Tootfinder

Day 30: Elizabeth Moon
This last spot (somehow 32 days after my last post, but oh well) was a tough decision, but Moon brings us full circle back to fantasy/sci-fi, and also back to books I enjoyed as a teenager. Her politics don't really match up to Le Guin or Jemisin, but her military experience make for books that are much more interesting than standard fantasy fare in terms of their battles & outcomes (something "A Song of Ice and Fire" achieved by cribbing from history but couldn't extrapolate nearly as well). I liked (and still mostly like) her (unironically) strong female protagonists, even if her (especially more recent) forays into "good king" territory leave something to be desired. Still, in Paksenarion the way we get to see the world from a foot-soldier's perspective before transitioning into something more is pretty special and very rare in fantasy (I love the elven ruins scene as Paks travels over the mountains as an inflection point). Battles are won or lost on tactics, shifting politics, and logistics moreso than some epic magical gimmick, which is a wonderful departure from the fantasy norm.
Her work does come with a content warning for rape, although she addresses it with more nuance and respect than any male SF/F author of her generation. Ex-evangelicals might also find her stuff hard to read, as while she's against conservative Christianity, she's very much still a Christian and that makes its way into her writing. Even if her (not bad but not radical enough) politics lead her writing into less-satisfying places at times, part of my respect for her comes from following her on Twitter for a while, where she was a pretty decent human being...
Overall, Paksenarrion is my favorite of her works, although I've enjoyed some of her sci-fi too and read the follow-up series. While it inherits some of Tolkien's baggage, Moon's ability to deeply humanize her hero and depict a believable balance between magic being real but not the answer to all problems is great.
I've reached 30 at this point, and while I've got more authors on my shortlist, I think I'll end things out tomorrow with a dump of also-rans rather than continuing to write up one per day. I may even include a man or two in that group (probably with at least non-{white cishet} perspective). Honestly, doing this challenge I first thought that sexism might have made it difficult, but here at the end I'm realizing that ironically, the misogyny that holds non-man authors to a higher standard means that (given plenty have still made it through) it's hard to think of male authors who compare with this group.
Looking back on the mostly-male authors of SF/F in my teenage years, for example, I'm now struggling to think of a single one whose work I'd recommend to my kids (having cheated and checked one of my old lists, Pratchett, Jaques, and Asimov qualify but they're outnumbered by those I'm now actively ashamed to admit I enjoyed). If I were given a choice between reading only non-men or non-woman authors for the rest of my life (yes I'm giving myself enby authors as a freebie; they're generally great) I'd very easily choose non-men. I think the only place where (to my knowledge) not enough non-men authors have been allowed through to outshine the fields of male mediocrity yet is in videogames sadly. I have a very long list of beloved games and did include some game designers here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many other non-man game designers I'd include in the genuinely respect column (I'll include at least two tomorrow but might cheat a bit).
TL;DR: this was fun and you should do it too.
#30AuthorsNoMen

I don't think I'm ever going to enjoy gifts.
I can get why people would give them to children. After all, children don't have their own budget. However, I'm talking about occasional gifts, not a new toy every second week, because "we must outcompete the other grandparents". But to adults?
Once I've heard that you should gift people with what they won't buy themselves. Well, that's won't work for me. I'm a minimalist. If I don't need something, I don't want to have it. Unnecessary junk is only emotional burden to me.
I can get why you'd enjoy something handmade. But something people bought? If I need something, I can buy it myself, when I need it. And I definitely don't need people to prove to me that they never cared to learn who I am, and just buy whatever they like or whatever is "fashionable"; which usually means exactly the opposite of what I'd prefer (i.e. something minimalistic). Or even worse, I don't need people manipulating me through gifts.
Sweets? Besides my diabetes, I don't really enjoy expensive shit that people generally buy because it's what's advertised. For the money they waste on it, I'd buy three times as much sweets I'd actually enjoy.
Gift cards? Oh yes, "you aren't supposed to give money, so let's just give the equivalent of money that's actually worth less than money". Actual money? And here we reach the true nonsense; we exchange the same amount of money, so it's just pointless gesture. Unless one of us gives less money…
What I'd really like, as a gift? Maybe that people would finally bother accepting me as who I am. The absolute minimum of caring that I hate consumerism, and not fueling it "for me".
#AntiCapitalism #minimalism #ActuallyAutistic

Elizabeth Warren here — Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan told me I could reach out, because this is important. 
Peggy is the partner I need to get things done in the Senate,
that’s why I have officially endorsed her campaign.
I know she will be a champion for Minnesotans in Congress. 
Can you please pitch in $5 or anything you can to help power her campaign?
I’ll explain more below about why this is such a critical race.

Peggy Flanagan for Minnesota | Democrat for U.S. Senate
Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan's ready to take our Minnesota values to D.C. — to fight to rebuild the middle class, protect our rights, and hold the extremist billionaires trying to run off with our country accountable. If elected, she’ll be the first Native American woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. Will you join us in this Minnesotan-powered campaign?

Trying to read a post claiming GitHub’s decision to purge toasts is *bad* for accessibility, even though it's on perennially inaccessible Medium.
And it’s behind an authwall.
Fine, I’ll sign in.
Oh, it’s actually behind a paywall.
Oh well. It’s not meant for me. Or anyone.

So @… makes these wonderful, personal videos highlighting individual people and families in Gaza with little glimpses into their lives, their struggles, and what help they need.
If you’re not following her, please do. She’s a gem and we’re very lucky to have her on the fediverse.
💕
PS. She’s also helping out with Gaza Verified (and I’ll extend a mo…

Wow, it's the last #LetterboxdFriday of the year. Been doing some weird horror shorts. This year I surpassed 2,000 total films seen in my life, according to Letterboxd stats, and yeah, I probably have a problem. But at least I'm in my house watching weird movies and not out prowling the dark streets.
#Letterboxd

also where the fuck did the actual shelves for my bookcase go. things falling apart but it's the main place where I've put stickers so I can't just scrap it I gotta endlessly repair it
I shouldn't have made that payment on my credit card if the power company is gonna take $750 from me on the 28th cuz I don't have that much aaaaaaaa
I should go put the numbers on my door so I can end the Hold Mail thing and hopefully get settlement check soon. but also I shoul…

May you always crush the skulls. Big ones, little ones, beaky ones, mousey ones, all types, and may you always catch the flying things so you never go hungry.
— cat blessing

Today's the 2nd day I'm wearing my black-yellow Engelbert-Strauss e.s.motion 2020 to work - in an office.
It's also the 2nd day of people making derogatory comments like "Are you going to a construction site?" and "You can't go to a customer like this, they'll think you've come to fix your bath." and "At least noone will run you over, reflecting like that."
You already banned me from wearing my kilt in summer! They are comfort…

so what you're telling me is that a member of hawkwind beat the dead to the pyramids by 9 months? and the deadheadiest member of #hawkwind, too, by a few accounts. have to squint, but here's nik turner flying an ice cream kid shirt in '76. https://…