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Early Updates again - 20 July 2007
Jul. 20th, 2007 09:49 pmSpent much of today getting re-caught up on work-related materials, marking my newest rejections - unfortunately, my Washington trip was a bust, in that it resulted in no job offers. Some other libraries that I hadn’t heard from sent along their rejections as the first and only piece of correspondence between the two of us. Knowing that you’ve been turned down is still better than limbo, though. All it does is make my batting average look worse. Realistically, though, all I need is a one in the hits column for things to be a success, though, so I keep trying. I’ll be away in a Land of No-Net for the weekend, thus neatly avoiding spoilers as well as having fun with people. Unless some of them have their hands on a copy of the book, unto which I will probably try to borrow and read it for a bit, if possible. Besides, all spoilers are unconfirmed until the book is read, regardless of their reality as spoilers. The only definitive account is that which is inside the book. (I note that even metaquotes posted a warning about spoilers being considered a deliberate act of trolling, so nobody is playing around when it comes to the twilight of Mr. Potter.)
First things first, of course, before we get to the links. Let's go stomp some brain weasels. Or, for the long explanation:
So, let’s go stomp some brain weasels. If you see one poking out of someone’s head, like “I feel that much of my success has been more due to good fortune and accidental placement than any exercise of my skills”, then be sure to apply your preferred whacking instrument to said weasel. Prizes may be given for documented instances of weasel flight.
This is no doubt getting play over the blogosphere, but a recent executive order regarding seizure of funds related to Iraq looks to be a carte blanche authorization for seizure without notice, warning, disclosure, or any other pesky sort of thing that might leave an avenue for suit or other legal recourse. The White House claims it's a measure to stop gaps in the ability of the U.S. to seize insurgent funds. As with many of the things that have come from this administration, the criteria are loose, so the potential for abuse is great. If we actually trusted the government to use those powers wisely and responsibly, we might not be so worried. That said, there is supposed to be a bit of built-in paranoia to the citizenry of the government, so that the government stays honest. When the executive then says that the Congress cannot invoke statutory contempt on someone shielded by executive privilege, forcing them to either invoke their “inherent contempt” abilities or cause a legal showdown over the matter, you start thinking that the paranoids are the only sane people in the area. And with, perhaps, the first propotype of artificial flies getting off the ground, some of that paranoia will return, when even the walls have ears. Perhaps then we’ll have regular boastings of killing or capturing leaders that don't exist just to throw off the flies listening in. I wonder whether they’d be used more to ensure that the “right” things are being said, like more of "if we leave now, Iraq will be a disaster", "Iran is the real threat, so they shuold be destroyed quickly", and that liberals are spouting nonsense about what Bush has said with regard to WMD, the President’s conversations with G-d, and the like. Hopefully such flies will also let us talk about witness testimony that a Marine deliberately shot noncombatants in Haditha and let us comment about how much noncombatants are probably dying while this war is going on, and that while there may not have been a direct statement, there have been a lot of implications about the things Mr. Bush has been accused of saying. Hopefully we’ll still get to hear Keith Olbermann tell Mr. Bush to go fight his war in Iraq personally, and get a firsthand account of how progress is going in Iraq. And then, perhaps after architecting personally the things he wants to be remembered for, he can try to run the country again. Maybe.
After deliberate malice, let’s have a couple drinks and toast to incompetence. Namely, this article about Google partnering with the state of Michigan to put some public records on-line. No, really, that’s the whole content of the article. No details, no programs, no timetables. So while it’s newsworthy to post the matter, I think that the reading populace would like to know what the hell’s going on with all of this, so they can be informed, instead of fed this tripe. I got more information out of a review of the new America-legal absinthe than I did from the Free Press blurb.
After that, then if you want to, you can pack a few harsh words and harsher material for whomever’s decision it was that Faith Hill needed a serious Photoshopping to get on RedBook's cover. Rock salt stings a lot, or so Kill Bill tells us. Jezebel also offers their reasoning why they posted Faith Hill untouched, as well. I agree with that reasoning -- many of these women are already attractive and don’t need to have more done to them to make them unrealistic and perpetuate the illusion of the size zero stick-girl. I wonder if fashion wouldn’t sell more if people could see how it looks on regular women.
Most of us can add on another thing to their “I am” statements. I’m sure most of you realize already that I am a terrorist, according to at least some, if not many, definitions that those currently in power use. Apparently, Senator Clinton is also a terrorist, because her questioning of the Iraq conflict gives "the enemy" propaganda. I can add onto this that I am a feminist. Which would make a lot of people double-take, considering that, y’know, I’m XY rather than XX. But, it’s really that simple. I am a feminist, because I believe that both sexes should have the opportunity to do whatever it is they want with their lives and shouldn’t be penalized for it, in wages, in vacation, or in any other avenue of their life. This likely also makes me a dirty communist in the eyes of others, and a hellbound sinner for others. Now, if I can just get the godless atheist label, I’ll knock and declare Gin.
After Mr. Bush owned up that Valerie Plame’s name had been leaked by someone in his administration, Plame’s lawsuit against the CIA was dismissed under the grounds that public officials are immune from such suits if the matter results from doing their jobs. Which could be quite the precedent if other incidents like this were to occur, where damage results in the revealing of a covert agent’s name. Hrmph. I guess if someone were to reveal that the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo were in charge tomorrow, they’d be protected from lawsuits, as they were only acting in the course of their job, no matter how much damage it would do to the plans and abilities of said La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo. This is not a consistent policy, it appears, though, as those persons who are so afraid of Muslims that they'll tell the police they're terrorists will not be protected from lawsuits. Because we want to encourage fear of outsiders at this point and point all the blame on them, while protecting the people already here who do much worse things.
Having a bit more fun with advertising, however, here’s fifteen unfortunately placed advertisements, several of them looking to have come about through the tendency of advertisement serving units to scan their source material for key words and try to find good target matches for that piece based on those words. The algorithms work nicely, they just can’t quite pick up the context that they need to avoid those subjects rather than continue with them. They might, in bad light, mistake a stuffed toy beaver for a masked criminal.
More of the matter regarding the “parallel economy” of sorts, the Washington Post wonders if Christian fantasy will be the next hot thing to have, as thousands of parents and others express a knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Potter’s magical adventures, or believe that Left Behind is the end-all, be-all, knows-all of good and appropriate literature and want more of that kind of material for their children. Which there is, of course, in something like Left Behind: The Children or whatever those books actually are. While Christian fantasy might very well end up being a high-ranked object in terms of sales and profitability, I’m a bit more worried about where the market that drives such things comes from.
Checkers has been solved. It is now mathematically known that two perfect players will always end their checkers matches in a draw. Takes all the fun out of it, doesn’t it? Of course, there’s always chess after that, which is if not solved, well on the way to being there. Maybe we should start teaching our children Go at a young age, instead. As we age, though, by the time we start worrying about potential neurological disorders, there may be a new fleet of MRI devices that use lots of small but high-resolution scanners stitched together by computer that will help detect our strange neuroses.
The next-to-last for today comes from the Cool Things department, where Doom was successfully converted to a process-management tool. That’s certainly one way of issuing a kill command. But if Doom is how one manages processes, then what about the rest of our tasks? Shall we take on Quake to navigate the Intarwebs, then?
Having done the Flaming Bunny Hop across the various minefields of our lives, it’s time to tap-dance over this last one and watch the fireworks explode. After all, I have to maintain my NC-17 rating, right? Yep, once again we’re talking about sex and sexuality, so those who don’t want to read on those matters (for a moment there, I thought about adding “or want Harry Potter spoilers” onto the end of it, but that would be overusing a joke, no doubt) can stop at this point and move downward to the next safe paragraph. Our material starts at one point and abstracts or otherwise gets a level or two removed. The source point is Focus on the Family's article about "How to Confront Children Using Pornography". Despite the title, the paper recommends ascertaining how much, of what type, and how a child viewed the pr0n, and then therapy and suggestions on how to prevent future occurrences. This is, of course, in the favor of making sure that sexuality stays rigidly conformant to the idea of one man, one woman, in marriage, and one of that kinky shit, you hear? And extra heapings of guilt, shame, and “sinner” on top, in an effort to repress sexuality and sex and keep kids ignorant of it. They also insinuate that exposure to pr0n could be considered a form of child abuse. The Front Porch is less than amused with the material in said Focus article, poking sarcastic fun at its contents and spinning them in ways that the original author probably never intended. Jesus' General twists things even more, suggesting some very Christian-themed material to add spice to one’s daily worship at the temple of the bed. I’m sure that the people at Focus on the Family mean well, and that they want to ensure that their men have the company of women that they respect and enjoy. For some, however, that particular phrase means purchasing several love dolls and giving one’s affection to them rather than getting a Hume woman. The person in the article does say that the live ones are better, but his point that the dolls are always available is compelling for a lot of men. Additionally, they never have a headache and are (relatively) easier to maintain than actual women.
Regarding things like sexual behavior and possibilities of going about unlocking it safely in children, such that there aren’t potentially grievous consequences, and taking several hammer-swings at the somewhat male-dominated idea of what sexuality is,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nebris answers a query in relation to the Temple that he wishes to start about what appropriate sexual expression could be, including making sure that there was always someone there to talk about any issues. (Since he did, I will also note there may be trigger problems, although I am unsure of what, myself) His point, if I do not misinterpret it grossly, is that because sexuality is still considered a shameful thing to express or talk about openly, much of the difficulties that we Humes counter regarding sexuality stem from external and internal shaming mechanisms instilled in us, the same kinds of things that the Focus article wants to instill in people, under the guise of “respecting the sanctity of sexuality” or some other such thing. Although I think he considers it a more general problem that adults are not willing to talk about the possibilities of their children being sexual beings, being interested in sexual imagery, thinking, and action. Whether through fear of being labeled as a pervert, immoral, or somehow transgressing rules of their religion by acknowledging that children have sexual thoughts. Which, as I recall, is the reason why there’s supposed to be a mandatory sexual education program - to teach children about their sexuality, and hopefully encourage it to be expressed in ways that are safe for them and their partners. Even if their parents won’t, or said parents firmly insist that abstaining from sexual contact before marriage is the only acceptable sexual behavior.
Hrm, methinks that I have a bit of a fixation about sex and sexuality, considering how many non-link riddled paragraphs I give it. Zo, tell me about your mozzer. Or maybe it’s because it’s something that’s splashed across the media in prominent and subtle ways, is one of the “evils” consistent across the various Christian denominations, and is something that seems to show up in our lives every day, yet we can’t seem to be able to talk about the matter at all. Might be that people are starting to finally decide they’re going to talk about whatever it is they want to talk about, regardless of consequences or disapproving looks from other societal members. We could use the enlightenment. Even if now it tends to happen under pseudonyms and pen names, because we’re afraid of the potentially very real and damaging consequences of discussing sexuality openly. Perhaps that’s why a lot of speculative future-fic makes aliens or our descendants much less inhibited about it?
Anyway, closing up shop and heading out, then. See you either late Sunday or Monday at the earliest.
First things first, of course, before we get to the links. Let's go stomp some brain weasels. Or, for the long explanation:
Wow- what is it in the air lately? Post after filtered post about how everyone is feeling alone, disconnected, unwanted. It’s not like this is one or two people - it’s like a rash all over my friends list the past few days. Male, female, betwixt, undecided, unconcerned...it seems to be an equal opportunity Brain Weasel Invasion.
Clearly, something needs to be done.
I think we need to have a Brain Weasel Stomping Day.
The problem, as I’ve noted before, is “it’s easier to see the Weasels when they’re eating someone else’s brain.”
So.This is my call to my friends list, and to your friends list, and beyond. This Friday, make an effort to squish someone’s Brain Weasel.
Have a crush on someone? Post a flirty comment in their journal. Admire someone’s skills? Post a comment about it. Just think a person is nifty? This Friday is the time to tell them.
Doesn’t matter if the post you’re commenting to doesn’t have much to do with your comment. Just post those good thoughts. Trust me. People will appreciate it.
Do this for everyone - not just those you suspect are feeling down (After all, you might not be on their Brain Weasel filter). Take a few minutes and help launch people into the weekend with a smile.
And...who knows? Maybe sharing how others make you happy will make you a bit more cheerful in return.
It’s worth a try.
So if you have a crush, of any kind, today is the day to tell that person. Go, spread the joy, tell people they are neat.
So, let’s go stomp some brain weasels. If you see one poking out of someone’s head, like “I feel that much of my success has been more due to good fortune and accidental placement than any exercise of my skills”, then be sure to apply your preferred whacking instrument to said weasel. Prizes may be given for documented instances of weasel flight.
This is no doubt getting play over the blogosphere, but a recent executive order regarding seizure of funds related to Iraq looks to be a carte blanche authorization for seizure without notice, warning, disclosure, or any other pesky sort of thing that might leave an avenue for suit or other legal recourse. The White House claims it's a measure to stop gaps in the ability of the U.S. to seize insurgent funds. As with many of the things that have come from this administration, the criteria are loose, so the potential for abuse is great. If we actually trusted the government to use those powers wisely and responsibly, we might not be so worried. That said, there is supposed to be a bit of built-in paranoia to the citizenry of the government, so that the government stays honest. When the executive then says that the Congress cannot invoke statutory contempt on someone shielded by executive privilege, forcing them to either invoke their “inherent contempt” abilities or cause a legal showdown over the matter, you start thinking that the paranoids are the only sane people in the area. And with, perhaps, the first propotype of artificial flies getting off the ground, some of that paranoia will return, when even the walls have ears. Perhaps then we’ll have regular boastings of killing or capturing leaders that don't exist just to throw off the flies listening in. I wonder whether they’d be used more to ensure that the “right” things are being said, like more of "if we leave now, Iraq will be a disaster", "Iran is the real threat, so they shuold be destroyed quickly", and that liberals are spouting nonsense about what Bush has said with regard to WMD, the President’s conversations with G-d, and the like. Hopefully such flies will also let us talk about witness testimony that a Marine deliberately shot noncombatants in Haditha and let us comment about how much noncombatants are probably dying while this war is going on, and that while there may not have been a direct statement, there have been a lot of implications about the things Mr. Bush has been accused of saying. Hopefully we’ll still get to hear Keith Olbermann tell Mr. Bush to go fight his war in Iraq personally, and get a firsthand account of how progress is going in Iraq. And then, perhaps after architecting personally the things he wants to be remembered for, he can try to run the country again. Maybe.
After deliberate malice, let’s have a couple drinks and toast to incompetence. Namely, this article about Google partnering with the state of Michigan to put some public records on-line. No, really, that’s the whole content of the article. No details, no programs, no timetables. So while it’s newsworthy to post the matter, I think that the reading populace would like to know what the hell’s going on with all of this, so they can be informed, instead of fed this tripe. I got more information out of a review of the new America-legal absinthe than I did from the Free Press blurb.
After that, then if you want to, you can pack a few harsh words and harsher material for whomever’s decision it was that Faith Hill needed a serious Photoshopping to get on RedBook's cover. Rock salt stings a lot, or so Kill Bill tells us. Jezebel also offers their reasoning why they posted Faith Hill untouched, as well. I agree with that reasoning -- many of these women are already attractive and don’t need to have more done to them to make them unrealistic and perpetuate the illusion of the size zero stick-girl. I wonder if fashion wouldn’t sell more if people could see how it looks on regular women.
Most of us can add on another thing to their “I am” statements. I’m sure most of you realize already that I am a terrorist, according to at least some, if not many, definitions that those currently in power use. Apparently, Senator Clinton is also a terrorist, because her questioning of the Iraq conflict gives "the enemy" propaganda. I can add onto this that I am a feminist. Which would make a lot of people double-take, considering that, y’know, I’m XY rather than XX. But, it’s really that simple. I am a feminist, because I believe that both sexes should have the opportunity to do whatever it is they want with their lives and shouldn’t be penalized for it, in wages, in vacation, or in any other avenue of their life. This likely also makes me a dirty communist in the eyes of others, and a hellbound sinner for others. Now, if I can just get the godless atheist label, I’ll knock and declare Gin.
After Mr. Bush owned up that Valerie Plame’s name had been leaked by someone in his administration, Plame’s lawsuit against the CIA was dismissed under the grounds that public officials are immune from such suits if the matter results from doing their jobs. Which could be quite the precedent if other incidents like this were to occur, where damage results in the revealing of a covert agent’s name. Hrmph. I guess if someone were to reveal that the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo were in charge tomorrow, they’d be protected from lawsuits, as they were only acting in the course of their job, no matter how much damage it would do to the plans and abilities of said La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo. This is not a consistent policy, it appears, though, as those persons who are so afraid of Muslims that they'll tell the police they're terrorists will not be protected from lawsuits. Because we want to encourage fear of outsiders at this point and point all the blame on them, while protecting the people already here who do much worse things.
Having a bit more fun with advertising, however, here’s fifteen unfortunately placed advertisements, several of them looking to have come about through the tendency of advertisement serving units to scan their source material for key words and try to find good target matches for that piece based on those words. The algorithms work nicely, they just can’t quite pick up the context that they need to avoid those subjects rather than continue with them. They might, in bad light, mistake a stuffed toy beaver for a masked criminal.
More of the matter regarding the “parallel economy” of sorts, the Washington Post wonders if Christian fantasy will be the next hot thing to have, as thousands of parents and others express a knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Potter’s magical adventures, or believe that Left Behind is the end-all, be-all, knows-all of good and appropriate literature and want more of that kind of material for their children. Which there is, of course, in something like Left Behind: The Children or whatever those books actually are. While Christian fantasy might very well end up being a high-ranked object in terms of sales and profitability, I’m a bit more worried about where the market that drives such things comes from.
Checkers has been solved. It is now mathematically known that two perfect players will always end their checkers matches in a draw. Takes all the fun out of it, doesn’t it? Of course, there’s always chess after that, which is if not solved, well on the way to being there. Maybe we should start teaching our children Go at a young age, instead. As we age, though, by the time we start worrying about potential neurological disorders, there may be a new fleet of MRI devices that use lots of small but high-resolution scanners stitched together by computer that will help detect our strange neuroses.
The next-to-last for today comes from the Cool Things department, where Doom was successfully converted to a process-management tool. That’s certainly one way of issuing a kill command. But if Doom is how one manages processes, then what about the rest of our tasks? Shall we take on Quake to navigate the Intarwebs, then?
Having done the Flaming Bunny Hop across the various minefields of our lives, it’s time to tap-dance over this last one and watch the fireworks explode. After all, I have to maintain my NC-17 rating, right? Yep, once again we’re talking about sex and sexuality, so those who don’t want to read on those matters (for a moment there, I thought about adding “or want Harry Potter spoilers” onto the end of it, but that would be overusing a joke, no doubt) can stop at this point and move downward to the next safe paragraph. Our material starts at one point and abstracts or otherwise gets a level or two removed. The source point is Focus on the Family's article about "How to Confront Children Using Pornography". Despite the title, the paper recommends ascertaining how much, of what type, and how a child viewed the pr0n, and then therapy and suggestions on how to prevent future occurrences. This is, of course, in the favor of making sure that sexuality stays rigidly conformant to the idea of one man, one woman, in marriage, and one of that kinky shit, you hear? And extra heapings of guilt, shame, and “sinner” on top, in an effort to repress sexuality and sex and keep kids ignorant of it. They also insinuate that exposure to pr0n could be considered a form of child abuse. The Front Porch is less than amused with the material in said Focus article, poking sarcastic fun at its contents and spinning them in ways that the original author probably never intended. Jesus' General twists things even more, suggesting some very Christian-themed material to add spice to one’s daily worship at the temple of the bed. I’m sure that the people at Focus on the Family mean well, and that they want to ensure that their men have the company of women that they respect and enjoy. For some, however, that particular phrase means purchasing several love dolls and giving one’s affection to them rather than getting a Hume woman. The person in the article does say that the live ones are better, but his point that the dolls are always available is compelling for a lot of men. Additionally, they never have a headache and are (relatively) easier to maintain than actual women.
Regarding things like sexual behavior and possibilities of going about unlocking it safely in children, such that there aren’t potentially grievous consequences, and taking several hammer-swings at the somewhat male-dominated idea of what sexuality is,
nebris answers a query in relation to the Temple that he wishes to start about what appropriate sexual expression could be, including making sure that there was always someone there to talk about any issues. (Since he did, I will also note there may be trigger problems, although I am unsure of what, myself) His point, if I do not misinterpret it grossly, is that because sexuality is still considered a shameful thing to express or talk about openly, much of the difficulties that we Humes counter regarding sexuality stem from external and internal shaming mechanisms instilled in us, the same kinds of things that the Focus article wants to instill in people, under the guise of “respecting the sanctity of sexuality” or some other such thing. Although I think he considers it a more general problem that adults are not willing to talk about the possibilities of their children being sexual beings, being interested in sexual imagery, thinking, and action. Whether through fear of being labeled as a pervert, immoral, or somehow transgressing rules of their religion by acknowledging that children have sexual thoughts. Which, as I recall, is the reason why there’s supposed to be a mandatory sexual education program - to teach children about their sexuality, and hopefully encourage it to be expressed in ways that are safe for them and their partners. Even if their parents won’t, or said parents firmly insist that abstaining from sexual contact before marriage is the only acceptable sexual behavior. Hrm, methinks that I have a bit of a fixation about sex and sexuality, considering how many non-link riddled paragraphs I give it. Zo, tell me about your mozzer. Or maybe it’s because it’s something that’s splashed across the media in prominent and subtle ways, is one of the “evils” consistent across the various Christian denominations, and is something that seems to show up in our lives every day, yet we can’t seem to be able to talk about the matter at all. Might be that people are starting to finally decide they’re going to talk about whatever it is they want to talk about, regardless of consequences or disapproving looks from other societal members. We could use the enlightenment. Even if now it tends to happen under pseudonyms and pen names, because we’re afraid of the potentially very real and damaging consequences of discussing sexuality openly. Perhaps that’s why a lot of speculative future-fic makes aliens or our descendants much less inhibited about it?
Anyway, closing up shop and heading out, then. See you either late Sunday or Monday at the earliest.
