Koreaboowidow - My SO Loves Kpop & Kdrama...a Lot

A song by The Knight Sabers. #neo80s #vector #bubblegumcrisis #80sanime

SO's silicon #KPOP group wrist band collection may dwarf her actual-jewelry collection. Pretty okay with that.

SO changed her phone wallpaper & lock screen from 1/2 naked K-boi's to some cartoony k-boi icons. Improvement?

As we see a barrage of evil executive orders come in, they are not immediately enforceable and will takes months or years to implement.

That’s still not great, but don’t let these pile up to the point of hopelessness. Take a breath, and look community leaders who will fight it every step of the way.

WIRED

The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital

If you’re in the US (or in correspondence with people from there) and you haven’t been paying attention to this issue… it’s time to start.

Chinese Censorship of the 2023 Hugo Award Nominations

Back before the 2023 Hugo Nominations were conducted, I noted that the Chengdu Worldcon Hugo committee had inserted a worrying clause indicating that local government officials could invalidate nominations for breaching the norms and standards of China. I suspected this would result in arbitrarily applied censorship to control the ballot. I am sad and unsurprised to discover I was correct.

The 2023 Hugo Nomination vote data has been published (https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/01/2023-nominating-and-final-ballot-statistics-published/), and includes notation where nominations were excluded from the ballot. Those with normal reasons, such as being in the wrong category or not being published in 2022 are identified with their reasons for exclusion. This time there are a number of nominations that are merely marked at "Not eligible".

Here is the list of those nominations, that would otherwise have been placed on the final 2023 Hugo Award Ballot.

Babel - R.F. Kuang - Best Novel: Very likely excluded for referencing student revolution, and the use of language and translation as coercive tools of oppression. Color the World - Congyun "Mu Ming" Hu - Best Novellette : A story about perception of, aid of, and discrimination against disability. Congyun Hu has left China and now lives in New York. Fogong Temple Padoga - Hai Ya - Best Story : Either there is something in the original Chinese that was not translated, there's a taboo subject that elides my reading, or this otherwise innocent looking near future tale of cultural building restoration was written by the wrong person. The Art of Ghost of Tsushima: Dark Horse and Sucker Punch Games - Best Related Work : The video game Ghost of Tsushima was subject to directed social exclusion for it's depiction of the Mongol invasion of Japan. Sandman, Amazon Studios: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long and Short) - A diverse and divergent cast, includes subject matter and social issues that are currently taboo in China. Paul Weimer - Fan Writer: Publicly Critical of holding a Worldcon in China. Xiran Jay Zhao - Astounding Award: Qualifying work "Iron Widow" is reimagined story of Chinese Empress Wu during a fantasy/mechanical alien invasion.

This raises a lot of questions as to if this basically taints the process, and what can be done about it.

September 26th is National Voter Registration Day.

For many states, it’s the last day you can register to vote on the upcoming November local ballots.

Voting local is voting for issues that impact you directly—quality of roads and public transportation, education for the next generation of voters, parks, public safety, minimum wage laws, local healthcare access, and so very much more.

Don’t let this deadline slip by. Millions of Americans were unregistered for last year’s presidential election. Millions of voices went unheard. We can’t let that happen again.

Missed it last year? Register. Changed your name or moved in the past year? Update your registration. Completely prepared and feeling good? Great. Now tell a friend to register.

This is how we take care of each other, Tumblr. This is how we start to change what needs to be changed. Get ready to vote.

SO camped out infront of her laptop trying to score tickets to some #KPOP concert *sigh* Planning "revenge" during our time at the gym.

Stan Lee said this in 1968. It’s been 50 years and it still applies.