As requested, an open thread. I’ll try to get these up more often in the future. This one will be overseen by Morrissey with a cat on his head.
No trolls, no arguments.
Categories
Open Thread for Personal Stuff: January 2014 Pretty Cats Make Hats Edition
Ally, I think your statement is great! The only thing that struck me as strange was the apology, but obviously you’re in a better position to understand why you would consider including that than I am.
auggz and Falconer:
That made me think of Frank and Gail Zappa’s children, Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Muffin. Ahmet is common enough I suppose, but I can only imagine what Frank and Gail were thinking. It’s a shame that names like that would make it hard to be taken seriously.
Argenti:
That’s one beautiful thing about plurality in Chinese. There is none. Just change the number in front. One ox = yi tou niu. Two oxen = liang tou niu. The only problem is the measure words. Ugh.
Also, random question, the cat avatars, are those auto-generated by Gravatar?
Thank you for all of your suggestions on the Facebook message, everyone. I will definitely keep all of them in mind.
~~~
Yesterday my youngest sister (the one who encouraged me to “look like a girl”) told me “You’re so nice” when I was trying to find some wall tacks for her and her older sister. I know I’m a sucker for sayings like that, but that’s the first time she has ever said that to me, and I could tell she was being sincere. She also recently advised me to eat slowly because it’s healthier – something I have told her repeatedly in response to my dad being abusive towards her when she eats.
I always think that they don’t really think about me much because I don’t spend much time with either one of them due to being at school so often. It’s hard for me to imagine them actually loving me as an older sibling, but I guess there are some things I’m unaware of.
I’m going to miss these two so much – once I leave and come out to everyone (including their mother) I may never see them again until they’re adults. And even then there’s a possibility they will grow up to be bigoted towards me. I seriously hate my life.
More hugs, Ally. I like to think that your sweet little sisters will hold onto their affection and love for you until it’s safe for them to express it.
Bloody hot weather, bloody railways … it took me four hours to get home from work tonight. We got turfed off the train at Westall (station in the middle of an industrial park and feckall else) and told buses would take us to Dandenong, half a dozen stations further down. No explanation of why the train wasn’t going, or anything. Get to Dandenong: oh no, there are no trains going to Pakenham. Back onto the bus – and the driver hadn’t been told he’d have to do this and didn’t know the route. So people had to navigate. Just think, me wot doesn’t drive was having to try directing a bus.
Four. Fucking. Hours.
Then I get home and the air’s full of smoke from a fire in Gippsland (ie. a good hour’s drive away).
Fuck summer and the climate-change deniers and the scumbags in governments who’ll spend millions on tennis centres but never, never on public transport, or utilities, or alternative power sources, or anything people actually need.
AIT, the cat gravatars come from this website. Once you’ve made the kitty of your choice, save it to your computer and you can upload it to Gravatar.
🙂
kittehserf:
AWESOME! Thank you! I feel incredibly silly, grown man getting all giggly over a cat avatar, but damn it, it’s fun. Since Gravatar wouldn’t allow less than 4 letters, I added a few letters on. So, I’ll use this instead of AIT now.
Appropos of nothing, I ran into something unusual last night, and I’m not sure what to make of it yet.
I’m playing a free-to-play iPhone game called “Happy Street”. Silly free-to-play farmville game. But the main character is a cartoon fox, so of course I’m all over it. It also tends towards adult double-entenres in the dialog, ranging from parody to
Last night, the game introduced one of the characters as transgendered.
In a nutshell, mildly villainous robot guy (Mr. Pryce) is being investigated for unspecified suspicious behaviour in the basement (involving love potions, ropes and flower arrangements). Reporters discover that sinister behaviour is perfectly innocuous: The robot has come out as “Mrs. Pryce” after patching her software and making some body modifications (“I assure you I am female in all the places you cannot see.”) and was indulging in some stereotypically feminine behaviour. Her earlier jerky behaviour was misplaced anger at her male body.
Suspicion over, nothing wrong here! Welcome to the community Mrs. Pryce!
Wow.
Then the next mission revealed that female Mrs. Pryce was actually loaded into the same body as the male Mr. Pryce. The two remark that they could play a certain famous movie ex-hobbit, before asking you to make fancy new homes for new residents.
So… yeah. That was either remarkably and unexpectedly progressive, or it’s skating a fine line between acceptance and stereotype. Being cis myself, I’m not sure how to call it.
Some of the manosphere would have to change their minds about older women (i.e. over 30) being ugly and not worthy of any attention if they see these women at a bodybuilding contest. By the way, they are between 50 and 59 years of age.
Amazing women they are.
aitasc – ya welcome! 🙂 Love the new kitty and OF COURSE a grown man, or grown anyone, should be giggly over kitty avatars. It is part of Furrinati worship.
I used to post a lot on the Cheezburger network, but it’s slowly being taken over by MRAs. That makes me very sad, because I can’t ignore it. I wish I could, but it infuriates me when fat whiny NEETS/Wizards/Incels think they have the right to speak for me.
Started an internship this week. I really hope I can use this experience to get me a real job, I am so tired of being homeless, so tired of being hungry and poor, so tired of seeing my friends turn away when I need help. I know this isn’t going to solve ALL my problems and once I have a stable home and a full belly I’ll need to find another challenge, but I’ve been kicked so many times I’m honestly kind of scared that it’s going to happen again.
kittehserf:
Nevermind, I can continue using the same name! Also, I was born a slave to the Furrinati. And having adopted a cat a couple months ago, I’m definitely right where they want me. Poor girl had ants attacking her food bowl, so I set the dishes inside wider dishes with soapy water. So far, so good.
JoJo:
Best of luck with your new internship!
Congratulations on your kittification, AIT.
grumpycatisagirl:
Thank you much. I saw the avatars floating around for a while and finally decided I’mma get one. If they were mentioned in the welcome package or something, I entirely missed it. I can fail like that sometimes.
JoJo, good luck with the internship!
AIT – any chance of kitty pics? 🙂
The kitty avatars are in the welcome package but it’s a bit roundabout; the link goes to a page on the forum and you get to the actual site from there.
Kitteh: I totally thought of you when I saw that Fallon video the other day.
Hmm, the only primary sources I can think of off hand are Freud’s notes and letters. Idk if there’s a full collection online, but you should be able to find some if you go digging for Freudian stuff on hysteria.
Hellkell, 🙂
I took over the boss’s computer so I could play it right away with sound.
And idk where you are auggz, but if you happen to be near London, bedlam has a museum and the curators should be able to help you. I’ll see what I can dig up, I wish I could be of more use but I’ve read far more secondary sources.
Hmmm, idk if it would really work, as I’m not sure how edited it is, but Girl, Interrupted the book is taken (by her) from her journals while on the psych ward (and infinitely better than the movie)
If you can get your hands on them, the legal rulings regarding the treatment of the suffragettes might be of some use? Likewise lobotomy, ECT and clitoridectomy raised quite a debate and much of that should be able in medical journals if you dig enough. (Hit wiki up for the relevant doctors and stick them in a university library archive search, or just go for lobotomy, etc…I’d think you’d have better luck finding primary sources if you include their names though)
This one isn’t 30 years old yet, or at least the controversy isn’t, but how sexist the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder might be is a point of contention more recently. (And some of it really is, multiple sex partners? Cuz the acceptable number there isn’t sexist or anything!)
The other thing you might try, though it isn’t really a primary source, would be the early editions of the DSM, even DSM IV is nearly 30, and if you can find anything pre DSM III they weren’t science so much as opinion — I haven’t read them, so idk how much is psychs just typing out opinions versus opinions being pieced into a sorta secondary source, but they might have some gems (and I have DSM III some place if you want any of it, none of it is going to be a true primary source though)
I’ve been on vacation in Grand Cayman and am now trying to catch up. I will post pictures of the trip eventually but for now other bleach:
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/58/f0/2b/58f02b608d6e4240d26cad858b369543.jpg
http://media-cache-cd0.pinimg.com/736x/c8/ab/85/c8ab8576bd0324961f9762ff073bb526.jpg
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ec/bd/7d/ecbd7d1fc72255d1d94b2615287acaa4.jpg
I just want to thank you, David, for keeping commenting here free. I greatly appreciate it, since I seem to have some mysterious trouble registering myself on WordPress or anywhere else.
(not that I’d have time for commenting regularly on my other favorite blog, Pharyngula)
WOOHOO! I have laundry machines that work! In my house! I’m doing laundry RIGHT NOW, and I didn’t have to drive it across town to my sister’s! By bedtime, I’ll have clean sheets and nighties! And they’re sexy front-loaders on pedestals, and everything seems to be working just fine.
neuroticbeagle, hope your holiday went well!
I’ve just forwarded those pics to my sister. She really should have bed linen like that. 😀
@Unimaginative
Yea for working laundry machines!
@Kittehs
The vacation was wonderful. I could use bed linen like that too- just so I don’t accidentally go over the line. The beagle is getting tired of putting me in my place. 🙂