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therealljidol

This week, however, only community members may vote in the poll. DUN-dun!

If you care to (and totally not holding it against you if you don't), you can join the community and cast your votes either on the voting page or below.

I got a silly idea just yesterday; I could've written the post about cheese and omelettes. ("Cheese!" being how you often tell people to smile in photos in English. In Swedish, it's omelette. ♪ Papara furi furi papara hoe hoe papara furi furi TAMAGO!!!! ♪)

( Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you... THE POLL! Round of applause! )

And but me no buts, simply using the word "feminist" to describe yourself practically screams "western civ." Women in the Mideast or Asia or Africa--- you know, places where they actually ARE being persecuted and mistreated?--- don't call themselves "feminists." They're not rich and spoiled enough to afford to call themselves feminists. They just call themselves women and get on with surviving.

Being a "feminist" in 21st century America is as about as socially relevant as being an Abolitionist. If you actually gave a damn about womens' rights you'd be over rallying and lobbying over in places like Africa, Asia and the Mideast, where real oppression of women (and real slavery, for that matter) are still going on right now; here, though, you're just a pretentious whiner.

• 09:38 I briefly concidered going to the Yankee's parade to see the spectacle, but then remembered that I'm not a baseball fan. #
• 09:45 @darrylayo u gonna go out and watch it? Take pictures so I can see the crazy! #
• 09:57 @darrylayo Kinda takes all the fun outta it doesn't it? I mean, there's no *sport* in this sport! #
• 10:30 I find it a tad incongruous that we're having the Yankee's parade today. I hope they spare a moment of silence for the victims at Ft. Hood. #
• 11:00 @darrylayo lovely. #
• 11:01 @darrylayo oh they'll get there....tomorow #
• 11:23 @darrylayo Poo on that. BUTTS I SAY! #
• 11:32 @darrylayo meh. at least u know ur alive, right? ^_^ #
• 11:38 @darrylayo I'm just trying to cheer you up. In reality, Jobs exist to make us pay for our money. #
• 14:05 Daily Yoga accomplished. Wondering when I'll feel zen. #
• 18:44 Ran a whole lot at the gym. Don't feel Zen yet. #

But call after 7PM for free minutes.

So... crazy deaths in Texas and Orlando the past couple days. Condolences to the families of everyone affected. I'm glad the gunmen in both cases were caught before they had a chance of doing more damage. I'd say we live in scary times, but honestly looking 100 ago and 100 years in the future... there's always violence out there. I'm just thankful that America isn't too bad with the violence. I mean, imagine living a year in say... Iraq. Yikes ._.

Well, gotta think happy thoughts. Gotta move on. Gotta make the most of the next two days. Each day gets me closer to Thanksgiving. A day to be really thankful for the family I have and the roof over my head. Even if the money is running dry, I just gotta keep taking it one day at a time. Live for the day. Keep looking forward. Count your blessings.

And now I leave you with a combination Yoda saying/Anime reference I made up:
"Slayers or Slayers Next. There is no Try."

(P.S.: I actually do like slayers Try)

Current Mood:	contemplative
Current Music:	moment of silence

This has been bothering me all day.  Not the comment - its a fair comment about something I hadn't thought about, as I learned decades ago when I wanted to be a writer to hook and embellish and I've never lost the habit.  I don't go overboard in the exaggeration, tho, to the point of lies because I do not want to do that.  But yes, I do exaggerate.

No, what's been bothering me is that I've been bothered enough to keep thinking about the fact that the guy said it and possible repercussions.  I don't do this most of the time with things friends and family say, tho their opinions ARE important to me...just strangers, and I've read that this happens a lot with people, where the opinions of strangers seem to count more than that of friends and family.  This kind of intrigued me - why was I ruminating on this comment, which I think is a fair assessment?  If a family member or a friend said it, I would consider it, ponder on it, take it to heart if I decided to, but the simple fact it *was said* wouldn't keep coming back to haunt me.  So...why?

I came to the conclusion that it has to do with familiarity.  Friends and family - you know what they're going to do with the information they just conveyed, you know what their reactions are, and so forth, and that they actually care about you.  Strangers and passing acquaintances on the other hand - you don't know.  Even if you like them (and generally if their opinions seem to matter to you, you do), there's a fear of the unknown.  Are they going to paste it all over creation, try and make your life miserable?  Are they trying to be helpful?  Are they intending to be nice, be bastards, do they give a damn?  Were they somehow hurt by what you said?  You just don't know, so the fear drives to try and make sure that the outcome will be good, but since you don't know the person and thus the way to make it good with them, you're left ruminating on the event, trying to figure out from what tiny little slivers you know how to 'make good'...over and over again.

When the better reaction would be to consider what they say, agree or discard it, then let it be.  Like when werewolfie Oz was told by a critic fearful of his reaction that his band 'played like they had sausages strapped to their fingers'; he considered it, said it was fair, then  dropped the matter entirely.

This has been a reminder to me. :D  Be like Oz.  :D

--Moony

Current Mood:

contemplative

The President doesn't make the world go around.

The President can't wave a magic wand and make unemployment go up or go down; the President can't make the economy boom or bust.

While we're at it, the President can neither turn the country into an ultraconservative science-hating theocracy, nor a socialist police state.

The President is not a magical king who makes the sun shine and the birds sing if he's a Good King or turns the world into a wasteland if he's a Bad King.

While I'm on the topic, here's another bit of elementary social science for you: the majority of the country is neither right-wing nor left-wing. It may drive you nuts that not everybody is a howling monkey about politics the way you are, but it's reality and you're going to have to come to grips with it. More people base their vote on the person than they do the ideology behind it. Still more people base their vote on what they think other people are going to vote. It's completely stupid and irrational. But that's the human race for you.

The country didn't "move to the left" in 2008, nor did it "move to the right" in 2009. The country's exactly in the same place it always is.

The American political scene actually has an extremely narrow range of views that it will actually tolerate. The right wing thinks it's too far to the left. The left wing thinks it's too far to the right. Most people just want to live their lives already. All the shrieking, name calling, and general snark doesn't do anything except get people more entrenched in their blinder-vision. And in the long run, that's much, much more harmful to the nation than anything either major political party will ever be able to make fly in Congress.

So, to put it bluntly, if you can't keep yourself civil, SHUT THE #&$** UP. Seriously. Take whatever political stance suits you; by all means, campaign, pound the pavement, vote for what you believe in. BUT STOP BEING SUCH A BUNCH OF JERKS ABOUT IT. YOU'RE HURTING THE COUNTRY YOU CLAIM TO LOVE.

-The Gneech

PS: Comments screened. Not in the mood to put up with nonsense.

Current Location:	work
Current Mood:	annoyed

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/10/23/Wiccan_Says_Firing_Was_Religious_Bias.htm

HARTFORD (CN) - A sales manager says she was fired unfairly for making her annual religious pilgrimage to Salem, Mass., to celebrate the Wiccan New Year. She claims her boss told her, "You will need a new career in your new year. ... I will be damned if I have a devil-worshipper on my team."

In her federal complaint, Gina Uberti says she worked for Bath and Body Works for 8 years, and for 6 years had been allowed to make the annual trip in October celebrate the Wiccan holiday of Samhain.

She says she was granted her request to take vacation the week of Oct. 31, 2008 by her boss at the time, regional manager Scott Kerby. But Kerby was replaced by Sandra Scibelli, whom Bath and Body Works hired in 2008, according to the complaint.

On Nov. 4, 2008 Uberti says, she had a phone conversation with Scibelli, who expressed disappointment that Uberti had chosen the week of Oct. 31 for her vacation. Uberti says she explained that her vacation had already been approved and that she was celebrating a religious holiday.

Uberti says Scibelli responded, "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Let me ask you where your priorities should have been?"

Uberti says she asked what was ridiculous, and Scibelli replied: "Well, you will need a new career in your new year." Scibelli allegedly added, "I will be damned if I have a devil-worshipper on my team."

Uberti says she was fired in November 2008. She seeks lost wages and punitive damages for religious discrimination.
She is represented by James Sabatini of Newington.

The lawsuit states that many Wiccans go to Salem, Mass. to celebrate their new year, which begins at sundown on Oct. 31, but it does not explain why they chose Salem - perhaps an unlikely choice - for the festival. Samhain, or the Wiccan New Year, is "the most important of the four 'greater Sabbats'" or festivals, for Wiccans, Uberti says.

I'm not Wiccan, I'm not really anything in particular besides 'Not'. As in Not Christian, Not Hindu, Not Muslim, etc. But, I do believe that folks have the right to worship as they will (so long as it does no harm to others), and my job has no right to have any say in what that should be. It sounds to me like she kept a pretty tight lid on it, right up until she was pushed to say why she wanted the time off. It's not like she announced it to the world and made an issue of it, up until her boss pressured her.

Besides, is Halloween that big of a deal for the body product stores? Is there a sudden rush on bath salts and body butter?

Feedback form for B&BW:
http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/helpdesk/index.jsp?display=store&subdisplay=contact&isStoremanDriven=yes&stillHaveQuestion=yes

Current Mood:

irritated

1: Working at boss 2's home and his pc is infected. Blah.

2: They're making a new "The Prisoner"! Saw an interview of Number 6 on Fox while working on this pc. I wonder if the_gneech and fuzzwolf know about this.

--Salen

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