Chaos Attraction

A Mostly Non-War Entry

2003-03-17, 8:23 p.m.

I'm going to skip talking about you-know-what for the most part today. Go read what Kismet said, as I'm with her there, especially about how he can demand that someone up and leave his country. Other than that, can anyone say they're really surprised at this? About the only thing I'm surprised at is that when reading the transcript (I was coming home on the bus from work during the speech and of course it was over by the time I came home. I hate East Coast time), he was actually... sounding reasonable in it. At least, the "12 years of diplomacy, we've been trying to do it with the UN and got nowhere" bit did. Scared the crap out of me that I thought that. Okay, so after there is when he went back to sticking his head in the Crazy again, but...oy.

Okay, enough of that. Let's discuss other things, shall we? While we still can?


So the other day I'm looking through notwriting.com and see that the dude who er, doesn't write ;) is applying to grad school. A common thing these days. Anyway, he had a link on his site to the best creative writing schools. So of course I checked it to see out of curiosity's sake what was good in locations I might be able to stand (i.e. West Coast, puh-leeze, no snow). UC Irvine was the top one, which has their own creative writing major. I remember eyeing that during the teen years, until I remember "oh yeah, it's Irvine." I went there once and stayed with someone in grad school there for a weekend and she was counting the days until she could get out of Richie Richville. So sadly, location not great. Then there was Arizona- hey, it's possible, I guess. UCD was up fairly high, but I can't go there. Then there was USC (is that another richie-rich school?), SFSU (been to that campus, frigid), St. Mary's (religious school, PITA cousin Ron went there, 'nuff said), and then it got to San Diego State. Okay, San Diego I could live with, and it's a state school so lower standards! Also perhaps Mills and (ahem) U of Hawaii (yeah, pipe dream).

Not that I am likely to apply to grad school, mind you, but occasionally I consider the idea, even though I will read stuff like this and think uh, yeah, I am definitely not smart and perfect enough to do squat with this.

Then I'm reading the rabbit blog (ah, the joys of the former Polly Esther), and come across an entry about a survey about blogs. I'd already taken the survey somewhere else, but in this one the creator of it posted a link to her graduate program. She described it as this: "I am an obsessed blogger and student of the Net: I'm preparing to graduate with my Masters in Communication, Culture, and Technology at Georgetown University, where all our classes are Net related, and we're more likely to be seen wearing Pearl Jam t-shirts than suits. I'm writing my thesis on blogs..."

Now THAT sounds right up my net-obsessed, culture-obsessed, computer-obsessed alley! I actually got excited at the idea of studying that. Of course, it's an East Coast school so me going there is out of the question, and I doubt that's a degree offered in too many places, but that would be a blast to do.

Optimally, my dream job would allow me to write- reviews, essays, columns, articles- and involve a lot of net surfing- so this sounds like my kind of party. Not that anyone's getting paid much to do any of THAT these days so it's yet another unrealistic pipe dream for me, but... I can wish, I guess.


Boy, is this ever infuriating. Lots of "Oh, I'm taking his name because it's tradition" and "I wanted to keep my last name, but he threw a fit and/or dumped me for not taking his, so I'm taking his" talk enough to make me sick. This is the worst one yet: "I took my husband's last name most proudly. He is now my covenant head, as my father has given that responsibility over to him. We have now been a covenental family unit for almost 6 months! YAH!! :) I ADORE my husband!" I'm surprised she's not using "Mrs.HisPossession" as a Knot name or something. Bleeeeeech.

Honestly, it's like all these women think their husbands are better than they are just because they have a penis. (Seriously, I really want to ask them if they think this is the case.) All this "two become one" and the "one" is the guy. They seem to think that they're not entitled to their own name, or that they "owe" it to the guy to give it up and that the guy IS entitled to their name automatically. And then there's the ever-popular "I want to have the same last name as our children." Again, like they are not entitled to give their name to their children in any way but the middle name.

Again, bleeech.


Dave signed up to get wireless net access for his Palm today. On the one hand, it's really cool that he can message me on AIM from the bus. On the other hand, (a) he really needs to get at least a thumb keyboard so he can write faster, and (b) him being logged on to AIM during his work hours is totally screwing with my head!


Heard from another of my ex-editors today, and found out some shocking news. Not only is one of the full-timers going part time (not that big of a surprise since she had a baby and last I heard was doing like 80%), two others quit entirely. One I hadn't even known had been hired after me (former intern) and one guy that had been there for like 8 years and we all thought he'd be there forever. Both apparently were tired of "living in poverty" and one had racked up some debts (plus wanted to run for city council!). You know what's funny, I never realized how low the pay was until I went somewhere else. I wonder if anyone's still full time any more?


So I decided to get myself a LiveJournal clone that hasn't yet asked people to pay up and start a separate space for the VSD's. It just seemed strange to have them on here, and hell, I've been reading enough amusing fanfiction stuff on LJ that I feel like getting my own. The previously written VSD's and a new introduction are now up, as is Luke's VSD. Hope you enjoy!


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