Tony Needs Your Help! Please Donate if You Can

Tony, who’s one of the best writers I know on the subjects of racism, gun violence, queer topics, and comics, is going through one of those extended dry spells where he can’t find employment no matter how hard he tries. As if that weren’t enough, he just had an emergency with his 15 year-old kitty that resulted in a substantial vet bill. His kitty didn’t make it. So he’s got grief on top of joblessness and bills to worry about. If you read his blog, partake in the Pharyngula thread he and RQ curate, or follow him on Facebook, you know he’s working his ass off to bring us solid content every day. Unfortunately, blogging doesn’t pay the bills. Any of my readers who can spare some cash would be doing him a solid by dropping some coinage in his tip jar. Thank you so much for your help, my darlings!

Image shows a very handsome man with penetrating dark eyes and a regal bald dome.
Tony! Y’all might know him as the Queer Shoop. He is one of the most awesome human beings I know.

 

Tony Needs Your Help! Please Donate if You Can
{advertisement}

Can You Spread the Word? Misha and I Need a Home!

I’ve been scarce because I’ve been desperately trying to find a place for Misha and I to move to. Every lead so far has dried up. It’s hard to find housing round here on short notice when your income is variable! It doesn’t matter what your rental history is, or how much you’ve got in the bank.

I’ve swallowed my pride and posted an ad on Craigslist. Please help us out, and spread that link as far and wide as you can. Even if you’re not in the area, someone reading your feed may be. Every share helps!

If you know of a place Misha and I can stay, either a forever home or a place we can crash while looking, please let us know. We’d be forever grateful!

Thank you for your help again, my darlings! I’ll be back to blogging on the regular as soon as things are more settled.

Image shows Me and Misha together. Misha has her little head on me shoulder.
The lady and the kitty who need a happy home.
Can You Spread the Word? Misha and I Need a Home!

Please Help Dana Avoid Becoming Homeless

I knew I was taking risks when I quit my job and pursued writing full time. Blogging doesn’t pay much, and getting books written and published takes time. I knew a year probably wouldn’t be enough to become self-sufficient, but would give me time to get things going. Then I could get a part-time job at the end of my year to make up any shortfalls, and wouldn’t have to go begging money from my readers. I’d have a book or two out, and have more started, and probably wouldn’t have to do the day job thing forever. Simple!

My plans were disrupted a bit last fall, when I came within spitting distance of dying from sepsis. It took a while to recover, and my funds took a hit. But I still had things under control. I struggled with the typical winter-spring depression, but kept plugging away at the writing, and got me first book released. Everything was going fine – until my apartment complex decided not to renew my lease.

They’re kicking me out so they can remodel. I asked for more time, and got until the end of this month. Then I’m sans home.

Moving into another unit here would be prohibitively expensive. It’s not going to be possible to find another apartment without a steady income considerably larger than the present unstable one. So I’m currently job hunting (if you’ve been wanting desperately to hire me, thinking I’d be a perfect fit for your Seattle-area company, now’s the time!). But I won’t have a job soon enough to save up the extra funds I’ll need for a move. I won’t be able to find an apartment quickly enough, either. B’s house doesn’t have room for me to move in, and it’s not possible for him to abandon his brothers.

So I need your help pretty badly. Continue reading “Please Help Dana Avoid Becoming Homeless”

Please Help Dana Avoid Becoming Homeless

You Can Save Atheist Bloggers’ Lives

You may have seen the stories about Bangladeshi bloggers hacked to death by Islamist assholes for being open about unbelief. You’ve surely heard of Raif Badawi, who is being more harshly punished for his freethought writings than another man is for raping a child. If you’re like me, you’ve watched, helplessly, as people die and there’s so very little we can do to stop it.

Now we have a chance to act. Continue reading “You Can Save Atheist Bloggers’ Lives”

You Can Save Atheist Bloggers’ Lives

Crowdsourcing Sociological Research on Race and Ethnicity

Anne Fennewick would like a post exploring some of the sociological research we have on race and how it impacts activities like applying for jobs and policing:

I hope some of the posts will look at strategies for overcoming these problems temporarily or permanently. For example, what happens when we anonymize all or part of the application process, and why don’t we, given how easy it would be? Do some police forces do better than others and if so, why? Do black/Hispanic police do better than white police? If so, can we capitalize on that? What social factors are associated with racial prejudice and under what circumstances are they diminished? It would be nice to start taking the sociological research more seriously – we might even end up with better sociological research!

I think this is a fabulous idea, but damn it, Anne, I’m a geologist, not a sociologist. Happily, I’m blogging on a network with lots of bloggers and commenters who know all about sociological studies, and often have many good ones right at their fingertips. So, my darlings, I beg of you: link me those studies, and blog posts about those studies! Send me pdfs, even! You can leave links in the comments, or email me at dhunterauthor at gmail.

I’d also love links to recommended sites discussing race and racism at various levels, from 101 on up. While you’re at it, point me at your favorite books, documentaries, and other resources. I can create a page here with everything gathered in one place. Continue reading “Crowdsourcing Sociological Research on Race and Ethnicity”

Crowdsourcing Sociological Research on Race and Ethnicity

Anybody Got Studies on Water Emissions from Volcanoes?

As I’m slowly working my way through these awful Christianist textbooks, I keep running across claims that volcanoes emit lotsa water. They’re very excited about volcanoes and water. When it comes to their BS about volcanoes creating a lot of the Flood water, I think the outrageous heat and acid issues dispose of that nonsense without needing to go in to just how much water is freed from erupting magma.

But there’s another bit I want to deal directly with, and that’s the claim that a lot of the water in a crater lake is from magma. My Google-fu has failed me in this case, and so I turn to you, my geos, for halp: Does anyone have a study that shows proportions of magmatic versus meteoric water in crater lakes? That would be most helpful!

Image shows me leaning against a log fence with Crater Lake in the background.
Moi at Crater Lake. “Creationists Keep Out!”
Anybody Got Studies on Water Emissions from Volcanoes?

Help Me Decide Upon a New Computing Machine

I have decided that, even if the maclargehuge HP laptop could be resurrected, it’s time I got a desktop anyway. A laptop can’t give me the computing power I need going forward in mah bidness. I need something that can handle streaming movies or music whilst also running Photoshop or Corel. I need something that doesn’t mind me having twelve gajillion tabs open while all that’s going on. And the computer repair dude I chatted up at Staples told me that if I want a Windows 7 machine, I’d better act now, because they soon won’t be an option. I do I DO want my Windows 7. I bloody hate Windows 8 with a burning and enduring passion, but I loves my Windows 71. Continue reading “Help Me Decide Upon a New Computing Machine”

Help Me Decide Upon a New Computing Machine

Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?

One of the things B and I want to do is start recording videos in the field. I can show you a lot through photos and short snippets of video, but there’s so much magnificent geology around here, and some of it really deserves more of a documentary-type treatment. I’d like to take you on a virtual walk, explaining what we’re seeing. And, major bonus, when we go geogallivanting with Lockwood, you’d be able to experience his expertise like we do. Lockwood is one of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to Pacific Northwest geology, and Oregon geology in particular. I’d like to capture those field trips for posterity, so that everyone has a chance to soak up his knowledge. We get visiting geologists, too, and it would be outstanding to capture their visits on video.

Problem is, I’m a luddite when it comes to video equipment. I’ll have to hope at least one of you knows their stuff. Halp? Continue reading “Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?”

Camcorder Advice, Por Favor?

Alex Gabriel Could Use Your Kind Assistance

Is this you?

Image shows a black and white kitten looking at a coin. Caption says, "I has a money. What I do wif it?"

You could help a writer out! Alex Gabriel is experiencing one of those horrible financial dry spells that happens to freelancers, and could use a hand. If you have a money to spare, do please consider sending it his way.

If need to get some graphic design work done, or require an editor, you could help him whilst helping yourself by hiring him. Everybody wins! I’ve seen how he personalizes his work for each of his clients, and he’s got a definite gift for capturing the essence of a person and their blog.

Thanks in advance for helping a fellow blogger out, my darlings!

Image shows a cat in a box covered in money. Caption says, "Money isn't everything, but it ranks right up there with oxygen."

 

Alex Gabriel Could Use Your Kind Assistance

Get Your Ideas All Up in My Business!

All right, my darlings, it’s now less than two weeks until the day I hang up my shingle, and I haven’t got any idea what name to put on it. Well, I have a few ideas. You may have better ones. Think!

Image is a black cat in a suit. Caption says, "We need to think inside all the boxes."
Think of names for a store selling all sorts of geology-themed thingies. And you know I like a nice Spanish flavor. Something like… Mercado Geológica, f’r instance. Mega Mercado de la Verdad? Give me ideas! I rather suck at naming things. One of you has to be better.

Some of you may want to help out, but come up just as blank as I do on names. No problemo! You know what else you can do? Let me know what kind of products you’d like to see. I’m going to be opening up a store on Cafe Press or Zazzle or Red Bubble or some site like that, maybe more than one – what sort of stuff do you want me to put up there?

I’ll be doing some crafty sorts of things and selling them through Etsy. That store will include things like my scarves, mufflers, wraps, hair wraps, scrunchies, and such. Anyone interested in handkerchiefs or other simple little fabric things? I can do simple bags, throw pillows, pillow cases, and things like that. I’ll also be doing custom work, so if you need something done, hit me up for an estimate. I might be able to save you a ton of money on curtains, for instance. And if you have a bit of fabric needing turned in to something, let me know.

Outside of sewing, would you go in for hand-collected pebbles for fountains, Zen gardens for your desk, rock sample magnets, things like that? Would you like me to look in to what it would take to make and sell coal and rock candy?

I’ll be looking in to getting some necessary items soon, too. If any of you has a used rock tumbler that works well and is in good condition you’d like to sell, let me know.

Now, on to writing, which will be the main focus of this whole enterprise: I am most definitely doing the Mount St. Helens book so many of you have requested! Two, in fact: the one about the May 1980 eruption, and I’m going to also do a geology travel guide. Probably more than one, now I’ll have time to investigate the other roads to the mountain! And I’m hoping to write up the more recent dome-building eruption, too.

I’m also writing a geological guide to Discovery Park, a book on women in the geosciences, and will be collecting and expanding some of the best posts from both ETEV and Rosetta Stones.

I’ve got a ton of other things planned, but your ideas are always welcome, so if there’s a bit of geology (or any other subject) you’ve been wanting me to do a post on, let me know.

All right, I’m off to begin putting the house in some semblance of order. Hit me with all your suggestions and demands!

Get Your Ideas All Up in My Business!