meloukhia

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Beyond the Binary: Meeting People : Gender identity and assigned sex are so complicated that I have trouble explaining them to adults who are open to the idea of gender variance and who have a vague grasp on the vocabulary, and I can’t imagine how to frame the discussion in a way which makes sense to a child. (posted Jan 6, 12:39pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Lost: The Beginning of the End : They’ve promised that it will be brought to a finish point, but with Lost I have learned that things are rarely this simple. I wouldn’t be surprised if the show leaves us in a loop, imagining all sorts of things with the characters and the story. (posted Jan 5, 12:56pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Yes, Actually, I Can Make An Informed Choice : I can research a situation, I can weigh the pros and cons. I can think about the impact which various choices will have on me personally. (posted Jan 4, 12:10pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Bad Science Reporting : Errors in science reporting irritate me both because I don’t like to see studies mischaracterized, and because I think that they do science a disservice, and they create unreasonable expectations in members of the lay public. (posted Jan 3, 12:29pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

How Not To Advertise: Method : You cannot get pissed at an advertising demographic for not finding your ads appealing. You should get pissed at the company which prepared the ad, because they obviously did not think out the demographic very well or do their research. (posted Jan 2, 12:39pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

The Jasmine Project: A New Decade : And remember, that’s the whole point of the jasmine project, is to create a wall of delicious green which will obscure my neighbors’ house from view. (posted Jan 1, 12:19pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

That Strange Impermanence of Life : Best of Holidailies That January First, though, it was an even stranger day. It almost felt like we slipped outside time together for a moment. (posted Dec 31, 12:19pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Whedon's Brunettes : He inserts her again and again, setting up situations in which she can be saved, but in the end, she’s often doomed despite the best efforts of the other (usually male) characters. (posted Dec 30, 12:40pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Resolve This : I ask myself not “what do people think about me,” but “what do people think about my actions,” and it changes the context of the question. (posted Dec 29, 1:19pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Excellent Ladies of the Small Screen : Standout female characters are hard to find. (posted Dec 28, 12:48pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Antifeminist Spam : But, this spam. It goes to an entirely new level. Instead of being a random string of gibberish or a clot of keywords or a list of links, it’s an assault. (posted Dec 27, 12:23pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

The Night The Roof Blew Off : ...looked skyward, and realized that a large section of the roof was gone. It was actually kind of hard to tell, at first, because it was so dark that the line between roof and sky was hard to find, but eventually we realized that the section of the ceiling which looked different looked that way because it wasn’t there. (posted Dec 26, 12:37pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Do The Right Thing : I think about all the people that will celebrate the New Year in the coming days by becoming grossly intoxicated, and I wonder how many of them will get behind the wheel of a car. And I shudder. (posted Dec 25, 12:24pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Of Bees and Mist : This is a mysterious and creepy and very complicated story with characters and lives which intersect in a way you don’t fully realize until the end of the book. (posted Dec 24, 1:00pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

On Centering Voices : How can you say that you know all about the issues faced by members of marginalized communities, and then turn around and silence those people when they say “actually, no, you don’t.” (posted Dec 23, 12:35pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

The Magicians : It’s a book which is sharp and biting and cynical but also fully magical. It’s about the breakdown of childhood stories and beliefs, and the replacement with something even better and more rich. (posted Dec 22, 12:33pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Solstice : Best of Holidailies Everything is still tightly furled and closed against the cold today. The bulbs are dormant under the ground. The trees are still and quiet. This, the shortest day of the year, will be over in a brief flurry. (posted Dec 21, 12:50pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Desertification : The desertification phenomenon is an environmental issue, but it’s also tangled up with colonialism and other matters, and that makes it difficult to address. (posted Dec 20, 12:21pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Snow on the Branches : “There’s something I have to do,” I said, dragging her out of bed absurdly early in the morning. “Come over, and bring your camera.” (posted Dec 19, 1:10pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Red Dwarf, Black Dwarf: The Racial Overtones of Narnia : A lot has been written about the racial content embedded into The Chronicles of Narnia, but I recently re-read them, so it’s been on my mind. (posted Dec 18, 12:38pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Beyond the Binary: Names and Pronouns : Whenever a new person is encountered, gendering is one of the first things that people do. It makes people extremely uncomfortable when they can’t determine someone’s gender. (posted Dec 17, 12:34pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Excusing Celebrity : ...even when they are bad, they are our celebrities. We feel invested in them. We have committed so much time to them. Indeed, we even own them, speaking and thinking about them in proprietary ways. (posted Dec 16, 1:02pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Something to Think About : Best of Holidailies Despite experiencing alienation from their families because of their sexuality, either man could someday find himself powerless and at the mercy of family members who have told him to “just find a nice woman, get married, and have some children.” (posted Dec 15, 12:42pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

On Reviews (and Lack Thereof) : When I get into things, I tend to get into them intensely, to squeeze every last drop out of them, and then to drop them. I appear to be reaching this place with television. (posted Dec 14, 12:39pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Memories of Fall : There’s a grimness in the air. I start to forget that the world was ever warm, that it ever had colour, that it was ever alive, as everything around me becomes muffled and dark. (posted Dec 13, 12:13pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Mandarin : There is something on my lips and I bite down, an explosion of sweetness and juices and a faint hint of a tang and perhaps even an underlayer of salt but I am not certain. It is warm from hands that are not mine and it is strangely perfect. (posted Dec 12, 12:17pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Timbale : I’m not quite sure where my father picked up the recipe, and when, but the process of making timbale was always tremendously exciting for me, because it was a food you had to battle with. You had to outwit the timbale. (posted Dec 11, 12:47pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Farewell, Old Friend : I was not, in other words, opposed to paying over $400 for a vacuum, but I wanted some good solid information to back up my purchase to make me feel comfortable. (posted Dec 10, 12:41pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Education Has Value : If we let the CSU/UC and California community college systems collapse, if we do this, if we say that they do not have value and are not worth sustaining, we are making a grave mistake, and it’s a mistake that we are going to regret. That future generations are going to regret. (posted Dec 9, 1:39pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Beyond the Binary: Forms : Think about how it would feel to fill out a form with checkboxes which do not include a space for you. Imagine doing this over, and over, and over again. (posted Dec 8, 12:35pm)

this ain't livin' by meloukhia (31)

Life/History : The thing about history is that it’s not just a date; you don’t have to remember precisely when an event occurred to understand the history and context of that event. What makes history interesting is the stories behind it. (posted Dec 7, 2:08pm)