Arisia 2011

Well, I guess I better figure out how to get a hotel room and a trip down, what with being on panels and all. (I was SURE I would end up on the "How to Flirt" panel, and yet no.)


Instead I seem to have ended up on panels where I am more than willing to talk but have less than ample cred.

SATURDAY:

Sat: 5:00 PM
FAIL!!: Racefail, Open Source Boob Project, ... how do we keep stepping in it? What is it we're stepping in?
Wow. I am outclassed on this panel. Time for research.

Sat 6:30 PM
Speed Improv Story Writing Competition
OK, at least I get to wash out my brain with fun. Time to practice by playing lots of Once Upon a Time. :)

SUNDAY:

Sun 2:00 PM
Acting, Improvisation, and Role-playing
I feel pretty comfortable on this one.

Sun 11:00 PM
Invisible Fangirls
Yikes. Again with a panel that I probably have no right to be on. Do we need more opinionated white guys taking panel space here?

MONDAY
Mon 9:30 AM
The Myth of Fannish Tolerance
And I round off the weekend with more contentious issues. At least I know someone on the panel here.

So yeah, I should have an interesting time being the guy having to CONSTANTLY check my privilege.

Sex work laws stay on the books in Ontario (for now)

Sadly (but not unexpectedly), the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that Canada's prostitution laws will stay in place for at least several more months, extending the stay on repealing the laws until April 29, 2011.

It's pretty much what most people expected, and it puts lots of people in a sort of limbo for now. I'm still hoping the lower court ruling gets upheld, but then I am often accused of being pollyannaish.

I don't think I'm friends with any sex workers anymore, so I don't have a personal dog in this fight, but I do think the rhetoric that this is going to immanentize the eschaton and produce "Sex City" is ridiculous.

The End of the Laptop

Looks like the laptop can't even be coaxed into taking acknowledging it is plugged in anymore. I guess that moves getting a netbook or some such up to the front since I'm fairly sure repairing the plug connection would be a nightmare and not really worth it.

Anyone have a battery for a Dell InspironD420 they can loan me long enough to dump the data off the thing?