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02: What Is Filk, Plus Bonus Song Lyrics

I thought I'd have my first, non-introductory, post be something kind of fun. There are a lot of legacy bits and pieces of fandom that aren't being carried into modern fandom. This isn't usually due to a lack of interest. It is usually due to a lack of exposure. Filk is one of those niche items. When I went to a convention full of nerds and performed filk in their talent show; my co-performer and I had to educate the audience on what filk was before we sang. What is filk? According to the Fanlore site, “Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s.” Filk can be any style of music and about any geek oriented topic, including cats. Most filkers I know define filk as anything sung in a filk circle. A filk circle is like a drum circle with more guitars and fewer drums. The hippie ratio at some conventions might be similar. Some filk uses th...
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09: Customer Service War Stories or... The Public Can Frequently Be Ridiculous

I used to work in customer service positions that put me in contact with the public. These jobs ranged from fast food to being a barista to managing retail to an international hotel company's call center escalations. Here are a few of my eye rollers from the call center. ========== Internal assist call... (Guest is from Africa. Agent is from the Caribbean... mutually unintelligible accents. Guest is booked into an all-inclusive resort.) Agent: This guest keeps asking me why her reservation doesn't show the males included. Me: As in secondary names? Agent: I don't know. She just keeps repeating her question about all males being included in her rate. Me: Uh... this is an all-inclusive hotel. I think she's saying meals, as in food; not males, as in boys. None of our hotels include boys for the guest's enjoyment as part of the rate.  Commentary: Not even our Amsterdam hotels offer more than directions to the brothels. ========== ...
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15. Quarantine Stream of Consciousness

We sure are living in historic and challenging times. Millions have been confirmed ill. Millions more have gone unconfirmed. Hundreds of thousands have died. The worldwide economy has ground to a halt in a way that hasn't been seen since the Great Depression. Billions are under stay at home or quarantine orders. People of all kinds are using this to gain advantage. Authoritarian regimes are tightening their grip. Populists are feeding off the chaos. Capitalists are scraping up every free bit of cash. Criminals are preying on peoples' fears. Personally, I'm in a pretty privileged place and I acknowledged that fact. I get to work full time from home and have only taken a minimal pay hit. My family has always maintained food and supplies storage. That's a lesson we learned from my grandparents who survived the Great Depression in the rural Midwest and has prevented us from having to try to stock up all at once. I have friends who can sew and have made me a lovely selecti...
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