Thursday, April 28, 2005

Mantra

I will not mess with the pretentious fucktard who went to high school with me... I will not mess with the pretentious fucktard who went to high school with me... I will not mess with the pretentious fucktard who went to high school with me... I will not mess with the pretentious fucktard who went to high school with me...

Dammit, it's so hard to be good when the internet is such a great playground.

GAY WATCH!

Ouur TV boyfriend has done it again, Katherine. My favorite is the second of the three pieces, where he lambasts the anchors for not calling the one pundit on a blatant lie. (Fun fact: most child sexual abuse is perpetrated by people who claim to be heterosexual; the statistics the Dr. Laura wannabe cites in this segment come straight from the university of I'm Pulling This Outta My ASS.)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

TV Fucktards

The fuckers who write for TV need to spend time in correctional facilities if they're gonna write about them. They also need to spend some time in courtrooms. They also need to LAY OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING STEREOTYPES.

Why do I watch the crime shows? What the fuck is wrong with me?

Monday, April 25, 2005

Reading Rainbow of Desire*

Reading Rainbow is doing a show about prison! They're presently following kids on a visit to Sing Sing, where their father is in prison for shooting someone.

When the hell did RR get this depressing?

*Title is a play on the show's title and the title of Agusto Boal's "The Rainbow of Desire," which is a theater technique that my class is applying to the scene I'm in, which is based on a friend's experience visiting her honey at a nearby correctional facility. That too is depressing.

Friday, April 22, 2005

The War Against Women, Again

There's a potential new vaccine out for HPV, the STI that causes cervical cancer. Naturally, the Religious Right is against vaccinating girls before they become sexually active. As Amanda Marcotte writes, "Pushing the vaccination as penis wart prevention is a good idea in and of itself, but it's still chilling to consider that selling it as a cancer prevention for women doesn't fly because so many so-called Christians think cancer is proper punishment for women who have sex chills me to the bone."

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

What about sociologist?





Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence



You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.
An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.
You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.
A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.

You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.


Tuesday, April 19, 2005

YIPPEEEEEE!

Friend Bill got cast as Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof! Giant part, romantic lead, one of my favorite musicals (I've been known to see productions multiple times if I can afford it) -- I can't wait to see it!!!

Who's coming with me???

Ten Years...

... since the bombing in Oklahoma City. Strangely, we didn't go to war with gun-toting crackers afterward.

In other news, I've been MIA due to being busy as hell. After rocking my final project on Friday, I spent Saturday roleplaying, followed by knitting and crocheting with EL. Sunday I went to a gun show with the dad (my uncle is trying to kill me -- he told the guy behind the "OMG LIBERAL JUDGES ARE TAKING AWAY OUR GUNS" that I was against the extremely lax conceal and carry laws that our appeals court just found unconstitutional). I escaped with my life and went on to my next appointment, the knit/crochet group that I found through Meetup.com. From there I went to school, ostensibly to lead story circles after Laramie, only to have no one show up for the second week in a row. Instead, the four of us who were supposed to be leading sat around and discussed gun laws. My favorite description of the day overall is "ideological whiplash": from a gun show to a theater department in less than six hours. My head was spinning.

Now I'm preparing for a visit to Red Wing Juvenile Correctional Facility. I'm taking a group of about 20 students there tomorrow as a part of the Juvenile Delinquency course I'm TA for this term. I'm told I have no real responsibility, as the residents lead the tours and everyone is responsible for their own transportation, so it should be pretty painless. I just hope it decides not to rain, otherwise the drive could be unpleasant.

That's it! I'm sure I've got any number of silly stories that I've forgotten to tell here. If you know of one, post it in the comments. My brain, it is the steeliest of sieves.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Paging Drs. Freud and Jung

I just had a wacky ass dream about a monkey. Who swims. Also, there was a British soap opera character in it. Who was also a swimmer. We were all preparing to swim into battle. The monkey talked, and had an unrequited crush on my "character" (I was also a British soap opera character).

I take this to mean three things:

1. I need to get over my wacky Eastenders addiction.
2. I need to get back to the pool.
3. Monkeys are funny.

Friday, April 15, 2005

My State of Disunion

1. Final project workshop in theater class today. Am attempting to find drug-free way to stop panic attacks, as I don't think running a workshop whilst high on benzodiazapines would be terribly good for my grade.

2. Have typed so much in preparation that my wrists hurt like a bitch. Have more to type. Crap.

3. AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

4. Ringing in ears! Stress headache! Good god, I'm falling apart!

5. On the upside, it's all over but the documentation after five o'clock today.

6. Also on the upside, I'm excited to put what I've learned this term into practice (see, I'm trying to calm myself down).

7. Another positive: I have half of my class helping me, and the whole class behind me. These are awesome people who want this to be the best possible experience (when I'm not panicked and my wrists aren't agonizing, I'll write more about how excellent this group of people is).

8. More positive: I'm running a workshop designed to share facilitation tools for discussion of Judy Shepard's presentation, in conjunction with a production of "The Laramie Project."

9. This is what has been eating my blogging time all term.

10. That said, I'm going to go shower and get ready to do this thing.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Iconwars

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Don't Piss Off the Gays Who Run Your Website

The citizens of Atwood Kansas are learning this the hard way. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you -- this dude created the website that extolled all of Atwood's virtues (here's what it used to look like), and in exchange they told him that he and his partner of 13 years had no rights as a couple. Now the website has been replaced with an explaination of exactly what they have done. It's like watching Midwestern brain drain in action -- which is a little like watching a trainwreck.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Woah

Andrea Dworkin Has Died.

Apparently none of the major news sources have picked it up yet. Not even The Feminist Majority has anything to say -- though that may be for the best, as I'm willing to bet they're not her biggest fans. Neither was I, at that, but she certainly madde us think.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Unitarian Jihad

Discover what militant peaceniks do with too much free time.

EDIT: Go here to get your Unitarian Jihad moniker. I shall henceforth be known as Sister Claymore of Curteous Debate.

Friday, April 08, 2005

So I've got this friend...*

Yeah, I know that's normally the beginning of a thinly-veiled confession, but in this case it's me doing what I do best: bitching. At one point in time this friend was in a place to promise that they would never intentionally do anything to hurt me (if you don't already know the story, I leave it up to your sordid imaginations, as it's really quite boring). Recently, I have begun to question exactly what this person views as both "intentional" and "hurtful."

See, when you live in the same city and circulate in the same scenes, you tend to run into friends on a semi-regular basis. Also, when a friend is a tech addict, it is reasonable to believe that one might hear from said friend on a semi-regular basis. And yet somehow I've been experiencing month or two long absences of any interaction, real or virtual, with this person. This may not be intentionally directed at me, but the decision to allow the initiation of communication to fall to others certainly is.

So I was trying to see how long this would go on, and we had gotten to about six weeks, when I realized that I was being childish. I rang my friend up and we went out for food. Have you ever spent an hour with someone who clearly is there because they feel they OWE it to you? Not that they want your company, but because they feel obligated to suffer it? FUCKING HURTFUL, thank you very much.

So here's the deal: if you ever find yourself making some trite promise of non-hurtfulness, bite your own tongue off. Or at least stop to think about what those words mean. Because all of this is occasionally excusable, but as patterned behavior coupled with atrocious cliche, this is the shit that turns understanding friends into BITTER OLD HAGS WHO BITCH ABOUT YOU ON THEIR BLOGS!


*Necessary note: said friend does not read this blog, so stop being paranoid.

Because I feel the need to share

I have been able to hear my own pulse for the past three hours. It must be getting near finals.

Just file this under "panic disorders suck ass."

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

What a Melon

Two watermelon moments in two damn days. I'm gonna go knit a bit before going to bed.

C

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

*headdesk*

WHY YES, I DID CARRY THAT WATERMELON!!!

Also, good guess, Jon, but not quite.

I'll be here knitting and not talking to anyone because I have NO SOCIAL SKILLS.

Weekend Update

Where the hell have I been? After Friday's mess, I attempted to to blog all of the zillion tabs I had open only to have Safari crash on me. You'll have to find your own amusement. I decided this was a fairly good reason to spend most of the weekend knitting and reading comic books. I now have a new pair of writs warmers and a head full of superhumans.

I've also learned to sleep through one CD and the buzzer on my new alarm clock. I'm burning a disc right now that will hopefully haul my ass outta bed tomorrow. It consists of loud music, music that sounds good loud, stuff that energizes me, and one song that annoys the crap out of me. Here's the playlist; guess which song is the latter.

1. Starfish and Coffee -- Prince
2. I Wanna Be Sedated -- The Ramones
3. Me & Mia -- Ted Leo and the Pharmicists
4. Lust for Life -- Iggy Pop
5. Mercedes Benz -- Melissa Etheridge
6. Little Red Corvette -- Prince
7. Rent -- Cast recording of "Rent" (duh)
8. Let the Sunshine In -- Cast recording of "Hair"
9. Darshan -- B21
10. Here Comes the Mayo -- Molotov
11. Forest Whitiker -- Brother Ali
12. Le Bien, Le Mal -- MC Solaar, feat. Guru
13. Jesus Walks -- Kanye West
14. Sojourner's Battle Hymn -- Sweet Honey in the Rock
15. Lucystoners -- Amy Ray
16. My Vagina -- NOFX
17. Girl All the Bad Guys Want -- Bowlin for Soup
18. Natural Woman -- Aretha Franklin

Guesses in the comments, folks. You might also want to guess how much of the CD has to play before I actually wake up... or just hope it does.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Things I Learned from the Evening News

"The title pope stems from the Greek word papas, which simply means 'father.'" It would appear that the evening News uses About.com for it's pope history, as I heard practically this same explaination in tonight's broadcast.

Also, this explains so very much.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Well that went over like a lead balloon

Ever work really hard on a class assignment only to have it fall flat? Ever had that happen in front of the ENTIRE FUCKING CLASS? I hate today. Take it back.

Heroines, the Reveal

Clockwise from top left: Mina Murray from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

CJ Cregg from The West Wing. No, it has nothing to do with the name.

Dana Scully from The X-Files. If you didn't know this one, you were probably asleep for half of the 1990s.

Jenny Sparks from Stormwatch and The Authority. My latest heroine injection. And yes, I do know that the site linked is in French. I'm difficult like that.

Willow Rosenberg from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Again, asleep through most of the past decade if you don't recognize her.

Nancy Drew. Do I really need to explain further? Fun fact: Nancy Drew was created by the same dude who created the Hardy Boys books. "Carolyn Keene" was a pseudonym thought to be especially apt for a mystery writer.

Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Couldn't fina a character page, sorry (not really; I've already given you one in French, out of spite. Clearly, I'm not trying too hard).

Eowyn from those little art films based on the Tolkien books. Remember those?

Jess and Jules from Bend it Like Beckham. I luff this movie to bits and pieces.

Cherry Ames, nurse who solves mysteries. I love mysteries, and fell in love with Cherry and her adventures when my grandmother handed me a box of old teen mystery novels. Now I collect them. I just bought a second copy of one of the first books recently because it was an earlier edition with a note about being unabridged despite wartime restrictions on paper production.

The proprietors of the site I got the picture off of claim it's Jen Yu from Crouching Tiger. I suspect it's actually the same actress in Hero. But I will take their word for it.

I once again have collected a cubic assload of links to dump on you, but this will have to take place at another time, as I am tired and have much work to do tomorrow.