Hey folks,
Yesterday I got an email from a user saying there was a rumor that LJ was intending to make specifying gender on one's profile mandatory. Obviously there are various reasons why people either might not want that information known, or don't fit into one of the two categories commonly seen in such questions.

I wrote to LJ immediately asking about the rumor and advising that this wasn't a good idea without user input.

This morning I heard back with the Official Word and I'd be happy if you'd repost this or link to it to spread the news:

1) There are NO plans to make users specify gender in their profiles. The current options are "male/female/unspecified", this will remain.

2) The rumor started because on the current LJ BETA version (being tested now by some users) a programming error made the field mandatory, the same programming also broke profile editing. Users reported the bug to LJ and they are fixing the code along with other bugs people are discovering.

3) There will be a note with more details from the Customer Care team in the future.

4) That's all.

Thanks to everyone who emailed to let me know about this. If there are other questions or comments, please feel free to add them here and I'll pass everything along. I'm still working with LJ on the big status report but they're busy with the final software rollout for 2009, we'll have a meeting after that.

Your LJ user rep,

Kyle

it occurred to me that it is a bit strange that i live in an oft-flooded metropolis, considering i was once diagnosed with susto de agua by a Perúvian curandera.

All you need to do is use a binary system of keeping track.
Did you have sex last night?
If no:
   have sex
else:
   rest up for tomorrow night

That is all.

This week we'll be going over the entries in the write a story, win an autographed copy of Cherie Priest's Boneshaker novel contest. There are many awesome entries. I ought to put together a .pdf of all of them that people can download, print out, and read on the subway.

While no winner has yet been chosen, I wanted to point out the FREAKING AWESOME ILLUSTRATION OF STEAMPUNKROSWELL that mcmatz did:



sweet barking cheese. Friend this woman. Seriously. How could this awesome have escaped me for so long? I think there will have to be a special prize for this, it was so unexpectedly awesome.

(and if anybody else wants to do steampunk roswell illustrations, I will indeed put together a .pdf of all the stories for people to download and read on the train, and I'll give out other special prizes which will likely consist of a photographic print of something.)

rock on with your bad selves



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Yesterday I went to see Guo-Qiang's Fallen Blossoms at the Philadelphia Museum of art -- he'd set up an elaborate drawing made out of gunpowder and set alight the front of the building (more or less). There was smoke, there was fire.

then trillian_stars and I went to XIX, high atop the Bellvue Stratford and celebrated being alive in a world where people set fire to the front of buildings and it's called art.

Then I took this photo of her with my iPhone



so that the moment couldn't entirely bleed away.

This morning I got up early and started working on book layouts -- there are two at the moment, one's my 2xcreative project which will be lovely but keeps getting knocked back by the bigger one which I hope to have done very soon.

This afternoon I skipped out on the book layouts and we went to a party at the Sketch Club where I have a piece hanging in the show (along with Rockwell Kent and N.C. Wyeth and Thoms Ekans -- fo shizzle. Right on the wall next to them) which comes down tomorrow. We had wonderful conversations with WWII vets and artists.

Tonight we're going to see Wagner's Ring (orchestral excerpts) at the Symphony which is wonderful because we get to dress up and act fabulous which we haven't done in a while.

i finally have a docking station for the laptop :) this makes me very happy for several reasons. it means i no longer have to put up with a half baked sound card and can hear song in their entirety again (instead of missing a guitar or drum track.. so annoying!). it also means that i now have a working DVD/CD drive!!! this is super great because i have about 100 CDs that i havn't listened to in more than 3 years. most of then are burned and the CD player at work won't read them. this means that i can now indulge in all the weirdo mix CDs i've made for myself over the years. listening to songs that i was into at particular times in my life seems to effortlessly transport me back to these moments that might seem mundane to others. right now i'm listening to a mix including Ani, Bjork, Massive Attack, PJ Harvey, and Mars Volta. i made this CD when i was in 2nd year living at The Watermelon. this Bjork song reminds me of the smell of chocloate in the morning from the factroy next door, breaking up with Geoff, and espresso at cafe Diplomatico. it's funny that these odd memories are brought up by this strange song.

what a trip.

i am experiencing everything in a different way than i have a long time; like i'm moving more as a part of things rather than outside of them. this trip to new york has been revealing in that way, as i forge friendships with friends, going deeper than i have before. in this process i've learned something about myself - or rather, re-learned it. something good, something like: i'm solid, i'm there for people, they're there for me, i love and am loved.

i forgot that for a while. i felt like a broken vessel, cut off, and do you know what it's like to wake up from that and emerge and jump into the flood?

it's like that with the city itself. walking the blocks of manhattan, i saw things i hadn't seen before. the city itself is alive, in the sense that it is always changing. a patch here and there will be the same, but everything else moves and twists, a wild place. walking in the cold, head down under my hood casting a shadow of warmth, i discovered how to thrive in the anonymity of the crowd, the bodies i encountered little more than animated structures. walking block after block, i felt the comfort of numbness sinking in and the contrast with my core of body heat, making me feel like i had a sun inside. at night, looking down, walking, streetlights and advertisements flashed skittering patterns on the mottled sidewalk around my feet, so that i too became a checkered canvas. The noises- honking, the percussion of trains, the rush of air, a soundtrack: i walked to the beat, step, step, traversing the soundscape.

http://jasonryd.com/stuff/recording2.mp3



The above link is to a tape recording left behind at the last house I explored. In it, a family gathers with their elderly father to talk about their recently deceased mother. The old man continues to tell tales about breaking up dance hall fights and lynching parties.

cmpriest has written a scifi novel of epic and dangerous proport, and it's so awesome and I want y'all to read it so much, that I'm giving away an autographed copy.




Boneshaker is the story of Briar Wilkes who lives on the outskirts of Seattle, sixteen years after the Boneshaker, an insane steam powered drilling device built by her husband to drill for gold in the Klondike, broke free from the laboratory and dug down under the city, piercing a pocket of deadly, poison gas that killed most of the city's inhabitants, but kept some others in a strange, crazed, not dead state of ravenous hunger for human flesh. Now Briar is forced to return to the city to find her son, the heady 16 year old Zeke who has snuck into old Seattle in the hopes of proving his father was not responsible for the catastrophic event which destroyed that city. In the ruins, he is certain, he will find the truth. What they both find is that there are others in the city, unexpected people who've formed a fiercely independent society living within the walls with both the help and the hinderance of a mad, reclusive inventor, Dr. Minnericht.

Cherie has produced a fabulous steampunk adventure (it's written in brown ink, that's how steampunk it is) and I want people to read it.

You will all no doubt remember back in August when I gave away a copy of Chris Howard's novel Seaborn, this is going to work the same way. Here's how it goes:

To win this book, mailed to your door, write a short story in 350 words or less that involves Roswell and any mix of the following:

a) airships
b) mysterious deadly fog
c) zombies (they're called "rotters" in Cherie's book)
d) mysterious mad masked scientists
e) tunnels under Seattle
f) gas masks




Boneshaker photographed with Roswell to Enhance Value

Post your entry here in the comments. The final winner, as is our tradition, will be picked by Cherie Freaking Priest herself.

Contest goes until midnight SUNDAY, December 13th 2009. I can probably guarantee delivery by Xmas, continental US only. In the event of a winner from outside the con. US a substitute, but equally cool prize may be awarded.

Now get writing. And feel free to repost this in your own LJ's.




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So I've been having this thought. It starts with me not going to festival this summer. It continues with planning a trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, go on a cycling tour on the Danube with my moms, and at least a couple of long weekend camping trips throughout the year.

I'm going to keep weighing my feelings on this. Of course it is not easy to think of choosing something other than those woods we go to this coming August. But I've been having this itch to use my passport for more than just getting a visa to the US. I want to leave the continent. I want to do something amazing. Climbing to the top of a mountain in Africa has a lot of appeal to this itch. It could be how I celebrate the 35th year of festival.

For those of you who are not getting email alerts or are getting the wrong email alerts, I heard back from LJ -- they know about the issue, & an official update will be posted in support. Right now there's a large que of notification messages clogging things up, no doubt over the next couple days you'll get blasted with all your back notifications. Support is working on this.

Please feel free to repost this in your own LJ.

1) I'm preparing a big LJ Rep post that will show the progress Livejournal's made since my election to be your user representative on the board. Next week or so.

2) There's been excellent news in the Kyle Cassidy / Elizabeth Bear collaboration front. Most excellent news. I was hoping that it might come out before Xmas but I don't think that's the case.

3) I did a 2xcreative project with Liz Afif who shares my ... unfortunate sense of humor. That one should be out in time for xmas. Titled "A Bunny Called Swine" it started when I twittered: "http://twitpic.com/qselh - This airport feels like hot, baking swine flu wrapped in crying babies" a couple weeks ago. If you have a niece or nephew you would like to buy an inappropriate gift for, this might be it.

4) I've got an article in this month's Videomaker Magazine -- which isn't unusual, because I've been doing a column there for years, I just keep forgetting to mention it. This one's on video formats.

5) Here's an Amanda Palmer shot from lastweekish.



This was taken using an Alien Bees 800 head with a grid.

6) I'm putting together a travel diary from Wyoming, it'll be nice. Last year I did one about the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. If you haven't seen / read it, you should take a look.



Click here to see it. It's a 19mb pdf

7) There's other news but I don't want to dilute things too much. I need a couple of extra days in the week where nothing happens.

8) It's pouring rain outside. I have an overwhelming urge to go walk in it and drink hot tea. I have a clear umbrella. It's fun. I would have preferred snow, but if life sends you rain, you ought to at least go splash in the puddles.

9) In closing, here's Mount Hood.



Hope y'all are having a swell day.




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when people say disembodied they mean extracted, outside looking in. the point of view conditioned by the body itself becomes visible when it was always invisible before. so much of our anxieties must derive from the fact that our eyes, so borne of need, and so strenuously mechanical, cannot grasp what others see. with inversion comes release; self becomes vacuum, presence becomes present.

i went to see Clover today. it has been two months since i've seen her, since she lives with the X. i took her for a walk, then returned to the apartment and sat down on the couch next to her. she looked at me like she was expecting something and tried to talk, like she often does, but of course all she can do is make yowling noises. "what's going on, Clover?" i asked, which is of course all i can do, having to rely on the cumbersome limitations of speech. she stared at me for a while longer, then moved over to where i was sitting, lying across my lap with her nose under my chin and her elbow digging into my hip. i embraced her and held her like that for a while, until she got up and returned to her side of the couch, where she curled up to sleep. then i kissed her goodbye, locked up, and left. of course, you can't really say goodbye to a dog.

my love is dispersed, exploded and in diaspora. persecuted, disenfranchised, neglected and flooded out, its music singes many horizons, and small lazy tendrils grow into fat viper vines around and through the heartland.

in meeting a gaze that was able to return some of what was given, i was captured. in an effort to contain myself, i unraveled inside, like a spiral uncoiling.

we constructed each other's experiences through objects that were already parts of ourselves, and, entering an orbit, we spun away from one another only to arrive together on a closer, coarser path.

the other yet remains, and there lies the uncertainty. but that too is precious, that elusive black pearl, the emptiness running between the lines and pouring space, leaving a vapor trail for the hunter only to disperse and fragment just ahead of the chase.

this is a different love. instead of becoming its slave, i've thrown it away. a loss, a trauma, it haunts me, weaving my tissues, extending shrapnel points and buoying me in its web.

i have never known such a love, like mosaic tiles, green lace meets black marble meets red confetti, patchwork. at once flat and sinuous, signs boiling at the surface, and our bodies underneath, as yet unwrapped.

"And then - old alchemy of the brain and its vast pharmacy - his hate flowed into his hands.

In the instant before he drove Kuang's sting through the base of the first tower, he attained a level of proficiency exceeding anything he'd known or imagined. Beyond ego, beyond personality, beyond awareness, he moved ... evading his attackers with an ancient dance, ... grace of the mind-body interface granted him, in that second, by the clarity and singleness of his wish to die."

-- Neuromancer

If you were in my Seattle photo workshop, post your best photo (or two) in the comments here. If you have the time, write a sentence or two about your photography and what you liked best about the workshop.

Everybody else, feel free to look back today at all the purdy pixtures and comment.

I'm sitting here ostensibly working on a blog post about the last two weeks but not very well. Which means a fair amount of twiddling around LJ maxomai brings up Ouija boards, which reminds me ... We watched Paranormal Activity a couple weeks ago and I really liked it. Which got me thinking about ghosts and Conan Doyle and Spirit Photography and ectoplasm and Houdini and locked cabinets and all the sorts of things my mind will run to if given any room. This lead me to a rare book store where I got a copy of Patience Worth a book, dictated via Ouija board (or psychosis) to a man named Casper Yost (I wonder if he was friendly) and published in 1916. My copy is green and gold and beautiful and inscribed in the front "Property of the Bellingham Psychic Research Center" -- which is almost as cool as the book itself. It contains poetry, prose, and a play, works Mr. Yost assures us are the musings of the spirit of Patience Worth, delivered from Beyond The Grave like a telegram. Sadly though, Patience Worth is a terrible playwright and an even worse poet.

I climb a web to reach a star,
And stub my toe against a moonbeam

But that didn't stop it from becoming a runaway best seller. I imagine Casper sitting at his desk, perhaps a witchboard nearby for appearances sake, tapping his pencil on his forehead and jotting down the first thing that comes to mind.

But all that reminded me of this photo that Feisty Diva of Peacock Blue Designs and I did a few years ago. I'm quite fond of it. Were I to do it again, I'd do it in the dark and light it better and have the candles actually going. I didn't know so much about lighting back then. It's nice to see that I've come a distance, improved technically, and still retained a stylistic voice.



I think I'm going to make some bananna bread and not so much lament everything that I didn't get done today.

December: thus far it's like being invited to a party where the host expects you to choke down some hideously weird food, and everyone will be horribly offended if you don't. Just when I think I've swallowed the last of the testicles or eyeballs of what-have-you it seems there's another course.

Last night I woke up at midnight with a toothache that kept me up for several hours. At minimum I need a filling. I haven't been to the dentist in a long time, so minimum I'm probably looking at $500 for the checkup and new xrays and filling. It's like I'm bleeding money every time I move. What a pain in the ass. Also, they can't see me until Thursday. I'm thinking of going elsewhere (there's a dental office next door) but the other dentist, despite being expensive, has all my files and knows my mouth. Also, he's a pretty painless guy. The ache last night was enough to keep me up , invade my dreams and make me think that pliers seemed like a reasonable solution. I can't wait to see how fucked up I feel by thursday. I'll be taking a lot of ibuprofen and using maximum strength Orajel. On the plus side, maybe I'll eat less crap. It's hard to imagine wanting to eat ever again right now.

On the up side, I've received an email asking me to do a keynote speech at a conference. I can't afford to go. If they could afford to pay for my hotel and airfare, I'd really consider it. It sounds interesting.

I finally heard back from Resolve, and they've approved my interest-free status until April, which was unexpected and is a load off my mind. I hope the moments of waking up with sudden insomnia at 4:00 am will now stop. Also, the weird dreams in which I have people invading my home and have forgotten to attend classes all semester. Also, there was one where the cat's head burst into flame like the baby in the Incredibles. This was particularly upsetting because I was dreaming that I couldn't sleep when it happened, and so thought I was awake.

My cousin Paula has emailed me the status application, which is exciting, although nerve-wracking as well. I have to print it off, fill it out, and get my brother to do the same. Then we fax them back to her. I appreciate her work on this for us. I still want to meet with someone at First nations House or someplace similar to get an idea of what changes status might entail.

I'm getting things done with my time off. I applied for a replacement SIN card yesterday. Wow, was the City Hall location ever filled with weirdos. One man tried to convince another not to immigrate to Canada, because "they put you in jail here, for no reason." I bet there's an interesting back story to that opinion. The young guy explained that his home country was full of war. The older guy responded that he could spend six months in a European country, thereby cutting his chances of dying in half. Also, he said this country was full of crime. I guess that's why we out people in jail without reasons. There was also a younger guy who tried striking up a conversation with any woman who sat by herself. His personal philosophy was that he could get along with anyone (except men apparently, or women with men). He said it didn't pay to be smart--that it hadn't helped him any. He said he didn't want people to take him seriously, and that if he could make someone laugh he'd been successful. He talked to a muslim woman and immediately asked numerous questions about her headscarf. She wasn't laughing.

Today I'm going to apply for my new passport. That'll be the end of my big errands. mr_pugh and I have been watching Wonderfalls. We liked Pushing Daisies and this is by the same director. I'm liking it, which is of course why there is so little of it.

I ate some chips called Blair's Death Rain, which claimed to be the hottest chips on the planet. I wasn't convinced, because their ingredient list wasn't very intimidating, perhaps because I failed to appreciate what a habanero chili was. I was very very very wrong. They hurt me badly and I am continuing to regret that I ever let them in my body. I like spicy food, but this is simply ridiculous. It's like a poisoning.

I've been having trouble with Toast Titanium. AT first it was all error messages, which Google helped me find solutions for. Particularly key to eliminating the "buffer underrun" issue was setting "buffer underrun protection" on in the preferences. Now It's taking forever to burn. I had to force quit the program to get it to stop. The next step is trying to burn with a mac utility to see if there's a burning issue (no pun intended) with my computer.

Still working on The Big Updates but in the meantime, trillian_stars and I got to spend some time with the lovely and talented and extremely tall Imogen Heap this week. She's one of the easiest people to photograph I've ever worked with though for me it's odd to be looking up at someone. Then Trill and I went to see her (sold out) show at the TLA, had a terrific time, met lots of people from the Intharwebz (hello!) and then went off to XIX to wrap up the evening.



Here's her new video for First Train Home from the album Ellipse which just came out. I got it on iTunes.



Oh, and through some MAGIC indeSCEAN was able to score me @kylecassidy at twitter. How I do not know (possibly by killing the Kyle Cassidy who'd already got it), but I am no longer @finallykyle I am now, finally, @kylecassidy, if you're on there, you can often see the goodies as they happen, though not as carefully thought out.




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I was going to post some Cool Photo Stuff, but my web host is down (which means you'll probably see lots of broken links in mah blog) -- and this gives me the opportunity to mention a Very Important Thing. Novelist jaylake has been battling cancer for a year or so now with very articulate, frank, and sometimes terrifying blog posts. I've admired his honesty and willingness to share what his fight has been like. Last week I got the solemn opportunity to photograph him upon his return home from lung surgery.

He's posted one of the photos here. It's a story of Determination and Will, put down by a gifted writer. Your lives wouldn't be made the worse by adding him to your friends page. It'll throw a measure of Resolute Determination in the Face of Great Odds in with the daily dose of complaints about jobs and dirty dishes so common on LJ. He's also @jaylake on Twitter. (I should also mention that you can buy his books on amazon.)






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I came across a photo of Roswell as a wee babe this morning. (That's the one on the left.)



You might ask ... "how did before turn into after?"

There was a lot of in between....



While she sits here on my leg a wobbly bowling ball, I find myself thinking back to one bleak evening three years ago in the emergency room of the vet hospital. A doctor said to me "There's a good chance this kitten won't live until tomorrow, the treatment's expensive, but if it were me, I'd try it."

And we did.

I'm left with the realization that sometimes the odds beat you out, and sometimes you win, but the more you try, the more you win. I'm sure Yogi Berra said it better somewhere, but it's true.



(p.s. thanks to everyone who said "hi" at Imogen Heap last night.)

I'm still working on the big posts for the last two weeks. One thing I do have for you is The Gothest Photo Ever Taken With an iPhone. If Peter Murphy were snapping photos of Vampires in a crumbling castle it would not look as goff as this shot of solstice_lilac walking on the bike path in Portland.



I rule the iPhone cam.