Craigslist Moves

Pretty much every apartment except the one I’m soon about to vacate after three years and two months I’d located, prospected, and signed leases for because of Craigslist.

Craigslist, while I can’t say I’ve been on it much lately, had been a big part of my life in my twenties. Sometimes it would be idle browsing, sometimes for job searches, and sometimes it would be for apartments.

Having decided I was going to not renew my lease this time around, I’d first went via Apartment Ratings (since that’s how I’d found where I am currently). Not finding ones that jumped out at me pretty readily, I went to old reliable Craigslist.

And now I’m moving. Oh, the 21st century.

9 Additional Sins

There are nine others that are making more and more sense to me. Some of them seem more repugnant to me than others, but they’re something I just might put to memory.

New year, self-reformation some.

Reviewing

Reviewing is kind of fun.

It allows me to tell a story coherently and sometimes with a little creative wording. Sometimes I have to think about where I’d like to review, though, because the majority of places I do go aren’t where one would think of or have time to analyze.

And then I’m kind of a homebody.

Esoteric References

I'm that guy who makes references only a handful of people would get, and it's an interesting feeling.

When I get up, I listen to news podcasts, as I do when I'm alone at lunch, and when I'm doing something at work that doesn't require as much concentration. Even so, sometimes I blank. I'm even having some memory problems where I'm not as sharp at remembering what I've experienced and said than I've not.

But I know about Koeppen climates, North Dakota weather, and the population of Wyoming.

I could tell you about the seal they had to take off an airport runway in Utqiagvik sooner than I could that there, apparently a couple years ago, was a smash-though of a Chinese restaurant around the corner from my apartment and an armed altercation at the Kroger next door to it within the same month.

I know some world leaders' names a little more easily than I do my own constituency representatives.

But it's all okay. It's lonely, and I only slightly care, but it's okay.

Remember When?

I remember there was a time when I wanted to re-experience something so badly, but I had to wait for it (media-wise). In high school, I'd seen an episode of Animaniacs where The Brain had a song for the various parts of the human brain. I'd told my Anatomy and Physiology teacher, Mrs Getz, about it and she'd wanted me to bring it in.

Yet, it took the episode forever to cycle though and repeat!

I did end up promising I'd make her a copy, but yet never ended up doing so. I have a VHS tape that may still have it.

Early in iOS Game Center history there was a game called Flight Control Rocket, and I'd always wanted the Shop theme. No one had it, though, and it's just today with the screen record feature and YouTube that I now have it. I just need to strip out the audio and voilà. Another game, DragonVale, I'd had a similar want with some of the Hallowe'en music.

Now I have the set.

Imagine, now all of this is so easy. The only restriction is what tools you have to make it possible.

The future is nigh.

Ave Satani

So, I've watched Damien for the second time through (the first time live every week last year, and then finishing it up today, coincidentally Bradley James's 34th birthday, via Hulu).

I have such an interesting... appreciation, I guess is the word, for blasphemy, or at the very least things that don't put God exactly in the highest light. I like the songs "Man in the Box" and "Stop Smiling". I've actually like dark-themed shows, like Damien, and then there are shows that put different spins on Christian belief, history, and lore, such as Dominion and Supernatural, both of which I've esteemed.

There are dark-themed movies like The Chronicles of Riddick that have essentially death-worshipers.

Where am I going? Who knows?

Texting While Driving

I was driving home yesterday, and when I made a turn I came on a car that was driving slowly.

For me to say this, as someone who others have called repeatedly a “slow driver,” this is saying something.

As I came next to her, I’d realized she was on her phone, typing away. I decided to drive in front of her. While I drove, for the next five blocks before my next turn to get home, I would watch her, occasionally not even paying attention that she’s a long distance (like seven car lengths at least distance) behind me and holding up traffic), still typing away. It was infuriating to behold.

What could be that engrossing that you can’t stop and park somewhere to do that? Are you single and trying to develop a relationship? Are you a wife corresponding with your husband? Are you a businesswoman who can’t seem to realize texting business is not a good thing on the road? The relatively calm look on her face didn’t make it seem like something was emergent (and if it were an emergency, I’d imagine she’d be trying to get to the emergency quickly rather than meandering along while drive-texting).

Humans…

Human Bodies

This post contains what some might see as spoilers, even though The Matrix is nearly 20 years old, and Jupiter Ascending is going on three years pretty soon.

My mother had me thinking about the Wachowsk(i/a)s/Wachowscy with an assignment she has to do.

Part of what I've liked about their worlds they've built is how they'd trivialized the human body. They've made them into nothing more than disposable robot batteries and grind-up fodder for a youth serum. They've shown that you can just shoot one dead and, while it hurts some people, they move on. They've shown that we're, in the grand scheme, not very unique because the genome is finite and eventually, as I've remarked on before, someone else will come out exactly like us genetically long after we've died.

They've show being cavalier with modifying the human body, augmenting it, pushing it, warping it.

I can't speak for their other creations because I haven't given them shots (or a care, really), but I'm sure they have those themes somewhat too. In the back of my mind, I've had the thought that it probably relates to their eventual transgender identities.

What really makes humanity so special, though, eh? Because God created us? Because we're somewhat modifying this planet to suit our needs at the expense of all the other life it has? Because we're the "only beings of merit/consequence" in the universe?

People need to remember this planet can, and has, squish/ed us flat.

Lifelogging, aka Them Making Money Off You?

It's not until I'd moved to Georgia that I'd really, really started hearing an almost hate for anything that would use your labor, however, inane, small, or otherwise not-so-energy-taxing/zapping, to make money.

I'm a lifelogger, which essentially means I'm able to go into an app and actually look back at where I've been for about 8 years now because I'd recorded my whereabouts. Looking back is nostalgic, and looking at the map of plotpoints is pretty cool, honestly. Still, it's free, and the companies (because there are multiple) are probably using this data to sell to companies who can use it to their devices.

And I don't mind that, really. Sometimes one hears of how many people go somewhere, or at what time, or during certain circumstances. It's pretty neat to hear, actually. These lifelogging tools partly make that possible. I'm also kind of helping artificial intelligence on its way in just a little way.

Because it's not like my life is oodles of fascination anyway...

“Is It Something You Do?”

I’ve been training a new guy at work and he has asked me this question quite a bit. I tell him something and he asks me if it’s something I do [myself]. It had annoyed me a little bit because I’m the type of person who wouldn’t (although my lack of wanting to say that I’m 100% certain of anything leads me to want to interject “most of the time”) say for someone to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.

I’d kept /I keep wondering if it’s a cultural thing for him, or something that perhaps has bitten him in the back previously. Perhaps he may be a bit suspicious?

I don’t know.

I have been thinking about how people see things lately. My cousin and one other person had told me off because I typed out “[shrug]” as a response in a chat. I’d meant “I don’t know/I’m not sure”, but they’d interpreted it as “I don’t care/give a fuck”.

People at work have interpreted when I have my earbuds in listening to podcasts (and even then, most people seem to think I’m listening to music rather than podcasts) that I don’t want anyone to talk to me. I’ve literally had to say to people they can indeed approach me whenever I have earbuds in because I don’t mean for them to think I don’t want to talk to anyone. Whenever anyone’s walked into a room while I’m wearing them, I’ve greeted that person.

Yes, I’m an introvert and have some social anxiety, but it doesn’t mean I’m standoffish or wanting to be/seem rude intentionally.

It’s just strange how so many social cues that I suppose people use in one way to be passive-aggressive (passive-aggressiveness being something I’ve come to about loathe lately) I somehow use innocently and people may think I’m using them the same way. I’ve often not even thought of it until someone brings it up.

It may be just a slight removal from someone being unaware the way they use a phrase may actually offend someone. We humans interpret things in different ways. But fuck-all if it’s annoying.

iOS 11, Day 1

I’ve never been an early adopter of most things, often either letting other try it so see how it’s worked for them, or just that I’ve not gotten around to something/couldn’t afford to time or money-wise.

iOS releases, since I’ve had an iPhone, have been the rare exception to that. Probably my favorite iteration is still iOS 6, but here I have five full versions later.

I’d gotten home and downloaded it directly via my phone while the backup was processing; the entire download took about 20 minutes. That’s mounds more admirable than a few versions ago, where it had taken about 3 hours (it may have been the first version they’d introduced over-the-air updates).

I’m getting used to some of the revisions they’d done, such as accessing notifications on the lock screen, and the look of the play screen. I don’t like what they’d done to the Podcasts app, which essentially stopped the ability to play podcasts automatically in the order they appear without having to add each to a “Play Next” queue. I’d readopted Stitcher Radio partly because of this, even though I have to sacrifice a few local news outlets’ feeds to do it.

I have yet to try the Screen Recording feature, though I think that may be trouble for some people in the future (even though I’d like to believe most apps to what this would be relevant might either have some kind of notification or lockdown for it. I have yet to try that, though.

Since I’m working on a 6 Plus, it’s naturally a little slow at first, and it will be since this is probably the second-lowest tier of Apple phone still in support. It’s okay; I’m not in any particular rush for a new phone, so long as it does what I need it to do.

I’m glad they’d worked on the on-device Library portion of the TV app, because its bugginess in iOS 10 was bothering the fuck out of me. They’d also re-enabled landscape views, for which I’m thankful. The disintegration of the Facebook/Twitter apps from the core is slightly surprising, but they’d also done that with iOS 7 from iOS 6 (the accessibility of both for status updates immediately as a widget in iOS 6 was another thing I’d liked.

Let’s see what else I discover as the days and weeks go by, since it seems this version they’d catered more to the iPad than iPhone anyway…

Why I Chose… Vanilla

I love the flavor and smell of vanilla.

When I was a kid (and even as an adult when I'm around my mother baking) I'd love when my mother poured Benjamin's vanilla extract into the batter. The sweet aroma of the thing, along with the buzz of the small amount of alcohol, were addicting.

Whenever we'd get vanilla ice cream, I'd eat helpings of it by the soup bowl. Whenever we'd get Neapolitan ice cream, I'd eat the vanilla part, my sister the chocolate, and my brother the strawberry. I'd eat the strawberry too, sometimes, but the vanilla was my thing. Chocolate, it just had too overpowering and bitter a flavor. That's something I still feel.

I think it's partly because vanilla soothes me why I love it so.

The Biggest Wuss

Okay, maybe not the biggest…

I'd lost power two days ago because of Irma, and the way I'd spoken about it, bearing in mind there are other people who'd had it worse or who go through worse, it was almost a tragedy. One could interpret my words that way, at any rate.

Realizing that, I'd felt like a wuss. I'd felt like, me having grown up mostly in the United States, having accustomed myself to the conveniences of coming home and having a relatively set routine with relatively no interruptions, I was not adapting well (even though I suppose I somewhat was; my sister had told me not to be hard on myself).

I'd made a Facebook post about marveling that I'd still had some hot water though the power had gone out. The next day I didn't have that fortune. I'd gone to bed early because there was very little to do, and I was conserving my phone's power. I didn't have my podcasts. I had little light to read the few books I'd elected to keep after purging my collection.

I'd felt like the type of American person Jamaicans scorn as being soft and inflexible. I didn't/don't want to be that person. I don't want people thinking I don't or couldn't measure up.

The power returned yesterday, and so continues my life of relative comfort. #firstworldproblems

Recommended Reading

I've, for quite a bit of my life, described myself as an information vampire. Whenever news apps like Flipboard and Apple News, as well as the Google Search app, have asked for my opinion on keywords and/or topics I'd like to see more of, I'd found myself tapping on many of them. I'd wanted to know about a lot of them (especially with countries/states that I don't hear about often, as I'd talked about somewhat before), even though there were limits to what I could read, or that the app would allow me to read in the case of Apple News.

There's only so much information I can take in because of biological need to sleep, limitations of my mind, and lack of desire to read certain stories (usually reality TV- or sports-related). Still, sometimes because something is "trending", it may still appear on my dashboard, which is a little annoying.

I'm generally not inclined to read sports just about as much as I tend to not watch certain videos. I don't want to outright say, or put into their minds, that I don't want to see those types of recommendations, but I don't really care to see them either.

That rationale sounds rather familiar ("I'm not racist, but I don't date Black/Asian/Latin@/White/whatever else people."). I guess this mindset comes in all kinds of forms, except some people just block people rather than have to possibly deal ("all the time") with having to reject someone because they don't fit your definition of "ideal".

We're hurtful creatures, humans.

Ultimately Why We Work

Yes, this is not scholarly. I have no sources, and have done no research. It's not even original. It's just what I've been thinking about on the way home... from work.

We work, though, because we, somewhat, fear what idleness can do. I'm certain when we all didn't work, when we meandered and thought, socialized and did whatever else idle humans do, we got into trouble. We see sometimes how children behave when they can do whatever they want, and I suppose even adults may do the same. We'd found we could do things, construct things, put things together, and went with that.

Someone worked, and then eventually more worked. Then we'd started deciding things had relative worth, and that we could trade one thing for another. We got the idea of fairness, because this person shouldn't have to work harder than someone else and not get more out of it than that someone else.

We began having an ethos of gaining things, wealth. Our populations expanded, meaning we had to make sure resources lasted, even though people with more wealth could buy as many resources as they wanted, leaving others without. Or they would sell those resources to gain more wealth. We created governments as we'd learnt about power and resource apportioning, including that governments could raise funds from land just as individuals found they could.

People who don't want anything to do with the regular scheme of things -- working for pay, having a mortgage, living in a proper house, creating more humans -- don't propagate the system humanity has created. Other human beings sometimes look at those who would take what they have and go out on their own with some amazement and some jealousy. "Why does he get to not work? I don't want to work." The person striking out on his own would have a time trying to do that, though, because the system wants everyone to pay for land.

The system has budgeted that so many people who make money will put a certain amount of that towards the system to keep it going. Having less people doing so undoes the system. People can't have tiny tracts of land for tiny houses because the system wouldn't make enough to sustain itself, so they'd set rather large minimum plot sizes.

Minimalism in a culture that treasures having more is a sin, something awkward and unseemly.

We work to keep ourselves busy and because it keeps the system that developed out of keeping ourselves out of idleness going.

Creepy Revenge

	Kristopha Hohn (@seishin17)
9/1/17, 7:26 PM I really don't get the mindset of not-clinically-crazy people who *save* excrement (liquid/solid) specifically to use it on/against someone.

I'd written this after hearing that, apparently, sometime fairly recently a guy had thrown a cup of pee at a bus driver. The guy was on a bus... and had a cup of pee ready to throw on a bus driver. That's... insane.

It's about as insane as this woman I'd heard about who'd been having a conversation/argument with her husband. He'd fallen asleep, so (naturally) she'd set him on fire and then put out the fire with some urine she'd had conveniently. At least with this one, they were at home, so she conceivably could have had a bedpan or something to put it out. Setting him on fire and then putting it out with pee, that's... interesting.

I'd also had on the thought docket the anecdotes and comedy movie fodder I've seen over the years of people putting bags of dog feces in front of people's doors, lighting it on fire, ringing the doorbell and then running. This leaves the occupant of the house to open the door (almost always male), see the flames, and stamp on the flames (and the bag of shit) to put it out. What person waits for their dog to need to defecate, collect it in a paper bag, and then store it (somehow) until it comes time to play the prank? What person?

I've heard of really extremist (and, in my opinion, cracked) PETA folks throwing combinations of feces and urine on their targets.

Then, this still doesn't give me reasons on my tweet: what non-crazy person does this, and why?

Well, the why, I can understand somewhat. Excrement is something we as humans really dislike for the most part. We want to get rid of it. We want nothing to do with it, and we want to remove ourselves from it as quickly as we're able. I've said excretion is one of the vital human functions I'd rather not have to do (along with eating, and most times, sleeping). Using excrement against someone is a giant insult to that person, then, or at least a way to demean that person.

The storage of it, though, that's... dedication.

Why I Chose... Florida

Okay, so I didn't have much of a say in it. My immediate family just migrated there.

When I was a very young kid, my mother applied successfully for my sister and me both to become naturalized British Citizens, a status at least I still have to this day. It was a prelude to probably moving to England. Meanwhile, my dad had other ideas.

His father and stepmother both lived in Florida, and that's where he wanted to go. So, that's where we went.

Florida, I adore, though, at least Fort Lauderdale. Miami, not so much. Miami Beach, I like.

I like Florida for its raininess. I like that it's breezy enough that I don't have to use the air conditioning much during the summer like I do here in Georgia. And it doesn't have the ghastly pollen season, either.

I like that there's actually a walking culture both in the suburbs and cities, and that in city-adjacent neighborhoods (or even the city where I'd grown up) one can walk places and not have to have much concern about someone drunkenly mowing you down because the "sidewalk" is literally a part of the road with a solid line dividing the two.

I'd had, relatively, better dating prospects there, or at least people seemed to like me better. But then I was still in my 20's, too, so that helped.

Being a Man

I've been thinking the last few days about the word "man", and how I've been reticent to use it when taking about myself. Sex-wise, I'm a male. Gender-wise, I suppose that's the only time I may use the word "man" since it's clinical: "I'm a cisgender man." It may be because I use cisgender with it.

Otherwise, I'm a guy. I very rarely call myself a man, and O wonder why that is.

Is it a lifetime thus far of seeing images of what Western society sees as a man and somehow not feeling I'm up to that level? Is it because I tend to be very non-committal in language because there's "always something that could undo it". I tend to be rather careful with absolutes, and I suppose I may view "man" as absolute. It's rigid. It's hard.

"Guy", that's flexible enough. It evokes some sense of softness that I definitely do have.

And I suppose, Daniel Jackson, you have your answer.

The World

The world is the United States president saying one thing, then another, then another thing. It makes only some people ridiculously happy because they get to speak about it incessantly.

The world is vehicles that become murder weapons throughout Europe… because why not?

The world is political figures constantly trying to one-up each other just to say they're better, even though when they die they'll all become dust.

The world is businesses that try to innovate even when they've reached maximum saturation. It's only because they feel they must always expand.

The world is taking advantage of debt, reselling it, gouging on interest, passing it around, and forgetting about it via bankruptcy.

People wonder when I hesitate to acknowledge others' thoughts that human beings are the pinnacle of creation.

Things That Leave Me Aghast

So, I saw this on my Facebook feed today…

All I could do was shake my head. Yes, I'm not an immense fan of his because of sometimes the way he reacts to others. I'd accepted on the day the results came out that he'd become the United States president and that, among other things, one should pray for him and the country like any other leader, and that he makes good decisions.

This, like some things that some would characterize he's said, is childish. It serves nothing more than to, as the poster of the video link put it, troll him. Trolling serve no purpose other than to antagonize; it is senseless antagonism.

Senseless antagonism is mindlessly calling him "The Cheeto" or "His Orangeness". And people who'd called President Obama or Hillary Clinton, or anyone else anything, or referred to them as anything other than their names or official titles (and not said them with disdain, even though they have the right to do so) does nothing to solve the ever-growing list of problems this world has.

To Post or Not?

So, I was reading a few Fox News articles that grabbed my attention, and meant to post them to my Flipboard… except for some interesting verbiage…

Now, the first was via the Apple News app, and then the second was the view from Safari. The only notable difference was that in Apple News, the ads were for, basically, Fox News products that had Apple syndication (an Apple Podcasts-based podcast, for instance). The web page view in Safari had a notable amount of "sponsored" ads, but they seemed to consolidate them at the article's end primarily. The Fox News app, though, seemed to split them up, and there was no apparent sign of the verbiage (which I took to mean one can share it elsewhere).

The answer may lie in Terms and Conditions… or as they put it, Terms of Use. I suppose that links are fine. It's when the actual content goes anywhere else, that's when one cannot do anything. It's interesting, though, that it includes archiving an article. One cannot archive a copy of an article at all according to the Terms of Use (so things like shenanigans that may occur within an article that they decide to delete and "web activists" who have copies of it to debate the shenanigans might be in the wrong).

Terms of Use/Terms and Conditions are fun… 😑

Hall of Vallainy

It's funny: I've always had an appreciation and somewhat fascination with the villains of television shows and movies. I'd thought about this some with June Foray's death (and how I'd listen to them speak of her voice-over credits and how they'd include Ducktales' Magica De Spell).

What is it with Magica? I thought she was kind of awesome (or at least cool), even though I couldn't state specifically what brought me to that conclusion. She did sometimes make me chuckle, if not being the situations in which she'd found herself. She wanted Scrooge's first dime, and sought to break his protecto-glass vault shield, and created shadow copies of herself that stole things until one of them galvanized and became a problem. June Foray did no small part to bring life to her.

Ursula from The Little Mermaid was a drag queen, even though she's female. I suppose it was the fabulousness. Suicide Squad's Enchantress, she was kind of interesting in the same way, though not quite as flamboyant.

Somehow I want to add Dame Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick into this mix, "from here until Underverse come". I suppose one attraction (if not allure) is the sultriness.

She wasn't a villain in the traditional sense, but Polly Walker's Clarice Willow character in Caprica, a strong female antagonist at least, was cool until she started getting reckless. Her sermon at the end of the series was enticing.

One of my favorite childhood villains was, and is, Beast Wars: Transformer's Megatron. He's probably one of the few males on my list. David Kaye's voicing helped immensely, and it's David Kaye and then Frank Welker that I think of in order of Megatrons.

To be continued?

Genetic Modification

GMO.

It is, for some people, a curse word/phrase.

I've not really cared whether something has, or is, a genetically modified product/organism, I suppose partly, because I'm a science fiction fan. Between the Augments, the Denobulans, and just seeing all the kinds of things that we have done with genes already that have made human lives more comfortable, I haven't seen what.

Besides the Augments. They're something wrong, at least in their tyranny. And Linnea of Stargate SG-1. She's kind of evil. And Hathor too. Yes, those are examples of when we don't watch ourselves with the progress we seek to make.

Alas.

The bananas we eat are Cavendish, which did not exist in nature. We made them that way in efforts of genetic engineering (though, because it's botany, we don't really think about it that way). I hear all kinds of things about "frankenfish" (though, like the origins of "corrective rape", this too is something I've not actively gone researching just yet) and how people hate the thought of them. I do think of that term as a charged buzzword people use to engender automatic despise of the idea (like Obamacare).

We genetically engineer viruses and bacteria to produce vaccines, mass-produce silk, and try to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes. These are all so we can be comfortable, or not die... Hell, we're all [eyeroll] living longer partly because of these things.

Is it more correct for genetic engineering to happen over millennia that to artificially give it a boost? Gregor Mendel kind of did that with his experiments.

My moderation wants to keep it in check, and I suppose after thinking about how moderate I am and how I want things in check, perhaps I'm leaning towards labeling. But people shouldn't care that it is a GMO, because there are plenty of things that are without the labeling anyway.

Gender

I remember having a curt-yet-civil discussion with one of my cousins about gender. He wasn't the most flexible of people, but I actually felt glad that I'd had that discussion, especially knowing that both of us are cisgender males.

I've not had too much of a second thought about being male beside that I tend not to fit in a lot of the expectations this world seems to have for cisgender men: liking sports, going outdoors and doing things, breeding... Sometimes I've envied being a woman in the sense of seemingly greater insight into community, togetherness, existing without everything having to be a (physical or verbal) fight. Women have their complications, but transgender women and men have some shit sometimes this world throws at them.

It's not until I'd moved to Georgia that I've actually gotten to know transgender views; it seems they've been more frequent lately. Chelsea Manning, a few fraternity brothers who've become sisters, a few trans-men who've become brothers...

Then I've been hearing more about non-binary people and I can understand the confusion, and why some people refuse to deal with it. Making sure one recognizes everyone is a task.

That doesn't mean we shut anyone out, though, just to make someone's life seemingly easier. Let's see how much harder it gets.

In Pursuit of Sex

I had started to muse on the drive of men to have sex why they may do things the way they do, including rape  and then some more facets of this theme came up a few times last week as I was listening to podcasts.

One was about Kurdish women who had taken up arms to defend their lands against Islamic State. One of them had described conditions under them, her describing them having the women disrobe so a doctor of theirs can validate their physical virginity. Then these women who are virgins, the Islamic State leaders would have, still naked, go to a building where men would select these naked women and go off to have their way with them.

Then there was another story that had included an anecdote of men who marry underaged girls. One of the girls who had spoken of her experiences remarked that it was probably because the guy thought he would never again be able to have a wife. My thoughts veered more towards his believing he needs to be in a marriage to have sex, that he shouldn't masturbate, and that he would never be able to have sex again if he loses her.

There was yet another anecdote among the discussion of India's censorship board attempting, ultimately unsuccessfully, to ban (essentially) a film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, that they'd described as too "lady oriented". The woman describing the situation brought up the fact the board is exclusively male and that they would have no problem if the women were their definition of attractive and dressed the way they want (scantily sometimes, perhaps).

These men, it's sickening. It's sickening how these regimes they make sometimes seem to make it so they can satisfy their sexual urges under their terms whenever it is they want. It's sickening how sometimes they have such narrow views of how sex can and/or should work, and that women should have no say. I hate that some see masturbation as desperation. I hate that women in some places and some times, even in the United States, have no authority to decide what happens with their bodies.

Sometimes men suck.

CBC news : 'Who is it protecting?': father questions publication ban on Toronto teacher jailed for sex offences

"His daughter had the courage to come forward, so a Toronto father says the courts shouldn't be keeping secrets either. CBC Toronto can't tell you his name or his daughter's name."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/father-teacher-publication-ban-1.4210730

Publication bans... I remember the first time I'd heard that term and felt slight bile rising. "Why on Earth," I thought, "in an age of free press and right-to-know would there be any reason to not say someone's name?" I suppose I'd accepted it easier when I've heard of similar things in the past, like when someone asks the medium presenting the story to not use the subject's name (in more-or-less the way I'd expressed it here). It was also fairly palatable when they'd explained that because of on-going litigation, or to protect the identities of minors (again, explaining it outright) they've elected to not use names, or that judicial authorities have asked/ordered them to not use them.

And yes, this is the crux of a publication ban, summing all that into two "neat" words.

The term sounds evil, though, like something that will never happen. In the time I've accustomed myself to Canadian-style news reporting, I have heard of "lifting" of publication bans in the course of developing events, so I had been able to get a fuller story.

I suppose I like names. I've always liked names.

Still, as I'd said, initially, it sounded like something that would never come off. They'll publication ban something for ages.

The question of "who does it protect," though, is valid, or at least a good question to ask. A publication ban could, as the article brings up, censor information upon that a "right-to-know" society could act civilly. As much as it means to protect the children, I can see (especially as outraged as I've seen some Canadians become when the north politeness gloves come off) someone going after this guy just because.

I mean, the last few major trials I've heard of in Canadian news, there's always been an anecdote of an aggrieved family member staring wordlessly viciously at the person under trial because "I want him/her to look at me and see the anger in my eyes." I say this, aware of the callousness it might exude, but what kind of good is that going to do, really? Are your angry eyes going to change that person? I don't think so. Civilly dealing with the situation, forgiveness, and letting God work His way, to me, is how one deals with it.

I prepare conversations and scenarios constantly in my head so I have a readiness for the things I think about. I imagine myself doing just that.

Intensity

When looking at especially my movie collection one finds a – some might call it a bit excessive – fair amount of intense ones: The Chronicles of Riddick, the Resident Evil series, Kill Bill… Some of my favorite episodes of my favorite TV series are the intense ones.

Some may chalk it up to my being a Scorpio. Some may say it's just my personality, chalked up with some death themes.

I just like them, though I do have some light-hearted movies in there too (albeit they might be off-beat: Bedazzled, The Stepford Wives, The Incredibles, to name some).

I think it would take a Pandora-like analysis of my movie and show choices to give me an idea of why I like the ones I do.

Two Fallen Shows

I remember at one point I was a reasonably okay-big fan of Once Upon A Time and Teen Wolf. Somewhere along the way, with OUAT being right before they went to Hades and TW when Kira went away again to control her darker side, I decided I wouldn't watch the shows anymore.

Teen Wolf had taken me in with the storytelling, and even though I'd practically given up on it I'd found myself curious about it again and started reading the Wikipedia article on this past half of the 6th season. The story seems pretty interesting, but I think I'd rather read it than watch it.

There was a time when I'd watch some episodes sometimes three times: live, the rebroadcast before the next live episode, and then a rerun sometime during a marathon. The last time I think I'd seriously done this was when the daragh was around.

Once Upon A Time, though, while I'm curious about Regina, the rest of it I'm finding I have no want to find out about the rest of the story. And then it looks like very few of the original cast remains for a new, upcoming season anyway...

Television, it's fickle. Well, so am I sometimes, frankly.

I think I'll find a Teen Wolf wiki that provides the episodes in detail and read, though.

Stereotypical Names

I was listening to a podcast when I heard the name René Müller, and the fact he was from Luxembourg. I was, like, that name pretty much sums up Luxembourg, doesn't it?

I'd thought about stereotypical names before, like how László Kovács is just about as Hungarian as you can get, or how during the London 2012 Olympics some commentators had opined that Bradley Wiggins was such a British name.

Sometimes at work stereotypically Jamaican names would arise, like Pauline, Angella, Claude, and Erroll.

On my way home I was trying to run some more iterations of what a stereotypical name would be for where, like, "Oh yeah, s/he's definitely *blank*.

France - Didier Dupont
Germany - Andreas Pfeiffer
India - Ranjeeta Mote
Bangladesh - Nazrul Chowdhury
Vietnam - Khanh Nguyen
Korea - JinHwa Kim
Japan - Jun Takahashi

Then there are just first names or last names I can think of that would typify a place (or, at least, I'd immediately think this person was from that place or of that place.

Iran - Azadeh
Indonesia - Wariyanto
Wales - Ioan
Ireland - Fionnula
Netherlands - Jeroen
Ethiopia - Teklemariam

Then there are places that have such common names (John Smith, Mohammad Jaffar) that one can peg it down to a language, but not necessarily a place. Then there are some, like Khan, that I'd hazard a guess to say (Pakistan), but I might not necessarily 100% hit it.

I kind of wish I knew more than I do, though. But I guess I might know enough, some might say.

It never is.

Calling For Help

Reference

When I was at work and saw the news alerts coming sequentially as the situation went on, especially that the person had called a news station specifically, I couldn't help thinking he was in desperation.

Could it have been his feelings about how the VA was treating him? Was it some underlying illness that was rising to the surface? I'm not certain, and we'll probably never know since he's dead…

He'd held up the bank — and if my memory's not completely failing me, I think this branch had a robbery about a year or two ago, too — and I thought there had to be more to the story.

Hobby Lobby to pay $3mn fine, return Iraqi artifacts

US retailer to pay $3mn fine, return Iraqi artifacts

More New York (AFP) - US arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts and pay $3 million to…

Read it on Flipboard

Read it on yahoo.com

Antiquities… Goodness me, the delicate issue of antiquities.

Having studied anthropology, and archaeology obliquely, I've heard and read about cases of pillaging antiquities, and even modern things. The Nazis had stolen art.

Now, I wouldn't say personally this is anywhere near pillaging antiquities or that they're anywhere even remotely like Nazis, but sometimes I wonder if thinking one can take better care of something than those who had it by, essentially, birthright is a really wrong thought to have.

The company and its head seemed to mean well, but no dice.

Cultural Parallels

Today at work one of my Jamaican co-workers did something I've seen many Jamaicans do: point at something with her lips.

As I'd posted it on Facebook a few of my friends made me remember that this is not Jamaica-only. I've seen other Caribbeans do it too (although, mostly Dominicans). I do recall seeing Filipinos do it too.

Nothing in this world is entirely unique; it may just be we've not discovered the other one of it. I used to think my name was pretty unique, but then it's not an uncommon name in India. It's still fairly uncommon, but not as rare as one might think.

Jupiter Jones in Jupiter Ascending was the exact genetic replica of the Abraxas matriarch. It was something that would happen eventually, but they'd no idea when it would be until they'd found her. They say individual snowflakes are unique and one-of-a-kind, but the finite atoms on this Earth will produce duplicates eventually.

I'd say, melodramatically, that nothing is special. I'll say that in my head, and say outright that everything can happen again.

Trump ends White House tradition of celebrating end of Ramadan

Trump ends White House tradition of celebrating end of Ramadan

From Eid al-Fitr, a Flipboard topic

US President Donald Trump broke a two-decade-long tradition this weekend by not hosting a White House dinner to celebrate Eid, marking…

Read it on Flipboard

Read it on france24.com

Why I Chose… Cats

I like cats. Cats are a little indifferent, not really needy, really independent.

Most people can't say the same about most dogs. In my history, if I was walking home from school, a dog would howl and pound at a fence. Twice when I was in Jamaica, a dog ran to chase me and I broke lunchboxes when I fell. My grandmother didn't take my breaking then so well, even if dogs were chasing me.

I still have the scars from where I scratched my knees, too.

You don't hear about cats chasing people down. You don't really hear about cats being stupid.

And it doesn't look absolutely disgusting when you see a cat next to someone's face. The cat isn't licking all up and down someone's face.

So, I suppose it's more about why I don't choose dogs to why I do choose cats. But cats rule.

Voting

So, I went and voted in today's special election for this district. It was because I felt I'd needed to (because I believe in voting).

Still, my fellow humans didn't make it easy.

Over the past week, this is my missed calls list: 

 

These were probably all people trying to "encourage" me to vote, and to remind me how "landmark" this election is.

I don't need anyone to tell me that. I realize the election is important, but not because of who's running or who's against whom. It's an exercise of a right, and one that puts someone in place who can vocalize my views (somewhat/somehow).

Having all these people call seemingly incessantly is just… rude. Having a mailbox, one day, with eight different flyers reminding me to vote is rude. And wasteful environmentally. Everything went in the recycling bin, yes, but goodness…

I don't even think I got this amount of grief in Florida when Obama was running.

I don't think other countries get nearly this invasive with elections, but I don't know. All I've seen of it is other countries sometimes have supremely high voter turnout.

But I voted. Now leave me alone.

Otto W.

So, I'd revealed a thought I had about Otto Warmbier's situation today: that North Korea didn't want anyone to think it was possible — or that anyone would do it in their country — but that Otto Warmbier may have tried to take his own life unsuccessfully.

Naturally, since this is one of those "unthinkable" things, and because it does sound somewhat callous to think it, it's not a thought that would go over well.

I'm a person who tends to have logical leaps, thinking things that seem so probable and right, but not being able to substantiate it with hard evidence. Some may call them hunches, but it's more than that. I think of things with having experienced, read, thought, or otherwise went over them before, but I just can't cite my sources (I usually can't remember them). I did have such a leap a while ago when someone in the news had died and I'd figured it s suicide.

It turned out to be such, and they left it alone after that (I suppose to not "glorify" the act).

It shouldn't be so wild to think someone might try suicide if under conditions where oppression, lack of freedom, and hardship are almost the whole of one's day. A friend of mine brought up that it would probably be painful for the parents to hear someone think their son might have tried to kill himself. I did mention there's nothing to refute completely that option, but I did understand that line of thinking.

It wouldn't excuse North Korea if they didn't contribute directly to his death (as in, he would have been the initiator, if it was attempted suicide), but they'd be at least manslaughterers.

It would be another turn on the Massachusetts case that found the girl guilty for egging on her ex-boyfriend to kill himself: the judge convicted her of involuntary manslaughter.

The Devil Proof

"The Devil's in the details."

"The proof's in the pudding."

I've heard these things a lot recently and they've gotten me thinking about their meanings. Why are these "negative" things the things we seek?

I should say, I don't know if they are negative in fact, but they seem so.

Details are a good thing, and I suppose the Devil being in them might indicate something negative. It's a hardship, or at least something that might bring along unpleasantness.

The proof might be another negative thing, something one might not want in the final product of the pudding.

I don't know, but I should look these up to see if my thoughts are worth anything.

The Library in My Life

I had brought up the fact I would buy The Handmaid's Tale when it becomes less expensive (hype tends to inflate prices; supply and demand and all that), and a friend brought up I could always go to the library to get it.

And it dawned on me I haven't thought about the library — or me going to a library, more appropriately — in years.

I'm a fan of books, reading, and literacy. I was actually talking with one of my co-workers about reading and how as a child the only fictional books I'd liked to read were science fiction. Otherwise, I liked non-fiction, and it would be grating to have to read fiction I haven't picked myself (so school-assigned fictional reading until about high school was pretty little-bit-of-less-than-torment-inducing for me).

When I moved to Georgia and had a bit of free time, I'd check out books from the library, but since I'd moved on my own, it has been more of buying books and having them at my disposal to read whenever than going to the library and reading on, effectively, a timetable. And then I give the book(s) back, some thing my friend had also brought up as a plus of a library.

He is right about that fact. If one wishes to live minimally, or minimalistically, a library would be a great option. It has been a little wasteful of me, because I have so many books, and how many of them can I actually read (or even, how many have I read entirely?) at once? How many are there for relative emotional attachment (or at least, as a physical memory piece: "Oh, I remember when I'd gotten that Jacques Derrida book! It was for Dr Maingot's Sociology class, but he changed his mind about actually using that after all, and I just couldn't part with it!")?

And I still haven't read it.

Yet, there's something about a library, like many places lately that are not my bedroom, that's a turnoff. I'm a pretty giant introvert with some social anxiety, so if I can do things with only limited interaction with other human beings (at least face-to-face most often), I tend to take that option. I'm not a social dud (most of the time; especially at work, generally, I'm pretty good), but I tend not to go out of my way to talk to someone, and I often forget people like to actually hear a verbal "Hello" in greeting rather than a nod or a (and yes, I do do this) slight bow in cordially acknowledging their presence.

So going somewhere with things I like, but with people who mean well and want to help you find what you want (even though usually when I've gone to a library, I'm reallyreallyreally not there usually with anything particular in mind to pick out), I still find it a little annoying when they ask me if they can help me find something (even though, ironically, if I'm there and unsure where something is, I'm looking for someone to help me and they're either busy or not within reach).

And I suppose I appreciate the gesture in wanting to help, even though 99% of the time I don't need any, and though it does annoy me a little. I suppose I want to be able to be in my own head and not have anyone interrupt that jaunt; I'm often very fancifully looking through the stacks and wandering when I have been in a library.

Then there are just other humans in general being there and possibly interrupting my meander too. So, I can enjoy books while not having other humans "in my way" if I have the books at home, and so why I haven't been to a library in probably four years. There is a library just around the corner from me, and I'd just have to register, but I haven't actually given into that corner of my head that wants to go there.

And it's a Pokémon GO gym.

June

What is it about the month of June?

What comes readily to mind with June is when I feel really bluesy… like really. I'd thought about it and it has been recurring, but I haven't been able to trace the cause.

But this June, with the terrorist attacks, and anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre, and then the UPS murder-suicide-ish, the London building fire, the Virginia baseball game shooting, and any more things that have made major news in rapid succession… It's almost wow-ing if it weren't that the world has a lot more examples of thing that happen every second of every day.

We can't keep track of them all, but if it were possible I'd love to know if June has some kind of edge in the tragedies department.

Take Care of Yourself

There's general health to mind, as well as one's teeth, one's eyes, one's mental health… Then as things break down, one minds one's skin, feet, reproductive parts… The human body is wonderful in some senses (when taking Anatomy and Physiology back in high school, it amazed me how everything tries to balance itself).

As we break down, though, we rely on medications to mitigate that breakdown. If we have mental "illness", or at least difference that might make interactions with other humans more difficult for ourselves and/or others, we have medications for that. And these medications may or may not have patents that may or may not make them sometimes prohibitively expensive (whether or not one has insurance, another sometimes necessary evil).

I've been thinking a lot about the human body these last few weeks as I notice things that I didn't before, or things that happen more frequently than they once had done…

Whatever, body. Whatever.

Sales and Marketing

I have friends whose career it is to get people to buy things, entice people into liking something, or make something look its best. I respect and love these people. I don't their trades, though.

I've never been one to tell people about something they didn't ask for unless it comes up as directly relate-able to the conversation, and I'm certainly not going to weave a conversation just so we can talk about something (as a recent employer had goaded us again and again to do). I really dislike that.

Yes, life is easier without having to barter. This obsession that especially this country has with amassing material wealth is insane, though. It's not this country though. You have Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe that have these witch doctors who entice people to believe other human beings' body parts will get them the wealth they seek.

They've conned people into believing bald men's heads have a trove of gold within them. And people are killing for that "gold".

People think that because I want to hear people's stories that I want to use that information to sell them something because I "know them". No! I want to know people's stories because they're unique and because it's the story itself that's valuable.

I can't buy a meal or pay rent with those stories, though there probably are illicit or illegal markets for certain stories, but they're valuable to me.

I just wish people did things because it's nice rather than because you might make money off it.

Visiting a Farmer's Market

I visited the farmer's market closest to home today after church and I found it was cool as well as a bit distressing.

It was a place that brought all kinds of products from all kinds of cultures — Chinese, a little Japanese, a smidge of Korean, a lot of Vietnamese, some Thai, some South Asian, Latin American and Caribbean in general, and even some West African — under one roof. It was cool to see them, to try and decipher them and wondering which ones people really went for more regularly than others. I wondered who in there was a restaurant owner/operator/manager going there to buy ingredients for his/her latest culinary project (or just what they're doing regularly) and who was there as a person who just wanted stuff to cook the only things they know how to cook.

I saw mostly the latter, and there were a couple guesses at the former. I'd even saw some people like me who were getting produce probably because it's a little less expensive than even the bigger grocery stores…

I thought about the fact this country of the United States of America has given me the opportunity to see stuff from so many different places and be able to possibly sample of them.

But then I found myself trying not to cry because I'm just "a boring guy with no fixed cultural identity" that I can rapidly claim as my own. I have the British-Jamerican thing I give myself, and I've spoken about how people from the British side and the Jamaican side would probably have words with me about how I'm neither of those things properly. I wanted, while I was there, so badly to be the elderly probably-Chinese-or-Vietnamese (because she, unlike some others, wasn't immediately identifiable to me as one or the other) woman I'd kept patiently waiting for to notice me to be able to pass her in the narrow aisles who had stuff in her cart she was "obviously" going to use to cook her native meals she knows (me conscious simultaneously of this being an almost very American and kind of patronizing thing to think) instead of the wannabe me.

This makes me think of today's sermon about seasons, though. It really spoke to me, because I keep envying others even though they're in one season and I'm in another. I'll get to where I need to be eventually, but it's all so damn frustrating a lot of the time.

The News Cycle

In another thought about news, I sometimes regret being someone who likes to listen to news because it can sometimes trigger one of my giant pet peeves: certain repetition in speech.

Between yesterday and today, I've probably heard some generally-the-same iteration of President Trump's Paris Climate Accord decision. It was annoying. Whether it was the BBC, the CBC, NPR, PRI, American Public Media, or KSL in Salt Lake City, Utah, I got it.

I had to brace to not exhale furiously.

I need to listen to some stories.

Attention-Whoring

So, they'd kicked Kathy Griffin off. What else is new?

I've always been a person who's tried to keep low-key, partly because attention seems to be very energy-draining and often it's gotten me some kind of grief. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with attention, but it's how one garners it and what one does with it that makes the difference.

Being a jackass for the sake of attention is not a good thing.
Arguing with someone just because it seems like fun even though you're not really making any good points, or that you're not listening to the other side, taking in their viewpoints, and actually debating with that person constructively is not good.

Some people's attention-whoring is almost like seeing someone who can't stand silence, and so pushes over a glass just to break the silence.

Which is childish.

Attention whores are just another facet of humanity, but God bless them...

Flyover News

Sometimes I've wondered why I have a fascination with news from relatively strange places (i.e. places to where people generally pay little attention). The answer dawned on me pretty quickly: I like novel things and the fact the news media in general repeats things ad infinitum instead of trying to get to the nitty gritty of more things, I seek out these other places' stories.

Some of these places have some odd stories they seem to esteem and put in repeat play themselves. Just this week, Monday through early Thursday Utah couldn't really talk about more than the $125,000 Joseph Smith/Brigham Young statue theft. Montana, like the rest of the nation, focused quite a bit on Greg Gionforte's (admitted, though in not so many words, but about which he'd apologized) manhandling a reporter.

I don't like repeating myself, but I have told my co-workers fairly repeatedly I love stories. So, I'd created a smart magazine just for the "flyover states". I don't mean it pejoratively, but it's at least a blanket term.

So, bring me stories, Flipboard. Bring me stories.

Developments

I was on Facebook looking at the "On This Day" feature, and one of the posts included a comment my sister had made asking about the name of a song I'd put in the background of a collage video I'd posted today seven years ago.

My response at the time was I'd no idea because I'd gotten it from an iPod that, maddeningly and aggravatingly, didn't have the name or artist of the song in its IME. Somewhere along the line years later I'd discovered it, but it wasn't until today I'd realized anyone else was actually looking for this information.

So, I'd written my sister via Facebook Messenger and informed her. Since she's probably at Bible Study, I probably won't get a response until later.

Still, though, going from a child who'd not grown up with a computer nor watching television, to someone who has a pretty powerful and versatile computer in a holster at his hip; who comes home and sits in front of a computer that has access to (more or less) more than a lifetime's worth of information, video, images, and music; who can turn on a *networked* television and watch entire movies at a whim... This is something.

It's exciting being in the intermediate generation who saw these things come into daily life and who put them into daily use, as well as a little frustrating sometimes being the in the generation who has to coach the previous generation who's still trying, in some cases, to figure out how to turn these contraptions on.

It's another mention of the hilarity at how in high school I'd written journal entries of how I didn't think I'd ever be able to make electronic journal entries, or how I'd never get a phone with a camera because I already have a perfectly good camera.

How things develop...

Why I Chose… FIU

It came that time to search for the next step, a university. A few different packets came in, including Vassar, Occidental College, and even The College London.

They were very expensive, and I didn't see how I was going to go. I didn't think about loans, and I didn't think I wanted any. So, I looked inward, and did the multi-university application for Florida, checking only FSU and FIU.

I knew a bunch of my high school friends were going to UF, and that was enough of a deterrent. I wanted to try making new friends after being with the same people for, a good number of them, almost four years. I wanted new experiences, especially since I'd felt so… disenchanted that high school life wasn't like Clueless. I wanted to try remaking myself again.

I wanted to be away from my family, yet close enough that I could visit comfort when I felt like it.

I'd become a burgeoning homosexual who'd only just begun to explore things and that would be another plus, going to university. Ultimately, I chose FIU because I felt I'd be closer to the "gay life." And I did grow in that regard. I had a number of experiences about which I could probably write a book, and I helped form, and eventually became a brother of,  my Delta Lambda Phi chapter.

I became an Anthropology degree graduate. I'd increased my Japanese ability. I'd even started my Masters in Linguistics, though I didn't follow through with my first semester (something which probably has left a dark mark for me with many of the faculty). I had promise.

I just feared debt, especially. Looking back, they probably would have helped me had I given them the opportunity. I was so insular.

But I chose FIU because I believed it would grant me a trove of memories and experiences about which I can reflect, and would allow me to grow as a person.

That it did.

Mashable: Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever

Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever
Get ready to see a lot more Instagram Stories. Read the full story | Shared from Apple News

Rape/Sexual Violence/Stuff I Don't Get

I'm a fan of The Handmaid's Tale series on Hulu, and had been anticipating it since practically they'd put it up that they'd be broadcasting it. They go into a lot of heavy things, including rape.

So, this on top of, especially via the BBC World Service Africa Today podcast, hearing about "corrective rape" and just a casual rape culture in especially Africa, I've tried to fathom why these especially men (or "men", since what true man actually does that?!) feel they need to do this.

It would require a lot of reading into probably a bunch of stories that would probably make me cry and hate humans more, but I'd been mulling over some possible underlying "provokers" to "induce" a "rape culture".

That's a lot of scare quotes.

I think those cultures that really, really make masturbation taboo make a powder keg. This itself may not be a reason, because I think they might combine that with sex having to mean something (so, if they rape someone, they can get their sexual urges out of the way doing it the "proper way", but not having to care about the person; it's not legitimate sex of you don't view the "thing" with what you're copulating as anything, right? 😤).

Then they're doing it in groups, which makes them no better than their primate cousins (and even cetaceans too, I think I've read) that have their own rape gangs. And they, conceivably, don't realize consciously and thoughtfully what they're doing, either.

Then, bringing it back to the phrase "corrective rape" I'd used earlier, some people use sex like a weapon, that they use something God has given us and made it into something to shut someone up violently, or using it to meld someone to one's will (like God didn't give us free will and choice).

I'm kind of scared to research this.

In the Middle of the Deep, Deep Forest

My first anime was probably Rōnin Warriors. To this day, I remember very little of it, and looking at the Wikipedia page  I can't believe how relatively short a series it was. It felt like it went on for a long time when I was a kid.

I'd always appreciated anime and cartoons even growing into a young adult, something I still do to this day even though many anime fans would say I'm not really one because I don't watch everything they do, and a lot of the most popular anime series or movies I've not seen (Attack on Titan or Ghost in a Shell, for instance). Things just fit my tastes, and some just don't.

It's like how I've not gone out of the way to see the Underworld series, though I have watched one (that I barely remember, and am not even sure which one) because one of my fraternity brothers had a movie night in his room once.

So, exploring for anime I haven't seen and would actually like, let alone things in live action, has been difficult.

Simultaneously, I have a few things in queue on Hulu and I just haven't allocated time to watch them (notably Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works). So, I have what to watch, I just need to do it.

The Rules of Attraction

 

I'd rewatched The Rules of Attraction for the first time in a very long while. 

It came out in 2002, so I was about a junior at FIU when they were advertising it. I remember, since it's a college-based movie, they gave it some giveaway time on campus, but it was a while after they'd put it to disc that I'd gotten to see it.

Naturally, it's partly mostly because of the character Paul why this movie intrigued me, but artistically it's pretty cool. One would think, though, because of the character Paul that I'd try to learn from him. As I'd rewatched it, though, I saw parallels between what he's done and what I've done.

I tell you, if I were bolder it would probably be more like it… and if my apartment were a college dorm… Heh.

Bumper Stickers

I've thought often about what kinds of personalized bumper stickers I'd have someone make if I could:

1. I follow the speed limit and I don't block intersections.
2. If you want to drive so quickly, go around me.
3. See you at the next traffic light.
4. Your honking only strengthens my resolve.
5. Flashing lights remind me of lighthouses; thank you.
6. I'm sorry, I'm bad at Morse code. Could you flash again?
7. Speeding? Give the cops my regards.
8. I know the speed limit, do you?
9. Getting angry at me only hastens your demise.
10. Jesus loves you, but do you want to see Him so soon?

Humanity

We're such interesting, pesky creatures.

We have cultures that we call our own, fight over, and die for, mostly because it's just something to make ourselves feel better. We wish to define ourselves and sometimes put ourselves into corners just so we can say we have some sense of individuality (even though these corners might completely usurp that individuality).

We create foods and cook them, and then create entirely new things out of foods that have gone bad just to extend their consumability while not killing ourselves or making ourselves or others gravely or intensely ill. We have cheese, savory pies, alcohol... We've even made an art of the controlled spoiling of things to use for our own purposes: wine, certain cheeses, anti-microbials...

We have music of all sorts, and instruments of every possible type that make use of pretty much any part of the human body that can make music. Then the types of music might relate to our construction of culture, some cultures embracing certain types of music or being fiercely protective of the fact the specific culture "created" that type of music.

We carve up this planet and use it however we wish, with some of us giving a care how we use it while others say we'll make new things to take care of the problems we create (because business). We fight wars and blow up bits of the planet just to show one side the other has dominance. We create weapons to one-up each other, and sometimes hold onto these weapons fiercely in "what-if" mindsets.

We're... interesting.

#RASP - Rant Around Several Paragraphs #4: Facebook Feeds

I have a like/hate relationship with Facebook.

I like it because it helps me keep tabs on my friends, brothers, and geographically distant family. It helps me to get to know people I don't see fairly regularly a little better.

On this point, my hate comes out as well: Facebook likes to cater my feed to those with whom I've had relatively frequent or recent contact on Facebook or Messenger. This angers me.

I want to get to know all my friends, and to know what's going on in their heads or hearts. Biasing my feed to only those with whom I actually click a like or something occludes the posts of those who don't post very often. Facebook does this intentionally, of course, because they want your eyeballs, thumbs, and ears on Facebook (and hopefully some of your money, too) 24/7, if they can help it.
Enticing, one, therefore, to stay on there with things they know you'll continue to like and see out makes it worth their while to a have the feeds display that way.

I want, though, to see everyone's stuff. I want the "Most Recent" feed to be something I can default to. I want, when the Facebook app updates, to have the "Sound Off" on the feed option remain off!

I remember the good old days of "The Facebook" with virtual flinging of sheep and various little apps that included national flags of one's heritage, and when one could really connect with one's schoolmates. Then they'd rolled out neighborhoods, and I'd reluctantly had to have Miami as my secondary to FIU. That's still an option in Facebook, actually, a grandfathered thing.

As they've grown more commercial, more ubiquitous, and people are using Facebook for things that had fallen to other places to fill (Messenger for WhatsApp, even though WhatsApp is now a Facebook property anyway; Marketplace for Craig's List; Jobs for pretty much any job board; Memories for TimeHop or just going over one's feed nostalgically; Reviews for Yelp). It's gotten insane. I was on reddit the other day and someone was complaining about the Facebook app size, and all I had to say was, in more creative wording, think about how Facebook has become more than just a social network.

It's become a life draw for some people,

I just want to be able to have "Most Recent" be default so I can know what's going on in all my friends' lives and not just whomever Facebook determines is "worth" my time.

Why I Chose... an iPhone

My first iPhone was an iPhone 3GS, which I'd bought at the Dadeland Mall Apple Store in the late summer of 2009 after work.

It was a somewhat impulsive purchase, my having gone through a few phones (the one I'd liked most being the Trēo 800w, RIP) and not liking how the application ecosystem just wasn't being friendly to anything but an iPhone. I was a heavy Yahoo! user, and they were really hyping and promoting their iPhone(-exclusive) app; I wanted it.

So, I went and got it, porting my phone number over to it and a very helpful, nerdish, attractive guy helped me to activate it. This was back when one had to go to a store to do so or it would take forever. Another reason I'd wanted to go that route was Sprint, at the time, as considering Wimax as their 4G upgrade and everyone else was going LTE. AT&T, as well, was the only game in town for the iPhone, so more incentive.

My boss, especially, was envious for weeks at my phone. He'd kept saying he wanted an iPhone, but ended up getting a Samsung Instinct and porting it to Metro PCS like one of my other co-workers.

I still have AT&T and their grandfathered-in unlimited data package.

I'd adored my 3GS, which I'd called Mars. When I moved to Georgia, I remember watching the end-of-days movie 2012 on it, streaming it via an Israeli video aggregation site (and, I think, having a multi-ten gigabyte data usage metric that month, too).

In 2011, I got my 4S, ordering it the same day they were having online sales. I'd gotten it by Fed-Ex several weeks later, and that became my favorite. Even though I love my 6 Plus now, I think I loved most that the 4S had the solidity and heft of my Trēo 800w. I think I'd enjoyed it most with iOS 6, with its inbuilt Twitter and Facebook widgets on the notifications slider.

And now I have an iPhone 6 Plus, which I've enjoyed for almost three years now.

We'll see what comes next.

#RASP - Rant Around Several Paragraphs #5: Driving Habits

On May 2, 2017, I'd felt awe at people's driving habits like I haven't felt in a while.

I've spoken about my distaste for people and their driving habits before, but that day really had me in awe and frustration.

There's the person who wanted to turn into my lane, and I into hers. I was ahead of her, but she wasn't slowing down (so defensive driver me didn't pull over). She revs forward and then comes in front of me. Is it so hard to apply the brakes?
Thinking about it on the way home, though, I think it might be partly strategy: let me hold everyone else behind me back and then that person can get into the lane.

Then there was this stupid driver at my exit who, just because she's driving a big vehicle, muscles her way into my lane so she can get in front of me. Then another vehicle tries to get into the same lane from the opposite side, and so she muscles her way to get back in front of the other vehicle. This same pushy/bully driver then muscles her way back into a third lane in front of everyone else.

Today, traffic was really worse than I'd seen it in a while, and it's partly because people were using other lane to try to cut in line in front of everyone else. There was a multi-vehicle trailer that literally held up a lane for about two miles back trying to cut into an exit lane.

People who drive like this, I'm trying to understand. We all have places to where we'd like to arrive, but I don't understand the lack of patience, the lack of concern, and the utter offensiveness of their driving.

One of my co-workers got in an accident that totaled his car yesterday. I don't mean to victim-bash, especially when hearing a description of how the other person drove it sounds sad, but I've seen the way my co-worker drives. He's not a saint on the road himself, and has even expressed he dislikes road rules and speed limits.

Repetition

“To a reporter from Reuters this week, though, Trump had a slightly different assessment of the presidency.

‘I love my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life,’ Trump said. ‘I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a ... I'm a details-oriented person. I think you'd say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work so that's not a problem but this is actually more work.’”

I have a few pet peeves. One is repetition.

I've accepted that this guy, Donald Trump, is this country's president, and that as much as his bearing, mannerisms, and facets of his personality irk me sometimes, I've done my best to not speak ill of him.

I wish, though, he'd take notice of the things he does and says. He's seventy years old, so changing is not easy. His penchant for repeating things over and over in one sentence really bothers me, though. It's almost as if he can't think of things to say off the cuff, so he repeats himself until he can think of something else.

I hope he can do better extemporaneously as he goes through his presidency.

The Handmaid's Tale

I'd just got done watching the first episode... and wow.

I don't remember the book at all, and Mrs. Betty Bills would frown at that, but I'm glad they have this adaptation available on a platform I've come to love dearly, Hulu.

It's incredibly intense. I love intense shows, and the majority of what I watch is pretty serious, but generally even the serious shows lighten up a little bit. So far with this episode I'd only had really one light-hearted moment that had me smile, or at least chuckle.

I think I'm in store for more of those, but I don't expect too many of them. That's fine.

I'd expected intensity, though not to this level, but it's enraptured me.

I take in episode 2 tomorrow, along with another of my intense shows, The 100.

Aaron Hernandez's "Gay Prison Lover"

So, I bit on clickbait.

I mean, why not, it's Aaron Hernandez? Between the fact it's a for-them-to-prove-but-they-say-so suicide, and he's reasonably good-looking, this story has gotten way more press than I'd imagine it should. Then, Instinct Magazine decides to reprint something the gossip rag The Daily Mail put out: he wrote a suicide note to a gay, in-prison lover.

They're seriously quoting The Daily Mail as a legitimate source? Seriously?! That's like quoting The National Enquirer (RIP).

Most serious press, if they say "sources say" and they've established themselves with journalistic integrity, they can get a pass. More than likely they're keeping the source anonymous for the source's well-being. When The Daily Mail says it?

Well, it could be hogwash.

International Elections

I'd had this thought as I was at work this afternoon to have separate blog entries where I try to look up information on various countries' elected leader candidates for their upcoming elections and then, basing it on what I've read and comparing it to my own beliefs and stances, I'd select the candidate for whom I'd most likely vote if I were actually able.

I was going to start with the French elections, but I was finding the research to be more of a challenge than the time or patience I have for it. It's kind of daunting just keeping up with one's own country's various jurisdictions and their electoral candidates to keep up with other places'.

So, I'd sworn that off.

Still, it's fascinating at least recognizing who these people are. Le Pen vs Macron vs Fillon vs whoever else (since these seem to be the biggest names I remember anyway) in France… And then I remember they'd elected Barrow almost 100 days ago in The Gambia… The Green Party candidate in Austria… What's his name again? Alexander van der Welle Bellen. I was kind of glad he won, from what I was hearing of his stances. I was pretty glad Justin Trudeau won in Canada.

I was more aware of the Canadian elections for a while than I was even the United States' until they'd winnowed down the candidate list.

I think Liberia is to elect someone pretty soon, and then Germany is going to have Chancellor Merkel defending her post yet again. Then the United Kingdom will be having general elections again pretty soon, so that's another thing.

I don't even know why these things fascinate me. It's not like I have anyone who shares this interest with me.

BBC News: 'WhatsApp child sex images' led to arrests

'WhatsApp child sex images' led to arrests

A total of 39 people have been arrested over child sexual exploitation images apparently shared via WhatsApp.

And it just does not surprise me. If there's anything the Internet is good for is rapid transmission of anything under the sun: pirated credit card numbers, passwords, to the even more illicit and illegal.

I've known the "Dark Web" and what it might have to offer. It's a really scary place, and I really don't trust it to a large degree. Free content, sure. It's slow and unpredictable, but it's rife with stuff. The pay parts I haven't even begun to try to scratch.

It has its merits, though, being a next-to-impossible traceable place where the "Underground" -- covert journalists, people fearing for their lives, and sexual minorities in places that shun and worse them -- can exchange information and communicate. This "Underground" seems to include pedophiles and ephebophiles too, and trading information on the Dark Web to facilitate Light Web transactions (where it's a lot speedier, but can still have a lot of encryption) I don't blame them for doing it.

It's probably an infiltration that eventually got them caught.

At least for now...

The Left Hand

I tend to make a big deal in my head noticing people being left-handed. I'm left-handed myself, so it may be trying to have a commonality with other human beings.

I never really faced a stigma against my being left-handed, though I do cite how my grandfather (and, now thinking about it, occasionally my dad in the earlier years) would have me put on and tie my right shoe first. My dad has asked me sometimes why I hang clothes on hangers the way I do, and that is primarily because I'm left-handed.

When I found people actually didn't mind, I would wear watches on my right wrist, making it so much easier to put on.

I would have to remember consciously that people shake hands with their right hand (even though I think I may have extended my left on more than a few occasions out of not even thinking about it), because there are some people who consider shaking the left hand rude (or even gross, since some people believe one must wipe after using the restroom with the left hand only).

It's funny, though, that traditional place settings have the fork on the left and knife on the right, even though when eating with just a fork I see people use their right hands to manipulate their food. I have, to horror, seen some people do a reverse place setting. I've had to learn to not put drinkware on the left hand side, and to make sure the handle on teacups and coffee cups face the right (since, especially in hospitality, one wants to make things easier for people and err to the majority of your clients being right-handed). 

I have a Wikipedia page in edit/draught status where I've been amassing a list of left-hand "celebrities" as I've noticed them. There are people like Eliza Taylor who seem a little ambidextrous, but others like Barack Obama that people would recognize.

This world is interesting enough with cultural differences with left and right. I still need to read The Left Hand of Darkness.

Kris' Vocabulary and Style

Sometimes people have called me out on it, but there seem to be certain words I use relatively frequently. These aren't words one would use all the time, but I do notice them when I do. Partly because people have brought them to my attention.

vacillate /ˈvæ.sə.leɪt/, /ˈvæ.sɪ.leɪt/

1. (intransitive) To sway unsteadily from one side to the other; oscillate. 
2. (intransitive) To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another. 

I'd used this just today in an e-mail to one of my co-workers, and it was then I'd decided this would be today's blog topic.


simultaneously (UK): /ˌsɪməlˈteɪnɪəsli/; (US) /ˌsaɪməlˈteɪnɪəsli/

This is the one on which people usually remark, partly because I've grown up -- and continue to -- pronouncing/pronounce it the UK way rather than the US/American way.

Other words people tend to notice because I don't sound quite American saying them:

• process  /ˈpɹoʊ̯.sɛs/ as if I were Canadian;
• Internet (and pretty much a lot of words with "nt" between vowels): I pronounce the "t", so it's  /ˈɪntɚˌnɛt/ rather than /ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌnɛt/.

iteration /ɪɾəɹˈeɪʃən/

1. Recital or performance a second time; repetition.
2. A variation or version.
3. (computing) The use of repetition in a computer program, especially in the form of a loop.
4. (computing) A single repetition of the code within such a repetitive process.

Especially the second definition.

Well, I suppose those are the only few that really come to mind right now.

My pronunciation is pretty all over the place, generally. It happens in my Spanish, too.

As far as my style, I've unfortunately embraced the lots-of-thoughts-in-a-short-stream method. My French teacher would comment frequently that I try to say too much too quickly. I use parenthetical asides a lot in even semi-professional writing. I also use hyphenate thought streams (like in my first sentence) quite a bit.

I tend to be passive voice-averse; this is my English teachers' faults. I remember reading an article about passive voice structures fairly recently and have been even more conscious about it. It may be partly because one of my co-workers is a serial passive voice user in writing and speech; it annoys me a little because I come across her writings every day (but it's just a personal choice of mine that I try to avoid passive voice).

I rarely have short sentences, and connect my clauses fairly frequently in the most grammatical ways I can. It may be another symptom of my expressing multiple thoughts in a single stream. Equally symptomatic, it seems, is my trying to use a word in every iteration (there I go again).

I suppose that's just another part of being me, exploring what it is to be human even though I really dislike being human a good deal of the time.

#trypod Review: The BBC Documentary Podcast

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-documentary/id73802620?mt=2

I don't remember exactly when I'd started listening to this podcast. I remember two things: it was impactful, because it was telling a story about something I'd never heard about before, and the guy on the cover was cute.

Yes, every time there's an episode I take a second to peep the cover, but it's a lot more than that. There have been episodes about Christian persecution in Syria, why people like President Trump, why people stand for Marine Le Pen, malaria, the old Irish art of keening...

People know I love stories, and so when people had gotten into this habit of asking about what podcasts we listen to, I'd never failed to chime in with this one.

CBC news : Renowned Canadian chef Vikram Vij on appealing to 'picky eaters'

​Vikram Vij, one of the best known chefs in the country, shared some tips on dealing with children that parents consider to be picky eaters Friday afternoon on CBC Toronto's Here and Now.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/vikram-vij-chef-1.4061816

My sister was the only one who'd really gotten the moniker of "picky eater" among the three children, even though I'd probably be more selective than she. I only liked vanilla ice cream, I didn't like the "tree" part of broccoli, my sister would eat Fiber Muesli when I wouldn't...

There was even a time with the Fiber Muesli where my parents wouldn't let us leave the table until we'd finished it all, and four hours later I was still at the table. Then I'd tried to eat it and then I'd ended up vomiting it back into the bowl.

The chef has a good point, though my sister didn't really "become" a picky eater. She was just always pretty slow at eating (or maybe she was just a normal eater, and I was just a rapid one, and my brother, younger than her, was just growing).

Flash-forward: I end up being the vegetarian, my sister has one kid with G6PD deficiency and so she has to watch what she eats while the other one has a few food allergies, and my brother doesn't eat mammalian meat.

We all didn't die, though.