Nine Quiet Lessons's page

These are the lyrics I wrote for the Song of Silver in my own Hell's Rebels game, below. I tried to integrate imagery from the faiths of Milani and Sarenrae, as well as a metal motif both for the titular Silver Ravens and because the Song of Silver was supposedly adapted from an old mining song:

Oh, they forged us chains of iron
In Hell's blackest depths
With devil's wiles they bound us
With contracts for our deaths
Iron binds and weighs us
Child of Hell's darkest fires
But silver are the blades
That cut the tongues of liars

In Egorian, wicked Abrogail
Spun webs of finest silk
With lies and whispers spoiled
Human kindness' milk
Silk is fine for nobleborn
Who pay their debts in gold
But honest folk trust silver
That burns the lies so bold

The Yolubilis lies dark
With no moon floating o'er
The Arcadian ocean churns
To the beat of Chelish oars
Where now are the heroes
Who with their blood our freedom won?
In the dawn the river shimmers
Silver ribbons in the sun

In the fields the roses bloom
With gentle rains that fall in sheets
But in Kintargo roses grow
From blood soaked in the streets
If Devils hunger for our souls
If Thrune says death or slavery
In the beat of silver wings
The Raven's flight will set us free

What are your thoughts on the safety pin thing, and other passive indicators of alliance/friendliness? (Happy Humanist symbols, rainbow accessories, etc..) Do they make you feel even a tiny bit better when you see them? Do you even tend to notice small symbols like these?

My view: they're a nice gesture, and I believe it's well meant. Without minimizing that, though, my reaction to them is always one of caution. By their very nature, those symbols are self-applied, so they don't really say anything other than that the person wearing/displaying it believes themselves to be safe.

So as to your other two questions: I suppose my internal feeling is "that's nice," but I'm no more likely to trust that person than I was before. I absolutely do notice things like that, though; I'm always on the lookout for small signs to analyze. Behavioral cues, word choices, symbols, that sort of thing. It's a survival trait. But the conscious or self-applied symbols mean less than the unconscious ones. People only show you who they really are when they're not aware that they're doing it.

Most activists I know became activists because of things that have happened to them. ... I think very few people start out wanting to be activists. :-) )

The way I feel about it is that you pretty much cross the line from speaking up to being an activist when you refuse to take the first "no" as an acceptable answer to "please stop pushing me around."

D'oh, it's the medical school? I'm a UW-Madison alum, and I'm happy to email or call and give them a piece of my mind as an alum, but I don't know if they'll care since it always seemed like the medical school was separate.

Thanks for that, Jessica. Actually, though, the School of Medicine and Public Health (and my direct employers) have been very good to me. If it were just between me and my bosses, I doubt I would have much trouble. The problems, unfortunately, are on the State level, with the Department of Employee Trust funds and the Group Insurance Board. The GIB has a policy of excluding all coverage for transgender health issues state-wide, which is what the ACLU and I are hoping to overturn.

Two big pieces of news at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I teach and dissertate.

Transgender UW researcher denied coverage for gender confirmation surgery, complaint says

First, a cancer researcher has filed a complaint with the EEOC, with the help of the ACLU, to get the school to pay for the surgery she had last October. She's suing for the full cost of the surgery.

Really, really hope she wins this.

Huh. Things you don't expect to see while browsing a gaming forum: a story about yourself. Thanks for taking notice of me, KSF. If it makes you feel any better about the way things went down with ETF in January, the fight is far from over.