to recruit new musicians at present.

We perform English longsword dances (no connection to Scottish sword dancing), and write many of our own dances. Our latest dance - sadly, no decent video as yet - is danced to 'The Wellerman'.

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longsword

Amid economic downturn and political strife, young American teen discovers her hidden potential.

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack

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Realtor Reiko Kujirai has many questions, about her apparent rival and about herself, but very few answers.

Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 2 by Jun Mayuzuki

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Lynn Barker & DC Fontana, Tera Mitchell, Critical Mass, Don Neill, Emory Churness, Marc S. Glasser, Linda Short, Pat Sheller, W. Randy Hoffman & Kira Heston, Dr. Jane Robinson, Karen Wilson, David Kushner, PDX Broadsides, Dr Stephen M Baird, Harmony Heifers

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

would my Framework charge if plugged into one outlet but not another? I tested the outlet from which it did not charge and it works for other devices.

[Update]

I shut it down for an hour and everything works again.

Oh, the joys (and perils) of visiting unfamiliar places and times...

Adventures in Tourism: Five SFF Stories About Travel

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Youtube pushed a song from this source at me.

I don't think they exist. There are no non-generated images of the singer and their pace of output is suspicious. And their FB bio references ai.

Oxford sends its best to study World War Two in this (grinds teeth) Hugo-winning tale of sound and fury.

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

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Weregopher from the Black Lagoon

FilkConbobulated! June 26-28 Des Moines IA

Volunteering

Books Received, September 20 — September 26

FilkConbobulated! June 26-28 Des Moines IA

Another "Brit-Card" Thought

E-mail to my MP

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

I do not believe I will use this online translator

Petition against Digital ID

Mandatory Digital ID

On Writing Romance as Hard Science Fiction

Southern Star are recruiting!

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack

Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 2 by Jun Mayuzuki

This week on FilkCast

Bold

WHY

Adventures in Tourism: Five SFF Stories About Travel

Funny thing about this singer

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

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