w00t w00t booyah

Originally posted by lupagreenwolf at Help Us Support Planned Parenthood

gandolforf's brother, Eric Lee Bark, pictured above, was last seen in Maquoketa, IA, on November 4, 2011. He gave no word to his family as to where he was going.

Eric was born December 19, 1987. He is 6'2" and weighs approximately 170 pounds. He has hazel eyes and brown hair, and there is a 6" scar on the outside of his left arm, near his elbow. The last time he was seen, he was wearing a dark blue hoodie and blue jeans. His car is also missing; it's a green Jimmy with rust marks.

If you see him, please contact gandolforf at gandolforf@gmail.com, on Twitter at gandolforf, on Tumblr at http://gandolforf.tumblr.com/, or let me know. I will let A. know about anything as soon as I hear. You can also contact the Maquoketa Police Department at (563) 652-2468.

There is a Facebook post here; please pass it on if you can. There is also a Tumblr post here.

This post is public. Feel free to pass it on, in part or full, if you so choose.

gandolforf's brother, Eric Lee Bark, pictured above, was last seen in Maquoketa, IA, on November 4, 2011. He gave no word to his family as to where he was going.

Eric was born December 19, 1987. He is 6'2" and weighs approximately 170 pounds. He has hazel eyes and brown hair, and there is a 6" scar on the outside of his left arm, near his elbow. The last time he was seen, he was wearing a dark blue hoodie and blue jeans. His car is also missing; it's a green Jimmy with rust marks.

If you see him, please contact gandolforf at gandolforf@gmail.com, on Twitter at gandolforf, on Tumblr at http://gandolforf.tumblr.com/, or let me know. I will let A. know about anything as soon as I hear. You can also contact the Maquoketa Police Department at (563) 652-2468.

There is a Facebook post here; please pass it on if you can. There is also a Tumblr post here.

This post is public. Feel free to pass it on, in part or full, if you so choose.

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

As some of you already know a few months ago we packed up and moved to Memphis. On paper it was a good plan. In execution...well, we wound up in an apartment where the floors slope at an angle so steep nothing on wheels can stay in place. One of the bedrooms has a hole in ceiling big enough to stick my arm through that we've been trying to get fixed since the week we moved in. And then there's the roach problem (complete with a nest inside the dishwasher), which...let's just say that we landed with the worst landlord possible and he shows no signs of getting better. Fortunately our lease is month to month. Unfortunately, having been here for the last six weeks we have discovered that we don't like Memphis. At all.

We're a family of walkers and Memphis is not pedestrian friendly in the slightest. We do have access to a car, but we hate having to drive everywhere. The kids were excited in the beginning, but between the apartment issues and the lack of playmates at any of the parks (it is too hot to play outside and the pools aren't open yet) they're miserable. We'd rather cut our losses now, instead of moving into another apartment in a city that we don't love in the first place. It doesn't help that having attracted the attention of the Cult of The Fetus (aka Jill Stanek & her followers) a few weeks ago, I don't feel super safe here. As silly as it may sound we're ready to head back to Chicago and accept that we are really Chicago kids. But, the expenses of moving down here mean we don't have enough cash to pay bills here, find a new place, and afford all the attendant costs of reworking our lives all over again. In theory we would eventually earn enough to swing it, but that would mean being here for months and we really don't want to do that.

So, I'm offering up a YA novel Of Fairy Wings And Glittering Crowns to be written in 60 days and posted chapter by chapter at Atypical Princess. I'll be posting the plot synopsis and character sketches today with an eye towards posting the first chapter tomorrow. There's a Chip In widget below that's not quite accurate (I got a couple of donations yesterday), but will still provide a way for folks to keep track of our goal. If you can't donate I still want you to read, after all what's the point of fiction if you can't share it? All I ask is that if you like it, you link it to your friends and family for their perusal. Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I plan to enjoy writing it.

Selena Newly grew up in a family that took the fun out of dysfunctional. Sharing a house with a mother that never wanted her, aunts who detest each other, and a grandmother that has them all at the mercy of her purse strings hasn't exactly made for an idyllic childhood. In fact it has left her yearning for adulthood since she was old enough to walk. The day her mother throws her out is the best and worst day of her life. She is free, but she has nowhere to go, and no idea how she's going to support herself. When the door into Altanur opens it seems like the answer to all her childhood prayers. Her family isn't really her family, and she's a fairy princess. Unfortunately she's about to learn the hard way that everything has a price, and sometimes that price may be too high.

I'm blogging across two platforms. Feel free to comment here or there. You decide!

As some of you already know a few months ago we packed up and moved to Memphis. On paper it was a good plan. In execution...well, we wound up in an apartment where the floors slope at an angle so steep nothing on wheels can stay in place. One of the bedrooms has a hole in ceiling big enough to stick my arm through that we've been trying to get fixed since the week we moved in. And then there's the roach problem (complete with a nest inside the dishwasher), which...let's just say that we landed with the worst landlord possible and he shows no signs of getting better. Fortunately our lease is month to month. Unfortunately, having been here for the last six weeks we have discovered that we don't like Memphis. At all.

We're a family of walkers and Memphis is not pedestrian friendly in the slightest. We do have access to a car, but we hate having to drive everywhere. The kids were excited in the beginning, but between the apartment issues and the lack of playmates at any of the parks (it is too hot to play outside and the pools aren't open yet) they're miserable. We'd rather cut our losses now, instead of moving into another apartment in a city that we don't love in the first place. It doesn't help that having attracted the attention of the Cult of The Fetus (aka Jill Stanek & her followers) a few weeks ago, I don't feel super safe here. As silly as it may sound we're ready to head back to Chicago and accept that we are really Chicago kids. But, the expenses of moving down here mean we don't have enough cash to pay bills here, find a new place, and afford all the attendant costs of reworking our lives all over again. In theory we would eventually earn enough to swing it, but that would mean being here for months and we really don't want to do that.

So, I'm offering up a YA novel Of Fairy Wings And Glittering Crowns to be written in 60 days and posted chapter by chapter at Atypical Princess. I'll be posting the plot synopsis and character sketches today with an eye towards posting the first chapter tomorrow. There's a Chip In widget below that's not quite accurate (I got a couple of donations yesterday), but will still provide a way for folks to keep track of our goal. If you can't donate I still want you to read, after all what's the point of fiction if you can't share it? All I ask is that if you like it, you link it to your friends and family for their perusal. Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I plan to enjoy writing it.

Selena Newly grew up in a family that took the fun out of dysfunctional. Sharing a house with a mother that never wanted her, aunts who detest each other, and a grandmother that has them all at the mercy of her purse strings hasn't exactly made for an idyllic childhood. In fact it has left her yearning for adulthood since she was old enough to walk. The day her mother throws her out is the best and worst day of her life. She is free, but she has nowhere to go, and no idea how she's going to support herself. When the door into Altanur opens it seems like the answer to all her childhood prayers. Her family isn't really her family, and she's a fairy princess. Unfortunately she's about to learn the hard way that everything has a price, and sometimes that price may be too high.

I'm blogging across two platforms. Feel free to comment here or there. You decide!

Okay, people. I need you to take this viral, and fast.

We know someone in upstate New York who needs a good custody lawyer ASAP. I'm not at liberty to go into details publicly, but this woman is very afraid that her abusive boyfriend is going to get sole custody of her young child.  She's presently being represented by a court-assigned lawyer who doesn't seem to care about the case, and she has very few resources left at this point. Her next hearing is on Thursday.

If you know a good lawyer in New York State who might be willing to take this case for a low fee or pro bono, or at least offer her advice or support, please let me know. If you don't know anyone, please repost this far and wide. As a mother and an abuse survivor, it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach to contemplate a child being left in the hands of an abuser.

I can be reached at kythryne@gmail.com if you have any leads or want to help.

The internet can work miracles. Let's go.

I’ve been wondering what’s up with all the DDoS attacks LJ has been receiving lately. Signal boosting ingridmatthews:

Just in case anyone thinks LJ's downtime is just TPTB being incompetant, read this:


LiveJournal, Russia's blogging platform of choice, is sustaining biggest cyberattack attack in its history. Bloggers say the Kremlin wants to crack down on political discussion.


"LiveJournal, Russia’s most popular blogging platform, has been under a massive DDoS attack for the past few days. The attack has effectively wiped out Russia’s main refuge for unbridled political discussion, a hugely lively and extensive domain frequented by politicians, opposition activists and social commentators alike...


“The reason for attack is more than clear in this case — someone wants LiveJournal to disappear as a platform,” Ilya Dronov, development director at SUP, wrote in a post on his LiveJournal blog earlier this week. He said the hackers were hoping to push bloggers from LJ to social networks where “it's easier to fight individual users.”"


http://globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/bric-yard/russian-blog-site-under-attack


http://putinwatcher.blogspot.com/2011/04/cyber-war-on-russian-activist-bloggers.html

I’ve been wondering what’s up with all the DDoS attacks LJ has been receiving lately. Signal boosting ingridmatthews:

Just in case anyone thinks LJ's downtime is just TPTB being incompetant, read this:


LiveJournal, Russia's blogging platform of choice, is sustaining biggest cyberattack attack in its history. Bloggers say the Kremlin wants to crack down on political discussion.


"LiveJournal, Russia’s most popular blogging platform, has been under a massive DDoS attack for the past few days. The attack has effectively wiped out Russia’s main refuge for unbridled political discussion, a hugely lively and extensive domain frequented by politicians, opposition activists and social commentators alike...


“The reason for attack is more than clear in this case — someone wants LiveJournal to disappear as a platform,” Ilya Dronov, development director at SUP, wrote in a post on his LiveJournal blog earlier this week. He said the hackers were hoping to push bloggers from LJ to social networks where “it's easier to fight individual users.”"


http://globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/bric-yard/russian-blog-site-under-attack


http://putinwatcher.blogspot.com/2011/04/cyber-war-on-russian-activist-bloggers.html