Kitty Yoga

The Hazing of Kathy Sierra

Lisa of Digital Medievalist has asked me to help spread the word about the truly horrific and deeply misogynist online hazing of Creating Passionate Users blogger and e-tech expert Kathy Sierra. I'll first warn you that the threats made against Ms. Sierra are exceptionally graphic and disturbing and then link to Lisa's very comprehensive post about the situation here.

Yep, some of those boys who didn't want the girls playing in "their" sandbox never managed to grow up. And they've only gotten nastier over the years.

As Lisa mentions, those who know which particular cretins lurk behind the usernames involved need to step up and alert the authorities. Credible threats of sexual assaults, beatings, and murder are illegal for a reason, and the people who make them need to be held accountable.

Things I'm Enthusiastic About Right Now

1) Women for Women International, which matches sponsors with war survivors who are struggling to rebuild their lives.

2) These two t-shirts.

3) This sticker (shout-out to Juniperus for bringing it to my attention). I will be buying one when they're back in stock.

4) "Phantom Queen" perfume oil (another shout-out to Juniperus, who sent me a lovely package full of BPAL imps, is in order here)

5) The cafe which is on a direct bus line from my apartment and has free internet service for customers, as well as a BookCrossing shelf. (Credit goes to Morgan and Bellwether for this one.)

6) Speaking of which, I just learned of a bookcrossing technique that consists of throwing securely Ziploced paperbacks into bodies of water, so that they later wash up elsewhere to be discovered. This, of course, means that I have to try it. I think I might have mentioned that I'm obsessed?

7) This calendar, a rainbow of wet-erase markers, and matching, self-adhesive marker holsters. I think I also might have mentioned my office-supply gluttony? And my need to get my life in order? Well, maybe I can put my vice to good use this time.

Bartenders stop date rapist

This story has really made my day.

Seen via Feministing.

Jill Filipovic

Mirroring the post made by tigtog:

This is a crosspost to effect a Googlebomb, correcting an injustice against a fellow feminist blogger.

Jill Filipovic, who blogs at Feministe and Ms. JD, is a NYU law student who has been the subject of cyber-obsession on a discussion board allegedly populated by law students. The discussions regarding Jill Filipovic (and many other female law students) are sexist and sexual in nature, rating the women’s physical attractiveness and fantasising about sexual contact, both consensual and non-consensual. Neither Jill Filipovic or any other of these women contributed, or gave their permission to be discussed, to the discussion board in question.

Jill Filopovic‘s name and class routines etc have been regularly posted to this board, and at least one of the pseudonymous board-members claims to be Jill Filipovic‘s classmate. Photos that Jill Filipovic posted (with full rights reserved) to an internet photo-storing and sharing site have also been posted to the sleazy discussion board without her permission. This is a horrendous invasion of Jill Filipovic‘s privacy, a violation of copyright law, and calls the ethics and character of the alleged law-students participating in these discussions on the discussion board into question.

A major side-effect of an already nasty situation is that the sexist, objectifying cyber-obsession threads come up on the first page of internet search results on Jill Filipovic‘s name. To an inexperienced user of the internet, it may even look as if Jill Filipovic and other female law students chose to compete in these Hot or Not rating competitions, instead of having their pictures posted without permission.

This post is an attempt to balance those internet results to point to the significant writings of Jill Filipovic instead, using the Googlebomb tactic and also linking this post to social networking sites (eg. del.ici.ous, Stumbleupon). Please feel free to copy any or all of what I’ve written here to your own blog in order to help change the top-ranked search engine results for Jill Filipovic. If you don’t have your own blog then please at least link to one of Jill’s posts listed below at your preferred social networking site and give it the tag ”Filipovic” (as well as any others you think appropriate).

I have linked to these sites in this post:
Jill Filipovic‘s bio page at Feministe
Jill Filipovic‘s blog posts at the Ms. JD blog
Jill Filipovic‘s article about these scummy lawschool sleazebags at Feministe
Jill Filipovic‘s article at Ms. JD: When Law Students Attack

If any of the other female law students stalked by the same sleazy site wish to copy this text with names altered, you hereby have my full permission to do so. All other rights reserved. (C) 2007 tigtog

A few announcements

1) Yes, I'm still alive. It's just that trying to reorganize several major areas of your life that you've neglected for years at a time takes a lot of work.

2) I have re-discovered the deep joy of examination copies as I've been prepping to overhaul some classes for next year. It took a lot of research and a fair amount of letter writing, emailing, and faxing, but I have a fair number of very exciting books on the way to me in the mail. This gig does have some perks.

3) I am thoroughly obsessed with Book Crossing: it is a tremendous amount of fun.

4) I managed to give a reasonably successful conference paper during the last little while. I was shocked.

5) Boy Roomie is a genius. Evidence: during the past two weeks, he bought me a copy of William Shatner's "Has Been" and two boxes of the Best Girl Scout Cookies on Earth (which are, of course, Samoas).

Currently listening to: Niamh Parsons, "Two Sisters"; King Crimson, "Court of the Crimson King"

In which I hang up my belt

I worked for eight hours at the dojang today during the annual spring cleaning. It really was pretty grueling, not least of all because we did stuff that hadn't been done last year, resulting in what I've decided to call dust behemoths: they certainly were far too large, too dense, and too menacing to be called dust bunnies.

The day started with disassembling and then scraping all the dust out of the joins and velcro in the floor mats with wire brushes while wearing a dust mask. It ended with hauling large pieces of furniture to and fro. In between, I became truly filthy and very, very tired.

If I gave even a third as much cleaning attention to this apartment, it would be a very different place altogether.

This was my last gasp at the dojang, at least for the foreseeable future. I was beginning to feel that the training wasn't having the effect on me that I'd hoped; I wasn't seeing the changes in my body I wanted, and it was causing me stress even more than it was offering me structure. For some months, I had chalked that up to personal failings. But then my work schedule changed in a way that made it impossible to get to classes after work while I was consigned to riding the bus. With Master Fuzzy's help, I started working on getting my truck back on the road, but the process has been taking months. Meanwhile, I had to face the fact that I will be out of the country for about a month on a research trip that was going to make it impossible for me to hold up my end of the scholarship deal I had with Master F, in which I worked for at least three hours per week. And I'll be going back and forth to Urban Bohemia and other such locations more, too.

So, last week, I gave up and told Master F. that I'd have to quit, at least for now.

Today, after the cleaning and before the formal dismissal, he gathered the stragglers together and announced that he was giving me "honorable discharge" for coming and working as hard as I did. He hugged me and said that I was going to work on coming back at some point. That, as have many of my interactions with Master F., left me feeling guilty. I don't know whether I'll be able to come back. The scholarship deal was taking a lot of valuable time smack in the middle of a weekday--and sometimes the entire day, depending on what was needed. I was still paying about $70/month, even on scholarship, and I just can't afford to come back at full monthly rates.

Before I left, I said I'd keep in touch. I think I can probably manage to keep that promise, anyway.

Two recommendations

1) Yes, it has a goofy name. And yes, it is expensive. But this thing really does work. I have pulled enough fur off of Mouse during the past two days to make a ball the size of my head. What's more, Mouse actually likes being combed with this thing and will let me use it for much longer than he would his old brush. I highly recommend it to you pet owners. Take caution, though: if you buy one of these, make sure to wear old clothes you can throw in the laundry as soon as you're finished. And you might want to take a shower afterward, too. The fur will be all over you.

2) I just released my first Book Crossing book today and plan to release two more tomorrow. It's so much fun! It's also a good way to bribe yourself into getting rid of a few books when your shelves are overflowing.