picked a handful of violets in my name

So my Saturday totally sucked!

Remember how I was really worried about making my connection at JFK? It turned out not to be an issue at all, but for all the wrong reasons.

( Read more... )

But I did finally make it to Grand Forks, four hours after I should have. And then I slept for 16 hours.

Am on campus, despite this being one of my days off. I was very tempted to wear this shirt, but I was too lazy to find it.

Verizon DSL needs to go DIAF, seriously. But they can send a tech! On Monday! When I have ALL OF THE CLASSES.

(Will keep phone on vibrate in pocket and sit near the door, ready to bail instantly. If the tech fails to call beforehand so I can actually, you know, leave class and come home - I will lose my fucking mind, I swear.)

Temptation to return to Comcast: rising. They were twice as expensive, but my internet did not die seemingly without reason, and always right before a holiday/weekend so that getting a tech takes even longer.

The earbuds I have only had since New Orleans appear to have died. I tested them with Britta's iPod when I got to work and they were still dead on one side.

>:\ At least it's not my iPod?

I should have just kept my old pair, even though the silicone casing had split and the wires were exposed. They at least worked.

Do you guys want the whole saga of how NStar fails?

I came home from class to find the power out. I fumbled around my room for a minute, but it's so dark in there that there was no way I could put my hands on an old bill. And no electricity means no internet, so that's out.

I called Mom, but she didn't answer her phone, so I called Dad and made him look up the phone number. Called, reported my power out, signed up to get a call whenever they had more info. Poked at the circuit breakers.

Got two calls back almost immediately. One from the automated system saying that repairs in my area should be done by 7, and one from an actual person saying that it was just my apartment, call the landlord.

Went down to the basement to see if there was anything else I could poke. Found an orange tag on the doorknob saying they had disconnected one meter because they had no record of anyone using it, or something like that.

Found nothing to poke at, so I called the landlord. Confused the shit out of him because he actually knows me as Sofia, not [legalname]. He said NStar had disconnected a random meter that only served two lights or something, but he'd call them in the morning.

Went back inside, called Dad again. He talked me through the circuit panel, to no avail. Then he sent me to look at the meters, but they're inside and behind a door I don't have a key to.

Went back inside, left my bedroom light "on," and took a nap. At a quarter past 7, no power and no new updates. I have a paper due tomorrow; my laptop's battery lasts about two and a half hours; my paper has already taken two and a half hours tonight and it's not quite done (I could turn it in as is, but I want to add more facts and bring it back within the page limit).

So I decided to haul myself back to campus, where I am right now. I left the apartment and couldn't help seeing the apartment next to me.

And their goddamn lights on.

NStar disconnected the wrong fucking meter.

And of course there's no one in the office after five. So I'm going to wake up tomorrow and start calling until I get someone real. It's gonna be really fun trying to take a shower in a room with no windows.


All I wanna know is whose bill I've been paying. Because I have been paying one.

Originally published at The Love Letter Sessions. You can comment here or there.

Why the flying fuck does EVERYTHING that I try to upload Excel files to change the extension to .xlsx????? Is there any way to open these fucking files, or do I have to go BACK to the lab with a flash drive????

ETA: Tested things with Office 2004, and the attachment didn't break. So it seems to be a problem with the most recent version of Office.

So, I'll head back to the lab after this class, save the file in an older format (which I'd need to do anyway, so I can open it on my computer), and email it again. I hope the lab is unlocked when I get back there, and that there's not a class in there.

ETA 2: I tried using a computer in Shillman, but those apparently don't have Office. So I tried a computer in the library. Also no Office. And another one, which had Office, but its ability to Save As had been TURNED OFF.

Fucking hell. I don't suppose any of you have Office 2007 and would be willing to convert a file and send it back to me?

ETA 3: Dad attempted to convert it for me with some third-party thing, because he's got Office 2002, and it only converted the first sheet.

But never mind, guys. The reason I wanted that file was because I completed 90% of an assignment in it, but I just redid that 90%, plus the other 10%, plus the extra credit section. In about 30 minutes.

I linked to impertinence's essay this morning, but it's worth linking to again.

The world is changing; attitudes towards gay people are changing. I want to make it very clear that, regardless of what you think about the band members' sexualities, they helped to change things within their demographic. In the isolated environment of adolescence, they sparked discussion and controversy. I watched it happen.

And that kind of talk is worth a hell of a lot.

***

kalpurna has a whole lot of awesome things to say. Here, let me quote extensively:

When members of a dominant culture appropriate aspects of an oppressed culture for entertainment, they characteristically do two things: first, they take stereotypical characteristics and exaggerate them for comedic effect, for people to laugh at, and secondly, they distance themselves personally from identifying with the group in question. They get the audience laughing at the characters, while making sure that offstage, they are not subjected to any of the hate or bigotry that goes along with that. They say "this is entertaining" and "this is not me" with the same breath. That is what blackface entails, and that is, to me, the most hateful thing about it.

When FOB and MCR began their flirtations with gender and sexuality, they were literally doing the exact opposite of what I have described above. They were deliberately taking on the degradation, the hatred, the inflammatory remarks. And they didn't use stereotypes to do so, they used behavior. They encouraged their audience to cheer for men physically expressing affection and sexual interest in each other – not for lisps and rainbow tuxedos.

...

It may well be the case that right now, the mainstream opinion among twelve-year-old girls is that boys kissing is hot. This was categorically not the case ten years ago. If there is a market for stagegay, it is not one that these bands could possibly have been expecting to tap into when they started out. Personally? I think that the fact that middle schoolers will look at a picture of two boys kissing and say "hot!" instead of "eww!" is fucking amazing. That is awesome. And MCR and FOB didn't come around to take advantage of that – they created that.

... Consistently, over and over again, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy have responded to "fags!" with "hell yeah, motherfucker, now deal with it." They don't say, "No, but we're really straight!"

...

All of this means that no matter what's going on in their personal lives – no matter who they're sleeping with, or what their sexual identity may be – the members of these two bands have chosen to say, "Whether or not I'm gay, I want you to treat me like I am, and I'm going to push you to wonder if I am, and I'm not going to back away from that if I get shit for it. Queer people are my people." Because these bands exist, you can be a 14 year old gay kid growing up in some small town, and you can go to your first concert and watch your idols make out on stage while a thousand people cheer, and then one of them picks up the microphone and says, this is a song for anyone who has ever felt alone.

***

ETA: I also have to include this essay in list format by belladonnalin.

***

I'm seriously considering writing a semi-academic paper or something on these bands and how they're challenging heteronormativity and stuff. I wish I was taking "Gender and Society in Modern America" instead of "Gender and Society in Modern Europe" because I could write it for class. But I'll pitch the idea to Professor Frader after class on Monday and see what she thinks. It'll probably be short and not-academic enough that I'll just stick it on my lj when I'm done, but whatever.

Yeah, I'm in bandom. I love these bands. I love this music. I don't care if you're not into it. But I do care if you rain on my parade about it. Don't call me stupid or otherwise insult me just because my squee is different from yours.

Differing musical tastes do not need to end friendships. But if you really can't stand my music and you can't stop yourself from insulting me and mine, please defriend me, right the fuck now. Seriously, just GTFO.