slightly late birthday loot

[guingel]

Mini feminist rant: God fucking damn, the "boy crisis" thing - I think it was more of an issue about two or three years ago, not so much now thank god, but it's the idea that boys are doing poorly in American schools because the system favors women? MAKES ME SO MAD. Hahaha, oh man. It's just so fucked up. White dudes (like Pat Buchanan recently) are all "affirmative action discriminates against white men, there's no need to correct the system to help women and minorities that have been traditionally excluded from it." When boys are doing poorly, suddenly they're all "System don't work, unequal results clearly means the system is bad, gotta change it." The main thrust of it is that boys are naturally rebellious and don't learn well in the current school environments that require you to WORK HARD and FOLLOW RULES. Guys. Where was this natural rebellion in schools of the past, that were men-only and where you'd be beaten with a switch if you stepped out of line? Natural rebellion. . . shut the fuck up.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure people aren't really thinking about this now. I was just watching the handful of daily show clips tagged "sexism". And I'd also come across it in a feminist blog a while ago but I was reading older entries, I think. >.> Fingers crossed!

If people were wondering how rational people explain the difference in results, it is the fact that boys are encouraged among their peers and sometimes at home, to act cool and badass and not work hard. It is more socially acceptable for girls to be studious, but that's not because of natural tendencies, as history shows. However! I can sort of see some of the points that are being made about elementary school - kids are being punished for being energetic, it's seen as acting up when it's really not. That's a different thing than "I can't work hard in a classroom setting, I should be allowed to take advanced classes pass/fail so I can get AP credits on my transcript without doing well" thing that this high school kid is saying. Natural urge to move is different from natural urge to rebel.

Other side note - I find the claim that there aren't enough male teachers to be particularly obnoxious, as men won't enter the teaching field because like many female-dominated professions, it's not particularly well paid.

So, now I'm watching an interview with Patricia Richardson, who I love! I love Home Improvement and I didn't even have a crush on JTT (although now I pretend I do because I want to feel like a part of my generation). Once I was watching the E True Hollywood Story about it and I was interrupted because my grandpa wanted to watch something, but I was really enjoying it and now I want to know what I missed. Also, it's weird when Jon calls her Patricia, I was seriously expecting him to say Jill.

Katie and I made cupcakes, now I'm left with 6 of them. :D Also she got me loads of awesome stuff from Germany! So much! So awesome! An adorable little wooden figurine with a fuzzy beard, and some Aschenputtel-themed chocolates, and some chocolates in the shape of animals that say 100% Holz on them, so I'm like "Oooh, Shokolade Zoo! . . . what does 'Holz' mean?" and Katie starts laughing - ". . . Wood." Yes, she got me chocolates in the shape of animals made out of wood. Which is basically just little wooden animals. XD In a box. Apparently she got herself wooden teabags, I can only imagine what those look like?

And she got me an adorable little metal pot thing that's white with blue flowers painted on it, and a book called "Die Geschichte einer Straße," or "The History of a Street" - it's a big book, and each two-page spread is a picture of a street from a different era, with things labelled. So I will learn all sorts of historical words. Like "Hügelgrab," which I believe means burial mound - after it's initial appearance, it is labelled in every subsequent page as "altes Hügelgrab," or "old burial mound." Thanks, book (actually by 1300 CE the Hügelgrab gets replaced with a mill). Also, this book does not pull punches. There are slaves in Roman times, there's a cart full of dead people during the plague times, a Viking raid carrying off children, doctors chopping off people's feet. . . and in every era, shit gets set on fire. Also, there are robbers. But seriously, if there's one lesson to be learned from this book, it's that shit can always burn.

Oh, on the subject of birthdays, Susan/ayamachi got me a book about synesthesia, presumably to make me feel more bitter about the fact that my senses always work solo and refuse to cooperate or blend. Anyway, it seems like a totally awesome book and I assume it will be almost as educational as Die Geschichte einer Straße, although perhaps not on the subject of fires. The book also came with a letter containing drawings of Joey B (with magnificent combover) and Patrick Stewart (without combover), both of whom were conspicuously lacking from the German book.

In conclusion, it has been an excellent week+ long birthday! Now I think I'll try putting my clothes away in my dresser, they've been sitting folded in my laundry basket for a long time. Like, weeks, slowly accumulating, since they aren't my work clothes.

OH ALSO! Who out there watched Gackt on VS Arashi? Cos first off, it was REALLY entertaining. But second off! OH MY GOD. The other guest! Daisuke Miyazaki! Mr. Handball! Sportsman No. 1! The reason I'm excited about him? NINJA WARRIOR! I guess I should use my Nagano icon. Yeah, Miyazaki and some of his douchey handball friends have competed in a couple of recent Sasuke competitions, and they always make a big deal out of him because he keeps winning these Pro Sportsman competitions and is quite good-looking. He's done. . . okaaaay at Sasuke. XD Hahaha, oh my god, though, the Sasuke-world almost never ever collides with Johnnys-world, I forget that they're the results of the same popular culture until something like this happens and I was SO PUMPED and so entertained! :D I'm waiting for Nagano to be on Janiben, I think it'd be a good match - they have somewhat random people on, right? And it would just be so beautiful. I would cry with happiness.

Comments

[nitrosss.livejournal.com]

Happy belated birthday! :)

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was last Friday, so it's kind of like the 12 Days of Birthday now. Very awesome.

You're up early. Is your paper due today?

[nitrosss.livejournal.com]

That's super cool, specially since you've been getting presents all week!

Yeah, it's due today before midnight. I just finished putting in the last citation a few minutes ago, actually. lol I started on it at... er, maybe 2am? But anyway, it's done. :) Hooray!

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Wooo! And you're 16 hours early! Pleeeeeeenty of time.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

...you didn't have a crush on JTT?! but everyone did! I don't blame you for faking it!

!! is the gackt vs. arashi thing recent? This sounds like tons of fun.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I didn't. I don't remember watching the show because of him or anything like that. If there was anyone I was watching that show for, it was Wilson. . . oh my god, I need Wilson/Feeny fanfic like I need air and candy.

It's from a week or so ago! Taijiproject subbed it! :D OH MY GOD. IT'S AMAZING. GACKT. AND. TRYING? AND THE GACKTNESS. AND THEN DAISUKE MIYAZAKI NOT DOING NINJA WARRIOR BUT IN FACT HANGING OUT WITH ARASHI. Hahahaha so entertaining!! Also I like seeing Miyazaki put in uncomfortable situations. But not as much as I like seeing Gackt in uncomfortable situations.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

You already had 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-go' right? There must be some reason I left it out of the pile of 80's songs!

[guingel.livejournal.com]

I did indeed already have it! You did not leave me hanging on like a yo-yo, no worries. :D

Also hey, so. Do NOT fuck with crows. Because they will REMEMBER YOU AND SEEK REVENGE (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106826971&ft=1&f=1001).


Susan! Rob Riggle is somewhere in NYC today! But only for today! I MUST FIND HIM.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

Fuck! Now I'm kind of freaked out about crows. But more importantly, YOU MUST FIND ROB RIGGLE!! Is he gonna go on the Daily Show today? Go stalk him!

[guingel.livejournal.com]

He's hosting. . . "Live @ Gotham"? I have no clue what that is! Although it occurs to me that I should try to find out. . . Comedy Central's stand-up showcase. So would that mean he's filming? So it'd be on TV eventually? You'd think the Rob Riggle mailing list would have kept me more up to date about these things!! I can't go to their website cos our websense flags it as streaming media. OK and apparently it's this (http://www.gothamcomedyclub.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=100960&year=2009&month=8)? But I can't even see how much the tickets cost because it's also streaming media. XDDD But I have to go home tonight - we're actually doing Katie and my birthday this weekend! So it's okay. ::sigh:: I should say I'm working late and just hang around 23rd street for a while. Oh, Rob Riggle. ::sighs again, but more dreamily this time::

How are you doing? I finished what I was working on and both our email and our document management system are down! I have something I can poke at but. . .

Also I learned the flags of Asia this morning. Syria and Yemen have almost the same flag! And Taiwan's is really similar to. . . Myanmar's, I think.

double-edit: i just remembered what I was supposed to be working on. XD Cool, cool.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

I know of the Gotham comedy club, but I've never been. Sigh! I've only been to one comedy club in NYC, but in high school I totally thought I would be going to tons of them. I am so lame, that was half the reason I was so excited to live there! It sounds like he'll have his own special? That's pretty kick ass!

The flag pages were my favorite pages in our encyclopedia, purely because they were the only things in color. Your success at flag naming excites me. I'm going to try some flag tests now, and I'm going to fail miserably.

My parents are leaving tomorrow for the lake beach shindig in Ohio. They were just now going over things about the house that I already know. Like where to turn off the water if a pipe breaks. Fantastich!

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Thought! I think being a conservative and not being a complete shit is often based on the belief that everyone gets a fair shake, a fair chance to succeed. And that belief is just so wrong, such bullshit. It's how privileged people convince themselves that they deserve what they have.

Comedy clubs stress me out because they're promoted so aggressively. I'm like, if it was really good, would you need to shove it in my face as I walk around Times Square? I guess it's for tourists. . . Also I'm picky about comedy, as you probably noticed already.

Remember that flag naming is a process! It starts with absolute failure and a lot of guessing. Then, when they give you the answers, you try to hold on to some of the more memorable ones (like Bangladesh, which has the same flag as Japan but with green instead of white) and slowly add to that, using various memory trips (like how I learn which flags look like each other, then I at least narrow down my guessing possiblities).

I should write an essay "How to learn flags via sporcle."

Hey, I have no clue where to turn off the water. My parents never saw fit to show me, even if they were going to be away. XD I guess I'd call them?

Are you excited about the house to yourself?

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

Thought!Response: That makes sense, but that came out of no where.

12/47 Flags of Europe. That's a far way off. ): I think I'm going to give up immediately.

I also just made french toast. In the microwave.

Free comedy clubs? pff. I don't mean those! I mean that I would have access to comedians I liked who never came on tour in the Philly area. I had a lot of options to go see in NYC this year.. I just didn't take into account how expensive it would be. Oh well!

I AM SO READY TO HAVE THE HOUSE TO MYSELF FOR A WEEK! :DDDD

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, on ontd_political a conservative who's usually quite good-natured about the liberal bias posted a "why I'm a conservative" article that she said she kind of agreed with. But it has these huge logical flaws about society, I think. There's also some religion stuff in there. And greater emphasis on national security, which is fine. Some of it is just ridiculous. And a lot of the stuff the person was saying the Obama administration did, it was so ridiculous because the Bush administration was so so so so so much worse - like about openness, and stuff?

Also, in comments people were mentioning something about wasting the taxpayer's money, cos the Obama admin was accused of it. And they were like "what about a false war?" and the original poster was like "I don't believe it was misguided." And people were like "THere's loads of evidence, SO MUCH EVIDENCE, that it was a terrible idea." And she was like "If I stop believing that the Iraq war was justified, my whole political life falls down." And we were like "EXACTLY. CONSERVATISM IS BUILT ON LIES AND SELF-DECEPTION." Someone said "i was a conservative, until I realized that I might one day want an abortion, and that minority groups in our country don't have equal chances at success, and then I re-evaluated my worldview based on those facts and am no longer a conservative!!"

Oh, I forgot to tell you - you have to learn the names of the countries first! So you have something to guess. I'm always forgetting Montenegro. And I just learned that Kosovo was a country, too. I thought they were both cities. So I guess you have to do the Name the Countries of Europe quiz first and then move on to the flags. :D It'll be fun!!

. . . In the microwave? How does that work? Was it tasty? Mmmm, French toast!

Oh, those places are free? I don't know anything about this stuff, clearly.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

The french toast comes in freezer boxes!

I have a feeling I'm going to spend the day trying to memorize country names.

Free tickets with a two drink minimum, perhaps? I've never taken up those offers.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

You didn't tell me how it tastes!

How goes the country memorizing? :D Moldova? Liechtenstein? Slovenia? Albania? Croatia is easy cos it's shaped like a C. I always forget Belarus, though.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Hey so, I hope this (http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/3747617.html) is a feminist issue you'll be able to get angry about. It also shows why reinforcing stereotypes about sex and gender can be so harmful, i think.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

....wtf! Yeah, that does make me angry. D:

[guingel.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find that while very, very few men would condone violence against women - and those that do probably have mental and emotional problems - you probably will find that many men do on some level believe that they do "deserve to get laid," that it's necessary for men and it's something that women should really give them, because it's so important.

Feeding the male sex drive is one of the most significant fuctions of our entertainment culture, women are consistently reduced to sex symbols and their ability to arouse is valued above any other traits. Men are more likely to view women as sex objects than people, and men develop a strong sense of entitlement to sex. Violence against women results.

Government legislation, political action, women's rights groups on the ground can only do so much, because the source of the problems is in the way men view women and women view themselves and each other. That mindset needs to change, and the best way to do that is through education - and entertainment is one of the most effective way to educate people.

The reason I get upset that there aren't more women in powerful positions in the film industry is that I'm assuming that women would be producing less harmful and more positive works, although that obviously is not always the case. They might also help create a culture where that "feeding the male sex drive" isn't the be all end all.

Does that make sense? When you have comedies where it's funny for a guy to have sex with an unconscious drunk women, guys aren't going to think of that as a bad thing to do - when in fact, it's rape.

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

It all makes sense, yes. I agree with everything you've talked about before, I just have an awful time getting worked up about it. I think that's mostly what I'm trying to get across. I want to be angry, but it's like something is stopping me! The link above did make me rage though, so maybe I do have a soul. ):

[guingel.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because it seems unreal? Like, I've never been close to being raped, thank god. ::knocks on wood:: I don't actually face that many consequences of sexism, so it's easy not to feel too disturbed about it? I've read more personal accounts from people who have experienced violence and discrimination because of their gender, so the problems are probably more related to the consequences.

What about racism and poverty and hunger and other social issues? Do you get worked up about those more? Or is it about the same?

[ayamachi.livejournal.com]

Some days I feel like a shitty human being. I think you're right, It's that I'm so disconnected from the issues that I'm able to believe they aren't a big deal in our society. Obviously I need to get over this.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

That's why I often read the comments on discussions, even when I know they're horrible (i did not go to any of the MRA sites linked to in that article, though, even I have limits). They're often upsetting, but they do remind me that things really are still a problem. I wish I could start a good discussion about them, like at the forum or even amongst my co-workers because I'm sure there are lots of people who aren't sexist but who don't quite realize that sexism is still a problem - same with racism - but they aren't really the right places for it.

Not realizing how bad things are for other people is one of the big benefits of privilege and it's really natural and common and doesn't make you a bad person! But I also think it's important to try to be aware of the ways being white and educated and upper class make our lives easier. (Like so (http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf).)

You're not a shitty human being at all, though! Not fully realizing something is a problem is different from just hating on people, or trying to make life worse for people who are different from you, or trying to thwart people trying to make positive change! And lots of people aren't, like, actively involved in any of these movements (like me, apart from reading some articles), because political activism and stressing persistently over the state of the world just isn't a lifestyle that everyone can maintain. I think the important thing is to be aware of yourself and your behavior and how it might affect other people, and maybe to try to educate others when opportunities present themselves. (Sorry if I sound weird and preachy, by the way. Not like I'm an expert on these things! My knowledge is just based on reading stuff!)