We who are about to fry, salute you! - 17 October 2007

[silveradept]

Life is strange, but that’s about par for the course. And thus, I’m probably continuing to contribute to my dental downfall by eating and drinking merrily, just adding on the additional brush-n’-floss routine at night. (Oh, and mouthwashes. Someone needs to design a good flavor of those.)

Stephen Colbert throws his hat into the ring - no word yet whether this is character or actor, but probably character, and we’ll see how far he takes it.

An Earthlike planet has been discovered, 20 light-years away. It orbits a red sun, rather closely, and is about 1.5 Earthsize. This one looks like it might be a candidate for finding other carbon-based life forms.

Career Marine sees Iraq as winnable, and some military folk are declaring al-Qaeda beaten, perhaps prematurely. Training is going on to acclimate soldiers to the cultures they'll be swinging weapons in, in addition to training in the use of high-tech unmanned cameras to cover ground. A former general that speaks out against Iraq gets mixed reviews, the Justice Department's new priorities have some interesting effects, focusing in new areas, and piracy off the coast of Somalia and Nigeria is still going strong. Finally, the Democrats and liberals want to get the potential new attorney general to promise some cleanup and investigation before they let him through. And Rudy decides that accepting checks with 911 as their digits is probabyl not a smart political move.

Our parade of brainless candidates for a Quiching begins in Philadelphia, where gentlemen accused of rape of a prostitute had their sex and assault charges wiped, but the robbery indictment stuck. Um, guys, no means no, prostitutes included. Really.

From there, we get dumb with an anti-Darwin protest that involved impaling and burying a monkey. I can’t make heads or tails of this one, but it certainly sounds bananas. Sounds like it’s on about the same level as the template for journalists to use in reporting controversial science - which is to accept uncritically the proponent’s claims, let them refute skeptics, and gerneally dance around the fact that there’s not any evidence or trials to their credit.

Thing do go from bad to worse, including a man barred from a library after he indicated that he wanted to be served by a different librarian than the homosexual one that was currently helping him. This is apparently the latest in several strings of fairly hostile behavior, resulting in the banstick being leveled. So, why does anyone’s sexuality have anything to do with their competence as a library professional?

Making the turn from poor behavior to deliberately bad behavior, why commercials before movies is worse than pirating them - the few minutes spent having to suffer through them is unrewarded, and in fact, to some degree, a moviegoer pays to see ads. If you pirate it, yeah, you’re not paying the movie fee, but you’re not seeing ads, either. And the ads in the movie can’t be skipped with the remote, much as we’d like to be able to do so.

From bad and money sucking to the winner of tonight’s ignominies and a freshly-baked quiche to the face, Inventor-Link, which has a User Agreement that prevents you from looking at the code, copying any sort of text, or even linking to their site without prior permission. We’re resting on fair use for purposes of criticism here, as are those who bring it to our attention. This is the web version of an EULA that requires you to open the package to read it and then tells you “By opening the package, you agree to this EULA.” That can’t be permissible in law, telling someone that they’ve agreed to a contract by browsing, without warning them of the contract they’re agreeing to and giving them a chance to refuse the contract. It would be like congratulating someone on their merger with a multinational corporation because one of your reps talked with one of their reps about football scores. To whomever devised the browse-wrap agreement there, and to those who think it’s enforceable, you’re stupid, stupid rat creatures.

Away from the quiche awarding, but still something very deserving of being said, a public service announcement to the women of the world: Life is much better when you’re okay with the way you look. That’s not to say you can’t try for something better, but rather than chasing all sorts of things all over the world, Internet, and time, why not come to terms with what you are, what you want to be, and whether you can actually turn the former into the latter. If not, change what you can, and accept what you cannot. I can guarantee you that you’re going to be able to catch someone’s eye with the way you look. Really. I mean it.

Far and away the carrier of Win tonight is 100 clips, 100 movies, 100 numbers, thanks to amenquohi, who, while not creating it, brought it to my attention.

And now, bedtime again. Which means that I get to spend more time in dreamland.

Comments

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

A place for New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York?

[silveradept]

Actually, the running joke so far has been that it would be named Krypton.

[fallen-x-ashes.livejournal.com]

I would be in total support of that name. :-)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

hehe.


Also, I read the article about women liking themselves, and I think what some fail to take notice of is that some women DO like themselves the way they are, but for health reasons want to change. Not all women who are on diets are doing it to make themselves pretty for other people.

[silveradept]

Assuming there isn't some other astronomical body by the same name, which would probably end up meaning that the old body needs a new name. It'll probably be Krypton if they can conclusively show some carbon-based life there, even better if t's humaniform.

[silveradept]

And we're okay with people who are doing it for health reasons - living longer and propsering is a great reason. It's the people who are healthy and beautiful and yet still find nits to pick that frustrate that poster (and all the singles out there not looking for the superbombshell girl).

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Some women might be trying to jsut maintaining their weight. I do think there's problems when thin girls complain their fat, though.

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

The thing that makes me angry about the author of this women/weight article is that she frames it as "Well, pretty much all female bodies are good enough to get a man, so quit complaining." Who cares if my body is good enough to get a man (and what if I want a woman instead)!?! I want to like my body because it belongs to ME, not because it measures up to some "objective" male eye.

She's defeating her own argument - she's complaining that women should feel better about their bodies because they are "good enough" according to someone else's standard. But women will never be able to feel better about their bodies as long as the "arbitrary" male gaze (ie something outside of their own perception) is the final word in whether their body is "good" or "bad". (And categorizing bodies as "good" or "bad" is a whole 'nother rant for me, for another day.) She should say, "Quit playing the game and realize that there is no standard you have to live up to other than your own." As long as someone else always has the power to crush your self esteem, you can never feel secure.

And I realize that there are many other factors working to keep women insecure about their bodies, but her comment about the sole purpose of her body being that it was good enough to get a man rubs me the wrong way.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

me too. and I honestly couldn't care less what a guy thinks about my body. I prefer to think that it's my mind and personality that draws them to me, not because they think my body is drop dead gorgeous. Sure, there are some superficial men out there who NEED to have women who are tall, blonde, and leggy, but for most of the men I know, they tend to look beyond physical looks.

Like I've mentioned before - I like myself the way I am. I'm doing a weight-loss program because I want to be healthier and I want to be able to at some point, have children, and from what I've read, pregnancy is a lot easier when the mother-to-be isn't overweight before the pregnancy.

further, there *are* things I dislike about my body -- but it's not because anyone else says it's bad, it's because it's my personal opinion. I have hair growing out of a mole on my chin. It makes me feel like an old hag, therefor, I want it gone. Not so that someone else can look at me and say "oh, she has a pretty face" and not because someone else said "ew, that's gross", but because it would make *me* feel better about myself to remove it.

I was actually out shopping with a friend of mine the other day. She's about the same height as me, and I thought she was also the same size as me, but while we were shopping, she told me her size (about five sizes larger than what I wear) so I could help her find clothing to try on while we were both in Lane Bryant. Both of us, while chattering about our bodies, revealed that there were things we did not like about our particular build - for her, it was that she feels she can't wear short skirts because she doesn't like the way her thighs look, and for me, it's wearing hip-huggers/low waist, because my stomach hangs over the edge and to me is not attractive. Yet at the same time, she and I were both trying on clothing and secure in our own bodies shapes. Neither one of us was going to walk into say, Express or The Limited and start complaining that their clothes were too small, or that we were too fat.

women should like their bodies because it's their bodies, not because a man likes it. On that same page, a woman has every right to not like her body because it's her body. (if that makes sense).

The author of the article makes some mention about make-up too, and how she doesn't wear any (i think?). I don't wear make-up either. Mostly because I can't be arsed to put any on in the mornings, and because I'm okay with having a few blemishes on my face. I still get the guys, though.