sundries

[rm]

Last night I got my first random comment on the tattoo.

A guy in my neighborhood rode his bike up alongside me and said, "Hey love,¹ what's the tattoo?"

And, you know, I'm not so good with strangers, so I was like "Just a phrase."

"But what's it mean?"

And I had that moment of horror of thinking no one will get it ever and the story is always too long to tell. "Just, you know, live your life big, yeah?"

"Oh, that's awesome!" And he rode off.

But today it's covered for the first time, and that's nice too. Mine. My secret.

I've mentioned this to a few of you elsewhere, but unlike other ink I've gotten, this required the needle to be on my skin for far longer chunks of time, because it had to be done in long strokes, like regular writing, to be smooth, so it was a little strange, sitting there in Islington while some loud girl got some stars on her neck and yammered with her friend about boys being able to feel these words being cut into my back.

Bidding has opened at graduate_maria to benefit theotoky. For those that are new here or missed it the first time, Maria's an old friend of mine who never got to finish her degree when we first met over fifteen years ago, because she was supporting her abusive spouse. Now she's one semester away from graduating, but needs tuition money to cover her last semester as multiple issues have intervened to make getting loans and other support problematic for her. People are auctioning everything from photography prints, to fanfiction, to crafts, to baked goods to help her out. There are also some amazing unique items like a steno starter kit and a rainbow horse art project named after John Barrowman. Please check it out, or boost the signal if you can.

Gay marriage has been legalized in Argentina.

NOM thinks gay people aren't persecuted. That'd be no. sparkindarkness has a round-up of the criminalization, persecution, murder and legalized medical torture of LGBT persons, a lot of which occurred in our lifetimes and is still happening RIGHT NOW.

Russia and the sexual revolution.

Women, aging and France.

Women, memory and size. I can see a lot of potential reasons for this study to be crap, including that depression and isolation both negatively impact memory. In a society that penalizes larger people, especially women, with social censure, it seems logical that larger people, especially women, might have memory problems, not because of the physiology of fat, but because of what happens to them socially because of said fat.

Michigan teen starts her own CSA farm in her backyard.

Who do you write like? If you too take crappy Internet quizzes, probably a white guy.

Who would you give your life for? Groups and self-sacrifice.

"In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday" - 18th-century ship found at future WTC site.

Yes, LJ will be purging inactive accounts. However, LJ has just redefined those accounts to mean no log-in for over 24 months AND no content. So it was fucked up last night, but now they've made it not evil.

New, exciting Gallifrey One guest announcements! Ian McNice (so exciting, I am such a fan) as well as a long list of much loved familiar faces, plus some new exciting folks (Jane Espensen!).

Hey, would still hasn't written their WIAD? That would be me. ARGH.

Today is going to be long and brutal work-wise. But tomorrow is another day. And Patty will be home soon.

---

¹ I live in Spanish Harlem. No one calls people "love" as a random term of address. It was completely random.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

My parents, who have very little and very bad French and can be kinda difficult, say they have never experienced rudeness in Paris, although they have stopped going because the national rise anti-semetism makes my mother uncomfortable.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

On the whole, people in the French service industry seemed to take pride in their work. (Waiting tables is also considered a profession.) I had a few bad apples but seriously, most people were knowledgeable, professional and even cheery. I speak French so my experience may differ from visitors who don't.

[rm.livejournal.com]

See, that sounds lovely. I'm still trying to understand the completely weird customer service I experience in the UK, which isn't terrible, just mutually puzzled.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Re: your comment above this one: Seen this? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10611398) My first snarky thought was, oh, great, now both Jews AND Muslims are being targeted in France - at least they don't disciminate about who they're discriminating against.

Weird customer service in the UK? What'd I miss?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have so seen the veil thing. It's just... ugh. Not, as the French gov't seems to think, feminist.

I just find customer service puzzling in the UK. Service workers are friendly in the extreme, but not actually helpful. So, it's like, yay people skills, now why can't we solve my problem, get the food ordered, tell me how to get to the town center, etc?

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Man, I dunno. It's been years since I've been to England and I've put much of that trip out of my head. It seemed to consist mostly of getting totally, completely, irretrieveably lost in London or nearly getting hit by a double-decker at least twice. (Being American, I kept looking the wrong way when crossing the street. Hilarious in hindsight, near-fatal at the time.)

Well, obviously we have to legislate how women dress, because they can't make such big decisions on their own, durr.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Hm. Gotta say, that's another thing I've never really run into here, except from a handful of relatively uneducated people (and that quite a good many years back). My given name, which in the States is "biblical", is here considered explicitly Jewish, plus I have red hair, which is also rare among French gentiles - and I live in a heavily Muslim neighborhood. And I virtually never encounter anti-Semitic attitudes directed against me or others.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't think my mother has encountered it explicitly, I think a series of news articles here alarmed her. I have encountered it explicitly in Switerzland, but have not been to France.