Based Korea

North Korea is best Korea.

i sleep in the most distorted positions and wake up to confused stares too fucking often. last night i fell asleep on my stomach with my right leg completely tucked under my body and my left leg normally and somehow didn't wake up a paraplegic. 

Do a lot of people watch you sleep or something?
How do you wake up to confused stares (plural)?
OOOR ARE YOU SOME KINDA FUCKING WHOOOORE

i regret plenty of things, i'm grateful that none of them involve other people. jesus christ, the last thing i need on my conscience is to owe anyone anything, especially something as essentially meaningless as an apology. i have already apologized to everyone for everything. sometimes rebounds happen before the relationship is over, i should know this better than anyone. (those two statements are not related.) i'm actually not in love with myself, despite what everyone else thinks. 

So you just act like a cunt, you're not actually a cunt?
That's some Zen logic I guess.
Zen logic in reverse. Jesus Christ.

i miss you, but not like everyone else misses you. - yana (this is the most echoed sentiment in my ears lately.)

my new favorite color is green, my new favorite season is spring. a long time ago it was red and fall. i'm okay with things coming back to life.

i wonder how many car accidents there were today.

Would you believe these disconnected sentences about nothing are in fact the same post and I haven't edited anything?
Also how many car accidents were there today?
One fewer than there needed to be if you're still alive.

the fact that i've seen what staph looks like under a microscope and still have it in me to stick my hand in my mouth, all my face holes inches away from where several other people's asses live, finger fuck the flap of skin at the back of my throat until i have nothing left in my stomach either says so much about one thing or so little about another.

ANOREXIA/BULIMIA BLOG ALERT!
I didn't know otherwise I would have not read this.
Fuck it I'm going in!

there's something sick and sad about someone who has spent the majority of your time together taking you for granted saying to you one day 'you deserve better'

ha ha ha
ha

no, really. i appreciate the sentiment but coming from someone with such little regard for my feelings it means almost nothing.

there's something fucked up about the man who cheated on me asking me why i'm angry and then when my answer is 'because you made poor choices' he feels "bashed". he keeps telling me it's the way you're saying it. and admittedly i have been trying to tiptoe around his feelings, cry more quietly, feel more softly. because i love him and always will despite this. i may not be in love with him anymore but i will always love him.

but then today i thought. holy shit, you cheated on me! why is how my pain makes you feel the most urgent issue here?

piece of shit, all of them

"I make shitty life decisions and date assholes"
"all men are therefore assholes"
White wahms

when he first broke the news i sat in bed, rocking myself back and forth crying and involuntarily repeating the words oh man. in the days following, i broke down in tears over a peanut butter sandwich, in the bathroom taking a piss, staring at myself in the mirror, numerous times in bed and in showers, driving to and from work, tying my shoes, grocery shopping, walking to my car from my car.

"Walking to my car from my car"
Errr--

i didn't immediately leave and then i did and he said, 'i will fix this, i will fix it, i will be the best man that i can to you for the rest of your life because you deserve it', and i thought about it, and about why it hit so hard. then i remembered a similar jarring realization i'd had about 5 years ago regarding my parents, and the fact that even though i had spent so many years looking to them for truth and guidance and love, they are not infallible mutants. they're human with human wants and selfish needs, he too is human. i put all of my faith in his perfection that did not exist.

so i says to him, i says: i love you so much and i forgive you. neither one of those things means i am coming back.

UHHHHHHHH

i danced today and rediscovered some of my favorite music. i shaved my legs for the first time this year last night, climbed into clean sheets, pulled the curtains open, listened to the cars drive on wet pavement and watched the sky turn from grey to black to pink. i woke up this morning still feeling good. i masturbated and did not cry. 

>Shaved my legs for the first time this year
>post made: March 28
I'm not excusing his shitty behavior but I think I see why he's cheating.
Make
an
effort

merry christmas. i fucking hate myself.

I hate you too.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE FUTURE.

6AM narcissism and mania is the best tasting thing in the world next to the blood in my mouth from chewing my face. after being the best daughter ever and eating all the mashed potatoes in the world, the whole thing, I came back to my apartment so I could be naked everywhere. i lie on the couch naked, eat my fingernails naked, fold the laundry naked, watch the Dow plummet naked. I wish it was December so I could sit on my boyfriend's face and contemplate things like genetic algorithms while concentrating on his muffled sighs and imagining the way I'll sign my name after we're married.

Lol so deep and poetic
Protip: he's cheating on you.

Also the fact you "wished it was December" so he'd dig out your blood-streaked spam sandwich with his tongue tells me it's a long distance relationship and as we all know those are doomed to failure.
my internal thoughts never leave the confines of my interior mind or any part of me, and the only parts of me that exist outside of myself are content, lost in the woods and staring at stars. i am concerned with little else. i'm proud of myself, everyone else is too.

I'm not proud of you in the slightest.
In fact, after getting up at 11, gawking at my Korean visa for a while, then playing video games all day this is probably the single most disappointing aspect of my day. Knowing you have to exist..

three years ago i wasn't eating or talking and my free will to make grown up adult decisions was being threatened by my dad trying to become my legal guardian. as if his authority over my right to do things, had anything at all to do with my mental state or the condition of my psyche.

CLEARLY YOU SHOULDN'T BE MAKING YOUR OWN DECISIONS.
This blog is rapidly updating itself as I read it.
These entries are from 2012 and there are now about 7 more since I started from later dates.
I guess she's porting over from Livejournal or something.
Because, you know, one copy of this brilliance isn't enough. I need it in at least 5 locations.

the 60 degree weather at night has me excited for fall. i bought my huge water bottle two months too late. i'm turning 26 in nine days. i feel completely detached from almost everyone. i'm not sure how i feel about ghosts. sometimes the removal of a part is beneficial to the whole.

Oh huh I'm 26 and I'm going on a great adventure in a month. What's it like knowing your life is a dismal failure?

i've been contemplating suicide lately. in a completely non-dramatic let me just weigh all of the options kind of a way. this october is the worst one in four years. after the ssri's, ambien and benzos i mostly forgot about 2008's october so i can't fairly compare 2012 and 2008. i'm lucid this time around but only until i schedule a doctor's appointment. i don't feel shame in self-sedating when it means that i'll get to emerge in the spring, alive and breathing and at least live long enough to see if this ever gets easier.

that being said, if any of you click the comment link to tell me that yes, things get easier, or to "hang in there" i will delete you. i'm not kidding. obligatory sentiments however well intended only make these instances worse, for the record.

I can't believe anyone cares enough to even comment.
You're a fucking mess and not a fun one either.
You know evolution is just the creature most adapted to its environment. Increasingly, humanity is turning inwards so as humans become more and more connected and social the reality of needing to be socially graceful will be met and therefore I contend drains on the spirit like this need to be selected out of the gene pool.
There's an interesting idea for a story, in fact.
Also this is probably the fastest I've ever reviewed a blog. This is being generated as I review it.
UPDATES MIGHT BE SLOW NOW BUT NOTHING ESCAPES MY SIGHT.

today is the first day this week that my pupils have been dilated past the size of the point of a number two pencil. i'm not as concerned as i should be about all these lateral moves to nowhere or if i'm fulfilling a goal or becoming better or worse every day. the transitioning from warmer months into the colder ones always takes a toll on me. and for some reason i always emerge in the spring less than i was in september.

Hey
I got something to say
it's better to buuuuurn out
than fade away

i know too many people who have too much to say about fucking nothing.

Yeah and I'm reading one of their blogs right now.

i'm listening to john denver, opening windows, cleaning, simplifying my simplicity. i'm making yana write a book with me. i want to buy a telescope and travel to jordan. my favorite sound this week is the phlegm loosening from my chest. i'm writing my brother's senior thesis because i'm bored.


i enjoy spending time with myself more than i used to.

"Oh but," I'm sure she'd argue, "this is just a little bit about nothing."
Yeah well that's a moot argument. When there's something at all about nothing you've wasted my fucking time.
Fuck you.
70% of my time is spent studying in my underwear and drinking alcohol with getting drunk not being the ultimate goal. the other 30 is equally split between thinking about irrelevant bullshit and what i'm going to be for halloween. i feel incredibly mature though. i'm turning 24 in 2 weeks and hitting the 2 year mark with carson, and paying 15k to sit in a class and stare at power points in my designer prescription glasses while i think about fucking my boyfriend. sometimes i think everything's gonna be okay.
I'm having difficulty imagining anyone would put it in her.
Like that is seriously
genuinely flooring me right now.

my life amounts to nothing outside of masturbating, assorted pills, tvland, and shopbop.com. i'm such a selfish piece of shit. i came three times tonight and bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. i fucking love the taste of blood.

Well that's a thing someone wrote and I read.

if you attract people like me, something is wrong with you.

Fortunately I'm sure you'd hate me so I think I'm ok.
Apparently this blog has existed since 2010.
How is it she's posted 123 times today from different dates?
Maybe she's just now making these public.
Well whatever.
No new posts and I'm officially out like shout because fuck this.
Song of the now.

What

So I was rereading the comments I got and one of them that I swear didn't have a link now has a link to a Youtube video.
What the fuck is even happening--
Also yeah I reread my comments periodically. There's like 10 of them so it doesn't take very long.
Anyway here's today's blog.
I think we're dealing with some kinda tranny.
Probably.
Isn't that a safe assumption?

So you found a cat on the internet. You're not surprised, not even by the fact that they seem to communicate with you via text verses silly faces and jumping in and out of boxes.

You're curious and want to know more, or at least bored enough to keep reading.

This is what you need to know:
- This cat is trapped in the wrong body. Human fingers and toes never sat well with it, they make it twitch and long for claws and a tail and ears that perk up at the smallest sound.

Or maybe a furry?
For some reason I interpreted this as a metaphor.
That's a dangerous thing to assume with all the weird shit on the internet. Like why, necessarily, does it have to be a tranny and not someone who honestly believes they're a cat?
Why does one seem saner than the other?

- The cat is not male or female, it is both and neither and prefers they/them/their pronouns. It pronouns also work assuming it knows you and trusts you are not doing it offensively.

Oh.
Should have kept reading.
I got into an argument with a person of unique gender description recently.
Apparently I should bend to their wishes even though I refuse to use "they" to refer to a single person outside of a royal context because it's mean if I don't play exactly how they want me to.
I don't think the real world works like that.
You know I want to be referred to only as Lord because I am, in fact, a Space Marine but unfortunately that's not the actual case in reality.

- The cat has a strange belief system cobbled together from life experience and what it's gathered in books. It will not shove it's beliefs on you if you don't shove yours on it.

In before shit about elves in a parallel dimension that you can visit if you have brain damage.
Remember that blog?

Me neither.

- The cat is polyamorous, demisexual and kinky. These topics may come up at some point but any sexual talk will be warned for.

Demisexual.
That's a new one on me.
That's a new one on me and I frequently substitute for schools designed for special snowflakes.

 A demisexual is a person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone. 

Or "hopeless romantic" as we say.
Also that rings a bell now that I've read it.

- The cat is mentally ill. It's just a part of who it is. It has bad days just like everyone else and it tires to not express them too often but this is it's space and it does what it likes.

Yeah no kidding.
Hey here's a picture.

Writing slumps suck. I've been having trouble braining for any sort of word type things since like...Wednesday. It is problematic. 

Ever have a tumblr social justice warrior tell you something you said is "problematic"?
Nothing evokes a primal 'kill' instinct from me faster.
 I feel like that's a cheap way to get me to default lose in a debate.
You lose a debate when you call someone a name.
How does that make any sense?
If you act like a twat
I'm going to call you a twat.
I mean I guess "fuck you the noises coming out of the stupid face in front of you fucking head are problematic" might be a grounds for a ban from a chat group
I GUESS
One question I get when I say I'm moving to South Korea is "aren't you afraid you won't fit in?" to which I respond "I've made two friends after living in North Carolina for almost 8 years. I don't think If it in very well here either."

I am tired and twitchy and feel horribly disconnected from everything. I don't even know why I just don't feel like I am braining right. I want to sleep but I can't manage to do so and just....nrrrrg.

"tired, twitchy and disconnected" sounds like a typical Wednesday substituting at any of the 5/10 schools I go to.

 So, I was up for a good long while today. From seven PM until now (about 3:30 AM) and that was...not what I was planning to do but I can't really sleep anymore, even after I've taken drugs. it's a problem.

Everything is a problem or problematic for you.
Maybe there are no problems. Maybe it's all in your stupid head.

So, I was up for a good long while today. From seven PM until now (about 3:30 AM) and that was...not what I was planning to do but I can't really sleep anymore, even after I've taken drugs. it's a problem.

You know Zeus says you shouldn't pray for solutions to your problems. You should only pray that you should be equal to the problems in your life.
Worth thinking about.
You know to me that says Zeus is more legit than Jesus. Jesus is supposedly all powerful, all wise and benevolent yet he doesn't fix really grievous problems in peoples' lives because he "works in mysterious ways".
Zeus might not be all powerful (allegedly) but he is powerful enough to basically do what he pleases.
But that doesn't mean he has to please you, idiot.
Got a problem?
Figure it the fuck out, Jesus.
Yeah he might be the god of the gods and the elemental god of thunder and lightning but he has nothing better to do than fix your headache.

You know when you have something stuck in your head and you can't get it out? Words echoing through your skull and they refuse to get out? Yeah, that's what this is.

Also known as, the cat committed poetry again.


The gods said "Give us an anthem."
And all I could do in reply is laugh.
"I only have one language." I said.
"Twenty six letters and some syllables."

But they smile at me
Not with faces but the bending of the world
And they say, with the sound of birds,
"Give us your letters, your stresses, your tenses.
And we will love them no matter what you'e done."

I smile, not with the world but the turning of my lips.
And put a pen to paper and see what happens.

I give them twenty six letters and some syllables.

And all the while, I hear the birds sing.

Then there's this garbage.
Once again I have to take the Roman view of this. If there are gods then their attention is toward far greater things than us and if they turn to a human it is only the especially great and even then it is only the merest fraction of their attention and only then for a few seconds, relatively speaking.
And assuming all that who even knows if their attention is something you want to invite.
Do you know how many people end up turned to dust or animals in mythology?
Like you better seriously know what's up if that's what you're courting.
Or, you know, it could be like Julian or Pythagoras says. Maybe the gods aren't even conscious as we conventionally understand it.
You know that's kind of the beauty of what we call cognitive dissonance. You can hold two contradictory views at once and understand they're contradictory.

Feel like I am falling, feel like I''m cracked and broken and sick and stupid and gross and wrong.
So, I am entertaining the thought of acquiring a Wordpress.  

It's free. Just sign up for it.

- You can say whatever you'd like here but I do ask that, if its something trigeery, you warn in the subject line. 

Hey can I get a trigger warning for trigger warnings?
They really make me irrationally angry.
Like how fucking thin skinned are you that you need warned that something might bother you?
No one gives me a fucking trigger warning when I turn the radio on and Lorde is on for the millionth time that day.
I'd like one, too, but I don't get one.
Like why can't Ryan Seacrest say "hey we're about to play Lorde so change the channel if you don't want to taste blood" before he starts playing it?
Your radio show is already shit, Seacrest. You can only improve it by doing that.
His entire show is just masturbation at how famous he is and how he can't even believe it and then Lorde records.
In fact, can I get a trigger warning for On Air with Ryan Seacrest, please?

So, I've put a lot of thought into this, talking to people, fussing over it in my head, all that jazz.

I'm no longer going by Charley.

It's a name that has served me well over the years. One that I've grown very fond of. However, I find that, while I still am attached to it, things aren't the same way they used to be when I first picked out the name.

I'm a different person now, with different tastes, views and experiences I have learned more about myself and grown over.

Names, to me, are like clothes. You might have worn something perfectly for a long time and it was wonderful but you eventually outgrow it. That's what happened with Charley, I outgrew it. I found that it didn't fit right anymore.

So, what's the new name?

Mallory. Or Mal. The full name is Mallory Bowen Tam

Real life is a lot like a foreign language class where you pick a name to better get into the mindset of that culture.
In German I was Heinrich after Heinrich Himmler because I was in high school and we all thought giving ourselves Nazi names was funny.

 So, I am taking a writing course, right? I needed a plot and Mor and I were sitting here batting around ideas.

The one I a going with? Is basically The Life And Times Of A Shared Headspace.

Your mind isn't a space. It's not a physical location.
It's a series of bioelectrical impulses your brain arranges into your senses.
Have you considered this is part of your problem?
None of the shit in your head is there objectively. It's all what you make up.
Whatever 'you' even is.
Basically what I'm trying to say is everything you see, think or do could be part of your or someone else's imagination and there's absolutely no way for you to ever discern the truth.
So the sooner you accept the crushing hopelessness of your situation the better.
That's therapeutic to hear, I think.
Fuck

Oh Jesus just kill me

Allergies are so fucking bad
bad
bad
I'm praying for the release of death at this point.
Anyway let's read a blog that deconstructs comic book movies.

Many thoughts, in no particular order. Lots of niggly logistical complaints, but I am not unhappy, except for a couple of issues endemic to Hollywood film-making.

Who

cares

here's my thoughts on the movie (because my opinion will be more concise and probably less douchey)

competent action movie. Won't waste your time. Some of the better fight choreography I've seen if you're enough of a fag to care about that sort of thing. Don't see it in 3D because the 3D is so shallow you won't even know it's 3D in half the scenes.

I am getting too old or too sentimental to accept with equanimity the casual way in which this movie, like so many others, shows me the horrible deaths of thousands of people uninvolved in the action of the film. Especially when it's the actions of the supposed heroes that lead, directly or indirectly, to those deaths. Was everyone in the Triskellion or on the helicarriers deserving of being crushed or burned to death in that catastrophic collapse at the end of the film? I rather doubt it. This leads me to wonder about the easy way in which volume of casualties is equated with seriousness of purpose in popular film. I can't actually accept that, and I wish that someone in Hollywood would begin to challenge that equation. 

Who cares?

Firstly if they hadn't blown up the helicarriers (which are basically flying doom fortresses) then half of humanity would have died.

So your options are a few thousand or a couple billion.

Which will you pick?  

Also as I recall it the movie depicted the doom fortresses exploding harmlessly over the ocean surrounding DC.

You know.

The ocean around DC.

The landlocked city of DC.

2. It was pleasant to hear some gasps from the audience when the Winter Soldier's identity was revealed: that was nice, and proof that even open secrets aren't always all that open.

Errr, that was a plot twist?
I thought that was dramatic irony where the audience was supposed to know but Captain America wasn't.

I guess people are really that retarded.

3. Lots of familiar faces, but the unexpected ones gave me more pleasure because unexpected. So, bravo Danny Pudi and Jenny Agutter. (Danny Pudi! I flapped my hands at that point.) Pity that wasn't actually Agutter's character taking down the Hydra folks in the conference room: I had a moment of sheer glee before Natasha revealed herself. Why couldn't an older woman have been involved in the storyline in such a powerful way?

Why couldn't a politician pushing about 75 pirouette kick 5 burly special force types into unconsciousness?

I know we're on about feminism on Dreamwidth but I think Scarlett Johansson being able to take even one special forces dude down is a bit of a stretch.

She's like a 100 pound woman versus a 220 pound brainwashed killing machine.

She doesn't even have a super power as far as I can tell.

But a 75 year old woman apparently the same size with no special training?
Sorry, not happening.

I can't even suspend disbelief in a super hero movie to believe that.

4. I liked the subtext about PTSD, which was not very subtextual, and the recognition that women soldiers were fighting overseas as well. I also liked the recognition of the Rescue Squadrons, even if Sam Wilson's team didn't actually use helicopters to perform their rescues.

"the subtext that wasn't very subtextual" was a topic directly covered by the movie. The term "PTSD" even came up like 5 times.

That's not so much a subtext as a scene in the movie.

I mean we couldn't very well have a movie called Captain America and not cover how much the soldiers of the US military are suffering so America can suck down more oil.

I mean fight terror.

I mean look for weapons of mass destruction.

I mean free desert people from themselves.

5. I liked Sam Wilson, although I couldn't figure out how his suit worked (are the wings controlled by thought? How could he shoot a gun while flying?). But I would have liked to see him have more of his own agenda: he was positioned pretty much entirely as a sidekick, and it would have been nice to see him question or argue some points with Steve.

Wow you're right. The man with the fucking hover pack is really unrealistic.

 9. There were the usual violations of physics inherent in such a movie: both Steve and more normal human beings flying through the air, falling from great heights, evading flying bullets, and being knocked against hard surfaces without apparent injury.

You're bothered Steve (CAPTAIN AMERICA) could fall from great heights with no injury?
He's a fucking super soldier. What'd you expect?

So you want to see a 75 year old politician defeat Navy SEALS in hand to hand combat but a super soldier surviving a 30 foot drop is too much?
Are you out of your fucking mind?

And other violations of plausibility: like the presence of a major military installation under the Potomac. My bureaucratic heart quailed at the thought of the reaction of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service to the construction, operation, and destruction of the Triskellion and Project Insight. But clearly this is an alternate universe where such things are easily ignored. (Although actually filming at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum was inspired.)

Oh so that's the body of water the carriers crashed over.

See?
No humans harmed.

Also yes, that's the movie I want to see in a movie called "Captain America: The Winter Soldier": a bureaucratic nightmare fight between all the different branches of the Virginia local government.

Brilliant.

10. I'm bothered that Nick Fury ever thought Project Insight was a good idea. Is this a universe in which The Minority Report was never made? It's one thing to believe that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty for the greater good; it's another entirely to sign on to preemptive murder from on-high because someone might someday be a threat. That's ludicrous, and I'm baffled that even a HYDRA-tainted funding/contracting/construction process didn't get any pushback from anyone in an oversight position. It's not like multi-billion-dollar projects don't get a lot of review...

IT WAS A COMMENTARY ON AMERICA'S USE OF DRONES AND THE THREAT TO USE THEM ON THEIR OWN PEOPLE YOU FUCKING TWAT.

How fucking thick are you? This was not a complex narrative.

How did you not recognize the giant, unmanned flying robots as a stand in for the UNMANNED FLYING ROBOTS IN THE REAL WORLD

11. The idea that Tony's experience in The Avengers gave him ideas for propulsion systems that could have been designed, tested, constructed, and integrated into the helicarriers in less than 2 years is one that would be reasonable only to someone with no experience in federal contracting and engineering. Heh.

Yeah because a movie involving a dream team involving a super soldier, a Norse god and fucking Iron Man really should contain federal government red tape, and lots of it.

12. laurashapiro and I both chortled at the idea that computer banks from the 1970s could ever be used for the purpose to which they were put in this movie--among other reasons, the magnetic tape on all those spools would have long since crumbled into uselessness. (And they would have gone up like torches when the missile hit.) And the amount of memory in that room probably equalled no more than that on my Android phone... But then, it's the movies, where all tech is nonsensical and basically magic.

...

Yeah.

That's the obvious thing to note in that scene.

reel to reel machines from the 70s would have had crumbling tape.

Not that, you know, they were used to STORE THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A NAZI SCIENTIST or anything.

13. Speaking of phones, if SHIELD was so comprehensively compromised, and all networks were being searched for evidence of Steve and Natasha, how did Natasha get her phone to work, to track down the file?

... She owns her own iPhone?

This is the woman who can hack into government files using a display kiosk at an Apple Store. I think she's probably clever enough to keep a throw away backup phone not snooped out by the SHIELD network.

This was by no means a masterpiece of storytelling but your criticisms are knit-picky enough even if they were right which, as I think I'm demonstrating, they're not.

What I didn't like (aside from the mostly-petty bits above): too many fight scenes, too long. Too many civilian/bystander deaths, and too much destruction in general--seriously, you can ramp up drama without having everything blow up.

Are you complaining about action in a comic book movie?
Are you fucking crazy?

I don't give a shit about comic books because I'm not 14.

I don't care about feminism or whatever shit you normally whine about.

I liked it. I thought it was an enjoyable and effective (notice I didn't say good) movie.

Like many of y'all, I'm severely disappointed in this week's Agents of SHIELD episode, which for the SG-1 folks I will merely describe as a rehash of "Hathor". Gender essentialist, heteronormative, rapey, predictable, cliche'd, stupidly plotted, and DULL.

Oh my God not gender essentialist!
I don't even know what that means.

So I was poking about in my LJ archives and found an old post, and decided it was time to revisit it:

What's the last book you read that just made you squee? Just filled you with joy in the way that you didn't want it to end?

I've never squeed in my life because I'm not a massive crying vagina but the last book that I enjoyed was The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett.

What I'll be reading next:
Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad

Oh, good Christ.

Hey, remember that triumph of the human imagination, The Odyssey?
Ever wonder what Odysseus' wife spent her life doing while Odysseus was off having adventures and nailing sorceresses on the side and pissing off Poseidon?

NO?
WELL GUESS WHO GETS TO EAT SHIT, THEN?

Also for a book that's supposedly feminist (I've covered how not feminist Margaret Atwood is in the past) I don't think the book has particularly good things to say about either gender.

Apparently all women are vicious backstabbers and manipulators and all men are basically thuggish, lying brutes with penis envy of any man who they perceive might have a bigger dick than them.

I'm not saying this is necessarily inaccurate of the human condition but for a woman held as a saint in the feminist circle this isn't exactly the ideas I'd expect to be espoused.

 Fortunately for her, Atwood herself says she doesn't consider it a feminist book. Just a book with a female protagonist.

So at least she's not guilty of writing bad feminist stories.

She's just guilty of writing bad stories.

Why is it bad, in light of it not being a feminist book?
Well, much like the Star Wars prequels, it's a story that didn't need told.

Who cares what Penelope did during the 20 years Odysseus was absent?
Homer pretty much covers it. She raised Telemachus and spent the rest of her time trying not to get forced into marriage by a bunch of freeloading suitors.

Which she succeeds at doing and then Odysseus murders all the suitors with an axe.

Great story.

This blog has just devolved into her linking me shit to read.

I have enough people linking me shit to watch and read in an average day. I don't need help on this front.

John Scalzi attempts to define the advantages of being a straight white male in western society without using the "P" word. The comments are... well, they're better than they would have been three years ago. (But that's not saying much.)(On later revisiting, no, they're not good at all, since apparently the post got linked by some MRA site. EW. Happily, Scalzi is wielding the Mallet of Loving Correction with some authority.)

Oh I remember that.

Wherein John Scalzi talks down to me for 10 minutes and doesn't know how video games work so his analogy falls apart right out of the gate.
Great job otherwise.

Basically he says being a white man is like playing a video game on the easiest difficulty setting.

Which makes about as much sense as you think it does.

I'm moving to South Korea in 1 month. Will being a white man be easy mode there?
Can I bitch like a ponce then or is it still easy mode?

Logically, being in South Korea, an industrialized, wealthy, high tech society filled 99% with ethnic Koreans being Korean would be easy mode.

Or would it?

How can you quantify a life based on difficulty settings?
When I was student teaching at the shitty high school I student taught at my life was on basically the highest difficulty it'd ever been on.

For me that was like Dante Must Die mode.

Does that make it easier or harder than a starving African's life?

Can't really say, can you? I doubt, if we were suddenly thrown into each others' situations Freaky Friday style, we'd endure in either setting.

Is a life one consistent difficulty?
There was a white girl who, despite dealing with what I am sure was the incredible oppression of the patriarchy on a daily basis, went to the best high school in the county to student teach.

Was she on hard mode then?

Oh but hang on a second. This analogy is becoming dangerous for the white girls on tumblr who espouse this garbage because lo and behold we, the student teaching class, divided ourselves more or less along how good the school you went to was. So for all our privilege checking professors supposed non-racism it was basically the white kids in the front and the black kids plus me in the back.

So now I'm in regular contact with this black chick.

She was in a school as bad as mine.

Surely her life at that moment was hard mode.
Bad school.

She was black which as we've established in our pussy sensitivity is an intense social disadvantage because of racism aaaand she's a woman so therefore grappling with patriarchy.

In that situation, by John Scalzi's august logic, her life would truly be hard mode such that whatever little issue the spoiled white cunt teaching other spoiled white cunts should shrivel away into irrelevance.

But that's not really how life or, more accurately, our perception of life works, does it?

When you're a spoiled white cunt student teaching at Northern High the worst thing you can imagine from a class is getting some sass about a cellphone being confiscated. You cannot fathom what dealing with a PCP-induced psychotic rage episode is like.

Does that make me better for having endured it, though?
Well yes it does, actually.

But was I playing on easy mode and she on hard mode in that long, long, long, nightmarish 8 months?

If the answer is yes I was then the only logical conclusion is white women are therefore playing on mostly easy and have nothing whatever to complain about either because clearly if "life difficulty" is just an escalating combination of color and gender then white women have it second easiest.
You know I hardly think playing Civ 5 on chieftain instead of settler when there's warlord, prince, king, emperor, immortal and deity ahead of it is worth bragging about or martyring yourself over.

The only RPG I can claim to have played in any detail was first Diablo and then Diablo II, some years back. (I'm no good at FPSs, they make me motion-sick.) So I read The Mary Sue's rundown on the female characters in the upcoming Diablo III with some interest.

Oh boy.

Stay Awhile and Listen: Diablo III’s Female Character Models Are A Step In The Right Direction

YOU MEAN MASCULINE AND CLAD IN TOO MUCH ARMOR?
BECAUSE BOY I SURE NOTICED.

If you’ve never seen an armor set disparity like this in WoW, that’s because the female armor has improved considerably throughout the expansions. Midriffs and hot pants were common when I first started playing back in 2006, but by the time I quit three years later, most armor sets were identical between genders. Blizzard, it seemed, was finally taking their female players into account.

Japan still isn't giving a fuck so just stick to Japanese MMOs if you want waifus I suppose.
You know who is currently attempting to set gender relations back 30 years, though?
Korea.
You can literally see nipple in some of the armor in Tera.
Not that I was complaining but all right, calm down, Tera developers.

So while it’s too early to say how Diablo III will measure up, the female character models shown thus far have me feeling very encouraged. For starters, they are all wearing plausible armor. Their stomachs are covered. The only one who looks a bit waifish is the Wizard, which makes sense, and even she looks like she can tear it up. But the best of the bunch, in my opinion, is the Barbarian. She’s broad-shouldered. She’s buff. She’s got big, muscular thighs, which is exactly what you need if you’re going to be swinging an axe all day. And before you scoff at her bare legs, take note of what her male counterpart is wearing.

There's a bizarre amount of puritanism running through modern feminism too.
What if a woman doesn't want to dress in a burqa?
Also why does the wizard being waifish "make sense"?
Is it because she's Asian?
FUCKING
RACISM.
The monk and the demon hunter are pretty waifish, too, why not include them?
Is it because they're Russian and a stupid scene/emo slut, respectively?
Actually the witch doctor is pretty waifish, too, but it's hard to tell because of her poor posture.
In fact the only character powerfully built is the barbarian which if we're talking about not-overly sexualized I'm going to argue she is because despite having powerfully built thighs and midsection she also has swaying hips.
She's clearly some body builder fetishist's spank fodder.
I know she wasn't out at the time of the writing but the crusader is just a tall, blonde Aryan with huge tits. Clearly an unrealistic expectation for women players to aspire to.
Because, you know, when I play a video game I aspire to be the character.  Not just pick one that looks neato.
None of them are fat. None of them are ugly.
Also let's discuss briefly how hypocritical this bullshit is.
Here's my demon hunter.

Not a single inch of exposed skin.
But what is prominently on display:
form-fitting armor where her generous tits are well noticed.
Impractically tall high heels in a bitchy "I'm in charge" kinda pose--
for all the supposed genderlessness this article bangs on about that is clearly still a thin, attractive woman under all that.
Just as long as no skin is exposed.
So really feminism is on par with extremist Islam in terms of gender relations.
Good work, everyone.
In fact I can argue in many ways the above character is more exciting than one in skimpy armor because this leave much more to the imagination than otherwise.
For a jaded internet warrior sometimes having clothes on is more exciting than whatever the latest extreme form of porno that's popular at that second.
Also there's another, practical consideration in all this: the point of Diablo 3 is to slowly amass better gear as you go.
It's hard to make essentially nude armor seem better than the last set of essentially nude armor so they just heap plates on top of plates until, well, your waifu looks like a mismatch of armor from about 10 wildly different aesthetics like the above.
Really the thing that has me most perplexed is now armor comes dyed by default so you're better off just buying 100 of those dye remover potions and scrubbing any armor you think you'll keep for a while.
But before level 70 everything is replaced with such regularity you might as well not bother. So your character is just a constant kaleidoscope of gayly colored spikes and sloping, baroque plating.
Anyway wow, fuck.
This was a blog filled to the brim with bullshit. I'm going to sleep.

ALLERGIES

My allergies are so fucking bad because of this stupid fucking weather--
Here's this cunt running her fucking face.
tumblr, fanfiction, anime--
How many minutes until the hamfisted attempt at religious or gender commentary?

Reading fic because that is what I always do, and I ship all a lot of the things in Kuroko no Basuke. There's also been a bunch of new Jean/Marco SnK fic since the last time I checked my bookmark. Fun times.

Remember that Diablo roleplay from last time?
Wasn't that awful?

Eating some Oreo Sludge, which is how I refer to dropping a stack of chocolate sandwich cookies into a small cup/mug and filling it with milk, then eating the mess with a spoon. It looks disgusting but tastes delicious.

Not as awful as this. Jesus. Why would you post that?
* ARROW. As with most weeks, I am full of feels about the many and varied amazing ladies on this show.
ALL MY FEELS
I CAN'T EVEN
Fuck tumblr.

Happy Valentine's Day, my dears. My love for you all is over 9000.

Oh God just throw that lame meme in there, please.

The highlight of my day today was when I saw a girl at work wearing a Scouting Legion jacket from Shingeki no Kyojin. Inside, I squeed like a mad thing; outside, I paused and complimented it. I wish that I had thought to give her the SnK-style military salute. Like, "nice jacket, soldier. *fist over heart*" Because I'm a nerd like that.

That's the SnK salute, apparently.

Not, you know, the Roman salute or anything.
 Dear fandom,

How fast can you get me some fic for tonight's Arrow? Because I have needs.


Love,
me

I'm not sure why I'm so worried about being a good writer or anything. It's not like standards exist anymore

I drew a new goddess card for the year, having felt successful with my Athena card last year. I'm a shite pagan when it comes to actually practicing and studying, but having a particular goddess energy to focus on felt...useful? 

Dude what

Like, the key words my deck gives for each goddess provided a point to reflect on so I could see what I had done or how I had grown in that area over the year. I may write about that eventually. Someone remind me sometime when my head is better.

This year is Freya. It felt right again, with that same kind of sparkly, happy recognition I had when I pulled the Athena card last year. It'll be interesting to see where the Lady leads me.

What

Keeping up with everything that's going on in my various online spheres is triggering my anxiety. Work stress is triggering depression. I may not be posting or commenting much for a while. We'll see.

You get anxiety from the internet
How are you adapted to living in this world?
The internet freaks you out.
How do you handle a job?

I don't know what's up with my body today, but my hands/wrists have been aching since early this morning. Not an outright, constant thing, but there's this frequent, obvious feeling of stiffness and discomfort. I'm mostly just glad that it's not currently impeding me from performing any tasks.

Well holy shit her hand hurts her.
Call the fucking guard.
I mean Imperial Guard.
OR NO EXCUSE ME ASTRA MILITARUM THANK YOU GAMES WORKSHOP.
They're currently renaming everything they can't copyright.
Why?
Who the fuck knows?
This is ignoring that in Warhammer lore all groups like that are adeptus something but "imperial guard" in the faux Latin they use would most readily be rendered as "adeptus custodes" which is already a military body that is entirely different from the imperial guard.
Thank you, Games Workshop.
Also they shouldn't have a High Gothic (the faux Latin) name at all because the Imperial Guard didn't exist prior to the Horus Heresy and no one speaks High Gothic after that.
FUCK I KNOW THE PLOT BETTER THAN THE COMPANY THAT MADE IT DOES.

It's a good thing I have a great internal clock, because when I woke up this morning, my phone battery had completely discharged itself overnight.

Discharge makes it sound like it fired arc lightning.
Ok so as we all know I'm a man with a big swinging dick and 8 inches of foreskin but I can't handle this shit and these allergies today.
I'm sorry.
I tried.
BEHOLD THE SONG OF THE NOW

The Struggle

Holy God Diablo III fanfiction.
This is one post but we're doing it and then I'll do another blog because holy shit.

Character Info ››
Name: Malthael
Canon: Diablo 3
Age: Many thousands of years
Appearance: Faceless, glowing wings, likes to dress in black and white
Canon Point: Just after the Nephalem enters the Pandemonium Fortress

"Likes to dress in black and white"
like oh hey Malthael, Archangel of Death, Reaper of Souls, what are you going to wear today
I dunno man how about some black and white robes?

 Personality: By the time Malthael starts to exterminate humanity to bring about an end to the Eternal Conflict, He has become a cold, heartless, ruthless being. The only hint of his old self is when he spares Tyrael, as even though Tyrael is mortal, he lacks the demonic taint present in all humanity. He sees anything demonic as worthy of being destroyed, and this includes all humanity in his canon (encountering non-demonic humans will be a very troubling issue for him in the game).

... "encountering non-demonic humans will be a very troubling issue for him"
"he spares Tyrael because he's a non-tainted human"
WOW IT'S LIKE THE INCREDIBLY THIN, CLICHE PLOT TO DIABLO 3 WAS ALMOST TOO MUCH FOR YOU TO HANDLE!
Here let me summarize this shit so you can get a non-retard summary of this literary tour-de-force on par with Herman Hesse's Siddhartha:
In the grim darkness of not-earth Satan and his asshole brothers decide to terrorize not-earth because--
uhh--
and anyway there are angels but they're non-denomination angels with no God.
This shit isn't Christianity, okay?
But the angels are almost as bad as the devils so humans are doubly fucked.
Also humans are the spawn of angels fucking devils.
Shut the fuck up. Someone was paid to write this and you're going to goddamn listen to it.
So a ton of stupid shit happens and then we come to the world stone which is like a magic stone that's somehow important to keeping reality stable but if you fuck with it enough you can also alter reality.
Malthael, who used to be the angel of wisdom, became the angel of death. His solution to defeating the demons (as angels and demons hate each other, natch) and therefore ending the Eternal War is to kill all humanity by stealing the world stone and then sucking out all the demonic essence in the world, thereby exterminating humanity because, as we said, they're half demons.
This will make Malthael all-powerful and then he can kill all demons and rule over a realm of death.
It's a solution, anyway.
But luckily your character in Diablo 3 is the Nephalem which is like a super powerful human throwback to when angels and demons first started boning.
This plot is fucking stupid why am I even wasting my time trying to summarize it?
Malthael is effective as a villain and Reaper of Souls does have some excellent art direction but the plot is fucking stupid and also gay.
He enjoys taunting the Nephalem about the futility of their quest, and enjoys every death brought about by his army: Each death makes him stronger and brings that much closer the end of the Eternal Conflict, something Malthael has always been denied in the past. In a way, it could serve to soothe a wound and ease the trouble in his mind that began when the Worldstone was first lost. At the point from which I am taking Malthael he will be full of wrath and fury at being torn away from Pandemonium when his victory is so close at hand.
You keep saying "enjoys" and "likes" like this thing can possibly have emotions outside of fucking murder.

While Malthael was once capable of working alongside others, accepting their right to bring their opinions forth as part of the Angiris Council, he no longer views any as his equals (Imperious' temper causes them to lose their chance to capture Diablo, and looking back at all those failures does not help his opinion and view of his fellow Angels). Angels are probably the only beings he would not kill for getting in his way, and then only if sparing them would not (in his mind, and he doesn't have the best judgment on this matter because he considers himself unstoppable) cause further trouble.
He used to be the angel of wisdom, idiot.

Then he became disillusioned with what he saw as the angel of wisdom--
what the fuck is it with fanfiction?
It's like every five minutes there's a new monument to insanity ready to horrify me right to my fucking core.
 You're writing a fanfiction/roleplay about a series that can be summarized with "click on skeletons so you can get loot to more effectively click on skeletons"

He'll accept those working towards the same cause he is, but isn't going to listen to any dissenting voices once he's decided on a course of action, even if that course of action is ultimately going to be self-destructive.

... Which explains why the other angels, who have proposed the destruction of humanity before, side with him.
OH WAIT NO THEY SIDE WITH YOU BECAUSE HIS PLAN IS CRAZIER THAN WHAT THE ANGELS USUALLY DO.
Malthael's only allies in this war are his own underlings, who, understandably, are corrupted like him by him becoming the archangel of death.
This seriously is a simple, simple black and white morality kinda plot. How are you this shitty at characterizing death?
He fucking kills people.
That's the end of his characterization.
This is not a dynamic character.

Malthael was once a beautiful and wonderful being who cherished all life, but continual failures led him down the path that ended in Death. The Nephalem destroying the Prime Evil, a feat that the Angels had been unable to accomplish for thousands of years, was simply the final unbearable proof that he'd been inadequate as Wisdom.

Malthael has a lot of anger he doesn't acknowledge, at himself, the Angiris council, humanity in general and the Nephalem in particular. 

Or to summarize this succinctly: Malthael is disillusioned so he becomes archangel of death and Tyrael becomes the archangel of wisdom to fill in the spot.
Come on people, fuck.
The main angels summarize concepts as complicated and not-cliched as hope, wisdom, fate, death and valor.
Clearly we need fanfiction about this.
Somehow fate and death aren't buddies, either.
I'll leave it to the reader to decide how much sense that makes.

Instead he lives in denial, rationalizing that as Death, he is in a better position to combat the remaining demonic threat than he could when he was the Aspect of Wisdom; Likewise, the Angiris council is flawed, and the only Angels Malthael accepts are those who agree to serve him obediently. And obviously humanity and the Nephalem are abominations, since nothing good could possibly rival the power of an Archangel.

He's not wrong.
The Angels have proven incredibly inept at fighting demons and his plan, while extreme, would have worked.
So is he in denial?
He's just a man with a plan, really.
Also the main problem with the angels, as I see it, is them trusting Imperius.
Despite his name being Imperius and him being the archangel of valor he's also a total puss.
Again, expert writing.

There was a time when Malthael rarely spoke, but he has become considerably more talkative (in comparison) than he was before the Worldstone went missing. 

>more talkative than when the Worldstone went missing
>the story states he disappeared after the Worldstone disappeared
yeah no that's true.
Hard to be less talkative than being totally absent.

He's still not the most talkative being, but he does enjoy taunting his foes. As Malthael has no face in his normal form, emotion and feeling are usually communicated through body language, and in particular, the movement of his wings (which now take the form of skeletal wisps of pale light rather than the luminous purple they once were)

>body language
>spends 90% of the expansion folded up like a mummy
No, cool. You're making the actual plot to Diablo 3 seem competent.

Abilities/Powers/Skills: Malthael is the Aspect of Death. In Diablo 3 that made him invulnerable to everything except Death. The only way the Nephalem could defeat him was to also take on the aspect of Death. That wouldn't really work so well in a game, so this will be nerfed so that he can be hurt by anything (he is not going to accept this so well), but only actually killed by another thing that is Death.

God that was so fucking dumb in the game.
"Only his own aspect can harm him!"
"How do you get that?"
"I dunno like eat a ghost or something"
AND INDEED YOU DO.

Being death, Malthael can create fog from his wings that causes living things to decay. He can also sense any amount of demonic essence in a soul, and rip souls from bodies (although that is more difficult the stronger his opponent is, and Malthael is unlikely to do it to anything that isn't demonic). Hearing his voice can cause dark and brooding thoughts and feelings in people.

Here just watch this and save yourself a ton of time with this garbage.
I'll give Blizzard some credit. This cinematic is, well, cinematic as fuck.
In fact if you're not paying attention you might actually think this is quality writing.

Weaknesses: Malthael has no particular kryptonite

I dunno he seemed to have a pretty big weakness to getting cornered and cheesed to death with frozen orb spam. Also after watching that can you believe some people had the audacity to claim the game was too bright?
Like sorry they had to use a color other than black. You won't find someone who is willing to criticize Blizzard faster than me but the art direction wasn't the issue.
Actually it was in a way. The classes are kind of uninteresting at times. Like you have this wacky high Gothic world and the best you can do is a wizard and a dude with an axe?
Like I got a cool idea for a character. A hot Egyptian kinda chick who's Diablo 3's equivalent to the druid.
She can turn into a crocodile, a jackal and like an eagle or something.
You can have that idea, Blizzard.
A lot of people are bitching the game needs a necromancer class but that's pretty much the witch doctor. Sorry you can't summon skellingtons. Guess you'll have to make due with exploding zombie bears you ungrateful whining losers.

Special Items: His armor and his two weapons are highly magical and incredibly durable/hard/sharp, but they have no special characteristics beyond that.

... He is the suit of armor, buddy. Remember when Tyrael pulled his pauldrons off and his wings went with it and it made him mortal?
I think it's safe to say angels are just embodied suits of armor.
Wow I spent the entire entry talking about Diablo 3.
Fuck me. Fuck fanfiction.
Song of the now. I've had this stuck in my head a while because I'm a homo.

I AM THE EMPEROR'S WILL MADE MANIFEST

Thank you, community manager.
Truly am I safe with you guarding my sensitive eyes.

Scrambled eggs and whiskey
in the false-dawn light. Chicago,
a sweet town, bleak, God knows,
but sweet. Sometimes. And
weren't we fine tonight?
When Hank set up that limping
treble roll behind me
my horn just growled and I
thought my heart would burst.
And Brad M. pressing with the
soft stick and Joe-Anne
singing low. Here we are now
in the White Tower, leaning
on one another, too tired
to go home. But don't say a word,
don't tell a soul, they wouldn't
understand, they couldn't, never
in a million years, how fine,
how magnificent we were
in that old club tonight.

THANK THE MOTHERFUCK CHRIST THIS WAS BEHIND A WARNING.

"Bruce Wayne organized sentiment like Gotham organized crime; poorly and with campy dramatics."

Oh it's going to be one of those blogs I can tell.
Where we just say weird, vague shit and sit back and think about how fucking clever we are?
You know, exactly like how interesting writing doesn't work?

Empathy is a Disease for the Weak

Yeah.
Thank you, Warhammer.
Little too edgy, though.
I feel like if it were a real Warhammer quote it'd be something even shorter. Maybe a direct 1:1?
"Empathy is weakness."
Disease implies external invaders, which while a major problem for humanity in the Warhammer universe, by far man's greatest threat is man himself.
It's the attention to detail like this while missing the huge, glaring plotholes that makes Warhammer so great.

You Fit Into Me, by Margaret Atwood

Let me summarize Margaret Atwood and her writing for you people:
"slap my naughty ass," said the empowered feminist.
For a woman ostensibly about the empowerment of women her writing sure comes across like she wants a man to tell her what to do.
And I'm sure a lot of people will argue "oh well just because she didn't outright tell you the moral doesn't mean she thinks the opposite" and that's true. Believe me I'm the number one guy to argue against dumbing it down for your audience and leaving the moral unstated and requiring a deeper reading but she takes an almost childlike glee in describing the subjugation of women in some of her shit.
You know like in a Warhammer book when Aaron Dembski-Bowden is describing the Butcher's Nails stabbed into the meat of Angron's brain and you can tell he's quite pleased with the idea and image he just created?
Combine that with sex and I don't think it's a recipe for a serious criticism.
Maybe she doesn't. You know, maybe that's just me and my evil male mind reading too much into it but I don't think so.

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye

You fit into me (sexual overtone)
like a hook (masochistic imagery)
DO YOU PEOPLE SEE
WHAT I MEAN
God.
Want to see a genuinely good poem?
You won't find one here.
Here let me show you one:

The solitary goose does not drink or eat,
It flies about and calls, missing the flock.
No-one now remembers this one shadow,
They've lost each other in the myriad layers of cloud.
It looks into the distance: seems to see,
It's so distressed, it thinks that it can hear.
Unconsciously, the wild ducks start to call,
Cries of birds are everywhere confused.

Poems are supposed to be high impact, man.
They're also supposed to be subtle
or something
I dunno.
My favorite poem is a haiku actually because it tells an entire story and doesn't need a bunch of stupid words

    The world of dew --
    A world of dew it is indeed,
    And yet, and yet . . .

He wrote this when his baby daughter died.
See everything was supposed to be all dewy and new and happy and then his kid dies--
you get all the tragedy with none of the melodrama. One background detail and 15 words conveys the entire plot.

A Secret Garden gen fic, featuring Susan Sowerby and Lilias Craven's first meeting.

NO ONE CARES.

one major disadvantage of having such a small apartment...

So speaking of small apartment.
Real talk.
In May I'm moving to South Korea.
I'll keep doing this blog but be prepared for a brief hiatus.
Yes that's right.
I'm going to Changwon.
5 minutes from the beach.
Entire country has fiber optic internet.
Land of Girls' Generation.
I think it's going to be pretty cool.

I read a great many books last year, which I was unable to post about then and am not going to bother trying to get together now. Mostly fiction re-reads of stuff I have around the place. Literary comfort food.

I wasn't going to bother keeing track for 50bookchallenge this year, but what the heck.



"The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Ghenghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege." etc

Woooow and people call my rosy view of Caesar historical whitewashing. This is a man who indirectly (or directly) killed 33% of the entire world.

Well, that's kind of a sweeping statement. Khan abolished torture, except under specific circumstances, more like (for example, if you rejected his overtures of alliance aka gonna conquer you if you don't say yes, then all bets were off; and if you betrayed him? HOSHIT!). I did like the mail system he set up, similar but more effective than our Pony Express.

But much of the Mongol's success depended on continuing to conquer and loot new lands. They didn't make anything much of their own, just provided the system for which trade passed through; and they didn't change the cultures they conquered that much, not among the common folk. That's why their empire started slowly collapsing after Genghis Khan's death, despite his heirs being mostly capable enough.

One of the first recorded examples of biological warfare (flinging plague corpses in catapults over city walls)
But, you know, great guy otherwise.
If his empire stood the test of time like Rome I'd understand the hard on for the guy but he was an excellent executioner and that's about it.
He didn't possess the flare for statecraft like Caesar, Philip II, Xerxes I, Cao Cao, etc etc.

I didn't realize just how political it is that contemporary Mongolians identity with him, and see him as the father figure of their people. The Russian and Chinese governments in particular did everything they could to suppress any nationalist movement, and to keep any written historical documentation from being gathered. But Mongolian scholars and scholars from other nations perservered, despite being at times jailed or even killed for it, and have preserved some of this history regardless.  The author of this book actually spent a year following various maps and trails, camping along where the Mongols traveled, tracing the steps of Genghis Khan with the help of some Mongolian guides and fellow researchers, so he'd better understand some of the conditions that the people lived in. I think that would make a good book, in and of itself.

I found the book extremely interesting to read, the kind that makes me want to go through the bibliography and look up more titles. It's too complex to sum up adequately here, but if you like that kind of history, check it out.

I personally think Genghis was a pretty cool dude but this is hardly the stance a social justice, twitter, fanfic fairy should be taking.
Maybe it's because Genghis is not a white man and therefore the social justice fairies are ok with him because he's diverse but he pretty much only murdered other diverse populations if you catch my meaning so I don't really think--
Also yeah, he moved faster than Rome.
That's because Rome built shit in the places they conquered.
They didn't just maraud across the entire known world and stop when they hit the end of it.

They've been wrong for most of the year, but I couldn't do anything about it, even if I'd known what to do. I went to visit my family in September (annual car inspection, my dad pays the insurance and it's registered in NC), and forgot to mention it to my brother when he was working on my computer. so my posts are probably disappearing into your several days' old history.


I wonder if there's a way to fix the problem without having to take my computer somewhere and paying a lot for it?

I knew you were from NC based on the mention of sweet tea and numerous posts about BBQ.
I should have guessed.
Also: good Christ, you can't set your computer's internal clock?
How did you manage to get this far on the internet without killing yourself?

It is. It came with windows, and I think I got it back around 2006. I've tried udating the version, but can't get it to download for whatever reason; or if it downloads somewhere, i can't find it. 

Click on the clock you dipshit.
Click it and there's a calendar.
Then there's a big CHANGE DATE AND TIME SETTINGS.
Assuming it's Vista or XP. If not, right click and "change time".
This isn't rocket science.
Like there are basic, basic skills about a computer that are harder.

If you right-click your mouse on the time in the lower right hand corner, you should get an option to adjust date/time. Click on that and it will allow you to fix your clock and your date. Of course, you need to know the correct day/date and time to do it, but...

Good luck!

Anna

Anna, the only one with any goddamn sense.

if you are looking at a site and up pops a message that it's illegal...

I have been to some shady ass websites and that has literally never happened to me.
Are you sure you should be trusted with a computer?

and your computer activity is being monitored, etc, how likely is it that action will be taken? I was looking up a term I'd run across and ended up on a site that was kinky videos and got that message just a little bit ago. I immediately got off there, but now I'm worried. I've never come across that kind of warning before. I feel like I should throw away my computer and move somewhere else now.

Oh yeah that was my prepared excuse through all of high school, too.
I WAS JUST DOING SOME RESEARCH FOR A CLASS AND WHAT ARE ALL THESE NAKED ASIAN GIRLS SUDDENLY?
CAN'T TRUST ANY .EDU ANYMORE!
I can't even tell you what a collective shudder of horror the young perverts of the internet let out when Firefox announced its auto-form fill out feature.

Somehow, my printer went off-line. I couldn't get it back, so I deleted it (I think, at least it SAID "delete") and inserted the disc that should upload the program again.

I get the first page where it gives the options, you click on "accept" for the terms, and it's supposed to let you pick "Next" or "Cancel". But it won't let me put check marks on the different options or light up  "Next", if that's clear.

I hit ctrl/alt/del to check and it says the program is running, but it's only supposed to take 3-8 minutes.


I'm trying to get my printer working again because I need to print off a form from a lawyer and mail it in. This is very frustrating. D:

...
What?
This reminds me today of trying to help this girl define a word for her English class next period.
YF-ISM is what she said.
"I'm a licensed English teacher and I've never heard those sounds in combination before."
"This is AP English," she corrected.
"Yeah I understand that. I took that, too, and while I agree it's possible I don't know the term I think it's more likely you're not saying it right."
After three minutes of confused repeating the word it dawned on me.
"Did you mean euphemism?"
"HEY YEAH."
Jesus.
You don't even want to know what round II had in store. All you need to know is it was bigger, dumber and longer and the word was "aphorism".
MAYBE STUDY A LITTLE.
Also having to explain aphorism was a nightmare.
"It's a terse, witty statement that expresses some kind of truth."
"What does terse mean"
"short"
"short witty?"
"short and smart."
"How does one go?"
"Time flies."
"I don't get it."
FUUUUUCK.
Like you're trying so I'm not angry because you have 100% more going on than most kids your age because you're making an effort but come the fuck on this is AP English 12.
Anyway time for bed.
Peace out.

Song of the now.