Scary Mini-Headspace

If you are reading this right now, you have more luxury than someone in Iran could ever hope for right now. If you are watching TV or a video on youtube, updating your status on Facebook, Tweeting, or even texting your friend, you are lucky. If you are safe in your home, and were able to sleep last night without the sounds of screaming from the rooftops, you need to know and understand what is happening to people just like you in Iran right now.

They are not the enemy. They are a people whose election has been stolen. For the first time in a long time, a voice for change struck the youth of Iran, just as it did for many people in the United States only seven months ago. Hossein Mousavi gained the support of millions of people in Iran as a Presidential candidate. He stands for progressiveness. He supports good relations with the West, and the rest of the world. He is supported with fervor as he challenges the oppressive regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Friday, millions of people waited for hours in line to vote in Iran's Presidential election. Later that night, as votes came in, Mousavi was alerted that he was winning by a two-thirds margin. Then there was a change. Suddenly, it was Ahmadinejad who had 68% of the vote - in areas which have been firmly against his political party, he overwhelmingly won. Within three hours, millions of votes were supposedly counted - the victor was Ahmadinejad. Immediately fraud was suspected - there was no way he could have won by this great a margin with such oppposition. Since then, reports have been coming in of burned ballots, or in some cases numbers being given without any being counted at all. None of this is confirmed, but what happened next seems to do the trick.

The people of Iran took the streets and rooftops. They shout "Death to the dictator" and "Allah o akbar." They join together to protest. Peacefully. The police attack some, but they stay strong. Riots happen, and the shouting continues all night. Text messaging was disabled, as was satellite, and websites which can spread information such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the BBC are blocked in the country. At five in the morning, Arabic speaking soldiers (the people of Iran speak Farsi) stormed a university in the capital city of Tehran. While sleeping in their dormitories, five students were killed. Others were wounded. These soldiers are thought to have been brought in by Ahmadinejad from Lebanon. Today, 192 of the university's faculty have resigned in protest.

Mousavi requested that the government allow a peaceful rally to occur this morning - the request was denied. Many thought that it would not happen. Nevertheless, first a few thousand people showed up in the streets of Tehran. At this point, it is estimated that 1 to 2 million people were there. Mousavi spoke on the top of a car. The police stood by. For a few hours, everything was peaceful. Right now, the same cannot be said. Reports of injuries, shootings, and killings are flooding the internet. Twitter has been an invaluable source - those in Iran who still know how to access it are updating regularly with picture evidence. People are being brutally beaten. Tonight will be another night without rest for so many in Iran no older than I am. Tonight there is a Green Revolution.

For the curious, I love my new job. But that's not what this post is about.

Any of you who know me IRL, and a handful of those who only know me online, know that I spend a lot of my time in...let's be generous and call them "conversations"...with those who hold viewpoints that oppose mine.

Put bluntly: I like to argue. A lot.

And for the past handful of years I've felt drawn particularly to religious or religion-based arguments, possibly just because of the sociopolitical climate, or possibly because I like my debates with a healthy dose of batshit. Who knows.*

I'm Catholic, if anyone's wondering; I'm just a pro-gay marriage, pro-evolution, pro-Choice and pro-religious-freedom Catholic who doesn't believe in Hell, which according to a lot of people makes me a very BAD Catholic. XD

Anyway, there's your background. Today's topic is abortion, specifically late-term abortions. No, I'm not planning on making this a terribly long post, I just...needed to vent this at somebody.

( But it got a little long, and also some folks don't care about this shit. )

*not meant to imply all religious folks are batshit. though i'm religious and i'm pretty batshit, so make of that what you will. XD

**edit to the last *: yeah, never mind, we're batshit.

Interested in other points of view. Sharing welcome.

So, I have a Dreamwidth account! Anyone on my LJ flist, FRIEND ME PLZ. &hearts (username is the same for both~) I do have one invite code that I haven't used yet but I sort of promised it to someone--if she decides she doesn't want it, it's up for grabs, but right now she's got dibs.

Haven't been very active lately and I apologize for that. Real life's been kicking my ass. No longer working at fall job: spent two months unemployed, in fact. But I'd rather not dwell on that. I start a new job tomorrow, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it--on the one hand, YAY FOR HAVING WORK, and it's a temp-to-hire position so if they like me I could be employed for awhile. On the other hand, they're not paying me very much, the office is an hour away (more with Chicago traffic), the hours aren't great AND I'm not particularly interested in the work.

So we'll see how that goes.

More importantly,

canofstag and I have been replaying FF7 and it is TREMENDOUS GOOD FUN. I won't say I forgot how much I loved that game, because I've pretty much been married to it since junior high, but I think I have a deeper appreciation for it this time around, coming at it after having all this new-canon thrown at us. Also, we're doing a tag-team sort of marathon thing with it, which is cool, even though FOR SOME REASON I keep getting stuck doing ALL THE PARTS I HATE AHEM AHEM. (It does say something about the level of geek that I am, though: I insisted on playing the Temple of the Ancients because I could do it in my sleep, and I'm always the one to go through and buy materia and equip it and shit, because I AM A CONTROL FREAK.)

( I still have just enough dignity to put the rest of my squee under a cut. )

...OH ALSO

canofstag GRADUATED!!!!!! (Hence why I was home. I do not in fact visit home solely to play FF7. ...Usually.) SO CONGRATULATE HER FOR HER AWESOMENESS.

...Well I guess it's a good time for a meme seeing as I'm LAID OFF AGAIN WTF COMPANY. (Actually I'm not upset, at all, which people assume means I'm in denial, but seriously, I got closure this time, I'm fine, I just figure I should mention it since this is the first time I've updated in like, uh, months.)

Anyway! THE MEME, which I caught from

electrumqueen:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!"
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...

( My answers to her questions~ )

I'M ONLY POSTING THIS BECAUSE I WANT

canofstag TO DO IT TOO.

You see me in the back of a police car.

What have I been arrested for?

So, so, for those of you who remember Possessions, all five(?) of you, I just want to say: last night I wrote a scene that involved Character A being naked and wet on Character B's bed.

It was not shippy.

I DEMAND APPLAUSE. THIS IS PROGRESS. ohgod nano starts in a week, ohgodohgodohgod.

( I like writing cut text. Job updates under here. )

On a different note: I haven't gotten my absentee ballot. This is distressing. I saw on the news clips that a couple of skinheads wanted to shoot Obama today. This is more than distressing.

I know that all presidential elections are pretty nasty, but does anyone else think this one's really brought out a lot of ugliness in, oh, everyone? I listen to political talk and I feel like I'm watching real life flame wars. Where is the understanding? Where is the discussion? We're not monkeys, people. Stop flinging shit.

(And since that reminded me, Ryan, if you're reading this: the new BotB crowd sucks. Seriously. This little bunch of them, they're SO EMO. I mean, first we had the sheltered crazy little fundies, then we got all the debate whores (Scotland, Mick, etc), now we've got the angsty teenagers. They're so boring and SO hormonal and I just want to smack the crap out of all of them.)

I'm bored so have a music meme! :D

ganked from

electrumqueen

1. Have your music library ready
2. Choose one song from your music library whose title starts with the first letter (or number) of your screen name.
3. Repeat the process with each successive letter (or number) in your screen name.
4. Post up your results.

I Promise You Walls // Shiny Toy Guns
Happily Ever After // Nakagawa Shoko
Real World // Matchbox Twenty
Kids and Heroes // The Bouncing Souls
Elevation // U2
Take What You Take // Lily Allen
Affirmation // Savage Garden
Yume Yume // One OK Rock
Hurricane // Lisa Loeb
Let Go // Frou Frou

And a haiku meme ganked from

canofstag

So.

Having been at the new job for a week now, I feel I am adequately prepared to discuss!

( Only under a cut because I tend to babble. )

In short, I fucking love my job.

I've also found a local writing group, so I can meet up with them next month and, like, WORKSHOP and exciting things like that. It is thrilling. I am thrilled. I think I freaked out the group leader with my thrill.

I have been reading lots and lots of stuff, still, though less about the presidential election and more about the extreme conservative points of view--Ann Coulter and other things of that caliber. It, uh, well, I'm trying to teach myself a) to understand it so that I can more effectively deal with it IRL and online, and b) to laugh instead of getting angry, when I really want to get angry, when I want to throw the book across the room. I'm also reading Ken Ham. I am shocked that both he and Coulter have been published--though quite pleased at how hard I had to work to find a copy of Ham's books. They aren't at the public library, YAY. :D

I have finally learned how to parallel park. Beautifully. I didn't even have to practice overmuch; I just was hyper-attentive every time I attempted it. My last parking job was so gorgeous I took pictures, and called my mother to brag.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, BRISINGR COMES OUT TONIGHT. ME AND

gold_bluepoint ARE GOING TO A MIDNIGHT RELEASE, AND IT WILL BE EPIC.

ps yes i really do love those books, i am well aware of how much they suck, it is part of the reason i love them. like cleolinda with twilight, only i am less funny and more annoying.

seriously half the reason i made this post was to try and stop myself bouncing. XDDDD no it did not work.

To me of six years ago:

Making B refer to himself as "mortal" and "imperfect" does not in fact make it seem like he's blinded by A's (the other character in the scene) "perfection" or whatever the fuck you were going for. It just makes you, and B, look like hugely pretentious dorks, actual pretentious dorkitude notwithstanding. Also it sounds retarded.

Exasperated love,
You, six years later

P.S. Is there a REASON A's eyes are ~~rose crimson ruby scarlet blood-colored~~ red, or did you just want to use all those synonyms? IT IS WORSE THAN YOUR ABUSE OF "TAWNY," SELF. WORSE.

I dunno what it is, but ever since I moved I've been noticing a lot more real-world things.

I mean, let's be honest here: I don't care as much as I should about the real world. I am thinking about stories most of the time, if I'm not writing them or reading them. Throughout most of school I could not get properly motivated to actually work for my grades, because I just didn't care (not that you can really tell; thank God for good cramming skills). Even this summer, when I was all like "SHIT SHIT I'M MOVING SHIT," I still didn't work that hard to find a job.

And I never knew my neighborhood that well, aside from where the good eating joints were; I knew downtown St. Louis even less, despite my university being pretty damn close to it.

But here, I'm like...out and about, and things. I can't stand staying inside all day (yes, that's odd for me, I know, sad); I love going places; I'm intensely interested in the city itself, what's there and how to get to it, making sure I learn something new every day. I introduced myself to my next-door neighbors who are just moving in today. And I've started reading a whole ton of political shit.

I don't know if it's a sign of my growing up, or if it's just that I have all of two friends out here and it makes me desperate to engage in conversation. It's very weird, though.

My emails are apparently not getting sent. This is distressing. It's never happened with my two main gmail accounts, that I know of, but this new one, my "professional" one, keeps not sending things. However, finding this out made me feel a little better about the lack of response I've been getting to my emails. Odds are only half of them sent! So it's not that people are just ignoring me, yay.

Now, have some random thoughts:

( On Wicked--spoilers for the musical. )

( On music. )

Can we see that the unemployment is starting to eat at my sanity, YES WE CAN.

In further news, Venture Bros. is fucking awesome.

So, as I sit here with my shoulders sunburned and my stomach hurting, waiting for

volwrath and

sherpa_sherpa to return from Best Buy, I figure maybe it's about time I make that entry I've been procrastinating on for the last week or so!

( LOTS OF STUFF, cut for length. )

So yeah, uh, I've been sitting around a lot, doing less writing than I should, watching more Family Guy and Futurama than is probably healthy, and walking a LOT more than I usually do (I take long walks at least once a day).

volwrath mostly makes sure I don't forget to eat. And surprisingly our apartment is still mostly clean.

I miss StL people, particularly my roomieface (I AM USED TO LIVING WITH YOU WHERE ARE YOU WTF :(( ), but I'm having a lot of fun here so far. It's very geeky and busy and pretty and new.

And I think I'm rambling more than I meant to, sooooo I'm going to like, cut this off now. Perhaps I'll try for something more coherent later. XD

Swiped this from

remikku, 'cause I felt like it.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them

( THE LIST )

If this was a list of classic J-Lit, I would totally have bolded the entire thing, I bet you money.

Also, all of ya'll, go see Hancock. That movie rocked my socks in ways that I cannot even fully articulate for fear of spoiling people, as I am prone to do. GO SEE IT. Before The Dark Knight drives all other superhero movies from your mind.

Happy birthday,

volwrath! :D :D :D

Just finished reading The Tale of Genji (Seidensticker translation), and uh. What. Whaaaaaaat.

More than half a semester spent reading this book and that's how it ends?!

Usually! Usually I agree with my Genji professor on just about everything re: this book. We make fun of the same stuff, we find the same chapters interesting, we both cry at the beginning of Chapter 42 (insert obligatory "soaking sleeves with tears" remark here). But she says the ending totally fits and I--

I mean, c'mon, he could've AT LEAST run off with her. They didn't have to sleep together (even Genji doesn't mess with nuns, right) but WHAT THE HELL, KAORU, YOU SPENT THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR CHAPTERS MOURNING ABOUT NOT GETTING LAID.

*crickets*

I wish this book weren't so dense and obnoxious, because I'd love ya'll to read it. I'd love the whole internet to read it, frankly; why is there no Genji fanfic? I'd KILL for the smallest bit of OOC slash, srsly. Or a parody. Shit. SOMEONE READ THIS BOOK BESIDES ME, PLZ, I FEEL LIKE A FANDOM OF ONE. I don't know what I'm going to do when the class actually ends, and I'm deprived of my twice-a-week hour-and-a-half fifteen-person discussion group. We are like a tiny fandom onto ourselves; we even have shipping wars (Genji/Murasaki OTP).

Gahhhhhh I think I'm actually going to miss reading the stupid thing. X( Time for supplementary materials. *cracks open Liza Dalby's Tale of Murasaki*

FROM THE FEDEX WEBSITE:

Ship date
Sep 12, 2007

Estimated delivery
Sep 14, 2007 by 10:30 AM

Status
In transit

CRISIS CORE WILL BE MINE IN TWO DAYS.

excuse me while i go freak out.

Since I have now been to ALL the classes I'm having this semester...

( here is a long rambly post about them. )

Also, I don't know what I'm going to do next week when I actually have to do library work, too. Because right now? Despite this long-ass entry (which to be fair has only taken me like five minutes)? I have ZERO TIME for ANYTHING. So, er, hopefully this will change...before next week. Else I will, er, die or possibly kill

reborn_anew.

Advertisement