i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students's 14th annual conference will take place January 15th to the 17th at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. As usual the conference will be held over a weekend, and co-hosted by a campus Hillel, the NUJLS leadership conference features workshops, services, community building, and social time. This year's keynotes are Rabbi Bradley Artsen, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and comedian Dana Goldberg!

We welcome students from all sorts of backgrounds (religious, not, newly out, not, liberal to conservative, and more). Workshops, speakers, and text studies address such topics as Judaism and homosexuality, activism, relationships, ethics, coming out, and politics. Last year more than one hundred students came from across the United States and Canada to participate, and we anticipate a similar turnout this year! Registration ($80) includes meals (all kosher), housing, and all conference events. Travel and registrations subsidies are available upon request (in the registration form). View past schedules and register at http://www.nujlsonline.org/conferenceinfo.html

I am not really sure about when the party will be, depends if we have anyone entering the Concoction/party contest, which would be cool too. I just figured I'd pick a time or area when I get a chance to look at the schedule when it comes out.  It would be cool if we get enough interest to have an on going SCA area at least for future Frolicons.

My current ideas are, kilt inspections, complete with blue ribbons, I'm even thinking of making blue ribbon cock rings as well. Cloven fruit/edibles, wet chemise contest. Period examples of 'kink' garb/toys/etc, I'm not sure if this will be a contest or not yet, maybe for future Frolicons. Bawdy bardic circle. 'Bunny' Dances, where the dancers will only be allowed to wear 1 square foot of fabric/fur/leather/etc, or less.  That's what I have so far.

I am also thinking of widening the normal SCA period to include Colonial, Civil War, and other historical periods because I think it would be really cool to see what other reenactors can come up with.

I am hoping I can generate enough interest with these parties to eventually have an unofficial SCA version of Frolion somewhere.

soooooooooooo... i logged into my yahoo mail and all my emails are gone. did they do some kinda weird update and relocate them and i just don't know where to look? anyone else having this issue? i kinda needed some of those emails. :/

Boxer supports abortion deal

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, deep in the negotiations with health care holdout Ben Nelson, signed off on the abortion compromise that goes further than she wanted, but clears the way to get the health care bill out of the Senate by Christmas. Democrats consider the deadline a political imperative.

The compromise goes further than Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, wanted, but may help keep the Stupak crowd on board in the House, another political imperative.

Here's Boxer's statement with Sen. Patty Murray of Washington:

"We said all along that we wanted to ensure there was a firewall between private and public funds -- this compromise achieves that.

"We said we would not accept language that prohibited a woman from using her own private funds for her legal reproductive health care --this compromise meets that test.

"And we said we would stop Stupak -- which we did. Let's be clear -- we were both much happier with the Capps language and the language in the underlying bill.

"But compromise was necessary to get a health care bill for the American people, and this compromise achieves that."

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( My Call for Action under the cut )

Title: Doesn't show signs of stopping
Author: cidercupcakes
Words: ~560
Rating: PG
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Warnings: None
Pairing: Buffy Summers/Fred Burkle
Notes: Off a prompt from austen, "Buffy/Fred, sledding". Inspired The Sledding Theme collection over on AO3, so should anyone else feel compelled to write sledding ficlets, by all means, share them!
Disclaimer: Joss, ME, Fox, etc.; not mine, no money is being made off of it, for entertainment purposes only, etc.
Summary: ( It's the first time for both of them. Sledding, anyway. )

OK, so again please forgive my newness if I am off base. I have been trying to keep up with the terminology and understand some of the debates and ideas, particuarly in the last discussion on transgender/transexual gender labeling. At first I was going to ask for a gender dictionary, conceptual guide or some literature I could read to catch up.

Then it occurred to me that the distinctions are very fine grained. While the discussions on many of the finer distinctions are very interesting to me I was wondering if the terminology and concepts are useful to people in answering the question of "what am I?" vs an understanding of what Individuals feel, like, want and desire.

Labels can be incredibly important in helping to identify like minded groups of people, but they can also be very confusing and inhibit accessability of information to people who may desperately need it. What does everyone think?

Title: Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time)
Authors: cordelianne
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 1,527
Warnings: The perils of maturity, a virgin Long Island Iced Tea and naked Spike.
Summary: Cleveland sucks in the winter, but Bermuda is awesome, except for the zombies.
A/N: Written for fall_for_sx - thanks to the mods for all their work and for keeping the Spander love alive!
Thanks to savoytruffle for her awesome support and beta, and thanks to reremouse for her encouragement and suggestions. You guys rock!


In which Xander’s the only one in his head