Misc

[liv]

I managed to get myself sunburnt yesterday! There was a Progressive service, where I read the Torah to general approbation. I usually "do voices" and generally dramatize when I read, and some people find that irreverent but the Progressive group here are all over it, they love understanding what I'm reading even if they don't have fluent Hebrew. The section I read is quite comic, even if darkly so, so I had fun with it. Then we had a committee meeting over a picnic lunch at the chairman's allotment. It was warm enough that sitting in the sun was pleasant but not hot enough to seek shade. So, um, my face and arms are rather red, even though I'm usually sensible about sun exposure. Oh well, it's an excuse to indulge myself with my extremely luxurious Body Shop body butter.

On the way there we happened to pass a troupe of Morris dancers, proper ones with a hobby horse and a motley and period instruments and everything. And no, I have no idea what they were doing in the middle of Stockholm.

Other than that I've been enjoying a quiet weekend. I had a very enjoyable chat to darcydodo on the phone yesterday, and another good conversation with redbird this afternoon. And my world is still full of sunshine and lilac blossom, so life is good.

I've been meaning for ages to post a link to The ecstasy of influence. It's long, 13 typescript pages, but it's worth the effort; it's a beautiful piece of writing and argumentation. I'm not entirely sure I agree, but it's a refreshing change from the usual ignorant mouthings about intellectual property popular with certain geek subcultures.

For a more topical essay, I strongly recommend misia's response to the recent paedophilia / fandom kerfuffle. It's interesting that the comments to that sane and balanced essay contain an example of exactly the kind of thing she's complaining about: at least one commentator berates her for being insufficiently outraged about paedophilia and all but calls her a child rapist, simply because she mentioned the topic. It does seem a shame that this climate makes it impossible for Misia to write her book on statutory rape and age of consent, but for now at least we get a highly articulate and thoughtful article.

Comments

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link to The ecstasy of influence. That was was pleasure to read and I don't think I've ever read anything on the topic where I could say that before.

[liv]

Glad you appreciated it! I know what you mean about how most verbiage on the subject of copyright and intellectual property is not worth reading. I have picked up a vague, amateur knowledge of IP since my dad is an IP lawyer and just that little bit of knowledge means I can see that most of the debate is miles away from any real-world point.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

I am still having lots of sun lotion and I never use it. It was quite hot in London for some weekends. I always spend all Shabbat afternoon with lethargic_man in Golders Hill Park when it is hot. We both never get sun burnt and none of use is using sun lotion. It all depends on somebody's skin. I only got sun burnt in really hot countries but never in Western-Europe. The sun is less intensive here.

[ploni-bat-ploni.livejournal.com]

Dude, that's nothing. I got sunburnt at the Arctic Circle! Try beat that. ;-)

Oy. Climate change. You go to the Arctic Circle and you have to switch on Airconditioning in the car because it's 25 degrees out.