Flying Shortbread

"All my bones shake" - book "Getting off" - book Background - feminism - hierarchies become visible (race - see US as an empire), is a rebel - finds our 'left' more open and integral, was academic, now writes for public, doesn't like how academia works and formulates ideas, defected from TV, open to being facebooked. Q What analysis have you been doing about SA? US still patriarchal and racist and full of sexual violence therefor not post-patriarchal, not subtle, secular discussions obsess about physical differences, psyche differences between W&M. All the indicators have racial overtones - wealth, childbirth, etc. US is white supremacist society. Superior European knowledge used to analyse. Q How does that play out in storytelling - or the mass media?  Guides how we think - society brainwashes us, what are the underlying commonalities? (Objectivity) - actually trying to hide politics. How does the news cover sex assault - 1 in 5 will report...

Of Death and Conscience: Brief thoughts on gender role and the values of the dominant culture in medicine : "“Under the influence of the Church and the newly formed male-dominated medical establishment, the word “witch,” which originally meant “wise one,” became a term of scorn. It took a reign of terror lasting several hundred years to radically alter a way of life thousands of years old. Millions of women who carried the healing lineage were systematically killed (see The Church and the Second Sex by Mary Daly).”"

1. No sleeping over - unless it is very good and we need to repeat it in the morning. 2. No meeting in public except for dinner or drinks before the events of the evening. 3. No calls before 9 PM - we don't have shit to talk about. 4. None of that "lovemaking" shit - only sex allowed. 5. No emotional discussions (i.e. Where are we heading with this? Do you love me?) The answer is no, so don't ask. 6. No plans made in advance - that is why you are called the "backup," unless you are from out-of-town, then it's only a one-time advanced arrangement. 7. All gifts accepted - money is always good. 8. No baby talk - however, dirty talk is encouraged. 9. No asking for comparisons with former lovers - it's really none of your damn business. 10. No calling each other "friends with privileges" we are not friends, just sex buddies. 11. Calling out the wrong name during sex is OK - don't be offended. 12. No extra clothing - I don't ...

Dog people need unconditional love. Cat people can accept conditional love.

Flashback Friday, a column on feminist notions... Joan McGregor “It should be noted that normally we do not let others exploit an incapacitated person and take advantage of their condition.” Adrienne Rich "The assumption that ‘most women are innately heterosexual’ stands as theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease; partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a ‘preference’ at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force, is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and ‘innately’ heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system or racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consci...

Doing anything remotely interesting will bring criticism. Attempting to do anything large-scale and interesting will bring armies of detractors and saboteurs. This is fine – if you are willing to take the heat. There are good reasons to be willing, even eager. Colin Powell makes the case: pissing people off is both inevitable and necessary. This doesn’t mean that the goal is pissing people off. Pissing people off doesn’t mean you’re doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off. Understand the difference. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable, if you’re honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you’ll avoid the tough decisions, you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you’ll avoid offering differential rew...

"This programme contains topics that unfortunately won't be disturbing to INSENSITIVE viewers."

It is about forcing or imposing the gay/lesbian community's will and morality on people who believe it contradicts their morality. And once it has the power of law behind it, it will eventually foster things like forcing ministers, priests, rabbis, etc., to officiate at these "weddings," or their churches/synagogues lose their tax status and worse. Sort of like Catholic medical schools that, for a period of time not that long ago, were mandated to teach abortion or lose their accreditation, forcing medical students of conscience who wanted to have an accredited degree to be seriously affected. It's about the terminology that this powerful lobbying force thinks it needs, which is chillingly similar to the sanitizing language change imposed on us by the abortion lobby in 1973; e.g., "fetus" for unborn baby, "eliminate tissue" vs. kill a child, etc. Source: Seacoastonline.com

This has to be urban legend, because if this story is true, it's no wonder Facebook cares very little for our privacy and has coercive policies that benefit third-party application owners over users. The coercive element is the element where in order for me to maintain my privacy, I would have to have a Facebook profile that no one could see. That defeats the purpose. So when I make a friend, I accept their ignorance about the risk that they have exposed me to through the applications they have on their profile. I have none, but their applications have access to all the information they have access to. So if my friend can see that I am married, so can all the applications they have. So in order for me to participate, I HAVE TO ACQUIESCE to the privacy abuse. And yes, it is my choice. Thanks. :{ HISTORY OF FACEBOOK Facemash Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room. Mark Zuckerberg invented Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sop...

“So the more radical the innovation, the more the uncertainty; the more you need innovation in use to work out what a technology is for. Our entire approach to patents and invention is based on the idea that the inventor knows what the invention is for; we can say what it’s for. It will be worked out in use , in collaboration with users . So, you’re in a big corporation; you’re obviously keen to go up the corporate ladder. Do you go into your board and say, look, I’ve got a fantastic idea for an embryonic product in a marginal market, with consumers we’ve never dealt with before, and I’m not sure it’s going to have a big payoff, but it could be really, really big in the future? No, what you do, is you go in and you say, I’ve got a fantastic idea for an incremental innovation to an existing product we sell through existing channels to existing users, and I can guarantee you get this much return out of it over the next three years. Big corporations have an in-built tendency to reinf...

A community parade - based on something totally arbitrary and not activist oriented. Something that will let the community have fun with each other. A dress up parade. The Bowler Hat Parade. The African Mask Parade. The Angel Parade. The Zebra Stripe Parade.

sex work is openly selling sex for money advertising industry sells sex for money, how come sex work is criminalised we all sell sex, we spend money on vaginal rejuvenation, breast reconstruction, buying boots, we are buying to lure sex, giving out money to get sex decriminalize just during the 2010 World Cup, says Jackie Selebe. Dr Eve says this is outrageous, sexist, usury, insulting (I do too) consenting adults caller blames family breakups on sex workers... (not on the men who go to sex workers), the man chooses to go to a sex worker, he chooses to betray his wife sex workers are doing an honest day's work, why focus on them

when women are silent, it's the silent treatment; when men are silent; they are thinking men have to be coddled - women must say please hold my hand, please take me out, please hold me don't leave (erhhh.... I know he is saying understand each other and change your behaviors for each other, but really! On the other hand, thanks to Dan, I always say - communicated!) stress hormones make men sleep, don't make women sleep stressors have to be 8 times more serious for men to react to a thing as a 'problem' - men look at them as if they are mad when they get stressed out over small things menopause is much more difficult nowadays because of all the stress, take oxytocin getting men to listen - 'Honey, just talk to me for five minutes.' If you put a end time on it, they are more likely to be engaged while doing it.

don't confront the in-law directly, have to do it through the spouse respect does not mean submission, you can be assertive without being confrontational have boundaries from the beginning in-laws should not expect to be supported by the family consider that the couple's decisions are their own and should be respected both sides should consider what their expectations are, and delete them

Strangely, this movie was about Harvey. I guess there are rarely films of gravity and wit about men's lives, but you know I was there for the Emma Thompson's character's backstory. That would have been far more interesting to me. You know I love Emma, she can do anything! And frequently does. I love her expanding middle and I love her crows feet. Perfect realness. Real perfection. And this is not vitriol, just admiration. The film is 'nice', I don't always want to see issuemovies. And yet there were issues, just well disguised. Tangible. Not too funny, not too sad, not too surprising. Britishly well-restrained.

French people who walked from CT. Alex cycled around the world. Became a travel writer because of their adventure.  They did it slowly, didn’t know where they would sleep. Wanted to not rush through. 1002 days of walking. In SA they were passed from person to person like a rugby ball. Tribute lecture for the people here who helped them. Video of Wynne Green singing. Domestic playing with on the drum. Emotional sharing. Wynne died of cancer after they left him. 14000 km. CT to Sea of Galilee. Along Great Rift Valley, like the original people. No sponsorship. Alex was an adventurer. Had walked in the Himalayas. He was experienced at asking for hospitality. Sonia was embarrassed to ask. So Sonia left Alex to ask and he just pressed the intercom and asked. White guy. Gold chains. Wife and braai by the pool. Millionaires of Africa are all in the Cape. Tried to learn the language of every country. Went with a handheld video camera with a reversible screen so people could see th...

I know... from now on when people say give it a bash, and I give it a bash and I can't figure out why, then I have to work on it again and again until I figure it out. This is my lesson to learn. You MUST read this Time article by Steven Johnson - How Twitter will change the way we live . Now don't be lazy. Focus on what he says about that conference, and pretend that we, you me and our groepie are a conference, let's call our conference 'Facebook', or 'South Africa', or other things we have in common. Why do you read my status updates? Same reason you should read my tweets. In fact, Facebook and Twitter and Google have all got their eye on the statuses. You can be patient and wait, they will probably become one. But Twitter is for those statuses that want to stream out into the world, that don't want to be confined. That want to be Clouded, Tagged and Aggregated. So that people can see patterns in what we are talking about.   Come play. It's n...

Prepare . I don’t write out a talk word-for-word, but I use a lot of notes, and I practice it word for word, many times. That works for me. Some people do better with a more ad-lib approach. But either way, the more prepared you feel, the more relaxed you’ll feel.  Mental practice . It sounds odd, but mentally rehearsing and imagining yourelf giving a relaxed, accomplished performance really does help prepare you. In order to make that mental rehearsal as close to the real situation as possible… rehearse - avoid memorising your presentation. Never learn by rote rather visualise pictures that represent various items in your content, and then create a memory stack. Try to visit the scene . Checking out the room where you’ll be presenting will make you feel far more comfortable. Pay special attention to amplification devices: will you be wired up? use a stationary mike attached to a podium? Hold a wireless mike? Earlier that day: Don’t do anything unusual . Don’t take a nap if you...

Notice the passive voice of that sentence. I didn't know that girls could get pregnant by themselves! Redi Direko put it beautifully. "How can you expel the girls, treat girls like criminals and the guys get away with it and are sluts too." Direko was expressing her disgust that people were sending SMSes and emails to her show saying that pregnant girls are sluts and they don't want sluts around their children. Source: 702

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things--reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them--in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. Source: Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction , by Kurt Vonnegut