As at time of writing, my passport is somewhere between my hand and the US embassy. One of the members of staff in the visa department of the embassy was a little nonplussed when I asked for my passport back to get home to Scotland. It's my only photo ID, not that we check such papers at the border!
I should get it back in a day or two.
After that... I should be pretty much set to go.
Once again, I've just read a blogger saying that they will protest PETA's actions by doing the exact opposite of what PETA are trying to change. In other words, I hate what PETA do, so I'm going to go and chow down on this nice, juicy T-bone steak/bucket of chicken/barely cooked piece of pig bum [delete as applicable].
PETAs methods are regressive, publicity-hungry and seriously downright awful. They are squarely aimed at the 18-35 white, heterosexual male demographic, animals be damned. If there's one group who are most responsible for the bacon with everything meme that the internets are awash with, it's the 18-35 white, het men. By my expert (ahem) reckoning, at least. They're not likely to change thier attitudes about food quickly, and possibly not at all when presented with images of naked and nearly-naked women. It might be a cliché to say that in those circumstances, that group aren't exactly thinking about the ethics of the food they eat, as it would require more frontal lobe function than they are capabable of in that circumstance. If you buy into the men think about sex evey 7 seconds ideau that renders them, collectively, unable to function at a higher level when it comes to challenging beliefs and attitudes. Towards, say, the ethics of the food on their plate infront of them.
I am so not a fan of PETAs methods of campaigning for animal rights.
But the cause for which they are campaigning is no less legitimate because they offend people. Animal suffering still needs to be addressed and ended. Read Fast Food Nation - not a lettuce bikini in sight.
Or here's a crazy idea - go veg*an in spite of PETA and their antics. Render them pointless and obsolete; demonstrate that their tactics are outdated and that by appealing to your humanity and empathy instead, they might have got to you, but they failed.
And here's a link to get you started: the Vegan Society.
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04uganda.html?permid=25#comment25
"I've never had a gay person try to recruit me, but I've had many christians attempt that. They knock on my door and accost me on the streets. Even on Sunday mornings, when I just want to sleep, they bang their bells. And they target children on those Sunday mornings. If christians just lived in the closet, I wouldn't mind them so much."
"I've never had a gay person try to recruit me, but I've had many christians attempt that. They knock on my door and accost me on the streets. Even on Sunday mornings, when I just want to sleep, they bang their bells. And they target children on those Sunday mornings. If christians just lived in the closet, I wouldn't mind them so much."
So... Posting's been very light here, you might have noticed. Sorry about that. Life has reduced down to playing WoW wtih Ken and playing Hello Kitty Online while he's sleeping, with very little else worth mentioning inbetween. I'm on new meds (twice a day! Woohoo!) and they seem to be helping, at least so far. I'm managing to get things done (eventually) and I even venture outside from time to time. Though not so much recently; it's really cold! And there's like 6 inches of frozen snow on the ground. It's cold enough that where it'd normally be slushy by now, like Tesco's car park in Wishaw, it's more like sand. If sand were kind of grubby and really, really cold.
Ken sent me the most wonderful gifts, which happened to arrive on the 24th. He'd made a wooden pendant in the shape of a 45 converter, which I knew about, and a pair of silver earrings in the shape of the Horde crest that I didn't know about. Isn't my husband just amazing? I know!
I had my medical for entry to the US a couple of weeks ago, too. It went fine, I think, though due to the weather Mum and I were stuck in Stansted airport for an extra 19 hours. Yes, we slept on the floor. No, not an experience I'd care to repeat. Especially as some clumsy bugger knocked over his wheelie case and the corner of the handle hit my head so hard I thought the building had exploded. I was nearly asleep at the time, too. The next (and hopefully last) step is another trip to London next week. Hopefully I won't have to spend too many hours sitting in the US embassy with nothing to do, and I will leave with a shiny new addition to my passport. Then it's get packed and go! And I'm not shitting myself. Yet.
And do excuse me, I think I might throw up now...
see more Lolcats and funny pictures I am still alive, honest! New meds and other exciting stuffs have been happening. Well, stuffs. Exciting? Maybe next month, when I move to New York...
Today, I shall mostly be humming this to myself.
Two clips that make me laugh myself breathless... (with thanks to EllaR from Shakesville for tracking down the 3rd Rock one)
Today is International Transgender Day of Rememberance.
There's not a whole lot I can add to what others have already said, and better than I could, so here's Helen talking about why we need to remember, and Ruth about why cis people need to remember, and what we can do to support our trans sisters (and brothers) and chip away at the culture that deems trans people less than, and therefore somehow disposable.
Because, once we've chipped away enough, the whole edifice will crumble.
As darkness falls tonight (or about 4.30pm) I'll be lighting a candle and will take a few minutes to remember the 160 women killed for being themselves, and the unknown others who aren't widely known about. Not that I'm not thinking about them now, but you know... Anyway.
There's not a whole lot I can add to what others have already said, and better than I could, so here's Helen talking about why we need to remember, and Ruth about why cis people need to remember, and what we can do to support our trans sisters (and brothers) and chip away at the culture that deems trans people less than, and therefore somehow disposable.
Because, once we've chipped away enough, the whole edifice will crumble.
As darkness falls tonight (or about 4.30pm) I'll be lighting a candle and will take a few minutes to remember the 160 women killed for being themselves, and the unknown others who aren't widely known about. Not that I'm not thinking about them now, but you know... Anyway.
Before you press play, I feel that I should point out that this clip pulls no punches and might make you throw up, especiallt if you've just eaten meat.
