Some Short Answers

Trigger Warning: References to erasure in 1st paragraph

Here. Have the rest of the stuff I wrote for that Gilman blogging thing.

This is for who I want to have dinner with, if I can choose anyone.

Every movement has members, often important ones, whose names we don't know and never will no. They've been forgotten, maybe because the person didn't speak to writers, maybe because writers were never interested in them, maybe because they were marginalized in multiple ways and therefore erased purposefully and their work credited to others. Maybe it's that they were locked away and their work found later, with no one to know who made it. I have no name for the person I want to have dinner with, because I want to have dinner with one of those people from one of the disability rights movements. I want to know the parts of my history that are forgotten or erased.'

This is what I want with me on a desert island.

 What I'd really want is food, water, and shelter since those are the basic needs that people have for survival. Assuming that food, water, and shelter are taken care of, maybe because I can find them on the island, I'd take a first aid kit. I'm clumsy, so I'm going to be getting minor injuries fairly often and a first aid kid is always helpful. Then I'd want a laptop with infinite battery so that I can write. My handwriting is horrible, and I want to be able to read what I wrote, so the laptop is the way to go. With current hard drive capacity, I think I could write for a lifetime without running out of space. For my third item, I want a good knife. With a good knife, I'd be able to make other things I want on any island that's able to support life. The things would be basic, but things like the ability to strip bark off a tree and make rope are highly useful.

 And this is the animal I would be for a day.

If I have access to mythological creatures, I'd take a griffin. They're smart/have longer memories, are unlikely to get eaten because they don't have any natural predators, and can FLY. Failing that, I'd take an eagle, since eagles are also top of the food chain and able to fly. Flight is the biggest thing that I'd want if I'm something else for a day. I think that's a common thing to want- if not, there would not have been so many people trying to create flying machines throughout history. I'd choose a flighted animal that is on top of the food chain because I don't want to get eaten that day. Survival is something I rate highly, after all, and getting eaten doesn't match well with survival. Memory is only an issue if I'm really becoming the animal instead of just shapeshifting- the logistics of me remembering what I want to do while I can fly gets more complicated if my brain is working like that of a sparrow.