Wednesday 17 August 2011

40 hour famine

I am undertaking the 40 hour famine this year. Instead of giving up food, I will give up using the computer for 40 hours. This means no google, no hourly Bureau of Meteorology checks, no twitter, no email, no youtube, no blogspot, no NationStates, no Facebook and most importantly NO TUMBLR.

Considering I use the computer to study, play, relax and in general entertain myself this is going to be a very different weekend (starting friday 8pm, finishing 12pm Sunday). I’ll have to actually call the transport info line to figure out where and when I’m going somewhere. I’ll have to read the newspaper to figure out what the weather’s like the next day. I’ll actually have to talk to people for a change!

What I am asking for is a small donation. Any amount will help. $40 Australian dollars can feed a family of five for a month!

Bonus pledges:

If $125 has been raised by the 23rd of September I will give up listening to music from Glee for a month.

If $250 has been raised by the 23rd of September I will give up drinking alcohol for a year.

Please donate at http://40hf.com/VSeatang. The money is going to World Vision, who help to provide aid to some of the poorest countries in the world. Even the smallest amount will add up.

~ Ness

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Personal thoughts on the label "slut"

If someone is between the ages of 15-17 and is having unprotected sex with a lot of people and giving blow jobs for “popularity and social benefits” it’s not your job to label them a slut. In fact, you don’t have to label anyone anything.

To put it crudely, even if someone is sucking off your boyfriend or your brother, it is not your business. Ain’t your dick she’s sucking on. Literally. Your boyfriend’s genitals do not belong to you.

Having sex for reasons other than pleasure, such as to gain popularity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I would personally prefer to see a world where how much you are liked depends on how good you make people feel (either by being nice or by being physically pleasurable) rather than how violent or cruel you are.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong about being proud over how many sexual partners you have. In my opinion, such a person doesn’t necessarily lack morals or self respect. Morality is not just about sexual purity, it also (shock horror surprise) depends on how well you treat other humans. There’s nothing wrong with letting people know how many people you’ve slept with, if you’re comfortable sharing that information it’s up to the people around you to cope with their own reactions to that news. This paragraph is true for people of any gender or sexuality.

If you’re working in the legal field as a criminal prosecutor, and a so called “slut” has pressed charges against someone for sexual assault and you personally believe that women who have had many sexual partners deserve to be labelled as sluts, then that is going to impact on how hard you fight for that case. You are going to think things like “Oh, she’s a slut she probably said yes anyway but regretted it and is wasting my time with this case.” Your personal bias shouldn’t impinge on the fact that 1) There has been a lack of consent 2) There has been unconsented to penetration 3) That is a punishable crime.

Caling someone a slut is most certainly in this day and age castigating someone for the number of sexual partners they may have, but it is also now a criticism of any behaviour (dress, manner etc) that the person doing the name calling disapproves of. What this label does is creates an environment where it is not okay for women to have sex, where it is not okay for women to be anything other than sexually demure. If the response to this is that “men shouldn’t have a lot of sexual partners either” then you are also seeking to impact upon the sexual freedom of all people, which is just as uncalled for.

Labelling anyone with “slut” and “manwhore” not only add to the overall hate in our society but exhibits a sense of laughable childishness in your evaluation of individuals.

People have different thresholds for sexual satisfaction. We all have drives, hunger and thirst are commonly known ones, and I would say that there is a sexual drive as well. Some people need to eat more than others, some people eat less. Similarly, some people need to have sex more, some people don’t feel that urge as much. Either way, people from across this spectrum deserve respect and none are better than the other.

Let me reiterate. Who someone sleeps with is none of your business. If someone if sleeping with your brother or friend, in my (very unpopular) opinion that is none of your business. Depending on what kind of relationship I would argue that if someone sleeps with your boyfriend, that is also none of your business (but that ties into the assumption of monogamy in a relationship, and is a slightly different issue).

If it’s none of your business, but you choose to make it your business and get upset, then that is your fault. For example, you might not like black people. Upon seeing a black person you have two choices: 1) get upset 2) Be calm. In fact in any situation, you have a choice on how you react to stimuli. If you choose to get upset, then that was your responsibility, thus your fault.

No one deserves to be castigated for the number of sexual partners they have, regardless of gender.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

You gotta run as fast as you can to stay in the same place.

I feel like once you start school you can't stop. I keep wanting to learn things, and even at the point where I stop wanting to learn things I can't stop anyway. I want to be better and to grow, and they only way I can think of to do that is to keep learning.

I possibly could have stopped school in Year 10 and joined the workforce then. But I feel that I would have stagnated there, thus gained no improvement. Same goes for Year 12, and for the possibility of dropping out now, and for the possibility of not going on to do Honours or the College of Law =/

I sort of feel trapped, but at the same time I know that I have to keep going. I have to work hard, in order to keep learning. The only point I can see where I'll be able to stop is when I drop dead.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

So I over-reacted

1) I was tired and couldn't sleep
2) That girl is still annoying
3) I'm angry because I feel obliged to react somehow, despite not having any reaction.

I guess I can't listen to people all the time, it does get irritating eventually especially late at night when I just want to sleep.

I'll end up helping her because it's right, but I won't like it

So there's this girl doing psychology with me. Let's call her W. Last year we did statistics and sat in the lecture together a few times. Everytime we sat next to each other I wanted to punch her, because she would not shut up and it took me every ounce of my brain to process what Eugene was saying. I eventually wised up and sat alone in the front of the class.

Today, she told me that one of her friends, N, had committed suicide.

I had interacted with N a total of 5 times.
1) She joined Rotaract and I said hi to her at the info night last year semester 2.
2) She helped out at the Biggest Morning Tea which I swung by to get some tea
3) She emailed me once to book a table for Trivia Night, and was probably there while I was there, though I didn't see her
4) She attended the Christmas picnic that I also attended. I said hi
5) We manned the stall for Rotaract one of the days for O-week

In all, I didn't know her that well. W brought it upon herself to tell me, thinking that I'd know N well. I asked her if she was okay, and told her that if she felt overwhelmed she should go talk to the counsellors at the Student Services building.

She wants to meet up sometime this week, and I do not. I feel as though I shouldn't be obliged to talk to you just because you're sad. W and I are not close friends and as far as I know she is bloody annoying. My current attitude is, W is not my problem and she has her own group of friends to talk to. I would like her to leave me alone.

That probably makes me sound like a horrible selfish person, but I guess that's what I am.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Well... shit

No matter what happens in Libya, whether or not Quackdaffy is overthrown they’ll just end up with another dictator and go to shit for the next 30 years. Once he’s overthrown everyone will forget about what has happened and will not make any steps in making the quality of life in Libya any better.

It’s happened in Afghanistan and Somalia. The rest of the world tried to interfere and tried to “fix” what was wrong, and now these countries are still messed up… but no one cares.

Nothing is going to be solved until everyone on the entire planet protests, goes on strike from doing anything and shouts “Hey, this isn’t working for most people. We’re not going back to work until something better is available.”

But that’s not going to happen because not everyone is educated or aware.

Awareness can be raised via news, blogs and oddly petitions. But signing internet petitions is completely useless as it is a form of slacktivism.

Slacktivism is defined as “the search for the ultimate feel-good that derives from having come to society’s rescue without actually getting one’s hands dirty, volunteering any of one’s time, or opening one’s wallet. It’s slacktivism that prompts us to forward appeals for business cards on behalf of a dying child intent upon having his name recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records or exhortations to others to continue circulating a particular e-mail because some big company has supposedly promised that every forward will generate monies for the care of a languishing tot. Likewise, it’s slacktivism that prompts us to want to join a boycott of designated gas companies or eschew buying gasoline on a particular day rather than reduce our personal consumption of fossil fuels by driving less and taking the bus more often. Slacktivism comes in many forms, but its defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of the person inspired to participate, through the mechanisms of forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing.” (Detailed explaination here)

My head is hurting. Crap happens, nothing I can physically do about it to actually help. Thinking of joining the socialist alternative… except for the fact that I’m scared of them.

On a slightly less mopey note, this year I will donate blood.

Saturday 22 January 2011

Capstone Blog Post

Since my last post:

Exam results
I did fairly well last semester, three distintions and a credit. Had to wait a while for some of the results to come out because apparently university administrators are douches and don't pay teachers properly. Or so I heard.

Thailand
I went to Thailand for a few days. Most of the time was spent in high end hotels or resorts and shopping centers. On the actual days where my cousins actually decided to experience some culture we walked on the beach, ate from proper local restaurants (super super cheap food. Like $1.50 meals), walked the streets of chinatown, bought things from street vendors and caught tuk tuks (open air taxis, often dragged by motorbikes in Bangkok and cars in Koh Samui). Bought a lot of cheap clothes and shoes, but also a lot of bottled water (feel so guilty about that. didn't see any recycling bins but we weren't allowed to drink from the tap).

Meeting the parents
Bumblebee was asked (by mum) to come to dinner. We had steam boat/sukiyaki (whatever you want to call it). After dinner we played mahjong and card games. I RULE at Big 2.

Chinese New Year Twilight Parade
I am going to be performing in the parade (woo!). The first rehearsal I went to was okay, but the next day I sore like no one's business.

Enrolment
Managed to enrol in most of my classes but eStudent was being a lagtastic bitch which meant the prerequisites hadn't been processed so I had to get a waiver. I also have my class timetable prepared for registration in 6 days (because I'm crazy like that).

And that's life.