Spark In Darkness
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| Friday, July 10th, 2009 | | 10:43 pm |
Beloved has a hobby
These are words to be uttered with deep and abiding dread and usually the cause of long term headaches. See, Beloved is almost as obsessive as I. He will find something and obsess about it deeply and totally until it consumes every free moment and he will merrily pour resources into it and time and energy until you feel you have to stage an intervention to save him. Now, he differs from me because he has the attention span of a concussed gold fish. My obsessions never let go. If his last a month then they’re setting records. Basdically this means that he will, say, decide to become the bestest rock musician EVAH. He will buy a guitar (and it must be a top of the range, shiny shiny guitar), amplifier, computer equipment for recording and weirdness (don’t ask me. I can barely be trusted to burn CDs). he will make tortured, horrendous noises every waking moment for 3 weeks, I’ll have to pry that guitar out of his hands so he can actually eat and hit him on the head to make him sleep. Then he’ll lose interest. Never again shall that guitar be played. He will then move to the next obsession - say, oil painting (complete with 10 billion colours, top of the range canvass, turning spare bedroom into a studio and considering making the window 3 times larger) and the guitar will be left for me to find somewhere to store it or, if I’m crafty, sneakily sell it. I generally find this... quirk... to be a mix of horrendously annoying and endearingly cute (because he is SO boyishly excited and enthusiastic and damn passionate about whatever has caught his eye, you can’t help but smile). My usual role is to let him get on with it while running damage control (You want to learn the violin? What a good idea! Do you NEED to bid on that Stradivarius though? Really? How about this one? It’s shiny!) Anyway, this spring, Beloved’s hobby was growing all our own fruits and vegetables (mainly tangenting off my obsession with not eating food that contains more chemicals than your average cleaning product). This is a good obsession because, other than stopping him trying to tear up the entire garden (yes yes, he did try) it required limited intervention on my part - and I could help him soap off when he got muddy. Shockingly, this hobby has lasted several months. And we are now *gasp* harvesting the fruits of his obsessive and inept soil poking labour. But.... He wanted to grow EVERYTHING. And had relatively limited space. So he grew a little of everything That he wants to pick the minute they look ripe. Exactly what does one do when presented with 4 strawberries? How does one incorporate 2 carrots into a meal? What dishes uses 3 baby tomatoes? I have a kitchen full of vegetables, fruits and salads. None of which are in sufficient quantity to feed a small, anorexic gerbil. As an aside - what lettuce leaf tastes like extra-strong mustard anyway? *pokes it* It’s kind of green and purple and probably poisonous. We’re probably all going to die from poisoned green salads. That really sucks. I mean, if you’re going to die by poisoning the least fate could do was arrange it to be cheese covered bacon. | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 2:31 am |
Interesting happenings in Iran
Interesting, more and more Iranian clerics - even powerful, traditional and influential ones - ones that are describes as being “old school revolutionaries” are speaking out against Khamenei and Ahmadinejad. Whether or not the election was corrupt, this is a great sign - unrest or at least lack of consensus at that level is powerful and can be extremely helpful not just in undermining both but in forcing both to be less autocratic and make more concessions and at least a show of consultation. Sure, most of it may just be the old grudges coming from Rafsanjani, but it’s looking promising. Of course, from Khamenei and Ahmadinejad’s pov it’s not ideal and certainly takes some of the wind out of their sails. They’ve been trying to blame foreign powers, but it’s all being rather civilised and diplomatic - not really enough to inflame rage. What they really need is a threat - overt or veiled from dangerous foreign powers and hated enemies to threaten them militarily - then they can galvanise their base and paint the dissenters as unpatriotic, traitors etc. Joe Biden: The US will not stand in the way of Israel bombing Iranian nuclear facilities Ah. Yeah, that’ll do it. | | Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | | 12:44 pm |
It seems the Tories want my vote
Not my vote personally this time, but the vote of homosexuals. Yes, that’s right, the Tories are after the “pink vote” (A brief aside. The PINK vote?! What the hell? Seriously media outlets, even the Rainbow vote would have been better!) They are doing this by apologising for Section 28, that vile piece of Tory legislation that prevented the “promotion of homosexuality” (translation - acknowledging we exist without the essential add-on that we are of course destined for our fiery torment in hell crackle crackle crackle) in school. It was implied that this was ancient history in the Tory party and they had changed. Really. Well David Cameron, I think you've got a few more apologies to make - you're not even half done What about apologising for OPPOSING the repeal of this bill in 2003? Where’s the sorry for that (only 60% of Tory MPs turned out for that vote, and 75% of those Tories voted to KEEP the ban)? What about the fact that YOU YOURSELF voted against repealing it? Then there's apologising for throwing hurdles at the gay marriage law (what about brothers and sisters living together? Can they marry for equitable tax rates? What about children caring for disabled parents, can they get married for tax breaks? What about shareholders of the same company? What about any damn stupid thing I can dredge up in a desperate attempt to delay or sink this bill?) Are you saving this apology for later, Cameron? Oh and gay adoption - the Tory dominated House of Lords had to be overruled on that one. and the Tories STILL voted overwhelmingly (as in 90% in favour) in favour of banning gays from adopting. In fact, ion the many many many votes that were taken on this bill as it was amended and forced through the Lords, the Tories ALWAYS voted near unanimously against it. I think we need another apology here Cameron! Especially since YOU were one of the no votes! Oh, of course they’ll then have to apologise for stopping the equalising the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex not once, but TWICE and doing their level best to stop it a third time! (only Labour’s Majority forced it through against OVERWHELMING TORY OPPOSITION) Where’s the apology for this? What about apologising for the overwhelming vote from the Tories to require fertility treatment to need the presence of a “father and a mother” in May 2008. Thankfully Labour pushed through “supportive parenting” rather than language that would have EXPRESSLY denied homosexuals. Can I get a sorry on this one too? Oooh, here’s another: Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill 2008 - Tories vote 125 out of 128 to try and water down hate crime protection for homosexuals. And again on Jan 2009, another overwhelming Tory support for hate speech against gay people. Hey, how about Clause 58 of the Coroners and Justice Act? Y’know the one that banned homophobic hate? Y’know the one that YOU AND EVERY TORY MP PRESENT BAR ONE VOTED AGAINST! And this was March 2009. THIS BLOODY YEAR! I think we need a pretty damn HUGE apology for this one. You want my vote Cameron? You want the “pink vote?” Then you better keep apologising - because you and yours have got a hell of a lot more apologising to do before you make up for even HALF of the crap we’ve put up from you over the years You want my vote Cameron? It’ll be a cold day in hell before I put my mark in the Tory’s box. Yours is a party of hate. You have fought us, oppressed us and opposed us every step of the way. Every tiny attempt to further gay rights has been done in the teeth of fierce Tory opposition. And it’s not historic, it’s not the mistakes of the past - it’s still happening. Right now. You are our enemy. I will never vote for the Conservatives - and I’ll go further: any homosexual that votes for the Conservatives is betraying us all. | | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 10:47 pm |
There are some choices no human should have to make
And choosing between closing my windows despite the blistering, damp, horrendous heat and incredible humidity or listening to the strains of Abba and Michael Jackson - complete with 14 year old girl sing-along - being emitted by my neighbours is certainly one of them. ... .. . Oh gods. Elvis. Someone dies for this. | | 4:40 pm |
| | 2:27 pm |
Ok enough! Bad mother nature! No cookie!
I have been ordered not to complain about the heat in summer. The last time I did we woke up to record rain falls and water merrily lapping its way through our neighbour's ground floor But enough! It is not only painfully, ridiculously hot here, but it is RAINING. Thge air is so thick and damp and wet I am almost DROWNING breathing it in. Gah, must find air conditioning! I am such a winter person. | | Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | | 3:17 pm |
Wow Rantage
Blizzard, I love WOTLK on many unnatural levels, but this is beginning to irritate. First and foremost - Vault of Achavon. I hate this. I hate this place more than words can describe. I hated it before but now I hate it 10 times more since you NERFED Emalon (YE GODS, WHY?! Why not just replace the whole damn raid with a BIIIIIIG button that drops free Tier 8.5 on face-rollers?) Seriously, we have alts in the guild I would be wary of taking to Naxx, who are so poorly geared I would giggle at them asking to come to a Malygos raid - but they have got tier 8.5 gloves. 8.5 gloves Blizzard. They drop from Mimiron. Y’know? The guy that causes PTSD on all raiders that try him?! And that’s from the pve perspective. I can’t imagine the pvpers are any happier at seeing some power levelled, ebaying noob running around with Furious Leggings of Pwnage that dropped from your free epic giver. Dropping the highest level gear from a boss that makes PATCHWORK and RAZUVIOUS look challenging is more than a little annoying. And now the word is that badges of conquest - with which we can buy runic orbs and tier 8.5 - are going to drop in Heroic Instances?! What are you smoking?! You’re completely devaluing the higher end instances! It’s getting ridiculous and very annoying. I remember a sense of achievement and sparkly happiness in my tier 6 - and double that for my tier 3. But tier 8.5? Donald the Facer-roller can get tier 8.5 And while I’m at it - while I agree some things in Ulduar needed.... adjusting (Ignis the first time we went in was obscene) the repeated layered nerfs that followed were silly. Razorscale and Deconstructor and Assembly all had multiple nerfs - AFTER we killed them and were a little bemused as to WHY you nerfed them. We one shotted Razorscale the first time we fought it - and then it needed nerfing? *is confused.* I suppose it’s one way to make Vault of Achavon more fair - nerf Ulduar to the same level. Please please please don’t. While I’m on the rant - can we have more raids? I don’t mean higher raids - I mean equal raids. In TBC raids came in pairs. You had Gruul/Magtheridon, Serpentshrine Cavern/Tempest Keep and Black Temple/Mount Hyjal. It worked. It meant you weren’t spending all week, every week in the same damn raid time and time and time again. I like that every raid has a 10 man version now - but between the 10 man and the 25 man you can get miiiiighty sick of Ulduar (and Naxx for that matter). *has finished ranting for now* | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 7:16 pm |
On Burqa Banning
It seems that, in a spat of lunacy, burqa banning has come up in France. Naturally, some people are saying we should do the same here - because craziness spreads, y’know. Let us analyse all that is wrong with this. This may take a while, there’s a lot of wrong there. First of all the very idea of a dress code for people on their own time in a free society is so very disturbing that I don’t even know where to begin. Seriously, the very idea is ludicrous. Gods, I find public nudity laws ridiculous (and I think they’ve done a lot of damage with us overly sexualising the naked body, being unable to separate nudity and sex AND caused us no end of societal hang ups about our bodies and shame regarding many parts of them. But this is another matter). Laws which say what you can and cannot wear without good reason are the very antithesis of freedom - it is a very personal thing that is being dictated here and it’s an expansion of government power into an area that is very very scary. We already have rules about where you can and cannot cover your face (such as banks) and we already have rules about work and school uniforms. This is expanding that to a blanket ban. So where are the good reasons for this huge infringement of personal choice? It intimidates people.Intimidates people? Why? Do you think she has a pair of uzis under there? The only reason that would be intimidating would be because people have waaaay too much Islamophobia programmed and this ban would only feed into that. I think a more accurate term would be people are “disconcerted” or made uncomfortable by burqas. Well, so what? People are made uncomfortable by men in drag or make up. I can make thousands of people ragingly uncomfortable wearing tight trousers, a hot pink, skin tight-tank top with rainbows, linked Mars symbols and the words “so many men, so few can afford me,” or “You must be at least 8“ to ride“ blazoned across it. My grandmother, even in her sane days, was intimidated by any man with a beard. She and all my great aunts and uncles are outright intimidated and FRIGHTENED by Nuns. I am intimidated by large, overt religious symbols. I am intimidated by skin heads. I’m mildly freaked by tongue piercing and ear gauges. However, we do not and should not dictate other people’s clothing and body decoration on the basis of what makes us comfortable - the arrogance of that is beyond compare. If you don’t like such clothing, do not wear it, but to demand others adhere to our tastes and sensibilities is deeply wrong The Qu’ran doesn’t demand they wear burqasI’m sorry, but the number of non-Muslims telling Muslims that they are practicing their faith in an incorrect fashion is beyond silly. Yes, the Qu’ran says that men and women must dress modestly. Right, like that isn’t damned ambivalent and couldn’t be interpreted many different ways - like a lot of holy text (there are HOW many different variations of Christianity, Islam and Judaism for example?). It doesn’t matter how YOU interpret it, unless they have come to you for theological advice, it is how THEY interpret it. Even if you DID share the same faith, it is not your place to tell someone they are doing it wrong. These women are being oppressed!On the face of it, this argument looks so much better. All these women are forced into burqas and this way they would no longer have to wear them! Let equality and freedom ring out! Except it fails in one fundamental level. You are denying these women the choice. They go from being forced to wear the burqa to being forced NOT to wear the burqa - whether they want to or not. Look at Iran during the time of the Shah, look at modern secular Turkey. In both countries there were/are laws restricting the wearing of veils et al - and women WEAR/WORE them as a form of protest. They wanted to wear these clothes and they were forced not to. Why is the oppression of male dominated governments telling women what to wear any better than male dominated family/cultural/religious customs telling women what to wear? By all means have facilities to reach out to people who may be being coerced, definitely inform people of their rights, definitely provide protection and shelters and refuges - but making their choices for them is NOT freeing them from oppression. If you think women should be free from oppression then you think that THEY should be able to make their OWN choices, even if you disagree with them. They’re being oppressed - cultural brain washing editionThis basically says that yes the women are being oppressed but they agree to it because they have been culturally oppressed and don’t know any better. Or, to put it another way: It is our duty as White, Christian Men to teach these poor deluded Brown Muslim Women how to do things decently. Yes, I know that not all Muslims are non-Caucasian but the language used here is extremely reminiscent of the old “white man’s burden” argument. We have to save the poor women from themselves! They don’t know any better! Seriously, this is the height of arrogance. We have to ban the burqa because it’s oppressive of women and women who do wear it are being oppressed even if they choose it because they don’t know any better. Now go wear a mini-skirt and a boob tube as is societally acceptable! Alright, the last was a little bit of an exaggeration, but it’s amazing how often society EXPECTS women to show flesh (but that’s another issue). Side note to the oppression:So let’s assume for a second that all these women ARE oppressed either by absorbing cultural misogyny or because they have fathers/husbands/brothers who will do them harm if they disobey. Right. Now you outlaw the burqa. The thing that stops their body being seen by males who are not relatives - which is the point of the garment to begin with Do you think they’ll just go out in more revealing clothing? Really? Because I think it’s far more likely that they won’t go out at all - that they’ll be trapped in their own homes. If they’ve accepted the idea that the burqa is essential “modest” dress required by the Qu’ran then they’re NOT going to be comfortable walking around outside without it. In fact, in some cases I imagine (obviously I don’t know) it would feel akin to going out undressed, to say nothing of religious aspect of it. Any oppressive male relatives are likely to be equally or more unimpressed or unhappy. This? Does not sound like a reasonable solution to any kind of oppression to me. In fact the whole idea doesn't sound reasonable on any level | | 2:38 pm |
Eucalyptus scent?
We have a tree. It's a eucalyptus (I'm told, anyway) when we bought it we were told it was a miniature and would grow to about, oh, 9 feet tall. It is now a glorious 20 foot beauty, almost as big as our sycamore (which, to be fair, we knew would grow like a crazy thing). Even if the leaves do look dehydrated all the time (I'm told that's what it's supposed to looke like.) However it shadows muchly and we've had to lift the canopy of this huge tree so the rock (we have alpines like large bushes :)) and herb gardens aren't in perpetual shade So we have copious amounts of eucalyptus branches. They smell wonderful. Rather than throw them away in our brown bin and since we have no friendly koala to feed, we're wondering what can we do with the leaves to use them as some kind of air freshener rather than just crushing them and putting them in a bowl. Any ideas? | | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | | 4:30 pm |
Spark in Darkness 100! The first battle is fought
Words cannot describe how much this THING killed me. I hate hate hate it. I've re-written it 10 thousand times and I hate each version more than the last *kicks it* But it's done and it's being posted so I don't have to look at it until I am drunk. So there :P And to think, I used to like the fight scenes. It just seems... dry and boring and wordy which it really really shouldn't be. And there are too many adjectives. And it's too detached Grrr, I need to re-write it ( Read more... ) | | Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | | 12:48 pm |
The silliness has taken over
Beloved and I just had an argument. I’m not quite sure what started it, because the silly quickly overtook. I think it was about housework and escalated to the Silly Extreme. See, I like things to be clean. I can’t stand things that are dirty. But I don’t care where those clean things ARE. Beloved wants things tidy, they can be crusted in fungus but so long as they’re in the right place, he’s happy. We had a debate about this. Now, I think he was the one who deliberately scattered pastry crumbs from his plate around, but he claims it was me scattering papers on the coffee table. But then he put coffee rings on EVERY flat surface from his dripping cup and SOMEHOW about 20 of my books got placed completely at random. And he deliberately and maliciously spilled with intent. And somehow, quite innocently I may have scattered post around the room... Argument called on account of giggling The living room is now a mess. And it is totally his fault. | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 2:59 am |
It doesn't get any better when examined in detail
I have revisited the Obama administation's defence of DOMA in more detail. Why? Because some people who I would generally consider very good on issues of homophobia et al ahve said on their blogs, basically "selfish gay folk are whining and bitching for no good reason and being hysterical and histrionic." It surprised me, so I looked again to see if there is some overreaction here. Hmmm... I should have examined it in more detail the first time. It seems I am guilty of poorly representing things. My criticism was FAR too restrained! Some others have gone into far more detail than I have: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/11427/the-obama-admin-defends-doma-in-a-brief-comparing-marriage-equality-to-incesthttp://www.americablog.com/2009/06/obama-justice-department-defends-doma.htmlBasically. This defence of DOMA reads like Pat Robertson and Rick warren got together to write it. To summarise some of the arguments: Gays can marry - they just have to marry people of the opposite sex! So how can there be discrimination DOMA doesn't descriminate against men or women - so it doesn't discriminate at all! (Get that? Sexism is bad. Homophobia? Not worth mentioning or considering) States can and do regulate marriage already - such as in cases of kinship or minors. Oh yes. They went there. They made the comparison. Of course you can stop gays marrying! It's the same as stopping incest and statutory rape! Gay marriage is a new relatrionship not worth the scant government resources that traditional marriage has. As to the blogs telling the gay people to "shut up, get in line etc." You may be a fan of Obama, but this knee-jerk, almost hero-worship, defence of him is clouding your judgement and, frankly, insulting in how you dismiss very legitimate criticism. Maybe it's time to ask yourself what the precedent is for people telling angry minorities asking for equal rights to shut up and stop being so hysterical and angry. | | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | | 1:42 pm |
On Iran
I know noooothing No, I mean it. Sadly, the same can be said of a lot of people who are saying a lot :) I know very little about Iran. Oh, I’ve read avidly both before and after the recent election (and the election before that). But enough to decide whether the election has been stolen, there has been a coup or whether it was just legitimate business? No. With ALL things like this, I think it’s vitally important that people put some clear water between what they WANTED to happen and reality. Yes, a whole lot of people wanted Ahmadinejad to be given the heave-ho and it seemed so certain... but just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it didn’t happen in an illegitimate manner. I’ve heard that news commentary tended to focus far too much on the capital and not the whole country. I’ve heard that they overlooked considerable services Ahmadinejad had brought to rural areas. Again, I heard. I don’t know, but I heard. I’ve also heard there have been massive voter irregularities, severe lack of accountability and the whole voting system generally sucked monkey balls. Again, I heard. I’ve also heard that even before the votes were counted it seems that that the powers that be in Iran were disturbingly well prepared for a military crack down. Again, I’ve heard. I hear a lot. I know little. I think we need to watch, listen and see what the various powers discover before we make any assumptions. | | 1:08 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | | 1:00 pm |
| | 12:34 pm |
| | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | | 1:05 pm |
The European Elections
The EU Parliament elections I feel the need to comment on them now I feel a little less angry and depressed about them and now that I have managed to slot them into a context other than “blind seething rage of my fellow man.” See, the blind seething rage is extra extra hard to fight here because I am in Yorkshire and the Humber. We have elected a new MEP. He is a member of the BNP. The people around me, the people of my home, have voted for a bloody Nazi. There is a Nazi, in the European Parliament, purporting to represent me. There is a Nazi in a legislative body presuming to SPEAK FOR ME. Needless to say, I am not impressed. More I have been withering in my disgust to those around me who didn’t vote. Because that is the key here ( Read more... ) | | Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | | 1:17 am |
Dreamwidth
As mentioned earlier, I has me a dreamwidth Unsurprisingly, my username is sparkindarkness ( http://sparkindarkness.dreamwidth.org/) So far everything there is crossposted here. And vice versa. In fact, Dreamwidth already has a nifty cross-post feature that is most nifty. Feel free to add me etc and I will add back. I'm still trying to sort out the "friends" system on Dreamwidth since it seems designed to include RSS and all blog/journal formats. Which is shiny - but a little complicated for me until I can be bothered to truly tackle it. I also have Dreamwidth codes, apparently | | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 6:07 pm |
| | Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | | 1:17 am |
The crazy, it lives here
Beloved is away for a few days with work. Alas, my work would not allow me to spend 5 days in Birmingham with him. Not that I tried very hard - Birmingham is not exactly top of my “favourite cities” list. In fact, every time I’ve been I’ve been sorely tempted to lay about me with a flamethrower - I think I can’t think of any city I dislike more and I’ve been to Sheffield AND Newcastle! I’m totally going to be killed by Geordies now aren’t I? And I suppose someone born and bred in my home city shouldn’t throw stones Anyway, I digress. He left Monday and will be back on Saturday. Now my first instinct from my hermit brain was: YES!!!! Aloooone! Blisssssfully allooooone! 6 days of just my own company. YAY! Yes, I’m an anti-social hermit who should live in a cave somewhere. Sue me. And then, reality check hit. I’m trying to think, in all the years we’ve cohabited and all the years we’ve cohabited-but-called-it-housemates-becau se-of-my-crazy-space-issues (maybe not that surprising given that we technically cohabited before we started dating which is weird and we will not go there) when the last time was that I spent 5 nights together not in his bed. 3 years? 4 years? 5? Ummmm... I’m not entirely sure. I probably shouldn’t poke it or my hermit issues will rise. Last night was... hard. (In more ways than one. Bad libido, why kick in to overdrive NOW you contrary lust instinct, you?) I managed to nearly strangle myself in my own sheets trying to wrestle them from a cover hog that wasn’t actually there. You’d have thought not having to sleep next to someone who apparently needs 11 acres of sheets ALL TO THEMSELVES would be restful. But noooooo, I’m so used to the battle it seems that I don’t know how to sleep without fighting it. And that’s aside from the nagging feeling that the bed’s too big or too cold. And then the cat decides to go on a nocturnal wander and knock over the fire irons downstairs. To which the Hypeactive Imagination decides to join Libido and Subconscious in keeping me awake (clearly it was human-abducting serial killer aliens riding velociraptors. It is known) and it’s all made even worse by the (sensible) front brain yelling “oh please, TELL me you’re not afraid of sleeping alone because that would be just too pathetic.” All in all, it was not a restful night. I am going to be a basket-case by the end of the week. I’m also irritated. Damn it, I’m a hermit. I like being a hermit. I like my herming! You cannot be a feeble co-dependent hermit. Anti-social and co-dependent cannot cannot cannot exist at the same time. It’s just wrong. Grrr. Stupid brain. At least it gives me time to get some writing done |
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