Today's 14valentines focus issue is education, which is such an important issue to me that as I type this, I realize I'm having a difficult time properly expressing it. I work in university education, as does my mother. My father spent time as a high school teacher. I was raised to love learning, not just in formal educational settings, but in all areas of life. Today's essay opens with "Education provides choices." I've seen some of the ways in which access to education can be denied to people, and it truly is the denial of opportunity. And while I highly value formalized education, I've also seen the arrogance that can come with allowing it to narrow or stagnate one's point of view. Education at its best is ongoing. It opens minds and teaches us ways to listen, to seek out new things, to celebrate and to see deeply.

Here are 50 icons from my much beloved, sadly missed Veronica Mars:

Total Icon Count: 50

Teasers:

( GO Pirates!!! )

caps from http://www.vm-caps.com

my icon rules:

• want.take.have.
  
• I *love* comments & credits but don't require them.
  
• Feel free to modify
  
• Don't say you made them if you didn't.
  
• Enjoy.

This is the last of the 14valentines days I've signed up for this year, but there are two more days left. Check the community for the last two days and for master lists of the posts for each day.

I decided to do icons for today's 14valentines, because one of the things that's important to me as a woman of color involved in fandom is visibility. And, really, to go into all of what I mean by that beyond the obvious would take an essay that I'm too tired to write. The short version: More fanworks foregrounding characters of color, please. And more *listening* to fen of color about problematic portrayals in source material and fanworks and about issues that impact us (without freaking out about it).

Here's today's essay from 14valentines. And here are 56 icons featuring women of color from SF tv shows I'm currently watching (I'm catching up on The Middleman):

01-17 Battlestar Galactica
18-25 Fringe
26-45 Lost
46-50 Middleman
51-56 Variants with text

Total Icon Count: 56

Teasers:

( Icons Here! )

My icon rules:

• want.take.have.
  
• I *love* comments & credits but don't require them.
  
• Feel free to modify
  
• Don't say you made them if you didn't.
  
• Enjoy.

Caps from:
http://www.screencaps.org
http://swizzmizz.com/
http://gallery.lost-media.com

I wasn't able to get my fic done (which is a true shame given that it's a ficlet, but that's the way it goes sometimes). Instead, I invite you to read today's essay and watch this video rec by the inimitable Jay Smooth from his Ill Doctrine vlog. Those of you who have also friended my primary journal have already seen this (and you may have seen it anyway, as it was deservedly posted far and wide), but it's worth the rewatch:

Why I'm Happy, Why I'm Not Satisfied
( embedded YouTube below the cut )

Original post at Ill Doctrine: http://www.illdoctrine.com/2009/01/why_im_happy_why_im_not_satisf.html

I have a friend I've known since high school. When we were younger, I knew him as a woman who wanted to be a minister and who advocated for LGBT folks in churches. A year or so ago we got back in touch after having drifted apart (the wonders of social networking :-), and I found out that he'd transitioned from female to male. He's still an activist, and now I know he's also a hardcore Buffy fan.

Today, 14valentines is highlighting transgender issues. I thought of this friend when I was thinking about what to post for today and decided to make some Buffyverse icons. Here are 10 icons, five each of Cordelia (one of my favorites) and Oz (a favorite of another friend who's going through a rough time).



( icons below the cut )

icon rules:
want.take.have.
comments & credits are lovely but not necessary
feel free to modify
don't say you made them if you didn't
enjoy

The sign up for the 2009 14valentines is open.

From the FAQ:

14 Valentines was a concept slash project pioneered by rageprufrock in 2006, and going into its fourth year, based on the idea of fandom as a community of women and their allies and the power of the relationships there. It's meant to raise awareness -- and hopefully as a result increase participation in community women's groups. [...] The mission of 14 Valentines isn't to solicit money for the cause -- as anybody who has worked at a nonprofit knows, money does not fix all or even some of the problems -- but instead of remind everybody that there is a cause, that it touches each of us every day and that we should embrace the agency we're lucky enough to have and do something good with it.

Each day highlights an issue of importance to women and an organization committed to that issue. There are lots of ways to participate, which are laid out in the FAQ. I've signed up for Feb 2 (transgender issues), Feb 8 (politics & voting), Feb 10 (women of color), and Feb 12 (education).

Go sign up!

Here are two covers for Podfic versions of "Atlantis: I Am Not Yours" and "Belonged to Someone Else", both by auburnnothenna, recorded by general_jinjur. They were posted for 2008's 14valentines, Day Four, whose theme is reproductive rights. I didn't have the time to do 14valentines this year, so I'm very happy to be able to participate in this little way.

The links to the podfic versions of these stories and of the *epic* (seriously. epic) story they're a part of can be found here.

( covers )

http://community.livejournal.com/14valentines/78932.html
Title: "Ain't I a Woman" by Sojourner Truth
Summary: I've been sick all weekend, so I wasn't able to finish my fic for today. So I'm posting the text of this important speech instead.

( Ain't I a Woman )

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html

This speech means a lot to me. Sojourner Truth was an incredible woman who did incredible things when women, especially illiterate former slaves, were not expected to do much. She was both an abolitionist and a suffragist during a time when many abolitionists didn't care about women's issues and many suffragists didn't care about slavery or racial equality.

I have a lot more to say, but it will have to wait for when I'm feeling better. One day I *will* finish my Sojourner Truth-inspired essay I've been planning for forever.