I'm in the process of rebooting, so there may be some random wonkiness around here for the duration of the evening.
I'm aiming to have it all done by midnight*, but you know how these things go.
Don't forget to come back soon and check out the new design.
* I didn't, obviously, and then I found out that the deadline is actually noon, not midnight, so I'm afraid you're going to have to wait just a little bit longer.**
** The observant amongst you will note that the individual entry pages look different already. This is part of the reboot, but it's not all quite done yet, so consider it a sneaky peek.
(or why it's dangerous to leave comments on the Observer blog)
So, back in May, I gently chided Rafael Behr about gender stereotypes in Sci Fi fandom on a post he made about Why men love science fiction so much. Didn't really think much more about it, and had mostly forgotten about it until last week, when an email dropped into my inbox(es) from Telegraph journalist Elizabeth Day.
The gist being that she'd seen my comment on the observer blog, hopped over to mine and wondered if I had an opinion on the news that for the first time ever, the Sci Fi channel's audience was now more female than male and if I'd spare a few minutes for a phone interview. This I did.
Then came the photo malarkey, detailed previously, the results from which, thankfully, did not appear in yesterday's paper.
My heart sank when I read the article yesterday, and I knew I'd have to write a rebuttal, but this became particularly urgent this morning since it seems to have (if I'm honest, probably justifiably) upset some of the lovely denizens of slashdot.
So, the actual article seems to have been rather too heavily pruned at the sub-editing stage, because given that Elizabeth was a previous winner of the young journalist of the year award, I'd really hope that the standards for that were a lot higher than the quality of the resulting article, entitled "Adventures of Buffy and Lara see female sci-fi viewers outnumber males".
Go read it, then come back for the corrections and clarifications.
First off, I am a Web Accessibility CONSULTANT not Officer. This might seem petty, but I've worked damned hard to get where I am today and earn the title of Consultant.
Secondly, at no point did I proffer Buffy or Lara Croft as an example of why women might like Sci Fi more now. Mostly cos neither of them are Sci Fi. I cited three examples of shows which I enjoy and consider to be quality Sci Fi which came to mind as having good, strong, female characters in them.
Thirdly, the first quote attributed to me - "People have an impression of sci-fi fans being small men who sit in the dark watching Star Trek but it's not like that now." has been pruned. I can't remember the exact words I used, but it was along the lines of the fact that the stereotypical impression of sci-fi fans being small mole-esque geeky blokes who sit in the dark obsessively watching Star Trek or the like, is, like most stereotypes, not the case (c.f. Stalker Boy), nor has it been my overwhelming experience (which was the essence of my original remark to Rafael on the Observer blog). That's not to say that I haven't met some seriously terrifying uber-geeks who fit that stereotype - of course I have - I've been to signings and conventions - but the majority aren't like that.
Fourthly, the second quote attributed to me - "There has been an increase in positive female role models, whereas in Star Trek, all the women were either aliens or wore short skirts. I have been watching sci-fi since I was two or three and the shows are better written and more mainstream." has also been seriously pruned and is a contraction of about 5 minutes worth of talking (and at the speed I talk, that's quite a lot of words missing in action, taking their context with them). So, let's take these in order then.
First up, the fragment "There has been an increase in positive female role models, whereas in Star Trek, all the women were either aliens or wore short skirts."
What I actually said was along the lines of "whereas, in the original Star Trek, the focus was mainly on Captain Kirk being all masculine and heroic and the female characters were mostly either aliens, love interests or crew members relegated to support roles and a lot of them wore short skirts or revealing outfits and were portrayed as being a lot more subserviant to the male characters".
I didn't mention later Captain Janeway or Star Trek stuff where this imbalance was redressed a fair bit (and perhaps this was a mistake), but I got the strong impression (backed up by Elizabeth herself saying she didn't really watch sci fi), that the distinction between differing flavours of Star Trek woud be lost on her, and mentioned Captain Kirk and original stuff more because I didn't like the later ST series' that much.
The quote "I have been watching sci-fi since I was two or three" came from an explanation of how, although when I was wee, Sci-Fi wasn't really seen as a girl's thing, my dad would let me watch Doctor Who (yes, I was that stereotypical kid, hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks and Cybermen came on screen), and that I never got the impression it was something I shouldn't like, so just enjoyed it.
The final bit "shows are better written and more mainstream" is a contraction from a lengthy explanation where I explained that I felt that Sci Fi is being increasingly more aimed at a mainstream audience rather than a niche audience, and that with the advent of stuff like Babylon 5 and Firefly, you've got stuff that's (arguably) a lot better written than some of the earlier stuff. Not that I'm saying the earlier stuff was all shit, because it isn't - and some of the dodgy writing can be excused when it's so bad it's good.
I also made the point (not reflected at all in the article) that I thought that one reason for the increase in interest was partly down to a lack of segregation in terms of subjects taught at school, giving the example of it no longer being the case that girls did cookery, needlework and art (or other traditionally "girlie" subjects) while boys do mechanics, engineering and science (and other traditionally "blokey" subjects).
Oh, and while I'm at it, I'm fairly sure I wasn't attracted to the Matrix for it's "complicated concepts of life and death". Well, not in it's entirety, at least. I was attracted to it beause it (at least, the first part of the trilogy) was cool, well written, had lots of black tight shiny stuff wrapped round fit bodies (what, I can't be a shallow geek?), had a great soundtrack and cutting-edge (for the time) special effects.
When it comes down to it, I'm a girl, I'm undeniably a geek, and I like Sci Fi (amongst other things). I know lots of other people who like Sci Fi too, of all shapes, sizes and geekery levels. I'm also quite glad that it's become more mainstream and that more people (of either gender) are getting into it, and quite glad to be proved right in my assertion to Rafael that the gender gap isn't as wide as it might be expected to be.
So the lesson for today is - just because it's a "quality" newspaper doesn't lessen the likelihood of being misquoted, taken out of context or otherwise misrepresented.
It's disappointing though, I had hoped for better.
So yeah, I'm being a little cagey about the purpose of this whole photoshoot/newspaper thing, which is mostly for two reasons:
1. I'm still not 100% sure when it's going to be published, and don't want to send anyone off on a wild goose chase if they don't use it after all.
2. I want to be the first to check it out in case I hate the photo they use.
So don't worry, as soon as I find it, I'll post about it (except in 2 above, when I won't mention it ever again and will make it my mission in life to hunt down and burn every copy I can get my hands on - overreact, moi?).
In the meantime, the photoshoot was last night, and went thusly:
As for what I finally wore...
Yes, I wore black.
Yes, I wore long sleeves.
Yes I wore something gently v-neck (on top of a small vest), to show a reasonable amount of cleavage without going overboard, but hopefully enough to distract from the chins.
I also wore a long slightly flared skirt and bare feet (since I was in the house, and you don't really wear shoes indoors), but most of the shots that I saw were from the chest up anyway.
In addition, I re-dyed my hair (couldn't take the risk of the flash highlighting one of those damned stray greys littering my roots) and in a break from the norm, acutally put some light make-up on too, if nothing else, to try and stop from blinding him with the shine from my forehead and nose.
Other than that, it was just me, posing in my living room.
The paper will get 6 shots from him and will no doubt choose the cheesiest one of the lot, and come publication day, I'll cringe.
It was interesting though, being on the other side of the lens when someone else is in control of the camera, and not something I plan on repeating too often.
"O wad some Power the gift tae gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!"
So, what does one wear when one's photo is to be taken by a professional photographer to accompany a news article in a national newspaper when one doesn't even know if they're actually going to use the article?
(and is it ever appropriate to mention that one hates having one's photograph taken and politely request that said photographer not make one look like a fat geek - even if that, at the end of the day, is what one is?)
(with apologies to Karen and Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when reaching for your strap
For the comforting weight that fits my grasp.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, to shoot by sun or candle-light.
I love thee freely, and for thy focus assist light.
I love thee purely, I can now shoot RAW.
I love thee with a passion put to use
For professional briefs, or for my creative urges.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With the old 5700. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my subjects; and, if I lose thee,
I shall but love thee until I get the next model.
... and about bloody time too!
Especially since I've been sat at the window in the living room since 9 am this morning. I've been awake since 7.30. At no point did the bell ring, this despite me having carefully sellotaped my name above the appropriate bell to ensure no comedy "didn't know what bell to ring so didn't bother" type shenanigans.
So it gets to 11.20 ish and I think hrm... maybe they sneaked up and stuck a postcard through when I went to pee (couldn't hold on any longer - had to)... so I go downstairs and open the door, and there, in the entryway, behind the front door and in front of our door, is a box from Amazon.
It's been here for god knows how long and I didn't know!!!
AAAARGH!
The battery could have been charged up by now!
*takes deep breath*
Whatever, it's here now, and that makes me very, very happy.
Update: First set of photos available at flickr.
Items dispatching soon:
Note to self: pressing F5 on the order information page will not make it arrive any faster, damnit.
Okay, I'm curious (again).
I know there are a reasonable number of people who visit here on a daily basis that aren't looking for some random stuff through google.
You arrive here via bookmarks or bloglines or whatever, but you never comment and I have no idea who you are.
So humour me please, and say hello?
Partly it's because I'd like to have a better idea who my current audience is while I'm in the process of redesigning the site (1 November is approaching way too quickly for my liking), and partly, well, I'm just nosy.
So whoever you are, if you haven't commented here before, give it a go. I don't bite*.
*well, not unless I'm asked nicely.
It's been a helluva weekend. Too much to even begin to tell.
However, some highlights:
Emily Booth
Jake West
Evil Aliens
Private members club
Oh, and Masuimi Max* sat on my head.
*Links for Masuimi Max generally not safe for work. Google further at your own risk.
The universe loves balance.
Colleague: Wow, you've really lost a lot of weight recently...
Me: *cough, splutter* Oh I wish.
Colleague: Really? I could have sworn you had - meant to say to you earlier this week
Me: Trust me, I really haven't. Must be a trick of the light, or a side effect from too many lazy weekends at home watching UKTV Style and I've been Trinny and Susannah'd by osmosis.
Colleague: Well either way, you look a lot slimmer.
Me: Excellent. Thank you. *smiles and stands a bit straighter*
[ten minutes later in the canteen]
Me: Fish and chips please.
Guy behind the counter: Certainly. Would you like peas and tomatoes?
Me: No thanks, just the fish and chips.
GBTC: *puts fish in takeaway container*
Me: *waits patiently*
GBTC: *places two tongfuls of chips in container alongside fish, goes to put third in, looks up, looks me up and down, puts tongful of chips back in serving dish and closes takeaway container*
Me: *huh.*
To the person who visits here on an almost daily basis from Queen Mary and Westfield College - how come you always google for "pixeldiva" rather than bookmarking the site or just typing the url?
You can email rather than leave a comment if you'd prefer, but I'd genuinely like to know - my curiosity has got the better of me.
He: Hi
Me: Hey...
He: Are you here for the group?
Me: Yeah...
He: Thought so...
Me: *...?*
He: ... I could tell by the bag.
Me: *resolves never to use said bag again*
He: Can I get you a drink?
Me: Jack Daniels please. Thank you.
The best canteen lunch ever.
You might wonder why I'm blogging this.
I kind of wonder why I'm blogging this.
But actually, for the last three years, the food served in our cafe and restaurant has been uniformly shite, particularly of late. In the last six weeks I've almost had food poisoning on several occasions because of butter or other perishables being rancid from not being kept properly, had burnt toast, solid potatoes, food that had absolutely no flavour and the consistency of baby vomit, no food at all when they couldn't be arsed providing it, and generally, it's been a disaster.
So I arrived into work this morning, with last night's leftovers in my bag to be reminded that today was our new catering company's first day, and frankly, I wasn't holding my breath.
But.
They managed to make me two slices of white toast with peanut butter without burning it or having to throw it away several times over because they put marmite on it/dropped it on the floor.
... and for the first time ever, when I got down to the restaurant to see what they had on offer for lunch, I was actually conflicted - it all looked and smelled fabulous.
I finally settled on the lamb hotpot with rosemary dumplings and quite honestly, I was astonished. It was flavourfull, it was properly cooked, it had texture and aroma and frankly, I'm going to email them and say so.
Cos really, it was the best canteen lunch I've ever had.
Oh, and the leftovers? They'll be going home with me for dinner.
My mum always taught me that "I wants don't get but please may I haves will be considered".
Which is all well and good, but it's not working and I'm bored waiting.
So, in no particular order, I want:
*see, this is what happens with the not sleeping...
... the online home and (not very) alter(ed)-ego of Ann McMeekin, a recently freelance Web Accessibility Consultant.
... passionate about many things, most of which will turn up on this site at some time or other.
... contactable via email.
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