My school has very little parking.
Seriously. Very. Little. People (me) have circled for up to 28 minutes trying to find a space. In the main lot (main lot—haha it has four rows), the rows are one way. There are giant signs. The rows are not really big enough for two cars, especially if one is an SUV or a Hummer.
People go the wrong way.
Frequently, people go the wrong way very quickly, and almost run over other people who are going the right way.
Even more frequently, people go the wrong way and get spaces people who were going the right way wanted.
Sometimes those people have just entered the parking lot, while the people going the right way have been circling for 20 minutes.
Usually there’s not a damn thing to be done about it except honk and make angry gestures.
But today, I found myself at an impasse with a girl. I had gone around to get a space. She had just turned the right way. I had been circling. She had not. (It’s a small lot. You know who just entered.) I was not going to let her ignore the giant signs. She stuck her head out the window, yelling that she’d been there first. Which she had. Because I took the time to make sure I didn’t hit anybody, or clog the lane, or whatever. I told her she should have gone the right way. She said she’d been following that other car, and asked if I was kidding. I indicated that I was not. She sped off, calling me, I believe, a fucking bitch. I parked.
Now I’m slightly afraid my car is going to get keyed or something. Once there’s someone in here to watch my laptop, I’m going to go check on it. Which is so not fair. (The whole reason I’m here so early is to study, not have to check on my car. Or vent on Tumblr.) I’m sorry. I’m tired of being late to class (even when I left super early), killing the ozone layer, and almost getting hit. I stood up today and said screw this. And now I have to worry about my car. For actually following the rules. Sometimes life sucks.
I took these a while ago but never got around to posting them. But since Califmom needs some ridiculousness…
The third one is the look I give to kids I’m babysitting when they’re ill-behaved. Watch out.
SQUIBBLE.
I have had the Tiny Toons theme song stuck in my head ALL DAY because of you and it’s YOUR FAULT.
Thanks for reminding me that I *know* the Tiny Toons theme song.
Asshole.
A grey squirrel puts its bushy tail over its head to protect itself from the snow in New Jersey, USA. Picture: RAY YEAGER / SOLENT. via telegraph uk
Hey, you people whining about the snow—at least you have roofs!
Damn not being able to reply to questions.
TJ says:
clapifyoulikeme asked: She could have come back to the States. Yes. 1) She had the capability to do that. How lucky for her. Not so much for the average Filipino woman. 2) She only had that choice because abortion is legal here. Focus on the Family does not want abortion to be legal here. They want to remove that choice. If it were up to them, she would not have a choice, and neither would anyone else.
They also think homosexuality should be outlawed. The number of ways in which FotF makes me sick is uncountable. James Dobson is one of the most dangerous and evil men in America. He has influence Pat Robertson can’t even dream of, and he comes off as much more benign. Dangerous.(Abby and I have been discussing the Tebow ad. The “she” above refers to Pam Tebow. I wanted to make some of this more clear in a public way. I expect this will be my last word on The Tebow Ad, so feel free to skip it if you’re already sick of it.)
Abby, you are preaching to the choir :-)
Let the record show that I’m not in any way, shape, or form a supporter of either FotF or James Dobson. Nor do I want abortion to be outlawed.
My problem with the criticism of “The Tebow Ad” was that almost none of it addressed these points.
Instead we got sloppy attempts to accuse them of breaking a commandment, anaccusation that they could have done more for the poor, and Richard Dawkins making incredibly weak arguments which masquerading as rational logic.
All of these arguments were made by people who had never seen the ad, but objected to it anyway.
The Washington Post article (Tebow’s Super Bowl ad isn’t intolerant; its critics are) was spot-on. If you are objecting to nothing more than the fact that FotF has the money to place an ad (or that CBS accepted it), you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that your position supports tolerance and freedom of speech.
Ironically, the best criticism I heard all week came from Rev. J. Bennett Guess, spokesman for the United Church of Christ who said:
The reality is that Pam Tebow was presented with a difficult choice and, faced with a moral dilemma, she made the decision which was the right one for her. I am happy the decision was hers to make, both legally and ethically, in consultation with those who love and care for her, as it should be for all women.
Someone said to me, “Yes, but the Tebows don’t see this as a pro-choice message.” That’s almost certainly true, but I think it’s beside the point. Viewed objectively, I believe the message is inherently pro-choice, and if you can help people see that I believe you have a greater chance to actually sway someone’s opinion or way of thinking.
The rest of the criticism was so filled with anger and vitriol that it would only appeal to people who were already pro-choice and who were pre-disposed to reject any ad by Focus on the Family. If the point of criticism is just to mock or dismiss, it seems like a complete waste of time and energy.
The same United Church of Christ, by the way, who had an ad rejected in 2004. They wanted to make it clear that they were open to all people. You can see the ad here:
The UCC is ad is much more “in your face” than the Tebow ad, which was fairly benign, but was clearly meant to drive traffic to the Focus on the Family website (which is not).
Ironically, this message of acceptance was rejected, and very few people (other than religious folks) objected.
[…]
I hope that none of this has seemed like I was arguing in support of Focus On the Family. I wasn’t. I was arguing for better criticism than “it’s a waste of money” or “religious people are stupid”.
And those are dumb arguments. But my argument was that she did not have a legal choice (which is the main choice that pro-choice people are arguing for) where she was and that the choice she did have was only available to her because she was privileged. My other argument is that it’s bullshit that FotF was allowed to place an ad at all, when other groups weren’t. I’m all about free speech—I’m a card-carrying ACLU member, literally—and CBS certainly has the right to allow or disallow whatever it wants, but it seems pretty clear to me that if they won’t allow similar ads that are not anti-choice, they’re promoting a viewpoint, and I find that disingenuous. Good thing I don’t watch any of their shows to begin with…
Knowing that millions of people may have seen that and gone to a website that appears fairly tolerant and in fact has ties to at least one hate group, and that many of those people may not be well-informed about their actual agenda scares me. The Tebow ad could say almost anything, but with the FotF info on there, I would still find it reprehensible.
As for free speech—I would fight for its right to be on there, certainly. I don’t know enough about the law in this area to know if there are legal grounds to fight for a similar, pro-choice ad. But I’ve never said it shouldn’t air, legally. I’ve said that it’s disingenuous (she had a choice? yeah, but not one others had, or one she wants me to have), that it’s disgusting, and that I would be thrilled if it didn’t air. But it has every right to (unless, legally, their refusal to air a counterpart means it doesn’t—not that I’ve seen a counterpart ad, and why didn’t anyone make one?), and I support that right.
I still have half an hour before class because of stupid other kids and no one is online entertaining me.
And school internet is too slow for Pandacam.
Dear iTunes,
Sometimes there are two artists or albums or genres or something that I think complement each other nicely, and to which I would like to listen together.
So why do I have to click the Search box and type I-N-D-I-G-O- -G-I-R-L-S and then click a song and hit ⌘A and then click the + and type the name of the playlist and drag the songs onto the playlist and then clear the Search box and type R-A-M-M-S-T-E-I-N and click a song and hit ⌘A and then drag the songs to the playlist and then click the playlist and then hit “play”?
Why can’t I just search ‘“Indigo Girls” AND Rammstein’ and then hit “play”?
As it stands, if I even include the quotation marks, you fail and can’t find anything.
GET ON THIS.
LOVE, EVERYONE.
I hate iTunes. It has the least user-friendly interface ever.
You can tell because every time I use it I scream “I HATE YOU, ITUNES! YOU HAVE THE LEAST USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE EVER!”
