Sunday 13th November, 2011

Today is Remembrance Sunday. As far as I’m concerned, the rightful day for today’s ceremonies was 11th November (Armistice Day) but these things always get moved to the nearest weekend. I have, you will be happy to know, made my annual donation to “the poppy appeal” (The Royal British Legion [External Link]) and observed my two minutes silence – twice. Although I think it’s only fitting for people to remember and support the individuals who are killed, wounded or otherwise kept from a normal life by being involved in war and other conflicts that don’t rate the title, I wish that the white poppy were more widely available (The Peace Pledge Union [External Link]). I prefer that people didn’t fight – particularly as the governments who make these decisions are rarely that representative of a people’s wishes. I guess that sounds strange from someone who has a history of dabbling in martial arts and currently plays with swords but that’s a different kind of fighting all together. However, I’ll always donate to the British Legion because the organisation is not funding war but those who come home from it.

(I sometimes wonder if we should pick one of the more violent sports and use that instead of war, with the rankings deciding who has the World Presidency. Just think, if it were based on Rugby Union, New Zealand would have ruled the world for the last twenty-odd years and all of the armed forces would be used as film extras and labourers instead of for war. [World Socialist Website: Behind the making of The Lord of the Rings External Link])

Right, so this week, there were two site updates:

  1. A Status Update for the acceptance of Beaumains (this story has been mentioned before here and here). The accepting magazine, Crossed Genres [External Link], is in the process of wrapping up and this will be part of the last issue. This also means I’ve been in one issue for each year that they’ve been in print (if an ezine is “in print”) with issues 2, 17 and 36! Crossed Genres-as-press will continue – hopefully for many more years.
  2. A new story posted on site: Shelter From The Storm. This story sites in the New Dryas world and has actually been sitting around for a while. I’ll be posting more about the themes and the history of it some time next week, so I won’t bore you with it twice.

In off-site news, the spare bedroom is ready to be painted. It may even be finished for next week! Yay! Remind me next time I start redecorating that I don’t like it. Actually, I like the stripping of wallpaper, and the actual painting, and finishing. I’m not so keen on the cleaning things up and the fiddly jobs in between.