This post is awesome.

Via rydra_wong

Stop telling people to love their bodies.

Every time I go to the supermarket or the drugstore, I get treated to an endless barrage of magazines helpfully pointing out what is currently too monstrous about my body for anyone to see. I thus can really get behind the idea of body positivity. I think it's a great stance to have, and would like to see it more widespread.

But here's the thing: It's not something that can be forced on people. You can't shame someone into thinking they're a stone-cold fox. Snarking on someone for being self-conscious for whatever reason (hey, it's not like there might be any cultural conditioning behind it, amirite?), isn't really going to help.

More awesome links

An interview with Moto Hagio (whose works in English are sadly out of print... *cradles her copy of A, A'*)

Translation of a 2007 interview with Keiko Takemiya (one of the 49ers who revolutionized shoujo manga; creator of Terra E)

If you were hacking since age 8, it means you were privileged. (See also: if you've been using a computer at all since age 8 and you're over about age 30)

Often, computer geeks who started programming at a young age brag about it, as it is a source of geeky prestige. However, most computer geeks are oblivious to the fact that your parents being able to afford a computer back in the 1980s is a product of class privilege, not your innate geekiness.

NASFiC schedule

Thursday 8/5
12:00 pm LIT108: Harry Potter retrospective. Now that it’s over, was it as good as we thought?

Friday 8/6
10:00 am LIT009: Fifty years ago today. A retrospective of SF/F in 1960. I have no fucking clue how I ended up on this panel, I know exactly jack and shit about the subject.

4:00 pm LIT008: Rural settings in SF/F. Typically rural areas appear in Fantasy and cities in SF. What does this say about the two genres? Or is this generalization even true? See above re clue.

8:00 pm CON006: Broad Universe rapid fire reading (They gave us 2 hours?? No, wait, 3... yikes.)

And for some reason, I'm scheduled to have multiple autograph sessions and a kaffeeklatsch. Yeah, I don't know, either.