So I was hoping to find a children's book in French featuring two dads or a gay couple, but apparently that's... nearly impossible? The few children's book on the topic tend to feature two moms, and I have problems with most of them anyway. I just wanted a children's book with two dads about something that's not discrimination. :/ Like King & King is actually pretty awesome, but it doesn't exist in French? Le sigh.

For those of you on twitter who were asking for references should I find something, so far the best list I've found is on the APGL website.

On a cute note, the other night we were playing the Werewolf game with my cousins and we were playing with the Cupid character, who chooses two players who will be "in love" for the rest of the game. My brother (I think) reminded everyone the couple doesn't have to be a boy and a girl and my 13-year-old cousin agreed and said, yeah, it can be two girls or two boys. I'm not certain he really made the link with actual gay couples but I liked how matter-of-fact he was about it. :)

First, arcadiane wrote this excellent post on Where The Wild Things Are (the movie). I realized I'd never written about the movie and what I thought about it but she's said it all, pretty much, and I'm still not sure I have my own words to talk about it. I can see how people would hate the movie and find it boring, but if you can let yourself be taken by the beauty, the quiet, the kid's point of view, and not look for a plot, it's exactly what I would have wanted this movie to be, I think.

Second, I actually discovered this a while ago but I don't think I've ever linked to them: ASL songs. They're vids that put songs into ASL language (I'm assuming you can do the same with other sign languages, but as in the world of hearing, American stuff dominates online) and they're damn cool. Two awesome guys who do them are CaptainL0ver (his version of If You Seek Amy is particularly awesome, but check out more) and CaptainValor (I love him in Party in the USA). And then there's this adorable teen (and the girl he learned it from) doing it on Hot 'n' Cold (they're not super fluent or putting the rhythm into it as much, but he's super cute). (They're all a little gay and effeminate, too, which, <3.)

Third, not so much with the fun and funny, my f-list is awesome and shared links with me about James Cameron's Avatar that I wanted to share back with everybody:
- About the white privilege perspective in the movie, check out When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"?, which is dead-on throughout the entire article, but I want to highlight this paragraph:

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color - their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the "alien" cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become "race traitors," and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It's not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it's not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It's a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

- About ableism in the movie, read Future of Portrayals of Disability in Movies? Cameron’s Avatar. I thought about a lot of that as soon as I saw Jake in a wheelchair. :/

Still here. Sitting in my underwear and still here.

		I will marry Chuck Bartowski.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Boulder in our fabulous House.
		We will have 2 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a Black Honda CRV.
		I will spend my days as a Mom, and live happily ever after.

It seems I squicked a few people out with the last chapter. Sorry about that. I figured, for a show where people kill demons with their bare hands... oh well. Here's the last chapter, and it's a lot nicer. Plus it's got the rest of the gang in it too, and a few other cameos.

Title: The Return of the Son of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Rating: PG13
Fandom/timeline: Buffy, s3: "Amends". Except Dawn is in it.
Word Count: ~1500
Characters: Buffy, Faith, ensemble
Disclaimer:: The characters belong to Joss, yada yada.
Summary: It's Christmas in Sunnydale, Angel has been talked down from the hill and awww, isn't all that snow pretty. That can't be a bad thing, can it? I mean, this is Sunnydale, where the supernatural is always helpful and it's not like magical snow instantly covering the entire town could possibly herald the arrival of... FLESH-EATING ZOMBIE SNOWMEN?!?

Yes Virginia, now Santa Claus is dead
Some guys from the SWAT team blew a hole in his head
- "Weird" Al Yankovic, "The Night Santa Went Crazy"

Chapter 1: It Came Upon A Morning Clear
Chapter 2: Stalkin' In A Winter Wonderland
Chapter 3: Now I Have A Machine Gun, Ho Ho Ho
Chapter 4: Christmas Number One

Chapter 5 and epilogue: A Slayin' Song Tonight

( Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow )

The vast majority of you probably already know this, but just in case, I figured it was a good time to pimp myself (and Sean)!

The awesome ourdramaqueen and I maintain SeanMaher.info, which is basically the one fan site (or site at all) out there for Sean, at least that only one that is updated whenever needs be.

It's basically everything you ever wanted about Sean, including info on all his projects, paper and video interviews he's done, etc. We also have a ridiculously big gallery where you can find just about any publicly available image of Sean (and some that he couldn't believe we even found). Starting today, we're also going to have exclusive content to share about the upcoming movie Sean's been cast in, Timing. Check out this page for a quick Q&A with one of the producers for the movie, and also for a script snippet. It's pretty fun to read, and the guys at Dalliance Films are awesome enough that they will be sharing a little bit more every month. (I really, really can't wait to see this movie.)

So! Tell your friends! And if you want to keep in touch, you can: follow us on twitter, add our RSS LJ comm to your friends-list or subscribe to the traditional RSS feed. :) You can also follow the community seanmaher - we don't post there every time we update, but we do once in a while when there's something a little bigger.

Honestly, it's a pretty exciting time. After a long period of Sean not doing much of anything (he admitted himself, "you guys must hae been snoring!" but no, we were not, we were just being patient :p), it looks like 2010 is going to bring much Sean goodness! I still have that Sean interview to share, and we'll soon be changing layouts. I'm pretty psyched for all the changes. :)

Also, a request: is anyone a member over at whedonesque and could help us out by posting about the Timing content that's on the website? I can't do it myself because you're not supposed to link to your own stuff, but I'd really like to let people know about the Timing stuff we have up.

I was going to wait until this has gone through Congress and is final, but it's going to take another 30 days and there's no reason for Congress to block this, so whatever, let's break out the party hats now!

Same-sex marriage is going to be legal in Washington DC. Yay, etc. Now if the rest of the country could get on with the program, that'd be great, kthxbai.

To celebrate (?) I am finishing all my American grad applications before flying home. Only McGill and UBC left!

I think the nearest thing we ever got to a Richard Curtis episode of Buffy was 'Amends'.

I'm attempting to upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala, without yodah holding my hand! Let's hope I don't make my computer implode (lol) and also that does not take the 6 hours that it's currently saying it'll need, because I'm going to be way sooner than that.

And you should all watch this music video by The Twang. I love the song but I find the music video itself really cool, there's something about it that makes me happy. :)

I haven't been doing a lot (aka any) anti-homophobia workshops this term because it's been so busy with trying to get interviews done and school and applications and work and everything, but since things have eased up a little bit in the past couple of weeks so I signed myself up for a few. It's funny because I still remember when I was running the program at the MAG, I would get grumpy about having to go to schools far away and all, and then I would get there and do the workshop and LOVE it and feel stupid for having been grumpy about it. I sort of do the same here - when I have to wake up super early to get to a school, I'm all >.> but I have yet to do a workshop that doesn't leave me all :D and energetic. Even when the kids say a lot of bullshit (and sometimes they really do), there's just something about getting to talk about it with them, about opening up that conversation and be the first one (or one of the first) to explain to them without getting angry or uncomfortable, that you don't choose to be gay/what bisexual is/why 'that's so gay' is hurtful/what transgender means. I just get so much happy energy from doing that.

- My first workshop "back", I did in an all-boy grade 10 class, where one boy very bluntly asked, "why would anyone want to have something up their ass?" I was like, score! Because him bringing up very explicit sexual stuff gives me license to talk about it, so we had a whole conversation about sexual practices and how different people like different things and it's about what you and your partner like, regardless of your identity. A+. I loved these boys because some of them were not super allies, but they asked questions and (mostly) listened and talked and I much, much prefer that to the classes that go all quiet.

- The next week I did a very small grade 9 class, but they were wonderful. I never got past the original brainstorm exercise because they had so many questions, I just rolled with them and what they were curious about (that's how I used to do it with the MAG and it's still my favorite style). The one slightly awkward moment was when the teacher asked me to address pedophilia (and the myth that gay guys are pedophiles), which... I don't know that kids are very aware of that stereotype, it tends to be more adults, and I think the students were more confused than anything. But that aside, it was a wonderful conversation with kids who were amazingly curious and thoughtful and open, especially considering one of the girls in the class had recently passed away. :(

- Then this morning I headed back to an elementary school where I've done a few interviews for a workshop with Taylor in a grade 5 class. Very different atmosphere, partly because they were younger, and partly because there were like, 3 adults in the room including their teacher and the principal, lol. Because they were SUCH an amazing bunch. Seriously, so many insightful comments, from so many different students. We were defining "gay", and not only did the kids differentiate between love and attraction, but this one boy, he raises his hand and goes "it's when you like someone of the same gender as you". THESE KIDS WERE LIKE 9, GUYS. ♥ ♥ They had wonderful comments about how gay is only a bad word if you say it in a mean way, and how it would make people feel left out if you use it in a bad way, and how there are no boy colors and girl colors and and and. They were so receptive to the transgender stuff, too. It was so unlike most of the workshops I've done because it was so much more bullying-oriented, but it was wonderful in so many ways, I heart these grade 5s so so much. The interesting thing is 1) the reason why we were called in for this workshop is that the boys have been calling the girls lesbians (and yet so many boys said amazing things) and 2) a parent apparently got pretty angry at the principal for having us come in (condoning a lifestyle, talking about sex, blah blah blah). The principal is super supportive but not 100% comfortable yet so he was pretty flustered (in a calm way, whatever, it makes sense in my head) and pretty excited that he'd stood up to this parent and pretty much showed her the door because he wasn't going to tolerate homophobic language in his school and too bad for her if she had a problem with that. So we ended up talking with him a bit before and after the workshop, he took notes during the workshop so that he had more ammo for when the mom comes back to him about this. He was pretty happy because he'd noticed the mom's boy started out by refusing to look at us, and then after 15 minutes, he changed positions and started looking towards the front of the class, so he was hoping that the body language meant the boy had opened up to our message. But that kid is probably hearing a lot of shit at home. :( It makes me even happier than his classmates were so insightful, so he heard a lot of great things not just from us, but from other kids in the class.

Anyway, wow that was long! I just like to write a few things about these workshops go, and leave a trace of how much I loved talking with these kids. It's moments like these that I know whatever I end up doing, it will probably have to be related to some kind of classroom, because this makes me too happy to dismiss. Which is a nice reminder since I'm less than 24h away from getting like 40 exams to mark and soon I will be bitching about how much I hate being a TA.

Title: The Return of the Son of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Rating: PG13
Fandom/timeline: Buffy, s3: "Amends". Except Dawn is in it.
Word Count: ~1300
Characters: Buffy, Faith
Disclaimer:: The characters belong to Joss, yada yada.
Warning: ***Non-sexual and fairly childish use of bodily fluids not normally considered appropriate to play around with. ...Yeah. Sorry.***
Summary: It's Christmas in Sunnydale, Angel has been talked down from the hill and awww, isn't all that snow pretty. That can't be a bad thing, can it? I mean, this is Sunnydale, where the supernatural is always helpful and it's not like magical snow instantly covering the entire town could possibly herald the arrival of... FLESH-EATING ZOMBIE SNOWMEN?!?

Watch out where the huskies go!
Don't you eat that yellow snow!
- Frank Zappa

Chapter 1: It Came Upon A Morning Clear
Chapter 2: Stalkin' In A Winter Wonderland
Chapter 3: Now I Have A Machine Gun, Ho Ho Ho

Chapter 4: Christmas Number One

( Peace on earth )

It really is snowing. A lot. Whee.

Also: Huge thanks to gillo for the present! I really really appreciate it, you wonderful you. *hugs, twirls, serves up cup of mulled wine*

Also also: sl_podcast has put up an audio recording of my story On Gurnenthar. Listen to it here. *more wine*

Also also also, as Tabz points out, let's remember what the season is about: in the wise words of Angel, "A lot of goats. Goats, many. Those are goats, guys." There are a lot of charities out there that subscribe to the "teach a man to fish" (or a woman to read) idea. Just a thought. It'll make the gifts you buy for (and get from) those close to you even better.

Sorry, I know, I know, this godless heathen can't stand "Do They Know It's Christmas?" either. So later today: the next chapter of violent, snarky, rocket-launchin' holiday havoc.

Worst Christmas Song Ever