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swan_towerWe made it through 2017. Now begins 2018.
Things have been harder for me lately. This is the point at which it really starts to hit home that this isn't a short-term challenge; it goes on and on and on. Taking tikkun olam in its proper sense, repairing the world is a task that goes on more or less forever, because there are always ways to make things better. But the amount of repair it needs right now is huge, and many of our victories amount to maintaining the status quo, rather than letting it get worse.
But 2018 does offer a chance to turn things in at least a little bit of a new direction, via the midterm elections in the U.S. If I have one resolution this year, it is to make sure the Republican Party reaps what it has sowed. They've been given their head, and they've used it to screw the American middle class, benefit the wealthy, strip protections from the environment, lash out at Latinos and Muslims and women, hand the Internet over to corporations, try repeatedly to gut health insurance, and generally piss on everything I care about. They've made it clear that they don't really give two shits about democracy or the will of the people.
So it's time for us to speak all the louder.
If you are not registered to vote, then register. If you are registered, make sure that's still valid. And then vote. Same goes for anyobody living in another country, because your politics matter, too. Don't listen to the voices that tell you that you don't matter. You do.
You can change the world. One bit at a time.
The election is in November, but the work begins now. Share here anything you've done to repair the world: donations, volunteer work, good deeds, changes in your own life to be a better citizen and friend and neighbor. No effort is too small to be worth mentioning. We'll need every straw if we're going to break this camel's back.
Things have been harder for me lately. This is the point at which it really starts to hit home that this isn't a short-term challenge; it goes on and on and on. Taking tikkun olam in its proper sense, repairing the world is a task that goes on more or less forever, because there are always ways to make things better. But the amount of repair it needs right now is huge, and many of our victories amount to maintaining the status quo, rather than letting it get worse.
But 2018 does offer a chance to turn things in at least a little bit of a new direction, via the midterm elections in the U.S. If I have one resolution this year, it is to make sure the Republican Party reaps what it has sowed. They've been given their head, and they've used it to screw the American middle class, benefit the wealthy, strip protections from the environment, lash out at Latinos and Muslims and women, hand the Internet over to corporations, try repeatedly to gut health insurance, and generally piss on everything I care about. They've made it clear that they don't really give two shits about democracy or the will of the people.
So it's time for us to speak all the louder.
If you are not registered to vote, then register. If you are registered, make sure that's still valid. And then vote. Same goes for anyobody living in another country, because your politics matter, too. Don't listen to the voices that tell you that you don't matter. You do.
You can change the world. One bit at a time.
The election is in November, but the work begins now. Share here anything you've done to repair the world: donations, volunteer work, good deeds, changes in your own life to be a better citizen and friend and neighbor. No effort is too small to be worth mentioning. We'll need every straw if we're going to break this camel's back.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-01 11:01 pm (UTC)We donated money to the Native American Rights Fund, the National Resource Defense Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, ACLU Foundation, Amnesty International, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We also made charitable donations in lieu of gifts for several family members, at their request.
I found out I had a pile of Marriott Points that I could use for various purposes, and wound up turning them into monetary donations for the World Wildlife Fund and Immigration Equality (specifically focused on LGBTQ+ immigrants). I also donated clothing to Goodwill and some canned soup to a food drive.
I went to a Net Neutrality protest and made alterations to my website and Twitter account in support of that.
I've begun turning down the heat in my house. This is hard for me because I get cold easily, and loathe being cold; but I can turn it down a fair bit when I go to bed at night (especially if I use the space heater briefly to warm the bedroom), and then when I get up in the morning I can sometimes convince myself to leave it fairly low for a while, especially if I'm in my office (which is one of the warmest rooms in the house).
Onward to 2018.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-05 12:00 am (UTC)I am currently working on an application that can be used to make text/image- based games.
I'm setting aside time and energy for making this into a tool that can be used by people who lack spoons, and I am working hard at providing defaults that are not male-first, necessarily violent (though, given its RPG origins, some bashing and stabbing is unavoidable). It would be very easy (and tempting) to go with 'standard' gameplay. I want to make storytelling with my app accessible to everyone; and I want to challenge the default, shift the window, help to take back gaming.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-06 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-06 02:13 pm (UTC)The other thing was that it eventually occurred to me that a turn-based game is all _about_ the storytelling, and in a game, about the environment that allows you to suspend your disbelief. You don't even get the pretend actions of 'I sweep my mouse and click my button to pretend I hit my opponent with my sword', you click a button or hit a key which says 'I hit my opponent'. And there's no reason it can't say 'I make a witty remark' or 'I insult her dress'. I've seen a game which tried to tie the pretend action and the player's skills too closely - you had to do wordplay or choose insults, and while it was amusing for a short bit, it failed to work precisely because it conflated player skill and character actions too much for the genre.
It'll be a couple of months before I can try this out - programming, even when not hard, is tedious - but I think it will work. It'll be a challenge to my storytelling skills to create more diverse options, but I am beginning to feel cautiously optimistic.
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Date: 2018-01-07 07:24 pm (UTC)Hmmm, now you have me thinking . . . instead of "fighter, wizard, rogue," it would be interesting to design a trio of classes around three methods of talking your way past obstacles: "diplomat, merchant, trickster," or something like that, where you sort out a compromise, make a deal, or fool your opponent. Or have one of them be about threats and intimidation, if you don't mind one of the options being what amounts to verbally violent.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-02 01:26 pm (UTC)So much this.
This past year, I donated to ACLU, SPLC, NPR, Disaster Relief, Planned Parenthood, and many others. For the first time every, I donated politically, both ad hoc and as a recurring donation to Beto O'Rourke's campaign for senate, in hopes of ousting Ted Cruz in the midterms. I've done everything I can to boost signals, to get political, to raise awareness.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-04 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-03 12:32 am (UTC)But I brought food to the monthly collection, brought a pile of toys for a collection for the local children's hospital (turns out they use 'em for therapy as well as fun), and mailed off two checks to my favorite charity. (Plus, bought some food for next month's food collection.)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-04 10:39 pm (UTC)