Author: Cheryl

Today on Ujima – One25, Greek Robots & Mental Health

~ Cheryl

My first guests on today’s show were Amy & Lu from One25. Amy explained why the women that One25 helps cannot simply stop doing sex work during the pandemic. Most of them don’t even have homes, let alone any other source of income. Lu then chimined in with details of this year’s fundraiser. I’m delighted to see that I’m now up to 78% of my initial target. What I’d love to see is us hitting 100% by launch time on Friday, and then I can set a new target for the 6 days of the campaign.

Next up was my new academic pal, Maria Gerolemou from the University of Exeter. Like me, Maria as a passion for ancient automata. Those of you who have heard my “Prehistory of Robotics” talk will have a good idea of what to expect. The rest of you, prepare to be astonished.

Finally I welcomed back Subitha from CASS to talk about two new mental health campaigns. You can find out more about the #SleepSoundBristol and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek projects at the CASS website. And do please write in to tell them about someone who has been kind to you.

This week’s show also includes tributes to two tiny giants of the music business who sadly left us in the past week. They were Millie Small, who hit #2 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1964 with “My Boy Lollipop”, and Little Richard without whom the likes of Prince and Elton John would have been very different musicians.

The playlist for the show is as follows:

  • My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small
  • Street Life – Roxy Music
  • Money Don’t Matter – Prince
  • Sun Goddess – Ramsey Lewis & Earth, Wind & Fire
  • Chrome Shoppe – Janelle Monáe
  • Dance Apocalyptic – Janelle Monáe
  • Dream within a Dream – Dreadzone
  • Everyone’s a VIP to Someone – The Go! Team
  • Long Tall Sally – Little Richard
  • Good Golly Miss Molly – Little Richard
  • Keep a Knockin’ – Little Richard
  • Lucille – Little Richard
  • Tutti Frutti – Little Richard
  • The Girl Can’t Help It – Little Richard
  • By the Light of the Silvery Moon – Little Richard
  • House of the Ancestors – Afro Celt Sound System

You can hear the entire show via the Ujima Listen Again service. It will be up there for a few weeks.

Coronavirus – Day #60

~ Cheryl

Well, that plan didn’t last long. I got an urgent request from a client this morning, so I spent the day earning money rather than going out to search for hormones. Tomorrow, maybe.

Given that there is no football, the most popular sport in the UK at the moment seems to be competing to find how many times you can catch government ministers contradicting each other in one day. The official government strategy appears to be that if you give as many different pieces of advice as possible then one of them will turn out to be right and you can claim that was what you meant all along.

Give It Up Update

~ Cheryl

I’m pleased to report that my fundraiser is now more than 33% towards its target. I’m still hoping that we can get to 100% before the official launch, but obviously some people will be waiting to see what I actually produce.

The good news is that I have been doing stuff in advance. I’ve been going through old photos, playing with cookery, and recording chats with Kevin. The latter have been going really well, and that has influenced my decision as to which countries to pick for the final two. They will be…drumroll…

Canada and France

The main reason for this is that they are both countries that Kevin and I have visited, both together and individually. That means we’ll be able to do good chats. It also means that I get to talk about the Museum of Cartoon Art in Epinal, which is awesome.

I expect to be able to announce another guest who has lived in both California and Canada tomorrow.

In the meantime, please pledge. The folks at One25 are hoping to reach £15,000 in total. Obviously there are lots of other people participating as well as me, but it would be good to make a dent in that.

Coronavirus – Day #59

~ Cheryl

Another radio show has gone off to Ujima and should be with you at Noon on Wednesday. Enjoy!

I’ve also done some hours on the day job and more work on the One25 fundraiser, which I am pleased to see is now at 34% so we are one third of the way to the target. Keep it going, folks!

I got a paper acceptance for an online academic conference on queer history, which is also good.

And finally I have done an important piece of self-care. I have got a new prescription for hormones. I have a little while before I run out, but given the difficulty I had getting hold of them last time I’m taking no chances. Of course this means that I have to go to a pharmacy. Tesco do have one, but unless the woman pharmacist is on duty (and she seems to only do Mondays) I’ll probably get told that there’s nothing available. That means that I have to go to town tomorrow, for the first time in 60 days. I wonder if it will still be there?

I also wonder what the rules are. As someone sagely noted on Twitter this afternoon, the UK has gone from “masks are a waste of time” to “masks are compulsory” without the intervening step of “here are some masks you can buy”. I have scarves. It will be interesting to see what people’s attitudes are out there. Or, for that matter, whether any pharmacies are open.

Coronavirus – Day #58

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Guess who almost forgot to do a post today?

In my defence, it has been a very busy day. I’ve had a radio show to produce, and I have been doing a lot of preparation for the One25 fundraiser. Both are going to be fabulous, even if I do say so myself.

I gather from the fury on Twitter this evening that Bozo the Clown has made some sort of announcement about getting the UK out of Lockdown, and that it is nonsensical PR spin rather than anything approaching a plan. No one should be surprised. The only way that Bozo could organise a piss up in a brewery is if he had a bunch of servants he could get to do the work for him. Which, of course, is often the case. Unfrotunately in this particular case all of the (civil) servants likely to do the work are telling him things that he doesn’t want to hear, so he’s having to sort things himself, with predictable consequences.

Thankfully I do not have to go back to work while maintaining social distance and avoiding public transport. I have plenty of work I can be doing at home. Those of you who are being sent out to die for the sake of Bozo’s stock portfolio have my deepest sympathy.

Coronavirus – Day #57

~ Cheryl

Huzzah! I have water again.

What I had forgotten since last time this happened is that the water main, although it is in my driveway, doesn’t just affect me. It affects the landlord’s house too. So he had a vested interest in getting things fixed. The deal was that he by-passed the letting agency, who are not answering their phone, and I managed the leak until an emergency plumber could get here. I ended up having to switch bowls every 15 minutes to avoid a flood, for four hours. But once the plumber got here it was simply a matter of experience and the right tools and he was done in 10 minutes. Phew!

Anyway, I have been doing some preparation for the One25 fundraiser, including recording a few things in advance and sorting through my photo library. I do hope you enjoy it (and please pledge). I’m certainly enjoying the food (by which I mean that I have TimTams).

Virtual Tolkien

~ Cheryl

Yes, everything is going online these days. That includes the J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature. But the nice folks at Pembroke College have come up with a cool idea. Rather than have poor Rebecca Kuang give a lecture by Zoom, they have invited a bunch of past lecturers to join her in an online symposium. The subject for discussion is: “the importance of fantasy in times of crisis: how science-fiction and fantasy literature respond to, and provide inspiration during, moments of despair and personal difficulty.” In addition to Kuang the panelists are: Kij Johnson, Adam Roberts, Lev Grossman, Terri Windling and VE Schwab.

The symposium will take place on Saturday May 16, 4:00 – 5:30pm British time (11am – 12:30 Eastern).

Obviously this clashes with WiFi SciFi, but I have been assured that the discussion will be recorded so you don’t have to miss me, though I won’t be at all surprised if you do. If you can’t make it, you can send in a question in advance.

To register, or to ask a question of the panel, go here.

Coronavirus – Day #56

~ Cheryl

Well, today has been additionally interesting.

First up I had to deal with a support question on one of the websites that I manage. It turned out to be much more complicated than I’d anticipated, and I’m currently waiting to hear back from the hosting service. Thankfully they are in the USA where it is not a bank holiday.

While I was in the middle of that I took a break to wash up after lunch and found a large puddle on the kitchen floor. It turned out that the cold tap on the kitchen sink was leaking. This is a known problem. It has done it before and the only way to fix it 100% would be to replace the entire sink unit, but the landlord is unlikely to want to pay to do that, so every so often I need to get a plumber to fix it.

The last time it happened was over Christmas in 2018. This time it happened on a bank holiday. This is a clear sign that Eris loves me.

It is relatively esay to deal with. I fill up some jugs with water, and turn off the water at the mains. The leak isn’t so bad that I can’t turn it back for an hour or so a couple of times a day when needed. The only issue is that the stopcock is outside, but at least the weather is decent. Doubtless a plumber will be round in a few days. Hopefully Monday.

It is unlikely to be earlier because of the aforementioned bank holiday. The country is apparently celebrating something called VE Day, which used to be about the end of WWII in Europe but is now something entirely different. These days we are supposed to celebrate something called Victory Over Europe Day. As I understand it, this is to commemorate the glorious victory in which the British, led by Winston “Boris” Churchill, single-handedly defeated the Evil forces of the European Union lead by Hitler, Mussolini, De Gaulle and a bunch of faceless bureaucrats from Brussels.

WiFi SciFi 3 is Coming

~ Cheryl

Yes, we are going to do it again. And I do mean “we”, because Anne has foolishly invited me to be on the panel this time. Said panel will also include, though not all at once, Gareth L Powell, Adrian Walker, Tim Lebbon, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Anne Corlett, Patrick Edwards, Jonathan Pinnock, Corry L Lee, Premee Mohamed, Kevlin Henney and Derek Kunsken. For more details and to reserve a place, click here.

It will be doubly weird for me because I will be in the middle of the One25 Funraiser (please pledge) and will be virtually in California that day. Thankfully it the convention starts at 8:00am California time so I’ll have plenty of day left.

While we are on the subject of virtual conventions, I’m pleased to say that I have signed up for Virtual Wiscon. I used to go every year when I was able to spend time in the USA, but I haven’t been able to go of late and it will be nice to catch up with people. I’m guessing that it is probably too late to get on programme, but you never know.

Coronavirus – Day #55

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

With the government planning on loosening the Lockdown restrictions and me needing a few bits and pieces for cooking for the One25 Fundraiser, I decided to go to Tesco today while it is still comparatively safe to do so. I was quite late getting there as I had to wait in for an Amazon delivery, but I only had to queue for around 20 minutes to get in. Everyone was well behaved, and this time I saw four people wearing masks (out of 100+).

There’s still no flour. Not even rye flour. I’ll cope.

But they did have Welsh Cakes!

New #LockdownReading – Distant Thunder

~ Cheryl


Yes, it does appear to be Thursday again, so there’s a new short story available for free at Wizard’s Tower. Distant Thunder is the second in Juliet McKenna’s Quartering the Compass which looks at the adventures of one of the minor characters from the Aldabreshin Compass books.

You can find the full list of Lockdown Reading stories here. Please also consider buying a copy of Colinthology as all proceeds from sale of the book go to help Bristol hospitals.

Aliens Tomorrow Night

~ Cheryl

The UK’s National Space Centre has another free film planned for tomorrow evening. This one is about the search for extraterretrial life. You can watch it on YouTube.

Coronavirus – Day #54

~ Cheryl

This is beginning to feel entirely like normal. I attended a meeting (albeit by Zoom) for a couple of hours in the morning. I listened to my radio show. I did some Day Job work. And I attended a feminist book club in the evening (I have persuaded them to read The Calculating Stars. Result!)

Of course I am entirely unhappy about all this work because all I wanted to do today was sit and read Network Effect, the new Murderbot novel. Fortunately there have been meal breaks. I’m about half way through and absolutely loving it.

Apparently the government is talking about relaxing the lockdown constraints. I’m considering going to Tesco tomorrow so I can get some shopping done before the stores are full of sick people.

Today on Ujima – Contraception and Books

~ Cheryl

Today’s show began with an hour-long chat with Dr. Donna Drucker who has recently written a great little book on the history of contraception. Our conversation goes all the way from herbal rememdies to cybersex.

The other half of the show was devoted to books. First up we had Stark Holborn with Triggernometry. And then part of my Lyda Morehouse interview from Salon Futura, which is mainly about Unjust Cause.

The playlist for this week’s show was:

  • Salt ‘n’ Pepa – Let’s Talk About Sex
  • Ike & Tina Turner – Sexy Ida
  • Parliament – I’ve Been Watching You
  • James Brown – Sex Machine
  • Janelle Monae – March of the Wolfmasters
  • Janelle Monae – Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!
  • Janelle Monae – Let’s Get Screwed
  • Big Audio Dynamite – Medicine Show
  • Amazing Rhythm Aces – King of the Cowboys
  • Santana – Full Moon
  • Prince – Little Red Corvette

For the next few weeks you can catch the whole show via the Ujima Listen Again service.

Coronavirus – Day #53

~ Cheryl

Another productive day! One radio interview recorded (for next week) and a few hours of Day Job done.

Also the fundraiser is now past 20% of my goal, which is very pleasing. I’m starting to think of all sorts of things I could be doing. Several of them involve food prep of various sorts. It is very annoying not being able to buy flour, and having other things on a long lead time. However, I did order a few products today, including some very famous Australian food. I suspect that some of you can guess what that is.

Our government proudly announced today that the death toll from C-19 is now over 30,000, and we have the highest number of deaths of any country in Europe. Winning! Friday is VE Day, which the Daily Malice has re-named Victory Over Europe Day, presumably in honour of this momentous achievement. The Financial Times, which continues to be the only useful opposition newspaper in the country, puts the death toll at well over 50,000.

I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about too many Zoom meetings, and this morning a friend posted a link to this National Geographic article on “Zoom Fatigue”. Although the headline gives the impression that’s all it talks about, the article goes on to note that Zoom is much less tiring than face-to-face meetings for people on the autism spectrum. I certainly wouldn’t class myself as autistic, but equally I don’t recognise any of the causes or symptoms of fatigue that the article describes. I guess I must be a lucky, in-the-middle sort of person.

New Salon Futura

~ Cheryl

The April issue of Salon Futura went live last week. Here’s what it had in it.

Book Reviews

Other Features

Enjoy!

Coronavirus – Day #52

~ Cheryl

That was another fairly productive day. I did several hours worth of Day Job. I did a batch of laundry and cooked food for a few more days. Most importantly I got the One25 fundraiser launched (see below).

I keep recording having done stuff because I still feel very lethargic much of the time. I’m trying not to push myself because I worry about relapses and post-viral fatigue syndrome. There’s very little that is screamingly urgent, but it would be nice to get more done, even if it was only reading.

In the outside world people are starting to talk more and more about things like track-and-trace apps and health passports. Most countries are looking to implement an app of some sort. Most also understand that track-and-trace is useless without a proper testing regime. The UK shows no sign of having the latter. It is also going with a highly non-standard app, the point of which seems either to put a few million quid in the pockets of friends of Cummings, or for some nefarious spy-on-people purpose, or more likely both. Our best hope is that it will turn out to be about as effective as hiring shipping services from a company that didn’t own any ships was.

I expect that most of the people frothing noisily on social media about how they won’t install the app will buckle and do so once they realise that they won’t be allowed to do anything outside their home without it. Personally I’m looking at removing just about every app from my phone so that there’s less for the government to spy on.

Let’s Give It Up for One25!

~ Cheryl


Some of you will remember that last year I walked 125 miles to raise money for the Bristol charity, One25. Well, they are looking for help again this year, and this time the challenge is to give something up for 125 hours. Thinking of something was a challenge in itself because we’ve been forced to give up so much thanks to the pandemic, but I have an idea I think that you’ll enjoy. The image above is a clue. More on that later, but first, why One25?

One25 are a charity who work directly with street sex-working women to provide outreach, casework and essential resources for their future. 80% of women who street sex-work are homeless. In the strangest of times we now find ourselves in, One25 remain focused on keeping contact with women as much as possible and continuing to deliver services. They are doing whatever they can to make sure that some of Bristol’s most vulnerable women know that they are loved and not alone.

UK-based readers might remember that last year the Sussexes visited One25 and Meghan wrote on some bananas.

As a trans woman I am painfully aware that sex work could easily have been part of my life. Thanks to a great deal of luck and Kevin’s love, I managed to avoid that, but numerous people didn’t. High profile trans women such as Roz Kaveney and Janet Mock have written movingly about their experiences in the sex trade. Each year, when I help read the names of the departed at the Trans Day of Remembrance ceremony, I am painfully aware that many of those women died because they had no choice but to sell their bodies, and therefore had to make themselves vulnerable.

I have done several sessions of trans awareness training for One25 staff and have been very impressed by their openness and willingness to provide support to whoever needs it.

So, what’s the plan? Well, for the duration of the fundraiser, 1:00pm on May 15th to 6:00pm on May 20th, I am giving up living in the UK. I’ve had enough of this staying at home lark, and by the magic of the internet I am going to travel the world. And I’m inviting you to come with me. For each of the 6 days I will visit a different country. I will check out the tourist spots, talk to local people, try the local food, play the local music and so on. You will be able to follow it all on social media.

I have four of the six countries inked in. Australia and California are obvious choices as I have lived in both countries. Finland is next as I have been there so often. I’m going to do Italy because it gives me an opportunity to talk about Romans (again). The other two are as yet undecided. Croatia and Canada are obvious picks as I’ve been to each of them several times, but I’m open to persuasion to go somewhere else. It needs to be somwhere I can do a decent job of visiting. Suggest somewhere.

If you happen to live in one of those countries and would like to help by suggesting places to visit, things to eat, or music to play I would be very grateful. If you’d like to do an interview I would be over the moon. Do let me know.

And, most importantly, PLEASE PLEDGE. My fundraising page is here. No amount is too small. Every penny is gratefully received.

Coronavirus – Day #51

~ Cheryl

I seem to have been productive today. I finished reading a book. I finished editing next week’s radio show. And I finished doing the Wizard’s Tower accounts for April.

Regarding the latter, as a small press, any month in which you sell over 3,000 books has to be a good month. Admitedly more than half of those were copies of The Green Man’s Heir when it was on sale for 99p at Amazon, but even so it is a lot of readers.

Also we were treated to a fantastic F1 race this evening. OK, it is only sim racing, but Charles LeClerc and Alex Albon put on a brilliant show. There are two major benefits of the sim races over the real thing. Firstly overtaking is much easier because the game doesn’t model the slipstream effects that make it so difficult in real life. And although the cars might appear to be in different liveries, they are actually identical in performance so the race is down to driver skill, not who has the best aero package and engine.

By the way, I have discovered that as a community radio presenter I do actually qualify as a key worker and can apply for a C-19 test. However, my nearest testing station is, I think, at Bristol Airport, which is over an hour’s drive away. I’m very comfortable just staying at home, thank you.

Coronavirus – Day #50

~ Cheryl

Wow, 50 days. Admittedly I have been to Tesco for food on three of those days, and I have occasionally had delivery men knock on the door, so it hasn’t been total isolation, but that’s quite a stretch of time to have mostly not left the house. I’m starting to feel guilty that I’m OK with this, because so many of my friends are getting more and more wound up about it.

Today is apparently a weekend day. I have a radio show to produce for next week so I have been busy. We are going to be talking about sex and books. Sounds good to me.

Oh, and the Formula E continues to be entertaining.