"It's been a stressful few days" or: why my boyfriend is the most patient, kind, understanding individual ever

was a text message morgan sent me today in reply to my message of "I'm tired and I'm hungry.  Please have an idea for food when I'm done work."

That was about 1.30PM today.  He wanted to take me out, but I just really wanted a Papa Murphy's stuffed pizza.

You see, this is what was supposed to have happened:

Tuesday:
9-1: work
1-?: pack, clean house, clean car, cuddle with cats, maybe dinner with morgan
Wednesday:
9-1: work
1-midnight: drive to PA

Instead, I'm still in Knoxville because:
9-1: work, realize I need to make up a lecture so
1-3.40: stay at work catching up on paperwork and stuff
3:40-5: Lecture
5-7:30: Farmers Market, dinner with Morgan
7:30-9: doze/nap poorly (oops)
9-10: talk, procrastinate, tell Morgan bad jokes
10PM: Notice that my phone is buzzing and that I have tons of missed calls.  Check my email, notice multiple messages. 
10PM-5AM: field phone calls, coordinate emails, find hospital, attempt to communicate with friend's family

Basically, one of my friends fell ill (well, she had been ill when I saw her earlier) and was brought to the hospital.  She had hung up on another friend in the middle of a phone call at "There's someone at the door. Oh, it's ::mumble mumble::" and that was it.  She called her boyfriend to tell him where she was, but that also got cut off.  Her sister was involved in it somehow, but I still can't figure that out.  So take concerned friends, a confused sick woman alone in the ER (family only) until some aunts from the area get there, and a boyfriend who is extremely concerned (as he should be) and you have my night.  The last phone call came in/went out about 3.30, then I sent emails to appropriate professors to give them a heads up about her absence, and then *tried* to sleep. Which was hard.  I kept wondering when the next phone call would come in, when her mother would get into town, how this had progressed to such a stage.  And I was at Morgan's, so he didn't get any sleep at all.

So I got some fitful sleep from 5 until 9AM when I realized I had extremely overslept, got ready for work cursing up a sailor's storm because I knew parking would be a bitch.  Morgan got up with me and drove me to campus.  When I finished, he came and picked me up and we got pizza and cat food.

I lazed some through the afternoon, worried about her.  Morgan and I discuss a couple of issues rolling through my head, placed there by the liberal media l33t (aka: bloggers).  I heard from her mother, got an update and a few more things to do, did them, and started to feel sleepy.  As I start to finally doze, I get another phone call from the extremely agitated/worried boyfriend.  Fill him in on the nothing new except she's still in the hospital, and realize I'm wide awake again.

So now I'm grouchy.

Try to fall back asleep, it doesn't work, join Morgan in the living room and dink on the computer as while I'm awake, at the same time my arse is dragging a mile behind me.  Notice I still haven't cleaned out my car or packed for the trip I was supposed to be half way through.

We watch the Obama TV special.  He runs to Walgreens (he's out of toothpaste and we totally forgot to grab some earlier), I so don't want to do anything, so i resign myself to an early bedtime and a really early wake up without doing the laundry I wanted to do.  

Morgan comes back with a pint of Hagen Daaz Chocolate ice cream for me. 

I'm slowly savoring it.

I'm killing time before a lecture that I need to make up.  I'm hungry (I've had 2 cups of coffee and a "gourmet wafer cookie") and I'm just generally annoyed that I forgot my cell phone yesterday which indirectly led to me not realizing that I was missing lecture.  This means I need to attend with the undergraduates. The indignity!

The annoying part is that I need to go back to my house and clean, pack, and do laundry for tomorrow as then I need to get up, go to work, and then drive the 10+ hours back to my parent's house in bumblefuck, pennsylvania.

Yay, heteronormativity.



People have heard of and met my parents, and they know that our personalities don't often ... mesh.  So I'm a little worried about the days I need to spend there.  The only reason I'll be there is because my friend from high school is getting married and there's no uncomplicated/uninsulting way to find another place to stay. 

I'm tired of being told that everything I'm doing is wrong.  And just once I would like them to call me by my name.

On the bright side, my brother is state side, and he's looking for colleges so he doesn't need to go back and shoot people for a living (yet).  Hopefully by the time is college career is done things will have calmed down.  Hopefully the starting of a college career will open him to new political views which will temper some strongly impressed rural PA, super right wing values.

While I'm gone, Morgan will be watching my house and cats.  The cats will stand guard for anyone imposing on my non-present hospitality.  They will rip out lungs through the nose and draw testes through a foremen magnum.

They're dangerous.  I wish I could bring them with me.

i can has multiple links

so LOL humor has taken many random meme turns.

So LOL Link List

• I Can Has Cheezburger - the original classic
• LOLTheorists - Social theory done LOLstyle. NOAM NOAM NOAM
• LOLcats can has science - Schroedinger's Cat and more
• I can has cadherin - Med School can has funny
  

link dump

My good dear friend Kazen, who is leaving for Japan in a few months (awesome) turned me on to Delicious. I know it's been around for a while, I just never tried it. It's pretty fun to work with. So we've been trading links back and forth for the last few weeks, and I have a tag of "blogable" articles and stuff that I think would be interesting to write about. I've had a similar bookmark folder in Firefox.

But some of these have lost their fire. And yet at the same time I saved them because I thought others would find them interesting. So here's a dump. Some are frivolous, most aren't.

• On Sexual Rights:
• "Rape only hurts if you fight it" - A college journalist claims that an editorial was meant as a satire. The problem is that a satire is supposed to be funny and thought provoking. On Women's Space the full text of the editorial is presented along with a well organized rebuttal including statements from officials involved in this issue and an exploration of the white male privilege.
• Battling the Myth of Gray Rape - This is part of the whole "she was asking for it / she deserved it" argument line. Cosmo and multiple books have addressed this "issue," where if a partner withdraws consent but the other chooses to ignore it, then "it can't be rape."
  
• Puberty is Consent - The link to the original CNN article wasn't working at the time of this blogging, so the link goes to an analysis. Basically one of those Evangalist cult preachers who marries young girls (some at the age of 8) to older men claims that puberty is the only consent that any man needs.
• Take Back the Tech - The Private is Political. But sometimes you want to keep your private as private. This site has tools, technology, and information to keep your privacy and to prevent others from leveraging power by controling your communication.
  
• On Environment
• How to use less CO2- At slate.com. This is a good list of things to do to use less CO2. It also includes links to Slate's green challenge.
• Stop Mountain Top Removal - I said: STOP MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL! I used to have a picture of a stripped mountain on my sidebar. This site has information about strip mining, environmental impacts, links to petitions, and activist opportunities.
• On Technology and Science
  
• The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique - Badges! For Scientists!
• Take Back the Tech! - Worth repeating, prevent yourself from individuals using your communication technology against you.
• T3knomanser's Illegal Colors - Remember the illegal number for un/coding DVDs? T3chnomanser converted the hexadecimal number into a set of five different colors (using hex-color codes).
• Rushkoff Here - A discussion as to whether or not culture is open source.
• Speigel Online - Pictures of what new TSA body scanning software shows.
  
• On Politics
• Palin: wrong woman, wrong message - Gloria Steinam on why Palin is NOT a feminist icon.
• No Ordinary Woman -"women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men" (another article on Palin)
• McCain's hero Teddy Roosevelt was more socialist than Obama - I've been saying this all along. Why doesn't it get publicity until some white dude writes about it. Talk about priviledge. It's not like Timothy Noah (the author) has any credenti.... oh, he's the senior writer.
• Callie Shell - Obama - A series of photographs from the campaign trail. Many are very personal and candid. (I'll prob do more on this one later)
• That One 08 - Using McCain's gaffe as a reason to register another domain name. And sell merchandise. Vote for That One in 2008.
  

Obama on Left, McCain on Right, We can talk politics all night. And you can vote however you like.

This is a far cry from the "secret ballot" school mock elections.



I think a part of this is the constant appeal to get more people involved in the election process. The "Get out the Vote" program of the Bush 2004 campaign and it's trailing residuals as well as Obama's community organizer, bottom to top, encouragement of all.




So why are some adults so ignorant? I don't mind if people support the Republican views (fyi: priceless moment in this video- Male: "It's women's rights!" Female: "It's babykilling, I don't care what you call it!"). It's just the lies and fear mongering that are making me upset about how the election goes.

Politicking on the South Side

I went and voted last week at the Early Voting down by my grocery store.  It's so convenient that it seems just lazy for people down in South Knox to not vote. Criminal almost.

I get there and there are short lines, with 2 or maybe 3 people in them.  The place is entirely staffed by efficient senior women.  Retirees seem like they are a large enough part of the population that this would be expected, but for some reason it struck me, both their age and their gender.

First the gender.  Here are women taking an active part in making sure that their neighborhood's votes, for or against their personal choice, are collected and counted.  As we've seen, particularly in this election and more so by the investigation on Obama's tactics, this bottom to top approach is likely going to be what makes future political approaches different (I know other groups have been doing it, it's just that it hasn't been so visible to the general public until now).  So this is grassroots, they are the primary workers with the commodity of votes. Closest to this resource of change, the first to be able to implement the will of the people.

And to think that other women are ready to take away a woman's right to chose.  Palin with the Anti-choice (not pro-life, not ever pro-life) platform.  Even Ann Coulter wants to take away a woman's right to vote.  These women have seen the civil rights movement, the feminist movements.  Whether or not they were participants or even supporters of it or , they are ready to support the choice of the current residents of South Knox.

And the age thing? Well, I will admit that although it seems ageist, I never expected to get computer directions from a retiree.  She was the most patient in explaining the voting machines and went through every button.  She wouldn't leave until I could prove that I knew how to enter in my number. 

I left the polling place oddly conflicted. But happy. I excercised my right to vote in a most pleasent atmosphere.  Honestly, I felt so well treated I was surprised when I got back to my car that they didn't hand out cookies and "be nice to me, I just voted" stickers.

techno entertainment luddite adventure journey go!

while i'm not necessarily on the cutting edge of technology, i've normally been in the upper quartile at the least of knowing what stuff meant.  that is, of course, except for entertainment stuff.

so the other day morgan and i went out west in an attempt to see batman at the dollar theater (which now charges 4$ but gives you complimentary soda and popcorn).  we got there and found out that the newspaper messed up the listings.  i really didn't want to pay $10 for a ticket to a movie i had already seen and i was hungry.  this whole snafu made me sad and somewhat grumpy, as i had worked it out in my head and it was a marvelous plan to get morgan out of a funk caused by an annoying stats test.  we were driving home down kingston when morgan pointed out a decadent billboard and said "wow, that looks good." intent on doing something to get out of this mutual grump, i decided that desert would be a marvelous idea so we turn around.  in the process we end up in a store parking lot.  interested, we go in thinking that we would just check out if anything was interesting.

well, there was.  the sales person was so helpful! at the same time she upsold me twice! but you know what, i really like what i ended up with.  the first model was small, compact, with only one feature.  The second was larger with a variable setting.  The third and final had more than one function and three sets of conrols for a total of 5 buttons.  morgan and i messed with it while in the store and while at first this seemed rather intimidating, it didn't seem like something i couldn't handle.  so i had her bag it up and she got my name and all that good stuff and we took it home.

i feel like such a dork not knowing everything about all these tech toys.  i mean, i refuse to even think about ipods because they're apple, and the other mp3s... i have one, don't need more info. comp stats are lost on me. video games? fsck, i got me an NES and PS2. that's all anyone needs. right? right.

so looking at the walls and racks of technojoy totally freaked me out.  congrats saleswoman, you made me happy!

We can't see real women... that would be disgusting!

link to full article

excerpt

You know we have a rough Spring season ahead of us when "no pants" is cited as a trend from the Fall fashion weeks.

The trouble starts when you find yourself staring at a model and you can't decide whether the designer meant for her clothing to be a bathing suit or lingerie ...

Plus, this look spells trouble for the real woman. Most of us don't have legs that go on for miles or thighs that don't touch at the top. Without both of these things, these ... should never be worn.

so impracticality aside, i like pants/skirts for the simple fact that they place a sanitary barrier between my girly bits.... actually, as the article had the nerve to say "va jay jay" I'll use the real word(s).... they place a sanitary barrier between my vagina, vulva, labia, urethra, and anus and the chair where other's vagina, vulva, urethra, and anus may have been.  I do not like swapping body fluids with strangers, whether sweat from heat, menses from menstruation, or vaginal fluids from a hot prof/TA.

but do not tell me that this is an impractical fashion trend because we do not want to see real women showing and celebrating their bodies for the simple fact that their thighs touch on top. 

"women's health" i said with half assed air quotes, "because half the population is a damned special interest group. you think health of half the population would be a regular fucking concern."

a scene from my book club meeting on wednesday october 16 2008 from 6-8.30 pm.

we held the meeting early because we wanted to watch the debate.

which i watched. and watched mccain promptly put "health of the mother" in irreverent air quotes, as a phrase touted too much by the extreme pro abortion women's health sector (but not touted as much as sarah palin touts the word "maverick"... that's a touting toutable.

evidence, as i heart primary sources.



add this to a "I won't use RvW as a litmus test, but I will."

increase the rage by saying Palin is a women's role model. (I want to be a woman who refuses to allow my fellow sex/gender buddies to exercise control over their bodies... fsck it, it's just "women's health" anyways. You know, the women special interest group. Who needs them. special interest is a PC term for "disenfranchised" anyways.)

raise it to boiling by bringing up both ACORN and Ayers, then when Obama explains the situations (rather beneficial for some of us who only managed to look up the basic facts of what the hell was being discussed) rather simply (not simplistically, keep in mind)and then interrupting it with "no, that's not true"

and top it off by whining that Obama has launched "attack ads" criticizing a proposed health care plan and equating it to the rather heated lies/epithets shouted about Obama (the whole radical muslim/terrorist/communist/socialist (make up yout damn minds))... that's SO not arguing the issues,Obama ::cry cry::

(example of this point which had previously been posted on San Fransisco Republican website)

Argh!

and then! and then! To his own damn party member. He can't fscking promote Palin on HER OWN. Her strength will all be because she has a kick ass hubby.

I'm proud of her...And I can't tell how proud I am of her and her family.Her husband's a pretty tough guy, by the way, too.

And to those of you who survived to the end of my rant, John Cleese on Obama/Biden/McCain/Palin:

John Cleese (part 2): Obama, Biden & Fox News

Article: 5 Pieces of Advice for the New Paupers

Full article here.

I've been worried about the economy's myriad aspects.  I'm a student, a home owner, and my career aspects (cultural resources) are viewed by the public as far from necessary.  I'm not related to commodities (food or mineral production), or even to vice at any level (bartender, musician, exotic dancer).  Instead, I depend on the government having enough money to enforce proper resource management on development projects, which in turn depend on agencies having been alloted the money to actually carry out said projects.

Oy veh.

John Dolan's article describes lessons he has learned in leaving grad school and entering the current economic reality.  And honestly, I forsee it as a viable possibility.  I'm only unable to get food stamps because my car is worth too much (according to this article I should sell it anyway).  The primary reason for buying a house was because it was much less then renting (and still is), but with renting when things break they get fixed.  I have the limited electrical knowledge, but lack the chutzpa to risk putting it into use as possibly frying myself or short circuiting my entire house, so I have two rooms without lights (the bathroom and the laundry room), and only two of my meager heaters work... sorta.  In the winter my house is primarily heated in sections with a transportable space heater and the oven.  Work is done in bed, with two cats cuddled under the covers against my thighs.

In fact, it is sympathetic to this exerpt from the article I'm drawing attention to:

"We had only an unheated boat, and that was not enough. We woke up to the thump of sea ice banging against the hull and realized that the old world was still very much in session. When we finally fled to stay with family, we stayed in our blankets up against their gas fireplace for weeks. You won't even want food much after a while. You'll want heat itself, not the chemical middleman. You are going to realize that cold is the most frightening thing in the world."

Yeah.  Happy winter.