With a huge nudge from Adria Richards, I submitted a proposal to the Panelpicker for the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive Festival. You can read all you want about what the Panelpicker is, exactly. The short version is that the general public gets to submit ideas which are vetted by SXSW staff, whittled down, and then turned back over to the public for voting. Panelpicker votes, however, are only worth 30% in the selection process. The remainder comes from SXSW Interactive staff (30%) and an advisory board (40%).
So I made it over hurdle #1 (submitting something in the first place) and hurdle #2 (making it into the Panelpicker). My panel proposal is entitled How to Ensure a Diverse Tech Event:
Read the official resignation letter (embedded below, posted at Pam’s House Blend, provided by Outserve). You really must read the whole thing. This kid is amazingly mature and accomplished at 22 years old. Exactly the kind of person you’d want as a military officer. I think she might do more good as a civilian, though.
I’m fairly certain I had an aborted attempt to fill this out five six-ish years ago (thinking I was perhaps inspired by this guy). I got overwhelmed. If you could see the unpublished drafts behind the scenes here chronicling not-insignificant life events, you’d know that this is common.
But since Tiffany, Cecily, and Jason did it, I figured I’d give it a whirl and be in good company.
And also, I first drafted this post on Aug 31, 2009. It’s June 15, 2010.
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Here is the basic Proust Questionnaire. Read my answers!
I’ve been looking for recommendations for how to fill out the census form with regard to our relationship status.
Basically, if you in any way consider your same-sex partner to be your spouse, mark down Person 2 as your “husband or wife.” If you do not think of your partner as your spouse, mark down Person 2 as an “unmarried partner.”
Both categories – spouses and unmarried partners – provide valuable information. Indicating that you consider yourself to be married will help advocates quantify how many people would get married if they could, and thus how many people are currently disenfranchised by a lack of marriage equality. Indicating that you consider yourself to be unmarried partners helps advocates quantify how many lesbians and gays there actually are in the country, since there is no other way to indicate that on the census form. More info on that at Our Families Count.
The FAQ at QueerTheCensus.org has further information on gender identity issues and also includes this piece of information:
A note for bi-racial couples: It is not widely known that the race of the household member who fills out the Census form determines the racial designation of a family in one of the Census’ major statistical tables. Given that people of color are often undercounted by the Census, couples or families may want to consider having a person of color identify as household member #1 when filling out the form for a family.
I had no idea! Good thing we had already decided I was to be Person 1.
Filling out the short form was really anti-climactic, but it was still fun to do. I felt like I made a statement. Count me, dammit!
So we wanted a website to put wedding info on. And I wanted the website to be one that we own ourselves. And I wanted us to have an “us” website. Because I like websites and a fresh WordPress install is just so much fun.
Thus MissyandErica.com was born and pretty much all it has right now is wedding info, although that is not all it will ever have going forward. Feel free to check that out if you’re curious. We filmed a video greeting. Some of the wedding details are still getting firmed up, but you can get the gist of it. I know some folks are itchy to book flights and accommodations and/or otherwise plan their weekends, so that should help you get started.
It was a fun little project. We both worked on it. It actually helped push us through our lengthy to-do list, because it made more apparent which pieces of info we were missing and what we needed to nail down immediately, sooner, and later.
I gave my mom a sneak preview last week and she immediately (albeit accidentally) shared it with all her facebook friends. If mom likes it, it’s good.
