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web designA few days ago I had tea with an old friend who runs a small but successful firm in the occult publishing field. He's pushing seventy, though he's in good health, and the firm has younger people involved and will still be purring away when he's gone. The relevance of his age is that the internet is still mostly a foreign country to him. 

Nonetheless he's interested in building a web presence for his firm and its products. The firm already has a more or less functional (if minimal) website, but he's looking at a blog, Patreon and SubscribeStar accounts, and whatever else might help his firm make the transition to the internet age. This is a part time paying gig; he asked me for help finding someone competent to handle this, and so I figured the first thing to do was to ask my commentariat, so that one of my readers can benefit from the opportunity.  

My friend needs someone with experience setting up websites, who can build the sites and then run them. If you're interested, you'll need to be able to show me sites you've set up and managed. Please either post something here or send me a private message; I'll screen inquiries and then forward the ones that seem serious to my friend, who will make the decision. Let's make this happen. 
neonvincent: For posts about geekery and general fandom (Shadow Play Girl)
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Posted by Pinku-Sensei


Slight change of plans — instead of continuing my Emmy coverage with limited series nominations at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, as I wrote at the end of 'Arcane,' 'Love, Death + Robots,' and 'Octopus!' already Emmy Award winners, I'm resuming with a condensed version of last year's Gold Derby predicts guest actor, guest actress, reality host, and voice-over at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards concentrating on guest actor and guest actress in comedy and drama. Here are the nominees for these categories at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
  • Jon Bernthal – The Bear: "Napkins" as Michael Berzatto (FX)
  • Bryan Cranston – The Studio: "CinemaCon" as Griffin Mill (Apple TV+)
  • Dave Franco – The Studio: "CinemaCon" as himself (Apple TV+)
  • Ron Howard – The Studio: "The Note" as himself (Apple TV+)
  • Anthony Mackie – The Studio: "The Note" as himself (Apple TV+)
  • Martin Scorsese – The Studio: "The Promotion" as himself (Apple TV+)
Bryan Cranston leads the field according to the odds at Gold Derby, with every editor and expert along with 80.1% of users picking him to win. He's followed by Martin Scorsese, Jon Bernthal, Ron Howard, Dave Franco, and Anthony Mackie, who have the support of 11.1%, 4.6%, 2.3%, 1.4%, and 0.5% of users, respectively. The Studio having multiple nominees could have split the vote, but the prognosticators at Gold Derby think the Emmy voters have settled on the best performance of the bunch, a great actor playing a role instead of just himself.

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
  • Olivia Colman – The Bear: "Forever" as Chef Andrea Terry (FX)
  • Jamie Lee Curtis – The Bear: "Ice Chips" as Donna Berzatto (FX)
  • Cynthia Erivo – Poker Face: "The Game Is a Foot" as the Kazinsky sisters (Peacock)
  • Robby Hoffman – Hacks: "Cover Girls" as Randi (HBO Max)
  • Zoë Kravitz – The Studio: "The Presentation" as herself (Apple TV+)
  • Julianne Nicholson – Hacks: "A Slippery Slope" as Mary-Alice (HBO Max)
There is less of a consensus about this category than for guest actor, as Julianne Nicholson is the choice of every editor, but only two-thirds of experts and 74.4% of users. The experts and users are split on who is second, with the remaining one-third of experts and 7.9% of users picking Cynthia Erivo, while 11.5% of users expect last year's winner Jamie Lee Curtis to repeat. Zoe Kravitz, Robby Hoffman, and Olivia Colman round out the rest of the field with the support of 4.8%, 0.9%, and 0.4% of users, respectively.

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
  • Giancarlo Esposito – The Boys: "Beware the Jabberwock, My Son" as Stan Edgar (Prime Video)
  • Scott Glenn – The White Lotus: "Killer Instincts" as Jim Hollinger (HBO)
  • Shawn Hatosy – The Pitt: "9:00 PM" as Dr. Jack Abbot (HBO)
  • Joe Pantoliano – The Last of Us: "The Price" as Eugene (HBO)
  • Forest Whitaker – Andor: "I Have Friends Everywhere" as Saw Gerrera (Disney+)
  • Jeffrey Wright – The Last of Us: "Day One" as Isaac (HBO)
Predictions by Gold Derby's prognosticators for this category follow a pattern similar to that for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Shawn Hatosy is the choice of 80.0% of editors, 75.0% of experts, and 78.5% of users. The professionals and users are again split on the second choice, with the remaining 20% of editors and 25% of experts along with only 3.1% of users picking Scott Glenn, while 14.0% of users are voting for Jeffrey Wright. I suspect the users are responding to their perceptions of the performances, while the professionals are taking the politics of the acting community in particular into consideration. Electorates matter.

Gold Derby ranks the rest of the roster as Joe Pantoliano in fourth, Giancarlo Esposito in fifth, and Forest Whitaker last with 2.2%, 1.8%, and 0.4% of users choosing them, respectively. Too bad, as Whitaker is the only acting nominee from Andor. Being an Oscar-winning actor reprising a movie role may have helped him earn a nomination, but it's not going to help him win. Darn. Maybe at the Saturn Awards.

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
  • Jane Alexander – Severance: "Sweet Vitriol" as Sissy Cobel (Apple TV+)
  • Gwendoline Christie – Severance: "Cold Harbor" as Lorne (Apple TV+)
  • Kaitlyn Dever – The Last of Us: "Through the Valley" as Abby (HBO)
  • Cherry Jones – The Handmaid's Tale: "Exile" as Holly (Hulu)
  • Catherine O’Hara – The Last of Us: "Future Days" as Gail (HBO)
  • Merritt Wever – Severance: "Who Is Alive?" as Gretchen George (Apple TV+)
Speaking of the Saturn Awards, every one of these actresses is in a show that has been nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, so all of them could be nominated for Best Guest Star in a Television Series except perhaps Cherry Jones. No actress from The Handmaid's Tale has ever earned a nomination at the Saturn Awards, a snub I've whined about before. I don't expect that will change. Not only do electorates matter, so do selection committees.

Enough speculation. Now for the odds. This is the third consecutive category where there is a top choice, followed by divided support for the next two. Three-quarters of both editors and experts along with 78.2% of users have lined up behind Kaitlyn Dever, while the remaining one-quarter of editors and experts along with 7.3% of users have chosen Merritt Wever and 10.5% of users have picked Catherine O'Hara. The remaining three nominees are well behind, with Gwendoline Christie having the votes of 2.3% of users, Jane Alexander with 1.4%, and Cherry Jones 0.5%. Maybe a snub of Jones at the Saturn Awards would be justified.

That's a wrap for today's installment. I'm planning this year's version of Gold Derby's predictions for TV movie and music at the Emmy Awards for tomorrow's Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned.

Previous posts about the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards
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Posted by PZ Myers

Quakers are just one step removed from humanists, but with an even greater commitment to social justice. I like that, although I could never join a group with any vestige of god-belief. Still, I appreciate them.

The Quakers in Britain have been promoting equality and tolerance for a long, long time, to the point where one subgroup has split off and formed their own little sect, Sex Matters to Quakers, which is associated with a broader group called LGB Christians. Notice the missing “T” — they’re one of those groups that makes a special point of not recognizing trans people. It’s like supporting Black Lives Matter except for the Senegalese (I have no problem with Senegal, I just picked a random African nation), which really just says you’re bigoted against one group. You’re still a bigot. I don’t like these Quakers.

We reached a point about three years ago when there were enough of us to attempt to become a ‘Quaker recognised body’. Our primary aims were to bring Quaker members and attenders together: to speak truth to power, that is, biological truth to gender-ideological power; and to state that women are adult human females and men are adult human males.

SMtQ fired off a letter to their parent organization protesting the existence of trans-inclusive restrooms, which is another signal that they are not good people. The Quakers in Britain got the letter, which was also broadcast all over the place, and so the Quakers responded with a long letter rejecting their request. It’s a good letter, maybe a bit over-long, but thorough in shutting down the protest. I’ll pull out a few points that I thought were particularly clear.

• Deliberate misgendering of a person is transphobia.
• Referring to trans women as men is transphobia.
• Assuming a trans person poses a risk simply for being trans is transphobic.
• Stating that trans men are vulnerable and “groomed” into transition is a
transphobic trope.
• References to “trans activism” as anything other than the legitimate effort to
protect and advocate for the rights of people who are trans or non-binary is
transphobic.
• Alleging that Quakers have been “infiltrated” by trans activists is a transphobic
conspiracy theory and we are particularly offended by it.
• The notion that supporting and advocating for the safety, wellbeing, and
inclusion of trans people could be damaging to the Religious Society’s
reputation, or even “might be the thing that finally destroys them” is shocking
and dangerous. It is fearmongering, threatening, and extreme.

It concludes with a statement of principle that I can agree with.

“As Britain Yearly Meeting, we have minuted commitments in recent years: to care for our planet, to become an anti-racist church, to make reparations for historical injustices, to welcome and affirm those who are transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse. Much work has been done on all these by some individual Friends and Quaker meetings, as well as by our yearly meeting staff and committees. However, some have disagreed with the actions and approaches of others. This has been a cause of pain and anguish. We have heard in ministry that the strength of a church lies in how it is able to disagree with itself. In Quaker discernment, unity is not the same as unanimity. Minority views may well continue to exist. Among ourselves, we need to find kinder ground for our disagreements.
Can we find joy? Can we bring joy?”

You go, Quakers! Excepting those weirdos among you.

So, I've now created a DW feed

Aug. 31st, 2025 10:29 pm
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for [syndicated profile] chopwood_carrywater_feed. I thought that getting it in my email and on my reading page would help prompt me to call (or email, listen, I have limits) my congresscritters.

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