We interupt this blog for a fannish moment

Normally I keep my fannish life out of this blog, but this is actually something that's important to me, so it's going here as well. I promise a batch of perfume reviews tomorrow. Really. :)



I put an offer of a 2500+ SGA, SGA RPS fanfic up with a lot of verbiage, but basically it boils down to: you promise to make a donation to help defeat the CA ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman and if you're the high bidder (or the first person to "buy it now"), I write fic for you.

This is our fight, this is our chance to say "no" to the people who think that gay people, people like myself and Darkrose, shouldn't have the same right to marry that straight couples have. If you can, look around the auctions offered (everything from web site design, to wooden dildos, to fan art, to tattoo designs, to fic, to knitting, and more, and see if there's anything you want to bid on. Or maybe there's something you can offer up for auction.

And if you don't want to mess around with the auction but still want to make a donation, and I have registered with EQ-CA. You can make as big or small a donation as you like. The registry is in our real names, so if you don't actually know them, drop me a line and ask: telesilla [at] gmail [dot] com

"I'm the guy who thinks up the goofy shit."

Yes, you really were, George, and you will be sorely missed.

There's an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune -- Carlin Leaves Behind Society Still Struggling With Words. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that we're that much more tolerant of language, but still, it's interesting to see things have and haven't changed.

Finally, I'll leave you with one of my favorite Carlin riffs. Surprisingly, it isn't profanity laced at all. It's about baseball and football and the difference between the two.

And so can you!

I am aware of all internet traditions.

BPAL's Lunar Update and some thoughts on the BPAL business model

So for some reason or other, there are two Lunar blends available from BPAL this month. Normally the Lunacy LEs don't interest me much, in most cases if I want anything from those updates, it's the shirts. But this month....

Hay Moon (which I totally want to spell Hai Moon) -- Hay absolute, tall grasses, dry honey, mallow, cardamom, amber, and wheat.

Mead Moon -- Golden mead, fermented with gruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, rosemary, and lemon.

Hay Moon sounds good (cardamom is one of those notes that I adore) and Mead Moon sounds fantastic. Sadly, I've pretty much blown the sweetly-scented portion of budget for the month. Of course, there are the decant circles where I could pick up an imp, but then you run the risk of falling in love with an LE that's no longer available.

Which brings me to my thoughts on LEs (let me show you them).

I really have problems with the whole Limited Edition thing. I understand it from a retail point of view, but that doesn't mean that I like it from a consumer stand point. There's this Pokemom mentality that's all too easy to get caught up in.

I don't think there's anything wrong with spending money to collect perfume, it's just that the whole "gotta get 'em all" mentality confuses me at times. I can't wear anything with rose or cream accord, which means a lot of Beth's (or anyone else's) blends are right out for me and I can't imagine why I'd buy everything in an update if I couldn't wear half of the blends.

I've never asked anyone who does this because it seems like a judgmental question, but it's not really. I just wonder....

Serpentine Hair for grate yay! and Lush...not so much.

My big discovery lately, body product wise, has been Serpentine Hair. I've been intrigued by the idea of sulfate free shampoos for a while. The sulfates (both sodium lauryl sulfate, or SLS, and ammonium lauryl sulfate) are put in shampoos to create lather because somewhere along the line, people became convinced that shampoo had to lather up big to get your hair clean. The problem is that in addition to getting rid of dirt, shampoo with sulfates strips your hair of all of its oil, which you then have to turn around and replace in the form of a conditioner.

Thanks to the evil_enabler community on LJ, I read about Serpentine and checked them out. Their shampoo bars are free of all sulfates and are similar to plain cold processed soap (made with lye and oils). They're pretty, they come in cool scents and they're reasonably priced, so I bought an Original Sin (bergamot, neroli, vanilla and a little musk) bar to try.

When I first used it, I wasn't sure it was really getting my hair clean. I thought it might be some residue, something they warn can happen, and used a vinegar/water solution to deal with it. My hair felt clean but it was also a little streaky, like it had too much oil in it. And then I got my hair cut and since my hair was so short, I switched over from using the bath puff method and just rubbed the bar right on my hair a couple times before working the resulting lather into my hair. And it works fabulously! I do it once per shower, not twice like you're supposed to with conventional shampoo, and I don't use conditioner at all. The bar is nice and hard, and because I use a wire soap dish and set it right next to the window in the sun, I'm losing very little of the bar to melting.

The whole experiment makes me happy for several reasons. One, fewer chemicals. Two, much less packaging--the bar comes wrapped in a single layer of shrink wrap as opposed to two plastic bottles. Three, I won't really know until I use the whole bar, but I suspect it's cheaper than the relatively inexpensive Clairol I was using. Four, it smells utterly fabulous--not enough to clash with my perfume, but just a little hint of yummy smell. Five, I'm patronizing a small, woman-owned business. Six, shorter showers mean using less water.

Seven, my hair feels and looks fantastic--soft and silky and shiney and much less frizzy than it was.

So yeah, this stuff is pure win all the way. The only people who might have problems with it are people with really oily hair, although I suspect that the vinegar/water rinse (a couple of tablespoons of vinegar for each cup of water; use lemon juice if you're a blonde of any sort) would help there.

Moving onto a company I'm less impressed with...Lush.

I know that a lot of people think of Lush as the second coming, and I'll admit that I like their style. They appeal to the hippie chick in me. The problem is...I'm not wild about the way their stuff smells.

My second Lush order arrived yesterday. It was just the large size tub of Ocean Salt this time, but with it I got two tiny samples of their "buttercream," a somewhat oiler than normal soap, that's supposed to be great on your skin. Both scents--one almond/citrus and one violets/clove-- should have been right up my alley, but they smell oddly chemically and to be honest, kinda gross.

I actually don't like the smell of the Ocean Salt much, although Nancy does. However, I'm willing to forgive a lot because it really is fabulous on my skin; my face has felt so much better lately. I use it about every other day; it's a little too rough to use daily.

I kind of liked the Sexy Peel soap I ordered from Lush last month, but it wasn't the best thing ever and at $5.40 for a 3.5 oz chunk, it just didn't cut it. If I want to spend that kind of money on soap, I'll patronize Villainess or Magic Hands or Arcana or one of the other small businesses whose products can be found at The Soap Box company. Or I'll just stick to my very nice oatmeal and almond bar that I pick up from the Natural Foods Co-Op for $2.50 a bar.

Yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm sniffling here.

Ms. Lyon and Ms. Martin were the first gay couple to get married in San Francisco today. They have been together for 55 years. They really are an example to couples, gay and straight, everywhere and if that example, the fact that they've been together through thick and thin and some really tough times for gay people, can impact marriage as we currently define it, then that can only be a good thing.

May the Goddess bless all your days, ladies, and all the days of everyone who got married today.

In related news....

Nancy and I will be getting married on September 5. We will be doing a very small civil ceremony at the county clerks office in the presence of a couple of good friends. Because we're trying to save money for a move come spring, there will be no reception or party or anything.

We do intend to do something along the lines of a reception/party at some point when we can afford it and when we can give friends and family enough warning so that people who wish to can join us. But, call us cynical, we wanted to do the legal thing, get that paperwork, before Election Day, just in case the ballot initiative to change the state constitution passes.

We're not registering for stuff or really expecting gifts this time, but if you want to do something, we've registered here (give it a couple of days before you try) with Equality California’s Marriage PAC, which is working to defeat the ballot initiative.