collacentaur | Entries tagged with rants

Dear Viagra spammers:

I don't have one.

You have emailed me six times a day for months, and this has not changed, nor will it ever. Go away.

On the other hand, I actually prefer the spam to the legitimate advertising for a competitive product, which implies that using it will force you to sit outside in a bathtub for no discernable reason. Because God forbid they should use the old advertising standby of "if you use this product, people will shag you" when that's actually the point of the product! Those commercials annoy me almost as much as the Cymbalta commercials, and I think the entire world has heard me go ballistic on those.

...sorry, taking my advertising rant and walking away now.

Current Mood: irritated

( mini-rant ensues )

Current Mood: frustrated

daeron requested a rant on gay marriage, optionally including separate by equal. I've been holding off on this one, partially because I wanted to refer to one of my college textbooks.[1] However, it looks like it'll be at least another couple of weeks before I get up to my parents' to reclaim the books, and I feel like ranting today.

The short version of my opinion is that I support gay marriage, for both political and social reasons.

( The long version is... )

palingyuan requested a rant on the Evangelical Right. Somehow that settled in my brain as the Religious Right, which is a somewhat broader topic. I think this will cover the request, though, so I'm doing the whole thing.

( In which Steph uses not only her degree, but also really big words - cut for politics and personal opinions )

I finally gave up on Queer Eye for the Straight Girl last night( and feel the need to vent about it. )

daernhelm requested a rant on the eventual collapse and dissolution of the United States if it continues as it has been. I've previously covered a lot of this here, as well as ranting about it in person.

( politics behind cut-tags, to spare the disinterested and the dissenting )

ourika requested a rant on: Long lines when you're in a hurry and need to pee. This is sort of a related tangent...

Last night, I left the office at about 6:30. I had been exhausted all day, having woken up more tired than when I went to bed. I broke the cardinal commandment of "Go before you leave!" I live less than two miles away from my job, so I thought it would be safe.

I stopped in at the grocery store, to see if they had the hand lotion that

leftsphenoid recommended. Good news: The entire brand is on sale this week, and is featured on the end cap, so it was the first thing I saw when I walked in the store. Bad news: The brand is on sale this week, so the hand lotion was completely sold out. Good news: They have a daily face wash as well, which was in stock and on sale, and I've been considering trying a new face wash anyway. Bad news: The lines were ridiculous. There were four people ahead of me in the line for the express self-checkout. I was tired, cranky, and I needed to pee. And I waited... And waited...

Finally, I checked out, got in my car, and started to drive home. Every fourth parking space, all the way up Main Street, someone pulled in or someone pulled out, directly in front of me. In retrospect, it was a beautifully choreographed dance. At the time, I was tired, cranky, and I needed to pee. And my gloves were making my hands itch, and I had no lotion to look forward to. The third time someone started to back up, I burst into tears.

When I finally got home, after taking care of the immediately pressing need, I decided as an interim measure to try

ourika's suggestion and oil my hands. I can tell I've been a gamer too long, because I momentarily wondered if Extra Virgin Olive Oil would have the same effect on me that Holy Water has on the unholy... It did help a little, but it's not going to be a long-term solution. Tonight's goal: leave early, and investigate the brands of hand lotion at CVS and the Madison Pharmacy.

Coming from both

daeron and

norabombay on the same day, proving that this must be a fairly widespread meme - usually one section of my list gets these things several days before the other:

a. Comment with any subject(s) that you would like me to rant on, with possible swearing involved. Any subject - I don't even have to agree with it. but I don't promise not to present my own viewpoint as well.

b. Watch my journal for your rant. and give me a couple of days...

c. Post this in your own journal, so that you may rant for others. Optional. I'm always looking for writing topics, but I don't expect that others should have to do it just because I want to.

There's even more political posting on my friendslist today than there was yesterday, mostly in reaction to the voting results.

( So this is what I've been thinking. )

There are some ways in which I very clearly was born into the wrong generation. Most often when I recognize this, it's to do with career path and personal expectations and the like. In this case, I'm thinking of my old-fashioned approach toward communications.

( A longwinded ramble, bringing me back eventually full circle. )

And now there's a bit of Simon and Garfunkel playing in my head. Perhaps it's just my age, and not my generation after all.

Current Music: The Sound of Silence

Today is Veterans' Day, another on the list of holidays that are only partially observed. Banks are closed, the mail is closed, and in some states school is closed. Otherwise, business goes on as normal.

I wonder how many people are really remembering the veterans today? ( I am. ) They are thousands and thousands of individual real people, each with their own story. And I remember.

It's funny which parts of traditional gender roles stick in reactions, even in people who try to fight them in general.

For example, I expect guys to bring me flowers. No reason for that, based on my own experience, since it doesn't happen that often. But when it does, I treasure it... I think I remember every time I've been given flowers, barring perhaps a handful of dandelions, since I was eight and a twelve-year-old's mother made him give me a carnation when we were all cleaning up after a church supper. That was the first. The most romantic? When my first boyfriend first brought me a rose (not counting corsages). The most surprising? The daffodil a certain lemony-fresh friend of mine picked on his way to my room my freshman year. The funniest? The roses that took five days for me to pick up, since I'd gone out of town the day they were supposed to arrive, that were exactly like the ones I'd sent to him. The most beautiful? A rainbow bouquet of tulips Jeff bought me this spring. The most meaningful? A corsage I didn't expect, from a date who wasn't really a date but went out of his way to make it one anyway, for the one formal dance that made up for all the others ever. That's the one that I took apart afterwards and put together without the plant parts to save as a memento. I still have it. It still matters.

And I can't bring myself to buy my own flowers. The Whole Foods supermarket right next to my office has gorgeous flowers. I end up going in at least once a week to get food for my boss, and I admire the flowers every time. Sometimes I even think about going back at the end of the day to buy flowers. But I never do, because I refuse to admit to myself that no one is going to bring me flowers. Some part of my subconscious firmly believes otherwise. How silly is that?

And why do I expect it to be guys who bring flowers, anyway? I'm every bit as capable of buying flowers as any of my male friends... more so, in most cases, because it actually occurs to me. Maybe I should start buying flowers and bringing them to my friends, instead.

Does anyone usually buy flowers in a gay or lesbian relationship? Am I the only one who has this weird hangup? If I had a girlfriend, would it occur to me to buy her flowers?

I generally detest gender roles and gender stereotyping, too. It drives me nuts when my boss makes assumptions about what I can't or shouldn't do because of my gender - despite the fact that the things he decides I shouldn't do are generally things I don't want to do in the first place, like carrying heavy boxes or climbing ladders to change lightbulbs. Besides, his friend, who's our cleaning service and routine maintenance guy, is a much better choice. But I don't want to be told I shouldn't do it.

Still, I resent having to take out my own garbage at home. Actually, I think that's an issue with the garbage, not with the gender roles. My mom always collected the garbage, then my dad would put it out on his way to work. Jeff has no problem with that pattern. I don't really like having to collect it in the first place - walking it out to the curb is no big deal and is easy enough, so I usually just do it once I've collected it, although I bitch and moan the whole time. Although I might feel differently if I didn't live in a first floor, front of building, apartment.

I need to just suck it up and deal, where the garbage is concerned. Collecting it and taking it out is certainly better than the alternative. And I think I need to re-evaluate my perceptions, and see what other silly things I do because of preconceived gender roles. Maybe I'll even start buying myself flowers.

Probably I'll just keep waiting.

As probably everyone knows by now, I read a mailing list that has a fairly broad scope of what is acceptable to discuss, thanks partly to an off-topic marker and a system for encouraging good use. It is my primary source of news and social commentary, and one of my best sources of general information. I find that they tend to discuss things about a day and a half before it comes up in my offline life.

They brought up a term yesterday that, while I had seen it in previous discussions on-list, I had never really thought about clearly.

Episcopagan.

Defined alternately (depending on the person it is applied to) as a liberal, open-minded Episcopalian; or as a pagan with an Episcopalian upbringing and world-view. Or, in some cases, as an active and intentional blend of the two. Or anywhere in between... religion, analyzing individuals instead of groups, shows even more of a spectrum effect than sexuality.

Now, I could fit into the first part of that definition. I am decidedly Episcopalian, although I don't necessarily believe all the official doctrines. (Incidentally, in the parish and diocese I grew up in, we are encouraged to consider what we really believe - even if that means people leave the church. In some ways Episcopalian may be the next thing to Catholic, but not in all ways.) But God knows (irony noted) I'm not very conventional, and I certainly don't object to other people doing or believing things I wouldn't, unless they try to force it on me.

My mother, on the other hand, comes very close to the middle ground. I talked to her once about what she really believes. And honestly, in some ways she is considerably closer to my Gay Pagan Crusader friend than she is to the views of our home church, which is pretty liberal itself.

And I have one or two friends who I think could embrace Episcopaganism whole-heartedly. Or perhaps they already have - after all, what you call something doesn't matter as much as what it really is.