by Amber Rhea
I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure babe.
I do. I do. I do.
I have chronic migraines, and I *need* to sleep a certain amount and take frequent naps. I get shit for it ALL THE TIME about how I must be the laziest person ever and HOW DO I SLEEP THAT MUCH and why won’t I get up early on the weekend to do X, Y or Z. People get headaches too, you know, and they just deal with it.
The only way that I can function with my full-time job, that I need to, you know pay my bills, is to get an amount of sleep that is adequate for me.
I would think the primary benefit of getting the “right” amount of sleep for you is that you feel good. When I can’t sleep, I don’t give a damn about how that will affect my productivity (of course, still in college) and my ability to help others, I worry about how I will feel – will I be able to think, to cross the road safely, to stay awake.
I write on my hand.
I used to draw all over my left hand and arm in high school, but my palm was reserved for Very Important Reminders.
Clearly, I am an idiot undeserving of a part in national conversation, and also fodder for much mocking self-righteous laughter.
Yeah, that whole strand of conversation really kind of bothers me. It’s like, this is Sarah Palin we’re talking about. We should be able to criticize her on something more substantial than the fact she uses her hand as a memory aid. Like, say, her actual politics? Just maybe?
Right now, for example, I have the remnants of four things I needed to get done yesterday still faintly visible on my palm. I am pretty sure this does not disqualify me from intelligent conversation, y’know?
Thank you! I’ve left comments elsewhere pointing out that it’s not unusual at all to prepare for a Q&A session by making some notes about topics you want to cover in your answers. Mocking someone for using their hand instead of notecards is petty.
Yep.
Plus I’m not convinced that that photo wasn’t Photoshopped.
theviolenceofhandcrafteddolls:
What does it say about me that I find the “nightmare” future prophesized by Huxley in Brave New World kind of appealing? I think being able to fly around in helicopters,sleep with everyone you are attracted to and take mass quantities of awesome mood enhancers sounds quite ok. I’d sacrifice God and poetry for the helicopters alone.
Feminism is a different matter. For whatever reason, people don’t think it’s worth doing research before spouting off about something in the humanities. We hear it all the time. “Feminism is stupid and dated because men aren’t all evil.” For misstatements of fact, that’s right up there with “Mountain Dew is great for birth control.” Then there’s “Feminists are bad because [I can’t be bothered to do my research and have no idea what I’m talking about].” Seriously. If you don’t get what feminism is about, check Wikipedia or something. If that’s too much effort, fine. But why pretend to speak with authority on something you know nothing about?
theviolenceofhandcrafteddolls:
i was at the hospital today, getting another sex change, my last one had gotten filthy at the beach, when i looked up in the waiting room and saw a crucifix. i was actually frightened by it. i couldn’t even fathom any other possible reaction to seeing a man hanging from a torture device. it’s incomprehensible to me that a person might see that image and feel comforted.
i was raised catholic and attended church service as well as CCD up until i was 18. i always despised the catholic church. it’s not something i’m proud of though. i did try, on a number of occasions, to pay attention to what the priest was saying and, for a period of time, i really tried to get “saved”. my mom and sisters were totally into it, and my dad became a late life convert. for david and i, it held no kinda fullfillment or function. for me, organized religions are only good for 1 or 2 things. #1 to give people a sense of community and compassion for each other, so when bad things happen in a community, there are people willing and happy to offer help and support. #2 offer people a chance to sing together. that’s about it.
the catholic church is somber and boring. even the songs are sung in monotone. there is absolutly no joy or celeberatory feeling during the service. some people enjoy that sort of heavy repression but i never could. if anything, it would just put me to sleep. it made me feel extremely cynical. i couldn’t understand how so many grown ass men and women would sit there in their pews, week after week, and just listen to some hollow man explain the current day significance of some incredible myth from the bible. i can’t understand how any adult is actually capable of truly believing in a human friendly God, let alone all the other stuff,like moses parting the sea,noah building the arc, Lott in the cave with his sexually deranged daughters… the big one for me is jesus. i can’t make sense of his deal. sent down by his father God, to save human society from destructive self obsession, unchecked desires, apathy, uncleaniness…sent down to teach us how to get our shit together and stop being such fuck ups. so he performed some rad magic with fish and loaves of bread, he walked on waterbeds, he had his feet annointed, he gave us the golden rule,he had a strange couple of lost weeks in the desert with satan, he wiped his face on a shroud, people gave him palm fronds, he smashed the shit out of some false idols…all of this and yet somehow no one really liked him, and so they tortured him, brutally, nailed him to a cross and watched him die. then, somehow, years and years later, he’s celebrated as this impossibly rad guy. i can understand believing that he did exist and that, possibly, he did all of those wild things, but i still don’t see how viewing him dead on the cross, could give anyone a sense of relief or comfort. all i wanna do is get him down from there and clean him up and take him out to dinner or something.
What we’re doing now is somewhat polarizing, though it’s definitely not intended to be. But I rarely self-Google, because it’s too terrifying and freaky. Every time I see a comment like, “Of Montreal is great, they’re my favourite band,” right underneath it there’ll be a comment like, “This band sucks, I hate them so much, I wish Kevin Barnes would die.” Some people get very emotional about it—it’s just human beings making art! When people say, “That asshole is so pretentious, he needs to be knocked off his high horse,” they don’t realize that that pretentious asshole is totally freaked out by the world and has a lot of anxiety problems and is actually a sweet person and needs their love. You might think that Bono really has his shit together. He’s in one of the most popular bands in the world. But I bet he stands naked in the shower and looks down at his feet and thinks, “God, I’m a weird little dinosaur.” I don’t think anyone feels totally content and secure all the time, no matter how successful or popular they are. They’re still these little dinosaurs.
A Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, checks out the commotion.
I have these in my garden but they’re too quick for me. They make the tiniest little nests.
