Berries, politics, and unfortunate wordplay

[solarbird]

Every time I start to transcribe a Concerned Women for America or similar fundamentalist asshate media spew - "asshate" was a typo but I think I'll leave it - I quietly hope, briefly, that their server is down so I don't have to listen to them hate me so very, very much.


Bright Berries

Not very much going on; I read a couple of research papers, one of which was very interesting and they're clearly looking towards some of the same sorts of things I want to look to if and when I get into graduate school. If I get to interview, I hope I get to interview with one of the authors of this paper - I listed one in particular very high up in my list. That'd be fun. ^_^

Wednesday's token: 0.1
Thursday's miles: 3.3
Friday's token: 0.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 583.1
Miles out of Rivendell: 123.2
Miles to Lothlórien: 343.1

Here, this is kinda cool: GIANT OCTOPUS ATTACKS SUB! It's only a tiny (1 metre) remote-control research sub and the giant octopus is only about 45kg, but still, it did actually go after the submarine. Strange! Quicktime here, CBC story here.

Comments

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

Nightshade, is it? Some years ago, at deguspice's, I had the insane idea to taste nightshade berries, in the same way that you taste-test mushrooms: take a small sample, chew-taste-spit, being careful not to swallow. I can say with confidence that no one is likely to accidentally poison themselves with nightshade berries, because they're nasty. Ptui! Pretty, though.

[solarbird]

I can say with confidence that no one is likely to accidentally poison themselves with nightshade berries, because they're nasty. Ptui!
Huh! Good. I've never tried that (or anything like it, really) - I do know they smell bad when you pull 'em out, tho'.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

You do realize no one is making you listen to this shit, right?

You might consider taking a break for awhile. Spend the time with friends and family who love you. It's good for the soul.

[solarbird]

You do realize no one is making you listen to this shit, right?
I've no idea how to react to that.

I mean, I don't mean to pick a fight or take offense or anything. 'Cause I don't. I'd love not to pay any attention to this whatsoever. But I'm in a war for my continued existence, here. This is me vs. the Cylons, and sure, I could elect not to fight, but that can't end well.

Most people don't get the seriousness of it —even when the theocons just come out and say they want us to be illegal, people don't seem to get it. Honestly, the fundamentalist leadership's idea of "compromise" is they don't put us in jail for violating sodomy laws, unless they find out about one of us, in which case they do. This is the leadership the president talks to, the leadership that's on the Republican top-tier strategy conference call - hell, the ones sometimes leading those calls.

And that's all, you know, considered okay.

Regardless, 2005-2006 is critical. I'm hoping I'll be able to back off next fall; that's why I felt it was safe to apply to graduate school. I hope I'm right about that; my biggest problem with predicting things like this tends to be calling them a bit too soon. (For example, I called the 1999 stock market crash five months too early. That's much better than calling it five months too late, but still.)

[foibos.livejournal.com]

For a while now, I've been reading your LJ with both delight and horror. I have both depression and OCD, which means I don't have very much of an actual life. Reading your flower-picture (and similar) posts does me so much good. Thank you.

OTOH, your cultural warfare updates are scary. And educating. I've learned a lot about hate, and about how some kinds of conservative catch-phrases are really just hate-speech in code. It's made me more aware of similar tendencies here in Sweden.

So, on the whole I'm indebted to you for your work here. It's good to see that Old America still has a few of the free and the brave!