Collecting Data
Aug. 6th, 2007 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowSo, there are a few faces on my flist that I don't actively (or inactively) know, so folks, swing by, drop me a line and tell me who you are. Because I'm curious! And likely pleased to meet you.
***
I ate and drank very well this weekend, plus socialized like mad which was nice, and much needed, and pretty much guarantees that my house is never, ever going to get cleaned.
***
I think that the Discovery channel site should look into turning Sharkrunners into a Sims style game, even without the real sharks (although I'd miss them terribly. I've grown very fond of Betty and her ginormous teeth. Plus, my apologies to both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sdwolfpup and danceswithwords who also seem to be hooked on sharks:) Anyway, I would totally crew a boat of fake people if I could see them actually go down in a shark cage and get taken to hospital and all that. I'd like to watch them form attachments and develop irrational fears of the water!
The same friend I have to blame for showing me Sharkrunners also showed me another sort of virtual simulation game called "Kudos" where, basically, you start out as a not terribly well-educated, not terribly bright or ambitious 20 year old and have to become a socially competent, employed adult over a 10 year period. Sadly, it far too much resembles real life. You work at a crappy job, choose from meager, but necessary social actitives while trying not to piss off your friends and watch as your health and happiness meters go up and down depending on the choices you make. This is not a game I would have enjoyed at 20 (and as it is, I'm way too focused on the character making good, responsible decisions and don't take advantage of some of the randomness). It's sort of like something you'd make slacker 17-year olds play to show them how to not fuck up the rest of their lives, and yet, it's also strangely addictive.
***
Anyone happen to have any sort of link/download/whateverevenifitsnotquitelegal to the concert that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová did at the El Rey in Los Angeles last week? I'd desperately love to hear it. I'm just not sure where to get started looking for it, if such a thing exists. This being the 21st century, I'm guessing that it does.
***
I have thoughts regarding![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ibarw, many of which involve the nasty stereotypes I myself fall prey to without meaning to. The way I justify them in terms of convenience and inconvenience. The way that looking at actions in terms of culture can be just as off-putting and other-inducing as flat out racism, but I'm trying to formulate them more coherently than saying that I find myself being racist in moments that appall me, make me want to wash my brain with lye, and I guess that's the kind of thing you just fight. You don't think about it, you just do it. You take every one of those nasty, bitter slurs that pop up in your head, and you say, "fuck that. fuck me."
I love cultural difference. Hell, I specialized in it (there's very little as appealing to a white agnostic protestant-raised middle class girl as an "other". Seriously). But there's a difference between being fascinated by ritual and background and history, and making someone an other, putting them away from yourself in terms of categorization. Make people a "them" and not an "us." And sometimes it's a fine difference, and sometimes it's just not.
My grandfather, bless his misogynistic alcoholic assholish old heart, had a slew of racial slurs that he bandied about without thinking anything of it - chink, kook, wop. Things that sound like bad Archie Bunkerish drama. And my mother took that prejudice and said a big fuck you to it, and now has developed her own cache of prejudice. (Mostly, it's a bitter disgust with lawyers and people from the East Coast. My mom is unique even in her prejudice. I blame the person in Vermont who asked her if she rode a horse to work.) My own racism is subtler, I think, and no less demeaning to myself or others - flashes of thoughts about people speaking Spanish, walking near me at night, driving on the freeway, crashing around with shopping carts (and I will say that if there is any stereotype I buy into, it's that you do not get in the way of little old Armenian ladies at the Santa Monica Trader Joe's for they will fuck you up.)
We gotta watch for it, we gotta recognize it and condemn it, and be better in the face of it. We have to write characters of color, we gotta struggle to understand. We've got to use knowledge, and the recognition of our own ignorance if we ever want things to get better. We have to admit that saying "Asian women are bad drivers" is just as vile a concept as a seemingly nastier racial slur. We've gotta punt those thoughts and just say, "that tiny little woman in the gigantic car in front of me is a piss poor driver." All race aside.
And you know what? I don't know what it's like to experience racism. I'm a white girl from middle America without a strong religious bent. I know sexism, sure. I know a variety of other bitter moments, but I don't know what it means to have a part of my identity demeaned because of my skin color. I'm at the top of the food chain in this country, racewise. But I am here to learn. I've got a degree in learning, in asking questions, and I'm not afraid to be looked at like I'm a moron for asking stupid questions, because it's always better to ask. It's always better to be educated than it is to assume, to not want to look bigoted or ignorant.
And if we want to giggle about it, we'll watch last week's "Flight of the Conchords" where our boys are bullied by the Indian fruit stand owner for being New Zealanders and where Brett sits in a box sent to him by his mum. We will do it for many reasons, and not just because Jemaine gets to sing the thong song.
***
I ate and drank very well this weekend, plus socialized like mad which was nice, and much needed, and pretty much guarantees that my house is never, ever going to get cleaned.
***
I think that the Discovery channel site should look into turning Sharkrunners into a Sims style game, even without the real sharks (although I'd miss them terribly. I've grown very fond of Betty and her ginormous teeth. Plus, my apologies to both
sdwolfpup and danceswithwords who also seem to be hooked on sharks:) Anyway, I would totally crew a boat of fake people if I could see them actually go down in a shark cage and get taken to hospital and all that. I'd like to watch them form attachments and develop irrational fears of the water!The same friend I have to blame for showing me Sharkrunners also showed me another sort of virtual simulation game called "Kudos" where, basically, you start out as a not terribly well-educated, not terribly bright or ambitious 20 year old and have to become a socially competent, employed adult over a 10 year period. Sadly, it far too much resembles real life. You work at a crappy job, choose from meager, but necessary social actitives while trying not to piss off your friends and watch as your health and happiness meters go up and down depending on the choices you make. This is not a game I would have enjoyed at 20 (and as it is, I'm way too focused on the character making good, responsible decisions and don't take advantage of some of the randomness). It's sort of like something you'd make slacker 17-year olds play to show them how to not fuck up the rest of their lives, and yet, it's also strangely addictive.
***
Anyone happen to have any sort of link/download/whateverevenifitsnotquitelegal to the concert that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová did at the El Rey in Los Angeles last week? I'd desperately love to hear it. I'm just not sure where to get started looking for it, if such a thing exists. This being the 21st century, I'm guessing that it does.
***
I have thoughts regarding
ibarw, many of which involve the nasty stereotypes I myself fall prey to without meaning to. The way I justify them in terms of convenience and inconvenience. The way that looking at actions in terms of culture can be just as off-putting and other-inducing as flat out racism, but I'm trying to formulate them more coherently than saying that I find myself being racist in moments that appall me, make me want to wash my brain with lye, and I guess that's the kind of thing you just fight. You don't think about it, you just do it. You take every one of those nasty, bitter slurs that pop up in your head, and you say, "fuck that. fuck me."I love cultural difference. Hell, I specialized in it (there's very little as appealing to a white agnostic protestant-raised middle class girl as an "other". Seriously). But there's a difference between being fascinated by ritual and background and history, and making someone an other, putting them away from yourself in terms of categorization. Make people a "them" and not an "us." And sometimes it's a fine difference, and sometimes it's just not.
My grandfather, bless his misogynistic alcoholic assholish old heart, had a slew of racial slurs that he bandied about without thinking anything of it - chink, kook, wop. Things that sound like bad Archie Bunkerish drama. And my mother took that prejudice and said a big fuck you to it, and now has developed her own cache of prejudice. (Mostly, it's a bitter disgust with lawyers and people from the East Coast. My mom is unique even in her prejudice. I blame the person in Vermont who asked her if she rode a horse to work.) My own racism is subtler, I think, and no less demeaning to myself or others - flashes of thoughts about people speaking Spanish, walking near me at night, driving on the freeway, crashing around with shopping carts (and I will say that if there is any stereotype I buy into, it's that you do not get in the way of little old Armenian ladies at the Santa Monica Trader Joe's for they will fuck you up.)
We gotta watch for it, we gotta recognize it and condemn it, and be better in the face of it. We have to write characters of color, we gotta struggle to understand. We've got to use knowledge, and the recognition of our own ignorance if we ever want things to get better. We have to admit that saying "Asian women are bad drivers" is just as vile a concept as a seemingly nastier racial slur. We've gotta punt those thoughts and just say, "that tiny little woman in the gigantic car in front of me is a piss poor driver." All race aside.
And you know what? I don't know what it's like to experience racism. I'm a white girl from middle America without a strong religious bent. I know sexism, sure. I know a variety of other bitter moments, but I don't know what it means to have a part of my identity demeaned because of my skin color. I'm at the top of the food chain in this country, racewise. But I am here to learn. I've got a degree in learning, in asking questions, and I'm not afraid to be looked at like I'm a moron for asking stupid questions, because it's always better to ask. It's always better to be educated than it is to assume, to not want to look bigoted or ignorant.
And if we want to giggle about it, we'll watch last week's "Flight of the Conchords" where our boys are bullied by the Indian fruit stand owner for being New Zealanders and where Brett sits in a box sent to him by his mum. We will do it for many reasons, and not just because Jemaine gets to sing the thong song.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-06 11:42 pm (UTC)So I'm not the only one who has had their crew decimated by Betty? I had rested people with 25ish skill doing low risk things like seal decoy get eaten! I had to quit because I only had one crew left, go back to San Diego and pick up four more, and come back to finish the full set of observations.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 01:24 am (UTC)Okay, I just went and played the demo and while I kind of want to buy it, I must not. Because it would send me spiraling into depression. Evil!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 01:52 pm (UTC)So let me introduce myself.
::inhales::
I'm Andi. I have curly dark hair and wear glasses. I live in Budapest, Hungary. I'm a technical writer. I'm going on holiday to Cyprus next week. My first fandom was the X-Files. My most current one was the Dresden Files (the books mostly), my favourite show is Farscape. I have a black cat, I adore 5 Rythms dancing and the band Crowded House.
I enjoy reading good fic and that's how I found my way onto your LJ.
::exhales::
Pleased to meet you :))
no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 04:53 pm (UTC)You'd totally play a Sims game of this though, wouldn't you? Seeing Amanda eat your divers in real time!!?
In from friendsfriends.
Date: 2007-08-07 06:36 pm (UTC)http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12100950
I enjoyed it mightily.
(There are options for keeping a copy if you have Audacity or some such software.)
Re: In from friendsfriends.
Date: 2007-08-07 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 09:07 pm (UTC)started stalking youadded you to my reading list for the Cameron Mitchell fic originally. I'm never quite sure what to pick when introducing myself, so here's a smattering: I live in the San Francisco Bay Area towards the San Jose end with my partner & 4 cats, have the obligatory tech job, found online fandom in 2000 & am extremely panfannish, write the occasional meta but have come to terms with the fact that I'm not a fiction writer (or at least am not interested in dedicating the time necessary to become one), am the rare guy in fandom but lived 27 years as a woman/girl first so I have what I like to think of as an unusual perspective, am a complete bookworm although fandom has caused me to read a lot less on paper and a lot more online. I feel like I should reveal something not immediately obvious if you've read much of my lj, but this is what has sprung to mind.I'm so pleased we're sharing Burn Notice now in addition to SG1!