Well, I just finished my Thursday morning dose of mouthorgan. (I understand the reasons they had for switching to a weekly format, but I miss my Tuesday column...). Some interesting points, including a call for comments, that I'm going to forward here, in case any of you are interested in responding:
We're collecting opinions for a column to run in two weeks about male sexuality, and how changing attitudes (about feminism, about sex, about harassment, et cetera) have affected it. We are especially interested in hearing from men about how it's affected them personally, but we'll take comments from anyone. Are men really under siege by the political correctness types? Is it more difficult to be a male now than it was twenty years ago? Do you think both of those statements are utter bunk? Tell us so.
Comments that you don't mind seeing reproduced in public should go to comments@mouthorgan.com - those are considered fair game for reprint and editing, as described on our mouth pages. Comments for our eyes only should go to editor@mouthorgan.com.
They touch on several topics in today's column, one of which set off a mini-rant on my part. You can read it on their comm ents page, if you're curious.
Other news...well, signed up with another temp agency yesterday. Blew them away with my silly typing, spelling and grammar scores. If I only *wanted* to be a secretary for life, I'd be completely set. Probably make more as an executive assistant than I ever will as a writer, too...
Finished Stewart's _Cloud's End_. Beautiful book, and even if I think the cover is a bit hyperbolic when it claims that Stewart is "the most distinctive and original voice in science fiction today", he certainly is up there, and well worth reading. I've got one more of his books to go, and I'm looking forward to it.
Got slightly bogged down in the C book last night -- couldn't figure out what the heck EOF was in UNIX, but eventually talked to Kev, who sorted it out for me. Need to go do the exercises I was stuck on, to make sure I've got it down, but I think I'm clear. So far I'm averaging about 7 pages an hour...if I keep that up, I'll be done in 27 hours. Kevin doesn't think that's unreasonable, but I think he's being far far too optimistic. I'm working through the exercises, sure; I can get the computer to *do* what the book says I want it to, but that doesn't mean I really understand what's going on around that. The terminology is still mostly incomprehensible to me. Ah well...it takes how long it takes, right? Better than spending $500 on a class, anyway -- it was only a $9 book. :-)
Long talk with Kev, as usual. Actually, two long talks...got stressed about some of the things he said, got off the phone, called Roshani, let her point out to me that I was being a silly git and working myself up into a state for no reason. Called Kev back and sorted things out. I really hate the way I can't think coherently anymore when I'm emotional about something...I feel almost like a different person. The whole world looks so different when I'm upset; things get blown up to hugely difficult proportions when they're really minor and simple. Argh. I'd really like to cut out that part of my personality, but Kevin thinks that it's just part of being an emotional person...that I don't get the highs without the lows. Maybe, but I'm not quite willing to admit defeat on that one yet. At least I can shorten the *time* I spend emotionally upset...heck, I have. The upset that took me half an hour to calm down from yesterday would have taken four or five hours a few years ago. There are advantages to getting older after all. :-)
Today's a catch-up day. Work through some e-mail, clean up my room and the house, maybe send out some stories that are languishing, try to write something for Penthouse, pester the RealDoll people who haven't e-mailed me back, see when Sizzle is sending me my check...
Have a good day, my dears...
It's a Naming Contest!
As I've mentioned here before, some of us are starting up a new erotica webzine. It aims to be:A professional online magazine which showcases intelligent and sexy erotic fiction, poetry and art, as well as information and commentary on sexuality and society.
The thing is, we need a name! And so we're having a contest, and inviting y'all to participate, and giving out prizes...
Rules
1. Please submit as many names as you like, by June 15th, 1998.2. Send them to me, at moh2@rainbow.uchicago.edu, with the subject: NAMING CONTEST
3. Before sending them, check them with InterNIC. We'll want to use the magazine name for the domain name of the web page, and so we can't use one that's already taken. InterNIC is at: http://www.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois
Don't try to put in the whole domain name -- just the magazine title, followed by .com. For example, try 'mouthorgan.com', not 'www.mouthorgan.com'. InterNIC is picky, I'm afraid. If it gives you 'no matches', then that name is free for us to use!
4. Winner will receive a copy of my book, _Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica_, and a copy of Carol Queen's _Real Live Nude Girl_.
Appendix
You can skim through the Erotica/Porn Writers' Market List on my web page to see what names have already been used, and for inspiration. Some of the names currently in use by actual erotica zines are Nerve, LIBIDO, Yellow Silk, EIDOS, mouthorgan, Paramour, screech, Hoot Island, Sensual Aspirations, Yoni, Taste of Latex, Lust So Stories.Many thanks -- I look forward to seeing your entries!
1:30. Boy, chatty today, aren't I?
Heather's finally gotten her telnet to work from home, so is updating more regularly again, hurrah! See her page for another take on Kaylie's party. It's very odd sometimes, seeing events through her eyes. I had no idea she was feeling emotional while El and I were singing "Sunrise, Sunset", for example. Fascinating.
With Kev's help, figured out my stuck spots in C. That boy is going to get tired of these pathetic e-mails I'm sending him -- hopefully, it'll soon be clearer to me where my errors may lie -- right now, there just seem to be way too many possibilities; overwhelming. And may I say that I think some of the error messages are needlessly alarming? FATAL ERROR! CORE DUMP! What were these programmers thinking? Couldn't they have made error messages that said things like, "Sorry, kiddo. You messed that one up." Or "Whoops, try again!" Even insults like "You stupid idjit. What made you think you could work a computer? Go back to the farm!" would be better than FATAL ERROR! CORE DUMP!
Talked to Ellie some about this marriage thing. Another one of her friends is getting married, and Kevin told me last night that Heather (his ex) and Jason are getting married. He sounded a bit bobbled, to be honest. Must be a bit strange, to hear that someone you were pretty nuts about, even if it was years and years ago, is marrying someone else. Ellie's ex has also gotten married, and maybe it's just lucky that none of mine have yet. Or unlucky. I'd actually be much happier if I knew that some of them were settled down with nice people (whether they were married or not). Alex seems pretty happy with his new SO, so that's something, anyway.
Hmm...that's probably enough of that. I seem to be drifting closer and closer to discussing 'personal matters', which probably means that I have too much time on my hands. Back to work, and your regularly scheduled relationship-free journal. :-)
7:00 p.m. - Well, I'm going to tentatively say that the new account is up and running, though if you're wise, you'll give me a day or two to shake the bugs out of it. They'd apparently also given me the wrong address, and while the one I *thought* I'd have will probably work, the preferred one is moh2@rainbow.uchicago.edu; please make a note of it. Hopefully this will all settle down now.