Kathryn
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kathryn" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
|
11:16 pm
[Link] |
House of Leaves
So. . . anyone here read House of Leaves?
If you have, would you mind telling me just exactly what the fuck that was all about?
|
|
03:54 pm
[Link] |
Things I'm grateful for today
I can go to the doctor when I'm having significant shortness of breath secondary to the piggy flu without fear, because I am covered by my spouse's health insurance, and the right of my spouse's employer to cover me on his health insurance has never been subject to a popular vote.
When I go out of town, my husband can pick up and drop off our daughter from daycare without needing any paperwork, just an introduction, because despite not being the gestating partner, his parental rights are assured. And those rights have never been subject to a popular vote.
My daughter has the right to full emotional, financial, physical, and legal support from both her parents; if either of us fail to provide that support, the state will step in to ensure that we do what's right by our child. The state's ability to advocate on behalf of my daughter in this way has never been, nor will it ever be, subject to a popular vote.
Whatever other problems I may have in my life or my marriage -- and don't get me wrong, there surely aren't many -- I don't have to grit my teeth and pray, hope, scream, beg, or wait with nauseating forboding for some dipshit in Toppenish or Spanaway to decide whether or not I'm married every couple of years. May it one day be the same for all couples.
|
|
11:15 pm
[Link] |
yay
i has hamthrax.
Well, I have the flu. Doc says it might as well be h1n1, don't bother confirming, all the treatment is the same. If I do, it's an attenuated strain; my fever so far is low grade, and while I feel like I might die if I don't concentrate very hard on not dying, I have the brainpower to be witty like that instead of just lying in bed and moaning, so.
And of course Lily has it too. She is not yet availed of my razor-like wit, though, being only three years old, and so instead of delivering pseudo-deathbed bon mots, she just screams and sobs whenever she's awake because she feels so shitty. My heart fucking breaks for her, in all seriousness, and even more so because I barely have the energy to take care of myself, never mind her. But she's staying hydrated, and her fever, while higher than mine by a solid degree or two, is still considered low-grade for a toddler, so there's no great worry. But man we just all feel so, so, so bad.
|
09:27 am
[Link] |
The biggest lesson I learned at SOAR
(the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat, for those of you who aren't yarn dorks like me. . .)
The biggest thing I learned during SOAR is that when every culture has an indigenous textile tradition, going back before recorded history was even a concept in people's minds, focusing on having the latest whiz-bang tools is the wrong idea. Human beings have produced textiles that would make you gasp and weep with the beauty of them, using a loom made from a strap, two sticks, a piece of bone, and a needle, and from yarn spun literally with a rock. Yes, it's harder and / or more time consuming, but if you're after the fast easy way, why are you making it by hand to begin with?
|
|
02:09 pm
[Link] |
Wait a minute.
Isn't there a rule against this, specifically?
http://wonkette.com/403920/jesus-people-pray-that-false-idol-will-save-gods-economy
|
|
12:14 pm
[Link] |
WA voters
Preserve current state law. Protect families. Defend marriage. Vote to APPROVE Referendum 71.
|
|
05:04 pm
[Link] |
Do you use Firefox?
If you do, open up a new tab, clear the address bar, and then type in "about:robots" with no quotes.
I laughed myself silly.
|
|
02:20 pm
[Link] |
Pick-Up "Artists"
Are you familiar with the whole "Pick Up Artist" movement? The one that talks about "Game" and "IOIs" and "negs" and self-abbreviates as "PUA"? no? Go look it up, I'll wait. For those unwilling to Google, it boils down to this: it's a system, employed by certain types of douches*, which purports to get as many conventionally attractive women in the sack as possible, by simultaneously degrading them and building them back up in the image of the "artist's" conquest. The explicit goal is not any kind of ongoing relationship, but rather to treat women as disposable toys, to be used for sex until they start to show wear around the edges or a longing for a commitment. This isn't even some sort of feminist rage rhetoric or reframing; this is exactly the same language these fellows use.
OK, so here's my question. Given that they have zero respect for women either as a gender or individually, why go to so much trouble to surround yourself with people you don't respect? Who else does this? Is that really an ongoing strategy for happiness? Plus, as far as I can tell, this (elaborate, academic, byzantine, hugely energy-sucking) system instructs you to regard other men as either your inferiors or your competition; the first to be tolerated in small doses, the second to be eliminated. Also obviously to be avoided is anything that would trap you into any sort of ongoing commitment with a woman, such as marriage or pregnancy.
So what you're left with is a guy who has no female friends, no male friends whose company he enjoys, no spouse, and no children. This is a guy who gets up every day, goes to his job, picks up a hot blonde at the club, takes her home and screws her, and then. . . what? Watches late night infomercials while eating mac & cheese out of the pot? And this is something to strive for?
I'm not even touching the fact that this is disgustingly immoral and dehumanizing behavior. That's self-evident. What gets me is the fact that even within the system, there does not appear to be a good endgame. Not for anybody, not even the douche* in question.
Who falls for that bullshit?
*the term "douche" is employed here after much consideration and deliberation. I believe the metaphor to be a good and accurate one, namely: sold by men to women as the greatest thing ever, but actually expensive, unnecessary, contributing to a cultural atmosphere of shame towards a woman's body, and ultimately physically and mentally harmful to women.
|
|
09:03 pm
[Link] |
Signal boosted because it hit me in the gut.
I was reading this thought-provoking article about the conscious decisions women* make to evaluate their environment and the people in it, and the threat they pose. Specifically on how, if a man* presses a woman for conversation or further contact even after she's given either implicit or explicit signals that he should leave her the fuck alone, this causes her red flags to go up, as well it should. Why? Because that indicates that he feels like his desire to get something off her trumps her desire not to give it, and, well, now she knows that about him.
A surprisingly** large number of guys turned up in the comments to this post to complain about how unfair it was that they were being marginalized and stereotyped and lumped in with rapists just because they pestered a girl at a bar (on the subway, at a bus stop, at their office) for her phone number until she caved. And in response to one of these guys, the blogger dug up this entry from a couple of years ago and reposted this section in the comments, and it hit me, the reality of it, like a punch in the stomach:
‘Cause the thing is, you and the guys you hang out with may not really mean anything by it when you talk about crazy bitches and dumb sluts and heh-heh-I’d-hit-that and you just can’t reason with them and you can’t live with ‘em can’t shoot ‘em and she’s obviously only dressed like that because she wants to get laid and if they can’t stand the heat they should get out of the kitchen and if they can’t play by the rules they don’t belong here and if they can’t take a little teasing they should quit and heh heh they’re only good for fucking and cleaning and they’re not fit to be leaders and they’re too emotional to run a business and they just want to get their hands on our money and if they’d just stop overreacting and telling themselves they’re victims they’d realize they actually have all the power in this society and white men aren’t even allowed to do anything anymore and and and…</p> I get that you don’t really mean that shit. I get that you’re just talking out your ass. But please listen, and please trust me on this one: you have probably, at some point in your life, engaged in that kind of talk with a man who really, truly hates women–to the extent of having beaten and/or raped at least one. And you probably didn’t know which one he was. And that guy? Thought you were on his side.
And so I repost it here, for you to read.
* I know there are exceptions to this rule. They are real, and they are valid, but they are also exceptions. The vast majority of this kind of behavior takes place from men to women.
** Not actually surprising at all.
|
10:35 am
[Link] |
They gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize?
They gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize? Really? All he's done is NOT withdraw troops from Iraq, NOT close Gitmo, and get us further into a quagmire in Afghanistan. Plus prop up the same horrible policies that made the last administration such a disaster on the global goodwill scale. Perhaps they should rename the award "Excellence in the Field of Not Being George W. Bush," since that's pretty much the only thing he's done towards peace.
On the other hand, the outrage on http://www.freerepublic.com is HI. LARIOUS. Sometimes in a "Nyah-nyah" way, but sometimes just legitimately hilarious.
|
|
10:44 am
[Link] |
oh hey
if anyone lost any phlegm recently, I think I have it here in my sinus cavities. If this is yours, could you come and get it? I was OK hanging onto it for a couple of days, but now it's making it hard to breathe and my teeth are starting to hurt.
|
|
01:25 pm
[Link] |
AUWRSQPLGRRRRRH
FUCKING COMCAST
|
11:58 am
[Link] |
Languages I've Sung In: Now With More Languages
I posted this exactly four years and a day ago. But now there are more languages on the list! And I had to take one off because I realized that while I sang a piece with Khuzdul in it, I didn't actually sing any of the Khuzdul.
Adunaic
Black Speech
Czech
Dutch
English, Middle
English, Modern
French
German, Low Medieval
German, Modern
Gibberish
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Latin
Magyar
Norwegian
Polish
Quenya
Russian
Sanskrit
Sindarin
Spanish
Urdu
Welsh
Yiddish
Zulu *
All I need is K, M, O, T, and V. ETA D'OH! Thanks Mimi! And X! ETA2: But thanks to Susannah, I can take M off the list because Hungarian is also Magyar, even in English.
* Only a single phrase, for a hymn in church, repeated over and over again. Included anyway because, damn, Zulu? When else am I going to get Z?
Tags: languages, music, singing
|
|
04:12 pm
[Link] |
Braised lamb shanks
Have I posted this before? I can't remember. With the weather turning, this is a great thing to cook for a rainy evening. It takes only about 20 minutes of prep time in the middle of the day, and then a long slow braise to bring it to the table.
You need:
Lamb shanks, probably about 1 per person or 2 for every 3, depending on size
Carrots
Onions
Rosemary
Dijon mustard
Salt & Pepper
A bottle of what my mother calls "Red Wine Tres Ordinaire"
I usually do this with 2 shanks, as that is what my large pot will hold.
Chop a big onion and 2 carrots. Huck half of them in the bottom of your pot, put the shanks in, and top with the rest of the veg. Add about 3 sprigs of rosemary leaves and about a tablespoon of mustard. Salt and pepper to taste, then pour in the wine. The whole bottle. You want the shanks nearly covered.
Braise in the center of the oven at 350 for 4-6 hours. When it's done, the bones will pull right out of the meat. You can do this with beef shank or short ribs, too, or even with stew beef (though it's not as good without a good marrowy bone cooked in there too.) Serve with wine or beer and good crusty bread, and lots of butter. Mmmm delicious.
|
|
04:23 pm
[Link] |
Category: Misfile
On TiVo's "Find New Programs" dealio, you can search by category and subcategory. The problem is, their indexing is apparently pretty fucked up, which leads to -- say -- EVERYTHING animated being filed under Kids.
South Park? Kids.
Robot Chicken? Kids.
Bleach? Kids.
Ghost in the Shell? Kids.
To quote Erik, "Check out our new shows on Nickelodeon: Hentai!"
|
|
09:02 pm
[Link] |
Aww man William Safire died.
I feel like I should go out and order two Whoppers Junior in his honor.
|
|
11:37 am
[Link] |
Rock Band
If you are on the fence wondering whether or not you should get Rock Band: Beatles, let me ask you a few questions.
1. Do you have friends?
2. Do you enjoy things that are AWESOME?!
If you answered "yes" to the above questions, then OH MY GOD YOU SHOULD GET ROCK BAND BEATLES. I went over to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) spazzkat and annathepiper and solarbird's house last night to play Rock Band along with mamishka and jennygriffee, and oh my goodness we had so much fun. SO MUCH FUN!
Because of my dyspraxia (ha! See that? My new word!), I am literally only capable of doing the vocals on Rock Band. Everything else is a recipe for horrendous fail. But because I'm a professional singer, usually the vocals are just dead easy for me. I do 'em on Expert because it's actually easier, because the acceptable pitch range is narrower and you get extra points for dynamics and vibrato. But basically you're just singing the song, and there's no challenge in it unless it's a song that I've never heard before, and even then it's just not that hard. I have fun -- tons of fun -- but it's not that hard.
But the Beatles! Has HARMONIES! And you get many, many points for getting the harmonies right! And you can have up to 3 vocal inputs! And trying to work out all those harmonies, on the fly? Suddenly, now, that's a GAME. I found myself seriously thinking "fuck, I need to get this game so that I can practice." Plus, the presence of the harmonies apparently really makes things better for the other players; when we finished "Sergeant Pepper" and actually nailed some of the three-part harmonies, spazzkat could barely contain himself with glee as to how awesome it was.
I woke up yesterday feeling like flame broiled ass, and in just a terrible, horrible mood. That mood lasted until we booted up the game and I saw the opening credits, and from that moment on I was having a terrific, terrific time. OMG so awesome.
|
|
08:17 pm
[Link] |
Prayers or positive thoughts for a member of my community
My relationship with this woman is . . . a little odd. She's been a member of my community since we moved in here, but I'm not sure she had a permanent address for the first seven years or so. She was a meth addict, and used to shoot up in the old historic cemetery a block from my house -- or anyway, that's what I assume, as she would come out of the tall trees stumbling and twitching. She broke into my house about six years ago and cleaned out my wallet; since the cash + a gift card totaled over a hundred dollars, they could get her on felony trespass rather than misdemeanor, and she finally went to prison for some notable amount of time.
When she got out, she moved into a halfway house for women recovering from meth addiction, about a half a mile away. She looked great -- I'd see her in the grocery store and on the street, she looked like she'd gained about twenty pounds. I saw her doing her grocery shopping, getting cash out of the bank with a bank card, and best of all, wearing a brand new sweatshirt for the local community college. She had friends. She talked to people.
Yesterday, I saw her stumble out of the cemetery, twitching again.
I don't even know her name. But if you have prayers to offer, or positive thoughts to think, please do so for this poor woman. I really hope either I've jumped to the wrong conclusion or this is a one-time aberration, that she doesn't get sucked back into it. I counted the money she stole from me as the best $130 I've ever spent if it got her into treatment; I feel oddly connected to this woman and I don't want her to relapse.
Thanks.
|
|
10:05 pm
[Link] |
What a great word!
So Elizabeth Bear used dyspraxia in a sentence,, and I didn't know what it meant, so I looked it up.
Issues with gross motor coordination mean that major developmental targets including walking, running, climbing and jumping can be affected. The difficulties vary from child to child and can include the following: - Poor timing.
- Poor balance (sometimes even falling over in mid-step). Tripping over one's own feet is also not uncommon.
- Difficulty combining movements into a controlled sequence.
- Difficulty remembering the next movement in a sequence.
- Problems with spatial awareness, or proprioception>.
- Some people with dyspraxia have trouble picking up and holding onto simple objects owing to poor muscle tone and or proprioception.
- This disorder can cause an individual to be clumsy to the point of knocking things over and bumping into people accidentally.
- Some people with dyspraxia have difficulty in determining left from right.
- Cross-laterality, ambidexterity, and a shift in the preferred hand are also common in people with dyspraxia.
- People with dyspraxia may also have trouble determining the distance between them and other objects.
Dyspraxia means ME! I had no idea there was a word for this! Hooray!
(This is not just me self-diagnosing; I actually went to occupational therapy for these issues as a child, for quite some time. The knitting I do started as at-home fine motor therapy.)
(I mean, it's a mild case to be sure. I'm hardly disabled by it. But otoh, it does cause me ongoing difficulties in various areas.)
|
|
05:28 pm
[Link] |
Art imitates life
So I'm sure most of you know about District 9, the movie about a refugee camp full of aliens that must be moved due to overcrowding.
Do you know about District Six?
ETA: I ask because I haven't seen the latter mentioned in ANY of the promotional materials for the former, which kind of blows my mind.
Current Mood: The more you know
|
[<< Previous 20 entries] |
