LavenderTook's Journal

Is it but a fortuitous coincidence . . .

2008-10-02T02:58:16Z

. . . that cats' heads fit neatly in human hands . . .

. . . or a case of symbiotic evolution? Symbiotic evolution experts say that cats' heads used to be twenty times the size of those of today's cats, before they managed to domesticate humans. And conversely, human hands used to be no bigger than a 3 ounce can of Fancy Feast before they came under feline domestic surveillance.

Saki says, "Stop typing and scritch my head!"

We paws to consider the ramifications of all this.

Next time, we ponder the connection between litterbox emptying imperatives and the rise of nanotechnologies.

Pirate Day with Cap'n Saki

2008-09-20T01:53:31Z

Cap'n Saki says:

Aye, ye scurvy dogs will be a'bringing me sever'l articles of yon gushy foods, or ye'll be walkin' the plank anon, ye will! What say ye, me fine scoundrels?

"Ye donna wanta make the cap'n angry, now do ye, lad?"

"And when the count is three, matey, I best not be seeing ye when I turn me about."

"Arrr, scritches under me chin be well 'n good, but if ye donna get this fucking hat off me head 'n fast, I be pissin' in ye bed right quick, if you understand me sayin'."

Kitteh drama like whoa!!! Will the excitement never end?

2008-09-14T03:47:03Z

OMG KITTIES!!!!

Proud Homeowner Tuxie says, "You kids get offa my lawn!"

Queen of the Mountain Moo surveys her domain . . .

Well, what do we have here but an annoying whippersnapper!

He's got no idea how death awaits him with nasty, sharp, pointy . . .

Hey!!! Oh bloody hell! I can't believe I missed!

Next time . . . definitely!

We weren't plottin' nuthin'! I swearz!!!!

From the Department of Faux-Meritocracy . . . .

2008-09-07T19:43:46Z

Have you shown deference to Sarah Palin lately?

On your knees, peasant!

WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!!!

You can't make this shit up.

Help Survivors of Katrina Evacuate Before Gustav Hits

2008-08-31T05:20:48Z

People are trying to evacuate now before Gustav hits New Orleans by Monday. No one who survived Katrina should be going through this again.

If you can afford to donate anything at all by paypal, credit card, or by mailing a check, INCITE! is taking donations here "to help low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina."

Thanks to La Chola for the link.

But that's NOT how Bunny plays it!!!

2008-06-01T22:34:34Z

There will be a WISCON report but I just had to relate what I just saw on my walk home from the coop grocery.

I saw a wild rabbit and a squirrel ambling about on the lawn in front of the apartment building next to mine. Then suddenly, squirrel went running at rabbit top speed. Rabbit jumped straight up in the air a couple of feet, the way cats do when spooked, as squirrel passed running underneath. Rabbit came down in the same spot and just kept on munching grass like nothing happened, as squirrel went back to ambling about.

Wild. I've just never seen squirrels and rabbits play together before. Have you? That move was so cartoon-like. I feel like I just passed through the Warner Bros dimension.

And now I know where squirrels get their expectations about what cars will do when they run at them.

Out of commission

2008-05-29T00:48:05Z

Will report about WISCON but got felled by the con virus 2 hours after getting home. All kinds of nasty projectile. Hours of bathroom cleaning fun while nauseous and weak. A day and a half in bed with fever.

Very happy cats, however, feeling well paid back for the days alone by having human properly in bed for two days.

Feel very, very lucky this didn't hit me earlier, especially in the airport or airplane, though it would have been someone else's bathroom or otherwhere's cleaning fun. *offers sympathies to anyone who experienced that.*

My uncle died yesterday. Still haven't gotten through the line to his spouse yet to offer support.

It was a wonderful con filled with my gorgeous peeps! Thank you organizers and volunteers all!

And yes, I saw copies of that nasty post *trying* to make fun of some of the really beautiful women and charming young'un's I met--*trying* being the operative term, and *failing* mightily--what were they thinking? Not much apparently.

I CAN HAZ JOBZ!!!

2008-03-27T04:11:46Z

I got hired today by a contracting firm with the government to be a technical editor at the EPA. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm expecting it to be dreadfully boring, and if it's not and is the least bit fulfilling, I will be happily surprised. But gainfully employed again and in the editing field as I had hoped is such a relief!

With the recession as bad as it is, I was getting really scared that I wouldn't get something to keep me and my kitties in my apartment making the monthly rent. I'll be making more than I've ever made before, so I can start saving a bit and get a little security. And I'll be working for the EPA, so something I can feel good about--as time passed I was figuring I was just going to have to suck it up and sell my conscience to work at a Beltway Bandit Corp or Homeland Security or something else distasteful. But I was also getting worried if i could get an office job at all that would pay the rent.

The contracting company I'm working for is minority-owned. My supervisor is a very nice and down to earth Navy vet, who made much of my resume and my attitude--they needed someone to fill in fast and were delighted I could. So yippeee!!!

I start Monday. I'll be working in DC in the Ronald Reagan Building a couple of blocks from the Capitol Building and a block away from the National Mall, so I'll definitely get to see the cherry blossoms this year. And it's right next to the Old Post Office Pavilion, so between that food court and the building's own cafeteria, I'll have fun lunches. So I'll be getting the metro-into-work Beltway experience--it's not a bad commute. Expensive, but will save my car from wear and tear and help the Blue Pearl to live a long full life. People from all different departments work in that building, so it may be a nice opportunity to meet all kinds of people, and that could make the job more exciting. And if the job turns out to be one I don't want to spend too long in, it may give me the opportunity to get a foot in on a better federal job with an actual pension and that good medical plan.

I'm still going to keep bugging the people at the publishing house near me so they will eventually have to give me a job interview--editing with them was the job I really most wanted to get, and is still my dream job due to the subject matter I'd get to work with and the commute (but the people there could always turn out to be batshit, and make it a hell to work at, so you never know.) But for now, yay a good job for me! No more fear of poverty for a while! *booooounce*

On the name and theme of the Insanejournal site

2008-03-21T19:03:13Z

"Insanejournal." I have no trouble with the journal name, and could come to really love it, actually, if it weren't followed up with a site theme defining insanity in clinical terms.

One usage of the term "insane" is as positive transgressiveness. Terms like "diagnosis" and "medication" used in the site themes nail down the broader use of the term "insane" into the narrower definition of mental illness and makes it less, well, fun. I don't think making light of mental illness is really fun. It's somewhat offensive to me and I know it is outright offensive to others, and feels like an attack on one's identity for some. And that's not cool.

The site theme closes down these other connotations of the term, like "extreme" and "transgressive" and "radical"--as you would use the term when someone is doing something you find a bit odd, different, somewhat gutsy, and really cool altogether--"OMG, that's really insane! Go you!" the term "crazy" is used much the same way. If "insane" was not narrowed into the clinical definition of the term by the site themes, I think no one would be offended by the name of the site. (OK, maybe not no one, but you know what I mean.)

It's the same with the term "asylum." Asylum also means "a place of safety"--which is a cool way to refer to communities you choose to be a part of, though amusingly ironic for wank communities. In that broader use of the term, I really like "asylum" as a label for communities. But matched with the site name, not so much. It becomes limited into the narrower use of the term as institution for the mentally ill, and all the issues I listed above come into play again.

This is all to say, I would love for the site themes to move away from reflecting the site name in its clinical usage. Without the site themes, I think Insanejournal is a great name for the site. So if the site themes were dropped I'd love my IJ lots more.

Addendum: I like the name Tweak. I'm somewhat indifferent to the Tweak icon, but I'm really amused by the "Tweak says" lines and fangrrl those.

Oh, I forgot!

2008-03-21T06:27:48Z

Happy Purim and Happy Vernal Equinox to northern hemisphere types and Happy Fall to ya'll Down under! Yay Spring!!!

Thought on liminal workers and exploitation

2008-03-21T04:50:24Z

As I was writing the last post, and found myself calling for a users union by the end of it, it struck me how similar the LJ users position is to the graduate teaching assistant, which is where I have my experience of union organizing.

Graduate teaching assistants work for the university and help generate its income through teaching students at the same time as they are students themselves. A student's economic relationship to the university is that of consumer. So a graduate teaching assistant is both employee and consumer. The big fight we've had with both my university and the legislature of my state is getting the graduate student recognized as an employee. The university's regard of the TA as a student allows them to justify paying them a minimal salary--for the time I was putting in when I was teaching I wasn't making much more than minimum wage and it was not a livable salary in my area. And yet, the amount of students the TA is responsible for generates as much money for the university as faculty. Keep in mind that the graduate teaching assistant is already a holder of a BA--this is a skilled labor pool. Defining this entry level teacher/employee, who stays at this less than entry level salary with no increase for as long as several years (as long as they remain in that capacity, and many more as adjunct faculty) as a student/consumer is what allows the university to exploit their labor. It's the liminality of the graduate teaching assistant's position as consumer/employee that allows this exploitation. It is also this liminality that causes many graduate teaching assistants to embrace the university's definition of them as students and not employees in their own right.

The way in which LJ users create content for the consumption of site visitors, new users, and advertisers is analogous to being in the position of a graduate teacher of undergraduate students for the benefit of the university. The fact that this teacher is also a student makes their position liminal and their work as a teacher/employee easily denied. The definition of site users as consumers of the site is masking our role as workers/employees/generators of income for the site. It's why users are so willing to let LJ exploit their labor and excuse SUP's business practices.

Strikes/Boycotts and Other Ways to Hold A Business Accountable to Communities

2008-03-21T03:42:02Z

First off, I've seen there are some differing ideas, as well as confusion on whether we're having an LJ Content Strike or Boycott today. I've been calling it the strike/boycott, for as far as I'm concerned, it's both a breakfast cereal AND a floor cleaner.* You've got it; I'm slashing the strike/boycott.

As far as you are using LJ's platform and servers, you are a paying customer or free client of LJ and are thusly engaging in a boycott.

As far as you are a creator of content for the site that LJ can sell to advertisers as vehicles for their ads,and that attracts other users to the site, you are an employee of LJ and are engaging in a strike.

Thus it's a strike + boycott =OTP.

And that's why simple metaphors of likening LJ users to grocery store customers and LJ to the grocery store just don't work. The user's relationship to the site owner is much more complex.

I think our roles in relation to this technology and the people we engage with on all ends of its application--it's owners, maintainers, our fellow users, site visitors who read our posts, and advertisers is more complicated still than the two roles I've listed above, and we're dealing with at least an OT3.

As an always open and accessible virtual corner pub, salon, town square, meeting and assembly room, private and public party, LJ's community function makes our relationships to the platform far more complicated. We are community members, and in this relation, so are our corporate overlords, whether they think they are or not. We do hold our gathering places accountable to the rules of the communities they function in. I think saying that SUP, the owner of LJ, is a business and they don't owe us anything is not a responsible way of being a citizen of a democracy, which does not stop being part of your identity and how you operate once you walk onto commercial premises. It is important to hold business's accountable to democratic principles and there is no where this is more necessary than with a business that is hosting a community.

The LJ I would like to see would be balancing the needs and wants of the community with its desire to make money because LJ is not simply a product they are producing--it is made up of our labor as well, and the sooner we can get this across to all LJ users, the sooner we can require LJ to be accountable to us. Quite simply, I think we need an LJ Users Union. And it may not be a bad idea to make it a Pan-Social Networking Site User's Union to boot.

We need to raise consciousness among other users that they are not merely consumers of LJ's product, and that goes for IJ as well, but are part of its creation. Only then will we get people to stop paying LJ for its features en masse as a way of pressuring LJ to be accountable to the community of users.

Frankly (no pun intended), I don't think we'll have much luck with getting Citizenship 101 across to many other LJ users quickly and without that I don't think there's much chance of LJ-SUP becoming a community-friendly business, because it doesn't need to be one now, and won't become one unless user demands meet a critical mass.

However, without becoming community-friendly, I don't think LJ is going to keep growing, as the trend has been that it is shrinking. If SUP continues to run LJ the way they are doing now, I suspect they are going to lose users and become less attractive to advertisers, and this will give them a maintenance income, but nothing more. And they won't be content with that. I really don't think this kind of platform is on the rise. Its text-based format is more attractive to a niche user community--readers and writers. It's the newer flashy myspace type platforms that have larger appeal. So I'm thinking that SUP will sell LJ sooner than they will become more user-friendly; in other words, they are not going to last longer than 6A. Then maybe LJ will get a more community-oriented owner--they couldn't get a worse.

In the mean time, I really think we should think about a users union and raising user awareness of their rights, one by one.

*Reference to ooooooold SNL skit

Before the LJ Content Strike/Boycott Begins

2008-03-20T23:30:44Z

The 24 Hour LJ Content Strike/Boycott begins in less than an hour, so I'm signing out of LJ for now.

If you are not participating in the strike, I fully respect your choice. I ask that you respect my choice to strike/boycott by not commenting or replying to any of my entries or comments anywhere on LJ, or clicking on any of my entries or journal pages on LJ until March 22nd.

I don't know if using LJ's message boxes creates statistical use for them or not, so I ask you not to send me an LJ message during this time as well.

If you're participating in the strike, remember that we're not only trying to reduce content to LJ during this time, but reducing the clicks on LJ pages, so don't even peek in at LJ on your browser--you know you can do it! And if you come play on Insanejournal or another journalling service, beware of any links from metafandom posts or others that lead back to LJ and avoid clicking on those. If there's something on LJ you want to copy to another journal site, or that's too long to read in time, download it now.

I'll be posting here at Insanejournal, so come on over and play. (-:

IT'S A 24 HOUR LJ STRIKE ENTRY

2008-03-18T04:29:50Z

beckyzoole has called for a one day LJ strike.

The terms we're striking for are here.

Keep in mind the strike beings at midnight at the start of Friday March 21st GMT--that's for the UK. For those of us on EST it starts at 8:00pm, Thursday night, March 20th and for ya'll on the west coast of the US it starts at 5:00pm Thursday night, March 20th. You can find the starting time at the major city nearest you anywhere in the world here.

To participate in the strike, don't post, comment, or even open up LJ on your browser during those 24 hours, so that Lj gets no clicks. Come on, you can do it!

Honestly, I have no faith SUP can mend their ways, so this may be a useless piece of activism; however, it's not that hard to do, so I think it's worth a go.

Anyway, marta said El Jay Staff will be doing a post tonight to explain how censoring those LJ interests was a mistake. This ought to be good. *munches popcorn*

Me, I'm considering March 21st GMT to be

SET UP AN INSANEJOURNAL AND BLOG THERE DAY!

In that spirit, here's all the links you need to migrate your LJ to IJ and double post for ever after in order to use one or the other as your back up journal:

To set up a free IJ account go here.

To copy your LJ back entries to IJ use lj-sec or this migration tool created by antennapedia. These will copy all links, and your embedded scrapbook pics from LJ will show up there as well, but none of your comments--no one seems to have the technology for that yet.

Once you have all your back entries copied, you can now double post to both journals using Semagic. snapetoy has a tutorial on using Semagic here.

If you want to use OpenID in posting--this is a way to post to LJ without logging into it--go to mercurychaos's tutorial here.

Here's an interesting post on the state of LJ type platforms discussed at a conference. It's cool to see Squeaky, IJ's administrator, offer info on his intentions for IJ in a comment on that post here. I think I'm getting to really like Squeaky, so yay for a business I can happily support for now.

Hello my IJ friends!!!

2008-03-15T23:50:09Z

I'm slowly working on setting up this IJ account. I'd like to move my main base of journalling operations to IJ from LJ, but for the foreseeable future, I see me double-posting to both journals since most of my LJ flist is not planning to migrate yet, and there's a good portion that I doubt will move no matter what changes for the worst LJ makes.

So my next step will be getting my back entries migrated here. I think the only tool for that doesn't work on macs and that mererid made the copies for me.

Then I need to see if Semagic will work for me in double posting all new entries to both journals.

Then I get to put up 100 icons again--yay!!! As soon as I stop being unemployed, I will get a paid account and have huge masses of icons--wheee!!!

Next I want to set up an open source account so I can post to LJ from my IJ account, so I can make IJ my base camp. And posting from my IJ account will remind my LJ fiends that IJ is a happening place, because seeing other people posting from an IJ address did that for me. Then maybe more of them will come and join us here. I'm expecting LJ staff to do more of that persuading for them over time.

Then I need to ask mererid for help in moving all my sockpuppet muses and the Shire community on LJ over to IJ.

I'll continue to use the scrapbook through my Bingo-muse's permanent account on LJ. It would be cool if I could eventually just post here and make my photo's all img-embedded here, because scrapbook uses up LJ bandwidth, but I don't think embedding the pics here gets them advertising clicks--could be wrong.

I've been wanting to start communities for Margaret Cavendish fans, Jewish fen and our allies, and try to get some activity in a Shire community rp group, so I'll do all that on IJ now instead of LJ.

So that's my homemaking plans for this little plot on IJ. If you have recommendations for people or communities here I would like, please let me know.