Oh nifty....
So I've just discovered a lovely gadget that will allow me to post from my gmail account directly to my blogger journals. This is spectacular. Spectacular indeed.
Damn you LiveJournal, why can't you have something as nifty and convenient!?!!?
I've Moved
Despite the wonderful-ness of free-ness here on Blogger, more of my friends are on LiveJournal. As such, if anyone was ever reading this Blog... I'm gone. I've still got the account active if only because there's this really nifty webcomic (My Elves are Different) that posts using Blogger. But really, from now on... go to
LiveJournalI'm posting fiction that I write there, as well as using it as a semi-regular Blog. More so than this ever was. I think, though, that my facebook notes is still hotlinked to Blogger. hmmm
Is this even legal? Apparently so....
This post at Reuters shocked me. The students
banned the Pledge of Allegiance because they "see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government." Now, I understand if you don't want to say the Pledge because you're pissed off at the actions our government has been taking in these past couple years, hell, I'm not too pleased with it. But it's not going to stop me from saying the Pledge because I am an
American and I do feel some loyalty. You can be loyal to your country without liking your government. I mean,
hello people, we just had elections. Voting is in place so that the government is what you make it to be. And if you didn't vote...don't complain because you didn't even make an
effort to change things.
Now, there was another issue that students took with the pledge, another reason why they banned it. It was the phrase, "Under God".
"That ('under God') part is sort of offensive to me," student trustee Jason Bell, who proposed the ban, told Reuters. "I am an atheist and a socialist, and if you know your history, you know that 'under God' was inserted during the McCarthy era and was directly designed to destroy my ideology."
Now this idiot should also know that you don't HAVE TO SAY IT. You can skip saying it. The phrase "under God" doesn't even have to apply to the Christian god. Say "under goddess" or "under [your deity of choice here]". I don't care. I don't care if you don't say it. Just because it's there doesn't require it to be said. This frustrates me because the phrase is symbolic. You are pledging yourself in the presence of a higher power, whatever that power may be. Hell, if you're a satanist, go ahead, pledge under Satan if it means you're loyal to the US. I could care less. But don't go and ban the whole fucking pledge because of that one phrase. If you're so against the whole thing, don't say it! No one will probably even notice!
People and their stupid bloody closemindedness. I think I've ranted enough. Back to work...
Fuming
I want to strangle someone.... badly. The lab coordinator of the teaching labs (of which I am responsible for one) just sent a nasty letter out to me and the other grad student who teaches at the same time as me, shocked at the disrepair the labs had been left in today. Now, I will be the first to admit that the lab was dirty, but I feel this great need to explain why and I'm furious that she just assumed things without asking me nicely first.
On wednesdays, I am supposed to teach lab from 2 till 5 pm. BUT, I have a journal club scheduled at 4 pm. The lab that I teach rarely stays the entire time, so what I do normally is clean up as much as I can, at 4 pm go to Journal Club, and when Journal Club is done, return and finish cleaning (usually by 5 pm) Today, however, I return from journal club, knowing the lab was a mess, only to find it LOCKED. I don't have a key to those labs. I have a key to the bloody fucking building and all the research labs, but not the teaching labs. What can I do? I walk back with the other grad student, we go back to our respective labs, then she comes in and says "Read your email, [Name edited] is pissed" (FYI, I am NOT naming names, no way, no how] So I read it. I take a few calming breaths. And I reply, explaining exactly why it was left that way and telling her that I had intended on cleaning after lab. We have told this woman that we have journal club at 4. We have told the lab tech that we leave at 4 and return around 5-5:15 to finish cleaning if it's not already done. And now I'm getting yelled at for something that I've done before and never had a problem with.
Not to mention that I'm HORRIBLY stressed out with a lab report for Techniques and a take home exam both due tuesday and mounds of correcting that I'm WAAAAY behind on (due to the take home that was due last tuesday for techniques) I really beginning to wonder if I'm cut out for a PhD, especially since I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water in my classes. Nothing is working in the lab right now and I'm being pressured to get this project moving, and I'm TRYING but things just aren't working out.
For some reason I can never get Eric on the phone before 12:30 so we always end up speaking till 1:30-2am in the morning which isn't helping my lack of SLEEP. If he'd just call at midnight.....
I need to get my bike tire fixed, the back tire is flat, so that means that I'm not exercising as much. I also need to get lights for my bike so I can start biking home now that it's dark near when I leave. Weight loss has stalled, the Halloween Party last night didn't help.......
Egads....I just want to curl up in my bed with a good book or a pad of paper. Maybe have a normal job. Not be a student....*sigh*
The Little Mermaid and the quest for WHAT????
So I had this major test today (which actually seems like it went well, at least better than the first test, but that's not the main point) and I had been studying alll evening yesterday for it with a classmate and my brain was fried. I still needed to run back to the microbiology building because some of my notes were in the lab and I needed them to finish reviewing. Eric and I got into the car and "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid was queued on the CD in my car. So I'm driving, and my insane mind makes this random connection. Disney movies always have this random allegorical message and hidden stuff for the older viewer and I realized what the Little Mermaid really wanted. She claims she wants to be part of the "human world" and have "legs". So she embarks on a quest where she gives up her voice, becomes part of what's socially acceptable, just to experience the love of a man. You may be following me....
Really, the Little Mermaid is a story of the teenage girl's quest to experience sexual pleasure. I mean think about it. Ariel has no legs, she's a fish for crying out loud, they lay eggs. From a biological point of view, this means external fertilization, no sexual act involved. By wanting legs, that a human has, she, theoretically, would then also have the sexual organs to accompany the change in physiology (she already has breasts, so this isn't much of a stretch). A human is a sexual creature, it's fairly hard to deny that truth and if Ariel wants to be a human, she probably wants to have a sexual experience. Eric argued that the story is more of a young girl who is conforming to society's perfect image in order to be accepted herself, but by limiting herself to land (the earth is 70% water) she is giving up her freedom to just be accepted and I say that this arguement lends support to mine. In this day and age, nearly all teenage girls are exposed to this sexual image that they feel they need to live up to. So Ariel really just wants to be perceived as perfect, and that perfection comes with a sexual experience, or "legs" in her eyes.
As a random aside, the first movie posters did have a very phallic appearing tower of the Mer people Castle, and the priest does appear to have an erection during the marriage ceremony of Prince Eric and Ursula. Watch it if you don't believe me.
So we have to ask ourselves..... Is Disney promoting sex at a young age? Is the rerelease of the movie really such a good thing or should it be locked away in the Disney vaults? My High School Sophomore English teacher would have been proud (ahem.... Dr. Rascher) it's too bad I didn't make this connection earlier and actually used it for an essay topic. *grumbles* Stupid Rocking Horse Winner being an expression of masturbation A paper
Later, I'm off to buy my copy of Little Mermaid and maybe fulfill my quest to have a sexual experience. Who knows.
ARGH!
So I have this major lab paper due today for Techniques Lab. It's big. And hard to write because the professor is so disorganized that you feel..."how the hell does this all fit together?"
Anyway, major paper due , concerning the experiment that we've been working on since the start of the semester. So last night I made myself comfy in the lab (to minimize the guarunteed distraction of home) and stayed up all night (yes ALL night) to write the stupid paper. I realize, around...oh.... 6 am the next morning that I don't have data from one of the groups, therefore I cannot draw conclusions and Oh SHIT I'm FUCKED. Well...I give up at around 6:30am, drive my car home so I don't get towed, and take an hour and a half nap before my first class at 9:30 (which i was late for but due to my overconsumption of coffee on the bus ride, managed to stay awake through =D) I come back, and bemoan my fate to my fellow labmates, who proceed to tell me, go talk to the professor. Which I did.
It's not due until tuesday since we dont' have data from everyone.
I wish I had the energy to write out a long string of swears. I wish I knew swears in another language. Bah. I'm so bloody exhausted.
V
Eric is here for his bimonthly weekend visit (yay!) and we went out to rent a couple movies. We rented V for Vendetta, Crash and The Matador. Two were movies Eric has seen, I've seen none of them. Eric specifically recommended V for Vendetta and Crash. I watched V for Vendetta tonight while Eric played WoW.
This is an awesome movie. It had elements from both 1984 and The Phantom of the Opera. I have to recommend it if you've not seen it. Evie is growing up in a not to distant future in London. The US has been relegated to a Leper colony and Britain is now the major superpower and Big Brother is Watching. This was ridiculously good. I can't emphasize how much I liked it. Where 1984 is a depressing report on the possible state of an over zealous and controlling government, V for Vendetta sends a message of hope that people can change the world, even one person. I say elements of Phantom of the Opera are present because of the revolutionary character of V. He is (literally) forged in flame and makes a stand against the government that oppresses and harms their people (homosexuals are not tolerated, great literature and works of art are destroyed). Because of his beginning he is deformed, although we never see his face, his hands look as though he was severely burned, and we find out later he was, and to hide himself, he wears a mask, wig and gloves. He saves Evie and encounters her several more times and eventually falls in love. Though she hates him for various reasons, she too comes to love him and be a strong proponent of his cause.
This was a very political movie and makes a strong statement. See it, if you haven't already. It's worth your time and money enough to at least rent it. For me, this movie is now on my "To Buy" list.
