Don't be sorry

Jesus Christ updating schedule all fucked up due to moving out and work and I don't even know what day it is anymore.
I'll get back on schedule.
Someone added this comment on the 3rd of this month (of this year):

In the alternate universe where Buddy Holly ended up the day the music died, the Crickets were better than the Beatles. I'm not sorry.

On an entry four years old so someone is digging through the archive.
The Scroll of Honor
The Lion Censorum.
 Anyway you don't gotta be sorry like that.
Everyone with any sense knows what The Beatles did for music would have happened anyway and they were just right place at the right time.
I like The Beatles, too, but goddamn people need to get over it.
Anyway fucking this person.

There really isn't much of anything better I can do to make myself feel as feminine as possible than for me to go to the gym and throw my body weight around. I mean that - I can clean and jerk a little more than half my bodyweight, snatch just under half, squat it, and deadlift slightly more. Pretty much anything I do that involves me picking up something heavy and moving it around leaves me tired, sweaty, and feeling like a duchess. It's something I'm actively trying to cultivate, especially on powerlifting days.

Are these words arranged in a coherent thought?
Makes you feel like a duchess, what?
What the fuck are you talking about?

I know a decent chunk of why is because it's pretty common for me to look around and realize I'm the only girl around - lifting freeweights, using a squat platform, on this whole floor of the gym. When I'm outnumbered like that, it's hard to forget about things like gender.

Literally no one is paying attention.

The simple proximity of finishing Bioshock and then going onto read some of the Vorkosigan saga made me realize two things: Jackson’s Whole is basically a planet-sized Rapture, and even though a crossover would be easy enough to pull off and amazing and fabulous and work to comment on aspects of both canons simultaneously, I don’t have the time right now.

Original thoughts?
HUH HUH NOPE NOT ME.

 One of the few side benefits of getting sick - again - is that it lessens any other bad news I get. Like not getting the job for which I interviewed last week. I'd mind more if I could breathe properly, or if I hadn't gotten almost nine hours of sleep last night. It's a bit of a protective cocoon. Much as I'd have loved the work, and much as I deeply hoped for it - it's hard to be torn up or deeply disappointed. At least I have that going for me today.

Jesus Christ.
I guess being sick does one thing for me--
SHELTERS ME FROM THE PAIN OF DISAPPOINTMENT ;_;
like fuck off seriously what's wrong with you?

Yesterday, as soon as I got back from the job interview, I placed an order at Adagio Tea. It'll arrive tomorrow, but I won't open it until after I hear about the end results of the interview.

I'd like to open it in celebration. If I have to open it in compensation, well, there's tea inside. And I'll make myself a cup, and resolve to keep going until I get to where I'd like to be.

Is there a douchier way to make a statement of resolve ever?
I mean goddamn.
Failing a mission in Dawn of War 2-- a video game-- has way more gravity than what you just wrote.
I'll just make tea and resolve myself to HURRRRR dry your cunt, Jesus.
In Dawn of War 2 you fail a mission and it says shit like YOUR BROTHERS DIE
SEE THAT THEIR DEATH IS NOT IN VAIN and you say "oh right then gotta step up my game then. Thanks, Space Marines."

It's one of the rules of the universe that any day with bread in it is a day well spent. Last night, and the three before that, didn't involve any good sleep - last night did, but only after getting back up after lying there for almost forty minutes, spending some more time online, and sleeping in until ten, which in turn resulted in me not getting anything of value done until three. Going to the gym, and sending in a few applications, only went so far to make me think I'd done something with my day.

Hence, the bread. And by all measures, it's going to be good.

I need go get back to writing something soon, as well. Long-term projects are good for helping me stay on my feet and moving forward.

Hence, a book request.

HENCE A SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BELLIGERENT CUNT.
Jesus Christ did you read that shit?
What the fuck was that about?
Oh a day with bread is a day well spent oh I'm so deep and pretentious.
There you have it. Bread, a paleolithic invention, makes the day good.
There hasn't been a bad day in over 20,000 years.

The only good thing to waking up at five in the morning on Sunday from absolutely vicious period cramps was realizing I had enough time to watch the fourth season of Arrested Development before any spoilers hit. The last twenty minutes of the last episode were the hardest in that regard. It's very much not a show I can watch casually - it's not designed that way, and in my case, it's the only way I can stomach a lot of it. The aggressive ignorance and willful blindness to reality gets under my skin and makes it hard to want to go back to watching, unless I'm trying to finish up the current season.

How about you don't fucking watch it, then?

It sounds like you don't like it.

I've seen and interacted with so many people online that outright, up-front, describe themselves as hostile, angry, annoying, spiteful, nasty, childish, spoiled, whiny, unpleasant to be around, generally pissed off, or some combination thereof, that when I see someone label themselves as insufferable or something similar, I won't know it's a joke. I'm too used to people being up-front about these things - with the internet being a reasonably safe space to mention it right off the bat - that I take it at face value, and immediately slot the person in as they've so labeled themselves.

You're pretty douchey, lady, do you mention that?

So I'm getting a tax return.

No one cares.
Fuck it I'm going to bed.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

And other times you're a gender fluid trans woman otherkin.
This is the first tumblr I've ever reviewed.
Frankly I try to avoid tumblr as much as I can because digging through tumblr is like digging through a dog park.
Of course all you're going to find is dog shit. Don't be so surprised when that's what you unearth.

Since They changed Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone for America, I decided to change the rest since us American’s are too dumb to understand the word philosopher:

Is it 1999?
Oh I also forgot heeeeeeeeeee (sheeeeeeeeee) whatever posts a lot of fat chicks.
Because FAT SHAMING.
HURRR.
BODY POLITICS
BUZZ WORDS
A map of "every fantasy world ever" even though I can think of at least 15 fantasy worlds off the top of my head that don't conform to this stereotype.

True gender equality is actually perceived as inequality. A group that is made up of 50% women is perceived as being mostly women.

Whining.

Also the study where they had women and men talking in a discussion and when women spoke around 30% of the time, men perceived them as dominating the discussion. They didn’t consider it “equal” until something like 5-10% of women talking.

That's because in pussy sensitivity classes women tended to shift the conversation away from whatever brand of bullshit we were talking about and make it about them.
LOOK I'M REALLY SORRY THEY DIDN'T HAVE SHOES IN YOUR SIZE SO IT'S SEXISM BUT MEANWHILE PEOPLE IN AFRICA FACE ACTUAL PROBLEMS.
LIKE NOT HAVING WATER.
That was always my one attempt at being sensitive.
LOOK I DON'T KNOW ABOUT ALL THIS SHIT BUT PEOPLE DON'T HAVE WATER.
THIS PLANET IS LIKE 80% WATER HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE ACCESS TO WATER
HOW FUCKED UP IS YOUR LIFE

if it’s been said once it’s been said a thousand times: THE BURDEN OF ELIMINATING OPPRESSION DOES NOT LIE ON THE OPPRESSED. GET THE FUCK OVER IT. WHO CARES IF YOUR PRIVILEGED LITTLE FEELINGS ARE HURT? “hate mongering”. gtfo.

You really don't understand how a give and take works, do you?
Well if you have a fucking problem but you're going to be a little cunt about it then fuck your problems.
Try asking like a grown up.
Well here are some tits.
This blog is better than 90% of all blogs I've reviewed.

Author:
    She had skin the color of driftwood.
Reader:
    She's white.
Author:
    She had skin the color of fine bronze.
Reader:
    She's white.
Author:
    She had skin the color of a brown crayola crayon.
Reader:
    She's white.
Author:
    She had skin that was black because she was black.
Reader:
    She's white.
Author:
    She had skin.
Reader:
    She's white. 

>Wasting time on such useless details

POP QUIZ: WHAT COLOR IS ODYSSEUS?

I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE HOMER DIDN'T WASTE MY FUCKING TIME BY DESCRIBING IT.

Picture of Cowboy Bebop inexplicably--

AKA "if more anime were like this anime wouldn't suck and be for lonely nerds"

This is Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. 

No fuck you I already did a post about her.

Ok, it’s time for an education.  It’s not entirely your fault you’re utterly ignorant since the medical industrial complex AND the hatefilled society in which we all live both actively seek to reinforce the binary at any and all costs and purposefully keep people ill-informed and misinformed about the realities of biology.

... O-okay. 

The post is entitled "biological sex is socially constructed", incidentally.

Because, you know, if the media didn't lie to you men would drop babies out of their asses all the time.

But after I take valuable time out of my evening to educate you on how utterly biased and flawed the modern concept of “biological sex” is you no longer have an excuse and choosing to continue to cleave to your bullshit will officially become proof that you are nothing more than a bigotted asshole.  

Yes, please take time out of your busy evening doing fuck all to educate me.

Maybe that's how I should start class tomorrow

YOU LITTLE BASTARDS ARE LUCKY I'M TAKING TIME OUT OF MY SCHEDULE TO COME IN.

So let’s take a look at some true facts courtesy of Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling who is a biologist and geneticist with a PhD, you know, a doctorate, in science, that thing you seem to be so obsessed with, that thing you seem to think is absolutely “objective” and always right all the time.  There are 5 specific measures of biological sex according to modern medical science.  

WHAT THE FUCK HAS SCIENCE EVER DONE FOR US ANYWAY?

• Chromosomes (men = XY, women = XX)
• Genitalia (men = penis, women = vulva and vagina)
• Gonads (men = testes, women = ovaries)
• Hormones (men = high testosterone, low estrogen, low progesterone; women = high estrogen, high progesterone, low testosterone)
• Secondary Sex Characteristics (men = large amounts of dark, thick, coarse body hair, noticeable facial hair, low waist:hip ratio, no noticeable breast development, rough skin; women = fine, light colored body hair, no noticeable facial hair, high waist:hip ratio, noticeable breast development, smooth skin)

But it's totally made up. All that shit was invented by society.

The thing is, in real life, very few people actually match up with all five categories.  

They match up enough to reproduce.
In fact enough people match up close enough that you can easily identify without thinking about it.
In fact the only one of these things that is arguably socially constructed is secondary sex characteristics.
Even so most women don't have five o'clock shadows.
The fact that some do doesn't mean it's not a masculine trait.

There are, of course, genetic differences that account for a decent percentage of human births like XXY, XXX, XO, and XYY (apx 1:500 births though it could easily be more than that since we don’t do genetic testing for all people and even at that ratio if there are over 6 billion people in the world 1:500 means there are a whole lot of genetically intersex people out there)

I'm sure the ratio isn't 1:500 and even if it were that's still rare.
That is less than one half of one percent.
I'm pretty sure occurrences of XO syndrome are described something like 16 times in the entirety of medical literature.
Granted the evil cisgender medical complex could just choose to ignore this pandemic but I'm taking the more likely explanation that it just doesn't occur that often.
Humanity wouldn't be especially fit if chromosomal disorders were allowed to run rampant.

 And since there are millions of people out there who’s very existence defies the biological concept of a two sex system we have legitimate proof that the concept of biological sex is a social construct. 

"Millions" out of billions of people.
Have you ever heard of "pleading the case"?
Because that's what this is.
I can show you three good Nazis and therefore conclude that all Nazis are necessarily good.
That's not really how it works, you know.

Biological sex is a social construct.  BIOLOGICAL SEX IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. Seriously, biological sex is a social construct.  It’s not real.  It’s NOT something that is objective or unbiased or “natural.” 

Creatures with secondary sex characteristics?
Fuck you only humans have that shit.
Totally unnatural shit we made up.
What's that?
Oh, female dogs tend to have neutral colors compared to male dogs?
Oh, uhhh, shit?
Can we blame cissexism on that too?
I don't get why special snowflakes like this hinge their entire argument on what's natural.
I don't consider much of what humanity does as especially natural.
Who gives a shit?
Driving cars?
Yeah that shit's totally natural.
Here's a video about how to tie a bow tie and I'm supposed to be impressed because you can't see the hands tying it (the "white hands" as the special snowflake says)
FUCKING VIDEOS THAT TEACH YOU HOW TO TIE KNOTS ARE INHERENTLY RACIST.

I like twine games and other interactive fiction and point and click games because my fingers and hands fall apart when I play normal games, lots of games don’t work for cripples.

And she's crippled.
Apparently.
Not buying it but whatever.

Shooting games and fighting games and racing games require not letting go of the controller for a relatively long time and I can’t handle it. Controllers are heavy. I have a DS and a 3DS and they’re heavy. Holding onto a controller is hard for me. High action games don’t let me pace myself, they force me to go on their fast pace or I’ll lose or die or mess up and have to start over.

...
Yeah.
You're not crippled, idiot.
It's you're not good at video games.

This is why I like games where you can stop to think/rest/look at the surroundings and details. Games like Professor Layton or Pokemon or old point and click adventure games or casual flash games with simple mechanics. Games that don’t have enemies, games that don’t have tricky moving platforms or rolling boulders you have to run away from. Games that require fast reaction and long periods of playtime are unplayable.

>Pokemon
>thought
Unless you're doing competitive battling (you're not) or RNG abusing then no.
...
Then she posts this unnatural creature.
It looks like its legs are going to unfold into some sort of spider legs.
That's disturbing me.
Light them all on fire.
Anyway time for bed.

Oh shit I'm sorry

Forgot to update Monday.
No real reason.
Just forgot.
My excuse is I taught orchestra class Monday.
No one was more surprised about this than me.
I knew half the kids so there was this weird pause when they saw me and there was a lot of "wait what are you doing here?" to which I could honestly say "I DON'T KNOW PLEASE HELP ME" anyway we learned Bach.
I conducted.
That's a thing I do now.
I didn't know I spoke French or could conduct an orchestra until recently.

A lot of dudes really flip out in response to the term “creep.” It’s so UNFAIR to call them creeps!

A low of women flip out in response to the term "cunt".

The word “creep” is ableist because there are dudes on the autism spectrum who have difficulty socializing and reading social cues and they can’t help being creepy! 

Ff you call someone creepy just because they have autism and they're making the effort to socialize you are being a cunt.
He has a reason for why he's acting like he's acting.
You, however, don't.

The take-away seems to be that women just need to tolerate creepy dudes because feeling like your personal safety is being consistently threatened (and running the risk of being told “Well why didn’t you DO something about that creep sooner?” if your personal safety is actually violated) is a small price to pay in the service of not making one dude feel kinda sad. 

I use similar thinking when dealing with cunts.
And somehow I'm an asshole.
I sense women want it both ways.
As is usually the case.

Which is why I really appreciate when dudes who maybe do have problems reading social cues are told they’re being creepy and instead of getting mad at the person telling them that fact, they take steps to change their behavior. 

Then again I've never had the problem of being creepy.
I dunno.

As someone who was raped after a party, I often find myself falling for rape-apologist language.  

One problem I'm running into with this blog already is how short her entries are (not the problem) and how much of her already short entry is taken up by a link.
Imagine if half this entry were a link to the blog.

The guy that raped me would be most likely be horrified if I had accused him of rape. The guy that raped me is a good person. In fact, the guy that raped me was someone I found sexually attractive and had been flirting with for several weeks. I remember accepting his invitation for a ride home from a party. I don’t know what I was thinking. I do know that as a chronic drinker it is nearly impossible for others to tell when I’ve had too much. So, doesn’t my drinking to excess, and accepting a ride home from this guy make me at least a little culpable?

...
Yes.
You are culpable.
Being drunk doesn't excuse your bad judgment.
If you'd killed someone in a car accident while drunk your intoxication wouldn't be a shield from your actions.
If you told him no (even while drunk) and he still fucked you then it's rape.
Otherwise you're just a bitch who had one too many.

If I’d driven home in that state and killed someone in a car accident I couldn’t use the excuse that I was too drunk to make the right decision about getting behind the wheel to not be charged with vehicular manslaughter. I’d have made the decision to drink and drive. Period. Impaired judgment would never enter the conversation.
It’s taken me a long, long time to realize that the drinking-and-driving scenario is not analogous to drinking-and-getting raped. To this day I have a hard time not accepting responsibility for my actions that night. 

Regretting it in the morning doesn't make it rape.

But I am not responsible. I did not make the decision to go out and get raped.
I am sure the guy that raped me didn’t make the decision to go out and rape either, and that’s when I get sucked right back into the apologists rhetoric.

I'm not apologizing for anyone.
Jesus Christ all mighty how is the car analogy not analogous?
You are responsible for you.
I'm sorry white women only want responsibility when shit is working out for them but when they make a boo-boo suddenly everything is everyone's fault but theirs but welcome to equal rights.

Because alcohol (or any other drug) does make consent difficult. And it is putting a lot of responsibility on one party to make them decide whether or not their sexual partner is capable of consent. Especially when that party may be impaired themselves.

So you entered a situation in which you knew someone might want to fuck you and you decided (while fully sober and therefore culpable) to get drunk and now he's raped you because you had sex while drunk because "consent is too difficult while drunk."
What say right now I go to the hood with 20 dollars hanging out of my pants.
Is it my fault I get mugged?
Not technically but one might wonder what the fuck I was doing down that way flashing money.
I wish it weren't that way for women because they do have to be overly cautious. They have to think about shit a man would never have to think about.
But ultimately that's exactly why they should be more cautious than this.
I wish it were another way but it isn't.

I didn’t listen to my father, I didn’t listen to most of what I learned in sex ed. But, I try not to walk alone at night. I moderate my drinking when I go out to unfamiliar places. I use the buddy system at parties. I make friends with my bartenders and bouncers. I never leave my drink unattended. I never let someone buy me (or bring me) a drink. I have listened to the lessons of rape culture.
And I am sick of it. I am sick of being the one responsible for not getting raped. I am sick of “responsible” and “rape” being used in the same sentence.

Just like every single day it's my responsibility to not get shot in a hood school.
You take responsibility for your actions. That's what it means to be an adult.
 If women still had diminished rights you could claim some sort of need for a man to uphold your honor but women gave that up collectively in the West so welcome to the real world.
I just did a quick check of the statistics.
A woman has around a .3% chance of being raped in the US.
I'm going to grant rape often goes unreported.
I'm going to inflate the number.
I'm going to say 50% of rapes
that's 1 in 2
goes entirely unspoken.
You have less than one percent chance of getting raped.
Compare that to, say, Liberia, where your odds are 80% and "I have to take responsibility for myself" is easily starting to rank up there with "a guy was kinda creepy today ;_;" in terms of rich white women whining.
This isn't a woman thing, either. Frankly I hear a lot of people whining and no one is really giving me a good reason to care about your problems.
I have problems that rank up there with this bullshit but do you hear me bitching about them?

The NRA held a press conference today detailing their plans to prevent more mass shootings in the United States. Mass shootings now happen with some regularity, and your standard run-of-the-mill shootings where only one or two or three people are hit happen daily. As of posting this, 97 people have been killed since the Newtown killings (I’m sure that stat will be out of date in minutes, so check out this live tally). The NRA’s response? Put armed security guards in schools, and create a national database of mentally ill people (what this database will be used for is unclear). A few thoughts:

Super soldier program.
The only way forward.

There actually were armed security guards at Columbine high school when that mass shooting went down. Two of them. As it turns out, two dudes with handguns are no match for a dude who is wearing bulletproof clothing and wielding multiple weapons that spray a rapid fire of bullets. 

10% shots.

Schools are not the only problem. Mass shootings occur in movie theaters, shopping malls, and basically everywhere large groups of people congregate. Are we just going to arm everyone everywhere? (NRA: “Yes.”).

I'd be okay with that solution.
I'm a fan of extreme solutions.

The NRA is unclear if they want armed guards or armed police officers in schools, but if we’re talking cops, then we’re also talking several billion dollars in taxpayer money to cover this plan. 

Oh, well.
Don't want to spend money to ensure the safety of the next generation.
So what I'm getting from you so far is you're okay if a girl gets killed in school but not okay if she gets raped.
Personally I don't want either.

Police officers are in many schools in the country, and not with good results. The psychological impact of turning a learning environment into a place where police roam the halls is pronounced; it doesn’t make students feel safer, it makes them scared. And it means that students are regularly arrested. In New York, the NYPD are in many schools, and they arrest an average of 11 students every day. A full 95 percent of the arrested students are black and Latino, and their arrests take them out of school and put them in the juvenile “justice” system. Kids are hurt, not helped, by increasing policing in schools. 

If you're arrested and put in jail I assume (perhaps erroneously) that you did something to land you there.
Maybe criminals shouldn't be mixing with students.

Y’all know that cops kill people pretty regularly, right? 

...
Not putting cops in schools wouldn't prevent cops from being murdered.
Unless this is some sort of bizarre I, Robot argument where not hiring cops prevents cops from getting shot because there are less cops to get killed.

The NRA plan puts loaded weapons in schools. What could go wrong with hundreds of curious kids (and many rebellious and anti-authoritarian adolescents) in an enclosed space with a few loaded weapons nearby?

The average kid I run into on a daily basis at a school is basically more a threat to himself than anyone else.
Maybe arming them would make them not so fucking awkward.
Also most kids aren't that anti-authoritarian.
They're mostly anti-people up in their tits and in that regard we're the same.

Other people have suggested that we arm teachers. A week ago, the right was painting teachers as union thugs; now we want to give them guns on the taxpayer dime. I happen to like teachers quite a bit, but teachers are human beings and frankly some of them are violent and shitty or simply irresponsible, and I don’t particularly want all of them walking around school grounds with a gun on their hip.  

But you want them around your children for 8 hours a day teaching them things.
Makes sense to me~

What are the chances that no teacher ever leaves their gun unattended, or that no student manages to steal the gun, or that the gun never goes off by accident, or that no teacher mistakenly perceives a threat that isn’t there? 

Guns don't go off by accident.
That is such a statistical outlier that I can say it doesn't happen.
Most teachers are deeply paranoid about their personal effects.
I know personally I don't leave my lunch unattended.
My lunch.
I worry about my lunch getting stolen.
I'm 25.
If I had something capable of killing someone you can bet it would be on my person at all times.
Also when I hand someone a paper there's like a 50% chance they'll miss the paper entirely.
We're talking about people under 22. They barely count as humans.
They don't have motor skills yet. The next kid that can disarm if I have a gun on him will be the first.
And a teacher perceive a threat that isn't there?
You're talking about people who regularly talk down kids who are twice their size and have no impulse control.
I think if you want a group of armed people you could do a hell of a lot worse.
Also a fair number of teachers are ex-military.
I mean Jesus Christ I can't emphasize this enough: you trust these people with your children for 8 hours a day.

Ban video games, too. Not that it affects women seeing as, you know, we apparently don’t play games.

That was a comment.
I can't decide if she's serious about banning video games or not.
I think it was just her excuse to be a bitch about women's rights.
I said it before but way to take 29 first graders getting axed and making it about you, you self-absorbed twat.
This is why I have 0 sympathy for women like this. They talk about women's rights like it's some grave injustice but how many of those first graders were girls?
They don't give a shit about them. They just care about themselves.
Which is fine but be honest about it. Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, I did a HuffPost Live segment on paying and dating — specifically, if you’re on a mixed-gender date, who should pick up the check? Back in the day paying was a dude’s responsibility, but now it’s less clear. 

It isn't.
You go Dutch.
Welcome to personal responsibility.

Fiona Apple has postponed her South America tour to be with her ailing pitbull Janet. She writes a heart-wrenching, wonderful letter which will feel familiar to anyone who has ever loved and lost a pet or even a person. If you feel like reading something sad and beautiful, is here.

Can't say I care about Fiona Apple.
I feel bad for the dog.
Mostly because Fiona Apple owns it.
Every Sunday you can self-promote.
Wonder if I should.
Oh shit I clicked on a link and it won't let me go back now.
I could go back to where I was but no I'm good.
BYE THEN.

WOMEN AND POLITICS

One thing I've learned: everything in the entire world is political.
Your kid is 8 years old?
FUCK EVERYTHING ABOUT THE WORLD I'M BRINGING THE SPAWN I CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO PAY ATTENTION TO IN.
Something go your way?
BETTER WHINGE ABOUT IT BECAUSE SOMEONE SURE AS FUCK DIDN'T HAVE THAT GO THEIR WAY.
Anyway today's blog is the one I found on the big list o' women with political blogs even though approximately 0% of the content is related to politics.
She sort of reminds me of the Meanest Mom but not quite as douchey and therefore way more forgettable.

I was 19 when he died … 28 years ago today. I’ve known my father-in-law for 22 years now … longer than I knew my own father. Well, that’s not quite right. I still know my dad. But I only had him here in person for 19 years. Ah, well. This is what happens with the passage of time.

Yeah--
Yeah.

A year ago, my telephone rang at 3 in the morning. It was hospice. We might want to get there now before Mom died, they said in less clear words, which made it harder to snap out of my sleepy haze. I was the only family member they could get on the telephone. I started calling the rest of the family. Hospice called again at 3:30. Mom was gone.

What a shame.
She was a good man--
what a rotten way to die.
It was Friday. I had to tell the kids at breakfast that they weren’t going to school. And why. The grieving began.
We each dealt with our loss in our own way.

Except for the initial shock and the funeral, two of my children said very little. I broached the subject once in a while, but they made it clear they really didn’t want to talk about it. I hadn’t said anything for a while.

This is terrible.

One morning, we were in the car on the way to school with the radio playing, and I was singing … “Hey, soul sister … ain’t that mister mister …” when I heard this tiny voice from the back of the car. I turned down the music and asked, “What was that?”

I wish there was something more I could say.
Actually are you listening to Train?
You deserve to be bludgeoned.

“Do Christians die?”
Ah. I’d been waiting for this. But it still took me by surprise.
Then the questions just tumbled out, one after the other.
Will you die? Will Pappa die? Do we all die?

Everyone you know will die
Everyone you will ever meet will die
Everyone you know will be dead a very long time
and then the sun will explode, killing everyone and destroying everything you've ever known.
Have fun at school today~

Dear Santa,

Please explain to my first-grader that your elves don’t have the parts to make iPads. Or … something. (*cough* $499 *cough*)

Santa got a little wasted this year and got you a Galaxy 3S instead.
Same shit just way cheaper.
Dunno how it happened, kid.
Enjoy that higher resolution though.

My son, who wrote a letter to the king 5 1/2 years ago, 

Elvis?

I finished reading States of Mind: A Search for Faith, Hope, Inspiration, Harmony, Unity, Friendship, Love, Pride, Wisdom, Honor, Comfort, Joy, Bliss, Freedom, Justice, Glory, Triumph, and Truth or Consequences in America

Christ all mighty that's some title.
MY SEARCH FOR EVERY EMOTION OR ABSTRACT CONCEPT I CAN THINK OF IN AMERICA.

It made me look at my own life and wonder what I’ve done, where I’ve been and where I’m going. It made me think of regrets, and it brought out a little envy.

I mean, the man wrote this book in his 20s. Did I do that? No. (I started research for one in my early 30s, but I obviously didn’t write that book.) He seemed to have such a clear path for his life. Did I? Never. He admitted that he suffered angst from basically a perfect life. Have I? Oh, I wish.

>Author says the book came naturally to him with no effort
AND MORE LIES AUTHORS TELL.
There's an entire mythology behind being an author that is true regardless of nation or language and has remained unchanged basically since the invention of writing because non-writers buy into it without question.
How many times have you heard this one:
there was a spark of (divine) inspiration and the entire book came out in one weekend!
I never actually prepared to write-- I just went to bed and woke up and the words were in my head just waiting!
I feel (divine) inspiration whispering to me all the time!
Liars, all of you.
I really give a shit about all the pictures of your kids.

I haven’t done one of these things in a while. Well, a list of things I like about me? I’ve never done that. Have you?

No can't say I'm enough of a twat to write down what I like about myself.
Well, there's one: I'm not enough of a twat to write down what I like about myself.
But now I've done it, so am I that much of a twat?

1. I’m a good (self-taught) cook. I like that others enjoy my food.
2. I’m a loving mother. I’m not perfect, but I know my kids, and I listen to them. I love them for who they are.
3. I’m a voracious reader, and I’ve passed that on to my children.

I mean I guess you seem involved with your kids.
Your blog is certainly about them a lot.
This list goes on but no that ain't happening.
WOW-EE AN EYE FOR COLOR THAT IS SOMETHING WORTH WRITING DOWN!
Oh I thought of a skill I'm actually proud of: in video games, if a weapon is ranged and drops off I can hit someone I can't even see yet with it.
I've skipped like 20 pages of this bullshit now.
This blog is seriously fucking boring.
Jesus Christ.
OH MY GOD I DON'T CARE ABOUT FUCKING NORWAY.
STOP POSTING ABOUT IT.
No fuck this I'm out.
Fuck blogs.
Fuck the internet.

you people are fucking stupid

HURRR ONTD_P EXPERTS AT POLITICS
WHY CIA HEAD RESIGN OVER AFFAIR SEEMS STUPID DURRRRRRRRRRR
HURRRRRRR
if I have to spell out why the head of the CIA would resign over something as seemingly benign as an extramarital affair then you people really need to stop posting to a politics website because it just isn't happening for you.

I think I am missing some context...? I mean, that seems like a strange thing to resign from your post over.

1. generally you don't want your operatives in a position where they can be easily blackmailed and

2. it's likely a pretext because some serious shit is about to go down.

I can't believe how fucking dumb you people are. How transparent can this bullshit be and it still confused you?

Then again it isn't a matter about your precious gay rights or POC bullshit so I guess I can see why this'd be confusing.

This is like soft power politics and spy games and zzzzz BORING WHERE ARE THE GAY GUYS KISSING xP?

Doctor Who fandom, I am tired. 

Me too.

9th graders, man.

They just can't listen for one second.

"Don't write on this. Please don't write on this. I'm looking at some of you and I know you're going to write on it. Please don't write on this."

Not even two minutes later: "oh we're not supposed to write on this?"

No that's cool go ahead I just warned you literally ten times.

Of course I don't know -why- they couldn't write on it because there were enough copies for every class but whatever I don't make the rules.

I just enforce them.

And sometimes I don't even fully enforce them if it's really bullshit and I can get away with it.

I saw the episode, mostly because I was tired of seeing other people's opinions posts and not knowing what they were talking about, so I just went ahead and watched.

And you know? I could talk about what was problematic in this episode. I could talk about Amy and Rory and how love is not a competition. 

>love isn't a competition

Except love being a competition is literally one of the oldest plots there is.

It's a show about a magic time man who fights silly talking robots. I don't think this is a show known for its realism.

I could talk about the bisexuality-as-a-phase joke. I could talk about how nothing Dalek-related made any fucking sense because there was this thing called the Time War that was a big fucking deal and also Daleks hate the impurity of being mixed with anything human and how every other Doctor has had a problem with killing all the Daleks when he could have makes him no better, and I wonder what Four, who nearly killed all the Daleks when they were first created and decided not to, would have to say about this.

It's a silly show about a magic time man. Stop thinking so hard about it.

I just finished the Hunger Games trilogy in two days, like a year after everyone else read them. I just really hate the battle royale trope, okay, I find it horrific and dehumanizing 

... That's the point.

It's supposed to be dehumanizing.

That's the fucking point of the story--

Jesus Christ, people.

 and I didn't like it when Ralph Ellison did it and I had to read it in every damn American lit class, I didn't like it in the Japanese Battle Royale movie. So I stayed away from The Hunger Games, knowing that that was the plot, but when I saw the movie, I saw a very personal journey of a girl of the forest, and that was far better than I had imagined. So the other day I decided I felt like reading the books, and now I need to talk about them.

I legitimately hate modern reading audiences.

They are fucking uneducated, weak and stupid.

But the worst part is they're so pretentious about it. Can't you just be stupid and proud of it like most Americans?

Hope you all are going to have a lovely new year's eve. I made no plans, so it's really no different than any other night, but I MIGHT stay up past ten tonight! Woohoo! And watch a movie or something. 

WHOAAAAA.
Been busy on the internets doing a rebranding project the last few days. If it weren't for fandom, I swear I would live like it was 1915. I can barely handle the technological fact that I have a dishwasher; now I have to find out about Klout scores? 

 I went from not having heard the term before to knowing all about it in literally 10 seconds.

Does anybody know where I can find some good research material about what a girls' boarding school in England would be like in the 1940s?

Pffft I don't know, Google it?

Alternatively make it up.

Am back from vacation. Am exhausted. Am thinking of laundry sitting all night in dryer getting wrinkly because I was too tired to deal with it. Am marathoning Big Bang Theory just because, and I need good icons for it, because now I have more icon space. 

Declining use of personal pronouns.

Am really glad it’s Friday and I can maybe sleep all weekend. Not really. But it’s a nice thought. 

PRONOUUUUUUUUNS. 

As you know, I’m editing for a medical journal these days, 

As you're doubtlessly aware.

I downloaded the Richard Feynman lectures on physics from the Six Easy Pieces selections (and several others, it was a giant folder, I don't remember everything, if you want them I can upload) and was listening to the first one on atoms and their movement on the drive to and from work today (I've got an hour commute each way, I have to make it productive somehow.)

HAHAHA WHAT A NERD.

Join the Kool Kids Klub and listen to Warhammer audio dramas.

Butcher's Nails, The Throne of Lies, Prospero Burns, Dead in the Water, The Serpent Beneath, Red and Black--

SO MANY CHOICES.

The Throne of Lies is fucking sweet, too. Before I found myself giving 0 fucks about the Night Lords (in fact I considered them the least interesting Space Marine legion loyalist or Chaos) but now I kinda like them.

I've always loved physics, and the weirder it gets, the better.

Not as cool as speculative biology which starts out by asking seemingly dumbass questions that 9th graders would ask but then branching off into crazy shit.

Like why is nature's solution to locomotion like 3 choices?

Why has a creature never evolved a wheel before?

THE ANSWER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU.

Guysguysguys. Right now, go read Handlebars by orange_crushed . It is brilliant and amazing, all about Amy and Rory and the Doctor.

She is twelve years old, almost thirteen, and she is standing on top of the garden shed in an old blanket. It isn't a blanket, and it is. It's a toga. Never mind the flowers. She's about to be sacrificed to the gods of the volcano, represented here by a sandbox dragged underneath the awning. She closes her eyes and imagines the smoke and ash floating in the air around her, the low sound of chanting, the jingle of gold chains. She's tied her own hands together awkwardly with a handkerchief and her wrists are sweaty where they're rubbing together.

Wow that's really awful.

Speaking of awful I'm considering writing an EVE Online story because there's a fabulous prize of I win.

I read the other entries and I think it's a matter of writing a story and entering it and I'll get it.

People chose really weird topics for their stories.

While focusing on a backwards religious space empire might sound like a good idea for a story the Amarr are fucking lame and they really should have just ripped Warhammer off more than they did for them.

Instead the interesting plots are left by the wayside.

What is a Capsuleer? How are they made?

What effect must this have on someone's psychology?

 Basically you're taking normal people (normal relatively) and making them effectively immortal.

Then you're giving them immense power over regular people and making them accountable to basically no one and telling them to not be complete assholes.

Ships are still partially crewed by regular people, too. What happens when you lose a ship?

No one would give a shit. Mortals are to be bought and sold.

You're paying these people in literally pennies and it's more money than they could otherwise make in an entire lifetime.

ONTD_P whines about class struggle now.

Holy shit retards stand back because your dipshit whining wouldn't even register in EVE's setting as a thing that exists let alone an issue.

Posting this for mathnerd , a friend of tsukara , who is a student from Germany, living in the States while she gets her MSc in differential geometry. However, she has several chronic illnesses and pain conditions that are preventing her from continuing as a student, which means she loses her medical insurance. She has already spent all the money available to her through loans on medical expenses, and if she can get home to Germany she can receive treatment from the health system there, but after all her medical bills she can't even pay for a plane flight. She needs $600. If you could, go and read her journal, offer her some encouragement in what is undoubtedly a very difficult time for her, and consider helping her get home. 

Good luck with that shit.

Anyway time for bed.

Goodbye.

NURGLE BE PRAISED

AAAAAAAAH.
I spent over a half hour hunting for this and you better goddamn appreciate it.

I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW FRIDAY. MAYBE I DON'T COMPLETELY SUCK AT LIFE. I'M SCARED.

Nope you do.
Meanwhile guess who has a 4.888888888888888888888888888888888888/5.0 rating on the substitute teacher website!
Thanks for that one 4/5, asshole!
Oh also let's back up real quick and comment on the entry I found this shit through.

Study claims women change who they vote for based on whether they're ovulating or not

Needless to say the buttsore was intense.

You can middle mouse click to open a link in a new tab.

C'mon, am I the only one who didn't know that?

I learned this when my mouse first acquired a middle button.
That was what, 2004 or 5 or something?
So yeah, welcome to the stone age, retard.

So smart comments on Reddit exist and I'm saving this one because I want to marry it.

"A big problem here in the US is the combination of drug prohibition, poverty and racism creating fear in the population by creating criminals where there really aren't. A lot of police (and large parts of the population) develop a disdain for suspected criminals to the point they are dehumanized. Even here, you'll see tons of people who are more interested in revenge than justice and don't see criminals or suspected criminals as humans - allowing very extreme forms of retribution to be rationalized.

... Don't do the crime?
I mean fuck off, if you break the law then prepare for retribution.
I'll agree most drug laws are fucking stupid and if it were me I'd sell drugs to the people and tax it heavily but then again not everyone has my incredible insight and wisdom.

I really think birth control pills need to be available without a prescription. That is all.

I really think birth control should be SHOVED UP YOUR ASS :DDDDDDDDDDDDD

My boyfriend remarked to me without any hint of negativity last night that he didn't know skinny people could have cankles in regards to my legs last night. I'm sure it makes me kind of a shitty feminist that I cried over that. The internet tells me that Jennifer Aniston and Miley Cyrus also have this horrible affliction. I just can't believe that 1. I cried over something so stupid (oh no, I don't have well defined ankles!) and 2. no one has ever pointed this out to me before, which kind of contradicts 1, why would someone point out something so stupid and insignificant? But then from what I can tell I'm suppose to be very insecure over this.

WOMEN AM I RIGHT?
Also caring about your appearance doesn't make you a shitty feminist.
You're probably a shitty human being but that's pretty incidental to this current discussion.
Like what does that even say? If you're a feminist you automatically can't care about your appearance?
Can you care about your appearance if you're doing it to please other women?
I mean what the fuck?

I'd be at Comic Con right now if that shit hadn't happened with Eddie and I guess if I was a bigger person, or even a decent person, or just not a big giant baby about everything. That really sucks. :(

Yes I know there's a big lack of context here.

Why bother adding context?
My readers can eat shit.

What is your opinion of the death penalty? How important is this issue in deciding which political candidates you support?

I think it's ace fucking pro and should be applied consistently and swiftly.
Only three first world countries apply the death penalty regularly:
US
Japan
South Korea
and coincidentally those are the only three countries I'd consider living in.

I think it's completely barbaric. The justice system should be about removing people who can't follow the rules of society by imprisoning them, but the death penalty makes it about revenge.

Then there's this asshole.
Yes.
Sometimes it is about revenge.
So a guy rapes and kills some woman.
I know you're a feminist so this has to get you extra angry (even though I consider all murder equally heinous but that's just me).
Can't bring the woman back from the dead so the only thing you can do is AVENGE THE DEAD.

To take that additional step once someone is already behind bars? I don't get that. I understand that some criminals are particularly heinous and will never regret what they've done. But the point of imprisoning them isn't so they can repent, it's to keep society safe or at least it should be, primarily. 

So you admit the purpose of prison isn't to rehabilitate so why keep them around?
It's not like they'll live meaningful lives behind bars or contribute to society--
you might as well execute them.
Saves everyone resources.

Seeing people actually clamor for the death penalty just disturbs me, especially when innocent people have been killed. It's an issue I consider when supporting political candidates but I'm not an one issue voter. That said, I don't think it's likely that someone who supports the death penalty would feel the same way that I do on a lot of other issues I care about (ex. as far as politicians go supporting the death penalty and not supporting abortion rights seem to go together) so it's highly unlikely I'd ever vote for someone who supported the death penalty. 

For the death penalty
for abortion
EVERYONE DIES.
And I've made it to the start of this blog, too.
Fucking
blogs.
Why are they all so shitty?
So many shitty blogs to review--
So many shitty fucking blogs--
Why are they here? What's their purpose?
I can't imagine the cunts that write them are entertained by doing so--
Can they be?
What a disturbing thought.
Anyway fuck all this shit.

Rigamaroll

Cunt with a blog who fancies herself a writer.
Prepare for the usual~

So, I wrote another Sherlock fic a day or so ago, and got what I consider a very big compliment - I was describing music in it, but didn't say the piece or the composer until the end. Someone reading it said that as they were reading it, they thought that it sounded like I was talking about a Philip Glass piece. Which I was. To me, that's a huge compliment, that someone could read the static words I wrote on a page but just know which composer's music I was describing. ^^;;

Whoaaaaaa cunts have similar taste in music holy shit!
Why would you even waste time describing music like that?
Is there a reason for this pointless exercise in description?
I get that description helps the reader imagine the thing and it's important to do but you have to do it well.
That means not describing every fucking thing.

So, I used to be a big fan of minimalism when I was in college - I loved it. I had copies of a bunch of Glass and Adams operas, and other works.

The tapes I'd made as a high schooler from the CDs at the local library were left to sit in my brother's basement with half my stuff when I moved, and my CDs that contained many of my operas was stolen my first week in Japan by someone in my training program.

So I fell out of listening to modern classical.

Really.
Do tell me more.

So I decided to listen to some modern classical again, and...yeah, I missed this, and Glass has really put out some amazingly beautiful pieces lately - pieces of such haunting and etherial beauty I've been moved to tears (his violin concertos. Oh my god. Concerto I, mv 2).

Maybe you should learn to spell ethereal.

This is the most exquisitely beautiful piece of music you will listen to today. It just is.

That's a bit presumptuous.
Let's see.
8:33 of violin music. I can probably make it through this--
So far it's sounding like the Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack.
Now it's not.
Nope, lost interest.
What was that douchey term you used?
"Exquisitely beautiful."
I think the most "exquisitely beautiful" music I heard today was this.

I'm thinking about quitting my acappella group. I mentioned it to D, and he wound up telling one of the other main people in the group, and that partially led to them deciding to not have any rehearsals last month. I won't lie; I was glad to have that pressure gone and my Thursdays free. D e-mailed me yesterday to ask what I was going to do (and invite me again to a fireworks festival in Osaka this Saturday), but I just don't feel anything but apathetic.

 >Fireworks in Osaka
>apathy
hey if you're tired of living your life I'll take it.

All I've felt is bland apathy and occasional flashes of aversion to everything the last...I don't even know how long. The only things that have made me seriously happy for even a bit have been the fact that it's finally warm, when I feel the sun on my skin. In general, though, everything has been a colorless blah, which isn't the kind of depression I'm used to (it's usually a lot more dramatic, to put it mildly). 

Wow so sorry the weather in Osaka isn't up to your standards.
Average yearly temperature in Osaka: 70.
SO SORRY THAT'S NOT PERFECT FOR YOU.

So, um, yeah. It's kinda been forever and a year since I updated, ahaha.

Things have been....going, yeah, we'll go with that. Korea was awesome; work is a boring slog, but hey, pays the bills. Healthwise, things are bleh, but that's pretty par for the course.

SORRY YOUR JOB IS BORING.
SORRY YOU GET TO HANG OUT IN OSAKA AND JUST GO TO KOREA WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE IT BECAUSE THAT'S A DAY TRIP WHEN YOU LIVE IN OSAKA.

But in fun news, guess who bought herself an iPad? Guess who loooooves her iPad? Guess who is typing this right now on her iPad (with a bluetooth keyboard, natch)?

My iPad has been my best purchase EVAR. :DDDDD

Ok no longer jealous.
Apple user.

I'll be heading back to Japan in a couple hours. I had a lot of fun in Korea and am definitely going to miss Seoul and my friends here. I'm definitely going to have to make a trip back here.

Nope, not jealous.
What did this cunt do to deserve this existence?

 No I'm over it.

Hey, everyone!

At long last, I am on vacation!

What do you need a vacation from?
That'd be like me needing a vacation from talking about how badass the Odyssey is. While telling cunts to stop talking while I'm explaining to them why they need to learn about how awesome this shit is.
That's my job.
Cunts who don't listen.
So yeah, my job is exactly what I do anyway.
I already reviewed this blog.
WHY DOES THIS KEEP FUCKING HAPPENING?
Also I reading my reaction it was the same as it is now.
Well at least I'm consistent.
I was more bitter back then because I was working at my shitty grocery store job.
Now I'm just incredulous.
oh yeah.
She has all these health issues and shit--
No I'm out.

PUNISHMENT

I guess today is punishment for my hubris in saying I'm immune to retard germs because NOW I'M DYING OF EBOLA.

Good thing the job I was supposed to have this morning flaked out on me because that would have been pretty shit for everyone involved.
Mostly me.
Today I'm just going through ONTD_Political.
Not because I'm lazy or dying but because the first three posts are legitimately more entertaining than any three posts I'd find in another shitty blog so fuck it I'm doing this.

It was Lyndon Johnson who best understood that the key to political empowerment for the disenfranchised was to give them access to the electoral process. That's why he made passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 his top priority.

What a disaster.
The plebeians shouldn't even have a vote. This is why the country is shit.
There should be one plebeian leader to prevent the abuse of the plebeians but no, they shouldn't all be able to voice their ignorant opinions like their opinions are equally valuable.
ONTD_Political, I think, illustrates the foolishness of giving everyone a vote.

WASHINGTON -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan promised again on Sunday that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would bring lower tax rates for all Americans while remaining revenue-neutral, although he didn’t fully explain how it would accomplish that.

Oh gee imagine that. A politician lying.

The Obama campaign has blasted the Romney-Ryan ticket for not providing details on how it would give Americans such large tax breaks without growing the deficit.

That's rich.
Obama bitching about the deficit.

Ryan reiterated in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that the plan would drop taxpayers' bills by 20 percent without costing a dime, due to closed tax loopholes, but he was short on specifics when pressed by host Chris Wallace.

“You haven’t given me the math,” Wallace said in one exchange.

“I don’t have the ... It would take me too long to go through all of the math,” Ryan responded.

Then get the fuck off my show until you stop lying.
Come on Wallace.
If you're going to lie at least lie convincingly.

“But let me say it this way,” he went on. “You can lower tax rates 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class for things like charitable deductions, home purchases, for health care. What we’re saying is people are going to get lower tax rates and therefore they will not send as much money to Washington.”

Okay.
How?
Mitten's campaign is especially bad about this.
He never says how.
At least with Obama you know how: by fucking the middle class.
Then this asshole comes along and basically says I'M GOING TO DO EVERYTHING OBAMA PROMISES AND IT'LL COST NO ONE ANYTHING!
Unless you're importing slaves or something I don't see how.

Wallace played a clip of President Barack Obama mocking the Romney campaign’s lack of details on the loopholes while on the campaign trail. “No matter how many times they tell you they’re gonna start talking specifics really soon, they don’t do it,” Obama said. “And the reason is because the math doesn’t work.”

Not that your math works either, Obama.
People in glass houses shouldn't cast stones.
God. What a cowardly lot of weaklings. No one wants to take the measures to fix this shit because someone will get their feelings hurt in the process.
If you vote in this election you're a fucking retard.
Let's look at the comments where I'm sure Obama is getting the most sumptuous e-blowjob imaginable--
Amazingly it's mostly just Mittens hate.
Well whatever. I can deal with that.
I won't be following it because zzzz but okay.

“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” TLC’s new show about an energetic, self-identified redneck family that, to a member, follows the law of honey badger — they don’t give a shit — has become the latest must-see reality TV show since its premiere two weeks ago.

If ever there's a condemnation of US culture it's "The Learning Channel" shows this crap and you can buy fast food at a gas station.
Like really that's all you need to know about the US as a society in 2012.
Also the history channel is 99% shows about how aliens made the pyramids.
I used to make fun of the history channel because it was like all history was a 5 minute Powerpoint presentation leading up to WW2 and that event is still ongoing but really, I'd take that over ALIENS DID IT any day.
At least WW2 was history, if a really narrow window on history.
Remember when TLC used to show crap about whales and it was like sitting in school?
I miss that, actually.
Now it's HURR DURRR WATCH A 12 YEAR OLD GET KNOCKED UP!
Basically what I'm trying to say is we're a society of cretins and morons voting for cowards to fix our considerable societal problems without realizing the problem is we, as a collective, are shitty people.
And I'm not about to say Europe or anywhere else is any better but I live in the US so that's what I know.

This past weekend, the L.A. Times ran a piece on the “virtual stoning” of June, the 300-pound force of nature who, more than Alana, is the star of the show, one of those innately intelligent, verbally dexterous, blithely unconcerned, totally individual individuals that make for riveting television.

>riveting television.
>hillbillies jumping into a mud bog for half an hour (dead serious that's the first episode)
Well if you needed a reason to never watch TV again--
here it is.

Go-go juice and pageants, with all their creepy JonBenet Ramsey overtones, have been enough to stack public opinion against June, but “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” works as a piece of lighthearted entertainment explicitly because it is not at all a show about bad parenting. As Calhoun puts it, “The kids have what they need. They seem secure and happy. What exactly is the problem here?”

The first episode of the show featured:
growing children eating cheese balls for breakfast
the eldest child (16) about 8 months pregnant
the entire family stuck in bumfuck, Alabama with little concern for betterment or escaping the nonstop purgatory of the Deep South
the entire family (including the pregnant teenager) swimming in a lake clearly marked with a sign that states there might be flesh eating bacteria in the water
I'm no expert on raising children but one or all of these things might be a slight indicator we're not dealing with the greatest parents ever.

And while I've never seen the show, I really hate people who fat shame others, especially a child. That's how eating disorders begin.

But eating cheese balls for breakfast = A-OK.
Can't you just be a normal weight?
Why does diet = eating disorder in 2012?
Oh right because that means not going to the Sheetz to shovel 50 hoagies into your fat maw while filling your car that gets 3 miles to the gallon.
My mistake.
This whole fat shaming thing is amazing to me.
As a society people have decided skinny chicks are way hotter than fat ones so the fat ones (over 50% of the population) have decided that they're going to stay fat and that's somehow everyone's fault that they're not considered beautiful.

She encourages her daughters to lose weight, takes care with the household budget, insists the girls clean up the messes they make, forces them to wear helmets while they drive four wheelers through the mud, rarely loses her temper, kisses and hugs them, and regularly sets limits on their behavior.

But avoid the flesh eating bacteria soup?
Well she's a good mother but not mother of the year, come on.

Uhh, sorry but fuck you. There is absolutely NO REASON why any child, much less a seven-year-old should ever be "encourage[d]... to lose weight."

Future health concerns?
Pffft.
POSITIVE BODY IMAGE IS ALL THAT MATTERS.

California has become the first state in the nation to ban therapy that tries to turn gay teens straight.

Banning therapy that doesn't work.
Welcome to FDA regulations 100 years ago.
Congratulations, everyone.
I'm not even looking at the comments where everyone is acting like total twats because that's the only reaction you should have to this.
Stand back you rats because we have a trigger warning.
So da pacem domine and all that shit.

MONTREAL – For months, Bahar Ebrahimi had been rebelling against her parents, complaining their Afghan culture and Muslim religion were suffocating her. “I want to enjoy my life. I want to feel what the other ones feel,” she told them, according to her mother’s statement to police.

Quia non est alius
Qui pugnet pro nobis
Nisi tu Deus noster.

As Dylan wrote on Monday, most — though not all — economists will tell you there’s a good theoretical case for taxing capital gains and investment income at a lower rate than normal income. Mitt Romney, in other words, should be paying a low tax rate.

Because people like that are more likely to invest in riskier ventures, then.
Welcome to actuarial studies.
Not always fair.

But it’s also worth understanding why more and more tax wonks are wondering if the case holds up under current conditions. For one thing, the low rate on investment income has been an important contributor to rising inequality.

If I'm an economist the only thing I'm saying in this, the year of our Lord 2012 is "it's breathtaking how much money we don't have. If we had 900 trillion dollars, after rebalancing the books, we'd have 0 dollars."

China accused Japan of stealing the Senkaku Islands and "grossly" violating Chinese sovereignty during a verbal war that erupted at a U.N. session among senior officials from both countries.

THEY'RE A BUNCH OF TINY FUCK ISLANDS WHO GIVES A SHIT.
I'm giving them to Korea. Fuck both of you.
I guess the concern is there might be oil drilling to be done there but come on. At least state that's what this is about and not HURRR PATRIOTISM.

By now, we’re no doubt all familiar with the distressing case of Jill Meagher.

Indeed.
Wait, who?

For a while now, pictures purporting to show Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, modeling in 1950s bondage and fetish porn have been floating around the darker corners of the Internet.

Seen it.
I hang out in the darker corners of the internet, apparently.
I'm so proud.

These days the price of a standard civilian hit-job can run as high as $2 million. That’s not the price to get the job done―that’s the price if one of your underlings gets caught. The whole inflationary spiral started with one dumb yakuza stiffing McDonald’s on the price of a cheeseburger in Kyoto a few years ago.

What is this world coming to?
First Obama might get reelected then this?

Oh dear, SlutWalk London. On Saturday you're marshalling crowds of women in fishnets and bras to chant "my dress is not a yes" and promoting petitions insisting that the Home Office should prosecute rapists.

Yes, I dress promiscuously because it's so comfortable.
I know it's not an invitation for rape but when you act like you dress like that because you're comfortable with your body--
I dunno, it strikes me as very fake.

"President Obama is a uniquely gifted speaker, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history," Myers writes, calling Obama a "universally acclaimed public speaker."

I find it very hard to pay attention to Obama while watching his mechanical tics from left teleprompter to right teleprompter.
Is that uniquely gifted?
Being able to read?
IN 2012 IT SURE IS HEY-OH!

BILLIONAIRE J.K. ROWLING: Here's Why I Didn't Leave The UK Even Though We Have High Taxes

"because I'm a billionaire so even if I lose 250 million I still have billions. GOD IT'S GREAT BEING RICH."

Because unlike all the irresponsible deadbeats who don't pay much in taxes, the story goes, rich people are smart, independent, and resourceful, and they won't stand for having their money confiscated. Instead, they'll just move somewhere with lower tax rates. Like Monaco.

Lower taxes, beautiful weather and brown girls.
But no, you're a villain if you're rich and move there.

Rowling loves her country, and she wants her kids to grow up there. And, as someone who once depended on the safety net designed to help those going through hard times, she feels a debt to her society.

"I also coincidentally have a book about the intrigues of small town politics coming out but I PROMISE THAT'S A COINCIDENCE AND THIS ISN'T A MARKETING STRATEGY."
Here's a story about some 19 year old dog that got donations for arthritis and everyone is cheering and crying in the comments--
can't die with dignity as a dog, I guess--

A Hong Kong billionaire has offered up a staggering, if bizarre, "marriage bounty" to any man who can woo his married lesbian daughter.

Have I mentioned how much I love Hong Kong lately?
Because only Hong Kong can generate headlines like this.
Of course the comments can't have any fun with this--
Fucking ONTD.
Ohhh goodness.
Anyway fuck this noise.

Oh Shit I'm Sorry

Oh boy. ONTD_Political was up in arms about health care reforms (of course) and something--
I dunno.
Apparently that whole "you can be on your parents' insurance until you're 26" thing doesn't extend to you getting knocked up.
To be honest I don't see the problem here. If you're starting a family of your own I think it's time to get off daddy's healthcare, you know?
Not to mention kids need a lot of healthcare. They vomit and shit all over the fucking place and no one can figure out why but it's probably not very kosher.
Anyway here we are.
I picked this one because we have another typical ONTD_Political Feminist who has this to say:

Bah. So sick of people being screwed over on health care, particularly women and kids.

But I thought men and women were equal?
Should it be "especially kids" if men and women are exactly the same?
Why particularly women if we're all equal?
Unless you're okay with being equal until it might behoove you to be advantaged--
you can't have chivalry and equality, you know.

I have watched, in the last couple of weeks, several different times (ESPN has been showing this, for some reason, nearly every day), a movie called 'Dogtown and Z-Boys'. It's a documentary about the Zephyr Skate team, a group of boys and one girl who were surfers-turned-skateboarders in 'Dog Town', California. 

Oh God I hated it when the Action channel used to show that crap.
 I TURN THIS CHANNEL ON TO SEE ROBOCOP OR SOME CHINESE DUDE PUNCHING OTHER CHINESE DUDES
NOT TO SEE SOME FAGGOT SKATER ASSHOLES.
They had another movie they showed all the goddamn time about snowboarding that was even more insufferable.

Hello! Just thought i'd pop in, wave a bit.
*waves*

There is currently *so much* going on in fandom! I have so many tabs open and bookmarks and am subscribing to people left and right on AO3. Too much fic, not enough time!!

Too much fanfiction.
I know what you mean, girlfriend.

So, yes - saw Avengers. Loved it so, so much. Saw it again today, and i was the only person in the theatre. YAY. The first time was the midnight show, which was fun, but the audience was noisy and i missed stuff. This time - wheeee! 

>seeing The Avengers
>twice
WOOOOW
Here's a post about Planned Parenthood going bankrupt or something (I see this post in every blog I review but I've never bothered to comment on it or mention it until now) but this one is different. Apparently they attempt to raise money through fanfiction.
Like if you want one of these cunts to write a fanfiction about how Goku really wants to fuck Vegeta you can pay her 10 bucks and she will.
Then the cash gets donated to Planned Parenthood.
I can't imagine this isn't against some sort of copyright law but whatever.

Ah, Yule-time! Pretty much my favorite time of year. The scent of cedar in the house from the tree, cinnamon-y and bayberry candles, cold nights and frosty mornings and, if we're very good...snow!

I seem, however, to have had my internal thermometer reset. I *cannot* stay warm, no matter what i do. Thank heavens for space heaters and electric blankets!

This is really dull but I can't believe how cunty it is too.
Did you try at this?
Like when other authors tried to be good at writing you said NO
INSTEAD
I WILL BE A HUGE CUNT

It's that day of the year again, and again, I'm telling my dad's story.

Born in 1925, to a family of thirteen, 

How fucking old are you?

*waves*

Hallo! I am sitting here, windows open, ac *off*, enjoying the hell out of our suddenly mild and lovely temperatures. Forties at night!! Seventies in the day!! So very wonderful. Cannot *wait* for true autumn to arrive.

There is something really annoying about the way you write. I've never felt like someone had an annoying voice through writing before.

*waves*
Hallo, people.
We suddenly moved into nearly-summer weather. Mid-eighties and *humid*. Oh dear gods, i hate it. Hate. It. I want my chilly spring weather back, now, please.
*puts cold washcloth around neck*

See what I mean?
Don't you just want to punch her through the internet?

Today! I'm leaving for Writercon!!
*flails*

Yes, it's going to *rock* but also....
*flails*

 WRITERCON
I don't even want to know what that is.

We'll arrive at the 'con early Friday afternoon, and i kinda doubt i'll be able to get online while i'm there, so.....everyone have a lovely weekend! My flist will be skip=a billionty when i get back.

*flails more*
*runs in little circles*

Things to do! Things to do!!!

:)

*VERBS*

Yes, i am now 42. Wheeeee! :)

AKA way too fucking old to be acting like this.

So! Ask me anything, about any fic i've written. Um. This is not a request post. Heh. Just - ask me why, or how, or whom, or...whatever. I suppose you could ask about my 'writing', too, though i'm likely to be a bit...weird and vague about that. I'm never very coherent when it comes to the process. But i'll do my best!

Do you try to be as irritating as you are or does that come naturally?
I'm guessing it's a bit of both.
Like Sergeant Telion's sniper ability in Warhammer.
Let me make this obtuse simile even more obtuse:
because they said that was the marriage of natural talent with the genetic enhancements of a space marine--
so he's really good at shooting, see.
Like this woman--
she was this annoying naturally but then her natural talent was augmented by the internet and practice.
Like Telion's--
I'll stop.

Or perhaps it's a rant. I dunno. Anyway. Reading some nice, long big bang fics. And it's wonderful to get good, meaty stories. Wonderful! But...

Is it just me? And it's possible, but...is it just me who gets really, really tired of the 'find one true love, date/hang out with/have sex with one true love, have some massive fight/misunderstanding/freakout, lose one true love, pine for days/months/years over lost love, reconnect and live happily ever after' story line? I mean... Yes, okay. Stories need, apparently, some kind of 'angst' or 'drama' or.....whatever.

No they don't.
They literally don't need any angst.
Hell, even drama is optional.
If you'd read more than fanfiction you might know this.

If i was madly in love, and suddenly my best friend said 'oh, by the way, your soul mate was mackin' on so and so at this party'... My first impulse would *not* be to move out and not talk to them for six months. My *first* impulse would be to confront them, find out the whole story, and *then* decide on what to do.

Am i too boringly practical for fiction? Am i just a spoilsport? I dunno.

The whole premise is so junior high stupid who cares anyway?

Yes yes!
I like anthologies. I like collections of stories on one subject, or by one author, or with one defining theme. I'm funny that way.

Yes, hilarious.
Hilarious like how much my fucking back hurts.
Anyway I can't stand this bullshit anymore
I think my spine is about to erupt
I'm going to mine ore in space
goodbye

Thanks for the comments, friends

I'm getting so popular, holy shit-- two (or three, I dunno) entries ago: another comment.
Can't keep me down.
Anyway here's some cunt.

Fired up the Wii last night in a fit of boredom, figuring I'd finish Skyward Sword since I bought the Wii for it.

Saw Link standing in the water temple and remembered why I quit in the first place, and put in Twilight Princess instead.

Water temples, man. What is it about the water temple in every game? It's not even the puzzle. I got stuck on that stupid skeleton guy at the bottom of some sort of shaft and I don't feel like fighting him again because he kept kicking my ass. Not a boss. Just some enemy dude.

Wow.
Getting stuck in a Zelda game over combat.
They're not hard games, you know.

Chrome is telling me I can't go to gmail because "The site's security certificate is signed using a weak signature algorithm!"

Which, okay, funny, Google is angry with its own security certificate. But then I open up Firefox and cruise LJ and it pops open a new tab because Facebook wants me to do an anon survey.

...I don't have a Facebook. Chrome on my Mac doesn't have any problems opening gmail.

Ugh. It's like every time I turn around there's something new going hinky with my PC.

HURRRRRRR
URURRRRRURURURURURRRRR

I don't know if there's a legit problem or it's just LJ being gross like it sometimes is, since none of my scanners picked up anything nasty aside from a few tracking cookies.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

So instead of studying for the bar, I played ME3 and finished it. 

Wow, lawyer and Mass Effect fan.
And your blog is entitled "Feminist Popcorn".
You've just got it going on all the way around.
Holy shit.
This blog is boring as fuck. I can't believe how many entries I've skipped over and I haven't even had a thought about it. Wow, posts about your fish tank this is really riveting shit!

But srsly, his. In an article about the game. Way to overlook 50% of the human population (or 20% of Sheps, as of ME2). I also got used to law school, where a lot of books seem to use the neutral "she" instead of "he." Seeing "he" is pretty jarring, especially when I've got 120+ hours invested in "she."

>She
>neutral
>2012
No, sorry.
You have only yourself to blame for this development, FEMINIST Popcorn.

Seriously, is a singular they all that hard to come by?

English doesn't have one.
I'd expect a lawyer to know this.
I still use "she" because I give not one fuck but it even sounds antiquated to me and I'm using it.
It's either she, he (which would be grammatically incorrect), they (even worse) or he/she (nope).
It's like one of those grammar rules that hasn't been updated yet but really needs updating but no one wants to deal with the ramifications of adding an entire pronoun class that hasn't existed in English.

A post on abstinence-only education and the, frankly, baffling belief that waiting until marriage means that sex is the reason to get married dredged up this memory for me.

zzzzzzzzzzz--

I was a teenager-- high school, anywhere between 14 and 19, old enough to be perturbed but young enough to be driven around by my mother. I don't know how we reached the topic, but I suggested that cohabiting before marriage was a good idea because how else will you know if you're compatible? Like, what if you're neat and they're a slob? That's totally grounds for divorce! Clearly the solution is to find these things out beforehand.

Recent research indicates marriage is more likely to end in divorce if you cohabit (or "live together" if you're feeling less pretentious).
Further research indicates your marriage is 500% less likely to end in divorce if you marry a brown girl while being a white man.
It also posts a measly 4% decrease if you marry an Asian woman although I suspect the primary reason for that is because you dumb fucks are doing it way wrong and marrying what wisemen call ABCs (America Born Chinese). I suspect if the average idiot did it properly that combo would be posting similar numbers.
What I'm trying to say is science isn't finding anything a wiseman doesn't already know.

My mother disagreed, and told me "why would you buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" Meaning, why would a man buy a cow. A woman would buy the cow, because women think differently from men.

I'll never forget that moment, because it shot straight from my ears to my gut and coiled low in my belly like molten lead. 

It's a metaphor.

1) I was a cow.
2) Men only want me because of sex.
3) If I am to marry, I must entrap a man with the power of my pussy.
4) If they can get the sex without being coerced into marriage, they will never marry me.

Ergo, men are scum.

It means a comparison without using "like" or "as".
She was just comparing you to a cow.
She wasn't calling you a cow, Jesus.

In retrospect, it makes me wonder: who is this cow roaming around that you can milk? Who owns her? Why do they let you milk their cow for free? Why wouldn't you want to buy the cow and feed it grass so you can sell the milk as organic at a huge mark-up? Also wouldn't the cow already have a kid if she's producing milk, rendering the whole "wait until marriage" thing moot anyway? Who wants to marry a cow?

WHY AM I A COW.

... So there you have it?
Women.

I finished my paper on threats against women online and the Virginia v. Black standard, and double-checked my citations. Since it's about threats I pulled on my long Internet memory to quote quite a lot of threatening language, and just when I clicked a link on Feministe-- BAM my computer goes haywire. It wants to run reinstall.exe and won't let me do squat. So I reboot and am asked, in the boring standard dialogue box I see a few times a week when Firefox crashes, if I want to scan my computer. Yeah whatever, stop messing with me, Windows.

Then I notice that all the errors are... wrong. "Hard drive speed reduced." "Ram slowed." Uuuuuh, what? Then I see the "buy now" button.

Awwwww fuck.

Long story short, my computer is out of commission until someone more computer savvy gets a look at it.

Reboot in safe mode with networking and run Malwarebytes you ignorant cunt.
This is the part that slays me about lawyers. So big and important until some actual work needs doing.
I say burn the lot of you.

None of the tips for fixing the System Scan malware work (i.e., I can't open safe mode).

You can't
"open"
safe mode.
Are you sure you know what you're doing?

Since I was barred from my game and my buddies were out for the afternoon, I went shopping for a chair. It didn't fit in my car, so the guy I've been talking to suggests: "maybe... you could get your husband to help?" I ignore that because how rude can you get and say, "I'll get it later." "Do you have a bigger car at home? Maybe your husband's?" "I don't have one." A bigger car or a husband. "Really?" "Really." and then a bit later "a pretty girl like you with a degree living alone? Where have all the men gone?" "I dunno, I don't swing that way."

I know he was scoping me out. I don't know why I am so irresistible to guys in retail.

Cooooooooool.

  I have a weird annoyance with the idea that humans are special in SFF for their boldness of spirit or whatever. 

SCIFI FANTASY GUYS DON'T WORRY I GOT YOUR LITFAG ACRONYMS COVERED.

They are the boldest, the most resilient, the most noble! In Mass Effect, it's their "genetic diversity."

Humanity suffered a population bottleneck that has left us with four major lineages. For the amount of time we've been on this planet, we are an incredibly non-diverse species as compared to others.

Oh want a scifi fantasy story where humanity isn't known for its youthful feel and dynamic view of the world?
You need only peer into the grim darkness of the far future.

We're not like cheetahs, which have such little genetic diversity that a case of the sniffles could wipe out the entire population, but as far as genetic diversity goes, we're a bunch of inbred cousins poised on the precipice of an epidemic or climate change. Yeah, we're adaptable. We're good survivors. This is because we're sapient tool-users, not due to some innate biology.

>not due to some innate biology
>the fact we are sapient is due to biology
your entire argument is undermined by a very glaring hole in your argument, esquire. 

The idea that humans are the most diverse species in the galaxy means that the other sapient races are facing down eradication at every turn. This year's outbreak of influenza? BAM! There goes an entire civilization. Like colony collapse among honey bees, the Tasmanian devil's contagious facial cancer, the bats being wiped out by a fungus-- all what happens when you don't have enough genetic diversity.

...
Assuming the aliens evolved in a similar setting to our own, of course.
Like the Eldar in Warhammer 40,000 have been around so long they've far evolved beyond fearing disease and the like and so therefore have become a very homogenous people.
There are reasons genetic diversity can go away and in fact we're starting to see it in our own species.
I guess I should cut you some slack because you're a lawyer, not an evolutionary biologist but then again neither am I yet I manage to open my mouth and not sound like a prattling twat.
Must be some sort of innate ability I have.

That's just the scientific problem. I see it a lot in fantasy with elves. "Humans are so adaptable, not like us old sticks in the mud!" Really? Really? Elves usually have magic and floating cities or other grand floaty architecture if they're living in trees, and you expect me to believe that elves didn't adapt?

...
The point is they didn't have to adapt--
because they had magic, you know?
Magic makes shit easier, like being able to shoot fire out of your hands?
You don't need to learn to make fire then.
Also are you seriously trying to make a scientific argument in a universe where magic exists?
"Wow the Warp in Warhammer is so unrealistic!"
WOW GEE YOU ARE SO RIGHT A REALM OF MAGIC IS UNREALISTIC.
YOU FOUND THE ONE PROBLEM WITH THE STORY OF WARHAMMER.

That Elfus erectus was putting up tree houses and zinging spells around before they had language? Yeah yeah, it's fantasy and elves didn't evolve.

Considering most the elves in the scifi and fantasy I've encountered were literally created by a deity that is still around to interact with mortals pretty much proves they didn't evolve.

 Whatever. I would think a society with grand magic would be way more adaptable than humans in the face of catastrophe-- in case of an earthquake I'll take the floating city above standing in a doorway any day (this ties in with my "magic is technology! Treat it like a technological innovation!" rant which I'm sure other people have touched on more eloquently than I could).

... Which is why the catastrophes that face elves is never something simple like an earthquake.
It's like the birth of Slaanesh or losing favor with the deity that created them or something.

If you have a sapient tool-user, chances are, they have most of the same quality humans have. And the more abstract the tool-use, the more adaptable they are: see bonobos versus sea otters. And on that score, humans are definitely not the most noble of possible other races. That honor would have to go to the bonobo, which domesticated itself and solves its problems with peace and love instead of murder. The very idea that we're the most noble is, frankly, depressing.

Yeah but when your choices in a game are humans, some kind of faggy elves who betray you at a moment's notice, some blue people with vagina noses or like green soccer hooligans it's pretty easy to pick out the side you're intended to root for.

Granted, a nebulous quality like "nobility" isn't something that can be quantified like genetic diversity, so it's just this grumble in the back of my head regarding world-building. I think it all mostly annoys me because it's an excuse to completely homogenize whatever other you're discussing, be they elves or aliens. They are all the same, they lack the spark of humanity. And that's just lazy.

That's because you're basically creating an alien species that has human-like qualities.
If you give elves all of the same qualities that make humans humans why not just make more humans?
By this point you're focused on superficial details like "oh they have pointy ears" and who gives a fuck then?

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about Mass Effect is realizing how many celestial objects are actually in the Milky Way. I feel pretty knowledgeable, I know a lot about space, but I never had any idea some of those things were in the Milky Way-- like the Horsehead Nebula.

>pretty knowledgeable about the Milky Way
>didn't know one of its hallmark features existed
No, cool.

When you learn about celestial objects you learn about things like "galaxies" and "nebulae" in such a way that, at least for me, lead one to believe that they're separate things. A galaxy is a spinny collection of stars and activity. A nebula is a floaty blob of gas.

... That's what you learned, maybe, but meanwhile I paid attention a bit in school and happen to know nebulae are often contained in galaxies.
The galaxy is a lot bigger than you seem to give it credit for.

Realizing that nebulae are bits of floaty gas inside galaxies turned my entire conception of space upside down. And I grew up on this sort of space-related edutainment. If you look for information on the Horsehead Nebula, it'll tell you that it's in Orion, but it doesn't say that Orion is in the Milky Way. This would make logical sense since we can see it with the naked eye, but again, that's not how we're taught about space-- especially since you can also see a band of the Milky Way, so clearly the things not in that band aren't in the Milky Way, right?

You're a moron.
Here, let me break this shit down for you:
space is vast.
So vast, in fact, that your pitiful concepts of distance and time are so inconsequential they're meaningless.
The Milky Way galaxy is home to so many fucking solar systems it'd make your head spin.
Whining about sexism--
whining about rape in a story without a TRIGGER WARNING--

OMG PRINCESS LUNA ON MLP.

The wait was so worth it.

My Little Pony.
Fuck off, entry over.