I'm in the market for a new MP3 player -- my second-gen iPod Nano is finally dead, and I don't want to buy another iPod, or any other player with DRM built in. I figure that any company that wants to devote its engineers to figuring out how to frustrate my desires doesn't really want my business.
W... More.
My latest Locus column, "Teen Sex," explains why I think young adult literature should have sex -- and other "mature" topics -- in it.
There's really only one question: "Why have your characters done something that is likely to upset their parents, and why don't you punish them for doing this?"
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As with my earlier column on the new vanguard and returning classic franchises that are keeping point and click adventures alive a decade or more past their prime, there's one other genre that all but the hardest-of-the-core and its tight-knit community itself seem to have forgotten: the text adve... More.
A copyeditor at the Toronto Star greeted the news that union copyeditor jobs were being eliminated in favor of freelancers by heavily editing the publisher's memo announcing same, pointing out all the ways in which the publisher could benefit from editorial aid.
This is very funny stuff, but hav... More.
Marisa Kakoulas at the excellent tattoo blog Needles and Sins writes about Tattooed Under Fire, a documentary by Nancy Schiesari on the tattoos -- and lives -- of soldiers at Fort Hood. The film was created long before yesterday's mass shooting, and will air on public television stations aroun... More.
Fort Hood -- the largest US military facility in the world -- is a major center for soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and also houses the Army's Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which helps soldiers deal with post-traumatic stress when they return. In both cases, deployment and return home, soldiers work out heavy issues, and many seek tattooing as a way to express them or even see the process as therapy.
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That's really amazing. And chilling to hear the artists seeing, first-hand, the damage done by the repeated deployments and complete lack of mental health support these soldiers are getting.
My Uncle was a Vietnam vet and he talked about his tattoos being "the only thing he could count on carrying" through his service. Thanks for posting this Xeni.
At least the troops get to come home. The people who live under their occupation have no where to go. The troops don't have their homes raided, their family members die on the street in bombings, etc.
There's no place like home. Obvious #2 is obvious.
you can show support for the soldiers at Ft Hood (and for tattoos) by fanning the film on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TattooedUnderFire
This was a good post. I tattoo a lot of soldiers in my line of work as well - the stories they tell are pretty blood curdling at times.
Not to get off topic, but also of interest to freedom loving boingers on the same blog a few posts down was the FBI's "Rat out your customers" security theater flyer specifically targetting tattoo artists. If you need any entertaining material for the rest of your afternoon...