Buggery ...

It has been a while since LJ ate one of my posts ... This is now a recap of a longer post consigned to pixel history.

* marguerite_26  and I often have very similar tastes. Because of this, I believed what she told me about two great Beltane pieces in this post. One art, one fic, both brilliant, you should believe her, too.

* Alas, I have not been following Beltane, but I do think that everyone should also look at these pieces of art, A chance meeting at the Fires has the first H/D meeting after the war and is simple and stunning. And The First Day of Summer is still making me giggle weeks after the first time I saw it.

* HAPPY BIRTHDAY to bewarethesmirk  and sachael , may you both have a wonderful day!

* The Demon's Lexicon STILL not in shops (they hope for Saturday), though my new Frances Hardinge book has finally arrived, only three months after ordering.

* I have accidentally seduced one of my friends into H/D fandom. (NB, VERY important to read the whole of that sentence!) She is quite talented, the rotter. If you come across treacle_tartlet , make her right at home.

* I do NOT need to do the HD Careers Fair, but it may be that you do. In particular, I do not need to write about Harry being a Zombie hunter and Draco being a cat-loving librarian, Harry being a novelist and Draco being a mean critic and DEFINITELY not about Harry being a political cartoonist. Watch me resist!

* Australian Family First Senator Steve Fielding is too stupid for words. He has just attended a Climate Change Skeptics conference in the US, and has now realised that it is all caused by sunspots. For fuck's sake. It's not 1978!

* June 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I remember watching, horrified, as Kate Aide reported from China; weeks of hope and excitement vanishing as bullets flew and bodies fell behind her. The only thing more heartbreaking than the sight of twisted young bodies on makeshift stretchers strung across bicycles was the sense of loss of hope.

And then I saw one of the bravest men I have ever seen walk out in front of a row of tanks and stop. And the commander of the leading tank also stopped, and would not run him down, and he pleaded with him to clear the way, and the man on foot, who was carrying a plastic bag, would not move. And the tank commander, even knowing that he was likely to be punished severely given the climate of that day, would not run over him. The man with the bag was swept away by a group of bystanders. Reports from that day suggest that they could have been government officials who took him away, but just as many reports say no, they were ordinary Chinese who wanted to save someone and who saw that they could. I have always hoped that the latter was true.

Buggery ...

It has been a while since LJ ate one of my posts ... This is now a recap of a longer post consigned to pixel history.

* marguerite_26  and I often have very similar tastes. Because of this, I believed what she told me about two great Beltane pieces in this post. One art, one fic, both brilliant, you should believe her, too.

* Alas, I have not been following Beltane, but I do think that everyone should also look at these pieces of art, A chance meeting at the Fires has the first H/D meeting after the war and is simple and stunning. And The First Day of Summer is still making me giggle weeks after the first time I saw it.

* HAPPY BIRTHDAY to bewarethesmirk  and sachael , may you both have a wonderful day!

* The Demon's Lexicon STILL not in shops (they hope for Saturday), though my new Frances Hardinge book has finally arrived, only three months after ordering.

* I have accidentally seduced one of my friends into H/D fandom. (NB, VERY important to read the whole of that sentence!) She is quite talented, the rotter. If you come across treacle_tartlet , make her right at home.

* I do NOT need to do the HD Careers Fair, but it may be that you do. In particular, I do not need to write about Harry being a Zombie hunter and Draco being a cat-loving librarian, Harry being a novelist and Draco being a mean critic and DEFINITELY not about Harry being a political cartoonist. Watch me resist!

* Australian Family First Senator Steve Fielding is too stupid for words. He has just attended a Climate Change Skeptics conference in the US, and has now realised that it is all caused by sunspots. For fuck's sake. It's not 1978!

* June 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I remember watching, horrified, as Kate Aide reported from China; weeks of hope and excitement vanishing as bullets flew and bodies fell behind her. The only thing more heartbreaking than the sight of twisted young bodies on makeshift stretchers strung across bicycles was the sense of loss of hope.

And then I saw one of the bravest men I have ever seen walk out in front of a row of tanks and stop. And the commander of the leading tank also stopped, and would not run him down, and he pleaded with him to clear the way, and the man on foot, who was carrying a plastic bag, would not move. And the tank commander, even knowing that he was likely to be punished severely given the climate of that day, would not run over him. The man with the bag was swept away by a group of bystanders. Reports from that day suggest that they could have been government officials who took him away, but just as many reports say no, they were ordinary Chinese who wanted to save someone and who saw that they could. I have always hoped that the latter was true.