(no subject)

How do you indicate sign language dialogue in prose? Is there a conventional method - in quotes like spoken language, in italics?

(no subject)

Thought-provoking kvetch from nostalgia_lj about fandom_charity. She points out: if you have to be bribed with fic to give money there is something very wrong with the world.

While I see nos' point, strictly applying this standard would knock out a huge amount of charity activities. Taste of a Nation and the Sydney Food and Wine Fair; Comic Relief; Red Nose Day and Daffodil Day; op shops; charity auctions at conventions. In each case, the buyer gets something in return for their donation - lunch, entertainment, kipple, kudos.

Of course, fanfic is not exactly the same because of its grey market status (and its frequent poor quality), but it's very similar: people donate goods or services to raise money for a good cause. That's useless unless someone buys those goods or services. The fanfic writer or chef or comedian is converting what they have - skills - into what's needed - cash.

When it's a community effort - be it Australia's Biggest Morning Tea or fandom_charity - there are additional advantages. Obviously, an event or project can motivate people. A joint effort can potentially raise more funds than an individual effort. But also, it means there is something we can do. A crisis makes us desperate to take action, and phoning in a donation may not meet that need. Participating in a fundraiser - as seller or buyer - can give us some hope.

Pix

Beautiful cats snapped by zhenzhi.

Beautiful lights snapped by flyingsauce.

Tolkien humour by Loke Mei Yin.

Just a great quote about the future

Bill McKibben: The good news is that most recent estimates tend to support the idea that a world of six of eight billion people could live at something like the material level of people in southern Europe –you know, roughly half the energy use of the United States, half the material throughput. Not three thousand square foot homes, not enormous vehicles – but not living in mud huts either. And I think that’s very good news, because the level of affluence and consumption that we’ve built not only is causing irreparable and basic systemic harm to the planet on which we live, but it’s also, I think, making us more and more unhappy. We’ve gone past the “enough” point in more ways than one.

And so I think that really give us some idea of what to shoot for: we’re not going to go live in the desert, and we don’t need to. The middle road – as the Buddha remarked – is often the most sensible one, and in this case, very much so.

Encounter, 5 September 2004