signal boost: why I will not be seeing the Avatar live-action movie

For more, see: http://www.racebending.com

Whitewashing: not a pretty thing.

(For another example, see Ain't That A Shame, Justine Larbalestier's post about how one of her books, with an African American protagonist, was published with a cover depicting that character as white. Note that this was over her protest; authors don't get much say on book covers.)

In happier news, coffeeandink is hosting the Book Re-Covery Program, a repository for fan-created alternative/reimagined covers for books -- "Covers with people of color on them. Covers with cool but not stereotypical designs. Covers that demonstrate the diversity and richness that's already inside the text, or that reimagine white texts as more diverse, male-dominated texts as more feminist." I'm watching with interest, and may try my hand at a few, even though I'm not very good with graphics.

(no subject)

It looks like it's time for a new laptop for me. I'd been having some weird issues with the hinge, with overheating, and (related to overheating) with the fan, but the real kicker is: I go through keyboards pretty quickly (I write a lot, and I'm hard on keyboards), and this one's laptop screws finally gave out, which means I can't replace it anymore. And the U key is randomly popping off, which is annoying, lemme tell you.

So, new laptop.

I think I'm going to do what I did last time and basically just get what Pava got and ride on the coattails of his research. ;) Only probably with some slightly different options... and in purple.