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these-guys-are-perfect-examples

These guys are perfect examples

Friday, April 20, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:,

of why I no longer consider myself Catholic–more, they make me ashamed to admit that at one point I was Catholic.

Bishop John Nienstedt violates the separation of church and state, directing priests in his diocesis to ‘to defend and define marriage.” Just over a year ago, he used church funds to pay for anti gay marriage DVDs to be made and distributed in his state. (Why again are Catholic churches tax exempt when they are obviously and publicly engaging in politic issues?).

Bishop Daniel Jenky compares Obama’s policies to Nazi religious prosecution (yes, he did go there).

And newly minted Cardinal Timonthy Dolan, for whom “The definition of marriage is a given:  it is a lifelong union of love and fidelity leading, please God, to children, between one man and one woman.” (so what, when the husband beats the hell out of everyone else in the family, or both parents neglect, abuse or kill their kids…why is that considered marriage, then?)

/rant (for now)

7 Comments »
annoying-contradictions

Annoying contradictions

Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:, ,

The headline:

Athletic dudes girly little secret: the pedi.

The gist:

Taking care of your feet is sensible and shouldn’t be exclusive province of women, and men can remain manly men even if they indulge themselves a little.

Which is true, and makes sense, etc etc etc.

Should this be news? Meh

But obviously someone thought it worth mentioning, as well as using distinctly dismissive language.

No Comments »
how-is-it-sexual

How is it sexual?

Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, Homophobia in America, Homophobia is alive and well

Please explain, in word of one syllable, how a t-shirt that reads, “Jesus is not a homophobe”‘ sexual in nature?

(and why is there no image of the t-shirt in question in the article? No matter, found it here)

I hope they win.

 

3 Comments »
vindictiveness

Vindictiveness

Monday, April 2, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:

A while back, during one of our infrequent (and never very long) online chats, Karen mentioned that one of the reasons she invited me to contribute here at KKB, is that I am ‘sane.’ I confess that my first instinct was to cackle, “Boy, do I have you fooled!” but she continued, saying something along the lines of, “I know you wouldn’t go deleting old posts if we fell out.”

Delete old posts?

That stopped me in my tracks.

Honestly, think about it.

Who, I thought in my innocence, would do such a thing? (more…)

7 Comments »
this-song-and-performance

This song (and performance)

Thursday, February 23, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:

Exactly how I’ve been feeling for the past…oh, four months.

I’m old enough to know that time will make it easier–eventually. It’s the getting there that’s killing me.

No Comments »

Is it a new phenomenon?

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, random musings
Tags:

Personally, I don’t think humans as a species can change quickly enough to make the overwhelming sense of entitlement I see all the time a new thing, but I wonder if the degree (that overwhelming part) is encouraged by the sheer numbers of people, the immediacy of social media, and the relatively sudden change from prosperity to frugality in such a large percentage of the population.¹

Over at Dear Author, Jane talked about amazon reducing the benefits of a discount program for new mothers–and having said mothers mounting a protest.

Here’s the thing, though: this is a FREE program, offered voluntarily by amazon. No one is forced to take advantage of it, and amazon is definitely not obliged to offer it. Just like their free shipping on orders over $25.00.

Just like many franchises’ rewards programs. (more…)

6 Comments »
i-shouldnt-be-surprised

I shouldn’t be surprised

Thursday, February 9, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, cranky AztecLady, gay romance, Homophobia in Romance?, Homophobia is alive and well, rant, RWA needs to get their PR sorted

…and actually, I’m not quite sure surprise covers my reaction. Outrage is in there, for sure, but there is an element of incredulity.

During the RWI debacle, someone at the SBTB commented that it wouldn’t be long before there were cries from conservatives about how de ghays oppress and bully them–and not shortly after, this comment popped up at Courtney Milan’s blog.

And then, when the furor has calmed down some, someone calling itself SeaLaughing left this screed (without a link, of course): (more…)

3 Comments »
is-that-the-baseline-mark-for-strength

Is that the baseline mark for strength?

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, cranky AztecLady, rant

I was reading DAJane’s review of Alpha Instinct, Katie Reus debut, and got increasingly annoyed as I read on.

(Please note I’m not talking about the novel, as I’ve not read it)

Jane uses ALL CAPS to note that the females in the story cannot provide for themselves.

Just a few lines later, she reiterates, “They can’t even financially support themselves, you guys.”

Keeping to the pattern, the review last line is,  “the depiction of these poor little she wolves who couldn’t even financially care for themselves was depressing.”

But the last straw was the very first comment. LG says, in part,

I wonder what these ladies do when they have males around. Just have sex, look pretty, and bear children? They certainly can’t be working, if they can’t even provide for themselves financially.

Seriously?

So, women like me, who make just a few cents more than the minimum wage and work over forty hours a week, yet still barely scrape together enough money to pay our bills, we are…what?

A myth? non-people? don’t exist?

Or it’s simply that we are even weaker than the female characters in the story in question?

Yeah, this hits way too close to home, so you may want to skip it.

Look, haven’t we often complained how the heroes in many a romance have to be financially successful to be considered heroic?

Haven’t we asked for more realistic characterization? (aka, “How many English Dukes can you fit at Almacks?”)

Then why in the fuck would women struggling financially be automatically weak?

1 Comment »
a-lesson-in-management-or-how-to-fuck-that-up

A lesson in management (or, how to fuck that up)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Posted in: arseholes abound, Azteclady Speaks, cranky AztecLady, rant

Where I work, everyone but salary managers and (hourly) shift supervisors provide availability so that, when the weekly schedule is made, you are not expecting employee A to show up while he’s sitting in anatomy class two hours away.

Manager R has been making the schedule for a couple of months–and oh my lord it sucketh ass. (Read: we’ve spent a lot of time waiting for A to show up, while he’s looking at bones and muscles somewhere else)

Manager B was in charge of training, so there would be times when unknown-to-anyone-else employee X would show up, as clueless as the rest of us, for ‘training’ (on what? for how many hours?). Not happy with that clusterfuck, manager B tells employee C to show up for training at this time, on this day…only to send him right back home the moment he shows up (after driving 20 minutes, mind you) because “we don’t need you right now.” ¹

erm…

Manager J decided to transfer employe K to another store–realizing right after the paperwork is complete that we don’t have anyone who can cover K’s position during the hours she was available.

…

His solution? Schedule employee N–outside her availability–to cover those shifts, while scrambling to train employee S (who, by the way, sucks at it) to regularly cover those slots.

*head desk*

Best part of last week: manager A asks manager J whether N will indeed cover K’s shift on Saturday. J’s answer, “I don’t know, she made me so angry² that I hung up on her.”

*sigh*

 

I need a new job–three months ago.

 * * * * *

¹ The second time he asked her, right out, “then why the fuck did you schedule me for training?” She’s lucky he didn’t do it in front of customers.

² Angry because she’s “bitching” about having to work when she’s not available to do it, how dare she, the bitch.

4 Comments »
discrimination-goes-both-ways

Discrimination goes both ways

Monday, February 6, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, gay romance, Homophobia in America, Homophobia in Romance?, Homophobia is alive and well, RWA needs to get their PR sorted
Tags:,

Okay, so everyone (including me) is up on arms over the fucked up contest rules at Romance Writers Ink.

Over at the SmartBitches, dick is trying to convince someone that it’s not discrimination because people are entitled to their own discomfort. Which is another way of saying “let’s be tolerant of their intolerance,” from where I’m sitting.

Look, for me it’s like this: I don’t read f/f and read very, very little m/m for the same reason I don’t read horror or inspirationals: I don’t feel like it.

And given that I barely have money to buy what I do want to read, I don’t feel very charitable toward anyone who tells me that I should/must buy f/f to demonstrate that I’m not homophobic.

Sorry, but fuck that.

However, there’s rather a wide gap between that and “hey, this is a romance writing contest but GLBT people need not apply.” Why? Because in the past they have found judges more than happy to read and judge such stories with an open mind–open enough to have had GLBT winning stories.

So yeah, that’s bad–fucked up bad.

But there is a further problem, for me.

Several commenters are now blasting Oklahoma and all of its residents as homophobic assholes just because the apparent¹ majority of that RWA chapter made a GLBTphobic decision.

Sorry, guys–one attitude is just as fucked up as the other one.

(Furthermore, it’s a bit reminiscent of those lovely voices that keep chanting, constantly, that all “romance is trash, all romance is porn for women, all romance readers are all fat, delusional women, the romance genre is by its own nature inferior to all other literature” and the like. )

 

If you read Courtney Milan’s post, don’t skip the comments–at the very least, read this amazing one by Tessa Dare. Also, this Facebook post by Suzanne Brockmann.

* * * * *

¹ I would certainly love to see the numbers of membership, numbers of voting members, etc. for that particular decision.

10 Comments »
there-was-a-movie-for-cripes-sake

There was a MOVIE, for cripes’ sake! *

Friday, February 3, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks

The topic of the article is serious, and these girls’ illness may or may not be actually related to pollution levels, but the name is Erin Brockovich–not Eric, EriN.

There was a movie and it even got a couple of awards–like an Oscar and the BAFTA and the like.

* * *

(I wonder how soon someone will see it and correct it–rats, I wish I knew how to do a screen capture–though I do have saved the page, I am not sure if an edit would fix the typo there as well as in the source page. Me, Luddite)

 

3 Comments »
feeling-miserable-whining-ahead-avoid-at-will

Feeling miserable (whining ahead–avoid at will)

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks

I know I’m lucky/blessed in many, many ways–but it doesn’t make me feel any better when I’m sick with a sudden outbreak of bloody sinusitis (literally bloody–pardon the TMI), a fever that has me shivering in bed under the covers for ten minutes and sweating like a roasted pig the next ten.

Crafting is just not happening–my eyeballs hurt, dammit!

The left half of my Sony Reader’s screen just died–seriously, what the fuck? I’m reading along all right for three hours and then, on turning a page, the screen goes wonky, and now ALL the pages are wonky. What the fuck????

The situation at work is ugly–I don’t know if I’m going to have a job when I get back there on Thursday–and there are no other prospects right now.

I want to pull the covers over my head (if I don’t start sweating again) and hid for the rest of my life.

 

(but I’ll probably come back to life once I feel a tad better)

7 Comments »
what-sort-of-mind-could-conceive-this

What sort of mind could conceive this?

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, Religion sucks ass

This is what I have been pondering for the past week.

Allow me to elaborate a little.

Last Saturday evening, as I left work,  I found one of those adverts stuck under the windshield. You know the ones I mean, printed on shiny cardboard with some sort of invitation (free lunch in this case) to introduce you to something wonderful! amazing! cheap!

Usually it’s something along the lines of time shares (you know, making a monthly payment to enjoy one week a year somewhere exotic–and expensive–in a tiny condo or cabin that could accommodate twelve–if you sleep four to a bed) or, alternatively, a recruiting event for one of those just-this-side-of-legal pyramid schemes.

This time however, it was something I would not, in a million years, conceive.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me describe the card. (more…)

4 Comments »
if-there-was-a-day-for-twitter

If there was a day for Twitter*

Friday, January 27, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:, ,

it would be the day you are re-reading Good Omens.

(I confess I like my copy’s cover better, though:)

#

 

* for me, obviously, as pretty much everyone else is already on Twitter.
1 Comment »
its-all-shilohs-fault

It’s all Shiloh’s fault

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Posted in: authors who I likey velly muchly, Azteclady Speaks
Tags:,

Shiloh would be the always classy Ms Walker, who is hosting a giveaway for Myke Cole’s upcoming book in her blog.

Now, it’s been quite a while since I’ve read straight fantasy. For many reasons, romance has been my staple when it comes to reading, for years now. Yes, I occasionally read other genres (I’ve even reviewed some and stuff) but it’s mostly romance for me.

However, after reading Mr Cole’s guest post over at Shiloh’s, I’m quite hyped about this fantasy novel. Whether I win it or not, I’m committing myself publicly to read it and reviewing it here soon¹.

What book, you ask?

Control Point, the first installment in Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops fantasy series.

Army Officer. Fugi­tive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with mag­ical tal­ents. Untrained and pan­icked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set every­thing they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieu­tenant attached to the military’s Super­nat­ural Oper­a­tions Corps, his mis­sion is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly man­i­fests a rare and pro­hib­ited mag­ical power, trans­forming him overnight from gov­ern­ment agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of sit­u­a­tion: hunt him down–and take him out. Driven into an under­ground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he’s ever known, and that his life isn’t the only thing he’s fighting for.

Oh, and I have to say that I really like how Mr Cole uses the theme of the novels for the layout of his website, particularly the placement of the series logo, with one small exception: it’s a bit dark for the eyes of some readers *coughI’manoldbroadcough*

 * * *

¹ (ish–have to allow for real life and the soul-suckiness of the real job to interfere)

6 Comments »
too-good-to-pass-up-as-blog-fodder

Too good to pass up (as blog fodder)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Posted in: arseholes abound, Authors behaving like twits, Azteclady Speaks, rant, Review sites behaving badly?, reviews, self-publishing

 

I was busy with other things yesterday when this review went up at Dear Author, but as I was coming over to post something else, Karen had already been there, done that, and come back to post about it.

Anyway, will you look at this precious, precious gem from Sandy: (more…)

5 Comments »
when-you-dont-get-it-belittle-those-who-do

When you don’t get it, belittle those who do.

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Posted in: American Politics, Azteclady Speaks
Tags:, , ,

After Wednesday widespread protests over SOPA and PIPA, I have spent quite a bit of time pondering what the internet as we know it today means to me. The freedom and inspiration from these “series of tubes” (Sen Ted Stevens) allow me, the boundless resources it holds at my fingertips.

Among these, a humongous crush of mine:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

“Let’s bring the nerds”

The nerds, said with contempt. Yes, you morons, do bring in the nerds so that they can explain how this thing you are trying to legislate actually works–what it is, what it does, how it affects the lives of everyone of those around you (your constituents–remember them?) and your own.

 

Dear lord–and these people make decisions that affect the rest of us.

1 Comment »
open-letter-to-maggie-stiefvater

Open letter to Maggie Stiefvater

Friday, January 20, 2012
Posted in: Authors behaving like twits, Azteclady Speaks, Review sites behaving badly?
Tags:

Ms Stiefvater, you may have not consciously intended to, but you most definitely belittled book bloggers with your comments–just as you have in the past belittled romance readers (many of whom read you despite your attitude towards what they read¹).

“A review is an unbiased, careful look at a book — basically it is a little academic paper. It involves an itty-bitty thesis on your opinion of the book, surrounded by tiny supporting sentences describing the strengths and weaknesses of said book.”

Says you–and I disagree with you in the most absolute, unequivocal manner possible. (more…)

5 Comments »
do-all-my-work-for-me-please-but-only-if-you-are-an-expert-thank-you

“Do all my work for me, please, but only if you are an expert. Thank you.”

Thursday, January 19, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, rant
Tags:

Okay, so I’m probably being harsh in my interpretation, but that’s how this comes across to me¹: (more…)

2 Comments »

Don’t break the internet

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:,

Fight for the Future.

No Comments »
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