Phase's Phully Phormed, Phalangeal, and Phantasmagorical Random Banter #112

[Cristo Meyers]

Why, mademoiselle. We are evil. And as the good Voltaire says... "It's so easy when you're evil..."

Dammit Coid, now I'm going to be humming that all day!

It's so easy when you're e-vil...

CRAP!

...ah well, it's better than that country dead soldier song I had earlier...

Anyway...nothing like spending 45 minutes in dead-stop traffic to start the day...I didn't even get to see what happened since whatever was causing the traffic was cleared up by the time I got there...

[Sneak]

Sarcasm gnomes!

It's always the gnomes!

[Dallas-Dakota]

I am back, but not for long. What with that whole sleep thing and then the whole going off for the day thing.

Let's see, none personally, but through my family we have...

Spoiler

Show

the three cats from where I grew up that we took with us when we moved (we'd had more but had to find homes for them with the distance we had to travel and could really only take the three), the four cats that have followed my dad home while he has been walking the dog, hmm... the five cats remaining from the eleven from the two litters that happened due to my dad getting sick and distracting from two spayings that were needed.

3+4+5 = 7+5 = 12

So right now it's looking like 12. I think the highest number of cats I've had has been the about 18 after the kittens were born and before we could get them spayed and adopted out.

Crazy old catlady...Crazy old catlady I say.....

Anyway...nothing like spending 45 minutes in dead-stop traffic to start the day...I didn't even get to see what happened since whatever was causing the traffic was cleared up by the time I got there...

You consider it odd to have a dead-stop traffic for 45 minutes?
For us, here in the Netherlands, we're happy with that. 'Cause it's usually longer...
I even know a friend who went to Bulgaria, and got asked where we keep all the stopped traffic....

[randman22222]

What about? For what class?

Creative writing or essay writing? I'm assuming the former, since you seem to be happy about it.

Unless it's internet sarcasm.

Go internet sarcasm!

Ah. Hello. I'm alive. Yes, it's creative. Mostly. The bit that isn't is negligible.

[Cristo Meyers]

It's possible to have fun writing an essay. You've just got to write about the right things...

[Lady Tialait]

...I have a couple of subjects to chime in on...

First is feminism, it's done most of it's job as far as I can tell. Then again, I havn't worked for years, when I did I was favored and had the most annoying (female) co-worker. She would always try to tell me that the only way both sexes will ever be equal is if we get a week off each month paid, if we get preggers we get ten months off paid and on and on. It kinda urked me. I believe that hiring a woman can be risky. After all, almost ALL women can get preggers, and that means in a few months, they will be unable to work. Most women have stronger emotional attachments then men, making farther problems. I want equal opportunity, we have it, so what if equal representation has not happened. I find that girls like me are the reason, I'm happy with my wonderful hubby taking care of me. /rant

Let's see...I have one cat, it's my Mother-In-Law's cat. I hate that Cat...but I promised I'd take care of her after my mil went to the nursing home..

Also, Shirts. Discuss.

[UncleWolf]

It's possible to have fun writing an essay. You've just got to write about the right things...

Yeah, I once wrote an essay on zombification (Voodoo). How to do it and how to avoid it.

EDIT: Um, could someone please talk. It wasn't that weird of an essay was it?

[KnightDisciple]

What kind of shirts? All kinds? Some kinds?

As for cats: nice in theory, but allergies prevent ownership. I'm not really much of a "pet" person anyways. I plan to eventually get married and have kids; that'll be enough of a handful as far as I'm concerned. (No, I'm not saying kids are animals)

[Cristo Meyers]

Yeah, I once wrote an essay on zombification (Voodoo). How to do it and how to avoid it.

My fondest memory (short of all the Silent Hill ones I wrote...) was one I wrote for a book that was a prequel to Jane Eyre. Now, Jane Eyre is bad enough...but this book was worse. It was essentially dedicated to giving Freudian Excuses to a character in Eyre that is, to be blunt, a homicidal maniac (makes at least two attempts on other character's lives that I can recall). What did the Excuse boil down to? Simple, the poor woman was utterly and totally abused, neglected, and otherwise beat up by every man in her life. But especially by her then husband, one of the major characters in Eyre.

So, thinking "Fair's fair" I wrote an essay not only tearing down this book, but using it to establish a set of Freudian Excuses for the other character. Most fun I've ever had writing an essay.

[Player_Zero]

I am of the opinion that woman have the choice and opportunity to pursue any career or whatnot that a man can, however in some cases one or the other gender will get preferential treatment from employers - in specifics mind, not in the general case - I can only really think of silly examples though, I mean testicular surgeon or midwife or whatever.

It will never be the general case where an employer or whathaveyou is completely unbias because a lot of people are bias regardless of what you tell them.

I would also point out that in some cases the under-representation of a specific gender can be statistically uncertain or in some cases due to the preference of a gender against the job. For instance, I'm reasonably sure there aren't a majority of male nurses upon the population data.

Or, to support my first claim there, if only two in ten of a governing body is female while it is a statistical improbability it could still quite easily be the case it occured by random chance. Case in point: never trust anyone else's statistics. Ever.

[UncleWolf]

My fondest memory (short of all the Silent Hill ones I wrote...) was one I wrote for a book that was a prequel to Jane Eyre. Now, Jane Eyre is bad enough...but this book was worse. It was essentially dedicated to giving Freudian Excuses to a character in Eyre that is, to be blunt, a homicidal maniac (makes at least two attempts on other character's lives that I can recall). What did the Excuse boil down to? Simple, the poor woman was utterly and totally abused, neglected, and otherwise beat up by every man in her life. But especially by her then husband, one of the major characters in Eyre.

So, thinking "Fair's fair" I wrote an essay not only tearing down this book, but using it to establish a set of Freudian Excuses for the other character. Most fun I've ever had writing an essay.

That book would suck to read. The problem with the Zombie essay was that several people in my class were very...conservative religiously and tried to disprove everything I was saying. It was funny when I said that I'd be preparing Fugu Blowfish the next time I was in the class. I only got an 88 on the essay though.

[Cristo Meyers]

That book would suck to read. The problem with the Zombie essay was that several people in my class were very...conservative religiously and tried to disprove everything I was saying. It was funny when I said that I'd be preparing Fugu Blowfish the next time I was in the class. I only got an 88 on the essay though.

Wasn't so much that it was a bad idea...the insane character was somewhat underdevloped. It was that the author just took the easy way out and just blamed it on the man, apparently without realizing that if you're going to say "well, she was made that way!" then you can just as easily point to everyone else's past and say "so were they."

What makes it worse was that the woman was creole (half Caribbean, half white) in Victorian England. You don't need to just blame the white guy, her heritage alone would've sufficed (as it stood the only attention her heritage got was quickly over-shadowed by the the attention her husband got...)

[UncleWolf]

Wasn't so much that it was a bad idea...the insane character was somewhat underdevloped. It was that the author just took the easy way out and just blamed it on the man, apparently without realizing that if you're going to say "well, she was made that way!" then you can just as easily point to everyone else's past and say "so were they."

What makes it worse was that the woman was creole (half Caribbean, half white) in Victorian England. You don't need to just blame the white guy, her heritage alone would've sufficed (as it stood the only attention her heritage got was quickly over-shadowed by the the attention her husband got...)

I'm sick of books like that. But the worst book I've read was The Grapes of Wrath. If the school boards are concerned about suicide rates in High School, they need to stop making us read depressing books like that. And like Ethan Frome. Luckily I never had to read the second one.

[Player_Zero]

Whee. I have to write now. A lot. For school. And I think it'll be fun.

I remember writing a huge research report on black holes, with diagrams and several-pages-long calculations and current speculations and cool things of that description. That was probably the best coursework evah.

The assignment was basically 'write down something about physics and make it a few thousand words long'. I got a pretty good A for it too. Jawesome it was.

Also, now that it's raining I think I'm feeling better.

[Phaedra]

She would always try to tell me that the only way both sexes will ever be equal is if we get a week off each month paid, if we get preggers we get ten months off paid and on and on.

Which would surely only make us equal if men got a week off work every month. Which they don't. Who needs a week off anyway? If you physically can't work, somethings up...

As for pregnancy, if anything parental leave is skewed terribly towards women. Paternity leave is only a couple of weeks compared to the six months or so women get as maternity leave.

A former housemate of mine once told me I was a raving feminist. I have yet to work out why.

[Player_Zero]

A former housemate of mine once told me I was a raving feminist. I have yet to work out why.

Are you into new rave?

[Quincunx]

Merely considering the topic is enough to get you labeled a feminist. As always, it's fun to turn this back on the person who started the topic, no matter how discriminatory their point was. Daub in some deliberate stupidity and a "why did you bring it up then?" argument. Fun.

For all the wistful suicides I read about, no one, not one, has said anything like "I just saw/listened to/read X about suicide and omigod, I thought, they're right and I'm going to do it too".* The last whiff of celebrity copycat suicide was back when most of you were still suckling--why does the myth persist?

*"I'd rather kill myself than finishing Grapes of Wrath" doesn't count, even if I agree.

[Rutskarn]

*"I'd rather kill myself than finishing Grapes of Wrath" doesn't count, even if I agree.

Grapes of Wrath was awesome.

But then, the enlightened among you already knew that. (j/k)

[Phaedra]

Are you into new rave?

I wish that were the explanation. It summons wonderful images of feminist debate going on while surrounded by drugs and glowsticks.

[Dallas-Dakota]

But then, the enlightened among you already knew that.

But I like the dark.....

[Sneak]

@^^

Is Grapes of Wrath really so terrible? I liked Of Mice and Men, and what I read of East of Eden for school was good.

[randman22222]

I remember writing a huge research report on black holes, with diagrams and several-pages-long calculations and current speculations and cool things of that description. That was probably the best coursework evah.

The assignment was basically 'write down something about physics and make it a few thousand words long'. I got a pretty good A for it too. Jawesome it was.

Also, now that it's raining I think I'm feeling better.

It rained here today as well. Not enough to put you into that uplifting mood, though. It always amuses me how the young kids, for whom rain is an oddity, will shout, "LOOK! It's raining! "

EDIT: @Phaedra. Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?

[Cristo Meyers]

I wish that were the explanation. It summons wonderful images of feminist debate going on while surrounded by drugs and glowsticks.

I think all debate should be like this.

Never read Grapes of Wrath, never really cared to either. Of Mice and Men was decent, I suppose, but just never really seemed to grab my attention.

[Sneak]

I think all debate should be like this.

Eh, that's debatable.

KNEESLAPPER!

[Quincunx]

I have no problem with most of the other Steinbeck works I've read (The Pearl dragged, but I also got hit with it twice, so it suffered from being too short to repeat). The Grapes of Wrath has such a monolithic, depressive tone, it's practically propaganda, and I don't like reading long works of opinion. If you can't express your opinion within the confines of a long essay, you've spent too much time defending it, and probably not enough time examining it.

[Cristo Meyers]

Eh, that's debatable.

KNEESLAPPER!

It's like having a younger version of the Marx brothers around...

[bosssmiley]

A former housemate of mine once told me I was a raving feminist. I have yet to work out why.

You expressed an opinion relating to sexual politics. That makes you a feminist.
You did it more than once. That makes you a raving feminist.

[ghost_warlock]

Racism doesn't mean anti-race.

Except that it does:
rac⋅ism 
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

Racism - discrimination on the basis of race.
Feminism - discrimination on the basis of femininity.

But, whatever, it was mostly just idle musing anyway.

New topic!

The last whiff of celebrity copycat suicide was back when most of you were still suckling--why does the myth persist?

Why does any myth persist?

In some cases, it may be because some people find it emotionally satisfying to believe the myth (e.g., crime doesn't pay). In some cases, believing the myth helps the world seem more orderly and therefore more bearable (e.g., good/bad things come in threes).

[Sneak]

I did wear a Groucho stache for my yearbook picture this year...

...maybe I should scan it...

@^: But racism means racial intolerance directed towards other races (or even your own race). My point is, it's a specific race or races that it's directed towards. "Race" doesn't denote any specific race. Thus, racism isn't anti-race. That's too broad.

[Jack Squat]

I hated Grapes of Wrath, although I'm sure it had more to do with when I read it and not the book itself. We read it 2 weeks before Christmas break, after just finishing The Great Gastby.

By comparison, Grapes of Wrath was long, drawn out, and about the most boring thing you could read.

then the next year, we read Wuthering Heights; guess no matter how right you think you are....