sundries

[rm]

We will be meeting Claudette and several other potential cats on Sunday.

We have now watched Buffy S2 through "Lie to Me," which was really exceptionally written. It's also, I felt, the first time we started to see that the guy playing Angel can actually act (not his fault, it's just they haven't given him much to do other than be hot and mysterious so far and he doesn't even float my boat that way). Drusilla might even be starting to be interesting to me (fragile and crazy is so not my interest; Spike trying not to lose patience with her, much more interesting).

So, going back a few eps (skipping over that shit with the frat boys and the snake demon that wanted to be about rape but couldn't be so was just sorta dumb), er, Ethan? That was over the top much, yeah? I mean, I even Torchwood never gets that campy (okay, maybe Billis does), which is saying something. So now I'm all like, okay, Ethan is the ex-bf and technopagan chick is like the first woman Giles has ever dated or what?

I am really worn out from the headshots yesterday. Like deep, deep in my soul worn out.

The fact that #demonsheep was a trending Twitter topic yesterday was excellent.

Looks like NYC is mostly dodging this. But yoiks.

This little drama going on at Macquarie Bank is annoying the crap outta me. This is not a "political correctness" issue. This is a corporate policy issue, plain and fucking simple. Problems here include: 1. not doing job at time, 2. misusing company resources, 3. creating a hostile work environment (I don't know what the Aussie laws are on this sort of thing), 4. having an negative impact on the corporate image. This is not about evil ballbusting feminists. This is about someone doing something foolish and getting busted in a truly surreal way.

Some persistant vegetative states might not be.

Here's an ENDA-related petition. It only has 34 signatories so far. I know... petitions... what's it going to do, but sometimes they are useful for news stories and getting mroe PR to a cause, so if you're inclined, please make that number go up.

Obama continues to feel his way about channeling his inner Jed Barlet. I've certainly enjoyed him calling out the Republicans and many Democrats on not being willing to just do their jobs out of fear of keeping their jobs. And him mentioning the Uganda thing and the bullshit about his own citizenship at the National Prayer Breakfast, but here's a newsflash (one Obama certainly has not quite gotten): opposing equal marriage rights is, in fact, targeting gays and lesbians; it systematically defines LGBTQ persons as lesser, incapable of love and undeserved of financial and legal protections. Yes, it's fucked up this shit hinges on marriage, but one idea at a time.

Meanwhile, as an aside, I'm sort of totally sick of this "debate" we're all having about gay rights, whether it's marriage or DADT or ENDA or whatever. As if it's reasonable to be having a debate about it. It's not. You can spew your bigotry anywhere you want, but I don't have to actually engage it as if is speech with the same level of value or reasonableness as that which is pro-equality.

Okay, maybe this approach will inspire me. I'm working on conference proposals. Assuming you care, what sort of things about the wonderful world of Harry Potter that I haven't talked about before, would you like to see me present on?

Gmail -- sucking rocks today or what?

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Here's a Potter topic that fascinates me-- maybe you'll find something there to be interested in.

Almost every institution in the Potterverse is corrupt and/or incompetent. I think of Hogwarts as kind of half-assed, but the media and the government are a lot worse. The exceptions are the goblin bank and the competency tests-- everyone trusts them, and the trust seems to be well-founded.

What works in the wizarding world is loyalty between individuals in very small groups.

This gives a very different feel than LOTR, in which some large institutions are