He said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said … : Today in Tweets

There’s an active shooter in Edgewood, Maryland. So far 5 people have been shot.

Stay safe everyone.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/18/us/maryland-harford-county-shooting/index.html

I was never in any other Miramax film.

I am making this an image macro.

As for Trump, I don’t mind a chance to mock him, but I have to play devil’s advocate, 4chan’s favorite game: “He knew what he signed up for” is simply a crass version of what every leader says about dead soldiers. Compare it to “we never look forward to putting our soldiers in harm’s way, but sometimes it’s necessary.”

Rest in peace, Gord. I don’t listen to The Hip all that much anymore, but Gord’s music is very much a part of me.

@Bina, your kitty! Oh no! :C I hope she finds her way home. And so many condolences on what happened to you. So terrible. @Sandra too, that was awful, you didn’t deserve it. I’m so sorry that happened to you :C

A rough day today. Best to you all!

Rest in peace, Gord. I don’t listen to The Hip all that much anymore, but Gord’s music is very much a part of me.

I think The Hip’s music is a part of all Canadians. I just read Ben Rayner’s article on meeting Downie and I found it interesting, though not surprising, that he eschewed the popular conception of The Hip’s status as the pinnacle of “Canadian-ness”, and that he could not consider Canada a country so long as the aboriginal people continued to suffer due to our indifference.

There are only a handful of groups that I own the whole catalogue of. The Tragically Hip became one of them, but more than that, I even own Downie’s solo albums and his book of poetry. The man really did have a unique perspective on the world he inhabited; there’s a whole chapter of poems dedicated just to living hotel room to hotel room on tour and what he saw around him. I’m sure plenty of folks all over the world have a Gord Downie story to tell.

I’m probably going to give Secret Path a listen on the bus ride home. The story of Chanie Wenjack is as tragic and mournful as Downie’s own voice. Highly recommended for any Mammotheers who want a glimpse into the terror faced by those who survived the residential schools. Grim stuff, so be prepared when you listen.

@Mish

I’m kinda not okay. I’m still shaking, especially from when he found that old picture of mine. Apparently it didn’t work out for him cause his friends said that even back then during a pretty terrible time of my life, I looked better than he does now. That’s according to my friends btw, I blocked him.

And that’s brought up all my other issues with sex and the ways those things roll together into a fucking giant messed-up ball of pus.

If I were to pick a scene from Heathers to describe me, it’d be when Heather Chandler spits at her own reflection.

@Bina

I literally met up with a dude for sex, could tell from his body language he was gonna hurt me if I didn’t do it (My brother used to beat me so I’m pretty good at detecting that) and I decided that I’d rather be assaulted instead of being beaten up AND assaulted.

Apparently, that wasn’t rape. No, apparently that was me regretting sex, and it doesn’t count as rape if I don’t speak up and say no.

@Weatherwax, Jesalin, Opposable and Scildfreja

Thanks so much for the wishes and cat pictures. Kitties are simply perfection.

Our society has a horrible requirement for bravery on the part of an abused person. I wrote, like, five more paragraphs on this, but it’s just me going around in circles about how stupid and awful it all is.

These people need to stop looking for excuses to ignore the feelings of others, and start looking for excuses to make others feel better.

Let’s do an uplifting snapshot from life instead.

There’s this Somali kid (he’s 18 I think) who comes to our volunteer homework help group very often. He is very ambitious and bright, but got started with school and reading/writing pretty late due to growing up in horror. He’s now studying Swedish and making his way through high school. He also lives in the same neighborhood as me, so we’re often on the same trams and buses to get home after the volunteer session.

Today, he called me over as if he wanted help with his homework. But when I sat down with him, he instead said “so.. Italy, huh?” He’s referring to the fact that Sweden’s men’s national football/soccer team was drawn against Italy in the playoffs to qualify for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia. It’s the worst possible outcome. We could’ve been drawn against Denmark or Switzerland.

On the way home, he wanted to ask about how to pronounce the names of various players on the national team. “Number 10 is a great player”, he said. “What’s his name, Forzebarg?” It’s Forsberg. “Right, where’s he from?” He’s from Sundsvall. “Where’s Sundsvall?” I don’t know. Somewhere up north.

“When did you start watching football?”, he asked next. I dunno, around 1992 I guess. “Ooh, that’s when the Euros were held in Sweden, right?”

Now, let me remind you, this guy was probably born in 1999 or 2000. In Somalia. He only came here a few years ago. Yet he somehow knows that the European Championships were played in Sweden in 1992.

“And they made it to the semi-finals, right?” Yup. “And the semi-finals in the World Cup 1994 as well?” Yup. “Who knocked them out?” Brazil. “What was the score?” 1-0. “Who scored the goal?” Romário. “It was a header, right?” Yup. “And then Sweden beat Bulgaria for the bronze medal?” Yup.

“Who were on the team back then?” Umm, lots of people. Tomas Brolin. Martin Dahlin. Kennet Andersson. Henrik Larsson. “Are they still alive?” Yeah, they’re like 45-50 years old now. Well, one guy died. “Who died?” Klas Ingesson died. “How did he die?” Cancer. “Ow that sucks.” He image googled Martin Dahlin on his phone, showing me the picture. “Is he from Africa?” No, his dad was from Venezuela. “Oh.”

“In 1958, the World Cup was held in Sweden?” Yeah. “Sweden beat West Germany in the semi-final?” Yup, right here in Gothenburg. “Whoa. Not in Stockholm?” Nope.

“In 1998, Sweden didn’t qualify?” Nope. “But in 2002 they did, right?” Yup. “And they were knocked out by Senegal.” Yup. “And in 2006 they were knocked out by Germany.” Yup. “Podolski scored two goals.” Yup. “Henrik Larsson missed a penalty.” Yup. “Teddy Lucic got a red card.” Yup.

“I watched all those games on youtube. My cousin might be on the national team some day.”

My eyes.

I don’t have anything as uplifting as that, @IP, which is a wonderful snapshot.

However, my dear son did have a solo in his choir concert last evening and he sang beautifully. So I guess that’s something.

@Bina
My condolences for your loss of your friend.

@Imaginary Petal My best guess is that most men think their own behaviour is normal. Wherever they are on the spectrum from serial killer to Mr Wonderful, they think they’re normal.

@ImaginaryPetal I know, right? I kept reading because… well, for insight, but also because I couldn’t quite believe he was confessing so…. much.

What I found interesting was his calling out PUA’s and that whole subculture. Maybe that, at least, will be useful.

I’ve done shit I’m not proud of. I assume everyone has. But this guy’s shit was pretty bad, and I’m surprised he was moved to reveal so much.

I have no idea what makes kitten photos important, but Buzzfeed apparently does: https://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseamarshall/best-kitten-pictures

@ Ohlmann:

There were two pharaohs known for launching long-distance sea expeditions. One was Hatshepsut, who wasn’t interested in “discovering” anything; she just wanted to establish regular trade relations with a distant civilization she already knew existed on the coast of the Red Sea — the kingdom of Punt. (“Regular” being the operative word here; I think by her time, there had already been several centuries of sporadic trade.)

The other was Necho II, and he’s probably the one you’re thinking of. Necho was the first and only pharaoh to build a large navy, but it was basically defensive. He hired some Phoenicians to do the whole “circumnavigation of Africa” thing for him. (Assuming you believe Herodotus. There’s no Egyptian record of Necho’s expedition at all, and in fact very little record of Necho himself, seeing as how he lived in the 600s BC, and by then Egypt had pretty much fallen apart.)

I don’t know how much like Egypt your “Egypt-like setting” is supposed to be, but the real-life Egyptians were never very interested in exploring and colonizing new territory. The general rule was they’d march an army across the border, do some standard Bronze Age pillaging, force the local chieftains or princes to promise a yearly tribute payment, maybe slap down a statue or a watchtower…and then get back home ASAP. The closest you’d get to Conquistador-style imperialism is the mines in the Sinai, which were technically very small penal colonies. Sort of a…desert gulag. Living out your life in a foreign country, and being buried in foreign soil, was apparently horrifying to these guys. Google “The Tale of Sinuhe”.

On the brighter side a local (to UF where Spencer is speaking) brewery is offering a free beer for every two tickets to the event turned in to them prior to the event. They can’t stop him from speaking but they can offer free beer to empty the auditorium.