Topicless thread

[Pitkin]

On the topic of phones, I got a new contract/number when moving to France this summer. I got both lucky and unlucky with it: good news are that my number is easy to remember, and the bad news that the previous owner was obviously an active user of phone sex lines, at least judging from the text messages I get from the field professionals. :/ It was just a wee bit enerving when a phone I had had operating for like 20 minutes greeted me with that. ._.

--i also have the problem that people think i'm angry when i'm not. it's really frusterating to have people think you're taking a "tone" when you're not. ><;; --

I have the same problem, Choco. I've been told by a speech therapist that it's because I easily let my voice get louder and louder when talking enthusiastically, and it then converts into feelings of "oh, she's angry again", while I'm feeling totally calm and in good mood. ><

Also, thanks for the wishes regarding the newly-discovered hot water for shower. ^.^

@IanDanKilmaster: Yes, I get angry all the time for real too. Reading about human rights issues does that easily. :/

[Paul]

Alright, Austrian government just passed a law allowing the police to monitor everyone's internet and telephone connections with the slightest hint of doing something against the law.
This "anti-terrorism" law (which in fact doesn't prevent ANYTHING terroristical) tops it, it's time for a VPN now X.X

[IanDanKilmaster]

@Pitkin:
I'm most definitely with you there.  I think I've proven once or twice on this board that violations of rights of privacy or freedom of choice tend to set me on a rant pretty easily.

@Paul:
Gah... really?  That's horrendous.  It just reminds of the completely useless Department of Homeland Security we have here.  When will people get that safety, for the most part, is just an illusion?

[Paul]

@Ian: Yep, our new minister for inner reations is even worse than the last one (the last one was known for her "hard hand" concerning immigrants, the new one is all that + even more uninformed). Today in Social Studies we watched a speech by Obama... one thing I learned from that is that our politicians could seriously learn a lot from him concerning speech training... with our politicians I'm feeling underrepresented in the world (especially with that HORRIBLE english of them) T_T

[Bella]

Changing topics, has anyone here ever been taken by surprise by something that suddenly made them hair-pullingly, forehead vein-poppingly, or throw your TV/monitor out the window angry?

All the time. The worst offenders in my case are:

-Stories about abuses in the big pharma industry (namely, undertested drugs that make it onto the market, holding back on developing medicines since profit can't be made from them yet, and the peddling of drugs for largely invented illnesses)

-Societal taboos about womens' health issues, and the widespread ignorance that people (even a lot of doctors) have toward said issues. (This really runs the gamut, from women not being taught or finding out themselves how their bodies actually work, to menstrual shame, to people using hormonal BC without actually knowing how it works, to GYNs operating on outdated information... I should stop here before I tl;dr)

-This kind of goes with the above statement, but Women-are-just-men-with-vaginas Feminism (or any school of thought that espouses that women and men are essentially the same, of if they aren't, that they SHOULD be the same) drives me insane, and is horribly scientifically counterproductive.

-Ignorance and discrimination against any gender, sex or sexual orientation, but the discrimination that some asexuals and demisexuals face is something especially bothersome to me for obvious reasons. Heteroromantic or aromantic asexuals don't live with the threat of physical and/or psychological violence that a lot of other LGBT people might, but homo-, bi- or panromantic asexuals in relationships with members of the same gender certainly could. And asexuals of any romantic orientation still face a hell of a lot of ignorance, from people who think they're just faking it, repressing their sexuality, that they're hormonally or psychologically defective, or that it's a choice like celibacy.  I don't even want to get started on the some of the shit demisexuals face...

@Choco: I know the feeling about people assuming you're feeling a certain emotion when you aren't. Everybody IRL who doesn't know me personally always seem to jump to the conclusion that I'm depressed, simply because I'm not going around with a creepy smile on my face

I'm the opposite. People refuse to believe I might be depressed, or even that I'm very neurotic and pessimistic, since I smile and laugh a lot. Like i can't be sad and still find humor in various situations. It's terribly difficult to get people to take me seriously because of this. :/

[IanDanKilmaster]

@Paul:
You're right on the money.  Love him or hate him, Obama is quite a gifted speaker.  I honestly think it's done more to help our relations with other countries than promote any real difference on our own shores.  I know many people feel differently, but after 8 years of "that's the country that has the special needs cowboy as their leader", it's pretty nice to be able to talk politics internationally without having to get over that topic first.  That being said, I think the real substance of a leader is reflected in how they act on what they say, which, to be honest, has led me to become very jaded.  The march of progress seems to have been indefinitely impeded, and the global direction seems to be towards that of corporate sovereignty and the financial bondage of the working class.

And there I go... :/

@Bella:
Don't even get me started on pharmaceutical companies... making a profit on death... grrrr

I have to agree with you about gender equality.  I think people forget there's a difference between equality and egalitarianism.  There's a stark separation between being the same and being treated fairly.

On sexuality, I have to say it's not something I really understood at first either.  Growing up, all I knew was what I was taught, so I only allowed myself to go so far.  I feel lucky to have been born bisexual, as it didn't cause me any sexual conflicts (well other than what might be considered "normal") growing up and I was, albeit unbeknownst to myself, able to fly under the radar, so to speak.  Now that I have become more open-minded and more willing to consider every possibility, I've learned more about the different forms of sexuality and can understand it more.  I can definitely see where asexuality presents a serious challenge, especially in traditional Western society, where everyone expects you to meet someone, get married, have children, and live the life of a Norman Rockwell painting (or, if you live in the South - knock some girl up you hardly know, get married, have ten more kids, get divorced, have ten kids with some other person, and live the life of someone to be featured at some point on COPS).  Even if the expectations of people you know aren't so traditional, it can still be a problem due our (not always) subversively sexual society (at least in the US), after all, a man is not a virgin.  In a nutshell - I feel your pain.

[Nichi]

@Dan: I cringed over that one line about the south, because for some of the more rural areas I've gone to, that seems so true.

Which, yeah; topics involving sexuality and gender equality tend to be a bunch of bullshit in my experience. Like how, especially in the US (Especially in the south, especially in Texas, and especially in small towns like where I'm at now), if you're a guy and you enjoy wearing women's clothing in public, everybody seems to jump to the conclusion that you're gay; forcing the people like me (Who consider themselves straight, but still enjoy wearing it) into hiding to avoid being falsely labeled. Meanwhile, a woman can wear men's clothing in public, and very few people jump to the conclusion that she's a lesbian.

Ah, double standards. So stupid...

[Chocofreak13]

depends on the clothing. but i get your point.

must say, that was one hell of a wall of text......but i'm inclined to agree on most points.

big pharm can go F*ck itself. any system that won't allow a drug that can cure heroin addiction with a 95% success rate just because it wasn't approved because it wasn't tested in THIS country because the companies who test it can't make as much money off of it as they can other drugs is rubbish in my mind.

men and women are not the same. they should be treated the same, and they're both carbon-based lifeforms, but they are not the same physically. one has longer hair. :3

i was mentioning to my mother earlier how much it bothers me that asexuals get treated even worse sometimes than homo and bisexuals, because people think they're faking or something. >:\




off the earth-shaking topics, interesting events of the day:

~class went better than i thought, as did the rest of the day
~saw a penny in the subway tracks, almost climbed in after it. declared myself most frugal person i know.
~disgruntled former friend still in high school sent me angry message asking why her and her friend weren't picked to take over anime club, told her that the guy i picked was more serious about it that she and the other girl ever were
~bus driver for the town's middle school was arrested for driving the children to school while drunk

[stewartsage]

Bus driver related: My bus driver from middle school died.  He'd worked for the county for fifty years, while running a dairy farm, and having survived the Pacific theatre in WWII.

Other then that..... I haven't been posting because I can't think of anything to say.

[Chocofreak13]

that's ok. sometimes it's better not to post, so we don't have one-liners or dribble. xD

that said, sorry about that. he sounded like a cool guy.

[Red-Machine]

Greetings from sunny Florida!

My host is ill again today, so it looks like we won't get much done.  But it's still great that I can spend time with her.

[Pitkin]

Hope you two manage to have a great time regardless of illnesses. There seems to be a lot of flu going on... ><

[IanDanKilmaster]

@stew:
Sorry about the loss, man.  He sounds like he was a good guy to know.  I just recently learned of an older guy in my hometown that passed as well.  He was always very friendly, was always good for a laugh, and one of the few people I could say my father befriended.

As for not posting, I can relate.  I lurk offline from time to time and decide not to post for awhile for the same reason.

@red:
Welcome to the states, friend.  As I'm sure you're well aware by now, the flighty weather here in the southern states tends to lend itself to more frequent states of illness, so take care of yourself.  I hope your friend recovers soon, and you two enjoy yourselves :3.

[stewartsage]

He was a cool guy that ran the best school bus I ever rode in my career; no one got anything past him.  Never managed to pronounce my friend Anthony's last name correctly (Zban).

[Nichi]

Meh, today sucked.

Apparently, my boss remembered over a month later about the whole nightshift thing, so he's trying to force that onto me again; refusing to give me any incentive to make this worthwhile (Full time benefits being the big one). So, even if I don't have another job lined up yet, I'm going to likely turn in my resignation; I'm tired of everything I've put up with from that place this past year. It's not worth it anymore.

But, on a lighter note, I at least have my GED; so getting a new job would be easier