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| Seasons' Greetings - A Featured_Grownups writing prompt.
When people think of the holidays, at least around these parts, Christmas tends to be the first one to come to mind. As things stand today, Christmas is perhaps my least favorite holiday of the year. It wasn't always, though.
As a child, like most children, I loved Christmas. Most years, Christmas was a small family event, seeing as aside from my immediate family and my Grandmother on my Mother's side, none of the rest of my family lives in the same state. We'd watch A Christmas Carol (the one with George C Scott) on Christmas Eve, then it was off to bed. Like most children, I had difficulty sleeping that night, and was up bright and early Christmas morning, eager to open my presents. There was always a copious amount of Thank You cards to be written later that day, but the festivities of the morning made it worth it.
Now it is worth noting that my relationship with my Mother has always been a love/hate thing at best. My father worked long hours until I was in middle school, and because of this, he and I did not begin to get close until very recently. As such, as I grew older and became less allured by the materialism of the Christmas morning gift exchange, Christmas became something I looked forward to less and less. Sure, I'd get a couple nice presents, but it became a day in which I had to put up with my mother's rampant bitching and temper tantrums more than usual. By high school I was dreading the entire winter break, especially Christmas and New Year's Day.
In college I met a group of people who actually made me feel as though I was part of a family. I still keep in contact with many of them, a few of which I am still closer to than my parents. For my first two years, when I was in the dorms, this almost made Christmas even worse. After finals, it was mandatory that I be out of the dorms within 48 hours. Not only did I have to go put up with my parents, but I had to leave my family to do it.
My Junior year was the first year I had a place other than the dorms. Me and a few other guys got a duplex. It was that year that I had my first good Christmas (sort of) since my Childhood. After finals were over, I had my two closest friends (two of the friends that are still closer than family) over for a "End of Semester/Happy Birthday to my friend/Winter Holiday (the group was not entirely Christian (and in fact, that was the last Christmas that I was a Christian, but that's a different story))/Seven Years Until The End of the World (2012 thing, none of us believe it but it was something fun to put on the cake) party, in which we watched Back To The Future, ate food and cake, and all and all had a good time. This party became a tradition that continues to this day, plus a few more people. Then it was back to my folk's place for Christmas Day. Thus was born my two seasonal holidays, "Good Christmas," which happens around December 12, and "Shitty Christmas," which happens around the 25.
My Senior year, that was the best Christmas ever. I worked, and turns out I had to close Christmas Eve and go in the day after. Since my parents were a three hour drive away, it was not worth the trip. So I spent Christmas Eve with a friend and Christmas day in a bar. Most would consider that miserable and pathetic. For me, it was glorious.
The past few years, I have made the trip back to College Station each year around the time of Good Christmas for the sole purpose of enjoying Good Christmas. Because the crew is a bit more separated, Good Christmas is now a full weekend event, but to each of us it seems to be the highlight of our year. Then there's still Shitty Christmas, where not only do I have to deal with my folks, but for the sake of maintaining diplomatic relations, I must pretend to still be Christian. It may be worth noting that while I have left the faith, they have in turn become more religious, and I fear their love is quite conditional on me continuing to follow their faith.
Thirty Five days until Good Christmas.
And Halloween is still my favorite holiday. | | |
| Queerish is talking about labels this month, and I have a few things to say on that topic.
I suppose since it's for Queerish and all, it seems appropriate to start with the labels that apply to me. I am a genderqueer aromantic asexual. The concept of gender as it applies in the queer community does not make sense to me, and as such I tend to say I don't have one (and that is different than identifying as androgynous, by the way). I don't get the appeal of romance and am rather uninterested in perusing it, and I don't experience sexual attraction.
So that's what those labels mean, but how do I feel about them? I first started seeing debate as to the significance of labels when I first became involved in the asexual community. Some claimed labels were good, they helped describe people and thus helped people understand each other. Others said they were bad, they tried to lump people into neat little boxes. I thought this interesting, the comparison to boxes. I ended up looking at a box. Let's do that, let's look at a box.
I rather enjoy pipe smoking (tobacco, not illicit substances) and have been known to do a few little magic tricks, so it is no surprise that the first box I found was this:
First thing I notice, the things that stand out most to me, are the Diamond logo and the bold, contrasting letters "Strike On Box Matches." No doubt what is in this box. Looking closer, we notice there's 32 matches in here, they are made in the USA, and that they aren't for kids. Flipping the box:
We find a list of features, the count repeated, and the manufacturer's address.
Let's put these matches on the backburner for a moment, preferably in a figurative sense, as it is unwise to actually place a whole box of matches near a flame.
Let's again consider the main argument for and against labels. The for crowd seems to think they are great for describing people, while the against crowd thinks they define people. Defining vs Describing, or, if we want to make it sound more fun, Prescribing vs Describing. Those rhyme, so I like them better.
Now, back to our match box. First thing we saw was what was in the box. That specific label defined or prescribed the contents of the box. This box contains matches.
Then there's the other, smaller labels. 32 Count. Made in the USA. Portable. Things that describe the content. We know there's matches in the box, but this tells us about the matches.
Now consider that for people. The people who oppose labels like to say that the labels fit us into the box. This is only the case if we apply the label in the prescriptive manner. By placing "Gay" in the spot where the match box says "Strike Anywhere Matches," one is indeed using that label to define themselves. But I would say they're doing it wrong. That spot should say "Person." labels such as orientation, gender, and what you had for breakfast should go in the features list. Those labels don't define you, they describe you, tell us a bit more about who you are.
So that's prescriptive vs descriptive labels. In a nutshell, descriptive good, prescriptive bad.
There's more to the issue than simply prescriptive vs descriptive. There's the individual labels themselves. Consider your typical campus queer club, often named something along the lines of GLBTAQQAS7BLTBBQ. Why so many labels?
Much of the problem stems from a labels inability to describe a continuum in words. Consider the Kinsey Scale.
heterosexual |-------------------------------| homosexual
Now this describes only attraction to one gender as opposed to another, and orientation is much more complicated than that, but this seems to be the considered the most important scale in orientation. Most people fall really close to one side or the other, but very few fall exactly on the ends or dead center. Therein lies the problem with the labels. Labels break it into:
heterosexual bisexual homosexual
Three distinct points. So if you're 7/8 towards the gay side, that's easy to plot on the scale, but putting that into words? It can be said, but unless you round, there's not short, concise way to say it. So at minimum, we've turned this single axis continuum into three labels, and perhaps some additional descriptors in there for the sake of accuracy. When we start factoring in gender, or some of the more subtle nuances of sexual orientation, then we end up with pages of labels.
This plethora of labels can be good for further describing people, but they can get a bit overbearing at times.
My final verdict, labels are, well, complicated. Too complicated to simply call them good or bad. I'd say they are necessary, and very useful to someone who understands their complexity. But to someone rather ignorant to the labels, their use is limited at best. | | |
| I'm fucking sick of these [x] things every [y] dis(likes) in [z]. At best, they're annoying baseless generalizations about demographic x, and at worst, they are insulting and offensive baseless generalizations about demographic x. So, in my sleep deprived state, I have decided to make my own list.
1) Chromosomes: They make you male or female. Some people have more than two, which does all sorts of interesting things. But they're cool too.
2) Blood: It moves oxygen and stuff throughout the body. It's good to have. Also, assuming you meet certain criteria, a pint can be exchanged for cookies and juice.
3) Organs: They do stuff to keep you alive. Sometimes they don't work right, but science can fix that at times. Yay science. Artificial organs still count.
4) Food: Food provides you with nutrients. You should eat some so you don't die.
5) Things not listed above: There's stuff I didn't list that people like. If you consist of only the things above, there might be a problem. | | |
| December 2008 was when the economy's downturn first began to affect me. Work was much slower than usual, slow to the point where we closed earlier than usual for Christmas, after being told that raises this year would be minuscule. But not to worry, the ICT industry is recession proof. Come January, our plant is turning a profit, but a small one. Part of the savings involved forced time off. I ran completely out of the Paid Time Off I had been saving for vacations later in the year, as did most the other employees. Come February, our plant was reduced to a skeleton crew, just large enough to do stuff until the lease ran up. I was not among the remaining. Recession proof my ass.
I went on unemployment, and in doing my required job searches, quickly discovered there is nothing, and I do mean nothing in the Dallas area. Even the retail positions were already filled with displaced workers. Based on what I would make if I could make anything, I decided to apply for school, finish the degree I failed to complete two years ago. Good news is my unemployment would last until school started. Bad news is it still wasn't enough.
I did get accepted to a school about 40 miles from my current residence. I have already found an apartment there, but I am currently stuck in my lease here, and the tank of gas I chew through every week is hell on the wallet.
The good news is I know how to be poor. First time I went through school, I was doing it on about 12k a year, so I had maybe $10 a month for food and other expenses. It's not the healthiest way to live, seeing as at that kind of money about the only thing you can afford is ramen and pasta, so protein in the diet becomes non-existent (aside from that which you get asking "are you going to eat that?" and a 2000 calorie a day diet becomes a thing of the past. Right now it's about 1/4 that, which is admittedly better than the 0-100 calories a day I was doing first time through college.
The plan at the moment is to stay above my credit limit until next August. Funny thing about college financial aid, it rewards those who don't work and punishes those who do, and call me a bad person, but I plan to take full advantage of that. Financial aid is need based, which means it is based on your income. You work full time and make lots of money, you don't get shit. Don't work? Here's some money. My main goal is to avoid the cycle I got stuck in last time. Financial aid wasn't enough (had to claim my parent's income despite not getting anything from them), so I worked to make up the difference. Now I had an additional income to claim the next year, which meant I got less money. Less money means the need for more hours, which means more income, which means less aid, until you are working full time and can only afford to eat 500 calories a week in order to stay in school. I'm going to try to avoid that if I can.
But supplementing the income until then? Two sources of cash payments. Surprising as it may seem, even in this economy there is still a market for World of Warcraft accounts. It's smaller than it used to be, but it's still kicking. Second is turning other peoples trash into money. It never ceases to amaze me what people throw away. I've snagged countless items of furniture, as well as TVs, stereos, old computers, and even an electric wheelchair from the dumpster. The furniture seems to be where the money is at, and admittedly it isn't much, but seeing as all it takes is dragging a futon or couch or trundle out of the dumpster and posting it on craigslist and then just waiting, it's money.
Back to the "Getting Thrifty" writing prompt on Featured Grownups | | |
| What with all teh whatnot about the H1N1 vaccine and it having Thimerosal, I thought I'd address the mercury issue. Now, because of all the misinformation out there, finding actual numbers was difficult, but I did my best.
According to The National Network for Immunization Information, Thimerosal is about 50% mercury, and when used as a preservative, the case in which Thimerosal is highest, makes up about 50 micrograms per half milliliterdose . Half mercury, so 25 micrograms per dose, or 50 micrograms per milliliter.
According to The CDC, the dosage for a normal flu vaccine seems to be 1 mL (two .5 mL doses) (the site shows dosage for a child 36 months to nine years, but not adult dosage, based on other information, I assume the adult dosage is 1 mL). That means the mercury per adult dose of vaccine is 50 micrograms.
Now something to compare to. According to The FDA, canned tuna has an average .353 PPM mercury, or .353 micrograms mercury per gram fish. Doing some math, that's 141 grams of tuna for 50 micrograms mercury. 141 grams is about five ounces. Slightly less than the amount of tuna I use in a typical tuna sandwich.
So there's the math. There's more mercury in a tuna sandwich than there is in a 1 mL shot preserved with Thimerosal.
Edit: It has come to my attention that the mercury in Thimerosal is ethyl mercury (the not so bad mercury) while the mercury in tuna is methyl mercury (the bad mercury). Methyl mercury has a blood mercury half-life of about 44 days, while ethyl mercury's half-life is about 4 days. [source] | | |
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