thank you so fucking much :D

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Current Mood: loved

Cary Cary Cary!

thanks ryuik for original scan


When people keep repeating
That you'll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can't seem to get enough
Let my love open the door
To your heart
When everything feels all over
When everybody seems unkind
I'll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all the worry out of your mind
Let my love open the door
To your heart

Pete Townsend

( rambly details of my dream )

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Current Mood: okay

Dear Jennifer,

I read your recent Huffington Post article ("How Adam Lambert Is Hurting Gay Marriage") with varying degrees of frustration and horror.

First of all, I find it very telling that your title focuses so exclusively on gay marriage. I guess it shouldn't be surprising: when I recently came out to a coworker she rushed to assure me that she supported gay marriage. To which I wanted to respond, "....so?" I have no desire to ever get married; yet my identity has become synonymous with that struggle...in fact, gay marriage has come to dominate any discussion of gay rights.

I use "gay" here in its proper definition -- i.e. "same-sex, esp. men" - because that is exactly what gay rights has become: upper-class, white gay men and lesbians determined to make their lives exactly like those of heterosexual people. We have seen the Holy Grail, and it's a white picket fence with a house, two parents, and 2.5 children. The perfect nuclear family, modified only slightly, just a little bit, pretty please. Who could ask for anything more? No one, according to you.

And here I thought we were supposed to be fighting repression, not perpetuating the practice.

Which is not to say that I am against same-sex marriage -- just against the idea that it's the only dream worth aspiring to, and that a pseudo-heterosexual lifestyle should somehow be my ideal, too. Two friends of mine, lesbians, got married during that brief, precious window of opportunity in California. They had a full ceremony, one of them changed her last name, the whole works. Oh, how lovely, you'd probably croon, and put them up on a kid-friendly slideshow to show mainstream America how nice and friendly the Gays really are, how we really want to be just like them.

Except, my friends were and continue to be in an open relationship, and are into the kind of scene that revels in leashes and crawling around onstage. That is the kind of marriage that makes them happy. It works for them.

It's very clear which part of their marriage is palatable to mainstream America, and to you.

You remind me of Frank Kameny, the gay rights activist who organized marches in the 60's. He's inarguably a pioneer; he also forced women to wear skirts, men to wear suits and ties during the marches and wouldn't allow same-sex handholding. When two women attempted to do so, he immediately broke them up saying, "None of that!" You and Kameny are both so focused on achieving the same rights as the heterosexual majority that you have adopted their tactics, too -- censorship and moral panic. Oh my god, Adam Lambert is destroying the moral fabric of America the gay community.

It was the drag queens and hustlers at Stonewall, Jennifer. And it was the drag queens and hustlers who were very quickly edged out of the mainstream gay rights movement by people like Kameny because they were too gauche, too gaudy, too sexual. Sound familiar? Yes, Adam Lambert got up in front of millions of Americans and dared to openly express his sexuality; it's a sexuality that includes BDSM tones, as anyone who's seen him perform or read his interviews will know. You rushed to side with the FCC and wag your finger at him, because that's what you really want: to be part of that big happy majority and never mind what parts of your identity or community you have to repress or screen in order to make all gays seem non-threatening (acceptable, apologetic).

Newsflash: if we all behaved in a way that wouldn't shock or upset mainstream American culture, none of us would be queer. And I use "queer" in its adopted definition, meaning "all of us." The married lesbians who enjoy flogging. The transman wrestling with the start of his transition and being told by his LGBT college class that chromosomes are the sole determinant of gender. The asexual currently glaring at her computer screen as she types furiously away. The glam rocker who put on a performance no more salacious than those of his straight peers. We are a far more varied community than just "gay," and no, not all of us want that white picket fence. Jumping on a high horse to condemn how anyone in our community expresses their sexuality (within the legal and moral confines of consent) is the kind of thing best left to Jerry Falwell, whose foundation Liberty Counsel has rushed to condemn Adam Lambert as well. You're on the same side as Jerry Falwell right now, Jennifer. Well done.

Adam Lambert might indeed be hurting the picture of The Harmless Gays Who Just Want To Live Like Regular Folks that you're so desperately propping up, but you are hurting the queer community.

But you don't care. You want to live in your pretty glass house with all the trappings of a heterosexual life, but with a chewy gay center that is properly tucked away so as not to shock the neighbors. So you go on Huffington Post and you decry a man for openly expressing his sexuality, calling it thoughtless, degrading, and dishonorable.

I know a word just as dirty as "dishonor," Jennifer, and twice as damning: sellout.

Regards,
A Queer Woman

Yeah! Snowflake cookies!!!

Thanks you everyone!!

Current Mood: happy

Having to scour the grocery store for gluten-free products and try to come up with meal ideas not very fun. Especially at the prices of things, often 2$ more than an ordinary say, loaf of bread or noodles or what have you. But I saw these today! And for the price of the regular versions of mixes!

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free

Artist Karadin
Rating G
Subject Gackt's holiday
Warnings none
Critique welcome yes

READS RIGHT TO LEFT
All of Gackt's avatars from games and dramas etc, and Chacha and You with guests
*parody on Gackt's appearance on VS ARASHI where the boys kept trying to take his rings.

Click for large
DO NOT REPOST Thank You

heading to the airport soon, so closing up the electronic shop :D

see y'all later!

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Current Mood: okay

1. The big happiness of the day was the new sofa and loveseat, and all the decluttering and furniture rearranging, which I already wrote about. :D Still excited about that!

2. Finally got the lights on the tree (still no decorations, but soon!), and as it turns out, I'm really glad I didn't decorate earlier, because the guys totally mashed up the tree when bringing the sofa in... (It's a fake tree, so it was easily unmashed, but I'm not sure our ornaments would have escaped unscathed.) The new sofa is currently in the dining room, right in front of the tree, since we figured better to leave the old sofa in the living room so it's easier to get out when the truck comes. Anyway, so we just sat on the sofa for a bit last night and admired the lights. :)

3. It's raining! It has been really overcast the past couple days and just really feeling wintery. Yay!

4. On Thanksgiving, my grandparents told us that if we ever need a car to run errands, we can borrow theirs, since they don't use it much anymore! So we took them up on the offer for the first time today and will be borrowing it on Tuesday to do exciting things like return something to Fry's. :p (Though we plan to stop at BookOff while we're there, too!) I hope it's not raining on Tuesday...

5. Thank you to janissa11, eruthros, telesilla, and busaikko (who sent one for verycarla, too!) for sending more LJ virtual gifts! They brightened up my day. :D

This may be our last decluttering of the year, but we're going out with a bang! Our new sofa and loveseat were delivered today, and a truck is coming tomorrow to take the old sofa. We're going to see if they'll take some other stuff as well... XD

Our closet is fairly large, but there's no place to stand where you can get a good picture of the whole thing, so I had to take six shots to get all of it! (That's six before and six after...)

It was actually not that cluttered compared to how it was in years past. A lot of stuff has been got rid of already. But there was (and is) still a ton of junk.

Today we took out a bunch of stuff, got rid of a lot, and then got very, very tired and couldn't tackle the whole thing, so just put everything we knew we wanted to keep back in no particular order. (Because of how everything was jumbled up, it really wasn't possible to do the "one shelf at a time" thing I've done with other areas.)

So eventually (possibly we might do some more in the next couple weeks, but I am not going to stress if we don't) we'll have to come back and go through the rest of the stuff, then organise it all nicely, but for now, we've at least got a ton of stuff out of there.

Flickr is not wanting to show these in the right order, so actually the after pics are showing up first, then the befores (I only say that because they are both messy so it may be hard to tell in some cases!). But the tag for the closet is here and the whole set with everything we've decluttered this year is here (that one is organised in order, since it does let you rearrange sets).

( Lists of stuff thrown away and given to charity )


So, changing the subject slightly. The furniture. I will have pictures once everything is properly moved around. Currently the living room and dining room are a huge mess because there are two sofas and a loveseat in them! Also a very large desk.

You see, when we were thinking of how to rearrange the new sofa stuff, we began pondering what to do with the desk in the bedroom. That desk was bought a few years ago because Carla wanted a desk in the living room to set up another computer. That never took off too much, but then she did use it for doing homework for a while. But when we rearranged the living room, we put it in the bedroom and now it never gets used. It seems silly to have it sitting in there taking up space if it's not getting used, but we don't actually need three desks.

It's also a little nicer than I'd just want to give away, yet I don't know that I want to go to the trouble of selling it. And I do like the looks of it a lot. So what we decided to do is give away my old desk, which I do love dearly, but which is huge and I don't actually need all that space. I'd rather have floor/wall space than desktop space these days. So we'll get rid of the old desk (hopefully the guys will take it tomorrow) and I've moved the newer desk into the computer room and set up shop at it. I am liking it quite a bit, though it will take a while to get used to!

The only thing I didn't like about this new (to me!) desk was the horrible CD rack on the side. Why did I even install it!? We don't actually have CDs to put on it, and it doesn't hold them well unless you fill the whole thing up. Either way it's just a dust-catcher. So I unscrewed some bits that were holding the top of the desk on, pushed up, and tried to pull it out. As luck would have it, it was exceedingly flimsy, so I was able to just bend it out, then screw everything back in. Take a look at the remains. :D

The printer stand needs to go between the desks now, which means there's no place for my little rolly cart. I will miss it, but at the same time, it's not got all that much stuff in it anymore, so I can put that stuff in the drawers of the printer stand (and move some of it elsewhere). All of this will really free up a lot of space in the computer room.

So now we have a ton of free space in the bedroom, too, and we hit upon the brilliant idea of putting the exercise bike in there. OMG IT WILL FINALLY NOT BE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM! This is a dream come true, really. There has never been room to have it elsewhere. I am super excited about this part.

Okay what the hell is wrong with you people?! There isn't a tag on AO3 for "puddlejumper sex"?

Or at least there wasn't....

There have been a lot of issues with notifications with several email providers for the past 2 weeks. Seems that a spammer has been using insanejournal.com as a landing page for their spam. This is causing some email providers to either delay or completely block mail from insanejournal.com.

There isn't anything we can do about this besides continue to be vigilant in suspending these accounts. If you own an account that gets suspended with no notification it is because your account was mistakenly identified as a spam account. Due to the shear volume of accounts being suspended we cannot review each individual account so some mistakes may be made.

Please understand we have been and will continue to do anything we can to stop this spam and therefore restore the ability to send email to a number of providers.

I am pretty sure fan scanlators would be paid pretty low (if at all) and that the official translators, who already aren't being paid very much will have their fees cut as a result.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-02/tokyopop-ceo-considers-using-fan-translators

So apparently, "real people" never ever get over having an abortion/making the decision to have one.

I can't give context because it's a comment in a locked post, but wow do I get tired of hearing, from both sides of the debate, that there's something wrong with me.

I also debated flocking this but no, this is part of who I am.

Well, I didn't get the quiet Saturday I was hoping for, as we ended up going out with Alexander to Target, Fry's, and Walmart. D: I was pretty exhausted by the end, but we got stuff we needed to get, so that was good. (Sadly the thing we got at Fry's must be returned, argh. Maybe we can get him to give us a ride again.)

And I am very glad that we decided to look at the Christmas tree lights before we went, because apparently two of our three strands died while sitting in the box between last Christmas and this Christmas. :( So we were able to get some cheap new strands at Walmart.

Then we came back home and Carla made this delicious pumpkin tortilla soup. OMG SO GOOD. And there's a ton left over, too. :D (And it was really easy to make.)

Title: Sekai no Owari to Yoakemae
Author: Asano Inio
My Rating: 5/5

This is a collection of ten short stories by the author of What a Wonderful World and Solanin. The art is just beautiful. I could really just look at his art all day.

I really enjoyed all the stories. He does such a great job of showing these little everyday moments. For example, "A Day in the Melancholy Life of A-ko the Daydreamer" is just what it says, a day in the life of Eiko, a girl who works part-time in a little shop in a train station. "Sunday, 6:30 PM" is the same Sunday evening told from three different POVs on the day Katsuhiko and Wakana discover their father is missing (each of their POVs, as well as their father's). "Before Dawn" is another one that highlights how things are linked in ways we don't notice, as it follows a bunch of people through the hours before dawn. "Tokyo" is about a manga author who goes back to the town he grew up in for a casual reunion with his old elementary school classmates. None of the stories are anything huge or exciting, just ordinary little moments. I love it.

I translated this for Kotonoha and the scanlation can be downloaded here.

Title: Hakase no Ai Shita Suushiki
Author: Kurita Riku & Ogawa Yoko
My Rating: 3/5

Based on the book of the same name, this is the story of a single mother who becomes the housekeeper to a math genius known only as "the professor" who has virtually no short-term memory after an accident. All the previous housekeepers have quit because he's so difficult, but over time the narrator and her son form a bond with the professor through math and baseball.

This was interesting and I enjoyed it, but while the professor is well-characterised (more than you usually get from this type of story, I think), it still definitely falls into the "what can disabled people teach us?" genre.

The manga is Japanese only, but the book is available in English.

• 23:00 @helens78 What Ruth said. Since they took away the option to see @ replies on your list if they're to people you don't follow, sometimes... #
• 23:01 @helens78 ...ppl do that so more ppl can see the reply. I try not to abuse it, just use it for something ppl might really be interested in. #
• 19:53 foodn00bs.typepad.com/the_food_n00bs_adventures/2009/12/its-the-marshmallowest-time-of-the-year.html - Marshmallow post! #
• 20:55 @thebratqueen I saw someone else on my list post about this. What'd they do? #
• 20:57 @thebratqueen WTF???? #
• 20:59 @thebratqueen Oh, Jesus. #
• 21:19 @bibliotech your link got truncated. #

1. I really liked this article: We're not looking for Pity: The Trouble With Poster Children.

2. It was quite warm most of the time Erin was here (which she was happy for, but I was not), but it's back to being nice cold fall weather now.

3. We got the water bill the other day and fixing that major leak did indeed lower the bill a lot. There's still one small leak that needs to be fixed, which will probably make it go down a couple dollars more, but at least the main problem is fixed.

4. Here are some things that showed up on my feed reader lately that made me happy:

Maru!

This Dinosaur Comics and that Dinosaur Comics.

This Natalie Dee and that Natalie Dee.

I wouldn't get a tattoo of it, but this is actually quite funny.

Wondermark!

• 12:27 Bought stuff for homemade peppermint marshmallows, realized we have no candy thermometer. D'oh! #
• 12:28 Will buy one today. Also, Fred Meyer only sells unflav. gelatin in "Preparing for Armageddon" quantities. 32-packet box, WTF? #
• 15:26 Waiting downtown for car to be finished. Go to Dollar Tree or Spartacus (adult shop)? Decisions, decisions. #
• 15:57 .@miz_missy I was all excited to bond with Fox over candymaking last night. Ah well, he has time this eve before going swimming. #
• 18:02 @ceciliatan Unh unh unh? #
• 18:03 My kitchen looks like the set of a low-budget bukkake film, but the marshmallows are made. Will post full story at foodn00bs blog tomorrow. #
• 18:04 (They won't be ready to eat until tomorrow. The fluff is a little too pepperminty at the moment, but that may change when they're dry.) #
• 18:29 imgs.xkcd.com/comics/stephen_and_me.png - hahaha every volvo we've had, we've called Vulva. #
• 18:29 Also, I GOT MY CAR BACK! They ordered the wrong replacement light, but they can pop that in quickly when the right one arrives on Mon. #
• 20:50 .@v_angelique foodn00bs.typepad.com - it's been pretty dead but my cowriter posted a restaurant review recently. #
• 22:38 @dyk Right? If the only way you can stir interest in your story is with a mystery character, why bother? #