christinareborn

The Worst Operating System In The World

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:07:39 GMT

Obonox/OS - the world's most annoying operating system! :D

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Two awesome deleted scenes from Firefly

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:37:56 GMT

From the Pilot. Simon learns about the ship's name and the Battle of Serenity Valley

Honestly, I think this would've been a better way to introduce the battle than the scene they showed at the start of the episode. Much more powerful than showing the battle.

From "Our Mrs. Reynolds", a scene with River and Simon. I think this is a really interesting look into how confused River's mindset is. How childlike in many ways she is.

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Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:50:23 GMT

This is hilarious! How Firefly Should've Ended According to Kaylee

The actress who played Kaylee, being asked how she would've wanted Firefly to end, answered:

Well, I wouldn’t have, now would I? But in my perfect imagination, it ends a little something like this: Nine glorious seasons later, Kaylee and Simon have had several beautiful brunette babies, a couple of which have turned out to be crazy geniuses like their Auntie River (Firefly: the Next Generation?), and one who mysteriously looks a lot like Matthew Fox, who became a regular cast member in season six. River has finally found her marbles and is now captaining her own ship with her loyal second-in-command, Jayne, who claims that River is the best captain he’s ever known. Saffron is now their mercenary, and Jayne’s lover. And because this is the future and vast discoveries have been made in the world of medicine, Jayne is pregnant with their first child. Inara and Mal finally profess their undying love for each other while Inara is, well, dying in his arms (something gruesome, lotsa blood), and Mal finally realizes that life is short. And promptly confesses his (other) undying love to Zoe. And she promptly punches him in the face.

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Wed, 25 May 2011 06:19:41 GMT

From Dinosaur Comics

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Wed, 18 May 2011 00:18:55 GMT

“Human beings took our animal need for palatable food … and turned it into chocolate souffles with salted caramel cream. We took our ability to co-operate as a social species … and turned it into craft circles and bowling leagues and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took our capacity to make and use tools … and turned it into the Apollo moon landing. We took our uniquely precise ability to communicate through language … and turned it into King Lear.

None of these things are necessary for survival and reproduction. That is exactly what makes them so splendid. When we take our basic evolutionary wiring and transform it into something far beyond any prosaic matters of survival and reproduction … that’s when humanity is at its best. That’s when we show ourselves to be capable of creating meaning and joy, for ourselves and for one another. That’s when we’re most uniquely human.

And the same is true for sex. Human beings have a deep, hard-wired urge to replicate our DNA, instilled in us by millions of years of evolution. And we’ve turned it into an intense and delightful form of communication, intimacy, creativity, community, personal expression, transcendence, joy, pleasure, and love. Regardless of whether any DNA gets replicated in the process.

Why should we see this as sinful? What makes this any different from chocolate souffles and King Lear?”

Greta Christina (Sex and the Off-Label Use of Our Bodies)

Came across this quote on Tumblr.

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Mon, 16 May 2011 22:15:49 GMT

I just removed some people from my circle. They were people who either A) haven't posted in a long time and that I never really got a chance to know, or B) people who have accounts on LJ and don't cross-post here.

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Hilarious "article"

Mon, 16 May 2011 08:33:56 GMT

Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says from the "Galactic Times".

CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.

See the link for the whole story

The comments section is absolutely hilarious, too. :D

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Sat, 07 May 2011 15:08:07 GMT

This is really awesome:

It's from a place in Portland, Oregon. Really awesome of them. :D

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AN OLD MEME

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:49:21 GMT

Came across this meme browsing through archives and decided to do it again

Step 1. Put your playlist on random.
Step 2. Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3. Italicize the songs when someone guesses correctly.
NO GOOGLING.

Extra rules I added: Skipping any non-English songs, and using the second line if the first line contains the title (unless it's, like, a really obscure song).

1. I complicated our lives by falling in love with him
2. They say they don't trust you, me, we, us
3. Would you please take me away from this place?
4. I don't mind confiding that I make stupid mistakes
5. If my lips ever left my mouth, packed a bag and headed south, that'd be too bad, I'd be so sad!
6. If I had a jetpack, the first thing I'd do, is fly above the gridlock and come to you
7. Our whole universe was in a hot dense state and nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started
8. I'm undecided about you again
9. As I was walking in the winter, it was Tuesday, the last of the year
10. Wait until the war is over, and we're both a little older
11. She shuts the door behind me, waits for me to get undressed
12. When you're naked in the shower, when you're sleeping for an hour
13. I would like to state my vision, life was so unfair
14. I see trouble on the way, I see earthquakes and lightening, I see bad times today
15. And you don't seem to understand, a shame you seemed an honest man
16. You know it's kinda hard just to get along today, our subject isn't cool but he fakes it anyway
17. We'd better think about the things we say, we'd better think about the games we play
18. Every night we're all alone every night my only hope is a light that's shining from inside you (skipped first few verses cause they all had the title)
19. He was in a bind, cause he was way behind, he was willin' to make a deal (skipped first verse)
20. How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
21. Way back in the 1940s, there were lots of magazines with their covers full of miracles and futuristic scenes
22. From all the drugs the one I like more is music
23. I believe in you and me, I'm coming to find you if it takes me all night
24. What is this song all about? Can't figure any lyrics out
25. You're so pretty the way you are, you're so pretty the way you are, and you had no reason to be so insolent to me

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George Carlin on Sleep

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:20:27 GMT

“People say, ‘I’m going to sleep now,’ as if it were nothing. But it’s really a bizarre activity. ‘For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I’m going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life.

If you didn’t know what sleep was, and you had only seen it in a science fiction movie, you would think it was weird and tell all your friends about the movie you’d seen.

‘They had these people, you know? And they would walk around all day and be OK? And then, once a day, usually after dark, they would lie down on these special platforms and become unconscious. They would stop functioning almost completely, except deep in their minds they would have adventures and experiences that were completely impossible in real life. As they lay there, completely vulnerable to their enemies, their only movements were to occasionally shift from one position to another; or, if one of the ‘mind adventures’ got too real, they would sit up and scream and be glad they weren’t unconscious anymore. Then they would drink a lot of coffee.’

So, next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you’re in a science fiction movie. And whisper, ‘The creature is regenerating itself.’” - George Carlin

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Request for a favor

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:32:47 GMT

Money's kind of tight for me right now. I really could use some financial help right now. This is *not* a request for donations, this is a request for loans. I will repay any loan as soon as possible, which will probably be some time in December (loans will be repayed in the order received). January at the latest. Any amount will help. I need a total of around $400.

I foolishly forgot to take into account sales tax when I purchased my car, which is why I'm in such tight straits right now.

My paypal account is christina.nicole.78@gmail.com

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On a lighter note

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:42:36 GMT

Their Furry Paws Drag You To Hell

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Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:36:58 GMT

The Disease Called Perfection

This is such a good article.

What is the disease called "Perfection"? Perhaps a list of its real-life symptoms will help you better understand it. We live in communities where people feel unconquerable amounts of pressure to always appear perfectly happy, perfectly functional, and perfectly figured.

...

"Perfection" is a wife who feels trapped in a marriage to a lazy, angry, small man, but at soccer practice tells the other wives how wonderful her husband always is. "Perfection" keeps people from telling the truth, even to themselves. My husband is adorable. He called me a whore this week because I smiled at a stranger. When I started crying, he said he had a game to go watch. I love him so much.

"Perfection" is a husband who is belittled, unappreciated, and abused by his wife, yet works endlessly to make his marriage appear incredible to those around him. "Perfection" really does keep people from being real about the truth. You would have laughed, guys. She said that I suck at my job and will never go anywhere in life. Then she insinuated that I was a fat, rotting pile of crap. Isn't she the best?

"Perfection" is a daughter with an eating disorder that keeps it hidden for years because she doesn't want to be the first among her family and friends to be imperfect. She would give anything to confront it, but she can't because then the "Perfect" people would hate her as much as she hates herself for it.

"Perfection" is when a son has a forbidden addiction, and despises himself for it. "Perfection" makes us believe that nobody else could understand what it is like to be weak and fall prey to the pressures of the world.

Read the whole thing. It's really good.

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Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:33:07 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

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Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:46:15 GMT

I love this piece by Julia Serano, Gender Is Not Just a Performance:

If one more person tells me that "all gender is performance," I think I am going to strangle them.

Perhaps most annoying about that soundbite is the somewhat snooty "I-took-a-gender-studies-class-and-you-didn't" sort of way in which it is most often recited, a magnificent irony given the way that phrase dumbs down gender. It is a crass oversimplification, as ridiculous as saying all gender is genitals, all gender is chromosomes, or all gender is socialization. In reality, gender is all of these things and more. In fact, if there's one thing that all of us should be able to agree on, it's that gender is a confusing and complicated mess. It's like a junior high school mixer, where our bodies and our internal desires awkwardly dance with one another, and with all the external expectations that other people place on us.

Sure, I can perform gender: I can curtsy, or throw like a girl, or bat my eyelashes. But performance doesn't explain why certain behaviors and ways of being come to me more naturally than others. It offers no insight into the countless restless nights I spent as a pre-teen wrestling with the inexplicable feeling that I should be female. It doesn't capture the very real physical and emotional changes that I experienced when I hormonally transitioned from testosterone to estrogen. Performance doesn't even begin to address the fact that, during my transition, I acted the same, wore the same T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers that I always had, yet once other people started reading me as female, they began treating me very differently. When we talk about my gender as though it were a performance, we let the audience — with all their expectations, prejudices, and presumptions — completely off the hook.

Look, I know that many contemporary queer folks and feminists embrace mantras like "all gender is performance," "all gender is drag," and "gender is just a construct." They seem empowered by the way these sayings give the impression that gender is merely a fiction. A facade. A figment of our imaginations, endlessly mutable and malleable. And of course, this is a convenient strategy, provided that you're not a trans woman who lacks the means to change her legal sex to female, and who thus runs the very real risk of being locked up in an all-male jail cell. Provided that you're not a trans man who has to navigate the discrepancy between his male identity and female history during job interviews and first dates. Whenever I hear someone who has not had a transsexual experience say that gender is just a construct or merely a performance, it always reminds me of that Stephen Colbert gag where he insists that he doesn't see race. It's easy to fictionalize an issue when you're not aware of the many ways in which you are privileged by it.

Almost every day of my life I deal with people who insist on seeing my femaleness as fake. People who make a point of calling me effeminate rather than feminine. People who slip up my pronouns, but only after they find out that I'm trans, never beforehand. People who insist on third-sexing me with labels like MTF, boy-girl, he-she, she-male, ze & hir — anything but simply female. Because I'm transsexual, I am sometimes accused of impersonation or deception when I am simply being myself. So it seems to me that this strategy of fictionalizing gender will only ever serve to marginalize me further.

So I ask you: Can't we find new ways of speaking? Shouldn't we be championing new slogans that empower all of us, whether trans or nontrans, queer or straight, female and/or male and/or none of the above?

Instead of trying to fictionalize gender, let's talk about the moments in life when gender feels all too real. Because gender doesn't feel like drag when you're a young trans child begging your parents not to cut your hair or not to force you to wear that dress. And gender doesn't feel like a performance when, for the first time in your life, you feel safe and empowered enough to express yourself in ways that resonate with you, rather than remaining closeted for the benefit of others. And gender doesn't feel like a construct when you finally find that special person whose body, personality, identity, and energy feels like a perfect fit with yours. Let's stop trying to deconstruct gender into nonexistence, and instead start celebrating it as inexplicable, varied, profound, and intricate.

So don't you dare dismiss my gender as construct, drag, or performance. My gender is a work of non-fiction.

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Beauty Is A Verb

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:44:21 GMT

Or rather, it should be.

In the English language - as in the admittedly limited selection of other languages I've seen - beauty is described with an adjective, "She's beautiful", "That's a beautiful sunset", etc. It is described as a property of the person or thing perceived as beautiful. But, to paraphrase the old cliche, beauty is in the cerebral cortex of the beholder. It is not an intrinsic property of people or things, it is an emotional response of the viewer. So, logically speaking, it should be described with a verb. "I beauty her", "I beauty that sunset". I.e., "I perceive her as beautiful", "I perceive that sunset as beautiful". If there's anything to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - and there's good reason to believe that it has at least some truth - this would tend to reduce the association between beauty (a response of the viewer) with value (a property of the person or thing)

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Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:20:21 GMT

From fayanora The Rise and Fall of William J Sidis

Tragic story. I can empathize somewhat with William Sidis.

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Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:16:26 GMT

This is interesting:

Both men and women face a lot of pressure to [be] masculine and feminine respectively. But, ironically, people who rigidly conform to rules about gender, those who enact perfect performances of masculinity or femininity, are often the butt of jokes. Many of us, for example, think the male body builder is kind of gross; we suspect that he may be compensating for something, dumb like a rock, or even mean or narcissistic. Likewise, when we see a bleach blond teetering in stilettos and pulling up her strapless mini, many of us think she must be stupid and shallow, with nothing between her ears but fashion tips.

The fact that we live in a world where there are different expectations for men’s and women’s behavior, in other words, doesn’t mean that we’re just robots acting out those expectations. We actually tend to mock slavish adherence to those rules, even as we carefully negotiate them (breaking some rules, but not too many, and not the really important ones).

...

It’s unfortunate that we spend so much time telling women that the most important thing about them is that they conform to expectations of feminine beauty when, in reality, living up to those expectations means performing an identity that we disdain.

We do it to men, too. We expect guys to be strictly masculine, and when they turn out to be jocks and frat boys, we wonder why they can’t be nicer or more well-rounded.

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Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:51:55 GMT

An amusing link: Gamestop owns 7,500 souls! So, see? It pays to read the end-user agreement. :-P

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Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:48:50 GMT

You know the awesome thing about dating another aspie? We can ramble on and on about stuff and not have to worry about boring the other. ^_^ The other day, Damien was going on for about 20 minutes about Pokemon, about some of the individual pokemon, differences in the Japanese vs. the American version of the movie that introduced Mewtwo, and how the Japanese version was far more sympathetic towards Mewtwo, and so on. I've never seen an episode of Pokemon in my life (although I'd probably enjoy watching it with him), but I enjoyed listening to him. Likewise, I can ramble on about things and know that he'll enjoy listening to them, too. Like, I'm really looking forward to showing him my coin collection when he gets in. ^_^

It reminds me of one time when I was probably somewhere around 10-12 or so, and I was somewhere with my mom. I don't think my brother was there, I'm not sure where he was. Anyways, I was going on and on about something I'd recently read, something about etymology, and my mom said something about "I hope you don't talk about things like that when you're dating some day". Ha! If only she knew who I'd end up with. :-)

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The Lady Gaga

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:15:55 GMT

Some of you will appreciate this: The Lady Gaga. Steampunk version of Lady Gaga! ^_^

Link includes the lyrics to "Letter", the rewritten version of Telephone ^_^

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TWILIGHT!

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:02:11 GMT

This is an awesome snark-filled article on Twilight. My favorite quote

"When you read the book," says Pattinson, looking appropriately pallid and interesting even without makeup, "it's like, 'Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.' I mean, every line is like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there."

Even the guy who plays Edward Cullen thinks it's a load of crap. :D

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Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:11:37 GMT

Tomorrow (well, technically today), I'm meeting kiptripsyc. He's coming into town for a Modest Mouse concert with a friend of his, staying at Crown Center, in downtown KC. I'm going to meet up with them around noonish at the food court. Should be fun finding him, given that both of us have horrible facial recognition. XD I've got his cell phone number, if worse comes to worst. Ah, well, once we've met up, it should be fun. ^_^ Never met him before! He'll be the 5th online friend I've met in person.

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Fireworks Safety Tips!

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:08:17 GMT

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The question meme again!

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:03:19 GMT

As before, COMMENT and ask and I will think up some questions for you too! I do not guarantee that they will be good questions, however.

hani asked me:

1. Do you think the question "Do you have any regrets?/What do you regret?" is bullshit or valid?

Depends on the context. There are some contexts where it's pretty much BS, but in a conversation between close friends, it can be valid.

2. What's a song or movie that you've listened to/watched repeatedly recently?

Hmm ... haven't really fixated on anything recently. The most recent major fixation was, I think, Caramelldansen, which I listened to on repeat for a while. I recently went through a phase of listening to nothing but Tatu, but it wasn't a specific song.

3. Is math invented or discovered?

I'm not sure that math can properly be said to fall into either category. It's a bit of both. Much of it definitely falls under the "discover" category, in that one discovers consequences of basic axioms, but then the axioms themselves are invented.

4. What's the longest phone call you've ever had?

Hmm ... I'm not sure. I've had some pretty long conversations before with one particular friend (who, alas, I've since drifted from). I think the longest was probably somewhere around 30-40 minutes or so? (Of course, by some people's standards, that's not long at all ...)

5. Would you ever post pictures of yourself on your LJ?

Yes, behind filters. Not anything particularly sexy, though.

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