Buffy marathon

and me snuggling with my kitties. Stupid migraines. Everyone else have a fun and safe New Year (i.e. watch out for the drunk drivers, who I hate with a passion.)

I'll be snuggling in bed hopped up on Midrin.

And who said I didn't have any fun. I ambled over to the local bookstore where everything was 20% off. I managed to only spend about $10 more then the limit I set and walked out with a new Raymond Chandler (Lady of the Lake), a cd set of old detective radio shows, 2 knitting books, and a crossword book and a book on the history of crosswords. WOOWOO.

and organic mimosas!

Update: By the time the New Year rang in (judging by the fireworks) I was watching Ginger Snaps III. I've got to say, nothing quite says hello new year then watching a bunch of misogynistic guys get it and a couple of strong young women be responsible for much of it. I love Bridget and Ginger.

Also, I added a list of links to publications that I subscribe to, and sometimes contribute to, so check them out. All radical, all good. (The first two feminist, the third the paper of the Industrial Workers of the World, and the fourth radical environmentlaism.)

I have a problem with this:

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	4.6
Mind:	4.8
Body:	6.4
Spirit:	7.7
Friends/Family:	3.8
Love:	1.5
Finance:	5.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Because it doesn't seem to think that one can be single, not searching, and happy. I'm not lonely, I'm not all longing for a relationship, I mean if one comes along then nice, but if one doesn;t then that's also 100% okay by me. It says this: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is very low, indicating trouble. There is love out there for you. Seek the advice of wise people on how to go about finding it. Do not lose hope. which truly judges that all spinsters or bachelors (ha ha guys aren't spinsters) are somehow lacking a huge part of life. Stupid is all I have to say. Don;t they know that having loving meaningful relationships with friends fulfill the whole love thing for some people?

This and that

-I'm watching the Best. Movie. Ever. (see right) If you're not from a Mediterranean family then it may not be as funny to you as it is for me, but it's HI-larious and after watching it you will know what it is to live in my family. (The whole living at home thing until marriage is true. My parents still give me crap about not living at home.)

-I've had migraines every day in the morning for at least a week. It's even impinging on my dreams. Last night in my dream I had to keep going home and going to bed because I had a migraine. I missed out on dreamtime fun. :(

-Logan's sleeping on my foot. What should I do?

-I'm gonna grow up to be Red Forman from That 70's Show. That's right, jackass.

-Yay coffee!!!

Join me New Year's Eve

Skytrain Party (Vancouver, BC)

Here are the details.
NYE Meet at VCC Clark at 7:45.
Bring EVERYTHING!!!
Music, Costumes, Party Favors, etc,,,
If you have a Stereo or instrument... BRING IT!!!

At 8pm we hop an Accordion Train to the Future.
We ride it full circle to Waterfront and then "Whatever".....

Total Trip time 1hr.
8pm to 9pm.

Well I guess I'm a handmaiden of patriarchy then

From the trans thread:
I hate to be picky, but the person who wrote this isn't a radical feminist for two reasons
- a radical feminist would never be intimate with a man or a person who was born male

Oops. Guess all those people calling me radical got to me. I will now go and inform them that my pornstitution fighting ass is not radical at all. Then I'll start defending porn and practising BDSM.










(not)

Seriously, Andrea Dworkin was definitely a radical feminist by my definition. John Stoltenberg anyone?
Check out a rad post on the subject here.

(Feminist) News from the math world

The latest newsletter from the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWN) contained a letter to the editor that I want to share with you all.


In the July-August AWN newsletter, President Keyfitz outlines the difficulties involved in obtaining appointments for women on key prize-awarding committees. We would like to add that even when women are appointed to important decision making bodies, they may not be able to advance the careers of highly deserving women. As women who have served on committees, we have observed that it is quite easy for other members of the committee to deny the quality of a woman mathematician and quickly dismiss her from the discussion. A single outspoken committee member bent against women can seriously hinder the possibilities of awarding a woman an honor that isn't shared by five or six men as well. Even well-intentioned colleagues often don't realise how their unconscious assumptions accumulate to become heavy drags on women mathematicians. This can affect both the writing and the interpretation of letters of nomination, as well as committee discussions. Even women mathematicians may fall into this group.

It is imperative that the AWN address these concerns or women will lose the gains we've made in the past 30 years. We need to demand that men and women condemn openly sexist statements without waiting for someone to be bold enough to file a lawsuit. We need everyone to watch themselves for their own subtle biases. We need to educate people about writing strong letters that will survive reading by even the most biased committee members. If committees are more likely to choose a woman when they are choosing five men, then we need more prizes awarded to multiple recipients. We need to stop the downward spiral caused by judging mathematicians based on a lack of prestigious positions, plenary addresses, top notch publications and awards, without ever pausing to examine their research directly.

This does not even address the issues that may uniquely affect women who are parents: the publication gaps and temporary inability to travel. There is almost no funding to help such women recover their research programs. Certainly there is no funding available from the NSF (National Science Foundation) that will allow them to work part-time in research-only positions at their home institutions like many top women mathematicians did in the past. Given the societal pressure to work even with a young child, few women mathematicians today take unpaid leaves for childcare. Instead they work fulltime jobs, often keeping up their teaching and service while their research is forced on the back burner. It is time to provide grants, even small ones, which will allow women to recover their research after children, or to keep their research going while having young children around. It is time for universities to offer 50% pay for 50% work. It is time that committees realise that many parents with doctorates a decade ago may have been doing research for only eight of those years if not fewer.

There are also the solved two body programs which often place women at second tier jobs with higher teaching. Rather than holding the lack of prestige against the women, it should be noted that her important results have more weight for being completed in what may have been a less than supportive environment. What would she have done at a top notch department with time granted to complete research? What could she do now if offered funding or a top notch position?

Finally the AWN might attempt to spread the word as to which top notch jobs are truly top notch for women and which have such incipient sexism as to prevent the women there from succeeding. Sexism at times can be so pervasive that it is more of a distraction from mathematics than teaching, service, and childcare combined. When the only recourse is to file a lawsuit, there is really no recourse at all.

Anyone with ideas for effective action is encouraged to post them at the Effective Action for Women in Math Webforum at http://groups.google.com/group/WomeninMath.

Sincerley,
Stephanie Alexander
Jean Taylor
Karen Uhlenbeck


I'll add comments later, as I'm in a rush.

Tagged

By Kasper over at Thoughts on Science and Life.

I'm actually at my parent's house, and the nearest book was a Dictionary.

So on pg 123, sentence 6 through 8 equals
chastise: v.t. punishment, esp corporally; chastisement.
chastity: n. quality or state of being chaste.


I don't think I like this page *wink*

I failed

my first class ever. I thought I'd at least get a D. Nope, I got an F. This is what that feels like. Too bad I'm at the library; I feel like crying.

(Yes I was planning on retaking the course for a higher grade as I missed 4 weeks out of an 8/9 week quarter. Stupid PTSD. Stupid med mixup. I wanna crawl into a little ball and die.)

Addendum: At least looking at my transcript shows that last quarter is an anamoly. Thank IPU for that.

Happy Cephalopodmas

SIng a carol.

Have some fun.

It's Cephalopodmas!

Here we go again, the trans wars

I just went over to Screaming Into The Void and read her latest post:

I am a radical feminist, and so is my wife. My wife is also a transwoman.

If you are one of these people who insists upon calling my wife “him” against her expressly stated wishes or otherwise insulting her because of her birth gender, while ignoring all the efforts she has made to separate herself from the social class of “men”, and you still consider yourself a feminist, I must ask you to deeply consider the implications in that, because the clear implication there is that gender roles are inborn and immutable, which is an idea feminism has historically fought against.

And then I must depart from any calm, logical and rational discourse on the subject and say, if you insult my wife: Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you fuck you. Oh and - fuck you. And don’t forget - FUCK YOU.

In a similar vein - if, because I do not agree with every tenet of transactivism, you have decided I am transphobic, you may refer to the previous paragraph.

I’m done with this ridiculous battle. So. Fucking. Done. Quit fucking fighting each other and fight the people at the top who love this game of divide and conquer.

All I can say is HELL FUCKING YEAH (which I couldn't say in the comments, because they are closed). This is exactly my stream of thought on the matter. I believe that feminism, especially radical feminism is the belief that we must get rid of all types of opression. ALL OF IT. That includes gendered oppression that fits inside this little itty bitty gender dichotomy. I know lots of transpeople that I consider to be women; also some that I wouldn't welcome into a women's only space. I had this battle back at Bluestockings where I was called transphobic because I didn;t think that someone's male roommate who sometimes wears a dress should be allowed to volunteer at our women's collective bookstore. A transperson I would consider is one who gave up their male priviledge on a daily basis. A person who considers themself a woman and presents themself as such on a daily basis. But that's only for the time being. I want the gender dichotomy smashed to itsy bitsy peices where the gender system includes all different types of people, including all those people stuck in between today;s accepted genders. Because there's room for more, and I think that the existence of intersexv people tell us that there definitely are more then two genders, and to an extent transpeople. If you can't understand this, you don't (in my eyes) understand feminism.

This post brought to you by the letter E

Dr. Brazen Hussy has given me the letter E. Now I must list at least 10 things that I love that begin with the letter E. (Damn, S would have been so much simpler). They are in the order that I thought them up, so the numbers have no real significance.

1. Equality. Can I have some now, please since I love it so much?
2. Egalitarianism. Just sounds like a nice idea.
3. Eggs. Poached, hard boiled, scrambled, poached in red wine, for dinner, for breakfast, for a snack. Eggs are Egg-cellent. (I hear you all groaning.)
4. Equal pay for equal work do I really need to say why I love this one? I mean if it ever happens.
5. Equador You were so pretty the only time I was there. Plus it's home of the Galapagos Islands which contain so many neat animals.
6. Equations Though not all equations, I do have a special place in my heart for them. Plus they explain physics a lot better then words do.
7. Emma Oh Jane Austen how I love thee. (You're one of my spinster idols!)
8. e Oh you continual growth constant you. Who doesn't love you?
9. Estes, Clarissa Pinkola Women who Run with Wolves has rejuvenated me many many times. I read it everytime I feel feminist burnout. Thank you.
10. Edna St. Vincent Millay My favourite poet of all time. I wish I would have been able to meet her. She speaks to my soul. What lips my lips have kissed was my life story for my teenage years/early 20s. Damn. I love her.
11 & 12. Earth First! & Environmentalism Saving the earth from destruction as best we can. STOP LOGGING OLD GROWTH!!! Woo woo. That's right, I've sat in trees. It's fun.
13.Edward Hopper Not anything at all like my painting style, but for some reason you're one of my favourites.

If you want to do this then leave a comment and I'll give you a letter.

A little of this and that

-Cat badges now added to the sidebar so you can visit my kitties anytime you would like (I know I love to see them all the time.)

-Also there have been updates to the blogroll. I'm always on the look out for good blogs, especially blogs dealing with mental health, BPD or PTSD, and feminist science or mathematics blogs. Any blogs I should read?

-Here's hoping that next quarter will be better then this last one, as I'm taking Number Theory (exciting) and advanced linear algebra (fun) and modern physics (unsure about this yet, but I like physics, so....), and I'm a TA for one of the physics labs.

-I learned "continental style" or pick knitting. WOOO!! Look at me go. Once I find a side bar for computer illiterates then I will put knitting progess bars in my side bar, but for now there's too much playing with CSS and other things that sound less then fun to me.

Do you think

that Jane Austen had a thing about preachers, i.e. didn't like them at all? I mean all Austen books I've read have horrible preachers (like the one from Emma) or are idiots (like the one from P&P).

Goddamn you CTV

Behind the man they arrested for the Ipswich murders did you have to have a provactively posed headless woman in a mini skirt? If they were 'regular' women would you have this titillating graphic? Probably not. I hate you.

Monday happy blogging

*snuggles*
(for more kitty fun you can see their Flickr page.)

and:

You Are a Snowflake

You live for the winter - blizzards, cold nights, snowball fights! The holidays are just a bonus!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Your Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled With a Puppy

Well - one cute, soft, cuddly puppy... And a very soiled Christmas stocking.

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

Weighing in on Ipswich

I ususally get my news from cbc.ca, but I had the news on while I was cooking today and I'm pissed. Girls? You mean to tell me that they're all under the age of 18? And do we have to place so much stress on the word prostitute? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Stated here much more elquently then I could:

The Ipswich murders: they were women, weren't they?
Matthew Parris

Prostitute is a noun and a useful descriptive term, but is it the right word to use in a headline reporting the death of a woman? “Another prostitute murdered” — yes, she was murdered and she was a prostitute, but she was a woman first, a woman of whom you could have said so many things if you had known her, only one of which was that she worked as a prostitute.

I am not advocating euphemism. Woolly words such as “sex worker” will soon attract the same opprobrium as the terms they replace, and lose their wool. Nor am I suggesting we hide what those women in Suffolk did for a living. It is central to the case, it is what has linked the murders, and in a grisly way it fascinates. Any report should be unsparing and the language honest.

But in the headline, in the opening sentence, couldn’t we at least start by calling a victim what she mainly was: a woman? Some words seem to push a person away, to make them other than us. We ignore our common humanity when in the very naming of a person we launch straight into a descriptive term drawing attention to difference and inviting shame.


Read the whole thing here.

But then again, we prefer the othering, the thought that only discarded women are in danger. They thought the same about the Yorkshire "Ripper" but then he murdered mostly "women" not prostitutes. Words are powerful, and I'm sick of these women being posthumanously (and all the women in the sex industry still living) othered and discarded. (Not to mention all the women not in the sex industry who are also othered and discarded.) Blech. I hate it here.

Fuck you patriarchY!

Thank god that's over

It's been a hard quarter. A very hard quarter. I missed about 3.5-4 weeks out of the 9 weeks of the quarter due to med induced mixed manic states, insomnia, migraines, inability to concentrate due to my body readjusting from the meds that drove me to a frenzy a couple weeks into the quarter. Add to that muscle spasms due to stress and your garden varietyanxiety attacks and depression. I may have failed my math class; hell, I don't even remember taking the first test (during med debacle). (I KNOW! It was that bad.) Due to the fact that I could not concentrate on anything until a week ago, and then not for a very long amount of time. Risperdal is helping, I can concentrate longer, but how much studying can you do in the 2 days before the final. If I can get in to repeat this class it will put me up to 3 math classes. this one (multivariable calculus), number theory/proofs, and advanced linear algebra. Plus Modern physics. And I'm gonna be a lab TA for the lower level physics labs. I got a C in one of my physics classes, so you know my quarter was bad (other then my math class which my test scores scared my best friend. She wasn't worried about me until she heard those).

I'm so relieved that it's over, but I'm on pins and needles until my score comes back since I missed the last test my final counts twice and I left a page empty because my brain just quit (lack of concentration thing). It was stuff I could do, but I just took too long and didn't care anymore. The stuff from the last test I knew, making me believe that I would have done well on that test, but there's nothing I could have done now.

It's times like these that remind me why I'm on disability.

Memespotting from I Blame the Patriarchy

(Meme) which enjoins the would-be memist to pick up the nearest book, train the eye on page 123, and reproduce without permission the sixth through eighth sentences.

"'I wish the media would realize that girls should be recognized for being talented and healthy looking.' -Justine, Chicago, IL Media image-that's a huge issue for girls"

From Sisterhood is Forever edited by Robin Morgan.

Now let's just think of a world where women and girls are valued for being healthy and talented. That seems like a good thought to end this hellish week on.

SO COOL!

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Year in review (sort of)

As seen at What the Hell is Wrong With You? I mean, damn.

1) Harken back to your archives.
2) Collect the first sentence you wrote every month for the whole year.
3) Entertain us.

January 2006: One of the blogs I like to frequent Capitalism Bad, Tree Pretty. had this definition come up and I thought that it would be as good as any to sort of introduce myself, as I am called and sometimes self-defined as a radical feminist.

February 2006: I was reading Time magazine's full page review of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man, the premise of which is that she dressed, acted, and lived the life of a man for 18 months.

March 2006: Why is it that everytime someone starts a sentence with "Not to be a jerk" they invariably are one?

April 2006: Hey All, let's make this a really good resource out there for women (and men) who have suffered from sexual violence.

May 2006: I am blogging against the stigma attached to mental illness.

June 2006: I went boxing for the first time today and damn was it fun.

July 2006: I'm not dead; I'm just computerless, broke, and anxious.

August 2006: You all missed my birthday.

September 2006: I met Ms. Jared!!! (Tales of the Bay Area) And she's FAB-U-LOUS!!!

October 2006: A few days ago I read Twisty's post on girl's sports and the ensuing comments which went on to argue back and forth about how men are stronger biologically, blah blah blah

November 2006: Want to see kitties?

December 2006: 3 and a half hours until I have to officially be up and getting ready for school.

OH yeah?

In response to Dr. Brazen Hussy





Me geekier!

Just gotta say...

..ALyx I adore you too!

How BPD and PTSD have enhanced my life

Now it's easy for me to detail all the ways that BPD and PTSD have made my life a living hell, but there are some ways in which I feel that I have benefitted from having this (dis)ability. One of them being the fact that I have done/continue to do many different activities. I learned this while talking to the esteemable Laura and she commented that I do a lot of things. Due to the nature of my (dis)ability, I may stop and restart projects due to a) boredom, b) too much energy needed to perform said activity c) inability to leave the house and completely unrelated to my (dis)ability d) knee pain (I have the knees of a 90 year old. fun fun.)

How do you ask do I know I do these things b/c of my BPD? Well, one symptom is that we get easily put off of things, easily bored, and that we have very diverse interests. If that's a symptom then I sure am damn happy I have BPD.

Things I participate in on a regular (for me) basis that I am fairly good at:
Boxing
Water Polo
Delegate for the IWW
Knitting (I generally design things myself, no patterns needed here)
Lithography
Painting
CLowning/Circus (juggling, ring mistressing, stilting, unicycling, making an ass out of myself on a regular basis)
Math
Physics
Writing feminist theory
researching
political activism/theory
writing for theatre or circus
puppetry
dancing: modern, swing, west coast swing, jazz, salsa, and I'm learning the smooth waltz, tango (argentine of course), and flamenco
acting
photography
writing comics
decorating
teaching media literacy
traveling (I used to move every 6 months, well stay somewhere for the winter and travel all summer)
making/designing clothes

WOOWOO!!!

Knitting, a story in pictures

While trying to knit things like this:

I ran into big butted problems like this:

(OK, his butt's not really that big, but you wouldn't know by the way he uses it.)

Then I have to deal with him doing thigs like this when I try to take the yarn away:


But eventually the other night I did get to finish this:

You know what's fun...

...having crippling migraines the last 3 days of class then insomnia the weekend before finals

Have dinner with me!

Here's what I'm making, and anyone can make it too:

Eggs poached in red wine (NYT recipie):
Time: 20 minutes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil as needed
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
4 thick slices of day old bread (the good stuff)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups fruity red wine, like a young Brunello, pinot noir, or Chianti
4 eggs
Grated pecorino or other hard cheese for garnish
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

1. Put 3/4 tbsp oil in large skillet and turn heat to medium. Add garlic and cook, turning occassionally until it just begins to colour. Lower heat a bit and add bread; sprinkle it with a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook, turning once or twice, until bread is crusty and golden.

2.Meanwhile heat wine in a saucepan, preferably one with sloping sides; add some salt. When wine boils, reduce heat to a low simmer. Carefully slip eggs in and cook, spooning wine over them, until whites are barely firm.

3. Scoop eggs into 2 or 4 bowls, along with some wine. Add a piece or two of bread to each bowl, garnish with cheese and parsley, and serve.

Serves 2-4 people. (Or if you eat a lot like me, 1 and a half people. ;))

In remembrance...

Better late then never. A migraine effectively stopped me from going to the vigil and from posting this earlier.

Remember them:

Genevieve Bergeron
Nathalie Croteau
Anne-Marie Edward
Maryse Laganiere
Anne-Marie Lemay
Michele Richard
Annie Turcotte
Helene Colgan
Barbara Daigneault
Maud Haviernick
Maryse LeClair
Sonia Pelletier
Annie St-Arneault
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz


The 14 women killed in December 1989 at l'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. Killed because they had supposedly taken the place of the gunman who claimed that feminists had ruined his life. The women were engineering students: engineering, along with geology and physics are the trifecta of male dominated sciences, i.e. they are the worst sciences for women today, back then I'msure it was just as bad or worse. (Women only made up 20% of the student population, but it was their fault that he wasn't admitted. Yeah, right.)

I wear my white ribbon year round, as it is used in Canada to signify remebrance of this fateful day, and to shine light onto violence against women.

A little thing I'm working on

Yay for sleeplessness.

3 and a half hours

until I have to officially be up and getting ready for school. With the snow melts my unbridled childlike glee that kept me afloat (and sleeping) for the past few days.

Have a doctor's appointment during my calculus test, but at this point I feel like it's better if I take it on Monday or have it averaged out from my final as I can't concentrate, ca't remember, and can't sleep.

I'm spiralling, but it's so subtle that I don't even notice it. Nor do I know how to stop it. I just want to curl up in a ball in my house for the next forever. Can someone send over a cook and a cleaning person though?

Blogger won't let me comment anywhere!

So Laura: I hope you did some stomping for me! I was there in spirit (but with whiskey).

Seen at Dr. Brazen Hussy's:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm   You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Book Snob
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Which is true, but what does it say to me being a math/physics major?

Random Bullets (mostly happy)

-The 4th Disability Carnival is up, go read!
-Happiness is watching Logan watch his first snow fall.
-SNOW!!! And lots of it! Up to 30 cm expected today. WOO WOO
-Didn't sleep last night, may not today
-Fingers crossed that school will be cancelled tommorrow
-My first opera (I bought season tickets to Vancouver Opera) is Verdi's MacBeth on Tuesday!!
-Too tired to do homework, too wired to sleep
-Reports that the snow will stay around for awhile AND we'll get more *giddy*
-Just found this blog and I love it! All the posts are so good! Go read!
-Happiness is old time radio ads: 2 out of 3 doctors prefer Camel (cigarettes), because it suits your T zone. That's T for taste and T for throat.
-I switched to Blogger Beta, you may note the new template. Insomnia's good for something.
*edit* I just made a snow angel! WOO WOO.

EEEEEEEE!!!!! SNOW!!!!!

It has recently come to my attention (by me) that most of you who don't live in the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District) may not know about this. Women from Surrey's South Asian community have finally spoken publicly about domestic violence. "If I can improve one girl's life, it is worth my husband's anger," the woman told 1,500 people who packed a banquet hall in this Vancouver suburb.
This is amazing, and not being of South Asian descent I can only imagine the pressures on women in this community to keep quiet about it outside their families.

More:
Narinder Rihal, a support worker at Surrey Women's Centre, said part of the challenge in assisting abused women in any cultural community is their reluctance to seek help from strangers.

"They are discouraged from seeking help from outside the family," said Rihal. "The family does try to help, but sometimes the family is part of the conflict, they can't always see what the real core issue is.

"They are trained and raised to believe that if there is a problem within the family it should be talked about within the family."

Rihal said women often believe that they can't seek help from people outside their own culture because they won't be understood.

"That's not true," Rihal said. "Domestic violence is not a South Asian problem. It is a problem globally."

But British Columbia's attorney-general said there is a bias within South Asian culture that underpins the violence.

Wally Oppal said there is inequality between men and women in the Indian culture, citing the dowry system where women are treated as property.

Oppal, who is Indo-Canadian, said boys are treated preferentially to girls.

Oppal said the community has been in denial for a long time.

"Nobody likes to acknowledge the fact there may be violence in their own home," he said. "I think it's time that the community did that and for that reason I think the forum is a very good idea."

There was little reluctance among those who attended Thursday's meeting, including the family of one of the slain women.
Maldeep Sandhu, whose cousin Navreet Waraich was stabbed to death Sunday, pleaded that the victim's husband Jatinder, charged with second-degree murder, not be released on bail.

They also urged federal immigration officials to allow Navreet's parents to come to Canada and care for their infant grandson.

Read the whole thing. Listening to the women speaking at the public meeting was inspiring, knowing that they faced anger from family members for doing so. They are such beacons of hope and inspiration for me right now (any woman who stands up and remains silent no more is).

*insert witty title here*

This is where my geekiness and feminism collide. Well, they always collide, but that's beside the point. I am addicted to Torchwood. Now people in the UK may know what I'm talking about, but everyone else who doesn't happen to be up on what's being shown on BBC3 may not know what it is.

Here's a brief summary: (And I'm not sure that this will be relevant to those in the US w/o the Sci-Fi network, but trust me, the "tofurkey" of this post doesn't depend on knowing about/watching the show)

Torchwood is the code word for a UK run alien research centre (that we learned in one of the first episodes of series 2 was created by Queen Victoria after meeting the good Doctor) that of course is super top secret and is run by Captain Jack Harkness, who after Rose (Dr. Who) revived him is no longer able to die. There's Ianto, Toshiko, Owen, and the new person: the sort of point of view character for us, Gwen. "Torchwood , a spin-off from the popular sci-fi show Doctor Who, follows a group of investigators working for the secret organisation of the same name. Set in Cardiff, the team specialise in alien technology that has landed on Earth, and crime, whether it be alien or human." The opening credits go like this: "Torchwood, outside the government, beyond the police: tracking down alien life on earth and arming the human race against the future. The 21st century is when everything changes, and you've got to be ready."

Ok, back to what I was (really) writing about. Now this show has some things that are less then ideal, but I can say that about Buffy too, and it's obviously one of the most feminist pieces on TV. I'm not saying it's perfect, etc. I'm just saying it's better then other TV, which is saying a lot.

First there's the AWESOME fact that the creators of the show have all ready said that everyone on the show will have romantic or sexual experiences with people of both genders (in the 1st episode Owen seduces a man and a woman, in the 2nd episode we see Gwen kiss an alien inhibited Carys and in the 4th episode we see Jack snogging Ianto) and Jack has all ready (see reference to 2nd episode) called human's ideas of sexuality 'quaint' when someone asks "didn't she say she had a boyfriend." And it seems that Toshiko will have an affair with another woman in the next episode (those in the UK don't tell me what happens, I won't get finished downloading the episode until about wednesday/thursday). This is great as there have been a few shows on the air with gay characters, but I've never seen a show in which all the leads are not quite straight. Bi is still a curse word many places (unfortunately) but I like that all the characters are neither straight nor gay, especially that they're not all straight. Also it seems that whenever we have a cast of mostly gay characters the show is about being gay (see: Will & Grace, The L Word). Here it's just a side point like being straight is a side point to (pick a show on primetime TV). As yet they don't make any big deal about anyone's sexuality, and with the increasing alien encounters, maybe they will expand their definition from bi- to queer, because in my opinion bi- is a 'quaint' term (for me anyway) because there are more then 2 genders out there right now, within the human race.

Then the show introduced me to a piece of technology that I want. It's this thing that transports you to the past, but only a very certain past. You see the emotional imprint of something that happened in the past, and you experience emotionally what the person at that time experienced. Now I think Owen is a big old git, but I think he's starting to learn, because while he had the device he saw a rape (well, the beginnings of one) and he felt the fear, the terror that the woman experienced. (And yes it was someone she knew.) Owen became obsessed with the rapist, because he was never brought to trial. He found him and told him about how he knew, letting him know that he knew what a bastard he was. Gwen has to talk Owen out of stabbing him.

I think this is the only way we can make men understand. (Again, not all men.) They experience the terror, the helplessness, the pain. Unfortunately people learn best from their own experiences. We can talk all we want about the horrors of rape, but unless we can make them feel how horrible it is, most people will never understand the gravity of the situation. I think it would do a lot to end oppression, if everyone has to experience what another person goes through. I'd take that, gladly.

PS If anyone in the UK knows how to create torrents I'd really like the Torchwood DeClassified 6 and up since I can't access it from outside the UK)

I was up way too late last night

and I looked out my window and saw this:



I am filled with a childlike joy whenever I see snow. The smell invigorates my body, and invites me to dance in it, try to catch a few snowflakes on my tongue, and roll around in it. The smell is so inviting, so comforting, so exciting. People out here don't understand my love of snow. Their loss.

Just a reminder:

Which is today in the US and Canada and tommorrow internationally.

Let's review the Church of Stop Shopping's Ten Commandments (I miss NYC):
1) Thou Shalt Not Shop Till You Drop.
2) Thou Shalt Not Go so Deep In Debt that You’re Paying the Banks next Summer. That is Hell and Damnation!
3) Thou Shalt Stop Pretending that this is NORMAL. The Buy-As-Much-As-You-Can Christmas was Invented by Retailers.
4) Stop Shopping and Start Giving. We All Know What a Good Gift Feels Like. It’s Not About What You Buy.
5) Save Your Soul from the Axis Of Consumer Evil: 1) Big Boxes and Chain Stores and 2) Child Slave Labor
6) Thou Shalt Have No False Idols: Playstation 3 is Not As Good as Real Life. That’s Why We’ll Forget About it by New Years.
7) Thou Shalt Not Trample Thy Neighbor For Sale Items.
8) Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Motorized Ashtrays or Shopping Channel Zircon Chandeliers.
9) Remember: You Don’t have to Buy a Gift to Give a Gift.
10)Let’s Save Christmas from the Shopocalypse! Are We Shopping Ourselves to Death? Christmas makes Intense Plastic Trash,
Burns lots of Fossil Fuel, it’s the Lake of Hellfire!

I was only going for coffee

and I met and got to talk with David FUCKING SUZUKI!!!!!


I don't know what else to say. Damn.

Anamata's Back!

And she's kicking ass. Seriously:
And if mental illness really is illness, why is it treated the way it is? Those who must live out their lives with missing limbs or in wheelchairs experience discrimination, unwanted pity, and diminished expectations, but they are at least seen as having a legitimate illness. The attitude towards those with mental illness is both that the words and ideas of those who are mentally ill is to be utterly disregarded, but also that if they would just shape up and snap out of it, they would no longer be ill - that the illness is a character flaw on their part. While some people may have compassion for the physically ill, the mentally ill are regarded as deliberate malingerers and a waste of resources, and the only debate seems to be about how to handle such difficult people so they irritate the rest of us the least. Little is said about how to distinguish a mere rebel from a person who legitimately is out of control and needs help to have a happy life.

Go read the whole thing.

OJ: "How I Would have killed my wife."

I was reading through my blogroll and came across this:

As everyone probably already knows, Fox news is planning to run a disgusting interview with OJ Simpson about his book, "If I Did It", that talks about how he "would have killed his wife if he had done it".

This is beyond outrageous. We should pay to listen to a murderer fantasize about how he'd kill his wife, given another chance? He's still thinking about ways he could have killed her? This is beyond sick. It must be his favorite topic to ruminate upon.

PLEASE sign the internet petition to stop this digusting display of murder-glorification. It's insanity. It's beyond the pale. It has got to be stopped. Don't let OJ make money off what he did to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Please go and sign the petition. This is just so disgusting, I can't even come up with words to describe it.

hat tip: TxFeminist

Update: Book cancelled.

Quote: "I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson." Well at least Murdoch listens to public opinion.

2 feminist posts, 1 environmental. Guess I'm back

Help stop destruction like this:


Here's something I recieved from a good friend. It is very important that you contact the governor of Tennessee as it is so beautiful down there, and this strip mining is ruining the land and threatens the health of the locals. It's my old stomping ground and I can't describe to you how beautiful it is there. Pictures and more info can be found here. It's just an email, you can do it.

**PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, EMAIL ADDRESSES, LISTSERVES, MYSPACE
BULLETIN BOARDS, IMC'S, RADIO SHOWS, MEDIA CONTACTS,
EVERYONE YOU CAN**

If you love mountains please contact the Governor of Tennessee!
phil.bredesen@state.tn.us

WE ARE ABOUT TO KILL STRIP MINING FOR COAL IN TENNESSEE !!

The tide is turning! This is it. We can kill strip mining for
coal in Tennessee for good with your help. This is for all the
marbles. In the last year the entire tone of the campaign against
strip mining has shifted; the strip mine companies are on the
defensive. Now it's time for a knock out punch.

United Mountain Defense and its attorneys recently helped members
of the Tennessee Student Legislature draft a bill which out and
out bans strip mining for coal in the State of Tennessee no 'ifs', 'ands'
or 'buts' a flat out abolishment of the practice known
as strip mining for coal. We are not asking for less strip mining, or
kinder gentler strip mining we are demanding the permanent
abolishment of this horrendous attack on Tennessee's jobs, environment
and culture.

1. This bill was passed by the Tennessee Student Legislature and
now is being passed to Governor Bredesen's desk. Yes, Gov. Bredesen will
read our bill to ban strip mining in Tennessee! After a
week or so there, the bill will be introduced and debated by
the Tennessee General Assembly. If it becomes law all strip mining for
coal in the state of Tennessee will be forbidden by statute.


If you don't know what strip mining is doing to the Appalachians,
you are fortunate. It is an ongoing ecological, social and cultural
disaster of literally geologic proportions. Entire mountains
are being blown up, highland watersheds are being buried forever
and the most diverse habitat in the world is being destroyed
for short term greed. For more information and pictures of the
destruction go to: unitedmountaindefense.org.

Needless to say, we need your help now more than ever. We need
folks to call, email, write, fax, talk to, petition, fly planes
with banners' to contact Governor Bredesen in every way possible
and to express support for this bill.

Please be polite! Governor Bredesen has sent clear signals that
he is not happy with the strip mining for coal happening in our
beautiful state, as has our General Assembly. This is about numbers of
supporters for this bill; it is not an adversarial approach.

After the bill leaves Bredesen's desk and goes to General Assembly,
then we go to step 2: begin calling and emailing the General
Assembly to urge their support for this bill.

Do not be afraid to hit the economics argument first, foremost
and head on in this call in campaign. We have a point by point,
state by state, county by county refutation of any argument that
strip mining creates jobs. Check the citations. State data and
data from the mining industry itself shows that wherever strip
mining has reared its head, mining jobs have plummeted.


In Tennessee that's especially ironic when our number one employer
is tourism. Mining is not even in the top 10. So don't be afraid!
The economic, social and environmental data is all on our side
against strip mining here in Tennessee .

And as the bill makes its way through our Assembly you can bet
the Assemblies of other states will be watching (and hearing)
about what Tennessee is doing. In the 70's, it was Tennessee
that dealt the final blow through legislation to the so called
'broad form deed' which provided much of the momentum for strip
mining then. We hope to repeat history. After Tennessee takes
this step, other states must take the idea more seriously. If
we can get Tennessee to do the right thing for its own economic,
social and environmental interest (and for its people) other
states will come around.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Don't send us money! How's that for an
argument from an environmental group? Right now we need your
voices to be heard in support for this bill. Once during our
campaign against a road in Tennessee, we got over 45,000 comments
in opposition to it we need that again. This is purely about
numbers. We need everyone: SEAC, NPCA, the Sierra Club, Earth
Justice, OHVEC, App Voices, SELC, the Appalachian Center for
the Economy and the Environment, GreenPeace, SOCM, TCWP, CRMW,
Mountain Justice Summer, EVERYONE to make this a priority. And
of course the coal industry is going to freak out at this overt
offensive against their destruction of our mountains.

For the Mountains!

Call the Governor?s ethics hotline toll free at toll-free: 1-866-442-9025
http://www.state.tn.us/governor/Ethics.do

Governor's Office Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, TN 37243-0001

Phone: 615.741.2001 Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us

http://www.state.tn.us/governor/Welcome.do

Visit Bredesen personally!

Join United Mountain Defense info list.

Other things you can do to help save Tennessee 's Mountains.

Email united mountain defense AT yahoo DOT com if you can help, have
any questions, or if you could forward your comments and what
you get back to us.

For the Mountains!
Here is a bare bones copy of the bill.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 59-8-205 is amended
by adding the following language as subsection (d):

(d) No permit shall be issued for a surface mine utilized for
the purpose of coal mining in the state of Tennessee.

SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 69-3-107 is amended
by adding the following language as an appropriately designated
subsection:

() The Commissioner shall not have the authority to issue a
permit to an activity prohibited in Tennessee Code Annotated,
Section 59-8-205(d).

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming law, the
public welfare requiring it.
Here is more context.
Here's what the news below means. College student government
members
from across Tennessee passed legislation banning strip mining
that will go to the desk of governor Bredesen and possibly to
the Tennessee state
legislature to be made into law. Thanks to Chris Irwin and Gena
Lewis
for drafting the anti-strip mining bills for us. There will
be massive
lobbying for this later so keep your eyes open and tell everyone
you can to support this. We are potentially on the verge of banning strip
mining in
Tennessee.
Woo-hoo!

Members of Tennessee Alumni & Students for Sustainable Campuses
(TASSC) were busy in Nashville this past weekend at the 2006 Tennessee
Intercollegiate State Legislature (TISL). At this annual mock-congress
convergence, student leaders from across the state convene to
write, debate, and pass legislation just like the actual state
legislature. Bills that are passed through both the House and
Senate of TISL are ultimately presented to Governor Bredesen
for review.

Members of TASSC wrote and sponsored a total of seven bills,
four of which were successfully passed:
+ Ban on surface mining for coal in Tennessee

Myspace profile

UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE!

join our list

Check the Global Warming Blog


Please call/email/visit! This is huge and will hopefully affect the rest of the Appalachians, because they are right now being destroyed. One of the most beautiful and diverse ecosystems on the east coast of the US is being devestated and destroyed. More infor about Southern Appalachia can be found here.

Quanto Winners

Check them out (link in title of post), here are some samples:










(also available in my Flickr pool

Some thoughts on strip clubs

The impeccable Reclusive Leftist wrote a post that ended with this question:
Wouldn’t it be great if all the feminist battle units could lay down arms, abandon their entrenched rhetorical positions, and start talking afresh on what we know, what we can agree on, and how we might work together to help the sex workers who are out there on the front lines getting battered daily by johns and pervs and pimps?

Because many of us involved with the porn wars know, is that we sometimes get painted with being anti-sex worker because we're anti-sex WORK. (Work does not equal worker, btw.) Which is patently untrue.

I know that in my case I am not only a radical feminist, but I am also a delegate for the Industrial Workers of the World. While it is a radical union, it is not the bastion of forward thinking and equality that one would hope for, so when I proclaim that I am a feminist (loudly and often) I am asked what I think of the workers at the Lusty Lady who unionised, and if I am against unionisation of strip clubs because I am against strip clubs. Well, that's oversimplifying and is pure and utter bullshit. The answer I give that seems to be etched into my memory now is that I am all for unionising strip clubs. They are horrible, degrading, and often dangerous places to work (for reasons mentioned by a stripper at Violet's post that's linked above). I want the workers to be able to make them the best and safest place that they possibly can (which is still scary given the way the customers view women), but that this is only one small step. Like the ideas of the IWW I want to get rid of the bosses and only have worker collectives. Well, we can't make that happen overnight, so a union is a way to help put more control in the workers hands, for now. The IWW is not satisfied with just unions as I am not satisfied with replacing strip clubs with unionised strip clubs. Yes, one is better then the other. Yes, sex workers are workers, and ones who work in a very dangerous environment that they should be able to make some rules and make their experience better. So for now, I am all in favour of unionisation. But that's only for right now. I imagine a world without strip clubs, where women are no longer the sex class.

Which brings me to other questions. Who would want to salt a place like that? (Salting is where you get union members hired into a job that you are trying to unionise.) I (years ago) thought about it, but I've definitely healed past that point and can't shield myself from the degredation and humiliation any more. (Thank god. I am done dissociating. NO MORE.) Seriously, I have little problem finding people interested in salting Starbucks, but I couldn't imagine asking any woman to salt a strip club. I'd even salt at (*retch*) Starfuckerbucks, but it's different. I can't imagine asking a woman to go through that for the good of a union.

ALSO: Because I've met many men who seem to think that going to a unionised strip club is better then a "regular" strip club: you're all misogynist bastards. Don't go to strip clubs. Try this on for size: see women as something more then a masturbatory tool. They are human, just like you (I know some of you can't believe that.) See them as your equal. Try that instead of a strip club. It's much more fulfilling.

What a Week

This just about sums it up.

Everybody makes mistakes
but i feel alright when i come undone
you are not making me wait
but it seems alright as long as something's happening
i try to make you late
but you fighting me off like a fire does
you try making me wait
but it feels alright as long as something's happening

get your payments from the nation
for your trials and tribulations

you try to make me wait
you come around when it's come undone
everybody makes you late
and it's never you because you're always thinking
i try making you wait
and give you me some like you give it good
everybody makes mistakes
but it seems it's mine that always keep on stinging

get your payments from the nation
for your trials and tribulations
x2

you try making me wait
but you come undone when you come undone
everybody makes mistakes
but it's always mine that seem to keep on sticking

get your payments from the nation
for your trials and tribulations
x5
Tribulations by LCD Soundsystem (It's one of my favourite songs)

Though I'm 99.999999% sure I just aced my math quiz! WOOT! (I'll tell you all about why my car was left in Tacoma this weekend, etc later. Let's say baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad week.)

Do they make a patch for this?

Seriously. I go on quiz binges. It's not good.

Which Twin Peaks character are you?

You're Agent Albert Rosenfield, the snide and superior forensics expert. Your tongue is sharper than your scalpel, and it doesn't take long for people to start hating you for your supercilious quips, but you are the very best at what you do. You don't suffer fools gladly, but you give respect when it's due. In fact, you're a good guy at heart, but so wedded to your sarcasm that you can rarely stand to treat people kindly. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Awesome

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Courtesy of the fantabulous Laura

But I found another one that says "Destroyer of patriarchy":

Sekhmet Observant, authoritative, indulgent, moral and witty. Colors: male: green, female: turquoise Compatible Signs: Bastet, Geb Dates: July 29 - Aug 11, Oct 30 - Nov 7 Role: Goddess of war and vengeance Appearance: Lion-headed woman with the sun over her head Sacred Animal: lion What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock's Quizzles and Quandaries

BPD

Because I once again have blown a friendship because of my chaotic and unstable behaviour I am giving you a refresher on what those of us with Borderline Personality Disorder experience:

-Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
-A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
-Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
-Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)
-Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
-Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
-Chronic feelings of emptiness
-Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
-Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

It's not an excuse, but please those of you who know me, take this into consideration as I just can't deal with losing one more loved one due to my brain disorder.

Seriously, it takes me by surprise as much as you. I've been trying to contain it, controll it, all my life. Sometimes I'm doing just fine and then *BOOM* I spin out of control in a matter of minutes for god knows what reason. I can't predict it, I can't control it, and I certainly am failing miserably at dealing with it (at least when other people are involved). I'm trying my hardest everyday. I can't control the mood swings, the intense changes in behaviour. I wish I could, I really do. I'm so sick of feeling broken whenever my BPD flares up.

I'm dealing with it one moment at a time.

It's all anyone can really do.

Also: It's good to note that since I suffered abuse all my childhood my immediate reaction to a threatening situation is to run away, whether by dissociating or distance.

I always try and keep this stuff in mind when dealing with my friends; all I'm asking is that you all try to keep it in mind to if a friend of yours suffers from BPD (or PTSD, same symptoms in a lot of ways. Luckily I have both!). I guess that why my exroomie Christy and I are best friends. We both have BPD and PTSD. We get each other, we understand the craziness. But having friends who only have BPD or PTSd is somewhat limiting.

To everyone of my friends that has experienced this: I'm working on it, I really am. I apologise if I made you feel like shit. It's never my intention to hurt the people that I love. If I've shut down on you, well, that just happens. It's how my brain responds to stress.

I HATE YOU!

I really, really do.

Grrrrrrrrr..............

US Residents

Remember to vote!

I don't know how to feel about this?

Brad Will murdered in Oaxaca

Some may recognise the name from my blog against Sexual Violence day post. One of my abusers, who acted in a predatory manner towards so many women in the activist community in the US on both coasts is dead, and I keep recieving all the emails from the activist community all angry and sad, yet I just want to respond with how much of a sexual predator and abuser he was. But as yet I've held my tongue. I've been sitting on this for a week, wanting to blog it, wanting to cheer that this bastard is dead, wanting to mourn the death of an activist, but to me you cannot affect change while being a misogynist fuck. Or by being racist/homophobic/classist/etc. Though I haven't sent that email back to the list, I am telling you all in blogoland about this, and a search looking for Brad Will might bring people here, but then again it might have brought them here before. Yes it is sad someone doing good work was killed, but think of all the women he cannot terrorise now. All the women who will remain in the activist scene, not being chased off by the predator. Reading all about how great he was just makes me sick to my stomach, because for many of us women, he was horrible. No more glorifying the dead. Fuck it.

I've been having many dreams lately that have to do with my past in NYC, my past that included Brad. I can't say that they've done anything to help my PTSD, but at least in my concious mind I know that he cannot hurt me or anyone else anymore. That at an activist gathering I no longer need to have that awkward conversation with a bunch of men who think he's great about how he's a sexual predator. No more being approached by other women to go to the group and ask that Brad be asked to leave. No more.

So why isn't it over for me yet?

PS: Joida's back. Go say hi.

Cat blogging has been suspended for the week

Want to see kitties? Check out their web pages:
Mischief
Logan
Wolverine

New Favourite blog

They thought we were extinct

More Frivolous Weekend Blogging

Memememememe

DO YOU SNORE?
Occasionally...I have an eternally stuffed up nose, but not as bad as certain people *cough*ex-possible unicorn*cough*

ARE YOU A LOVER OR A FIGHTER?
Both.

AS A KID, WERE YOU A LEGO MANIAC?
Lincoln Logs and building blocks were more my speed, but I liked legos ok.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF “REALITY” TV?
Unless it's So You Think You Can Dance I hate it. (A WCS (west coast swing) dancer won! Go Benji!! WOOT!! I do WCS, btw.)

DO YOU CHEW ON YOUR STRAWS?
I chew on almost anything.

WERE YOU A CUTE BABY?
Is there a such thing as a cute baby?

IS THE SINGLE LIFE FOR YOU?
Spinster in training, yo.

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR KEYBOARD?
Silver. Go IntelMac

DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?
I sing everywhere.

HAVE YOU EVER BUNGEE JUMPED?
No.

ANY SECRET TALENTS?
I'll never tell.

WHAT’S YOUR IDEAL VACATION SPOT?
Herland

CAN YOU SWIM?
Competing since the age of 7, and currently playing water polo.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE DONNIE DARKO?
I own it.

DO YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE OZONE?
Well what kind of Earth First!er would I be if I didn't?

HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTER OF A TOOTSIE POP?
3.

CAN YOU SING THE ALPHABET BACKWARDS?
No. Only people who plan to drive drunk learn how to do that.

DO YOU PREFER ELECTRIC OR MANUAL PENCIL SHARPENER?
I prefer mechanical pencils, mostly because there are no sharpeners anywhere on campus. (Or at leat ones that work)

WHAT’S YOUR STAND ON HUNTING?
I'll give hunters a 10 minute head start...but I assume you mean animals and I am firmly against it.

IS MARRIAGE IN YOUR FUTURE?
SPINSTER IN TRAINING. Do I need to spell it our for you?

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Sometimes

WHAT ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO?
Dogs, mold, mushrooms, and a bunch of other crap I don't know about.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAID, “I LOVE YOU” ?
To my cat? 10 minutes ago.

DO YOU CRY AT WEDDINGS?
No.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?
Poached in red wine.

ARE BLONDES DUMB?
No.

WHERE DOES THE OTHER SOCK END UP?
Magic sock land.

WHAT TIME IS IT?
12:04...time for the Daily Show!

DO YOU HAVE A NICKNAME?
which one?

IS MCDONALD’S DISGUSTING?
I can't believe people call that food.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN A CAR?
An hour ago, coming home from water polo.

DO YOU PREFER BATHS OR SHOWERS?
Baths. So if anyone wants to get me a bathtub or teach me how to install one I'll love you forever.

IS SANTA CLAUS REAL?
Sandy Claws? Of course, haven't you ever been to Christmasland?

DO YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR NECK KISSED?
mmmm hmmm

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?
Only after watching Ringu.

WHAT ARE YOU ADDICTED TO?
cats, blogs, math, Buffy, Veronica Mars, the Sims 2, Kevin Spacey, comic books with teenage girls with superpowers, chocolate, alone time, BOOKS, old time radio shows

CRUNCHY OR CREAMY PEANUT BUTTER?
Creamy.

CAN YOU CRACK YOUR NECK?
Only when I'm starting to get muscle spasms in it.

HAVE YOU EVER RIDDEN IN AN AMBULANCE?
yes

IS DRUG FREE THE WAY TO BE?
i don't do them, but I did and I know some people like them. So....to each their own.

ARE YOU A HEAVY SLEEPER?
Sometimes, like this past weekend.

WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?
Red. Water Polo practice.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR LIFE?
Sometimes. Now, yes. My PTSD, no.

ARE YOU PSYCHIC?
I'm a good sender.

HAVE YOU READ CATCHER IN THE RYE?
No.

DO YOU PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?
Alto Sax and washboard. But play may be too loose a term for these: banjo, washtub bass, and accordion.

HAVE YOU EVER STOLEN MONEY?
When I was younger. From my parents.

CAN YOU SNOWBOARD?
No. I don't get it. Now sledding is something I can get behind.

DO YOU LIKE CAMPING?
I lived in a tree for months, what do you think?

DO YOU SNORT WHEN YOU LAUGH?
No.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
In a young girl's heart.

ARE DOGS A MAN’S BEST FRIEND?
Cats.

YOU BELIEVE IN DIVORCE?
I have to save Clare's line b/c it was so damn good: It's not the fucking tooth fairy, is it?

CAN YOU DO THE MOONWALK?
I haven't tried it since high school, so I don't know.

DO YOU MAKE A LOT OF MISTAKES?
Everything I do is part of the master plan.

IS IT COLD OUTSIDE TODAY?
Kind of, but I have all the windows open. It's nice. I like it cold.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
String cheese.

DO YOU WEAR NAIL POLISH?
Sometimes.

HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU LIKE RIGHT NOW?
A few.

WHAT’S THE MOST ANNOYING TV COMMERCIAL?
I have to pick just one???? How about all.

DO YOU SHOP AT AMERICAN EAGLE?
Where do you find that at? The mall?

FAVORITE SONG AT THE MOMENT?
Oh god, just one? "Work Song" by Nina Simone

WHAT’S YOUR WORST FEAR?
that the world will never change.

Only Men can stop rape.

from: I'm Not a Feminist, But

A lot has been said about how to prevent rape. Women should learn self-defense. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Hell, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all. Instead of that bullshit, how about:

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
If a woman is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.
If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.
Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.
Don't tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x.
Don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself.

If you agree, re-post it. It's that important.

-Author unknown.

Oh Canada...

Our home and native land. You kick ass. Seriously. In the past week, two different parts in the Anti-Terrorism Acts passed after 9/11 were struck down by two different courts because they violated Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The first were three provisions of the Security of Information Act challenged after the RCMP used it to secure search warrants for a reporter's home. A little recap:
In her ruling Thursday, Justice Lynn Ratushny said all three provisions are unconstitutionally vague and overly broad, violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of fundamental justice.

Ratushny also said the sections contravened the constitutional right of press freedom.

"They have not been well-tailored to suit their purpose . . . they arbitrarily and unfairly and with a blunt club of criminal sanction restrict freedom of expression, including freedom of the press," the ruling said.

David Paciocco, a lawyer for O'Neill, said the judgment was "a powerful reaffirmation of how central the role of the media is in protecting democracy."

HA! She was reporting on someone who had been deported by the US to Syria and then tortured into confessing ties to the al-Qaida network. But of course the cops go after the reporter, but fortunately it is not 1984 yet in Canada. Wish I could say the same about the US.

The three provisions of the Security of Information Act struck down Thursday by the Ontario Superior Court:

-4. (1) Every person is guilty of an offence under this Act who, having in his possession or control any secret official code word, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information that relates to or is used in a prohibited place or anything in a prohibited place, or that has been made or obtained in contravention of this Act, or that has been entrusted in confidence to him by any person holding office under Her Majesty, or that he has obtained or to which he has had access while subject to the Code of Service Discipline within the meaning of the National Defence Act or owing to his position as a person who holds or has held office under Her Majesty, or as a person who holds or has held a contract made on behalf of Her Majesty, or a contract the performance of which in whole or in part is carried out in a prohibited place, or as a person who is or has been employed under a person who holds or has held such an office or contract,

(a) communicates the code word, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information to any person, other than a person to whom he is authorized to communicate with, or a person to whom it is in the interest of the State his duty to communicate it . . .

-4. (3) Every person who receives any secret official code word, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information, knowing, or having reasonable ground to believe, at the time he receives it, that the code word, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information is communicated to him in contravention of this Act, is guilty of an offence under this Act, unless he proves that the communication to him of the code word, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information was contrary to his desire.

-4. (4) (b) Every person is guilty of an offence under this Act who: allows any other person to have possession of any official document issued for his use alone, or communicates any secret official code word or password so issued, or, without lawful authority or excuse, has in his possession any official document or secret official code word or password issued for the use of a person other than himself, or on obtaining possession of any official document by finding or otherwise, neglects or fails to restore it to the person or authority by whom or for whose use it was issued, or to a police constable.
(read the full article here.)

The second struck down a clause in the Anti-Terrorism Act. The part it struck down was the idea of motive. Because a lot of the 'anti-terror' arrests are made on potential ideological motive this would change the way that the law was enforced. The judge sums it up succinctly: "While the hate motive may be an aggravating factor at sentencing, in the traditional criminal law, motive — the reasons 'why' someone commits a criminal act — neither establishes nor excuses a crime." While some people are talking about how this will not affect arrests or charges I believe it will have a big impact on racial and religious profiling, making it impossible to arrest someone merely because they are muslim, etc. I'm so happy at Canada's judges right now (this is the first terror related arrest to make it to trial). You can read the entire article here.

Hey my friend made a movie for the 48 hour film contest. Mike Jackson / Steam Powered Films. (You may recognise him as the guy who's butt I kicked in the pillow fight pictures that i posted about here.)

Enjoy. Oh and you can vote too.

*sniff sniff*

*sniff sniff*
Originally uploaded by union_clown.

I couldn't forget kitty blogging. No matter how out of it I am, I can never forget kitty blogging.

Temporary problems

My zoloft got put up to 150 mg, and it caused a mixed manic state. I am not excited about it at all. So I have a medical leave from classes for the rest of the week including one test and one quiz tommorrow, but it's all moot I'd flunk them anyway because I have been in a fog for the past week and a half. I feel so much for people who are bipolar that have these states often. I definitely like my depression and anxiety seperate. So we're going to gradually reduce my dose and hope that that fixes the problem, because the zoloft was doing sort of good for me before this. Now I'm off to bed (have slept most of the day b/c I was taking my Xanax.)

I'll be back when my brain starts working again.

I WIN!!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Reading assignment

Who needs a brain when you have these? (Abercrombie and Fitch shirt...do they ever stop with the insults?)

The disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous treatment of women is so pervasive and so mainstream that it has just about lost its ability to shock. Guys at sporting events and other public venues have shown no qualms about raising an insistent chant to nearby women to show their breasts. An ad for a major long-distance telephone carrier shows three apparently naked women holding a billing statement from a competitor. The text asks, “When was the last time you got screwed?”