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.

Users are fleeing LiveJournal over Russian owners' hidden anti-LGBTQ terms

Users are fleeing LiveJournal over Russian owners' hidden anti-LGBTQ terms

From Gay Rights, a Flipboard topic

Remember LiveJournal, the online blogging service popular with fanfiction users during the early 2000s? Well, LiveJournal…

Read it on Flipboard

Read it on dailydot.com

Wow, I didn't even think about it like that…

I'd logged into the mobile LiveJournal app a few days ago and the new Terms of Service translation popped up. They'd made sure to note it was not legally binding (only the original Russian would be). I'd read it, because it now being fully Russian, I wondered if there would be anything overtly talking about gay things... Naturally, not, because who says things like that in legal documents most of the time?

Actually some, yes, but only when they don't want to be completely obscure about it.

So, I'd not really thought about it until I'd seen this article, and I suppose they might have a point. I want to justify it somewhat, saying I'm safe because I have a Friends-Only journal, but that isn't the point. People can't express themselves as they'd like.

Every website has its rules. Tumblr has a no pornographic video rule, and I think it's partly because people were/are using it as a giant, free file sharing service for, among other things, "copyrighted" "amateur" gay pornography.

Yes, I use scare quotes. I have a certain opinion about that too.

Back to my first-thought sort-of-defending-them. I'm not sure what I really want to do. That LiveJournal has been there through some of my most tumultuous life moments, and it's been a repository for a lot of my stories, even if I'm the only one of my friends who's still be regularly contributing to it.

Literally, the only people on my feed are Keith R.A. DeCandido, and me. A Japanese learners' community had a post a couple days ago, and that had surprised me. I'll have to see what comes.

The Midtown Atlanta/Buckhead I-85 Collapse "Disaster"

I've had a couple days to think about this "bridgepocalypse", as one of my co-workers had said he'd heard someone call it.

I'd already been home at around 5:45pm and then an hour later the news alerts started flooding in. Then the large slab of the highway fell through and that made it all the more awe-striking with all the fire videos and the clips of cars driving slowly through choking smoke.

I understand it's very inconvenient for a lot of people (and will be for at least several weeks while people work out exactly what to do) because vehicles oversaturate this area and things are really widespread (partly) because people have had an attachment to their vehicles and the relative independence they provide.

Because of the way it suddenly affected people's lives, it could be a one-star affair.

Simultaneously, this disaster/tragedy/descriptor-first-world-people-use-to-term-something-that-affects-lives-though-no-one-has-lost-a-life/relative somewhat-large-scale inconvenience deserves another star just because it's now forcing people out of their comfort zones.

What partly sets human beings apart among the other things in creation is we are intensely creative. We rise above our inconveniences (most of the time). I'm certain this "opportunity" is making people re-evaluate constant dependence on their vehicles when it's probably partly everyone's dependence on their vehicles why there's congestion, traffic, and (coincidentally that same day, only a couple hours earlier on a completely different stretch of often-congested roadway, but with only tacit relativity) road rage murders.

This is making people (re-)consider MARTA, making alternative routes,carpooling,  and/or actually leaving at times that would actually not force them to break speed limits or drive like they're in The Fast and The Furious to get to where they need to go (and ,*gasp*, show up on time or early!). The fact they're investigating, now (however unlikely), how the possibility that really-long-term and relatively reckless storage of construction materials in these places might be a bad thing is yet another possible silver lining.

I give this relative inconvenience a two: it's paving the way for something better.