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Thursday, June 4th, 2009
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2:12 pm
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KRXQ Radio 'Shock Jocks' encourage beating and shock therapy for transgendered children in morning show.""
For accuracy's sake, you can listen to the whole thing here". (That's the clip from the official website, by the way)
I like my first amendment as much as the next rabid freethinker, but I don't believe it guarantees the right to incite hatred and violence against children, consequence-free. Advocating electroshock, saying you would hit your child with a high-heeled shoe if, "God forbid", you caught him wearing it, saying that you look forward to transgender kids getting 'beaten down by society'-
I think, if you toddle over to the FCC's consumer complaints page, you might find it fits into the category of 'Unauthorized, unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts', subsection "Broadcasting intimidation or threats about an individual or group'.
Particularly because this was in response to a specific family in Omaha- can you imagine if people in that child's neighborhood heard this? Or that child herself?
I can, but I don't have to- I can just type in transgender violence into any search engine and wait.
Violence against others, violence against self- they all have their distal cause in the kind of lovelessness shown here, and their immediate one in this kind of raw incitement.
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| Friday, January 12th, 2007
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4:54 am
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One reason I don't like caffeine in the morning is that it just completely shuts the door on any more sleep. I mean, I know that's the point- but it's so depressingly final. The second it touches my tongue I think 'Oh well- guess I'm awake for the next 15 (20, 25, 30) hours,' and, about five seconds later, 'God, I hate being awake.'
If I don't drink the coffee I'm sleepy, but at least I have the faint thread of hope that, if I were to receive a call from the State Department saying it is critically necessary that I not complete any of my scheduled tasks today, I could just nod seriously, retire to my bedroom, and return to the sweet, sweet arms of Morpheus.
However. As today is a busy day, and my sleep schedule is about to get shot to hell anyway- hello, Ghana!- I have decided to admit defeat. And yes, it is bitter- but I've got some creamer around here somewhere.
God, I hate being awake.
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| Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
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10:47 pm
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Something I love- and I admit that this is kind of a negative quality- is astoundingly bad behavior on the part of other people. There's a kind of perfect beauty to some of the situations I hear about on a regular basis, where the exchange is peppered with, "And THEN she-"
"Oh my god, no."
"Yes."
"Not really!"
"Really! And- wait- you're not going to believe this-"
and on and on until the credulity of the hearer is stretched to the breaking point- which keeps getting pushed back, because really, it's not that hard to believe that people behave that badly.
More astonishing is the rebounding innocence which lets us be surprised by people flouting basic rules of human interaction. And, in my case, the evolutionary quirk which allows me to enjoy it. It gets to the point- perhaps you've been there- when the person at the table or on the phone or the journal or wherever says something so sublimely awful that you think, 'Thank you. Thank you. That- that just tops it off, just puts the cherry right on the sundae. Mm. Yesss. Perfect.'- and you're not even kidding! You're serious! You're actually glad that they've demonstrated the full flowering extent of their gibbering defectiveness- it makes for a better story, as well as confirming some of your darker suspicions about the human race.
This post is not to tell those stories- though they're free for the asking!- but rather to express the sudden, recent, grateful impulse I have towards these people, these peerless enactors of social faux pas. They may not know who they are, they may not be reading this, or, indeed, be able to read- but to them I still say: Thank you. You make my world a brighter place.
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| Friday, November 10th, 2006
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4:44 pm
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there is nothing like chewing gum for making a person look dumb as mud. This girl across from me in the lab is sitting, staring at the computer screen with a furrowed brow, and chomping away at a wad of Juicy Fruit or some such. Man, does she look stupid.
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| Thursday, August 24th, 2006
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2:03 pm
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All right guys, I know you've all been waiting for it: my very own, personal opinion on Pluto. And that opinion is, won't anybody think of the children?
The trivia team children, that is?
Because, while always keeping in mind Mr. Tupper's dictum, 'Never confuse knowledge with It's Ac', this change in the received body of scientific knowledge is going to have disastrous* consequences for trivia questions. Because, as we all know, planet questions are popular, involving as they do some vaguely reputable form of science as well as mythology, a subject that trivia contests are singlehandedly reviving across the continent. Or not.
Now all those questions that previously identified Pluto as a planet have to be changed! And, at least for a while, Pluto is going to be the only 'dwarf planet' that the popular imagination cares, so you can't go around talking about 'what dwarf planet'- it's never Mycenae, and it's not going to be Sedna, either.
More importantly for schoolyard dynamics in general, there's now one more thing to provoke the kind of people who like to say, 'Actually, the tomato is a fruit,' or, 'actually, the millennium doesn't start until 2001,' or 'actually, that is not how you perform a swirlieWHOOSHGNURGLESPASHGAAAAH'.
I know, for as some of you are no doubt thinking to yourselves right now, I, Elizabeth Shaw, am that kind of people, and I work very hard to avoid being killed all day and into the night by saying, 'Self, these are nitpicks. Pursuing them does not advance the human race one jot.' How can I continue to believe this, which I only do intermittently anyways, if these goddamned scientists insist on making a big fuss about it? Now every Tom, Jack, and Larry has an opinion, and if they have an opinion I have to have an opionion, and if I have an opinion I may never stop having opinions about things like the Oxford comma and punctuated equilibrium and prescriptive grammar, and then someone will kill me for my own good. Do you see? Do you SEE?
But it's too late now; changing Pluto back into a planet won't put the lid back on this can of Kuiper Belt objects, I'm afraid. So, settle in and say goodbye, for my days, surely, are numbered.
Now I'd better take my doomed, newly reopinionated self over to Amy's, for the maids have come and discovered me in a condition which I can only describe to you as evoking not only Pigpen from Peanuts, but also an actual pigpen. If there were ever brownies in a pigpen. But who doesn't like a little public shame to start the day off right?**
*or should I say...displanetous? A haha aha ha OW STOPPIT
** Don't you? Freak.
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| Friday, August 4th, 2006
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5:00 pm - Lake Wobegon to the Beach, via Laundry and Cat Barf
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After that appealing title, it seems best to ( LJ Cut! )
Now, to switch the laundry; tomorrow, to the beach! Don't tell anyone, but I hear the worst infestation of jellyfish in the last twenty years is almost over. There can be no restraining my joy.
Side note: Thanks Max, for getting me to get Regina Spektor songs stuck in my head. I appreciate it! For real!
Other side note: Happy Birthday Psyfe (today) and Zara (the 1st)! You will never meet, but I would be highly entertained if you did.
Other the other side note: Actually, that's it. For now. Except that Farscape is excellent fun. And, does anyone know Brenda's LJ? And, as long as I'm asking, under what letter does one file Josquin d'Ascanio aka Despres' music?
Your assistance with these queries is greatly appreciated.
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| Thursday, July 27th, 2006
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9:20 pm
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This is going to be a fairly mundane diary entry for the past few days: where I was, who I was with, and what I ate. ( Read more... )
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| Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
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7:59 pm
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I realize that plunging back in to the lj-sphere six months and four days after I left it may seem sudden and abrupt- many of you ( o teeming dozen that you are) are probably wondering who I am, or where I am, or where I've been. At least, it soothes my tender ego to think that you are, and I know you all wouldn't begrudge me that. Would you.
Anyway, the short answers are, I'm in Ithaca, I just finished taking 2 credits worth of Swahili, I'm coming home soon, and I feel as if I haven't seen or talked to anybody in at least six years, maybe more. I certainly hope everyone is doing well; I hope I'd've heard if they weren't.
Happy belated to Laurie and happy upcoming to Max.
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7:31 pm
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That's another day at work done, thank the Good Lord. I enjoy photocopying as much as the next girl, but...no, I think we can leave it at that. I enjoy photocopying precisely as much as the next girl. And with an opening like that, aren't you glad I cut for length? ( Read more... )
So there you have it. The good and the bad. Man, I have to go get some dinner. Preferably without onions.
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| Saturday, January 14th, 2006
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3:32 pm
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All right. I am betaking myself to McCabe until such time as I have completed one (1) exam and two (2) papers. G'bye everybody.
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| Thursday, November 17th, 2005
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8:51 pm
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Definitive proof that the power of procrastination knows no bounds: This afternoon I had work to do in German, Comp Lit, Greek, and Latin. What did I do this afternoon? Calculus. The subject which I am not currently taking, barely survived taking, and, when I was taking it, required peer pressure, parental pressure, panic, and occasionally vodka before I would do any work related to it. Apparently, if the alternative is doing work in any of the subjects that I allegedly 'like' or 'major in' or even 'am taking for scholastic credit', problem sets start to look like little gems of hidden yet irresistible interest.
Now, as difficult as it may be, I'd like everybody to to try to move beyond the dysfunctionality of this for a moment, and consider its applications: if the subjects I am spontaneously moved to work on are those that I am neither taking, nor good at, and I will religiously avoid work in the subjects I am taking, then clearly what I need to do is believe that my schedule is, let's say, Intro Physics, Orgo, Molecular Biology, and Calculus; and additionally that my past has been marked by brief, unsuccessful forays into German, Comp Lit, Greek and Latin. What could send me into their arms faster?
Even considering how good I am at delusion, I think I'm going to need ground support on this one. It's not like all of you don't feed my rich inner life anyway, what with the laughing at my jokes and telling me my hair looks all right; all I want you to do now is direct that well-meaning, mendacious impulse towards my academic good. When I get back to the dorm, ask me how lab was; if you see me in Carpenter, exclaim laughingly that I must have gotten lost on my way to Park! Write me little notes about how sorry you are that I dropped out of Latin and that I might like Greek if I gave it one more shot. The only difficulty I can really foresee is during the hours I actually attend class; I think I'll ask the profs to act as though I'm auditing. Once I explain the theory to them I don't see how they can refuse to hop on board. And if I can get the science and math faculty to send me chiding emails about missing class, the guilt-fueled procrastination could really pay off.
So how about it? Remember, one noncompliant person and the whole scheme goes off the rails: if someone asks me about German when I'm pretending to be skipping chemistry I could slip into a fugue state for three months, which I know you don't want; at least not those of you to whom I give back rubs. So come on, be a pal: lie to me.
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| Thursday, November 10th, 2005
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6:23 pm
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Hey, the Ren Choir Concert is free, free as the air and the sky and bad coffee that they serve at academic conferences! We know our broke audience.
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| Friday, November 4th, 2005
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12:49 pm
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It seems a shame to disturb the perfect inactivity of this journal, and yet it is incumbent upon me to issue the following announcement.
The holiday season is nigh (or, according to some retailers, actually upon us) and we all know what happens now: Christmas music floods the dining halls, the buses, the dormitories, and ringtones. Oh God, the ringtones. Now this music is not, generally speaking and always assuming you are not near the King's College Choir-permeated sphere of Brecon, what you might call 'good'. It's more what you might call 'popular', or, if you were me, 'crap'. We all have our sentimental favorites, but even I will admit that 'Silver Bells' loses something of its nostalgic charm after the first hearing, and actually causes clotting in the brain after that. (This incidentally makes it the polar opposite of 'The Little Drummer Boy', which can induce hemorrhage even in those not technically eligible for it, such as the dead.) So your best bet from now through January is to plug your ears with dough, cotton, gauze and medical sealant after the manner of the swami in Roald Dahl's "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar".
But you say to me, "Elizabeth," you say, "Does not the human soul require music?! Now, and at Christmas? Perhaps you do not understand this, being a Jewess, etc." You couldn't be more wrong! I enjoy Christmas carols just as much as the saved, which is why I'm going to tell you where to get your fixes for the next month or two. And because I love music, I will be there at all of them. Every one! And, by the way, if you're beginning to suspect that this is nothing more than an elaborate plug for the five concerts I have in the next month and four days, I have only one thing to say to you: it's also procrastination for my Greek assignment.
So, for all your musical needs that can't be met by "Do You See What I See" played tinnily over a PA system, please allow me to recommend the following venues:
-Saturday, November 5. 8 o'clock, Thomas Great Hall. The Bryn Mawr Parent's Weekend Concert, featuring the Bryn Mawr and Haverford Orchestras, the Chamber Singers, many a capella groups and string quartets, as well as more parents than you can shake a stick at. The pieces that I can vouch for are:
Aun giro sol bell'ochi lucenti, a Monteverdi madrigal;
Climbin' Up the Mountain, a spiritual arr. Moses Hogan
The Blin' Man Stood on de Road, ibid.
Caramba, Alberto Grau and
Zboynicki, a hellishly rough-on-the-voice Polish song arr. Jacek Syzulski, and I count on you never to ask me to confirm that spelling.
-Sunday, November 13. 3 o'clock, Church of the Redeemer. The Bryn Mawr/Haverford Renaissance Choir benefit concert. This costs money, so only come if you have a burning passion to hear
Hear my Prayer, O Lord (Batten)
Les terres les eaux va buvant (Costeley)
In te domine speravi (Despres)
Quam cervum ad fontem (Lassus)
I Weigh Not Fortune's Frown nor Smile (12 pages of goodness by Orlando Gibbons)
Occhi del mia cor vita (Gesualdo)
Je ne scaurois aimer aultre que vous (Bertrand)
Exaltata est (Morales)
Quedate, Carillo, a dios (Encina)
Inclina cor mea (Rogier)
Beato mi direi (di Rore)
Ecco ch'un altro volto (Wert)
Ach werte Frucht (No earthly idea).
I think these are all the pieces. Emily will correct me if I'm wrong.
-December 2nd. Roberts Auditorium, Haverford, c. 8 o'clock. The Bryn Mawr/Haverford Chorale presents Handel's Messiah. Come if: you like Handel's Messiah. We're performing all of it, even the parts that most people don't do. Soloists are mainly my friends and at least one or two of them is bound to be quite amazingly good. Experience cognitive dissonance in action as you watch me sing about our Lord the Christ with complete sincerity and conviction.
-December 8th. Haverford. The Bryn Mawr/Haverford Chamber Singers Christmas concert.
This is probably the one to go to, if you fear that you can't manage all five concerts without coming to loathe me with passionate intensity, but will still feel guilty if you don't go to any. Also, it's just going to be very lovely, with Ave Marias by Bruckner, Biebl, and Victoria, as well as any number of traditional carols and possibly a vocal jazz version of Let It Snow. (I know. I know).
-And, falling under the category of, "I don't know where, I don't know when, and I only vaguely remember why,', the Renaissance Choir has a Christmas concert some time in December, where we will sing much, much, much very old music and also some of the regular carols as singalongs. This is enjoyable if you like old music, rambling commentary by erudite directors, and people (read: me) making faces in the choir. The quality of the singing and rhythmical accuracy is occasionally variable, so don't come for those. The quality of the music as written, however, is fantastic. Most of these are pieces that you will never hear anywhere else, and they're gorgeous.
So there you go. Come to say hi, come to hear the music, come to see beautiful Bryn Mawr and moderately attractive Haverford, come for no other reason than to point at my poorly fitting Chamber Singers dress and my facial tics during songs I don't like. I cordially invite you.
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| Friday, September 16th, 2005
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12:04 pm - In response.
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One reason I tend not to respond to posts is that I find the written medium a singularly uncomfortable one for casual, yet serious, conversation. Without nonverbal input, it's hard to modulate the tone of the interaction; academic writing gets around this by making impersonal formality the norm, but on an LJ, speaking to a peer group, impersonal formality is in some ways inappropriate. So we use our personal styles, and hope that through dumb luck our point will make it across intact. And the gist usually does get across, partially because we and our friends tend to partake of a shared culture. However, when talking about things that are important to us, getting the gist just isn't enough. Not only is it more important that the conversants understand each other intellectually, it's also more important that they understand each other in the other ways as well- the ways that come out in nonverbal cues in face-to-face conversation: is a person angry? Excited? Hurt? Snide? When we talk about things that are important to us, we become extraordinarily sensitive to tone, and yet on LJ we don't have the tools to gauge it accurately. Nor again do we have the standards of academia to force us into objectivity. Given that the risk of conflict is so high, and that we are often talking to people whose good will is important to us, it's no wonder that most LJers prefer to avoid serious discussion.
So response naturally tends towards either the flame war or the banal. If you want to hold the middle ground (which is laudable), then there are several things you should do.
You should make it clear when you want a response. If you're posting just to let off steam, or to reflect privately, and a response is neither necessary nor wanted? Say so. Not responding to people’s comments is a post facto statement of this, but if you do that you can’t complain if the person doesn’t comment again.
If you actively want a response, or at least want to appear open to discussion, then you should say that too.
You should also make clear the rules for the arena of discussion. Meaningful discussion through a highly imperfect medium requires that everybody have patience, care, charity, and a commitment to find out what the other people are really saying, as opposed to just scoring points. I really do believe that discussion will founder unless the participants are willing to ask and answer questions of intent and definition.
I’m not just theorizing here, nor am I saying anything original; I’ve participated in online discussion and feedback communities for going on nine years, and these are issues and strategies that have come up time and again.
This is something I'm interested in discussing; if you have thoughts about it, agree or disagree, then please do comment.
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| Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
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1:33 am
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Gott!
So I'm having my traditional stab at being organized this year, and it's going pretty well. My schedule is hovering on the manageable side of 'cracked out' and I think it's going to be all right. I'm not doing crew. I forget why I'm not doing crew every day, and then Max reminds me, with the words of wisdom: "Because you don't want to die." I fully intended to row at the beginning of the year, and actually that was responsible for the most fascinating experience- I was planning out my schedule, and allotting hours and planning study time and sleep time and class time and choir time and rowing time, and I started having this twisty sensation inside my chest, and I was all, "hey, what's this?"
and the knowledge rose up unbidden within me:
"Even you have to realize that this is not possible."
And then I was all like, "What do you mean? I haven't even tried it yet!"
And the hidden voice was like: Try, if you will, to remember past situations similar to this.
Me: ...okay.
It: Do you remember how they turned out?
Me: Sure.
It: Now apply that knowledge to the present situation.
Me: Sorry?
It: Using what you have learned from the past, make an informed decision about the future.
Me: I..I don't think I can do that.
It: (in tones of steely menace) Try.
And I was all, "Oh." And then, "Oh."
So yes, mark your calendars: August 2005, Elizabeth learns from experience. I know. I know. These are the end times.
But anyway: four classes, down to two choirs from three, no crew, with options to expand. We shall see what we shall see.
Bed now. Update later.
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| Sunday, August 28th, 2005
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12:25 pm
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I felt like I should update, just so I don't abandon my journal teetering on a precipice of rage. I'm back at Bryn Mawr, and it's the most disturbing mixture of seeing all the people I know and thinking besides that, "Good God I have to see X and Y and, oh, especially Z!", and seeing vast quantities of new faces and hearing new voices in the hall. See old people! Meet new people! Stay in my room and avoid people! I am but a playground for conflicting urges.
Last night I met six new frosh, and saw some of my frosh from last year. Lo, they are cool, and I'm glad to have 'em back. Then I talked to Marie, lately of Oxford, and exerted my several powers of persuasion on her to get her to start Latin in her senior year; I was as successful as might be expected, given the rusty nature of said powers. I lent a book and borrowed a book. I lay down on my bed in order to read a marvelously fun book called "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life", and fell unexpectedly asleep on the following quotation: "I am almost sick of the world, and were it not for the Hopes of going to singing-meeting tonight and indulging myself a little in some of the carnal Delights of the Flesh, such as Kissing, Squeezing, etc., etc., I should leave it now." (William Bentley, Yale undergraduate, 1771.) Hormonal emo boys, I give you your progenitor, that you may reverence him.
I left my door open while I was reading, in order to be inviting and friendly to visitors; but while my door was open, my eyes were closed when my freshmen from last year came to call and found me somnolently openmouthed, with my book fallen unregarded to the floor and a faint suggestion of drool about me. I have this description (charming, is it not?) courtesy of the frosh, who left me a note. About the drool. I think I can safely say that they have ceased to regard me as an authority figure.
A somewhat hazy interlude of doubtful reality occured at three or four in the morning (doesn't that sound sort of sketchy? Like I was drunk? I wasn't, you should know, although the first floor was all a riot with a party last night, and the peach schnapps flowed freely. I hear.) What happened was- well, I don't really know if it happened, so I'll confine myself to asking the question:
"Dan, did you send me an IM last night? and did it have something about power cables in it? Please reply, as I am doubting own sanity."
All I know is I woke up this morning with the muggy recollection of reception of seeing such a message, but it seems like the kind of thing I could easily have dreamed.
Now it is 1:00 PM, and I have only eaten pie and grapefruit juice. I go to remedy that.
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| Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
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9:18 pm
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By the way, if the former article roused the embers of a SLUMBERING RAGE in your bosom (be it male or be it female), go see ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lcsbanana to have them fanned into a cheery blaze. The comments are especially fun, and there's a link to another article that contains the deathless words,
"If an area that’s zoned for recreation gets rezoned for business, it never gets zoned back.”
NO I DON'T FEEL COLONIZED AT ALL, JACKASSES.
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8:35 pm
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4:12 pm
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This has been a remarkably bad twenty-four hours for my blood pressure. Why?
Well, we can get the trivial out of the way with my father's throwaway remark this morning of, "With two adult females around the house, I don't expect to come home to dirty dishes." Thanks, Dad! Good luck getting your own dinner and doing your own grocery shopping and by god you bet doing your own dishes for the rest of the week, in fact, the year, because I'm telling Mom you said that.
Moving on to the gut-wrenchingly infuriating:
from yesterday's Meet the Press:
Reuel Marc Gerecht, former Middle Eastern specialist with the CIA and author of "The Islamic Paradox."
MR. GERECHT: Actually, I'm not terribly worried about this. I mean, one hopes that the Iraqis protect women's social rights as much as possible. It certainly seems clear that in protecting the political rights, there's no discussion of women not having the right to vote. I think it's important to remember that in the year 1900, for example, in the United States, it was a democracy then. In 1900, women did not have the right to vote. If Iraqis could develop a democracy that resembled America in the 1900s, I think we'd all be thrilled. I mean, women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy. We hope they're there. I think they will be there. But I think we need to put this into perspective.
This I can't even talk about right now. Suffice it to say that Mr. Gerecht's patronizing injunction to "put this into perspective" only goes to show that he has no idea of what is at stake for women here, with the threat of shariat hanging over them. If women don't have a strong, enforceable legislative voice right now, the chance for them to have any meaningful voice at all will be gone. This is when the rules are being made; to say that it's all right if women don't get the vote now shows wilful ignorance of the possibility of religious rule, as well as of the current condition of women's rights in the Mideast.
The third article is just too ridiculous, but I ranted about it anyway, rambled at length, and as soon as I cut it down and edit it I'll post it here because my god. The pain. The pain, that is, that men suffer in childbirth. That is, from watching it; and the pain, I should mention, is not because their wives are undergoing pain and danger, but because the men are turned off by the process. Oh jeez, just go read the article: it's ridiculous beyond measure: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/health/23case.html
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| Monday, August 1st, 2005
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10:54 pm
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Ba-dum WAH!
It's been my birthday for nearly 23 hours now, and it's been really nice. I now have a bear named Chauncy Kjonstaadtson IV, who was given to me all clad in a spider-man bodysuit and a pith helmet; I love him. I have several wonderful messages received, from people whom I love to get messages from. I have a card that says, "Sis, it seems like just yesterday you were a little boy." I have a roommate for senior year (quelle awesome, emma, i won't forget this ;))I have a multiplicity of books, and more baked goods than can feasibly be disposed of. I think I may 'splode. I also have a healthy amount of denial over the fact of my twenty-ness. I'll just have to act more immature to compensate for it, in the natural way of things. I have a beautiful facebook-wife, Amy darling, and an unhealthy love for Jason Bateman on Arrested Development. I had a good time, and now I have a wonderful big bed with the possiblity of dog and cat companionship. Soon I will have sleep.
I was flipping over being twenty, but this has been a good day; twenty, you're not so bad. Let nineteen out and shut the door behind you; we have work to do.
Love to everybody, and I will tell you why if you ask me.
Good night!
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