fail

from cow's moo:

solarbird sends, ** okay so i ported ` and ' from moo over to the housemush (in mushcode) because i like ` and i included ' for completeness. ** (These are moo commands for various ways of saying things)
solarbird sends, ** but then it turned out debs was using ' for something on herself and so was getting double triggers, so i changed ' to '' on the moobox object i made to hold moo commands **
solarbird sends, ** and then i thought "well that defeats the purpose doesn't it?" and added a command on myself personally to have ' trigger '' **
solarbird sends, ** only i forgot the object search hierarchies for commands (and also the command-parsing rules) **
solarbird sends, ** so when i tried it it triggered lulz **
solarbird sends, ** in the form of infinite recursion **
solarbird sends, ** and that's how i reinvented while (1) fork(); in mushcode tonight **
solarbird sends, ** the best part was that it was still running after i dropped and reconnected **
solarbird edited the code live to make it stop. @whee mush is weird.

They said this at the time, but

They said this before - back when it passed - but Proposition 8 (or "h8") backers in California are now officially trying to have all previously and legally-issued marriages between GBLT couples nullified.

Some people seem to be surprised at this. I don't know why. They said this was the intent when the proposition was passed, they've said this was the intent every time they've passed one of these things, and they won't be happy until and unless it happens. After all, as James Dobson so famously said, queers getting hitched will destroy western civilisation. The leadership, further, won't be happy until Lawrence v. Texas (2003) is overturned so they can make queers illegal again. That's an explicit goal, and part of the "judicial tyranny" rhetoric since the decision: it's tyrannical to overturn laws making me illegal, just as their religious freedom is being impinged if they can't enact the mandates of their religion into civil law. They are being oppressed if they can't use the state to oppress me, and everyone like me.

So of course they're going to go after queers at any point they can. It's what they do, and they do it because they really do hate our existence and want to eliminate us from society, commercially, politically, and legally as best as they can, and all the polite words in the world can't erase that vicious reality.

And yet that keeps getting papered over and ignored and silently accepted and dismissed (even when demonstrated with direct quotes and complete context, as I spent years doing), which is why and how you end up with one of these people giving the invocation at Mr. Obama's inauguration. And it's how you get so many people - not on this journal, but many, many other places - supporting that decision.

So don't be surprised. Be disgusted, be angered, be whatever, But for the love of the gods, don't be surprised. Be anything but that.

this is yankee snow

This is yankee snow, today and tonight; this is the snow of December - or maybe January - in inland New England, at least as I remember it. It's a little difficult to describe how, exactly; it's the way the already-present snow compacts when you walk across it, forming paths as you walk back and forth - not turning to ice, not melting from the pressure of your feet, not becoming more slippery, just becoming more dense. It's the way that same older snow has become more brittle, more set in its shape, until stepped upon.

It's the way the new snow drifts and blows, dryly but not actually dry, at least not yet. It's the way the wind shifts constantly, swirling the flying snow so there is no direction to face to avoid it. It's the way it gets into the soles of your shoes so you walk fine outdoors - once you know how - but have to remember to change your gait when you cross the threshold and go inside, or you'll go sliding right down the hallway.

Of course, we're about, oh, probably half a metre short on accumulation for this time in December, but you can't have everything.