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Good morning everyone! It's chilly outside, but on the internet it's Radio Free Monday!

We've acquired an unusual number of new readers this week, so as a brief explanation: Radio Free Monday is a once-weekly post where I highlight opportunities to support fellow fans and good causes, share informative links about current events, and occasionally offer resources for people in need. It's a good way to spread information without bombarding you all week with Causes To Support. There's more info at the end of the post if you're interested in RFM or have a link to share!

huesiemama linked me to the Corey Mineard benefit fund, to help cover medical expenses for a guitarist who has hit some hard times. Music is very physical work, and Corey can't work while he recovers -- there's more info at the website but I think this is a pretty good cause.

mecurtin let me know that thdancingferret is facing both debilitating pain and high medical bills at the moment, and also struggling with the Unemployment/Disability program to get support. She could use financial help (you can paypal teufelce@aol.com) but also needs help from someone familiar with NYC aid programs and bureaucracy. You can find her on DW or LJ, or PM mecurtin, if you can help.

bodlon has a post you should read about the TSA, their new screening procedures, and how now they're basically just admitting that "invasive pat downs" are intended to scare people into using the screening machines. This makes me want to never fly again, and I love flying.

There's been a lot of talk lately about writers getting sexually harassed or inappropriately propositioned by editors and publishers in the SFF publishing sphere. Jim C. Hines, who seems above-and-beyond awesome, has a post about what you can do if you've been harassed, either by someone in the industry or by someone at an industry con.

Talking of writers, there's also been a lot of discussion of how Amazon Is Fucking Up Again. I haven't used Amazon since their first massive fail; not merely because they're homophobic fuckwits but also because during that fail I learned a lot about their business practices that made me think my money could be better spent elsewhere. In this particular case the fault lies not entirely with Amazon, since the book as I understand it is self-published and therefore self-categorised (I do this myself; Nameless is self-listed as a Queer Lit book, for example), but if Amazon's going to police who goes on their bestseller list and remove LGBT and women's health books from that list, they need to be policing for paedophiles as well, Jesus fucking Christ. I know it's a pain not to be able to use Amazon, because they are incredibly convenient, but it's not such a huge pain that I can't do it. If you're looking for other online bookstores, allow me to link you to a brief list of alternatives.

We've been talking recently, throughout these posts, about Conflict Minerals and how they end up in basically everything electronic we own. I've been linked by tanaraniel to a radio segment about Congo coltan mining here and there's an op-ed piece at the New York Times (thanks paradorx!) I haven't actually read the second piece because I loathe the New York Times login policy, but it's there if you have a login or are lucky enough to avoid the login page. I don't know what to do about conflict minerals, and seemingly nobody does; companies won't state where they get their coltan, but since it basically all comes from the Congo, the seeming best thing to do right now is make sure that you use your electronics until they fall apart, and turn them in for recycling when you can.

ON THE GOOD NEWS FRONT:

Hey guys, remember Andrew Shirvell, the douchebag who was harassing UMich student body president Chris Armstrong for being openly gay? Yeah, his ass is fired. Very, very fired.

Last week I was asked to link to a story about a stolen pediatric wheelchair, but on a happy note, the wheelchair has already been found! A family who bought it came forward and returned the chair after paying four grand for it, which is a pretty damn decent thing to do.

This is a video about people having a tea party on a traffic island in Los Angeles. It includes them recruiting a security guard and a Los Angeles police officer, playing badminton, and explaining that the purpose of the event was "to have tea." Obviously. (With bonus Misha Collins, for you Castiel fans out there.)

Thanksgiving is coming! And Serious Eats has a recipe for Turducken that doesn't involve deboning three separate birds or trying to stuff them into each other. I just thought it was nifty and wanted to share.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. :) You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how best to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help.

Exquisite, Chapter 8

A brief note -- this is the eighth chapter of this fic, but the first chapter that deals with the events of S2, so it is the first "new" chapter to be posted. The last seven chapters were posted in a unit over the course of a week, as Chapters 8 - 14 will be. Sorry if this is a trifle confusing. The first seven chapters may be found here.

Title: Exquisite
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None. (Spoilers through all aired episodes.)
Summary: Neal is finding a place for himself, both at the Bureau and in Peter and Elizabeth's life. Unraveling the mystery of the music box might ruin everything -- but that's a risk he has to take.

( Justice took almost four weeks to conclude their investigation of the explosion... )

Fake cut takes you to the fic at Dreamwidth.

(no subject)

I think it says something profound that the XKCD stuff posted recently -- a series of five-minute exercises -- was the funniest I've found him in months. Jupiter's a'ight!

In other news, OH LOOK. Exquisite is back! Like a determined ghost or a bad penny or a fanfic about a mildly dysfunctional threesome.

Although this chapter is mostly about fashion.

Title: Exquisite, Chapter 8
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None.
Summary: Neal is finding a place for himself, both at the Bureau and in Peter and Elizabeth's life. Unraveling the mystery of the music box might ruin everything -- but that's a risk he has to take.

( Justice took almost four weeks to conclude their investigation of the explosion... )

Fake cut takes you to the fic at Dreamwidth.

(no subject)

I am home!

I walked down Michigan Avenue this evening, heading for the repair shop that happens to be in the same building as my dentist. I figured if nothing else this pocketwatch of my granddad's is good for an adventure.

The watch repair shop is a tiny room full of glass cases, ridiculously warm, and I sat and waited because the guy who runs the place had gone out for coffee. I did get to engage the clerk in a discussion of blues, however, since "Whatever Lola Wants" was playing on the radio and I managed to correctly identify the singer as Sarah Vaughan, which impressed him and caused him to offer me a butterscotch candy. I don't even know.

Anyway, the verdict on the watch is that it is a "dollar watch" and not repairable -- once you remove the plate under the back housing, you can't reassemble it again, or something. I am choosing to read this as "no Earth technology can repair your alien device" because it's more fun that way.

So, the watch will likely be disassembled for gears, and I'll do something fun with the housing.

I think I will throw away the RADIOACTIVE parts.

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Oh, AND:

1. The Christmas windows are already up at Macy's/Marshall Fields (no matter which I call it, someone will correct me). They are a lovely mixture of utterly twee and completely terrifying. It's like Precious Moments meets Tim Burton.

2. Having disposed of the pocket watch appropriately, I went back to Nan's Mystery Box and pulled out a few more things. Tonight's treasures are the induction and Grand Master certificate for some distant Masonic relative back in the 1800s...

...and an insurance policy for a '55 DeSoto.

Thanks, Grandma.

(We are a heavily Masonic family -- my mum's side are generation upon generation of Masons and Eastern Star and Job's Daughters, and my dad's dad was a Mason; even my stepfather's father was a Mason and his mum, Mama Tickey, is a big deal in Eastern Star. It's a miracle I escaped, really.)