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Monday, December 7th, 2009
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5:38 pm - links, complaining
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In my scant free time between social engagements (side note: I left my pants in Queens! Not as exciting as it sounds, I stayed at my sister's place over the weekend, but I will probably want to wear them in the very near future and I am ticked off) I've been voraciously reading What Tami Said, which is an incredibly intelligent and well-written blog about racism and sexism and stuff like that. It's also really charming, and generally positive and somewhat optimistic. She's sort of practical and I just generally find myself on the same wavelength as her - she also talks about white anti-racism in a way that I find really helpful, so I appreciate that.
Anyway, Tami linked to the website of author Justine Larbalestier, who seems like a cool person, and I was looking at her blog. I wanted to link to this article because I know it's something others on my flist have discovered and thought about: On Hating Female Characters - quite short, but just a little thing about how we're more likley to be fond of and cut some slack to male characters even if female characters are similarly written.
I have found this to be incredibly true and lately I've been trying to view female characters more positively. Strangely, it worked. Going in with a little extra goodwill towards the female characters makes me less likley to find them annoying/shrewish/slutty/whatever. I thought, going in, "Heck, I feel how I feel about these characters - I'm not going to be able to convince myself to like them more!" but just as it was quite easy to start using "woman" as my default rather than "girl", I've found I'm less judgy, more positive, and more fond of female characters now. Isn't that weird and kinda freaky? Was I going in with so much extra goodwill towards the men before? Or, um, badwill towards the women? Lame!
A friend of mine at work is. . . kind of, I guess the way I'd describe her is "anti-femininity" in a way that makes her "anti-female" - any women who act like (traditional) women, she's completely disdainful of. Doesn't like female singers, female characters, anything like that. Some of our mutual friends are pretty feminine (there are other ways in which this friend's actions do not fully express her stated values) so in the specific it's ok, but the idea of anything womanish is totally abhorrent to her. She also blames women for the negative effects of sexism - like women valuing their appearance over any other aspect of themselves. Because she was able to not be affected by sexism, other women must be weak and stupid, is I think her thinking there. This is probably a pretty rare manifestation of it, but it definitely seems like a case of her not recognizing her privilege.
It's frustrating.
current mood:  thoughtful
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| Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
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7:01 pm - on political correctness
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There's a new Sporcle quiz up that asks you to name the official race categories on the US census. I aced it, btw - no mistaken guesses. This is because I a little familiar with them, not because I think they're sensible categories from any perspective. XD
Anyway, there were some comments about the categories, and one charming person going by Kotstitsyn_AK46 said:
You guys should stop being offended by everything. Political correctness is only making you people more bitter. It should still be acceptable to call people black, or indians, or retards. There is nothing offensive in those names, the only reason people find them offensive is because they find offense in the things they represent. Now that's racist.
I've got some problems with this statement. And I'm going to write them out because I've had people say to me in the past that they have a hard time explaining why "political correctness" is important and not a bad thing.
I wasn't going to start with this, but I have to: "There is nothing offensive in those names". Um. What? This one particularly focuses on retard, but also applies to faggot and various racial slurs. Yes, there is something offensive in those names. The problem with those words is that they are used both to identify a particular group of people, and as a general insult. The word retard is no longer "politically correct" to use as an insult for someone who is acting stupid, nor as a clinical term to describe someone with a developmental disability. It's no longer appropriate to use as the latter because it got such a negative association as an insult. But it's not appropriate to use as an insult because it's still very strongly associated with certain types of developmental disabilities, and it's not neutral or inoffensive to use a term that way.
For racial slurs and other "not politically correct" words, they're often deemed offensive because they have been used offensively in the past. Usually primarily offensively. If the word was used as an insult, it's going to be heard as an insult - even if the word technically just identifies you as a member of a particular group. And you don't get to decide what sounds hurtful or negative to a particular group. If someone is hurt by a term, you don't get to say "Oh, no, that word is fine." If it's just one acquaintance of yours who says something is hurtful, don't say it around them. If an entire community says a particular word is hurtful, just STOP SAYING IT.
The hurt is indeed tied up in the specific term. This is something that happens. Words themselves can have negative associations with them that prevent them from ever sounding neutral, particularly when used by someone outside the group (because that's where the negative associations arise).
So the above applies to varying degrees to all three of the words cited. But there's something else going on with the term "indian" (something else that's particularly obvious to me, and I have a lot of educating to do about Native Americans). It's just not really accurate. And I know, it's become the commonly used term and people know what you mean, but it's still not accurate.
For me, that's a big part of what political correctness (i'm resisting the urge to put it in quotes, cos it's a weird phrase) is about - part of it is not telling others what they should or shouldn't be hurt by, and part of it is using accurate terminology to describe the world instead of shortcuts (that have the potential to be harmful). At the very least, it's a good rule of thumb. And I've been told that people who are initially resistant to the idea because of all the stupid bad press it gets (which is mostly people complaining that they can't say things that hurt others, awesome. Hey, we have free speech - you can say it, you'll just sound like an ignorant asshole.) tend to react well to the idea that the goal is accuracy and precision of speech.
I was thinking about this earlier. And this might be an awkward metaphor but I'm going to run with it and see where it takes me. I'm a geek, right? And I self-identify as a geek and I like being a geek. What if someone said to me "OK, yeah, you do all this geeky stuff, but how about instead of calling you a geek, I call you a dancer!" I would be like "What the fuck, no! I'm not a dancer at all. That's not me. I'm proud to be who I am and you're trying to take that away from me. . . in addition to creating expectations that I can dance." It's like. . . denying your identity. The terms that we use for ourselves help shape our identities, particularly our identities as presented to the world.
If you're not an Indian, maybe you just plain don't want to be called one, because that's not who you are! Asking someone to use a more specific or accurate term is not placing a huge burden on that person. It's madness to think that it does and I don't know why this is even an issue, but. . . Actually I kind of have this whole theory that it's related to how badly people react to being told they've messed up, especially when it comes to issues of race. So people feel like they'll be written off as racist if they make one slip (which is not hard to do) and won't be simply corrected and given another chance. Hmmm.
Anyway, if you know something hurts people, you shouldn't say it. And if you say something and finds out that it hurts people, you should stop saying it. Also, unless you know everyone you're speaking to on an intimate level, always assume that the person who will be the most hurt by what you're saying is present. (That last one I read somewhere and can't remember where. Whoops.)
What you should ACTUALLY read on this subject is The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness", by Kai. It looks at what political correctness should technically mean and how the term is used in American political discourse.
current mood:  irritated
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| Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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11:23 pm - screwdriver-ful update
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Barb Underhill! I am watching you on The Hour. And you said Ron Duguay looked like Bon Jovi. And I TOTALLY AGREE. YAY! XDDD
Awwwwww I will miss you guys so much. OH my god and now they're talking about what they were planning for next week, and I am so sad and heartbroken.
(Also on the Rick Mercer Show, whatever that is, Tuffy joked that when skating with a hockey player you can't be afraid because they can smell fear and I thought that was hilarious. Also Rick called Battle of the Blades "über Canadian" and I feel justified because god damn, it is.)
Am still a little intoxicated.
Smoked for the first time tonight. D: Had two cigarettes. It was totally fun. But hurt. Have promised to never ever buy a pack of cigarettes. So far, do not feel tempted to do so? My brother is addicted though. Bad scene. Eh, I'm too thrifty to ever start a habit, right? . . . right?
Lost a lot of shuffleboard, but had fun and did decently.
Will not be responding to anything that requires thinking tonight. XD
Big smooches to all!
I can't believe I smoked, what the hell. Oh well, I loved taking smoking breaks with Greg and I figured I should try it.
current mood:  drunk
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| Thursday, October 15th, 2009
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7:40 pm - It's not just men posing in flesh-colored spandex by the High Line
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Fun things about living in New York!
Last week, Katie and David and I got dinner in the city, on 35th St sort of near Penn Station. We saw, walking down the street, a guy in a Superman costume, with a full length cape, and cowboy boots. Cowboy boots! Oh god, he was amazing. And it looked like he'd put the costume on over his work clothes. There was something white under the collar and both Katie and I thought it was a white shirt with a tie. Earlier, we saw, seriously, someone dressed as Captain America or Spiderman or something. I don't even remember because they were so outshined by Superman Cowboy Boot Guy, but it was an amazing night.
Also, NYC has Tim Horton's now! Two Dunkin Donuts in the area have turned into Tim Hortons! We'd gotten snacks at the one in Penn Station but there was no where to sit, so we were heading out for Heralds Square cos it was warm out, and then we passed the other Tim Hortons so we just brought our snacks in there to sit.
Other fun thing about the city: on my way home from the subway, a tattoo parlour just opened up. It has FLOOR TO CEILING WINDOWS. You look into the tattoo room from the street. It turns out, oh my god, I LOVE seeing people getting tattoos. It's so much fun! It's such a little slice of their life. Yesterday it was a chubby, sort of older tough guy getting a tattoo on his chest, I think. He was shirtless, I remember that much. Today a girl was lying on her stomach in the chair getting something on her back. My biggest problem is that I start grinning, it makes me so happy for some reason. I am a tattoo voyeur.
ALSO on the walk back from my subway, a music school where they give guitar lessons in the front room! It's not the room you enter, there's a little waiting room so it's closed off, but it has a large storefront-style window! Sometimes there's a shade but usually not. I think it's really cute! It's not as fun as the tattooing, but it's still a sort of private moment that i get to see, people learning to play the guitar.
And today on my way home, in between the two, I passed a kid, maybe 14 or 15 years old, wheeling a shopping cart full of large pumpkins. I do not know why.
current mood:  content
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| Friday, October 9th, 2009
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3:15 pm - Ways to help end racism, also me awkwardly trying to state some thoughts
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This is quite excellent: I Can Fix It! by damali ayo. It's 5 things that individual people can do in their day to day lives to help end racism. Five things for white people, five things for people of color. Everything is explained at length, further resources are given, it's easy to understand. I highly, highly recommend it.
White people on my flist who don't normally think seriously about racism and anti-racism, seriously, if you consider me a friend at all, I beg you to please check this out (if you do think about it, I assume you don't need to be begged to click the link or have already seen it!). I would like to think that the people that I consider friends at least care enough to take the very, very easy first step of just checking the link out. Even if you don't read the rest of this entry! The first three steps are really easy to undertake and can be done while you do your normal life! The last two I'm still working on. It's really nice and satisfying to see these things phrased as "these are things that you can do that will help."
This also, for the record, definitely jives with what I've come across in my (somewhat) more extensive reading on the subject. If you want further reading, try A Guide to Racism 101 for Clueless White People. That might actually work better as initial reading, but I love the positive feel of the pdf, which I think makes it a nice, non-threatening starting point. In any case, neither the article nor the pdf want to make you feel bad about being a white person.
However, if you feel uncomfortable at any point, this probably means you're doing it right. That's not a sign to back away or reject something - embrace the discomfort! Also, if something that an anti-racist writer says seems wrong, try assuming that it's right. This happens to me all the time in my personal education. Someone that I respect who's writing seriously about race will say soemthing that might initially seem hateful or wrong, and I have to try to reverse my position and try to evaluate their statement while believing all their assumptions and perspectives to be valid and correct, and I end up thinking differently about it. (This is a slightly different way of phrasing some stuff in the "Listen" section of the pdf. I just wanted to point out another pitfall, and to warn people that it doesn't always feel like a warm fuzzy "yay! I'm becoming a better person!")
I'm trying to say something pretty simple about ethnicity vs race, but I'm still nervous about my ability to talk about this stuff coherently and without saying something stupid. I will try, though! I just came across some comments today where white people hadn't done step 1 - "admit that you have a race," and were saying stuff like "To me, the fact that I'm Lithuanian and German and Polish is so much more a part of my identity than the fact that I'm white." I remember thinking something very similar, in my youth (so, 4 years ago) and I thought at the time that thinking about people in terms of their ethnicity rather than their race was better, less racist, because ethnicity implies culture and race is based on skin color. It's not, you know, the worst way to think about the world, and there are definitely situations where the nuanced view is far more meaningful. But it's pretty white privilegey to firmly prioritize ethnicity over race as an identity marker, since we're the only ones who can ignore our race. (We're also the ones who forcibly separated people from their culture and defined them solely by their race!)
And when you say stuff like that in a discussion of race you're kind of being a turd, because the implication is "People who define themselves as their race instead of their ethnicity are being racist and are just determined to view things in terms of race." (I have seen this argument articulated in as many words, too.) Basically in minimizing race as an identity factor, ideas like this fail to recognize how much people who aren't the dominant race have to deal with race on a daily basis, while the dominant race gets to ignore it.
This is like the "colorblind is better" mistake, because only white people get to do it. "Stop defining yourselves by your race, minorities! Stop seeing everything in terms of race! I didn't think about race all day today, why couldn't you!" Hopefully it is clear why this is a turdbuckety thing to do.
There are some things in racism and feminism, where I know that a certain statement or action is wrong, and I kind of know why it's wrong, but I can't articulate it well enough to argue convincingly about it. When I argue about things I always want to be able to go all the way to the logical core. Not just "that's bad because it's sexist," but to be able to explain why it's sexist, the potential negative consequences of the sexism, etc. I don't know where I'm going with this except that it's very difficult. Smarter people can do it well, but I need sources and a lot of sources don't go into everything like they're convincing a total non-believer, but rather assume that the people they're speaking to are more or less on the same patch of ground as they are. A lot of blogs are more like "LOOK AT THIS HORRIBLE THING," and I'm like "OH GOD THAT'S HORRIBLE!" but I can't fully articulate all the negative consequences.
current mood: thoughtful
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| Friday, October 2nd, 2009
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8:56 am - Nathan Petrelli Congressional Campaign Inaccuracies
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It sounds like I'm being a pain in the ass, but actually I had a lot of fun picking these out and just seeing the televised version of the NYC political process. Not that I have anything to do with Congressional elections but still!
1. New York City does not have one congressman. It has about 12. (Actually it does, I just counted. Go me!) Manhattan has three. You guys hear a lot about Jerrold Nadler? Because he was the congressman for lower Manhattan when 9/11 happened. They just. . . really inflate this position.
2. New York City also does not have electronic voting booths.
3. Election coverage on television, even local television, even in an off-year election, does not consist of huge numbers filling the screen and then "Landslide Victory!!" in corny graphics (Also, I'm pretty sure electronic voting booths, where they are used, don't look so corny and low budget either).
4. I think federal election law has some rules about accepting $4 million corporate contributions. (They do.) And even if it was from Linderman's private funds, they're way outside the contribution limit. What Linderman probably would have done is some sketchy bundling, nominee contributions, stuff like that. Definitely comitted some serious fraud. It's totally plausible that he did do so and that when people were talking about Linderman being a major campaign contributor it was in private - they did do that fake FBI raid thing. Hmm.
5. Oh my god after he papered the city with posters, this guy did no campaigning. We see him do a little at the beginning and his campaign manager nags him a bit, but. . . he really never does any work on this campaign. I know he's got a lot going on but they are still trying to cast him as dedicated to his political goals above all else. No wonder he was behind.
6. If he really wanted to make up those 5 measly points, he would have put the $4 million to a massive GOTV operation, possibly aided by some unions. XD But we never even hear the words "get out the vote" so I can only assume the money went to television ads that they made without Nathan ever participating. Poor decisions.
7. I know they're trying to not put Nathan with any political party, but that information should seriously be on the ballot. Unless it's a special election, but it really doesn't seem like it - Nathan's been preparing for a long time and special elections happen fast, even if they delayed it somehow to fold it in with any regular elections happening Nov 7. So I'm ruling that out, in which case the ballot is just really weird - even apart from the graphics being so lame.
Bonus: District Attorney is a totally legitimate jumping off point to becoming a congressman. (So is being from a really wealthy and powerful family. Sad but realistic!)
Anyway, the whole thing makes me happy despite the inaccuracies. Or perhaps because of them!
current mood:  geeky
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| Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
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8:09 pm - Geography!
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We probably shouldn't talk about how much I like the song "Disco Inferno," right? XD My brother used to hum it every time someone used the Inferno spell in Diablo, back when we just had one computer and everyone gathered round it to watch people playing games when our cousins visited. Um, it was way more fun than it sounds. Also it's an awesome song. Burn baby burn!
In other news, I can now identify all 195 flags of sovereign nations in about 7 minutes. For real, no guessing! I finally memorized the differences between Guinea and Mali's flags, and Senegal's and Cameroon's. Chad and Romania have the same flag, as do Monaco and Indonesia - I can't do anything about that! I think Malawi, the Seychelles, and Macedonia are my favorites. Turkmenistan and Belarus are also cool. I have a hard time with the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Lithuania for some reason, they always take me a second. Some of my favorite countries!
This is the culmination of a long and supremely entertaining process that began with learning all the names of the countries (sorry, St Lucia), then learning the flags of Europe, Africa, and Asia separately, then starting on the World one for more of a challenge while i learned Oceania and the Americas.
Now all I need to do is put myself in situations where flag recognition will be useful.
For now, I shall watch more Heroes/read more incredibly satisfying Heroes fanfic til my laundry is done. (Probably the fanfic, as gross things are happening to beautiful, sexy Isaac Mendez in the episode I'm up to. D: Oh, Isaac. So pretty! Even in this cast, he's a stand-out.)
current mood:  accomplished
current music: let's not talk about it, shall we!
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| Monday, September 28th, 2009
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6:36 pm - leisure time and meme!
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I DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK THIS WEEKEND! Bow chicka wow wow! Oh, candidates. I love when you have minimal fundraising.
I have used this time wisely: watched 5 or 6 episodes of Heroes and read prodigious amounts of filthy Heroes fanfic. I LOVE having a new fandom so much. It's been way too long, because the fakenews fandom is different. It was good, but the shows work so differently, and it's all RPF and stuff. . . just felt different. And I think my last new fandom before that was Doctor Who and Torchwood, or something.
At first I didn't find him particularly attractive, but both Adrian Pasdar and Nathan Petrelli have grown on me. Nathan mostly in a physical sense, he's a bit of an ass. Speaking of which, part of the reason I may have started finding him hotter and hotter is that he has the grace to wear beautifully fitting three-piece suits, and has a magnificent ass. But Adrian not only has that ass, he also has a youtube channel full of fascinating and fun little short videos. At least half of them are of the Heroes cast. The other half are him and a friend sailing to Hawaii, I think. . . have not watched all of those. But yeah, a lot of them are the cast amusing themselves between scenes and stuff, they're really cute.
Anyway, to celebrate I'm going to do ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ayamachi's long Top Tens meme. Even though I'm terrible at figuring out what my favorites from things are. Consider this "Top Ten things that popped into Laura's head this morning"
List Your Top Ten of ALL TIME for the following categories. If possible put a timeframe to it. :D Have fun!
( i kept deleting this cut tag when I was trying to find the equals sign. . . I just woke up )
Since beginning this entry, I walked around Alphabet City and found the Joe Strummer mural!! Had no clue where it was. AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK LATE TODAY! OH MY GOD. And I am home well before Heroes starts at 8! And definitely well before Big Bang Theory starts at 9:30. XD
Adrian Pasdar update: I am still super lusty. Aforementioned ass can be viewed here (underneath pants, sadly).
current mood:  bouncy
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| Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
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8:38 am - Primary Day!!!!!
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Do you have a primary? Are you voting in it? Did you get up half an hour early to vote in it only to be half an hour early to work somehow? That's right, voting takes negative time!
Anyway, guys, primaries are fun and important so you should make sure to vote in them if your area has one and you're eligible.
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| Thursday, September 10th, 2009
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9:22 pm - If this isn't the only entry on your flist about anglerfish, I will be excited!
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I don't know, guys. I feel like while we've been. . . building civilizations or living in caves or trying not to be fish or whatever we've been doing for the last few millenia, anglerfish have just been busy developing ridiculously specialized and wacky little superpowers, among other things. To start with, there's the angling itself. They have little lures on their heads, fleshy growths called the esca. Not only does this attract fishes and tasty things when they wiggle it around, it also automatically triggers their jaws when it's touched, so they swallow their victims whole. Plus, its bones are thin and flexible, so they can distend their jaw and stomach to swallow things bigger than they are. And I think they can do weird tricks with their teeth? PLUS the ones that live in the super deep sea have developed a symbiotic relationship with luminscent bacteria that live in the esca to help attract prey. AND many of the ones that don't live in the dark can change color to camouflage with their environment with a lot of finesse, and are often fuzzy in a helpful way. Also, some of the bottom dwellers are called frogfish and have little feets with which they walk along the ocean floor. And I think some of them are jet powered?
Seriously, it's so. . . like. . . proactive. Most things are just sticking to the status quo, doing the best they can. Anglerfish are like "why just be a fish when you can be a walking, color-changing, glow-in-the-dark eating machine?"
I also thought they were the ugliest creatures ever but it turns out that frogfish are quite cute often! And sometimes just bizarre because they're so well camouflaged, and then you just see their faces. It's almost muppety. Like, check out the psychadelic frogfish. That does not look like a creature from nature! Seriously, what is up with these guys! I'm not sure, though, but the striated frogfish might be my favorite. Lookit his face!
But guys. Guys. I haven't even gotten to the craziest part yet, the thing that got me on this anglerfish safari. Reproduction. Oh my god. In most species of anglerfish, the male is this little parasite that can only mature by attaching himself to the female. They fuse, start sharing a circulatory system, and then, well. Then something happens that can only be described with the best sentence I've come across in a long time: "As this genetic Chimera matures, the males grow large testicles while the rest of their bodies atrophy."
The males just turn into parasitic testicles. First off, it seems very symbolic of something. Second off, it's completely hilarious - not from a feminist perspective, from a juvenile perspective. Third off, as if the female wasn't gross enough, she gets these horrible male atrophied testicle creatures hanging off her. What the hell. XD So gross! It's actually less gross closer up. And I'm loving this artist's interpretation.
Wikipedia explains how this was discovered: "When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these 'parasites' were the remains of male ceratioids." Again, I find this hilarious. And kind of creepy, or something, you know? Sort of "Soylent green is people!" But instead "The parasites are testicles!!"
current mood:  fascinated
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| Saturday, September 5th, 2009
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2:00 pm - Candy!
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Oh my god, I NEED to find somewhere in NYC where i can buy German candy. Because we get some Haribo here, but not the best candy in history:
Primavera Erdbeeren? They don't look like much but they are absurdly delicious. So juicy! And a really lovely texture and sweet and they taste like strawberries as much as candy ever does and are soooooo good. Oh my god. I just. . . once I start eating them, I cannot stop and am just constantly popping them in my mouth. As soon as I finish one, I pop another in. Until my teeth start to hurt or I get a sugar headache.
Also in "hundreds of years of confectionary has been building up to this" category: Crispinis. I LOVE THEM. So perfectly delicious and chocolatey and crunchy. Particularly good if they melt into a huge glob and then are put in the fridge.
Oh, strawberry gummis and crispinis. You make overtime bearable. :D
Someone else is here and he's a few cubes away in another aisle, and he plays a radio quietly. It's so quiet I can't even hear the music. . . except for the fucking bass line. It kind of drives me crazy, I hear it throbbing even through my music. But like, he already has it really quiet so it's not like I can ask him to turn it down. XP Hopefully he'll go home soon.
current mood: busy
current music: Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
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| Monday, August 31st, 2009
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5:58 pm - close encounter of the figure skater kind
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So I mentioned that I wanted to go see Pop Star On Ice, the documentary about figure skater Johnny Weir? But I wasn't sure if anyone would go with me? Well, Mamiko was totally on board and it was AWESOME.
They were doing a Q&A after the movie, so we knew he'd be around. But when we entered the theater, five minutes before showtime (we'd been getting dinner across the street), who's in the lobby but Mr. Weir himself! They were taking promotional pictures. A few other people were milling around so we were like "Do we go in? Are we socializing?" and stood and chatting and watched pictures being taken (specifically, these pictures, if that absurdly long link works in any way -otherwise you can, if you want to, go to Getty Images, search for Johnny Weir, and then choose the BAM premiere from the Events drop-down) and ogled Johnny's amazing outfit. Then we realized we should go actually be going in. . . it was my first BAM experience. Mamiko's so ahead of me, only been here three days. XD
We ended up sitting sort of towards one side, but not too bad. And um, it turned out to be awesome. Because a couple minutes later Johnny came in with a couple of his friends, and they ended up sitting right in front of us. Johnny was literally the row ahead of me and two seats over. Hahahaha so crazy! And awesome! Like, watching a movie and then looking over and the star of the movie is right there?? XD The movie was really good, though, so mostly I was watching that. But occasionally I'd glance over to see his reaction or whatever. He laughed in appropriate places. He whispered to his friends a couple times, but not being a huge creeper, I didn't lean over to hear what he said. XD However, I overheard one thing - there was a story about a woman who got his signature tattooed onto her ankle - apparently she was like "Hey, if you sign my ankle, I'll get a tattoo of it!" And he was like "No you won't!" And she was like "I totally will!" And then later she was like ". . . Shit, did I say that?" But she went for it anyway. XD So I heard him whisper to his friends "She's a schoolteacher," which I thought was kinda cute.
The movie was actually fantastic. I really, thoroughly enjoyed it and would totally see it again. Anyone with an interest in figure skating, Johnny Weir, or things with a gay sensibility (it was part of the Next Wave Gay & Lesbian film festival) would probably really enjoy it. Unless you're an Evan Lysacek fan. . . But no, it was really funny and interesting. It gave a cool behind the scenes look at the training and the competitions (well, sort of the competitions - more of a mental behind the scenes) although not the touring. Seeing his relationship with his (former) coach was really interesting - she seems really sweet! Hopefully they're still friends now, but I do feel like it was time for him to move on. Just based on his skating and performance, not that they pushed that so hard in the movie. The movie showed her in a really positive way. And there was a lot of fun parts of non-skating stuff, like when Johnny walked in a Heatherette fashion show or spoke to kids at his old elementary school in rural Pennsylvania (he was very sweet and appropriate).
( further review - funny bits and skater perspectives )
And Johnny himself came off pretty well, both in the movie and during the Q&A. I go through phases of affection and respect, and then sort of irritation and impatience. He seems to. . . more than having an ego or a temperament, he seems to like having an ego and a temperament. I don't know if that's better or worse? Anyway, he's certainly quite fond of himself, but he was pretty charming and likable in the movie, and gave very thoughtful and generally excellent answers in the Q&A. I was impressed. Haha, he said "Everyone sleeps with who they want to sleep with" and I was like "Yeah, I bet extremely attractive figure skaters can sleep with whoever they want. . ." but I appreciate the sentiment about sexuality being no one's business but your own and your partners'. But yeah, he was intelligent and not too self-aggrandizing.
. . . And hopefully he doesn't have a google-alert for himself or we'll have another Len Wein situation (WHAT AM I TRYING TO DO TO MYSELF). He did say he wasn't techno-savvy in response to a fairly aggressive question about blogging.
Although he is on twitter, as is Jeffrey Buttle. . . as J-Butt. Which is obviously what I need to call him from now on. Johnny's is good because he doesn't @___, whereas Jeffrey does a lot, but his is still adorable. A few brief moments' stalking indicates that he's friends with figure skater/model Fedor Andreev, who is SO good-looking that normally I'd assume he's a huge toolface, but he does come across as pretty sweet through twitter. Whatever that's worth? Maybe I just like him because he posts pictures of J-Butt. It's also fun to see them talk about touring and stuff like that like it's totally normal. "Oh, good luck tonight. . . IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE." (That's what I would say in their situation.)
J-Butt.
Mamiko is gone! ): She actually found a place and decided to move in tonight because she has class tomorrow morning at 8. In light of that, I'm quite thankful, but otherwise I miss her! I thought we were going to get to hang out a bit more. She was a great guest - and was actually out of the house a lot of the time looking at apartments in the evening! Mostly when she was here we watched figure skating videos (yay!) and did quizzes on sporcle to help her learn some cases where we use different terms in the US and the UK (since she's spent the last three years studying in England). Luckily for me she got her bank card shipped here so I have to see her soon - possibly she's going to come out with us after work on Wednesday. And I need to see her place, and she's going to take me to some Japanese restaurants to laugh at my chopstick skills, and we have more figure skating videos to watch. XD Also my parents invited her out to LI to see if she wants to borrow any furniture from my grandpa's place, although if she's going to do that sometime when I'm available it might be a while because there's a filing on Friday. ::sigh::
Oh, speaking of work, I saw a bit of the Public Advocate debate on Sunday. God damn, Bill de Blasio is not fucking kidding when he says he's "Standing Tall for New York." It was like TOKIO without Mabo, the four of them. Hilarious! I kept wanting to just be like "To end this debate, I WILL CRUSH MY OPPONENTS BENEATH MY FEET!!" RAAARGH. He'll never be in a Bloomberg campaign ad that way! (For those of you who don't live and breath local NYC politics, Bloomie is not a tall man, and in his commercials and literature he always tries to be standing next to people his height or shorter. The NYC of Bloomberg ads is the tiniest city in the world.)
current mood:  amused
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| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
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8:41 pm - i blame this on elyndys!!
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Johnny's fans! Especially sempai fans! Y'all should join ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) je_macros because I have just discovered I LOVE making Johnny's macros and I'm making almost entirely V6 and TOKIO (and Higashiyama) ones, so they need an audience. :D
Also! pashoshi! I made a Stargate SG-1 referencing Johnnys macro, and you are the only person I know who would also be able to enjoy it, so, please partake! I love Window of Opportunity more than I love food. XD Also that picture is amazing and got Twilighted (I'd seen that on loads of macros and found it hilarious before I even discovered it is an actual quote!) and Anchormanned.
Just to make your flist more exciting, that last quote in Higashiyama-form:
Ahh, that's one of my faves that we did. XD Katie and I spent like, a few hours doing this last night, we made so many. So far they're just posted here and here but we have made more!
Turns out macros are super-fun to make with a partner. I can't imagine doing it alone, you need someone to say "No, that doesn't quite work" or "I think it'd be better if you did this."
Also we went out for dinner and got really excited about how awesome America's Best Dance Crews is. Oh my god, ABDC is my love. JC Chasez describes crazy moves by saying "That was bananas!" and Mario Lopez is made of dimples and the crews seem really awesome and diverse this time around. It's really fun and I usually agree with how the votes go and it's just the greatest show ever.
But today we made chicken cutlets for lunch and now I have a mountain of dishes to do. ::sigh:: And it's absurdly humid. XP Oh god. I'm just constantly covered in a thin sheen of sweat and gross - and it's not just me being disgusting, I have checked and others are having the same problem.
Oh man also also also! I have this adorable plush pig and every time Katie visits she cuddles it and is like "I'm going to steal it!" and I'm like "NOOOO!" but today, I took her to the subway and she got to the other side of the barrier and pulled him out of her bag! And cackled and ran down. Noooooooooo my pig. :( She just called to say she would take good care of him. ::sniffles::
current mood: amused
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| Friday, August 21st, 2009
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5:56 pm - hangover report
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I had my first hangover today. . . I am appalled at the extent of the devastation it wreaked on my mind and body. Horrifying. Just a couple hours ago, I curled my toes down and it made my feet shake violently. My hands have been quivering slightly and I've been getting chills. Plus the urge to vomit, which has come and gone with varying frequency throughout the day. Mostly gone now, I think - I was able to eat dinner (sushi, which i can't tell if it was a good idea or not - light, simple and cool, but also large volumes of raw fish). I didn't have too much of a headache, especially not after I took an ibuprofen early on, but I've been really dizzy and lightheaded all day. When I got to work I just put my head down on my desk, and it felt like my desk was spinning into space. I could barely move or think. . . my hands still feel stiff and weird. And the inside of my mouth still tastes weird!
But I went to work. . . because I had a presentation to give. XD AWESOME. (Also I thought it'd get better faster than it did - this morning the symptoms felt more isolated to my head, not so much in the rest of my body. Although I did wake up before my alarm, was completely unable to use the computer at all, and just watched Saved By the Bell.) Um, so, yeah. . . got to work, just wanted to sleep for about five hours, felt completely dead and wretched. I could barely move for most of the day. The air in my office or something actually made everything worse than it was, cos I went outside for a little bit and then I went to a different office and I felt a lot better in both places, and then I went back to my office and I was shaking and shutting down again. Usually I'm really fast-moving, alert to everything that's going on. . . basically I'm a ferret normally. Today I was a slug! I felt like a completely different person, it was creepy.
My boss had something she wanted me to do which luckily didn't require thinking. It required organizing some stacks of paper, which required a lot of moving and even 10 sheets of paper felt heavy. XD But I just did it very, very slowly.
And my presentation went okay. XD I was a little out of it but I think i was basically able to pull it together. It was warm in the room, which everyone else was annoyed about but since I'd been getting chills, it might have helped. And being hung over might have just helped me been relaxed, since it was a pretty casual info session - me explaining some stuff about what I do to the candidate service liaisons, so they could better help the candidates about it.
I also just got amused about the hangover partly through the day, when most of the nausea had passed. I was so dazed and it was just ridiculous.
Then I went home two hours early. I only slept for a fucking half an hour though. I thought I'd sleep for hours!! Ridiculous. Maybe I'm too out of it to sleep. So I've just been watching TV since then, still too tired and out of it to do anything else - finally watched the first episode of Farscape! It was good! :D I actually really liked it. My roommate is a big fan, and she's gotten into Stargate SG-1 since she moved in, so I wanted to be able to like her thing. ;)
Also last night when I got in I didn't want to go to sleep because I was too drunk and I hate going to sleep drunk (I did so anyway, heck, I think I'm still drunk. . . whiskey what the FUCK???) so I watched the Nanny for like two hours, and I fell asleep in the middle of it and woke up and it was still the Nanny and it was just weird. Being so drunk and drifting in and out of consciousness, and then just having the Nanny always be there. I also threw up a couple times after I ate, but I wanted to at that point, you know? I kind of tried to. Ugh, I must have woken Christel up. D:
Oh man, I do not feel a need to drink any time in the near future. OH MAN. Oh, I thought I already said this but I think I didn't - I only had 2 and a half drinks! I have definitely done this on work nights before. But it was my first time trying whiskey sours. . . whiskeys sour. . . so I can only assume that's why I was so effected. I did not see this coming. I didn't think I was doing anything too excessive, compared to other weeknights out. Gyaaargh.
I did have fun, though, although at the moment I can't think about drinking. I did make friends with some guys while their friends were playing my friends at shuffleboard. I gave one of them my. . . business card. XD They were nice. I like meeting new people. . . my friendliness is matched only by my crippling shyness.
I want to have hot chocolate because it'll make me feel better, but it's so hot out. This is problematic. I think I'll do it anyway. I need to shower anyway cos that will also make me feel better (once i trust my body to hold out) so I can make it a cold shower.
Bones is on, David Boreanaz is so pretty and hunky.
My friend Mamiko is coming to stay with me on Tuesday til she finds a place in the city. This weekend I gotta get ready for that. XD
Aww jesus christ, Laura's body, pull yourself together. Stupid body.
edit: I was thinking maybe the alcohol affected my body more than usual because I've been working so much and am just worn down and weaker? Today was my 12th straight day at work. And actually I'd already worked a full day's hours in overtime. . . I should have stayed home. XD
current mood:  sick
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| Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
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8:43 am - food and leverage
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For those of you following along at home, with a bit of effort I was indeed able to leave at my normal time last night! And I did go to the grocery store - straight from work, so I couldn't wimp out. This meant I didn't have a chance to look for recipes, but I just got a crapload of vegetables that I like - two peppers, some nice broccoli, some grape tomatoes, a cucumber. And grapes and milk and mini-muffins and deli turkey (breakfast and lunch, respectively).
( cooking )
I am really, really glad that I was able to leave early and have the time to take care of my health and just relax and watch Mythbusters and stuff, but oh my god it was way too hot to stir fry yesterday. It was in the high 80s outside at NIGHT and my apartment was probably hotter (29 or 30 C, I think? I was discussing the weather with a British friend last night) so after cooking I just sat around sweating for a while. I did sleep fine, though. The night before I'd had a dream that there was some sort of injured fox on my couch, or a couch, but it was surrounded by all these porcupines, and at first we were like "oh man porcupines are so cool!" but they were evil and covered in, you know, spikes. Then we eventually got the fox out and it was all bloody and horrible. Last night I dreamt something but it was much less exciting. Can't remember what it was, though.
To make up for all that healthiness yesterday, this morning I'm eating starbursts for breakfast. XD I forgot the mini-muffins. If I could just stop eating starbursts I could have a granola bar or two. >.>
Other thing I want to talk about: Leverage! I am seriously loving that show. A fairly significant portion of this is probably because of Christian Kane. Side note, you can hear his accent when you read his twitter. God fucking damn is he manly. And sexy. He's SO perfect as Eliot. Although I must admit, I've always prefered him with shorter hair. (Side note, TNT is kind of hilarious.) Still, though, oh my god, the badassery. The voice. The punches. The voice. Um. Other things. Oh, and related to his twitter (which is one of the ones I check out cos he rarely @___s) he's quite new so he's only following a handful of people, and one of them is Julie Benz! Who co-starred on Angel with him as Darla. I think that's pretty cute, it makes me happy.
Although, what does kind of annoy me about Leverage is the incredible gap between the attractiveness of Nate vs the rest of the cast. It's that he's the main character, and he's a white man, and he's the only one on the cast who gets to not be hot (I'm sure there are people who find him hot, and maybe he could be chiseled if he wasn't so puffy and dumpy looking). If he wasn't the lead it wouldn't bother me. But, as I think I said to one of you before, it's like "Thanks for showing that a man doesn't need to be good-looking to be successful. . . oh wait everyone fucking knows that and the women on the show are ridiculously beautiful."
Anyway, Leverage is still awesome. As you would expect from the creator of Jaime Reyes, second best Blue Beetle ever! And it's not that Timothy Hutton isn't awesome as Nate, I just wish he wasn't the lead.
current mood: accomplished
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| Monday, August 17th, 2009
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12:13 pm - ended up being more about work than I'd hoped but I really shoulda seen that coming
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The pop cultural theme of my life lately has been "Things to come out of Britain in the 60's (OK maybe just barely)" by which I mean I've been listening to a lot of Beatles and soaking up Monty Python however I can get it. All my family's Monty Python is on VHS (I HEAR YOU LAUGHING SUSAN) except for the 30th anniversary DVD, which I watched. And I've been rereading Graham Chapman's A Liar's Autobiography on the subway, which has gotten me TWO comments from total strangers. Anyone familiar with the NYC subways will know how fucked up this is. It's a really good book, though. I finished it yesterday and this morning I was trying to find something to read on the subway and I was really sad because none of my other books were by Graham Chapman. :(
Aw man, I still didn't respond to stuff in the posture entry. XD In my defense, I'm fucking exhausted. Oh my god. I'm physically capable of working the hours I have been (15 hours of overtime last week, both days of the weekend), but I'm not physically capable of doing that and also doing anything remotely productive when I'm not at work. It's only temporary so it's not like I'll never be able to do laundry again, but I really want to be able to get home tonight with enough time and energy to make some pasta and frozen peas and buy myself milk and vegetables and cook those vegetables as well. This is all I'm asking out of life today! But I just heard that there might be a bit of an urgent situation to be dealt with, so I'm not sure how much time that will take or what the repercussions will be.
I did mention to my boss that I was hoping, if possible to leave as early as I could today and she said that barring an unexpected crisis I should be able to do that. Like, if I stay late tomorrow and the whole rest of the week that's fine, as long as I've got healthy food waiting for me at home. And I am just. . . partly it's probably my less-than-stellar level of physical fitness, partly my poor sleeping habits, and partly just the fact that I really am working a lot, but I am very low on the energy these days. Also it's been hot like a butt. So hard to get myself to get out of my house and go to the grocery store. If I get home by 6 tonight, though, I am ABSOLUTELY going, and I will make my most sincere effort if I get home by 7. Later than that and I'll try to make the pasta and the peas without whatever else I would have added. . . I haven't wanted to eat meat at all lately. Little sleep = small appetite. Can't tell if I'm losing weight or not, though.
I don't have an exhausted icon, so I'm using frustrated Gaudium instead. I'm not angry or anything, though!
I mentioned this before but I am really pleased with my latest playlist. XD It's 110 songs long, it's not daintily crafted or anything, but all the songs go together well and with pretty much every song I'm like "yeah! this is a great song!" Except one, which is a poor quality live recording that I forgot about. I need to clear it off.
What else. . . so yeah, Monty Python and the Beatles - especially early Beatles - have been bringing me great joy lately. As has Torchwood fanfic. And the fact that freerice.com added all sorts of new categories so now my unhealthy love of taking quizzes on the internet will actually help someone.
Right now it's prepare for notification and prepare for responses time, though.
Also eat lunch time.
current mood: working
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| Saturday, August 15th, 2009
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7:12 am - I suspect secretly this entry is basically about how cool I think I am.
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Still owe people responses on the posture entry (ANSWERS ONLY LEAD TO MORE QUESTIONS!!) but um, so, I've gotten into a bit of a thing. I won't link to it because at the moment I'd rather continue to be fairly anonymous, but it's linked to here. Obviously I'm the one posting as Laura. The real meat is in the comments - a lot of what I'm responding to is not his entry itself but stuff like this. All of which is in response to this and this - a big discussion of why "color blindness" is neither helpful nor harmless. The person I'm responding to says that people of color make too big a deal over their race, and I guess he thinks they refuse to live in a post-racial world. Then he doesn't understand why everyone is angry at him (because he's married to a woman of color). (wannaberaptor, the fact that I reference our conversation a bit does not mean I'm in any way associating you with that guy!)
For friends only, a bit more private analysis and brainstorming.
Anyway, so what's also happened is that one of the people who's been getting angry and frustrated with this guy saw my comments and thought they were great, and I'm really happy and excited! I was afraid I was just saying dumb stuff and making a huge fool of myself because I'm so new to discussing this stuff. I know that not everything I'm saying about anti-racism is accurate, and I have doubts about my use of the term "anti-racism movement" and I don't know enough about everything to necessarily be as effective as I could be. But I do like debating, I like honest arguments, I like trying to get at the logic behind the situation. Often at work I find myself "translating" for two people who don't understand each other and I kind of feel like that's what I'm doing here. I'm not sure how far I'll get but maybe I can make my opponent more aware of certain issues, more aware of how he sounds to others and how far off he is from the bulk of the discussion on these topics. And at least I feel more confident in my own positions for having debated them like this. If you can't be honest in an argument about your beliefs, you need to rethink them, or at least figure out where the holes are.
So yeah, I feel really cool that people liked my arguments. I'm all pumped and glowy. Of course i sent her a message saying hey, because I'm completely incapable of maintaining any type of mystique.
I pretty much wish this hadn't all gone down when work was already so busy, though. I mean, it gives me a distraction and something else to think about, but I spent a lot of time writing those responses yesterday. XD People kept coming up to ask me a question and I'd have his entry open on one monitor (I have two monitors) and my response draft in word on the other - because indeed, I wrote it all out and then re-arranged it and added new stuff and edited it extensively. I should have done so much on essays in school!
I can't remember if there was anything else i was going to say on this subject, but. . . I've probably said enough? It's been interesting!
I believe I shall try to get back to sleep now. Man, it's hard to get my shower to give hot water at 6:30 in the morning, it was all "GO BACK TO BED FOR CHRISSAKE WHAT DO YOU WANT."
current mood: thoughtful
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| Thursday, July 30th, 2009
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11:49 pm - I believe this is my fifth entry to mention Anthony Weiner
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Anthony Weiner. Was on the Rachel Maddow Show today.
ANTHONY WEINER!! TALKING TO RACHEL MADDOW! XDDDDD
I DIED OF AMUSEMENT. So, so glad I tuned in.
I MUST get the podcast! It's not up yet, though, and I won't be going home tomorrow. Grrrr. Katie will have to obtain it for me if it's not available in the morning (msnbc only keeps their podcasts up for a day or so).
Between this and the Conan interview last night, Rachel is responsible for so much delight on my part just now.
So, Mr. Weiner, that little rascal, introduced an amendment to end Medicare so that Republicans would be forced to vote it down, thus officially stating their support for some government run health care plan. Oh, you. Tomorrow he plans to introduce a single payer option, that'll go over great. :D
Also Joey B was at the beer summit of racial tensions and no one mentioned it. :( WHAT BEER WAS JOEY DRINKING? It made me feel better to see him there, though, cos he's such a people person and also hasn't publicly insulted anyone involved far as I know. Although it looked like everyone was being quite serious in any case.
current mood: amused
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| Sunday, July 26th, 2009
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8:40 pm - slightly late birthday loot
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Mini feminist rant: ( I don't think this is even topical anymore )
So, now I'm watching an interview with Patricia Richardson, who I love! I love Home Improvement and I didn't even have a crush on JTT (although now I pretend I do because I want to feel like a part of my generation). Once I was watching the E True Hollywood Story about it and I was interrupted because my grandpa wanted to watch something, but I was really enjoying it and now I want to know what I missed. Also, it's weird when Jon calls her Patricia, I was seriously expecting him to say Jill.
Katie and I made cupcakes, now I'm left with 6 of them. :D Also she got me loads of awesome stuff from Germany! So much! So awesome! An adorable little wooden figurine with a fuzzy beard, and some Aschenputtel-themed chocolates, and some chocolates in the shape of animals that say 100% Holz on them, so I'm like "Oooh, Shokolade Zoo! . . . what does 'Holz' mean?" and Katie starts laughing - ". . . Wood." Yes, she got me chocolates in the shape of animals made out of wood. Which is basically just little wooden animals. XD In a box. Apparently she got herself wooden teabags, I can only imagine what those look like?
And she got me an adorable little metal pot thing that's white with blue flowers painted on it, and a book called "Die Geschichte einer Straße," or "The History of a Street" - it's a big book, and each two-page spread is a picture of a street from a different era, with things labelled. So I will learn all sorts of historical words. Like "Hügelgrab," which I believe means burial mound - after it's initial appearance, it is labelled in every subsequent page as "altes Hügelgrab," or "old burial mound." Thanks, book (actually by 1300 CE the Hügelgrab gets replaced with a mill). Also, this book does not pull punches. There are slaves in Roman times, there's a cart full of dead people during the plague times, a Viking raid carrying off children, doctors chopping off people's feet. . . and in every era, shit gets set on fire. Also, there are robbers. But seriously, if there's one lesson to be learned from this book, it's that shit can always burn.
Oh, on the subject of birthdays, Susan/ayamachi got me a book about synesthesia, presumably to make me feel more bitter about the fact that my senses always work solo and refuse to cooperate or blend. Anyway, it seems like a totally awesome book and I assume it will be almost as educational as Die Geschichte einer Straße, although perhaps not on the subject of fires. The book also came with a letter containing drawings of Joey B (with magnificent combover) and Patrick Stewart (without combover), both of whom were conspicuously lacking from the German book.
In conclusion, it has been an excellent week+ long birthday! Now I think I'll try putting my clothes away in my dresser, they've been sitting folded in my laundry basket for a long time. Like, weeks, slowly accumulating, since they aren't my work clothes.
OH ALSO! Who out there watched Gackt on VS Arashi? Cos first off, it was REALLY entertaining. But second off! OH MY GOD. The other guest! Daisuke Miyazaki! Mr. Handball! Sportsman No. 1! The reason I'm excited about him? NINJA WARRIOR! I guess I should use my Nagano icon. Yeah, Miyazaki and some of his douchey handball friends have competed in a couple of recent Sasuke competitions, and they always make a big deal out of him because he keeps winning these Pro Sportsman competitions and is quite good-looking. He's done. . . okaaaay at Sasuke. XD Hahaha, oh my god, though, the Sasuke-world almost never ever collides with Johnnys-world, I forget that they're the results of the same popular culture until something like this happens and I was SO PUMPED and so entertained! :D I'm waiting for Nagano to be on Janiben, I think it'd be a good match - they have somewhat random people on, right? And it would just be so beautiful. I would cry with happiness.
current mood: content
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| Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
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11:20 pm - mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper
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from pashoshi, Comment on this post (SCREAM MEME!!!) and I will choose six interests from your profile. You will then explain what they mean/why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.
Scream meme?
( an excuse to talk about academons! )
SO! I found out about my raise today! If I did my math right, which is not a guarantee but I did check with an online percentage calculator and we agreed, then I got a 14% raise! It is SEXY and exciting and I'll be taking home a hefty chunk more each month - maybe $100 more with each (biweekly) paycheck? I'm not quite sure when it went into effect. And I will be raking in the overtime pay too! Also, I got a nice little letter saying it was a "merit increase" and only given to people who deserve it. ;)
Also former!roommate!Corey bought me birthday pie. :D And we ate borscht! Which is her nickname! But neither of us had ever had it. It was okay, actually, especially when you consider how much I hate beets! And it was completely different from what either of us were expecting. A fascinating experience.
OH! My friend Alison at work got me the most awesomest birthday presents! A desktop dartboard! So I can continue to perfect my darts skills! I've wanted one for a long time. And it's really nice! :D AND she got me a little, well, this exact magnetic sculpture thing - you can arrange the little stars and moons however you like and it's incredibly fun. They're fantastic presents, I'm very impressed with her gift-buying skills!
And Katie got me all sorts of awesome I don't know what in Berlin that she will give me on Saturday, so basically, fabulous week-long birthday!
Also I've been watching Shep Smith videos on youtube a bit. ::coos::
current mood: happy
current music: Break My Stride - whoever sings that
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