Cat person? Dog person?
Are you a cat person or a dog person? That’s a question I see a lot. I guess I’d have to say I’m both or rather an animal person, rather than a people person. Someone who gets along much better with animals than with humans, generally.
Speaking of animals and people (or persons), I’m thinking animals can be, and are, persons – to me that means individuals rather than homo sapiens. So why can’t animals be persons, individuals and people? Anything but humans and homo sapiens. After all, we’re all animals, only different species.
The 1990’s
So, now it’s official. The 1990’s are retreating even further into the past. From now on, I’m going to have to consider stories/tv series/movies etc from the 1990’s ‘historic’. It feels odd, I had barely grown used to the ‘noughties’ and now we’re in the tens? Anyway, X files, Roswell and all those ‘big’ 90’s series are now historic in the sense that you can hardly see them as contemporary anymore. Not like Heroes, FlashForward, Being Human etc. Scary, but I guess you just have to accept it and move on. Maybe it would be easier if the tv series, movies and music were just better.
The Princess Myth
I just read this article about the princess myth and if it’s harmful to little girls.
Though I liked pink for a while when I was a child and liked to draw princesses too, I’ve never identified with princesses and never wanted to be a dumb, blonde celebrity. My sister and I never played princesses, we were having shipwrecks and went exploring (those were our favorite games). For years I thought I was a tomboy, but I’ve realized that I simply wasn’t an average girl, just a girl, period. And yes, I think the Princess Myth can be harmful to girls, just as anything else can. It can teach them to be passive victims and I really hate that. On the other hand, as someone’s pointed out, if done the right way, I suppose this myth can be harmless. After all, nowadays there are warrior princesses too.
Last summer I saw a group of children playing. Not surprisingly the boys were cowboys and the girls were – prey? Squaws? In any case, the boys, who were ‘armed’ chased the girls, who were shrieking and conforming to all the myths about the helpless little female. It was really hard for me to keep quiet (sometimes I can’t, as when I see children doing something potentially dangerous), but I did. They’re not my kids and I’m sure the mothers would have objected to me trying to educate their children.
Grr. Oh, well, maybe those girls will eventually grow up to be sensible human beings too, and if not, well, it’s not surprising. Sigh. I’m many things, one of them being a pessismist.
Wtf? Insane fantasies
I recently read this article and it made me furious. It says one of the most common sex fantasies of women is being raped. Wtf?
I really don’t get this. If someone had asked me a couple of years ago, if I believed women had fantasies about being raped I would have said no. But clearly it’s true. That’s completely alien to me and the women I know best.
This is insane. Their misguided fantasies can make life more difficult for other women (or even ruin their lives forever). That’s something they should consider before they admit to having these fantasies.
In fact, it makes me wonder if I’m really a woman and if not, what I am.
Funny video
Since i need a distraction, and laughter is a kind of disctraction, I thought I’d share this funny video.
There’s snow in Sweden? Really? Wow, I never knew that.
Monday this week was absolutely horrible for me. (Stop reading here, if you like, major rant ahead.)
I woke up at 6 and couldn’t go back to sleep. I should have been able to sleep until ten but of course I couldn’t. There was this exam I had to go to in another town. To get there I had to go by train and change trains in the middle. Well, going there was ok, but since I always try to be such a good girl, I decided to take the last train back, one that left forty minutes after the exam ended (not that we have to stay that long if we’re already finished).
Guess what? I didn’t need to stay the whole time, I was done after an hour and a half. To save money I had bought a ticket that I couldn’t rebook. So when I got to the station, I asked if I could anyway and a real prat of a rail employee told me I could always buy a new ticket, without even looking at me.
Then I waited for nearly four hours, the last hour or so for a train that was delayed and the time of arrival kept getting updated, mainly online (I don’t have one of those phones so I had to keep calling home to my sister). Getting on a train that was late made me miss the connecting train, and the one after that because hey, holding a train for about a whole minute is way too much trouble for them, apparently.
Then there was the cold. Did I mention the cold? I was so cold I almost broke my teeth. Couldn’t control my jaws. It was so cold, my sister and my mom could hear it in my voice over the phone.
Where was I? Right. Missing my connecting train, meant going on a long detour to the coast, where we were supposed to rebook our tickets, because the railway people had forgotten that here in Sweden we get snow every year. This being such a tropical paradise, of course that’s a natural mistake. NOT!
Someone must have complained, because later the guy came on the loudspeaker sounding a lot more sympathetic, saying we needn’t bother about the rebooking, and just go on to the connecting train. (It might have had something to do with the fact that it was now close to 10 pm and customer service closed at 8 pm, but who knows?) All this was about half an hour after I should have been home.
So I got on the last train, without a valid ticket, but apparently someone had informed our conductor (or train host as they’re called now, apparently) that there would be victims of the snow delay on her train, so she basically just checked I had some kind of ticket and that was it. Back again around 11.30 pm. Then a lovely brisk walk in the snow, on slippery streets to get home to a very late dinner.
On the bright side, I saw a very cute dog (a puli?) at one of the stations and a very cute and charming little girl of about two, and I won’t have to study any more this year. It would be even better if I pass, but I won’t find out for at least three weeks so I’ll just focus on getting through the days without studying and worrying (about the exam anyway).
I’ve been so tired today I haven’t felt up to doing any of the things I looked forward to doing, when I was studying every evening. I promised myself I’d read, write, translate, watch tv, listen to music… Now I almost (not quite) miss the studying, because it was something to do. I can always read, write (and so on) some other time.Which means I don’t do it. I just sit, trying to keep warm. Did I mention the cold? I mean the cold inside the house, not outside. It’s freezing in here. Oh, and the washing machine is probably broken, and we can’t afford to buy a new one. Hello, the joys of learning to hand wash, like – well, a hundred years ago, or sixty.
Just a little reminder. The things I said in my last whiny post still go. It’s just become a tiny bit easier to think about it.
Don’t worry, this will probably take care of my need for whining until, at the very least, next year. LOL.
In shock
I’m devastated. Yesterday I had really bad news, twice over and I’m still in shock. Can’t tell you too much about it, and I still don’t know the full circumstances in one case and won’t know for a while yet, the full consequences of the second. Lately I’d been managing to stay cheerful, but now I’ve just fallen apart. I don’t know why we always have such bad luck.
Elevator to Space
When I first read about this idea (in a science fiction book) I loved it. Not that I’d ever want to go to the moon, but the idea in itself is so intriguing. Fancy being able to send material up into space, without needing to use a rocket or similar space craft. Just send it up. And now apparently, people are working on making the dream come true. The other day I read about it in this article. Then the day after, I found that someone actually had succeeded in the competition, not in sending anything to the moon. More about it here.
We live in scary times, but this sort of thing helps make up for it to some extent.
What was that? ;) (PG-13)
Fun video clip. You guys might have seen it before, but it was new to me. If you like this sort of thing, enjoy. 🙂
What happened?
Today the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm and not windy at all. Very nice in fact. I hurried out so I wouldn’t miss the sunshine. My mom and I went shopping (groceries, nothing more fun).
That’s when I was hit with depression. By staying indoors for quite a while (except for bringing in the mail, apples etc or hanging the laundry) I’d sort of been in denial. Partially shut myself down. Now it all came back to me. What a pathetic failure I am. What a loser.
At the store we ran into a woman my mom knew from way back. I remember her kids. It was like looking back in time. There he was, that kid (who wasn’t my friend, but I knew him – he lived in our neighbourhood). Except he’s not six years old anymore, with one of those toothless smiles, six-year-olds have. It was the guy’s son. And according to the grandmother there are more grandkids, and she and this boy were going to get them.
Great. This guy, who quite honestly is younger than me, has more than one kid now. Then look at me. Living with my mom. Still struggling to get a degree and later, hopefully, a job. No boyfriend, no kids. Help!
I know many other people are a lot worse off, so I’m ashamed to whine like this, but I just hate myself for failing this badly. The worst part is I’ve never known what to do or rather how to do it, obviously, or I’d have done it years ago. (Close your eyes, take a deep breath. If you can’t even calm down, how are you ever going to straighten out this mess you’ve made of your life?) There. One thing at a time. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? A pity it isn’t, not really.
