There's been an interesting discussion going on in an sf list I'm on about this article on gender bias in the theatre

I've been thinking about ways i can do something more productive about sustainability, and have been getting very interested in the 'days of change' campaign that is starting here in Western Australia.  More about that later, but given the number of people around me who seem to be looking for different things in their work lives i thought perhaps someone might be interested in doing some work for them. They have a number of different jobs available - not all pay up front, or well, but if it gets going the way it is planned to (WA wide in 2010, Australia wide in 2011, then the world...) then there might be some wonderful work in the future.

And just so you know i'm putting my money where my mouth is .. i have donated and also offered my services as editor.

on more boring fronts - email bulged out to about 10 by end of week cos its just been so damned busy - but confident it will be empty again by the end of the day :-)
to-do list. bah. old one all crossed off - new one very long and daunting.

your average monday. started bad - forgot office keys, also thumbdrive with all important lecture power point on, gave said lecture on Frankenstein to TEE students  who descend on Curtin for this week.. now avoiding fixing said lecture for tomorrow, cos it was shite.

on the plus side: work email in box - 0!!! yes 0!!  take that, Outlook!
to do list - bit more average, but getting there.

countdown to next hug a canadian day - 9 days. Things I want to get done before Canadian arrives - too many.

oh and there was a weekend wasn't there? Saturday - marking and work and marking. Sunday washing (cos washing machine blew up while i was at natcon so biiig backlog) and little bit of planting - more peas and broadbeans. would have done more potatoes but didn't have any and couldn't be arsed driving to freo to get them.

hmm. might be close to bedtime methinks.

for a thursday...
my work email in-box under 10 mails now!! might action them all today! without even trying realised last night i had managed to cross almost half off my to-do list (a huge thing written during the boredom of our school planning day).

and have clean fridge, pantry and even spice rack - gasp! Partner came back from shopping and insisted that food could not be unpacked unless these jobs done. hooray! my spice rack now full of jars with the right things in them. instead of shelves of empty jars, with little plastic packets spilling crap precariously balanced on top.

ok maybe i should go revisit to-do list now - on a roll!

This report  from the Berkman Centre Internet & Democracy project is very timely....
( read more )

 heres a site run by Avaaz where you can donate money to run an exit poll in Iran

and a little disaster, ...

( Read on ) . Off to bed after way too many bottles of champagne.</div>
8.00 am I had a breakfast date with the international GOH Julie Czerneda (yes, she of the airport book). Now I need to explain why it was that I hung out with Julie so much - it wasn't that we fell in love at first sight (tho close on my behalf). We'd actualy een emailing for quite a while - ever since I put up my women scientists in sf website, and Julie was the first person to email me to say nice things, and also tell me I'd mispelled her name in the data base. yes. cringe! Anyway lots of squeely fan girly emails followed, and when the natcon thing happened obviously i had to go to Adelaide to meet her. Anyways on with the story.... We were running a science literacy workshop at 9.30 - on using sf for teaching science in classrooms. Julie did all the work I got to learn heaps, although unfortunately very few people came (half of them perth people!). Things kind of get blurry after that ... there were papers to go to, including my own, panels to be on and then of course dancing. I dance a lot and energetically, I think Cheryl Morgan thought I might have been a bit squiffy but that came later. finished up sat night with lovely quiet room party with Julie and her gorgeous partner Roger (also a mean dancer) Roman and Beverly (can't remember last names) and callistra. we were good girls and went to bed at semi reasonable hour. I think it was the next morning we went to very interesting talks on sustainability and energy crisis, later Julie nabbed me for lunch and took me to a lovely little cafe down by the river - the furthest I got away from the hotel all con! Then Sunday night was the night of karaoke fail. So sad. A little troop of us went bravely off into the Adelaide night to a place recommended by ladnews (who had piked out after many golden promises the night before). we walked in the door only to walk straight back out again after being informed we would need to pay $150 for the privilege! Another cab back to the hotel and what else - the bar. Where i did manage to talk to a few other people I hadn't aught up with so far and also did a bizarre 'this is your life' session with Ron, with Justin (of slow glass books) listening in. very very strange. Last day included lunch with Julie and Roger and a sniffly goodbye and a lovely trip home chatting with callistra and girliejones . Lots of good book launches through the weekend, tho surprisingly I only came home with 3 books, one of which I'd already read! What was I thinking? I didn't hit the dealer's room properly the whole con! madness. Also hatched some evil plans re worlcon and academic programing which hopefully will come to fruition.

.. and now the smell of burning alerts me to the fact that the special buns I made for my children's lunch tomorrow have been in the oven for 40 mins instead of 15 and are ruined. argh! In fact the only reason i was doing this report was because I had to wait up while they cooked, after letting them prove for 1.5 hours...
bed, i think!

Just so I don't forget .. there is an awesome project all about community action around climate change going on right under our noses called days of change. Feels very personal for me, as one of the main  instigators is someone I went to school with (and saw recently at a school reunion after 25 years or something stupid - a really inspiring person!) and also my gorgeous sis-in law who has done the most amazing things in the last few years around getting shit done - transforming her kids school, getting grants for grey water, rain tanks, gardens you name it.

And I think she has had a pretty important role in ensuring that York gets to be the trial community for this project - go check it out!
http://daysofchange.org/

i think someone from the project should do a presentation at worldcon - whaddyareckon? specially  considering Stan Robinson is GOH...

yeah, well I'm thinking of retitling to the above....

brief news - ok so no natcon report but a lovely weekend of gardening... yesterday my own: prepared three of my beds which the chickens have happily scratched over and pooped on the last few months. Planted - spinach, silverbeet ,rainbow chard, spring onions, onions, garlic, beans, peas, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, two types of carrots.. didn't quite manage to get to the broad beans. also want to plant at least two more loads of peas (otherwise J eats them all before they even make it to the house) and lots more potatoes.

then today off to help out at a grubby nails do which was so much fun. Its great to see things happen so quickly and the lovely glow on host's face when pavers disappear and new veggie beds magically appear.

and did some marking and admin too! 'Mazing. Might even manage some Dr Who tonight (last night got to see the bloody blink episode people were going on about in a certain room party at natcon. yes. was cool.)

yes, I realise this is also not a natcon report. And that i have done more putting myself about online over the last 24 hours than the last year. But what the hey - I managed to post something on the Aqueduct blog cos Timmi said I should. So I did -- over here.

Also feeling guilty cos I I'm not going to make it to the march in perth. But today may really be my only chance for the next month to get anything planted in the garden. And I don't have the car and it is a long long walk to the train station with a 4 year old. So I'm thinking about the climate, doing my bit by planting lots of veggies and will also think more on what actions I can get involved in. ideas welcome :-)

well obviously its a surprise i'm here at all really, and honestly truly I was going to post a report of my fantabulous time at natcon....

but then this happened:


Help Catherynne M. Valente
adoptingcat
and then this:


Help Catherynne M. Valente
adoptingcat

and so I did this

and so reports must await the morrow. Or not. I realise my last post was like a year ago, and so this statement might not inspire ... confidence? But I'll try. Really.
Just in case - short version -
it was lots and lots of fun - not enough sleep; too much champagne; and  not enough dancing or karaoke or talking to so many gorgeous peoples whom i love and bring on aussiecon 4. the end.
(and we've already had a first bid. how cool. i love this community!)

I mentioned this briefly a while ago .. I'm hoping to ask a few questions of some of you sciencey types out there about connections - if any - between your background in science and SF reading habits.

I'm doing research on representations of female scientists in sf, and I'm interested in the kinds of 'useful cultural work' that SF might do....

<snipping from an earlier LJ post>

It really struck me at Femmecon last year how many women  were into sf and also had training and / or jobs in the science/technology areas. So I'm hoping to do some surveys or interviews with women in science who read (or have read sf). Is there a connection between women who are open to the sf imagination and a broader interest in or open-ness to science? As younger readers , did certain fictional characters or situations produce a feeling that science was an ok thing for girls to do?

You don't still have to be 'in' science - if you have done science-type degrees at undergrad or grad level I would still love to hear from you! I have ethics clearance now :-) It would involve about 6 or 7 questions, doable over email and of course you can remain totally anonymous if I end up publishing anything about it :-)Some of you have already expressed willingness and I will chase you very soon! Anyone else who is willing, email me on h.merrick _at_westnet.com.au

Cute warning - don't click if you don't want to adopt a baby guinea pig - pictures below.

And seriously, we are looking for homes, so if you know anyone who might be interested .. they'll be ready to leave mum in about 2 weeks..

not too bad today on the lists front.

cleaned kitchen, J's play room and organised J's making room hooray! Did three loads of washing. went to gym last night and tonight. Started e-list for sf researchers; did other worky email stuffs. Found articles for Frankenstein lecture.
Did no work on my stuff, but still. not too bad.

I worked out it helps if half your day isn't spent doing the 3-year old social rounds. We have something on pretty much every morning but friday, but today boo said she didn't want to go to playgroup. I said yay! and started cleaning, and she helped. kind of. She really managed to tidy away daddy's driving license, which we need to photocopy for the solar application. Still can't find it!

Ah well, parents on boo-duty tomorrow, so i get whole day to work. I find it kind of depressing that this actually excites me...

I am panicking about what needs doing, so I am following callistra's lead and making list.
If I can get at least one thing off each list (home and work) every day maybe I'll start making progress...

( big lists )

ug. Bit of a painful evening with too little sleep, so feeling icky this morning.

Now cheered up by the sun emerging, so I can actually do some planting, and the fact we have just signed up to get solar power for the house - we're going with Solar unlimited, paying a bit more than some other companies to get an expandable system (i.e. you can add more panels at a later date to double the output). Just gotta wait for the rebate to be approved, then free power from the sun here we come  - yay! :-)

Ahhh - we have a mummy among the livestock again - last night found 5 little baby guinea pigs! They are absolutely gorgeous - except now we have just 3 weeks to find new homes for most of them. And try and work out how to sex them - we don't really want another litter, and apparently from about 3 weeks the baby boys can impregnate the mum - erk!

Have to get the camera out and put up some pictures - they're all a great mix of both parents - tan and white from mum, with raffish black patches from dad. (Reminded me that fabulous sf author and all round amazing woman Naomi Mitchison learnt genetics by  breeding guinea pigs as a girl - or was it gerbils? - her brother was JBS Haldane, and she was mates with Aldous Huxley - fascinating life).

Also reminded me looking back over previous entries that it wasn't that long ago we had baby chickens - they are very big girls now - only 4 left however - gave two away, far too many were roosters, and two died over that horrendous boxing day weather :-(

so - anyone want a couple of beautiful little baby guinea pigs? I'll get up pictures soon to entice you some more! Good little veggie-scrap and fruit cleaner uppers . and lawn mowers - and very nice tidy poo that is good for the compost :-)

So this 'thing' of mine needs a name - the online database with which I'm gathering all these references to women scientists in sf... I'm hoping the DB will go live in a couple of weeks, so I need a proper name (the programming guy's use of 'science chicks' as nickname for the project probably won't cut it!)

I want something simple, obvious which will get picked up pretty easily by people looking for stuff on women in science. But 'women scientists in sf' is a bit dull, and limiting...
I also have grander plans for world domination expansion - to include media, for eg, or general lit, examples of real-world inspiring female scientists... and further down the track ecofeminist works, and sustainable visions in sf...
so I could go for something broader like 'fictional female scientists' or 'fantastic female scientists'.

Of course I wanted something a bit sillier - or intriguing - 'the Calvin registry' (but who outside sf would get the asimov reference) .. or something involving hypatia...
gah! maybe science chicks isn't so bad after all...
give me ideas.. or maybe I'll do a poll. I've never done an LJ poll - they look fun :-)

So some more on the 'female scientists in sf' project... in particular, why I'm not, at present, including media examples.