My boys

In order - Reisen on their favourite walk, this summer. Harley, his last winter, 2007/8. Reisen, the last photo I took, November 2009 and Reisen again, winter 2007/8.

A Good Friend

His name was Reisen. And he was beautiful.

He was a Golden Retriever and he was twelve years old. I'd had him since he was around 8 weeks or so. He was the softest, gentlest, most easy-going. most loving pup you could hope to find. He loved everybody.

And at one o'clock today he was put gently to sleep.

The recurring UTIs were worrying the vet so he asked me to take Reisen in for some X-rays and an exploratory check-up.

The X-rays showed exactly why he'd been having problems. There was a fucking great tumour in the way.

The vet said it was inoperable and yes, it was malignant. He said Reisen had about a month to six weeks. And he would get progressively worse during that month. And be in increasing pain. And that the kindest thing to do would be simply to not let him wake from the anaesthesia but increase it and let him pass peacefully in his sleep.

So I said yes.

And I lost another good friend.

I've gone from having two beautiful boys, eighteen months ago, to having a hole in my life and my heart that is so fucking big it makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in a paving stone. And I've cried enough to make a river to fill it with.

At least he's back with Harley now. He did miss him so. And somewhere they're together, young again and free from aches and pains. And chasing each other round a great big field of soft green grass.

Break your fucking heart they do. Animals. Make life worth living but oh Christ it's so empty when they go.

Afghanistan

They buried a soldier, from the Royal Anglian Regiment, in Bury St. Edmunds today.

He was the 100th British soldier killed this year in Afghanistan.

Today they also announced that the 106th soldier had been killed.

This is not a winnable war.

We couldn't conquer Afghanistan back in the days when we had an Empire and were good at conquering. The Soviet Union couldn't win their ten-year war in Afghanistan - and they cared a lot less about civilian deaths, collateral damage, friendly fire, and public opinion than we do. What makes us think we can do any better now.

The rates of casualties have increased this year.

Time to bring them home. If not for Christmas - how about Easter. We don't belong there.

Guns

Guns are bad.

Handguns are very bad.

The only purpose of a handgun is to kill people.

People who think that carrying a handgun will help keep them safe are misguided according to This Article - carrying a gun is more likely to get you killed.

Lammies & P(aed)olanski - there's a mix for you

I was thinking -

I've got my lj blog for the whole what's-happening-in-my-life and these-are-my-rants things. LJ is my diary, my basic every day life as a contact with friends and a replacement for the books I used to use years ago.

I've got my dreamwidth blog for writing - first drafts, snippets that may go somewhere but aren't going anywhere yet and for concrit.

So I reckon I'll keep this blog away from those things.

Oh, it will have rants and personal opinions right enough but they'll be rants about political stuff and opinion on news and politics rather than writing, bards, fanfic, bad grammar & personal life.

So with that in mind....

Roman Polanski. I can't believe how many people are rushing to defend him. I just hope that no-one, not actor, director, producer, nor writer, that I really admire, defends him. As it is it'll be a cold day in hell before I ever put money into Whoopi Goldberg's pocket again...

This piece says it all for me - Reminder

and then onto...

The whole Lammies saga - these posts pretty much sum up my opinion - and God there's a lot of misinformation floating round. Not to mention entitlement.

Guidelines

Straight Women

m/m genre

This is good too (mind you I like her posts on the RaceFail saga too) Karnythia

The discussion HERE is good

And THIS on temper-tantrums by the privileged Part 2 and part 3

gcls wtfs

Just seen an ad for the GCLS Con.

I have only one question.

WTF is Missy Good doing as Guest Speaker.

And even bigger WTF is she doing listed as being on a panel with "fellow authors" Karin Kallmaker & J M Redman!!

When she stops announcing on her list that she "doesn't care about grammar, continuity or similar concepts" because she's "just having fun" then maybe - just maybe - she's worthy of appearing on a panel with J M Redman. And maybe she's worthy of comparing herself to women who've been writing lesbian fiction - good lesbian fiction - for over 20 years.

Don't get me wrong. I read her stuff (mostly) and I enjoyed her early work (not so much the recent stuff because it became ridiculous & unbelievable). I do not like the way she tried to keep Gab young & naive (ditto Kerry) nor do I like the way she has Xena (and Dar) go from serious hardarse to complete marshmallow with no intermediate stages. And I sure as hell don't like the fact that in her actual episode of the show (Legacy) she tried to turn the clock back & make Gab a really wimpy guilt-ridden pre-season 3 shadow of herself. I do like her take of the ending of the Rift because (although it was a fantastic episode) Bitter Suite was kinda of a cop-out. All that angst & hatred, add a few show tunes & poof - all better now.

But... just because she is the fanfic writer who got unbelievably lucky & wrote a couple of episodes for the show (Xena) does not make her a great author. She's a half-way decent writer who, if she took the craft seriously, learned her trade and worked at being better, could probably be a good writer.

As it stands though... she does not deserve to be linked with J M Redman, Karin Kallmaker, Katherine Forrest, Ann Bannon & the like.

If they needed a Xenaverse writer to show how much the Xenaverse fandom contributed both to the GCLS and to the resurgence of lesbian light-fiction then what the hell was wrong with using GCLS stalwarts like K G MacGregor, Blayne Cooper or S X Meagher?? All of whom are far better writers.